GRExcited You're out of the Way

Saturday morning I spent 4 hours taking a test: The  GRE, for the second time. This time around, the verbal section was less cruel to me and I actually improved my score! Sweeeet. I then went home and took a nap, and I am not a napping person.  I haven't taken a test for about 9 months so naturally, it drained me.

Elliott and I then went out to Crate & Barrel to get a wedding gift. Man, I'm glad that place isn't closer to our house, otherwise I would have a hard time resisting their hand towels, plates, pillows, and the rest of their little trinkets. We walked away with just the wedding gift which probably wouldn't have happened if we weren't short on time.

The working life has been great so far. I love being able to walk to and from work. Seamus, the neighbor's cat (who's we decided is Catholic by extension) seems to have a new favorite spot to hang out around 7:20 pm. When I turn the corner to go up our sketchy stairs, this is the first thing I see:

It's kind of creepy. (Do you like the massive weed forest in our backyard? Seamus doesn't like it, he loves it.)

Speaking of backyards, it's possible that we found a new apartment! It's only three blocks away from ours and has a dishwasher, washer and dryer hook-ups, three rooms, a little porch, and a backyard (possibly with a fruit tree. TBD. FYI, I just decided that the use of TBD here means to be discovered). If we decide to pull the trigger, we will be moving in June. I will wait to get sentimental about our current apartment until then.

I don't think I'll ever be able to tell anyone how much I love Sunday dinners and how lucky we are to have my parents so close, my mom who is an amazing cook and my dad who is a grill master. Last night it was just us two, my little brother, and my dad. My mom was finding her way back from a backpacking trip down in Moab (let's not talk about how I missed out on that). He grilled up some garlic chicken skewers for the boys and salmon for me. We made a beet and grilled asparagus salad, cut up some fruit, cooked some yams, and all ate dinner outside in the backyard. It was perfect.

And we all know this wouldn't be a blog post written by me without some pictures of the potato:

The site I have been using to make collages has now been absorbed by Google+ (boo) so until I find another site, big pictures it is. Anyone have any suggestions?

Hey Elliott, want to go camping for our anniversary this year? We can try out our new flash boil thing we got with our REI dividend. 

Two Years?

Monday was our two year anniversary. I asked Elliott if he feels like the time has gone by fast or slow. We both agreed on both. It goes by fast while it's happening, but when we look back it definitly feels like 2 years.

Elliott surpised me with breakfast in bed. I was impressed not only because the breakfeast included french toast, scrambled eggs, bacon, fruit, and oj, but also the fact that he got up at 5:45 and snuck to the store to get the goods. That's why I think my husband is supa cool.

We both worked during the day (interrupted by Sweet Tooth Fairy cupcakes flavors rootbeer float and red velvet) and met back at home. Presents were exchanged. Elliott got me a new shirt and a new sheet set for our bed and best of all, a NEW pillow! If you lived with us you would know how often I complain about the headaches my old flat pillow gave me. So i'm excitied.

Dinner was orginally planned at probably our favorite restaurant in SLC, Chanon Thai, but we drove by with disappointment when we saw a closed sign. So we zipped over to another one of our favorites, Setabello (authentic pizza).

We finished the night with Friday Night Lights (the tv series) in bed. With our new sheets.

It was a great celebration of 2 years and although I loved the breakfast, presents, and dinner, I feel luckiest to have Elliott the most.

Also, have you seen this music video? I don't even want to know how long it took to do all that chalk. Actually, I do so we can learn how to do it too.

Perfect Saturday

Last saturday was a great day (except for the fact that elliott had to work). But I was able to help my parents work in their garden in the morning and afternoon. It was in the 70's and it was nice to finally be able to get some sun. After Elliott got off work, he rode his bike over to my parents house and we (elliott, my mom, my brother and I) went on a long bike ride. We rode up to the Zoo, along Wasatch Drive, over the freeway, through Holladay, and back to Salt Lake. It was so much fun (despite some of the very steep hills) and nice to be outside on such a perfect day.

Afterwards, Elliott and I went to dinner for our anniversary. He surprised me and took me to PAGO which is one of my favorite restaurants which is hard to frequent due to the price. Everything is bought local and the chefs are amazing. We both ordered the fried chicken. Now let me set the record straight for all you KFC lovers/haters. This was not like KFC fried chicken. There were no bones and the bread on the outside was so much better. It was served with fingerling potatoes, roasted greens, and white raisens all with some sort of sauce (I forgot what the waitress called it). It was the best fried chicken I have ever had and one of the best meals I've ever had. Even better, it was a meal they were test running for their new menu (coming out today...which means we have to go back) and so the price was nearly half of a normal entree.

If you haven't had a chance to try PAGO I highly highly recommend it (it's a little more on the expensive side so be prepared) but it's well worth it. I love local restaurants!

A few of our other favorite local Salt Lake restaurants include:

Eggs in the City
-1675 E 1300 S-

What we get: biscuits and gravy....best I've had. They also have great breakfast burritos and french toast


Curry in a Hurry
-2020 S State Street-

What we get: chicken curry plate


Ekamai Thai Curry
-336 W 300 S-

What we get: anything
This place is locally owned by two young parents. Elliott interviewed them for a story he wrote for the Utah Daily Chronicle and you can find it at http://www.dailyutahchronicle.com/arts/a-taste-of-thailand-1.2207112.
They're really cool and the foods great!

Sawadee
-754 E South Temple-

What we get: orange chicken, yellow curry, veggies, beef and broccoli
Fast service!


Rio Grande
-270 Rio Grande Street-
Family favorite!

What we get: our entire family almost always gets a cheese or chicken enchilada muckers style(with sour cream and pinapple)


The Red Iguana
-736 W North Temple-
Very popular but worth the wait
Now I'm hungry and stuck at work.

What has made up the last year and a half

Sunday is our anniversary which is super weird because it doesn't feel like it's been a year since we got married. None the less, it's been a great year here in salt lake and we've done so much stuff. I hadn't realized how much we had done until I sat down and looked through pictures. It all started with:

Fixing up a tandem bike:



Making it official:



And then we went to California:





Helped plant flowers for our wedding:



Got married:







Went on a moon in Hawaii:



Were frequent fans at the Real soccer games:



Went to Arizona to visit the Bueler side of the family (hot)



Got cool shirts (and Elliott grew a beard)



Elliott shaved his beard (and left a nasty mustache for a day)



And had our first Xmas together in our little little apartment and our shedding tree:
(and we both gave each other the same thing, on accident)



(and the tree is STILL in the backyard..oops..it kind of fits in though with the overgrown weeds)



And after all this, I still love this boy:



Happy 1 year el!

One year old

We've been married for almost one year and yes we're just starting this blog. This may be because we're both in school full time, elliott works FULL time, and I work part time. But now it's summer, our spring school semester is almost over (a week away!) and we both have a crazy amount of more free time.

A few weekends ago we headed down to St. George. We both love going down and seeing friends, longboarding, and visiting our favorite places to eat, which are:

1. Jazzy Java
What to get: Turkey sandwhich with cranberries, sweet potato fries, and strawberry or raspberry italian cream soda

2. The Pizza Factory
What to get: Gusto pizza, bread twists, and vanilla lemonade

3. 25 Main
What to get: anything! And a cupcake

4. In & Out (not as exciting as it used to be now that we have them up north but still always good)
What to get: Just a regular hamburger, fries, and a chocolate shake if you're planning on not eating for the rest of the day

For christmas, Elliott got a Holga camera. We were able to kill some time and go and take some pictures. We didn't finish the role of film yet (it's very expensive) but he does have an app on his phone that allows you to take Holga pictures and see them right away. So the pictures will look a little somthing like these:











One more week until summer! We are really excited for this summer. Our plans include New Orleans, Moab, and San Diego! Elliott's brother and his wife are moving to Jackson Hole for the summer (am I insainly jealous? yes.) so we might try to fit in a trip to go visit them and go white water rafting (elliott's never been).