NJ Holidaze.

Once I moved to Utah one of the first things I did was buy a plane ticket home for the holidays. I was home from Dec 20th til Jan 5th. I had an awesome time hanging out with friends, family, and getting snowed in. The snow kind of back tracked me for a couple days, but I still got to see a lot of people! Christmas was great! We went to Aunt Cathy's on Christmas Eve and then we had dinner at our house on Christmas Day and then headed over to Aunt Micheles for desert. Since Christmas Day is also Nick Watsons birthday, we had to go out and celebrate!! Some of his friends drove down from New York and we all went to Joes. Unfortunately, the bartender didnt accept out of state licenses. Bullshit. So we went to this place in Garwood (cant remember the name) and saw Joelle! We also had a girls night at Chrissy's house were we all caught up, drank some Mikes hard and played Just Dance! New years was fun too! I went to the Poconos with my family, Stacy's, Carolines and Paulines families as well. Boy oh boy are they a blast! It was also Nick and Jenna's first time snowboarding, and they did great! They were sore afterwards, but they toughed it out and made it all the way down a green trail! New Years Eve was so much fun! Luckily I had my camera to document the crazies.



nick on the lift

me and jenna

jenna, nick and I

the crazies a.k.a eileen, stacy, pauline and caroline

big love

all the boots

happy new year!!

She loved those aluminum bottles!

Happy New Year!! woohooo

Sparklers!

Jake

Pauly

Nick

After new years I headed down to visit Momma. The time flew by so fast. Before I knew it Tommy and Chrissy were driving me to JFK to get on my flight. Hopefully Ill be able to go back home for a few weeks this summer, if not the whole summer! I really love and miss every one in NJ, but life goes on and the bills gotta get paid. If only the cost of living in NJ wasnt so dang expensive...

--Stephanie

Cant win them all.

Even though the Steelers didnt win, even though they had plenty of chances to score, and turned over the ball way too many times, and couldnt get those last five yards for a first down, it was still an amazing game. The Packers deserved it. They played a better game. As for the half time show, I thought it was entertaining! Every one was hating on it, but I thought it was good. Not as good as the Who, but still good. I liked the light-up suits and SLASH! Aside from that I had great food and lots of fun watching it! (Even though I was the only Steelers fan in the room. )Thanks to JR and Laura for making awesome dips, meatballs and some kind of cheesy, gouda, bacony, deliciousness on bread!


JR making guacamole.

Every one watching.

TANK!!

Tank is getting down and dirty.

--Stephanie

Black and Yellow.

Today is the day!! Super Bowl XLV (thats 45 for those of us that dont know roman numerals.) Im so pumped for the Steelers to play! I have lots of friends that are Jets, Giant and Cowboy fans.. but today is my day! Its Steelers v. the Packers so its going to be a heart pounding, and probably close game. Im just hoping for the Steelers to come out ahead! Speaking of Cowboy fans, Chrissy, my best friend, is a Cowboys fan (bless her little heart.) Even though we dont have a mutual love for the same team, we do have a mutual love for Beauty and the Beast! Ever since we met in Gymboree we have been best friends. Chrissy would let me play with her chewed up Barbies (aww kelly!) and boss me around, you know the usual. So while in school I had a project where I had to remember the first movie I ever watched and create a series of photographic images representing that. Obviously I chose beauty and the Beast! Here are the images from that project. (notice us playing with a coors light bucket...)









We still like to joke that we were WT, but our parents did the best they could and we still have so many stories and good laughs about it! Its still my favorite Disney movie, and she's still my best friend! (even if she is a Cowboys fan) Well, enjoy the Super Bowl every one!!

--Stephanie

Keeping up with.... the bills.

Before I start talking about how much it stinks to work all the time blah blah blah... Chris and I watched the movie "Snatch" last night. Probably my favorite movie ever. If you havent seen it then you absolutely have to. Theres a ton of cursing, very witty banter, brad pitt with no shirt, and every one has a british accent. Amazing movie.
Im trying to make an actual website to have as a portfolio. you know with the galleries, my resume, and contact info. I signed up for a free 14 day trial at smug mug, and im not sure im sold just yet. I dont know anything about java or html codes so I cant customize my page. I guess I'll be doing my homework to figure that stuff out. In other news, its freeeeeezing here. The car thermometer read -4 the other day. Lame! I signed up for this medical study that pays $1750, but it's not until March. I know i need the money to pay off my loans, but I really want a new camera too! Oh the decisions. Well, I have a month to figure that out. Its also laurens 23rd birthday today!! ahhh! we are getting so old! It stinks that i cant be there to celebrate, but i know they will have tons of fun! Sometimes i wish i can go back to highschool. Life was so simple. Well, gotta get ready for work. Here are some photos that I edited for a present for Momma. They were all taken in Utah when I first moved out here.


Twin Lakes Reservoir, Brighton

Twin Lakes Reservoir, Brighton

Lake Catherine, Alta

Mirror Lake, Uinta's


Til next time,
Stephanie

Starting Over

Ok, well, I admit, I havent really been the best at keeping up with my blog. Lets be honest the last post was over two years ago. So my new years resolution (I know, I know, im a little late for that) is to keep my blog updated. A lot has happened since I last posted, so I'll make it quick: I still snowboard, not very well, I went on an awesome trip to the west summer of 09 and fell in love with it, I graduated college in may 2010 and miss it every day, worked like crazy over the summer to save up money to move to Utah, where I currently reside, Sallie Mae has taken over my bank account, I wish i was still in college, I have a job at the Cowboy Grub as a waitress cause lets be honest, I gotta pay the bills, I have been slacking in my photography cause I am so dang tired from working all the time, I am in the market for a new lens and flash, I miss my family and friends all the time, I love salt lake city, im working on not being a walking truck driver but its hard, moose and cows are still my favs, did i mention i wish i was still in college? So yeah, thats my life and I wouldnt change anything. I have so many pictures that I want to upload, but im still in the process of sorting them out into the good and bad categories. More to come soon.

--Stephanie

I <3 box.

Snowboarding is starting to take over. Its all I think about and all I want to do. Unfortunately, im not that good at it, so for now I just take pictures until the actual mountains open. Last weekend I went to a competition at Out of Bounds Snow shop. They were hosting Romes "I [heart] box" competiton. Mother nature didnt want to cooperate though and it rained most of the day. Luckily it dried up with a little daylight to burn. Heres some of my 100+ photos I shot.

chris nose pressin

blatt frontboard

chris front board

blatt steezin

chris frontboard

blatt

conor front board

All in all it was a good day. We met up with some people there and our friend Conor was riding too. I made a new friend, a fellow female rider, and hopefully we will ride this winter together. Chris, Conor, and Blatt all got free swag for throwin down. After the comp was over they let them stay and keep hitting the box as long as they groomed the snow and kept it rideable. So we stayed for another hour or so. Too bad my camera died. More snowboarding to come this weekend hopefully! 

New Jersey to Vermont

Have you ever done anything really spontaneous? Just out of the blue, decided to do something? Well, thats what happened to me this weekend. Around 8 pm on Sunday night my boyfriend, Chris, text me and asked me if I wanted to go to Vermont with him and our friend Pat to snowboard. I said "Yea! lets go! When would we leave?," and his response was "Oh I dont know, like 4am." So I drove home from work, packed all my gear and headed over to his place til around 5am when Pat got there. We loaded the car, filled the tank, and headed north to Vermont. Of course I fell asleep for the most part, but what can you expect? It was a pretty interesting ride. Chris drove the first half, and then Pat took over for the second half. Boy was that a mistake. We got lost a couple times because none of us, myself included, thought to get directions. (We have all been to Vermont a couple times before, so we thought we knew where to go -- not so much.) Chris turns on his navigation on his phone and boy oh boy did Pat take is seriously, "Dude! it said left, left!" "Yea, but I dont think it meant make an illegal u-turn back onto the road we just got off of!" So needless to say it was quite the adventure. We eventually got to Mount Snow, our destination, and it was pre-season paradise. 

the set-up on a patch of snow. 

Driving at 5 am.

Chris on the corrugated tube.

park crew.

corrugated tube.

pat pressin hard.

They had about 7-9 features set up on a patch of snow. Since this is only my second season I could only hit one of those features, which I gave up on after a while. I was getting very frustrated, but I took over 200 pictures, so I had fun doing that too. The corrugated tube was by far the best feature. Everyone was throwing down on it and trying new things. I know Chris and Pat landed a few new tricks and had an awesome time. The trip was well worth it. We left around 4 and I drove all the way back because the other two were veryyyyyy tired and needed sleep. For one days early season fun, it was amazing. Hopefully more spontaneous adventures will pop up this year.