Great Weekend

As you can see it was a beautiful fall day to go on a bike ride in Valley Forge. We only have pictures of the bike ride but it was actually the last event of the weekend so let me start from the beginning. Friday night (last week) when we both got home from school and work (which is also school:) we hurry and loaded up the car and hit the road. It takes about 2 hours and 45 minutes to drive to Virginia where my cousin lives. Well, that is how long it takes for Bryce. I on the other hand sleep the two hour chunk of it so it's not too bad of a drive. We got to my cousin Jen's house and visited with them the rest of the evening. Saturday morning we played with the kids a bit and then Jen, Bryce, and I went to the temple while Matt watched their kids. They live about 30 minutes from the temple which is so nice. The temple was great as ever. I will really miss the D.C. temple when we live in Utah. It is beautiful. Then Saturday afternoon it rained really hard so we just hung out and played in their house. They are such a fun family we love being around them and playing with their kids. Saturday night we got together with some of Matt's family and watched the sad BYU game. We had such high hopes, even though they lost we got to watch it which is better than what we can do at our house. We went to church with them on Sunday and then drove home. Again not a bad drive for me. Bryce is so sweet to drive the whole way and let me sleep. When we got home it was a perfect fall day and we hadn't gone on a bike ride forever. Valley forge has some really pretty paths all around so we wanted to go ride our bikes and get some fall pictures. We hadn't really enjoyed the fall season up to this point so as you can tell by our pictures we took full advantage of the occasion. We were being so crazy and had tons of fun. Bryce was having fun doing his sick trash moves. Everyone was looking at us like who are those freaks but we were having fun.

The day that changed my life!

On Sept. 17, 2005 I met the most amazing man in the world. I was going to UVSC (now UVU) and I had a girl that I was really good friends with. I was advertising myself to the girls sitting at my table that I was single and wanted to be set up on a date. Well that really good friend of mine said that her husband was friends with this really nice guy. She told me about him and I was getting all excited. She gave him my number and he was thinking, "Here we go, another blind date. She is 19, blond, and was a cheerleader." Let's just say he didn't give our blind date a very good percentege of being successful. He called me and the conversation ran smoothly. He asked me to go on a double date with the couple that had set us up. We were going to go to dinner and a movie. On the way to pick me up those three had arranged a plan. If I opened the door and Bryce didn't want to take me out then he would wave the little hand signal to the couple in the car and he would take off running, jump in the car, and leave me at my door. If you know my husband you know he was totally kidding and just being funny, but now you can see how this date started. Well, when I heard the knock my heart starting beating really fast. I fluffed my hair, practiced my smile, and looked in the peep hole to make sure I wanted to open. I had been on a lot of blind dates and they are kind of nerve racking. Is he going to be a psycho or cool. So after I had seen him in the peep hole I had this huge smile on my face. I gladly opened the door and we introduced and shook hands. We started walking out to the car and little did I know, behind me he did the hand signal for the runnaway exit. Good thing his friends know how sarcastic he is and they didn't really start driving away. We started off our date eating at Macoroni Grill. It was a great time. Because it was going so well, Bryce felt pretty comfortable and started saying things like, well looks like it's time to take you home... right in the middle of dinner. He was joking around saying that he was going to make me walk home. It was nice to see that he was so comfortable and knew that our personalities meshed so well that after knowing each other only an hour he could joke around with me. Dinner was so fun. We even got free dessert but we were too full so we saved it. Then we went to the movie, "Just Like Heaven." I loved the movie, but I remember having butterflies the whole time cause I was trying to flirt but still be a challenge so that he would ask me out again. As a normal girl dating I had about 100 things per minute racing through my mind. The movie ended and I was so sad that the night was coming to an end. Then we got in the car and I got nervous knowing that "THE DOOR STEP SCENE" was next. That was always an awekward time on blind dates. For me the usual door step scene is we talk about the night and the fun we had as we walk to the door. I thank him for taking me, give him a quick hug, and then turn and go in the door. Bryce and I have the best dating stories from our year and a half of dating so of course we have to have a good blind date story. So we got back to my apartment. Remember our dessert from dinner? Bryce was carying my "to-go" box for me. We walked up the stairs and we did the normal end of date talk I was used to. Then we got to the door and I was planning on giving him a hug and then taking my dessert and going in the door. Well unfortunatly Bryce couldn't read my mind and he stayed like five feet away from me. He thanked me for coming and told me how he would call me. He then handed me the dessert and turned around to walk back down the stairs. I didn't know what to do so I just took the dessert and turned around and walked in the door. It was so awekward and funny cause as he handed it to me he said, "Here is your cheese cake." And that was the end of the date, nothing else was said. Good thing he said he would call me cause if he hadn't said something futuristic like that I would have thought he had a horrible time and it was another "one and done" blind date. He did call and now we are happily married. That really was the day that changed my life by meeting the love of my life. He makes me so happy! Being married is the best. He is my best friend and we have so much fun together. I am so proud of his hard work and success in dental school. I love his testimony and his love for the gospel. I am so grateful he honors his priesthood and goes to the temple with me each month. I have so many things to look forward to in the future and I am so blessed to be able to spend forever with Bryce. I didn't know four years ago today I was meeting my Eternal Companion. I love you honey.

Missing in Action

I am a little behind on my blog but I promise I will catch up. I am not complaining at all but we have been out of town for a week and a half and then I leave again tomorrow so be patient if it takes me a while to make a real post. Have a Happy 24th of July!

Williamsburg Vacation Day 3

On our last day of the vacation we were in Colonial Williamsburg. It was really cool to see and learn about all the historic events that happened there and to see how they lived back then. We were really lucky with weather the whole vacation. It was perfect.
This is the governors palace which had been burned down but the blue prints and journals of this building were found and they built a replica of what it was. It was really pretty inside and cool to see where such important people spent much of their time. This was at the entrance of the governors palace. It was beautiful! It was a huge wooden entry way covered in weapons. All around the building they used these weapons as decorations. It was so awesome.
This lady behind me is making a basket. Everything they use in colonial Williamsburg they make there. They make their nails, tools, clothes, food etc. It is cool to see them making all of those things.


This is in front of the Magazine building. Again it was full of weapons and ammo. Which of course is really cool to us.


This was at the end of the day as you can tell by my face we were a little tired. Bryce was randomly taking pictures of me and I was exhausted so I pulled this face. He thinks it is funny and wanted me to post it. So it was a very fun and tiring day. We are so glad we were able to see it all. It was a wonderful vacation!

Williamsburg Vacation Day 2

The second day of our vacation we drove down to Virginia Beach. As we were driving into town we saw a little neighborhood with a walkway that lead to the beach. So we parked on the side of the road and started walking down the path. It was like walking through a forest cause there were so many trees all around us. Then all of a sudden it opened up to the beach. It was for sure a place where locals go. There was nothing touristic about it. There were only a handful of families spread out so it was really quiet and mellow. We laid our towel down and just basked in the sunlight. The water was really cold so we were waiting for the sun to heat us up so that the cold would be more refreshing. It was a little cloudy and we didn't think we would be staying long since we weren't at the official "Virginia Beach" so we didn't put sunscreen on. Well we ended up staying for 3 hours. During that three hours we laid out, swam in the ocean, saw dolphins, saw crabs, and played frisbee. (Oh and I forgot to mention, got FRIED)



This big menagerie of flags was right next to the path that we walked out to the beach on so it was a nice land marker to know how to get back to our car.
That's me on the path with the beach behind me. We were walking back to our car to go get lunch.
We ate lunch in downtown Virginia Beach and then we went and walked along the main drag of the beach. It was still very pretty but very tourism based. It was funny to see the contrast. It was kind of fun to be a part of all the craziness and action.
You can kind of start to notice the tint of our skin getting more red. Too bad we didn't take a picture the next day. I guess we were in to much pain to want to document it :)
This is a cool statue called "King of the Sea" right at the beach.
After we left the beach we drove back up to Williamsburg and went mini-golfing. It was a fun course and just a fun activity with Bryce. I would like to note that I got 2 hole in one's and I beat Bryce. Yes, I did enjoy the moment cause it doesn't happen that often when you are married to a very athletically skilled man.

p.s. I never pull my hair straight back without a part. I just did for some reason and we weren't fans of it so don't worry, I won't do that with my hair again. Have you noticed our faces and arms a little more red? That night we were both burning up.

Williamsburg Vacation Day 1

Day 1 in Williamsburg was spent at Busch Gardens. It is kind of like a glorified Lagoon or a mini Disneyland, which ever way you want to think of it. This first picture is of our favorite ride called Griffon. You start off climbing, and climbing, and climbing. As we are getting higher and higher Bryce is saying, "Why do I do this to myself." He really loves them but is funny and gets nervous. So after you make the climb you then head towards the drop. It is a 90 degree big drop. Well when you are at the point where this picture is taken the ride stops and dangles you like that for like the longest 5 seconds of your life. I talked Bryce into the front row. It was pretty crazy fun. You don't know when it is going to release you and drop you straight down. After you drop you then go straight into a loop and continue like a normal roller coaster. They had lots of other really fun rides too.



This is a pretty bridge you take to get to another part of the park. I thought it was really cool.

These next two pictures are dedicated to Mckay. The park had the theme of having different parts of the park named after different countries. These pictures were taken when we were in "Italy". It was fun cause all the food and decorations are Italian. Bryce is so funny! He makes me so happy and laugh all the time.

They also had some cool animal shows and dance shows. We went to two animal shows and a scotish river dance-ish one. Yes that is a real wolf below. All in all it was a very fun day. The park and rides were great but mostly it was just fun to be with my boy.

Baltimore

Two weekends ago we did a day trip to Baltimore, MD. It is a two hour drive from our house so we drove down early Saturday morning and got back late that night. Bryce needed to study for one of his midterms on the drive down there so I drove. Once I exited I was wishing that Bryce was driving. The city was busy, lots of one way streets, and no where to park. The big cities out here are kind of crazy. So once we got parked we went first to the National Aquarium. This is a world known aquarium that is really amazing. It is right on the edge of the bay and it is big. There were tons of amazing fish, sharks, and rain forests. The variety of animals was amazing but since they were all in tanks it is hard to get pictures of them. At this aquarium they have a dolphin show that was really cool and they have a jelly fish exhibit.







After the aquarium we walked around the harbor which was really pretty. We had some lunch and went shopping. We were in a souvenir shop and found those cool crab hats.


After walking around the harbor we walked around the city. The buildings there were really neat and big. It is fun to experience all the different big cities out here in the East. It was a really clean and safe feeling city (at least in the areas we were.)
This is another picture of the harbor but I took this picture specifically to show the lame dragon paddle boats. They are shaped like dragons and you paddle around the harbor. They looked really lame and you could only go out to the cones which was not really far. That is why they are all crammed together. The funny thing was that there was a really long line to rent one of these boats.
That night we went to the orioles game. Bryce had wanted to go to a game at Camden Yards. The outside of the stadium is really pretty with that big long building bordering it. (I don't know why those sentences are underlined but I couldn't turn it off.) Our seats were really good. We were the very front row out in left field. There was a lot of action and we were ready for a home run to be hit over by us. It never happened but it was a fun place to sit. Our allergies had been bothering us all day. I didn't have any allergy medicine with us so by the time we were at the game they had gotten so out of hand I couldn't even open my eyes and was sneezing every couple of minutes. So in about the fourth inning I needed some help. We were kind of embarassed but we resorted to the First aid care. We walked in and they asked us what the problem was and we asked if they had any Benedryl. They said we weren't the first people to come in and need some. It was pretty funny cause there was a guy in there that had been hit in the face and was needing real attention and then we were there needing allergy meds. All in all it was a very fun day. The drive home was hard cause we didn't leave til 10 so we were tired from it being late and had both taken benedryl which nocks me out. So we were very tired driving but we made it. Good times, Good memories.