Our First Anniversary - Day 1

For our first anniversary we decided to take a weekend trip to Forks, WA, home of the Twilight story. I'd been wanting to take this "tourist" trip for a while and we finally did it! It was Nate's present to me. Most of the trip was driving around the Olympic Peninsula and seeing all of the beauty there was to see.

This was at a park by Hood Canal. It was rainy and cloudy but still very pretty.

We also stopped at a famous local burger joint called Fat Smitty's. It's a really unique little place that has been there since right after World War II. Inside the walls are covered in dollar bills (some with messages), business cards, pictures, etc. There were a lot of random things on it, including this pass-a-long card I happened to notice on the wall behind me! It was great!

The ceiling was also covered with hanging one dollar bills. It's really a sight to see!

We decided to split their famous Fat Smitty Burger because it's really big. It was delicious!! It's costs 9.50 for a burger there. Crazy!! But people love it and keep coming back.
The sculptures outside were fun and we thought I had a resemblance to the Fat Smitty guy...lol.
We also saw some beautiful views as we were driving. I tried to get some good pictures of it and was somewhat successful some of the time. Nate's definitely better at taking pictures so the good ones are probably his.
This is Lake Crescent in Olympic National Park. It was incredibly beautiful and peaceful and water looked like untouched glass.
The road around it was pretty windy and if you've read the Twilight books, Edward drove these roads at 100 plus mph going back and forth from Port Angeles to Forks. Driving those roads made me think how scared Bella really would have been riding in that car!
This was the view as we approached La Push's First Beach on the Quileute Reservation. Breathtaking!
Here are pictures of the beach itself. I was in love with the view. How gorgeous!
Nate saw some dog prints and bare foot prints in the sand and called them the werewolf and vampire prints...lol. We had to take a picture of it!
The heart may be odd but it was still fun to make! And we had to add Emma to it too!
We started taking a hike to Second Beach but thought it was too long so we turned back and headed into Forks. The trees out there were huge and Nate is hiding in this one. :)
This is what you read as you cross the line into the reservation:
Yay we made it to Forks!!
They had lots of stores selling Twilight stuff but this one was dedicated to it.When we got there we took a drive around town to find the sites in the book. It took us all of 5 minutes to go around the town and find them. That's how small it is.
Forks High School:
The City Hall where Bella's dad Charlie worked:
Their tiny jail:
The hospital:
The vistior's center. I love the sign in the window!:
Bella's truck!
In the hotel we stayed in they named their one and only suite "Bella's Suite." It was great. We didn't see what it looked like but I had a feeling it wasn't much different from the room we had. Small town hotel you know?
This was the view from our room:
After the short tour of town, we got out the top layer of our wedding cake that we froze for the year and ate it for our first anniversary. It was still just as good as it was on our wedding day! We definitely had a top notch cake maker!

Gram's B-Day!

Last weekend we celebrated Grammy Nye's birthday. She is a temple worker at the Seattle temple and for her birthday some of her kids and grandkids came to do a session at the temple with her. Then more family, including us, met up afterwards to go out for dinner at a Chinese restaurant. It was really fun! She is such a great lady and is definitely an amazing example for her family. Everyone loves her and she deserves every bit of that love. She is always so kind and generous to everybody and loves to be of service. I hope someday we can be like her! Love you Gram!


Gram with Chris and Katrina. Sorry I caught you with your eyes closed Chris!


Nice Craig....lol!

Iraqi Painting

My brother Bruce joined the Army a few years ago to help him get through dental school. After he graduated, he had to serve his time and has been in Iraq as an Army dentist since May 3, 2008 (he was deployed the same day as our wedding). His wife and kids are living on a U.S. Army base in Germany and they'll be there for the next couple of years. Bruce will be done with his Iraq deployment in August this year and will be back with his family in Germany for the rest of his service time (hopefully). A few months ago he had me send him my favorite wedding photo and I had no clue why. A couple of weeks ago we found out! He had a half-blind Iraqi native paint a large oil painting of the picture we had sent him! It is beautiful!! We absolutely love it. I guess it's kind of like a belated wedding present from him since he wasn't able to come to the wedding. He was so thoughtful to have it done and we are so excited to have it displayed in our home, wherever that may be. It'll be a cherished family heirloom for sure!

"It" Becomes a "She"

Well the big day came (after a long night of dreaming about finding out the gender of our baby) and the results are in. It's a girl!! We were actually kind of surprised at first because we had been referring to her as a boy and deep down that was what we were hoping for. After the initial shock, the news settled in and now we are so excited for a precious little girl. Nate is already protective of her modesty as the ultrasound picture of her girl parts was not allowed to be posted on the blog. :) I am just as happy as can be and have already started looking at everything girl for babies - carseats, strollers, clothes, room decor, etc. I've also been feeling her kick a lot lately and am just waiting for Nate to be able to feel it too. Every time I try to get him to feel it, she always stops. Nate says it's because she knows it's Daddy and knows he'll kick her back...lol. ;) I'm also feeling so much better. I believe I am in the "golden" stage of the pregnancy now and that makes me really happy! Now all we have to do is wait for the next big day...the birth!

Pretty Flowers

Nate bought me some tulip bulbs in vases for Valentine's Day from Costco and we've had fun watching them grow over the last few weeks. Now they have bloomed and they are beautiful! I absolutely love how much beauty and brightness they bring to the home. A little bit of sunshine in the rain if you will. Enjoy!

John's Wedding and Family Fun

So Nate and I were driving back to Clearfield from Provo on Saturday night when I realized that I had forgotten to bring the camera and didn't take ANY pictures of our fun little Utah trip. Sad day! Thankfully Mom took a few pictures the day of the wedding and sent me some. I've got to get in the habit of taking more pictures so we can look back on fond memories without simply relying on our memories. :) That being said, Nate and I had a great time in Utah. We got into Salt Lake on Wednesday night and waited for Joe's flight to arrive before heading to my parents' house. The next day was John's wedding at the Salt Lake Temple so we had to get up and get going. My parents left earlier because they had to be there earlier so my aunt Maurvene picked us up (or rather she came to the house and Nate drove us in her car). Christy and Ben left at the same time in their own car, which I didn't really notice. We got to about Kaysville and Farmington when I suddenly remembered that I didn't have my recommend with me. I panicked because we didn't have time to go back to the house. I thought maybe Christy was still at the house (silly me) and called her to see if she could grab it, but of course they were right behind us in the car...lol. I was freaking out because we came all this way to go to the wedding and I wasn't even going to be able to be there! I was really quite sad. Nate tried to reassure me that they'd be able to look me up on the system and verify me so I was hoping he was right. When we got to the temple, I ashamedly had to tell them I forgot my recommend and they sent me to speak with someone. Nate ended up being right (as always)...yay! So they verified me and I was able to attend the sealing. I was so glad because it was so wonderful! Afterwards, we all went outside for pictures.


It was chilly and a little windy, but the sun did end up coming out and I think John and Tricia were able to get some good pictures (at least when their photographer finally showed up late...can we say discount??). Tricia looked absolutely beautiful and I think John was literally beaming. It was such a happy day! Their daughters, Damia and Mikayla, looked completely adorable in their purple and black dresses.




While John and Tricia were getting the rest of their pictures taken, Mom and Dad took Nate and I to the Church Office Building to give us a small tour of where they work. It was neat to see and the view from their floor was amazing! We also got to see our old bishop from BYU and his wife, Brother and Sister Taylor. They are in the same mission as my parents and it was great to catch up with them.


Then we had to hurry back to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building for the luncheon. It was beautiful! And the food was honestly delectable. Yum!! We were so full afterwards, but of course we had to have a piece of their chocolate wedding cake. They also had candy in the middle of all of the tables, which I thought was a cool idea. We ate a bunch of that and took a bunch home.


It was then time to say goodbye to the newlyweds and wish them the best on their honeymoon to Ireland. How fun for them!! After we left, we were talking in the car about where the new couple would live and I asked where Tricia lived. Maurvene then goes, "Who's Tricia?" We said, "John's new wife!" and burst into laughter. It was awesome! Good old Maurvene. :) Then that evening Mom, Dad, Joe, VJ, Nate and I went to Fat Cats in Ogden to go bowling. Before we started, we watched some people do that iFly thing where a big fan blows air so fast you can fly in it like you're skydiving. It was so cool and funny to watch! How awesome! Someday...when I'm not pregnant and have money to burn...lol. The bowling was tons of fun and we just had a blast. The next day Joe, VJ, Brady and Brooke went snowboarding and Mom, Dad, Nate and I spent the day in Salt Lake. First we went to the Organ Recital at the tabernacle, which showcased Richard Eliott this time. That is one cool organ and Richard definitely knew how to play. It was awesome! Julia came to see it with us and then she left. We then decided to go to the Church History Museum, which amazingly I've never been to. We spent half the time parousing the store...lol. The museum was pretty intriguing and I learned quite a bit. Then we headed to the Gateway to watch Paul Blart: Mall Cop. It turned out to be cute and funny, but not an A+. It's worth seeing, but probably not more than once. When the movie was over, we met up with the snowboarders to eat dinner at Red Robin. Gotta love it! Nate was all excited when he saw there was a Burnin' Love burger that was supposed to be really spicy so he ordered that. Unfortunately it wasn't spicy enough for him, crazy guy. At least he got some spice out of it....lol. That night we played games and just hung out.




The next day both Joe and VJ had to leave so we took VJ to the airport first. Then Nate and I rented a car so we could go to Provo that night and then the rest of us went to the temple. We had a really special time there doing some family names. It's always nice to go together as a family too. After that, Nate and I drove down to Provo. First we stopped at Arctic Circle for lunch/dinner (yummy!) and then we finally went to Provo. As we drove to the south end of campus near where we both used to live, we noticed a big empty space and realized the Knight Mangum building was totally gone! It was so weird!! Now it's just a grass field with a sidewalk up to campus. Things change so fast at BYU! Anyways, we had fun at the bookstore and then went over to Nate's friend Rob's apartment. It was so good to see him and also so weird to be back in student housing with the honor code. I had to remind myself that I was married now and it was okay to use the bathroom at a guys' apartment..lol. We just played games and watched a little of the basketball game on TV. It brought back lots of memories. :) We also went to the creamery for some good old creamery ice cream. DELICIOUS! Rob seemed like he was doing really well and the night was great. We then drove back to my parents' house and then left for home the next morning. It was a wonderful vacation!!