The Bienz's: July 2008

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Upcoming Vacation!

My husband's birthday is coming up on the 16th of August, which is 2 weeks from Saturday. He finally told me on Monday, where we're going on our trip for it! All this time he's been keeping it a surprise for me, even though it's for his birthday. haha

Friday, August 15th, we'll leave on a 6 am flight to Seattle, Washington. We'll spend the day in Seattle, see the temple, go to the Space Needle, etc. We'll stay the night in Seattle and leave early Saturday morning for Anchorage, Alaska! I am SO excited! I never thought I would ever go to Alaska! We're going to see the temple there too and maybe go to the zoo or something. We want to see all of the cool animals that we can't see here in the hot climate that live in Alaska. We'll then leave on a red eye flight around midnight Saturday night to come back home to Phoenix. We should be home around 7 am Sunday morning.

I am very excited, have I said that already? The best part of the whole thing is that all we have to pay for is the one night in the hotel and food/souveneirs. Dan's aunt Rita is coming with us and she's taking care of the flights since she works for Alaska Airlines and the rental car! We love traveling so much and this is a perfect opportunity for us to get out of town for a couple days, relax, celebrate his birthday, and see some neat places all before we start up school again. I'll definitely be posting lots of pictures when we get home!

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Wedding Weekend #2

This past weekend, we were able to take part in a 2nd wedding. Aubrey Hanks married Nicholas Burke on Saturday, July 26th. I was one of the 2 bridesmaids along with Becky Hyde and her sister Shenan Hanks as the Maid of Honor.

Friday evening, we had the rehearsal at the Wright House. It was very beautiful and perfect for Aubrey and Nick. We ran through the processional 2 or 3 times and then talked a little about the music and we were done! We all headed over to the Landmark for dinner afterward. The dinner was probably the most interesting part of the whole event. But still fun and it was very nice to get to see everyone together by ourselves. We also got some nice time to visit with Shenan and her boyfriend Josh again over dinner.

Saturday morning, Danny got up and went golfing with all the men of the wedding party. It was very nice for them to invite him since he wasn't in the actual wedding. He had a lot of fun and got to know Nick a little bit better.

During all of this, we girls all went to a place at the Tempe Marketplace to get pedicures and our nails done. It was so much fun and SO nice. They did my pedicure and put a full set of nails on me at the same time. All 5 of us (Aubrey, Shenan, Aubrey's mom, grandma & I) were out of there in an hour and 15 minutes. It was pretty impressive.

The 3 of us girls went back to Aubrey's house, ate lunch and waited for the hair girls to show up. They got there about noon and started on my hair first. We all got our hair done and Shenan and I had our make-up done while we watched "The Prince and Me" together. It was a lot of fun to just be there with a bunch of close girlfriends before such a wonderful event. We all went over to the Wright House for pictures at 4:30. (Those prof. pictures will come when Aubrey gets home from the honeymoon and can email me some) People started showing up for the wedding, and we started walking down the aisle at 6:30. I was balling almost the whole time. Aubrey & Nick looked so happy, and I was so grateful to be able to share such a special event with the two of them and the few others who were there.

The reception started right after, and it was so much fun because it kind of turned into a mini band reunion. It was neat to see that even though we are all doing our own thing now and a bunch of us are married and living all over, that we all come back together again for things like one of our buddies weddings. It was kind of the same at Dan & my wedding, just not as big. It was so much fun! I am SO happy for Nick and Aubrey and hope they have nothing but happiness ahead!

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Our Sweet Dogs

Daniel and I really love our puppies. Although only one of them actually is a puppy, the other 2 seem to think they're still little babies. I should probably introduce them before I start talking about them as if we all know who they are... :)

First we have Mika. 5 year old Chihuahua (who Danny thinks is mixed with some kind of cattle dog after seeing one at the pet store in the mall). She is probably the biggest drama queen you'll ever meet. She is the one in charge of the other 2 dogs. She thinks she is a big scary guard dog and barks her little girly bark at any strange noise she thinks she hears.

Next, we have Quimby. 5 year old Chihuahua mix who we think is mixed with a Jack Russell Terrier. He is thinks he is a baby and is afraid of just about everything. He doesn't play with toys or the other 2 dogs. He is perfectly content to sit and have you rub his belly all day long.

Finally, our newest addition to the family, Sadie. 8 month old Lab/Pit Bull Mix. (They said she was a lab mix at the humane society, but we've pretty much decided she is definitely mixed with a pit bull) Her name is actually Mercedes, but only because that way we can tell people that we have a dog named Mercedes Bienz and then they'll leave us alone. We have never actually called her that though. She is a sweetheart and a very big baby; very smart though. She and Mika are pretty much best friends and play together all the time. Mika always needs to have whatever toy Sadie has, even if it is a rawhide bone that is so big it hardly fits in Mika's mouth...

Watching and taking care of these 3 is definitely preparing us for parenting. They really are more like 3 kids than you'd think. All with their own personalities and mannerisms, it makes it very fun and sometimes challenging.

Lately, their newest thing has been escaping out of the backyard when we lock them out. And by they, I mean Mika. Sadie sometimes helps out, by digging the holes under the fences with her shovel paws. But Mika has jumped on top of tables and through the slots in the fence on her own multiple times also. She is obviously bitter that she has to be locked outside and is trying to tell us that we need to stop doing that to her. Quimby has gotten out with Mika a couple of times but not many. He is too afraid to leave and run the neighborhood without one of us.

We're kinda torn on what to do because we can't leave Sadie inside while we sleep or while we're gone because she chews everything up. (So far we've lost one, almost 2 of our couch cushions, a pair of Dan's glasses, a photo album from our honeymoon, a nerf football, 2 Wii nunchucks and 1 Wii classic controller, 1 Wii controller skin, many bags of garbage, etc.) But I feel bad locking her outside and letting the other 2 dogs have free reign of the air conditioned house. But it isn't good for Mika and Quimby to be outside very long anyway since they're so small. Luckily it's been rainy so it hasn't been too hot.

What do you think we should do? I mean look at these angels. They could never do anything wrong...right?

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Temples

When Dan and I got married, we counted up all the temples we'd seen together already (3), and then the 4 more we would see together on our honeymoon, and we decided to make it a goal to see all the U.S. Temples together sometime before we die. Obviously all the temples in the world would be cool, but we both know that'll will never happen. Plus there is a healthy chunk in the United States anyway.

It's been a fun project and goal to work on and achieve together. It's amazing how no matter where we are, in any part of the country, any state, any city, the spirit is always the same. The temples are always just a beautiful. I love going to see the special beauty in each one.

While they do all have the same spirit, they all have something unique about them, which is neat to see. Then to be able to look back at all the pictures and remember what was different about each one, or what was going on in our lives when we saw each one is fun too. I highly recommend it! Here are some pictures from the ones we've seen so far. Enjoy!