New Mexico

Reagan and I took our first "sans-Matt" trip out to Las Cruces, New Mexico to visit Lori and Nick. Lori and I have been best friends since the summer before our freshman year in high school. We have had some of the raddest times of my life together and every time we get together, its like nothing has changed at all. We love to reminisce as well, about our crazy times. Reagan just took to them right away. After a day or two, she was used to their cute doggies as well. I love Lori's family as well. They treat me like one of their own and make me feel so at home. I have known them for years and it had been a while since I had seen everyone. It was so fun to be with them and to let Reagan get to know them. She had so much fun because everyone was so friendly to her!
The back drop of the town of Las Cruces is the Organ's, which is basically the tail-end of the Rockies, Lori informed me. They were really cool looking and you could see where they got their name...jutting out like keys on an organ.

Lori and Nick's brand new house was gorgeous. And they sure can decorate! Sometime in my life I will own a home and I will hire them to decorate.

We ate at a local pizza place one night and it was fun. I felt like I was with my own family. The pizza was good, too!
Reagan and Kylie, Lori's niece, had so much fun together. On this trip, Reagan learned how to hold hands with people while walking (thanks, Lori!)
On Sunday, we drove to the Carlsbad Caverns, a few hours north of where they live. We got to drive through the town of El Paso, Texas as well. The caverns were really cool, reminding me so much of the Timpanogos caves, but way bigger. And you don't have a tour guide leading you along.

Because of Reagan's obsession with calculators, remotes and phones, she just loved Nick's shirt. Especially when he would say "beep-beep" as she poked at the numbers.
Strolling down the path in the caverns.
I had a hard time getting the feel of the place on camera. I don't have the greatest night vision on it and it was just hard to capture a good photo of the scenes. But if you look closely, you can see the ceiling hanging down all pokey and stuff.

After Carlsbad Caverns, we headed up to Cloudcroft, a little town in the mountains of New Mexico. Lori and Nick reserved a place at the Cloudcroft Lodge. I learned something new...when a place is said to be 'charmed,' that is a fancy way of saying 'haunted.' Halloween spirit really kicked in for us that night, with ghosts on the brain. Click here to read the story about the haunting, but to be basic, a woman named Rebecca haunts the lodge. She was a skanky chambermaid who's boyfriend found her cheating and killed her...or so the legend goes. Now Rebecca haunts the entire hotel. Lori and Nick were so smart and ended up renting a lodge from the same hotel down the road called the Pavilion, which we were assured wasn't haunted. At least, no one had reported anything as of yet.

However, our night could not be complete without a tour of the actual haunted lodge. The guy working there let us see the governors suite, which is the most haunted room there. Here we are in the actual hallway where Rebecca's ghost roams!
The Cloudcroft lodge in the morning, a much less scary time of day.
Road tripping was so much fun with the Moog's. We drove through some teeny towns that we swore to never ever live in and ate a Taco Bell that made Lori lose her appetite due to the dead flies falling into the windowsill by our table. My favorite drink, Starbucks Strawberries and Creme Frappucino, became Reagan's new favorite drink. She got ticked when I took the straw out to have a sip for myself. For those of you wondering...this drink does not contain coffee.

The coolest rest stop I have ever seen.
Our last stop was the White Sands National Monument. Part of Transformers was filmed here (never seen it, but Lori says it is the scene in Iraq). It was really cool. It looks like snow, but it is actually fine, white sand.

Reagan had so much fun, she just loves the sand.

Oh, man, we had so much fun in New Mexico. Lori and Nick totally went out of there way for us and made it an excellent time. We can't wait to go back and I need to bring Matt next time. :)

Family time in Utah

If I had to choose one month of the year to be in Utah, this would be it. October is just gorgeous in Utah. We were blessed with windy autumn weather, the leaves change to the most vibrant colors and we even had some snow in the mountains. I wish I had time to be a little more up close and personal with the photos, but these are still great shots.
We spent Wednesday with the raddest mom-in-law ever, Bev and with Mel and her kids. This is where Mel and I got out for a kids-free shopping trip and we also ate at Cafe Rio, the best food in Utah. The highlight, however, was Whitney proudly announcing that she was going to give her baby some milk and plopping down in the rocker and lifting up her shirt. It was so classic!
Reagan and Whitney playing and having fun.
I got to spend some time with my sisters, too. I ended up getting my hair cut and highlighted while there, since it is like a quarter of the cost in Utah (compared to CA). I walked into the hair place looking like my sister Loni (right) and left looking like Lindsey (left).

Reagan just prefers to be nude. Matt and I are praying that she outgrows this stage prior to the age of 16.

With Gram and Lindsey in Cafe Rio. We pretty much went straight there from the airport. I was in Utah for 4 days and ate at Cafe Rio twice. I could have easily ate there again, but I had to try a few others things, too. Plus, the beans were really getting to Reagan and I didn't have Matt around to pawn off the diaper duty.

Halloween Party

My last night in Utah (before my 8:30 AM flight the next morning!) we had a raging party at Mom and Dad Roundy's haunted mansion. Lindsey and my mom put mucho work into this shindig and it turned out great. Usually, when everyone is over for an event, I end up with a massive headache and am grumpy by the end of the night. Not so with this one. It was a blast from start to finish. Reagan kept a really late night, finally going to bed at 10:45 PM. She really didn't mind at all staying up. I apologize to those not related to me because looking at all the pictures may be incredibly boring, but I just loved everyones costumes and I want them all to get a chance to be featured on No Exceptions, k?

One of the biggest highlights was Max, my nephew, rocking out with this wooden guitar. This kid is an absolute crackup. Due to his excitement level and crazy expressions, we have dubbed him "Monster Max." Never a dull moment with him around. I actually got a video of him shaking his thang, but it is a long one and if I have the time, I will upload it onto blogger. Even the video doesn't do his antics justice, however, as all the adults in the room were roaring in laughter.
Reagan sat on grandpas lap for a while. This is a first and rare occasion, as Reagan usually prefers her grandmas over her grandpas. Here she is trying to pop the bubbles he blew.
A typical moment for the clan: laughing. Loni, Lindsey, Landen and Alyssa. For those of you who haven't figured it out, myself and my 5 brothers and sisters all have names that start with L. Nope, my parents weren't on drugs, they actually claim it just "kind of happened." Long story and I will spare everyone by not sharing it.
The post-Halloween party dance floor. Loren brought in his IPOD and played music while we all danced. Alyssa knew just about every song, especially rap. I think I know what station Loren listens to at home.
Eli showed up as the scarecrow from Wizard of Oz. Here he is eating a chocolate cupcake with orange frosting.
Max, Regs, Lindsey and her hubby Roland. Roland didn't show up with a costume, so Lindsey proceeded to dress him up as a cross between Ferris Bueller and the devil.

Katey had one of the best costumes of the night, hands down. Those of you who read (or watch) Harry Potter should know exactly who she is. Actually, I don't read Harry Potter and I know EXACTLY who she is. That is how good this costume was.
Loren showed up in what he described as a costume for a "jeans model." Whatever, dude, next year if he pulls something like this, we will dress him up in whatever we want and send him with a shopping list to Bowmans. This was not a costume-optional party.
Meow! The two cats of the party: Autumn and Lindsey.
Technically, Easton wasn't really in costume, since I think he wears this pirate outfit nearly every day for the last like 4 months. But he still was a handsome Jack Sparrow, IMO. Ashlee and Autumn. Ash won the sexiest costume award! How many can claim that one when they are 6?
Landen, Caitlin and Emma. Caitlin convinced Landen to be a vampire, I think because of the hottie Edward (for all you TWILIGHT readers out there!)

OK, seriously. Where do you find this kind of shirt? Well, if you own a dry cleaners and some people never pick up their clothing, you just might find some Halloween costume worthy stuff there.
Lindsey and I spent most of Friday doing the decorations and food. We were pretty proud of the crepe paper job.
Loni's costume took about 3 minutes to throw together.
Kelly and Ash.
Regs, me and Landen. I was pretty proud of my costume, until I got home and showed my pics to Matt who proceeded to laugh his head off at the ghetto electrical tape job. Hey, come on! The only adult bee costume I could find was a little too naughty for my taste.

My little bumblebee.
The other best costume of the night: my pops. He was a pimp. Lindsey and I helped him put this costume together. Really, I wouldn't have recognized him if he was sitting next to me on the bus.
Mom and Dad.
The outside decorations...Lindsey did this.
A Roundy Halloween party would never be complete without a scavenger hunt. I don't have photos of that because it is just too insane for a camera, but we separated into two teams. Lindsey wrote up a bunch of riddles and hid them all over spots in Kaysville. For those familiar with the town, we stopped at Gailey Park, Davis High School, the old rock church, the library, the expectant mothers parking at Bowmans, and finally, Castle Park. Our car arrived much earlier than the other car, so we decided to hide and scare them while retrieving their "treasure." This is very typical of Loren. He delights more than anything in scaring the living daylights out of the family. An event, whether it be Halloween, New Years Eve or 4th of July, isn't complete without him hiding somewhere and jumping out to cause someone to wet their pants (or worse.) Lance and Landen are usually the unsuspecting victims. Oh, man, Loren, you might just have it coming big time one of these years!

We're still here

I just returned from a 10 day trip of shared time between New Mexico and Utah, plus a few hours spent in the state of Texas. With the exciting task of unpacking looming before me, I decided to spend the next few minutes just writing a public THANK YOU to those that made our trip possible and a seriously freaking good time. First of all, the Moog and Brower families that took me in, let Reagan play with their dogs, treated us like family and showed us a good time all around the state of NM and some of Texas. A big thank you to my families, the Rasmussen's and the Roundy's, who fed and housed us for a few days. Gram Rasmussen watched Reagan while I spent some free time with my dad and sister. Melanie accompanied me on a shopping spree to Tai Pan and taught me how to seriously decorate a beautiful Christmas tree (looking forward to the month of December). Gramps Roundy showed Reagan how to suck on a dum-dum properly and blew bubbles from Bubble Yum that made her laugh like a hyena. Thanks also to my sis Lindsey for seeing through a pretty awesome Halloween party, one that the city of Kaysville won't soon forget. And last, but not least, thanks to Matthew, who parted with me, but more importantly, his daughter for 10 days and spent two nights in the beautiful town of Tucson and also "baching" it with chips and salsa for dinner.

We love you ALL!!

**Check back soon for photos that document our cool trip**

FR & DMI

I can't believe the first two episodes have come and gone and I still haven't blogged about it! Well, better late than never. Fun Run, the premiere, was great because it had been months since a new episode, but I didn't think it was all that funny. I don't know why. Maybe because I just had JAM (or PB &J, as they are now called) on the brain, so nothing else really mattered. I did think the Dwangela storyline with the cat Sprinkles was hilarious. That is really in character for Dwight to kill a cat. I also thought Jan threatening Pam was so dang funny. Jealous, possessive Jan is great. I didn't find Andy's bleeding nipples all that funny and the Michael running was so-so. Jim and Pam were too dang cute, though. Like I said, all this would've been funnier if I hadn't spent the first 30 minutes fuming because they were both "single," then the next 30 minutes in heaven because they were secretly dating and holding hands. Dunder Mifflin Infinity was funnier, in my opinion, although Matt and I were split on this. He didn't like it too much. My favorite parts were Ryan getting rejected by Pam (and Jim's too-cute-for-words reaction), Creed using printer ink to dye his hair (did anyone else catch that? If not, re-watch and you will), and Jan and Ryan confrontation. In fact, I liked most of it, with the exception of the last bit with Michael driving his car into a lake, then demanding his gift basket back. Seriously, I know that Michael is a bit much, but who really does that? Oh well, it is just a tv show for laughs! I am looking forward to next week's episode because it is more of the new DMI website launch and I really like this part with Ryan all snotty and big-headed. Next thursday I will miss it, but for a better reason: Me and my little Reg's are flying to New Mexico to spend some much-needed time with Lori and Nick. We can't wait!

Sparkling Yogurt

Many of you know that my degree is in Food Science from BYU and that my love for food and especially the science behind it has no limits. I absolutely LOVED my program at the Y and my classmates, teachers, classes, everything. A professor of mine, the chair of our program, and my one-time Bishop, Dr. Ogden, had a special project going on that he had been working on for years. It was his sparkling yogurt. He spent many early mornings in the pilot plant of the Eyring Building, perfecting and working on his recipe. At the time I was there, he was really working hard on a sparkling vanilla and a sparkling root beer. Those of us in the Food Science program were lucky enough to be tasters of this fantastic treat. Well, life goes on, you graduate and move away, but I was more than TICKLED to see on the BYU News this morning that Dr. Ogden has finally marketed his yummy sparkling yogurt. It is a General Mills Yoplait Go-Gurt. I am going to buy some today. It is called Fizzix. Basically, it is a carbonated yogurt. It was sold at the Creamery for a few years in the late 90's, if anyone was there at that time. Click HERE to read the full article.
Aawwwwwwww, I am so proud!

Class Time

We enrolled Reagan in a mom and toddler class that goes September through December. It is through the adult ed program here and Reagan absolutely loves it. She pretty much gets to run around and play and be with 11 other kids her age. There are tons of toys in the room and she just goes nuts. The class is from 9-11 in the morning, so she definitely hits a wall right around 10:30 when she officially becomes over-tired. I am with her almost the entire time. They have a snack time, too, which is really cute. The table and chairs are just the kids size and they-unbelievably-sit down and actually eat. It is funny to watch each of the kids reach for every other kids plate instead of their own, even though the same food is in front of them. Reagan loses her shoe a lot and likes to bring it over to me to put back on her foot.

Cell Phones

Attention all cell phone users. We would like to announce that there is officially a new way of talking on the phone. Talking through the mouth is no longer necessary when using the cellular device. You may now speak through the back of the head. Reagan will demonstrate this perfectly in the photos below.