Trip to Nebraska!

This year is Nana's (my mom's mom's) 80th birthday! Her kids decided to surprise her by having as much of us as possible fly in and celebrate! So my parents flew in me and my siblings. This was the first time that my parents, siblings, and I had been together in about 3 years, since before Jordan's mission! We had a great time catching up with each other, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. We also got to visit Winter Quarters, which was really incredible to see!

They had a replica of a log cabin at the museum. It was tiny! It's hard to imagine living with your entire family in a small, one room cabin!

They also had a replica of a hand cart. Imagine pulling one of those over rocks and mountains! It was pretty cool because after here, we flew back to Salt Lake, the pioneers' final destination. Only it took us just a few hours, and we didn't have to walk and freeze. Seeing all of this defintely gave me a greater appreciation of the sacrifices that the pioneers made.

Next to the pioneer museum is the Winter Quarters Temple. It's a smaller one; it actually looks a lot like the Columbia, South Carolina Temple. Next to the temple is the Winter Quarters Graveyard.

That night, we had Nana's birthday party! Unfortunately, my mom put me in charge of taking tons of pictures with her camera, so I wasn't able to get any of my own. Hopefully, I can get them from her soon and add them in! But the party was great. We went and ate at Red Lobster (lucky for me, they also had some chicken alfredo, since I don't like seafood). There were a ton of people there! We all got to catch up and spend time together, and then we all watched a fabulous video my parents put together for nana on a big screen my Dad set up.

We had a great time visiting everybody, and hopefully it won't be too long before we all get together again!

Birthday!

I am officially 23! It seems hard to believe. This past year has been a big year for, me though, since I graduated from BYU, got married, and got my first real job!

Josh definitely gave me a fabulous birthday. I got to sleep in that morning, and then he took me to a surprise location: the Hogle Zoo! I was really excited because I've been wanting to go there for a long time...I've lived in Utah for about 4 1/2 years and never been!

After the zoo, Josh took me to eat at Bomday House, which is one of my favorite restaurants! It has fabulous Indian Food. Then, we went to the Gateway in Salt Lake for a while. When we got back, a bunch of my and Josh's family was here and surprised me! We all had cake and ice cream and had a great time.
So, all in all, it was an amazing birthday! Josh is pretty much the best!

Halloween!

This year for Halloween, we really didn't do much of anything. When you don't have a kid, you don't really have an excuse to go door to door to get candy. But we did have a ward Halloween party, which gave us an opportunity to be in costume. Since we had recently been involved in re-reading the Harry Potter series, we definitely had those characters in mind. So, we decided to dress up as Harry and Hermione. Josh made an awesome Harry! Me as Hermione? Not so much. I had work that day, so I didn't really have a chance to poof my hair in the right way. I tried to do it really fast, but the result was kind of a disaster.

Mission Reunion

Josh served his mission in the Philippines, and just recently had a mission reunion! It was really cool to go and meet a lot of his old mission companions and elders from his "batch." Josh has been back from his mission for just a little over two years, and already tons of his mission friends (himself included) are married or engaged...some even with kids on the way! I was also able to meet Josh's mission president and his wife, the Labroms. That was great, because I know Josh has a huge respect for them and really looks up to them.


When we got there, we were treated to a buffet of Filipino food. This was my first experience with a Filipino meal, and it was interesting to try the different types of food that Josh ate for 2 years on his mission! I can't say it's my favorite type of food, but it was pretty good.

Josh was able to play a big part in the mission reunion. First, he, Brett, and Clint performed a song. They did a great job...especially considering they were only able to practice right before they performed!
Josh and Brett were also in charge of the "Sheaves and Honors" portion of the evening. This is where they would ask questions regarding the mission and the Philippines that the elders would have to answer (i.e. saying the Restoration story in Tagalog). The winners recieved Filipino food products.
We had a great night, and it was fun to learn a little bit more about Josh's mission!

Our Apartment

I love our apartment complex, but its one drawback is that we don't have a washer and dryer in our apartment. So, we have to use our complex laundromat. When I was doing laundry the other day, I came across this little number:

Either this got mixed into our laundry, or Josh is in BIG trouble. I wasn't really sure what to do with it, so I went back to the laundromat and left it on a shelf. I'm sure it's classy owner has been looking frantically for it. Or maybe she's used to losing her tops...I'd rather not think about it.

I guess it's time to post pictures of our new apartment! We still have a few things left to do. I'm waiting on some pictures to get printed so that we can hang those up. But other than that, we're all settled in! We've come a long way considering our apartment used to look like this:

The night we moved in, we were pretty exhausted because we had just flown back in that day and Josh had work in the morning. But that didn't deter him from starting to put some of our furniture together (yes, we did have to buy some cheaper furniture that required assembly...but it's perfect for our needs; I love Ikea!).

It took us a long time (I REALLY hate unpacking) but eventually we got all settled in!

It even has a cute balcony that you can get to from the living room or bedroom! And I love that we have a gas log fireplace...we just have to figure out how to turn it on.

So that's it for our apartment! I will close with a picture of Josh about to leave for his first day at the University of Utah (he's so handsome!).

Honeymoon!

After our fabulous wedding (thanks again, family and friends!), Josh and I headed to Delray Beach Florida. Our beautiful condo was literally a stone's throw from the beach, which was awesome!

We also loved our rental car, which was one of the new Civics. We're thinking that one day when we can afford it, we just might have to get one...

Delray had the cutest little town, too. It was so nice to walk down the streets in perfect weather, and pick a restaurant at random. Our restaurant ended up being a good pick, too. Josh got the most amazing cheesesteak we had ever tasted! I was definitely jealous, because his was a lot better than what I ordered! (Sorry the picture is blurry...)

Our good friends, Robby and Tia, gave us park-hopper passes for Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. This was about 3 hours away, but the opportunity was way too good to pass up. So we made the drive, and it was definitely worth it! We thought we would only have time for one park, so we decided we would go to Universal Studios. The lines weren't as bad as expected, though, and after a half-day we'd done everything! So we ran next door to Islands of Adventure and just had time to do everything there, too! We really lucked out, and had so much fun!

I also found out that they are building a new Harry Potter ride, and I am SO excited about it!

Any one who knows me knows that I couldn't possibly be that close to Disney World and NOT go. Since we didn't have time to do all the Disney Parks, we decided to go to Magic Kingdom. That was one amazing day...


Disney has this fast pass system that was awesome, because it really helped cut down on the lines! I think the longest line we had to wait in was 45 minutes (for Peter Pan...totally worth it). Other than that, with the fast pass, most lines were only 5-10 minutes! One of our last rides was the Carousel of Progress, which is indoors. It was about a 20 minute ride, and when we got out, it was pouring rain, like a deluge! People were taking cover under any ledge, overhang, or store they could find! But me and Josh decided to brave the weather, and went sprinting through the waterfall to the Snow White ride. So much rain had already come down, that the streets were like a river, and I lost a flip flop in it and had to go back! We rode the Snow White ride which, thankfully, was the only one we still needed to go on. So after that, we left. We were a little sad that we didn't get to see the fireworks, but glad that we had gotten to ride eveything we wanted (except for Space Mountain, which was closed for renovations or something :( )

So our honeymoon was pretty much fabulous! It was so nice to finally be done with wedding plans and take a week away from work to relax and have fun. We weren't quite ready to leave Delray when the time came, but we headed to Myrtle Beach, and had a great time at our South Carolina reception!

Our Wedding Day

Since Josh and I were just married, I guess it unofficially marks the time that we enter the blogging community. Mostly, I want to steal my sister's idea...to use this as a journal and one day print it all up and put it in some kind of book. (Lindsey's saying right now "She always did want to be me...")
It's been about a month since the big day. We were married in the Mt. Timpanogas Temple on July 25th at 1:00 pm.

It was so great that it was later in the day, because that gave us plenty of time to get ready that morning!

I definitely had some nerves, but I surprisingly wasn't as nervous as I expected to be. Everything ran pretty smoothly, and I was glad that Josh got to the temple first and was there waiting for me when I arrived.

The Sealing was, of course, beautiful. We were given a lot of advice that I wish I could remember more of now. But it was so great to be in the sealing room, surrounded by wonderful family and friends. My family is amazing, and I have to say I most certainly lucked out with my new family! They are all so kind, generous, and welcoming.

After the sealing, I changed and waited for ever for Josh to be done...I couldn't believe it was actually taking him longer than it took me to change! As it turns out, he had been ready for a long time, but was waiting for me in the wrong spot. Before I walked out, I was given one of the most amazing bouquets I have ever seen...done by my Sister-in-law, Suymey! It couldn't have been more perfect. So me and Josh made our grand exit...

Where the paparazzi where waiting...


After that, we took tons of pictures in the blazing heat. Really I should just be grateful it wasn't raining, because it was drizzling a little bit the night before. Here are a few of the temple pictures:

The first thing that me and Josh did as a married couple was to go to McDonald's. We were STARVING (I hadn't eaten that morning...) and we only had a little bit of time before the reception. Josh and I were lucky enough to get 2 receptions. The first was in Provo. Josh's mom and the rest of his family did an AMAZING job planning everything. We were thrilled with how everything turned out!




The next reception was in South Carolina, and we had it right after our honeymoon in Florida. This was also an amazing reception, it turned out stunning!

Thanks to our family and friends for helping us to have the most fabulous wedding ever!