Hot & Cold, Black & White, Opposites Attract... Right?

When Eric and I see eye-to-eye, we really agree! But when we don't, well... it's a little rough.

For example, where will we live after med school?

Of course my vote:

The beautiful GREEN state of Washington!

But Eric's vote?

The not-so-green state of Utah. (all you Utards out there, don't get me wrong, some really great things have come out of Utah. It's just not for me.)

And when it comes to our cell phone service?

My vote will ALWAYS stay loyal to

But Eric seems to think he has it better with

I don't know what he's thinking!

But the most important question of all....

WILL OUR KIDS BOARD, OR SKI?!?!

I just don't know what we're gonna do!

We've gone to Parks 3 times in less than a week! I got new boots, and Eric's dad was nice enough to buy him new skis and bindings! Wow! He is WAY excited about his Nordica Enforcers. (Seriously, check his facebook status.) I have to admit, they look pretty good. He also got a new beanie from the Buckle this weekend that we both actually love.

Every time talk of the Mountain comes up, we're sure to have a discussion about what our kids will do. Classic to Eric form, he INSISTS they will be skiing. Surprisingly enough, I'm more of the compromiser in the relationship. Today I suggested we tell them "You can be cool and board like Mom, or you can be cool and ski like Dad!" Eric says he agrees with that idea, but he usually says that just to appease me. It won't last. (How do I know you ask? BEFORE we got married, he said we could live in Washington. Now he's insisting on Utah.)

But there is one thing we agree on....

WE CAN'T WAIT TO HIT THE SLOPES!

And of course, we love each other, very much :)

And we're extremely disappointed in our team. I can't even talk about it right now.

I forgot to mention....

I just pulled out my letter from the advertising department from my purse. It was the only scrap of paper I had in my purse while I traveled to Washington this past weekend. Since I am so forgetful, and knew I would forget this moment if I didn't write it down, I recorded a memory on that envelope right when I got to Outback for dinner with my family on Friday night. I'm so glad I did because I completely forgot about it in my post last night!

So (this isn't the part I would have forgotten) Eric and I were happily sitting together on the airplane, almost ready to take off. The last 2 people to get on were a mom and her young daughter--probably somewhere around 7 years old. Of course Southwest is retarded and there are no assigned seats so all that was left for them were middle seats in the back of the plane. The girl began to cry. So Eric and I decided to give up our 2 seats so they could sit together.

I ended up sitting between 2 construction workers who were going home for the weekend. They were nice to me and very friendly, but definitely rough around the edges. They were appalled when I ordered water and offered to buy me a drink. I politely declined. I think they may have offered me more than that had I not mentioned that my husband was sitting across the aisle. I tried really hard to make my ring as noticeable as possible.

Anyway, I wanted to tell my family the story, so while we were waiting to be seated at the restaurant I began with, "I sit by the weirdest people on airplanes!"

Without missing a beat, my 10-year-old sister Cassie said, "Well you do sit by Eric these days!"

We all laughed pretty hard. Good one Cassie!

Thank goodness I wrote down what she said... It makes me wish I was better about writing in my journal. :)

A Maze and A Missionary

Thursday night we went out on a date with our good friend Michael. Eric set him up with one of the freshman girls from his group when he was a Y-group leader of New Student Orientation this summer. It was kind of funny, but we all had a really great time!

Before we picked everyone else up, we took a picture of us being so excited that I got into the advertising program!!

At Cornbelly's in Thanksgiving Point. We had a great time and there was lots to do! We weren't so good at the corn maze though... We went into "phase 2" and ended up coming out the entrance of Phase 1. Oops! So a Corn Cop showed us where to go to get out and back into Phase 2 again. After going in circles and passing the same signs like 10 times, we ended up coming out the entrance. At least it was of Phase 2 this time! :)

Then we played some tether ball! Eric had never played before, but just like always, he was a natural and creamed us all. *** correction: Eric just informed me that he had played tether ball before. My bad. He was amazing regardless :)

Just us...

Gotta love the self-timer pictures!

This past weekend, we went up to Vancouver to go to Scotty's mission farewell. I only took one picture, but it is precious. Saturday night we went to dinner with some of our really close family friends. Ben and Alexa's youngest, Avery is 11 months old and I got to hold her through almost all of dinner. It was so fun to feed her and play with her and make her laugh. Eric took her from me right at the end and he was SO CUTE with her in his arms. If I didn't already want kids so bad, that would definitely have made me want one. Now I just want one even more!!

Isn't she ADORABLE?! Oh man... I was in heaven!

And of course, the reason we went... My little brother! He did such an AWESOME job on his talk and I was so proud of him! I definitely cried during the farewell. I'm going to miss that kid so much. But it will be fun when he gets back from Anaheim because we will be able to speak Spanish together. Plus, Scotty and I are planning on competing in and winning the Amazing Race. We're looking forward to doing that when he gets back. :)

Here he is with his best friend, Sam Beck. Sam is serving in Ghana and he reports to the MTC on Wednesday. They had a triple farewell with one other kid from the ward. It was really neat to see.

I love you Scotty! I can't wait to see what amazing things you will do on your mission and in the future!!

DiSnEyLaNd!!

Last weekend was a BLAST! I absolutely LOVE being with my family and I am so glad that we all got to go to Disneyland together one last time before Scotty leaves on his mission. Who knows where everyone will be when he gets back and our lives are even crazier?? Anyway, here's the weekend in pictures. My mom has the better ones, so maybe I'll add some after I get back from Vancouver this weekend.

Cassie, Katie and I at breakfast Thursday morning. We got to go upstairs to the concierge lounge for food whenever we wanted. Our room keys let us in. It was great!

My weirdo brothers... Boy do I love them! :)

Waiting to get on Screamin' for the first time. This is definitely one of my favorite rides! I scream the WHOLE time because I'm having so much fun!!

Waiting for the parents at some point or another... They were probably buying pins for Jody.

Courtney and Cassie. She is growing up so fast! :(

Me and the kiddos on Grizzly River Run. Ready to get wet!!

Oh Jody... Such a 12-year-old boy!

Jody and Cassie were such troopers!! This Disneyland trip was definitely very different from any of the previous ones where we all went because Jody and Cassie are finally old enough/big enough to enjoy all the "big kid rides". We drug them all over those parks, day and night. They never complained a bit and kept right up with us! It was great to see them transitioning into becoming friends with the rest of us kids. The older 4 of us have become a lot closer in the last couple years as we have grown up and it is so fun! Anyway, my dad and I were buying Churros one night. It seriously took like 5 minutes. Cassie fell asleep in this position while she was waiting! Poor thing! But then we all went on Splash Mountain, the last ride of the night. It was great!

This was Dad's idea and we all loved it! I love my siblings!!

Happy Birthday Scotty!! Mom bought him this cute hat that was definitely made for little children, but he wore it like a champ and got happy birthday wishes from total strangers all day long.

One day at about 11 am, there was no one in line for the Grizzly River Run. We love that ride when all 8 of us are there because we take up an entire raft. So we decided to go on it. Twice. We got SOAKED! For some reason, I don't look all that wet in this picture... I think my back got it way worse. Anyway, Katie and I figured out how to dry out.

2 years ago, they wouldn't have been caught dead in the same car on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Aww, how precious. :)

Cassie and I realized when we got home that our hair was OUT OF CONTROL! Haha, that's what you get for staying in Disneyland for 16 hours straight! We didn't get back to the hotel on our last night there until nearly 2 am. But it was totally worth it!!

Our matching Minnie t-shirts. (Cassie and Nikki got theirs shortly after we took this picture.) And please don't mind my ridiculous looking hair. It doesn't air dry well. Obviously.

Here it is folks....

I tried to scan and post my letter, but it didn't work. So I'll just tell you.....

I GOT ACCEPTED INTO THE ADVERTISING PROGRAM!!!!!!!!!

In case you can't tell, I'm ecstatic! I can't believe it! I am SO relieved! And so excited to start the program next semester!!!!

Only bad news is, I told Eric if I didn't get in, I get to have a baby. He never actually agreed to that, but it looks like I won't be going that route anymore. :) Heavenly Father always knows what's best!

Momma called the Doctor and the Doctor said....

No more monkeys jumping on the bed! Oh and by the way Courtney, you have swine flu. Awesome. I definitely don't recommend it to anyone. All that talk about taking kids to swine flu parties--STUPID!!! It sucks! I missed 3 days of work this week. Momma also used to say "be careful what you wish for." Last week I woke up early one morning to get ready for school and I thought to myself, "I just want to stay in bed." I wanted to lie around all day and be lazy and not do anything at all. Well, I got what I wished for. But one day was more than enough. Day 2 was awful. I wasn't supposed to go anywhere because I was highly contagious, but I couldn't handle the couch anymore so I decided to go to the grocery store. We were out of milk....

Bad idea. I think it took every ounce of energy I had left in my body. Pretty sure I almost passed out in the middle of the cereal aisle. Hopefully I didn't infect anyone. I learned my lesson anyway. Don't go out when you're sick.

The worst part of it was the coughing. I have been coughing non-stop for almost a week now. Nyquill and Dayquill have become my bff's. 

Well yesterday I was feeling better and we had tickets to the afternoon session of general conference. So Eric and I made the trek to Salt Lake for the afternoon. Our parking pass ended up being like 2 miles away from the Conference Center. I was wearing heels. Really high ones. And we were running a little late so we power walked to be certain that we were in our seats 30 minutes prior to the start of the session. That did me in. So on the way back, I walked barefoot. Gross. Oh and p.s. I brought tissues with me since I've been having nose issues too. I decided a small packet wasn't enough so I brought a bag large enough to fit my entire box of Kleenex. Thank goodness for Kleenex with lotion! My nose sure appreciates it. :)

Anyway... after the session (by the way, Eric and I both fell asleep for awhile) we went outside and wanted our picture taken. We stood there for about 15 minutes, waiting for the perfect person to take our picture. Yes, there were TONS of people, but we wanted a great picture. (Really, I think both of us were just not in the mood to ask someone to take our picture. I eventually gave in and this was the result)

It was worth the wait.... For some reason we have no pictures of us lately.

My favorite part was walking down the street afterwards and seeing all the protestors. One guy had a shirt that said: "Ask me why you're going to hell." Hilarious.

On a more somber note, Grandma Bready passed away last night. She has been suffering for awhile so it is for the better. We are so grateful for eternal families and for the knowledge we have that we will see her again. Unfortunately, the funeral will be on Saturday so Eric won't be able to come to Disneyland with my family. I would have stayed home as well, but it's our last family vacation before Scotty leaves on his mission so I guess Eric and I will have to represent one another with each of our families.

Hopefully everyone is enjoying conference. Is anyone else getting the message of love?? :)