Long overdue update - TREVOR'S HOME!

So first and foremost… My brother Trevor got home from his mission on Wednesday October 1, 2008! That was such a good day! I am not going to lie, his mission seemed like it lasted for 7 years rather than just 2. We had balloons and a sign for him at the airport and we had family and friends there with us to pick him up! It was so good to see him coming down the escalator!!! We knew from the pictures that he sent home that he had lost weight, but he looked so skinny haha! But it was so good to finally hug him and see him! He was able to meet Dan for the first time, which was weird to think that he missed my wedding AND he had never met my husband…but they instantly clicked and they get along great! When we left the airport to go home, Whitney, Dan, and I left a little bit earlier than everyone else and hurried home to put all the balloons in our front yard. My mom had blown up tonz of yellow balloons and we put them all over the front yard with a sign saying welcome home so when he drove up, he would see it. Then our family came back over to the house and we picked up chin wah (Trevor’s favorite Chinese restaurant) had dinner with everyone and just talked about mission experiences. He was supposed to be released at 7 but the stake president was driving home from being out of town, so he called and pushed it back to 8, and then called a little later and pushed it back to 9 haha, so that was funny! So at 9 he finally got released! It was such a great day! That weekend was conference weekend and so it was fun to have all the boys go to priesthood and then meet up with them for dinner on Saturday and then Sunday we spent the whole day at my parent’s house watching conference! Monday night Dan and I went over there again because for family night Trevor was going to make us these Mexican Hamburgers that him and his companions would make all the time on their mission, and they were so good!!! If anyone wants to know how to make it, just ask – it is interesting, but worth trying!

Other than that, things are going great for Dan and I! I got a promotion at work and have been extra busy but was so excited to finally get promoted because I was doing that job anyway! It’s always nice to know that you are valued at your work – I have had several people in my office in different departments try and get me to come work for them lol – so that has been a self esteem booster. J But Dan is doing great in school – one more semester and then he will be at the U and then off to law school he goes. I don’t know if I have mentioned this in any postings, but a while ago Dan realized that the career path he was on was not what he wanted to do for the rest of his life, so he did some soul searching and looked into some different things, and made the decision that he wants to be a lawyer and he has been so happy and excited about it since he made that decision, which makes me really excited! He is going to get his Bachelor’s degree in Economics which he is doing great in right now. He is going to be a real estate lawyer so he got his real estate license and is working in that area right now with my cousin to get some experience doing that and learn all about it before he goes to law school which I think is so smart! And that has been fun for me because he is currently in the process of selling 3 houses, all of which are over $800,000 - one is even over a million... so when he does open houses I love to go and look through them!!! They are all so gorgeous! But on the lawyer side of it, he has also had the opportunity to go to court with a real estate lawyer on one of the big cases that included Suncrest and some things that are going on with that area, it was good for him to see exactly what he would be doing and it just re-confirmed to him that it is really what he wants to do! So GO DAN!!! I’m proud of him for being courageous enough to change his career path and really find something that he is excited about and feels good about doing. The business he was in before had a lot of really sketchy things going on and a lot of dishonest people and didn’t want to be a part of it – so I admire him for stepping away from that and finding something where he feels like he can be of help to people and give people a voice that may not be heard in other circumstances!

Well that will be all for now! We have some fun things planned this weekend, including Trevor’s homecoming finally! And then next weekend, on Saturday, we leave to Florida! So I’ll do another post before we go and then I’ll post Florida pictures when we get back!!!

Alta Hawks Class of 2004

Hey! So for those of you who graduated from Alta in 2004, go to this link and add your blog! That way we can all stay in touch!!!

altahawks2004.blogspot.com

Congrats Aaron & Jasmine!

This weekend we were able to go to Boise Idaho for one of Dan’s best friends weddings! It was so much fun! They were married on Friday September 12 in the Boise Idaho Temple. It was fun to be able to go to the temple and be there for their wedding ceremony. It was absolutely beautiful and they both looked so happy! Congrats Aaron and Jasmine! We wish you both the best of luck in your new life together!

Swiss Days

So over Labor Day Weekend I went up to Midway with my mother-in-law and her friend to Swiss Days. This was my first year going and it was really fun!!! For those of you who don’t know what Swiss Day’s is – it is basically like a big Quilted Bear!!! Haha! But we had so much fun! We woke up early Saturday Morning and drove up there and spent the entire day looking at all the neat crafts and art and everything that was there! Basically I wanted to buy one thing from almost every booth – luckily I was able to practice some self control because that would have been a VERY expensive day if I hadn’t. But I did get so many cute ideas of things I can make to put in our house – and I am suddenly feeling really crafty! On our way back home we stopped at this Mexican restaurant called the Crazy Lizard or something like that – maybe Loco Lizard – I don’t remember – but they had THE BEST and I mean THE ABSOLUTE best enchiladas I have ever had!!! I am not a big enchilada fan to begin with – so normally I don’t get them, but the waiter strongly recommended it so I decided to try it and I am so glad I did. The only unfortunate part about this – is that this restaurant is ONLY in Park City – so when I want to eat those delicious things again, I have to go to Park City. So needless to say – Dan and I will probably be making several trips to Park City in the near future! Aw Yeah!!!

The First Day of the Rest of Our Lives

We were married: June 26, 2007 in the Salt Lake Temple

A few facts...
* When we got married: I was 21 (I turned 21 exactly one month before we got married…on May 26th) & Dan was 22.
* Our bridesmaids were: I didn’t have bridesmaids… only a maid of honor and it was my sister Whitney, and the Best Man was Dan’s brother Ryan.

*The weather was: PERFECT!!! I couldn’t have asked for better weather!
*We spent our wedding night (keep it clean): At La Quinta by the airport – we had a very early flight the next morning and didn’t’ want to chance missing it!!!
*One thing I will never forget: The overwhelmingly joyful feeling I had when we were sealed for time and all eternity! I’ll also never forget the look on Dan’s face when he saw me for the first time walking towards him in my wedding dress before we walked out of the temple. Oh and I’ll never forget the feeling I had all day – I was a princess married to my prince charming! It was awesome! Haha.

*Our Reception was at: Le Jardin (The Rose Shop) in Sandy!
*One favorite part of the Reception: Was seeing loved ones come and support us and wish us luck on our new adventure. I also LOVED LOVED LOVED our cake – the way it looked in the gazebo it was under and the way it tasted – I hate wedding cake but the lady that did mine was seriously a miracle worker and made the best cake I have ever tasted or looked at!!!

*Looking Back I would have....taken the time before the reception to look at all the decorations, pictures, and food and everything since I didn’t have a chance to do it all night!
*I wish: I could get married to Dan every year and have that special day and feeling again over and over again.
*We Honeymooned: In New York for a week! It was absolutely amazing!!!
*Our First Year of Marriage was: Wonderful! We have learned a lot about each other and we have grown as a couple! Our one year anniversary we stayed at the Anniversary Inn in the Treasure Island room. It was magical!
*We have been married: 1 year, 1 month, and 25 days.
*Life today is: Busy & Fun! Dan goes to school full time and works and I work full time, but we always manage to find time to play and go on fun vacations!!!
*Since Our Wedding we have added: on weight LOL!!!!

American Idol & Lake Powell

AMERICAN IDOL
Ok so I know this happened FOREVER ago – but I am just finally putting up pictures. So Dan and I were able to go to the American Idol concert and it was AWESOME! All of the top 10 did such amazing jobs and David Archuleta was unbelievable. He was so overwhelmed with the crowd SCREAMING for him that he even started to cry. It was so cute. Also – not to do with the American Idol Concert but to go along with American Idol…. I TRIED OUT when they were here in Salt Lake City. HAHA. My husband and little brother were hounding me to do it and so I did. I went by myself but I ran into a lot of people that I knew from high school and from other various singing things that I have done over the years. It was so much fun. It was a very very long day but I had a blast!!! I was able to overcome one of my biggest fears of singing in front of people and I am so proud of myself because of that!!!! I obviously didn’t make it – but it was fun to see the people that did (the really good people and the crazy ones haha) so it was fun and a great experience!!!!

LAKE POWELL
Dan and I were able to go to Lake Powell last week (August 2- August 9) with the Koch family. There were a total of 35 of us there. We had 2 houseboats, 2 boats, 2 wave runners, and LOTS of toys (i.e. wakeboards, tubes, skies, etc.). To save on gas, Dan and I rode with my family down there. On the way there our car overheated (smoke coming out of the engine and everything). It was so scary but we were truly being watched over and blessed. Right as soon as we pulled over someone saw us and flipped around to come help. He apparently knows a lot about cars and knew exactly what was wrong – he even had a special glove in has car so he would be able to touch the hot engine without getting burned. The next city (Kamas – where this guy was from) was only 3 min away – so he followed us there and told us where to go to get our car fixed. While he was following us he called a mechanic that he trusted and told him we were on our way- we got there at about 2:45pm and their shop closed at 3:00pm. They didn’t have the parts that we needed to fix the car and it was going to take 2-3 business days to get them in… but we called another distributor in Richmond and they had them… well my aunt and uncle that were also coming that were 3 hours behind us – were right by Richmond – so they were able to stop and get the parts for us! Well that left us with the problem that they wouldn’t be in Kamas until about 9:00pm and so we wouldn’t have anyone to fix it for us… but guess what – the mechanic was way awesome and stayed until my aunt and uncle got there. Needless to say – we were very very very blessed and had a lot of really nice people help us and we were able to get to Lake Powell late Saturday night. Sunday was awesome – we were all there by then and we wanted to “keep that day holy” so we didn’t do any wave running or wake boarding or anything like that – and that night we had a testimony meeting and it was so neat to hear all the testimonies of my cousin’s aunts and uncles. Then Monday the real party started – waking up at 6:30 to ski or wakeboard on the glass water – going hard all day swimming, tubing, wave running, wakeboarding, and then playing games, watching movies at night and sleeping out under the stars on top of the houseboat. It was awesome! We had so much fun! It was a much needed vacation! I got nice and tan too – so that was nice. I came back to work and everyone was telling me how cute I looked now that I’m tan LOL. And it was way fun for Dan because he had never been to Lake Powell before – so I was so glad that we were able to go. The only bad part of the trip is that my phone got dropped the first day there and the screen broke! So I can still receive and make calls – but I can’t see whose calling or read texts. So sad!!! So I am going to go get a new phone soon – but I don’t know if I want to stay with T-mobile or not – so anyone that reads this… who is your cell phone provider? And do you like them and would you recommend them? That’s all from here. OH wait – one more thing – TREVOR COMES HOME ON OCTOBER 1ST FROM HIS MISSION!!! I am so freaking excited! And then October 25th we leave for Florida for a week – so needless to say – I want September to FLY by!!!!

Update

So... I know I haven't updated in a while... we are in Lake Powell right now, but when we get back I will post pictures of the American Idol concert and our Lake Powell trip... so you all have that to look forward to :).