Happenings

Clearly, blogging is not one of my strong suits. It is a good thing that I love to take pictures--and let's be honest--pictures are worth a thousand words. Well, here is the low down. First of all, Nate finished up his internship at ATK mid August. He enjoyed his experience, but I think he was excited to be going back to school instead. At about the same time I also was able to get a real HR job! It was pretty exciting. So now I am working as a recruiting assistant for Convergys. It is so nice to be working in an HR department and going full time. I enjoyed working at the dentistry place over the summer, but I was glad to get an increase in both pay and hours. I have been enjoying it so far. I don't really want to stay in recruiting forever, but it is definitely a step in the right direction. 
Another advantage to getting this new job is that, between both our jobs and school, Nate and I were able to get away for a few days and go up to Yellowstone. The timing couldn't have worked out better. Nate's extended family got hold of a cabin at Island Park and they invited us to come along. We were able to drive up and then spend the next couple days just relaxing through the park, hiking, and sight seeing. Here are some pictures from our trip:

On the way up!

When we were with Nate's Grandparents I took every opportunity to snap a shot with us together--to Nate's dismay.

Old Faithful

Nate being a spaz at the Spasmodic Geyser 

Morning Glory

Coyote!

We went on a really fun hike by the Tower Falls.
The hike descends down Uncle Tom's stairs and then goes all the way to Artisan Point and back. It was a pretty nice.

The beautiful Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

Overall we had a really fun trip. I got to cross one more item off our list of vacation destinations. 

The other big news is that we ran our very first half marathon--the Layton Half Marathon.. We had been training for a while, so I was excited that the time had finally come. It was pretty fun. The race started about halfway across the causeway to Antelope Island on the Great Salt Lake. The course then made its way through the farms of west Layton to end up at a park near the center of town. It was a pretty flat course (which was nice). The best part was that I did much better than I'd expected. Nate was 6th in his age division and I beat my goal by almost ten minutes. It was really exciting to be part of such a big race. I'm glad that we accomplished this together! Despite the soreness that followed afterwards it was totally worth it!

Before the Race on the Causeway. Via itouch

Near the Finish Line! Lovely picture I know

Clearly my focus didn't want to cooperate.

Besides all that, we have just been hanging out and doing the student thing. I got a student spouse pass so that I can go to the games and enjoy the on-campus facilities (gym). It has been especially fun because the Aggies have been having a fantastic football season.

At the white out game! Pretty cool

 In October we went for a night at Snowbird. We had a free night available that expired soon so we decided to take advantage of it over an empty weekend. Unfortunately, we planned it for a very cold weekend that was a lot wetter than we expected. While driving up Friday evening we were in massively dense fog. We still went swimming though and relaxed at the hotel. We then got a free ride up the tram because we donated some canned food to the Utah Food Bank. Our original plan was to go hiking at the top, but because of our unpreparedness for the weather (snowy whiteout), we decided to just walk around for a bit and then take the tram back down. We went on a shorter hike near the base of the mountain and still had a fun little excursion. We are very excited for ski season!

Nate was walking to the new Little Cloud Lift

It was a little windy

On the tram ride down

Self timer FAIL!

 We seem to be doing pretty good overall, and are excited for the upcoming holidays. It will be our first Christmas actually together! More to come later. Thanks for reading!
  

Honeymoon and Such

I guess I will start off from my previous post. After the reception we spent a night near by in Layton. We then went to Brave the next day. It was super cute and I would highly recommend it. After stopping at my all time favorite Chinese restaurant in Farmington. We then drove to our primary destination of Snowbird. We had a really cute room and we got to do a lot of fun things. We went swimming in the hotel pool, hiked around the mountain, alpine slide, zip line and all the fun mountain resort things. It was fun to see the mountain not covered in snow but it did make me excited for the ski season. We got to eat at some fancy restaurants and just enjoy the nice weather. We did not take a lot of photo's but here are some from our longer hike. 

We did not plan on matching, but hey it looks cute that way.

Queen of the Rock!

Self-timer fail.

Success!

Very charismatic 

I had moved my hat so that I could take pictures. I forgot to move it back.

After I realized it. I just worked it!

So after the honeymoon we went back to work, but we still did many fun things. We hiked the Crimson Rim trail soon after being married. We have seen the new Bat Man movie. The most fun things we have been doing is going to see family. We spent the Forth of July with Nate's extended family in Bountiful. It was fun to eat good food and enjoy the celebrations. We also went to Huntsville to spend some time with my family and to go to my cousins fiance's bridal shower. While we were in the area Nate and I spent the day at Pineview. It was so nice. We alternated playing in the water and reading our books in our camping chairs on the beach. It was just pleasant. This is what I hope our retirement is like. We can go to some beautiful location and together read good books and enjoy life. This has been a lot of my feelings about our married life so far. We have done a lot of really fun simple things; going to the park and playing Frisbee, checking out movies and books from the library. We have loved our summer and look forward to the upcoming events.

Wonderful Wedding

On June 22, Nate and I took the plunge into married life. It was a fantastic day. Let's rewind just a second to a few weeks before. Nate's family flew in two weeks before the big day. We went and enjoyed our time with them. I had my Inkley bridal shower and some last minute details. My family flew in from all over the country on the Saturday before the big day. we spent a few days in Park City playing together and doing some awesome things. It was really fun. Nate got to meet my nieces and nephew and get to see how weird my family is. We went to Lagoon on Wednesday. It was so fun to see my nieces and nephew playing at the park. Plus it is always fun to ride some rides. Here are some pictures from that week in Park City!

Family after Ziva's Blessing!

Cutie 

Bulgie was the kids absolute favorite!

Look at that handsome boy!

The girls!

The almost weds!

 So Thursday the 21st I was able to go through the temple and receive my endowment. It was a wonderful day. The blessings that I have received are wonderful and I am loving going back to understand and enjoy those blessings. I feel so blessed to have a family that supports me. I also have a wonderful man I get to spend eternity with. I love the temple!

Later that night we had our wedding dinner at the Maddox Lodge. It was wonderful to be surrounded by friends and family. I ate way too much delicious food. The love and support was just wonderful.
Friday finally arrived. I had a fun morning with my family and my sister helped me get ready. We were sealed at 12:15 pm in a wonderful ceremony surrounded by family. It was simple and beautiful, everything I could have ever asked for. Here are some pictures from the temple. Enjoy! Sorry if it is image overload, so many things to share.

I really liked my bouquet simple and elegant.

Not having my younger brother there was very difficult, but I know he is off doing amazing things and I am so proud of him.

Love my new sisters-in-law.

Later that evening we had a reception at The Victorian in Layton. It was a beautiful garden reception just as I had hoped, simple and sweet. It was fun to see so many old friends come out and support. Here are some more photo's from the reception.

Lets be honest here. Cutest girls ever!

It was a great day! I couldn't have asked for more. I will put up another post about post wedding events shortly.