Wednesday, December 16, 2009

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.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

New House

Ryan and I are buying a house! We have searched all year for the right one and have finally found it. After two long months of dealing with everything that could possibly go wrong (i.e. pain in the neck sellers), we have signed and are planning on moving in this coming week. We can't wait to move in and just start living there.

Things we are looking forward to:

1. A Dishwasher

2. Washer and Dryer

3. Wood Floors

4. Room for family and friends to visit

5. Putting money into our own pockets and not our landlords

6. Big backyard for our future puppy

7. Ryan's own woodworking shop

8. Renting out a basement apartment

9. Projects we can work on together

Here's some pics of the house

Friday, October 30, 2009

Happy Halloween!


I love Halloween! It has always been my favorite holiday of the year. My sister and I used to play dress up all the time when we were little and it was so much fun. Having a holiday were you can be anything you imagine and get candy for it is just plain awesome. I can't wait to see all the cute little kids this year. I was looking through some old photos the other day and came across these.

Look at my brothers, what studs!

This is my sister Anna and me with our friends Brooke and Markell Harmon.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Two Weddings and a Baby

I have to post real quick about all the new exciting announcements in my family. My Brother's Matt and Andrew just recently got engaged and will be getting married next year. Andrew and his Fiance Analyn are getting married the beginning of February and Matt and his fiance Mitra are getting married in either late July or Early August. Then to add to the exciting news, Phil and Nicole called last night and announced that they will be adding to the family as well with another baby! They are due May 1st, and will know what the baby is in about another month or so. We are so excited for everyone! I guess that now would be a good time to announce the new addition to our little family...We are expecting as well! A new puppy that is, next spring.

Birthdays

So this weekend Ryan, my dad and I celebrated our birthdays. Ryan and I turned 23 and we are feeling so old now. My birthday was on the 16th and then Ryan and my dad's were on the 18th. Ryan kept teasing me and calling me an old fart for the two days that I was older than him.
Ryan got me a new dog for my birthday!!! Just kidding I wish. But for my birthday Ryan found a Malamute breeder in the area and we went a played with their dogs. Both of us have always wanted one since we were little and we have been wanting to get one lately. We spoke with the breeder and they are going to be having puppies next spring. We played with the dog that will be the mom and she was so pretty and well behaved. Here's some pictures of her. We can't wait for next spring!


We went out to eat with my Grandpa Smith and his wife LaRee at Magelby's on Friday, it was lots of fun catching up with them and seeing my grandpa.

On Sunday we had a relaxing day and had dinner at my parents.
For our birthday presents we decided to get a new computer since both of our laptops died on us. We got a Mac desktop and we're still trying to get used to it, but we're liking it so far. It's nice to have a computer that actually works!