First USU game! 8.30.2012

Nate and I got to go to our first USU game tonight!
USU vs SUU
Got to be apart of the student section and get in on the action of cheering and supporting our school to a VICTORY 34-3!!!! Go AGGIES go!!!!
Loved being able be there with Nate and go to our first game together! :D

First day of school! 8.27.2012

"First day of school-first day of school!"-Nemo

New school.

New outfit.

New year.

I'm ready for the challenge and excited for the adventure! Bring it on USU!

Brigham City Temple open house 8.24.2012

Got to go and see the opening house for the Brigham City Temple with my family and Nate tonight! It was awesome to see inside the temple, I've never been inside past certain rooms so it was a neat experience for me to see and be apart of it :) I got to see the room where I have been striving to go for my whole life, the sealing room, such a gorgeous room! I can't wait to be married in the temple one day :)
The Brigham City temple is opening up this month :) Can't wait to go soon! :D

Baking with Paige! 8.23.2012

I love Paige.
She is hilarious and adorable!
Tonight she invited me over to bake some muffins with her.
Alright she MAY have done most of the work BUT I helped, eat them lol!
She is WAY talented at baking so I let her do her thing!!!!
It was so much fun to hang out with her and her friends!
After baking we watched the Avengers-such a good show :)
Good night with great friends :D

USU campus 8.23.2012

Best part of getting up to school before it starts???

Getting to check out the sights and spending sometime with Nate :)

Nate had already been around the campus so he got to show me around-we met up with the bull!

It was fun hanging out and getting to know the campus a bit better! :D

Brigham City Temple 8.22.2012

On our way to up Logan, Korrine and I swung by the Brigham City temple to check it out! We stopped and took some photos and got to see how gorgeous it was up close! It is definitely a sight to see! I love to see the temple!

The Farm 8.21.2012

Got to visit the farm tonight for FHE with Dad, Britt, and the kids

It was fun to go and see all the animals-the kids just love it there!

Jaxson and Brooklyn went on the horse rides and LOVED it :)

It was great family outing!

Pool time! 8.21.2012

Auntie time with Brooklyn!!! Korrine & I got to take Brooklyn to the pool this afternoon!

It was so much fun-this little girl is so cute :D

 Her and her inter-tube..she is getting a bit more brave in the pool 

(almost to the point of swimming on her own!) 

Then Utah had to go and fail on us and the sun went away and grey clouds came in and started to sprinkle! :( So we called it a day-but we had fun while it lasted!!! :D

Paradise lunch date! 8.20.2012

I love my lunch outings with this girl-Allison is adorable and SO much fun to hang out with!!! We went to Paradise bakery today for lunch, I had never been but man was it tasty! Definitely a success for a lunch date! We got to sit around and chat which was lovely! Thank you Allison for going with me today and chatting! <3 p="p">

Road Trip 8.18.2012

Road trip from Washington to Utah.

Car packed to the max.

Lack of sleep.

Saying goodbye to the green and hello to the brown and heat.

Getting our fix at Jack in the Box.

Eating Bugles (a MUST have for car rides)

Jamming out to music to keep us entertained.

Finding funny shapes in the mountains.

Driving the 14 hours from Washington to Utah making it official I have relocated. 

Weird to think I live in Utah now but excited for this new adventure!

Saying goodbye 8.17.2012

Went and saw the Lee's and Nana on our last day in Washington. It was weird to be saying goodbye but it is not forever, just for a bit till I return again! Got to see the train track the Lee's have and watch it run which is so cool-Bro Lee is so impressive with his trains! Then we stopped and saw Nana and got to visit with her for a bit! It was a fun afternoon!

Tacoma's Art 8.16.2012

Went and toured around Tacoma after we got back from Seattle. Hit up the Tacoma History museum, blown glass, and art museum :) Lots of stuff to see around Tacoma that is for sure! Learned lots of interesting facts about Washington at the history museum, almost died from heat in the blown glass one watching the demonstration! and then hit up the art museum-so artsy fartsy ;)

But it was way fun to see the sights and get to experience a new side of Tacoma :)

Does it smell fishy to you? 8.16.2012

After our sight seeing in Seattle we hit up the famous Ivars for some fish & chips.

Tessa was able to come down after her class got out and eat lunch with us! So much fun!!!

Lunch by the water was fantastic & we didn't get attacked by the birds -phew!!!

Seattlites 8.16.2012

Today we became tourists. 

We hit up all the sights Seattle had to offer: Pike Place, The Pier, Waterfront, Ivars just to name a few.

We tasted some yummy chocolate noodles.

Smelt some nasty fish!!

Had fun with some hats

Added to the gum wall.

Almost licked the gum wall ;)

Seattle was super fun & it was Korrine's first time to check out the sights!

MY Jenga 8.4.2012

What do a bunch of 19-21 year olds do at midnight? Play Jenga of course! Man this game is intense! We had planned Friday night as well so we had some idea of what to expect out of each other...but Saturday night was a surprise to us all. John revealed his LOVE for Jenga, Electra got competitive, Tessa was fierce, and I shocked myself when I was graceful when playing the pieces lol! It was so much fun and we laughed so hard with all the funny faces, sayings, and craziness that comes with all of us together :) It was awesome to hang out with these guys as well as others who were at the YSA conference this weekend! So happy to see all my friends again :) I love being able to hang with you guys!

Mike & Jamie's Wedding/Reception 8.4.2012

Oh man what is that you see? A man next to me at a wedding? Oh yes I have my date back ;) Today I got to be Nate's +1 at his friend's wedding. :) It was fun to get get all dressed up and we even matched-(not planned at all!) We headed up to Bremerton around 12:30 and got up there a bit early so we watched as the bride, groom, and family took their photos-blue & ivory were the colors, very pretty! The wedding took place in a Catholic church which was a neat experience and a beautiful ceremony :) Then we headed over to where the reception was taken place! Introduction of the new couple and then we got to enjoy some yummy food and sweet cupcakes! It was an amazing reception and great to chat with friends :)

 Congrats again to Jamie & Mike! Best wishes to the both of you! :D

Alec is 9! 7.30.2012

Ok this kid makes me feel SOOO old. 

When I first met him he had just been born and was such a little guy and now he is so grown up! 

I can't believe Alec is 9 now. 

Wow where has the time gone?

Happy Birthday bud! You are awesome! I've loved watching you grow up and coming out to watch you play baseball-you are getting really good bud, keep at it! :D

I wish you a fantastic year and hope you enjoyed your birthday! Love you my not so little guy! :)

First date 7.27.2012

You would think going on a date with my boyfriend that I've been with for almost 3 years wouldn't make me nervous lol oh but I was!

 Nate and I got to go out for our first time in two years tonight!

I had butterflies all day!

 Since he planned our first date the first time around it was my turn to plan the date :) 

Which also meant I got to go and pick him up haha oh and get questioned by his parents-so funny! 

We started out with mini golf at Parkland Putters. One would also think that being on the golf team for a three years I'd be a bit better than I was lol. I was a bit nervous at first which totally threw my game off lol but after a bit I got back into the swing of things :) We had fun chatting as we played through the holes :) At the end I let Nate win ;) Then we headed over to Puyallup to go grab milkshakes at Sonic :) We went over to the park and walked around and chatted, it was nice to catch up and actually be able to talk rather than read it over a letter :) It is nice to have him back, still weird at times to look and see that he is really there lol but I am loving it :) 

I would say date #1 was a success :)

Julia has arrived! 7.25.2012

Congrats to Ember & Joe-Julia Kristine has FINALLY arrived! 

This little beautiful girl was so stubborn and didn't want to come out and meet all of us who were anxiously awaiting her arrival! The little girl was supposed to come on July 19th but stuck it out for another week almost!

 She arrived on July 24 at 1:25p.m. 

She weighed in at 8 lbs 5 oz and is 21 inches long!

Ember and Julia were released from the hospital on Wednesday afternoon so I got to go over and meet Julia! It was so awesome to hold this little girl :) 

Welcome to the world Julia! You belong to a loving family with older siblings who love you already and are anxious to grow with you :)

Tacoma Rainier's Baseball Game 7.24.2012

Swing. Ball. Swing. STRIKE OUT!

Tonight my mom and I got to go to the Tacoma Rainier's baseball game thanks to our friend Shawna who had tickets and wasn't going to use them so we jumped on the offer! :D

We got to be apart of the Summit Club for the night which meant-free parking, special entrance, elevator ride to top floor where we got unlimited drinks, popcorn, peanuts, and pretzels! 

Oh and get this...we got to sit 5 rows from the field! 

Awesome seats huh? Heck YES! 

Thank you Shawna-you are awesome :)

The game was good-very nail biting as we tried to keep our lead then to catch up so we wouldn't lose :( 

At the end though the Tucson Padres took home the win 4-3 :( But good effort boys!

*The ONE good play of the game when the Rainier's took the lead was when I went to the bathroom, just my luck haha*

In a blink of an eye 7.22.2012

From December 2009 (our first photo taken on my camera) to July of 2012 (first photo after being apart for 2 years) Nate and I have shared some amazing experiences together :) He has filled my life with so much joy it is hard to explain & usually I start crying!
So I will just say that I am incredibly grateful for him in my life and that he is such a blessing to me! I put this together today to see the changes we've made in the past two years while he was gone serving the Lord! The bottom two pictures are almost exactly two years apart-the left is at his farewell and the right is at his homecoming :) I can't believe it has been two years, looking back on the two years it is sort of like I blinked and it was over, it might have felt like a slow blink at times but overall it was like he left and I blinked my eyes and he has returned. Oh and the saying is so true-they leave as boys and come home as men ;) I think Texas definitely played a role in it too haha! Gotta love Texas :D I love you Nathaniel :)

2 years later....7.19.2012

Nate is home from serving his mission in Texas :)

 He is even more amazing than I remember. He makes me smile and laugh. It is so good to have him home :) I got to go over to his house and see him again for the first time in two years :) 

Ahhhh the hug was SO worth it :) 

He talked all night about his mission, he LOVES Texas ;)

He had such a great time and learned so much and met so many great people! I am so grateful for this experience he was able to have and also for him allowing me to be apart of it as well. To learn and grow right along side him and become closer as we wrote each other each week and really dove into our scriptures :)

 I am so glad he is home! 

I love him :) 

Welcome home Nate :)

Elder Schott's Return! 7.18.2012

Welcome Home Elder Schott!

Elder Schott returned to Washington at 12:50p.m. today :D

His family was there to greet him at the airport!

After the airport they hit up BJ's (it is a delicious restaurant here in Tacoma, home-made root beer & cookies fresh out of the oven served with ice cream for dessert)

They spent the afternoon chatting away and then that evening they went to the Stake President's office and Elder Schott was released from his missionary duty and became Nathaniel Schott again! 

(it is crazy to think two years has flown by!) 

After that they went to dinner at Apple Teriyaki-Nate's favorite place! Or at least his top three along with BJ's now only Frugals (hamburger joint) is left! haha

A good afternoon of happy reunions filled with a lovely evening for the family being apart of him being released!

Welcome Home Nate-I am so grateful for your service in Texas these past two years! You are an incredible example to me and I love you so much :) Can't wait to hear all about Texas and your mission! :D

We like to party! 7.14.2012

Oh Tessa is back and so is our epic adventures! Oh how I have missed her!!!!!! :D
We went for a drive Saturday night and I discovered she had never seen the Fremont Troll. Well we HAD to change that! So we headed that way, a few wrong turns but we got there ;) What is an adventure without getting a little lost? Exactly. ;) We had a lot of fun climbing up the creepy troll or in Tessa's case climbing under him to get that awesome photo in the right there!

On Sunday after church we had the intention of heading out to Golden Gardens to go walk the beach. Well we were cut off thanks to a street market going on. We tried the detour for a bit then decided we could just walk around that! So we found parking-Tessa did an awesome job at parallel parking :) Then we walked up the street and found THIS FISH! It was huge! And there was kids inside of it. So we HAD to see what was going on, so we climbed inside! It had cool paintings on the inside! And of course I had to get a photo of it ;) We were inside a fish, come on. How could you pass that up?!?

Once again our adventure was epic. You never disappoint Tessa ;) Thanks bud for an awesome weekend!

Tessa returns 7.14.2012

My bud came back from Utah today :)
So Betsy and I ran to the Dollar Tree to get supplies to make her some Welcome Home signs :)
Tessa had wanted to just take a cab back to Seattle instead of someone coming to pick her up-so miss independent!!! But after lots of texting and calling to Chris, Betsy, Emily and even Tessa we got it all figured out and had our plan to surprise her at the airport :)

We got there and found the Delta gate and then came the game of waiting! That part is never fun so Chris decided to make a game out of it-we tried to guess where people were coming from ;) yes, we are dorks. lol. Then we finally asked someone where they were coming from and got Utah-WOOHOO!!! She was coming soon! I had the camera ready to capture her face and Betsy, Emily, and Chris had the signs :)

She came up on the escalator furthest from us lol (ya just our luck) and wasn't looking our way so we had to shout her name and then she looked and got a surprised look on her face (priceless!) and smiled and we all got hugs :) Success!!!!

I got a video of it but it was sent from an iphone so it isn't so great but here it is anyways!!!!

Welcome back to Seattle Tessa!!!!

7/11 Free Slurpee Day! 7.11.2012

It is 7-11!!! You know what that means???? 

FREE SLURPEE DAY! :D

After playing some baseball with the Marini's at the park we headed over to grab our 7.11 ounces of yummy slurpees :) I love free slurpee day-who wouldn't???

I loved it so much after my mom got off of work we ran to the other 7/11 by our house to get another one ;p 

Last Letter sent to Texas 7.8.2012

Tonight is the night, I spent my Sunday writing my final letter to Elder Schott.

My last letter to go to Texas-the post office might go out of business now with no more packages or letters from me lol ;)

I can't believe after 104 letters I wrote my last one. 

It is done. 

Whoa.

 Dropping it off in the mail box it really hit me that this is happening

Elder Schott has almost completed his mission :)

We've grown so much over these past two years and to think our only communication has been through letters-it is insane to think that I will be talking to him here in 10 days :)

His response to this last letter will be in person-

OH MY GOODNESS :)

Surprise visitor from Colorado! 7.7.2012

Guess who flew in from Colorado for the weekend-Emily :)
Emily and her dad Roy worked together to surprise her mom for a belated birthday gift-it worked!!!! :D
Tonight we went over to a relatives of theirs and had a party! It was nice and hot outside so how else do you cool off? Oh with water guns ;) It was way fun :D
You know those stories when the girls say "we've been friends since we were in our mom's wombs"??? Well I am lucky enough to have a friend like that. My mom and Lori used to work together at Home Base (before Home Depot was around in Tacoma haha). Through life, moving, job changes, growing up, and raising their families these two have stayed friends through it all and even have created the same connection between Emily and I. They have become family to us, even the daddio Roy lol ;) I love you guys so much, thanks for always being there for us and treating us like family-inviting us over to all your fun events :)

Carlye comes to town! 7.6.2012

My old roommate came to Parkland to visit me-she is such a sweetheart :D
She had plans with her boyfriend later that evening but made time to come out a bit early to come hang with me to do some shopping and chatting :) It was such an awesome afternoon! I've missed Carlye :)
We went and checked out Forever 21-awesome store....we got some awesome photo moments from some of their stuff haha!
Funny story-so we had grabbed Starbucks to drink as we walked around the mall and I had finished mine so  I decided to go drop it in the garbage but the only one I saw was outside so I walked it out totally forgetting that I had a shirt under my arm so as I walked out the alarm went off! I stopped dead in my tracks-freaked out and ran back in and placed the shirt down as Carlye laughed at me...I started laughing and ran back outside to go throw away my drink lol (still got to be a good citizen haha) and when I returned the store attendant came out to ask if everything was ok Carlye and I just laughed and then explained what had happened and the lady just laughed and walked away. Basically I would be a horrible theif lol!

After the mall we grabbed ice cream cones from Baskin Robbins :) Sat outside in the sun with our ice cream-perfect way to end an afternoon! Thank you Carlye for a fantastic afternoon :) I loved seeing you again and being able to catch up!!! :D

4th tradition still lives! July.4.2012

Kids in Red.

Girls in white.

Boys in Blue.

Each 4th of July my mom gives us our 4th shirts-I love this tradition. No matter where we are we all match :) I love that! It is our family connection ;) I hope you all had a fantastic 4th :D

Proud to be an American July.4.2012

I love living in the U.S.of A :)

I really love the sunshine on the 4th of July as well. Cause of celebration in fact-inter-tubing anyone???

Oh man was it a blast! Got to hang with friends on the beach and chill on a boat (yes the line "I'm on a boat with my flippy floppies" was said baha!)

Then switched and headed up to Seattle-Alki Beach with my mommie. Went and saw our dear friends LuAn and Jules for the evening and for some fireworks! Got to see their new place now that all the craziness of moving in has settled down! Their view was beautiful and laughing was a given for the evening! :D

Happy 4th to one and all :) God Bless America!

Oh say can you see! July 4.2012

Usually it is the boys in black well this girl changed it up a bit and switched it to the boys in white-Washington tshirts for all of Nate's buds in Texas :)

This 4th of July box was bittersweet to put together-of course I enjoyed decking it out in the red, white, & blue but this was my LAST box I would make for Elder Schott. Crazy to think of that! 

I can't believe the mission is almost over-eek!

So the contents for this package:

silly string (for Elder Schott to get back at his comps for the water guns I sent in June ;p), USA necklaces, glow sticks, flag covered chapsticks for his comps, a striped tie for my Elder, crunch bars, and flag candy-mints that had flags on them lol. Very patriotic package to celebrate the good old USA :)

Happy 4th to the missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. You guys are amazing and I am so proud of all y'all :) Love you Elder Schott :)

Jump into SUMMER 6.20.2012

June is almost halfway gone and guess what---

I just now did Elder Schott's box (oops lol)

But I did it, had to ask some of my friends for some ideas (man my creativity is starting to get slim here on the last stretch lol)

 The girls helped me come up with some awesome ideas to put in his Jumping into Summer box :)

Contents:

Jump rope

bubbles

chap stick

sunscreen

Frisbee

shovel and pail

candy bars

squishy basketballs (usually to be filled with water but soft if they just want to throw them at each other lol)

water guns

missionary talk (spiritual thought)

I wrote on there "toys for the boys" lol 

Hope you guys enjoy it! :D

Marini boys in action 6.20.2012

America's favorite past time???? Baseball of course :D 

I love getting to go and watch my little guys play the game they love!

With the sun shining it made for an amazing day to watch a baseball game :)

Zack is getting so good at baseball-he got all 3 outs in the last inning!! 

Bryce is just starting out t-ball but boy is he eager to play-he runs those bases like nobody's business! ;)

Little Andrew Swift is also on the team so that was awesome to get to see him playing as well :)

Congrats boys on your game-although they don't keep score I am saying you guys won! ;)

4% 6.18.2012

OOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH MMMMMMYYYYY MMMMMYYYY!

Can we just take a minute to zoom in on this picture and notice:

1) percent left-4% SAY WHAT????

2) months to go: 0.97 (oh under 1???)

3)weeks- FOUR-That is nuts!

4) days-29...you must be crazy! But I'm okay with it ;)

Pacis Reception 6.16.2012

May I introduce to you Mr & Mrs Pacis :D

I can't believe Morgan & Chris are now Mr & Mrs!!!!

They are such a cute couple and I am so grateful for the invitation to be apart of their big day!

They got sealed for time and all eternity in the Seattle Temple on Friday morning and then snuck away for a night at a hotel then came back on Saturday to celebrate Island style for their reception!!!

They had performances by some islanders in our stake which was awesome (yup that is Natasha right there-she did a few of the dances!!!) They even got the groom up there to dance for one of them ;)

Morgan's colors were pink and orange -now I'm not usually a fan of pink BUT Morgan made this look adorable and went so great with her personality :D 

Congratulations to Chris & Morgan! I wish you two the best of luck!!! :D

Relief Society BBQ 6.14.2012

Tonight we got treated-and I mean TREATED by President Hjelm and his lovely wife with their AMAZING grilling tricks :D Now anyone who knows me knows that I am not really a fan of meat we shall say..I have to be in the mood for it to eat it. But BOY oh BOY while he was talking to us about all his marinates and techniques all I was paying attention to was the smell coming off of that grill!!!! SOOOO GOOOODDDD :)
He treated us to 3 types of marinated meats: margarita, rosemary, and a traditional bbq sauce
I must say I think I liked the rosemary one the best-it was so savory!

Then we all grabbed the side dishes we had brought and added some meat to our plate and dug in. I ate my meat first too-BIG DEAL in my book lol! President Hjelm is hired for all my meat cooking needs lol!!! Thank you so much for coming out on your week night to give us ladies some of the tricks of the trade!!! :D

oh and the picture of me with the hat-ya I totally stole that from Steven and he was coming to get it so I snapped the photo before he could ;)

I love letters :D 6.14.2012

today I got my letter early. Perks of being home.
this is my 5th to last letter. WOW.
Only 4 more letters from Texas then I'll be seeing Elder Schott face to face...EEK!!!
I love letters from Elder Schott, he definitely knows how to calm my nerves, make me smile, and gets me excited to see him again here soon :)

Joey's Graduation 6.12.2012

Little Joey is not so little anymore-he is graduating on Saturday and heading off to BYU Saturday afternoon so they threw him his graduation party a little bit early! Mom and I headed back to our old neighborhood, (so weird to go back-flashbacks and memories of when I was little always come back...makes me miss those times) found the clubhouse, crossed our fingers it was actually the right place...then saw Joey as we walked closer -phew ;)
Got to catch up a bit with his family which was nice, got treated to a yummy italian soda by his little bro Nick. He was pro at making those, even convinced me to have a second one so I could try his rootbeer/vanilla one -tasted like a rootbeer float :)

Congrats to Joey and best of luck this summer at BYU and we are all excited to hear about your first year and what is to come for you :) Congrats grad of 2012! :)

Scripture journal complete! 6.11.2012

100 weeks have come and gone.

Each night Nate and I read a chapter in the scriptures and write down thoughts on them.

Each week we send out our notes and swap them.

I've come to the end of my book which means only 4 weeks left!

4 weeks of "regular" paper but I'm A-OK with that ;)

This is coming to an end...wow! :)

Thai food 6.4.2012

So my co-workers found out I have a secret-

I'm not cultured lol. 

I'm kind of a picky eater-I call it I just like to have a routine but they didn't take that excuse so they took me out and treated me to Thai food :D Caitlin, Kelly & Cynthia (in order of the photo!) are the sweetest ladies :D I took Cynthia's advice and had the chicken one-with only ONE star! Heat + I are NOT good friends lol!

I have to admit I liked stepping out of my box a bit, it was way yummy!

Thank you ladies for convincing me-aka pulling my arm ;) I was so lucky to have you girls to work with! 

Institute Graduation 6.2.2012

Today was the big day, I graduated from Institute. WOW. Never imagined this day would happen-didn't expect it to be honest until Sis. Williams asked me about graduation and I found out I could be graduating this June. Well fast forward a few weeks and BAM graduation day! It was a hectic and packed full day, bridal shower, baptism and after prepping the chicken at the Stake Center. Great conversations happen in the kitchen lol. But graduation was a perfect way to end this hectic day, such a spirit filled meeting! Got to enjoy a dinner, listen to some great testimonies and speakers, and then we were able to walk across the podium and receive our diplomas! WE DID IT :) It was so amazing to spend the evening with family and friends :)

The people in the video just in case you don't know is Tessa and I :) We got it taped so we can show our family and friends who weren't able to make it! Enjoy! :D

Shannon's Baptism 6.2.2012

Happy day for my friend Shannon today. 

I got to be apart of her baptism. 

Shannon is amazing, such a spunky personality and lovely to be around. 

I've loved getting to know her and being able to hang out with her throughout this year :) 

Shannon I am so proud of you for choosing to become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I know it has been a struggle and that you have prayed about it and come to know for yourself that this is true! This gospel is amazing and it can bring you so much joy into your life, as you already know! You have tons of people around you and in your life that will support you in your life.

 Congrats again Shannon! :D 

Maren's Bridal Shower 6.2.2012

This lovely lady is becoming a MRS....in August! So we had a bridal shower for her before school got out :) I have loved getting to know Maren over the past 2 quarters thanks to being in the same classes :) She is amazing, super smart, and really funny! Her and Jacob (the lucky fella) are SO cute together! Thanks to Maggie for throwing her an awesome party and thinking of me! oh and Maggie came up with the CUTEST idea for gifts-food storage...so clever!

Maggie had cute arts and crafts as well-we got to make our own jewelry! Overall such a cute bridal shower. Job well done Maggie and Congrats to Maren and Jacob for their engagement and wedding here soon :)

Portland adventure! 5.26.2012

Mom and I decided to take an adventure to Portland, Oregon for the beginning of our memorial day weekend :D We woke up, headed out and grabbed some Jack in the Box breakfast jacks-so good! Then hit the open road... :D two hours of road, jamming to music, and some much needed girl talk we made it to the BEA-U-TIFUL Portland Oregon Temple! I've never been so I was super excited! We felt a bit out of place wearing our jeans and flip flops (reminder to pack a skirt next time!) but it did create some funny moments when people thought we were investigators, we got an awesome tour of the visiting center there-it is WAY high tech...they have a machine where the Book of Mormon is read to you in whatever language of book you choose. Ya scared me to death when I opened it up and a voice came from no where and started talking to me in Cambodian lol!

Then we walked around the temple grounds-saw 6 different wedding parties so of course we had to check them out a bit lol! Then we took some photos of our own! That temple is gorgeous :)

After we went to Chipotle-my mom was a nubbie!!! So I introduced her to their amazing burrito! Then we hit up the Portland mall-time to shop...TAX FREE baby!!! oh ya we went wild! ;)
This mall is huge-they have an ice skating rink right in the MIDDLE of the mall...now how cool is that lol!!!!

I loved this little adventure :) Great way to kick off our memorial day weekend! I love you mommie-thanks for a great time!

Discovery Park 5.21.2012

Sometimes we drive ourselves to FHE...
sometimes we go after the group has already left..
sometimes we get lost..
but sometimes we end up at the end point and get to wait for the group to come by having our own dance party ( I think that was WAY better than a hike anyways lol)

Tessa and I got to rock out to our jams...get a few weird stares from park goers lol and then direct the group to the lighthouse once they arrived. We got to munch on some trail mix-yummy!
Our Discovery Park adventure was just that-an adventure-we went through like 6 states to get there (no lie-each street was named a different state lol!) Oh man...Tessa time is the best time :)

Ward Campout 5.18-19.2012

Snow+sleds+hot coco+s'mores+late night charades+early morning ice sledding+ Priesthood making breakfast+women having to help them out =AN AMAZING CAMPOUT!

I was nervous to see how a co-ed campout with our singles ward was going to go but man it was epic! We started off with getting lost on our way up there (classic Tessa & Kendahl move lol) then we had some amazing food for dinner (pasta with Sis Bean's homemade sauce-the Bishop's wife is THE best!) then we went outside for some sledding, started out at a bunny hill then a few of us left for a bigger thrill. We found the hill of death (serious-if you didn't stop at the right time off the cliff you would go!!!!) What is life without a bit of adventure-right??? haha
Once it got too dark to keep going we stopped (so we are somewhat sensible lol) and headed to the fire to warm up and make some s'mores. Chris taught us the "proper" way of making s'mores-you need to melt the chocolate as well...after a few attempts (he kept losing the chocolate in the fire lol) he made a delicious s'more that I got to enjoy :) I'm a fan of melted chocolate lol!

After that we went inside and played some banana-grams...hilarious! I saw the competitive side of my Bishop which was awesome! We laughed so hard during that game! :D
Then we made up some hot coco and played some late night charades...makes it really funny once its past 1 a.m. lol Then we sorted out and went to bed. For Tessa, Emily, and I our bedroom ended up being a walk-in closet lol. We were the last to sleep so our original spot had been taken so we crashed in there for only a few hours because our alarm went off at 6 to head outside so we could go sledding again! This time though everything had frozen over so it was all ice and super fast! Super crazy too-oh and boy did it hurt to fall off lol. OUCH!

Breakfast time came next-the men were in charge of it...but that failed quickly so the women stepped in a bit to help it run a bit smoother ;) Then we learned a new game called 10,000-you play it with dice and try to hit 10,000...but super fun and we added twists to make it more competitive ;) After that we cleaned up and headed home :( Such a fun night that went by way too quickly! But it was a blast! :)

Pinewood Derby 5.10.2012

Do you have the need....the need for SPEED???? We do :D

Carole, Tessa, and I did that is for sure!!!

One late night we started carving our car using a Swiss Army knife-yes you just read that right, we didn't have any tools and we met this guy named Kevin after his Institute class who said he had one in his car so we borrowed his-got to meet an awesome guy during our 2 hour chipping away at the car lol!

The next night we discovered Tessa's exacto knife worked a bit better and it helped shape it into the way we Tessa had designed it lol Then we got to paint our lovely car which we had decided to name it Carly Rae -yes after the song Call Me Maybe-we love to jam out to that song in the car! We created lightning bolts on the sides with numbers (going along with our calling theme lol) -we even included our own numbers in them lol..we are dorks!

Carole decided to sponsor us (she had WAY too much money in her food account) so she bought a bunch of donations and we ended up winning the top prize -$50 dollars to Pizza Hut HECK YES!!!

So we decided with our winnings we would throw a pizza party at Gas Works with some friends! It was super fun-everyone brought drinks or chips and we brought the 5 pizzas lol and we ended up playing some Ultimate Frisbee and then watched the sunset then sat around telling stories from our past! Super chill yet amazing night! :D

Brooklyn turns 2!!!! May 5.2012

My blue bug eyed beauty is 2! I can't believe it-just the other day I was graduating from high school and welcoming this precious little girl into the world and now look at her all grown up! Not a baby anymore!
I got to fly down to Utah to be apart of Brooklyn's birthday party-The Hungry Caterpillar! My sister is so creative-all the food went with the days from the book and the cupcakes looked like a caterpillar...oh can't forget the art and craft project of making your own caterpillar! It was super fun! :D

This little girl is spoiled and loved by all! She is such a cutie-it is hard not to love her :D I love being her Aunt and being able to celebrate with her! Brooklyn I love you to the moon and back! :D-Auntie K

I love being an Aunt

From squeezing hugs to messy kisses being Auntie K is always full of surprises and laughter! Thanks to Brittany and John for giving me such two amazing blessings in my life. I have loved spending time with these two little tykes-they are so dang cute!!! I got to fly down to Utah this weekend to celebrate that little girls 2nd birthday-don't worry there will be a post about that too. I can't believe its been two years already-they are getting so big and making me feel so old lol!  I love you kiddos! -Auntie K