A Weekend With the Islanders...

As some of you know, 2 weekends ago we had the priviledge of hanging out with my dear brother Christy (his name is Chris but we like to call him that) and his cute prego wife Cheryl who came to visit all the way from Hawaii! It was a weekend full of Guitar Hero, baby showers, Juno, the "couch game", yummy food, the "big chunks" story, home movies, and much laughter. We miss them already. Cheryl got tons of cute baby clothes! It was fun just to hang out with the SILs and some of Cheryl's close friends at the shower and chit chat. Us girls just need girl time sometimes. Mandy and Suz made some really yummy soups and Jamie made rolls shaped like binkies. They were super cute! I wish I would have taken a picture...actually I forgot to take any pictures at the shower, sorry Cheryl. I think we all forgot because we were just having so much fun. Trey and I went out with Jen and Shaun to see Juno, that is such a good movie! We were laughing our heads off. I totally give it 5 stars. I think my favorite part of the weekend was when we broke out the old home videos and we were all watching Bryan being the animated little kid that he was..."Hey guys, I just popped out of California, ah ha ha!" Only those present would get that one. Good times! Oh and I think I had everyone laughing pretty good when I told Mom's "big chunks" story. If only all of you could have been there, it was classic! Here are a few pictures of the fun at the Brenchley household...

Mandy rockin out. I love Chris and Cheryl posing in the background. Ahh cute!

Look at that concentration!

Mike sportin' the scruff...

My hot hubby, he's a natural

The guests of honor, Chris looks like a little boy

Anna was all ready to go play in the snow while we had Cheryl's shower, she's so stinkin cute!

We celebrated my birthday and my fam sang and Mike made me a most delicious cake! Cheryl looks quite mezmorized by it, and Chris was just excited to be there

Yum! It was very MOIST. Good job Mike D!

You're not hardcore...unless you live hardcore

I don't think anyone in the family saw my hair when i put it in liberty spikes. A simple equation of egg whites + blow dryer = awesome hair. It wasn't that difficult to do, and considering it was my first time I think it turned out pretty good. I could not have done it without my trusty assistant Michelle. Oh yeah, the explanation as to WHY I did this to my hair. I had a class last semester called Human Behavior and Dress. One of the assignments was to drastically change your appearance for the day and record your thoughts, impressions, and others' reactions. Needless to say, people treated me differently. Most wouldn't make eye contact, but I could see through the reflection of windows that they took seconds looks as I walked away. It was pretty funny. Anyway, enjoy the pics and have a wonderful Thursday. The first one is a before pic and the others are during and after. I think it beats Chris's Mo Hawk...

6 Things You Might Not Know About Trey...

Nicole (my SIL) tagged me awhile back to write about 6 things that none of you may know about my cute hubby bubby, Trey Colin Banbury. So here it goes...

• This boy loves the outdoors! Camping, hiking, river rafting, spelunking, backpacking - you name it, he loves it. I think his favorite part about it is the cooking, dutch oven style! Yumm! He's really good at cooking dutch oven and he enjoys it but I think he enjoys eating it the most. One thing he hasn't experienced yet is boating so we hope to go this summer before we take off to an unknown land...

• Trey has an excellent memory. He can watch a movie once and start quoting full paragraphs from it! It baffles the mind! And he likes to do the voices too which makes it even better(we are big movie/tv quoters). His memory helps him do well in school and on tests especially. After he looks over his notes a few times he can picture his notes in his head and read through them to find answers! Can you believe that?!? Yeah...hopefully the kids inherit that gift!
  

• He LOVES music. And it's not just Indie Rock that he loves, he's also a big fan of funk, motown, 80s new wave, and one of his favorite artists is...Stevie Wonder!!! Bet you didn't guess that one! Yeah, when he told me that one day I was like "Huh?" I totally thought he was joking. Oh and he is also a fan of a certain musical that Donny Osmond stars in "...go go go Joseph you know what they say..." Yes, he loves the music from Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat! Trey loves to rock out on his drums and have his friends come over and jam with him. He's sad that he'll have to get rid of his drums when we go to med school but is excited to pick up a new, more compact and not so loud instrument, the guitar.

• He is just a big kid. If you think I was joking on our blog title of saying that we are two 5-year-olds trapped in 23-year-old bodies, you are sorely mistaken! We always joke with people that ask us when we are going to have kids that I already have one and he is quite a handful! He loves to make up funny little songs and names for me. He loves to play with fire and fireworks and make things explode. He loves when the nieces and nephews come over for playtime. He'll turn on the music and dance with them, play nintendo, build forts, and wrestle. He's really good at giving me the puppy dog eyes and it usually gets him what he wants because how do I say no to that? When it's just me and him hanging out, a lot of the times we just say "if anyone saw us right now they would think we were the craziest people on earth!" We have alot of fun though and he always makes me laugh. He is also very ticklish which makes life more fun for me. He has a very distinct giggle that comes out only when he gets tickled and it kills me, I love it!!!

• He should have been born in the 60s. Seriously. This kid loves everything about the 60s-70s era - the culture, tv shows, music and especially the clothes. He currently owns a Napoleon Dynamite suit and wears it proudly to church. He loves going to the local thrift stores and finding treasures, especially retro clothes. He always gravitates to the sports jackets, suits and ties. What can I say, my man likes to look classy. He's got so many retro ties, I don't think he will ever part with any of them. He also has quite the obsession with jackets(any kind) and shoes.

• He is my little handyman. It's nice that he enjoys fixing things around the house. Growing up with a dad that did construction, I think that love of building and repairing things rubbed off on him. Trey's dad would always take him to do jobs with him. Trey built our entertainment center we have now. His latest project he just finished was putting up drywall at a professor's house. He likes the physical labor, it's a nice contrast from studying.

Well that is my husband in a nutshell...but there is really so much more to him, that's only scratching the surface. Everyday is always an adventure with Trey. Love you honey!

Cool video from the Halloween Party

Yeah we forgot to put this up. It is a small excerpt from the set my friend Mike and I played at the Halloween Party. It is a little dark, but cool nonetheless.

another semester in the life of a 23-year-old child

School started back up this week and things are looking pretty good so far. I am taking epidemiology, evolutionary biology, biochemistry (with lab), and microbiology (with lab). I don't know about you, but I think that's way too many "ologies" for one semester. It's my last one as an undergrad (yes you just heard me singing praises to the heavens above) so I think I can handle it. My mom got me a Nintendo DS Lite for Christmas so I now have portable sanity to balance out the workload ahead of me. Michelle and I have also become serious about obeying the Word of Wisdom and have thus begun exercising and eating better. My brother Heath, the fireman, started a fitness club last year. We rent out a huge garage and have lots of equipment there. It is aptly named "The Thunderdome." You can check out the stuff we do at www.thethunderdome.iwanttotri.org I am training for a triathlon this summer. My swimming/running/cycling regimen begins this coming Monday. With the exercise comes better meal planning. We've decided to downsize our meat portions for veggies. We bought this awesome and very cheap steamer insert at IKEA last week and I must say blessed be the Swede who invented it! I'm a big fan of steamed veggies but always thought I needed some expensive steaming device. Well, my two dolla find at IKEA is everything I imagined it would be and more. Anyway, our new year has started out pretty well I think. I just hope I can finish this semester strong...I think senioritis set in about 6 months ago. I'm still cooking for the fam, and the pic is of a quiche I made a while back. it was my very first quiche and I believe it turned out bootiful.

One more thing...

I just remebered one more thing to add to the list of things that happened to me when I was 23...I chopped my hair off!!! I've never cut it this short before. It was really scary but I'm happy to say that no tears were shed and I love it! It's so easy to do. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants a fun change. (I was sneaky about it too, I didn't tell anyone I was doing it, not even Trey! I did it while he was gone on his interview to Iowa. It was fun to see the look on his face when he saw me for the first time. He loved it! He practically attacked me with kisses. Cute!)

The BIG 24!!!

Hello familia and friendlies! Sorry I've been slacking on our blog, I usually keep my facebook page pretty up-to-date with pics and whatnot so I will try to update this one as well with Christmas pics and Banbury family happenings. Today is my day of birth, number 24! So I thought in lieu of it being my birthday I would share the highlights of my past 23rd year.

• Went to Hawaii for Chris and Cheryl's wedding! It was so neat to be in the sealing room at the Hawaii temple with the whole family, minus the kids of course. Trey and I also found a new love, boogie boarding! It was a blast!
  
• Moved downstairs to a bigger apartment - we LOVE having so much space. We figure we better enjoy it while it lasts because I don't think our apartment at med school is going to be very roomy.
  
• GRADUATED!!! from Utah State with a pretty good GPA. It took 5 years but I finally made it, yay!!


• Graduation road trip to Santa Cruz to visit Chris and Cheryl. Harry Potter kept us entertained on the ride there and back. We had such a good time. The Mystery Spot, In And Out Burger(we ate there so much!), San Fran, Six Flags, Maryann's Ice Cream, Haight and Ashbury, Big Foot museum, Sessions outlet, and the fireworks over the bay were all freaking awesome. Thanks for showing us such a good time guys!


• After a tireless month of job hunting, I finally found a decent job in Logan. Good old Icon. My boss is really laid back and I love the girl I work with. We have alot of fun. The perks aren't too bad either ;)
  
• Trey and I celebrated our first anniversary. We stayed at a cute little bed and breakfast in SLC and saw a cool 3-D IMAX movie that day. I recommend 'Deep Blue Sea' for the sole reason that the jelly fish look like they are 2 inches from your face. It was funny to look around at everyone trying to grab them.
  
• My parents left on their mission to Rochester, NY. It's been hard because I miss seeing them but great to hear about all the awesome work they are doing. They are very busy missionaries!
  
• Trey kicked butt on the MCAT! That sure made me proud. I was happy to see him do so well and also happy that he was done studying for it so I could have my husband back.
  
• We finally got health and dental insurance! I feel good about that. We finally got our teeth cleaned...too bad I have a cavity! Argh!
• We hosted our first party as married people! The Banbury Bones and Stones Halloween Bash was a hit! See the pics below. Trey and his buddy Mike put on a concert in our living room. We were rockin'.

It's been a good year! I wonder what this year will bring...