this semester, chase & i are taking a stake institute class to get 2.0 credits towards religion.   not only do we get to spend an hour a week learning about our gospel together, but we get to make a date night out of it.

i get out of my interior design class at 5:45, pick up chase at the tanner building where he studies, we grab some grub and shop around, then head to institute.  it is one of my favorite nights of the week.

this week, we decided to try somewhere new for our “date” and drove by a new burger joint called, “SmashBurger”.  i could see a lot of people inside and figured that meant it must be pretty tasty, so we parked and headed in.  little did we know that it was the ‘VIP night” and that the restaraunt wasn’t opening until the next day.  when we found out, chase turned on his charm and got the very quirky lady at the front to let us in as long as we promised to promote the business amongst our friends.  so we got free food, and it was fantastic!

chase really likes his burgers and he told me that this was by far the best burger he had ever had.  i guess their secret is that they put a ball of meat on the grill, smash it, and flash fry it.  supposedly it sears in the juices or whatever.  but it was definitely some good food…i especially loved the flavored fries.  what a successful date night!  and now for all of you in utah valley–CHECK OUT SMASHBURGER!  you wont’ regret it, i promise.

sorry, no pictures of me.  i’m not much of a red-meat girl, so no burger for old lindsey.  i had the chicken salad and didn’t think it was picture-worthy of me eating a salad, even though it was incredibly delicious.

oh, that reminds me, this burger place isn’t like others.  they have healthy alternatives to everything on their menu.  they serve grilled chicken burgers that upon inspection were actually very nutritious, and they also serve veggie fries {i’ve never heard of these before and was so excited!} made of flash-fried carrots and asparagus.  YUM!

we also really loved the atmosphere of the place.  it was very modern and i loved the red accents that they decorated with.  overall i was very impressed and will definitely be going back.  we might even make SmashBurger our weekly date night dinner!

this past saturday we took off with two of our favorite friends {brady & kellie white} to go snowshoeing at mount timp.  we were lucky to have had it snow so much the night before because we had SO MUCH fresh powder!  it was a blast, but definitely showed me how out of shape i am.  brady, kellie and chase were all crusing and i was having a hard time keeping up with them…..better start adding intensity to my workouts this week

chase and brady were a couple of dare-devils and climbed up to cliffs to jump off and land in the fresh powder.

we climbed to a reasonable height and sat down to have a good old fashioned “sandwich in a baggie’ picnic.  let’s just say that  1) chase wasn’t happy that we didn’t keep climbing up the avalanche-zone mountain and had to stop to eat and  2)  i was freaked out that we even climbed as high as we did.  {ever since erik died in that avalanche last year, i am freaked of them}

but it was still fun and we had a great view both in front of us and in back of us.  we were sitting right in front of a waterfall that was still active, it was so gorgeous!

{please don’t mind my pasty white, unmake-up’d face}

after lunch, we headed back down the mountain, and in the process jumped off a bunch of jumps.  one particular jump got brady stuck for a good 2 minutes.  his long legs just went straight through the powder and we couldn’t dig him out!

and then we had to take the typical “king of the mountain” shot of chase!  he was actually standing on top of a tree right here, so it was kind of scary, but hey!–chase is scared of nothing, apparently..

it was such a great day for venturing to the mountains.  nice weather, nice powder and nice friends!

we are guilty of being terrible dog owners.  we let baxter get mats in his hair!  actually we didn’t even know what those were until we went to the groomer and were told that they would have to shave his whole body to get rid of them.  i guess he had a lot of hair tangles that are impossible to get out with a brush or something.

so now, we have a mini lion living with us.  haha, he is the ugliest dog in the world when he doesn’t have long hair.  oh well, it will grow back soon!

two weekends ago, chase and i headed down to st. george for a little mini-vacation.  we had a blast just relaxing and spending time together.  saturday morning we went and played a little racquetball {it was my first time and i was horrid, but chase has skills}

there are only pics of chase, but they are fantastic if i do say so myself.  he looks especially good in those goofy goggles, right?!  haha.

what a hunk!

we also had some fun going out to dinner at local places {bella maries & haven) and going hiking.  we went up snow canyon and hiked around some fun rocks and trails.  it was awesome to take baxter with us and see how fast he could climb for such a small pup.

we can’t wait to go back!

for christmas, husband bought me a new purse camera so now i will able to actually post quality pictures on here instead of ones from my iPhone that are always so blurry.

here are a few of the pics from our trip to logan for new years….mostly it was just me trying out the camera.

for the past three weeks we have had wilford living with us as he transitioned from living in byu housing to heading back to china.  i barely even see the guy because he is with his girlfriend, heidi, in provo most of the time, but these 3 weeks have flown by!  i am sad to see him go.  hopefully he will come back to visit soon, or maybe we’ll make it there, who knows.

a few of chase’s friends got together last night to have a going away party for him.  we had some yummy baked macaroni & cheese and cornbread and then played settlers of catan {don’t know how to spell that}.  it was way fun.  we really need to buy that game, we love it!  anyway, it was really fun to get together with old friends {especially greg, who apparently we haven’t seen since july–WAY too long} and hang out.  i need to get back onto a socially active schedule i think. 

GOODBYE WILFORD!  WE’LL MISS YOU!!

one year ago, on a vacation to kauai, hawaii with my family, chase suckered me into going skydiving at “skydive kauai”.

oh wait, actually it went from i didn’t even want to go the site with chase because it was too early, to i would just drop him off, to i would stay and watch him go, to getting bugged so much by the sales guys that i said i would think about going, to getting dressed in the equipment “just in case i decided to go”, to being practically chained to a pro skydiver and thrown in the plane without an option of saying no.  and there i was jumping out of a plane.

but it all turned out to be the most exhilirating and amazing experience that i’ve ever had.  i want to go again and again and again {as long as the pros have been in business longer than 15 years}.   i think we might even go again this next summer in moab or somewhere.

anyway, i never did figure out a way to post the video to my blog.  i need to get chase to help on that, but if you want to watch it, you can just go to my facebook page and click on my videos.  it is the only one i have.  deal is, that if you go to watch it, you can NEVER make fun of how goofy i look, how scared i look, how the flab on my arms and face flutter in the wind when i’m falling, how big my boobs look with that rope wrapping around them, or how ridiculous my hair looks when the parachute opens and i look like a cone head.  deal?  ok, then go ahead and watch   here’s a link to my facebook videos:

http://www.facebook.com/#/video/video.php?v=604294841309&subj=17827144

check it out!

just wanted to let everyone know that i haven’t missed class ONCE so far this semester.  this is a personal record for me.  i’ve never gone three weeks without ditching a class before.  i’m so proud, i just might go on a shopping spree this weekend to reward myself.

but then i remember that i still have 3 more months left and my 3-week record doesn’t seem all that impressive.   but for this situation i still think that some new clothes are a deserved treat.  tell me what you think i should splurge and buy?  {i can’t decide and if it’s left up to me i will buy them all and deeply regret that when i get the bill}:

seriously, i just might buy all of these.  i’m in such a shopping mood lately.  it’s bad for my debit card.  let me know what you think!

found out the geniuses that invented those ugly cat things.  the name speaks for itself.  drumroll, please….

the name of the company:

“i can has cheezburger”

wow.  i should’ve known it would be something pathetic like that.

and just because it’s entertaining to see how dumb these things are i’m posting a few more.  yucko.

enough yet?  how about i torture you with some more.

this last one might wind up in one of my nightmares or something.  i hope none of you have actually paid money for these things.  or said “how cute”.  if you did, you should stop reading my blog–i don’t see how we’d ever get along.    just teasing.

…that i love this guy?

i am one lucky girl.  

also, whoever invented these ugly things should be killed.  i hate cats.  i always will.  and this just makes me want to shoot one while at the same time throwing up in my mouth.  good job whoever you are that came up with this craptastic idea.