MLK weekend

this weekend, and every past MLK weekend for the last 23 years of my life has been spent here {idaho}

doing this {snowmobiling}

and boy, was it cold!

but as always- it was a blast!

we lounged in comfy clothes, ate too much delicious home cooked meals, watched the miss america pageant, played wacky six, ticket to ride, and everyones' new favorite: scramble with friends, found an elk leg, read books, got stuck in the snow a lot, watched good flicks {maybe too much indiana jones}, snowshoed, drank hot cocoa, and had good chats. 

it was a much needed relaxing cabin weekend! but we'll take any break from 7:30 am math class eh!

love ya!

happy new year!

happiest new year!

we have set our new year resolutions and are feeling optimistic.

this year we would like to

read the book of mormon together

finish school

run a half marathon

century bike race {maybe}

drink more water

eat less candy and sweets

a year in review: 2011

this past year has been an unforgettable one. happy happy memories!

snowmobiling in yellowstone

jazz games

celebrating national crepe day

snowshoeing

baby elliott was born {nephew}

jeff's basketball league won a trophy. yay.

we convinced my parents that going to las vegas for spring break was in their best interest

we watched the royal wedding, in royal fashion

we moved to ft. collins, colorado.

rescued a baby bird

i started eating fruit. blended in a blendtec

went to a rockies game

made new friends

after jeff following for years, i became a bachelor/ette fan. gross.

visitors come to ft. collins

went to the denver aquarium and stared at sharks for an hour

jeff got an iPad and then we got iPhones

moved to wyoming

lived in a hotel

jeff got attacked by a dog

ate big hunks instead of breakfast, lunch or dinner.

held a ferret

played and got good at racquet ball

rescued a kitten

went to harry potter, dressed up, which is apparently only a utah thing...

went to mount rushmore

went to nationals high school rodeo finals

rockpile museum. this was dumb.

moved again. to motel 6

somehow got upgraded to the manager's apartment.

celebrated our first anniversary by going camping. in our car.

surprise visit home en route to jackson, wy.

left jackson, wy after one day.

moved to riverton, wy. 

stayed at motel 6. no upgrades.

youknowyouloveit

went to thermopolis

went to the laundromat for my first time. too trusting and didn't wait there. but no clothes were stolen!

motel 6 toilets don't flush daddy doo doo's so they let us keep the plunger in our room... um thanks.

came home!

i turned 23

biked, biked, biked, biked, biked, biked, etc.

lake powell

rascall flatts concert

100 mile bike ride: moab century

caught a squirrel in my sisters basement

baby lucy caroline was born! {niece} 

taylor swift concert

visited friends in california

stanford game

alcatraz

halloween

utah games

hawaii for thanksgiving

went skydiving in HI

snorkeled: saw a turtle, almost swam face fist into  jelly-fish

got a real tree this christmas {one over 2 feet tall. it was 6!}

holiday parties

got straight a's {i count a minuses}

vacations

we have been blessed immensely and have loved another year together. we look forward to new years resolutions, graduating, and then the unknown basically.

moby is cute

he's the cutest.

woof woof

lately i have been studious and doing a lot of homework, and i am not enjoying it. 

so fun things are being put on hold. we are also saving our $$$ so that we can justify spending large quantities in HI... saving funds sort of also means fun things on hold too...

until a bunch of friends are going and you're peer pressured into their fun.

halloween party

 yes, yes, we know. our costume kinda of rules.

if you are an idiot, we are a french artist and i am his canvas, brown leggings are the easel. 

costume winners were mail and mitch in their fabulous tourist gear and sun burned faces!

we were a close second... falling somewhere around 3/4th

happy halloween

BOO!

our halloween parties have been so fun... we have more pictures to come!

it's called being popular!

sadly, we did not win any costume competitions. definitely rigged... it's what happens when children under the age of 10 are in these competitions.

some days...

some days i get to nanny this sweet baby. some days jeff and i stay in beady late. some days we exercise.





some days this black cat meows at my door {halloween much}. some days we love fall. some days halloween is so cute and we like the fall weather. some days we have to dress warm and miss summer.

a trip to the zoo

i really am super lucky that i get to hang around this guy all day long.

my job is too fun!

plus i have great reasons to go to the zoo and the aquarium- which i probably enjoy more than the babies.

today we couldn't find the aquarium pass and i was pretty sad about it.

pumpkins

ummmmmmm pumpkins are kind of expensive if you don't know what your doing. and we, definitely did not.  my momma and sister went to the pumpkin patch at peterson farms and got 

10 pumpkins for $15... jeff and i got 3 for $19.

it was kind of way unfair and way dumb!

but that's ok. we {only me really} love halloween and are willing to pay the price!

we went to rosewood gardens on 3300 so. and oh my the people that work there are something else. 

but they LOVE halloween! sometimes i wonder how places sell all their halloween stuff.?

and now our little home is ready for the trick or treaters... that hopefully don't come since we won't be home. but it still looks cute to all the people  who drive by and see it!

we were such good tenants

a million thanks you's to bowen and kira!

we had the funnest little fall break because of them! 

it was such a last minute vacay and they were more than willing to let us stay with them, eat {all} their food, take us to get milkshakes EVERYNIGHT {not a joke, everynight. and if we thought about sharing bo would say "man up jeff." such peer pressure} and other delicious eateries, we all got to go to a stanford game and go down on the field, and see super fast planes! it was just so great! 

and because we are such good tenants we took their dog hallie on walks. and we did some other things to thank them {$$$ things, which are the best kind of things...}

we also offered them a place to stay ANYTIME they decide to visit SLC. 

we loved our trip! and we loved palo alto! it is absolutely gorgeous! and we cannot wait to go back ;)

we definitely wish our trip could have been longer- but it was so great while it lasted!

palo alto = love

bo + kira = love

jeff and eliza = love

bo and kira in palo alto = love

jeff and eliza in palo alto = love

jeff and eliza, bo and kira together hanging out = love

jeff and eliza and scott = love

driving 12 hours = way too long in the car

oh we also learned some local terminology like PA is palo alto

the "farm" referring to stanford campus

the peninsula... the bay area

cabin weekend

this weekend we went to my family's cabin in oakley.

it was the perfect place to be for the conference weekend.

it was so oh so beautiful!

and we got to experience fall temperatures.

it was so great! we celebrated warner's birthday {i swear when you combine families you have birthdays erryday}, we hiked to the top the mountain below!, we ate delicious food, watched conf., had a movie night, played games {and i brutally lost, -1, -11, -25, etc... you want high numbers people}, and i gave myself a {much needed} mani/pedi.

Lake Powell

Lake Powell...

so much egyptian ratscrew. sleeping. tank tops. towels. chips & salsa. reading. swimming. tubing. swimsuits. eating. laughing. naked babies. sunscreen. surfing. tanning. heat rash. inappropriateness. life jackets. boating. getting pulled over. spiders. mexican coke. sunsets. fun. popsicles. no cell service. sunshine. shooting stars. sand castles. lizards. frogs. tooting {so many boys}. wakeboarding. skiing. cliff jimping. bruises. sand dunes. golf. lightning. word on the street. people magazine. bats. head aches. skinny dipping {just me and jeff... and my parents {ew gross-jk jk JK but really just me and jeff}. sun glasses. chums. air chair. crystal light. sunburn. aloe vera. music.

everybody minus my parents, cait and the babies.

j.r., becca, typhoon, braden, will, ty, dan, babyjeff, me, jordan, and britney

we loved it and had so much fun- can't wait til next time.

First Anniversary

We celebrated our first Anniversary just the other day!

Since we were in the small town of Wheatland where the luxurious hotels are sparce and the we were already living in the motel 6 we decided to be all 'north face' and go camping!

Judge all you want on whethere this classifies as a fun romantic anniversary or not- but you know we handled it- it was both fun and romantic!

We drove to Hartville, which is a little historic town in Wyoming for dinner. It was so fun, and Jeff claims it blew Ruth's Chris out of the water!

And then we went camping, and it was too dark to set up a tent... so we decided to sleep in the car and I got realy cozy with all the buggis!

It was so pretty and an experience we will never forget! And we also set the car alarm off twice! Once at 1:00 AM and couldn't find the keys and again at 7:00 AM. Yay for wake up calls! We drove home and stopped for yummy breakfast on the way!

year one.

HAPPY FIRST ANNIVERSARY TO US!

It is crazy to think how it has already been one year!

But when we think back on everything, we realize we really fit a lot in actually.

And learned a lot.

Our wedding day was our dream come true.

Honeymooning in DR

We Moved into our First apartment

first time ever living away from home- besides Jeff's mission (doesn't count). And besides my semester in the ChiO where I paid to sleep at my parents house.

... I'm sorry I only have pictures of the bedroom. Weird I know- we're getting uber personal and intimate.

Of course we went to St. George. It's like a rule if you live in SLC you have to go to S.G. once a year.

Self explanatory. But we went to the fair in SL and in Ft. Collins.

Most importantly though- my fav! The Zoo came back to Shivers.

I'll be honest I never liked candyland- it was gross how they had all that old candy on the wall, and the train never fit in. But the zoo is so cute.

I started eating fruit. Breakthrough.

We Celebrated Holidays with friends and family! And played "minute to win it" and it was rigged cause my little minute game was IMPOSSIBLE!

We sat on Santa's lap!

Yellowstone Snowmobiling! aka your fav! Where my love for Hot Chocolate surfaces as well as your dislike for it.

We Snowshow'ed to the top of SLC, literally.

It was much more intense than we had anticipated.

Vegas

you know we celebrated the ROYAL WEDDING!

with tea and crumpets.

We discovered that after 22 years of living, I actually do like sushi.

We moved out of our first little apartment...

and it took us FOREVER!

...and we moved to Ft. Collins, Colorado. And we L-O-V-ED it!

Such a fun town, and so fun to live away- even for a short summer.

eek, we are currently training for a Century- we'll see.

• We traveled to the DR for our honeymoon, and learned the hard way that I wasn't Mrs. Monson until I switched over my passport, social security card, etc. We had to have a friend run down to the temple before it closed to get a copy of our marriage license so that we could show it to everyone who wonders why the ticket name doesn't match the license/passport. We were just so giddy when we booked our tickets- silly lovebirds!
• Jeff got a road bike and I taught him the ways of the road. And we signed up for a century- we are crazy.
• We started the B.O.M....
• We moved into our first apartment, and out! And boxed it up and rented it to our good friends.
• We both went through multiple jobs; U of U internship, clearlink, usbank, bloomingsales...
• We lived one entire week in a Motel 6 in baby town Wheatland, Wyoming.
• Jeff learned the hard way of my LOVE for animals... I saved a kitten (tried to convince him why we needed to keep it while moving to different hotels and with a dog...), volunteered at the Humane Society, tried to save a dying baby bird, have pulled over for MULTIPLE running around dogs... hence Moby, tried to convince him why we should keep a little frog I found, etc. I really sound absurd.
• Jeff discovered mint.com, Which I hate. It let's us know how much we really spend on maverick...
• We became obsessed with Friday Night Lights.

We truly have loved our first year of marriage. We have experienced so many new things together and have most definitely had fun the entire time. I am so proud of the little independent couple we have become- especially in the last little bit living away.

Although our anniversary may not be spent in the most ideal of places- we are excited anyways! And I think that we both have some fun ideas up our sleeves. We will never forget where we spent our first anniversary. And we are excited for whatever is next.