Hardcore!

We've been planning on going to Moab with some of our ward friends for the past month or so. We had decided to go last weekend with and we were both really stoked about it. . . Enter large thunderstorm of doom that ruined our plans! Well luckily Mikell and Dan are both genius and suggested that we all go to STG instead, so we packed all of our gear up and headed home for the second weekend in a row, yes! Jared was a little bit disappointed because he's been wanting to break in our tent for the past year, and it didn't happen due to the rain. Honestly, I was somewhat relieved we got to go to STG and stay with my parents, I'm not above a real toilet and a nice warm shower! It's not that I don't like camping, but considering the torrential downpour that was bound to happen, I was all for sleeping inside. . . Anyway our friends Blakely and Lindsey Cragun came with us as well as Kell and Dan's-the-Man. We headed down Friday night so we could get a bright and early start on Saturday. We decided to start with the Bearclaw Poppy trail thinger out in Green Valley for our first ride on Saturday. I was a little nervous, given the fact that I've only been mountain biking twice before, and this particular trail has things called "Acid Drops" "Clavicle Hill" and "Three Fingers of Death" incorporated throughout. It ended up being a perfect ride though. The boys (and Kell at times!) did the crazy stuff while Lindsey and I watched and took live video footage for posterity haha!

The second ride was a bit more technical, but it ended up being pretty cool, minus the fact that we got poured on during the last 20 minutes of it. The trail was out in Snow Canyon, and it's seriously so pretty out there! If you've never been to STG I really suggest going sometime soon, well maybe wait for a couple of months until it cools down. I don't know how we got so lucky because it was only around 75 degrees while we were there. . . pretty much unheard of for June in STG, but it worked out great for us!

Anyway, here are some videos of Jared, Blakely and Kell doing sweet things during our first ride. Sorry, but I was too lazy to take pictures. . . besides, nobody wants to see pictures of gross sweaty bikers anyway! (for higher quality videos, you can watch them on my facebook page)

Jared's crazy mountain biking skillllz

Blakely is hardcore!

Kell is amazing!

Birthday Weekend

Another year has gone by and I don't feel any older to be completely honest! Jared and I went down to STG to hang out with my family last weekend for my birthday. We had a good time just hanging out with and not doing anything crazy. I have a feeling that it will be like this most years anymore because we'll celebrate our anniversary the week before, but I really could care less! We've never made a huge deal out of birthdays in our family. I can't even remember the last birthday party I've had, I think it was my 8th birthday, haha. We just like hanging out together as a family and having dinner, it's the best. Anyway, I am getting a mountain bike as a birthday/graduation/late wedding present! We'll be getting it this week hopefully! Jared's parents got me a sweet sleeping bag which will be put to good use this summer and in the future, my parents donated money to the bike fund, and Jared donated to the bike and also got me a book I've been wanting to read for the past month.

We are really lame and don't take pictures even though we take our camera everywhere. So the only pics I have of this weekend are of Drake of course. The dude is totally cruisin around and talking so much, it's insane, kids grow so fast! He discovered the drawer where my mom stashes her plastic wrap. . . bad news!

He loves sliding down the stairs on his belly

He's so funny!

We played "loves" for like 10 min straight

Playing with plastic wrap

And of course my parents got him a Nascar toy thinger!

Listen to my dad's commentary in the background

it's hilarious!

Anniversary

It was our big one year anniversary yesterday, so we decided to celebrate it on Saturday since we couldn't do a whole lot on a Sunday. The day started off with breakfast at our apartment. I'm not a huge breakfast eater, but we decided to make biscuits and gravy which ended up being really good so I can't complain too much. Then I had planned a little scavenger hunt kind of thing, but not really that cheesy. . . well maybe it was a little cheesy but whatever. What I did was write a word on an envelop and Jared had to figure out where we were supposed to go. Each word took us to a different part of town that had to do with our relationship, so for example, the first word was "Beginning" and Jared figured out that we had to go to my old apartment which was where we first met. Anyway, we went on our bikes so it was pretty fun. When we got to each place, he got to read the letter that was inside the envelope. I had just written down some memories from each spot, nothin too fancy, but it was fun to remember some of the fun times we had while dating.

"Beginning"

Like mentioned about, this is where we first met

"Opened"

I totally tricked him out here, he thought this would be where he proposed

but I actually opened my mission call at the Provo Temple,

and that's when I realized I really didn't want to go on a mission at all :)

"Tandem"

On the day we dropped the L-Bomb, we had rented a tandem bike

from the BYU outdoor store and gone on a

ride together, and then we went up to Park City which was

where we first said "I love you" to each other, it was cute!

"Promise"

Jared proposed at the gazebo by the Hinckley Center,

he "promised" me that he would always take care of me :)

And now we've been married a whole year!

Ha

"Present"

Haha, when he saw the word on the envelope, he thought

I had gotten him a present. I feel bad because I think

he was excited about it, but maybe next year we'll have

more money to blow on presents for each other! This is

our apartment where we presently live

After our little biking excursion we went to lunch at Tucanos, yum!

After that we went to see a movie and just

hung out the rest of the night together, it was really

fun just to be with each other even though we didn't do anything

extremely cool. We figure we have plenty of years to celebrate ahead

so it doesn't matter that this year was a little bit more low key!

This is the black dress I got from Dillards last week, I love love love it!

This is me being weird. . . big surprise!

Yesterday we went and spent the night in Midway with some of our friends. A couple's parents own a house up there so we spent yesterday afternoon and part of today there. It was really fun to get away from Provo and spend some time with our friends who we haven' seen for a while! Anyway, that's the scoop with our anniversary weekend, it was a fun time!

One Year!

It's crazy how fast the time flies by, it's already been an entire year sine we got married! So here's a run down of the past year...

Well, we got married on May 30th 2009!

It was a pretty fun day, even though it was extremely hot in STG!!!

But even though it was hot we still

had a fun time with our friends and family

And niece and nephews

Jared got a little crazy with the cake!

Such a great day though!

Last summer Jared took his last graphic design pre-requisite

and we both worked on campus. We were lucky enough

to be able to chill with our family alot

In July we went up to Hebgen Lake with Jared siblings,

it was a blast!!!

We missed Blake and Sheena though :(

(We can't wait till the Oregon Coast this summer though!)

In August we went on our amazing cruise!

Scooter!

When we got home from our cruise we found out

that Jared got accepted into the BFA Graphic Design program!!!

(Don't worry people, it's one of the top three graphic design

programs in the whole entire country!)

I learned how to cook some pretty amazing food,

obviously it wasn't that amazing given Jared's face here haha!

I did student teaching last fall, and it was so much fun!

My kids were the best!

You can tell they knew me so well :)

Jared had his 25th birthday in November

and we spent Thanksgiving with my family in STG

We got our first Christmas Tree!

We spent Christmas with Jared's family in Yakima,

it was such a blast!!!

We went to Seattle for New Years!

When school started back up in January Jared

was into his second semester of the BFA program

and I decided to take a few more classes and apply for grad school

This was on Valentine's Day

I made a delicious steak dinner and that's about all we did!

My little brother Wess got home from his mission,

and Jared got to meet him for the first time

I found out that I got into grad school!

I graduated from college!

We completed our first major project together!

May

It's been a while since I've done a real post, so here is what we've been up to the past few weeks. I've been working a ton this summer. I have 3 different jobs which combines into full time hours. I'm working for two different professors in the Math Ed department doing research, and I'm also working for another department in the School of Education doing research as well for them. I've been transcribing/coding transcripts for the math department, and I've been doing a literature review and writing pieces of a secondary education behavior manual book thinger for my other job. I know it sounds boring, but I'm getting paid really well (compared to other campus jobs) and it's preparing me for grad school which is all I can ask for right now. Jared is staying busy with his internship in SLC and then working part time on campus as well. It has worked out great because he only has to go to SL on Tuesdays and Thursdays which saves time and gas. He's working for a place called Struck up there. They are a design/advertising agency. I'm pretty sure they are the largest agency in the Salt Lake area, so it's been a good experience for him.

We decided to get crazy and refinish our coffee table. We've had big plans for that thing since we got married last year, but we haven't had enough time to do anything with it until now. I honestly didn't think it was going to be that big of a project, but I was definitely wrong!! It took FOREVER to sand that beast down!! So the first week was completely just sanding. Our fingers were completely ragged by the time we were finished. When we finally got it sanded we went and bought some stain. It was pretty funny because neither of us knew what we were doing so the legs got a tad bit (like alot) saturated with the stain, I was a little nervous that we had ruined them, but we put two coats of stain on the table itself and it ended up looking pretty good. The stain takes forever to dry, and we've had other things happening the past week so it took a few days for us to finally get it done. Today we (and when I say "we" I really mean Jared!) put the last coat of polyurethane on it tonight so by tomorrow we'll have our table back! We want to eventually do the same thing with our end table, but given the horrible sanding experience, it will be a couple of months before we get to it!

Sorry, no "before" pictures, only "after"!

Here is our beauty!

My Vanna pose, baha!

Last week we went and hung out with Heidi and Jeff's family. It was really fun to go and have dinner with them. Mikell came up with her friend Dan and the kids totally loved having us there. It's always fun to see them! We told Kell that her and Dan need to take us rock climbing sometime soon (they are both pro!) so hopefully that story will be soon to come.

Nick came down to Provo and Jared went kayaking down the Provo river with him. I guess they had a pretty good time, but I can't imagine getting anywhere near that freezing cold water! Jared and I got onto an ultimate frisbee team with some friends and we had a game on Friday night. On Friday I went down and visited the kids that I student taught last semester. It was really fun to see them! It was their fitness day down there, so we spent most of the day playing kickball with other classes. The kids were so funny though, they'd see me and be like, "OOOHH it's you!! You're back!!" haha it made me laugh! I'm grateful I was able to have such great students.

Jared was a gem on Saturday and went shopping with me for the whole entire afternoon. I needed a serious wardrobe update, and I had some money from graduation, so I went and splurged. It's been a while since I've been shopping, so I guess I'm out of the loop, but what's the deal with every top being some solid color?? And what's with this new style where every shirt is purposely a little oversized? Some store worker said that it's the new thing to wear baggier shirts with skinny jeans, but come on people, who really wants to look like a boxy tent up top?! I just have to vent here a minute. . . do you know how hard it is to find button up tops that fit me in the waist, but that don't "pop" open in the bust?! Good grief, I'm not that big up top, but I was seriously having the hardest time finding a blouse that fit me right! Anyway, I found some cute outfits, and Jared was actually pretty good at picking things out for me. The best find was a sexy black dress from Dillard's! They didn't have my size at the store so I had to order it, but I'm so excited to get it in a couple of days! I've never had a nice black dress, so it will be cool to have a classic dress that won't ever go out of style. I'll post pics on Sunday if I have it by then!

Anyway this post is longer the usual, but I've been a slacker the past while so I needed to catch up!

Where is Summer?!

It's May 24th. . . in any normal place in Utah it's nice and warm most years on May 24th, at least 70 degrees right?? But Provo is no typical city. . . it's the devil! Right now it's currently a blizzard here in P-Town, that's right people, a freakin BLIZZARD!!!! It never snowed this hard the entire winter, but curse the weather, its a full blown snow storm today. . . I hate Provo right now, just give me summer dang it!

Our Moms

Jared and I are both lucky (like everybody I'm sure) to have great moms. The funny thing is, both of our moms are very similar in personality. Actually both of our dads are similar too... except my dad, bless his sweet heart, is way more obnoxious sometimes!! Haha, just kiddin pops I love you and your craziness! Anyway, back to our moms. I know this is a day late, but I wanted them both to know how much we love them. I've been into lists lately, so here are some tidbits about both. Oh and sorry these are the only pictures I could find of them. They are mostly from our wedding, I really need to be better about taking pictures at family get togethers.

Carolyn (Jared's Mom)

1- She makes the BEST cinnamon rolls in the whole wide world!!!

2- She likes to go to garage sales and estate sales

3- She likes to buy lots of cool stuff for her house when she is at said sales (She found a sweet crock-pot for Jared and I that only cost 10 bucks!)

4- She really likes to drink water, best part of dinner

5- She grew up in Centerville Utah

6- She's run the STG Marathon like 2 or 3 times, crazy!!

7- The first time I met her, she said something like, "So I hear you're dating Jared a little bit??" I was like, "Uh...yeah if that's okay." haha she laughed and said "Of course that's cool!" She made us the best homemade lasagna that day and I've loved her ever since! ;)

8- She has a very beautiful alto voice

9- She made all of the food for our open house up in Yakima, those cupcakes were delicious!

10- She can never stay awake during a movie, even if we start it at like 6 pm, haha I'm exactly the same way though!

11- She is really good on the Wii Mario Kart game, baha!

12- She has about a TON of cook books in her kitchen :)

13- She is the grandma of four, and all of those kids adore her

14- She has wiped out pretty bad on her bike

15- Sometimes she makes really funny noises at random moments in the movie theater (Remember Valkarye?!?! Haha!)

16- She likes to go to the craft store (much to mine and Mikell's horror but Heidi and Sheena's delight!)

17- She helped raise 5 awesome kids!

18- She has really amazing hair, I wish I knew how to curl mine like her

19- She'd do anything for anyone

20- Go to this page to read a really funny story about her job!

Kathy (My Mom)

1- I don't think she ever missed going to one of my basketball games in high school

2- She teaches 7th grade science

3- She loves to read

4- She has some pretty sweet Harley gear

5- She played volleyball in high school and college

6- She joined the church when she was at BYU going to school

7- She is a very good listener, and has been on the receiving end of many of my random thoughts

8- She is 18 months older than my dad

9- All of the kids on our street love her and want to play at our house

10- She is the mother of 6 (4 kids and 2 scruffy dogs! Haha!)

11- She is the grammy of one very cut little baby, excuse me, toddler (He is so huge now!)

12- That kid only has eyes for his grammy when she is around!

13- She is appalled by some of the "Musso" dinner conversations, especially by some of the ones we've had in public!

14- She made my wedding cake, my sisters wedding cake, cousins, family friends etc. I know, she's amazing like that!

15- She loves to listen to me play the piano (That goes for Carolyn too!)

16- She worked at the high school I graduated from, I loved being able to go and hang out with her during the school day

17- She has alot of patience (especially given the fact that she's put up with my dad for all these years! ;) baha!)

18- She adores my husband, both my parents were all for him right from the beginning

19- She has a heart of gold

20- She always gives really good advice

We sure love you two ladies, thanks for being amazing! (Caution: Anything listed after 20 would be my husband's handiwork, so if it's weird, you'll know who to blame!)