series of un-unfortunate events

The first un-unfortunate event was our trip to Indiana, which was an all-expense paid trip to the thriving metropolis of Terra Haute. It actually reminded me a little bit of Pocatello, only even dumpier. No offense Pocatello...I love you. But the "armpit of Idaho" phrase doesn't come from nowhere.

BYU qualified for the NCAA Cross Country National Championship, and if your husband is going, then BYU pays for the wife to go too. This only happens at the national race, so I was reaallly hoping Taylor would get to go. And he did! The team is only allowed to take the top 10 runners, 7 of which would actually run, and 3 of which would be alternates in case someone got hurt. Taylor was the first alternate, so he didn't actually get to run, but he still went and so did I.

And we had such a fun time. There were five other wives that went too, and when our husbands were off practicing and running the course, we would go to the mall/go out to eat...whatever our hearts desired really. On the day of the race, we all piled into a van and went to watch. It was a HUGE meet, tons of runners and people watching the runners. It was kind of funny actually, because all the running fanatics were sprinting across the course to cheer people on and I saw more than one person get slightly trampled.

It was sooo cold that day too.. according to the weather it was 29 but felt like 10. Everyone was FREEZING, I literally have never had colder toes than I did that day. I felt like if I took off my shoes, my toes were going to be black. It had been raining all week leading up to the race, so the course was extremely muddy and wet. We all got pretty dirty. BYU got fourth overall! The top 4 teams get on the podium and get trophies/etc. so it was awesome. We went home, warmed up in the hotel's hot tub, ordered pizza, and went to Catching Fire later that night. SO great. I loved it, even more than the first one.

The weekend after this was Thanksgiving, and unfortunately both Taylor's and my family were out of town with other family members. We decided we would throw our own Thanksgiving bash, which included hiking the Y, a pumpkin waffle breakfast, going to Despicable Me 2, eating Thanksgiving dinner at Cracker Barrel, and doing a little black Thursday shopping. It was so fun. The next day we rode the Trax down to Salt Lake and saw the lights. They don't have quite as many lights up this year, but it's still pretty amazing. And aren't these clouds amazing? I love the sky in this picture. Thanksgiving Day was GORGEOUS.

Last Wednesday, we went to my work's Christmas party. They took us to Tucanos and we had a blast. So fun to see everyone in something other than scrubs and meet everyone's spouses. I work for such an awesome office. They gave us a Christmas bonus, and then they doubled the amount, and told us to use the second half to do something nice for someone else, and not to spend it on ourselves. I thought that was so unique. I'm so impressed by the dentists for encouraging the spirit of Christmas and giving. I left that night feeling uplifted and happy. And then Taylor and I bought a little Christmas tree for our apartment and I'm obsessed with it. Literally... it's on all day long and I look at it over and over.

And now I will leave you with a funny, and a question. Do all you other girls shed as much as I do?? Seriously, my hair is everywhere...... screaming infidelities..... yeah everywhere. We find it on skateboards that I never use, in Taylor's shoes, in the trunks of our cars and pretty much anywhere you can think of.. we've found it there. My roommate in college found it weaved into her mattress once---and I didn't even share a room with her, OR ever really go into her room. Anyway, Taylor told me that if I was going to be an "inside pet" then we were going to have to vacuum on the daily to keep this hair at bay. That's one reason we can never have a dog inside... my hair PLUS the dog's hair would make our house nasty. Sigh.. I guess it's just a #girlproblem. And #firstworldproblem.

April 26, 2013

Well, Tay and I have been married for 7 months now! It's been fun to think back on the memories of our wedding day, and then see them come to life in our wedding pictures. Here is how I felt that day... 

It all went by almost in a blur. We were dating long distance our entire courtship, up until the day of our wedding! Taylor took a final the morning before our wedding, moved out of his apartment, and drove home to Pocatello at about 10 PM. I was at the church with my mom getting the reception all set up still, so he stopped by and we had a few minutes to ourselves to talk about the next day and marvel that it was REALLY here!

I got to bed about 11:30 that night, and since we had so much family at our house, I slept on a foam pad in the living room along with my brother, Mark, who was also kicked out of his room to accommodate family. I found it pretty amusing that I slept in the living room on the floor the night before my wedding, but I could have cared less. I remember sleeping very well until about 5 AM, and then I woke up and could NOT go back to sleep. I had a hair appointment at 7:45, so I went to that, got back at 9 and then my friend Rachel did my make up (she is the sweetest, and such a pro) and had to be in the car by 9:30 to get to the Idaho Falls Temple by 10:30. Except we were not in the car until about 9:50. I got to the temple and saw some of our guests there before we were.. oops. But it was fine, I met up with Taylor and we got our records verified, we changed, and they took us up to the Celestial Room to wait.

It was then that I started getting really nervous. I wasn't nervous about getting married, I was just nervous because I didn't know what to expect and everyone was going to be watching and I could already feel my emotions going crazy. Taylor was so sweet and so stable though, and I gathered myself together...

Which lasted about 5 minutes, until it was time to go do the thing. The second I walked into the sealing room, tears came to my eyes and I was just overcome with happiness that so many people were there to celebrate with us, all of whom I loved so much, and that I was marrying someone in the temple who I knew I would have a wonderful life with. I had to work hard to keep the tears off my face. I hate crying in front of people. Our ceremony was really short, but it was perfect. 

And honestly, the rest of the day went off without a hitch. It wasn't stressful at all. Nothing went wrong, everything was taken care of and we had a beautiful day. We went to the luncheon after taking pictures at the temple, and then on to the reception. We stayed at the Black Swan that night and left the next morning for Park City, where we stayed in a big condo for the next 3 days.
I couldn't have asked for a better wedding/ honeymoon. And the transition to married life has not felt like a transition at all. It's been the easiest, most natural thing in the world. We have yet to have a fight, which I'm pretty happy about. I hope it stays that way forever.
And now here are some of my favorite pics from the day!

The last two pictures made me laugh the hardest...
Cutest little Austin and all his drool. And as for me.. I was just trying to get a piece of hair out of my mouth. I think I had just barely succeeded when the picture was taken, but I still had that disgusted look on my face. Don't worry, it wasn't directed at Taylor :) 

many much updates

I think I've had the best fall ever this year. I know that's bold, but I'm committing. 

Since I last posted, I've had the pleasure of enjoying a birthday, running a half marathon, reading a few excellent books, going to Indiana with the BYU XC teams, having a memorable Thanksgiving, and many more things. So, I'm gonna break this down. This post will be broken up into a few posts, so stay posted :) 

I suppose I'll start at the beginning. I had a GREAT birthday. Taylor made me feel so special. He said he would rather celebrate my birthday than his own even. And I actually believe him ! He woke up with a huge smile on his face to wish me a happy birthday. Love that man. And he knew just what I wanted somehow...

A haircut/color, and a new book. It was a good one. One of my favorite books of all time is A Thousand Splendid Suns written by Khaled Hosseini. He also wrote The Kite Runner. This book was less awesome than Splendid, but still very interesting and enjoyable-I would recommend it. He also gave me permission to buy new boots.. which I never ended up actually buying. I am so picky about what I buy now.. I have to LOVE it, or else I am not going to spend money on it. I never did find the boots I LOVED (at least in a reasonable price range) so the hunt continues. 

On October 26, I ran the Halloween 1/2 Marathon down Provo Canyon. I felt so awesome for the first 10 miles. I was running at the pace I wanted and was enjoying all the costumes. Then mile 11 came and things went awry. My outer left knee started throbbing, so I slowed down to walk and it felt even worse. Then I tried running again and could barely manage a hobble. So I walked most of the last 3 miles, which destroyed my time. My goal was just to beat my previous 1/2 marathon time, which didn't happen. I was disappointed, but I suppose I couldn't expect much less... My training was pretty pathetic. I've continued to run since then, but my knee is still giving me grief. Not to worry though.. Taylor has lots of suggestions and tips for getting it better :) 

Rachel and Steven also ran the 1/2, which made it way more fun. Don't they have the cutest costumes ever?! I love it. 

We also got our wedding pictures back this fall. Woot woot. Here is one of my favorites 

It is so dreamy. I just love the lighting! 

I'm writing another post about our actual wedding day. I never did go into many details, and that's definitely I day I want to have documented. I'll add a few more pictures on that post, even though you've probably seen them on facebook already. I think this is getting long enough though, so onward we go!