finally! an update!

I know I know I suck at updating! Let's see here...well Im loving my new job and so grateful for the flexibility. In the month of september I think my body just kinda shut down and in one month I had tonsilitis which turned into a throat abcess which was caused by mono and then two weeks later I got strep! It was so nice to have a job where I could just not go in if I didn't need to. I really feel like it was my bodies way of telling me that I've been running on empty for too long and I need to just chill.
In october it was my little man's 3rd birthday. It was such an amazing day. I suprised him by parking a jeep power wheel in the garage. He was so excited and that made it so worth it. The week after we went to DisneyLand with my family! What an amazing time we had. The kids loved every minute of it and my little man was fearless. He even did the tower of terror. Such a freaking stud.
Its been almost 10 months since Chris passed away and this time of year is already proving to be hard. All the decorations that we bought together...the nativities that chris bought me every year. But this is my favorite time of year and I'm determined to make it memorable for colin. Now enough of my blabbering here's some pics!

Group deals!!!

Hey all!!! My salon, Roxy carMichaels, is being featured on ksl.coms group deals! For today ONLY you can purchase a one hour facial and shampoo blowdry for $35(a $100 value) check us out...let your friends know. It'll also make a great birthday or christmas present you can give to someone!

I moved!!!

Although I've had enough changes in the last 7 months after a lot of searching and contemplating I made a huge decision to move to a new salon. I was at my last salon for 6 years and it was hard to say goodbye. I felt I needed a change and to put myself in a position to provide for Colin the best I can. I love where I'm at it is the perfect place for me!

lots of fun things...

This will all be a little out of order but that's okay. The first few pictures is of out 5th annual Hales Antelope Island trip. We love to go up and see the buffalo and watch the sun set on the longest day of the year.

On memorial day we had the "revealing" of Chris' beautiful headstone. NuArt monument did an amazing job and pretty much let me design it. They got it up for us 2 days before memorial day and it feels so good to have it finally placed.

Yes, it's true...I went to the backstreet boys concert! It was amazing. Luckily a few girls from work share the same teeny bopper obsession as I do. We made shirts saying "back streets back alright bsb!!!" Some other people made shirts too but I'm pretty confident that ours were the best of the best of the best! It was sort of a flash back to 10 years ago at their concert and frankly i loved every minute of it! BSB forever! HAHA~!

Fathers day...

It's been 19 weeks...19 life changing weeks. I have gone through more in these weeks than I ever thought I'd go through. But I have grown alot and I've amazed myself with my strength. I usually try to post positive and upbeat things because in all honesty I feel so peaceful. But there are nights like tonight, where I'm alone on a saturday night before fathers day, and it makes me miss him. So I guess what I want to say is Happy Fathers Day Chris!

cruise!!!

About a month ago i called jacki one night and asked if she wanted to go on a cruise with me...she said 'sure' and 2 days later we booked a cruise to catalina and encinada. Our goal was to relax, have fun and not do much of anything. We definitely did all that. And mostly laughed so hard we cried. This first one is of us in the airport in Pheonix on a layover, it was 8am and we'd already been awake for 4 hours....long day.
The second day was a "fun day at sea". And indeed it was a fun day at sea. It was formal night that night so here i am all glammed up! The third day was Catalina. All there really is to do is shop so we only spent about 3 hours there, but it is really really pretty and we found some cute stuff.


The 4th day we went to Encinada. The actual city itself is pretty dirty and gross but we luckily did what people suggested and took a bus up through the mountains to the blow hole. The drive was gorgeous and it was real cool to see. We also were able to do some real good mexico shopping their. With our blonde hair we attracted a lot of attention and had guys ask to have their pictures taken with us.



Okay so this last picture is my favorite picture...possibly of all time. If you have ever been on a cruise you know how they take cheesy pictures every night. Well the whole time jacki and i tried to get the cheesiest picture we could. Finally the last picture of the last night we got it. When we saw it we both fell down laughing. I had to buy it!

picnics and parties

April 22nd is Chris' bday. I decided to throw a memorial birthday bash. We had a pot luck dinner at sugar house park and wrote messages or memeories on black balloons(his fav color) with silver markers. We sent them off and the kids loved watching them float away. After the park a few of us went up to visit his grave(it has grass now) and Colin drew two pictures for his dad and picked out a car to give him for his birthday.



We had a fun picnic dinner at Wheeler farm with Ash and Annika. We have some pics of these two a year and a half ago on this same bench...too cute! All Colin wanted to do was ride on the tractor and look at the ducks.

This picture Annika sat up on the tractor with Colin and says "I'm the mommy and colin's the daddy"

Spring....

One of my favorite places to go is to SpringCity with the Janke clan. So that is what we did this last weekend. Colin got to ride a horse for the very first time and did really
well with it!

I really didn't get any good pictures of Colin in his super handsome Easter Outfit...but this is what he got for easter...a lightning Mcqueen scooter. He's a little timid on it right now, but by this summer i know he'll be racing around the neighborhood on that thing.

My #1

GeoTagged, [N40.73972, E111.82576]

I JUST learned how to blog from my phone! Wahooo! This is me and my boy on st. Patty's day! We were saying...'kiss us...we're irish'!

Back tracking...

Okay! So here's some pics I haven't posted yet. These first few are of my friend Brooke and her little boy. They got the first flight they could after Chris passed away and came up here to be with us. Love you guys!

This pic is of my mom and I in January about to run the St. George half marathon! We look cute cuz we haven't run yet...we do have some "after" pics...but I can't find those. We trained well and did a great job, ran the whole way and finished in about a 10 min mile the whole way...even with bad knees. We want to run some more half(and I'm trying to talk her into running a full with me)but right now we are rehabing our knees.

This last pic is from the funeral...My sis took alot more of the whole day. But this is the only one that i have on my camera. I will eventually print this whole blog out and turn it into a little "hales tales" scrapbook for Colin and me.

For those of you who want to know how we are doing, we are doing pretty well. Our house is officially up on the market...so if you know anyone who wants a super cute townhouse in a super cute development up north...let me know!

Life...

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone's support and love over this last month. And thank you to everyone who came to the funeral/viewing, for meals, notes everything!!! It's amazing how quickly life can change, I miss my husband and my little family. But I am so grateful for what I DO have, things could be worse and my child is the best thing to keep me going. Colin and I have moved from our cute house in davis county, to my parents house. I really feel like we need to be close to support and love. These are some cute pics of us over the last year or so.