FNCE!

This past week I had the wonderful experience of going to the annual Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo (FNCE) in Denver. The school paid for us six interns to go and then the junior and senior dietetic students were able to pay and go as well. All in all there was about 40 of us total.

Saturday morning at 5:15 we jumped on the bus and headed down to Denver. While I was dreading the bus ride (I get car sick easily), it turned out to be a pretty fun adventure. Between the bus ride there and back we had a sandra bullock movie marathon, held a Miss FNCE pageant, and told our most embarrassing stories. Needless to say, I am sure the bus driver was thrilled to be done with us by the end of it.

The conference was held in the down town Denver convention center and went from Sunday-Tuesday. There were a ton of classes to choose from throughout the day, but a few of my favorites were the class on omega fatty acids (we are kinda into that right now and Adam swears by his supplements) and the class on anti-inflammatory cooking. The key note speakers were from MSNBC and CNN and were awesome.

Besides classes, there was also and expo which had every food vender imaginable. Everyday at lunch time we just headed up to the expo for all the free food we wanted. A few of my favorite stops were the dryers ice cream booth, coke, and the noodle company. It was really fun to see all the new products that are coming out and how they are making them healthier. The venders were also giving out TONS of free stuff and so each day I went back to the hotel with a new bag of swag.

Although we were sent to the conference to learn, we definitely made time for some fun. Saturday night we went to the cheese cake factory for dinner. Sunday we went out for pizza followed by a devotional by Sister Michell and Sister Duncan. On Monday we ate at Dave and Busters and then went to the movies to see Whip it followed by some synchronized swimming. Finally on Tuesday we rounded out our week of fun by going to see Wicked at the theater. This was probably the highlight of the week.

While I was gone for 5 days Adam was holding down the fort at home and probably loving his time off from chores ha ha. He did get pretty lonely by the end of it and I was happy to get back home to him, but I am already planning my trip to FNCE next year in Boston!

Fence, Family, and Birthay!

We have been so busy lately! My family planned a trip to come visit us over October 9-11 for a pre-birthday celebration, so of course Adam and I had to just get one more project done before they came. Adam (with the help of our great neighbors) worked so hard to finish the rest of our fence before the family arrived. We installed it ourselves and put in a 12 ft. gate to accommodate the samurai, which means YES the samurai is finally out of the garage! We are so excited to have our last big yard project done so now we can just focus on adding some landscaping here and there.

Mom, dad, and Ashlyn arrived on October 9th and came straight down to visit me at BYU while I was finishing up teaching my weight loss class. We spent most of the day Friday and Saturday shopping. They got me some great boots, which I can't wait to wear, as well as some jeans and internship appropriate shirts.

Friday night we had a birthday dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, The Happy Sumo. On Saturday night we went to the BYU girls volleyball game, followed by dinner at the brick oven with my cousins. Finally on Sunday, my mom made one of my favorite meals (pork chops and homemade mac and cheese) and then we had some delicious ice cream cake from baskin robins! Our neighbors, Patrick and Shyla, stopped by for some birthday cake and brought me a beautiful cross stitch of Christ that she had made. It was such a thoughtful gift and I can't wait to hang it in our house. My family had to take off Sunday night, which always breaks my heart a little bit, but we were so happy that they came to see us.

As if I haven't been spoiled enough, Adam took me out to dinner on my actual birthday (Oct. 16) to Iggy's. It was nice to spend some time as just the two of us, as life has been so crazy lately and to make it worse I was about to leave for Denver for 5 days. For my birthday Adam gave me the new T-mobile mytouch. It is really the coolest little phone and we have been having so much fun playing with it. All in all it has just been a great few weeks spending time with family and friends and makes me realize how lucky I am to have all these wonderful people in my life.