One Great Example

Matt and I are obsessed with Michael Phelps! Every night after he gets home from work, we hurry and eat dinner so that we can be completely dedicated to watching Michael Phelps without any disctractions when its his turn to compete! He is such an inspiration to us. What really impressed me about him was the fact that before he even began competing this year, he declared that during the Olympics, we would walk away with 8 gold medals. 8!!!! Not 1 or 2 but 8! He is such a great example to us of someone who believes in themselves 100%! Everytime that Michael competes, Matt and I find ourselves screaming (yes screaming in our apartment) for Michael! Everytime without fail he either places first OR places first AND breaks the world record! One word: AMAZING!!

Our 2 Year Anniversary!

Yesterday was our 2 year Anniversary! I woke up as Matt grabbed the bedroom door and said "Dont come out!" as he shut it. About 25 mins later I woke up as Matt re-entered the room with a huge bouquet of roses in his hand! He is SO thoughtful! He bought two dozen roses, for the two years we have been married, one dozen pink and the other dozen orange, which were part of our wedding colors! Then, he spent a half an hour arranging them in this beautiful bouquet!

We were planning on going to PF Changs for dinner but since Matt got home kind of late, the only place that was left was BJs. Then, out of nowhere, Matt said we were heading to Kona Grill (one of our favorites)!! So, at 10 pm, we were speeding to get to Dallas (45 mins away) and we were determined to get there before Happy Hour ended and before they stopped seating in the lounge at 11. Well.... we ended up taking two wrong turns and the arrival time on our GPS kept getting later and later. When we finally arrived, it was 10:57pm. We ran across the parking lot into Kona just to stand at the desk for a couple of minutes waiting for someone to seat us. Then, we were informed that lounge seating has ended and the bar was our only option. I was a little crabby patty. The night ended up being so much fun though! I think the both of us were just really hungry and tired!

I'm a sucker for cheesecake! I have never seen cheesecake that looks like this and let me just tell you how delicious it was! Matt and I ate the whole thing! I highly recommend it! My husband is so thoughtful and sweet and I am so grateful for such a wonderful eternal companion! I love him so much and these past two years have been amazing! I'm so excited for our future!!

Twilight Prom Party!!

The 4th Twilight book - Breaking Dawn- came out at 12:01am on August 2nd and Barnes and Noble threw a huge Prom party for the release! Let me just tell you how excited all of us girls were! This was THE day we have been waiting for! Plus, we got to dress up in Prom dresses! What more could you ask for?!

Me, Shawnee, and Mariah all getting ready for the big night! We were running a little behind and then one of our friends that was already at the party called to inform us that the doors of Barnes and Noble were going to be locked once there were 900 people in the building. The count currently was around 800!! I dont think I have ever drove so fast to a bookstore before! All three of us girls, in Mansfield, TX (of all places), all married, dressed in prom dresses, speeding to Barnes and Noble at 10 pm! It was quite a sight!956,957,958...were our numbers as we ran through the parking lot and dashed through the doors! We couldn't believe we made it! About 10 mins. later the doors were shut and locked because there were over 1,000 people there! We even had fans!! These are some of the other girls that are out here for the summer that came to support us!

Do you ever have those moments when you think you complete understand something and then someone presents to you another viewpoint and you realize that what you thought you clearly understood wasn't even close? Well....thats exactly what happened! On the Prom Party invitation flyer it stated that there would be a dance competition so naturally we thought.. Great! We are making up a dance and winninng free books! (My part in this dance was supposed to consist of me holding a flashlight and shining it on the girl who was dancing) Mariah and Shawnee made up a dance with the help of Dmitri who is a cheerleader at BYU which emphasized the battle that Bella (in the book) was facing with Edward(every girls dream). Then, Shawnee came to a realization on Thursday night, the night before the party, that perhaps by dance competition what was ment was that the DJ would turn on music and you got to dance your heart out. (I think we were too influenced by "So You Think You Can Dance".) After placing a phone call to Barnes and Noble, we quickly found out that that is exactly what was ment by dance competition! Well surely the girls and Dmitri worked so hard on their dance and could not skip performing it!! Thus, they danced a "special musical number" right after the real dance competition!

At 10:45 pm we found ourselves in line for the 4th Twilight Book! Here we are reviewing the last chapters of the 3rd book to make sure that everything was fresh in our minds before we began reading the 4th book!!

At around 11:50 we were a little tired of waiting! Then...Mariah had a thought. Why should we wait in line here at Barnes and Noble with the other 1,000 screaming 13 year old girls if we could head over to Wal Mart who would probably be a lot less crowded and would be releasing Breaking Dawn on their shelves at midnight as well! So after placing a couple of phone calls and telling the Wal Mart lady on the phone that Twilight was a BOOK literally 10 times and not a CD, like she thought, our hopes were confirmed! So across the store and into the parking lot we dashed!

Here it is!!!!!! Breaking Dawn!!! We couldn't control ourselves! FINALLY! It was ours for the taking! Another thing we couldn't control was how many shoppers were staring at us. Well...we were quite the sight to see!

I just have to show you all MY Edward! Here he is, of course, with those boneless Buffalo Wild Wings in both hands!..

Mansfield Life

It seems as though just about every week, I find myself with Matt at Buffalo Wild Wings. Why? My husband is obsessed with it! Personally, I will be perfectly fine if I never step my foot inside another BWW ever again. I just keep hoping that one of these days he might get sick of it.. so far, no sign of that! As for me, I'm still keeping my fingers crossed! Oh and guess where we are going tonight? ..I think you know!

Matt and I are huge sushi lovers! Now sushi is something that I can eat everyday! It's so delicious! Mmm..thinking about it is making my mouth water! Here in Mansfield, it seems as if no one likes sushi because you hardly see sushi places! Dont get me wrong, there are a couple here but they all stop seating at 9:30 and that makes it hard because Matt usually doesn't get home until about 10 or so. Last week, for the first time this summer, Matt was able to get off of work at 7pm! He came home while it was still light out! So, we decided to try out some Mansfield sushi. To report, it wasn't all that bad! Kona Grill and Sapporos are still our picks though!

Shawnees birthday! (in the pink) Our sweet friend Shawnee turned 22 this past week and we went out and celebrated! We started with On the Border, then Mama Mia, and then Cold Stone! It was all mucho bueno!

I got this Mac lip gloss that is supposedly a lip plumper as well. We all thought we would try it out. Somehow, the only thing it does to my lips is make them feel as if they were covered with Tabasco sauce! Who wouldn't want that sensation without a plumping result?! Something I'm still trying to get used to.

Mr. Brown!! This is one of our favorites - Mr. Brown - who we visit every week at the Hospice. He is such a sweet man! He is a true cowboy at heart who loves Johnny Cash, cowboy hats, and puzzles. He talks about his daughter non stop and truly enjoys any ones visits. I think volunteering at this Hospice has made me realize how important it is to visit with family on a continual basis. We love all of our new friends at the Hospice!!

25 Hours in San Antonio!!

Our first stop! The Mission in San Antonio. It was such an amazing place. It reminded me of Jerusalem so much! These ruins served as homes, among other things, for monks during the 17th century.

A lot of brides come here to take their bridals. Every area was so picturesque! If only us girls had our wedding dresses out here with us!

Isn't this just so pretty? I just love the architecture!

These are the engravings that you see right as you head into the church (below).

This is an old church building which still holds three services every Sunday. This is the view of the Mission right as we were leaving. The sun was setting and I thought the scenery was just beautiful! Matt and I are definitely coming back here together! I couldn't get enough of it! Because we arrived so late, we only had a half an hour to run around and explore all that we could in such a short period of time. Perhaps thats part of the reason I found this place so captivating!

Next stop.. The Alamo! I have to say that my perception of the Alamo changed significantly after my visit here. It's enormous! The Alamo stretches over a couple of acres and consists of a museum, a church, a hospital, old ruins, etc! It was amazing!

The Alamo. This picture is quite deceiving because this is all that you are typically shown when the Alamo is spoken of. Yet, there is so much more to it!

Third stop - the Riverwalk! We took a boat ride that allowed us to tour the entire Riverwalk that is lined with shops and restaurants! We ate at the oldest restaurant on the Riverwalk, Casa Rio, and then called it a day as we headed to our hotel. We stayed at the Marriott right on the Riverwalk and the view was amazing!

We woke up early Saturday morning and got ready for the temple. We were all planning on doing initiatories, which I have never done before, and we were looking very much forward to it. I have never seen a temple more beautiful than the San Antonio Temple! It stood on the tallest hill in San Anotio and as we were driving up to it, the sun was just rising in the sky and as it radiated off of Angel Moroni and the brilliant, white stone, it made the temple appear as though it was glowing. Every window of this temple is made of stained glass. The exterior trim of the area surrounding the temple is in granite and marble. One word : Breathtaking!!

I could have stayed at this temple all day long! I was quite sad to leave. Matt and I are coming back here for sure before we head back to Las Vegas. I know that he will fall in love with this temple as well!

Sea World! After 20 mins of planning our every show, ride, and stop, we were off to the aquarium!

Shamu! This was the first show we went to and it was just a great introduction to Sea World! We all managed to squeeze ourselves onto the front three rows directly in the center. I sat next to a lady that was holding a large towl and everytime Shamu swam by, she would cover herself up. However, I soon discovered she was very smart because Shamu was trained to flip his tail against the water on an angle so that the surrounding crown would get soaked. Needless to say, I found myself underneath her towl! The other girls...not so fortunate!

The big fella striking a pose for the ladies!

Shamu-mu-mu! I am now a Shamu lover.

This is the Clyde something show and I thought it was the funniest thing ever! The two main sea lions were halarious and so smart! Some of the tricks they performed were astounding! I never knew that you could teach them such things! Puts my dogs to shame! The walrus in the above picture was part of the big finale. All I have to say is this is what happens to walruses when they are fed sea lions!

This walrus was literally doing crunches!! He rolled on his back and proceeded to do THREE crunches!! It was the funniest thing I have ever seen in my life!

After an hour wait in line, one song of "If You're Happy and You Know It" - sung by the workers during technical difficulties- and a 45 second experience of the water ride Atlantis, this is what you look like! Soaked to the bone baby and lovin every minute of it. Who wouldn't want to spend 25 hours in San Antonio?!!

* * *4th of July * * *

Only in Texas.. So many colorful tractors in the Arlington Parade!!

I am so grateful to be living in such a great country where we are able to enjoy so many things. Freedom is priceless..

Smooch Smooch behind the cowboy hat!

Enjoying the good ol' rodeo! I think Matt was reminiscing about his rodeo days...

My love is teaching me how to play pool! If you can tell on the pool table, I'm not even trying to hit the white ball! What kind of a pool game is my husband tryin to teach me?!

Livin The Texas Life

The Fort Worth Stockyard were awesome! It consists of museums, shops, and a huge rodeo arena. There is this strip of shops right in the center with nothin but good ol Texas stuff!

Yeehaaa! We are heading to a rodeo for the 4th of July and I might just have to wear this pink cowboy hat....

Us girls with a mama cow.

We went to Billy Bobs on Saturday night and we had a blast!! Hootie and the Blowfish performed there. I guess its the biggest honky tonk in the whole US! We dont have one of these in Vegas!! Your guess is as good as mine. Lets have a contest and see who can make the best caption for this picture! My guess is that we are showin our love!If you can read what the wall says, its pretty much declaring that whoever sits in front of it is the #1 man in Texas aka Matt Wonderly! Love ya babe and I totally agree!I just want my love puff to know how much I love him and I am so proud of all of his hard work! This job is definitely not an easy one and he never complains!

I bet you are wondering why we didn't run for Miss Texas huh? J/K We'd rather watch.

All I have to say is that this was a FOUR HOUR pageant! ...The beautiful contestants of Miss Texas! There was a lot of talent and a lot of no talent.

It was so much fun though! We all cant wait to see who wins!