NZ part 1

Seriously so behind... but oh well. 

Last but not least we made it to Kiwiland(aka my new name for New Zealand)!

Lee and Susanne were waiting for us at the airport in their full on traditional garb with cameras in hand, it was the cutest.

We had our bags ready to go, and jetted off to the Coromandel, on the East Coast.
But first... ice cream.

Salted Caramel/birthday cake was heavenly.

The only time we ran into Mormons they entire trip was our very first day... and at the Pokeno ice cream shop. One of the groups was even from Salt Lake! Sure is a small world in the church.

Our first stop in NZ was the Coromandel Coast. It's the Northeast Coast of New Zealand. 

We stayed in the cutest AirBnB... actually all the AirBnB's in New Zealand were amazing, and the hosts were all soooo kind. 

Lee and Susanne needed towels though for our beach adventures so the store was our first stop. Wish I coulda taken this cute guy home with me :)

We spent the evening eating out and walking along the most shelly beach I have ever seen! 

^This was just a sample of a small one foot area! It was so cool, and we found so many spiral shapes, and colorful shells. 

We took a bright yellow sailing catamaran out on the coast the next morning. 

We cruised up the coast on the green waters and admired the tall white rocky cliffs and saw the gorgeous Cathedral Cove. Mostly all video on the gopro because Aar and I get anxiety with our phones close to water like that. 

I was a little bummed the Hamilton temple was closed for cleaning, but that meant Lee and Susanne had more time to visit with us! It was a pretty temple on a hill overlooking NZ farmlands on the outskirts of the city. 

Luckily church was at 9 am so after church we had the rest of the afternoon to explore. So we trekked to Bridal Veil falls... and then Raglan Beach.

See where it gets the name Bridal Veil?

Raglan Beach was on the West Coast of the North Island, about an hour away from Lee and Susanne's house. It was such a big flat beach! It was gorgeous though! The same green water, tons of shells and plenty of room to spread out!

Aaaand to top it all off, Lee let me test out driving the car on the right side... only in the parking lot, but it was still so fun!

Bula Fiji!

After 3 days in Sydney, we jetted off to Fiji!

Since we were there for only 4 days, we decided to stay on the Coral Coast of the main island Viti Levu. Although I've heard the other small islands are awesome, I didn't want to spend the time plane hopping and driving.

We flew into Nadi, and drove down to the Beachouse where we stayed during our time there.

 It was a beautiful resort... right on the beach with plenty of hammocks to lounge in and the perfect pool. 

It was awesome and low key... but almost too low key. We had a hard time getting the resort tour guides to take us anywhere... even after offering a hefty amount of money. The Fijians were pretty flakey when it came to helping us with anything. We have too many funny stories of trying to go snorkeling, deep sea fishing or taking supplies to the local village.

 I was a little bummed it was rainy and overcast during our time there.

I couldn't appreciate the crystal clear water in full splendor without the sun peaking out.

We still enjoyed it as much as we could.

We hung out on the hammocks lining the beach way too much.

Climbed up the palm trees.

Drank coconut water straight out of the fruit.

Kayaked and snorkeled.

The water was incredibly warm and comfortable, wish it was like that on the West Coast here in the states!

We didn't love the food in Fji.

 ^This was the breakfast we had every day. Buuuut at least they had normal Diet Coke!

They had the prettiest sea shells, and I'm kicking myself that I didn't save any to bring home.

We took a day trip to Suva- Fiji's capital. Mostly so Aaron could visit the stock exchange and take a picture. Everywhere we go, he likes to visit the stock exchange so he can put that picture on the map. Nerdy.. but cool.

 They were the nicest there and took us right into their meeting room and explained to us how everything there works. They would have talked to us all day if we let them. Very interesting, but a good reminder of how great the US is!

We also stopped by the Suva temple. It was a cute little temple that stuck out the moment we walked around the curvy road.

Our last day in Fiji, we finally made it out snorkeling at the resort reef! I'm so glad Aaron finally got to snorkel, we had so much fun! 

And of course the day we flew out the weather was perfectly sunny!

Down Unda

We are finally back in the groove of "normal life" after our 2 week long trip down under. 

We had thee best time, and there's nothing like a vacation to places with humble circumstances or different cultures to remind you how great the USA is, and specifically HOME. 

We started our trip in Sydney Australia, and I have to say it was our favorite destination of our trip. We loved Sydney and can you tell why? 

Sydney Harbour was our favorite! Views of the Opera House and the Bridge were the best! Our AirBnB was about a 10-15 minute walk so each night we would walk around the harbour for the views and gelato. 

After we settled in we did the Coogee to Bondi beach walk to curb our jet lag. Jet lag to Australia was not near as bad as Europe... during our entire trip we were anywhere from 18- 20 hours ahead of Utah time, so it was definitely doable.

The Coogee to Bondi walk may have been my absolute favorite thing about Sydney.

Our first day in a new country and we lounged from beach to beach to beach along the towering green cliffs. Not sure if there is anything better.

We started at Sunny Coogee for a dip and walked along the path.

Each corner we walked around there was a new vantage point, a new beach, new pools and new emerald green water.

With the beach alongside the cliffs and sprawling homes scattered everywhere, it reminded me a lot of La Jolla, CA.

Coogee to Bondi is 4ish kilometers. We almost made it to Bondi, but ran into a pretty big thunderstorm, so we had a milkshake at a beachside cafe and Ubered back to rest.

But right before the storm, I captured one this picture below... one of my favorites.

We ventured over the Harbour Bridge for some more great Opera House and harbour views.

Walked through the Rocks Market.

Visted the stock exchange.

Went on a dinner cruise around the harbour on a gray night.

Took a ferry out to Manly and Shelly Beach.

It was gray and dim while we are at the beach, but right as we left the sun showed up.. of course! 

We had to try one of Australia's meat pies... they were okay, but I think I'll pass next time.

And ate wayyy too many "chips" aka french fries. 

I lucked out and there was plenty of normal Diet Coke everywhere we went. 

Hope to make it back to Syndey one day! 

January back to back to back

And just like that we are 1/12 done with 2017! Finally getting some time to get caught up on the past month, so here we go!

Gus the Photo Bus is [mostly] complete! 

There's a few more things that need fixing... brake lights, blinkers, paint and some more props... but we are already booking! We have one official wedding in June, and a few more in the pipeline which has been super exciting. 

Instagram ads have been super helpful for us, almost every time we post an ad on Insta, we get a lead. We need to get into some more Grassroots things like parades and tailgates, but I think things will pick up the warmer it gets. 

Next on the docket- Lexi and I conquering the stick shift in the bus!

We did a free event New Year's Eve at the Utah Institute. It was a little bit of a disaster due to the fact that it was so cold the printer and computer wouldn't work, and we didn't have heat so no one wanted to stop by. 

You win some you lose some eh? 

We are always taking photos with Gus, and Lexi mentioned I could put on my wedding dress and take a few pictures. I jumped on it and it still fits! Phew. 

The older I get, the more my friends branch out and start moving out of state. Mandy and her little family are in West Virginia for medical school, and Madi is in Texas with her little fam. 

 I'm grateful for holidays, and triplets so we can get together! These 4 girls are some of my absolute favorite people and I am so glad to know them! Nothing but good times.

Aaaand so glad Mad still makes time for me when she's in town! Aaron and I miss her and Gavin and Owen so much.

Only approximately 4 years and 7 months until they move back to Utah ;)

On a slow Friday night, we drove down in 5 degree temps to get some of this delicious ice cream in Provo.

Raspberry cheesecake nutella, don't mind if I do.

A late Christmas delivery came from Santa to Lexi, Spence, Aaron and I.

Poor Jake is going through a hard time and getting divorced. He has moved out of his apartment indefinitely and is staying with us. 

It's been a struggle for me. Aaron and I are not as sympathetic and willing to talk over and over and over about his relationship as we probably should be. We have our own lives, and I miss not wearing pants at home.

I have probably not been as inwardly nice as I should be and think negative thoughts a lot, along with our noisy downstairs tenants. It's been a struggle and I go back and forth but mostly on the negative side. Praying for a change of heart/Aaron helped me realize that I'm not always a kind person, so something I definitely need to work on. I think God needs me to learn something.

These past and upcoming weeks I have been/will be basically living at the airport. Haha okay maybe that's a bit dramatic, but I have been traveling a bunch for work.

The past weeks have been Denver and Florida(picture above), and then Denver again next week and Kentucky, then I get back just in time to fly out to Australia.

The only good think in Florida was the humidity. My dry wintery skin really needed a break. We literally flew all day Wednesday, sat inside in meetings all day Thursday and then flew back Friday morning. Long days of traveling and dreaming about the beach were pretty rough.

Let's hope I make it through the next couple weeks... I'm almost in Fiji... I'm almost in Fiji... I'm almost in Fiji

Christmas 2016

I love it when my parents come to town. I try and spend every minute I can hanging out with them.

We ate out[a lot]

Had fun making Christmas sugar cookies and making fun of Daisy in her too small too tight holiday sweater. Haha we died laughing.... Poor thing couldn't even walk.

We went skiing on the 23rd to Solitude. I have not been skiing for at least 10 years, but had a great time despite being sore and super tired at the end of the day.

But it was a beautiful day and didn't get cold at all!

And I even [mostly] graduated from pizza to french fries on the skis thanks to DaddyG!

We headed straight down the canyon and over to the Olympic Oval for curling. It's seriously the funnest! 

I went a few months ago for work and had to take the family. 

No one fell on their face, or froze their toes off so it was a success! 

 We tested out our photo booth for the family Christmas Eve with our photo booth software.

We are going to start collecting photo strips e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e.

 Had plenty of game nights with our new Christmas games.

And used up all our BWW giftcards before dropping the parents off at the airport.

Getting sad thinking of the break cause it was so much fun.

Pughmas 2016

As usual, I traveled to Denver for work in December.

But this time we stayed a little extra and rented out a theater for a Star Wars Rogue One for our clients. When we walked into the theater it was fffreezing cold, but no snow insight. Fast forward to after the movie, running to the car with a fresh coat of 5 inches of snow blanketing the road, cars, trees and roof tops. We were staying at the airport hotel that night with an early flight back to Utah in the morning.

But we were 45 minutes away from the airport. So we started chugging away in our Enterprise Nissan Altima in -1 degree weather, with no snow tires on stark white freeways for the next 3 hours.

Luckily we made it. But we were all white knuckled and tense, pulled over countless times to scrape the ice off the wipers and said many prayers. The airport was a mess, and I still don't understand how my plane was one of the only lucky ones to leave the next morning.

Because of de-icing the plane got off a little later than expected, so I missed my connection into Cedar City.... who even knew there was a legit airport in Cedar that Delta flies into? Luckily there was a St. George flight in about an hour so I called and texted Aaron and hopped on the plane.

After landing in St. George I called Aaron telling him I just landed. He said he didn't see any moving planes in sight.... turns out he was at the Cedar airport. Poor kid was so tired he forgot my call and ended up at the Cedar City airport.

So I waited and waited and waited at the St. G airport for him to book it down. Turns out the St. George airport is absolutely barren when no one's flying. I didn't cross paths with one worker while waiting.

After a few quick errands, we finally made it for the whole reason we came down... he Pugh family Christmas party in Cedar City. They definitely stepped it up a notch with bubble balls, family jepoardy games and gifts. We sure had a fun time!