Hillbilly Deluxe

My dad took Jes and I on a daddy/daughter date to see a monster truck rally, it was loud, dusty, and smelled like gas, but really fun as you can tell from the pictures!  When my dad goes out, he goes all out, nothing but the best for his babies-we were right in front of all the action.  I think my dad might have started to regret taking us when we put our earplugs up our noses during the break, he says we were on the big screen during that time...I think he was kidding...at least I can hope.  Thanks daddo for a great time with your hillbilly gals.  

Our latest addiction

Our friends Kristin and Ben got us hooked on this game (probably because the first time we played I whooped all of them...badly).   It's called Mexican train and if you thought dominoes was boring, you've never played with them like this!  I suggest if you've never played to find a friend that has it or go buy it yourself, you won't regret it!  **Update...I lost horribly when we played last:(

Snow Day!

This is the first time it's snowed in North Carolina since I've been home in....I don't even know, but several years for sure!  All those people in Idaho and Utah probably don't think this is a big deal, but we got over 4 inches which is kind of unheard of...and something even more unheard of-Ashley got a day off work!  Unfortunately, Carleton still had to go to school, but it was a nice relaxing day and we got to take a few pictures!  I'm now regretting my decision not to shower or get ready for the day at all...oh well!

Happy New Year!

Talan turns 3!  We started the new year off with family for our one and only nephew's birthday.  Jes did a great job decorating the house and creating a Buzz Lightyear themed party.  We made pita pizzas and had a delicious space ship cake.  Talan hit the jackpot with his Buzz and Woody loot, Kaylee got in on some of the action too...Taylor was more into the wrapping paper and balloons as usual.  

The night continued with some appetizers and cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory with our friends, Kristin and Ben.  Seriously, they must be tired of us (despite what they say), because we  hang out with them almost everyday.  We had a crazy night of games, Martinelli's apple juice, youtube videos, and threading...we found it on youtube and decided to try it...Ben was by far the best at it, he ripped out the most hairs from Carleton's arm, OUCH!

So with this new year, Carleton gave a great family home evening on Journal keeping.  It had been a while since he wrote in it, but he wrote in it that night and had me introduce myself in it as well.  Now I'm pumped for journal writing, and it got me thinking about blogging...so here is a new year's resolution, to keep up-to-date updates and be better at keeping in touch with our friends...thank you, blogspot!

Ok now you can call us Claus...

We celebrated Christmas a little different this year.  We did the Condie Christmas Dinner in Charlotte the Sunday before Christmas, then we had our families personal Christmases (Carleton got me the robe from our honeymoon!) before heading to my parents house.  We had a big brunch then Carleton, my dad, the kiddos, and me took a little nature walk behind our house.  After that we went shooting, I cleaned my gun for the first time, we learned how to disassemble it completely, it was enlightening.  Then we gathered back to my parents house and had a nice dinner.  My favorite present from my parents was probably the big picture of the temple we got...one more thing Carleton (and our friend Ben) got to hang up!  

The next day we went to his brother's house in Tennessee where we learned that his brother and sister-in-law Christy are expecting a baby, yay!  Again, we went on a nice walk while everyone was still asleep, I went shopping while Carleton helped his brother install shelves, I couldn't believe that tax in TN is nearly 10%, I wish I would've known that before I started buying a bunch of things I didn't really need or that I could've got in NC.  The grandkids (in both families) were spoiled rotten, no surprise there.  Lana made a delicious dinner, I always thought that I hated sweet potatoes, turns out, with marshmallows and pecans on them, they're delicious!  It is so nice to live close enough to both our families to spend the holidays with both, what a great blessing!

The LONGEST Trip Ever!

On November 21st I set out for California....if only it were that simple.  I got my plane ticket, Carleton took me to the airport in plenty of time to make my flight, get ready, this is a long story...as I'm sitting waiting, I hear over the intercom "If you're going anywhere but Ft. Lauderdale, San Francisco, or Sacramento you'll be fine".  So I went to ask the man what that meant, I told him I was headed to Sacramento, after a long conversation of him being really confused he said I'd miss my layover.  Well after waiting for 50 minutes I'm finally next in line.  Then the guy gets back on and says; nevermind, everyone will make their flights.  Well I decide to wait and ask the woman anyway, she disagreed with him but after they argued for a minute she said you might make it, all the stewards guaranteed me I'd make it there.  They made me check my (carry on size) bag which was full of glass and my gps, all essentials for the wedding and nothing else, so i unpacked almost everything and put it in a plastic bag...well you guessed it, I got to the Philadelphia airport, they didn't say which gate we landed at, didn't read off any connecting flight info, no monitors or airport workers with flight information when I deplaned so I decided to just run to the gate I had initially received on the ticket in RDU.  Well when I finally got to the gate they said, that plane just left (technically it was still there but the gate had been closed) and besides it was at a different terminal.  I started crying when they told me I wasn't going anywhere until the next morning.  I mean Melody's wedding was at 9 am!  I sob my way to customer service where they say they can get me to Phoenix, get a "distressed passenger" voucher for me for a hotel, so I asked how much that would be...$70-$80. I was like this is not right, it's not my fault, your people in RDU should've told me I wouldn't make it when they knew our arrival time and the other planes departure time was within 5 minutes and in completely different terminals.  Eventually I get to AZ with my hotel room booked.  As I told the stewards in Raleigh I knew they'd misplace my bag...they did.  In Philadelphia, I asked them to make sure it got up with me in Arizona or Sacramento so I didn't have to wear brown clogs with my purple dress.  I arrived to AZ at 12:05 am (2:05 my time).  I go to lost baggage, they find it after an hour of looking, I go to the phones to call for my hotel shuttle, they informed me they had just ended their shuttle for the night.  I ended up renting another hotel which ended up being ghetto and the people were rude.  I sat outside the airport for 35 minutes, I finally got to my hotel after 2 (remember, 4 my time).  I had to be up by 4 to catch my shuttle at 5 and my flight didn't leave til a few hours later.  We got to Sacramento later than anticipated then we had to circle for 50 minutes because of fog.  As I'm sure you  gathered from all this, I missed Mel's wedding, but I did make the luncheon reception.  She glowed, I was so glad I got to see her on her special day and to meet her man!

That night I got to meet up with Beth.  I hadn't seen her since March when we were both visiting Idaho.  It was so great to see her and run around her home town with her.  We went to the most amazing frozen yogurt place called top it off....I think.  It had 3 choices of styrofoam cups, 6 different fat free frozen yogurt flavors, and I think I read somewhere they had something crazy like 92 toppings, pretty much every topping you can and cannot imagine.  I got chocolate and vanilla yogurt with fresh raspberries, raspberry sauce, cookie dough, and brownie bits.  The great thing is you can do as little or as much ice cream/toppings and as few or as many toppings as you want and it's all done by weight, so you can top it off however you like!  That night we went to see Twilight which was pretty much what I expected, not as good as the books, at times corny, but so much fun with Beth.  In the pictures we're trying to be wolves/vampires/bella...and the crazy one is us just being us.

I woke up, got in my rental car, and drove back to the airport at 5 am and got back home after three days in the airport at 10 that night.

Thanksgiving and Tennessee!

This thanksgiving was the first time I've ever been asked to bring "a dish".  I felt so privileged, like now I'm in the club, I'm an adult, I'm no longer the little girl that gets dragged along just because, but I actually get the official e-mail invites and have a say on when and where we celebrate!  Cool, huh?  So my first official "considered an adult and in charge of bringing something" dish was green bean casserole. 

The next day we hit the road to Tennessee for our open house there.  Carleton's sister flew in to help out, his brother along with his new wife and daughter came in too and we had a big family breakfast with of course whole wheat waffles and turkey bacon.  I had never tried either before meeting Carleton's family, now I'm convinced that I will never have a breakfast without them where these foods aren't present.  Carleton and I have since gotten my side of the family into turkey bacon as well!  While half the girls stayed behind to prepare for the reception, the rest of us went on a hike in the rain.  I was really excited to show my parents where Carleton grew up.  I love visiting and going on the neat walks and hikes each time we make the trek.  After coming home and getting cleaned up, we went to the reception which was gorgeous.  Lana, Anna, and Christy did an incredible job... yeah I have an awesome mother-in-law and sisters-in-law.  Everyone in Tennessee was so welcoming, complimentary, and friendly.  I was a little sad that it was my last time to frolic around in my wedding dress (at least with an excuse).  This time Lana made the cakes, they were DELICIOUS and looked perfect, a far cry from my wedding cake on our actual wedding day, if only they could've been switched!  All in all, a great time was had by all, and it was a great opportunity for Carleton's family to get to know my parents a little bit better and vice versa which we all were really grateful for. 

23!

The week of my 23rd birthday was full of surprises.  Carleton made me breakfast in bed, left flowers on my car at work (which got a lot of boys in trouble with their wives when they unexpectedly showed up and said "how come you never do that for me?"), surprised me by showing up at work and waiting for me in the parking lot, took me to dinner, gave me multiple massages (which is a normal occurrence anyway-what a great husband I have), and we had a great birthday dinner with my family.  Then on my actual birthday he had a gorgeous bouquet of pink flowers sent to me at work, made me a birthday cake (all by himself), took me to firebirds, which is my favorite restaurant, got me a nice pillow because I always take his, and again gave me a great massage.  He did so much that I'm wondering if I missed anything....thank you, Carleton for being a wonderful and very loving husband!

I almost forgot!

the school of fish the barracuda was stalking...yeah-there were tons!

view from our hotel in Miami!

we got a special cake for being on our honeymoon

King and Queen

Carleton started our marriage off right; he woke up and made me french toast and eggs.  Later that day the honeymoon began... we started it off in Miami, where we stayed in a really nice hotel with amazing bathrobes and a spectacular view.  The next morning we boarded our cruise ship, I don't know that I've ever eaten so much in one week in my entire life!  Our first spot was supposed to be Roatan, Honduras, but since it was under civil unrest, our guide, Simon, decided it was unsafe and we'd keep on chugging on board that day.  We went snorkeling in Cozumel which had the clearest, most exquisite water I've ever seen.  We liked it so much that we went again when we got to a private island in the Bahamas.  In Mexico we saw a barracuda stalking a school of fish, it was awesome and a little scary at the same time; then we saw an eel, it was ticked when our guide touched it.  In Belize we went to the ruins of Altun Ha.  That was neat, but snorkeling was by far the best.  By the time we got home, our tummies were full and and we were ready to start putting our home together.  Little did Carleton know that meant hanging a TON of pictures, he now officially hates picture frames. 

Halloween!

So ever since I started dating Carleton, people have pronounced "Clauss" as "Claus"...as in Santa Claus.  We tell everyone it rhymes with "house", but still people call us Claus.  So for halloween we decided since everyone calls us Claus already, why not dress up as Santa and Mrs. Clauss for halloween.  So that's exactly what we did, and only 2 people asked if we spelled Claus wrong, people that didn't know our last name wondered why we were dressing up for Christmas now and if we'd dress up for Halloween at Christmas time.  Hopefully you can appreciate our attempt at being clever.

Fair Festivities

This was my first time back to the NC State Fair since high school and let me tell you, I've missed it!  We had a lot of firsts...first NC State ice cream, that school can make some mean ice cream...and it's the size of your head for like 3 or 4 bucks... definitely the best deal you'll ever find at the fair.  We also had roasted corn, then we started on a corndog until we felt sick:(  We got to see lots of farm animals and Joe Nichols and we rode the ferris wheel but got stuck with a dad and his two kids.  But my hopes are high for this year's fair!