mY fIrSt fLiGhT

Well, today I took my first flight with Cody. I have to admit I was really nervous and didn't sleep great last night in preperation for this big feat. Cody's old flight instructor called yesterday. He flies a private plane for a guy who lives around here. He is gone quite a bit taking people to different places. Well he needed to burn some fuel and asked Cody if he and I would like to come fly for a half hour to get rid of it. So we agreed. Cody was so excited that he mentioned it to me about 100 times yesterday and another 50 this morning. We left at 8:30 for the spanish fork airport. I was nervous and I was convinced that I was going to die. I had been telling Cody for a while now that I didn't want to be the first person to go flying with him that I wanted someone else to go before me. Well I wasn't so fortunate. We took off and I was doing okay. I enjoyed the view and the company. His flight instructor is a really nice guy. We flew around for about 30 minutes and landed around 9:40. Cody flew for the majority of the flight and he did a really good job. So I am proud to say I lived through the first flight so if anyone wants a ride I am sure he would love to go with you and I promise, you will live.


View from the plane, I know it is blurry..


Cody and the Plane..


Me and the plane..

nYc

So I figured I would wait until I had pictures to put up here. But when we went to NYC I hung out with a friend of mine and she took almost all the pictures of us hanging out in NYC on her camera, to lessen the pictures needed to be taken on different cameras, and I haven't gotten all those pictures yet. So I figured I would just load up what I had taken.

Our adventure started at 4:00am on Sunday morning. We had to be at the school at 5am to catch the bus to the airport. It was brutal, I slept like 2 hours total and was a zombie. Don't worry that I sat next to this girl on the plane (I didn't know her) who fell asleep on my shoulder. I was so bugged. I couldn't get her to flop the other way either so I ended up having to get up to make her move. I watched a movie on the way out cause I couldn't fall asleep. We got to NYC at 3:30 their time. It was cold and so different. We rode a taxi to our hotel, I thought I was going to die. They aren't kidding when they say the drivers are scary and the taxis don't stop. We made it one piece and were glad. We spent the first night in Times Square and ate at the hard rock. It was so good.


Times Square.. a huge place full of wind!!

Day two we walked to the MOMA (Modern Museum of Art). We were there for like 8 hours, there was so much to see. Later that night we went to Rockafeller center. We watched people skating. It was cool to see, and I walked through Sax Fifth Ave just to say I had cause we all know I couldn't afford the cheapest thing in there. It was a blast. We spent that night at a bookstore called Strands. It has 18 miles of books. It is crazy. After all this we went home and called it a night.


The MOMA..


Rockafeller Center

Day Three we went to a graphic design firm in Chelsea. It was pretty neat, it was called spotco and they do a whole bunch of ads for the the broadway shows. It was neat to see all the things in the works. After this we ate at a great little cafe and then walked around the galleries in Chelsea. There was honestly like 3 whole blocks full of galleries. After we saw all this we got on the subway, and went to Brooklyn. It was a fun town. I liked it. We went and saw a graphic designer who works out there and got to talk to him for a while. Very fun. When we finished we went to the Brooklyn Bridge, SO pretty. It was part of my favorite things we did there. After that we ate at a wonderful pizza place called Grimaldis. If you ever make it to Brooklyn try it, it is the best pizza I have had in america. It is right under the Brooklyn bridge. Then we walked to Juniors, famous for NY Cheesecake and bought a slice. We then rode home and ate the spoils. We then went to the MET to shoot pictures. We walked through central park, so pretty and huge. Don't worry we didn't make it home until 3:30a. SO tired!!


Brooklyn Bridge..

Day Four we went to saw a photographer in Chelsea named John Moe. It was so neat to meet him. He is originally from Utah but moved there and is very successful. I loved meeting him. That afternoon we went to the society of illustrators and had some lunch. I ate at a place called Green Cafe, it was good. They custom made me a caesar salad and it was so good. We also stopped by Dylan's Candy Bar, yum! After all this we went to meet the photo editor of People magazine. We got to go up into the workings of the place and see some of their photo database. It was pretty neat to see, I think this was my favorite part of the whole trip. I loved seeing all this come to life. After finishing at people we decided to hit up the world trade center. We traveled down there just to discover that it is a hole in the ground. We missed making it to the only little museum they had by a 1/2 hour. But when it is finially all rebuilt it will be so neat.

Day Five we spent the whole day inside of the MET. It most likely would have taken 2 days to see it all if we had the time. I only got to see 8 of the 20 exhibits which is sad on all levels. But it was fun, my feet were so sore when I finished and I was pooped. We ate dinner and walked around we went and saw grand central station and the empire state building. We called it a night early seeing how we were so tired from walking all around.


Empire State Building.. it was green for St. Patricks

Day Six was a free day. I got up and went shopping in SoHo alone, since my pal Rachel was in an appointment with her internship. I loved it. It was the best shopping place out there by far and it was nice to be alone without a group of people to stay up with. I met up with her later and we rode the staten island ferry to see the statue of liberty. She is pretty and smaller than I thought but it was neat. We liked it. After we went back, hit up a few more shops. We stopped by our hotel and dropped off everything and went to eat at a place called Angelo's Pizza it is right next door to the David Letterman show. After that we went to Magnolia's Bakery, by far the best cupcake I have ever had. When we finished that we went with Rachel's friend Jessica to get the Twilight movie. We stood outside Madison Square Garden for the movie and froze but it was fun. We went home and packed since the next day we were going home.


The Statue of Liberty..

Day Seven we spent the morning inside the Guggenheim. It was pretty cool. I liked it. After that Rachel and I ditched the next museum and went to Central Park. We watched some Acrobats, they were pretty neat and then had a Gray's Papaya hot dog. Yum. Then we went shopping and then back to the hotel. We grabbed our luggage and hopped onto the subway. We rode for like 45 minutes, next to I swear what was a dead guy, and then got off to go the airport. We rode the airtrain and arrived at the airport shortly afterwards. It was a great trip! I told Cody when I got home that night that I was glad to see him and Tyke but I wish it was in NYC. I loved it and would love to go back or even live there. It is amazing if you ever get the chance to hang out there take it!!


inside the Guggenheim..


The Acrobats in Central Park..

..LiFe..

Well, as you can see life has been an insane journey for the past few months. We have tried to stay on top but it never seems to be enough. So I thought since I have a few minutes that I would try and do the best I could to fill you in.

January started off crazy, what a surprise. We both started school and have been crazy. Cody is taking online classes again this semester so when he isn't at work he is living on the computer. I signed up for 16 credits, and am going nuts. We hardly see each other, the days I am home he works and vice versa. Well, January 14th we were informed that Cody's Grandfather had passed away due to complications from cancer. It was hard news, but it was news we had expected at sometime. We made it through the month of January with not many other bumps.

February started and was crazy. I had an epidural pain block put in February 4th and was in loads of pain, but don't worry we left for Minnesota for the funeral the next morning at 5am. I spent two days hobbling and in a wheelchair. The funeral was nice, he was buried on a Military base, Fort Snelling. They had a 21 gun salute and the graveyard was filled with white headstones much like arlington. We spent the day with family and friends celebrating grandpa Carl. He will be missed. We spent the remaining time at the Mall of America and with each other. We came back to the crazyness and have been there since.

I am going to New York in 3 weeks and getting really excited about that it should be a truely stellar experience. Cody keeps working hard and did all his training to de-ice airplanes. Which he loves! So if you are ever on a Skywest flight and your plane has to get sprayed down at night, he might just be the one spraying you down. Tyke is keeping us continually excited and entertained. He is learning a new trick and hopefully we can film it and show it to you when he gets better at it.





Cody and the shark at the Mall of America..


Me standing and looking at the Nickelodeon amusement park inside the Mall of America, yes I said amusement park (it was HUGE!)..

Well that is our crazy life.. I hope all is well for you! Until next time. Ciao.

..tApE..

We have discovered that Tyke is deathly afraid of tape. We decided to video tape it for all you to enjoy.. so enjoy!

..hApPy bIrThDaY 2009..

Well... hApPy nEw YeArS!! I know I have been a slacker at updating this so, I figured I would do a big one right now. I found a job, it is part time as a waitress at a retirement home which is okay it is a job but I don't love it. I started working the week before Christmas, so my life was a tad insane. Christmas eve was nice, we saw Cody's family and opened presents and had dinner and played games with my family. Christmas morning we woke up to a snow storm. Not a surprise seeing how we live in Utah but it was a ton of it.


Tyke was so excited about Christmas eve, can you tell?

We opened gifts, I loved especially watching Cody's face. Every Christmas Cody always asks me questions in regards to his gifts before Christmas morning and figures all of them out before Christmas morning. So this year I was determined to not say a word and let him be surprised, I payed close attention to things he wanted, did all my shopping and didn't share a word of what I had got. Cody looked like a four year old on Christmas morning when he opened his gifts. My favorite one was I got him a skateboard from one of our friends companies, Mural Boards. He had mentioned it only once, and was shocked when he opened it up.

After all the presents, we had a big breakfast and sat around and chatted. We then spent about 2 hours playing Guitar Hero ( My younger brother got this for christmas). We decided to go down to see Cody's family again, and spent some time talking with them and playing some Wii games. It was nice to see them all. Christmas was a fun one.

New Years was right around the corner and came as fast as speed racer, maybe cause I worked every day up until then. We spent the night doing the "Tanner Family Olympics". Every year on New Years eve, we do various games. This year included : Airplane races, ball toss, wind - up car races, Guitar Hero battles and a round of Mad Gab and Scattergories. The clock struck Midnight and we ran out side and shot off fireworks and Cody blew his airhorn.


Cody preparing for his airplane throw..


.. Yes that was cody's throw, he hit me..


My ball toss, I sucked it up..


Our first new years picture..



All in all it was great holiday season. We have been busy preparing for school since then, and working long hours. The past twenty four hours it has been a extreme snow storm. We have had 18-24 inches of snow in the last 24 hours and it is still snowing. Tyke is in love with chasing snowballs out in the yard. The snow comes up to his shoulders and he practically goes "diving" to catch those snowballs.


Tyke in the "snow cave" of the pine trees..


Tyke chasing snowballs..

What a great start to a great year. We hope to all that you had a great holiday season and are counting the blessings you have. Happy Holidays!

..aRt sTudEnT + nEw YoRk = eXcItEmEnT!

Well, we made it to December. I figured another update it is order that and I have some good news to share with all of you.

We finished up November with a great bang, not much else happened. We just kept plugging along. We reached the last week of classes last week. Cody worked hard almost every night to finish up his classes in time. His stuff was all due last Thursday. So he finished up all classes. I have another week, just finals. I only have 2 tests and 3 projects due but it could be so much worse.

Last Wednesday night, Cody took a break to take me on a date. We ran some errands and spent some time together. While we were out and about I got a phone call. I didn't recognize the number so I ignored it figuring if it was important that person would leave me a message. Well sure enough they did.

About a month ago I applied to a trip sponsored by the Art department at UVU. They only accept 16 students a spring to go to New York City for a week to check out museums and do some sight seeing. I thought I would just try it out and if I didn't get it then okay, I would just find another time to go and see those places. I hadn't heard a word for over a month when I got that message on my phone. It was the head of the photography department calling me, telling me I was one of the lucky 16 students accepted into the trip. I was so excited, I screamed so loud I scared Cody half to death while he was driving. I couldn't help but do my happy dance when we got out of the car. I have been stoked ever since.



So, In March 2009 I will be going to New York for a week. I get to go to museums like the Met and the Guggenheim. What a trip! The only downer is I have to share a room with 3 other girls, and we only have 2 queen size beds. It is going to be a little cramped but I am so excited to see all these things!!

Other than that exciting news we are doing great. Tyke is in love with the snow, other than the cold. He loves running through the grass picking up mouthfuls of snow as he runs by. He has been keeping us busy. He is a sleeper all day because it is freezing and he stays inside, but when night time comes around he is as hyper as can be with all the energy in the world. He is the funnest dog though.

Well... we hope all is good with you, hopefully we will have some fun wintery pictures and some Christmas ones (we are planning on going to temple square and seeing the lights)soon!

..Merry Christmas..

..hOLiDaYs..

Well it has been almost a month and I felt like a update was in order. I haven't really written because there hasn't been too much going on. But I guess I will take the time to tell you what has happened in our life.

October ended with a bang, I love Halloween it has to be my favorite holiday around. I got all into it this year and decided that I had to deck out the house. It took 3 days but it was a stellar success. I had a graveyard, with 24 graves, two drunken skeletons playing cards, a ghoul who jumped up from a rock, a mummy in a coffin and a giant spider. I loved it. I spent the night handing out candy to the neighbor kids and making some of my now favorite brownies.

November started off, with nothing new. I still haven't found a job and still not sure why not. I have been really dedicated to doing my school work so I have something positive to focus on. I feel like I am making leaps and bounds in my art work which is good for me, I felt like I wasn't cut out to do art. Cody has been working every weekend - Friday through Monday- at the airport. So the days he is home I am in school. But it works out okay. He is being such a wonderful supporter of this whole ordeal that I have been trying hard to learn how to deal with. What a wonderful husband do I have.

We celebrated our 3rd year anniversary. I have loved everyday of the past three years. It has certainly been the best. I tease him frequently that I can't believe I have been stuck with him that long but I sure have loved it. It was also Cody's 25th birthday that day. I just laughed and told him he was old. He has now reached a quarter of a century and I am still young. He celebrated it by working. I felt bad but he got off early and got great presents. Happy Birthday Cody, Love You!



A mere 4 days later we celebrated my Dad's 50th birthday. Talk about old. We spent the day finding ways to remind him how old he was. It started with a coffin on the kitchen table first thing in the morning. We all dressed in black, and got him presents for old people. Including brochures for power chairs and hearing aids. It was a great day and he took it with such grace. Happy Birthday Dad!



The next day was thanksgiving. We spent the night before cooking up some stuff and the next day setting the table and doing the rest of prepartations. We had the pleasure of being joined by my grandparents from Brigham City and also our neighbors from Australia, the Bears. It was so fun to share the holiday with them. I loved it.

So November hasn't been too bad for us. We are getting into finals weeks, yuck.. but only three more weeks and it will all be over.

..HAPPY HOLIDAYS..