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!).