Hold on Tight Spider Monkeys

As I previously mentioned in my last post about our Cancun Thanksgiving Trip, we were able to go and spend a couple hours with some spider monkeys at The Jungle Place. The Jungle Place is a sanctuary for spider monkeys. They take in injured, diseased, or malnourished monkeys and take care of them. Because of this, the monkeys are very use to people and the time you spend with them is their play time! It was a blast and so worth the crazy drive and long time it took to find their location.

It was an amazing experience. The monkeys are amazing animals and it was so fun to just play with them and they love to play with you too! They pull on everything and try to grab everything they can, which is why you see that most of us had our flip flops off and nothing in our hands - no shiny things including bobby pins or any jewelry. My favorite monkey was Victoria. She was this little, spunky one. Matson sat on the edge out to their play area so all the monkeys would just swing right on to him.

Pulling on Matson's shirt. 

A lot of the monkeys just wanted to snuggle up to you.

Thank you Mom and Dad! It was such a great experience!

A Mexican Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving we spent it with my family in Cancun, Mexico. It was the best time for a vacation - right after my month practicum in an Elementary school in Heber and right before finals for the both of us. Matson and I really enjoyed it. Usually we just relax our days away there, but this time my dad really wanted all of us to see Tulum and we also got to play with monkeys one morning (post coming soon all about the monkeys)! We also play a lot of tennis, volleyball, and other games!

We celebrated John's birthday (a couple weeks early)
at Bubba Gump's where they sang a ridiculous song
and made him dance.

We saw the new Twilight.

Mikado at the Marriott Casamagna.
THE best dinner!

Matson playing volleyball.

Dinner at Chili's with everyone.

Me at Tulum 

The beach at Tulum was gorgeous. SO pretty.

Thanksgiving Night. My sister's hubby was sick and missed.

My dad has this silly thing where he likes to try to kiss
the guys in pictures...He won't start until you have already counted to 3.
Matson was playing along.

At our last dinner we were sitting there and our waiter told
us there was a croc! They fed him some yucky chicken.

Funny stories for my own memory that were hilarious at the time but will probably come off as a complete yawn to you all.

• While playing Rook and after seeing the "kitty" I said, "Man, you got some good ish in there!" Then my mom in a completely serious tone said, "Wow. Good ish." I busted up laughing because my mom just said "ish." It was hilarious.
• Matson was singing in our hotel and my dad heard him and started singing along. My dad has a horrible voice. My mom and I were just staring at them singing and somewhat more like barely harmonizing together. After they finish their little tune my dad said, "We could be Nysnc or One Dimension." I thought, "One dimension? What is that? Some old band...oh no! He meant One Direction." I then said, "Dad...do you mean One Direction?"

Thank you Mom and Dad! We had the most wonderful Thanksgiving vacation.

Read about our Cancun Thanksgiving 2011

GG's Funeral

Two weeks ago we attended Matson's GG's (or Gorgeous Grandma's) funeral. Although I did not know GG for more than 3 years, I still feel very close to her and I feel as though she is my own Grandma. Funerals are hard and this was especially hard for us both since this was our first grandparent to pass away (my dad's dad who I maybe saw 3 times in my life passed away a few years ago, yet I had close to no relationship with him). The hardest thing for me was to see Matson's Grandpa lose his wife. I love Grandpa and feel as though we have a special, fun relationship. He is always calling me his sweetheart, teasing me, and over the few days we were with him for the funeral, he continually was asking me to just love him and telling me, "all I need is love." My heart breaks for him and I cannot imagine what he is going through.

 

The flowers from all the grandchildren.

 Even though the last little while has been a hard time for us and our family, we were able to stay positive through laughs and memories of GG and from our little nephew's cute smiles throughout the weekend. It is amazing how much joy and happiness one little boy can bring so many.

We love you GG and we know we will see you again soon!
Read more about GG here.

Placemat to Pillow HOW TO

Thanksgiving is just a few days away crazy and so I thought I would share with you a little Thanksgiving craft I did this year. I was walking around my local Bed, Bath, and Beyond and found these cute Turkey placemats for $4.99. You can purchase the placemat here (Unfortunately they are now out of stock). You can purchase any placemat that has two layers of fabric that could be unpicked and stuffed. This only took me about 20 minutes and cost me $4.99 for each pillow (I already had the stuffing).

Materials: 

• Placemat(s)
• Poly Stuffing
• Seam Ripper (or small scissors)
• Sewing Machine (or needle and thread)

1. Choose your placemat that has two layers of fabric sewn together.

2. Unpick the seam about the length of your hand anywhere on the placemat with a seam ripper (or small scissors). I unpicked at the bottom of the placemat so it would be less noticeable where I resewed.

3. Stuff the placemat with any polyester stuffing. I used Joann's Fabric Stuffing.

4. Next, pin the ripped seam (or two sides of fabric) together.

5. Carefully sew the seam shut again. Press the stuffed pillow down so that you can get the fabric underneath the sewing machine. This was the hardest part.

 

6. You're done and NO ONE will ever notice that they were placemats! Yes, I succeeded.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our GG

Sadly, early yesterday morning Matson's grandma passed away. She was such a fun, energetic grandma who everyone calls GG. GG stands for Gorgeous Grandma. She really is the best grandma who spoiled us every time we went up to their home in Brigham City. She made us all kinds of yummy food like her delicious pancakes, noodles, and potato salad. She always wore her cute curlers at night, served others, worked hard, and she always noticed and complimented me and others. One of Matson's favorite things that she did was she could make Matson's grandpa cry by just looking at him a certain way.

Grandpa and GG

Grandpa, GG, and their kids (my mother in law is centered)

GG is on the left with us on our wedding day!

GG would hate me for this but I just love her curlers!! So cute.
This night was this past summer when Matson and
I stayed up until 1am talking with her.

We love you, GG! She will be terribly missed by us and the rest of our family. We are sad that our own future children will not be able to know her here on Earth but we know that through the Atonement of Christ that we will see her again and be able to enjoy her yummy potato salad soon! And for now we will continue to remember her and sleep under her huge quilt every single night that she gave us for our wedding.

All Things Thrifty

I have never been much of a thrift shopper. I would walk into the D.I. as a kid and instantly tell my mother I had to go sit in the car because the smell was horrible...let's just say I was a little bit of a drama queen. So thrift shopping was never my thing...until recently. I can't go by without stopping in. I think to myself, "OHHhhhh what if they have something so vintage-y or a super cute top?"

Anyway I scored recently from the D.I. and Savers and seriously not one of the items was more than $6.99! I love me some good deals for some stuff I really like!

// J. Brand Skinny Jeans - $6.99 //

// Vintage Pyrex Casserole Dish - $4.99 //

// Mirror/Frame - $6.99 //

I am actually going to convert this to a tray for our ottoman by redoing it and staining it.

// Oxblood Blouse - $5.00 //

You know you love my profesh mirror picture.

Top: Thrifted / Pants: Joe's / Necklace: Banana Republic / Boots: Steve Madden 

If you ever have some good Thrift Finds, I'd love to hear about them! And where from so I can go search.