We are ALIVE!

Well thanks to Kimmie you all received an update from her on the last post.  I can truly appreciate a good hacker!  Life has been on fast forward the last year and a half.  It is incredible how fast time flies by.  Denton and I have been able to share a lot of wonderful memories together and have made wonderful friends along the way. 

There is too much to go over for the year 2011 so I will just skip to this year and hopefully I will not forget anything.

Denton has passed his 5 year mark with the Weber County Sheriff's Office this past April.  He absolutely loves his job and has such a great group of friends he works with.  It's definitely a brotherhood like no other! He is still an assistant squad leader for the Weber metro SWAT team and he is also currently working with Ogden's Gang Unit on a couple weekends of the month.  I am very honored to have a husband who, everyday protects and serves our community. 

He received 2 life saving awards in May 2012 for his heroic acts in 2011.

He also ran the Ogden Half Marathon for the 2nd time with a bunch of friends/co-workers. He finished in an 1 hour 54 minutes!

Everyone before the race

 All the runners after the race

 I prefer to sit on the side and cheer him on! :)

Runners and family!

He will be running the Ragnar Race in June and will also participate in the Tough Mudder in a couple of months! 

As for me I changed jobs last January 2011.  I had worked as the Property Manager at Pinebrook Apartments for 3 1/2 years, then was moved to the corporate office and became a Regional Manger.  I currently oversee the function of 5 Apartment Communities.  The properties I oversee are in St. George, Layton, Ogden, Idaho Falls, and Billings MT.  It keeps me busier than I ever thought I would be, but I love it!  It has definitely come with it's challenges but I love all my co-workers.  They make my job better! 

In March 2012, Denton and I sporadically made a decision to go on a vacation with our dear friends Eric and Karlee (who live in Texas) to St. Martin in the Caribbean for a full week.  I did not want to come home.  It was so beautiful and relaxing! We literally were at the beach everyday laying out.

 This is at the island of Anguilla

 Beautiful Karlee! We went over to the island of Anguilla for the day.

 You can see Eric and Denton laying in the sand because the blast of sand is so forceful from the Jet that is taking off right now.  Idiots!

The runway is literally right next to the beach.  All that separates it is a 2 lane road.

Basking in the sun!

We can't wait to go back, it is my new favorite vacation spot! 

What's up Homies????

What's up Homies? My name is Nickelcrack Harper. I like long walks in the snow, my favorite color is pee green, and my ultimate goal is to milk a cow. Now, for the long awaited update...

I have some excited news to share with everyone about my job. I won the Manger of the Year award. I am very humble and will not brag but my friend Kim believes strongly that I deserved this award because I am an extremely hard worker and always put 100 percent towards improving upon an already great management.

As for my house, I just finished up my Christmas tree. This is one of my better trees this year. On one side, the lights do not work, and the other the lights are very bright. Tank kept laying on the decorations so there is probably drool all over the tree. Very Christmassy! We also laid the concrete slab in our driveway and finished putting up a fence. Our home is looking better and better. I love it up here!

We just got our first letter from Dallas now that he is in Mexico. Poor guy is living in a shanty that is made up of dirt floors with no plumbing. He has to shower with a cold bucket every morning and do his laundry by hand. He has already had to eat cow stomach and fish (he hates fish). Luckily, he is with a companion that does not speak any English. This kind of forces him to learn the language quickly. His letter made me grateful for everything in our lives that we take for granted. We are all very blessed.

I have been a traveling feen this year. Earlier this year, we went to Vegas with Kim and Jake. It's always entertaining when we get together. Let's just say that the boys weren't too happy with Kim and I. But we had fun! We caught a couple shows, shopped, and laid out.

My family and I recently went to Florida for the Florida State-BYU game (BYU lost, tear) but the weather was beautiful and I laid out and got a tan. [pictures inserted here]

We then headed up to Savannah, Georgia. It was full of amazing architecture and historic buildings. A little known fact: It is the birthplace of Juliette Gordon Low. She is the founder of the Girl Scouts of the United States of America. A little corporation that I'm sure a few of you have heard of. I hope that one day I will be able to consider myself a girl scout. Knots were always hard for me.

After Savannah we headed up to New York, NY. A few of my friends were a little jealous to say the least. We caught a Yankees game. I couldn't miss Derek Jeter's booty in his baseball uniform. My dad went on his mission here so it is always fun to go back with him.

We also made it to Cancun, Mexico. We got to stay at this all-inclusive hotel where ate lots of amazing food, played in the ocean and saw some incredible ruins! I took lots of pics of this trip....

Lastly, I want to say how much I love my friend Kim. I have this picture of her by my bed so that she's the last thing I see when I go to sleep and the first thing to see when I wake up. Some people think it's a little creepy (kim even) but it just shows how much I love her. Here is the picture.....

That's all for now peeps, let's hope it's not another year before I update again!

Finally an Update!

Hello everybody, I apologize it has been forever since I have blogged! Life gets so crazy and goes by so fast. Here's just a little update for everyone. Denton and I purchased a home almost a year ago and it's been a work in progress. The home was brand new but we are still trying to personalize it with paint and hanging pictures. We actually hung up our first picture about a month ago (how pathetic!). Denton put over 7,500 miles this summer on his motorcycle, we spent a week at the Oregon coast with all of his family, I finally completed another semester of school-I should be a doctor by now with how long I have been in school. We have been very grateful for the wonderful jobs that we have and are grateful that we love them! Tank is growing so fast, it is so crazy how a dog can bring you so much joy in your life, I love coming home to see his cute butt! We have made some very dear friends up here in Ogden which has been so nice because it is still a struggle for me not be down in "happy valley" with my family and friends. We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas season and we hope to be able to see all you soon! We love you!

p.s. I will add pictures later!

Denton & I have a SURPRISE for everyone!

WE HAVE ADDED A NEW FAMILY MEMBER AND HE IS THE MOST ADORABLE DOG IN THE WHOLE WORLD.

His name is Tank. He is an english bulldoy and he is about 6 1/2 weeks old in the picture. We brought him home on Wednesday June 10th at 8 weeks old. He has gained 1 pound since then and when he is full grown he will be about 50 lbs. He is so well behaved (I'm sure that will change once he gets use to his surroundings. The best thing about Tank is that you can play with him for 20 minutes then he will sleep for hours. No joke!

Welcome to the family TANK!

We Love You!!!

Background change

I hope that you are all proud of me because I FINALLY learned how to change the background for our blog (just disregard the happy holidays and warmest wishes on the side)!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

I wanted to tell you all Merry Christmas (even though it's a day late). Denton & I went to his parents house on Christmas Eve for a party which was very fun, I love getting together with everyone, I can't wait till we have our own children so were not out of the loop all the time, but I'm in no rush gotta finish school first. We spent the night at our cute little apartment, I woke up early to go rearrange the presents so it looked like Santa Claus was there. We had a fun morning, Denton kept saying we were opening presents to fast and that it was almost over-I didn't care cuz I was so excited and I also wanted to get on the road to go to Provo. It was nice having a white christmas, the roads were horrible though. We spent the rest of the day down in Provo. I love being around my family, I can't believe that my brother is going to graduate this year. It doesn't even fell like that he has been in High school (now I'm just going off) anyways we are headed to Idaho in the morning for the Nielson christmas party and we'll be coming home sunday afternoon. Time goes by way to fast.

I'm excited for the New Year, Denton & I have a lot planned. In January we're going to 3 Jazz games & a BYU Basketball game, we'll be headed to Las Vegas for a weekend to go see the show La Reve at the Winns and it's my dad's B-day, Dentons B-day is in february and my cousin Austin is getting married in Feb so we'll be heading back up to Idaho. School will be starting as well. The first week of June we're going to D.C., NYC, Philly, and Virigina Beach then in July we'll be going to the Oregon Coast with family.

I hope you all have a great New Year and a lot of memories to come, I love you all & I'm sorry for the delay between blogs. Thanks for being such great friends!

CALIFORNIA

San Diego Charger's Monday Night Football Game
Denton in the dog pound
" The gang"
WOODY THE SHERIFF
Denton is enjoying himself way too much-but I don't think that is possible at disneyland!

Ok so I'm ticked because I just wrote this long blog of our trip to california and I somehow deleted it so now you get the shortened version. First off to all the chicka's I got pulled over on the way down going 20 over, thankfully to my wonderful husband I drove off scotch free!
We started our journey to San Diego and the first place we ate was the Beach Side Deli and Moo time for dessert. We also went to sea world, the wild animal park, tijuana, and an air craft carrier ship. We also were able to meet up with my parents because they were in town for business. I love my family to death. We ended our trip with going to Disneyland for 3 days. Denton has not been there in 20 years-weird!!!
We had so much fun on this trip, it was nice to be able to spend this much time with my hubby.

1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY

IT'S OUR 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY TODAY!!!

I can't believe it has been a year already-man does time fly by.

After class Denton took me out to Goodwood (which was our first date) for dinner then we came back and watched the Eagles and Cowboys football game then our wedding video.

We are off to San Diego and Disneyland later this month to celebrate the one year mark!!!

BACK TO SCHOOL TO PROVE TO DAD I'M NOT A FOOL

So it's that time of year again school is in session. After taking a year off I decided I better get back and finish before kids come along. Man it's hard working 40+ hours a week and doing night school but I am determined to finish, it might take 6 more years but I will finish!!!

THE HARLEY IS HERE

THE NEW HARLEY

The Old bullet Bike Denton has dreamed of having his own Harley as long as I have known him. So about a month ago we were in Idaho visiting family and we went to the Harley store, well denton found a bike we both fell in love with. He already had a bullet bike which was fun but it scared me sometimes. So Denton rode back up to Idaho on his day off the following tueaday and traded in his bullet bike for now our "new baby". We have spent so many hours on this bike and we are exciting to go riding with Kim and Jake.

I LOVE MY JOB

I honestly think I work for the best company ever. Some of you have been trying to call me this past week and I apologize for not answering or calling you back but the reason is that my company took all the property managers on a retreat for the week. We stayed at the new Zermott resort and spa in Midway UT. During that stay we went up to the owners cabin and had a BBQ, then he sat and talked with us. For him being a Millionaire he is the most caring and inspiring guy I have met. On Tuesday we went 4-wheeling and had seminars, Wednesday we went to a ropes course, Thursday we went on a helicopter ride and then went to the spa for massages, then went and ate the Robert Redford's restaurant Zoom in park city. Friday we went to the Olympic park and rode the alpine slide a couple of times, the zip line, and also went down the bobsled track (Paige I don't know how you did that for so many years-I'm impressed!!!). With all of these activities we also ate out every meal, stayed up late every night playing games, laughing, and watching movies-I probably got 3-4 hours of sleep every night. There was never an awkward moment. It feels like a family and not a company. I plan on working for this company for awhile.

Fun in the Sun!

Our fun, quick trip to Moab!

The National Arch (Well I think that's what it's called, it's the one on all the license plates)

I LOVE MY MOM ( SHE ALWAYS MAKES ME LAUGH, JUST LOOK AT HER!)

So after a long day jeepin we were beat and starving, we ordered 4 pizzas, then made a fabulous card table out of the drink cooler and pizza boxes. We're a crazy bunch when we all get together!

So not the best picture but we love hiking! Hiking was our first date, Denton proposed on a hike and it's something we love doing together!

Can you believe how big dallas is getting?

Lazy Days

So its Wednesday morning and I am home sick being bored. Its kind of fun though to just relax. We finally got internet only because Denton completed his training a month and a half early and now he has his truck and the laptop that has internet. Its great we don't pay a dime for it. I'm so proud of him. His first day alone is on friday night. Its funny to watch him get all excited about it. So I woke up this morning with a massive migraine and was throwing up all moring. NOT FUN! We discovered guitar hero this past weekend down at my parents house and we have been addicted every since. (I know we're like a year behind everyone else so don't make fun!) We went out and bought 2 guitars and stay up all hours of the night playing. There really isn't much else to do here in Ogden.

I wanted to tell Kim and Jake thanks so much for letting all of us girls and spouses come hang out at their new house and eat pizza and watch the Jazz game. I really miss seeing you guys all the time.

Well nothing is new with us, we're still in the hunt for a house, its a long process trying to find something we like. We have become obsessed with english bulldogs and want to get one really bad but we can't since of the apartment so we just look at them on the internet. One day we'll have a dog.

Love you all!!

Oh so LONG!!!

Well I first have to apologize for the long delay between blogs. I'm not real good at this internet stuff. I barley have time to look at my emails once a month.

Well a lot has changed in our lives, I became the property manager of our complex up here (288 apartments) it has been real stressful but I love the challenage. Denton is now out on the road and loving it!!! I love to listen to his heroic stories when he gets home from work. I'm so proud of him.

We were looking for a house but decided that it wasn't the right time for us, but that's ok because I love our cute apartment!

We are going to Moab next week and are very excited. Denton has never been there, we have it all planned out (because of my father, who when something fun comes up will drop anything) Eric and Karlee are coming with the family too. (to me they are family!!)

I promise to get pictures up soon! Love you all

THE NEW YEAR

It's the beginning of a new year and it has already been a blast! December 31st was such a fun evening, Denton and I went down to Provo to spend time with my girls and their husbands. We played games, ate, and laughed all night. I sure miss being able to see them all the time!

That weekend was my dad's 58 birthday on Jan 4th and then my Birthday was on the 5th. I'm the BIG 22!!! (WEIRD-that seems so old!) Denton's parents took me out to dinner on that thursday to TGIF's and they had the waiters sing to me! It was a fun night! On my Birthday Denton and I drove down to SLC to meet up with my parents and go through a session in the SLC temple. It was beautiful! We then went out to lunch at the Pantry house (it was a good thing we ate cuz my mom and the lady sitting next to me kept laughing at me cuz my stomach wouldn't shut up!) We exchanged gifts in the parking lot of Little America and then went on our way. We spent the afternoon shopping at the Gateway Mall. It was freezing!!! We spent the night at the Anniversary Inn. Denton bought me an Ipod for my birthday I still haven't used it cuz we don't have internet access at home and I can't download music at work!

Denton had an interview for the enforcement side. We haven't heard anything yet but we should find out next week if he'll be transfering.

We are getting prepared for the NASCAR race in Las Vegas at the end of February. I'm exctied because we are going with Denton's sister and her husband, so maybe the three hour wait to get out of the parking lot won't be as bad as last year!