Road Trip to Seattle and San Fran

Where to start? Well first of all sorry that this post is so late but I still want to post it on the blog because we had so much fun! Thing have been crazy since we moved here to Salt Lake. There has been a lot of things to get done. For some reason I thought that things would slow down once I graduated but that never happened. I will explain that more later. Now I will tell you about our trip. I have been telling my best friend Kellie since she moved to Seattle that I would come and visit her and I finally made it. We were going to take a trip to New York but that will have to wait until we have a little more money. It was so great to see Kellie and what it is like in Seattle. It seems like such a cute place to live and there is a lot to do. If you know us we tried to fit in all in one day so we could see as much as possible. 

Here is a great picture right before the ferry ride that we took to a cute little island. As you can see in the picture it was a windy but very pretty day. I was happy that it didn't rain on us. 

This is Spencer trying to throw me in the fountain but I was successful in not getting wet. He thought that he was being so funny because I just wanted a cute picture so I wasn't even expecting it.

We got in a little shopping before we went to Kellie's favorite Mexican restaurant. It tasted really good after a long day of walking around to see the whole city.

These were probably our favorite two things that we ended up doing. Here is the public market there was a cheese festival going on and we love cheese. We were able to try a lot of new types of cheese by just fighting our way through the people. Lets say there was a lot of gross ones but also some good ones. It worked out perfect that we were there on the right weekend.

Then there was post alley. This is where you can find the famous gum wall. We all decided to make our addition with Kellie's gum in her magical purse that can hold everything. There was so much gum and you can see gum forever! I thought it was a neat idea, whoever thought of it was a genius. We will for sure go here next time we are in Seattle.

The last thing that we did was stop to see the Fremont Troll. It is under a bridge and is the most random thing ever. It was just something you have to go and see so you can say that you did it. 

 Thanks Kell for showing us around! Let's just focus on this part of the trip and not the last couple of hours. We will have to come again soon. Then we left that same night to try and get to Cali. We spent a lot of time driving those first two days but that is what you do when you are young and crazy. We drove through the Red wood Forest and some of the trees were bigger than our car. They were so big and they looked fake at times but I don't think you could make a tree that big even if you wanted to. We made some fun stops along the way and took some funny pictures. 

Our first stop in San Fran was seeing the sea lions. There were so many that were all just sitting there. Some of them were even playing king of the hill. It was funny to watch. I think we could have stayed there all day and I would have been happy. 

Then we went to China Town and that was probably the scariest thing of the whole trip. I felt like I was in China for real there were so many people going so many directions. I don't ever want to go back there again. We got lost trying to find our way back but we had some good laughs along the way. We are really good at pretending like we know what we are doing.

We got back just in time to go on our tour of Alcatraz. If you break the rules in prison then you got send here. It was impossible to escape and if they did escape they didn't have anywhere to go. That didn't stop them from trying. There was a lot of interesting stories of what happened for the few years that it was open. I don't know what makes someone become that angry that makes them only want to do evil but I am grateful that we have places for them to go when it does happen.

The next day we went and saw all the normal tourist sights like the curvy road, the houses that looked like they were from Full House (one of my favorite shows), ate sourdough pizza, rode the cable cars, ran into some Germans, and finally went on a tour at the Giants Baseball field. I learned a lot about baseball and also spend some time being confused about what they were saying. I just sat there and nodded like Joey does on Friends when he has no idea what is going on. Good thing I have Brian and Spencer to explain things to me afterwards.

On our way back to Utah we stopped at a way sweet hotel! This was the view out our window and it was so peaceful after being in the big city for so long. There were even little birds that had just been born. I love being in the nature but still having a bed to sleep on. It was perfect! Thanks Heidi and Brian for putting everything together for us. The trip turned out a little different than planned with a few unplanned events but we just worked through them together. We had a great time and look forward to our next road trip. Does the mall of America sound good to you guys?? 

Cancun....I love warm weather!

I know a lot of you have been asking about our honeymoon... Here is just a few pictures to show you how much fun we had. It was so great to have time with just us two, no cellphones, no work, no computers, no family (as much as I love you guys), no friends, no one to tell us what to do or where to go, and best of all no more wedding plans! I keep telling people if you can make it past the engagement then they are set.

 Our first night we stayed at the Hilton, not to be confused with Hilton that is downtown in Salt Lake. It took us a minute to find the right hotel but we eventually found it. This is us the next morning at 4 a.m. getting ready to catch our flight. It was going to be a long day....

 It was worth it once we got to the hotel. We were VIP guests and our room was on the 12th floor. It was so much fun. This is a view from our room. We could see all the rooms and all the restaurants, no need to wait in lines, we could see if there was a wait no need to go downstairs to check. The name of our hotel was the Great Parnassnus and there was a lot to do everyday. The best part about it was it was right on the beach, perfect place to relax.

 Our first activity was mini golf. Don't worry Spencer beat me as usual. He loves his golf but it was really fun! Good news is I only lost by 3 strokes. We decided to play the course backwards to make it go a little faster with all the other people that decided to play at the same time as us. My favorite one was the one with the lighthouse but Spencer ended up getting a hole in one instead of me. Well I guess at least some one did right?

 The most romantic part of our Honeymoon, besides the fact that we were in Cancun all alone, was the dinner that was brought to our room. Room service but better. We had our own waiter to bring us whatever we wanted. They decorated our whole room with real rose pedals and put them all over the floor. My first time ever walking on rose pedals. I loved it. But I think the thing that made the night something that I will never forget is when we told the waiter that we don't drink wine and we would rather just have Pepsi. Then once he left the room to get our salads Spencer opened the fridge and a bottle of wine fell out of it and broke all over the floor. Then it was a race to clean it up before he came back. Don't worry we got done way before he got there and he had no idea. My thinking is one less bottle of wine that other people have to drink. Oops!

Our first adventure was para sailing. It was my first time ever and I never really thought it looked that cool but it was way fun. One of the best parts was going out on the wave runner with the Mexican going as fast as he could. He was loving the big waves and getting us all wet. When we got all the way up we were able to see pretty far down hotel row. If you ever get the chance to do this I would take the offer.

This was right below our hotel, one of the prettiest days on the trip, nice and sunny!

Our next adventure takes us to this island. I don't know how to say it in Spanish but I like to translate it to the "woman island" It you look at this picture sideways you will see that she has a head and legs and her arms are out in front of her. Kind of cool right? We spent a whole day here doing all kinds of fun things while we were waiting to swim with the dolphins. We went on a zip line that went over the ocean. (Don't worry my brake decided not to work and I ran straight into the boy that was trying to help me. He kept telling me to pull down on the brake, I was but it wasn't working. The first thing that he said to me was hey beautiful! I think that is all that they know to call women. Then we went snorkeling, laid out on the beach and in hammocks, and went on a bike tour. If you ask Spencer about it, it was a bike ride because it only lasted about 5 minutes. haha.

This is us on the very tip of her head. It keeps breaking off more and more every year. In a few years this part of the island won't even exist.

          The best part of the island was swimming with the dolphins. We got to kiss, play ball, get pulled by their fins, and get pushed on a  buggie board by them. Who knew that dolphins were so strong and smart? Spencer even got to play with the baby dolphin that they were training for a little while. Just by doing some simple hand motions they know exactly what to do. This was for sure the highlight of the trip!

This was a funny story. We were looking at all the restaurants at the hotel and we came across this one. Who knew that we would still be able to find Germany in Cancun. We knew that we had to get a picture because we couldn't order anything there, too bad it wasn't a real restaurant but what can you expect it's Germany they love their beer.

Okay here is the chicken story that you are all dying to hear about. So we went to a cirque show that was put on by our hotel. They wanted to start out with something to get everyone excited, the announcer asked for three big white men to come and help him. Spencer was the first and only one to raise his hand, he was a little excited because we hadn't been able to participate in the drinking games all day, finally something he could do. When he got up there, he then found out that he would have to pretend to be a chicken and take his little brother (a lime) back to the nest. The goal was to hold a lime in between your knees while making chicken noises and get it to land in this cup and have it stay there. Two out of the three men were able to do it, Spencer and the guy from Mexico. Now it was time for a dance off. If any of you know Spencer he will tell you how much he loves to dance.......here is the sweet video! Oh right, and Spencer did end up winning and got a sweet T-shirt! He loves his shirts from trips so I am sure that he will be wearing it a lot.

This was a boat tour that we got for free through the hotel. It was part of being VIP for the week. We had no idea what it was when we signed up for it. We said a free tour? Why not? It actually ended up being really fun and we talked to some interesting people, one of them even had a tattoo of a German flag. That is always a good way to start a conversation! After we got back from the tour we took turns making each other mermaids in the sand. That is a must when you got to the beach! 

We finished out the trip eating breakfast at the nicest restaurant in the hotel. It was on the 10th floor and they only served food in the morning because you can see the beach really good through the windows. You can kind of see in the picture on the right. The nice little waiter even brought me a flower to put in my hair.

Last day at the hotel, just waiting for the shuttle.

We had a great time in Cancun and it was so nice not to worry about anything. We just had time to spend with each other and we never had to say goodbye, we were together all day, everyday! I love Spencer so much and can't wait for the many adventures that we will have together. 

Thanksgiving and Black Friday

Well first off this is Spencer.  I am not very good at this so this is just a warning.  I am writing this because Jan wants me to and she is doing her homework right now and I was going to but forgot my backpack at home.  I truly did forget it though.  It is nice having a break from all the work Ive been doing with the end of school coming up.  Anyways on to the title of the post.

So for Thanksgiving Jan and I went down to St. George with my family.  We left on Wednesday and it all started out with Jans' car not starting because she had ran out of gas.  So she had to have Heidi come and rescue her.  It also had been snowing a ton so the drive down for her to Salt Lake was slower than normal but she got to Salt Lake safely.  Meanwhile I was trying to get my family ready to leave for St George and none of them were helping.  My dad was coming down later that evening with Jason and Christina (my bro and sis-in-law) so he wasn't there.  My mom was trying but she still couldn't lift much from her surgery and well my little brothers were doing absolutely nothing.  Not even wanting to pack.  Fortunately my sister Michelle was trying to help.  She was getting them to pack and bringing stuff out and trying to help me and my mom.  I was very frustrated by the time Jan got to my house though and I still had a lot to pack into the suburban. 

After we finally managed to get everything loaded we left just as it was starting to snow hard again.  Going to make the drive great.  The drive started out ok.  I was driving and well it wasn't to bad at first.  But after about a half of an hour I decided that we really needed to pull over and fix the car.  The problem was that the windshield wipers were not working PERIOD.  So I could not see because all the other cars were throwing salt and mud on the windshield making driving difficult.  Now this would have been easier if it had continued to snow, but it had snowed enough to make the roads wet and then stopped.  Leaving me with nothing to wipe the salt and mud off.  So I pulled over and cleaned my windshield and we grabbed some lunch. 

We continued driving and I only made it about 20 miles before the windshield was bad enough that I pulled over and cleaned it again.  I figured this was going to be a long drive.  This time though my mom ran in to buy some windshield washing fluid because it was low as well and I figured its probably frozen but this may help.  This did help for a little and I was able to clean my windshield although only temporarily.  Another issue arose though the cashier took a picture of my moms' credit card that she used and so my mom called and canceled her credit card. 

Anyways the rest of the drive I couldn't really see.  It was like driving through a blizzard and fog at the same time.  Occassionally I would try throwing some fluid on the windshield while driving because I didn't want to pull over anymore though.  BAD IDEA.  So from time to time I pulled over on the road and splashed the windshield so I could make out where cars were on the road.  I still ended up getting us to St. George in 4 1/2 hours though.  I love speeding.  :) 

In St. George we went swimming that day and that was a nice relief.  It was still cold down there although we definately had it warmer. 

Thanksgiving we went to this restraunt called Switchbacks.  It was a nice buffet and who doesn't want a buffet on Thanksgiving.  Umm that was good.  We also had a turkey bowl.  Thats always a must and was fun.  We won of course.  This was the day that we also got a newspaper with all of the ads for the coming evening.  We went through all the ads and figured out where we wanted to go and when.  Most of my family thought we were nuts for going and in the end they all were jealous and wanted some stuff we got, but we will get to that later. 

Black Friday.  The day where people see lives flash before their eyes over sometimes small issues.  I basically was a first timer though because I don't like shopping and I don't like waiting in lines.  It wasn't all that bad though.  We started out by hitting up Walmart at midnight.  Man some people there can be freaks about legos and DVDs and things that weren't that big of a deal to fight over.  I didn't like it at this point because I just didn't see the point of fighting over such small issues.  Jan came out victorious though.  She found and got her crock pot.

Later that morning, at 3 to be exact is when KOHL'S was opening, and don't worry we had been in line for over an hour and had good spots.  So when we were allowed inside we took off looking for some presents and things we wanted.  We met towards the back of the store and jumped in line.  A long line at that.  The line wasn't moving at all forever and Jan just kept shopping.  I stood in line and she went about finding more cool deals.  I eventually had my turn and found some stuff.  We left there and went to Radioshack because my brother wanted something there and we were going to help him out (since we were awake already).  So we waited in line there too because it didn't open until 5:30.  When it opened fortunately there weren't too many ahead of me and we got in and out quick.  We went home and got some sleep, but then my mom wanted to go and saw what we had and was jealous so she wanted to go see if she could find some stuff too.  So we went back.  Back to KOHL'S.  We later went to vistit my grandparents the Hafers' and saw their new house.  Afterwards we went to the temple and that was a nice experience as always.  That night the Jazz beat the Lakers though :) and Boise State lost in overtime :( it was a good game at least. 

Saturday my grandparents, the Gygis', had rented out this place where we all came together for the whole day with all the aunts uncles and everyone.  I ended up spending a lot of time building a puzzle and Jan went and looked for engagement clothes.  I went at the end and looked at what she had found though.  The BYU and Utah game was on as well.  Good game.  Started out rough though with neither team really playing. 

Sunday we packed up and came home.  Once again a long drive because this time it had even snowed in St George and the roads were really bad and we had to go slow the whole way home.  It took us forever, but the windshield wipers worked.  It was a good weekend.  :)

We're Engaged!!

I am sure that you are all dying to know how it happened.....that is if anyone knew about this blog. We are going to start telling people soon and it will be fun to look back and remember this time in our relationship. It happened on November 13, 2010. Spencer had been throwing me off all week and didn't want to let me know that it was actually going on happen. On Tuesday he asked me if I wanted to go ring shopping on Saturday. I was like what you don't even have a ring yet? I thought for sure that he already had it and was going to propose soon hopefully on Friday or Saturday. I was so confused, mad, and frustrated all at the same time. I said that we could go, thinking at least we could get the ring then and I would know for sure that he had it. It was a main topic of the week, that's for sure.

On Thursday, after I got off work, I headed over to Brian and Heidi's to see if they knew anything that was going on and I drilled them with several questions. There apartment is where Spencer stays when he comes up to Logan so I figured if anyone knew if he had the ring it would be them. They told me he hadn't said anything about it and didn't have any new information. I was still determined to find out.

On my way to Salt Lake I stopped in Plain City, where I also asked my mom and dad several questions. They said that they didn't know when he was going to do it and that he hadn't even talked to them yet. I was very confused at this point. I knew that they wouldn't lie to me. I assumed that I was wrong and accepted the fact that it wasn't going to happen this weekend, maybe next.

On Saturday we had a lazy day watching football, doing homework, sleeping, and we even went on a nice little jog that morning. Don't worry no more working out for us, zumba is so much more enjoyable and a much better workout. Then we both got ready for dinner and were out the door just in time to go to our dinner reservation at The Roof. If you haven't ever been there before it is a really nice restaurant that looks over the Salt Lake Temple. On the way there I got kind of mad at Spencer and asked how he didn't have a ring yet and asked when he was going to propose. Okay I wasn't mad, just frustrated. We had a really good meal and enjoyed our time together. Spencer was still trying to plan everything while we were eating. He was texting everyone that was involved and making sure that we were right on schedule with our plans.

While we were eating our dessert the waiter brought a fortune cookie to our table and said I think that I was supposed to bring this to your table. Spencer looked at me and ask, "do you know anything about that?" I said "no, do you?" Then he said, "no?" Not wanting to open someone else's cookie I just let it sit there for about 10 minutes. I didn't want to ruin it if it was for someone else. Finally Spencer decided to open it and see what it had to say. It said to go the roof of the Conference Center and you will find my fortune there. He still just acted confused and so did I. Then, right when we were leaving, I asked if we just wanted to go there and see what was going on. He said, "sure why not?" We started heading over and this was when I figured something was going to happen. We walked in the door and the first lady that we talked to said that we weren't allowed to go up there after dark. Thank goodness for the next lady (who Spencer had arranged everything with) that said she could take us up and let us see what we could after dark.

We were the only ones up there and Spencer suggested (after not be able to find the second fortune cookie) that we go and look over the edge where the waterfall goes down the front of the building. There was a big banner with picture of us that said, Will you marry me in big white letters. He said, "can you read that?" Then he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him! It was so cute. Once he got up and we had our moment together he said, "do you know who is down there?" I said, "your family." Then he said, "and yours!!" I was so surprised! It was great to have our time alone but still have our families there to share the experience with us. I love you Spencer!! We are getting married March 4, 2011 in the Salt Lake Temple and I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you and grow old together. There are so many fun adventures to come!

Getting the banner ready....

Both of our families waiting for the big moment

walking down to see our families

Our Engagment Picture in front of the Conference Center

The Love Story....

Well every love story starts out with with the question how you meet. Some like to call it a church function but I just like to say.... My first day in Germany I briefly met this kid named Elder Hafer and he was going home to get some medical problems looked at. The only reason that I got introduced was because he was in the MTC with my trainer. After a long six weeks and a miracle, Elder Hafer was able to come back to the great land of Germany. I was still serving in Frankfurt at the time, and we didn't see each other again until he was transfer to Hoechst in a three some. I had already been serving in the area for awhile and had just receive my second "golden", we had a really good cycle together. Elder Hafer and I served together in the same zone for the rest of my missions, about eight months and we became good friends.

As Spencer returned home we wrote a few letters and emails back and forth as I continued to tell him to go on as many dates as possible and he answered my question about what it was like being home. I got home about six months later and we remained in contact. My first time seeing him in the states was at Bajio, that was an awkward first visit. No worries it all went uphill from there.

We planned to hang out with mission friends several times but for some reason the only two that could ever make it were of course Spencer and I. I think that is part of Heavenly Father's sense of humor. haha. Chili's, bear lake cabin (meeting the family as a Sister that served in his mission), going to see Robin Hood, until finally we went on our first real date. It started out by eating at Siegfried's, what is better than German food? Then we went and saw a movie, where after an hour and a half Spencer finally had the courage to hold my hand for the first time.

Since that date we have really got to know each other and fallen more and more in love every day. Something I always catch myself thinking is why does this feel so much different this time? Spencer is currently living in Salt Lake and I am in Logan. We both can't wait to see each other on the weekend and count down the days every week. Hopefully Spencer will be able to move up to Logan soon but until then we will continue having a long distance relationship and loving every minute of it.

Here are a few pictures from when we were serving together. We both really loved this time of ourlives as we came closer to our savior while serving our brothers and sisters.

Carving pumpkins as a district

Christmas street preach (the week Spencer headed home to Salt Lake)

Chalk Drawing: The Gospel of Jesus Christ. One of my favorite things to do on my mission because there is always someone to talk to in Frankfurt

District Picture

At the temple during Christmas. We are covering the nativity but it was actually really pretty. ha ha.