Our New Home

Introducing.... Our new home!

Tanner & I bought our first house on October 29,2009.

This was our old rental house we lived in. We joked that when people walked by, they probably thought it should be condemned. Now you can see, we weren't kidding. We will always remember this little shanty.

This was the kitchen in the Shanty that only one person could be in at a time because it's so small. You had to turn side-ways if you wanted to get by on another.

Our old Family Room. I didn't paint anything. It came with the colors of the rainbow.

Our new family room.
The people who owned the house before us must have liked ducks. Those are green duck valences and slightly green tinted blinds. Those came right down.

A fews days into our new house, we came home from grocery shopping. As we both carried armfuls of groceries in, I put my keys in the door to open it for us. The next morning, I was running around the house frantic because I couldn't find my keys.

You guessed it, I left them in the door all night. I couldn't get the dang key out, so I had my strong husband try. He broke the key in the door.

Nice.

The kitchen and bathroom have BEAUTIFUL travertine tile. Those are my favorite rooms.

We have a full apartment in the basement we will soon rent out. It needs a whole lot of TLC. The renters that recently moved out were smokers and had a dog. So now the basement reeks of smoke and urine. Tanner and his brother-in-law, Matthew, ripped up the urine stained carpet. Under the carpet was nasty ceramic tile (like you'd find in a school cafeteria). They broke that all up so we can get it out.

Our big project is getting the basement ready to rent.

It's a feeling I can't describe to be in your own home. It's ours. We can do whatever we want to it. We have a yard we can grow a garden, and a safe neighborhood. My exciting project will be to paint and re-do the family room however I want. :)

We love our home sweet home.

G-O BYU Cougars!

Tanner got us tickets to my first BYU game on Saturday!

(Looks like the game must have been really intense for the elderly man behind us ;) )

We got all dressed up in our BYU gear to root on our team!

It was such a great game. They played the Colorado Rams and squashed them 42 to 35. We had a great time since Tanner's sister Laura and her new husband Matthew were sitting right next to us, cheering our brains out! :)

George Erickson Family Reunion

On Labor Day weekend, Tanner & I drove up to Oakley Idaho to my Great-Grandfather's cabin for the George Erickson Family Reunion. We arrived there Sunday afternoon so we could be there for the day activties on Monday. Sunday evening most of my second cousins were there so we all had a BBQ dinner and roasted mallows for smores in the fire pit. Although Tanner was trying to get over a nasty flu/sinus infection, he was a trooper the whole time.

It was so fun to see Travis & Naomi! They always make me laugh!

Whitney had been in Utah a few days before we left to Idaho so she drove up with us. It was great seeing and catching up with her before she left for BYU-Idaho.

Us girls had a great time together, but Courtney was really missed.

It was so great for me to see my cousins I grew up with. Kassi (far left) just went in the MTC about a week ago. She was called to serve a mission in New Jersey, spanish speaking. Mikaela (middle) & I are only 12 days apart and all three of us have always been close growing up.

Monday was the day dedicated to learning of our family history. My grandpa, his kids, and my grandpa's brother, Don, and his kids were there. I learned a lot about my great-grandparents and the history of the Erickson side (my mother's side). It meant a lot to me to have my companion next to me, learning about my family's history and meeting all my cousins and second cousins. Although I know it was probably not the first place Tanner would have liked to have spent his holiday, he was such a good sport in trying to learn everyone's name and be involved in all the was going on.

We Love Lagoon!!!

On Aug. 11 was my company's annual company party. They decided to have everyone and their families meet at Lagoon for a discounted price. Tanner got work off and we arrived in Farmington before the park opened and spent the day at Lagoon!!

We spent most of the day with my friend and co-worker Whitney, who brought her boyfriend's little sister MaryGrace for her first visit to Lagoon. We all went on the Colossus ride together and Tanner and MaryGrace loved it so much they wanted to go again. Whitney & I were way too tired, and being bums, so sat that one out. Tanner has such a fun personality, the child in him began to come out as the ride ended.

Tanner & I had so much fun together that day. We both love rollercoasters and theme parks so we went on every ride we could. The last time we were at Lagoon together was while we were dating; July 2007 to be exact. It is such a fun perk living in Utah to have a theme park close by. :)

This Story Just Keeps Getting Better...

One warm, mid-July afternoon, I walked outside to water my pot of flowers on the porch. As soon as I looked up, this is what I saw...

I sat there and looked at this sight for a moment, wondering if I was seeing illusions from the heat. I called in the house for Tanner to come check it out. He helped me realize that I wasn't seeing things as he walked across the street, a few houses down, to the neighbor that owes the little red piecer. Tanner said to the short, old, Latino man, "Excuse me, I need you to come out and look at your parking job." The man said, "Oh you need me to move my car?" Tanner said, "No. I need you to come look at something." Tanner took the old man to the curb to look at the cars. Because the old man looked a little confused on what he'd done wrong, Tanner proceeded to tell him that he hit our truck. The old man then said something I still baffle about ever time I think of this story. He said, "Well, your truck only moved this much (holding up his two index fingers about 3 inches apart). You were in violation of the shade." VIOLATION OF THE SHADE?! That must be a new law I haven't heard about....

The old man kept saying it was no big deal and he would move his car. Tanner asked to exchange insureance information and leave it at that. The man refused, thus causing Tanner to threaten to call the cops. The old man again refused, so Tanner went through with his threat. The cops showed up a few minutes later and took each party aside to get the story straight. The old man continued to tell the cops that it was a hot day, and we took up too much of the shade. He said he had to back into us so he wasn't parked in the red curb. The lady officer kindly, yet firmly, explained to the man that it was against the law to back into other peoples cars. The cops wrote him a ticket for "improper backing", we exchanged insureance information, and went our separate ways.

Today, one of the cops that wrote the ticket, showed up at our house. He said the little, old man had been to the police station many times within the last few weeks, causing a scene and trying to file reports that we and the cops are racist. The cop said the man threatened to get a lawyer and take this to court. So now, Tanner and I have to fill out a detailed incident report, print off the above pictures and take them to the police station.

I guess I'm not too worried since if he wants to take us to court, I know a pretty good lawyer ;)

The events in the month of MAY

We began May with my 21st Birthday! You can kinda see the humungous bouquet Tanner sent to my work for me. It was sooooo pretty!

Memorial weekend Tanner & I and Laura and Matthew drove ALL the way to California to see the Nordstroms!! It was absolutely necessary that we eat at the infamous IN-N-OUT.
The next day the whole family drove about 45 minutes north to Berney Falls. We hiked a little ways down to the base of the falls, then all the way back up and around the falls. It was very fun to have the whole family together (even Tanner's Dad flew in from Alasaka to be with everyone!!)

The Sunday before we left, Tanner's best friend, Travis, graduated college from UC Chico State. We are so proud of you Travis!!

From left to right: Jennifer (travis's girlfriend), Travis, Tanner, Me, Dad Nordstrom.

FlOwErS, fLoWeRs EveryWhere!

I'm hoping Mom will appreciate this one....

The end of April, Tanner's Mom came for her annual visit for Women's Conference. She took me, Tanner, Laura and her fiance Matthew to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point. It was the most gorgeous site I have ever seen! The pictures don't do it justice.

Us girls were so excited to be there we had to take a picture in their little cardboard tulip thing.

Here is a glimpse of the garden. It was magnificent!

Tanner decided he wanted to be like the little girl statue we saw... what a goof!

Here are a few picutres of the largest man-made waterfall in the country. It was really an amazing site!

My First Motocross!

Tanner got us tickets to the motocross race in SLC at Utah State.

It was a very rainy day and we were afraid it would get rained out! The only event that was cancelled on account of rain was the freestyle competition.

It was stinkin cold that day and for some reason we thought the race would be in a dome. We obviously weren't thinking clearly and didn't dress warm enough in the slightest. The picture above is me in our friend's from Idaho's jacket because I didn't have one!
Despite the cold, Tanner was pretty pleased to be there!

It was so fun for us to watch the race together. We had a great time!

Snow in April???

Good morning to us on April 16th!!

This is what we woke up to that morning. Tanner is such a sweetheart to hurry outside to get the truck started and scrapped for me before I go to work.

Crazy!

April- Happy Birthday Tanner!

April 4th was Tanner’s 24th birthday! We also got lucky that weekend because Whitney came to visit us! The morning of Tanner’s birthday began a little interesting. I got up early that morning to make breakfast and get ready for the day. Whitney woke up a little later and took a shower and began to get ready. She realized she forgot her blow-dryer so I said she could use mine. Unfortunately when she went to use it… it didn’t work!! I had just used it earlier that morning! So, being the hand-man tanner is, he decided he would try to fix it for me.

This is how it turned out.

As you can probably guess he had more fun taking it apart than any success fixing it. Oh, well, iI guess you don't get to see the inside of a blow-dryer everyday! We ended up throwing it away.

For Tanner’s birthday dinner, he decided he wanted to go to a place with lots of good meat… that means Tucanos!! Whitney, Laura and her fiancé Matthew went with us to celebrate.

After that, I planned for everyone to go play laser tag. Tanner’s friend he grew up, Dave, and his wife, Brittney, joined us in the competitive game! Needless to say, our team didn't win. All the couples were against each other and I just kept hiding…

It was so fun!!!!

And after a tiring game, we came back to the house for lemon birthday cake, singing and ice cream.

HOPE YOU HAD A WONDERFUL BIRTHDAY BABE!!