Just a Little Street Fire to Celebrate Pioneers

In Utah on July 24th everyone takes off work and celebrates Pioneer Day...it's pretty much like another July 4th, Utah style.

Every year Neil's cousin, Ian, who works for TNT does a huge firework show in front of his parents house and a bunch of their family friends come to watch it. Last year was my first Street Fire Pioneer Day, and Ian and Colin (Ian's brother and Neil's Best Friend Forever!) did not disappoint. This year was even better, but Colin missed out because he is currently serving his mission in LA, so I made sure to take mucho pictures for him.

This is what thousands of dollars worth of fireworks on the street look like...






Now that's what I call street fire.


The boys setting up for the Grand Finale!






As you can see it was a pretty legit fireworks show. The road still had marks on it from last years firework show and I'm sure this years just added to that.

"I'm NOT leaving until I see a Moose!"

The last week of June I had off work and everyone at work was going on a vacation, and I felt left out, so I made Neil take off work and we went up to Yellowstone for three days.


Neither one of us had ever been before so we did a lot of research on what we should see/wanted to see and planned out our three day Yellowstone trip, and let me tell you...it was AMAZING! We stayed in a cabin in the Lake Area of the park which was very nice...much nicer then I expected.




There were so many incredible things in Yellowstone. I was lucky Neil drove the entire time so I could just look out the window and enjoy the beautiful scenery.






There were also a lot of beautiful waterfalls and cascades that we loved.






There of course were a BUNCH of geysers and mudpots...anything stinky, acidic and steamy is found in Yellowstone...no joke. By the end of the trip we knew we would never be able to enjoy a boiled egg like we did before just because the boiled egg smell was all over Yellowstone...if you've been you would understand.






There was also amazing wildlife. We saw wolves, bears, buffalo up the wazoo, and elk. But of course we didn't see the one animal I wanted to see...a moose. I even told Neil that I wouldn't leave Yellowstone until I saw one...but he made me leave anyways.





On top of being able to see so many amazing things, it was so nice to just spend time alone with Neil and enjoy his company. It's amazing how busy we can get with work so it was nice to not have to stress about anything and just relax together.

Week One Down

A week ago today I started my job at Kids On the Move as a Developmental Specialist, and so far I LOVE it!

I was super nervous for my first day...I honestly got about the same amount of sleep as a kid on Christmas Eve it was ridiculous.


This is me before I left for work. Neil was just as excited for me as I was and making sure I didn't hyperventilate due to how nervous I was.

When I got to Kids On the Move I received my first weeks schedule of meetings and home visits and such. I met my team and they are all very nice and I'm constantly asking them questions which I'm sure is beyond annoying, but they'll probably get used to it since I have a three month training period where I will be learning all of my responsibilities and perfecting them.

When I got home after my first day I was excited to tell Neil all about it, and he was very enthusiastic and excited to hear all the boring details.


Haha, when I got home Neil was at the door taking pictures of me getting out of my car and walking up the stairs like my first day of Kindergarten (hence the ugly, laughing face).

I am still feeling pretty overwhelmed just because I know there is still so much I have to learn but I'm enjoying learning from my amazing, experienced co-workers, and working with all of the children and families.

Happy Birthday to Me

So as some of you may know my 22nd birthday was May 23rd and Neil took it upon himself to create an amazing birthday WEEK for me.


Whenever we were at a store like, oh I don't know...IKEA, or something, I would see something and be like oh I really like that and he would just get it for me...no questions asked. He really spoiled me which was fun. I told him it was a good thing that I only have a birthday once a year, haha.

Throughout the week he spoiled me and then continued to spoil me over the weekend. On Friday my diploma came which I'm sure he arranged, haha, just kidding, but getting that definitely added to the birthday hype. On Friday Neil took me out to dinner to a soup and salad buffet place called Sweet Tomatoes and we got stuffed to the rim and then he took me to see a movie-When in Rome-which was very cute.

On Saturday Neil continued to spoil me with gifts galore-cardigans, knitting supplies, a frame for my diploma, and then our friend from Virginia, who pretty much introduced us back in the day, came down to Draper to help celebrate my birthday. Don't worry Mattie doesn't live in Virginia he lives in Farmington, Utah, but it was so fun to see him and spend time with him like the good ole Virginia days. We went and played MiniGolf (so fun/funny) and then we ate at Bajio's one of my favorite places to eat. After getting stuffed yet again we played games at our house and watched X-Files (our current movie marathon that's going on).

On Sunday we had a dinner with my family and we played Balloon Volleyball (of course). It was such an enjoyable and relaxing weekend with friends and family.


See Neil, my family and in-laws totally spoil me. I'm so blessed to have such an amazing family!

Sweet, Sweet Love

So as of May 1st Neil and I have officially been together (dating/married/in love) for a whole year! Neil is just so amazing and I have honestly loved every minute of being with him.

It was nice because May 1st was a Saturday so we got to pretty much spend all day together! We woke up nice and early, okay at like 9 o'clock and the first thing we did was participate in a Stake Dodgeball Tournament, haha I know, I didn't know they did church dodgeball either, but they do.


We had two games-one at 9:30 and one at 10, and don't worry we won both! We are so intimidating the other teams didn't even show for both games! Haha. So we broke up our team and played a few fun games, but we are honestly so sore now, haha, you should have seen us trying to walk around, and trying to sustain our leaders at Stake Conference on Sunday, haha, funny yet painful.

After our Dodgeball adventure we went to a soccer game of a little girl in our primary class named Annie and it was so fun! It's been pretty cold and rainy the past few days, but thankfully it didn't rain during her game.


It was nice to talk to Annie's family and watch her play soccer, she made us real proud!

After the game Neil and I ate at Wienerschnitzel and then Neil volunteered at Deseret Industries for 2 hours, and I decided I would just wait in the car and read the book I got at the library called "The Calligrapher's Daughter".


It's a really good book. It's about a girl who grew up in Korea during the time the Japanese invaded Korea and a lot of changes towards the Western style of living were happening. I've really enjoyed it.

After volunteering at DI for two hours which made Neil even more sore, we came home and I made my lovely husband Shepherd's Pie which he loves, and then we had the Adult Session of Stake Conference.

Afterwards we came home and drank Sparkling Cider to celebrate our one year anniversary.


We then just relaxed the rest of the night and watched Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman!


It was pretty much a perfect ending to a perfect one year (togetherness) anniversary because we love each other and we love Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman!

SURPRISE!

So today is my mom's 50th birthday...old I know, haha...just kidding mom if you're reading this...But anyways, last night we had a surprise birthday party for her.


This is the birthday hat I made for my mom, haha.


And here's one of the party decorations that my mom appreciated.

For dinner I made ribs which are my mom's favorite and we also had chicken and potato salad for those in the family that didn't want ribs.


Here's mom with the left over of her ribs...okay, okay her's and David's ribs, haha.

I also made a yummy chocolate cake, and Neil and I thought it would be funny to put on 50 candles. We wanted the cake to be an extra surprise so we hid it in the laundry room and I said I had to use the bathroom and I went and started lighting the candles, but after a few minutes Neil came to check on me and I had only lit like 6 candles so he took over.


The flaming cake, haha.


Mom blowing out her flaming cake...the fun was digging out the candles that had melted down so that they were in the cake haha, but the cake was still delicious if I may say so myself.

Gifts were then opened. My brother got her a gift card to Deseret Book that she loved and I know she will gladly use that, she loves Deseret Book.


David got her a Willow Tree...she loves those as you can tell, haha.


The card Neil and I got and modified for my mom...she loved it, haha.

After the presents were opened and the cake was eaten and the dishes were put in the dishwasher we then played The Great Dalmuti...well about four rounds of it, and then Neil and I noticed it was 9 o'clock so we were gonna head home.

BUT THEN we started hitting the 25 balloons that I blew up for the party back and forth and then an all out brawl broke out of Balloon Volleyball and it was so fun, haha.





There were even casualties-the birthday girl, haha. We played for like an hour and a half or two hours, and I'm thinking it should become a birthday tradition because it was seriously so fun!

Neil and I were again going to get ready to go and then Joseph, my little brother, started putting balloons in his shorts and shirt and ran around talking about his "Badonkiedonk" which caused a few more laughs and a slight chase between Neil and Joseph, haha.





We then decided to stay a little longer and watch the end of the Jazz vs. Nuggets game-the Jazz dominated-and then we got home at like midnight, but it was a way good time.

Oh, and yesterday was mine and Neil's four month anniversary, YAY!