Count Your Many Blessings

So I thought I would just record some of the thoughts and discussions that Elizabeth and I have had in the past few days about our blessings and the inspiration that we had received regarding my job and ask the blessings we're seeing.

We talked about how possibly the decision to work for Anglepoint has to do with the ability to get out of debt sooner even though that seems somewhat counterintuitive since the starting pay is not quite as good as Goldman Sachs. However, we will be able to live in our great basement apartment with better rent prices for a nice apartment for longer. We are also able to stay there longer because we feel like for some reason we have been given a lot more privacy since returning.

There is no way we could have predicted this but it's really nice that we won't have to spend a lot of money to live in a nice place and can actually stay there until we're completely out if debt in a year or so and then even longer than that possibly.

Likewise I love how close I work to home and Elizabeth. I'm excited that we might be able to do a weekly lunch when I graduate!

Additionally, I'm not the kind of person to want a huge house but would rather do fun things and go on great vacations. You can't take your possessions with you but you can take your memories and relationships.

I'm really excited that we're planning or ten year anniversary to Europe! Only give years to Italy and France. Louvre and Colosseum here we come!!

Additionally - I'm really enjoying our extended newlywed phase! I love Elizabeth. She is the perfect woman and I couldn't imagine my life without her.

Summer 2013 (so far)

Wow it's been more than a year since we've posted! I guess I got a little lazy about it! Well summer this year has been good so far. Wil got an internship at Goldman Sachs and so he is driving down to Salt Lake every day which is sad but he really enjoys his internship and he's learning a ton about finance and investments! I am very proud of him.

We also finally managed to repair our apartment from the flood last summer because Ryan's parents and Tyler and Aimee came to stay with us for a couple of days which gave us some motivation! They came in May over Memorial Day Weekend and we all had a ton of fun! Wil's Uncle Keith loaned us some four wheelers and motorcycles and we went four wheeling for two days. It was a lot of fun and I think Talli and Danny even liked it!

Mom and Dad Craig brought their little dog Nina with them and the day we went up the canyon Tyler brought his gun so that we could shoot and apparently that freaked her out a little so she ran away. We were pretty sure that she would probably get eaten by animals but thankfully a family found her. Unfortunately we only found out about it a day after they left so we became adoptive dog parents for a while. Considering my general dislike of pets I never thought I'd be an object of affection for a dog but I guess I was wrong! Since our lawn happens to consist of mostly thorns though I didn't actually do much of the taking care of her. My sister Christie offered to take her as a sort of trial run to see if they would want to get a dog. The kids loved her and I'm pretty sure she was terrified of them at first but she came around by the end and pretty much thought that was where she lived now! Last weekend some friends from Mom and Dad's ward came through though and we got her back where she belongs. I'm sure Josh will be happy to see her! Lets just say he was not very happy when she ran away and we couldn't find her.

In other random news we just went to the Utah Valley Parade of Homes these last couple weekends. We love going to these things, we are such nerds. It's basically a hobby of ours. I know, kind of a weird hobby. Last year we didn't get to the St. George one but we're hoping to go this year. They're a good place to get ideas I think though cause people do some cool stuff. My mom says by the time we build a house we'll know exactly what we want just like she did when she finally got married. I think that's probably true.

In a couple of weeks we are going to be traveling to Washington for Ryan's Grandma Craig's funeral. She had Alzheimers, her health was not good and she wasn't very happy so she was ready to go home to her husband. I think she's probably happier now. Regardless of everything I just said I still feel a sense of sadness and I will probably cry like a baby at the funeral. I wasn't ever able to meet her in person but I talked to her on the phone a couple of times and skyped with her once. She didn't ever remember me of course. I haven't met many of Wil's cousins or aunts and uncles from that side of the family so I am excited to meet them even though it's kind of a sad time to do it.

Anyways, I think that is all of our news for now.

First Married Apartment

The other night when we started packing I was feeling a little bit wistful about our first married apartment and all of the good times that we have had here for the last two years, so we decided to take some pictures to remember it by, before it got covered in boxes!

Our  Bedroom
This was after we packed the books which is why the bookshelf
is empty.

The other side of our room. As you can see this is where I usually get ready
due to lack of space in the bathroom. :)

The Bathroom view from the doorway

Bathroom from the other side. See what I mean about lack of space!
I usually have to stick my hair dryer in the sink while I'm drying my
hair cause there's not enough counter for it to fit on!

The kitchen. We decided gas stoves are good but gas ovens
are not so good. Everything gets unevenly, overcooked!

The family room. It's big so we like that but the carpet is very
old so we didn't like that so much.

Other side of the family room. We had to replace our big
TV with a little one after Darren took the big one.

Picture wall! We only have pictures of ourselves and a
few my mom gave us for decoration.

End of Semester Craziness

Well, it looks like the next two weeks are going to be a little bit crazier than I anticipated! It's kind of a weird finals week because they start on Saturday and then basically end next Wednesday. Ryan says that there is a half day on Thursday scheduled but a lot of the finals end before that. His two religion finals both end on Tuesday. Usually we get a solid five full days for finals so that is going to be a little crazy! On top of that we have a new apartment that we will be moving into which will probably be finished the first week of May. We're hoping for sooner but we think it's good to expect the later date so that we don't get disappointed. Anyways, we put our contract up for sale two days ago and we think it might have already sold! The only problem is that the people want to move in next Saturday and so that means we have to be out probably by Thursday and then we have to deep clean the whole apartment, and we'll have to live in my sister's spare room for a couple of weeks while our apartment is getting finished!

 So, needless to say our life just got a whole lot crazier. I've started packing a little bit. I think that when you start packing you realize how much more you have to do. It's a little discouraging, and moving is more bittersweet than I anticipated, but we are excited for all these new developments in our lives. Hopefully, after next week it will be a little less stressful! 

Fitness Goals

Ryan and I decided it was high time we shed our winter coats (i.e. a couple extra pounds mostly brought on by ice cream sandwiches) and get into swimsuit shape! We have season tickets to seven peaks and a family Lake Powell trip so lets just say we have motivation, and just to give us some extra I'm writing them down. They say it's always better to write down your goals.

Goals
 Ryan wants to lose five pounds of cushion and then put on ten pounds of muscle.  At least I think that's what they are feel free to correct me babe!
My goal is to lose 5-10 pounds and get toned focusing on my legs, booty, and stomach, and look good in a swimsuit by the previously aforementioned Lake Powell trip.

Plan of Action
Gym 3 times a week for about an hour
Weight training/toning exercise circuits
20 Minutes Cardio minimum

Anyways, Ryan designed some exercises for me, mostly squats, lunges etc. that he found on bodybuilding.com which will hopefully tone up my legs, and butt, and in between I do planks, and various stomach exercises for my abs. Then I do cardio. I heard somewhere it's better to do weights before cardio so that's what I've been doing and my legs are extremely sore so I think it's working so far! Ryan does a bunch of upper body stuff mostly I don't really know what he does but he says he's pretty sore so it's probably good stuff. Wish us luck!

St. George Parade of Homes/Spring Break/Pic dump

Split Rock one of the coolest houses we saw!

Back view of split rock

Glass wall

We saw tons of houses with flat roofs like this one

The three windows. Always three little windows in the master.

The "Cave Shower" no door just your own little shower cave.

Hidden Pantry. Objects may be larger than they appear

Seemingly overflowing pools

Can't decide wood or tile? Put them together and Voila!

Little candle nooks to create some great bath time ambiance!

What Curtis calls a Frank Lloyd Wright esq entertainment center.

Nooks with lights in them!

This year we decided to take our life into our own hands and created our own Spring Break. Every year my sister and her husband go to the Parade of Homes in St. George, and this year they invited us to come with them. We decided we would go with them and it would be our own personal spring break. It was great! We looked at really cool homes all day, and went swimming and hot tubbing in the hotel pool at night. It was just the break we needed and it's also a great place to get ideas of some of the things you might want to do in your own house and figure out what you both like. These pics are just a few of the hundred and fifty that I took so be grateful there aren't more!

January Craziness

So you know how after Christmas there is always a little bit of a let down because you have spent so much time preparing for it and now it's just over? Well in our family there's not much of that, and if there is it only lasts for about a day. We're just too busy! You see, late December and January is probably the craziest time of the year for us. My mom and dad's anniversary which they always insist is a family event (Don't ask me I know it's weird but we've pretty much given up trying to convince them otherwise.) is right after Christmas followed by our niece Sabrina's birthday. January starts out with Brielle's birthday, then my Dad's, then his Dad's, then mine, and a week later Ryan and Jeffrey's on the same day. It's a little crazy and it makes us a lot broke.

This year we decided that we'd just have a family dinner on our actual birthdays and then combine our birthday celebrations with each other. We signed up for their birthday thing at The Roof, the restaurant in Salt Lake City where we got engaged so it kind of has special meaning for us especially around the winter time of year, and got a buy one get one free card. It just so happened that by a funny coincidence Rachael and Nick had two of those, also. They gave one to Rebecca and Blaine because they couldn't use both at once and we all went out together. We got to get all dressed up because it's kind of a nicer restaurant, which is fun to do once in a while. We were kind of running late and it was a blizzard on the way up so we were booking it down the freeway at high speeds and we couldn't see a thing! It was a little nerve wracking. When we got there we had to run through all the snow and slush, and get all soaked, only to find out that there's a convenient little underground tunnel that leads from the parking to the restaurant. It was quite the experience but once we got there it was all worth it! Pics will be added once Wil get's home and figures out what the heck is going on with this computer.

Right outside the Roof

Rebecca and Blaine

Us again!

Rachael and Nick

New Year's with the Fam

This year we've been spending a lot of holidays in Utah so we decided to go up to Idaho to ring in the New Year with the other side of the family. Ryan's parents and Josh also came up so it was almost the entire family! The sad part of this story is that we brought our camera but managed to leave the card at home so we were only able to get a couple pictures.  There were TONS of arts and crafts style houses there and I really wanted to take pictures of them and show them to Dad as paint options, but, oh well. We had tons of fun anyways, though!

We got there on Thursday night, then on Friday we watched the armed forces bowl game. I usually like football but I hated that game for most of it. Our offense just couldn't get it together. Thankfully our defense held them off til we finally scored some points.

 On Saturday Tyler and Aimee took us to some model homes because they know we are obsessed with going through houses, then we went to a super yummy frozen yogurt shop! They had tons of flavors and they charge by weight so you could get as many mix ins as you wanted! We ate haystacks for dinner, which were also really yummy, got Mom, Dad and Josh from the airport, and then had a New Years Eve party. We made sure there were lots of snacks cause New Years Eve just isn't any fun without snacks and Martinelli's. I made my first seven layer dip and I think that it turned out pretty well.

On Sunday we went to Church and exchanged gifts. It was like Christmas all over again. Ryan and I got very spoiled. We feel so grateful to have such a generous family, and also a little bit sheepish that we didn't get them more presents. We are very poor college students and that is pretty much our excuse that we are sticking to. I think the most exiting present for Ryan was a bread maker. Even I have to admit it's pretty cool and he loves it. I got tons of fun things also including new books, pjs, bathrobe, a red coat, a new scarf, jewelry, and a full length mirror! I can finally see my lower half! It's also a great place to do my hair because I can actually see all of it!

Monday was pretty relaxed but we did go to breakfast at a really yummy place near Tyler and Aimee's house and then on Tuesday we went swimming for a while, ate pizza, and then drove home. I don't think that Mom and Dad have ever had stuffed pizza before because they were pretty surprised at how big an actual piece was. Josh was a little angry by the end there. One time his Dad bumped into him and he sad "Ouch! Dad! You hit me right in the boob!". His Dad then informed him that men have a chest, not boobs.

Talli demonstrating her spelling skills.

Little Danny was really smiley

Christmas!

Christmas Eve is one of my favorite days of the year. I think it's kind of a bigger deal in my family than it is in most because of the whole Norwegian thing. We eat pinnekjot a traditional Norwegian dish that nobody but the immediate family likes, so we also have ham for all the boys. In Norway Santa comes on Christmas Eve and they open all of their presents so we do a thing where he comes and brings a few presents for the kids to open but also comes later when they are asleep with the rest. Unfortunately, we have kind of a crappy Santa suit that doesn't fit my Dad so Curtis does it. This year I overheard Brianna telling her little sister Sabrina that Santa would probably be really tan. It's a work in progress. The little kids all gather round in awe, but they are also a little afraid. The babies are a lot afraid, actually. We also do a pageant of the story of the baby Jesus with the little kids playing the parts. This year we had two Mary's because Afton and Brielle couldn't agree on who got to do it so they decided to compromise. They both got to play her in different scenes.

                                           Joseph and Mary traveling to Bethlehem.

                                            The angel announcing the birth to the shepherds

                                           The baby Jesus in the manger didn't turn out so well
                                          because all the other babies decided they wanted the
                                          manger for themselves.

                                           The entire cast!

We slept over at  Rachael and Nick's new house (I'll get some pictures of it up soon.) and had Christmas morning with them. Rachael had all the presents hidden in their closet so we set them all out after the kids had gone to bed so there would be a huge pile in the morning like Santa had come. Then we got up at about seven thirty cause Nick got to come home a half hour early and opened presents. They have a tradition in Nick's family that they are carrying on, where it starts from the oldest to the youngest but when it is your turn you go to the tree and choose a present for someone else to open. We thought it was a good way to focus on other people while opening presents.

Rachael's House Updates: Not Really

As some of you know, see I'm still pretending there is someone who actually reads our blog, my parents and my sister are both building houses at the same time. Rachael's is going to be all the way done in about two weeks so I thought it was probably high time that I posted these "progress pics" on my blog before the house is totally done and I need to take some finished house pics. My brother in law Nick worked in construction before he was a cop and so he's done most of the work himself as well as adding some cool details which luckily didn't cost anything because he just used the leftover scrap from the framing to frame them in! It really gives the house some class, I think.

                                                    My nephew Carson (little Nick)
                                                       I just think he's cute

Front of the house
It's crazy how when the outside stuff gets on all of a sudden it looks like a house.

                                                                        Sitting Room
                                                            Ceiling boxes and an arch in
                                                                   corner for a picture.

                                          The dining room area
                                             Step-Up Ceiling
.

Rachael's fireplace/entertainment center area
Nick actually built it into the wall along with some decorative arches so all they have to do is have the cabinet guys put the doors on and they have their entertainment center all built in!

The My Sister's are Awesome Post!

Last weekend my sister's did the dirty dash. They originally were just going to do the 5k but Deborah said she got to the mark and thought you know I'm not that tired so they did the whole 10k in style!

This is the before picture

The Dash!

And finally the fruits of their labors!

Go Cougars!!

Just a little something to get all you BYU fans geared up for football season!

Idaho Adventures!

We went to Idaho a couple of weeks ago to visit Wil's brother Tyler and his wife Aimee, plus of course Talli and Danny. They showed us a great time! Ryan got some battle wounds on his arm and legs from mountain biking, went on a regular bike ride, and to the beach/river. Danny has gotten huge and I think that Talli is the most polite two year old that I have ever met. They are both adorable and we had tons of fun visiting with Tyler and Aimee!

Battle Wounds

                                                   

Post battle wounds stupidity

Danny's way to entranced with Dad doing jumps to look at the camera.

Talli's all ready to go

We forgot our camera so that's just a little taste of our adventures in Idaho!

Policeawesomenessridealong

So Saturday night I did something that I've wanted to do since I was like 8 years old.


I went on a ride-along with my Brother-in-law Nick.


It. Was. Awesome.


We saw some drunk people who were WAY over the .08 legal limit (they both blew about a .21), and a third drunk guy who was passed out on the railroad tracks underneath a highway overpass at the end of a Union Pacific train yard. Nobody has any idea how he got there, except maybe to have driven off the highway overpass and down the 60 or 65 degree embankment to the tracks. I didn't get to see exactly where he was but we drove down a weird access road to try to get there and it was pretty close to where he was and we could almost see him and it was CRAZY! Dispatch had to call Union Pacific and get all the trains stopped and everything. He ended up being a 22 yo. Mexican from really close to my mission (Michoacan, where I served in a city for about 5 mos), and Nick translated for the cops at the station when they were reading rights and asking him about the night and taking the Breathalyzer. It was fun cause I got to listen to him speak and got to kind of relive parts of my mission. 


West Valley had a shootout during the night that they borrowed three cops from Murray for. I didn't get to go on that one (which was a bummer cause it would have been like a 100+ mph run down the belt route and arresting a ton of people, but we were at the jail booking a DUI at the time.


I got to see a Salt Lake City drug unit car (it was an unmarked, super undercover, very nice black charger) at the jail. Apparently they refused the inmate because his blood pressure was too high from the drugs he was on.


I also got to hear lots of cool police chatter about the fights and DUIs and everything that were going on.


The coolest thing I got to see were the roadside DUI tests. They were so funny. People were stumbling all over and forgetting instructions and their eyes would NOT follow the stupid pen! They were jumpin all over. One lady was supposed to do the "9-step walk and turn" and she took 11 steps one way and 12 the other and would have kept going probably but she ran into her car. It was great. Both cars, ironically, were brand new, and the owners still had the 30-day tags on.


Anyway, if you want to hear more detailed stories you can ask me next time we talk.

Colorado Trip!

Summer is a great time for us to visit family because we actually have some time and a little extra money to do it with! So on that note we wanted to make sure we visited both of Ryan's brothers this summer and last week we took our first trip of the summer to Colorado to visit Jim and Ang! It was great to see them and the kids, who are as cute as ever. I think Cleo's hair has grown about five inches since I last saw her, it is so pretty. We had tons of fun but pictures speak louder than words so without further ado...

Ryan feeling wide awake after downing his energy drink. We left at three in the morning so that we could make the airshow in Wyoming. Ryan drove while I slept in my little makeshift bed in the back.

 He took some pictures of the sunrise.

Me while Ryan was enjoying the sunrise

We went on a river float/rafting trip down the Colorado river with Jim, Ang, and the kids. It was mostly floating but we did catch some fun, level three rapids!

While we were there Ang did a Duathalon which means that you bike, run, then bike again. We were sad cause we didn't quite make it in time to see her cross the finish line, so I made her take a picture afterward. Yay, Ang!

 Our adorable nieces on our last morning there Mira and AnnaBelle on top, and Cleo on the bottom.

This was Toliver's favorite thing to do during most of the trip.