Happy happy happy happy happy anniversary...

Wednesday marked three years for Travis and I. Three years ago we went to the Salt Lake temple and were sealed for time and eternity. Good memories. Since then we have lived in five apartments, two cities, bought a car, and moved across the country-twice. I can't list all of the places we have seen and all the memories we have made but they've all been so great. Travis is my best friend. We do everything together, we share everything, we go everywhere together. It's wonderful. We're in love and living the dream.

Every year after Thanksgiving we start looking forward to our anniversary. Not necessarily because it is going to be another year for us but because of how we celebrate. Every year we go to Red Lobster and splurge! We buy whatever we want, which consequently happens to be the most expensive thing on the menu for us. And we also buy fancy drinks and they are delicious! We stuff ourselves silly but it is definitely worth it. It is by far our most expensive meal of the year and that is why it is saved for the anniversary.

This year we also decided to go miniature golfing for some added fun to our day. The place we went to holds memories for Travis and me considering it is where Travis took me for our first date. It was so great spending the day with Travis. With both of us working every day and Travis studying in the evening, some times we find it difficult to spend as much time with each other as we would like so I really enjoyed the time that we have together recently.
Travis is my best friend. I love him so much. The past three years have been an amazing adventure and I am looking forward to what's to come. I love you so much Trav. Happy Anniversary!

"I'll pack your angry eyes...just in case"

These are Travis’ angry eyes. We enjoy making weird faces and our angry eyes is just one of he many. If you recall Mrs. Potato Head packs Mr. Potato his “angry eyes, just in case” at the end of Toy Story 2, so much fun. So I wanted to share because these pictures will always make me laugh. That’s all.

I love to see the temple...

On December 13 our good friend, Shannon got married in the Bountiful Temple. The snow poured down that day and we were a little nervous about making it up to the temple but everyone made it. Travis grew up with Shannon in Minnesota and they have been friends for a very long time. I met Shannon through a friend the first year I came to SUU in 2004. Because of Shannon Travis and I not only met but dated and got married. Funny how one person can change your whole life for you. I was dating somebody else when Shannon put the idea of dating Travis in my head. When I realized that I was beginning to think about somebody other than the person I was dating I figured it was time to evaluate my life. Later that week Travis and I went out on our first date. Shannon is such a wonderful person and we were so grateful to see her on what's probably going to be the best day of her life. She was beaming and as you can see she looked aboslutely beautiful!

We got to see so many old friends sthat we went to SUU with a couple of years ago and it was so much fun seeing them and catching up. Everyone is doing well and has been able to continue on just fine without going to school. :) Life is great.
Travis and I have so many pictures of us close up because generally we take our own pictures and thankfully Travis has long arms because he holds the camera as far back as he can and takes the shot. We savor our memories and treasure the pictures we have. This is the Bountiful Temple and it's one of many temples we have been too. We are happy to had this pictures to rest of our Temple pictures. It had been snowing all morning and you couldn't even see the valley on top of the hill where the Temple is because of all of the snow. But after the ceremony and it came time for pictures it had stopped snowing, and the air had cleared up. Absolultely beautiful. I saw these red berries on the tree and tried so hard to be creative and take some nice shots. I think this time around I actually got lucky.

Oh, and also today is our three year anniversary! Keep posted for pictures!

From the heart

This is my first homemade wedding gift and I'm actually very proud of it. I made it in just a couple of short weeks and I managed to find a frame that fit it at the first store I went to. I would like to make a couple of changes to it the next time I do it. And lucky me will soon have that opportunity because it is December and we all know how many people get married in December! Yea for December weddings!! :)

Fun with Boa

Last week Travis finished up his rotation for the semester and he is now on break! Because he's on break-I took off work, so now we're both on break! It's feels so great! This will be the last year that we actually get what you could call a "Christmas break" so we're definitely going to be enjoying it and hopefully telling you all about it along the way (opposed to three weeks after it).

We've been getting lots of visits from our upstairs neighbors, Boa. She's not our dog but I can't help but take pictures of her, she's so sweet and so much fun. most of the pictures I take of her are a blur because she's constantly moving but I think it makes it that much more fun.

Travis loves playing with her. Trav just sits on the floor and she just goes to him until she gets bored. It's so much fun to watch. I am learning. I've gotten used to the "play bite" and don't mind it so much anymore. Although when we went up to my brother-in-laws their cat wanted to play and it freaked me out. I had to put a huge pillow in between us so that he knew I meant business. I guess only one thing at a time right? Boa loves to give Travis kisses. She is constantly reaching up for his neck, and then his cheek, and then she goes for the ear. It's all in good fun and Travis totally loves it. We're both dog hungry.And can you even believe I got this totally awesome shot! Love it! Boa was looking back at me and I quick told Travis to smile at me and ta-da! I love this shot for two reasons. Not is Boa looking at me, but it looks as if she's smiling at me too! Oh, and look at Travis' goofy smile...so I guess three reasons.

Got eggnog?

What can I say? I'm not a perfect blogger. One day I will post something a day after the event but until then I will blog about our Thanksgiving.

We had a great Thanksgiving and we definitely have a lot to be grateful for. We are back in Utah and just a couple of hours away from family. Travis will be graduating from grad school! How cool is that? I have a job that is helping paying the bills and keeping me out of trouble. We're part of a great ward and will soon be getting callings where we can help serve. Our Father in Heaven watches over us and continues to bless us despite the mistakes we make. We have an apartment to keep us warm. I have plenty of scrapbook stuff to keep me busy. We have computers, cell phones, and other technology to help us stay connected to the world. Our fridge is full...mostly. We have a family that loves and cares for us and is just as excited about us being back in the same time zone. Things are going great for us and like I said before, we have a lot to be grateful for.

This picture was taken up by Eagle Mountain on our way to our family party. I wasn't sure if it would turn out or not but sure enough it did. Aren't those mountains beautiful? We really have missed them. We were lucky enough to be able to spend part of the holiday with my family in which we went to a family Thanksgiving party that included the normal Thanksgiving feast and pie, it was all very yummy. We also went to a movie and saw 007, we all enjoyed it. Especially Travis, he enjoyed it just as must the second time. :) My favorite part this Thanksgiving was all of the games that my family played together. I really enjoy playing games and being away from my family for so long in Pennsylvania had a lot of time to make up for. We had a lot of fun.

We also were able to hang out with Travis' brother and his family, and his sister her family. It was a full house and we all had a good time playing games, drinking eggnog, and watching Fred Claus. Speaking of eggnog...
I don't know if you can see it or not but this is James, Atkin, and Avary sporting their eggnog mustaches. It was so cute because at first they came so naturally but once I busted out the camera they made sure they had a mustach for the camera. They're so cute though so mustach or not I would have taken a picture. Yes, we do have a lot to be grateful for.

Two weeks ago...

It's been so great being back in Utah. The weather is wonderful, the mountains are spectacular, being around friendly people is refreshing, but being around family is best of all the game. The first weekend we came back to Utah my family came down for a visit and it was so great seeing them. We went down to St. George, did some shopping, and spent time together. It was great! The second weekend we were here we went up to Eagle Mountain which is where Travis' brother, Clint, and his family live. It was so great seeing them. It's such a blessing for us to be back in Utah. We really are so grateful to be back and are so happy to spend so much time with family again.

While at Clint and Danielle's we played Bananagrams, kinda like a short version of Scrabble. It was a ton of fun, and as you can see, child friendly. Avary and Akin did so great. Atkin would line up all of his pieces and then raise is hands up in the air and yell "I did it!" So cute.

I gave Avary bonus points for not only spelling her name but for using a 'v'.
We also spent part of the afternoon at Costco looking at all the wonderful Christmas toys that were out. The kids would practically tap on every toy they walked by and say "I want that, I want that, I want that". It was funny. Oh to be young again. We also watched movies, played with the kids, and played catch up on everything we had missed.

I really wanted to do this post two weeks ago but as always, time got away from me but I'm saying it now and it's better late than never. We love spending time with our family and are so grateful that they welcome us into their home. It's so great being close to family again.

My first dog walk

**GASP** I know, totally crazy that I've never taken a dog on a walk before but it's true. So if you know that I've never taken a dog on a walk before then you can probably guess that I've never had a dog before either....or any kind of a pet for that matter. But today I got to take a dog on a walk. The people that live above us (we live in a basement of a house) have a little pikanese and she is adorable. Her name is Boa which is short for Rocky Balboa. She's a fun little dog and today she just seemed to be begging me for taking her out on a walk. Which I couldn't really blame her for cuz it was a beautiful day out so I asked the rightful owners and they were cool with it so I got to take her out for a walk.

Talk about a work out man. Boa could have easily pulled me on my rollerblades even though she is a small dog, that's how fast she was movin'! She was so much fun though to walk, it seemed like she knew exactly where she was going and I was the one that was just along for the ride. I had a good time walking her. Hopefully it won't be my last time I take Boa for a walk. Travis and I are really looking forward to getting of our very own dog...some day. Oh, and this is what Boa looks like from the front. :)

shorter is better

I would love to grow my hair out down my back but it's so thin that it gets stringy looking after not combing it for awhile, split ends get out of control, and it also kinda stops growing once it gets to a certain point. So because of these reasons I have started keeping it short and I love it. Because of my long frame it shapes my face and I have really enjoyed keeping it short. I have tried many different styles that I have really enjoyed. Just over a week ago I got a new style that I am really enjoying. From the front it looks the same but it does go up in the back. Anyway, generally I almost always curl the ends under but every now and again I'll flip them out. Today I flipped them out and I can't believe how cute it turned out.
So I had to take a picture. You can't have a good hair day and not take a picture, right? So I took a picture...okay, I took a couple, it was fun.Cute right? I dunno if I'll ever attempt to grow it out but I'm okay with how it is cuz for me, shorter is definitely better.

fun at the mall

Annie and I owe our friendship to Pep Club. We met at the very end of our Sophomore year in high school because we were both trying out for Pep Club (kinda like cheerleading only not so much). There was one specific cheer that we both happen to be making fun of and from then on things with us just always clicked. Come junior year when Pep Club started she ended up standing right in front of me in the cheer block. Together we were as loud as the rest of the block. We drove the girls around us crazy but we always had a good time. We didn't go to the same college's and haven't lived next to year other since high school but we have managed to stay in touch and see each other when we were both in Salt Lake. This past weekend I went up to Salt Lake on Thursday and was able to hang out with Annie on Friday. We met up at South Towne and had a delicious lunch at Zupa's and then hung out at the mall together. It was so great hanging out with Annie, felt like old times. Anyway, these were some fun pictures that I took-

This is cute snow bunny Annie. She is sporting a very cute and comfy, fluffy beanie (found at Aero).

Annie in a big, brown, expensive, puffy coat (found at Eddie Bauer).

Gangster Annie, it doesn't really matter where this one was at cuz let's be honest, no one is interested in actually purchasing it.

And this is my personal favorite, vogue Annie. The last store we hit was Famous Footwear and for those of you who don't know this store is just loaded with shoes. And look at these cute shoes that I found! Love them! I've pretty much warn them every day since I got them.

We made it

Well packing everything up was a complete mess but some how it all got done. This is what the kitchen looked like, we could barely get around everything.I had so much help and support from my ward. The Elders, families, and others from the ward came to help us load up the truck. It was all loaded and ready to go in less than two hours! It was so great once that door was closed and everything was ready to go. I was so grateful for all the help that we had, I definitely needed it. Just goes to show that once again the church is true.

Travis' brother, Trevor, and sister, Jamie, flew in on Thursday to help us drive back to Utah. We had to do the drive in a weekend because Travis needed to start his next rotation on Monday. Now that we have two cars I knew that I wouldn't be able to drive all day and all evening all by myself. So Trevor and Jamie helped us drive back, we are also so grateful for their help as well. I don't think we would have gotten very fast very far without their help.

Seeing gas prices across all of the states was interesting. We left gas in Pennsylvania at $2.49. I don't remember what was the most but when we saw the most expensive but when we saw it for $1.95, we had to stop. Although when we were in Missouri we saw it for $1.77! We were a little bummed that when we saw the Chevron by Cove Fort for $2.79, major bummer. But were glad to see that it wasn't quite that much here in Cedar.

Anyway, Kansas was by far the worst state to drive through. For those of you who have not seen or driven through Kansas, this is what it looks like-exciting isn't it? This is what it looks like throughout the whole state! And it's a big state. Although there was a beautiful sunset that night so that was cool.

We arrived in Colorado in the evening and I was so bummed not being able to see those mountains. But the next morning seeing those mountains was like a breath of fresh air. The air was great too. We had missed the mountains so much. Driving through the Colorado mountains was great! We even saw people skiing, and that made us jealous because I knew how much fun they were having. It was a beautiful day with the sunshine, and the snow on the pine trees on a huge mountain side was like a dream come true. We are very excited to be back in Utah and to be surrounded by the mountains. So great.

So anyway, our drive was long, just over 2,150 miles! We made it in three days arriving in Cedar on Sunday night. We're living in a basement apartment in a house on 500 W. Travis started his family practice rotation with Dr. North yesterday and had a good time. He will be there for ten weeks and then start his next rotation, women's health. Lucky him. Our truck will be arriving tomorrow so those of you who are in town and can help let us know. I am looking forward to getting our stuff back, we've been living out a suit cases for just over a week now. Can't wait!

How much fun is this?

Just playing around, thank you Holly :)

It starts

Last week I started packing! Lucky for me I have no job so I have all day to pack and clean and get all ready for our big move. I figured two weeks would be a sufficient amount of time to get everything done and so I started last week some time and have made a lot of progress-This would be day one. I focused on the second bedroom room which had mostly storage and my scrapbook stuff.
Day two, the basement, more storage stuff.
Day three, I managed to clean up the entire second bedroom and wrapped the furniture but had to leave the heavy boxes full of boxes and the like because I'm weak sauce and don't have the arm strength. But this room is now completely clean and ready to go.
This is what the kitchen looked like on day three. I started cleaning out as much as I could in the kitchen.
And this is day four. I started with the living room and put stuff that was laying around in boxes.
This is also part of day four...I think. I started cleaning the second bedroom and for those of you who have stayed in apartments probably know the normal routine of cleaning an apartment just before you check out. So I got the bucket and filled it with Lysol and started. Dusting the baseboards, have a nice ledge on them. I cleaned the walls, the light fixtures, vacuuming, cleaned the blinds and the windows. I didn't realize how dirty this place was. At a quick glance it's really nice but when I stopped and took a closer look it is really bad. For instance, check out these blinds. I don't know how good you can see it but if you look close you can see that the top four or so are much cleaner than the ones on the bottom. The top ones I had just cleaned, the bottoms ones are how they looked. It took me a good hour to clean just one set of blinds, and there are four of them upstairs. I checked out the ones on the main floor and they're not bad at all. I have no idea how these got so dirty but my back is killing me from cleaning them.
Yesterday when I was working I looked out the window and saw this. This morning I woke up and saw this-
SNOW! Lucky for me I can look at the snow and smile because I have nowhere to go so I don't have to drive in it, notice how my car is not cleaned off. Love it. Unfortunately though I cannot go for a walk in it because I already packed my snow boots and such. Major bummer! It's suppose to snow all day but tomorrow they're calling for sunshine and a high of 46! So the snow will probably stick around but that's okay. Although everyone needs to pray for nice weather across the country because that is when we head back to Utah.

The Battle at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

Last weekend we took the weekend off and headed out to Gettysburg and had such a good time. We went to the Gettysburg Museum and not only heard the whole story but saw a ton of cool stuff. These are only some of the type of guns that they used during the battle.
This they called it the knap sack and said it was the typical gear that the soliders would carry. It weight approximately 45 pounds and when I went to lift it it didn't move! I had to bend my knees and use my legs to lift this thing and even then as soon as Trav took the picture I dropped it with a sigh of relief! I would have been a miserable solider.


I thought this was pretty cool, it's an apron that a woman made and wore during the war. She made a star for each of the 34 states. Kinda cool.


After the museum we saw a film that talked all about the battle. We drove around to the battle fields and this is what they looked like-



Very green, grassy, large, and very open. Here is where the confederates and the union would stand in front of each other and just start shooting. Sounds silly to me but that's just how it was I guess. At the end of the museum it said that there were 51,000 soliders that were wounded, killed, captured, or missing which made it to be the bloodiest battle in the war!We drove to the observation tower and it was incredibly high. When we got to the top you could see over the trees and see the town, the battlefields, and everything else that was around us. It was cool- and really windy and pretty chilly, so I had to bundle up.The town was so quaint. Tall buildings right next to each other with trees lining the streets. There were resturants, shops, and we even came across a scrapbook store! This was a cool building that I really liked, it's an Episcpcal church.

And last but not least a picture of a monument. There are monuments everywhere! Monuments to regiments, to generals, to the states that were apart of the war, to everyone.

It as such a fun weekend to be with Travis again. He's gone during the week and so it was so fun to be with him all weekend long! Although Sunday came back around and we had to say goodbye all over again. But I'm not too worried cuz I know another Friday is going to come around. Everyone should visit Gettysburg one day, it's a wonderful experience.