Updates

I haven't blogged for a long time because I've been so focused on blogging about the honeymoon and the camping trip we took, but my computer hasn't been letting me upload pictures, and so I just haven't blogged! But I finally said forget it, I'll just blog about random stuff, without pictures, and the honeymoon and camping pictures will have to wait. Here are some of the things I've wanted to share with you:

I am so happy because I feel like I'm finally starting to feel settled in to my new life as a married woman. I really am a new woman! I have a new last name, home, husband, driver's license, social security card, street address, email address, bank account, credit card, job, ward, calling, visiting teachers and visiting teachees, etc.! And I am almost done applying for a new passport. Hooray!

Chad and I went to opening night of Bourne Ultimatum and absolutely loved it. It was thrilling, and I would really recommend that you go to the theaters to watch it! I had only seen the first two of the series on video, and as exciting as they were at home, this one is even way more exciting on the big screen! So much fun. (We also went to the Deer Valley Resort to see the 1812 overture and that was super fun also!) Does Chad treat me well or what?

A little piece of revelation I received today was: I shouldn't expect easiness and perfection--I should expect work and progression.

This week has been such a good week for us! On Saturday Caytee and Preston visited us, on Sunday we had Chad's friends Chad and Connie over for some dinner and games, on Monday we played tennis with Chad's friends Dan and Christy Sue, on Tuesday we had Chad's friends Justin and Alise and their four kids and Crystal's kids over for some fun, today I went to the Salt Lake temple with my friend Kari, tomorrow we are having two families in our ward over for some fun, and on Friday we are going to visit my parents!!! I have decided it is very good for me to plan time to get together with friends, because although I'm not a terribly outgoing person, I do love people and it's good for my soul to spend time with friends. And it's wonderful, because now that I'm married to Chad, I have so many more wonderful friends!

And last but not least, Chad is so good at making the home look good. So many people have asked me if I have beautified the home since moving in with him, but to be honest, Chad has done a lot more beautifying than I have since we got married. He is so good at organizing and cleaning and arranging our things so they look good. I love living with him (but for a lot more reasons than just that)!

Honeymoon, Sunday - Tuesday

So I'm finally blogging about the honeymoon! We had such a good time. Chad is a really good planner, and so the honeymoon was planned very well and everything went smoothly. I was consistently amazed and continue to be amazed by how wonderful it was. We got over a week of what I had been wanting for months and months--time to spend together, just Chad and me. And then on top of that, we were in a breathtakingly beautiful place and we did a lot of really fun things.

At the time I thought I did a pretty good job of recording where we went and what we saw, but as I look through the pictures now, there seems to be a lot of pictures of US and not quite as many pictures of HAWAII. :) But I figure that's okay, because it shows what we were focused on: each other! :) Which I figure isn't such a bad thing. I know I am very, very spoiled to be able to have gone to Maui and Oahu for my honeymoon--but even more than that, I am spoiled to have such a selfless husband as Chad.

Okay, so after our luncheon on Saturday Chad took me to a beautiful bed and breakfast in Midway. Our room was the "Mount Timpanogos" room and had an awesome view of the back of Mt. Timpanogos. It was super, super nice. Here's a picture of us in the back yard of the bed and breakfast:

And here's a picture of me on the deck attached to our room, with the view of the mountain in the back. We weren't talented enough to take a picture of ourselves with the mountain also in the background, so that's why Chad's not in the picture.

We had to leave earlier than when breakfast was served, so we could catch our flight to Maui, and so we asked them if we could eat our breakfast early. After we asked them they acted as though nothing would be cooked by then and it would just be granola bars and yogurt or something, but it turned out to be a super good breakfast with toast, eggs, ham, fruit, etc.! I wonder what the normal breakfast is like then!

After our delicious breakfast we drove home, where Karen met us to pick us up and drive us to the airport. We are so grateful for Karen, she always drives everyone to the airport. The flight to Maui went well. We read and watched the shows and just chatted, and it went by pretty fast. When we were walking through the airport to baggage claim, a lady walking by us asked us if we were on our honeymoon, and we said yes, and she said, "You can tell!" After we laughed a little sheepishly, she said, "Oh, but it's a good thing. It gives the world hope." :)

When we were walking toward the baggage claim, there was a Hawaiin lady there to call our names and give us our leis of real flowers (see below, I'm not sure what they are called). They were so pretty! I felt so special and important.

And then Chad surprised me with a convertible at the rent-a-car place! It was a Chrysler Sebring. It was so fun to have the top down and be able to look all around at the beautiful surroundings. And we were blessed with such great weather! The weather forecasts said it was going to rain all week, but it only rained once, and so we almost always had the top down whenever we drove anywhere. Needless to say, I never straightened my hair! It went really curly there--more pictures to come. Also, we got the same kind of car in Oahu, but it was dark blue instead of light blue. We didn't take a picture of either of them with their tops down, but here is our first convertible with its top on:

We then drove back to the hotel, which was right on the beach, walked on the beach by our hotel, went to dinner at a really yummy Thai restaurant, and then went to Wal Mart to get some groceries for our trip. By that evening we were really tired and went to bed very early. We went to bed early and woke up early all week!

I didn't take any pictures on Monday, but here's what we did: We got up early and drove to a hike at the southern tip of the island. The drive was really pretty, by all these super ritzy resorts which we later walked to several times. The hike was on this newly formed lava on the rim of La Parouse Bay. The views there were amazing, with the white water crashing against the black lava at several places, and the green green hills of the volcano in the background were such a pretty contrast to the black lava. When I realized I forgot my camera, I said, "Audra's going to kill me for not bringing my camera here!" :)

We snorkeled in a few places off the trail, and we got to see some really cool fish. My first snorkeling! It was so fun, Chad is such an awesome teacher. The last place we snorkeled on this hike is known as "The Acquarium," and that's what it felt like! We saw all sorts of different kinds of fish there.

Later that day we also went to one of those places that sells tickets and we scheduled a helicopter ride for Wednesday and a boat ride for Friday, which we got for a lot less money because we agreed to go to one of those timeshare pitches.

On Tuesday we went on a walk on the beach in the morning and then drove up to western Maui where the timeshare pitch was. It was in a SUPER nice resort on a SUPER nice beach and it was really fun to be there and get a tour, even though it was a little awkward to go there as uninterested as we were and yet try to seem somewhat interested. Luckily the person assigned to sell us the timeshare was quite eager to get off work and told us right away that we probably don't have enough money in our budget to invest in a timeshare like this, and so why don't we walk quickly through the hotel so we can both go home. Haha! It was perfect. Plus, we got a free lunch out of it!

After that we went to Lahaina, an old whaling town that is now super touristy with a boardwalk and shops everywhere and people walking along the streets. Very fun. In the middle of the town there is this old banyan tree that is HUGE--its branches go down into the earth as root-looking-things. You can see how wide it is, because the branches I am standing next to come from the trunk behind me. Super cool.

And of course when we got home we went on a walk along the beach, because that's what we did almost every night. So, so pretty. I'll post pictures of the beach and of our resort in my next blog on the honeymoon. I'll probably do two more blogs on the honeymoon--one covering Wednesday and Thursday, and one covering Friday through Sunday. I hope I won't bore you all to tears, but if I do, just stop reading! :) Love you all!

I'm Turning into my Mom

This morning while I was cleaning the bathroom I realized that the blinds really needed to be cleaned. So I decided to take the time to dust and wipe off each blind individually. It took a long time, but in the end they looked SO much better! Afterwards I just wanted to stand and stare at them. And so I did--this afternoon I took a break to eat a nectarine and I decided to eat it standing in front of my brilliantly white blinds in the bathroom. :) As I was doing so, I remembered how my mom would stand and stare at the walls and ceiling in our Eugene home after she painted them, and I thought, "I'm turning into my mom! Hooray!" My mom and I like to enjoy the fruits of our labors! Speaking of which, Chad planted three fruit trees this morning!! He planted one yesterday, too, and so our yard now has four fruit trees. Take a look.

They are in order of right to left: cherry, pear, apple (in front of the wall), and peach.

Chad has put so much work into this yard!!! When we moved in, the only things in this sloped area were rocks, those stairs, dirt, and weeds. And now it looks like this! He did a ton of weeding, built a retaining wall, planted sod in the area in front of the retaining wall, put down a ton of mulch, reshaped the rocks so they look good, and planted four trees. We also have a shed in our backyard, and he recently cleaned out all the junk the previous owners left and organized it so it looks really nice and has a lot more room in it. And he has done all of this in the super duper hot heat we've been having. He is such a hard worker. I am lucky to have him as a husband!

P.S. I am so happy to be back in the blogging world! More blogs and pictures to come about our honeymoon, a recent camping trip we took to the Uintas, and my job. Also, I will start commenting on your blogs again!