Christmas

Ok, so I know it is now February, which means Christmas was two months ago, but I couldn't let it go by without a quick post. We had a wonderful Christmas this year. We began the festivities with the Hill family with our annual party at Aunt Pam's. We ate a wonderful Christmas dinner, watched home videos, and enjoyed the reenactment of Christ's birth by the kids. It was a great time!

This year was my family's year for Christmas so we had been planning to go to Utah for the holiday. Justin wasn't supposed to get any time off around Christmas, but ended up getting a few days. We weighed our options, but in the end decided it wasn't a long enough time off work to justify going to Utah. We were really bummed, but we decided we would just have our own little Christmas at our house. After talking to my family, they decided since we couldn't come to them, they would come to us. We were so excited! My dad had come to visit us before, but the rest of my family hadn't. I was so excited for them to see where we live and be with us for Christmas. We had so much fun while they were here. We had dinner with friends, did lots of shopping, went to see the temple lights, had my niece Avery's first birthday party, and of course celebrated Christmas! We miss them a lot so it was hard to let them leave, but we are so grateful they made the trip to see us.

Spontaneity

Spontaneity is a quality I have always wished I could be described as. However, I have never done anything too spontaneous to support that. Although it may not be extremely spontaneous to everyone, for Justin and I we exhibited great spontaneity a few weeks ago. After years of pleading, I finally convinced Justin that Disneyland is not just a place for kids. I grew up going to Disneyland at least once a year if not more. We were those people who had annual passes and knew exactly how to do Disneyland the very best. Justin was completely opposite of me and spent his family vacations relaxing on the beach or skiing down the mountains. Justin had only been to Disneyland twice in his life and really did not understand the fascination everyone had with it. One day, out of the blue, he looked at me and said, "I think we should go to Disneyland." You can only imagine the shock that came over me. My husband asking me to go to Disneyland??? We considered our options. We knew the best times to go were either September or October. We decided we could wait till next year or try to find a weekend within the next month that would work for us. We had company coming into town a week and a half later and we didn't want to go the weekend before Halloween. Our only option was the fast approaching coming weekend. We thought about it for a day or so and decided why not? We have no kids, no weekend obligations, and no regrets. We booked our hotel room at ten on Thursday night and left for Disneyland after work on Friday. Since we had limited time, we decided to do one full day at Disneyland, stay one more night, then come home. I don't think Justin understood the meaning of a FULL day at Disneyland that I referred to. We got to the park at 7:45 a.m. so we could be on Main Street when the gates opened and we didn't leave the park until 1:00 a.m. We strategically planned every ride with fast passes and short wait times. We did not sit down to eat or rest for more than 45 minutes the whole day. It was a very full day and we were exhausted... And our crazy hotel neighbors banging on our door at three in the morning did not help the exhaustion (I was sure in my dreamy daze they were going to break down our door and murder us, but I continued to lay in bed unfazed letting my exhaustion take over). It took us three days to recover from our "vacation", but it was well worth it. I have completely converted Justin... He is already asking when we can go back. It is a vacation we will never forget. And it helped me get a little closer to being a spontaneous soul.

Please ignore my disgusting hair in this picture... It was the only one we took in front of the castle and we didn't realize how bad it was until it was dark out.

In front of Minnie's house

In front of Mickey's house

Small World

Justin thought this was the best poster he had ever seen!

Last ride of the night... My very favorite!

Haunted Mansion

Just to prove that Carol really was the last car in the parking lot.

Oh, The Places You'll Go

This couch has been through a lot in it's lifetime. I became very attached to it very quickly. I thought it was very vintage looking and perfect for our little newlywed apartment. Justin was never crazy about the floral fabric, but I insisted it was the most perfect couch. This couch has moved from Boston to Utah (where we acquired it from Justin's wonderful sister and brother-in-law) and then from Utah to Arizona. It has been moved in through a window because the door was too small, has had a leg sawed off because the next door was also too small, it has held a sweet mother while she nursed her child, it has had three playful children jump upon it, and it has kept us so cozy as we watched countless movies with friends, family, or just the two of us. It broke my heart when I realized our move to Arizona finally did this couch in. It's cushions were lopsided, it's fabric becoming dull, and it just didn't feel as cozy. Our perfect little newlywed couch will be missed.

Two Years

On May 9th, Justin and I celebrated our second anniversary. I can't believe two years have already passed. This year our anniversary was on a Monday so we celebrated mostly on the Saturday before. We didn't do anything too extravagant, but we did go to Roy's for dinner on Saturday. Roy's is an amazing Hawaiian restaurant that is at the hotel we stayed at after we got married. We went there the day after our wedding before we left on our honeymoon, so we thought we would go back this year to reminisce. It was just as delicious as we remembered. After Roy's, we walked outside the hotel for a little while. It is such a pretty hotel with little streams, pretty bridges and walkways, and a live band. It was fun to just relax and enjoy being together.

On Monday, our actual anniversary, we decided we needed to celebrate again. Golfing is something Justin and I love to do together. We went to a driving range and hit some golf balls for a little while. Nothing too romantic, but very us. We had a very fun anniversary weekend.

"I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend..."

Graduation

Ok so I'm a little late on this update, as well as those to follow, but I figure it's never too late to post about GRADUATION! Justin graduated back in December, but UVU doesn't have a ceremony in December so he never got to walk. When he started his job, they told everyone they would not be able to take time off for a year, so don't even ask. Later we found out that you could take time off if it wasn't around a holiday, but only after all your training and boot camp was over. Justin was really bummed that he wouldn't be able to walk at graduation. As time went on, all of Justin's coworkers got sick. It may seem like I'm exaggerating, but I literally mean every...single...one, except for Justin and one other guy. I don't know how he didn't catch whatever was going around. I even had it, but somehow it missed him. Lucky guy! Justin started thinking about the fact that he was one of two people that had perfect attendance. He decided there was no harm in asking for the day off and he would regret it if he didn't just ask. After a long, long wait, his manager told him that graduation is a once in a lifetime thing and he needed to go. We were so excited! The day Justin walked was also my mom's birthday, so it was fun to be able to celebrate with her as well. It was a quick trip and we wish we could've stayed longer, but it was so much fun to go be with family and friends. It was especially fun to see our niece, Avery, because she has grown and changed a lot since we last saw her. She has such a personality now. I was a little selfish and wouldn't let anyone else hold her the entire weekend. I love sweet little babies that just love to be held.

Justin walking into the ceremony and first seeing us in the crowd. His face makes me smile every time I look at this picture. You can see how happy he was to be there.

The Korean band that performed at the ceremony. I was bored out of my mind, but Justin said he really liked it... I guess that's all that counts.

This guy took my boredom right away. I could not stop laughing at his crooked hat. My mom, Sam, and I were seriously shaking we were laughing so hard.

Justin and his friend Daniel

The happy graduate

Justin and me

We were so happy Jodi could be there to support Justin.

Justin and Dallin

Justin and Sam

Oh how we miss the Van Blerkoms...

It was freezing outside so we were hurrying to take pictures and didn't even notice my mom's eyes were closed in this one. It is the only one of us with my parents at the graduation.

Oh well...

Opening Day

Justin and I love baseball! It always reminds us of summer and when we were first dating. We used to go to Diamondbacks games all the time when we lived here for a summer while we were dating. We even got on the kiss cam once, which was not only at the stadium, but also on tv for some reason. It was extremely embarrassing to kiss in front of so many people!

This year we got to go to opening day! It was so much fun! It made us realize how close summer is! After the game, they put on a big fireworks show, which made the game even better! We love going to the games together and remembering all the great memories we have there.

Our New Home

It has taken me forever to take these photos, but I finally did. Here is our apartment!

Before:

After:

This is my favorite part of our house!

I've always wanted a little shelf to decorate on top of the cupboards!