January Happenings

Are you ready for an update on what the Greenhalghs have been up to for the last month? (Or the last year for that matter :) but I don't have the time to catch up a whole year- so I'll just start with a month!)

The month started off with a big milestone for Zac! On January 7th he turned the big 3-0!

As Zac puts it his "life is a third over." I'm not sure he was entirely ready to turn 30, but it came just the same. In his 30 years Zac has made many friends, got an Eagle Award in scouting, served an honorable 2 year mission for the Church, graduated from a great university with great grades, got an awesome job right out college, married a pretty cool girl, received high praise and accolades from those he works with, received promotions and raises at his job, had the world's most beautiful baby, and has really great ideas and will one day be a very successful entrepreneur! I would say that is a productive and successful 30 years, and I can't wait to see what he does with the other two thirds of his life!

Now to be completely honest, I kinda forgot to plan something for Zac's birthday. I felt terrible! I kept thinking I needed to plan something, and then put it off because I was busy and all of a sudden it was Saturday the 7th at 3:20 PM and it hit me! We had planned in advance to spend Saturday cleaning our house and organizing our office, so somehow I hadn't put two and two together that Saturday was our cleaning day and Zac's birthday. I could tell Zac was a little disappointed since this was a big milestone for him, so the next day I planned a surprise party for him for the next weekend. I sent him golfing, invited a bunch of our friends over, and when he came home we surprised him! Well since it was a week late, he was definitely surprised, I said that was my plan all along. :)


We had pizza, Olive Garden salad and bread sticks, and I made a fun-fetti cake that tasted better than it looked. Then we played Bezzerwizer, which I got for him as his birthday present, and we played a really fun game of girls vs. guys. I guess since it was Zac's party it is only fitting that the guys won, but we will have to have a rematch soon because it was really close! I think Zac had a great time, and I hope I made it up to him for forgetting on his birthday!

Much of the rest of the month I was very busy with stuff for my business. Gabbie and I flew out to my mom's house for a little less than a week to make kits, and samples of all the things we wanted to sell at a Craft Show we were going to at the end of the month in Phoenix, AZ. It was fun and pretty productive, especially since my dad and really great friend Linda Lyons came over to help us a ton! Although we never seem to get everything done we need to at these work weeks, could it be because Gabbie is just so helpful...?

If you couldn't tell this is Gabbie walking all over the fabric we are trying to cut!

At the end of the month Gabbie and I flew down to Phoenix, AZ for a craft show put on by Rusty Barn. We had never been to one of their shows before and weren't really sure what to expect. It wasn't nearly as big as the other two shows we have been to, and people weren't buying as much as we would have hoped, but it was probably still a good experience. We learned a lot from the previous shows, and I think we did really well in terms of being prepared, and what to bring, and how to set up the booth, and if people would have just bought more we could have done really well. We had a ton of people come into our booth, and tell us they thought our stuff was really cute, but only about 1 in 5 people actually bought something. We talked to our neighbors, and apparently it was the same story for them as well. One guy said that with the recession the last 4 years he has made about 4 times less revenue than he use to. Well at least it wasn't just us! We will just have to see how the next couple of shows go, so keep us in your prayers that we can actually make some money at this because I love doing it, but it would be great to actually cover our costs at some point!

We sold baby blanket kits, stuffed animal kits, patterns, and some of our favorite Shannon Cuddle fabrics. I was very proud of what we presented, and we got a lot of compliments, which feels pretty good!

Another great thing about going to Phoenix is that I have a bunch of family on my dad's side that lives there, and I don't get to see them very often. My dad's parents and his sister, her husband and daughter all live in Tempe. It was great to spend some time with them getting to know them better, and enjoy spending some time together. My aunt Kathleen, and cousin Kristina were also very gracious in that they worked out their schedules to be able to watch Gabbie for me the whole time I was at the show. It was so nice of them, and I think they actually enjoyed it too! However everyone who any spent time with Gabbie has become quite familiar with Dora the Explorer, since it is her favorite show! They also got to see just how much Gabbie loves the park, especially the slide and swings, and luckily it tires her out pretty well, and then she would take a good nap for them!

Another great thing about visiting Phoenix is that my oldest friend Alexis Perry lives there now with her husband and two cute kids. Her husband Ben has been going to Medical School there for the last couple of years. It was really great to see Lexy and her cute little house, and letting our kids spend some time together. Lexy has already arranged the marriage between Gabbie and her son Hayden since they are only about 4 or 5 months apart, so that we can officially be related!

We just got back from the show, and I have been busy developing things for my business, and working on getting my clearance to do my in-school observations for my teaching preparation program. Zac has been busy finishing a highchair he is making for Gabbie that he started at my parent's house over the Christmas break. And Gabbie has been enjoying Dora some more, but we haven't been to the park the last couple of days because she has been sick, but hopefully she will feel better soon!

Well that is January in a (kinda large) nutshell. My goal is to blog at least once a month, so stayed tuned for a February update at some point next month!

August

We didn't have too much going on in August, but we did have our 3 year wedding anniversary. We played it pretty low key this year though. I knew that our anniversary was on the 17th but when I was signing up on the missionary calendar, I didn't look at the date, I just looked at the day of the week, because we were so limited in which days we could have them over. So I signed us up for Tuesday, which as I discovered later, happen to be the 17th- our anniversary. So I made dinner, and we shared it with the missionaries for our anniversary celebration. We didn't really feel like doing anything too special, but Zac got the inspiration to go get soft serve ice cream from McDonalds at like 11 o'clock at night. It may not be a glamorous celebration, but it definitely made for a fun story. But I thought I would do a little tribute to the wonderful years that we have been married. From dating to engaged to married, to now a wonderful little baby our lives have changed so much, but I can't imagine it any other way!

2006: Dating

2007: Dating and Engagement

2007: Married

2008: Married year 1

2008 and 2009

2009: Married year 2

2010: Married year 3

It has been 3 wonderful years! Zac is an awesome husband and father, and I am so grateful to have him in my life! And maybe we will do something special at our 5 year anniversary, or maybe we will just wait until we hit a decade!

June & July

So one of the first things in June was Zac's golf tournament in Las Vegas. He has been going for the last 3 or 4 years with his friend Josh. They get to play on some really nice courses for a really good price, and a high end item on a good deal and golf are two things that Zac just can't pass up. They even played a course called Wolf Creek, which is a really nice golf course that is even played on the PGA tour. So of course this golf course was on Tiger Woods Golf game for Wii, which of course Zac own, so naturally he practiced on Wii before he went out. I'm not sure if it helped at all, but lets just say that it did. They didn't win this year, but they still had fun, and of course there is always next year. The next big thing was our trip to Europe. We had a great time on this trip, but I have actually been avoiding blogging on this trip because I didn't know where to start. We went to Ireland, Scotland, and England, and the trip was 14 days long. I wanted to post pictures but there are so many! There were 8 people on this trip, all taking pictures; however, the main perpetrators of course would be my mom, my sister, and of course me. The 3 of us alone each took at least 500 pictures a day, so do the math (500 x 3 x 14) and what do you get? 21,000 pictures! So I say again where do I start? Plus even if I post one picture a day that's still 14 pictures and I would inevitably get comments on how long my post was. Not to mention how I pick 1 picture from 1,500. The idea was daunting, so I avoided it. I am making photo album pages of the whole trip, but it will likely fill up 3 photo albums, so if you want to see the whole trip you will just have to wait to see the photo albums. I took a break to do scrapbook pages of Gabbie, and I did a few pages on the trip, so I will just share those, since they offer a very light overview of the trip and they highlight the cutest person on the trip. :)

This was a crazy little bassinet that they let us use on the cross-Atlantic flight. Of course Gabbie didn't like it much, so we had to hold her most of the way.

We started the trip by flying into Dublin, Ireland.

This was at the Blarney Castle, where you kiss the Blarney Stone for good luck.

This picture of Zac was at the Giant's Causeway, it is really famous for it's amazing scenic photos.

After about a week we took a ferry across to Scotland. I loved Scotland, and I definitely have to go back, because we only got to spend about a day and a half there, which was just not enough.

Zac and I both agree that Edinburgh was one of our favorite cities we have ever visited. It is beautiful, and well preserved, with a good mixture of history, and modern day. And it didn't hurt that we had beautiful weather, from what the locals told us, the day we were there was the most beautiful, sunny, warm day they had seen in 5 years! We want to go back again, even if it does rain on us next time!

After that we made the long drive down to London. Where again we were too short on time. We only had 1 and half days to see all of London. We managed to see the big famous things, but there was so much more we have to go back and see.

After London we visited Stonehenge, Stourhead gardens, and a short visit to Bath and Chester. I know this doesn't really do our trip justice but I just can't condense the trip for the purpose of a blog any better. It will just have to be shared with the scrapbooks when I get them finished!

Playing catch up: Apirl and May

So I am going to do a little catch up since I have been slothful in posting. I am going to start back in April. Over the weekend of April 24, my two brother-in-law's: Kayla's husband Kevin, and Zac's brother Rawleigh graduated from BYU. Kevin graduated in Neroscience, and Rawleigh graduated in International Relations. Kevin's graduation was huge and took forever, but it was a really hard major, so we were all happy to sit through the 3 hour ceremony to support Kevin! Rawleigh's on the other hand was short and sweet; however, maybe a little too short, and definitely a little to early in the morning since Rawleigh almost slept through it! We had to call and wake him up, and he ran over just in time to walk across the stage! We had a big celebratory dinner in downtown Salt Lake City with the Greenhalghs: Rawleigh, Dallin, Verl, and Ann; the McKay's: Kira, Gabbie, Kayla, Kevin, Sheila, and Pat; the Johnsons: Dacia, Joe, Ellie, Topher, Alysia, Grace, and Alan. It was a lot of fun, and great to see so much family!

We also went bowling in Provo with Kevin's parents. And of course we had to make a special stop at my dad's favorite place (besides the actual woods in Alaska)... Cabela's. They have a little shooting gallery were you can use (fake- obviously- it's not that red-neck) guns to shoot little targets. We all competed to see who could get the best score. I think Kevin technically won, but that's only because he happened to pick a gun that was broken and actually gave him a score of like 350 which isn't even possible! (A perfect score is 50- then the machine should reset, this machine obviously didn't reset).
The next trip was in May. Over the 7, 8, and 9 Gabbie and I went out to see Britney Holland (one of my best friends since grade school) graduate from Loyola Marymount University in International Business. Britney got all kinds of awards for being so awesome and hard working! We were so proud of her, and she was so excited to meet little Gabbie.

We took a walk along the boardwalk along the beach. It was really nice weather and we had a great time talking and catching up.

The next trip was May 19 through the 23. Gabbie and I flew out to Vancouver to see my best friend Lexy's brother get married. Scott married his best friend Christi, in a pretty little ballroom in downtown Portland. I have always been friends with Scott, but coming out was mostly an excuse to see Lexy, so she could meet little Gabriella. Kayla and Kevin even came out because Kevin was taking the MCAT in Portland.

My Dad took off for the weekend to go out for a trip to Alaska to do some hunting, which of course was a trip to heaven for him. After Kevin's test, my mom, Kayla, Kevin, Lexy, Sandy (Lexy's mom), Taylor (Lexy's daughter), me and Gabbie all went out to Fort Steven's State Park, for a little fun on the beach. All 8 of us squished into out tiny little camper trailer, it was cozy for sure, but it helped us stay warm!

We also stopped in the cute little town of Seaside for some elephant ears and a walk on the beach.

For the next vacation, everyone actually came out to see us. Over Memorial weekend at the end of May, all of my family: my parents: Sheila, & Pat; my sister Kayla and her husband Kevin; and all of Zac's family: his parents: Ann, Verl, Zac's sister Heather, her husband Quentin, her kids Geneva & Wesley; Zac's sister Aubree, her husband Phil, and their son Cooper; Zac's brother Garrett, his wife Ashley, and their kids Greta and Finley; and Zac's younger brothers Rawleigh and Dallin: all came out to the Bay area for a mini vacation.

Our first day was in San Francisco, and we started the day at the Golden Gate Bridge.

Then we went to the Exploratorium in Golden Gate Park.

Then we went to Pier 39 and Fisherman's Wharf for some lunch and shopping.

Then it was a walk up to the top of Lombard Street and then a fun walk down the curvy street.

Then we went to the "Full House" house and the "Painted Ladies" to see the pretty Victorian houses.

And of course we had to see some shows in San Fran. Kayla, Kevin, Ann, Ashlee, and Aubree all went to see Wicked; Kira and Sheila went to see Peter Pan; and Phil, Verl, Rawleigh, Dallin, and Garrett all went to see a San Francisco Giant's game. You can always count seeing great entertainment in San Fran.

The next morning my mom got up early to go for a walk and took lots of cool pictures. Of course no one else was crazy enough to get up before sunrise, so we were glad she took pictures so we could appreciate the view that way.

We stayed at one of my mom's favorite hotels the Stanford Court, it was a really nice hotel, and we had a really yummy, really fancy breakfast the next morning.

Before leaving San Fran we had to make a quick stop at Coit Tower.Then we endured crazy bad traffic on the drive down to Monterey. Our first stop was the famous Monterey Bay Aquarium.

We enjoyed all the cool exhibits.

We especially enjoyed the sea horse and sea dragon exhibit.

Then we took a walk along cannery row, and had dinner at our favorite place Louie Linguini's.

Then we took a drive along the beautiful 17 mile drive to see the Lone Cypress, Pebble Beach, and all the other pretty golf courses along the scenic beaches. And we ended the tour at our favorite beach at Carmel.

The next day was Sunday, and was the reason that everyone came out. It was the day of Gabriella's baby blessing. My mom made a beautiful little dress for Gabbie, Zac gave a BEAUTIFUL blessing (he even started to cry! He never cries! His little girl obviously means a lot to him!) and it was great to have so much family there to be in the circle for Gabbie's blessing.

These pictures definitely shows how much bigger the Greenhalgh family is than the McKay family!

After that we came back to our apartment and made an awesome BBQ lunch. Of course my dad volunteered to be babysitter for Gabbie. I'm not sure who enjoyed story time more... Granddaughter or Grandfather, and I know they both really enjoyed nap time!

Then we took a long drive on the congested road out to Santa Cruz. It took twice as long to get there as it usually does but by the time we got there we had a really great time.

All the boys played in the ocean, and a rousing game of beach volleyball.

And we took some time for some family pictures:

From the top down: Sheila, and Pat; Verl and Ann

Zac, Kira, and Gabbie; Quentin, Weslely, Geneva, and Heather

Kevin, and Kayla; Aubree, Cooper, and Phil

Dallin, and Rawleigh; Finley, Ashley, Garrett, and Greta

It was really great having all our family out visiting us for a weekend, I really wish they could come out and visit more often!

That catchs me up through the end of May! June and July coming soon!