Nov 3, 2010

Bridge School Benefit Concert

Ashlee and I just recently made a trip to attend The Bridge School Benefit Concert. The concert is a 2 day event put on by Neil Young that has been held for the past 24 years in Mountain View, California. It's unique from other music festivals in that all bands play strictly acoustic sets, and with it being a benefit concert they let all the kids who attend The Bridge School up on the stage for the best seats in the house. All the kids in the school have severe speech and physical impairments, but in-spite of being limited in their movements you could often see them in the back with big smiles dancing in their own way.
The weather for the weekend was very wet. They announced in 24 years this was only the second time it had rained. You can imagine how thrilled we were to have had that luck. Specifically Ashlee... who does so well in the rain. During the first day of the concert we more or less froze after the sun went down. It started raining so hard at one point the group of us were huddled up on our soaking wet blanket taking shelter beneath a child sized umbrella.

The second day of the concert we came much better equipped. We stopped at Home Depot and stocked up on some ponchos and a couple tarps. We were glad we did because when we made it to our spot on the grass it was raining even harder then it was the day before. We used our tarps to create what ended up being some sort of makeshift bed since we all just hopped in between the tarps and hid inside them. We looked like the grandparents from Willy Wonka and The Chocolate factory with all of us sharing what looked like a big bed. I'm sure we looked ridiculous to everyone around us but we did stay warm. Our friend ended up buying an industrial strength rain suit. So while the rest of us were hiding under the tarp, this is how he took his nap....
(It may sound strange that we all took naps but during an all day festival full of excitement you do what you gotta do.)



The actual bands and music were fantastic. The lineup was incredible with the most notable act being Pearl Jam (most notable according to me). Some other notable bands were Neil Young, Elvis Costello, Elton John, Jackson Browne, Modest Mouse, Billy Idol, and Buffalo Springfield who played their first show in over 40 years.

Here is Ashlee's favorite song of the night:




And here is a video we found on YouTube of some highlights of the concert:


Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to this handsome guy.
I am so lucky to have such a wonderful husband. He is my favorite person in the world and I am so happy he is mine forever.
I love you Nick!

Oct 11, 2010

Do you believe in magic?

{September 23-25}
We had so much fun at Disneyland this year. We are so lucky to be able to get the entire family together each year to enjoy the happiest place on earth! It's such a fun tradition and I'm already looking forward to next time.

Nick made a fun little video of a few clips I got during the trip. He told me I couldn't post it unless I wrote a disclaimer explaining a few things.
So just so you all know... I took about 10 short clips with my shaky, not HD point and shoot camera. Little did I know, when you are shooting video, you have to shoot it all horizontally. Obviously I didn't realize that until we got home, so try to ignore the big black gaps on the sides of the shots I took vertically. Also, sorry if it makes you dizzy when people are moving too fast. That's the cameras fault, not mine... I think.
So basically I didn't really give Nick much to work with and he made the whole thing in about 20 minutes. But I still love what he did with it.





Another tradition we all love... new shoes! Every year, on top of paying for all the Disneyland tickets and our hotels, my dad buys the whole group a new pair of shoes. Isn't he great?










THANKS DAD!
We love you so much... and the socks too :)

Sep 12, 2010

Fish Lake

{August 21}

We went to Fish lake this year for the Chappell's annual camping trip. Nick's dad is from Loa so their family goes there every year for the town's celebration. Nick had to work on Saturday so we had to miss the parade and fair, but based on the large amount of candy the kids had
in their grocery bags it must have been a good one.

(We all got a little split up throughout the day so I'm sorry I wasn't able to get pictures of everybody.)




The kids fished, the boys swam in the freeeeeezing cold water, we ate lots of great food and yummy snacks, and then... went to the demolition derby.
Never in my life did I think I would be going to a demolition derby, let alone loving every second of it.
They are so entertaining! I was honestly disappointed when it was over.






We had such a great time. I couldn't ask for better in-laws. They are so nice and fun to be around.

Sep 5, 2010

Happy Birthday Mom!

You are the most loving, kind, humble, selfless person in the entire world. And everyone who knows you agrees. You are my greatest example and my best friend. I love you so much!
She's beautiful right?
Then and now.

{Mom and her kids}

PS- Yes i know, we are horrible at blogging lately. I have big plans to get better at it but I guess we'll see.
New posts coming very soon (maybe).
:)

Jul 19, 2010

Happy Birthday



It's Ashlee's Birthday today and whenever her birthday comes it always reminds me of about three years ago when I took Ash on what I considered our first date. I had known Ashlee for a few months, we met at Pizza Factory where we both worked. We had spent some time outside of work but not nearly enough by my watch. In spite of the limited time we spent together, I was already absolutely crazy about her. I would attempt to find any excuse I could to see her. I wouldn't be surprised if my hours doubled during the time she worked with me. I was dying to take her out so I used the excuse of her birthday to get me a date. One day after our shifts were over I asked her If she wanted to go to dinner to celebrate her birthday. I asked almost expecting an excuse to why she couldn't go, it was nothing short of impossible to get her to commit to one night, but to my surprise she said yes.

We planned on going to dinner on a Saturday. I remember I went on an overnight fishing trip to fish lake with my friends that weekend, and we were planning on coming back the Saturday of our date. I don't think I thought about anything but taking Ashlee out the entire time I was out fishing. Saturday afternoon came and I couldn't help pack up fast enough. I had so much anxiety about not making it home in time and missing out on my chance to spend the night with Ashlee, I was willing to start hitchhiking my way home if we weren't able to leave that campground on time. You had never seen someone pack as up as fast as I did that afternoon. Luckily, I think my friends could see my sense of panic and we were able to leave the lake on time.

After I made it home from camping I got all cleaned up for the night and I moved onto my next step of preparation.. a lot of nervous pacing. I thought this night was my chance to let Ashlee see just how much I liked her and things would really take off. After my vigorous pacing session I went over and picked Ash up from her house. I still remember two things very clearly... As cliche as it to say.. I still remember what she was wearing and how she looked (black and white striped shirt and incredible)... but what I recall just as clearly is looking in her house and seeing just how many bouquets of flowers were sitting in there. I found this very troubling at the time (I was also a little troubled with the amount of Captain Jack Sparrow memorabilia in her room, it was already hard enough to win Ash over without including fictional characters.) I knew I had competition, but I underestimated just how much. After that the night was a blur it went by way too quick like any night with a pretty girl does and it was capped off with a hug as I said goodbye. I spent the night lying in bed wishing i could spend every night like that. The funny thing is that night didn't make things "take off" for us, it wasn't until about two years later that we started dating. But, this is the night I can't help but think of when Ash's birthday rolls around.

Today is supposed to be the day I spend spoiling Ash, but more than anything else today serves as a reminder to me how spoiled I am to be able to call her my wife. I couldn't imagine someone more perfect for me. You have no idea how happy it made me to leave her some flowers on the kitchen table and know they were the only bouquet I had to worry about.

Jul 7, 2010

This is what you get...

when you marry a nerd.

Or is it a geek? Not sure. Nick tried explaining the difference to me once but obviously didn't succeed. All I know, is that he is a little of both... geek & nerd.

And I love that about him.


This is our office. This was the first room in our house to get finished. Nick was so excited to have an office, he built our "mega desk" before we were even married. Obviously, Its great to have a nerdy husband when it comes to electronics. I mean, we are newlyweds and we have four computers. Soon to be three though. I'll be selling my mac. I guess nerds just don't like macs. Ok that's not entirely true. Nick just turned my pc into a faster, better mac with a bigger screen so I'm not complaining.
Our office normally doesn't look this clean though. Nerdy husbands love to tear things apart only to put them back together to tear them apart again. Normally, there are computer parts, xbox parts, play station parts, and other parts I can't really identify all over his side of the desk. But still, I'm not complaining. He buys broken electronics off ebay or ksl, fixes them and sells them again to make some extra money for us. He helps my family with their broken computers, broken ipods, you name it. He spends lots of time helping people out with these kinds of things and we are all grateful for it.



This is our living room. Our house is finally starting to look like a home and I love it. We have our darling new chair (Thanks Nila!), our new...but very old record player (that Nick somehow made work), our cute coffee table boxes (Thanks Dad :), and.... our tv. Our very high tech, hard to figure out tv. Because you see, when you marry a nerd.... you have to have the best of the best when it comes to tv quality, surround sound, media center, remote control, etc etc, on and on and on.

So... welcome to the back of our tv.


Pretty right? No. Not pretty at all. And that's not it. Not even close. Although he has done a better job at hiding the other cables, we have some that run from our computers upstairs... outside the window... down to the tv.... around the couch to some hidden speakers in the bookshelves.... back out the window and into our unfinished basement where, according to Nick, all the magic happens.

Meet our roommate, Phil.


You know in the wizard of oz when the big reveal occurs that there is really a man inside the machine controlling everything. That is kind of like what walking in our basement feels like except there is no man involved just an arcade with a man's name. This is Phil. I don't know why he is called Phil, but all of Nick's friends and even his family refer to it as Phil. Nick isn't even sure of how he got his name but none the less it has never been referred to as anything else. Nick has Phil connected to what seems like everything in our house. Whenever we watch movies or use netflix somehow or other he's the one in charge of it. I don't really understand how it all works I just know there is a big white button by our tv that brings him to life. Nick has gone over how to run it all with me before, but there is a better chance of me learning a foriegn language then figuring out how to start watching a movie on our tv. Ill walk downstairs sometimes and see Nick's legs sticking out from under the arcade and when I ask what he is doing to it he just lets me know that "Phil is sick". I even remember one time being awake at night after Nick had fallen asleep and I was spooking myself out thinking that someone was trying to break into our home. When I woke Nick up to try to make myself feel better, he rolled over to cuddle me, barely awake and let me know that everything was okay because Phil was sleeping in the basement. A part of me thinks he was really serious.

So... what do you get when you marry a nerd?
A few cords here and there, a pretty hip computer, an arcade in the basement that controls your house.... and one perfect husband.

I feel so lucky to have him. Nerdiness and all.

Jun 20, 2010

HAPPY FATHERS DAY


Happy Fathers Day to my wonderful Dad!
Thank you for your kindness. Thank you for our fun lunches to Tom's Deli & Pizza Factory. Thank you for taking us all to Disneyland every year. Thank you for teaching me how to work hard. Thank you for always picking me up from school on the Harley and revving the engine really loud so everyone saw how cool my dad was. Thank you for your texts. Thank you for basically letting me grow up at Lake Powell. Thank you for sitting on the porch with me to teach me about the stars when I was younger. Thank you for your letters & emails. Thank you for teaching me to love all kinds of music. Thank you for always being there for me. Thank you Thank you Thank you.... for everything you do and so much more.
Love, Your "pretty girl"



Jun 9, 2010

Wedding Video

Ashlee and I finally got around to watching our wedding video. It turned out really well our videographer did a great job. I had no idea they were actually recording video the entire night. The cameras they were using were just DSLR's so if during the video you notice me staring straight at the camera, it's in an attempt to figure out who these people were taking pictures us and exactly why they wanted us to "walk slowly" towards them.

(double click on it to make it big)


Nick & Ash Wedding Video from Nick Chappell on Vimeo.

May 18, 2010

Thrift store goodies

Over the last couple months I have become a thrift store regular. You know... like the crazy lady you see at DI every single time you go. That's me. At first, I was trying to find a few things for the wedding. But lately, I have been collecting plates to decorate my kitchen with. After seeing a plate I loved at Urban Renewal for 6$ and finding that exact same plate later that day for 1$ at DI in St. George, I decided I wasn't going to spend over 2 dollars on any plate for my wall... just to make it more fun. (My mom did buy me one from Tai Pan though, she said it belonged up there, I agreed.) I'm still adding a few more and maybe replacing a few but as of now, this is my plate wall...
Who knew decorating could be so fun?

"They sell baby formula and they sell coffins. You literally buy everything you need from birth to death."

{March 2010}
After just a few short weeks of being engaged, Ashlee and I have hit our first big milestone. We are now Costco members. Getting a Costco membership is a big event. You would think putting the ring on her finger is when things felt official, but no sliding that black membership card into my wallet is when things starting feeling very real. It never occurred to me that we were a “couple” until I was loading our oversized cart with an equally oversized package of toilet paper... As a kid I always remember being in this store thinking about how great it would be to buy one of the 5 gallon buckets of Laffy Taffy's or a tub of red vine's they had available, but instead here I was as an adult buying enough toilet paper to stock every room in a small hotel.
The reason we got our cards was because Ashlee's Dad was nice enough to help us out and buy a bed for our future home. I have bought a bed before, but at Costco it is a little different. Instead of having someone wheel it to your vehicle you're in charge of picking it up the same way you would milk. We had to find one their cart/forklift hybrids and load it up ourselves. I knew king size beds were large, but when you're trying to maneuver your way though crowded aisles full of people in line for free ravioli samples it occurs to you just how large they are. To make matters worse, you know there is no room for error. You veer to the right and bump the display on the end of the aisle? You've got a bulk sized mess. Ashlee and I were laughing the entire time because we looked so ridiculous. If it wasn't hard enough to make it out of the store already, she kept asking if she could lay on it while I pushed it through the store, but I wasn't having it. Eventually, we managed to make it through the store and pay. After the cashier congratulated us on becoming Costco members we were on our way out. As we were approaching the exit to the door I was expecting the man guarding the exit to pull out a trophy instead of the usual Sharpe for the feat we had just accomplished.
Unfortunately, that isn't where the story ends. Taking a bed home on the freeway is an extremely stressful task. The entire time all that is crossing your mind is how the one item that seems to find itself on the side of the freeway all too often is a mattress. I guess giant squares and strong gusts of wind don't play nice. Having Ashlee at my side makes it even more stressful. She has a gift at finding things to stress about and she can take me from being calm and collective to worried out of my mind in under a minute. She almost had me worried enough to pull out the only fail proof way to transfer a mattress down the freeway... rolling down my window and securing it with my left hand. Luckily, we didn't have to resort to that and we ended up making it safely home. Thanks to that, Ashlee had a bed to sleep on, which is a good thing because she needed that sleep so she could be fully rested for our Costco trip the next afternoon.

May 17, 2010

"Love and some verses."

A few months back when Ashlee and I were still dating we came to the
decision that when we got married we wanted to start a blog. Now the
time has come for me to make good on that agreement, and although it's
not as easy as it may have seemed when we first thought it out we're
going to give it a shot. There has been so much that has happened in
our lives the past month that I can't recap it all. I thought that
the transition into marriage would take awhile, but it's amazing how
quick it happens. Since our honeymoon life has been a blur of
decorating, Everbody Loves Raymond, Mac & Cheese, and lectures on
“leaving things open”. It may not sound like a lot of fun, but I
couldn't love it more. We will be the first to admit we really don't
have a reason to start a blog, but this will be our way to share some
music, pictures, and for me to talk about how much I love my wife
every now and again.