Escaping the Cold: St. George Weekend

What do you do when you are sick of winter? Escape it.

This past weekend we celebrated Joe's birthday with a cousin weekend in St. George, UT! Joe's family has a second home down south and he wanted to spend some time away with family. We were invited! I love weekends spent with cousins! 

Joe, Jon, Brad, Kelsey, Maddie and Ryan and I spent the weekend together in a city next to beautiful red rock. It was beautiful! We drove down Friday afternoon after work and school with Jon meeting the rest of the crew there. Joe picked his birthday dinner to be In-n-Out. He truly is a Southern California boy!

We spent the evening playing Uno and talking until early hours in the morning. What a perfect first evening together!

Saturday was an active, busy day! We went to the temple in the morning, attempting to do Baptisms for the Dead, but it was over an hour and a half wait. So we went with plan "B"...visit the visitor's center! 

We then went back to the house and changed to head to the pool. The boys played tennis (Ryan and Brad won) for a long time while the girls laid in the sunshine. That is all I wanted to do! Soak up the heat! After laying out, we all played Marco Polo in the pool and threw the football around. 

After officially wearing ourselves out, we laid down for a bit and then went on a 3-mile hike in Snow Canyon. We hiked over petrified sand dunes. It was so beautiful and such a fun adventure to explore such a unique place. 

That night we stayed decided to play tennis. Yes, this would be my first time playing tennis since I was probably seven, so it was an adventure. I actually surprised myself and did decently well. Maybe I should play more often! We played doubles King of the Court until the lights turned off on us.

Sunday we went to Sacrament, packed up and cleaned, then had a BBQ outside in the sun. We were all so sad to get back to reality. We spent the evening playing games at Aunt Dorothy's house with Lisa and Jeff, which was the perfect ending to our fun-filled, cousin weekend! We are looking forward to future trips with the cousins.

Ice Castles

One of the best local attractions is the Midway Ice Castles. It is a local "must" during the winter. Ryan and I got to experience it for the first time together. The lights lit up the ice making it a beautiful winter wonderland. You are able to go inside the castles and walk within the ice. We will definitely be going back next year.

Our First [Married] Valentines

Valentine's Day has always been one of my favorite holidays.

Yes, it is a "Hallmark" holiday with cheesy cards, chocolate and teddy bears. But I love it anyways.

I love to feel loved. And the two Valentines Ryan and I have spent together have been wonderful. 

Last year [2013] we were engaged to be married in May. I woke up to a trail of rose petals out of my room, trailing into the Living Room of my apartment. There I found a bouquet of roses and a beautiful note written by my Fiance. It is not often that Ryan expresses his feelings on paper, so I look forward to special occasions where he pours his hear out. 

I decided to decorate the wall above his bed with a sign, and give him gifts for different moments in the day leading up to dinner. We spent the evening at P.F. Changs, the same restaurant he took me to the night we got engaged. It was perfect! 

This year [2014], we could finally enjoy our first married Valentine's Day! Let me tell you... it is so much better spending this holiday together when you are married. It takes the pressure off and it is a good excuse to plan a really fun date night! 

This year, Ryan and I decided to spend the weekend in Salt Lake at the Marriott downtown. Ryan surprised me with dinner reservations at Flemings and we spent the evening walking around Gateway, eating a delicious dinner, and relaxing. It was great spending the evening together and staying the night somewhere different. It is always nice to get out! 

For Christmas I got Ryan tickets to his favorite musical, Les Mis at the Hale Center Theater in Salt Lake.  So Saturday we slept in, shopped around City Creek mall and then went to the show! It was wonderful. I am not a huge fan of the plot, but I loved this production of it. We sat on the second row allowing us to get up close and personal with the actors. It was unbelievable.

We loved our Valentines weekend, but most of all we love each other. I can't imagine my life without Ryan Hal Walton, and I am so glad we get to show our love for each other every day. I am the luckiest to spend forever with this man. May our Valentine' Day celebrations be even better every year as we grow to love each other more and more.

Carmel by the Sea

In my family we have many traditions. The men's golf weekend, Camelback, summers in Utah, Hotel Del, Thanksgiving in Colorado and Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa's to name just a few.

One special tradition has always taken place after Christmas in Carmel, CA. My mom grew up in Carmel/Monterrey area and they have gone back every year to enjoy a beautiful city by the sea. This year, Ryan and I were invited to come along. No kids are allowed, so we are going to soak up this trip every year we can until our little family changes. 

We flew in on a Tuesday night and met my parents, Gregg and Darla, and Grandpa at the airport. We drove into Carmel and got in around midnight. We stayed at the Normandy Inn, a quaint little place right on Ocean Ave. Our room had a fireplace that we used twice daily and beautiful vaulted ceilings. Loved it! 

Every morning we had breakfast at the hotel. Wednesday we puttered around Carmel and visited all of the local shops. There are countless boutiques and unique shops you wouldn't find anywhere else. We of course needed to make a stop at the Coach Outlet where mom and I treated ourselves! One of our other favorite stops we made multiple times was to Lula's Chocolates. It is a chocolate shop started by a BYU Alum and the chocolates are made in Monterrey. The best was their salted carmels!

Every afternoon we went back and relaxed in the room and took a nap, and every evening we went down to the beach to watch the sunset! Gorgeous! There is nothing quite as relaxing as walking down to the Carmel beach and sitting in the sand watching the sunset. We looked forward to it every night!

Thursday we spent the day in Monterrey visiting all the places I have memories as a child. We first stopped to have lunch at Toro Place. It is a restaurant in Salinas right off the highway at a local gas station. It has greasy, delicious food! We enjoyed ourselves. After, we drove by the house my mom grew up in. I have so many memories at "22489". I loved driving by to see it. The family that lives there are taking great care of the home and yard. After we went to 711 to get a slurpee and meat stick. Classic!

We also stopped at Talbot's Ties to pick out some ties for all of the men. Gregg and my mom bought Ryan some new ties for his internship-they are his favorite he owns! What a great tradition.

Friday we spent our last full day at Pebble Beach. I had never been, and neither had Ryan! It was beautiful! Crews were setting up for the AT&T tournament the next weekend, but it was still so fun to see the course and walk through the shops. We spent a couple of hours there to get our fill. Someday the family will play the course! 

After we visited Pebble Beach, we spent time doing the 17-mile drive seeing the Lone Cyprus and other look-outs that Carmel has to offer! It is beautiful driving along the coast. 

Every night we would walk to dinner, talk and enjoy a fire in our room. It was a perfect vacation where we got to relax and enjoy ourselves. Until next year!

Let's go to Idaho!

What is more fun than getting out of town?

Because I work full-time, and Ryan is going to school full-time and working, we are busy people. It is so nice to take weekend trips whenever we get a chance! Enjoy the small things in life, right?!

Our trek to Idaho was the first time Ryan and I had ever been to Rexburg together or separately. We have both had friends attend BYU-I, but never made it up there. Brad and Kelsey finally convinced us to make the trip up, so Joe, Jake, Jon, Ryan and I met Brad, Kelsey and Maddie up in Idaho for MLK weekend.

We drove in Friday night and arrived there around nine. We caught dinner on the way and squished into Joe's Mazda. It took about 4 1/2 hours to drive up into Rexburg. We spent Friday evening talking and just catching up until the early hours of the morning.

Saturday we had a really fun, eventful day. In the morning we woke up and got ready to go to the temple. None of us had ever seen the Rexburg temple, let alone been inside. We went to go do a session all together as cousins. Little did we know, the temple was closed for renovations in the previous weeks, so now being open, it was packed! We would have had to wait over an hour to do a session, so we decided to wait and do Sealings as a family. It was a very special experience. I had never done Sealings for proxy, and hadn't knelt across the alter from Ryan since our wedding day. We had the whole room to just our family and the Sealer. He talked through the covenants made and the importance of what we were doing. He let us do lots of names! It was such a special experience and I am glad we didn't give up and go home because waiting times were long.

Saturday afternoon we got a personal tour of BYU-Idaho's campus. Brad and Kelsey walked us through all of the buildings and showed us where they attend classes. It was incredible! I know that if I hadn't gone to BYU, I would have loved Idaho. Ryan didn't feel the same. :)
The facilities are beautiful and it has a wonderful feel. The hard part about Rexburg is there is not much surrounding campus. The town is tiny and not as built up as Provo.

Saturday night we drove into Idaho Falls to get some dinner and see the town. We ate at Red Robin (one of my favorites), and had some of the best service I have ever experienced. It was excellent! I love their bottomless stake fries. The best! After, we stopped at Target to purchase some games to play and snacks for late night game night Saturday night.

Sunday morning we went to Maddie's student ward for Sacrament Meeting. Their church meetings are held on campus in classrooms like BYU's student wards. Brad and Kelsey had a flat tire, so Ryan helped them change it after the Sacrament.

Sunday afternoon, we changed and drove to Jackson Hole two hours away. We stopped to see the beautiful Grand Tetons on the way! In Jackson we walked around and looked through the boutiques on main street. We didn't stay super long, but it was fun to go visit and experience one of the most popular places to visit if you live in Idaho. We then spent the evening watching Football and playing games until 2am.

Monday morning we got up and packed our stuff and cleaned the house. We all went to lunch at Chili's before making the drive back down to Salt Lake where we had dinner with the Johnson family.

It was a wonderful long weekend. One that I will remember for a very long time! I love weekend trips, especially when they are with family. What could be better?

Eight Months Together

Because I just started this blog, I will try and briefly recap on the past eight months Ryan and I have spent together. It is hard! We have had so many adventures and I wish I would have fully documented them. Well I guess it is never too late. Here is a little about our life since marriage:

I graduated from BYU a week before we got married

 

Moved into our new apartment in June

 

Jared left on a mission [San Salvador El Salvador West Belize]

 

Played with family at the lake

 

Took a work trip to Washington, DC

 

Date night at Rio Tinto stadium to watch Real Salt Lake play 

 

Attended the sealing of my aunt and uncle

 

Zoe got married and we attended her wedding in St. George

 

Kaitlin Flynn (a best friend from high school) got married in Colorado 

Cheered on our Cougars during Football season

 

Spent General Conference weekend with family four-wheeling

 

 

Ryan spent two "boys" weekends with his dad and twin brother

Met with Microsoft for work in Seattle

Spent Thanksgiving in Colorado ice skating with cousins

 Our second year of SLC Temple Lights

 Christmas in San Francisco watching BYU play in the Fight Hunger Bowl game