Last summer.

Lately, the weather has been just gorgeous. I mean truly perfect- which, combined with a series of inspiring events from the past weekend led to me running. Yes, running. But that is another story entirely. The weather has brought with it not only heat, but bugs. Lots.Of.Bugs. I can honestly say I would rather have an armed intruder in my house than a spider, beetle, or heaven forbid, a bug with wings. But that’s what I have Alex for, right? To rid my presence of anything with more than 4 legs? Wrong. Well, kind of wrong. Even though our hatred and fear of spiders is equivalent, he braves even the most frightening of situations to make our surroundings bug free. And I love him for that.  

You see, I’m pretty convinced this isn’t just a ‘mind over matter’ type of situation, I think my body is genetically designed to reject bugs. To my knowledge, I’m not allergic to anything at all, except bugs. Yes, bugs, and in particular- mosquito’s. Which reminded me of a story from last summer, when I was somehow attacked by a mosquito. On my foot. I wish I could explain this, and perhaps if I delved into Google for a few minutes I could come up with an explanation, but every year my ankles and the tops of my feet are prime candidates for the little blood sucking monsters. Naturally, this happened on the day of my bridal shower. And as I was about to leave work and head to the celebration, I looked down and saw this nightmare:

I was hoping to look presentable for the special occasion, as any bride-to-be would. However, after realizing my foot would not fit into any decent looking shoes, I ended up like this:

Shoeless. It was quite the debacle. Luckily, it was still an incredible night (thanks again to Jess and Kait and my beautiful friends!). And hopefully, despite the bugs, this will be an incredible summer. Here's to hoping there will be no bugs, and no snow in June.

Here's to a few new Mr. and Mrs.

This was wedding weekend. ‘Tis the season, you know. Summer has a tendency to bring all those lovers out of hibernation and into holy matrimony. And such was true this weekend, where Alex and I got to attend two back to back weddings. On Friday, Alex’s childhood friends Lindsey and Jordan tied the knot. We were lucky enough to be able to attend the beautiful sealing. They were also gracious enough to feed us at a beautiful luncheon afterwards. I unfortunately left all picture taking devices in the car, so you‘ll just have to take my word when I say that love was in the air.

Saturday we were able to head down to Salt Lake for the wedding of one of my closest friends, Hayden. I met Hayden the same way I have met 90% of my friends, serving people breaded halibut and chocolate cake at Magleby’s Grill & Oyster Bar in 2005. Throughout the years we have seen each other through many phases of life- graduation phase, the “I think I’ll dye my hair brown” phase, the Belmont phase, “I think I’m going to move across the country” phase, bad breakup phase leading to bad blind dates phase, and now marriage.

Now, being new to this marriage thing, I didn’t have too much advice to offer her. But I did have a lot of love and support to give her throughout her beautiful day. I was able to spend the day with friends who I haven’t seen for years, and introduce Alex to a new group of husbands to mingle with. Most importantly we were able to see them sealed for time and all eternity. Weddings seem to be so much more special when you are married. Why? Because there is this sense of nostalgia lingering over you with the occasional glimpse of your wedding day mixed with fluttered feelings reminding you just how special the day really is. Plus, you no longer have to awkwardly stand in the middle of a crowded room amongst other ladies all wearing invisible ‘Yes, I’m single’ signs while you miss the bouquet yet manage to get elbowed in nose and blame your teary eyes on the joy of the occasion.

Everything about the day was wonderful, especially the glowing bride. It was said a time or two, but the offspring of these two are going to be very genetically gifted. Congrats to the new Mr. and Mrs. Mathews, and to someday providing the world with champion grade football stars.

*Photo's taken with camera phone, which explains the low quality and black dot in every photo

**Side note: While browsing pictures below, you may come across a particular photo of peace loving Asians. I really have no explanation for this other than there must be some sort of infatuation in Asia with white Mormon women being wed.

8 days and 7 nights..

The week before Alex and I got married, we were both gone on business trips. Unfortunately for us, that meant Alex couldn't miss any more work or school, which equaled No Honeymoon. I was continually asked, 'where did you go on your honeymoon?' and when I explained that we never went, I was more often than not greeted with the response, 'You know, after 37 years we've never been on our honeymoon and we turned out just fine.'

'Scuse me.

I've barely been able to make it 7 months, I ain't waitin' 37 years.

Now, don't get me wrong, I wasn't demanding anything extravagant, overly luxurious, or worlds away. My stipulation was this: I want a beach and a Pina Colada. I don't care where. That's all I need. Oh, and Alex. I need him too.

I really am pretty easy to please when it comes to these kinds of things (if Alex tries to tell you otherwise, just don't listen). But truthfully, I had come to terms with the fact that we probably wouldn't be able to go for a while, there's really never extra money or any extra time for these ventures when you are newly married and your husband is still in school, and then before you know it you have 5 kids and it really never happens. But guess what folks- it's happening!

We're honeymoonin'!

T-minus 24 days until we are on a cruise to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico for 8 days! I've never been to Cabo, or on a cruise, so my overly imaginative mind is just going crazy. But, Google tells me this is what's in store, and I am over the moon excited:      

Guess what we made..

Do you see that camel linen tufted headboard in the midst of all that mess?

We made that.

We being Kaitlyn and I. And our raw fingers. And bruised palms (thanks ancient staple gun). But it is just perfect, especially for our uniquely shaped bedroom, and because I've never had a headboard before, and because it makes me care less that our bed squeaks if you move your pinky. Once I get around to making our bedroom picture worthy, I'll snap a few.

But until then, I'm just going to admire my wonderful new headboard.   

Gold shoes and tacos.

Having been raised on a healthy diet of tater tots and fish sticks, I’m not exactly experienced in the culinary sense. I have tried to improve my domestic abilities, however, that improvement has been slight at best. So you know what I love? When our friends who live downstairs, Joni and Tren, want to make dinner together. Because what this really means is ‘we’ll cook basically everything, we’re just going to cook it at your house because your 2 feet of counter space is more than our 1.5 feet’- this is what we call a win win situation. Especially because of Tren’s secret guacamole recipe. Now, seeing as how I have a husband who lived in Mexico for two years, he is quite the Mexican food connoisseur and is very picky about homemade tacos. And since this is one of the 4 things that I know how to make, it’s a problem. (I know what you’re all thinking, ‘Don’t you have Pinterest? There are thousands of recipes on there to make that are all so quick and easy.’ Why yes, I do have one. I also have 3 crock pots that have never been used. And no, I do not find any recipe easy which is why I continually pin pictures of cakes. If you mess up the cake, at least you can still lick the bowl.) So at taco night, with Joni, Tren, Skyler, and Candice, I was delighted to see him eat 8 of these little beauties. They really were delicious, I think most of the credit goes to the guacamole.

When you get married, a new word becomes forced into your vocabulary, games. Alex has voluntarily played one game with me in all my knowing him, Shopopoly- an exhilarating rendition of Monopoly created by Old Navy. Instead of buying Park Avenue, you buy Cargo Short Lane. I think he may have acquired this gem whilst working at Old Navy after high school, possibly on the day he and Chris were required to dress up as Christmas elves (a story with a Polaroid to go with it). The game is actually pretty entertaining, we were all surprised. Which brings me back to taco night- we refused to waste our night with games, so we did the next best married activity- bowling. I’m truly terrible. I’ve gotten more than one gutter ball with bumpers, I slightly skip as I throw the ball, and I never know what to do on my way back to my chair so I always end up making some sort of awkward “Hoorah!” gesture with my arms. But I love it. And in high school, I found the most perfect pair of gold bowling shoes at the D.I. (don’t worry, they were as good as new, I don’t think they had ever even been owned let alone worn). I have held onto them for years, never using them, until taco night. They got lost for a year or two, but as soon as they were found a few months ago my bowling enthusiasm just about did Alex in. I’ve been patiently waiting for an opportunity to wear them. And this was it. I was so excited I wore them all the way to the bowling alley. And then guess what happened as I strutted down the alley with bowling ball in hand- I realized they weren’t bowling shoes at all. Nope, they were gold Liz Claybornes with a rubber sole. I felt cheated, distraught, and confused. How could I have missed this after years of eyeing them in my car trunk? I really don’t know. All I can say is that if you know of anyone looking for a pair of gold Liz Clayborne bowling shoe knock offs, I’ve got a pair for you.

Despite my inability to recognize a rubber soled shoe, the night was a blast. We went to Logan's highschool hot spot, Charlie’s, for shakes and ice cream after bowling and my chocolate dipped kiddy cone was the size of my left foot- no wonder childhood obesity is a problem. It was quite the waste of ice cream too, considering all I even wanted was the chocolate shell. All in all, taco night was terrific.    

 
 
 

Logan's Heros.

Have you ever thought to yourself, 'You know, I wonder what kind of food establishments they have in Logan, Utah. I wonder if I should just venture around that little town and find a hole-in-the-wall kind of joint and possibly discover the most tantalizingly great food sensation to ever touch my tongue'...

No?

Me either. And I live here.

 

However, there is one "mom and pop" place I've been meaning to go to my whole 5+ years that I've called this place home. Logan's Hero's, a little Sub and Gyro spot owned by an authentic Greek man who recognizes new faces and lets you sample everything. So what's been keeping me from this ethnically diverse sandwich shop with nowhere to park, limited seating, and no drive-through you might ask? Cash only. Yeah, it's one of those. I realize that to most people this is but a slight hurdle, for us though, having been devout and loyal debit card users for half our lives, tangible cash is a rare commodity. But, we managed to round up a few Benjamin’s and had ourselves a little date night on Main Street. It was just delightful, especially after how this week has been- which is pretty terrible. More to come on that. The highlight of the night? I may have casually mentioned this before, but Alex has banned, strictly forbidden, absolutely refuses any and all picture taking in the presence of food. He graciously made an exception to document his Super Man and my Gyro. And for that, I am eternally grateful.   

Biggy Ears.

This Easter weekend was pretty wonderful. Thanks to the snowstorm on Friday (why Logan, why?) the high 60 degree weather felt like an Easter miracle. We ventured out to Baby Animal Days on Saturday, where the masses of Cache Valley gather to let their children run rampant in the presence of farm animals. We were lured to this event due to rumors of exotic baby bears, which indeed there were. But what they don't tell you is that the baby bears will be behind a wooden wall, which is confined by a fence, which is off limits behind a rope. You may wait in a hour long line to view the baby bears from a 15 foot distance, while bear workers snuggle, feed, play with, and enjoy what we paid $16 to "see." We tried to make up for our more than disappointing "bear encounter" with some baby ducks and a cow or two, but the herds of rampantly running children overtook the animals quicker than we could get to them, and since we didn't have the energy to fight them off, we left. In an attempt at not wasting the day, we drove to Ogden (a mere 45 minutes away), to indulge in the one thing that makes any day better- the one and only Zupas. It's been rumored that this soup haven will be making its way to the North Pole of Utah (Logan) in the near future, but until then, we will continue to hunt down the nearest location on a weekly regular basis. It really never disappoints, and even if it did, well, it just wouldn't. Zupa's can do no wrong.

Which brings me to Easter Sunday, in all of it's glorious weather and sugar filled joy. Alex recieved Biggy Ears (all of the Biggy Smalls were sold out by then) and I assume if hollow chocolate rabbits could talk this one would rap an Easter jingle. He also recieved Mexican candy galore, and some chocolate covered marshmallow bunnies which I somehow ate all 6 of after church. He was slightly mad.

Alex gave me 2 baskets for easter, Flower Baskets! I've been wanting some flowers to jazz up our balcony, so to say I was thrilled would be an understatement, but I would be lying if I said that the responsibility of keeping both WaterDog and flowers alive wasn't slightly overwhelming. Completely pathetic, I know. Anyhow, Church was wonderful as always, and Easter Dinner at the in-laws was just fantastic. Despite our inability to take a normal, fairly good looking picture together, our first Easter was a success.  

        

    

One of these Holidays we're going to get a good picture, I just know it.

Another one {thanks Chris}...

For all you lovers of dogs, and saving the world, imagine the two combined and here you go! My brother-in-law Chris showed this to Alex and I over the weekend, and I think everyone and their dog should see it (no pun intended).