Natalie and Ryan Peterson

Universal Studios

2008-12-08T20:33:00.000-08:00

So I meant to make this blog go after the Disneyland post so opps. Anyway, here are our Universal Studios pictures. We went there too!

Disney Land

2008-12-08T17:05:00.000-08:00

My mom works for a dentist office and every two years they send their employees to a magical wonderful world where dreams come true, including my favorite dream where grown men dress like fluffy cartoon characters and even frolic. Good times. Good times. Of course Disneyland was the best and there are A LOT of pictures to show for it. I love pictures and I hope you enjoy looking at them too!

Ryan and Jordan are trying to push the huge ball in the opposite direction. A lot of work, but they did it!

My favorite thing we did was not the rides, but was actually a drawing class where they taught you to draw disney characters. It was so much fun and look how good they turned out! First we drew goofy and then piglet. Ryan's piglet actually ended up as a demonic character with devil horns. No joke, don't know what he was thinking but it was great.(if you look at the third picture below and closely look at Ryan drawing- you can see what I am talking about)

Rowing a canoe with my family was ummmm, what can I say? Wet? Painful? We couldn't get the hang of rowing in unison. We kept hitting each other with our ores and splashing the water in our faces, and not on purpose.
Jordan driving. Watchout. Brennan is scared even when their car is on a track and Jordan doesn't have any real control.

Look what I mean. He doesn't look where he's going. Poor Maddison didn't see that one coming.

The Tower of Terror. Great ride!

Okay, okay. The seats were all taken. Brennan had to ride in Ryan's lap. But even better, my mom rode in his lap next!
Family traffic jam.

Soarin over California
Buzz Lightyear. This one was fun because you interacted with the ride by shooting lights with your lazer gun. Below, Jordan and Ryan competed with eachother and Ryan kicked butt like did with everyone.

Tea Cups.

Water Rides!

Twilight Character Quiz

2008-12-02T21:25:00.000-08:00

W
Take the Quiz and Share Your Results!

I'm glad I'm Bella! That way I get to make out with Edward and well ..... if you read book 4 you know what I'm thinking about! wink wink
P.s. :
Edward prefers brunettes. Take that Blondes!!

Thanksgiving

2008-12-01T18:57:00.000-08:00

Ahhh Thanksgiving. I love the holiday season. It is the greatest time of year. The food, the weather, the family, but most importantly the SHOPPING! Just kidding. But really. Who doesn't like waking up at 4 in the morning to wait in long lines? I DO! It is the true shopaholic, like I, that loves Black Friday. The adrenaline rush you get the moment those store doors open, the angry mobs, the really mean lady -who you could have swore was the sweet old lady that was teaching sunday school last week- that just shoved you out of the way to get the last wii (black friday brings the claws out), bargains where ever you go, and of course the excuse to shop ALL day long and your husband can't say anything about it. Good times. Good times.

Anyway, it really was a great thanksgiving this year. We hopped from dinner to dinner like usual. To Ryan's family then mine. Eating a couple thanksgiving dinners is always fun until you can't button your pants anymore. But it is the delicious price you must pay when you love your families and they all live close by.

After the feasts and the shopping we spent the rest of the weekend in Wellton. It was great to see Ryan's sister Mandy and her family who came down from Utah. I love her kids! They would be mine if only their parents hadn't realized that we switched them out with our dogs as they were leaving. Kids hiding in the dog kennels and dogs strapped in the kids' carseats. Obvious I know, but worth a try. We miss you guys!

Since the whole Peterson gang was finally in the same spot we decided it was a great time to take some family pictures on the farm. Here they are. Enjoy!

The Power of Freindship

2008-11-27T19:01:00.000-08:00

Okay guys. Grab a box of tissues. This video is so sweet and touching that you may need the whole box. Or maybe it is just the holidays and I was way too emotional to begin with. Either way, you don't want to miss the opportunity to watch it. So find a quiet moment and press play.

And may I add, I love you all and am so blessed to have you as my friends and family. *Tear*

Ahhhh, my precious Twilight.

2008-11-24T20:37:00.000-08:00

It was sad to read the last few pages of the last book and know that that was that for my Bella and Edward. But then, a glimmer of hope..... a movie! Could it be true? A Twilight Movie? I was so excited. Just ask Ryan, that was all I could talk about for weeks. When the previews came on I would rewind them and watch them again. I searched the internet finding more and more to feed my Twilight addiction. A Twerd is what Ryan referred to me as- a Twilight Nerd. The book was woven into my life. If Ryan didn't open my door for me I would pause and tell him sternly "Edward would open my door" and viola, my door would open. ( I love my husband and he knows I love him but i did use the phrase 'Edward wouldn't do that' often but all in fun. But FYI, it worked, so girls don't be afraid to use the Edward weapon!)

So, the big day came. I ordered my tickets a week in advance. I know I am pathetic. We stood in line and then waited for ...... WHAT? This can't be Twilight. Nobody looks right. This isn't my Edward. He was supposed to be this perfect gorgeous creature. Sure I saw what he looked like in the previews but I was hoping that he would look better as his character developed. I was so disappointed. I had built the movie up so much in my head. And nothing could compete with my own imaginations of how the story was supposed to look. But not only that. We laughed at parts that weren't even supposed to be funny. That's not a good sign of a believable movie. Some of the acting was really bad, the chemistry felt awkward, and it left out soooo much detail... the relationships, etc. It needed to be a four hour movie to be a good movie. Am I just crazy or is it just a fact that a movie can never be any where as good as the book it is based on? Please tell me what you think so I can look at this a different way. I want to like this movie. I think I just need to watch it again and give it another shot.

P.S- don't be alarmed. I am not a freak like I have made myself sound. It is just the hormonal teenage girl in me. Yes I loved the books, and yes I can get a little carried away, but I am okay. :)

Spidermonkies Away!

Who says spidermonkey anyway?

Race for the Cure

2008-11-15T12:59:00.000-08:00

My sister in law, Janna, and I were so excited to be a part of the fight against breast cancer. The Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure celebrated their 25th aniversary this year. It is the largest series of 5k runs in the world. We ran in honor of my mother in law Sandy Peterson and my Aunt Marie Cortez. They are just two of the two and a half million breast cancer survivors in the U.S.

Janna and I freakin kicked cancer in the butt by running the 5k in 24 minutes. That is a little over 7 minutes per mile! It was so much fun! The crowd of runners was so huge that we had to push our way through in order to find the leg room to even begin to run. This picture below just shows the front of the immense crowd.

On a funny note, while running, we saw a man wearing a shirt that said "Cancer is a B----, and I slapped it".

Brennan's Birthday Bash

2008-11-05T10:16:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Brendo!

He is 22 but we still insist on a pinata.

If my sweet little Grandma Nancy was accused of cursing and getting mad at a pinata, she would deny, deny, deny! But here is proof (listen to it carefully). There is no getting out of this one Grandma! Sorry though guys, my camera stopped working right when she was really getting into it so you can't watch the best part. But this video is still funny.

The second video is Brennan up to bat, but it wasn't until Janna had her chance at the pinata that it broke.

Family Trip to Sedona

2008-11-05T09:25:00.000-08:00

There is no greater blessing than family and boy am I blessed with a bunch of crazies! So when the Curtis clan gets together you never know what to expect, but you always know you will have tons of fun. Recently, we packed our bags and set out on a new Curtis adventure to beautiful Sedona.
The water was cold so ankle deep was as far as anyone really wanted to go.

"Oh look at all the pretty fishies" .........
Ooops.
Jordan thought it was funny and Ryan was getting a little lonely so....
Ahhh, sweet revenge. No one laughs at Ryan!

Boys are so gross. As if these dirty butts weren't gross enough, here my boys (Ryan and Jordan) are competing to see who can catch a fish with their bare hands. Luckily no one was able to catch anything because they had decided they were going to eat whatever they could get a hold of.

Ah, what is a Curtis vacation without a little love twist. Kidding of course. If you know my family at all this would not be as scary as it looks but hopefully it is as funny.
We are not the best fishers, so it seems the only way for us to catch a fish is to go a pond that is stocked so full of them they don't even have the room to move. Silly I know. But it was our first time fishing so why not go where you are sure to catch one and maybe get some bragging rights as well? Not many people can say they can catch a fish in just one second. Plus it was worth not sitting somewhere else for hours with no bite, even if this place did charge out the wazoo.
Here I am catching what turned out to be the littlest fish from our whole group which included my four year old cousin. Not my finest moment.
It was fun until they made me get the hook out of my fishes mouth. I will spare you the bloody details even the part where you watched the man kill and gut your fish..... sorry, did I go too far? Anywho, to make a long story short I will never fish again. My stomach wouldn't be able handle what comes after you catch the poor thing. And I prefer to eat my food in ignorance.
Bucket full of disgusting fish anyone?

Ryan's Disney Princess

2008-07-25T21:51:00.000-07:00

Poor Ryan. I made him take the Disney Princess Quiz and would you believe he was Snow White? I really thought he would be a strong and brave Mulan, but hey gentle and pure works too. Don't worry sweetie, you are no less of a man to me!
You Are Snow White!

Pure and trusting. You are a gentle soul who can get along with just about anyone. Everyone you meet instantly falls in love with you. How can they resist? You have a pure, lovable nature that's irresistable. Just don't trust everyone who comes across your path.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

Disney Character Quiz

2008-07-22T21:45:00.001-07:00

This is a fun little quiz to take though I was hoping I was Ariel. I LOVE her, and The Little Mermaid movie was my absolute favorite as a little girl. But hey a slave woman is cool too, who wouldn't aspire to do all those chores... hey wait a minute, that IS me. Do the dishes Natarelly, sweep the floors Natarelly, massage Ryan's back Natarelly. :) But honestly, I've been a little down and those were the right words at the right time... "Bide your time, your dream will come true". Wow. I needed to hear that. I need to be more patient. Not everything happens on my time table, but it can or will happen. Thanks Disney for the spiritual enlightenment! :)

You Are Cinderella!

Dignified and hard working. With a gentle and soft-spoken manner you have something many people don't. Patience. Even through the moments of heartbreak you're still able to hold onto all of your hopes and dreams. Bide your time; your dream will come true.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

Roadtrip!!

2008-07-11T20:58:00.001-07:00

Lookout drivers! Colorado here we come!! Here we are with our great friends Jenn and Rob getting ready for A LOT of driving and even more fun! Some buddy's of theirs moved to Colorado and needed someone to drive up their extra car. So here we are making it a fun adventure filled roadtrip with rock climbing, alpine sliding, cave hunting, waterfall site seeing, hiking, and even river rafting!

Rob was definetely obsessed with waterfalls and wanted to see every single one, but this one in the picture was by far my favorite. It was right off the highway on our way to Colorado. We took a little steep hike up the mountain and came to this.... Oh my gosh, it was so fun and windy and wet! I dont know if you can see our faces but we are literally screaming. We were getting drenched! We hid behind a tree for protection from the cold soaking water then ran out right next to the waterfall for this funny shot. We love you Rob and your obsession for waterfalls otherwise we would have missed this super fun experience!

This is the white water rafting crew about to take the ride of their life. Not knowing what to anticipate, but excited.
WATCH OUT for the rocks and PADDLE! This is actually what I am screaming inside my head. No I wasn't thinking this is fun, i was thinking "I am going to die!". A little dramatic I know, but what can I say? I was a wussy riding a slow moving banana boat so why would anyone expect less from white water rafting? But everyone else had a blast. On the left side of the boat you have Ryan first, me, then Rob and on the left a couple we had just met(I forgot their names) then Jenn. Our guide is the guy in the back yelling (not just yelling but YELLING!!!), shouting commands of when to paddle, how many strokes, left, right, back, move, move, move, etc.. It was intense. The water was really cold and poor Ryan in front was practically swimming in it the whole time. I must admit though, sitting here safe at home looking back... I really did have fun in a fearful pee myself sort of way. :)
This is Seven Falls. I say 224 stair climbing steps of fun! Ryan's words are written all over his face. He called it a fat kids nightmare. Seven Falls is just like it sounds. It is a waterfall that drops off seven times, and at night they put on a light show. Isn't it gorgeous? Make sure and click on the photo for a good closeup of the waterfall.
Look out below! I am flying through the sky on this trampoline bungee. Wow it was an adrenaline rush. This is at the beginning of my jumps when I was screaming and couldn't even open my eyes. Huh, it sounds like there was a lot of screaming on this trip, doesn't it? Anyway, eventually, I opened my eyes and even got the courage to do some flips. I did two flips in a row at one point.

We took a tour of Cave of the Winds.
It was an actual lantern tour into a dark wet cave which included stories of its past. It was fun scaring yourself in the dark with all of their unbelievable ghost stories. At one point the guide made us blow our lanterns out we sat in the blackest dark possible. It was crazy- our minds were playing tricks on us, thinking that we could still see stuff like our hands waving in front of us. We couldn't wait to fire up those lanterns again and get out of the erie darkness.
The smallest passage through the cave was only 41 inches tall and it lasted for 21 feet. Here we are crouching through, but this wasn't even at its lowest. We had a lot of fun.
Ryan was determined to show off his mad rock climbing skills. Here he is beating me to the top!

On our last day in Colorado we went to the Museum of Nature and Science. We wasted most of our time on rocks and gems and the boring stuff not realizing that the museum closed at five, so we missed the cool stuff like mummy's and dinasaurs. Come on, really? What closes at five?! So here we are posing at some big gems happy and totally unaware that in just a little while we would be kicked out. We were pretty bummed.
Below are more pictures of our adventures. Check em out and Enjoy!

Road Trip Slideshow

2008-07-11T13:00:00.000-07:00

Ryan's Birthday

2008-06-29T14:39:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday sweetie! I am a busy woman, so if I have anything to blog about it will take at least a month for me to get around to it! This is why pictures of Ryan's birthday, which was actually in May, were just recently posted, and it also why i am just getting around to writing about the pictures almost two weeks later. Sorry.

He is the big 26! I remember last year he was really upset when he had to fill out some papers and realized that he had to check the box 25-30 years old. What! He was in that age bracket?! He said that was when it hit him that he was getting old. I apologize to any of you who took offense to us thinking 25 was old, you must really be old then :).

We spent Saturday morning with his family and best buddy Clayton. They are just two days apart and spending their birthday together reminded them of the good old days back at home in Welton Arizona. Here they are turning five. Aren't they freakin cute??? Can you guess which one is Ryan?
He is the one on the right and is the most adorable little boy I have ever seen. I hope our children get his genes and can fit into their jeans!! I don't want to pass on my sumo wrestler baby rolls! My naked bathtub photo (don't worry, I was only two) still haunts me today. I look like I ate an elephant for lunch that day, but in my defense -the camera also adds 10 pounds!
p.s- this photo doesn't do his extreme cuteness justice, I will have to post more later
Here are the birthday boys today. Still great friends and still so cute.

On his actual birthday, I surprised Ryan at work with balloons and a SpongeBob cake. He was the star of the office with his free food. Who doesn't love ice cream cake?
I wanted to do something different for his birthday and thought a Murder Mystery Dinner Theater would be awesome. So a bunch of family and some friends joined us for a crazy and hilarious night. The actors involved a lot of our group in the show, as you will see in the pictures. My mom got to do a dance and sing in front of everyone, and Ryan was in a dancing competition. He did a sexy boa dance around the room, but unfortunately lost to an old lady with a whip :). I had the video of him but promised not to post it. It was a little embarrassing, but he had the audience roaring with laughter. Below are some photos of the fun. Also, happy birthday to Josh, Uncle Jay, and Clayton! It was their birthday too.

Murder Mystery Dinner Theater

2008-06-17T16:17:00.001-07:00

Rocky Point Slide Show

2008-06-17T15:24:00.001-07:00

Family Trip to Rocky Point

2008-06-17T13:50:00.000-07:00

My mom started planning Curtis Family vacations, where most of her brothers and sisters and our cousins all get together for a trip each year. It is an absolute blast when all of our crazy families get together. Last year we took a cruise to Ensanda Mexico (I highly recommend taking a cruise if you've never taken one) and this April we stayed in the beautiful Las Palomas condos in Rocky Point. Take a look at the slideshow above to see more pictures of the fun we had on our trip. Thanks Mom!!

A bunch of us went for a banana boat ride. It was fun at first. The man was taking it easy because there were children on, but then everyone started screaming "faster! faster!". Eventually the fear of falling off was too much for Janna and I, so we climbed into the mans boat. It was a little embarrassing climbing into the back of the guys boat like scared little children, especially since my nine year old sister was the one screaming faster!
Jet skiing was a lot of fun. Here Ryan is taking my little sister for a ride.
Football on the beach was fun. Unfortunately, Ryan and Michael tackled the wrong person and Brennan got away with the ball!

What is a roadtrip without your car breaking down? Thats right, Ryan's baby broke down just outside of Mexico on our drive back. It was going to cost 500 dollars just to tow it back to Phoenix! Luckily his Uncle Wade was on his way through and was able to pull us back.

Our Hawaii Vacation

2008-05-26T22:32:00.000-07:00

In february, we got the chance to spend a week in beautiful hawaii. Ryan won this opportunity for his outstanding work performance at Infusionsoft. I am so proud of him! His company flew a handful of employees there, all expenses paid, as a thank you for a great year. There was no relaxing, however, because there was so much to do and see and not enough time to do it all. And of course we wanted to take advantage of all hawaii offered because who knows if we would ever get a deal like this again!
We stayed in a gorgeous hotel right on the beach called The Westin Maui Resort. This is a picture of us in the lobby. Isn't that crazy? A waterfall in the lobby?! There were flamingos just hanging out and parrots talking to you, we even took a video of them dancing! Who needed to see the rest of Hawaii? Just walk outside the hotel room, no need to go any further than the lobby!
We took a hike through the rain forest to get to Swinging Bridges. It was a wet, muddy climb. And we were not prepared for it in our flipflops! When we got to the bridges, we were surprised to see the suspension bridge was like something out of an Indiana Jones film, but not as high and there were no alligators :). I had a blast running and bouncing across them as Ryan held onto the rope begging me to stop. He was scared, how cute! Maybe it wasn't so much that he was scared, but more like he didn't want to jump in the water after me and then carry me two miles back down a mountain!
We went to the Maui Aquarium and saw all the amazing sea life they have in Hawaii. My favorite part was this tunnel aquarium filled with huge sharks and rays. Can you believe how big this guy is?
I thought this was a cool picture of an eel. When we went snooba diving, they swam right beneath my feet! I think our favorite part of the whole trip was our snooba excursion. Snooba is just like scuba diving only without having to carry your air tank. It floats on the surface and you are attached to it with a 25 ft hose. It was really scary at first being 25 feet from the surface and trying to breathe from only a hose. It it was like feeling claustrophobic, which sounds ridiculous because how can you be claustrophobic in the middle of an ocean!? After a few minutes and a few slow deep breathes it was an amazing experience. Ryan was having the time of his life too, wanting to explore everything and go everywhere, but only going as far as his air tank would let him(the downside to snooba). He kept tugging on the hose(like that would help) wanting to go further. If he could have cut the cord he would have! We couldn't believe all the exotic fish we saw and swam with including turtles and eels, and even a little octopus. The group before us actually came within feet of a small shark! How scary! I could tell you right now, if that had been me, the water would have turned yellow and gotten really warm!

This is a picture of me in the uncomfortable equipment including a belt of weights to help me sink better. Ryan's weights were so heavy he sank like a rock. He couldn't stay off the bottom of the ocean! Luckily thats where all the cool stuff is anyway. In this picture the water was so clear, you can see fish all around me.

This is Ryan and I posing for the camera. Say cheese! Silly me, I actually tried to smile and sucked up some water.