Thanksgiving

Josh and I had our first Thanksgiving together. Last year we were dating, but both went with our own families. Molly, Josh's mom, Sadie (sister) and Spencer (brother) came to visit from Utah. They drove two days with bad snowy roads to get here, but we are sure glad they came. We had our Thanksgiving feast Wednesday, and we also invited a couple friends of ours. It was a lot of fun to host. That night we saw the new Harry Potter movie. Here's some pictures:

Molly and Sadie



Turkey- First one I have ever made (with the help of Molly, of course). It turned out great!


Josh Carving the Turkey. He did pretty good, but I finished carving the rest.


Josh and Spencer had some good brotherly bonding time with the XBOX.



On Thanksgiving day we went to see various Church sites. They helped me to realize how thankful I am Josheph Smith and the early Saints. They all went through so much, but their Testimony's of the Savior were strong, so they perserved. They are good examples to me.

We then found a resturant in a hotel that was opened, where we enjoyed our Thanksgiving Day Thanksgiving dinner.

Friday we went black Friday Shopping, but we didn't it the stores until about 11:30. We still got some great deals, and it was a lot of fun. That night we decorated for Christmas.

Sadie and Molly doing ornaments for the tree.



Josh and Spencer putting the Christmas lights outside on our deck.


Josh and I putting up lights in our front window.


Mellissa decorating under the tree. I have never decorated under the tree before,but I sent most of my Christmas presents home with Molly.


Finished product:

OCTOBER

I haven't had much time to blog in October, and the month went by so quick! It was an adventureful month, so here are the happenings:

October 2- Birthday
I turned 26 this year, but last year I had a goal to do 25 new things while I was 25. Now that 25 is over- here are the 25 new things I accomplished (many of these things were not on my original list, but things change):

1.) Get engaged
2.) Get married
3.) Drive a car in Mexico
4.) Go skiing
5.) Decorate my very own room in my very own condo
6.) Make my own duvet cover
7.) Try Ox Tail
8.) Go to a Temple I haven't been to (Ogden)
9.) Go to Nauvoo
10.) Drive half way across the country
11.) See the coolest lightning storm ever
12.) Buy a laptop
13.) Buy a wedding dress
14.) Have a bridal shower thrown for me.
15.) Get my ESL endorsement in Utah
16.) Experience Chigger bites
17.) Sing at Aaron's baptism
18.) Meet Lowie Jones
19.) Hike in the Rocky Mountains
20.) See Alcatraz
21.) Sleep in the jeep for the entire night
22.) Play an African Drum
21.) Get an American Express Card
22.) Shop for my own car insurrance
23.) Bring a guy (the one) to the Sock Party
24.) Go the First Presidency Christmas Devotional at the Conference Center
25.) Shop at Kohls

I know some are pretty lame, but on the other hand- some are pretty Awesome!

October 14-18 My Good friend Came
Josh went to ICMA, a City Manager Conference, in California for his program. Since he was gone, I invited Shawn to come visit.
It was fun to see her and we had a good time together. We went to Kansas City to go shopping, and we also shopped around Lawrence.

We went to the Wizard of Oz Museum.
It was neat with all sorts of old artifacts.

On the way to the museum we saw the sign that says, "Road to Oz Highway." I just had to get a picture!.


October 23- Pumpkin Patch
Josh and I went to the pumpkin patch in Lawrence. It was huge, and we had a lot of fun. We rode the tractor to the Pumpkins.
There were so many pumpkins- it was hard to choose. .We finally decided on two small pumpkins and a medium pumpkin to carve. The two small ones were for Dinner in a Pumpkin for our Halloween Dinner.
After we picked out our pumpkins, we got hot apple cider, which I spilled on my shirt, bought some Kansas made salsa, pumpkin butter, and kettle corn.

That night we went to the University of Kansas (KU) football game. It was fun, but we left early because KU was losing terribly. I guess football is not their thing, but I hear they rock at basketball-Rock Chalk Jayhawks.
It was a fun day.

The last weekend in October we went to Nauvoo so Josh could do a school project. We went to the Temple and took a couple pictures then came home.

This weekend (in November) Steve, Josh's dad came to visit! We took him to downtown Lawrence, Liberty Jail, and Kansas City. This picture is in Liberty Jail.

We also went to the Facebook movie, which was good story, but had a lot of "notty" scenes. After the movie we went to a Brazilian Steakhouse, which was fantastic, but a little pricey! Thanks Steve for the great dinner and day!

How bout' fall colors for hair colors?

Josh has been at a conference for his job all day today, so I decided to give my self a simple makeover!! I don't have a lot of money to have someone do my hair or eyebrows, and I prefer to shave my own legs. I took a couple hours today to do all three things!! I have shaved my own legs many times, and I do my eyebrows all the time, but this is the first time I have risked dying my own hair permenatly. I have done the simple one day wash out, but this is the real deal. I even two toned my hair. My personal opinion it is not perfect, but I think I did a pretty good job!!


Before Picture: This was taken last week at a school event. I don't have permission to put the little girls face on the internet, so I tried to crop her out.

Let me know what you think!
This is the hair dye dying my hair! Brown:-)


Round one complete! I showered and shaved, and blew my hair dry. This is what that beautiful FALL brown looked like.



The finishing product:
It's hard to see in the picture, but there are lightish- carmel highlights. One of the pictures below also makes my hair look a lot lighter than it is, but I think that is the angle and lighting. Sure looks like fall colors to me! I also waxed my brown before I took this picture.


Now, just can't wait to see what Josh says!!

Last Adventure of Summer 2010

Well, we had some great adventures this summer, but to conclude them all, we ended our last Summer of 2010 adventure over Labour Day weekend.

Josh and I decided to take a trip to St. Louis. We were lucky enough to stay in an nice LDS couples Cottage. They keep it open for visitors, and they don't charge a dime! It was extremely nice of them to let us use it.


We went to the St. Louis, MO Temple to start our Saturday. It was beautiful! Then we went to the zoo and huge park (comparable to Central Park in size). The zoo was super crowded, but it was also free!


The day went by so quickly and before we knew it, it was time to find a parking spot for the Gate Way Arch. Luckily, we got their early, so we went out to dinner. Since we hadn't spent money on a hotel room or at the zoo, we slurged for dinner, and had some excellent sushi.

The last agenda item for the day was the Gate Way Arch. At the base of the arch, inside, there is a lot to see. There is a museum, movies, stores, and information about the arch. It was very neat. Then, we took the little pod elevator up to the top of the arch. It was cool, but VERY crowded! The sun was setting when we got to the top, so that was cool to see. To be honest, I don't think it was worth the money. There was way too many people, and nothing fancy at the top.

Sunday we planned to go to church; when we got there, we found out we got there just in time for the Spanish branch. We stayed through Sacrament meeting, and felt the Spirit, but it was a bit of a challenge trying to understand what the speakers were saying, since they spoke in only Spanish. ha ha!

We went to Merimack State Park to spend our third evening. Josh reserved a campground, so once again we could avoid the cost of hotels! Before bed, we went for a nice nature walk. It was really peaceful, and there was no one around. We saw some caves on our nature walk.

Monday, our final day, we took a Canoe Trip. This was a blast. We saw fish, got out and waded. (We thought we might swim, but it never actualy happened- that's why we have our swimming suits on in the pictures). When we were floating we came upon a trail. It led to a little waterfall and a huge cave. We tried to see the source of the water, but it was too dark. Some people saw us go to the trail, so they stopped and followed us! Then, more people saw them, and stopped! We started a whole new experience for the other canoers!


On the way home, we stopped at a Louis and Clark Monument. It was cool! The whole trip was a great ending to the summer! We look forward to our Fall Adventures, although they won't be as travelsome!!

Our Recent Adventures

Josh and I have decided to have as many adventures as we can during our time in the Midwest! There is a lot to see, especially church sites. We already saw a lot of them, but last weekend we were able to see more.




First we went to Liberty Jail, where Joseph Smith sat with other many for 4 months in a nasty pit hole. We learned a lot of what Joseph went through,but we also learned that it was an opportunity for Joseph to be humbled and to feel close to the Lord. It was a great experience for me to go,and feel the Spirit. My testimony was strengthened of the Prophet, Joseph Smith, and his faith.

After that we headed to Indepence, Missouri, where the saints were driven out by the mob because of a prosecution order from Govornor Boggs. There wasn't much left in Indepence, but the visitors center. We saw the Temple site, and toured through the RLDS (Community of Christ) church's Temple. Their church history starts the same, but it is very interesting how they worded certain things. Touring their Temple, helped my testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to be strengthened. I know it is the true church, and it is the only way to return to Heavenly Father and have eternal life.

Last night we went to the Kansas City Chief's game. If you don't know, like I didn't until Josh told me, the Chief's are an NFL football league. It was very neat because they had fireworks at the beginning, and the huge stadium was outside. Now, here's the adventure part:


We didn't want to pay $22 for parking, so we decided we would park outside the stadium parking and walk. Well, we parked in a parking lot at a business, and had to cross the freeway entrance/exit to get to the stadium and back to the car. Going to the stadium was not a problem, but coming back... now that's another story.

First of all, at the game, towards the end of the game- there were two men picking a fight right next to us. Luckily, staff came and stopped the whole thing. We got out of there quickly once the game ended, so we weren't in the middle of anything if their little fight started up again. Then we headed back to the car in the dark. This was fine, until we got to the little freeway entrance. Now, after a NFL game- there is tons of cars!! ha ha- so we sat and waited forever to cross. That's where the picture comes from. Then, we saw some other guys walking, and they had the guts to just walk right in front of the cars. They stopped traffic, enough for us to run! We made it with no problem.


So, I didn't get hit by a car, but when I ran across the other street, I tripped on a sign and almost biffed it REALLY bad- it was going down hill a little bit. That would have been embrassing to have been fine crossing the incredibly busy street and then hurt because I fell. Luckily, Josh, my sweet husband, caught me! If it wasn't for him, I would have scrapes and cuts all over!

Nauvoo and Church History Weekend

I started my job this week, and Josh starts school next week, so we thought that we would do a little get-a-way before having to be grownups again! We are only five hours away from Nauvoo at our new location near Kansas City. We did the drive and camped at Nauvoo State park on a Thursday. Then we spent the day at Nauvoo on Friday. Friday night we drove to a state park and saw lots of nocturnal animals

since it was dark when we got there. At the state park we rented a canoo and spent an hour on the lake. On our drive home we stopped at Hannibal, Missouri and saw the Mississippi River. It was very big and cool! There was a light house that we hiked up to- well, more like climbed a billion stairs to get to. It wasn't even open for us to go inside!! Ha Ha! Then we found Hans Mill, which is not much, but it was still cool to find. We also were able to visit Adam-Ondi-Ahman and Far West. Both places had a special spirit about them.

It was a very special trip. In Nauvoo we got information on our ancestors that lived in Nauvoo, and we got to see what it was like for the pioners. We also went to the Nauvoo Temple, which was my favorite part. It was very beautiful inside and out! I feel very blessed that we had the opportunity to see these places and have a neat experience in doing so!

I forgot to mention that we went to Carthage Jail. It was crazy to think that the prophet, Joseph Smith, died in the very room that I was standing. The thing that really hit me was the actual bullet holes through the door. It was very special and helped to strengthen my Testimony of Joseph Smith.

Cancun-honeymoon:-)

We went on our honeymoon to Cancun. Josh's aunt and uncle own a condo in a place called, Puerto Aventureus, and that's where we stayed. It was so nice of them to let us use their condo for two weeks! A great wedding present in my opinion. It was a lot of fun. I got a great tan, and it was a total break from life. Before our honeymoon, I was running 150 miles per hour to do everything I needed to do. It was great to be gone away from it all with my new husband. There is a couple things I would like to highlight from our trip. First, one of our favorite things we did was spend a day at the Mayan jungle. We saw ruins, went on a jungle boardwalk, and had a boat tour threw a freshwater canal. We got to swim in the canal, and the whole time Josh and I were uneasy about the crocodiles that lived there. Our guide told us they were nocturnal, just like the jaguars and panthers in the jungle we had walked through. The cool thing about this day, was that we were the only ones around. It seemed like we had the entire jungle to ourselves. The pictures are of a lookout tower at the end of the boardwalk. We deciced to eat lunch at the top of the tower. The next highlight is all the cool things we did for such a low price. We were able to do all the cool tourist attractions, but we found our own way about doing them. For example, there were cenotes all over. A cenote is like an underground cave with a freshwater swimming pool-(all natural of course). The locals were charging 30 bucks per person just to see one cenote. We happen to find a pair of cenotes for only $7.00 each, and they were pretty cool. One of them had a platform to jump into the deep water. Josh did the jump, while I videod it. We found good, cheap food, and we found lots of beautiful swimming pools. We also snorkled at the hot spots by finding our own way into the ocean. In other words we didn't pay the expensive fee for the beach access, we simply walked on the rocks to get in! The last cool highlight I wanted to share was when we gave the Book of Mormon to our friendly waiter. We had to use interent at a little cafe/grocery store, and the same guy waited on us everytime. They had really good smoothies, so we would go often to get a smoothie, and Josh would do his homework on the computer. We got to know this guy, and he was looking for religion. It was perfect! I also had the opportunity to play the piano at church. It was a neat experience. Overall, it was a great trip. I got sunburned really bad on my thighs, but all in good time, it healed! ha ha! At least I got a great tan from it!

Wedding Day

June 8, 2010 (6/8/10) Josh and I were married in the Idaho Falls Temple. It was such a wonderful day. We were blessed with beautiful weather. It was raining the whole week before and the week after, but that Tuesday in June was perfect! I had many wonderful family and friends come to support Josh and I at the Temple and the reception. Unfortunetly, some of my wedding announcements got lost in the mail, so some great friends of mine didn't recieve their announcement. I'm sorry if you were one whose announcement got lost. (If you really want one, I have some extras, and I will send it to ya).


My sister was my Maid of Honor, and my new sister-in-laws were my cute young Bride's Maids. We put all the girls in hot pink dresses, and all the boys had hot pink ties. My nephews were the cutest little guys. I don't have a picture of them with the ties on right now, but when I get one, I will have to post it because they were adorable.

We had a wedding breakfast for those who came to the Temple before the ceramony; then we had a fun- hot pink and lime green- reception at my Grandparent's house in their backyard, right by the golf course! We served fantastic cake suckers, brownies, and cheese cake; and of course pink lemonade to match the colors. My sister and mom made the tablecloths, which were hot pink and lime green poka-dots! It was different, but so fun, and just like me! My cousin, Nicole, made the wedding cake as a wedding gift. It was beautiful with poka-dots. It really was a great evening.

Two weeks later, after our Honeymoon, we had an open house in Ogden, where Josh is from. Once again, we had so many wonderful people support us. Molly, Josh's mother, did a great job at organizing the open house with the Alumni Center at Weber State.


I truly did marry my best friend, even if I had to wait for him. (He is two in a half years younger than me). I loved the years having my own adventures- traveling, dating, living in different places, but those years aren't over. Now I will have new adventures- traveling, loving, and living new places with my husband.

Josh Graduated:-)

Josh graduated from Weber State University on Friday, April 23. I took off the day of work to attend his graduation and be with him and his family. It was a nice break for me, and a good day for all of us!
















The graduation had two sessions. The morning session was the commencement. President Thomas S. Monson spoke. It was neat to hear him, and cool for Josh that his name is in the program with President Monson's.

The picture below is Josh and his parents.















The second session of graduation was when Josh walked across the stage. They gave him a purple and white boa to where as he crossed the stage. I'm proud of him for graduating.

Now we are off to Kansas. Well, not quite~ we have to get married first. We have six weeks and two days until we get married. School gets out for me just a couple days before that. It is a busy time for us right now! I'm sure many can relate the the stress of planning a wedding, finishing up college course work (over the course of the year I had/have 23 credits), working full time during testing time, getting ready to move, applying for new jobs, and figuring out what to do about the condo and cars. It's an adventure just getting ready for it all, but I was able to sneak a few min. this morning to post a blog! Life is busy, but is certainly good:-)!!