A Million & One Pictures

Admit it-you thought that I was never going to post about our Christmas break. Well, to be honest, you were almost right. I feel like we did so much and had so much fun, but until there were pictures to go along with it, what was the point in posting? Well I am about to prove you wrong! For once I remembered to bring our camera around, and then I left said camera at home. My Mom just sent me the pictures and so here are the fruits of my labors! Enjoy, and be warned there are like a MILLION. And whether or not you care to look through them, someday I will, so I am posting them here so I have them as well. Here we go:

First we stopped in Utah and visited some friends and family. We also got to see the lights:

Then, we went to a few weddings:

At these weddings, there was of course a lot of dancing. A LOT. OF DANCING.

We spent some time enjoying the nature surrounding us, by visiting the tide pools by our house, and spending an early morning in Muir Woods:

We visited some friends and spent some time at our favorite temple:

And of course, all other Christmas related things, like making gingerbread houses, frosting sugar cookies, spending time with family, playing games, opening presents and all that jazz:

We celebrated Samantha's bday visits downtown, and finished up the night w/ friends, family, cake, presents and ice cream:

Over all, it was the BEST BREAK EVER and we made the most of every second of it! Even just thinking about it makes us smile-but then, thats what things like home and Christmas do for a person :)

Fun with Friends

Our first semester as a married couple, we hit the jackpot when it came to our ward and the friends we made there. Since then we've all moved, but a lot of us are still in Rexburg. We try to make sure that we still hang out when we can, and no matter how much time passes we always have a blast.

So last night a bunch of us got together. We ate delicious desserts and played some games, like Wacky Six, which is almost exactly the same as Pounce, Nerts or whatever your household name for it is. It was a blast! Our friends the Winter's killed at it, and me and Lester are thinking we need some practice haha.

We ended the night playing an awesome game of sorts that our friends the Smith's told us about. Its called Blindfold Karoke, and the essentials are that you blindfold the singer and put there favorite jam on, and they listen to it loud in headphones, so only they can hear it and they sing. Its HILARIOUS b/c in your mind your jamming, and you think you sound SO good as you sing. But in reality most of the time you sound like an idiot, and your dancing and everyone just laughs as they hear you. Its so funny, and you don't feel as bad sounding awful, b/c typically, everyone looks like a fool. Erica started us off and it was so fun!

Overall, I think it is rare to find friends like the ones we have in this group, and I'm glad that we've remained so thus far! I hope it will last for years more!

PS: We weren't able to get pictures of everyone and everything so here are some fun highlights!

For Penny

1. Out of the four seasons, I anticipate the winter season most of all! This is for a few reasons..the main one of COURSE is CHRISTMAS! I love everything about it..the family, the friends, food, games, parties, gifts to and from people, the music, the movies, the decorations, the warm and fun clothes, you name I LOVE IT! As other have said before, the whole world just seems softer. Everybody tries to be a little nicer, regardless of where they come from, their religion, race, background. One of my favorite Christmas songs states another reason the season is my favorite..”The best time of the year, when everyone comes home.” How can a person help but love a season that brings us together? Even the snow seems like a welcome addition during the Christmas season..theres ice skating, skiing, snowmen and snowball fights and everything. After that, my favorite is summer.

2. If I had to be trapped in a TV show for a month, it would be tough. I love so many TV shows this is hard-but to be honest, while I love watching them all I wouldn’t want to be in most of them bc a good TV show usually has to much drama haha! The Price of Right would be nice, because then I could win all that awesome stuff and sell it, pay off my loans, and the with the extra travel the world! But in terms of a scripted show, I would say Avonlea, which is probably not a surprise, but heres why. Even when the rest of the world goes crazy, in and out of tv shows, everything in Avonlea is consistent. They live in beautiful Prince Edward Island, with the people they love most, in a time of charm and history, which in itself is romantic. There are definetly really hard times, but they tough them out together, as it should be.

3. Reading makes me lose track of time. Good books make you want to keep reading, regardless of the time. You tell yourself, I will take a break or stop reading as soon I finish this chapter, but then, its a cliff hanger so you can’t! And this pattern just keeps going, till its been like 5 hours and your whole day is shot, but you don’t really feel bad because it was worth it. A good book means that even after you take a break or stop reading, you can’t help but think about throughout the rest of the day. I love it. When I was in school, I didn’t have much time to do this, but now that I’ve graduated, I read daily.

4. I don’t know that I do most things differently then most people-I prefer square plates to circle plates and will almost always choose square if I have a chance. I like how that way everything can have its own corner...is that different then most people? I also think about words in sense of scrabble application lately. Like whether or not it would be good in scrabble or if it would get be alot of points..etc. I can’t really think of anything else..

5. Speaking of scrabble-for those of you who don’t know what halycon means its “Denoting a period of time in the past that was idyllically happy and peaceful.” There are two specific times I can think of as halcyon in my life., and I don’t know which is the most. The first is my last semester at LDSBC. There will never again be another time in my life like that. We were wild, crazy, young and free. We felt we could do ANYTHING, go ANYWHERE and we did. We didn’t sleep, we ran on adrenaline and nothing felt impossible. I remember multiple times sitting on a mountain, or dancing at a party, or laughing hysterically, running everywhere, feeling like I owned the world. I was in charge and it was just me, my girls and the world to own. It was like sitting in the center of a wonderful, powerful, endless storm and and feeling at one with everything. I was invinsible and wonderful and I loved every second of it.

The second was on our honeymoon. For so long, so many years I had loved this boy. And in my heart I tried not to allow myself to hope against all hopes that things would work out and we’d be able to go to sleep together and wake up together. It seemed like everything, all the odds were against it. But finally, after all the years of hoping, and working and waiting, it was real. It was wonderful just spending all our time together, having no where to be, nothing to work on, but rather just being together. It seemed timeless, and although that part had to end, our happily ever didn’t. And here we are now!