Lotaja and First Anniversary

Well I am finally getting around to blogging about things that happened over a month ago. The first of September I went and helped my mom be support for my dad during the Lotaja. It was a lot of fun. I thought it would go by so slow, but it actually passed quickly. He did such a great job. This is his second year and he beat his time by over an hour. He did so good. I could not even imagine doing it, but there are a lot of people that do it. I look up to each and every one of them.




Then a few weeks later on the 22nd of September, Ryan and I celebrated our first anniversary. He was so cute and got me flowers and a cute card. I gave him a book with 365 reasons why I love him. (One for each day we had been married up to that day) We just hung out together and then went down to The Cheesecake Factory. I love that place. We had a lot of fun. Then we went to San Diego to visit his dad and get away for a bit. We had a great time.

Cute flowers and card he gave me

The view from our hotel
Another view from our hotel
This is looking out our window a few hours later. It was sooooo foggy.

Hiking


Ryan standing by a nudity prohibited sign. Well we actually walked onto a nudist beach and we turned right around after that. Luckily they were far enough away so we could turn around with out being completely scared.Sailing


Imperial Beach

Conference

I am just so amazed at how much I LOVED Elder Holland's talk today. He did such a great job. He has such enthusiasm that it captures the listeners. He did such a great job at getting his point across and not beating around the bush. I felt the spirit very strong during his talk. I LOVE LOVE LOVED it.

Last conference his talk was my favorite too. If you have not seen this video please watch it. It brought such a wonderful spirit. I love watching it and hearing Elder Holland's words in the background. I am so bummed that conference is over until next time. It is such an awesome thing that we can listen to the prophet and apostles from our homes. I am so grateful that I live in the world today when we have prophets and seers to guide us. I am so grateful that I am part of this church. I am so grateful that I have wonderful parents that are such awesome examples to me. I am so grateful that I have such a loving husband that is a worthy priesthood holder.

I am very grateful today. I hope everyone felt the spirit that I felt today. I am so grateful that I did.

Friends

I LOVE my friends. Throughout the years I have realized who my true friends really are. That is always tough, especially if you learn it the hard way. I still have days that are harder than others because of friends that I have lost. It is never fun to feel like you were stabbed in the back or that you had complete trust in someone and they threw it out the window. However, I have some of the best friends in the world. Some might be VERY close to me and others might be acquaintances. However, I have learned a lot and continue to learn a lot from the wonderful people around me.

Here are some qualities that my friends have that I LOVE about them! They have been through a lot with me and NEVER walk away when life gets hard. They listen when I need someone to talk to. They have been a shoulder to cry on. They have been my solid foundation when I felt my world was collapsing around me. Two of my best friends do not live very close to me, but yet I feel they are always here (maybe not physically, but they are only a phone call away). They always tell me the truth, even if it is not exactly what I want to hear. They are very understanding. They are caring. They always know what to say, what to do, and what to be. They look at the positive side of things when I am dwelling on the negative. They will never leave (even if we are MILES apart we are still close at heart). They always know what being a friend is, what being a friend means, and understands my every mood.

I would like like to say thank you to all my friends whether we are close or not I am sure you have helped me through an obstacle or two in my life.

A friend is, as it were, a second self.

Sorry about my jumbled thoughts. I was having one of those days that I am dwelling on some of my "friends" that turned out not really trustworthy people. When that happens I feel hurt and betrayed. SOOOO I decided to dwell on all the wonderful people that are a part of my life and I have quite few!

Yard Sale!

Well once again life has been too crazy. Sorry for the lack of posts. We have just been busy working. Therefore, nothing fun has really happened. We have Lotaja this coming weekend that my dad is riding in. We are going to be his biggest fans. Then the following week we are going to California. I am so so so SOOOOO excited to get away for a bit. It will be very nice. Those posts will be coming.
Currently we are trying to get rid of all the stuff in our house. Ryan decided to make a website to do an online yard sale. It is quite fun and convenient. So we will be adding stuff as we clean up the house. If you need something we probably have it. It just depends on if we want to get rid of it or if we have uncluttered that part of the house. So feel free to look, but come back often and look again just in case we post something later that you really need. Let other people now about it too! You know what they say "One man's junk is another man's treasure." Click here to see the website he made.

SOOOO BUSY!

This is a really long post. So if you don't read it I will not be offended.

Work has been absolutely crazy! I can not even think straight any more. There have been a lot of changes and there is talk about more change. Exciting, but very tiring at the same time. I will keep everyone posted on how things are going and how the changes have affected me. However, we have been doing really well. One thing that I was so so so happy about was I found out that my sealing cancellation went through! It is an answer to my prayers. I want so badly to be able to be sealed to my love and start a family and have our children be born in the covenant. So this has been an answer to my prayers. We are one step closer and I could not be happier. On top of that we both have been busy. I went to Taylor Swift with my mom and sister. Michelle was there with her mom and sister. So naturally we had to meet up. It was such an awesome concert. I think it has topped all my concerts. Other than Rascal Flatts when I was leaning against the stage, but I think my placement had a lot to do with how much I liked it. Here are a few pictures of that night.

Michelle and Candace

Mom and Sis

Whole gang

She is so innocent and genuine. Well that is what I got out of her. I guess I have not sat down and talked to her face to face. That was the end of May.

Then in June we went to the Air Show. I have never actually gone on base to watch it. So it was quite the experience. Actually, on the way out Ryan kept saying that we really had not made a bad choice since we have been married until that day. He was looking at the crowd after the air show was over and it was a sea of people. It turned out not being very bad. The military knows how to direct traffic very well. Here are a few pictures of that.



July 4th had its challenges. We started off the day thinking we were going to ride our bikes to the North Ogden parade. We started riding them and when we were close to half way Ryan got a flat tire. So we had to walk them back. We ended up going to the parade, but we were kind of bugged with the whole situation. (Since last time we tried to ride them, the other tire went flat) Then when we came home Ryan tried to turn on his laptop and it had died. It would not turn on. It seemed like the hard drive had crashed. So we were really bummed about that because it had been awhile since we had backed up everything. (Luckily, the next day it decided to turn on.) We tried to make the best of it and continue with the plans of going golfing. We went with my brothers, my sister, and her boyfriend. Ryan golfed a good game. Then we lit our own fireworks and watched the fireworks that were up at Weber High.

Trent and Zack
Alex, Tiff, and Jamie
Us trying to be serious in the picture
My dad's work in the parade. My brother was walking by it too.

Ryan's birthday was on July 12th. We went up to Park City for a little getaway. It was a lot of fun. Then we came back and celebrated his birthday with my family.

Eating dinner in Park City
Eric giving Ryan his birthday spanks. I promise they are not gay.
Ryan playing his new game he got for his birthday. If you can see the rock on the ground. It is finally getting on our fireplace! Yay!
Ryan talking to his dad on the phone and wearing his new German pack he got for his birthday.
Tiff, Trent, & Joey gave him this shirt
Ryan is 2! Well he wants to be. The lighting is a little weird in this picture.
Ryan and his mischievous look.

The Kenny Chesney concert was on Thursday. It was a lot of fun, but it was really hot!!! I thought I was going to melt away. It was a lot of fun "When the Sun Goes Down".

The whole crew
Cousins
The mommies

Yesterday we went boating with the family. It was a lot of fun. I tried knee boarding for the first time. It was quite fun. Just a little easier landing than wake boarding. This is the first time in quite awhile I did not wake board when we went boating. I usually have a good headache after wake boarding so I decided against it this time.

I have no idea what Ryan is doing.
Dad and Joey

My mom and me. I know we look beautiful.
Knee boarding
Ryan trying to get Trent to hold his hand while they jump in. He is trying to get a rise out of Trent. It worked!
Ryan and Trent dancing. Ha ha ha.
Ryan filled his shirt with water. He is such a dork. He makes me laugh.

Journaling

If any of you are like me, you have a hard time staying current on your journaling (that really is not a word, but you get what I mean). I was really good about two years ago; maybe I am only good when things are a little rough for me and I need to get things off my chest. I do not have an explanation. I just know I have been really bad this year and when I get around to it I have so much to say it is overwhelming. I try to write so fast that my hand gets a cramp. So I have been trying to think of ways I can do better. Luckily, I like scrapbooking so I get some done with that, but not as much as I should. I thought about this blog being a journal tool. Which it is and it works well, but sometimes there are things you want to write in you journal that you do not want to write on a blog that everyone reads. So I felt like I hit a dead end.
Then I came across this. It is absolutely wonderful. It is free (I know there is an option that you can buy but for me the free one works just fine!) I can type a lot faster than I can write. You can print it in book form if you would like. There are some "All About Me" questions that help you come up with things to write that are interesting. I do not know if I am telling you guys about something everyone knows about, but I did not know about it until about a week ago. So I thought I would share. It might not work for everyone, but if I could help anyone with the journaling problem than that is great in my book. I hope it helps someone out!

Family

This year my dad's side of the family decided to all join in the Marathon fun. My dad and my uncle Steve were planning on running the full marathon so they wanted to see if there was anyone that would want to run in the relay or 5K. We had quite the turn out. We had 2 relay teams, 2 marathoners, and about 13 people run the 5K. I did not run except at the end when my dad wanted all of us to run with him. I was part of the support crew though. I had to drop people off at their leg of the race and pick up people when they were finished. It was funny though because almost everyone ran more than their leg they were assigned too. Ryan ran 9 and a half miles when his leg was only 6. I was really proud of him. Up until that day he had not ever ran that far! My uncle was part of one of the relays and he was supposed to run 7 miles, but he ended up running the full marathon!!! It was crazy. Everyone had a great time. I am sorry for all the pictures. I took a million. I know my mom has one of Ryan and I together, but I don't have it on my computer. So you get the one with him talking to me and my face looking absolutely retarded. We also made front page news in the Standard. I was really proud of everyone who ran! Next year Ryan is shooting for the half marathon! You can do it babe!

That night Jared and Chels invited us to a Real game. It was so fun. Really good seats! Thanks guys. (Hopefully next time we go; there will not be crappy calls and we will win!!!)