Farewell Summer

I've been going back and forth about whether to post about these or not. Let me explain. Since the Spectacular, Tyler and I have striven to cram all our summer activities into the past month so as not to waste a perfectly good summer on a lack of adventure. These adventures have included various camping/hiking trips, along with a trip to Lake Powell.

Unfortunately while undergoing these adventures, I completely forego makeup or really any form of making myself look presentable. This is fine for the two of us since my dear husband frequently reminds me that I look beautiful in spite. However when it comes to posting online or for anyone else to see... frankly, I find it highly embarrassing.

Since I plan on eventually having some of this blog published to serve as a journal of sorts though, I absolutely must post about our summer adventures because they have been off the hook! So with that in mind, please bear with me. The pictures you are about to subject yourselves to are not for the faint of heart. If you can't weather the storm, turn back now while you still can.


#1) Camping Trip- We went on a camping trip with our good friends Lori and Jarom and their two darling kids. It was just a quick overnighter, but was exactly what I needed! We had tons of fun, got very dirty, and rode like crazy. The highlight of our trip was waking up in the middle of the night to head lights coming at us. Tyler and I set our tent up late and put it on a through road that went through our campground. Yes, it was a risky move and we knew it. We ended up picking up our tent and moving it in the middle of the night. We both laughed so hard!

Our first trip with my beautiful new bike and new "girly" gear. Tyler told me that since I ride like a boy and wear boy riding gear, some people might not know that I'm a girl when they see me riding out there. So he insisted on buying me girly gear. I refuse to wear pink so that made things difficult, but we finally settled on these babies and they turned out quite nice. Plus, I still fit into the kids sizes, so they were at least $100 less than they would've been otherwise. HOT DOG!

Tyler with my beautiful bike. He is wearing his riding pants and has finally earned himself a jersey (my old manly jersey).

#2) Anniversary Trip- For our anniversary this year, I told Tyler that I did not want any gifts or fru-fru dates, I just wanted a camping trip with no cell phones, no people, and no schedules. I wanted to go to bed when we wanted and wake up when we wanted and eat when we wanted, period. And that's exactly what we did. It was WONDERFUL! We found a darling little campsite that was totally free up by Mt. Timp, which we've always wanted to hike. We have both hiked to the cave before but let's be honest, that's a pretty wimpy hike.
We were under the impression that the trail up the mountain was 4 miles long, which sounded exactly like what we were looking for. Upon arriving and hiking for hours however, we found out that it was in fact quite longer than 4 miles and we actually took the harder route than people traditionally take. Great. We ended up going about 13 miles, almost to the very top, and hitting a lightening storm that scared the pants off us.
We sprinted the entire way down partly because of the storm and partly because my bladder was exceptionally full and in need of a potty break. At one point, Tyler displayed his chivalrous ways when he turned around with his arms out just in time to catch me falling into him with full force after tripping mid-jog. Whew.
The hike was beautiful and much more advanced than we originally anticipated, but we loved it. We plan on going at it again next year when we're properly equipped.

Just before heading up the mountain
Tyler made me this awesome contraption for carrying water, since we decided we might need more than we could carry in our pack. Thank heavens we did!
One of many beautiful waterfalls

Look what we found near the lake... GOATS!

So cute! A baby got stuck going up the mountain and was screaming, "Mom" and I nearly died.

The meadow near the lake was breathtaking!

We found this cool moose with her baby by the road as we drove back to our campsite afterward.

#3) Lake Powell- Our awesome neighbors invited us to stay on their houseboat with them in Lake Powell last weekend. Neither of us have ever stayed on a houseboat before and we were in heaven! The trip ended up being very eventful, so I'll try to be brief.

First we tried wake boarding. Tyler was a natural and I totally sucked. We figured we'd try it again the next day until the beautiful, sparkly Mastercraft boat hit a rock and broke a prop. Instead we were towed back to the marina and found ourselves boatless for the remainder of the trip. I was sad to miss out on tubing, but the fabulous wave runners helped lessen the blow.

They had two wave runners there that I instantly fell in love with. They were an absolute blast!! Equally fantastic, was cliff jumping. What a rush!

Tyler out on the boat with the kids. This was just minutes after hitting the rock.

We saw some beautiful, enormous red cliffs. As usual though, we were terrible at taking pictures so this is the only cliff image that made its way onto my memory card.

On the third day, we got to see a Lake Powell rain storm and man was it cool!

Here is the view from the houseboat deck during the storm.

And here is the view after. Quite a difference, eh?

We all decided it would be cool to jump and slide off the house boat during the storm and we were right. What fun!

Exhibit A : Ty's Can Opener

Exhibit B: A Toe Touch?

I am silly. And very sunburned.

On the last day, just before we were about to leave on our last wave runner ride, Tyler decided to dive off the house boat and fillet his toe.

He was distraught.

Scott to the rescue! Thankfully he is an EMT, so he was able to fix it up for us.

Last but not least, here is one of the videos we captured trying to see who could make the biggest splash. For the record, I won with no video footage to prove it.

It has been an excellent summer!!

-THE END-

Spectacular!

I don't even know where to begin with this post, but it was such a huge part of our lives this summer that it would be silly not to post about it. I suppose that the only way to go about this is to take it from the beginning.

Serving as the second counselor in young womens has been such a great calling! I absolutely love it. In December, the Stake President asked me to serve in an additional calling as Stake Dance Coordinator. Looking back, I don't think either one of us had a clue what would be required as part of this calling.

To make a long story short, Tyler was later asked to serve along with me since our dance contained a separate boy part and girl part. After murmuring threats of buying a PS3 and questioning his involvement in the matter, Tyler soon gave in. Mwahaha!

Before I go on, let me tell you what the Spectacular is. The "Arise and Shine Forth Youth Spectacular" is a church program that was the first of its kind and was performed on Weber State University's football field. The production covered everything from the premortal life to the pioneers, to the 1920s, 50s and 60s eras, to modern day, to different nations around the world. It shared a message that the gospel is spreading forth and blessing the lives of all who come in contact with it and that our job today is to, "arise, shine forth, and be a standard to the nations" as we "shine our lights unto the world".

During the 7 months that transpired, we learned the dances and taught them to all of the youth in our stake and then combined with another stake to teach with them as well (About 400 kids in all). Our dance was choreographed to represent the Oceanic Temple District which included: Somoa, Tonga, Fiji, Austrailia, Hawaii, and New Zealand. This was especially tricky considering the fact that my beehives were too young to participate and most of the practices fell on their weekly activity nights. I ended up learning dances, planning beehive activities, recruiting volunteers to work with the beehives for me, setting up their activities, and then dashing to our practices which were held anywhere from 2-4 times per week.

The whole thing became a very huge undertaking! 4,000 youth from around the area participated in this thing. We danced in the rain, in the scalding hot sun, and even in the snow at one point. Our youth were the best group of kids ever! They were so very frustrated on multiple occasions, but they totally stuck to it and in the end, I think most of them had a lot of fun with it. . I'm so glad we were able to see it it through because the final performance made it all worth it. They even asked Tyler and I to perform with them, which worked out well because we look their age anyway. We felt a little bit like thunder-stealers since we had to dance in front of the rest of the group, but our dancers needed someone to watch during the performance.

I could go on and on and on about this experience and some of the events that transpired, but instead I'll end with some pictures I have acquired from other people. Tyler and I weren't able to take pictures since we were on the field performing, but hopefully this will give you some idea of the enormity of the production. Most of these were taken at our dress rehearsal.

For the record, our youth totally rock! It's so great to be able to work with these young men and women as future leaders and to watch their shining lights grow brighter.

Tyler's warrior face- easily my favorite Spectacular picture

These two darling girls came to watch. Are they cute or what?
Our friends Mapu and Tupu- they helped choreograph our Polynesian dance.

Can you say 4,000 kids?!
Sign Language- "I Know that My Redeemer Lives"
This is our group- love these kids!

Numero Tres

Three years ago today, I woke up in the wee hours of the morning to make it to my early morning hair appointment, followed by a rushed makeup application, and a quick dash home just in time to meet Tyler at the house before our drive to the temple. 3 years ago today, I wore a long white dress, greeted hundreds of people, accidentally yelled at my new husband's good friend from Maine, and blushed when I had to ask for Tyler's help in untangling myself out of my overly large slip. More importantly though, 3 years ago today, I promised my forever to the sweetest man I have ever known and smiled when he promised his in return. 3 years later, I am still the luckiest girl on the planet and here's why:

- I have a husband who plays with my hair, packs me lunches, learns to ride motorcycles because he knows I like it, packs me umbrellas when it rains, pulls me close to him in his sleep, tells me I'm beautiful, lets me act like a child whenever I get the urge (sadly, this happens often), and reads to me when I can't sleep at night even though I know he's exhausted.
- He is a hard worker. Whether it's going to work or school, beautifying our home, or serving in the church, he always gives it his all.
- Tyler held me together this summer when on more than one occasion, I came home and collapsed on the ground into a big ball of stressed-out-girl.


And last but not least, here are a few of my favorite memories from this past year of our marriage:
- In line with my goals to live a well-rounded life, Tyler has gone camping, seen expensive Broadway plays, traveled, attended motocross races and sporting events, gone on hiking trips, visited theme parks, attended dance concerts, read books, tried weird foods, volunteered at political campaigns, and everything else I have requested of him, in spite of his own hesitations.
- I showed Tyler my 2 favorite love songs from Moulin Rouge and he surprised me by learning the lyrics, then coming home from school one night and singing them with me. We have loved both songs ever since (hence our blog music).
- While I L-O-V-E love dancing, Tyler is not fond of it. This year, he voluntarily took a dance lesson so he could take me out and he has happily agreed to participate in this activity with me ever since. On Christmas, we danced in the streets of Disney World together under fake snow. People on the streets watched us and clapped when we were done. He also took me to a big band show in Logan with a fancy dinner and danced with me until we were both exhausted. And as if that wasn't enough, Tyler agreed to perform a Polynesian dance with me in front of 40,000 people at the Spectacular. This was a HUGE stretch for him!
- I have a hilarious memory of early in the year when I gave Tyler a peck on the lips. He instantly frowned and stomped out complaining that I kissed him, "like a two year old" and I fell to the ground laughing.
- During the World Cup, I discovered that I really enjoy watching soccer. I've always known this, but I've never been able to pay attention to sports on TV until now. When I told Tyler about an exciting game I watched, his face lit up and he asked me to blog about how much I love soccer now... which I never did... sorry Ty!

I'll end it there because I'm pretty sure I've embarrassed him enough already. The past 3 years have been completely awesome and I'm excited for many more to come.