It is my birthday eve. I am saying good bye to my 30's as tomorrows birthday is the big 4.0.! I can hardly believe I am turning 40. I asked Erik if he could think of a way to just postpone my birthday for a little longer. I don't feel ready to be turning 40. In prepping myself for the inevitable I decided to reflect on my 30's by coming up with 30 accomplishments of my 30's (in no particular order).
1. Of course the biggest (and best) thing to happen in my 30's was getting married!
2. Travel -- I did a lot of traveling in my 30's. Mediterranean, Caribbean, Baltic Sea ... just to name a few places.
3. I went to and graduated school and earned my Masters in Educational Leadership and Administration
4. I made a little career change (ha!) and became an Assistant Principal at a great school.
5. I was teacher of the year -- nominated by students. It was one of the proudest moments of my teaching career.
6. I figured out the cause of life long migraines! I had my heart fixed (PFO) and was given a nearly headache free life!
7. I remodeled my townhouse (just in time to get married ... but it was exciting for the two months i lived in it).
8. I bought a new car.
9. I was named the 'Golden Child' of the school district. Really I was just given a scholarship of sorts for grad school.
10. I ran 3 half marathons.
11. I did my first triathlon.
12. I road in my first bike race (tour de Tucson).
13. I paid off my car.
14. I swam Alcatraz (for the third time).
15. Just two months into my 30's I bought my first home.
15. I met Erik for the first time.
16. I got scuba certified
17. I hiked Timp
18. I grew my hair out from pixie to half way down my back.
19. I ran my first 5k. This race launched me into many other races.
20. I took the GRE (it sucked!)
21. One year I attended the temple once a week.
22. I learned to can (bottle/preserve). I have done it every years since with my sisters.
23. I improved my art (being an art teacher sure helped!).
24. I made it through grad school debt free.
25. I was in my first parade. BYU homecoming with my family
26. I crossed a couple wonders of the world off my list. ie. Arches, Yosemite, Hagia Sophia
27. Career accomplishments. Over the years I have had a lot of career accomplishments. Dep. chair, district arts coordinator, SWAP board member, just to name a couple.
28. The last ten years have had a lot of first and trying new things. Like sailing
29. My testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ has grown.
30. Last but not least ... I learned that I can do really hard things. I learned to live life to the fullest. I learned to love my life.
I hope this list doesn't sound like I am bragging. It is more of a reflection of where I have been and where I want to go. I hope that my 40's bring me as much joy, growth and adventure as my 30's.
Monday, December 29, 2014
Monday, September 8, 2014
Blast From The Past
This whole trying to catch up thing isn't really working. So I am going to blast you with pictures from the last year and then move on! So hold on ... here we go!
Erik gets artsy!
My Mom turned 70!
Engagement picture
Honeymoon in Seattle
We took a day trip to Victoria
Chihuly museum
Fall in Provo Canyon
I took a little girls trip to Vegas while E was in Chicago
Traditions continue .. hot chocolate outing with Aunt Sari AND "Prince Erik"
Erik participates in his first art show. He did a great job!
Second honeymoon -- Hawaii
Christmas in Hawaii
Surfing in Hawaii
Choir tour to So. Cal with the high school
Thank goodness Jennie lives close by and could save me a couple of times.
Crowther's and JD met me for a day of Disneyland
I have such good friends!
Weekend trip to Moab
First time to Arches - so cool!
I chopped my hair (E was in China)
Race for Red
A very spontaneous trip to So. Cal to visit friends
Movie in the park
Sunday at the Ghetty
wish they lived closer
Jennie D. visits for the 4th of July
Morning bike ride and we were interviewed by the news!
Sundance full moon lift ride
My family went camping -- weird I know but it was dang fun!
Home improvement. Starting with a little color
Weekend trip to the Manti temple
Laura and E both take first in their age division
Just a little glance to the last year! It was a great year!
Friday, July 11, 2014
Marry Me?
Do you want to hear our engagement story?
(walking up to the meadow, sweet outfit!)
Erik and I first started talking about getting married around the 4th of July. We had been dating about a month (in round 2.5 anyway) Erik was pretty adamant that I not start wedding planning or telling anyone until we were engaged ... officially! Well that wasn't really working for me. I knew that as soon as school started my life would be crazy. I also knew that we were not planning on a very long engagement so I wanted/needed to get started. I was pretty good at not doing much planning (don't think I hadn't started pinning lots of wedding stuff on Pinterest) but I wasn't so good at not telling people, that's a hard secret to keep! Let's be honest ... I was totally telling people. Erik is pretty traditional, so he insisted that he talk to my dad before we got engaged/make it official (I totally love that about him).
Erik had a work trip to Europe coming up. This was a perfect time for me to be planning so I was pushing him to make it official before he left. He promised me he would at least talk to my dad before he left but that I wasn't going to get my ring until he got home. Well isn't he sneaky! A couple days before he left he told me not to make plans on Friday night. We were going on a date.
My mom called me earlier that same week and told me that Erik had made an appointment to talk to my dad. Oops! I guess that was suppose to be a secret. I kinda messed that up too .... it was the 24th of July (a holiday in Utah) and Jennie and I planned a friend/family swim party BBQ for that night. Well that is the night he was coming to talk to my dad! He tried to be so sneaky and we let him think that he was. I totally knew the whole time that he was in the living room talking to my dad.
Friday night finally arrived. He had told me to bring my headlamp. What? Ok so we are going to dinner at Sundance and I need my headlamp? What am I suppose to wear? After asking him 100 questions he finally told me to just show up. He would take care of the rest. (he loves that I ask lots of questions ... ok no he does not love that). We had a lovely dinner on the patio at Sundance (seriously the best salmon every!) After dinner we drove up to the cabin and parked. He told me he wanted to take a walk. Well I totally new what was about to happen. So I told him I needed to run in and use the bathroom (kinda true .. I always need to go). I went up to the bathroom and started praying my guts out! I said something along the lines of, "Heavenly Father I know what he is about to do and I plan on saying yes. If that is not what I am suppose to say you have ten seconds to let me know!" I sat there for a few minutes and didn't hear anything back so I took that as a good sign. We decided to walk up to the meadow (totally his plan -- round one of dating we had gone snowshoeing up there and it kinda stuck with him). We walked up to the meadow and were just enjoying the surroundings. He turned to face me and called me my full name (he never uses my full name .. ever!). After that he said some amazing things (sorry not sharing .. too personal). Just trust me that they were so sweet! Then he got down on one knee and asked, "Will you marry me?" while he pulled a ring out of his pocket.
The ring! Let me give a little background on the ring. As long as I can remember whenever I visited my grandparents in California I would ask my grandma if I could try on her ring (this ring). It was not one she wore very often. The two middle diamonds were her mothers earrings and the side diamonds were her aunts. She had them made into this ring. I have always loved it. When she died my mom told me that she would save this ring for me. So when Erik and I first started talking about getting married I told him about the ring. I told him that it was up to him what he did with this information. We never looked at rings so I assumed he was going to use it. The rest of the proposal story goes like this:
He is down on one knee and pulling a ring out of his pocket. When I see the ring and realize that it isn't MY ring I blurt out, "What is that?" He doesn't say anything and goes to put it on my finger (I was so shocked and distracted by this ring he was trying to put on my fingers). Well it doesn't fit. It is too small. He starts going on about how sorry he is he thought it would fit. I take the ring from him and say, "I will make it fit!" I was not about to let this moment be ruined by the ring not fitting! So I cram that thing on my finger! He stands up and says, "Oh no! Can you get that off?" I say, "Why would I take it off?" (it was kinda ugly by the way ... so NOT me or what I wanted). He then pulls out my real ring and says, "Because I brought a backup just in case." Haha! Well isn't he funny! Except now I have this fake ring stuck on my finger! I started licking my finger trying to get the thing off. It did come off eventually. He put my real ring on my red and swollen finger. But wait ... I had never answered his question (like I said I was very distracted)! Erik said, "You never answered my question. Let's try this again." He got back down on his knee and asked me again. This time I said yes! After a little kissing and hugging (well duh! We just got engaged!) we headed back to the cabin.
(horrible fat hand picture! I think its the angle .. yeah that's it! I took this a couple days later at work. I was having a very hard time concentrating as you can imagine.)
It was so fun calling family and friends to tell them the news. The date was set (after checking on BYU's football schedule) for a short 9 weeks later. I could hardly believe this was happening!
And that is our story!
Thursday, June 26, 2014
Family Reunion = Test
Erik invited me to go to his family reunion in Jackson Hole Wyoming. I guess he had never brought a girlfriend to the family reunion before so of course everyone thought this was a BIG deal. Little did they know that we had already talked about getting married and I even had the date in mind.
The drive to Jackson was beautiful. We had some serious storms.
I didn't realize that this was a bit of a test. A road trip is a good test. I guess I passed ... and so did he.
We had a great time. We hiked to the beautiful lake. E and I even swam to a rock out in the middle of the lake. We drove by the Tetons. Very cool!
We "camped" outside his sisters house. That is MY idea of camping.
Erik kept asking me if I was doing ok. I had to remind him that I have known and been friends with his sisters longer than I have known him. How great is it to marry into a family that you are already friends with!
Friday, June 6, 2014
Dave and Stacy Get Married and My Summer Vacation
In between finishing school and starting my new job I took a ten day trip to California (June 2013). My real reason for going was for Dave and Stacy's wedding (it is super awesome when friends marry each other!). I took advantage of my trip and had myself a little vacation. I totally think I deserved a little break (I had been working so hard!). Of course I planned the trip before Erik and I were dating. No worries, we talked every day!
I love both Dave and Stacy! I take A LOT of credit for them getting together. It was a great day!
You may recognize Stacy from my cruise pictures. That is how we became friends!
She was such a beautiful bride!
Weddings are soo fun! Look how much fun we are having. (totally posed)
We had a little time between the wedding and the reception so we headed over to Watts. Ya, Watts, Los Angeles! It was a little scary I won't lie. But seeing Watts Towers made it so worth it. If you are going to LA you should put this on your list. What a wacky place this is.
You know that Jennie Doezie is one of my favorite people. We spent lots of time at the beach and I loved it.
My last day there we went to Glen Ivy. It is pretty much one of my favorite places. (who doesn't love a day spa in So. Cal.?)
I drove back to Utah with Jennie. I don't love road trips .. but this one is ALWAYS fun with Jennie D.
It was a much needed break! It was a great way for me to decompress after a very stressful month! But I won't lie, I was excited to get home to see E. I totally missed him and I am pretty sure he missed me!
Two days later I started my new job. Not the summer breaks I am use to that's for sure!
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
MVHS Class of '93
20 YEARS!
Holy cow it has been 20 years! We really don't feel that old and I don't think we look that old!
We made a weekend of it and stayed in SLC. Our hotel was awesome! They gave us a suite, provided snacks, robes and hola hoops! (seriously, they did!)
My BFF came for the event! Of course she had to be there!
I won an award for having been the most places. I am so glad I could accomplish so much since high school! ha!
No explanation needed! It's just what we do!
We really haven't changed much in the last 20 years! We know how to have a good time late into the wee hours! Oh how I love these girls! What a great weekend we had!
*funny story: Of course I was texting Erik all weekend. We had been dating for about a month. Most of my friends didn't even know we had gotten back together. So much of the conversation was about him/us. On the way into the reunion a girl in the parking lot (we had been in the same ward growing up) said to me, "Sari we need to get you married!" It was a weird thing to say when you haven't seen someone in 20 years! So I text Erik and told him what she had said. Then I said, "Can I just wear a ring on my left hand?" Ummm ... I wasn't thinking so straight when I said that. It was pretty innocent. He text back, "wow! That is a loaded question. But I like the idea of it." It was the next day that we talked about getting married.
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