Where Did November Go??

I can not believe that November is already over and we are well into December. Time has flown by. We both have been very busy with school and work and whatever else it is that seems to take up our time. We had a good end of November though. We were able to go up to Idaho for a my birthday weekend. I was spoiled by both families up there- which was just fine by me!! But we really did have a good time. We had nice dinners with both families, but then it was time to head back.We had a good Thanksgiving here together. We got "His and Her" aprons for our wedding and decided to put those to use as we made our delicious dinner. It turned out so good! Ryan cooked the turkey and homemade rolls while I was at work. I was very impressed! When I got home we finished up the rest. Although we weren't able to spend it with family. We had a good little Thanksgiving with just the two of us. The next day I got a huge surprise. Ryan sent me a dozen flowers at work for my birthday. They were beautiful! He also had made a nice candlelit dinner for us when I got home. I had no idea Ryan knew how to made cheesecake, but once again he surprised me with a delicious homemade cherry cheesecake (my favorite). After the dinner, he gave me a beautiful pearl necklace. Ryan spoils me rotten! I am so blessed and love him more than anything! Thanks Ryan!

Sorry all the pictures are of me!!

So You Think You Can Dance

You can't tell where we are from the picture, but last night we went to the So You Think You Can Dance tour. (that is the stage behind Ryan's head). Last season (5) was the first time we really got into the show. I absolutely loved it!!! It was amazing and so much fun!! They had some really great dances! Ryan was such a good sport to go with me- considering about 80% of the audience was female. It made me want to dance- but for now I better just keep my dancing confined to my own living room.

Haunted Forest

This past weekend we went to the Haunted Forest in American Fork and had a blast. I always get scared to death at those kind of things, but I still love going. I'm not quite sure what is so fun about getting scared!?! We were very impressed with all they had there. They had an "Insane Asylum" that you went through first. That was pretty good. Then they had the actual haunted forest part. They had a lot of animatronics!. It was very impressive to see the amount of time and money spent on this thing! It reminded us of Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland. Luckily, they put about 4 teenage girls in the group with us. They went first and got the worst of it. Of course, I still screamed, got scared, and had lots of fun !

Pumpkin Carving

I just love fall and all the fun things to do during this time of year! Last night we carved pumpkins with our good friends Megan and Austin.

This is "us" hard at work on the pumpkins

And the winner is...???

Conference Weekend

We had a good weekend! I didn't have to work Friday or Saturday, so my family drove down to visit. Friday night we went and met Ryan at school. We wandered around campus a bit, then headed to the BYU football game. They played Utah State. It was chilly, but still worth it. We bought my brother John a matching BYU shirt. We are trying hard to turn him into a cougar fan! We had student tickets, and they didn't, so we had to split up and go watch the game. At half time we went and found my family. There was no one sitting next to them, so we ended up sitting with them for the second half of the game. We tried hard to make everyone cheer along with us!

The next day we had a lazy conference Saturday. We lounged around and went out to eat. While all the boys went to the priesthood session, my mom and I took a well deserved shopping spree! I really miss having my mom close because we always have so much fun together. After the session, we met the boys at the BYU womens soccer game. They played the University of Utah. Now that was fun! Football is fun, but I feel like I can cheer at more appropriate times during a soccer game instead of just doing whatever the crowd does! It was a really close game and ended up going into overtime. We all had lots of fun! Every guy in a shirt and tie got a free ice cream. We all sat there freezing with our tubs of ice cream. And of course, BYU won!!

I was luckily put on call the next day, Sunday. Ryan and I tested our skills at making home-made cinnamon rolls, and again lounged around on that cold rainy day. It was the perfect, relaxing weekend!

BYU Game and UTA

This past Saturday Ryan and I were able to go to the BYU football game against Colorado State. We had lots of fun, and had some pretty good seats. It was fun to get all decked out in our BYU gear. The mall is doing this thing called Dine and Ride or something like that. If you eat at the food court, you get a bus ticket to the game. It was kind of nice to not have to find a parking spot, and we got some of Ryan's homework done! He is in a transportation class and has to take 5 round trips on the bus. So if you see us standing at the bus stop- that is why. It has been interesting thus far. We got some pictures during our last few trips, but they didn't turn out very well. We were trying to hurry because we felt silly taking pictures at the bus stops!

Yellowstone

Last week we headed to Idaho, again. This time our destination was Yellowstone! We both hadn't been there for a long time and had lots of fun with Ryan's parents. Before we left for Yellowstone, we couldn't pass up a beautiful day of boating with my family at Gem Lake. I miss living close to that boat! Ryan got up on waterskiis for the first time and did amazing! Here are a few pictures...Then began our Yellowstone adventure. We drove up to a cabin we had rented in Island Park and spent the night there. The next day we woke up bright and early and headed into the park. Our first stop was Old Faithful.

We then drove around and saw some very pretty scenery, hot pots, and animals.

This huge guy decided to walk right down the middle of our lane for quite some time.

After a tour around the park we went to the IMAX theater in West Yellowstone and learned all about Alaska. It was huge! I had never been to one before. We then decided to find us some dinner. In the process we found an old train car that had been remodeled. We were able to walk through it, take some pictures, and have a little tea party.

We found one of those old western photo places. Ryan and I weren't very good at looking serious!

That night we went to the Playmill and saw Guys and Dolls. Again, I had never been to the playmill and it was lots of fun. It was a fun and busy day!


The next day we went floating down Henry's Fork. Of course, we forgot our camera so we are lacking on the pictures. Ryan's mom was nice enough to meet us in the car at the end and was able to get some pictures. We'll have to steal some from her later. It was a nice, relaxing float trip!

Education Week

Ryan and I decided we wanted to do education week at BYU. However, because we were both working our choice of classes was limited. We ended up taking a dancing class at night and it was a blast!! We learned the Fox Trot, West Coast Swing, Cha-Cha, and the Waltz. Watch out for us on Dancing With The Stars!

Nurse's Challenge

My mom gave me a day by day calendar for Christmas last year that is specifically for nurses. Today I just had to laugh, and I'm sure many of my friends will also be able to relate!

Challenges For Survivor: Hospital Island

Each nurse contestant must administer ten meds a piece to 100 patients, in one hour with no errors.

Each nurse contestant must eat the hospital food, with no condiments.

Each nurse contestant must work a twenty-four hour shift in the ICU and ER.

Each nurse contestant must transfer a 250- pound patient from bed to chair ten times, without assistance.

Each nurse contestant must insert a catheter in a 400- pound patient, unwashed, for approximately a year.

The winner of Survivor: Hospital Island is allowed to keep his or her job.

I love my job!! Although it is definitely not that bad, there are some days that I feel like I am a contestant!

Idaho Trip

This past weekend we went up to Idaho, and had a fun week. We got there on Friday morning and just spent the day with family. Ryan and I went to the Museum of Idaho. We both hadn't been there for years! They have a huge Titanic exhibit going on. They start off by giving you a boarding pass with the name and information of a real person that was on the Titanic. You then walk through and see a bunch of artifacts and learn everything you ever wanted to know about the Titanic. At the end they have a huge list of people that survived, and those that didn't. We found the people that we were supposed to be, and I survived but Ryan drowned. It was very neat!

This is Ryan's boarding pass

The next day was Family Day at the site. We headed out in the desert and saw where my Dad worked. It was interesting to see all the security they really do have out there! We learned a lot!! I know my Dad spent a lot of time organizing it, so thanks Dad! (Of course, no cameras were allowed out there!)
That night we went and played laser tag with my family. It was so funny! I think we all had a blast. We topped off the night with Reed's Dairy ice cream. That is something we both definitely miss about Idaho Falls!

Sunday was one of my best friend's farewell. Jen was my friend in high school, and we roomed together at BYU-I. We had some good times! She will be serving in Canada, and headed to the MTC today. I know she will do great! I also got to see my other good friend from high school Shanna. She will be leaving a week from today and will be serving in El Salvador. All of my friends are on missions!! I miss them all, but know they will be amazing missionaries!

One of our last New Year's together. Me- Orem, Lara- Armenia, Shanna- El Salvador, Heidi- Thailand, and Jen- Canada (Don't worry- it's just sparkling cider!)

Sunday night we had a big dinner with Ryan's family. It was good to see everyone! Monday we spent the day shopping and spending time with our amazing families. We just can't get enough of them!

The Latest...

This past week has been busy, but so fun. Ryan and I are really trying to squeeze in every last fun summer activity we can. We are so close to finishing our "Summer To Do List"! Last Monday we went to the Orem Owlz game. They were playing the Idaho Falls Chuckars, so we were torn over who we should cheer for. The game ended up tying and went into the 11th inning. Ryan and I were experiencing a baseball overload, so we decided to leave early. Right as we got to our car we heard the stadium expload with cheering and could see that Orem had scored and therefore won. We then decided we had been cheering for the Owlz the whole time. Unfortunately we forgot our camera.

Wednesday, Ryan's parents came down here and we all went camping. Yes, Ryan talked me into going camping. It actually turned out to be lots of fun. Ryan had to work that day, so we were a little late getting up there. We stayed in Granite Flats, which is just up the canyon. Ryan's parents had our tents set up and had dinner all ready. It was very pretty up there, and it was good to visit with them!
On Friday, our friends Devin and Lindsay invited us to head up to Sundance. During the full moon they offer lift rides up the mountain and back. It was amazing up there! Unfortunately it was cloudy and we couldn't really see the full moon. It was still worth it though. The views were spectacular and it was lots of fun. The lift was pretty steep in some places, but we survived!

(It was very dark and the flash was very bright!!)
While we were on our full moon lift ride, we noticed the Sundance theater and agreed that it would be fun to go to. So, yesterday we all headed up there again to watch the Fantasticks. It was pretty chilly, but we had hot chocolate and muddy buddys to warm us up. The show was fantastic, and very funny. We all had lots of fun! Thanks Lindsay and Devin!

Pioneer Day

Ryan and I have never celebrated Pioneer Day, since we are pretty new to Utah, so we weren't too disappointed when we both had to work yesterday. We did end up having quite a fun day though. My parents drove down and took us all out to dinner and to the Real Salt Lake game.

The Stadium

Waiting for the game to start

We were really close to the field- fourth row!

The game was so much fun! They ended up winning 4-2. They scored all their goals in the second half too. There were pk's, yellow cards, red cards, a little fight, and an amazing firework show at the end. After the game, we headed back to their hotel and went swimming. It was very exciting, and we all had a blast. Thanks Mom and Dad!!

Proud To Be Americans

Since Jamie had to work on the fourth of July this year we ended up celebrating here in Utah. Although we wanted to be in Idaho Falls we were still able to have a wonderful time together. To start out the evening we decided to wear the matching shirts we got from her parents. (and take a picture in them of course!)



After that we headed off to Fuddruckers for a good ole American dinner. We thought Mexican sounded good, but decided that wouldn't be appropriate. We had never been so it was a little new for us, but we both decided that their burgers are delicious!

Of course these two guys were just waiting to get their pictures taken.


We then went down by the BYU stadium to wait for the fireworks. The Jonas Brothers were performing there, after which they had the fireworks show. It tried to rain a little bit and even threatened with some lightening, but it wasn't enough to stop the show. It was a wonderful Fourth of July!! Happy Birthday America!!!