And the winner is...

Last August, when David and I moved into our first apartment, we decided to have a shampoo bottle contest. We wanted to see who went through more bottles of shampoo in a year - me or David. The results: Well, I lost count back in May when I was on bottle 6. David is STILL using the same bottle that we purchased way back in August 2008. How sad is that. I think I ended up using nine or something like that. Life is so much cheaper as a boy. That's all I have to say.

FINALLY a new camera

I will finally have no more excuses for not updating my blog with more pictures. David and I decided last week to use my credit card reward points to get us a new camera. My camera was a giant brick that I have had since my senior year of high school, and we lost David's camera at the beginning of the summer (but it wasn't that great of a camera anyway so we didn't really care). Here is the camera we got COMPLETELY FREE! Yay! Two years of racking up credit card points and finally the reward program paid off!

P.S. Why is that my hair is always two colors? Stupid roots. I promise they don't look that bad in person. :)

It's a New Car!

For anyone who doesn't know David very well, he says "It's a new car" just like the Price is Right guy ALL the time; so the title of this post is in honor of David.

Well, exciting news for the Driggs - we got a car on Monday! We were planning on buying a car in December when David was done with school, however after taking each of our cars in to the car shop twice, so four times in all in a two week span, and after spending over $500 on those two cars, we felt that now was as good a time as any to start car shopping.

Last Saturday, the 12th, we began our search for a car. We had already decided we wanted either a Toyota Corolla or a Honda Civic and had already done all of our online research on Kelly Blue Book, blah, blah, blah. FINALLY David agreed to let me actually go to a car dealership. We went to both the Honda dealership and the Toyota dealership here in Orem. Anyone else looking for a car in the future, we loved Kevin Burns - apparently he has been salesman of the month a bizillion times. His office was FULL of plaques and awards. After looking around on Saturday we went home to decide what we wanted to do.

Long story short, we were going to buy a 2006 Toyota Corolla that the Honda dealership had on their lot, but at the last minute they brought out a 2008 Honda Civic that had just come in so we took it!

Here is our new baby! We love it! I know its a pathetic dream but I have always always wanted a Honda Civic - you can blame my parents - they only drive Hondas. We love our new car and love driving it!

A view of the inside. Best feature - iPod hookup jack!

College Graduates...Almost!

Well I thought I should give everyone a new life update on me and David.  As most of you know, David and I were living in Salt Lake for the summer with his Aunt Tiff and Uncle Chuck.  Fortunately, David was able to get an internship with a construction company in Salt Lake called Zwick Construction.  Unfortunately, the internship was unpaid, which = we are poor.  haha. Fortunately, he loved the internship and loved the company.  And super fortunately, they just gave him a job offer!  He graduates in December and Zwick wants him to come work for him!  We are 99.99% sure we are going to take the job offer.  He really liked the people he worked with, the company is great, and he would learn a lot.  Also, the owner sat down and talked with him and said that he could see David growing with the company.  They want to expand into California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, etc. and David could help them with that eventually.  And we all know David would just LOVE to live in California.  We are so grateful that David was able to do this internship.  

But for now David just has to focus on his last 5 classes (that is if he can get his mind off of college football) for the next three and a half months and then he can officially join me as a college graduate!

Now on to my life.  In July I decided I wanted to be done working with CFO Solutions.  They are a great company, but I was ready for steady hours, one location, and most importantly a steady paycheck.  (Yeah, that whole month during the summer without a single paycheck was not fun at all).  So I looked around for jobs and found a great one - thank you craigslist!  The company is a small private equity firm that invests in real estate/development companies.  I started at the very beginning of August - so I am about to start my fourth week with them.  The job is in Orem so before I was driving down from Salt Lake.  Now that we are back in Orem, I am about three minutes from work, which is really nice.  Since I don't have to be in until 9:00 am, I get a pretty good nights sleep each night.  The company is great and they are letting me be a lot more involved in the accounting than I was at my previous job.  I even have my own little office!

For the semester, David and I are living in my grandma and grandpa's basement in Orem - thank you grandma and grandpa!  We really, really, really can't wait to get our own apartment but that will just have to wait until December.  For now we are just trying to save up for our many large purchases we will be making in December - new car, couches, bed, bedroom furniture, washer/dryer, etc.  We are super excited to be done with college in three months and to both be working, contributing members of society!  Yay!

Day at Lagoon

On Saturday, David's Uncle Chuck and Aunt Tiff invited us to go to Lagoon with their three kids, a family friend, and Daniel and Heather. We headed out Saturday afternoon with perfect weather. A random cold front came in so it was only about 75 degrees outside. It was perfect! Now I have to be honest and admit that I am not a rollercoaster person. Growing up my parents never took us to amusement parks so I don't think I even rode my first rollercoaster until I was in high school. Well, after conquering Disneyland and riding every big ride there, I knew I could suck it up and be brave. Besides, David loves rollercoasters and I did not want to let him down. So I went to Lagoon telling myself over and over that rollercoasters are fun. I like rollercoasters. They aren't scary.

We started out the trip by riding a very small ride with David's three cousins. Then we rode a few other rides and finally stopped to watch people riding the SkyCoaster. For those who don't know what that is here is a picture of one below:


To ride the SkyCoaster, two to three people put on these funny suits. Then you both get hooked in from your back and hoisted into the sky so that you are on your stomach. You start below that big arch and are pulled up diagonally to the top of the tall, straight tower. Once you are at the top - which is over 100 feet high - one person has to pull a cord to release you. After a 65 foot free fall, the cords catch and you fly back and forth through the air like a superman flying in the air. Just watching people do this made my stomach turn. Well, Chuck asked if David, Daniel, Heather and I wanted to do it and of course David immediately said yes. Well I had already decided that I was going to be brave that day so I said yes, too. Here is a picture of what you look like as you are being hoisted up to the top.



Chuck and his son Christian went on the SkyCoaster first. Let me remind you that Christian is 8 years old! That boy has guts! He didn't even freak out before or anything. Since the SkyCoaster has two towers, you can do two groups at once. So Daniel and Heather were on one side and David and I on the other. This was the scariest, most amazing, most thrilling thing I have ever done in my life. While David and I were getting hooked up, I started to get really scared. I mean really scared. They starting pulling us to the top and I had to close my eyes so I wouldn't freak out. We just kept going higher and higher and higher. Finally at the top a girl got on the microphone and said, "Ready! Pull your cord!"

David immediately pulled the cord and we dropped toward the earth. We free fell for about 65 feet - in which I screamed the whole time. As you are dropping you mind just goes crazy - you think what on earth am I doing to myself! I am going to smash into the ground! This is the end! And then suddenly the cord catches and you swing across the earth. You can suddenly breath again. You can stop screaming and just enjoy what you just did. It was such a rush! We loved it! David told me he was so proud of me for going on the ride! I'm so proud of me for doing it - I never do things like this!

So there you go, I conquered Lagoon. I later even rode a huge rollercoaster with two upside down flips and everything! Go me! If you ever get a chance to ride a SkyCoaster you should do it. It is amazing! You feel every emotion in a matter of seconds - you go from being absolutely terrifed to feeling like you can do anything in the world. Thank you Chuck and Tiff for such a fun day!

Pioneer Day

Friday, July 24th, was Pioneer Day in Utah. I love that Utah has a Pioneer Day because it is one extra holiday for those of us living in Utah. David was able to have the day off, so we had all day to lounge around the house and relax. We didn't really do much during the day other than watch movies - Cool Runnings, play games (David played with Legos forever in the afternoon), and read books. It was nice to have a day to relax. Then at night we were invited to go to the Salt Lake Bees Baseball game with my old roommate, Courtney; her boyfriend, Spencer; her brothers, Alex and Ryan; Alex's girlfriend, Morgan; and one of Ryan's friends. David and I had never been to a Salt Lake Bees game - they are just a minor league team - Utah doesn't have a major league team.

Before the game, we went out to dinner with Spencer and Courtney to a well known restaurant in the area called The Pie. It is a little pizza place right near the University of Utah campus. They have really good pizza. The best part was, the workers told us that since we had to wait so long for our pizza, we got a free pizza! We had the barbeque chicken pizza, which was delicious!

After dinner we headed to the game. We just bought general admission tickets, so we sat just behind the outfield on blankets. I actually enjoyed sitting out on blankets better than sitting in seats - probably because I find baseball boring so getting to lay down made it better. The opposing team cancelled the game due to illness so instead the Salt Lake Bees held a homerun derby and then an 18 and under all star game. The home run derby was fun. David brought his glove since we were behind the outfield and attempted to catch a few of the home runs. The winner of the derby was a 16 year old high school student from Las Vegas. He hit so many home runs. He was really good! And only 16! He beat all the Bees players that were in the home run derby! Apparently he is the best hitter in high school in the world right now; rumor has it, the boy hit a 560 foot home run in Florida.

The all star game was pretty lame - no one was really watching. We waited through it though for the best part of the night - Pioneer Day Fireworks! After the all star game, they let everyone go down on the field. We got to lay our blanket out in the outfield and watch the fireworks. It was so cool because we were really close to the fireworks. In fact, we could feel ashes falling on us during the show. The show was really good. I would even say it was the best fireworks show I have ever been to. They had a lot of cool fireworks. It was a lot of fun to get to go out with Courtney and her brothers and Spencer. We had a really good Pioneer Day. It will be sad when one day we don't live in Utah and will have to work through the 24th of July. :( Until then, Happy Pioneer Day!

Manti Miracle Pageant

The very last weekend in June, David and I decided we wanted to go to the Miracle Pageant down in Manti, UT.  Since my mom was in town we invited her.  We also invited David's sisters and mom as well as Adam and Carlee.  This was David, Carlee, and David's mom's first time to go to the pageant.  I hadn't been in about ten years so I really didn't remember much of the pageant.  David, his sisters - Kathryn and Kelli, his mom - Lauri, and I all drove down early to save seat for us.  Here is when we first arrived.  It was really, really bright outside.  How gorgeous is the Manti Temple in the background!

After we claimed our spot at the pageant, we walked down Main Street in Manti to find some dinner.  Here we are eating our hot dogs and hamburgers in the grass.  And of course David is making a face. :)

David and his sisters, waiting for the pageant to start.
David and I in front of the Manti Temple.  I forgot how big the Manti Temple is!  It really was so gorgeous.

Everyone at the pageant - minus Adam who took the picture and minus Jack who was running around pulling grass up.

One last shot of the temple in the sunlight.

The temple at night time - still waiting for the pageant to start.

For those who have never been, the Manti Pageant is a play that all the Mormons put on down in Manti.  The play is performed right in front of the temple, on the grassy hill just below the temple.  The play is about how the LDS church began and the early church members' journey across the plains on their way to Utah.  The play was good.  There were the occasional cheesy lines  - "the arrow...so swift" (as one guy said after he was shot by an arrow, right before he died) - but overall I enjoyed the play.  The end was really great with music playing from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  The only drawback to the pageant was how late it was.  The pageant didn't even start until after 9:30 pm.  It ended around 11:15 pm and then we had to drive back to Provo.  After dropping David's sisters and mom off at their house, David and I finally got to my grandma's house around 2:15 am.  I was so tired the next day.  I hate staying up late.  Marriage is so nice - David and I go to bed at 10 pm.  We almost never stay up past midnight - not even on the weekends.  We enjoyed it but probably won't be seeing it again in the near future.  I think I can wait another ten years or so before I go back. :)