Life as of Summer 2010 till Now.

So I'm finally doing a blog post =) Yay. This is way past overdue and I'm so sorry for that! It is getting to the end of the semester and I am actually having more of a real life now with actual time on my hands to do whatever I want (until finals week of course). So I thought I would hurry and put a post together and put up some pictures that have been way long overdue.

Happy Late Halloween! This is what Kyle and I were for Halloween this year...scary old people.

This is us at the ward Halloween party. We made quite an entrance. We hadn't planned this, but we walked in just as the party was ending...we had thought the party just started but we were informed wrong. =) So when we walked in everyone starred at us. No one knew who we were (and we are pretty new in the ward anyways so not many people would know who we were), but we creeped everyone out. We walked in like old people (walking really slowly and shuffling our feet) and didn't reveal who we were until 10 minutes or so after we got there, after everyone was crowding around us asking us who we were. We made a couple of kids in the ward cry too... which was not our intention for these costumes but it was pretty sad anyways. We didn't know that we would make such scary old people! After the party we went to Macey's to get some groceries for Sunday dinner and we wore these in the store and got some pretty funny stares too.

There is a funny story behind the masks too. Ever since we've been married, Kyle has had that grandpa mask. Well, about a year or so ago (a year after we have been married), I was shopping at Smith's and found the grandma mask on a table of left over Halloween items! When I saw it I just knew that I had to get it because Kyle's mask and the one I found were just made for each other! I thought that was pretty cool how we didn't buy them or find them at the same place or time but they ended up together anyways! It was meant to be. =)

Below are just very few of the many pictures we took on our Yellowstone vacation in August just before school started. Kyle and I wanted to go on a fun vacation to balance out the not so fun coming semester. It was such a fun vacation! It was so beautiful and we did so many things! We started out by traveling through Idaho to Lava Hot Springs. There, we tubed down the river, swam at the swimming pool, and of course found some natural springs and relaxed in those. That is such a fun place! This picture of us is taken at our camp ground where we stayed the night that night. It was the most beautiful campground ever. It was pretty much someone's huge backyard they turned into campsites and it was so green! And the sunset was beautiful! (not that the camp owners could take credit for that) but it was in the perfect location where you could see every part of the sky everywhere you turned. There were no trees or buildings to block the view. It was amazing. I will have to post more pictures of that but this one is the only one I have. They had cool teeter totters there too =)

After Lava Hot Springs we headed to Jackson Hole, Wyoming where we spent the night in the Grand Tetons! (Yes, we stayed in a tent for the whole vacation...I think it was like 4 nights or something.) We were pretty gross after the vacation ended because all we had to wash up in came from water bottles and dish soap. We love staying in our tent though (except when I need to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night...then I don't so much love the tent....but overall, we love the tent). =) And we get really creative with the meals we cook for ourselves. We do almost everything over the fire with old pots and pans. We've done pancakes, eggs, bacon, biscuits, soup....you name it!

Here is us at the Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum in Jackson Hole, sitting on a buffalo.

This next picture is one of the many pictures we got in front of a real, live buffalo. =) This one was on the edge of a really steep hill. You can find buffalo in the funniest places in Yellowstone...including right next to geysers and mud pots where they have signs that say "Danger, fragile ground!" and under those words on the sign is a picture of a stick person being burned because they stepped through the ground into a hidden geyser or spring. It's pretty amazing where you find buffalo....there was one in the middle of the road looking straight at us, ready to charge one day. That was pretty scary. We had a goal when we went to Yellowstone. Our goal was that we were going to to see a moose, a bear, a buffalo, and elk before we left to go home. We didn't ever see a moose but we saw the rest! We didn't think we were going to see a bear but sure enough, when we took off one the last day at 5:00 am. We drove and found a black bear right next to the road, just eating his breakfast. It was way cool! We were only about 50 feet away from it. We not only saw those animals but we also saw coyote, deer (of course), and even a dinosaur (okay, it was a fossil in a museum but it is still a dinosaur!).

This next picture is of us in front of our of our favorite geysers in Yellowstone. It is the one where you have to hike to get to it. It was such a pretty hike and a really pretty geyser that erupts about every 15 minutes. We got to see it erupt. And the funny thing about this picture that I just realized is that everything that both Kyle and I are wearing are from my little brother- Jake's closet. Well, he gave them to us but still I think it is funny that everything we are wearing were his at one point =) Yup, I'm wearing his shirt and pants =) Kyle is wearing his ALA shirt underneath and his plaid shirt over top. I also think that Kyle is wearing his pants too. =) Thanks for dressing us Jake!

This next picture is of Kyle and I standing in the distant front of Yellowstone Falls. We actually got way close to it than this. We did the Uncle Tom's trail hike down to the base of the falls (the one where you have to go down and then climb back up 300 metal steps) and it was definitely worth it. It was so beautiful! We saw just about everything there was to see in Yellowstone- Mammoth Hot Springs, Grande Prismatic Geyser, the mud pots, the petrified tree, and all of the falls, and much more! So that is our Yellowstone/Lava Hot Springs/Jackson Hole vacation in a very small nutshell. I will have to post more pics later.

These next pics come from last June when we had our 2 year anniversary vacation. We went to a REAL soccer game that I had bought tickets for for one of Kyle's birthday presents, we went to Raging Waters, Rodizio Grill, and stayed in a nice hotel. It was a very nice anniversary and it's been the best 2 years of my life so far!

These pics are of Kyle and I at my Dad's 50th birthday party last June. We went to Salem Pond and all the cousins and good friends were there. I love this picture of Kyle =)

It's really weird to see pictures of my dark hair. I have blonde hair now and it's just way different! I will have to post some more pics later of what it looks like. It's not way blonde but it's not this dark anymore. Thank you, my dear friends, Kristal and Becky, who are lightening my hair for practically free! It takes such a long time to weave my hair but they did it because they are amazing friends.

And here is a pic of Kyle and I at a random Bear Lake trip we took one Sunday afternoon. I think I might have posted this pic before and told the story about how we ended up in Bear Lake and went home after about an hour. If I haven't, here is the short story...so we went for a Sunday drive one day and we were looking for a certain hiking trail that we have never been on before. Well, long story short, we droves miles and miles past it and then our gas light turned on. We had driven too far to turn back around and go get gas in Logan so we had no choice but to drive to Bear Lake. That was our first time in Bear Lake. =) We only stayed for about an hour but man, that place is beautiful and we had a lot of fun with the short time we were there! We are making a point to drive there again someday on purpose and actually stay at least a couple nights...one day...probably next summer sometime.

And these last pics are of my wonderful families whom I love both very dearly. I am so lucky that I was born and married into amazing families with amazing moms and dads and brothers and sisters. I love you guys!

Thanks for reading my long post. I hope to post more soon!