Bridal Showers

For obvious reasons I have been a little busy the last few weeks. So please pardon me as I do a bit of a catch up on all things "living the SLC life."

During my engagement I have been able to have three bridal shows/bachelorette party. 

They were all so fun and different from each other and I felt so lucky to be able to celebrate so many times. 

The first shower took place back in April in GH while I was home for Spring Break. It was hosted by long time family friend Debbie Farlow and it felt like the entire GH ward came. I love being around my GH ward family, my NR friends and of course my mom and Laura.
It was a beautiful shower and delicious food.
We didn't take any photos which I don't know what is wrong with me, but a friend took these.

{At first I thought this was so rude of Laura to be texting while helping me with gifts, but then I remembered she was recording who all the gifts were from..haha}

Annie & Monica threw me another shower at the end of May. They were the best for throwing me another shower with my friends and family here in Utah. I have known them for so long and they are some of my best friends and again--I felt so loved that they put in so much hard work for me!

We had breakfast for dinner and of course they went all out on the food.
I was so glad that Kelly was able to come and join in on festivities since a lot of pre-wedding stuff had happened in California. And she made the long trek down to SLC for me.
Monica had planned the game and of course had gotten in touch with Rudy to ask him some questions.
Side note--I went to a shower for Kim Jex a few months ago and they played that for her. That night Rudy and I talked about it and we practiced some of the questions. Ha! I told him that if that happened to me I wanted to be prepared.
So you would think with the practice and our four years of friendship/courtship would have made me ace the game.
Wrongo.
I folded under pressure. It was really embarrassing. But the questions were hard!!!

They gave me marshmallows to eat for every wrong questions and I was suppose to not eat them but I sneakily did anyway.
It was a great party with friends, co workers and family.

Later on that week Aubry hosted a Bachelorette Party.
Aubry went all out with a Fiesta Mexican theme.
Mocktails and chips and salsa galore.

Aubry went all out!! I loved out so much.

Last Halloween I convinced Aubry to buy a cardboard cut out of Peeta from the Hunger Games, it complimented her outfit of Katnis perfect, and since then Peeta has always been a 5th roommate of the house. He makes appearances at every party and we loved putting him in secret places to scare each other.
Why do I share this tidbit you might ask??
Because Peeta made an appearance at the party.
But as Rudy.

It was hilarious and so fitting for a party at my old house.
It was a pretty informative party--in true bachelorette fashion and then we were off to dancing.
It was a bit of a rough night trying to get into dancing but it was super fun.

I felt so lucky to have so many parties and they were all so fun and exciting. 

Kate is 5!

Last week I was able to make it up to Kate's 5th Birthday Party. 

When Kelly told me that Kate put me as first on her invite list, I knew I had to be there!

I love coming up and being able to go to the kids birthday parties. It is so fun to celebrate with them and remember all of their parties throughout the years. 

It makes living in Utah so great to be close to the kids. 

Because Kate has so many boy friends she had a "Princess & Pirate" party. 

We may have messed up on the cupcakes, but everything else went great. 

The boys were good helps during the party too. 

I loved having Seth come sit by me at the end and the small moments that he lets me still put my arm around him or hold his hand. I don't want him to keep growing up. 

This was the most shocking moment of the day…they actually smiled. 

a busy life.

Hello blogging world!!

It has been so long. But I do have a good reason! 

Life is so busy with entering adulthood and all and balancing all of the many things going on in life. 

The first indication of my busy life is from my last post. 

Wedding planning. 

It has been really fun and I am trying to enjoy it more since its a once in a lifetime project but I finally understand why its hectic and busy. 

I've been working on engagement photos, invitations designed (Thanks Allie!!) and printed, handwriting all 230 invitations, bridal photos, Rudy's ring, suit and tie, photographer details, flowers, DJ and the list can go on and on.

We took our Bridal pictures yesterday at the Capitol and it went great. I wish I could post a sneak peak but I want to keep it a secret :)

Soccer Coaching. 

This was the second year that I coached our APA soccer team. 

Try outs begun in the beginning of March and I convinced myself that I would be able to handle coaching because the season was going until the end of April. 

With practice every day and games twice a week I figured I could handle it for two months. 

Luckily I got the help of an amazing parent volunteer and our 5th grade teacher to co-coach and they help share the burden a lot. 

But this was all before I realized that my new 7th grade players were insanely good and would get us into the Tournament. Which extended our season for two more weeks. 

We ended up losing our first tournament game and getting eliminated from playoffs (which I didn't complain too much about) 

But I was really proud of them and grew to really love them. 

One of the highlights had to be from one of our star players. One day he asked me if I was going to make it to practice after a week or so of missing because of other work obligations, when I replied with an obvious "Yes" (due to already being in work out ready clothes) he gave a little fist pump and a "yes!" and ran off. It felt great to be missed and appreciated. 

House buying. 

We are officially homeowners!!

We started looking in February/ March and its time consuming. Looking houses up on the internet and then going out to see them. The hard part too was knowing what you wanted. I have zero experience so it was hard to figure out what we liked and didn't like. But once we saw this house we knew we wanted it. After the inspections, meetings and deadlines we've been busy with packing, moving, cleaning and yard work. 

I am already overwhelmed with the thought of cleaning a whole house. Its probably more cleaning than I have done in my whole life...

End of the Year Dances. 

 My busiest time of year at work is May. For our Character Development Program we have culminating dinners and balls for the students to participate in. And its crazy busy! During one week I worked every day from 8 until at least 8pm sometimes 10 or 11. Then by Friday we had three 7th grade dances, back to back to back. On Saturday we had a 5-course meal for the 8th graders and then back to back dances again.

Last week we had our 9th grade Dinner & Ball at La Caille. Rudy was able to come with me this year and it was so fun to have him at the table with me and the students. On Saturday we had our 10th grade dance that I had to help out with as well. One more to go and then we will be done! 

Half Marathons. 

A couple of months ago Aubry bought a spot for the SLC Half Marathon.

She then decided to go out of town the week of the race so I opted to run it for her. A year ago Kelly made me sign up for the Ogden Half Marathon. These races ended up being a month apart from each and I thought that it would mean I would be SUPER prepared for them. But with everything going on that is listed above, running always took the back burner on my mind. I was lucky that I got a 7 mile run in the week before the SLC half and I was able to run twice between that and the Ogden race.

I am super happy with how well I did despite the lack of actually training. I never stopped running and during parts of the Ogden race actually felt good and was able to pick up the pace. I think I have made it in the running world as I was not sore at all after running Ogden. I love that my body is use to running long distances. I have now ran five Half Marathons, one Full Marathon and three Ragnars.

 I have Wasatch Back Ragnar in about a month. There is still hope that I can run a few times before then. 

THE Assembly.

Ok, here we go. The story! 

A few weeks ago we had our Staff Appreciation Week at work. Which ever since last year, I have been dying for this week! We get treated so well at work and it includes the best and biggest assembly of the year. The Builder of the Year Assembly. Which I love!

Our school's theme is "being a builder" by being kind, gracious, helpful, and serving others. We have an assembly where the school awards a student from each grade, as well as, an elementary teacher, aide, jr. high teacher and support staff {I like to compare it to the Student/Teacher of the Year award, but builder is just APA lingo.} The awards for the students are voted on by the staff and the staff awards are awarded by the other staff members. The best part of the awards is that it is kept a complete secret from the recipient students and staff members. It makes the assembly so thrilling to see the expressions and excitement of the students and staff members. 

Now, the morning of the Assembly.
 I was so excited because its such a great assembly. My role at the assembly was to meet and greet the winners afterwards to congratulate them. That being said, I wanted to look nice! My plan was to get there early but I had MAJOR outfit problems which made me super late for work and in a real bad mood about it. 

I got to work and immediately was given orders by Brad {the Principal}. I was given strict instructions to not let anyone in the gym until the students were. To make sure all the students are in before I go in. To sit in the back corner section of the gym to chaperone those students, even though there were already like four teachers sitting there. All things I wasn't worried about leading up the assembly--I mean, its the biggest assembly of the year! So stress is high and listening to directions was ok. 

We start the assembly with student awards and making the way up to staff awards. 

We got to the Support Staff category {which I am under} and just got a bit nervous. I saw Brad make eye contact with me but really figured it was going to be our secretary. I spotted her in the audience to watch her reaction and low and behold...they announce my name.
I was the Builder of the Year.

I was in shock. 

I made my way to the front of the gym and felt nervous with the whole school, parents and the administration in the room. I also felt a like anxious as I knew none of my family was in attendance. 

They always have spouses, family or even roommates there to congratulate the winner. 

I never spotted my sister and it never even dawned on me that Rudy would be there, so I figured I would stand at the front with no one there to hug me. 

As soon as I get to the podium, I turn and I see Rudy walking towards me. 

And I was floored. 

I was so happy that he was there. That he could enjoy that moment with me and be by my side.

Brad presents me with my award and then continues to read it to me. 

Again, I was so surprised. It contained the nicest and sweetest comments, something I never would have imagined. I feel so humbled by receiving this award and appreciate it so much that my co-workers think so well of me. If the day had ended on that note, I would have still been so happy, but I had no idea it was about to get any better or exciting! 

Brad finished my award by saying "Leigh, you really are amazing, but I am not the only one who thinks that. Rudy, I will let you take it from here."

WHAT!?

It was that moment.
Finally that moment you have though about, wished for and waited for.
 And it was finally happening.
In front of 600 people at school. 

I was in such shock. 

And if that wasn't enough, Rudy took the mic and said, "I know how much Ms. Robins loves this school and loves the students and so I've asked the students to help me with something"

He points...

and four students stand with signs…

It was shock, after shock, after shock. 

And so incredibly exciting!

He got down on one knee, I didn't really say anything until Brad forced the mic in my face to answer. 

He put the ring on and I felt like the crowd went crazy.

After the assembly, I had so many parents tell me they were crying and how excited they were!

The students made me feel like a celebrity! They rushed me afterwards and I am pretty sure every girl told they cried. 

I had elementary students all day gawk at me and tell me "You are the one that got married!" 

haha. not exactly kiddo. 

That night I even had two 5th grader girls email me a slide show with congratulations on it and slides telling me I was going to be a princess. 

It was the sweetest and so kind and just made me feel even more happy.
The next day, the congratulations continued and it was all the talk. The Drama students even recreated the whole thing for me and acted it out. Signs and all! I was almost more happy in that moment, then the real thing!
We are really happy and really excited.
Mark your calendar…June 14th!!

the Greats of SLC

A really great thing I love about SLC life is that there are always great things to see and do here.
So when Shylettera came into town two weeks ago there were a couple of sights I wanted to show her!
Our first stop was the Great Salt Lake. 
Ive always wanted to head out there and see how Great our city's name sake is.

It was a perfect day to go. It was cloudy/rainy/snowing in the city but once we drove out to the lake it was sunny and {relatively} warm.
The GSL is 75 miles long! and 35 miles wide.
It is mad up of 33% salt. Thats double what is in the ocean!
I loved seeing the photos of The Great Saltair and the resort status it was back in the day.
I learned all of this at the Visitors Center, of course.

I then had the idea to drive out to the Salt Flats. 
It turned to a crazy idea cause it was like a really long drive away.
But once we started driving there was no turning back and we really wanted to go!
Before we actually got to the Flats we got to another part of the lake. I think. I'm not really sure what it was but it was cool. It was so beautiful and had the perfect stillness. We realized afterwards that it was so still that it had a perfect reflection. If you turn this picture upside down you won't even be able to tell which way is up. I dare you. Try.

We weren't sure how much longer we had to go until we finally saw it.

We pulled straight over on the freeway and ran onto the Flats.
I think I pranced around for awhile I was so excited to be there.

It was the most amazing site I have ever seen.

And the fun didn't stop there!
We were about out of gas after such a long drive and the only place to fill up was Wendover!
Haha. So we drove the 8 miles to fill up and we reached the state line. We drove Shylettera all the way back to Nevada.
And we even got to be in two places at once, which doesn't happen every day!

The Lake and the Flats are definitely a site to see. And Wendover, will it was just an added bonus.