Back to School

I have to say that Matthew and I have had a pretty good summer! I mean I have a job that literally allows me not to work at all between and June and the middle of August. You can't beat that right? We were able to go visit both our families, go on a cruise and to a family reunion. I feel like we have been living on vacation for a couple months. It has been really nice to spend time with so much family and with each other. Well it's back to real life. Matthew is starting his Masters program in BioChemistry at BYU in a couple of weeks and I start teaching school tomorrow! Today was Meet Your Teacher at my school and it was so fun to see all these students ready to come back to school and excited to be in your class! It's always nice to hear a parent say that they requested you as a teacher for their child. I am so glad I get to teach again at the same school and the same grade level as last year. I also got an upgrade. Instead of being in a portable I get a real classroom! I have had so much fun being able to organize and decorate my new room (pictures are coming). Now that I have taught one year I feel more prepared and confident to do it again. There are so many things that I am excited to improve on and to do better at. For some reason the subjects I like teaching the best are math and science which is really ironic to me because those were the same subjects I struggled with in school. The only reason I can guess is maybe it is because I can relate to having a hard time with these two and therefore I try to teach it in a variety of ways so everyone has a chance to understand it. I don't know but I really enjoy the curriculm I teach. I get to teach about the solar system, outer space, light and sound waves, microoganisms (proabably my least favorite), pre-algebra, fractions, geometry and more. We really start delving into some deep subjects. Not very many people have a job where they can start over and improve every year but I am glad that I do.

Conversation today with a kindergarden teacher :
She came up to me in the hall and told me "I had a kindergardner come meet me today and she had her older brother with her who is in 6th grade. I asked the boy what new teacher did he have this year and he says, 'Oh I don't know her name but she is the hot one.'
Turns out I found his name on my roll. Oh great...

San Diego!

Summer is over! To top off our already wonderful summer, we just returned from San Diego for a family reunion on my mom's side. It was so nice to see extended family and everyone was there!! A big thank you goes out to my Grandma and Grandpa Allen for organizing and planning this trip. We stayed a week in brand new suites and cramped in as much fun as we could! I took so many pictures from this trip and it was hard to choose which ones to post so I kinda posted a lot! Here is a taste of some of the awesome things we did!
Padres game!

Only in California would they need an address like this!

Playing games in the hotel lobby! We had a few loud nights of this and I wonder if the hotel staff were glad that we finally left so they could have some quiet nights!! One of the cool things about my mom's side of the family is we all love to play games! Since Matthew and I drove out there we brought a huge stack of games and almost played them all!

More games! This is my dad, Matthew and lots of cousins playing.

We spent a day at LegoLand! What a cool idea for an amusement park! It was actully really fun and so very cool! We went with my parents and sisters and loved going on rides and seeing everything made from Legos!

A picture with the Lego man!! My little sister, Kayla, went up to him and asked him to dance with her and he did!! It was halarious! They were already done dancing by the time I got my camera out!

Cade loved LegoLand!! We were on little boats here that took us on a cute little path were we saw scences from different fairy tales all made from Legos!

More things made from Legos!

This was the best ride!! We were on teams in these fire trucks. We had to peddle our trucks up to the desplay of houses that were on "fire," then pump water while someone else aims the water at the house, and then once you put out the "fire" then peddle your truck back to the starting line!! It was hard work!! We were really panting when we were done! This was our team and we lost by a split second to the rest of my family.

MiniLand was one of the best parts of LegoLand. They had differnet parts of big cities all made out of Legos!! Here we are standing in front of New York! It was so cool so see all the details of the buildings and cities. We saw Washington D.C, Las Vegas, New Orleans, and others all made out of Legos. If you know our family, then you know we all love mini things so this was like the ultimite mini find!

In the San Diego harbor, there was a museum of a Navy airplane carrier that was used in World War II. We took an audio tour through it and it was very interesting. We are sitting in pilot seats that would be used for an escape from a plane in an emergency.

I'm a pilot!

We also went to the San Diego Zoo!! Check out this character!

Matthew beside some big, burly sort of animal in the background. I can't remember what it is!
I found a mini gazelle looking animal!

Bike riding along the beachfront!

Matthew and I drove up to LA one of the days to go to Six Flags. We had so much fun. We both enjoy roller costers and we had a great time.

While we were in LA we visited some friends later that night! Matthew has a cousin living there and I had a good friend from college living there. Turns out they live about a mile away from each other! It was so good to see both of them. Matthew's cousin and his wife have two kids and one on the way. I'm so sad I forgot to take a picture of them before we left! But I did remember to take one with Taryn! I finally got to see her little boy and he is so cute!! It was so good to catch up with family and friends!! MAtthew and I both agreed that we should have spent more of the day with each of them even though it was a very late night driving the 2 and 1/2 hours back to San Diego!

The last day there the boys (and Ciera) got up way early in the morning to go fishing while the girls went shopping! Later that afternoon, we went to the San Diego Temple with Jenna and Cole. The Temple was so beautiful inside and out!! I loved it! We passed it on the highway a few times during the week and its just so huge and white that it completely stands out from anything else around it!

Overall, it was an awesome week to spend with family and I am so grateful for my parents and grandparents for helping make it such a great way to end the summer!

Pioneer Day

I have never really celebrated Pioneer day growing up and I think that is because I didn't live in Utah!! Pioneer day here is celebrated just as much as the 4th of July!! So we made sure that we had a good day. We got together with Jenna and Cole, and Melissa and Jeff and went to this little water park in Provo. It was so fun. It really is designed for young kids but we were playing just as much as they were! Later that night we went to a minor league baseball game in Orem. We all laid out blankets and sat on the grass. It was nice and the sunset was beautiful over the mountains. Too bad we lost. But the best part was that there were fireworks at the end of the game. They were probably some of the best fireworks I've seen!! So we definitly had a wonderful Pioneer day.

Down in Alabama

We just got back into town from visiting Alabama. The Graffs now live in Alabama and Matthew's sister was getting married. It was such a fun visit! I am so glad we were able to go. I was surprised how hilly and green Alabama was. The wedding was very nice and Aubrey looked so pretty. I absolutly loved her dress. I thought it looked so good on her! The night before the wedding we had a big swim party at the club house in the townhome complex where the Graffs live. It was the perfect place. They live kind of in the woods with the big Coosa River behind them. The view from their backyard is amazing. I felt like I was visiting a resort or on vacation somewhere not in Alabama! Then the next day the wedding was wonderful. They had a beautiful ceremony in the Birmingham Temple. Everything turned out perfectly. That night the reception was at the same clubhouse. Here are some pictues.

Here is the view from the Graff's backyard! So pretty! We actually went kayaking down this river one of the days after the wedding. It was an all day event. It took us about 4 hours to finish! We went over rapids, went swimming and got tipped out of our kayaks! It was so fun but I couldn't bring my camera but it would have gotten destroyed!

Here is the happy couple just coming out of the temple!

Matthew and his little sisters outside the temple.

Matthew and I at the reception

Aubrey's brothers carrying her while her new husband is below!

The wedding party

Bridesmaids! We kept getting asked all night if we were sisters! This is Aubrey's best friend from when they were 12.

The newly weds leaving the reception!

Matthew dancing with his sister!

Matthew and his brother played rockband for a significant amount of time while we were there!I actually got pretty good on the drums!

Snowbird with Emily!

One of my good friends from college, Emily, invited Jenna and I to come up to Snowbird Resort to spend the day with her family. Her family has a timeshare there and they go up every year. She was so nice to invite us up. Emily now lives in St. George with her husband and little girl so we don't get to see her much. We had such a blast. We were able to see the beautiful mountians of snowbird in the summer time (I usually see snowbird covered with snow during ski season). We played tennis with Emily and her siblings, we found a little park for Cade and Emily's little girl to play at, went swimming, went down the alpine slide and had some wonderful cooking from Emily's family. Ok I have to tell a funny story about the slide. So Matthew and I started down the slide at the same time seeing who could get to the bottom the fastest. When I reached the bottom I looked to see where Matthew was and poor thing, his scooter had flipped from under him and he fell out! It was actually kind of funny because he did it right in front of where everyone watches people sliding down. But he really got scraped up! His ear, elbow, and knee now have some ugly scars. Probably not so funny for him. Well we really had a great time and loved our day with Emily and her family! Here are some pictures of the fun we had.

We wanted to go to this park but the trail was a little difficult to bring strollers but here are Cole and Landon (Emily's husband) offroading up to the park!

This is right before we left in the evening! We hadn't took a picture of just the three of us the whole day!

Cade somewhat enjoyed the swimming. We went in the evening and I forgot how chilly it gets in the mountains! Good thing the pool was warm!

Matthew and I getting in line for the alpine slide. What beautiful mountians!

The boys getting ready to go down the slide!

The girls getting ready to go down the slide!

4th of July!

We didn't do a whole lot on the 4th but it was nice to have a fun, relaxing day. In the morning we got together with two other young couples from our ward and all made breakfast together--wait, I should rephrase that.... The men all made breakfast while all the girls went in the other room to talk! But it was a fun get together and a good way to start off the day. Then in the evening we drove out to Matthew's aunt and uncle's house and had a BBQ. Matthew has lots of aunts, uncles and cousins in Utah as well as grandparents. It was nice to hang out with them and to see them. We really don't see a lot of them too often. We had lots of food, games and when it got dark we enjoyed our own fireworks while we made somores! It was a great way to spend the 4th. Unfortunately, I did not have my camera!

Time to Update!

I can't believe how fast time flies! It seemed to me like I just made a post but really its almost been a month! So here are some of the things I have been doing the past few weeks.

Matthew's brother Dallin, reported to the MTC this week. He is going to the Mexico City West mission. The exact same day, Matthew's other brother Brian came home from his mission where he was serving in Houston, TX! Although that is kinda cool, its also sad because now Dallin and Brian won't see each other for 4 years. So to avoid this long time no see situation, Brain's mission president allowed Dallin to get set apart as a missionary and then go down to Houston for 4 days to be with Brain out in the mission field! I think that was a very cool experience for both brothers. Matthew was actually quite jealous! Then Dallin flew to Salt Lake to report to the MTC. Since Matthew's family lives in Alabama, Matthew and I were able to take Dallin to the MTC. This was cool for me because I have never been able to see any missionaries off since I don't have brothers! So it was really neat and Dallin looked ready and excited to be a missionary. He kept trying to speak Spanish the whole way to the MTC which was really funny because Matthew had to keep correcting him! Well we are also very glad Brain is back and even more excited to live close to him when he comes to BYU in the fall!

Something else exciting that has happened is my birthday was yesterday! I am 23 now! I had a very good day thanks to my wonderful husband! Neither of us had to work so we went to Seven Peaks Water Park in Provo. I had never been there and Matthew loves water parks! It was really fun and I got scared on some of the rides that just drop! But it was very enjoyable. I didn't get any pictures because I didn't want to get my camera wet. Too bad. But later Matthew took me out to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants Magleby's. So this is the birthday dessert I got there. Thanks to family and friends for wishing me a happy birthday!

A couple weeks ago we made a trip down to Texas and I am finally posting about it! My cousin Katie got married in the Dallas Temple and it was so nice to be there for it!! She looked so pretty and I am very happy for her and Jason!
Family picture at Katie's wedding!
We also went to Texas for my little sister's high school graduation!! Ciera is coming to BYU in the fall so I am way pumped to live close to another sister! She is so ready to come to college! I didn't get a picture of her in her gown but here is the family celebrating at Fuddruckers!

Family picture!
Matthew's schedule this summer is pretty flexible with only one summer class and then working in a BYU research lab. I was suppose to teach summer school but last minute I was told that it wasn't going to work out. So now my schedule is pretty wide open until the fall. So Matthew and I decided to try and do a lot of fun, Utah summer things. This is us hiking up Stewart Falls. Its not a very intense hike but it was very pretty and hike to be around nature!

Cruise to Mexico!

Look at my little ice-cream swan!

Having dinner on the ship

The famous arch in Cabo

On our way to go snorkle. The rock formations behind us were so cool and tall!

The amazing midnight buffet!

Pelicans with our cruise ship in the background!

Standing on the deck with Cabo San Lucas behind us

Shopping in Ensanada!

School is out and summer is here! To start off the summer right, Matthew and I went on a cruise for our 2nd wedding anniversary. It was so nice and relaxing. We spent most of the time laying out, reading or just enjoying time together. We stopped at Cabo San Lucas and Ensanada. We went snorkling, swimming in the ocean, shopping and had awesome real Mexican food! The boat was huge and really nice. At first we paid for the cheapest room we could without a window but come to find out we had been upgraded to a room with a window which was really nice. The dinners on boat were all so fabulous! Our waiters were so friendly and helpful. I think I had seafood or steak just about every day! It was fun to get to know the people sitting at our table. There were four other couples sitting with us. However, one of the couples missed the boat and got left at the port of Ensanada! I remember them telling us they go there often and it isn't very far from San Dieg0 (where our cuise took off from) so i'm not sure if they did that on purpose or if they just had a little too much to drink in Ensanada! But the boat also had some really good shows in the evening. One night a hypnotist came and called people up from the audience to hypnotise them. It was halarious! He had them doing all sorts of dances and crazy things! We also perticipated in a dance off and our team won! Ok- funny story. So Matthew and I both put our names in a raffle the spa was having for a free massage, free haircuts, and other stuff. So while they were drawing names they called me! I had won!! However, I had won a free shave! So I had to give it to Matthew! But since I have a wonderful husband he got me a pedicure while he was having his shave! Matthew did great at some karoke in the evening while I cheered him on. There were some really interesting song choices and performances from people who decided to drink a lot before coming up to sing! Anyway it was a really good getaway and I am so glad we were able to go! Also I decided to chop off seven inches of my hair right before I left so here are some picture of me with a new summer do!