like mother, like daughter

My mom has a blog now:

tammi-hopkins.blogspot.com

She is so hip and cool!

go hillcrest knights!

Tonight, Cody & I were listening to the radio en route to a Halloween party and all of the sudden the announcers started talking about the Hillcrest High School football team from Idaho Falls, ID :) I almost burst with school pride . . . who knew the Knights were so phenomenal this year that they would be discussed in the same breath as the BYU Cougars?
Granted, a Hillcrest Alum was one of the commentators -- but I thoroughly enjoy anything that strokes my Idaho pride!

idaho!

Here are some of the highlights from our trip to Idaho this weekend. I took my camera, but we were just having too much fun to remember to take pictures.

• Meeting my cousin Tyler's new baby, Jacoby. He is adorable! Of course, he started crying as soon as I started holding him -- but that is just my baby curse. Hopefully our babies will love me :)
• Showing Cody the two landmarks in my neighborhood. He had seen the Idaho rock before, but never the BYU tree. I will for sure take pictures of them at Thanksgiving to post.
• Meeting my cousin Robert's fiancee, Stacie. Hang on, I'm checking Facebook to make sure I spelled her name correctly. I did :) She is so nice & has a gorgeous wedding dress! I am very excited for Rob, because he is pretty much one of my favorite cousins.
• Working at the store --- we went to get Cody some steel toed boots for work & I ended up selling a pair of boots, some socks, a couple pairs of long johns, a pair of bibs . . . . and I got a job offer to do early intervention in Pinedale, WY. Seriously, I would move there if I liked early intervention & if they had a college for Cody to go to. Maybe we can retire there someday.
• Visiting Roz & learning about her new hobby.
• Hearing Camille talk about 'man hands' in her hair!
• Eating Papa John's pizza & watching sports.
• Feeling popular in Sacrament Meeting.
• Visiting Grandma!! My grandma is the greatest -- the only thing that would have made it more exciting is if Grandpa had skipped Sunday School like the rest of us :) We commiserated about our big ears, worked on the crossword & talked about the latest family gossip.
• Hearing my dad laugh SO SO SO hard when my mom said 'Rambo style' instead of 'Commando style'. She was talking about a gentleman she encountered in Virginia . . . maybe she should blog about that :)
• Fulfilling Cody's prediction that I would be asleep in the car before we made it to Blackfoot.

homecoming

This weekend was BYU Homecoming -- coincedentally, it was also Homecoming for the kiddos in our Sunday School class and boy, did we hear about it :)
One of the joys inherent in working for the Graduate Student Society is participating in the Homecoming Parade. Sick! This year, it entailed going crazy trying to find a vehicle to use, misspelling distance on a horrendously ugly homemade poster, arriving at the Marriott Center at 7:45 A.M. & braving a mini-blizzard. Luckily, the snow stopped before we actually had to walk along the parade route -- but it was SO FLIPPIN DANG COLD!!!! I couldn't believe how many people bundled up their kids and brought them. There were at least as many people as were there in the 80 degree weather last year. Crazy! Cody drove our sweet truck & people were calling his name -- what a popular dude . . . I was popular because I was handing out candy. Not lame-o candy like Tootsie Rolls or Dum Dums -- we were giving out the good stuff : M&Ms, Snickers, Junior Mints, Hot Tamales. The GSS knows how to roll in style.
After the parade, I crashed on our couch for a while and missed a great Longhorn victory over Oklahoma -- go Texas! (Right now I am making the longhorn symbol with my hand -- I have been slightly obssessed with UT since I visited there last October).
Somehow, Cody coaxed me out of my WARM blankets and back out into the cold for the BYU game. Geez! At least we were in the endzone where Austin Collie made a phenomenal catch to put the Cougars up 21 -3. I guess there is some mercy in the world -- I probably would have killed over if we had been on the other end of the field.
Then (as if our day hadn't already been long enough), we met up with Justin & Ashley and some of their friend at Tucano's for dinner. It was delish -- I would pay full price just to eat their mashed potatoes all night. There were a couple groups from Orem's homecoming there -- obviously those high school boys weren't being very considerate when they took their dates to an all you can eat resturant. I felt for the girls -- especially the ones in the form fitting dresses :)
On Sunday morning when I woke up, I could barely move my legs without massive pain shooting through my calves. Cody found no fewer than five huge knots in each leg when he was trying to massage away my pain. I feel like such a wimp for getting so beat up, just because I walked 3-ish miles in below freezing temperatures. Today I am feeling better, but my brisk walk from the Former President's Home to the Taylor Building just about killed me. Maybe I will have monster calves by the time this ordeal is over -- if I do, you know there will be pictures :)
Okay, so this was a monster post! Kudos to you if you finished reading it all!

200 Tiles

he he

Cody's birthday was this week. His Grandpa Reeves always sends a See's Candy gift certificate -- seriously, a birthday card is nice, but See's Candy is nicer :) As soon as we got the chance, we ran over to the mall (which is so close to our house -- love it) to redeem the gift certificate.

The next morning, we had some chores to do. Sometimes I get to bribe Cody a little to help -- this time, my solution was : "Cody, as soon as we are done cleaning we can eat some of your chocolates!" He just about killed over -- I didn't realized that I was using his birthday present as collateral until after it came out!

Needless to say, I am still getting teased about that one. Yes, he did help finish the chores and yes, I had some chocolates after we finished.

virginia

This weekend, I visited Dave (my brother) and Jessie (his wife) inwith my dad. We flew into North Carolina & I immediately that the south is WAY different than the west. Examples: The lady at our hotel was definitely not speaking any English dialect I understood & whoever was working at the drive-thru window at McDonald's at midnight sounded more like a recently awoken grizzly bear than a person. Crazy! We did visit Duke -- I decided Cody should do graduate school there. It was beautiful.

The next day we headed north to Buena Vista. We stopped in Lynchburg, which was actually very nice, contrary to the connotation of its name. The downtown area was a beautiful combination of modern & colonial -- I loved the cobblestone streets.

A little further north, we stopped at the Natural Bridge. My best description of the Natural Bridge is that it was kind of like transporting one of the arches from southern Utah to the middle of a forest and painting it gray. We didn't go see it though, as tickets were $13 each. We decided the gift shop was much more exciting. The hotel/resort nearby was pretty sweet too.

On Sunday, we headed to Monticello. It was amazing!!! I still am blown away by the sheer number of trees there! My dad loved the on-site nursery -- if only the climates in Virginia & Idaho were similar . . . . then he could grow plants like the purple peas that Jessie & I loved.

Dave thought it would be funny to take a picture in the privy. As soon as he posed, an old lady came around the corner and busted up. She commented that his mom would really love the picture. What a kid! We also witnessed a funeral at the cemetary that TJ is buried in. It was a little awkward, especially since we also noticed a couple beer bottles left on a head stone (under Dave's elbow).

My dad & I had quite the adventure coming back -- all of the flights from Atlanta to SLC were totally full. Thanks to my mom and Jessie, we were finally able to get on a plane to Cincinnati -- then we would head to SLC from there. The only problem was the 30 minute layover there . . . . my boarding pass said the gates were right next to each other. But they weren't! So we ran through the airport and barely made it. I was in flip-flops, so my poor calves are still recovering. It was great exercise though :) We made it back to SLC in one piece after an incredibly long flight that showed an even lamer movie. Even though getting home was 'exciting', I still had a blast & can't wait to take Cody back soon!