Sunday, September 15, 2013

The Summer: Vacations, Moving, and Floods

Well its September, so I guess its about time I updated my blog. June was fun I was finishing up spring semester at UVU and Nathan was working. We were both stressing about moving. It worked out though and we were even able to enjoy a mini vacation of boating with Nathan's family before we left. We also swung by Zions National park and the St. George temple with Jared (Nathan's brother) on our way to Las Vegas/Lake Mead.
St. George temple.

 Beginning our hike up to Angel's Peak.
 
 Beautiful Zions.
 Beginning the steepest, scariest, and dangerous part of the trail.
 The rock in front of us is what we had to climb.
 The view of the trail from the top looking down.
 The beautiful finish line.


On our way back down

Boating was way fun. It was my first time trying water skiing, wake boarding, and tubing. I didn't get any pictures, but here are a few from Facebook; thanks Miranda and Bethany for taking them! Unfortunately I don't think we got any photos of Nathan...
 Such an awesome artistic pic. Bethany is so talented.



After all this fun came the stress. The morning of our move our motor scooter got a gas leak and our review mirror fell off. This is stuff we had to worry about that morning in addition to picking up and loading our truck, and deep cleaning the apartment. Finally around noon we were able to leave thanks to wonderful people in our ward helping us out. It was a little sad locking up the empty studio apartment that had been our home for ten months and walking away. Our little apartment had treated us well  here is a photo as a memoir.

 Then we got in our separate vehicles and began the long drive over the Rockies to Boulder, Colorado. Upon arriving another group of wonderful volunteers from our new ward helped us unload everything into our new apartment. The next week was hectic trying to find a place for everything, but we did and I have to say I really like our new apartment.

Boulder took some getting used to. The traffic scared me at first, but after being here a few months I've realized its not that bad. There are bikers everywhere, and a lot of hippies too. We randomly get whiffs of pot every now and then. They charge you ten cents for grocery bags. Everyone buys organic/natural, and are extremely outdoorsy, and I have never met so many vegetarians. The whole foods market (expensive) is more busy than King Soopers (cheaper but less natural). Lets see what else... I'm not sure. All and all it has a very different feel from Provo. Its fun though, but I'm not sure that I will ever be a true Boulderite. I will probably remain that strange conservative woman that enjoys processed food, meat, and sitting at home even when its sunny outside. But hey its kind of fun being the one to bring some diversity to a city.

Boulder has treated us well though. Nathan has been able to get lots of work here and it has kept him busy. He has even gotten enough work to expand his company and hire an employee! It has been fun watching him grow in his business as he works with clients. I'm so grateful to have a talented husband that makes me feel secure through his hard work.

We had another mini vacation at the end of August. We flew out to Boston to see Nathan's long time friend Brandon get married in the Boston temple. It was a beautiful experience, and the bride and groom were so happy. I'm glad we were able to fly out for it. We also had two days that we were able to explore Boston. We checked out Harvard, the Boston Museum of Fine arts, and walked along the Freedom Trail.

Nathan in his bow tie outside the temple
The beautiful Boston temple.
 Downtown Boston.
 Hopping on the red brick freedom trail.
 The Old Ironsides ship.

 
 Old boats are always fun.
 Bunker Hill monument we had to climb up a cramped spiral staircase up to the top. 294 steps... more than you would think.
 
 Pews in the Old North Church where Paul Revere lit the candles to let people know the British were coming.
 Statue of Paul Revere. That's the Old North Church in the background.
 Faneuil Hall where the debate of taxation without representation was brought up.
 Where the Boston Massacre happened.
 Harvard! A statue of John Harvard who founded the school.
 Random bean bag tossing game on campus.
The mess hall... I'm so jealous Harvard students get to eat lunch in such a beautiful place. 

 Old graveyard by Harvard campus.


Now its September and the only thing to note is we have been flooding here in Colorado. Its been scary seeing water rushing down streets. Creeks swelling into turbulent rivers, and unceasing rain adding more and more water to the equation. We have been fine though being on a hill and being on the second floor helped immensely. A lot around us haven't fared as well, but it has slowed down now. The sun has been shining and water has turned to dry mud. It was weird being at the site of a disaster and having family and friends calling us to see if we're alright, but I'm glad because now we are close enough to help. Here are the pictures of the creek next to our apartment during the worse day. Its usually a trickle of a stream I barely even knew existed.


 
 Thankfully the water stayed down there where the bike path is.

All in all we have had a fun summer and we are doing well at our new home. Love you all.

My mom used to take pictures of the family sleeping. I thought I might continue the tradition.

Until next time!


Thursday, May 23, 2013

The Last Little While (March, April Mayish)

Its been awhile; the New Years resolution of writing a blog post once a month died around March... classic. Anyways, we are doing well! Its been a little crazy, but I took photos during all the craziness, yay for a nice new camera!

In March we survived on Chimichangas, hot dogs, pizzas etc. and smoothies. The smoothies were the result of the guilt I got from the rest of our diet being overly processed. It was a long busy month, but we did enjoy a trip out to Boulder, CO to visit my sister over spring break.

A rooftop restaurant Nathan and I went to in Lousiville.
A fun store in boulder that had a lot of random awesome stuff.
A street performer on Pearl Street in Boulder.
The cool guys hanging out on some rocks.
Boyd got to hang out on a snail lucky guy, Ben looks tired.
Our fun night tending the boys. We got to walk up to the lake and play on the playground there, we saw lots of bunnies along the way. I want a bunny... help me persuade Nathan. If you see him be like Shirley wants a bunny then you can creepily walk away  if you want. Or shout it at him, or better yet sneak a bunny into his backpack then when he gets home and there's a bunny... actually I'm not sure what I would do with that situation, anyway enough about bunnies.
I think the boys liked having their pictures taken.
This is my favorite picture from the trip. I have cute nephews. :)
We had a good time on our trip and spent a lot of time driving around and checking out certain areas in hopes of finding a place that we could call home for the next few years. It was fun but also exhausting; Boulder, Denver and the surrounding areas were not what we expected. We had thought that Boulder would be a bigger city, and it wasn't which made us disappointed. Our resolve of Colorado being the perfect place for us was shaken. We kept thinking fondly about San Francisco and the time we had spent there. We spent a few weeks in prayer and pondering after our trip in deciding if we really wanted to move out to Boulder.

I don't remember a certain moment when Boulder felt right again, but eventually it did and I got excited as I perused padmapper and craigslist looking for an apartment. Everything became real and exciting for both Nathan and I when we signed our contract for our one bedroom Boulder apartment in April and solidified dates when we were leaving Provo. On July 1st we will be embarking on our next adventure and I can't wait!

Also in March I threw my first Easter dinner! Jared (Nathan's brother) and one of his friends came over and we all enjoyed the first roast I have ever cooked. It actually wasn't bad Nathan & Jared can be called on as witnesses to that fact. Then after dinner Nathan shared a spiritual message. It was a great. Here's a pic:

The rolls were supposed to be bunnies they were kind of a a fail, but oh well.

April was a busy month as we worked hard to get through the last stretch to the end of the semester. We both came out unscathed thankfully, and the big event this month was that Nathan my dear sweet husband graduated from BYU with a bachelors in Information Systems! I'm really proud of him and I am glad he is such a hard worker to accomplish that feat.

I love him so much!
Way to go Nathan!
We're grateful for our wonderful parents who came down to Provo to show their support, love and to feed us. You guys are great!  I'm grateful to have such amazing parents and in-laws. We love you. It was fun visiting with family and playing games with the Tates.

Then it was May. We went up to Logan to organize stuff we want to take with us on the move, and we scored on digging out a bunch of old camping gear from my parents storage unit that they gave to us. Then it was decided we were going camping in Moab and hiking arches for our first year anniversary. And we did just that...




We are in there we are just tiny :P
One of the few pictures we took together. Yay one year! :P




It was a really wonderful anniversary. We drove down on Friday and hunted for a campground (found one! wasn't easy), then we hiked up to the delicate arch. After that beautiful hike we went back to our campsite and made tinfoil dinners (super yummy), peach cobbler and roasted marshmallows and starburst. Saturday, the morning of our anniversary we made breakfast burritos. After we packed up camp we embarked on the long hike up to the double O arch talking about all our favorite memories from our first year of marriage while we did and finding a few nice spots to make out as well. After we were done we went out to eat in Moab then headed home where that evening we enjoyed our frozen cake that we cut from a year ago. I couldn't imagine a better way to celebrate the one year I have had with my amazing husband. And a wonderful year it has been.

That's all for now. Nathan is working full time and I am going to school and working as well. We are both doing odd and ends things as we get ready to move. Which is only about a month away. Crazy! We're happy. Love you all!