Mischief Managed.

I very easily could write a sappy blog post about how I cannot believe the end of the Potter Era has come. How I can't believe that it is ending after years of midnight book releases at Barnes and Noble and midnight movie premieres. After the Potter marathons on ABC Family and all of the times I have re-read the series before a movie or new book came out. I could reminisce on how Harry, Ron, and Hermione pretty much grew up while I was growing up after first reading the Sorcerer's Stone when I was in 5th grade. I could talk about how much I cherish the memory of my Dad taking me to pick up the Goblet of Fire at midnight in the summer of 2000. Or how Chase and I used to quiz each other all things Harry Potter via text message the first few weeks of dating... and how a year later as newlyweds we would love to just cuddle in bed on Sunday afternoons while listening to Jim Dale narrate the books on the iPod.

Nope. I would NEVER do such a thing.

Instead, I will only say how very excited I am to see the final installment of the Potter movies tonight. And how I am happy that even though the books and movies have run their course, the story of a young boy learning about his special place in the wizarding world will still continue to capture the hearts of both children and adults all over the world.

The next thing I have to look forward to? Reading the stories out loud with our own kiddies and watch them experience the thrill of it all for the very first time.

And, if I do say so myself, that's not a terrible thing to be excited for.

HP over the Years:

Midnight release of The Order of Phoenix book - June 2003

June 2003 with Elise Kelly Call and Chandler Tidwell.

I was Hermione, as you can tell.

The Half-Blood Prince midnight book release in July 2005 with cousin Amy and sister Daryn

Daryn in her youth haha

The Half-Blood Prince movie premiere with friends, sister, and Chasen in July 2009

We had been dating for approximately 12 days

Fun shirts that year

Midnight premiere of The Deathly Hallows pt. 1 November 2010 with now husband Chasen

Fellow HP-lover friends Amy and Dillon Holm

And now, the most appropriate thing to say...

Mischief Managed.

Summer-Listing

Well.. our Utah Summer List is becoming shorter--slowly but surely. In the past week or so, Chase and I have been able to knock three things off of it, but we've gotta really get a move on if we wanna complete it sometime this year.

First, we headed up to Salt Lake City for a temple session. Last summer, we had tried to do this, only to learn after driving the 40 minutes and finding parking that the temple was closed for cleaning and maintenance. This time, we made sure we were good.

Such a beautiful building. The inside is even BETTER!

A few days later, we spent an afternoon at the Lindon community pool that's about 10 minutes north of where we live. You ain't never seen a community pool like the Lindon pool. They've got a flow-rider (those surf machine thingys with the fake waves), a lazy river, and a bunch of fun other stuff. It was pretty packed since it was the Friday before a holiday weekend, but we still enjoyed a bit of sun and the Jack Johnson tunes they had playing over the sound system. I only managed to take a few pictures and no cool ones of the lazy river or flow rider. Bad Haley.

{Sorry random folk who will now be forever pictured on my blog... consider yourself famous?}

{Why do I look like my nose is suffering a 3rd degree burn? lol I promise I wasn't seriously in pain after this pool trip}

And finally we visited the restaurant "Porter's Place" in Lehi with my aunt, uncle, and cousin.

It was way cool. It totally has the rustic western frontier vibe going on. The place kinda seems like a hole in the wall, but it was fun, the food was pretty good, and the scones + honey butter were even better.

{These pics from my Vignette Camera phone app... not quite as fabulous as Instagram, but one currently doesn't exist for Androids. Boo.}

So here's where things now stand:

Eat at Porter's Place in Lehi

This is the Place Monument

Lindon Pool

Salt Lake Temple Session

Camping

Manti Mormon Miracle Pageant

Hogle Zoo

Silver Lake Hike

Mt. Timpanogas Caves

Zion National Park

Outdoor Play at Tuacahn

Black Rock at Great Salt Lake

Sandy Aquarium

Cowabunga Bay

(Fly?) Fishing (and then watch A River Runs Through It.. of course)

Visit Daryn in Logan

The Frontrunner Train & Museums

Real Salt Lake Game

Ride the Paiute Trail

Lake Powell

Dinosaur Exhibit at Thanksgiving Point

Day in Park City (Alpine Slides!)

Ummm... excuse me. Now I need to go plan when we will do the rest of these things.

Hope you all are enjoying your summers too!

Puppy Hungry

pup·py hun·gry \ˈpə-pē\ \ˈhəŋ-grē\ (verb)

Occurs when newly married couples channel all thoughts, emotions, etc about being "baby hungry" (i.e. the desire to have children) instead to the overwhelming desire to purchase a puppy.

Chase and I have surely become puppy hungry these days.

It all got even worse after our youth conference trip when we asked a gentleman in our ward who is a member of the Utah County Search and Rescue to bring his dogs down to Manti for a demonstration. Seriously, it was the coolest thing ever.

See that blue spot in the picture above? That's one of the young women in the ward who was picked to go hide and play "victim." She brought a pair of pajama pants that she gave to us and then was told to just start heading down this hill. She walked about half a mile away, and then found a place to hide between some big boulders. At this point the dog handler came walking towards us from the back side of the hill with his German Shepherd, Maddie. They hadn't seen where the girl had gone and hidden.

Then all of us spectators attentively watched while the dog handler held out the pajama pants to his dog. Maddie picked up the scent immediately and started taking off after the "victim." A few times, we all saw Maddie move off of the trail, realize where the scent was, and then get back on it. Then, as she was about 40 yards away from the young woman, her ears perked up and she held her nose high into the air. At this point, the girl's scent in the air was stronger than the scent on the ground. Maddie then air-tracked right to where the general area the girl was. This young woman was hiding between some boulders that were about a five foot drop from where the dog handler and dog were standing. Maddie found the scent again, jumped down the little ledge, found the girl, went straight back up to her master who then said, "Show me." Finally, Maddie walked the handler down another path that didn't require him to jump down the 5 ft ledge, right to where the young woman had hidden. Ta-Da! Coolest dog trick we'd ever seen.

And now... our overwhelming desire for a little puppy has only gotten worse.

Our conversations these days commonly revolve around which kind of dog we'd get, whether it'd be a pure-bred dog or a mixed breed, how we'd train it, what we'd name it, and so on. Chase has even watched YouTube videos about the best ways to teach your dog how to walk right with you, heel, sit, stay, etc. And one of my personal favorite nighttime activities these last few weeks has been getting on to KSL and checking out the new puppy listings.

But alas... we can't get a puppy yet. We would be gone all day and never have much time to play with it. And the biggest thing is the almost certain negative impact a puppy would have on my aunt's beautiful backyard (Yep... still living the dream in Aunt Bobby Jo's basement. One more year in our little box).

Until then, we will just dream of the puppy we hopefully will get in about a year.

I'll keep pushing for a fox red labrador like these cute babies.

And Chase will try to convince me that a black lab and border collie mix would be the perfect family dog.

Or maybe we'll eventually settle for a beagle. They just make us smile.

{isn't that just precious? I die.}

Here's to counting down one more year until Chase finishes school & starts a career, we leave our box, and then get a puppy! Oh and babies sooner or later, too. But for the moment we'll just try to stay puppy hungry.

Obsession of the Day

Today... I am overly obsessed with Carrie Underwood's version of "How Great Thou Art" with Vince Gill that she performed on CBS's "Girls Night Out: Superstar Women of Country."
I know it's been out for a while, but if you haven't heard this... you've gotta take a listen.

How Great Thou Art - Carrie Underwood

Obsession of the Day

Today... I wish I had an iPad so I could then somehow acquire this fab case by Michael Kors.

That is all.

Now I will go back to watching Mrs. Doubtfire on ABC Family.

Bubbles + Giggles

So about every Monday and Friday this summer I have gone over to Jordan and Brooke's house (Chase's bro and his wife) to watch their CUTIE little daughter Ellie while Brooke has some mommy time to go to the gym. This little girl is just adorable and it's been so fun to play with her for several hours each week.

A few Fridays ago, Chase came over too and we busted out some bubbles while playing in the front yard. We didn't expect Ellie to get THIS excited over them... but we sure loved her reaction.

Just thought this little video would bring a smile to your face too.

And make you wanna go play with some bubbles.

Happy Tuesday!

The Manti Pageant

This past weekend we headed down South about an hour and a half for the Manti Mormon Miracle Pageant. Chase and I had actually decided sometime last year that we would try and go to it this summer, but then in March we were called as the Youth Conference Committee Chairs for our ward's Youth Conference. They had planned to take all of the youth down to Manti for the pageant and do baptisms in the temple, staying at a campsite nearby... so it ended up working out even better than we had thought. We left early Thursday morning and got back Saturday afternoon. The kids in our ward are super cool and it was awesome getting to know them all a lot more.We did a ton of fun things while there, but I only had the chance to take a few pictures on Friday of some of the stuff we did around the little town.

So we had some time scheduled for us to all split into groups and walk around to see some of the historic Manti sites. Chase and I took our small group of a few boys to the Manti City Cemetery. I was really excited because my ancestors who first came to America and then Utah were sent by Brigham Young to settle Sanpete County - Manti, specifically.

Conrad Frischknecht and Anna Elizabeth Reusch were just young kids when their families sailed from Switzerland to America. They met in Manti and were married in the St. George Temple (the Manti Temple wasn't finished yet) and lived there the rest of their lives.

This is the grave of Conrad's father John. (Probably Johann originally... or something else German sounding hah)

Conrad's sister Mary who died at only age two.

We had to run into the City Hall to grab a few more of the pamphlets and maps for the walking tour. Inside, I saw a bunch of pictures behind a glass display case and stopped to take a look, because I figured they were the city's mayors. I found my great-grandpa Wilford Frischknecht who was mayor from 1932-1938. It was so beyond cool. What a stud! I guess that's where my political love comes from, maybe?

The pageant is held on the side of the Temple Hill. There are over 100 cast members! It actually was pretty dang good. I went into it with low expectations; I had heard that it was a bit old and corny... but I ended up really enjoying it.

The entire trip was just plain awesome. I am so happy we had the chance to head down for the play and also hang with the youth in our ward. ANND... we are one item closer to checking off everything on the Utah Summer List! Lots more to go, however. I'll keep 'em coming!