Sugar Bowl

HOW 'BOUT THEM UTES

Oh dear... Was that not the most wonderful game you ever saw? Well we definitely felt that way...

We got to the game about 2 1/2 hours before kick off and enjoyed the over all enthusiasm.

Safe to say we were among the first to our seats... so nervous!

Luckily, we were in the Utah section.. kept us on our feet and yelling!

Sadly, I only know 3 cheerleaders anymore. Does that make me old? Made me feel old... but my bestie Mindi is still cheering, sweet thing climbed on a truck to get in this picture ha ha (Oh and an awesome angle for me).

Oh, Tim McGraw is a closet Ute :)

Boo Ya!

We really only felt relaxed with 1 min left on the clock.

Partay! It was so awesome being a part of this... as we walked out of the stadium and back to our hotel the streets were packed with Utes totally disregarding traffic and celebrating. Bama fans kept shaking out hands and bowing down from hotel windows. I wish we could have stayed out and partied with our fellow Utes, but alas, we had a 5 am flight and a 7 hour drive to boot.

The Big Easy

Of course we had to go to New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl, so we made a little trip out of it. However, being our crazy selves we did something like drive to Las Vegas, take a red eye to New Orleans, fly back to Vegas, drive to Salt Lake, drive back home to Cali? Yeah, really. We got in on the 31st at like 9am but couldn't check in until 12:30 so by the time we got to our hotel we crashed until the evening then headed out for my first Bourbon Street experience.

Let's put it this way.. if Bourbon Street was my only experience of New Orleans, I would never go back.

Having said that, we walked up and down about four times that night, had some sweet daiquiris, saw the bar for which prompted Nate's Dad to say "Son, never come back here", and made it back into our room by midnight :)

I much preferred the French Quarter by day! There were fun shops (including my much coveted Wish clothing store), great food, lots of entertainment, and Utes to boot.

I loved the architecture, and of course the history, behind New Orleans. It does have European influence, but it reminded me much more of an Conquistador town in Latin America than a Paris of Florence.

Just too interested in the Hand Grenade airplane ad....

We also tailgated with this guy.... Come on, we couldn't resist!

Nate breaking out the ole golden foot :)

We decided we had to take a city tour on our visit so we could say we made it out of the French Quarter. It was ASWESOME and I wish we had taken the tour our first day so we would know where to go! Anyway... one of the stops on the tour was the cemetery.

Our tour included Katrina damage as well and WOW what an eye opener that was. Did you know, in some parts only 30% of the residents returned to their homes? You drive through these neighborhoods and there are vacant homes everywhere.

The rest of our tour took us through Uptown and the Garden District... I saw like 12 dream homes.

Clark Christmas

The day after Christmas we headed to the Condo for the annual Clark Christmas getaway! What a blast it was. We headed to see Marley & Me the first day and it was quite emotional for Nate and Jayson after having their dog Cy put to sleep 3 years ago. It was fun having a party of 35 in the theatre. We then headed to the bowling lanes and showed our skills to the rest of the fam! Thanks Jay Dee and Coleen!!!




Snow Basin Ski Day was a blast. Every year we go skiing we can't see a thing due to the snowy weather. Luckily there was no snow and it was quite warm. We had to make a trip to the lodge and removed some extra clothing because we were sweating so bad. I think we ended up doing 4 long runs since I tried skiing this year and I wasn't as quick getting down the mountain as I am on the snowboard. It was such a workout!

Each evening the Clarks reserved the lodge for dinner and games. It was so convenient for everyone since the Clarks have such a huge family these days. Coleen had a cooking theme for the girls gifts this year and in light of Carie's absence Greg showed Carie's gift off with the rest of us. Each evening was quite the event with FHE's, gift giving, a talent show for all the kids with each brother playing their one song they remember from Coleen's efforts at passing her piano skills on. The finale was capped off with all the Clark boys whistling a BEAUTIFUL song. Go to Jayson and Julianne's blog to see the masterpiece. All in all it was fun to be with the family. Truely, Nate just loves his brothers!!!

Christmas 2008

I still am having withdrawals that Christmas is actually over... there is so little to look forward to until the summer.
However, our Christmas was GREAT!
We both were able to take two weeks off of work and we headed back to Utah for lots of holiday cheer.

After a much debated issue, we spent Christmas as my parents house. My Mom's house looked amazing for Christmas, as always, and it was so fun to be able to open presents with Brooke's family, my parents, and good ole' Billie.

Nate was a gem and got us a trip to London and Paris! He got all creative and taped an airplane ornament to our travel itinerary and for our itinerary to Paris and Eiffel Tower charm. I know, we <3 him.

And Utah Man himself... with the dogs of course.

Merry Christmas!
I hope all of your Christmases were as fabulous as mine!

Christmas in the City

For us, the three weeks we were home between Thanksgiving and Christmas were MADNESS. It is so depressing that the most wonderful time of the years just has to be the busiest time of year. Well among all the business I had all these extravagant hopes of Christmas activities. Needless to say, almost none of them materialized and we only made it into the city at all because we ditched our ward Christmas party.

Union Square looked beautiful, if not totally packed with people.

Then again, I don't know why I was so excited to go shopping in the city it's not like I can afford to shop and Chanel, Prada, or the likes.

This was exciting however.... if you can see across the street there are thousands of Santas. I guess there was some huge Santa party and it was kind of hilarious.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the extent of our Christmasing inCalifornia!