Dear Utah, you are even better than we remember.

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Going back to Logan this year for Thanksgiving was surreal. It has been almost an entire year since we've made the trek back to our hometown. Even though its been such a long time, the moment we turned the corner out of Sardine where it opens up to the beautiful valley it only felt like we were coming home from a long trip.

In all actuality we were about to begin a 'trip' to Logan that would last exactly 7 days minus travel time. So, I wouldn't call our Thanksgiving vacation relaxing so much as I would consider it a whirlwind of good times with family and friends. Here are a few photos and stories from our memorable trip.

Day One: I miss my sis!
I tried to get in as much sister time as humanly possible. Here she is sporting her very attractive hat-scarf that I also saw on The Christmas Story mom.

And for your viewing pleasure here are more photos of Courte from our adventures.
The memories of many Aggie football games came flooding back to us as we froze our butts off at the Aggie v. Boise State football game. There were a few key note differences this time around...1) We had a sanctuary (the box) to head up to when we couldn't feel our appendages, 2) They were competitive against Boise, and 3) There were more Utah State fans > Boise State fans to cheer on our team.Day Two: Guns & Violence
Guys Night in Utah = Call of Duty Marathon. Tanner and his friends are addicted to this war game. Please remind my why I agreed it was a good idea for Tanner to get the game when we got home.

Day Three: Skins v. Iggy's v. G-ma
...and the winner is G-ma :)
Skins lost to the Cowboys, Iggy's service sucked, Grandma was all-around amazing.Day Four: Our Old Stomping Ground
I forgot how cold Utah is in the winter. It was pretty much unbearable for me. I had to drink lots of hot chocolate to compensate. But look how pretty it is.There is about 3 things to do in Logan - not like that's a bad thing - Going out to eat, Going to the movies, and Going bowling. We managed to fit in 2 out of the 3. I think the amount of food we ended up inhaling made up for the fact that we didn't go bowling. One of the things that we miss about Logan the most is the great selection of restaurants.

We managed to eat a lot of food at some of our old favorites, pretty sure we ate out every meal. Italian Place (I think Tanner went here three times), Le Nonne (with our Pictionary opponents), Angie's, Logan's Heroes, Pita Pit, Firehouse (with some of my favorite girls - who pointed out that whenever I am asked when I am having kids I say 5 years, and that's been going on for at least 3 years). We also went to a new restaurant, Texas Roadhouse, because Anna works there and it was amazing. There are many more delectable dine-in experiences to be had in CV but those are the ones we managed to hit....next time I must go to W.O.W. and La Beau's, oh ya and the bowling alley to get the full experience. We also went to the movie about 3 or 4 times....haha. Life is so simple, yet amazing, in Utah :)
Day Five: Golden Birthday
This celebration was not a surprise so Tanner got to choose the itinerary. He wanted nothing more than to take in an Aggie basketball game and dinner with a few close friends. We ended up in the backroom at Ruby's after the game, which was a drag, that is until we got there. The room ended up being filled with tons of laughter once memories came racing back to these friends.
Day Six: Working OutI was very proud of us for managing to squeeze in some workout routines. It was great to go to Bootcamp to see my old friend slash trainer Natalie. She kicked my a$$, I was sure to quickly blame my loss of breath and lack of endurance on the altitude. Elevation: Ashburn = 298 ft, Logan = 4,534 ft so I feel pretty good about that excuse. I also went to Crossfit with Kira and Wendi and found that to be equally as punishing.

Day 7: Thanksgiving
I am thankful for Thanksgiving because it's focus is entirely based on the 3 F's which also happen to be 3 of my favorite things, Family, Friends & Food! Thanksgiving didn't let us down on any of those this year. It even added an additional F "Freezing." Although the below freezing temperature was quickly forgotten at Lundstrom Park during the First Annual Turkey Bowl followed by a yummy Thanksgiving dinner at my Grandma's. It's true that time flies when you're having fun, because the week was over in a flash. We didn't get to see all the friends and family that we wanted to, but we'll back and believe me it won't be a year from now.
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Washington Post Magazine: How Tanner Cooley became a DC sports insider

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Tanner in the news: A writer from the Washington Post followed Tanner around for a few weeks in order to get an insiders perspective of his world. The article is pretty good here is the link to the story and here is the link to the chat with Tanner, which gives some more insight into the story.

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Cooley Brothers

Sunday, December 13, 2009

My cute hubby turned reporter for the day.

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Our Homeland

We had so much fun in Utah for Thanksgiving. I haven't had time to sit down and write about it but I hopefully I will soon. Until then you can just look at this photo in anticipation. Read more...

Party in the USA

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Elite Party Planners: Kirsten & Paul + mucho Facebook correspondence
= one surprised* guy *other adjectives to describe Tanner = amazed, astounded, blown away, bewildered, dazed, dazzled, dumbfounded, electrified, flabbergasted, floored, jarred, jolted, overwhelmed, shocked, stunned, stupefied, taken aback.

We had a surprise b-day party at Kitchen in DC for Tanner. He was seriously surprised since he thought he was going to my work party (lame-o) and it was held 6 days before his actual birthday (what?!). He had no idea, which I was very proud of since it's hard for me to keep a secret. Lots of lying, deception, and sneaking around occurred which was definitely difficult for Miss Honest Abigail. I guess it made it a little easier since we started planning literally 2 days in advance. Here are a few photos from the monumental night:

Hope all your dreams come true!
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Fall, Friends & Football

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Our wonderful friends the Galbraiths came to visit us back in October. I am a terrible blogger lately but I wanted to link to Nikki's blog. Click here and here for her blog posts from the trip. Thanks Nikki :)
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Scrapbook 2008

Saturday, November 21, 2009

I was so excited to finish and get my scrapbook from last year FINALLY!
Dear Internet: I will start my 2009 yearbook this month, no excuses. Read more...

Halloween!!

Friday, November 6, 2009

This year we thought it would be fun to dress up and carve pumpkins on Halloween Eve. Here is Border Patrol Jen with her two captives Tequila Shooter Tanner and Happy McMexican Blake.Kirsten reffed the pumpkin carving and the dogs even dressed up against their will Jack as a cute pumpkin for maybe the 3rd year in a row, Baxter sported an orange T, Chip was a bee, and Dale a cow.
And finally we have Dorothy and Toto
Chris and Nance didn't dress up but Chris somewhat resembles Zac Morris...maybe that's what he was going for.
In the Kirsten and Tanner Cooley household it is ALWAYS my idea to carve pumpkins and I ALWAYS manage to forget how much work carving pumpkins really is. Unfortunately for everyone else I had already resorted to complaining and swearing as I was scooping out the pumpkin guts. Here is everyone happily beginning to carve.
Here we have everyone diligently finishing they're masterpieces....and I am in full fire drill mode demanding better tools to catch up. Soon after this in my despair Tanner took over and finished my jack-o-lantern before I had a meltdown.
My mood quickly turned around when the pumpkin was complete and it was time for a photo ;)
Here are a couple of our finished products lit up. Tanner's football and my ghost.
Chris's skull, Nance's scary pumpkin, and Blake's awesome bat creation.
And here are a few more photos for your viewing pleasure.
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Couples Retreat

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Why is it so hot? Because we're in the city where the heat is on.

We went down to Miami to visit two of our favorite people, the Eckers, a few weeks ago. It was so amazing to spend the weekend with someone (Tyler) whose favorite thing to do is....nothing. No joke, that is just what we needed a weekend full of nothing!Who would have thought that the first four hours we spent in Miami would be at the Chili's Take & Go Restaurant in the airport. Sounds awful, huh? But between the margarita's, the people watching (Tanner said, "Look at that kid," and captured my reaction after I saw one of the ugliest children I had EVER seen in real life),

reading magazines, me nearly falling asleep on the bench (then realizing that I am not a bum so that is so not cool), taking photos, talking and laughing it was really pretty fun. I feel like we hardly see each other these days so it was refreshing to spend some mindless hours together.

We made it outside to the hot, wonderful paradise and as we were shielding the blazing sun from our eyes we couldn't have been happier to see Tyler's classic black truck roll up. We met Becca and went to a restaurant on the bay literally five minutes from their apartment. By the way this is the view from their apartment...uh, can you say amazing? Must be horrible to wake up to this everyday :)
The next day was spent at the gym and a long, lazy day at the pool. Tanner demonstrated some amazing pool feats, including his underwater breath-holding technique. Becca and I were having a heart attack when he didn't come up for air for two minutes! And he still had the energy to scare his swimming lessonless, water-phobic wife by pretending to dunk me and get water on my face.

This was followed by a night on the town. We went to Lincoln Road, which was a really great strip of restaurants and bars. Everyone there was so happy and beautiful, to paint a picture of what we were seeing...imagine that guy at your gym who groans and yells when lifting weights while staring at himself in the mirror, that was the typical male on Lincoln Road. Although tonight he had showered and was sporting a muscle t, a faux hawk, and a skinny, pretty girl with implants. This along with tall grandpas led to some pretty fascinating people-watching experiences for all of us.
Oh...I almost forgot the best part of the night. We were sitting at dinner outside and a man on his phone and his tiny daughter passed by our table. Something intrigued the tiny girl to stop and say hi. She was so adorable as she explained to us that she was 3 years old and was wearing her favorite dress and minnie mouse sunglasses. She was so tiny that I was surprised by how smart and comfortable she was to be having a conversation with strangers. And to top it off when her dad said it was time to go we all said, "Bye" and she pressed her hands together, nodded her head, and said, "Namaste." What the?! Officially the cutest 3 year old on the face of the earth.

The rest of the weekend was spent binge-ing at greasy sports bars while feeding our football addiction. We went to an official Michigan (University de Tyler and Becca) bar to watch Michigan bring in a win.

And to an amazing little sports bar on Sunday to watch Chris and the Redskins pique our interests in the first half and then unfortunately endure a loss against the Panthers. There was some unhappy men at our table so I thought it would be good to suggest ice cream to boost the morale. As we were pulling up to DQ, Tanner gave me a puzzled look and asked where we were going. I said, we're getting ice cream! Oh, well I don't want any. He must have been really upset to not want ice cream. Although he won't admit it the cookie dough and lizard hunt really helped him forget why he was so grumpy.

This was the perfect retreat. Sometimes you need a weekend to lay low, eat snacks, play 'would you rather?' and enjoy life.

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