What we've been up to

It's been a long time since I've written anything. Things have been so crazy busy for us and I've been meaning to write for a while now. So here's an update...

We moved into our house and it has been nothing but project after project. Ryan's parents came for Thanksgiving a week after we moved in and we were excited to be able to put our guest room to good use. We had lots of fun with them and had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner up at our cabin with my family too. It was really nice to see Ryan's parents and catch up, hopefully we can get together again soon.

Shortly after Thanksgiving Ryan and I took a well deserved vacation to Florida. It was so nice to be able to relax and forget about the last few months of hectic house buying. We went to Marco Island which is on the southwest coast of Florida right next to the Everglades.

We saw tons of alligators and birds, my fav were the bald eagles. We went on a airboat ride and kept getting splashed because we insisted on sitting in the front. It was totally worth it though. We also took a boat out on the ocean through what is called the "Thousand Islands" which is just a bunch of small islands with mangrove trees all over them. While we were out there a huge group of dolphins surrounded our boat and swam with us for about a half hour. They were so cute and Ryan and I went camera crazy!

We walked on the beach every morning and night, there were so many seashells it was amazing! One night we went to a local fisherman shop on the dock and bought freshly caught stone crab and ate it on the beach while watching the sunset. It was pretty romantic until Ryan threw a piece of crab to a seagull that had been watching us and then almost instantly a whole flock of birds swarmed around us. Haha, it was still fun. Probably my favorite part was going to an animal reserve of florida's natural animals. My one disappointment though was finding out that their panthers were't black, they look just like our cougars here. The only difference is they are used to the water and live in the swamp lands. They were still fun to see though. We had a ton of fun though and we're kinda bummed to come back to the Utah weather. Our plane got in around midnight and we got off on the wrong bus stop to our car and had to walk forever. Poor Ryan was wearing shorts! It is too dang cold here, I can't wait for summer to come back!

Now we are home and back to work and our house projects. We did however find some time the other night to build a gingerbread house together, which was actually the first time either of us have ever made one. Ryan thought it was going to be pretty lame, but he ended up getting really into it, he's such a perfectionist. We both ended up having some fun doin it together.

We are starting to tear our master bedroom apart, peeling of layers and layers of old paint and striping the original baseboards and doors. In the end I think it's going to be worth it, but right now it's kind of a big pain. Hopefully we can have it somewhat decent before family comes for the holidays.