Thanksgiving 2013: Part 2

On Saturday poor Ty had to be at work at 6:30 am because there was a basketball game that afternoon. Since he had to work, we didn't have anything planned for the morning, and I think my dad and brother were relieved because there was a lot of football on tv!

we had a hard time getting them to leave these spots all weekend!

When we finally convinced them to leave the house, we went and ran some quick errands, and then headed to the arena for the Stampede game. It was so fun and I was glad that my family got to see what Ty does and where we spend most of our weekends during basketball season.

My dad looking over the stats, with my mom's glasses. So funny

Ty was able to sneak away for a few minutes to come say hi! 

After the game we waited for Ty to finish up and then went out to dinner. We were all so worn out that we could not get a decent picture. haha! 

We decided to end the night with a walk downtown. The Christmas lights have been put up and it looks so pretty! 

We had such a great weekend. It's always hard to say goodbye, but I'm glad we got to spend a few days together and hopefully we'll see each other again soon!

Thanksgiving 2013: Part 1

We have spent the last couple of thanksgivings on our own, and although it's fun to make our own traditions, it's also nice to spend the holidays with family. So I was so excited that my family decided to make the drive out to Boise for thanksgiving this year! They couldn't come until thanksgiving day, so I cooked all day so we could eat right when they got here. And then when they came I was so happy and excited to see them that I forgot to take pictures of our table and our dinner! Oh well. It was a good night and we had a great thanksgiving feast!

The next day we took my family sightseeing. My brother wanted to go check out the BSU campus, so we took them on a little tour. Which is funny because we barely know our way around there, but we did our best.

(my sister brought her camera and took most of these pictures. which is awesome because I'm terrible at remembering to photograph things!)

It was fun to walk around, thank goodness it was a beautiful day! 

Later that day we took my family to the Festival of Trees. This is a fundraiser that a local hospital puts together. They get people to donate decorated trees and then they sell or auction them off to people in the community, or they donate them to organizations around town. The trees are on display for the public during thanksgiving weekend, and they were really impressive!

Great Gatsby tree

Favorite Movies tree

Polar Express tree

Wonka Wonderland tree

I'm so glad we went to this! I'm hoping it will become a tradition for us to go every year...

That night also happened to be the tree lighting ceremony downtown, so we bundled up and braved the cold! They had live music at the atmosphere was so awesome. Everyone was singing along to all the Christmas songs they were playing and were just generally happy to be there! 

before...

and after!

What a cool experience! My mom said she felt like she was in a Hallmark movie. We had such a good time, and I'm thankful we live in a town that has so many fun traditions during the holidays!

It's Autumn Time

This October was seriously magical. I don't know what it is, but I have never experienced such a good fall season. Probably because I grew up in the desert and the sagebrush isn't exactly charming. During any season. And then I moved to the frozen tundra where it goes from summer to winter pretty much overnight. I had no idea what I was missing! The trees here are so pretty and we live in an older part of town so the trees on our neighborhood and big and leaves are everywhere.

We live close to a bike path and I have loved riding my bike and looking at all the trees and leaves everywhere. I'm already excited for next fall!

Then the leaves started falling in our own front yard. I could not believe how quickly the leaves covered our lawn! 

Since this is our first place with a yard, it was also my first experience raking up leaves. And that was not as fun as just looking at the leaves, but it was a good workout. I ended up doing all the raking by myself because Ty has had to "work late" most nights. I'm skeptical that it was an excuse to get out of raking, but don't worry. Next year it will be your turn, Ty ;)

Girls Weekend

A few weeks ago Ty had to go out of town for the weekend to a training for work. Luckily it was the same weekend as Nevada Day, and because Nevada is awesome no one has school or work on Nevada Day! So my mom and my sister came to hang out with me while Ty was gone. It was so much fun to have them here! We always have way too much to talk about and stay up way too late. We went to the farmers market, did lots of shopping, I showed them around town, and we ate ice cream and watched chick flicks. What more could a girl ask for? It definitely didn't feel like enough time, but I love any chance I get to hang out with my family. I'm so thankful for these two and so glad we had a couple of days to just be together and enjoy each other's company!

The NBA Comes to Town

Last month the Portland Trail Blazers and the Utah Jazz came to play a preseason game in Boise. Since the Idaho Stampede is Portland's D-League affiliate team, the Stampede staff was in charge of putting things together and making sure that everything went smoothly the night of the game. This meant lots of late nights at the office and lots of stress for Ty. It was pretty much the first big responsibility and the first game night experience he had as a PR coordinator. I don't really know a lot about the behind the scenes stuff, but I know that a lot of time and effort was put into the game, and things ended up going really well. The arena was packed and people had to buy standing room only tickets, which made for a really fun and loud environment. Ty was so sweet and hooked me up with a courtside seat for the game! It was so awesome. It was crazy to have guys that I see on tv all the time right in front of me.

Damian Lillard (last season's Rookie of the Year) warming up

these guys are so tall!

tip-off

LaMarcus Aldridge shooting free throws

Ty walking away after handing the coaches their stat sheets. I'm not even sure how much of the game Ty actually watched, he was busy the whole time!

All in all it was a great night and a really cool experience! It definitely got me excited for the Stampede season. It's kind of weird to watch games by myself while Ty is working, but at the same time I love watching Ty in action. He is definitely in his element and I'm so proud of him for working hard to reach his goals and landing a job that he loves!

Happy basketball season!