Brett and Mikalla's Wedding

My cousin Brett got married in the Logan Temple last Thursday. It was so fun to be able to go attend the wedding in Logan and then drive to Ashton, ID for the reception that night. Kory and I drove down the night before and stayed with my mom in the same hotel as my cousins. We had lots of fun visiting with them a little bit while watching Legally Blonde (love that movie). The next morning we woke up early, helped set up, and attended Brett and Mikalla's marriage sealing. Afterwards we stood outside the temple and waited for the bride and groom to come out.   While we were waiting we took a few pictures.  Then the bride and the groom arrived and Mikalla looked absolutely beautiful. They are so cute together!

We attended a luncheon after that, which was wonderful.  Then the road trip to Idaho began.  We drove with Mom.  Before we got to Ashton we stopped in Rexburg for a minute to eat dinner at Craigo's Pizza.  It was pretty good, but not as good as I was expecting it to be.  When we got to the reception we were able to spend some more time with all of our cousins.  I love seeing family!  I'm sad some of our family wasn't able to make it, but that's just how Thursday weddings out of town go.  Nonetheless, it was a great time!  The reception turned out very beautiful, I should have taken pictures!  Oh well.  Here are some of the pictures I took for your enjoyment.  I love the picture of Kory helping direct the kids in the picture.  My husband is such a go-getter, he is wonderful.

Brett and Mikalla I am so happy for the two of you.  I hope you continue to fall more in love everyday, and that you enjoy your journey to becoming one.  Congratulations!

Random Sampler

I noticed that there are some pictures I have not had a chance to post yet.  Kory and I have season tickets for BYU football.  We've been having fun going to the games.  We also have seats next to our friends Kyle and Mekelle, whom we love, so that's fun!  The first couple of games we actually had fairly good seats! Here are some pics.

The week before General Conference we also got to see my best friend Karly Jo, and her little sister Kimra.  Kimra was blessing her beautiful little baby.  Then after the blessing we got to enjoy some amazing homemade Cafe Rio pulled pork burritos and to-die-for desserts.  Here are some pics from that event.

In addition to those little picture updates, I can't help but add adorable pictures of other cute kids.  It's kind of funny how I always post pictures of Kelli's cute kids now that they are close to us.  It's just one of those things you can't help but do, I can't imagine what my blog will be like when I have my own children to post pics of.  Until then, I just love all of my nieces and nephews!  Here is Aubrey in my sunglasses, haha.

 

Hope you enjoy my little picture update! I think I'm finally all caught up...wait I never posted our Moab reunion... hmm... haha catching up on blogging is not fun!

The Best "How To" and "DIY-Do it Yourself" Ever.

How to have a wonderful, loving, helpful, and successful husband.
AND
DIY Creating a Man That Makes You Proud.

Yesterday in church, our lesson in Relief Society was about improving our relationships in life (between spouse, parents, children, etc.). When we got to the part in the lesson where we were talking about our relationship with our spouse, a couple of things stood out to me. The first was when one girl talked about how we need to remember that the way we think about our spouse is how they'll become. So she likes to think of her husband as so helpful, muscular/handsome, and talented. Everyone got a little laugh out of that.

I have learned a lot about how positive affirmations can play a huge role in your life, for the good. One of my favorite positive affirmation quotes is,"what you think about, you bring about." I don't know why I never really directly connected how important my thoughts about my husband are. Of course I think many wonderful things about my husband! But I am also human. I need to remember that the way I think about him is how he will become.

The second thing that stood out to me was a story that was shared. It made me laugh, and then made me ponder how much more I could/should be doing as a wife.

It was a story about a husband and wife who went to her hometown to visit family. While they were in town they stopped at the local convenient store, and ran into the owner who happened to be the wife's high school sweetheart. The husband, who was a successful CEO of a company, later asked the wife, "aren't you glad that you married a successful CEO instead of a convenient store owner?" To which the wife replied, "If I would have married him, he would have been a successful CEO too."

I think it is easy to believe that as wives it is our responsibility to help our husbands reach the potential we see in them. However, it's tricky to always remember that we help them reach it through positive encounters and not negative ones. Based on the feedback given while we were discussing this in church yesterday, I think everyone can improve in this area.

Private Blogs

Every now and then I think about making my blog private. Partly because then maybe the people who glance at my blog every now and then will actually comment! (Don't act like you don't read my blog ;) hehe). I'm really big on commenting on others' blogs. Sometimes I think maybe I shouldn't because they never comment back on mine, and it kind of makes me feel awkward. I just don't want to come off as a "creeper" so if I'm reading someone's blog I let them know. They're trying to play it off like I'm the weirdo reading their blog, but then they read mine too! haha jk. It's really not a big deal if people don't comment. It takes time to read everyone's blogs, let alone comment on them too.

Another reason I have considered going private is that I'm applying for a lot of jobs and hoping to enter post-college life of professionalism. I googled my name and found that everything popped up: this blog, my facebook, both twitter accounts. I'm just not sure I really want my personal life to be that accessible. Not that I have anything to hide, because I don't, I just want to keep my personal life exactly that...personal.

However, I don't want to go private because honestly I never read people's private blogs! When they are private they don't show up on my blog reader because they don't transmit and RSS feed. I only view people's blogs when I see they have written something new, and I know that because of the feed. So if you have a private blog, I very rarely visit it because I just totally forget about taking time to visit every private blog individually to see if there is something new. I don't really want reading my blog to be like that for other people.

Lastly, it is kind of a head ache to have to privately invite everyone to read my blog. Additionally, you are limited to 100 readers and that really isn't that many. So I don't know what I am going to do. But ultimately, because I am debating going private I need your email address so I can, in fact, invite you. All readers are welcome, even if you have never commented on my blog if you enjoy reading I would love to have you. Leave your email in the comments, or send me an email/text/facebook message whatever. Family, I have your email addresses you do not need to leave them.

P.S. I've added pictures to the General Conference post below!

Conference Weekend

I just spent a lot of time catching up on friends' and family's blogs. It is always nice to catch up. This weekend was really wonderful! As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we had the opportunity to be addressed by the leaders of our church as the semi-annual General Conference. The messages that the Prophet, Thomas S. Monson, and other General Authorities and Apostles shared with us were uplifting, inspiring, direct, and gave me the desire to be a better person. I feel so blessed to know that Heavenly Father hears my prayers, Jesus Christ is my Savior and Redeemer, and that the fullness of the gospel has been restored to the earth in our modern day.

Kory's parent came to town this weekend! I love it when family comes to town. On Friday we went out to dinner with some more extended family. Then on Saturday we attended the afternoon session of conference in Salt Lake. Stephen and Stephanie were able to come and enjoy conference with us and Kory's family. What a treat! It was such a beautiful day! I love fall when it is sunny but the air is kind of crisp and slightly cool. It's fun to think that Kory officially proposed to me around this time last year. We had already been engaged for a couple months by that point, we just didn't have the official "pop the question with the ring" thing yet. I also had my bridal shower this weekend last year! So many wonderful memories from that! I have such amazing friends whom I love very much!!! Saturday night Lynda, Kelli and I went to Rod Works (which is a super amazing home-decor store). We had no idea it was going to be crazy busy because of a "girls night" shopping event. Even though the line wrapped around the whole store, we had fun shopping and were happy with our finds.

This morning we went over to Kelli's for breakfast. Kory's dad made their famous family crepes, and they were delicious! All of us then enjoyed watching the Sunday sessions of conference from home in our comfy PJ's. Later in the afternoon we went to my cousins and enjoyed a Sunday dinner with them.

I love my family so much!

Northwest Summer Road Trip

This is another "catch up" blog post. Don't forget to check out the 2 or 3 others I have written below this.

At the end of July after Kory and I finished working at our old job, I was able to go home for a few days! The adventures of the next few days were very unexpected, however. When I flew in we loaded up the car and Mom, Stephen, and I started a road trip to Portland. We were going to see Stephen's freshman roommate and great friend's mission homecoming talk in church. Trent came to Boise to see Stephen speak in church before he left on his mission since Stephen was the first to leave. Stephen was on his own mission when Trent left for his. So he really wanted to go to Trent's hometown to see him speak when he returned. Trent is from a town in Southeast Washington not very far from Portland, OR. So our plan was to spend time there Saturday evening.

After a long drive, we got into town and had Chipotle for dinner. Then we drove around downtown to check everything out. I really like Portland a lot. After playing tourists downtown, we decided to drive out to see the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Portland, OR temple. We got there just before the sun started to set. The temple is surrounded by tall beautiful pine trees, and has lovely landscaping and fountains. Each of us notices immediately the peace that we felt from being on temple grounds. We spent a lot of time there just taking it in and pondering. I love spending time with my family.






The next morning we woke up super early and started driving North through Vancouver, WA to Ridgefield, WA. We attended church where Trent spoke and told about the lessons he learned while serving a mission in Hungary. He is such an amazing young man, and he and Stephen were both excited to be reunited after years apart. They both have such a fun sense of humor. After church, we went over to his family's home for lunch and had a great time! Trent even showed us how to use a whip (a little trick he learned from the Hungarians)!


Trent only lives 2 hours from Puyallup, WA where my cousins live. So we decided that since we were so close and we still had a few days before I need to be back in Boise, that we would go see them! Unfortunately, it took us 4 hours to get there instead of 2 because of the traffic near Olympia. But, we made it to the Fowles house just in time for Sunday dinner (we totally planned that, except not really). Jodi's sister's family was also there for Sunday dinner and they brought Puyallup Fair scones for dessert! They were so yummy. We always have so much fun with our cousins, we sure love them! After dinner we played a game in their backyard, I can't remember what it is called but it's fun. You toss these strings with golf balls on the end and try to get them to wrap around the pipes across the yard. Here are some pictures of Stephen and my cousin Nykele playing, and being very competitive I might add.




Since Puyallup is close to Seattle, on Monday we decided to go have lunch at Red Robin on the wharf. That is something we have always done when we go to Seattle. We had tons of fun spending a couple of hours around there before we left town.








On our way out of town we stopped at a Costco so that we could get some Puyallup Fair Scone Mix. Then we hit the road and headed to the last stop of our road trip, which was Priest River, ID where my mother grew up. I absolutely love going there! Northern Idaho is so beautiful, and it's nice to get away and relax.

The first night we were there we got in right before a big lightning storm rolled in. There was constant lightening from 11 PM until 4 AM in the morning! The power went out only about an hour after we had arrived. I was so tired I fell asleep, but Mom and Stephen stayed awake watching the storm. The next morning, we got to work to help clean the house and the yard. Here you see Stephen mowing the empty lot.


After we got some work around the house done we were able to take a short day trip to Canada! It was fun to drive up there to the little Canadian town just across the border for a round trip of only a few hours. The drive was absolutely beautiful. The further north we got in Idaho, the more blue the mountains were and landscape was breathtaking. When we were in Canada, we raided the grocery store to get lots of yummy chocolate! You know, the good stuff that isn't found often in the states like Kinder Bueno and Bounty!


On our way back home, we stopped in Sandpoint, ID for dinner. We decided to get Arby's and it's a good thing because they had the most amazing huckleberry shake there! The owner of that Arby's would buy gallons of fresh huckleberries from a local source. It was amazing! The fun thing though, was that we decided to go to the part to eat our fast food so that we could enjoy some beautiful scenery. Due to some construction, there was a little confusion about how to get to the park. It was a good thing though because we ended up sitting in the parking lot of a beautiful Sandpoint hotel and overlooking the river. This is the view we enjoyed during dinner.


By the time we got home from our little afternoon trip to Canada, it was dark. We went to bed not really thinking too much about the storm that had occurred the night before. The next morning we woke up and Stephen and I went to go get McDonalds breakfast. On our way we passed my mom's high school (now the Junior High) and saw the the big trees in front of it were totally uprooted. When I first saw it I was confused asking why they would take those trees out! Then Stephen quickly informed me that they don't remove trees like that, and it was because of the storm. "For real!?" I replied knowing that what he said made way more sense, but I still couldn't believe it. We brought breakfast and Tillamook ice cream back home to eat with Mom. Yes, we had ice cream with our breakfast because the Newport, WA McDonalds sells Tillamook ice cream and that stuff is good!

Anyway, I told Mom what we saw and then we jumped in the car to tour the rest of the town and see what other damage had been done. Mom has the rest of the pictures. But it was crazy because several trees had been taken out all over town. We watched the news and heard all about the crazy storm the hit Northern Idaho. Apparently there were hundreds of lightning strikes in the greater area that night. Then as we were leaving town we discovered that several trees had come down just two blocks from our house. Cars were completely smashed, trees landed on carports and the corner of a house was taken out. That is when we realized that we needed to say a prayer expressing our gratitude for how much our Heavenly Father watched over us that stormy night. We had no idea how lucky we were! I wish I had the other pictures to show you, but here is one of the trees we saw on the way to McDonalds.

Ultimately, that road trip was SOOO MUCH FUN! I am so glad that I was able to make it for such an unexpected and adventurous journey with Mom and Stephen. I wish Kory would have been able to come! This is what he was up to while I was gone (baking chocolate-chocolate chip cookies and surfing the flowrider.)

Adam's Birthday-End of Washington

Our last weekend in Washington we got to be there to celebrate Adam's birthday! Yay! We went to Claimjumper and it was delish! It was really fun having all the adults from Kory's family (minus Kelli and Jeremiah whom we missed tons!) together at dinner. Most of the entertainment was from taking pictures. They speak for themselves.













The next day was our last day in Washington. We helped clean around the house. Kory showed me a desk top that he had all of his friends sign as his "yearbook" one year. Then Mom and Rix took us to the mall and then the airport. We had such a great time in Washington.