Life

JENNER'S LIFE

Studying


Volunteering


Working


DJ-ing



ANGELA'S LIFE

Painting

Working

More painting...

And more working....

TOGETHER

Seinfeld - Jenner has introduced me to this show and it is delightful. :)

Reflections at the end of Summer

Alright I know that its waaay past the end of the summer, but hey better late than never right? Angela and I have been able to lots of fun things the past few months and also some things that were not so fun either.
We were lucky to be part this summer of our stake's youth conference. The conference was centered around the Book of Mormon. So we were called to "Lehi and Sariah" or "Ma and Pa" or whatever rendition of leader for a group of kids you want to use. During the conference the youth would perform small plays depicting various scenes from the Book of Mormon. It was fun seeing it come to life. We also had fun activites from a wall we had to get over as a family, a zip line, nightly chats by the fireside, getting real wooden swords to bury our sins like the Anti-Nephi-Lehi (these swords are pretty cool and we were able to keep and decorate them) a battle complete with plastic shields and water noodles as swords (Angela was actually quite the fierce warrior!) and a dance/Karaoke party that we put on.   We were put in an awesome family with a group of talented youth.  We loved the kids we were with and we very impressed by who they were, the standards they kept, their knowledge of things spiritual and we think that our "kids" have the potential to do great things in their futures.

Here we are with our family banner before the war!

Most of the Ammon Family

One of the plays

Last year for Christmas Angela surprised me with tickets to Wicked that was coming to Salt Lake. I had to wait quite a long time to finally get my Christmas present but it was worth it! I had never previously seen Wicked before. It's a shock. I know. I know all the words to Defying Gravity, but have never seen it. It was a great production and we really loved seeing the show!

We were also able to go that same week to a concert at the Conference Center. MOTAB was having Santino Fontana (Prince Hans from Frozen) as their special guest. We were lucky enough to have enough tickets to bring Kallee along too! It was a really fun concert including a great medley he did at the end using songs with the word happy. 

So my birthday happens to be in the summer so we of course had to do what I ALWAYS do on my birthday, we went to the Zoo!  I love the zoo. It was really fun to go this year because of all the recent changes they have made at the zoo including bringing the lions. Really the best part of the new renovations was that they extended the train. The train is almost the whole reason for going to zoo.

You are probably wondering if I am done yet. This really is getting long. Ok i'll...oh wait! Just one more quick thing. We bought a new car. I'll keep it simple in saying that I REALLY hate car shopping and I do not look forward to it in the future. So we got rid of "Maximus" my old car and we welcomed "Ellie" into the fold.

Back to work

Someone brought to my attention that I have been slacking in updating my blogs. This is true.  I have been incredibly lazy this summer.  But now summer's over, and there's no more time for laziness.

So I've started work and I love it! I get so much energy from being with my kiddos. And this year I actually decorated my room. The kids love it but they are also waaaay more distracted. :)

Partying with Matt

School's out, which means I'm freeeeee!!!  And for my first week off, I was able to hang out with my little brother Matt.  My parents went out of town for the week and asked me to keep an eye on him.  Matt and I were able to do a lot of fun things together!

We went to Wheeler Farm:

And to the dinosaur museum at the University of Utah:

The newly remodled Bean Museum:

The aquarium!

Jenner and Matt also built a lego set together.

In addition to these activities, Matthew and I also went to a play at the Hale Center Theater, to Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, and to the Lego Movie (in 3-D).  During the week was Matt's first 3-D movie and first root beer float.  He liked both!  We had a lot of fun together but we were also pretty exhausted by the end. 

Memorial Day and Massages

Jenner and I had a great Memorial Day!  We started out by going to breakfast with some friends from the ward.  We just went to the IHOP down the street and had a great time eating french toast and chatting and such.  It's nice to have friends! :)

After breakfast, Jenner and I picked up our Pass of All Passes!  This was a fantastic deal - for $20, this pass gets us into Seven Peaks, bowling, mini golf, laser tagging, gymnastics meets, hockey games, plays, movies, and more.  It's crazy!  It's gonna be a fun summer! 

Because we had the pass, we decided to go to Seven Peaks, and it felt like a very summery thing to do.  Before we left, Jenner was all like, "Shouldn't you put on sunscreen?" and I was like "Probably, but I don't want to."  That turned out to be a big mistake.  We were only there for an hour, but we got sunburned pretty bad. We've been learning a lot about treating sunburns this week. Also, I just want to note that I went down the BIGGEST SCARIEST waterslide at Seven Peaks.  I was pretty scared, but I overcame my fears, and I DID IT.  We also used our pass to go miniature golfing this weekend.

On Friday night, Jenner and I got a massage.  We've had a groupon for forever (we meant to go on our honeymoon but it didn't work out), and we finally used it.  The massage was pretty darned fantastic!  I maybe even came away feeling TOO relaxed, because I was pretty much falling asleep on the way home.

Work has been a little stressful this week.  For one thing, a kid bit me.  And he bit me hard!  Fortunately it didn't break the skin or anything.  Lots of the kiddos are worked up and having a hard time, with the end of school coming and all.  There was one day where I barely got anything done on my list, and I was dealing with one crying kid after another.  But you know what, I love my kiddos.  I'm sure going to miss them over the summer.  And it's sad saying goodbye to my 5th graders who will be going to middle school next year.  I work with the best kids!

Pirate ships and other happenings

It's been a pretty great week!  Things are winding down at work (mostly I have a TON of paperwork to do) and it's crazy that school ends so soon.  To be honest, I'm ready for it to be over.  I even took a day off this week!  And I not only took the day off, I REALLY took the day off.  I came home Monday night and said to Jenner, "Do you want to be spontaneous? Let's go to the Anniversary Inn tonight!"  And so we did.  They were having a special deal going on, so we stayed in one of the most expensive rooms, and it was so fun.  It was like a pirate ship!

This weekend Jenner and I also saw the new X-Men movie.  It wasn't "WOW, amazing!!", but it was enjoyable.  We also went to the temple, and I think we may be starting a new tradition - we've been stopping to get cookies every time after we go.  This week we went to Paradise Bakery and I introduced Jenner to their cookies...MMMMMMMMMMMM those cookies are my favorite! (And like 600 calories.)  Side note:  I also introduced Jenner to Panda Express this week.  

As you may know, Jenner and I were considering a job opportunity in Qatar (yes, we are crazy).  Unfortunately - or fortunately, however you want to look at it - I didn't get the offer.  So we're staying here for now!  And to tell you the truth, I'm so relieved.  And I am so so so excited to stay at my school for next year!  (Especially since a teacher just donated two La-Z-Boys to my room.  And I got a giant toy carrot.  Awesome!)

School story from this week:

I was trying to get the kiddos to ask questions to each other and be curious about other people.  So one kid asked me a question.

Kid 1: Mrs. Bate, why are you so beautiful?

Me: uh.....

Kid 2: Because she was born that way!

Haha I love those guys! :)

Randomness

Jenner and I like going to the symphony.  We had season tickets, but alas, now they're all done.  The last show we went to was a Rogers & Hammerstein night, where there were very talented Broadway singers.  We loved it!  Here's a picture of us at the symphony:

Jenner and I also went to the Desert Star Theater.  The following is a video of the Ventriloquist Act - which Jenner got to be a part of. :)

In case you didn't know, Jenner is a DJ (and a very good one at that!).  Every once in awhile, Jenner gets to dress up in a tux, go to a bridal fair, and show off his moves:

And here's a random picture of Jenner...

I had a birthday last month, and Jenner made it very special!!  He surprised me with macarons, which were so, so tasty - the best macarons I've had in the States.  Yummm!

Isn't Jenner the best?

And I got a keyboard!  I love it!!  I play it all the time and it makes me so, so happy.

Disneyland!!!!

It's hard to describe our love for Disneyland.  The anticipation of our Disneyland trip has made me giddy for months.  Jenner and I were so excited we couldn't even sleep the night before.  I was bouncing up and down on the way to the airport.  We love Disneyland!!!!

We spent Monday through Thursday at the park, and we definitely got our money's worth.  We saw every parade and went to Fantasmic, the World of Color, and watched Tinkerbell's fireworks.  We rode pretty much every ride twice (and our favorite ones thrice!). 

Welcome to Disneyland!

Waiting for Fantasmic (the long wait...)

The sword and the stone...and Jenner.

We take shooting lasers very seriously.

We happened to catch Mickey just as he was coming towards city hall!  Hi Mickey!

Tiki pineapple juice - yum, yum! (If you like pineapple.  Which I do.  Jenner doesn't.)

Jenner overcoming Splash Mountain fears.

 Cars Land was pretty cool!

I guess Jenner likes checking me out...even on awesome roller coasters.

Here we are on the ferris wheel - which, by the way, was AWESOME!  The swinging cars were very scary but very fun.

California Screamin'

Radiator Springs (and my "geek is chic" shirt)

Waiting for Radiator Springs

This was a momentous occasion: Jenner rode the Tower of Terror!! (twice!)

Dumbo!!

Jenner said that this is his excited face (could have fooled me)

Jenner, Jenner, Jenner...

Iron Man, oh yeah

I got Minnie Mouse ears!  And rode on a boat. (I'm sailing!  I'm sailing!)

We went to the Blue Bayou, which was AWESOME and delicious.  It's in the Pirates ride, so the atmosphere was really fun.  And we each got a monte cristo sandwich, which was melt-in-your-mouth amazing.  Yummmmmmmmm