His & Hers: Have Cake and Smear It Too

I was looking through wedding pictures today and smiled at our "cut the cake" scene. With my dream cake (including cup cake tower and specialty gluten-free topper!) we had quite the ammunition ready. We started as the picture of lovey dovey bliss:

... but then competitiveness took the better of us, even in our fancy outfits and this happened:

The cake battle raged for a good 90 seconds, and I can proudly say I've never seen one quite as fierce as ours. We both ended up smiling and cake-smeared like this:

Question is, who do you think will start the food fights when we have kids?

p.s. Many thanks to my dad for capturing these shots!

Ryan On Top of the World

Check him out! Anything resembling defying gravity? Count Ryan in. He's such an adventurist.

Although we have differing opinions about snow, I was sure glad for his half day in Park City this weekend. He went with friends and came back a happy man. (Thanks, Sage!)

Hopefully I'll learn someday to enjoy snow sports too. My self-attempts at snowboarding in the past few years were painful lessons in bruising techniques. Then again, that was before I married Ryan. We'll see if he'll help teach me ...

What about you? Snow lover or hater?

New Year's Resolutions 'MINT' to be?

We're almost three weeks into 2012, how are your resolutions going?

If you happen to have a financial resolution this year, Ryan and I wanna share a little something that makes a BIG difference for us: mint.com.

We're not compensated for this post, but just wanna share how mint has given us something valuable: the ease of knowing exactly where we're at financially. We can check it anytime, anywhere with our smartphones and know what purchases we've made, how much is in our accounts, or if we've just gone overboard on a recent purchase. I'm not into budgeting, and thankfully mint takes the headache out of it.

What does mint do? It securely consolidates all accounts into one place, giving your full financial picture. Best of all, it's FREE. They make their money by offering money advice, which you can choose to bypass if you want. Here's our advice, on the house: Give mint a try.

Are you already using mint? Give a shout out here!

A Big Reason Why I Married Ryan

Just look at his mega-watt smile!!!

He makes me smile everyday...

Enough said.

Care to share? We wanna know ... what's a big reason you married your spouse?

Don't Forget to Remember

Today Ryan and I joined thousands of thankful citizens who lined Washington Blvd. for the funeral procession of fallen Officer Francom. Although a solemn occasion, I’ve never personally witnessed anything like the powerful memorial today, with hundreds of police cars from all over the country. Silence swept the shivering crowd as the fire truck passed carrying Francom’s American flag-covered casket.
What a beautiful tribute to Ogden’s fallen officer. It was reverent as we thought about what him, a man most of us didn’t know, but whom we owe so much. Francom was shot while serving a search warrant last Wednesday night with 11 other members of the Weber-Morgan Narcotics Strike Force. He died early Thursday morning at Ogden Regional Medical Center.
While we were waiting with the crowd, I spoke with a woman who said four words I found quite profound; “We forget to remember.” It’s so true. It’s so easy to go about our daily lives without remembering the selfless service of those who protect our communities at home and our freedoms abroad.

Thank you, Ogden Police and Fire Departments. Thank you, Boy Scouts, for lining the funeral procession with your flags. Thank you, service men and women for all you do to make this country the land of the free and the home of the brave.

I took the above picture from our 6th floor at MarketStar - we could see the cars coming for nearly two hours. Quite an amazing tribute.

Sounds like Crystal Light

I just shared this as my 500 word "intro" in my online editing class - figured I might as well share it here too...

Nice to meet ya, I’m Crystalee. My name’s always given me a unique edge, serving as a conversation starter. Yes, it’s all one word. No, I’m not from the South like all those Southern belles with double names. At times I’ve been dubbed “Crystal Light” and “Sara Lee,” and no, I don’t mind being associated with likeable, sugary sweets.

While my patient husband will attest I’m not always sugary sweet, I’m quite a people-person, and an introspective soul. A first born, I naturally tend to be too hard on myself, with an insatiable drive to progress. With that insight, I’ll answer for you an oft-asked job interview question: what three words describe me? Friendly, active, and creative – here’s why:

Friendly

A fact about me I hope will be recorded in my obituary decades from now: I was voted “Friendliest” of my 750+ high school class. It was quite an honor to be recognized for my friend-making ability. It’s true that I love meeting new people, and have a personal motto that “there are no strangers – just friends you haven’t met yet.” Of course use caution with sketchy characters, but for the most part, I believe people are good and everyone has a unique story. I find that my life’s greatest joy is found in relationships, and when I look back at high school and college (I graduated with a communications degree from BYU in 2009), memories with friends and family are my favorite parts.

Active

It’s no secret I take pride in staying physically active and being an adventurous explorer. I was bit by the running bug as a track athlete in high school, and since have trained for half marathons. So far I’ve completed five, with the most recent in Maui. My husband, who can do impressive backflips, recruited me to try out two sprint triathlons. While he creamed me in the swimming and biking, I did beat him in the 5k runs. As for my wanderlust – I was a full-time flight attendant after college, granting me wings to fly. Last year, I made a big check on the bucket list when I finished seeing all 50 states at age 25. A year ago, my Ryan and I ventured across the globe to Sydney, Australia, a trip we’ll never forget.

Creative

While I’m a fan of color and design, words are my favorite palette. Mixing and molding them into power-punch sentences brings me great joy. I love, love, love to write. Words amaze me, and I get to wrangle them in my full-time position as Marketing Writer at MarketStar. I write for clients like Microsoft and Yahoo! and contribute to internal writing, all while monitoring social media. I purposefully chose this class as an elective and look forward to learning and sharpening my editing skills. I anticipate starting Weber’s Master of Professional Communication program this May, pending my acceptance…Dr. Josephson...wink, wink!

Feel free to reach out, connect on LinkedIn or Twitter – I'm all about keeping things social online and LOVE comments!

Photography by Tim Pannell. Check out his work.

Another Meaning for 'CTR'

In our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we're apparently huge fans of acronyms. If you're a Mormon, you'll recognize these. If not, here's a 101:

BYC = Bishop's Youth Council

D&C = Doctrine & Covenants

CTR = Choose the Right

EFY = Especially for Youth

LDS = Latter-day Saint

MTC = Missionary Training Center

RM = Return Missionary

VT = Visiting Teacher

YM/YW = Young Men/Young Women

YSA = Young Single Adult

It seems every English-speaking Mormon kid, from the time they recognize letters is taught that "CTR" stands for "Choose the Right."

This year, we're teaching a group of rowdy (but adorable) 4-5 year olds in Primary, and started off the new year giving them CTR rings. They were a hit, and a better enticement to sit still than anything else we could come up with. It will be interesting to see how many of them actually still have their rings a week later...

In our home, there's an extra meaning for "CTR." Ryan told me when we were dating it stands for CHOOSE THE RYAN. Obviously, I believed him.

Never Too Old to be the Birthday Girl

(I've never been one to let my birthday go unannounced. Wink!)

I love having my birthday at this time of year.

You see, it's always an especially exciting time with Christmas/New Year's/Birthday all in a row. On top of that, early January is a built-in system to keep track of my mortal sojourn. New year? New year of my life - literally. By the way, today I'd need six hands to show "how many fingers" I am - 26.

I've got more than a girl could ask for - a loving husband who can backflip, keeps things fun, and knows how to cook. Amazing family and friends who inspire me, (you're likely one of them, if you're reading this) my health, and my faith. Life is good. Thanks for being part of mine.

Would you mind doing me a teeny favor that would be a big deal on my birthday? Will you please click on "Join this Site" to the right and become a member of our blog? It's an easy (free!) gift to me, one that makes me smile big! (Ryan can attest to this.) It is just so nice to know who's out there "listening." I love your comments, too.

If you've already joined, here's a {hug}. This writer girl thanks you for reading.

6 Months Without Sugar

That's right. Tomorrow marks six months without sweets...I did it!

On 4th of July 2011 I decided to declare my independence from sugar. I realized I'd become more dependent on the sweet stuff than I wanted to be. Since I'm already practiced in self-restraint as a gluten-free girl, I figured waiting until my birthday (Jan 4) would be a worthy challenge.

The first week was the hardest - I'd crave chocolate like mad woman, my previous downfall. I've only made it these six months by finding healthy substitutes - fruit smoothies save my life. That's one way to recharge your taste buds; take out the artificial stuff, and the natural sugars in fruit suddenly become more sweet.

Ryan says I oughta keep it up forever, (while he's eating his personal ice-cream carton in front of me) although I think I'm just going to be more selective in what sweets I eat from now on. Keep them rare. Tomorrow: birthday SHERBET!

p.s. As an almost-birthday girl request, will you please join our blog? I can see many of you often come back for more Our Beck Treks, and your follow would be a most appreciated gift. :) Just click on "Join this Site" on the right side of the screen. Many thanks.

p.s.s. Did you notice the new sections I added yesterday? One's called "Best of Treks."

Missing New Year's - Part 3 of 3

Best for last! Our first day in Sydney, we went to church, where we met the most amazing family and cutest kids EVER. When we think of this trip, they come to mind first; they made it special. You'll soon see why.

January 2, 2011

We enjoyed the ward, full of Australian accents and multi-cultural backgrounds. Only one American family in the bunch, the Swintons were quick to introduce themselves. They went to BYU and were glad to see us. It was so nice of them to invite us over for dinner. We were both famished and happy to accept a home-cooked meal. The three Swinton kids were so adorable, we were sad to say goodbye. Stan drove us to our hostel and offered for us to stay with them this weekend. How NICE!!

We did stay with them, and they were godsends as our hosts, friends and tour guides. Their generosity and kindness still amaze us - they treated us like family.

They took us to Featherdale Park, where we got to pet/feed kangaroos and koala bears (I was flipping out, I was so excited).

They also took us on a day trip to the Blue Mountains, a national park. Although quite foggy that day, we really enjoyed the company of the Stan and the darling Swinton girls. (Ryan couldn't help but hold their hands and give them shoulder rides...he's a sucker for cute little kids.)

With their insiders expertise on Sydney, they took us to a little-known beach, a lovely place with a magical little bridge leading to an island. We played in the sand until it got dark, wishing we lived within babysitting distance of our rad new friends.

They showed us around the Sydney Aquatic Centre, now a family fun water park, where the Olympic events were held in 2000. Ryan, naturally, did his swimmer thing and swam lengths. I got in a length, just to say I did it.

We want the Swintons to know we feel so blessed we met you and still talk about memories with you. We hope to have a rad family like yours someday. You really were the best part of Australia, and totally made it worth missing New Year's Eve. Stan and Eish - you're such great parents. Kiddos - we miss you guys. Happy New Year!