Thursday, December 30, 2010

B-had and Shelly's Wedding

Dustin and I were so excited when we got the invite to Shelly and Branson's wedding.
We were actually excited for a couple of reasons.
One this was a great excuse for a friends trip to San Diego.
I love California and if it wasn't so dang expensive we would love to live there.
We love these guys and glad their finally tying the knot.
They had a longer courting period like us and it's always good to see these things work out.

We had so much fun making the trip with John and Kelsey.
We like going them not only for their great company but also cuz we got to take the Tahoe.
It had so much more leg room.
It was also fascinating watching John down the nastiest junk food I have ever seen.
I dont know how he stays so thin.
The drive is pretty far, but with the pit stop in Vegas it doesn't make it to bad.
We showed up a couple of days before the wedding so that we could enjoy the city.

We were able to go Padres game at Petco stadium.
This stadium had to be the nicest stadium I had seen in a while.
I loved downtown San Diego and how clean everything was.
The game ended up being a nail bitter.
They were down the whole game and ended up coming back in the ninth to tie it and put it into extra innings.
We almost left early because I was getting a little bored.
Dont get wrong, I love sports but baseball can drag out for a long time.
But the Padres hit a walk off home run which was the first one I had ever seen.
It was quite exciting.
After we walked around down town and ate at this excellent Thai food place.
First time having Thai food and I have to say that I am a fan.

We also had the chance to go to the beach and lay out.
Our friend Kelsey grew up there, and so she knew of the best places to go.
We went to this small secluded beach which was a blast.
After we ate at this little Mexican shack which was out of this world good.
I would kill to live down there.
If Dust ever gets a job offer down there we are going.

But the highlight of the trip, was of course the wedding.
I had never been in the San Diego Temple and so it was fun to see it.
They looked so happy and it was nice to be in their with all of the buddies.
The only sad part was the temple was under-construction.
The whole thing was covered in scaffolding.

After they had a lunch in and ring ceremony at the most beautiful golf course.
It was up on a hill and overlooked the valley.
It was breath taking.

We had so much fun dancing the night away and enjoying all of the wedding festivities.
These two are great and we couldnt be happier for them.

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Cancun Feb 2010

After a long summer of working the doors, the boys earned a trip with their company.
I was so excited for this trip because it was my first friend trip ever.
I know, I am already married, but I had still yet to go on a friend trip.
I was looking forward to this trip
and could not wait to get out of the Utah and hit the water.
We were planned to go to the Caribbean on a cruise.
But when we turned up at the airport Friday night all of the flights to the east
coast had been canceled.
There had been a huge storm and the Atlanta airport did not have the right equipment to get an inch of snow of the tar mac so they shut down the whole airport.
Can you believe that?
An inch of snow.
I mean they could of have gotten some tractors out there and got it off but they didnt.
I was enraged.
Never in all of my years of traveling had I not been able to get somewhere.
All the planes on the entire coast were down and there was no way to get to Florida.
I was devastated.
As we fell asleep that night, I felt like crying.
I had already arranged with all of my teachers to miss a week of school and
I was not ready to go back to reality.
The next morning their was no hope in sight.
But later that afternoon there was a breakthrough.
With the hard work of Dustin's buddies they made a deal with their boss.
They made arrangements for us to spend a couple of days in Cancun.
I was perfectly fine with that because I had never been to Mexico before.
But the only catch was we had to leave from the Las Vegas airport
because it was so much cheaper.
This turned out to be an added plus because we got to stay with my family.

So after what seemed like days and days of traveling we finally made it to Cancun.

I could not believe how incredible and beautiful Cancun is.
The beaches were pure white, with the bluest waters I've ever seen.
We ended up staying at the nicest hotel ever and got preferential treatment,
because the place was dead.
It was the off season so we felt like we owned the place.
There was no one on the beaches and it was nice to be secluded.

We spent most of time there just being lazy.
We pretty much just ate, slept, laid on the beach, and hung out.
It was the perfect vacation.

We did play a couple of games of volleyball, soccer, and the boys of course played football.
Ryan had a big collision and his foot swoll up pretty big.
We thought that we broke it but after icing it for a while it was looking a lot better.
I did jam my toes and a couple of my toe nails fell off.
Which is never fun
We take any competition very seriously.

My favorite part was the food.
I love authentic, greasy, Mexican food.
Dustin and I's favorite part of any vacation is trying out new places.
We think that you should never go hungry when you are on vacation.
It's the only rule we live by.

The funniest night of the whole trip was when Branson proposed to Shelly.
Branson had this whole thing planned that he would ask Shelly on
Valentines Day on the cruise ship.
But when we didnt go on the cruise we had to come up with some other plans.
So we had this whole situation set up.
Branson was going to take Shelly on a walk on the beach and the
rest of us would set up the flowers and candles to spell out "Marry Me".
Sounds like a great idea right?
Well it didnt go quite as planned.
We didnt factor in the wind and it blowing out the candles.
So we were all frantically running around trying to find a spot that wasn't windy.
Well we could never really find a spot.
So ended up putting the stuff in the outdoor restaurant and it didnt spell
out anything because we ran out of time.
We didnt have time to get out so we got to watch the whole proposal.
It was a funny moment and one I wont forget.



Monday, December 27, 2010

Our First Christmas 2009




Our First Christmas
We decided to spend our first Christmas with my family.
I wasn't quite ready to spend Christmas away, and so Dust was a good sport.
We headed down after finals and spent the two weeks in Vegas.

Our Christmas celebration always starts off the same every year.
We go to the annual Hardy Party out in Logandale.
The Hardys are my mom's side of the family, and they have been doing this
party for over 25 years.
Every Saturday before Christmas we get together to eat, play games, and have a program.
It's a great time to catch up with family and hear about everyone's year.
This party though, is quite exclusive.
Everyone wants an invite to it but you have to be a member of the family to get in.
My beautiful cousin Jennifer.

Grandma Whipple

Dustin is now officially part of the Hardy family.


This Christmas we decided to celebrate it Vegas style.
Our family has always wanted to stay at the Bellagio, and so we got a room for the night.
We pretended like we were tourist and went and toured the town.
We went over to the Aladdin to eat, and then of course had to see the Bellagio flowers.
The flowers are my favorite attraction on the strip.
They are always so beautiful and the most creative thing I have ever seen.
I especially love them this time of year.

I know that some people think that the strip is straight from Hell. But I love the place.

Christmas Eve is probably my favorite day of the entire year.
The anticipation for Christmas Day is at the ultimate high.
I love how we get to spend the entire day with our family and carry on all of the family traditions.
Our family always goes out to breakfast on Christmas Eve Morning.
We usually go the the Cracked Egg because it is our favorite place on earth.
(I especially love their coffee cakes)
Then we go see a movie, come home and have a big dinner, and then do our family program.
Christmas is the best time of the year and I am so glad that I was able to
spend it with my sweetheart.

Dust was such a good sport. Our Christmas jammies this year were UNLV. And because Dust loves me so much he actually wore them.
He is the best.


Santa brought me a picture of the Savior on the shores of a Galilee.
My favorite place in the world.



We do this picture ever year. Lol.



Grandma Kelly


Grandma Whipple





















20th Birthday (2009)






Okay, so I realize that everything I am posting on my blog is a little out of order,
but I am trying to make up for the last year and half of my life.
This is proving to be a daunting task, but I want it all documented so there is no better time
than the present to start working on it.

After coming home from Jerusalem, I was on this outdoor adventure phase.
I wanted to be outside all the time hiking, swimming, and exercising.
So when my birthday rolled around all I wanted to do was hike the Y.
I know right, sounds like a freshman thing to do.
But I had never done it before and I couldn't leave BYU without doing it.

So Dust was a good sport and hiked it with me. I have to say that going up the hill is fun
but coming down the hill is a different story.
Your knees hurt so bad.
Your tired and you feel like your going to fall the whole time.
Needless to say, this was my last time I hiked the Y.
I realized that hiking really isn't my thing.

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Utah State Fair

After being in Jerusalem with my best friend Heather, I realized that I needed to go to state fair.
I have never been to the Utah fair and I really wanted to go to a rodeo. So my Jerusalem friends and Dust went up to Salt Lake to see what this is all about.
We had pizza, funnel cake, peanuts, and all of the other fair foods.
We were sicker than dogs.
And really felt it the next day.
But we had a blast.
We watched the rodeo, went on some rides, and ate.




This funnel cake may look good but it actually made us SO sick.



My absolutely amazing Jeru friends.








KINA


This is my best friend Kina. We have pretty much been inseperable from the moment we meet. Kina is not your typical girl. She is the smartest girl I have ever meet. She is on a full ride to BYU, got a perfect 4.0 at BYU, tutors students on the MCAT, and is going to Medical School. Seriously though, she is superwomen.
I meet Kina my freshman year through my childhood friend Kourtney. They were roommates and I would always hear stories about this girl. By the time we finally meet, we realized that we had a ton in common. We were both Pre-Medical, driven, loved school, and most importantly loved to have FUN. Life was always an adventure with Kina. She has had some crazy idea on what to do, or would plan fun weekends.
We basically did everything together. We lived together, ate together, studied together, played together, and hung out together. So I got to know her and Kyle really well. They did not have the easiest road to marriage, but I always knew that it would work out. They are great together and I dont think they could have found a better match than each other.
Kina and I are so much alike that we even started dating our now husbands at the same time and got married two weeks apart.
Kina had the most amazing wedding, and I was so glad that I got to be one of her bridesmaids.
I love you KINA.




Waiting for Kina to come out of the temple.