6 Year Anniversary

For our real anniversary, we decided it would be nice to go to the Mount Timpanogos Temple (where we were married) to complete some family sealings. It was so nice to be able to drive only 15 minutes to the temple. We planned on going more during our vacation, but time just slipped away.

We have two "classic" shots of us in this post.

After the temple, we enjoyed a perfect hike up Dry Creek Canyon in Alpine. We hiked (instead of snowshoeing) because Utah has decided not to make snow the last couple of weeks and all the mountains are pretty barren. Towards the top, however, there was a decent amount of snow.

Bryan overlooking Dry Creek Canyon.

Drinking the clear mountain water. Just kidding!

Dry Creek takes you up to a waterfall, but we were unable to get pictures because the rocks were slippery and I sure didn't want to hike out of the canyon all wet! Here is our other "classic" picture at the end of the hike. It started snowing!

I am grateful for Bryan. He is a wonderful person and husband. We have been together for 6 years, 3 of which have been apart. We are more than excited to start our adventures together next year when he graduates from optometry school and the army settles us somewhere together. We don't have any exact dates or plans, but we sure look forward to 2012! Thank you for the wonderful 6 years Bryan! I love you more than words can express.

ICE!

For our anniversary, we went to the Gaylord Texan Resort located in Dallas with our friends the Fugere's. The Gaylord is the Dallas Cowboys official hotel and has a gigantic atrium with restaurants, a river walk, the Alamo, desert life, and a quarry. It brings all of Texas in one place. Every winter, the Gaylord puts on an ICE show to bring a little winter wonderland

to our state. This year's theme was Shrek the Halls.

The hotel was decorated beautifully with Christmas trees, reindeer, gingerbread houses, train stations and railroads, and Santa Clause.

Shrek the Halls is hosted at the convention center in a tent that keeps the place 9 degrees Fahrenheit. We were given these awesome blue coats which ended up being lifesavers- we are not used to cold weather down here. My hands were numb by the end of the show.

This outhouse is all made of ICE! The hotel brings in a group of men from China that carve the ice blocks into these creative structures. We wanted to sit on this toilet in Shrek's outhouse and get our picture taken. Silly kids.

Bryan and I with Shrek.

Tammy, Paul and Carmella (asleep in Tammy's jacket)

There was a slide at the end. Bryan and I thought we wouldn't be allowed to go down it because we had our cowboy boots on, but when we got to the top of the line nobody said anything to us.
At the end of the show, they had a nativity scene. I was overfilled with joy when I saw it. These days, you rarely see Christ in Christmas or any mention of the reason for celebrating this joyous season. It was a beautiful way to end a fun event.

Jesus

My mom gave me a cross stitch project to keep me occupied while away from family and given me something to do in my free time. I do enjoy arts and crafts. Little did I know how long this project would take me. I started in March 2010 before I was suppose to deploy to Iraq. The tour ended up being cancelled, so I continued working on this project. I called the project "Jesus" or "I am going to be working on Jesus". I know this may be a little blasphemous, but everyone knew exactly what I was talking about- my cross stitch project of Jesus. I took a 5 month break when I went to the critical care course in Washington state. I was too busy to work on anything but school work. One of my top goals for 2011 was to complete this project; so I kicked my butt into gear during the summer/fall and worked on it as much as I could on my days off from work. I finished the gosh darn thing on the 22 November 2011! Hallelujah! It took me 20 months to finish this "little" project. I thought I took more pictures of the progression, but I didn't. You can still see the progress throughout the months as you scroll down.










I will be giving this picture of Jesus Christ to my parents for Christmas, so shhh don't tell!

Giving Thanks

I had a prompting to write down 30 things I am thankful for. I guess the number 30 came up because there are 30 days in November and seeing so many others write on there FB status, this will be a great way for me to blog for the month of November and document the last couple happenings.

1. Of course, my wonderful, determined husband. He spends countless hours studying and going to school, but he always makes time for me. We don't get to see each other everyday, like normal married people, but he sure makes it up to me when we are together.

2. Mom and Dad. They are the greatest examples of love, hard work, adventure, and service. I think they did a pretty good job of raising all 5 of us. Family was always a priority.

3. Brother and Sisters. We may not talk or speak for weeks on end, but that has never hindered our relationship. I'd be willing to help one of my siblings in a heartbeat.

4. The gospel of Jesus Christ. Where would I be without the blessings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? I am grateful the truth has been restored to the earth once more and we have a living prophet that guides me through the turmoil and hardships of life.

5. My in-laws. Compared to most, they are not all that bad. Yeah, they pressure Bryan and I into providing grand-kids quite often, but they are great examples of how to make the gospel of Jesus Christ the center of your life. They are full of wisdom and knowledge, and for that I am grateful.

6. My job. I love my job. Even on those days when I haven't had a restful night or am working with the most difficult patient, I do love my job.

7. Modern medicine. I recently had a pretty difficulty surgery (it was elective, so it was my fault for choosing to go through with it), but I am grateful for pain medications that helped me eat jell-o and popsicles for the 14 day recovery.

8. My health. I have never really had any significant health issues, which I am indeed grateful for.

9. Katie and Ryan Whipple. I would be homeless without you guys. They are like our family away from home. Bryan and I are so grateful they put up with us!

10. My church calling. I am the Primary Pianist. I was a little skeptical on accepting this calling, but have come to find out it is one of the best callings to have. I rarely have to prepare, I hang out behind the piano and just follow the choristers lead. I also get to go to nursery and sing songs with the little kids. That's fun too.

11. Education. I am grateful my parents taught me that education was very important. It has provided me with success and happiness.

12. Transportation. I am grateful I have a very nice car (2007 Subaru Outback) that gets me to Houston and back on one tank of gas. I have been "blessed" or "cursed" with 2 minor accidents in the past month and am grateful for my own car. I relied on friends to get me to work because our insurance didn't have rental tagged onto it.

13. Service men and women. We don't realize the beauty of living in the United States until we step out of the country. I am grateful for all the soldiers that sacrifice their lives for our freedoms. I work alongside many amazing men and women.

14. Completing my cross stitch project. My mother gave me a picture of Jesus to cross stitch for Christmas 2009 to help occupy my time. It has taken me 20 months to complete this project and I am soo glad to be done!

15. Laser Hair Removal. I have been getting treatments for over a year now and I have really enjoyed the outcome.

16. Winning. I was the closest contestant to guess how many candy corn were in a jar at Rain, Skin and Body (my laser hair removal business). I won a free laser hair removal treatment!

17. Renters. We put our house up for rent in June and found a nice couple in our Houston ward that signed a 2 year contract. I am grateful they keep the house nice because we put so much effort into it over the past 3 years. It is also a money relief.

18. Missionaries. I was talking to my mom the other day about the missionaries and she said that in Utah they rarely see missionaries. I am so grateful that we have so many in this area and that they have had such great success in reactivating families and finding converts. They truly are an asset to our ward.

19. Internet. I love keeping up with my friends, shopping, looking up crafts and recipes on pinterest, and chatting with Bryan and family on skype. Oh, and watching tv on hulu.

20. Friends. I have some pretty amazing friends all over the globe. I only wish I was able to keep in touch with them better.

21. Chocolate.

22. Temples. I really shouldn't say how far the temple is from my home because there are many with longer routes. I have only been to the temple once this year, which is pretty saddening. I love to go to the temple with Bryan. There is such peace in fulfilling those covenants.

23. Phones. My touch screen gave out last week and I had no way of communicating with work or Bryan. I felt so afraid and unable to go on with my life. I am grateful for the Sprint guy who hooked me up with a brand new phone for $40 without signing a contract!

24. Good books and movies

25. Warm weather. I know we had like 70+ days of 100 degree weather in Texas, but now that its been in the 50 and 60 degree range, I really miss those warm, sunny, windless days. How will I survive Utah or Korea?

26. Alarm systems. It makes me feel safe when I am home all alone.

27. Brigham Young University. It really is a great university. The professors really do care about the success of their students. How do I convince my children to go here?

28. Kohl's. I love their clothes. I love their prices. I especially love getting a $10 coupon off anything $10 or more. I just bought $58 dollar jeans for $19.50 -crazy good!

29. Nicely paved roads. They are hard to come by.

30. Scrapebooks and photos. It is kind of a love/hate relationship. The finished product is the best; working up to it is not the best. I love looking at all the things I have done or that Bryan and I have done over the years, whether it be through my journal, blog, scrapebook, or digital photos. By far, this has been a great year for the Ahlborn's. We shall see what 2012 has in store for us!

Happy Halloween

I'm sure everyone in the neighborhood thinks we are a polygamist family. I live with Katie, Bryan lives with me, Katie lives with 2 kids and sometimes Ryan... and over the summer, Amber lived with Katie and Eric would come to visit on the weekends. So, it seemed almost perfect to let everyones thoughts come to life. We found these awesome dresses at the GW and puffed our hair (Katie's got puffier than mine). Then we put basketballs and pillows in our bellies and ta dah... sister wives!

Stratton was Warren Jeffs behind bars.

The ward put on a pretty good chile cook-off party and trunk or treat. Pretty sure if they had a costume contest, we would have won! Happy Halloween!

Happy Birthday Bryan!

I want you to know how much I love you. I hope your 29th birthday was awesome with your homemade strawberry cheesecake, peach quinoa, and COWBOY BOOTS!!!

Aren't they awesome!!

Birthday Celebration

I celebrated my actual birthday-DAY at Old Chicago and got my favorite hawaiian style pizza with the best "on tap" drinks with Katie and her kiddos. Oh, I also colored my hair medium brown if you were wondering why it looks darker. Bryan had school, so he wasn't able to surprise me on a Wednesday.But he made up for it with these roses when he came to Killeen on Friday. Aren't they beautiful? Then I had a fun birthday party with some of my friends from work and church. I got the best cake ever- oreo ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. It was a big hit, we just forgot to let it defrost before putting the candles in and had to wait a grueling 15 minutes!

Bryan surprised me with a new trailer hitch, trailer hitch bike rack (since I ruined the one on top of my car), tinted windows on my Subaru, and a speedometer for my bike. I guess this years theme was biking and car upgrades? He is always so good with birthday presents. Thank you sweet heart. Happy 27 years to me!

Austin 2011 Olympic Triathlon

We competed in our first olympic traithlon on 5 September 2011, in Austin Texas. It involves a 1500 meter swim on Lady Bird Lake, a 40K or 25 mile bike ride around the state capital building and parks, and a 10K or 6 mile run through the parks. It was very intimidating seeing all these triathletes with muscles and fast looking bikes, while Bryan's running around in his Army gym shorts and I'm in a little girl swimsuit. But looks can be deceiving:)
Here's Bryan coming out of the lake. All his pictures were awesome. He is super photogenic when it comes to races. He was the second group to start the race, while I was the last (1 hour later!).See the capital building in the background? The audience was fun to see too. We had people dressed up as tacos, watermelons, summer Santa Clause, and penguins. Keep Austin Weird.Now this is my favorite! Bryan has his mouth open either trying to catch his breath or cheering because he is about to cross the finish line. Love it!

Me and my little girl swimsuit. Glad I had a matching swim cap. The water was super warm, so it wasn't a wetsuit legal race. I kicked Bryan's trash by 3 minutes on the swim, but he kicked my trash in the other 2 events.


I was so glad to be done. I was sick all the week before the race and was working night shift and had a mountain bike. I know, I know. Excuses. Excuses. The run about killed me though. Bryan was kind enough to run with me for 4 miles. My goal time was between 3 and 3:30 hours. I got 3:25 baby! My next goal will be under 3:15. Bryan did amazing as usual, 2:40. Thats probably why he had his mouth open gasping for air at the finish line:) Anyways, it was really fun. We will definately be doing more of those.

BLORA 2011 Sprint Triathlon

Unfortunately the triathlon was changed to a duathlon 2 days before the event due to the low water level at Lake Belton [24 September]. We did have 75+ days of 100 degree weather without rain all summer long! The duathlon was run 1.5 miles-bike 12 miles-run 1.5 miles. My goal this time was to make it through the run without stopping and with the run split, it was perfect. Bryan is always prepared for sporting events and made it easy to leave in the morning. This is the only picture I have of him alone pumping up the bike tires. He is also the first to finish and always collects on goodies and freebies.

Here is me at the close to finish line, that is why I am so happy. Usually I am not so happy, but don't my legs look nice?
This was Katie Whipple's first triathlon-turned duathlon- and she did awesome! I've got her signed up for a 1/2 marathon now, she just doesn't know it. "Good job working out girls!"

Here is the crew in the transition area after the race! The weather was nice, a little cold in the morning, but heated up quickly once the sun came up. The race wasn't as organized as we'd like, but hey, it was free and we all did great. Good job everybody.