Due to Popular Demand

I was going to wait to put up pictures of our house until we got the boxes put away and a little more organized but since everybody was asking, and since I had the camera out, here are just a couple.
Our backyard. I love having this outside in morning.
Our living room:
This will eventually be our study/library but as you can see the desk and bookshelves are not yet in place so this room is still mostly in boxes.
Half of the kitchen:

Hoarding Treasure

Last week Mark and I were trying to find our favorite kitchen dish scrubber. They had them at Walmart but after visiting multiple locations we figured that they discontinued selling them. We were very distraught about this and had given up on finding anymore....

Then today, we are once again at Walmart looking for a different type of scrubber when I notice these peaking out from behind bags of cork!Needless to say, we bought them out.

A Quarter

Mark turned 25 this last week. We celebrated by moving into our new house and a fun dinner with Mark's parents and Steve and Kalina. and this was probably the best restaurant birthday cake we have ever had followed up by one of the best homemade birthday cakes (which we are still working on).

Happy Birthday Mark!

This post was written from our new house. We are connected to the internet. Arguably more importantly, we are also homeowners. Amy will post pictures later.

Thank you to everyone who wished me happy birthday. I had a great day.

Special thanks to Mom and Dad for hosting us at the MC for the past month.

Round Trip. leg #4

We drove back to Salt Lake. It was uneventful, but we enjoyed a nice evening and morning in St. George.

Round Trip. leg #3

While in Southern California, we attended my old roommate Natalie's wedding. We are so happy for her and Andrew.They got sealed for time and all eternity in the Newport Beach Temple. It was gorgeous. I was so happy that we were able to go and watch. I love hearing the blessings and promises that we enter into. Going to other people's weddings always reminds me how much I love Mark and how grateful I am for our marriage and the covenants that we have made.
After the temple was a luncheon overlooking the harbor. Beautiful.Natalie had the reception in her parent's backyard. They did a spectacular job. It was so fun. Another thing I love about weddings...dancing. Mark and I love to dance but weddings are about the only time that we actually do any dancing.Congrats Nat and Andrew!

Round Trip. leg #2

After our wonderful visit with Mark's grandparents, we drove down to San Clemente to see my sister, Mary and her family. We stopped in L.A. for a fun little dinner at the Grove Farmer's Market.



We got to Mary's pretty late and we were glad to be there. We got to spend the next day playing with Luke and Rachel. We walked down to the park which they loved. Mark taught Luke how to roll down the hill and he keep doing it over and over and over. Rachel on the other hand would not go anywhere near Mark. She did really like me though; my arms were going to fall off after the walk back up the hill to go home.
We had a great time playing with them. They were so cute. Luke doesn't really smile for pictures so it was really cute to see him smile all the time.
We really enjoyed going to the beach. The weather was perfect and after a very cold Spring we were so happy to be there.
The water was ice so only Mark and Doug actually got in but Luke and I enjoyed getting our feet in the waves.

Round Trip. leg #1

We moved out of Provo last week. It was wonderful. The movers packed everything into this massive semi truck. We didn't fill very much of it. They put 3 other people's stuff in there, too. When we got to my parent's house, Daniel and Dad challenged Mark and William (the neighbor) to basketball. I think Mark won.

The next morning we set off on our California Road Trip. The first day of driving was from Salt Lake, UT to Davis, CA to visit Mark's grandparents. It was a very stressful drive getting there:
We encountered sand storms in the deserts of Nevada. It was super windy the whole time so it required constant alertness to stay on the road. But at times we were actually in these sandstorms. Visibility dropped rather quickly while sand and rocks pelted the car (which almost immediately formed 3 very long cracks).
As soon as we escaped the desert, we entered the mountains of California with rain, fog and snow. We got to the summit of Donner's Pass just as the snow was starting to stick. Notice 2 of the cracks in the bottom right of the windshield.
We were really glad to get to Davis and had a great time with Mark's grandparents. After dinner we got them talking about how they met and their courtship. It was so fun. In the morning Mark trimmed the hedge and I made bread. It was a little nervous-wracking baking bread for a baker's daughter, but it turned out really well. It was also really fun to hear Grandpa talk about his research and work in the field of soil science. We left that afternoon much happier and relaxed than when we arrived.