Christmas Bike Ride-In the Snow

I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes. There is snow in Provo Utah, so the Christmas spirit grows! We put the tree up the day after Thanksgiving. We have been celebrating every day of December, and on the 7th day of Christmas, the paper chain said, "Christmas bike ride."

For the occasion, we of course broke out the soul cycle, and Karl did something special for Christmas...He put a string of Christmas lights on his bike! It looked so awesome!

I dressed up in my Christmasy warmest outfit.

It was cold...and there was snow but we were so excited.

We met Zac, Krysta, Karen, and Jordan downstairs.

It took some practice, but eventually I got it. I never fell, not once!

Slowly but surely...

We went down 1st South and ended up at the tabernacle, with all the Christmas lights.

Everything was covered in snow.

Even the lights on the tree. It looks so magical.

I took lots of mental pictures.

Here we all are on University Ave and Center. We were all freezing, but so happy and having a blast.

Here is the forward view.

I took some video of the experience. I wish you could all have been there.

I just about dropped the camera at the end here...the video continued:

Mid-ride happy shot!

There was so much snow! It was like ridding in slippery sand.

Check out my wheel.

We decided to go out from hot coco.

Bingham Cycles.

We ended up a Trends Cafe. It is this little place on Center connected to Pioneer Books. It is so cool. Karl and Zac played a game of chess and Krysta, Karen and I chatted while Jordan looked around at the books.

Karen was finally out with us. I looks like she likes the couches.

This is her new smile.

One eye closed, big teeth. SO cute.

We had some great coco and HazelNog. Basically a Steamer with half eggnog and some hazel flavoring. IT WAS AWESOME, and totally Christmasy.

Karl couldn't get enough of it.

We finally headed home around eight.

Zac couldn't help but ride through some heavy snow in front of the New Skin building.

Home again, home again, jigidy jog.

Christmas Lights

Late November I found an add for an event at:

That says thanksgiving point in Lehi Ut. It was an Ice carving contest. It was advertized to be epic. We drove out with Krysta, Zac, and Karen. We were all PUMPED! When we got there...

It was canceld, becuase it was one guy.

He had to leave because of work obligations, I think that it was supposed to be a dinosaur.

Never fear! There were lost of other things to hold our attention. The problem was that it was TOTALY FREEZING!

I mean it was so cold. Like...15 degrees. SO cold. Luckily we found a fire.

Karen was well taken care of.

We walked around for a while. The best thing that we saw was reindeer. It was so cool. I had never been that close to one before.

We made our way inside and re-grouped.

There was also this Christmas lights drive, so we headed over.

Krysta and I were in the back with Karen and the boys were up front.

Here's Zac paying.

We entered the gate, and were were greeted with the above sign.

And some skiers.

This was probably my favorite set of lights:

One our way out, we had a sweet farwell from Santa. (Listen to Karen when she says animation)

I was glad that they put Christ into the presentations. There was this nice little nativity at the end.

We were happy, and although the lights were pretty low grade, we all have a fun time.

On our way home we went to 7-11 for some hot coco to warm up after a freezing cold night.

It was at this point Karl discovered dulce de leche creamer, he had 5 in his coco. Overall, not what we expected, but really fun.

Who 'Dat Ninja?

Karl Hite is that Ninja. Yes, if you are at all aware of our lives right now...Karl took the actuarial exam today. He is a ninja because he passed. The pass rate for this exam is...38%. That is a lower pass rate than the Bar exams and the CPA exams. It was a rough test. But Karl dominated it.

Here is Karl reinacting the domination. Exploding fist pumps of victory!

Here is the proof that he did it.

Here is Karl.

After 3 months of study, and lots of sacrifice. Happy and totally exhausted.
I knew he could do it!

Mom and Dad Hite Make a Vistit

We were blessed to have a Visit from our Hite parents this weekend. It was really good to see them especially since we were unable to be with them during the holiday because of work and studying. They arrived on Saturday afternoon, and it was awesome. We went shopping at DI, and Old Navy right away. Once we were all shopped out, we went to Tepanyaki Japanese Grill and Steak House. It was bodacious.

I love Asians.

Here are me and mom hanging out while waiting for a table.

We were all smiles once we got seated.

I know, we are really hot.

This is the setup:

A guy at a grill with the table wrapped around it. We were front and center.

First they brought us this really yummy onion soup.

Then a salad. The dressing was a weird thousand island ranch combo...I didn't care for it.

Then out came John, our Chef.

Watch him go!

I think I lost part of my eyebrow in this explosion.

He grilled up fried rice, noodles, then the veggies.

Next on the the proteins. Check out all of that shrimp.

John threw a piece of shrimp into each of our moths. Here is dad right after catching it in his mouth.

We got the Deluxe Combo, and it had a little bit of everything. Yum!

And for the Finale...

Yes that is a little doll peeing on the fire.

Next they brought us ice cream with chocolate sauce.

Over all an awesome experience. So fun.

We headed back to the apartment where mom presented us with Grandma Barney's Christmas present.

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT!

Don't look at the pictures below if you want to be surprised by Grandma Barney's gift this year. For those non-Hite/Barney/Matthews/Hickens/ out there Grandma Barney has a cool Christmas tradition. She sends a Christmas decoration to all of her married grandchildren and their spouses each year. Many of my Christmas decorations are from this wonderful woman. So when mom presented me with the present I was really excited.

It was the first present of Christmas so Karl and I opened it together.

His and Hers singing stuffed snowmen.

We named him Ron Dong De Dong Dong, Hite.

Next we played BANG with mom and dad. Here's Karl laying down the rules.

We drank apple cider and had a grand old time. We played for hours and decided that we would definitely be playing more over Christmas when we came home.

Right before we were all done we went through our shopping bags and showed off all of the stuff we bought. Mom pulled this skirt out of her DI bag:

It was a skirt that I had donated a couple weeks earlier. Yeah...want a coincidence. Thanks mom and dad for all the fun.

Thanksgiving, Just Another Day

I worked all day. The minute I got home I ran to the store. Karl had been studying all day for the P-1 actuarial exam and was beat when I got home. We hurried and made the mashed potatoes that we had peeled cut and left to boil the night before. We also brought a pumpkin cheese cake we had made the night before:

That's right, from scratch. It was amazing.

We got to Krysta's around 3:30.

We were welcomed with another anti-car mural. That's Krysta and Zac Shooting down a car turkey.

I came in and sat down, and didn't get up until we left. That is why all of my pictures are from the same angel. People just kept bringing me food. Karen jumped up and ate some holiday appetizers with me. We ate cream cheese and cocktail sauce with shrimp and crackers. We had Janae's Spinach dip and celery with this cream cheese and nut filling. Then the tray of olives was pulled out and Karen was really excited.

Here's Zac consoling her after we had to stop her throwing them.

Of course, on the fingers they go.

Karen cheered right up when more people started to arrive. Including Krysta's Uncle and Cousins. This is Ari, isn't she so cute. She is 4 and was all hands. She wanted to grab everything in sight.

Logan and Jacqueline were there. Also our neighbor and new friend Jay. Jay is really funny. He dressed up as Jesus for Halloween. He's the bearded guy on the far right. In fact as I sat at dinner I felt a little out of place with out a beard.

This is the first time I had seen Jacqueline since her baptism so it was really fun to catch up with her.

Soon enough the turkey was out. Here is Kaden. Another one of Krysta's Cox cousins.

Food.

After dinner Ari and Karen played.

I didn't get any pictures of Janae or Krysta who were the master cooks and planners of the evening. It would be really rude of me to not take a minute and say thanks to both of them. The turkey was amazing. The rolls were delicious. Thanks for having us!

Here is a piece of the cheese cake. It was an awesome hit. We were really proud.

As we left the window sill outside told the story of the party inside. It was a fun evening. We went home full and tired, and fell asleep. I think that it felt like just another day because I had to put forth so little effort.

Cameron+Kelly= Camerelly

Why does my mom look so happy?

Well, only because she is finally hanging out with all of her hot/cool/brilliant/rockin' kids! Also because her oldest and most attractive son was finally getting married.

My whole family was in town. We all went out together to, The Olive Garden. We always seem to go there. Cam says that I am the one who always wants to go, but it was Mom's idea this time.

Dad and Belle. Dad seemed to be really happy during this trip. I think he likes it when his kids get married.

Awwwww.

Leah wasn't there for the first little while because she was at work, and Karl never came out with us because he was busy taking a test.

Cameron and Kelly, the man and woman of the hour.

Brandon looks like my dad; especially when they smile.

Mom is just a hotter version of Maryn. And lets be honest, Maryn is really hot.

Except Maryn likes to get tipsy. Just kidding

I don't know, she looks like she is enjoying it just a little too much.

Leah arrived and the party finally got started. Brandon was certainly happier anyway. After dinner we all got together at my house. All the girls had a really fun sleepover at our house.

After an early breakfast was all headed out to the Salt Lake City court house.

This is seriously cool building. Also it was totally empty because it was a Saturday. We were all excited so we started taking pictures while we all waited.

and waited...

and waited. Finally Cameron and Kelly finally arrived. We all headed up to this super cool room with a suprieme court feeling and a huge picture of Brigham Young on the wall.

Grandma and Grandpa were there too. They were the only non-immidiate family there besides Kelly's best friend.

Here they are right before the ceremony. They are so cute!

Cam looked so happy.

The ceremony was preformed by Kelly's family bishop. It was a really cool ceremony.

What else do I need to say. We are awesome.

The snow was falling when we came out of the court house, the first snow of the season.

After all of that we ended up at Grandma's house.

We did name exchanges for Christmas, and Branny got Karl for the fourth year in a row.

After a while there was a luncheon at Kelly's parents house and it was really fun.

Flash forward another few hours and we were at the Italian Place. It was my dad's favorite place when he lived in Provo. So we all packed into the car and had an awesome sub.

After dinner we went back to my place and watched KungFu Panda and Dad bought about a million treats to eat. We had M&M's, Oreos, Root beer floats. Maryn made her famous rice crispy treats and we all just sat around and laughed and talked. It was just an amazing time.

Maryn's Sweet Extensions

My sister Maryn works at a day spa in San Diego. She has the most beautiful hair. One of the perks of working at a place like this is getting the sweet hair product hookups. This hair was customized to match Maryn's. It is amazing. After she got into town the day before the wedding, she took them off and they covered our computer desk.

Branny tried them on. He looked hot.

Check him out modeling them...in action.

Check me out. I felt like Ariel.