The Good Life

I have to tell you I have been loving this summer. I was nervous that it would be too much free time for me...not the case. There has been just enough fun stuff and change that I am still just enjoying it, and even beginning to dread returning to a full time work schedule.

I think someday I will just love being a stay at home mom. Although I would probably be happy with a little more to do right now, I have been really liking the flexibility in my days. I don't have to worry about getting to bed early so that I can wake up early and be trapped at work all day, then get home and inevitably be exhausted because I never get to bed on time. I know that there will be challenges with it as well, but I'm thinking I am going to much prefer it to working full time. Don't get any ideas, I'm talking about a future that is more than 9 months away!

We got to Colorado on Monday, and Willie started his internship Tuesday. Woohoo!

First day picture! All of our shopping for clothes paid off and he looked spiffy.

We are living with Willie's sister Mindy and her family. It has been so fun spending time with all of them. My days have been spent signing up for a gym, grocery shopping, playing lots of board games with our cutie little nephew, and becoming obsessed with the MTV show Teen Mom. Mindy introduced me to it. It's on netflix and it's super good. Well, that's about it. I will keep you updated on our adventures in Colorado!

Park City

Willie and I went to Park City to celebrate our one year anniversary this past weekend. We left Thursday when Willie got home from work, and went up to our hotel. I mentioned in my last post that we used priceline for our hotel...it turned out great! We got a pretty good deal, and were given the Yarrow Hotel. It was a little older but nice. But then again I could be happy at a motel 6...just being in any hotel is so fun and feels like vacation! That being said, I'd read online on a money-saving blog that a lot of times if you book the cheapest room you can ask for an upgrade when you get there, and they will do it for free or just a few bucks more. Although I'd be happy with anything, I'm certainly not opposed to nice rooms so Willie and I decided to try it.

When we got in there was a younger guy behind the desk. Willie asked if there were any upgrades available, and the guy said sometimes there are, then didn't mention it again so we figured he'd forgot and just thought "oh well." When he gave us our room he said he'd put us by the pool, and let him know how we liked the room. When we went in, we realized he'd given us a really nice upgrade for free!! (I knew this because I had looked up all of the different rooms online when we were seeing what hotel priceline gave us). I think he just didn't want to say anything in front of the other people waiting to check in. But our room was definitely not the cheapest one we were originally assigned to. We had a fireplace and a kitchen and could walk out of our sliding glass door right onto the pool deck! We were so excited, and so appreciative of that nice young man! What a great guy. My only regret from the hotel is we never got the chance to tell him thank you for what a nice thing he did. But we had a great time and were so excited to get a nice room for a steal!

So after we checked in we went to the main street in Park City to have dinner. Before we left I'd googled good places to eat in Park City and found a Thai place that looked good, especially because I found a buy one get one entree coupon on their website! I don't know about you guys, but finding a deal always makes it more fun for us. So we went to eat there and it was so delicious!! It was only my second time eating Thai food, and I loved it. Willie said it was probably better than Thailand but less authentic. We really want to go there, but will have to wait for a much later anniversary I think!

The next day we laid out by the pool for a bit (the water was freeeeeezing so we didn't get in), then got ready and went shopping at the outlet mall. We got Willie some clothes for his internship (which I guess I haven't mentioned on here yet...we are leaving next week and going to Colorado! Willie got an internship at his brother in law's company, and we will be staying with them....yay! Thanks Mindy and Jakob! Willie will be there right until school starts for him, so July and August, and I will be out there for July and then the first week of August, then I will need to come back for my job. Bummer but at least we will only be apart a few weeks. We are super excited to go though!). I also got a few things at the outlet mall that were steals (I was excited...I'm not usually so lucky to find the cute stuff so cheap), then we wrapped it up because Willie was dying. Shopping is not his thing :)

That night we got some pizza from Dominos, which was a treat and nice change from Little Ceasar's. We rented a movie on Amazon and hooked up our computer to the TV to watch. We had actually had in mind to go out to a movie, but it was such a small town that the theaters there didn't have a lot of good movies playing, and their 7/7:30 showings were their latest ones! It worked out perfectly though. It was fun to eat and watch a movie in our comfy room.

The next morning we packed up and checked out, then headed over to the Park City Mountain Resort to do the Alpine Slide and Coaster. Super fun! We rode the ski lift up to the top to ride the alpine slide.

On the way up we could see the Coaster we were going to ride on after. You get in a little car and it pulls you on the track up, then you ride down.

Dragging our alpine slide seats over to the tracks.

After we went down the slide, we headed over to the coaster. We rode together which was so fun. It was kind of like the Alpine slide in that you could accelerate or put on the brakes, and Willie held the accelerator down the whole time! It was super scary and fun. It was really cool because you wound through the trees the whole time, but I was concentrating so hard on not falling out that I was mostly staring at the track!

After that we headed back to Provo. It was such a fun trip and we had a great time!

One Year

One year ago today Willie and I got married! Yay! It has been the best. Willie is the sweetest husband and I am the luckiest!

Here are some pictures of our wedding day. I never did a wedding post, and now I remember why. It was so hard to pick my favorite pictures! I had way too many to include and try to move around where I wanted them. Luckily fickle blogger helped me out today by deleting all of the pictures I originally uploaded, frustrating me so much that I only wanted to upload a couple the next time around. Actually, I uploaded four but have now deleted two of those (accidentally of course). These are good ones though.

We are celebrating our anniversary next weekend, and are going up to Park City. We got a pretty good deal on priceline on a hotel (it was so fun and exciting bidding for one!), and we are super excited. We have some things in mind to do, but let me know if any of you know of anything fun (and inexpensive) we could do there :)

This morning we went out to breakfast at Kneaders, and it was so fun to think about how a year ago I was getting ready and heading to the temple to be sealed to Willie. It was definitely the best decision I have ever made, and I am so happy for it every day!

School's Out!

School's out for the summer! Hip Hip Hooray! Friday was my last day of work until August. I'm sure I'll get a little restless later in the summer, and hopefully I can get some temp work or something, but as of right now I have lots to look forward to and I'm super excited! I leave for Italy with my mom and sisters in 5 DAYS! Then, we have our 1 year anniversary, some friends coming to visit, my parents in the U.S. for a couple months that I will be able to call during the day (yay!), and just sunshine and the wonderfulness of summer! There is also possibly one more exciting thing that is not a sure thing yet, so I will hold off on posting it so that I don't jinx it! Curious? I will let ya know if it works out!

Thrown in there I need to hurry and finish up an independent study class (I hesitated to write that because I don't have the best track record with those, but maybe this will put some pressure on me), and start teaching Relief Society (AHH!). My lesson is pretty much right when I get back from Italy, so I've already started preparing. Wish me luck! It's just slightly nervewracking for me :)

P.S. I forgot a picture from my 2 month update!! Willie and I went to his friend Josh's graduation party and we all went to a kareoke bar. Willie and I went up to sing a song!

I was expecting everyone to be off key and terrible like all of my past stake dance etc kareoke experiences. Well, we certainly were. The guy operating the music had to come up and clap and sing with us to get us going to the right tune. We were there really early and the first ones there pretty much. When their friend got up after us, I was thinking, Wow, she's really good! Little did I know that each and every person in that place sang like professional singers! Haha anyway, it was super fun to sing and be there and hang out with Megan and Josh!

Happy Birthday Willster!

This is a little late as Willie's birthday was last Sunday, but Happy Birthday to Willie!!! Saturday he spent the day swimming and playing volleyball with his brothers up in Alpine (I was busy at Kelli's hair school being her model all day...so fun! ), then I went up and we had dinner and went for some ice cream. Sunday Willie opened presents, and I made dinner after church and we played games and had cupcakes with siblings and friends! I didn't take many pictures, but here are a couple!

(We don't really keep up with our block calendar... :))

Happy Birthday to the best husband in the world!! Love you! :)

All At Once

There have been so many things that I have meant to and wanted to blog about in the past two months...and I have done none of them! My blog to do list kept growing longer and longer, and I felt overwhelmed. So, here it is. Two months all at once!

First off, Kenny came home from his mission, and Timmy left on his! It's been so fun having Kenny back, and Timmy seems to be doing super well on his mission. Willie works at the MTC doing maintenance, and has even gotten to see him a few times! We had lots of family in town for the homecoming and farewell, and it was really fun to see everyone.

Willie and I waiting for Kenny with the fam at the airport

He's home! Willie and his brother :)

A couple of weeks later, we went to conference with Robbie and Kelli, Timmy, and Kenny. I had a cute one of all of us, but I tried to upload it and blogger kept deleting it! Bummer.

We got the tickets from Willie's Grandma Claire. She and Willie's grandpa volunteered with the missionary department for a long time, and get a few tickets each conference. We were really lucky to be about 10 rows back this time! It was so neat.

Next: Easter. Willie and I had such a fun Easter this year! We went shopping and picked out surprise Easter baskets for each other.

Then, for our Easter dinner, Willie barbequed some DELICIOUS pork chops for us. He is quite the grill master! I warmed up some rolls and made homemade mashed potatoes (not as good as my mom's but better than powdered I guess) and asparagus. It was such a good dinner! This is a picture of Willie's plate because I'd already digged into mine by the time we remembered to take a picture :)

This past weekend I was able to fly to one of my bestest friends Sarah's wedding in Texas!! It was so much fun to see and visit with her! She looked absolutely beautiful and was so happy! I think this picture of them is so cute.

And, in the past two months I've done two crafts. First, I finally completed my wreath! I decided to go with a yarn wreath, and actually had the yarn wrapping part done and sitting around forever. It took me such a long time to decide on flower colors and to figure out how to place them! I finally just went with these colors, but stuck them on with velcro so that I can switch them up sometimes. I think the flower placement is a little awkward, but it was surprisingly difficult to place them. I will probably add some more later. I ended up deciding to put in on the inside side of our front door. Thanks for all of your input!!

The other craft that I did was a birthday calendar! I am sort of proud of this one because I kind of made it up on my own. Kind of. I don't remember how I got the idea to make one, but when I did I googled "birthday calendar" and found where one girl had made a similar one. She wrapped paper around a piece of cardboard, and glued on little papers like the ones I had and hung it with a ribbon.

I changed it a little by adding the title, flower, and mod podging the paper and sticker letters on. I wanted something thicker than scrapbook paper, and didn't think mod podge would go well on cardboard because it's kind of bumpy. So then I came up with the brilliant idea of cutting this foam placemat that Willie and I won in a white elephant game. Bad idea!! It now curls in and has to be taped down to my wall. If you ever make one I would recomend a posterboard back probably. And maybe no mod podge. That's what I wish I had done.

Anyway, I googled birthday calendar printables and got the little papers for each month. I printed them out on cardstock and used distress ink on them. Then, I used scrapbook removable glue dots to put them on so that I can take them off and re-write when I have new birthdays to add. Here it is!

So far it's been really helpful and I think cute in our kitchen. I like it!

So, there is a quick-ish review of the past two months. Hopefully I'll be back on here sooner than that this time! :)

Close Call

The Kindergarten class that I work in is doing a unit on fairy tales right now. Along with it, we're talking about fiction vs. non-fiction. Today the kids were doing a worksheet on fictional creatures, and this little girl marches up to me and demands, "Is this an elf?!"

I looked at the picture and said yes, it was. She then said, "But elfs are real!! They live at the North Pole and make our toys!!" Oh geez. What do I say?! I can't crush her belief in Santa! I stared at it for a minute, then said, "This is a different kind of elf. The kind that live in the woods..." (I have no idea what kind of elf that would be. I think I was thinking along the lines of the Keebler elfs or something), "...and there aren't really elfs in the woods, are there?!"

She burst out laughing like that was the silliest thing she'd ever heard and was like "nooo!!!", and walked away happily, her illusion of Santa and elfs still in tact. Phew!!!

Heheh I thought it was so cute :)