Weekend in St George

Last weekend, the McClellan family got the chance to go down to St George together! Jake's parents have a neighbor and close friend names Preston Gerber who has a really nice home there and we all got to stay in it together! It was our first family trip with Clint since he got home from his mission, and my first trip with Clint ever! Mom & Dad McClellan left to go down Friday earlier in the day. Jake, Dustin, Clint, Macy & I went down as soon as Macy & I got off of work at 6. We met at Mom & Dad's, parked our cars in their garage and loaded into Dustin's Tahoe. I zonked out around Nephi thanks to the motion sickness medicine I took. We stopped at Costa Vida for dinner around 9 and then got back on the road and made it to Preston's house around 11.  At the very end, we got a little lost so we were driving around in circle and OH MY GOSH was I getting motion sick in the back seat haha. But it all worked out and we made it to the house without any one throwing up.

We talked for a little while and then went to bed. We woke up the next morning and had an awesome breakfast {Jake's dad is an AWESOME cook!} of pancakes, eggs & bacon with orange juice and milk. Then we all changed and got ready to go for our first 4 wheeler ride.

Jake & Dustin getting ready to go

Jake with his Go Pro on his head. I must be turning into a redneck because I find this picture INCREDIBLY attractive haha

Dustin all bundled and camo'd waiting to go out - it was SUPER cold

Mom & Preston all bundled and prepped to go

Dad, Clint & Macy

My camo man :)

Me all ready to go! I'm doing thumbs up, since you can't tell I'm smiling, but since my hands are camo you can't see them ;)

Jake & I rode on the new Polaris 4 wheeler, Clint & Macy were on the Honda 4 wheeler, Mom & Dad were on the Rhino, Dustin rode one of Preston's 4 wheelers and Preston was on one of his 4 wheelers. We went on a SUPER long ride - almost 5 hours. The sky was clear as could be, and as we rode the weather warmed up so we could slowly shed our layers of clothes. It was GORGEOUS!!

The view at one of our stops

Me & my hubby

Clint, Macy & Dustin enjoying the view :)

Dustin, Dad, Preston & Mom

Gorgeous blue sky

The rock formations we stopped to climb on and find shapes in

Jake climbed up pretty tall

Another view of Jake up high

Clint up REALLY high - doing the Captain Morgan stance

Another shot of some of the rocks with the gorgeous blue sky

Up where I climbed

Me & my hubby

View of the valley below

Jake's view from where he climbed to

This is when we realized I lost my phone. Right before I freaked out, we found it. On the floor board of the 4 wheeler. Covered in dirt, so it had been there a while. No cracked screen from our shoes. Still worked. LUCKY ME!!!!

We rode a while longer - just riding all over the place. I would have got SO lost - good thing no one was expecting me to be able to get them back to the house haha. At one point, we came to this little ledge thing and Jake started to back up and I was like "oh we can make it just go for it" so he drove slow and had us lean away from it and yeah we rolled the 4 wheeler over. Well, we tipped it over and it landed on us. Jake has it on video - he posted it to YouTube. I should figure out how to find it so that I can post a link in here... But we were totally fine! Scratched the 4 wheeler a little but otherwise totally fine. It landed on Jake's foot and his boots made it so his ankle got a little twisted so we took a little breather on the rocks.

Poor Jake - kinda my fault since I'm the one that said to just go for it. But he is the one that listened to me haha!

After we got back from our ride, we showered and cleaned up and had some crackers & chips with veggies & dips and then went out to dinner. Our good friends Keeshia & Andrew Fletcher have told Jake MULTIPLE times about this amazing steak place in St George where you cook your steak yourself on a rock they bring you. Preston had told mom & dad about the same place, so OF COURSE we had to go there!

PALM TREE!! Everytime I see a palm tree, I take a picture and send it to my bestie Suzie. She was my roommate before we got married {she got married 3 weeks before me} and we went on this spur of the moment trip one time to California where she is from and I asked if there was palm trees there and she said she didn't think so and there were MILLIONS of them so everytime we see one we take a picture and send it to each other!

Preston modeling the sign out in front the restaurant

Jake's steak. They sear it in the back, so it comes out totally raw. The rock is a lava rock and is heated to 700 degrees. You cook each bite to the wellness you want, so that it's done JUST how you want it, and each bite is hot since you just cooked it. I had chicken. And rolls. Lots of rolls haha. The chicken was pretty good. Jake raved about the steak for days haha.

After dinner we came home and got in the hot tub. Preston had just cleaned it out and put new water in it and it showed - it was FREEZING!! Mom made it about 2 minutes. Jake made it about 20 minutes before he got out, I made it about an hour. Clint & Macy made it 2-3 hours and then they came in. We were all pretty tired from a fun, long day and went to bed on the early side - it was like 11. Which isn't early if we were at home, but for being on vacation that's early haha.

The next morning we got up and had breakfast of scrambled eggs & bacon with OJ & milk. Then Clint, Macy, mom, Preston & me went to Sacrament Meeting. It was an awesome meeting - they had a new family speak. They had 3 girls - 13, 11 & 5. I don't remember ever having kids younger than 12 speak when a new family speaks, but the girls all did AWESOME. And the mom's talk was amazing. They had a still born in between the 11 & 5 year old and obviously that just stuck with me. I don't know how women make it through that. That would be SO hard!! But the meeting was awesome. Mom noticed halfway through that the ward had a missionary who was serving in Charlotte, North Carolina where Clint served and Clint knew him! After the meeting, Clint asked the Bishop where the family was and went to talk to them for a few minutes. Then we came home, changed & got ready to go for another ride. The whole family went again except for Clint & Macy. Cleneyl, Preston's wife, came too! We went to go see the dinosaur tracks!

I got to drive a little bit - the Polaris is an automatic and I LOVE IT! I want one SOOO bad now!!

Hiking to the foot prints of the dinosaurs with dirty faces

A foot print!! Don't mind my hand in the corner - apparently I can't take pictures haha

It was really fun. We came home, hurried to change and throw our clothes in the back of Dustin's truck and then it was time to come home!

View from Preston's driveway - seriously he has a gorgeous home!

The whole family together!

It was such a fun trip! And we made it home in amazing time, and I didn't get sick! After we got home, we picked up Max from my parents house and he slept for almost 24 hours straight. Little zombie puppy!!! I knoew it's because he gets SO played with and he runs around chasing Buzz {his puppy uncle} but it's still cute to see him so worn out.

He NEVER lays in his bed with the blanket on top - just shows how tired he was!

Max zonked next to Jake while Jake catches up on his YouTube videos

Yay for a fun "camping" weekend!!

When at Kohl's...

A few weeks ago, we were over at my good friend Jaelyn's house and we noticed she has a Dyson vacuum. We asked her how she liked it - if she felt like it was worth the money and she firmly agreed that it was. And she isn't the first friend I have had say they were worth it, but I really trust her opinion so we decided to get one. This past Monday, Jake & I stopped at Kohl's to look and ended up walking out with a new vacuum! The most expensive one, might I add haha. But we got almost $300 off for opening a Kohl's charge card {which we immediately paid off - one of my goals is to still be debt free at the end of 2013} & because it was on sale. And we got $90 in Kohl's cash so next week we are using THAT to go buy a new steam mop!

Jake took it home and set it all up and then vacuumed the floor. We aren't big vacuumers, I'll admit, but STILL - it should NOT have picked that much stuff off the floor! Seriously, SO sick. He vacuumed the front room and the hallways and the stairs that lead to our bonus room above the garage.

After we got home from Clint & Macy's proposal on Wednesday, I started doing laundry and since I was already in a cleaning kick I decided to vacuum our bedroom with the new Dyson. Like I said, we aren't huge vacuumers - it's been probably a month since I vacuumed our room. But Max doesn't shed, and we don't really wear shoes in our room, so I wasn't thinking it would be that bad. WRONG. Our bedroom alone filled up the entire canister. THE ENTIRE CANISTER!!!

I was mortified!

Seriously, very gross. But it's a good thing the vacuum works so well! And the carpets all still have nice vacuum lines in them. I used it in our bathroom too and it worked AWESOME on the hair in there. And the filter didn't get clogged up AT ALL. And when I went to empty the canister, the hair all just fell out - normally I have to dig my hand in there to clean it all out. This vacuum is AWESOME - I love it!! SO worth the investment!!

I {FINALLY} get a sister-in-law

So Clint proposed to Macy on Wednesday {March 27th}. He wanted as many family members there as possible, so Jake, Dustin & I went down to the high school to watch! Mom & Dad McClellan would have too but they are still in St George. We met up with Dustin at Lehi High right before Ashley & Colton got there {Macy's sister & brother in law} and we waited in the gym for Clint to run over.

Clint & Macy were at Institute, which is in the seminary building at Lehi. So he "went to the bathroom" and ran along the back of the school to the gym doors and came in to tell us the plan. He was going to leave the ring underneath the bleacher, with an open pop tart on top to mark the spot where the ring is, and propose. He wanted us to record it & take pictures but he wanted us to hide so that she didn't see it coming. Institude would be over around 8:20, and he would try to text us to let us know he was coming by saying something about his interview he had that day at the Bank {he applied for a teller position at the Bank of AF! I hope he gets it - then him, Colton & me will all work at the bank together!}.

Pop tart on top of the bleacher, with the ring in the box underneath the bleacher

Jake setting up the Go Pro. When we got his new one, it came with an app so that he can tell it to start recording from his phone instead of having to push the button and then run to hide.

The door that was propped open so that they could come inside

The other side of the gym where we hid - Dustin is sitting on the stairs, Ash & Colton are sitting on the seat. We hid up behind the bleachers on the top floor

So we are all talking upstairs, so that we can run underneath the bleachers when needed, when Macy's parents got to the gym. It was fun getting to talk to them and hear about the wedding plans that have already started! Colton was outside waiting for them to come by so that he could warn us when they were coming. Colton called & and we all ran underneath the bleachers and were trying not to giggle and ruin it. AND THEN THIS KID CAME WALKING IN FROM THE INSIDE OF THE SCHOOL!

This kid just walking through the gym with a Big Gulp

We were all yelling "GET OUT! An engagement is about to happen!" from inside the bleachers, and this kid is looking around like "where on earth are those voices coming from??" He walked up the stairs on the other side of the gym, around behind the bleachers, and then down the stairs and out the door he came in. We all yelled "Thank you!!" just as he walked out. And then 2 seconds later, Macy & Clint walked in.

I was trying so hard not to make any noise haha

They walked along the gym and turned the lights on

And then started dancing to some music that randomly started playing as they walked in the gym. Perfect timing!!

And then he got down on 1 knee... She covered his eyes at first...

But then uncovered them and said yes!

And he put the ring on her finger :)

We all waited, really quiet, and then decided when we thought they were done to start clapping & cheering - it was SUPER loud haha. We must have vibrated off the walls or the gym has really good sound or something. We came down to give some hugs. Dustin called Mom McClellan and gave the phone to Clint, who talked to her for a split second and then handed the phone to Macy. They talked for a few minutes and then we all talked :)

Talking to Mom & Dad McClellan

The newly engaged couple!!

Another cute picture of them :)

The wedding is June 22 - a little less than 3 months away. They have reserved the Mt Timpanogos Temple for their sealing, and they are having their reception at the amphitheater across the street. I am so excited to FINALLY have a sister-in-law!! Dustin was married when Jake & I got married, but we all kinda knew that the divorce was coming, so it never felt like I had a sister-in-law. And Macy has only sisters, just like me! Yay for a new sister-in-law!!!

Breaking Dawn Night

Jake is working a 12 hour shift tonight to make up for a half night he took earlier this week. That means that I pulled into the garage from work, he met me at the door, kissed me and got in the car to go to his work. So no dinner together, no time together. Joys of adulthood.

And nights when Jake isn't here are when I usually struggle the most. Well not tonight!

I got me some "comfort" dinner - air pop popcorn and my 150 calorie ice cream and I'm good to go! I curled up on the couch with my book and a spoon and popcorny goodness and I feel content. And dinner was less than 300 calories. I stayed in my calories today, which is REALLY awesome since I was RAVENOUS earlier at work and would have eaten an entire pizza if it had been in front of me. I settled for an apple and some goldfish. Tracked it in my phone too. It made me actually taste the food instead of inhaling it. That's a good thing haha.

My idea of a good night!

He was laying all over my book - he likes getting LOTS of attention when I am sitting on the couch or in bed

I had every intention of finishing Breaking Dawn tonight. I was around page 175 when I left work, and there's around 750 pages in the whole book. I'm coming up on page 400 and tapping out - I am just too tired. And it's barely 9 PM. I'm a whimp!! Night in, house to myself, and I'm reading a book and going to bed early. I'm kinda proud of that in a weird way - I like that I enjoy reading so much. That I'd rather do that then watch TV. Hopefully I make some good progress on my book tomorrow :)