animals...

happy late halloween! 

love: the puppy and her treats.

(the puppy is a fail safe costume. especially when you move to a new state:)

 "come here little puppy...come get your treat"

 "there you are..."

man, you'd think he had been the one doing tricks...

my family came to visit as a last min trip before elder spencer left on his mission.

it was so so so fun...and lucky me, it happened to be on my birthday! yay!
since i was the moment capturer-here you are fam!!

you can't come to newport without treating yourself to dad's famous bananas.

 and vicki will be there to serve you.

and because it is brady and my favorite treat/eating place we treat ourselves to a frozen one quite frequently--vicki, the cute little vietnamese lady in the blue, always remembers our name AND our friends! each time we come she lists all of our friends we have brought and asks where they are. 

SAMMI and BRADY's #11 time to see vicki:

(brady handed vicki his credit card to pay)

VICKI: "how come you didn't tell me (a thick vietnamese accent), your name is Brendan?? (close second to braden) I have been calling you brady when your name is Brendy!! ha ha.... bye brendy!!"

ha ha cute vicki. brendy it is.

they are famous for their frozen bananas and hippo cookies. 

each time we go, as a good customer bonus, vicki usually throws in a hippo cookie for free. 

this is sea world. a great great place if you haven't been for a while.

notice clear in the back the trainers-all have buns and none get in with the shamu's anymore! sad!

GIANNA:

 "ah...not a care in the world. i'm just relaxin', kickin back watching my movie that grandma better keep holding"

 "feed me mom, and grandma, keep the phone still so I can watch my movie."

ha ha so cute! well this is a long post and being that it is 3:36 in the am i might call it quits. i feel as if it is easy to stay up blogging---i feel like i'm not really wasting time because its in the middle of the night.

so what i maybe just spent 3 hours blogging/shutterflying.

OH YES...and something productive...finished an application for restoration hardware. part-time income. a little outlet from the emergency room:) nani would be so proud!

the best 2 years...

a wonderful 2 years.

this is a little bit late--- but as a license plate once has said, "always late but worth the wait". 

for our 2nd anniversary brady and i went to seattle! brady had to go for work and so we made it a date weekend/ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION!!

**ADDED BONUS: home to Seattle Grace Hospital on grey's anatomy! yahoo! if only i needed to go to the hospital. i didn't.

have you ever wondered what it would look like walking up a steep sidewalk without the pull of gravity?

this is what it wold look like. at first a head tilt back, and then straight as a board. 

finished with a pose.

the highlight of our vacations---delish meals. And this was one of the best! 

if you didn't know, one of washington's greatest assests happens to be Mt Rainer! great! 

since it was only a 2 hour drive, we decided to take it!. after a 2 hour car ride, it turned out a little different than we had imagined.

just like at most famous places, one has to pay to go up. when it was our turn at the ticket window, the lady must have seen our shocked look concerning the ticket prices and she quickly said, "you can walk up for free if you would like. its 3 miles, or you can always walk down" i thought to myself, "wow, we could walk up mt rainer!" i nudged brady who said to me, "yeah, l say lets walk down."
... so we bought the 20 dollar gondola ticket. (pretty good for mt rainer if you ask me!)

on our way up the gondola...
brady, "oh its so green!" (super excited voice)
sammi, "i thought mt rainer was snowy...wow its different that what i imagined. I can't believe we're here!!! i'm very excited."
nice ladies sitting across from us, "oh you can see mt rainer at the top if you look to the right. its a great view."
sammi and brady, "wait....are you telling us this is not mt rainer?? We are taking the gondola up the side of mt rainer-right?"
nice ladies sitting across from us, "giggle giggle, laugh laugh, mt rainer is about 1 hour drive from here. this is crystal mountain."
sammi and brady, "oh"

there it is...clear over there...in the distance.

our hiking boots. yes the sperry's.

the Summit House Restaurant 

maybe the best food of the trip.

this is the quote of the trip found on the back of the menu for The Summit Grill:

"The Mountains will always be there, the trick s to make sure you are too." 

...ha ha

PIKE PLACE

 Happy Anniversary. 

maybe

Alright so here is the '1 every 6 months' post! yippee!
What caused the new spark you ask?
Well...thats what I'm wondering.
-maybe I realized my forgetful memory will get the best of me in the end---and by keeping a blog i can at least bullet point my life in a rough draft essay form)
-maybe its because here i sit on the couch at 0028 AM, tv running obnoxiously on grey's anatomy reruns, wide awake not knowing the day from the night (thanks to my new night shift hours)
-maybe its because brady left to china and I'm alone and bored
...or... maybe its because our recent Utah sparked something in me. Utah told me that staying close to those you love is what life is about. AND when family is not just a drive down the road, it takes time and work to improve those relationships.

As you well know, Brady and I live far away (approx 1-2 states) from those familiar streets, shops, schools, friends and family that we grew up adoring. It has been over a year, and you might ask me, "aren't you used to it?"  and I might laugh.

Being in utah reminded me of a lot of things actually. It reminded me that mountains are beautiful, the utah freeway is NOT that bad, weddings are so so great, love is pure, and families are forever....despite the distance.

"Having someplace to go is home. Having someone to love is family. Having both is a blessing".

conclusion: families are so so so so great!! They are never to be taken advantage of. My new goal is to be a better family member. To work harder at keeping close relationships to those who mean the most!


PS. Yay! Regan the beautiful bride and her new family! --and our christopher addition:) Speaking of, I would like to shout out to the Benson family. My dear sister-in-law married into a family of 14 children! Wow!! Amazing huh?! yes they were a one of a kind family. We have been back in California for almost a week and I am still dreaming of that cute family! Seeing the great posterity of the 14 children is what I imagine heaven to look like. Brothers and sisters happy to be around one another, with little toe headed children playing nicely with their cousins. (Everyone is probably blonde in heaven). It was great fun to be a part of the wonderful event! And a great event to promote the beauty of 14 kids. I could prob come up with 14 names....ya brade? as long as they were toe heads.