Catching Up #11: Office Christmas Party

 Robby's office has a crazy Christmas party every year full of food and completely ridiculously hilarious games. Running around and laughing your head off especially right after eating a huge meal is never a good idea. As you can see, things got pretty out of hand!

Lately

Some happenings since the last time I posted:

• An uplifting ward temple trip.
• Started feeling Baby move!
• Finally (after almost 9 months) became an official American permanent resident. I can work AND go through the permanent resident line at customs!
• Experienced my first tsunami warning complete with sirens and millions of people filling up their cars in case worse comes to worst and they need to drive off the island...
• Hung out with Rachel for a day!
• Fun Cousins' Day hosted by Nancy&Thad.
• Mini golf and Sizzler's with Jordan&Shanelia.
• Finally started feeling better. Meaning only gagging or throwing up once a day instead of every couple of hours.
• Early Christmas shopping for my family.
• Jumped on a plane to come to Taiwan!

So here I am in Taiwan. This vacation is also the reason for my blogging hiatus. Everyday has been either so eventful or so relaxing that blogging has been the last thing on my mind. I've only been here for three weeks and I've already eaten my weight in food--which means my doctor is going to be very unhappy with me when I go to see him next. I've also been so spoiled by my family that going back home to "real life" is going to be like waking up from a dream.

Oh--and I totally surprised Cynthia when I came home! She knew I was coming, but had absolutely no idea when. I got her good because she started crying right after I took these pictures. I've sure missed my family!

BYU Lu'au 2012

 This year was my second year attending lu'au and the first year I've seen Robby dance. Mia was one of the leaders for the Hawaii section so Robby decided to brave the early dance practices and participate. I can say now that it was all worth it, but we weren't so sure then. Waking up at six or seven on Saturdays is no fun at all!

 Plate lunches before the show!

 Because I helped make costumes for the Hawaii section this year, Mia got me front row seats! Thanks Mia!

 Mia did such a great job with her dance! It was so fun, energetic, and so so entertaining. 

 Awesome turnout as usual!

Kiele's 1st Birthday Party

Robby and I were invited to celebrate Kiele's first birthday at Dane&Leo's chapel on Saturday. They did such a good job decorating and the food was so good! Robby must've stuffed himself silly. The best part though? The Pane'es were at the party! As soon as I walked into the gym, I saw a Malakai look-alike.

Me: Robby! That kid looks JUST like Malakai!!!
Robby: Haha. Yeah he does, but you know it's not him.
Me: I know...

We walked further into the gym and at the first table, I saw Jordan's mom holding a Eli look-alike. So by now I was kinda freaking out. Turns out I wasn't crazy. Jordan, Amanda, and the kids had made the drive all the way from Seattle to come to Kiele's party. It was so good to see everyone!

BYU vs. Utah

Two Saturdays ago, we went to a BYU vs. Utah game at the U with Jordan and Amanda, and we got to see Keilani for the first time! Mom, I know you're jealous.
She was such a doll throughout the entire game despite how loud it got in the stadium.

 Tiff was wearing RED when we went to pick her up. We made her change.

We beat Utah 61-42!

And of course we stopped at Gossip on the way back home!

Provo City's Parade of Lights

Two saturdays ago, I ran my last event as a Provo Parks and Recreation intern. The Provo City Parade of Lights was held on Center Street after dark. We were there early to set up. Tiff and Robby both came to help me the ENTIRE time even though we were FREEZING for the whole 7 hours we were outside.

The Annual Santa Run complete with the Grinch.

Our Countdown float!

Tiffany and the Carollama!

Master Shi-Fu

We had a pretty big crowd join us for the Lights-On Ceremony with the mayor and Santa. Kids are pretty lucky in Provo!

Pioneer Day Extravaganza

This weekend was Pioneer Day weekend. I have been interning with Provo Parks and Recreation since April as an event planner for Provo city events. We've been planning for the Pioneer Day Extravaganza for a couple of months now, and we finally got to see the fruits of our labors on Saturday. Set-up took 4 hours the Friday before, and on Saturday, we were there for 10 hours in the scorching sun! It was a lot of hard work, but SO worth it!

The band "CROSSROADS" performed for the entire event.
Decorations I made for the Pie Making booth.
Robby got put in jail. He had to complete a word search to get out. Haha!We sawed through a log together! Took way longer than we anticipated though...
Sam (intern) & Whitney (recreation coordinator)
We got our faces painted too.
And we played house in a real teepee.
The mayor and Miss Provo were at our event as judges for the pies.
We sat in handmade willow chairs and rode in a covered wagon.
And Robby bought a frozen banana covered in sprinkles. Can't believe I've never had this before!
The crew that planned and helped out with the event (minus Robby, of course who was a HUGE help). It was a huge success. We planned for 3,000 people and about that many showed up!
Happy Pioneer Day!

(My lesson and our talks on Sunday went well too even though we were up all night preparing. Glad it's over!)