MIKE IS HOME!!!

Dan's brother Mike is home from his mission!!! He got home today at 10:30 and we were all there waiting for him to come down! He looks so good. He is glowing! He is way tan and skinny haha and just looks so happy. It is amazing what missions can do to people. He has an amazing singing voice now and before he left he couldn't carry a tune haha. And he can play the piano and beat box and moon walk - haha, it's funny what else missionaries learn on the mission that is not mission related. But its so good to have him home. We are all so happy and he is so much fun to have around. Dan is so excited, he already has so much stuff planned for Mike and him to do. I'll post pictures tomorrow.

Promotion

Ok, so this blog is going to have a lot in it because a lot has happened since I updated last. First of all, Dan had an interview for a promotion earlier this week and Friday he found out that he got it!!! We are both so excited! He has wanted to move up and he has had several interviews for it, but it hadn't happened yet and it finally did. We understand now why it didn't - there was just no way that it would have worked out well with how much school Dan is doing and taking on a new job, but now that the semester is almost over, its perfect! He has to put in his two weeks’ notice at the current branch that he is at, so by then the semester will be all the way over so it couldn't have worked out better for him.

Our weekend was great, Friday we wanted to have a fun night and celebrate Dan’s success, and lucky for us, some of his mission buddies called and wanted to get together so we decided to drive out to Salem (past Spanish Fork - so about an hour drive for us) to meet up with them and have fun. Right before we got there - they called to say it was canceled - at first we were really bummed out since we had just driven an hour to see all of them and it wasn't going to happen, but we decided that it was going to be a fun night anyway and we ate dinner in Spanish Fork and started to drive home. We spotted Boondocks and thought it would be way fun to go there. At first we decided to play some arcade games for a while and then we would do some other stuff like batting cages or go carts or laser tag or whatever else we felt like doing while we were there, but... because of my freakish addiction to winning tickets - we ended up spending the entire night playing games and getting lots of tickets - we ended up with just shy of 1,000. It was so much fun - we laughed so hard that night and it was so much fun to just HAVE FUN! Saturday was a very fun day as well - Dan had basketball in the morning and then after that we went to the Clark Planetarium for one of Dan's classes and had so much fun there - then we went to lunch at the Sky Box and watched some of the Yankee vs. Red Sox game and then went to a wedding reception. After that we just went home, relaxed, and watched a movie. Today we have had a great day at church and just spending time with each other. Normally we switch off weeks of whose parent’s house we are going to go over to for dinner on Sundays - but this week we decided to stay home just the two of us. It has been awesome!!!

Dan is amazing and has done so well in school - he was on the Dean’s list last semester and he just received his promotion and I couldn't be more proud of him - he has worked so hard!

9 Monthaversary

Oh... today is mine and Dan's 9 monthaversary! :) Which means we have been married for 9 months haha. I can't believe it has been that long, but at the same time, that short! In three months we will have been married for a year! How awesome! I have loved all 9 months and can't wait for all the other thousands of 9 months that we get to spend together!!!

Easter Weekend

Easter was so much fun! We started the weekend off by going to the temple on Friday (yes we did go to the temple Wednesday too) and then went to the Olive garden for dinner. After diner we went to my parent’s house and watched a movie.

Saturday Dan had to work form 9:00 - 3:00 :( so I cleaned the house a little bit then hung out with my friend Jen. I wanted to get Dan an Easter basket so Jen was a good sport and came along with me. We went to two different stores and I got everything I needed. I decided to buy me an Easter basket too because I didn't think Dan would get me one (which is totally fine - he is a guy and they don't think about stuff like that) and I wanted us to open them together. So when 3:30 rolled around and Dan wasn't home from work and I hadn't heard from him - I started getting a little worried because he always calls me on his way home from work. I text him and I didn't get a response until almost 4 and he just said I'm almost home. When he walked in the door he was holding a sack behind his back and ran into our room. He hurried and got ready and we left to go to my grandma and Grandpa Koch's house for the annual Easter egg hunt. We spent a few hours there - had dinner and visited with the family and then went home. I decided to give him his Easter basket that night so that we weren’t doing that on Sunday and thinking more about the basket than what Easter really represents, so I got out his Easter basket and he told me to close my eyes cause he had one for me! I was so excited when he told me that!!! I mean I figured that was what was in the bag when he got home from work but I didn't want to assume. But the funniest part about it is that he got me pretty much the exact same thing I got myself. Haha. I really wanted the movie Enchanted so I bought it for me - and so did Dan. And he also got me really yummy candy and stuff, but I just thought it was so funny that we both got that. He is so cute!!!

Sunday we went to church with my parents and had dinner with them and my grandma and grandpa Koch and my grandma Wilcock, then we dyed Easter eggs and got dye all over our hands, but came up with some WAY cool designs and then my mom gave us our Easter baskets. She is so cute and she got us way too much candy haha, and also a scripture marking pen and a notebook to take notes in, and two backpacks for us to do our 72 hour kits in. I was way excited about that because I have started putting our 72 hour kits together but didn't have anything to put them in and now I do!!! Then we went to Dan's parent’s house and sat down with them while they had dinner. Aunt Sherry, Grandma Lockhart, and Grandpa Garner were all there too so it was fun to be with other family! After dinner Leesa gave us our basket - and once again - too much candy in it haha and some really cute Easter decorations which I really need and then we watched Enchanted with them and talked and just had fun. I love being so close to both of our families so that we are able to see them on Holidays. We had a great weekend!

I love to see the temple!

So this will be short, but on Wednesday night Dan and I went to the temple and it was great!!! I love the temple! I love the spirit that is felt there! I was lucky enough to run into someone I used to work with at the Sandy ACS named Doris Quinn. She is such a sweet lady and her and her cute husband were there. I couldn't believe how busy it was though on a Wednesday night at 6:30 or so. I have heard that the Jordan River Temple is the busiest temple in the world and I can believe it! There were so many people and I couldn't stop thinking about how blessed we are to have so many temples so close to us! And how amazing is it that it is busy all the time - that there are that many faithful members that go do temple work! I just love it! We are going to go tonight too... so if anyone reads this and wants to go to the temple with us... just let us know! We would love to see you there!!!

WONDERFUL weekend!

So this last weekend was very fun! Friday night Dan and I went and saw a movie and had dinner. Then Saturday morning while Dan was at basketball, I cut and colored Jen's hair, and we had a blast talking and catching up, and then we went to the ball field and Dan helped his dad coach Jake's (Dan's little brothers) baseball game and I spent time reading my book. :) Then we went and watched Ryan's (Dan's other little brothers) La cross game. After that Dan and I went to the park and had a picnic and played tennis. It was really cold and it even started to snow, but we had so much fun!!! After that we went to Dan's parents house and had pizza, watched a movie, and played ping pong! Sunday was great as well! After church we had dinner with the Garners and we were able to relax and have fun. I love the weekend - it is definitely something I always look forward to... as I'm sure everyone else does! I felt very unproductive though, I mean although we were busy and not at home, that meant that all the stuff that needed to get done at home was put off. But luckily Dan had the day off and I was going to get off work at 1:00, so we were able to go grocery shopping together, clean the house, and get some other projects done. I have always want to cook with Dan and he is always so busy, but we were able to make banana bread and cook dinner together and that was so much fun! I love getting to spend quality time with Dan, he is my best friend!

Oh and I almost forgot - this weekend we got invited to go to Lake Powell at the beginning of August with my dads side of the family! We are so excited! Dan has never been to Lake Powell and I used to go once a year when I was younger but I haven't been in a while - so it is going to be fun... we are so excited!

So the moral of the blog is this... weekends rock, my husband is wonderful and love is great, vacations are fun and we are so blessed that we are able to have the opportunity to be able to go on so many fun vacations! Life is great and we love all of you!

Snowboarding

Last Saturday (March 8) the Koch family (meaning my mom, dad, Landon, and Whitney) decided to take a ski/snowboarding trip up to Brighton and invited us to come. We were both very excited! I was excited because I haven't been skiing in years and Dan was excited because he has never been!!! Dan decided to snowboard since his friend Ryan was nice enough to lend all of his snowboarding gear to him, so I thought I would do it as all. So it was going to be an adventure for both of us, that was for sure. We were both so excited the night before and I couldn't wait to do something fun because we had both had a very stressful week!!! The morning started out really bad actually. Dan woke up and went to his Saturday morning basketball class and I was going to make a breakfast for him when he got home and have everything ready to go. But when I got up I felt so sick (like throw up sick) that I couldn't even do anything. I thought that maybe if I ate something and drank some water that it would go away, so I made some toast and tried to eat it, but I couldn't even get through half of it without feeling even more sick! I was trying to be positive but I knew I wouldn't be able to go snowboarding if I continued to feel like this. Dan got home and was so cute and got everything ready while I just sat there feeling sick and sorry for myself and he continued to give me words of encouragement that I would feel better and be able to go, so I trusted him and we headed off. We made a stop at the gas station and got tums and sprite and he gave me a blessing and we headed up the canyon. I felt so much better after the blessing and I know its because Dan is a worthy Priesthood holder and I am so grateful for that!!! So with my stomach feeling better and our lift tickets - we attempted to snow board. Whitney, Dan, and I were all doing it for the first time and boy was that interesting. We couldn't even get on the lift LOL. After the first run though we were doing much much better and we were able to continue to go. Dan had a one really bad fall and his goggles actually cut his face under his eye, but he is a trooper and kept going. We ended up having so much fun and after we went back to my parents house and had pizza and watched a movie! The next day we were both in so much pain!!! Our knees hurt and we both had head aches - but we didn't care because we had so much fun and we can't wait to do it again!!! We are so grateful for days like that when we are able to just have so much fun and not worry about work or school just for a little bit! Thanks Mom and Dad Koch for letting us come and for being such awesome parents! We are so grateful and we love you! The whole clan!

My mom told Dan and I to hold hands, but our knees hurt so bad from falling that we couldn't move... so this is what she got haha.

You can kind of see the cut on Dan's face in this picture! Poor guy!!!