40-What a great age

Hottie Hottie has turned 40!!! I can't believe it. He still is 22 to me. That is when we met. I actually think he has gotten better looking with age. I sure love this old man.

Malia and Robbie opening THE present.
I got him a nice shirt, 40 candy bars and a box of chocolates. He loves chocolate. I also made him his favorite chocolate pies..Malia was sure Robbie was going to just love his camo Du rag. She was right. HE loves it.
After opening presents, Robbie spent the next 30min. fighting off the boys. They were trying for the 40 spankings. They had to have gotten in at least 30 good ones.

This was the invitation I sent out for his birthday dinner. I invited friends to Maddox for a great dinner. Chris and Jenny Hardy
Barb and Jeff Emery
Michelle and Dean Layton

The whole Group Michelle, Dean, Chris, Jenny, Barb, Jeff, Me,Robbie, Mark and Misty Hugie

We had a really great time and then went back to the house to have dessert. We have great friends. Lucky US!!!

Valkyrie Service Awards

Every year Viewmont gives out the Valkyrie Service awards. These awards are submitted to the PTSA and a committee. The awards are given out at a nice banquet. Robbie received one of these awards this year for his service to the high school and to the community. He hates anyone to think that he deserves recognition for the things he just does. He loves his job and being able to help in the community Jeff Emery, Robbie, Scott Larson

As well as receiving an award, Robbie was able to present 2 awards. One to a student that has made himself invaluable to the football program as a manager. For a high school boy it is incredible the things he does for the program. He has helped Rob out so much. He also is on the stage crew and in charge of everything behind the scenes. He is a great young man. The other award was given to Scott Larson. Scott is a doer. If you ask him to do something he will get it done no matter what. He sees things that he can do and he asks if he can help. Some people see a program that may be struggling and instead of helping it out, they move their child to another school or just bad talk the program and everyone involved in it. Scott asks how he can help make that the best program for not only his child and their friends but for teams in the future. He definitely deserved it.

Jeff Emery gave Robbie his award and said some really nice things about him.

We Forgot

OK I really didn't forget birthdays the last two months, I just didn't take any photos of them. I had a birthday in January and turned 36. I am having a hard time with this age for some reason. I am on the slippery slope to middle age. Ugh. I have the most thoughtful husband. Robbie bought me a saw for my birthday. A table saw? What a crappy gift. You would think that if you didn't know me. It was one of the 3 best gifts Robbie has ever gotten me. The other two were skis and a sewing machine. One of my favorite smells is fresh cut wood on a saw. I love this gift. Thanks darlin'.Robbie's birthday is in February and he is now only a year from 40. He sent me an email and signed it, "Love your senior citizen". Whatever. Robbie is always going to be 23 to me. He still looks amazing and is so much fun to be with.

Robbie is amazing. He makes me do things that take me out of my comfort zone. I am a big fat scaredy pants about everything. Because of him I have been to Mexico many times. He always tells us that he can't guarantee fun but he can guarantee an adventure. We have had many of those adventures. He taught me how to snow and water ski. I love both of them both. He makes me want to be domestic. I am horrible at this but if dinner is cooked or the house is super clean it is because I want to do it for Robbie. Not me or the kids heaven forbid but for him. I don't even start cleaning until late afternoon so that the house will still be cleaned when he gets home. He is an incredible father and is the voice of reason at our home. I go crazy and he settles everyone down. He is actively involved in our children's lives and that is huge to me. He has passion. Yes that kind too. He is a Gunter after all. He has passion for the things he does. He loves his job and the opportunity to teach kids and make them better people. He believes that if you work hard you can accomplish anything. He treats everyday like it is going to be the best day ever. He forces me to confront fears that I have had since childhood. I have been river rafting with him. He makes me feel safe. He loves me and I am thankful everyday that I tricked him into thinking I was a relatively normal person and got him to marry me. I love Mr. Hottie Hottie 2x4.

Cold and Brisk and Hot and Steamy

At the end of wrestling season last year, the parents gave us a nights stay at The Armstrong Mansion Inn in downtown SLC. Well we just barely used it. It was a hot and steamy and cold and brisk date. We started it off eating at Hires Big H. How romantic is that. OK not romantic but some seriously good grub. I love the burgers and fries there. We were going to go to McDonald's but we splurged and threw caution to the wind and went Big H. Actually we ate there because we could quickly get to the stadium.

OH but wait-this was the romantic part of our get away. Utah beating TCU. Most people when they get a free room they stay in the room and "occupy" it. Not us! We got the room and put our ski clothes on and went and watched the big game. This was the cold and brisk part of the date.

Usually the stadium is full of red but this was a special black out night and everyone wore black. It was crazy. I forgot the camera so these are from my phone.

OK really now to the romantic part- We left with 5 minutes to go. I have been married to Robbie 16 years. We never get to games late and we never, ever, ever, ever leave games early. He sacrificed and we left early and guess what? This was the only action in the game and we missed it.

For some this would be nothing but for Robbie to do that for me it is TLA-True Love Always!!

The Armstrong Inn is kind of a themed place. Every room is named after a month. We stayed in the basement in the September Woods room. These pictures really don't do it justice but it was really nice. So to the hot and steamy part. They have the biggest Jacuzzi tub ever. I love bubble baths. I soak in our tub almost every night( really this is my hide out) especially in the winter. This tub was HUGE!!!!

I had a great time. The company couldn't have been better and we did what we love-Football and baths!

Safety first at our house

I was tagged by Jessica and I am supposed to go to my picture file, open the 4th folder, and pick the 4th picture and blog about it. I swear to you that this is what it was. OK this was the 5th picture but it was so stinking funny.

Our friends sent Robbie this stupid text while we were living the high life and eating at the Apollo burger. It had something to do with wearing a helmet so we went to the school and got these and then went over to there house and called them to come outside. We thought we were so funny. We had a huge belly laugh. It came at a great time and was totally needed. Robbie and I are kind of dorky. Can you imagine?

Seth

http://www.sltrib.com/prepsports/ci_10089614

It is almost unbelievable that it has been a year since we received the tragic news of Seth's death. Some people don't understand the importance it played in our lives. Seth was a son to Robbie. He wasn't just a great football player, a great student, someone that everyone liked but he was that kid you want your daughter to marry. Robbie becomes very attached to his players. They honestly become sons to him. They are his stripling warriors. He is trying to teach them to be great football players, but more importantly he is teaching them how to be great young men and how to be successful beyond the football field. He taught them a lot this past year in respects to how to deal with loss and suffering and being able to move on.

A year ago, I was coming back from somewhere(it is interesting that I can remember exactly where on the freeway I was but I have no idea where I was coming from) and I got a call on my cell from a dear friend, telling me that Seth was missing at their cabin in Bear Lake and that they couldn't find him. She was really distraught and so I didn't get a lot of info from her just enough to know that I needed to have Robbie call her. He wasn't picking up his phone. Rob was in Utah county helping his brother put in sprinklers in their new house. Of course his brothers phone number was new and I had no idea what it was. I am frantically driving on the freeway(I would advise pulling over but all I could think about was getting a hold of Robbie) calling 411 and getting my brother in laws number and having to make a horrible call to Robbie telling him that Seth was missing. He thought I was joking at first and I told him again and honestly you could just hear the air leave and it felt like time stopped. Robbie told me later that it was one of the most agonizing hours of his life driving home not knowing anymore details. Literally he walked in the door, plugged his phone in and then stood at the counter for the next 4 or 5 hours talking to people. Making sure everyone was OK. His players, Seth's parents, the boys that had been with Seth, their parents. I have always known that Robbie was special but in that few hours my admiration for him grew exponentially. He was grieving so much and yet he needed to be strong for people. I realized at that moment that it was my job to be watchful of him and to make sure that he was OK.

We have had some amazing experiences come out of Seth's death. We were able to go to the temple that week with his family when they took out his endowments. That honestly was one of the most sacred experiences I have had. I am so thankful that I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and know that there is a life after this one. It is comforting to know that life goes on and that it doesn't end with death. What a blessing the gospel is in my life.

Dating Robbie

Robbie took me to see the new Batman movie. I am not sure I liked it or not. It was so stinking long that I started to get antsy and had to go out and buy popcorn and soda just to stay focused and it was pretty creepy. I don't understand how that show is PG-13. It was totally action packed which I loved but it showed a lot of violence and the joker was just plain scary. Yikes.

So when other people go on dates with their husbands do they get ditched for work? I am not complaining(OK a little bit) because Robbie works like a thousand jobs so I can stay with our children but this is what a good 40 minutes of our date looked like. See Robbie in the orange shirt way over there, ya that's him, the little dot. It was a good thing we were at the Gateway and there was some seriously good people watching going on. I love to sit and just people watch. Really that is the only thing besides go to the movies that we ever do at the Gateway. I saw more hoochie wear than I cared to. I love it!!!

20th reunion? Who is that old?

This picture is such bad quality but it was the best I could do under the ballroom lights.

Robbie and the Arimo boys on a scout camp out. Robbie is the 3rd from the left.
Look at how cute #55 is. He said he didn't know when school pictures were but had overheard someone say that they were this week. He said he wore that shirt for a week straight so that he could have it in his kindergarten picture. He was the same age as Malia is now

Robbie had his 20th reunion a couple of weeks ago. It honestly was so much fun. Robbie went to a school that graduated 88 students. He also went to school with some of these people from kindergarten until graduation. I met a lot of these people in the single ward I went to in college. My ward was comprised of all of the little out laying towns and two roads in Pocatello. It was fun because I knew a ton of them before they got married and had families. Robbie has told me so many stories about so many of the people he went to school with and I thought he was exaggerating. I can truly attest that he was not. We are supposed to be getting a DVD of the slide show they did. When I get it I will post more photos.

Wobbie Fuball

I was watching Skyler the other day and we were on my bed eating Oreo. I know gross eating Oreo's in my bed but the bed was made and Robbie only had a small piece stuck to his leg the next morning. Anyway he was looking at all of the photo on the wall and just started jumping and getting so excited and yelling, "Skyler hold wobbie fuball". He was so excited to see Robbie actually in a football uniform. He sat holding that photo for about an hour.

It's 3AM do you know where your Husband is??

So this weekend Robbie ran (OK I was suppose to as well but I baled out the week before because of my knee and really I am not whining but I am) the Ragnar Wasatch Back. There were almost 600 teams of 12 member relays. Each relay team had 2 suburbans of 6 people. It was pure craziness. The relay is from Logan to Park City and is 180 miles in 24 hours (Robbie's team took 29 hours to finish. Some elite teams took 17 hours). Each person in the relay runs 3 legs between 3-9 miles. Robbie had leg 1 which was pretty tough.

Robbie in his helmet at the starting line with Cam his brother.
He looks like a real Viking.
This was the Gunter suburban-Jamie (sis-in-law), Cam(Robbie's brother), Robbie, Matt(Jamie's brother) Heather(Jamies friend) and Melanie(Heather's sis-in-law).
Robbie started the 1st leg and got to run through Logan. Vickie (Rob's mom) was there cheering on her awesome kids.
I watched Robbie finish his second leg. This run had a mile straight up to Snowbasin and then 7.5 miles all the way down to Mountain Green. He was really running strong especially for his 2nd leg.

He handed off to Jamie and she took off like a crazy woman with a mission. It seriously was one of the funnest things I have ever seen. People decorated their suburban and wore costumes. It was truly an experience.

Britton and I were lucky and got to volunteer at leg 23. We had to be there at 9:30pm and we did not see one runner until 12:30 and then it was almost an hour before more started trickling in. Our shift was over at 2am and just when we left quite a few runner were on there way into the hand off area. Britton crashed as soon as he stopped talking(Ever since Brit was little when he got tired he would talk continuously and then just stop and he would be sound asleep. He is still like that).Robbie's team crossed the finish line at about 3:30pm the next day. This is him about a minute before he konked out.

Friday Date Night

I love that Robbie and I are able to date again. Friday is normally our date night and we needed to carb load for our 9 mile run on Sat. morning so off to the Olive Garden. I am the most pathetic eater around. I only order things that I know because I don't want to waste money on food I won't like so I get the same thing every time I eat there. Sandwich shops-Ham and cheese on wheat, any fast food place-bacon cheese burger, Mexican restaurants-enchiladas, Chinese restaurants-egg rolls(it is the only Chinese food I like and then they have to be dipped in ketchup. Gross I know)Italian restaurants-Lasagna. So Friday I had Lasagna at the Olive Garden and it was good. It tastes just like it does at Fazolis(fast food Italian-yes I like it better than the Olive Garden because it is fast) and is about twice as expensive. Love the bread sticks. We then went to see the Forbidden Kingdom. I love kung fu movies and if they have Jet Li or Jackie Chan all the better. This had both. This is my disclaimer:You must really love kung fu movies or incredible choreography. Don't see it in the theatre unless you do. Totally amazing. I really liked it.

We then bought ice cream and went home and made milkshakes for the kids. I love chocolate milkshakes. I was a BUTT when I was 16. It was all about me(I know it is hard to believe) For some reason I was in deep need of a milkshake and I was watching TV and didn't want to move. Layne was downstairs with me and I kept asking him to make me one and he wouldn't so I put the tears on. I had the ability to cry on request and so the tears started and not long after I got a great chocolate milkshake from my fabulous brother Layne. Isn't that what everyone does to younger brothers??It still is one of the best milkshakes I have ever had. I definitely owe him one.