EPIC SUMMER PICTURE POST!

In case you were wondering why I haven't posted all July, the answer is that I was busy doing things, as evidenced by the following pictures. First, there was the Fourth of July parade...

the best part of which was this possibly Chinese dragon.

 Also, THOR.


Next, there was Daniel's birthday.

Where to begin!?!? Pictures! Pizza! Presents! Puppies! (Well, one not technically-a-puppy puppy.)

 

And most importantly...

CAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then there were a few long, hot, tedious days, during which the camera made only the occasional appearance to document noteworthy accomplishments, such as...

Or to preserve this face made by Matthew one day while studying for his anatomy class:

Or to prove to skeptics that my hair was now long enough to be French-braided:

Sarah also took up nursing, by which I mean there was a great deal of blood pressure taking and blood pressure comparing going on:

Also featured: welcome-arm-baring by certain handsome muscular patients

Then the month took off again, because suddenly it was MY BIRTHDAY!

And there was much goofyness and picture taking and awkward placing of arms in the land.

Mama made me a strawberry cake!

Yep, that cake was the star of the show.

Cake, cake, cutting the cake, texting about the cake... Seriously, WHAT IS HE TEXTING?

But the last week of July turned out to be the most epic of all, as I got to visit Kirtland and Hiram, Ohio, for three days with one of the professors I work with at BYU.

For THE FIRST TIME EVER, I got to stay in my very own hotel room. I surrounded myself in pillows and watched The Shawshank Redemption past midnight. It was sheer madness.

                               This is where Joseph Smith walked in and told Newel K. Whitney "Thou art the man!"                                   I totally would have bought a T-shirt of that quote for Matthew, but sadly couldn't find one.

Over our allotted three days, we did a lot of filming and research and working on other projects in the car while the photographer did his thing, and I carried a lot of bags and technical equipment and amused myself by taking quirky pictures of myself in a graveyard.

LIKE

SO.

We also got to go inside the first Latter-day Saint temple, the Kirtland Temple, which has been kept up and is owned and operated by the Community of Christ. We even went into the basement, which was pretty cool (and slightly terrifying - you could look up and see the light from the first floor coming through, as well as see where they had to reinforce the foundations with slightly crooked but thick trees). We weren't allowed to take any pictures of the inside, but guess what? The outside is prettier anyway.

SEE?

PRETTY!

In Hiram, we visited the colorful John Johnson farmhouse, where Joseph Smith and his family stayed for a while as the Saints were gathering to Kirtland.

This is the bedroom where Joseph was dragged out by a mob and tarred and feathered. You would expect it to be dark and "spiritless," but it's actually more colorful and fun-looking than nursery rooms at church.

This is the upstairs room where Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon had a vision of the different kingdoms of glory. I didn't love the salmon paint, but at least it wasn't purple. Ew, purple.

My favorite part of the trip came on our last day as we were on our way to the airport, and stopped briefly at one of Lake Erie's beaches. I could have stayed for hours, but we only had five minutes. Still, it was probably my favorite five minutes of the entire summer. As Matthew can attest, I loooooooooooooooooooooove the beach and would rather go there than do almost anything else in the world. Something about the combination of wind, water, sand, and sky just sends shivers all over me. It took a LOT of self-control to keep from diving in, clothes and all.

The beginning of five minutes in heaven!

My professor grew up in Long Beach, meaning that she loved the beach (like me) but wasn't CRAZY about it (like me).

You know I'm happy when I'm smiling even though my part (in my hair) is being completely DESTROYED!!!

Well, I got home and summer started winding to a close. I barely noticed when July ended and August slipped by, but Matthew and I did take time out to go mini-golfing, swimming, and use a coupon we've had since Christmas to eat out at IHOP. And that was the last of our happy summer memories.

We were planning to have pancakes, but ended up getting steak and potatoes.

HAPPY FALL EVERYBODY!

May and June: EXTENDED Family Newsletter

The summer has been flying by, and I have gotten very lazy at updating my blog. We have done a lot, including celebrating many birthdays, going to a wedding, going to 7 Peaks (MY FIRST TIME EVER!), and ushering for two plays at BYU, but right now it feels like my life revolves around doing dishes. Matthew has been very busy (and very late coming home from school - two days a week he has a lab class from 7-10 pm) with his summer since he started taking anatomy for the latter part of summer term. Apparently students in class were warned the first day to say goodbye to everyone they knew for the next seven weeks... This class by itself would be bad enough, but Matthew also continues to work from 6-10 every morning at Ancestry.com, and drives to Alpine every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to his internship at Alpine Fitness and Physical Therapy (fortunately, the hardest thing required of him here is to work out with the other interns and patrons; while the internship is unpaid, getting a free workout three times a week has its perks!). With every spare hour of Matthew's being spent on studying, and with me still enjoying a vacation from school, that translates to my being in charge of meals, dishes, and DID I MENTION DISHES? Even with our low-effort meals, it's hard to believe how much two people can dirty in a day! 

Here follows the abridged version of the past two months, with excerpts from my journal to assist:

May 6, 2012

On Saturday, we went to Sarah's Harp Festival performance at BYU. It turned out to be pretty stressful! We walked in during the middle of a performance and had to tiptoe to some good seats. Then they called Sarah's name and number and she was not there! We waited until the session ended before I tried calling Sarah, Hannah, and then home. Halfway through the second session, Sarah appeared. Whew! It turned out that her teacher had made a mistake in scheduling her, and she was also late in arriving because of bad traffic due to a marathon taking place in Provo.

May 13, 2012

Today is Mother's Day. Matthew washed my car for a present - he is such a sweetheart. I have a feeling that our ward is much more aware of it than the singles wards I've attended for the past five years. At least, there are singing Primary kids and two youth speakers and I overheard the bishopric whispering conspiratorially about "the surprise." I could be a mother pretty soon. I feel like so many of my friends have such a head start! But I also enjoy my freedom with Matthew. For example, we were able to drop everything and go see The Avengers yesterday, on a whim. It was AWESOME and neither of us regretted it. Of course, Matthew prepared me by convincing me to first see Iron Man (the first one was better than the second), Thor (probably the most important one to see before seeing The Avengers), Captain America (I kind of spaced out during most of it), and Batman (JUST KIDDING! I totally know he isn't an avenger, thanks to Matt's lessons). So I felt pretty smart and got a lot of the jokes.

One more thing happened this week - I cut my hair! Sarah and Mom cut it, actually. It's quite a bit shorter than it was, but just barely long enough for a ponytail, so I'm happy. And I decided I just don't care what other people think about my hair. It's not an amazingly cute cut or anything, but I think I kind of look like Vin (from Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series). And I'm okay with that. :)

May 20, 2012

The van's transmission died again and Dad and Mom decided not to fix it. They already have a new car, a Subaru that is sort of a pale purple color. Hannah named it "Barney." I am sad to see the van go. We have had it for probably close to twenty years. Not to mention how big a help it's been in moving things around. Here are some of my memories of the van: Mama hydroplaning. Getting hit by the redlight runner near the karate studio. Driving to and from karate. Driving on vacations. Driving Yeller and the cats to the vet. Getting my thumb stuck in the door when Grandpa and Grandma visited. Learning to drive the van. Driving errands with Mama. Moving to Sandy and then to our apartment in Provo with Matthew driving the van. So yeah. I'm a little sad. We are going over today for the twins' seminary graduation and I want to take some pictures of the van.

The last of the old cars

Seminary graduation!

Matthew and I saw The Hunger Games on Saturday. It was SO good! I loved the casting from the beginning, all except Peeta, who had to grow on me. But it was sort of like the book in that he has to grow on Katniss too. By the end, I thought he was awesome. I definitely would see it again.

May 27, 2012

My one year anniversary is tomorrow. What a surreal sentence. Am I really married? Has it really been a year? Wow. I am absolutely not ready to give up being a newlywed. Maybe in twenty years. Eh, probably not even then. Here's what I'm hoping to see in the next five years: Diplomas! For me and Matt. I want to be done done DONE with school! A part-time job might be nice, though. Kids! I want a cute little boy like Matt and a spunky girl. New apartment/city/bed! Sort of kidding on the last one. But seriously, I hope we aren't going to live in Provo forever. And a queen-sized bed would be so nice. I fantasize about it sometimes. Money! Ha ha ha. But seriously, I hope we aren't in debt. Family drama! Of the good kind. Like adopting a dog. Siblings getting married. Me freaking out about turning thirty. Etc.

Happy anniversary. Emphasis on "Happy."

Look at this adorable photo of little Matthew! I can't wait to have a little boy like that.

June 10, 2012

Today is Matthew's birthday! This Saturday is Andy and Melanie's wedding! I went running to Matt's work once this week. It was fun and felt good, but I got worried that I was sunburned (the wedding), and so have decided not to run again outside until after Saturday. Other than that, I don't really have any plans for the wedding. I'll just show up, hang around, eat food, take pictures, kiss Matthew, and sigh in happy relief that we are already done with all the wedding/honeymoon/first-year stress.

Matthew's birthday celebration, with all the trimmings

We were VERY excited to get this card signed by nephew Edward Miller!

This past week was pretty fun. We went to see Arabian Nights and The Mikado at BYU. Both were great, but we enjoyed Arabian Nights more, I think. It had more surprises, humor, a better plot, and really good seats! (We were on row E!) However, some of the songs in The Mikado really cracked us up, especially a certain one which we have entitled "Tit-willow."

June 16, 2012

Today is Andy and Melanie's wedding day! I was on a huge high throughout my entire wedding day. It all just got better and better. Really, nothing went wrong (compared to all that went right). I hope Melanie's day is just as perfect as mine was. I also hope we get to take home leftovers. That would be awesome.

Whoooooo's going to get marrrrrried neeeeeeext?

June 17, 2012

Today is Father's Day. Matthew woke up before me and made us crepes and scrambled eggs! What an unbelievable sweetheart! He then gave me his Father's Day present from the bishopric at church. Awww... It is kind of sad that fathers mostly just get rebuked a lot in Church. I for sure know I owe just as much to my dad as I do to my mom for loving and raising me. I always felt like my dad loved and tried to understand me without judging me. He consoled me when I was upset, and helped me to see good things in my mom when I was really mad at her. Both Matthew and I have wonderful fathers who put up with a lot (that sounds bad, but it's totally true. I know I'm lucky to be blessed with Matthew to help our family up with me, too...).

Two great fathers!

July 1, 2012

We celebrated Mary Alma's 28th birthday last Saturday. And we went to Seven Peaks last Thursday. I wasn't happy at the size of the lines to ride everything, but they actually moved pretty quickly and we got to do a lot of fun rides in under two hours. I was only scared of two rides. The first one gave me a pretty bad wedgie. I thought I was bleeding, but I was just sore and in pain. We did the second scary one right after that, and I totally thought it was going to be easy and fun. Then the three boys in front of us chickened out at the very top, and I was like, "Whaaaa? But this one's supposed to be FUN! What wusses!" And then we took off, and I realized why the boys chickened out because I knew absolutely in that moment for sure that we were going to DIE. SO yeah. I repented of my pride. The last ride we did was maybe my favorite, even though it was super short. It was called the Vortex, but Matthew and I kept calling it the Toilet, because you swirled around in a circle and then got "flushed" out the exit. It was fun, fast, very "solid" feeling (you know what I'm talking about), and the line was way short. Perfect! After all the rides we could stand, we floated around in the "Lazy River" thing, which was fun and reminded me how much I love the water (when it isn't scaring me to death). I felt a little braver afterwards, even to the point that I convinced Matthew to go with me off the diving board at the Orem Rec Center that weekend. We did cannonballs and both landed on the exact same place - our left hip - and boy, it smarted! We weren't too keen to be brave again. I admire the people at the pool who can do all sorts of flips and crazy dives, but it's just never been my thing. I am not really a big thrill-seeker or risk-taker, I guess. But I love the water. And I love the ocean.

The birthday girl!

The un-birthday girls

Goofing around

Concerning wedding cakes...

 THE CAKE. A spectacular and fundamental element of any wedding reception. Also the subject of numerous traditions...

First of all, there was 1) the cutting of the cake.

I remember posing for the picture with the knife in hand, and then came the arduous task of breaking through the fondant. The first cut was perfect - Matthew's strength was probably the biggest factor, since when I tried to complete the second cut on my own, crumbs went everywhere - on my face, on my dress, on the floor. In addition to showering the room with crumbs, I had apparently forgotten basic rule no. #1 of cake slicing, which states that your second cut needs to somehow meet up with your first cut in order to create a piece.


After a few more unsuccessful stabs, I attempted to flip out my "piece" with the brilliant method of shoving the cake server under the entire bottom layer and levering it up, a tragic, ill-fated endeavor that only resulted in more crumbs being sprayed on the carpet. At this point the slice I was determined to carve out had been mutilated past recognition, yet still the camera was waiting to take the shot of us feeding each other. The crowd was restless. I began to panic. In the end, I grabbed what I could with my fingers, like a savage, and applied myself to the next rite of passage - 2) the sharing of the first slice.

Plates are for WUSSES

We began the rite of feeding each other, finger-style (though I was so flustered that I probably would have used the cake server if someone had handed it to me). Fortunately for the pictures, the frosting on our cake was hardened, chewy fondant, and our fingers and faces were barely smudged at all. People cheered, I started to relax, and we happily defied that rogue, uncouth custom of smashing the cake in each other's faces (the topic had come up several months preceding our engagement: He was agreeable to whatever I wanted, and I was ADAMANT that NO CAKE WOULD BE SMASHED). P.S. If you're reading this and you happened to have done this at your wedding or you intend to do so at your wedding, no hard feelings. I mean, that's why you're not marrying me, savvy?


So! The cake had been cut and we had eaten a bite. Well, maybe more than a bite. Probably six or seven bites. We were really hungry all during the reception but were so busy being the bride and groom during the 2.5 hours that we were there that we only got to sample a tiny portion of the refreshments on our way out the door (by that point, all the good stuff had already been consumed, naturally). Ah, well; at least I can recreate the food with pictures, right?

Anyway, after scrounging down that piece of cake like two half-starved orphans, we proceeded to take pictures of all the other wedding traditions (garter, bouquet, dancing, hugging our parents and crying like it was our last day on Earth), and we left for our honeymoon. I almost thought it was the last we would see of our gorgeously decorated-to-PERFECTION wedding cake.

But no! When we came back from our honeymoon, we found the top layer of our cake waiting for us. It was so beautiful. And cute. And delicious-smelling. And . . . BIG. It dominated our tiny freezer for a few days, until we decided to break tradition and eat it on our honeymoon, rather than 3) waiting for a year to eat it on our first anniversary. I KNOW. We are such rebels.

But, rather than saving the cake, we saved the pictures, and I now post them, a year later, in honor of our first layer of cake, which was beautiful and tasty enough to deserve to be saved.

White grape juice and cake: Honeymoon diet

HAPPY FAKE ANNIVERSARY!

So in love we close our eyes when we kiss...

Matthew looking so cute

Odd mixture of classy and goofy

We love our left ears!

Maybe had a little too much to drink?

Family Portrait: Matthew, Me, Cakey, Bottle

Artsy!

Okay, now actually trying to cut

And THAT'S how you cut a slice! Future brides, take note.

Experienced wedding cake cutter/eater

The last known photo of Cakey

The One Year Mark

Today, it has been 373 days since our wedding. I know this because of this handy little website about our stories that I created last year that came with a countdown (which is now, awesomely, a countup). So, last Monday was our one-year anniversary, in addition to being Memorial Day (which, to be honest, we completely and regrettably ignored). After one year of marriage, we absolutely still feel like newlyweds, and are excited for many more years of new surprises, excitement, and happiness together.

And now for the day itself. I wanted to have a very private, special day with just me and Matthew doing everything together, but the universe had greater things in store for me. Here's how it went:

First, we began with a delicious gourmet meal of pancakes and hash browns, obviously prepared by the hands of a professional, and served to us with entertainment provided by Modern Family, Season 1.

Can you figure out which knee belongs to Matthew and which is mine? You may be surprised!

We spent the morning reminiscing about the last year (mostly about May 28 of the last year), and then Matthew left for his four-hour internship. Giving me ample time to direct my staff in recreating our wedding reception decorations.

"Fun!" pictures

"Pretty" pictures

"Fill the big white empty wall" pictures

Still blooming after a year! JUST LIKE OUR LOVE!!!

Our colors this year are red and blue - Surprise!

The present, which came home with Matthew, turned out to be the game Twister, which I happened to mention recently as being one favorite game from my childhood that I was sorry to have lost track of somehow over the years. We totally played like three rounds that night. There were several hotly contested debates over the rules, which makes this a very passionate gift.

Our anniversary culminated with a delicious dinner that cost a fortune and took our experienced chef several hours of sweat, blood, and tears to create. Good thing the result was fabulous!

Italian Bake: Too yummy to wait to cut until your wife - I mean, le chef - takes a picture.

A romantic, private, luxurious dinner followed...

 

During which an entire bottle of grape juice-flavored-fizzy-drink (inadvertently - and all the more likely providentially - saved for exactly an entire year from our wedding date) was enjoyed.

ENJOYED, I SAY!

After dinner came dessert, fruit and dip, which we had dined on every day during our real honeymoon (there was a lot of leftover fruit from our wedding luncheon).

Not pictured: Totally unhealthy fruit dip

As to the fate of the top layer of our wedding cake, it shall be revealed in a future post.

With food, presents, and dessert taken care of, you may ask, What more could two people want? Good question, Tevye. Turns out, a lot more. For one, the anniversary festivities could not be complete without that most extravagant and traditional of romantic gestures known as THE FANTASY SUITE.

Theme: "?"

Earlier this year, we had thought of going to the Anniversary Inn (where we spent our wedding night) in Salt Lake City for our first anniversary; I was mainly intrigued by remembering how good the complimentary cheesecake was, and by the excitement of picking a wild, exotic themed room to spend the night in. Eventually, however, we decided to go the cheap do-it-yourself route. Though I teased Matthew with the idea of a Twilight-theme, it was actually pretty obvious to me what theme to pick. And that theme was.... JUNGLE/SAHARA/DON'T JUDGE. Mainly because I had lots of stuffed animals and a lot of brown blankets close to hand.

ROMANTIC

Matthew liked it, so there.

After the fantasy suite was revealed, there was one final surprise... I put on my wedding dress again, for the first time since my wedding day. It was a little difficult to zip myself up without help, but it still was a perfect fit (woo-hoo!), and Matthew was inspired enough to attempt to dress up in part of a suit coat to complete the vision.

I love how the veil disguised my short hair.

TWUE LOVE!

And so ended our first anniversary. It was a wonderful day, spent with (or thinking about) my favorite person in the whole world. Every day I love my husband more and more, and I love that we are an eternal family together forever. Here's to our being crazy about each other forever and ever too!