Robbins Family Reunion!!

David and I had the opportunity to go to Utah last weekend to see a whole lotta family! It was a PARTY! David and I headed down to Salt Lake after I got of work on Friday night and met up with my mom, Aunt Linda her daughters Cami, and Kelsey and her husband Jacob, my other Aunt, Laurie and also Tuna! Side note-Tuna is Kelsey and Jacob's pet/stuffed monkey. David and Tuna became very close friends that weekend, and David decided that he needed a 'tuna' as well...because of this, we are on the lookout for a tuna ourselves...David needs another friend.

Well, back to the weekend-we met up with everyone and played a few games and caught up with each other's lives until 3 in the morning! It was so much fun and it was great to get updated on everything!

Saturday we went and had a BLAST with the family at the Reunion! It was up in the Park City canyons and was so beautiful! Here are some pictures from the reunion!

This pond was so beautiful and was FULL of huge fish! 

Jake thought that this little raft was a floating dock and when he got on it started to move!! We went on a little adventure with Tun and pushed ourselves around the lake-it was a blast! 

Here are some of the gang! it was great to see everyone and see lots of family! 

All over the land were BEAUTIFUL flowers! From lilacs to poppies-there were plenty of beautiful wild flowers! 

This little guy was so excited to go fishing!! 

All 5 of the siblings! L-R: Uncle John, Uncle Bick, Aunt Linda, Aunt Laurie and Mom (Robin)!!

so there were these random bull figures on the playground-Kelsey and Jake had to get a cute picture on it! They are the greatest and so much fun!! 

Cami, Kelsey and I! It was so much fun remembering some very fond memories from previous reunions here! It's amazing how much we remember after so long-and it seems like we've only been separated for a few weeks, not years! 

Later that night we got some dinner and cheesecake!!! SO GOOD!

I had the reese peanut butter one-it's SO GOOD!!!!! And calories don't count when it's cheesecake :) 

This is one of my new favorite games! Kelsey and Jake brought it! It's called Ticket to Ride (yes we were all singing the Beatles song ALL NIGHT) and it was so much fun!!! Can't wait to get it! 

On Sunday we went to church and then took a nap to rest up for the Grand America Buffet! OH MY HEAVENS! We all had our favorites and put a HURT on the place!!! Once again, calories didn't count :) 

no big deal-this was the normal size of the crab legs :) 

Mom had many plates dedicated to Dad, we felt bad he wasn't there, but we ate on his behalf :) 

some dessert! 

Tuna needed food too! He was so excited to eat!

Once again-the crab meat....SO GOOD!!!! 

This was mom's dessert plate...please note that she had 2 sushi rolls on it as well. haha, that girl!

more dessert....

Here's the whole gage! we had a blast and practically ROLLED out of there! 

All in all we had a great weekend filled with 5 crowns, Ticket to ride, lots of food and some great family!!! We can't wait to get together again!!! 

Harry Potter

Now some of you may not know this, but until recently-I have never been into Harry Potter. At first it was mere ignorance, and then I just was never interested. My life had been perfectly normal and great and I was fine without having it or it's book/movies in my life. Then David's mom came to town. Now, I thought that she had known that I wasn't a Harry Potter follower when we met/dated/were engaged and married, but little did I know-that was a secret David had hid all this time. Like waterskiing is to our family, Harry Potter is to David's.

It was a normal conversation that was going fine and then I opened my mouth about not reading any of the Harry Potter books but one. The look on Momma G's face was like I had punched her in the gut a few times and then laughed. She then looked at David and said, "did you KNOW this?!" David, goes "well, yea-I thought you knew....she's reading them now..." The conversation continued and it all came out. I did not like Harry Potter, and even after reading the first book, I wasn't hooked...but I was willing to watch the movies. While this wasn't the best answer to Momma G, it was sufficient enough for the time being, and all she said was, "don't let you're dad know, she'll be kicked out for sure."


 While this is how I see Harry and his buds now

 This is how I like to think of him. 

young, innocent and full of curiosity-love it. Also, I think he looks like my twin brother Mitch in this one. Same hair cut, almost the same glasses (mitch's were bigger and a little thicker, [thanks mom] )

Well, I am here to say that not only have I watched all of the movies-but I actually enjoyed them as well. I can't promise that I'll read the books, BUT, I can carry on a good conversation and pose some questions about the plot and it's characters. This past week was a Harry Potter overload in where every night we watched a Harry Potter movie-David was too kind and filled in all of the little details and answered ALL of my questions. We then rented part 1 of the Deathly hollows and on Saturday, we went to Part 2. OH MY GOSH-for not reading the books, I got pretty hooked and distraught about some of the twists in the last few movies. Needless to say, I hope that I will not get kicked out of the Gailey family and that my newfound adoration for Potter will been enough. hahaha-As long as we don't have to name our first born Harry or Hermione I'll be fine with whatever :)

A quick update!

Life has been wonderfully crazy these past few weeks! David finished out his semester strong and got great grades (that's my man!) and I am still working full-time at the bank, and doing freelance on the side! Since David's been done, he's working full time at the school and is loving it! It has been so nice for both of us to just come home and relax and play! I never realized how much of a downer homework was for our social life! haha

We have loved going to different farmer markets, and going on random adventures to go take pictures and just stroll around! We recently have taken up bike rides-LOVE THEM!!!! They are so much fun and relaxing and a great way to enjoy a summer night.

Almost every weekend we've either gone on some trip or have been out of town/ridiculously busy-I swear life is more hectic on the weekends than it is on the weekdays!

One weekend we helped our friends move, another we went down to Utah to send Jana off to the MTC, David's mom and brother were in town for a weekend, David and I went back down to Utah for a family reunion and now it's our anniversary weekend AND the start of SHARK WEEK!!!!! What a party!!!

This upcoming week David and I will be getting ready to head to OHIOOOO!!!! We have another family reunion and then  play with the family-we are SO EXCITED!

I'll do my best to keep everything updated!

updates!!!

I know, I know....seriously I'm the worst blogger ever but I've been so busy! My little sister just went into the MTC and now I"m managing her blog as well! (www.sisterlaubaugh.blogspot.com) seriously come check her out see all her journeys from the MTC to Berlin, Germany!

As of late David has been obsessing over his school work (good and bad) and he has been so busy! I'm grateful that he is so dedicated to his work, but I miss my husband! Thankfully he has a 7 week break coming up so we can just relax, work and have fun! Yay!

Work's been good-busy, but good. I've recently started doing more design work and freelance for friends and individuals who need help! It's been way fun! I'll be starting to do more photography and hopefully selling it online in a few weeks or so! I'm loving having all of these projects and hopefully I'll have more soon!!! I'm really excited to start sewing up again and making some covers and decorations for the home!

Toothless is great-he bit me today-not my favorite but this is what happened....I've decided that while Toothless is a boy, he would look really really cute with glitter nails. His nails are seriously so long and they would look SO GOOD in a gold glitter-it would look great with his shell AND it's non toxic-so I was playing with him and checking out his nails and when I pulled out his arm a little bit, he bit me!!!! and it was hard! i'm thinking it's just the fact that he didn't want gold sparkles-so i'm going to try painting them blue tomorrow :)

Well...let's see, today I got my nails done b/c let's be honest here-I had one of the worst days ever. Now no one wants to read my griping and complaints so I'll skip all that and just trust that it was bad. Like, worse than breaking your heel as you fall on ice and not having a spare pair of shoes on hand. (yes that happened to me this winter)

Other than that-i'm just so tuckered out right now so i'm going to go to bed tomorrow and pray that i have the motivation to go to work tomorrow. haha.

Caramelized pineapple french toast :)

Friends! Here is a taste of one of the many recipes on my other blog! www.mandygailey.blogspot.com! come check it out! 

On Sunday David wasn't feeling too hot, so I decided to make a combination of his favorite foods: pineapple and french toast. I went searching in our pantry for some different things, and voila! I came up with a scrumptious variation of french toast that we will continue to make for years to come! 

Caramelized Pineapple French Toast

French toast batter

4 eggs

1 tsp cinnamon

3 Tb milk

1 tsp honey

Mix all of them together and refrigerate until you are ready to dip and fry! You can use any kind of bread, we used a 9 grain honey oat that worked great! 

Caramel topping

2 cups fresh pineapple 

3 Tb honey

2 Tb white sugar

4 Tb brown sugar

2 Tb butter

1 tsp vanilla

1 Tb cream (or half and half) 

On the stove top add the butter, honey and pineapple and let it get warm. Once it starts bubbling, add the sugars, vanilla and cream-stir constantly and don't let it burn. It will boil and turn a light brown and smell delicious!!! Turn down the heat and let it simmer-it will get really gooey and when your french toast is ready-just add it to the top!! It is a wonderful-citrus and caramely twist to a classic breakfast meal. Enjoy! 

This morning I fell off the bed

This morning I realized that I am not the only bed hog. David is. How did I come up with that conclusion you might ask? well....long story short-David and I are down in Salt lake visiting with family and currently sharing a full size bed. Now, at home, David and I have a king sized bed and usually David stays in his one spot and I just roam around the bed the whole night. (i'm what you call an active sleeper) well...this morning I woke up mid fall...yes, I fell out of be this morning-David had moved from is spot into the middle and left me ehhhhh a foot of sleeping space, and with me being such an active sleeper, that is just not enough room. I know you might be telling yourself, "wow-mandy's a pretty demanding sleeper" and yes my friend, you are right. I know that I roam in my sleep and that I take up most of the bed, but today-it has changed. David can't make fun of me anymore, and he can't complain that he's lucky he's big or else I would've pushed him off the bed months ago. He moves too. and pushed ME off the bed early this morning. While this may not be the biggest victory in the whole world, I am pretty excited to tell him that he's not the only active sleeper. And that he does move in his sleep-maybe only a few inches, but boy do those inches count. haha

Also, if you happen to read my blog, please remember that I am trying to keep up with a 2nd blog (i know, i can hardly update this one) that has recipes, crafts, funny happenings of the week, etc. It's a party. it's www.mandygailey.blogspot.com enjoy!