Family Life

Lately I have been thinking about how incredibly blessed Nathan and I are to have such awesome families. There is so much love and support from everyone that sometimes I don't know how I got so lucky to be born into a great family and marry into an equally great family. So here comes a post of the awesome things we have been doing with our awesome families. (Can you tell I love my family?)

Nathan and my dad building a fire pit so the family can enjoy nightly bonfires with steak, hamburgers, and of course s'mores.

Enjoying the outdoors with our 3 dogs. It's so nice to be able to come home from school or work and hang out in the sun, jumping on the tramp, or just watching the dogs.

Making cakes to answer Blaine's date for Preference. "I'd be 'hoppy' to go with you!" We decided to keep in the Easter theme because she had asked with a basket of eggs and a stuffed duck saying "I'd be a lucky duck if you went with me."

Supporting brothers while they get set apart and ordained as elders. Nathan was able to fly out to Washington for Connor's farewell talk and I stayed home for Blaine's ordination. We both cried at our respective events.

Hanging out with Connor during his last few days before entering the MTC. We were able to go up and do a session in the Salt Lake Temple and then enjoyed a requested "last" dinner of Sushi.

Saying goodbye to Connor as he heads off to be an amazing missionary in the Baltic Mission. He has 9 weeks in the MTC to learn Latvian. As much as I would like to pretend I won't, I'm gonna miss that kid. I couldn't ask for a better brother-in-law.

Enjoying the traditional yearly Easter Egg Hunt at my Grandma Roberts' house. The food is delicious and the company excellent.

Heading down to Saint George for Conference weekend. There was a lot of swimming, eating, resting, and playing on red rocks. This was one of those vacations that made me more tired when I got home than I was when I left.

Watching my little brother open his mission call. He reports to the MTC on July 24th for the Texas, Fort Worth Mission!! We are so excited and so immensely proud of him for his choice to serve the Lord as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Now I am just trying to survive the last little bit of school. It is finally starting to hit me that I will never have to set foot in class again. And I cannot wait. So that's it for now...until graduation!!

Disneyland...Round 2

So a couple weeks ago we went to Disneyland....again...within 3 months of the last time we went. Obsessed much? But Nathan loved it so much that when my parents planned for their last visit back before their annual passes expired, he insisted we tag along. So we went and enjoyed a much less crowded version of the park than the experience we had over Thanksgiving. And then I could tell Nathan, this is the Disneyland that I love. When you can walk and spread your arms out without hitting at least 10 people in the process. And when you ride more than 3 rides a day because you aren't in line for a million hours.

The weather was so. much. nicer this time. Except that one day that Anaheim decided to have a record high of 90 degrees on the 1st day of March. We pretty much spent that day sitting on the ground by the waterfall of Grizzly Peak so we could feel its cool mist. Or riding Splash Mountain over and over and over. We also made it our mission to weird out the other people in our log.....hence the awesome faces you can see.

We also got to spend Blaine's birthday there, so being the awesome big sister I am, pretty much forcibly put an "It's My Birthday!" pin on him so that every Disney cast member had to wish him a happy birthday, along with multiple high school girls who just couldn't pass up the opportunity to say something to such a studly young man. In fact, while in line for Splash Mountain Erin and & I had the privilege of watching a group of about ten high school girls who were there for a choir competition ask if they could sing him happy birthday. It was very entertaining; the girls were talented and we got to watch Blaine's face progressively turn darker shades of red.

We FINALLY talked Chance into riding California Screamin. He actually rode it twice, which I'm completely surprised by because after having ridden it with him the second time, I'm not sure how he ever agreed to get back on. I wish we had gotten a recording of him because he truly understood the meaning of California Screamin. He did not take a breath the ENTIRE time. All the people on the roller coaster were laughing at him because you could probably hear his scream all over Anaheim. And I mean a high pitched, blood curdling scream. I don't even remember riding the roller coaster because I was laughing so hard. A cry inducing laugh. Nathan, on the other hand is still a wimp and wouldn't even ride it after a little boy showed him up.

Also, side story that no one else will find as funny as my family but Danika pretty much knocked a trash can over. Nathan was teasing her, as usual, so when he warned her to "watch out!" she assumed he was threatening her or something. But really he was just being a protective older brother and wanted to warn her about the big garbage can coming her way. She didn't listen and instead turned around with a vengeance and ran right into the garbage. So hard that her head almost went inside of it. The best part was Chance's reaction. He didn't even watch it happen but when we told him about it he laughed for ten minutes.

All in all, it was a great break from life. I'm hesitant to say vacation because every time we get back from Disneyland I am more tired than I was when I left. However, it was a vacation in the fact that my husband drained our bank account. Something about Disneyland brings out the little kid in him (okay, who am I kidding? Everything brings out the kid in him) and he thinks he needs to buy toys, toys, toys. But the tiredness and lack of money are worth it because we had a great time together as a family.

Riding the Teacups. I hate, hate, hate that ride but Nathan begged me to ride it. I think this is my "right before I throw up" face.

Oh and if you remember my reference to Nathan's creepy Yoda backback in this post. Well Chance decided Nathan is so cool and he wants to be just like him (Nah, not really. He just wanted a cool backpack) that he would buy one too. So here he is. We woke up to him tucked in on the couch in our hotel. That kid loves his backpack.

And to keep in tradition of our dogs doing something bad while we are gone, Charlie decided he would rip up the carpet upstairs. My mom is still refusing to go and look at the damage. All I can say is its a good thing my mom loves him to death or he would be finding a new home.

First Timer

Over Thanksgiving break I took my husband to the Happiest Place on Earth for his 1st time. My parents and siblings bought an annual pass last March and so we decided to tag along on this trip. I was nervous about taking Nathan because his family trips usually consist of something involving the outdoors. And he loves that. Our family vacations however consist of pretty much just Disneyland. So I had been counting down the days until I got to go back to my very favorite place for months. I told Nathan that whether or not he liked Disneyland would basically determine the future of our marriage  Haha no, I was just kidding....but maybe not entirely ;)

BUT the verdict is....Nathan loved it! He said we can definitely go back so I'm looking forward to many more Disneyland vacations with my hubby and family :)

This trip was full of fun memories. The biggest being that Disneyland during the holidays is absolutely beautiful! The place is magical enough on a regular basis but when you add in all the lights, fireworks, and fake Disneyland snow, you just can't help but feel that Disney magic.

Rather than bore anyone with details of waiting in massive lines, (because that's pretty much all we did. I've never seen that place so crowded!) I'll just tell you the highlights and post pics. You can imagine the rest.

• Nathan cried on Tower of Terror. Okay, not really. I've gotten in trouble for telling this lie. But he might as well have. I thought he was going to die when I made him ride it a second time. Who would have thought that he would be scared of my favorite ride. I consider it payback for all the terrifyingly scary movies he makes me watch.

• Cars Land is my new favorite part of California Adventure. It looks just like the movie!
• Nathan, who was completely convinced before we left that he wouldn't want any stupid Disneyland souvenirs spend a hefty sum on a freakishly real looking Yoda backpack. Everyone kept staring and asking to take pictures. It looks like a baby is riding on his back...an ugly baby anyway.

• This is the first time EVER that we have left every night before the park completely closed. In fact, we were outta their by about 9 or 10 every night. I'll blame it on the little kids but in reality, none of us could handle the park the whole day. We just don't have the Disneyland energy we used to have.
• I cried during the Pocahontas part of World of Color. I LOVE THAT MOVIE! And I love being reminded of my childhood Disney memories. 
• My dad laughed so hard he cried when my mom got soaking wet on Grizzly River Run. I have honestly never seen him laugh so hard in my entire life. Crying, red faced laughter. Best moment hands down.

• I popped my jaw out of its socket while eating a caramel apple. Caramel apples are one of my favorite past times of Disneyland. I will probably never eat another one again because I get chills just thinking about how gross it felt to have my jaw move somewhere it should not be.
• Danika is the bravest little girl I know. She rides everything! Her favorite is California Screamin. We probably rode it more than all the other rides combined.

• Chance is more conniving than I would have ever thought. He told me he was scared to go on the swings so I bribed him with an ice cream sandwich. Come to find out from my dad, the swings are actually his favorite ride. The little turd conned me!
• Blaine became dubbed "Insane Blaine" by Crush the talking sea turtle. But then Crush later told him his name should be not-insane Blaine because he swims too slow. Haha
• Nathan's favorite ride is Space Mountain. Chance...not so much. He pulls the best faces on rides

These two are becoming best buds. 

Enjoying the Tiki Room

The best part of our trip: getting home and hearing about how Erin locked herself our of the house with the dogs locked inside the house. I wish I had pictures of the results. If you have met our dog Akaya you know she still has all that happy, puppy energy. So when Erin didn't show up to yell at her for awhile she decided to have a party in my parent's house. She drank a leftover Pepsi (probably fueled her 5 hour rampage), ate an entire bag of dog treats, ate two cans of opened dog food from the kitchen counter, dug through the trash and splattered marinara sauce all over the kitchen, and Blaine's favorite part: left her business right in the middle of his bedroom. The only thing we could all think of the whole situation was, "Poor Charlie." Charlie is my family's more human than dog pet that never does anything bad in fear of my mother's wrath. I'm sure he was running around after Akaya for the whole 5 hours, begging her to stop before the humans got home.

Summer in Review

And yet again, despite my promise in my previous post, here is another summary blog post because my summer was much too busy for me to sit down and update this on a regular basis. So here we go...a story of our first full summer as a married couple...

May

To kick of the summer the right way, my cousin Mary and I decided to plan a camping trip to Moab. We ended up in a small cabin, perfect size for the 6 of us that went, and we spent the weekend hiking around in Arches National Park. I had yet to see the famous arch yet, so it was an awesome fun experience. We had blast spending time with the Finleys: Mary, Leland, and Sean, as well as my sister Erin who was luckily able to tag along.

June

I started my internship at the very beginning of the month and that pretty much consumed my life for the next 10 weeks. I only worked 40 hours a week, despite the typical accounting stereotype of 70 hour weeks, but unfortunately being a newly married...and kinda poor....couple, we only have 1 car. So 1 car equals an hour bus ride to the trax station and then another 35 minutes to the office. And then at the end of the day I got to turn around and do the same commute again. It got old, really fast. But on the bright side, I did finally overcome my carsickness because I was determined to do something productive like reading during the 2 hour commute.

Quite the feat...we fit about 20 people in our small apt

Despite my busy schedule, we did have some fun. On my b-day I came home to find my very own surprise party! I had never had one before, and I have to admit that I'm not a huge fan of the surprise thing. Haha, I may have almost punched my newly acquired cousin Cory in the face when he jumped out from behind my door. But, it was awesome to have all my friends and family come over and show how much they love me. And the best part, all 3 sets of my parents and Nathan decided to pitch in to buy me a keyboard. I was so excited! I had been complaining about not being able to practice piano for months, so I have loved having it.

Two of my favorite boys.

Cory and Leland playing with the little ones

July

July consisted of more working at Deloitte. We did start the month of right with an awesome 4th of July. I let Nathan splurge on some pretty big aerial fireworks and we had one of my most memorable holidays over at the Bramall's house. I had never seen aerial fireworks like that up close and I would have to say I enjoy them a lot more than just going to the Stadium of Fire to watch from afar. So I think it will definitely have to be a tradition we keep up.

I also got the opportunity to go to Deloitte University for intern training. Its basically this huge multi-million dollar resort that Deloitte built to send its employees to all year long for training in Dallas, Texas. It was a big, fun party all weekend with a bunch of college interns. There were about 15 of us from Utah and I'm pretty sure we had a much different party experience than the rest of the group, but it was still a lot of fun. Unlimited delicious food and all kinds of activities. Almost like a cruise for work.

August

We celebrated our 1 year anniversary!! To commemorate the awesome occasion we went up to Park City for the weekend and just enjoyed being together without any of the normal everyday worries. We spent way too much at the outlets and eating out and enjoyed every minute of it. Nathan went down the Alpine Slide for the first time and asked me why I hadn't told him about it sooner because he had a blast. (And he won't admit to this but I totally beat him down the slide.)

Please ignore the men's sunglasses...I seem to have misplaced mine...

I also finished up my internship the second week of August and I excitedly accepted a full time offer as a tax accountant for Deloitte Tax starting next summer of 2013! I can't wait to start my real life career and life after school is out in April.

To end our summer we headed up to Spokane for about 2 weeks to spend some much needed time with Nathan's family. We spent a few days in Montana at Glacier National Park hiking around and seeing the absolutely gorgeous sites. If anyone ever has the opportunity to visit, I would most definitely recommend it. Its one of those places that just makes you stop and think about how great God really is, because he took the time to create such a beautiful place for us to live. The water is perfectly clear, but absolutely freezing. I did get brave on the last day though and jumped straight in.

The beautiful, freezing, glacier water

So now we are back in school and work mode and just as busy as ever. I miss the summer days of seeing my husband for more than a couple hours, but this will do for now. I love my life, we love our life, and wouldn't change a thing.

The Last 7 Months....(and our new baby!)

I have been lacking significantly on this whole blogging thing. I got busy with school last semester and then the thought of writing a big summary blog post just seemed much too overwhelming so I continued to put off an update even when school was over. So I decided that I would just do a quick update with the major points of our life the last few months. If I can remember all the major points :)

November:

We had our first Thanksgiving as a married couple.....in separate places. One of the bad things about working in the food industry is that restaurants don't close on holidays. So Nathan had to work and miss the Thanksgiving feast at my Grandma Roberts' house. But don't worry, I'm an awesome wife and saved a plate for him in the fridge to eat when he got home late that night :)

December:

We had fun trying to make our little apartment as Christmasy as we could. We bought our first mini Christmas tree complete with lights and ornaments. Nathan even wrapped my presents early so he could put them under our little tree. 

We spent Christmas in Washington with Nathan's family and had a blast. Complete with all I could eat delicious homemade cinnamon rolls. And the Webb's cinnamon rolls are about a million times better than Cinnabon. Just sayin. But luckily my little sister's Alex and Elizabeth got Just Dance 3 for one of their presents so we burned off all the calories with hours and hours of choreographed, dancing fun :) I love that game. So much.

January:

With a new semester starting, we needed to bring it in with a bang. My cousin Mary had her birthday party at Fat Cats bowling alley and we had a blast bowling until after midnight....way after my bedtime! But in the end it was all worth it because....I FINALLY beat my husband at bowling. I can't even remember the exact score at this point but all that matters is I beat him after many, many attempts. 

February:

This month brought our first Valentine's Day as Mr. and Mrs. Webb and with that came the best present a husband could ask for. We brought our first baby into our home ;) For those of you who haven't yet, meet Akaya. 



Akaya's 1st night at home

She is a basset hound Labrador mix and she has taken over our hearts. Or mine at least. Haha I just can't get enough of her. Nathan and I usually work completely opposite hours since he works at a restaurant and I have the typical day time job. It's amazing how big of a difference it makes that I have a dog to come home to every day. There is nothing like an excited puppy to bring a smile to your face. I'm her favorite person in the world and I love it. Nathan, not so much. He's still trying to convince Akaya that he should be the favorite :) 

She immediately became best friends with my family's dog Charlie. When we first got her she was about the same size as full grown Charlie but she has continued to grow and is now much larger. But I don't think Charlie has realized that. To him, he will always be the big dog at his home. And please excuse the massive amounts of pictures. Haha, like I said I'm obsessed with her :)

We also celebrated my sister Erin's 19th birthday on the 17th. We went out to dinner for yummy Chinese food and and also played Just Dance 3. Like I said, I love that game. But I also love my sis. We have had our ups and downs but now that we are both getting older and she has gone off to college I'm finding we get along much better. She has always been one of my best friends, but now she's an even better best friend :)

March:

We went to the ever increasing in popularity festival of colors during March. It was my second time and I didn't really have the desire to experience it again, but Nathan hadn't been yet so I went for him. It's one of those need to experience once things but never again. I'm not a big fan of the whole strangers throwing colored chalk in my face. But it's fun one time :) We went with a bunch of my cousins and my little brother Blaine. Nathan and Blaine had fun, especially when my mom made them hose off outside in the freezing cold well water ;)

April:

This month we flew out to Washington to visit Nathan's family for a quick weekend trip. We were celebrating Nathan's Grandma Witt's 100th birthday. I met more of Nathan's family that I hadn't been able to meet yet and we had so much fun playing volleyball, eating, and studying. Haha I had a test the day we got back so I was lucky enough to have to bring my textbooks with me on this trip. But even so, it was an awesome break to rejuvenate right before finals week.

May:

And this brings us to the current month. Our first month of summer has been pretty uneventful so far. We enjoyed spending time together for the first few weeks because without school, I get home much earlier in the day from work. Nathan just got a second job at Mimi's Cafe here in Orem and he is loving it. That also means that I see less of him again but that's life when you are starving college students. I start my summer internship at Deloitte in Salt Lake next week so I'm getting ready for that. I'm excited but nervous but mostly excited for the great experience it will be. 

Well that's all for now folks. Hopefully I'll be better at updating in the future so I don't have to do massive summary blog posts anymore. But nonetheless, I hope you have enjoyed!