Mini Vacay to Vegas!

For Jason's Spring Break (back in March), Jas and I decided go on a mini-vacation to Vegas.  We found a sweet deal to stay in a Hotel called South Point, just outside of Vegas.  We loved South Point for many reasons:

1. It had an AMAZING pool.
2.  It had a great workout room.
3. There wasn't as much smoke (South Point is geared more towards families)
4. There was a Bowling Alley in the Hotel
5.  There was a Movie Theatre in the Hotel
6. There was the most amazing Burger Place "Steak and Shake" (we ate there twice)

We got there on Sunday and just chilled at South Point the rest of the night.  Then, we woke up early on Monday and headed to the Strip.  The day was filled with Zara, H&M, & Top Shop Shopping, good food, and standing in line for half price tickets to see "The Phantom of The Opera."  Jason promised me on Monday that we would be back for the Bachelor Finale (I know, I know, it wasn't worth it, Ben & Courtney=the worst couple ever...gag me with a wooden spoon).  So we grabbed an amazing Burger and headed to the room to watch the Bachelor.  I won't tell you the details about how I spilled a whole cup of water all over my pants (Jason said he's never seen me blush that bad), and how I had to walk back to our hotel room with "peed pants" and soaking squeaky shoes.

On Tuesday, we spent the day relaxing at the amazing pool, dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, and watching the Vegas "Phantom of the Opera."  This is my second favorite play (just after Les Mis), but it was AMAZING in Vegas.  The singers were unreal and the performances made our jaws drop!  They even had a Chandelier that literally dropped from out of the ceiling and the Phantom was riding around on it.

It was so nice to just spend time with Jas and not worry about anything.  We had such a great time!  I promise we'll go on a cruise or Hawaii next time Babe.

When I got back to work, my cubicle looked like this:

My coworkers always tell me I don't have enough personal items and pictures on my desk, so they had printed off huge dorky pictures of me, and put them all over my cube.  My boss laughed so hard!

Happy Birthday to Me-I'm Getting Old!

I know it’s a month after my birthday, but I couldn’t forget to write about the big 2-4. Yes, that’s right, I’m 24. It is just so weird how fast time has flown. I remember when I was 16, sitting in my bedroom in Mexico City, thinking how slow time was passing. And here, I sit, 24 years old, graduated from college, and married almost 2 years. I’m a grown-up, which I am just realizing, because I know I still act like a kid sometimes. It’s just a crazy feeling.

Because of this realization, I wasn’t really looking forward to my birthday. It was just going to be another Friday work day. But to my surprise, it was an amazing weekend. It started off on Thursday, when Jason’s family took me out to dinner at Red Rock (don’t get me started on how amazing the pork sandwich is), then we went back to Jenn’s house for some delicious ice-cream, hilarious birthday card reading, and great presents. I’m so lucky to have such fun and thoughtful in-laws.


I loved all my presents...especially my new sparkly boat shoes!

Then, on Friday, my actual b-day, it was another wonderful day. It started off with my boss surprising me with a personalized and amazingly delicious cake. Then, for lunch I went to Firehouse Subs with my work friends (DELISH). Then my boss sent me home ridiculously early from work (so grateful for that).



I had told Jason I would be home at 3:00 pm, but I ended up going home at 2:30. I walked in, and there was this HUGE BOX with a picture of an electric piano. I called Jason and was like "Was I not supposed to see this piano in the hallway?" He was like "Em..you said you were coming home at 3!!" Seriously, it was the best present he could have gotten for me. I was so happy I cried. I have been re-teaching myself to play the piano ever since.





The rest of the night, I spent with my family filled with Mandarin Food, cookie-dough/oreo ice-cream cake, games, and amazing and thoughtful presents.


Love this new outfit I got, especially the yellow pencil skirt!


Adorable coat from Gap!


Taylor got one of our engagements (picture on the left), and made this amazing piece of art for us (on the right) using only spray paint. He is seriously an artist.


A "Go Utes" Banner? hahaha, this one is for Jason. Look how happy I am to be getting it!

Thank everyone for making it such a special day for me! I am so lucky to have amazing friends and family.

Mat Kearney (Jason's New Man Crush)

People that read my blog (which I'm sure isn't a lot, but thanks to those who do), you guys probably think that Jason is the best husband. He totally is. But I'm also a good wife sometimes! For Valentine's Day, I surprised Jason with Mat Kearney concert tickets. Jason loves Mat Kearney. Like man-crush love, which I'm totally fine with.

So we went....we sang....we danced, no mosh-pitting thank heavens, since I'm semi-claustro! But at one point, Mat Kearney jumped into the crowd, and gave Jason a high-five hand squeeze. As he walked past me, I got that super huge Cheshire cat grin and squeezed his shoulder. He gave me a weird smile and moved on. I know, I'm a creeper. Later, I learned that my brother Taylor squeezed his butt. Maybe that is what the weird look was for, because I'm sure he was into the shoulder-squeeze.






(I know this isn't my best photography, but I had to document a couple bad pics).

Anyway, it was an amazing concert. If you haven't experienced Mat Kearney, do it. It is amazing music. My favorites are:

1. Ships in the Night
2. You can count on me
3. In the Middle
4. Nothing left to lose
5. All I need
6. All I have (I sing this one to Jason when he doesn't want to share. "All I have, all I have, all I have, well, you know it's yours").
7. Closer to Love
8. Here We Go
9. City of Black and White
10. New York to California
11. Sooner or Later
12. Learning to Love Again

Wow, I really narrowed it down, didn't I? Thanks Mat Kearney, for a great concert. My husband loves you...literally.

Love Day

I love the month of February for many reasons, and not just because of my birthday. Here are some of the reasons:

1.Groundhogs day and Taylor’s B-day
2.Valentine’s Day
3.President’s Day (No work or school)
4.Emily Birthday (It’s my golden year this year, I’ll be 24 on February 24th)
5.It’s Leap Year this year, which is kind of awesome
6. Sappy Romantic Movies come out like "The Vow"

Plus it’s the month that everyone pronounces wrong. It’s FeBRUary people! I sound really funny when I say it, because I try to enunciate the “Bru.”

To start our celebration of Valentine's Day, Jamie, Jenny, and I decided to go to the midnight showing of "The Vow" on February 9th. Yes, I know, we still got it. We aren't too old to party all night, but it did take a very large Diet Coke to keep me up that late. It was a really fun night, and I liked "The Vow," but was a little disappointed. I was expecting something groundbreaking like "The Notebook," but it was still a good movie and a fun night out. I did laugh my head off when Jamie was shushing the annoying girls that whistled and wooooed every time Channing Tatum took off his shirt. She even said "Yeah, girl in the ponytail, I'm talking to you". I almost peed my pants.



Jas and I celebrated Valentine’s Day on February 10th. It was seriously so fun. We had to celebrate it then because Jason worked on Valentine’s Day until midnight. Jason had it all planned out what we were doing, and he wouldn’t tell me. He knows I hate surprises, and I kept asking and asking, but he wouldn’t tell me. This is how our night went:
1.Went to Market Street Grill. It was seriously so delicious. We had amazing bread and salads, and then Jason ordered the crabbed & cream-cheese stuffed salmon, and I ordered the amazing crab stuffed shrimp. Yep, I bet you are drooling…we sure were. We then had New York Cheesecake for dessert.





2.We then stopped at 7-eleven and got huge big-gulps. Perfect right?
3.Then we went back to the apartment, and he made me wait in the car. After 5 minutes, he called me to come in. There were rose petals leading to my present, and lit candles everywhere. Sweet huh? He got me the cutest checkered pink shirt from jcrew, and a dvd that had 4-pack Nicholas Sparks DVD. This DVD had “A Walk to Remember”, “The Notebook,” “Message in a Bottle,” and “Nights in Rodanthe.” He seriously gets me.





4.We then got in our sweats, and we watched “A Walk to Remember.” He even let me quote most of it. He was laughing his head off because I literally knew not only the whole movie by heart, but all the songs and lyrics.

Jas must REALLY love me, because not a lot of boys would do that. He even warmed up my amazing and smelly corn-bag for me, and rubbed my feet. I really do love this boy.



This whole post makes me feel like Valentine’s Day was ALL about me. Which it kinda was, but I thought I did okay. I got Jas Mat Kearney tickets to his concert on February 13th and a cute gray chambray shirt from Urban. He danced around because he was so excited! He may love Mat Kearney more than he loves me…just saying.



On the actual Valentine's Day Holiday, Jamie's husband Trent and Jason were both working until late late that night. So Jamie and I celebrated together. We got a huge and delicious Sonic Drink and watched "He's Just Not That Into You." It was so fun. Thanks for spending V-day with me sis.



I hope everyone had such a wonderful Valentine’s Day.

New Glasses & The Bachelor Bracket

Hello friends,

2 Things that I'm excited about lately.

Number 1, and always number 1: The Bachelor. Why have I not been watching this from the beginning? I mean, I watched the first Bachelor ever...and then I didn't religious watch it for a LONG TIME. I started watching again with Brad Womack, and now I can't stop. It's addicting, and I love it. But on a positive note, it makes me love Mondays! The Bachelor is like a train wreck, you can't look away. I love every awkward & cheeseball moment of it.

The last few years, Veronica (my friend from work) and I have made a Bachelor bracket on our windows. We thought it was a genius idea! It is exactly like the bracket everyone makes for March Madness. We guess who is eliminated each week, we have a point system, we even do the final four. Then whoever loses, takes the other one to lunch. It's hilarious how into it we get. This year, more people from the office wanted to join, and it is seriously so much fun. Here is my bachelor bracket this year:





I have to admit, although a lot of people don't like Ben, I like him. He's quirky, and not like the typical bachelor...all six-pack of abs with no personality whatsoever. I seriously hope he doesn't end up with skank-face rude Courtney. I'm pulling for Kacie B. all the way!

Is anyone else unbelievably excited for Emily Maynard to be the next Bachelorette and probably an appearance from Mr. Bentley? Because I sure am.

Number 2: My New Glasses. I have been saying I need new glasses for the longest time. But glasses cost a lot of money! Jason found these new prescription glasses for me for $30 bucks. Seriously awesome! I love them so much. I know it makes me look dorky, but I like it, and why hide the fact that I'm a dork? No reason to.

Once upon a time, three months ago, we ran a marathon

It’s weird now, it’s one of those things that seems like a dream….we ran a marathon…we did what??? This past summer, the Meek fam decided to sign up for the St. George marathon. I asked Jas if he wanted to sign up too, and he said “Sure, why not?” Since the St. George marathon is a lottery marathon, not everyone get’s in, and Jas and I were the only ones out of my whole family that got in. I was like, “wait….what?” I was terrified. We started training late June and began this journey. It was grueling and hard, but it felt amazing. We would get home from school/work 3 times a week, and run between 3-8 miles. Then, we’d get up extra early on Saturdays and run between 8 miles all the way to 20 miles (the longest run we did).

Jas and I felt crappy some of the time, but oh so good the other times. We saw ourselves being in better shape, getting tanner, having our hair lighten up in the sun, and see places we hadn’t before, because we were running all the time. It was amazing.

Myron and Myra (Jason’s parents) came down to St. George to watch us run, and we loved having them there. We got there in the afternoon, and went straight to the center where they gave us our running numbers and chips. It was so fun to see how many people were there, hanging out and talking. There were hundreds of vendors, giving away free stuff and prizes. I have to admit, I was intimidated by all the freakin huge calves people seemed to have. I remember telling Jason “How are we going to be able to compete with people who have calves like that?” We got our numbers, and our bag of goodies, and we headed to the Pasta Factory to carb load. It was delicious as always, but I felt so sick from just eating carbs the last few days. After that, we went back to the condo to just relax. Around 10:00 pm, we tried to go to sleep. I had a hard time sleeping since I was so nervous.

BEFORE THE RUN

We woke up at 4:00 am, and Myron took us to the bus stop. We all loaded in a bus and started up the canyon. The bus ride was so fun! Everyone was nervously talking; I was looking outside at the road I would be running, and just thinking. Jason kept asking me why I was so quiet…he knew I was nervous.

When we got to the top of the canyon, there were so many people around, and different stations everywhere you looked. There was an eating stations (bananas, apples, bagles, gels), a drinking station (Gatorade & water), there was a sunscreen station, and a Vaseline station (to prevent chaffage). Then there were like a bazillion outhouses, with huge long lines to go before we started running.

Then they told us there was 5 minutes till we started. I put on my running mix to get pumped, and to get the nerves out of my stomach. I gave Jas a spank on the butt for good luck (sorry if that’s an over share), and we started running.

There is something amazing running with hundreds, even thousands of people with the same goal. It’s a great feeling. Every three miles, there was an aid station with water, Gatorade, oranges, gels, etc… I would drink a water and a Gatorade every time.

I was doing well until the 7^th mile, when there was a NASTY hill….it seriously was up hill for 5 miles. It was like a mirage. I kept thinking I saw the top, and then it would disappear. I got to the point, where I wouldn’t let myself look at the top of the hill because I was dying to get to get there. I would look at Jason, and he looked like this was the easiest thing he’d ever done.

Then I was great until the 23^rd mile. That is when things started to get excruciating. Your legs start to shut down and cramp up. You have to distract yourself from every mile-mark. This is when Jason started to struggle. He kept me going the first half of the marathon, and I kept him going the last half. The worst worst hardest part is that last mile. You think you’re there, and you’re not, and you think you are there, but you still aren’t. And all these ambulences and going up and down the trail because people can’t make it.

One of the things that kept me going were all the people on the side cheering you on. There are these hilarious signs people are holding up, like “No pain, no gain”, or “if there isn’t chaffage, there is no victory.” I would just laugh my head off at those signs. And THANK HEAVENS for the people who brought those spraying machines. They would spray me in the face with water, and it felt like heaven.

Then we crossed the finish line..holding hands. Cheesy, but worth it. Seriously, I started crying. It was a combination of, “I can’t believe we did that, I’m proud of us, and I’m so glad that ‘hellish’ run is over.

Jason and my legs hurt worse than they’ve ever hurt, and we couldn’t walk normally for about a week, but it was so worth it. It was the hardest thing I’ve done so far, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. We ended up getting the time of 4 hours and 30 minutes, 30 minutes more than we wanted, but I couldn’t be more proud.

AFTER THE MARATHON (DYING...We could barely stand up)

I totally want to run another one!

Dearest Blog

Dear Blog,

I am so sorry for not writing. I know that you feel forgotten and forsaken, but I think about you all the time. I think, “oh my gosh, I need to post to our blog, so I can remember this part of my life later on.” Because Ms. Emily is horrible and she doesn’t keep a journal and is not good at taking pictures. Basically, she is the worst. Good thing that she has a semi good memory, or else we would be screwed.

So blog, I will not forget you…I will try to write at least once a week. Please forgive me. This sounds like a love-letter doesn’t it?

Love,

-Emily Anne Meek Davies

A quick recap of our lives since September. I will write about each specific thing later…but here we go:

1. Emily is still working at KSL Deals, and loves it. She works all the time, but she loves her job.

2. Emily & Jason ran their 1^st marathon in St. George. They received a time of 4:30, and would be more proud. I will write about this more in depth too, but it was an amazing experience.

3. Jason got a job as an orderly at IMC hospital, which was an answer to our prayers. We feel really blessed. Now, he is super busy with full time school and a part-time job.

4. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with the Davies family, and then hung out with the Meek family (Jamie, Jenny, and Emily, tried to go Black Friday shopping (BAD IDEA). We got pulled over on the way to Target, and the cop then hit on Jamie. It was hilarious. Who wouldn’t hit on Jamie?

5. We have been getting ready for Christmas, and we are loving the Holiday season…but we aren’t really happy about the NO SNOW factor.

6. We have already done some of our yearly Christmas traditions with the Meek Family, went to see the Michael McLean concert, had Grandma Love’s Christmas party, and went to see The Christmas Carol at the Hale Theatre and LOVED IT.

7. Tonight, we are doing the Meek tradition of Spaghetti Factory and Temple Square lights, I can’t wait. I love the Holidays.

8. Jas and I are just hanging out, busy as ever, and lovin’ life.

I will write more later, but Merry Christmas everyone, and Happy Holidays. I hope that it is filled with joy and happiness, with plenty of family time, which is the most important thing.