Nine Months Ago....

It is hard to think that nine months ago today I married my best friend. A lot has changed since that day and we have grown closer and closer together. We had been through challenges and changes but I think that has what made us closer. I was too busy after our wedding to post pictures of the wedding and everyone that looks at it for the first time ask me where our wedding pictures are. Well here are a few highlights for everyone.

 This one is the best! haha. Look at the height difference. 

I love you babe! Thanks for the greatest months of my life!

Goblin Valley

 We decided to take a short trip down to Goblin Valley with Spencer's old ward while he was growing up. His brother put together the whole trip and needed some help getting everything set up and it is always good to have a few more leaders to help with the kids. It was so pretty there and I've never seen anything else like it. The first picture is us in Wild Horse Canyon. This is where we stayed the night and took a hike the next day. It is a slot canyon that is formed by water running through when it rains. In some sections you barely have room to walk through. Such a cool place!

Spencer decided to try and scare some people as they walked by. Funny kid!

 Then it was off to the National Park to see the goblins! You can climb really high because of the way the rocks are formed. We even climbed through a small cave to get some places. Here is a picture from the top looking over the whole park.

The mud was so soft that Christina took off her shoes to put her feet in. This is better than going to a spa. haha. We had a really fun time with the youth and tried not to freeze our butts off at night. We also made a purchase just in time for the trip, a sweet air mattress that will last us a long time plus we can stop stealing Heidi and Brian's. We are for sure going to have to come back and see the goblins again!

New Gym, Finally!

I finally found a gym here in Salt Lake that I love! I have been looking for a place to go ever since I moved here in May and just haven't found some where that makes we want to come back and work out every week. One of Spencer's friends suggested that I try Dash Fitness. She said that she liked it because she felt like she was getting a workout when she went there. I don't want to just dance around and look cute, that isn't zumba or at least the zumba i knew. I mean I love Planet Fitness because that is where I work, but I just get sick of running all the time I needed some fitness classes. I fell in love with Step Tonic when I was living in Logan and that doesn't exist here so I looked until I found something similar. After looking for six months I finally found what I was looking for. I went yesterday and I finally have sore legs. Thanks Dash Fitness!



Taylor and Jess Clawson

 We were able to go to Taylor and Jess's Wedding this past week and we are so happy for them both. Taylor has been Spencer's friend since they were really young. The most exciting part about it is, we finally have a couple friend that lives in the state of Utah. I always say this but it is so hard to find couple that get along with both of you so you both like doing things with them. We both love doing things with the Clawsons and look forward to going on double dates, which means that we will also be seeing more or Logan. Congrats you guys!

Bear Lake

So this past weekend was our last one this year in Bear Lake and we went out with a bang. We went up late Friday night and sat and talked with the family until it was time to go to bed. There was a rain storm Saturday morning so we got a late start but it felt good to have a relaxing morning. We started out double knee boarding, which I hadn't done since I was in young women's. It was really fun for some reason. I started working on doing a 360 degree turn and got so close so many times. So maybe I will get it next year. My arms were too tired to keep going. Then Spencer water skied the rest of the way back to the cabin.

Then after lunch we went back out to do some tubing. Our favorite thing to do is have tube wars with the two tubes going at the same time. Debbie was in a crazy driving mood and we were all way sore the next few days after coming home. We just aren't as young as we used to be... We made a stop in the hot tub to see if it would help.

We will miss going here every couple weekends. It will be nice to be back to having a normal schedule and living in Salt Lake on the weekends!

Hafer Family Reunion

This past weekend we went to Reid Ranch for the Hafer Family Reunion. We were in the middle of no where. If any of you know where Fruitland, Utah is, we were right next to that. The ride getting there was like a roller coaster with Debbie going 40 mph on a dirt road. We hit a big pot hole and my head hit the ceiling and I turned around it time to see Ryan do the same thing. We were all laughing the whole time. We were trying to get there in time for lunch. There was no cell phone service, so it was a perfect time for everyone to just sit and talk and get to know each other better. Another thing that really help was there was internet connection but it was like dial up internet, which doesn't get you very far in today's world. It was my first time meeting a lot of the Hafers so there were a lot of new faces, but they were all so nice and welcoming. Spencer hadn't seen a lot of them in over seven years so it was also fun for him to catch up. There was a lot to do: swimming with chicken fight wars, mini golf, soccer, volleyball, horseback riding, fires with the little kids performing for us, boating, and fishing. Here are some of the highlights and things I took pictures of. This is the cabin that we stayed in. It was sunny like this the whole time we were there. I was so happy that there wasn't any rain.

There were a lot of fun things to do. This is Ryan and Spencer doing archery. This was Ryan's favorite thing to do. Whenever we didn't know where he was we would just guess shooting arrows again. He got pretty good by the end of the week. Michelle actually started to make hers on the target. Let's just say everyone improved from the first day.

 Then the next day we went paddle boating and fishing. The best part was looking off the top of the bridge and watching the fish swim under you. There was a strong current and so they just sat there all day swimming to keep from going downstream. They were really strong, smart fish. These are the sweet tie dye shirts that we made together and then wore them on the same day. (probably the only day I will ever wear it.)

 I finally fit the yellow target! I had been trying all week. On the last day I made it and had to take a picture of it. Then I hit it a lot after that but I had to have proof. Spencer's favorite thing to do was to shoot his first arrow and then try and hit the same spot again. It was funny to watch.

 Then there was horseback riding. We went every day! I love horses! The best part was it was already included in the price so we had to use it as much as we could. The horses were so trained to follow each other, all you had to do was sit there and they did the rest. This was good and bad, but any ride is worth it in my book. We had to wear life jackets to ride them. We would joke about it everytime we had to put them on. If there wasn't any water along the trail, why did we need them? It looked way funny!

 We had been trying to get a game together all week: soccer, frisbee golf, volleyball, golf, or basketball. We did the ones we could without having a big group. Frisbee golf made my legs itch way bad because it was in a big weedy field! Not worth it to chase a little disc around, that's for sure. We finally worked out a big game on the last day. We challenged the staff from Reid Ranch to a volleyball game. It was funny because we had a lot of older people on our team, surprisingly, we played pretty well together. We had a big cheering section because everyone wanted to see what happened. They ended up winning up it was the most fun that we had all week just coming together and laughing. It was a good way to end a fun, relaxing week.



Quick Update

So a couple of weeks ago I talked about how my best friend Kellie was coming to Utah for a weekend. We met at her sisters wedding and had a good time catching up since we had saw each other last. I am so happy for Megan. Josh is so sweet with her and they will make such cute parents. I wish we could have spent more time with Kell but I was way tired from this waking up early business. It is really hard for me to stay up late anymore. On the positive side I am better at getting up early. It was fun to see you Kell and Andy and we hope to see you again really, really soon!

Then this last weekend we had the chance to go boating with Joel and his family. I have some exciting news! I got up on the wake board for the very first time. It felt so good to finally be on my feet. But after awhile, when I face planted because I didn't know what to do next, I wasn't so happy anymore. Spencer also tried no boarding, which is pretty much getting pulled by the boat and seeing how long you can hang on before it hurts too much. We both decided that we are too old for this stuff when we woke up the next day and could barely move. It is always fun at the time but we are just getting older. Spencer says that is why he doesn't jump as high on the wake board anymore, it hurts so much more now. haha.

Then that night we went to the Blaze game. It was the last one of the season and it was a very good game. They scored with eight seconds to go. It was a close game the whole fourth quarter and a good finish to the season. I will miss going and watching them, I will have to wait until next year. I think that I got Spencer to like it a little more than when we started. Go Blaze! We are just staying busy this summer going from one thing to the next. I can't believe that July is almost over, it is just flying by! I hope everyone else is enjoying this warm weather like we are.

Things are finally coming together

I know that I have told a few people but for those of you that still don't know I am opening my own tumbling gym here in Holladay, Utah! It has been a lot of work to get everything together. I have also gotten lost quiet a few times but I am getting more and more excited the closer that it gets. It has been great to see how all of my friends and family have pitched in to help us get everything together. We never could have done this alone. We should be ready to open on August 22. So  if you know anyone in the Salt Lake area that has little girls and boys, send them my way. My plan is to keep it small and keep prices low because they charge a lot more here for lessons than we ever did in Logan. Everyone should have the chance to learn how to do basic tumbling. I know that it has changed my life.  

Disney Cruise

Here is a great picture that can explain the whole trip. This is what it looked like everywhere we went. There was never a boring minute because there was always someone to do something with.

This is where we stayed the first night. It was right in the airport which made it really easy to leave in the morning to get on the ship. It was so pretty and we were all the way on the tenth floor. Here is what it looked like from our balcony.

I finally found time to write about our Disney Cruise! It was so much fun and it was nice to get away from everyday activities and treat ourselves everyday to ice cream. When people say that you eat a lot on a cruise, that is a total understatement. I felt like all we did was eat and swim or other water activities. There wasn't any cleaning, work, or just the little things that consume our lives everyday. We went with Spencer's whole family, all 36 of them. This was a Christmas gift from grandma and grandpa Gygi. Everyone has been counting down the days and it was finally here. Since they had been on a couple in the past they knew exactly what to do in order to make the best of our time. We made sure to carry our swimming suits with us so that we could get straight into the pool while we were waiting for our other baggage. Everyone has been telling us about the Aquaduck slide that goes outside the boat and then comes back and circles around. It was really fun and the best part was we remembered our suits so there was a short line!

There was always something to do on the ship. It is a tradition to go to the shows at night. They were so cool. One my favorites was the comedy night with Alfred and Seymour. I laughed so hard! One night we found them and asked if we could get a picture with them. They told us that they might me coming to Utah soon. We both would love to see them again. Most of the time we hung out in the D lounge, this was a place for the whole family. We played a lot of games and won every time we played because the size of our family we had everything that we needed. It was a fun way for me to get to know the family better. Our favorite thing was bingo! Spencer's uncle won three different times! It was fun for me to just go and watch. Then there was a baby race, it was so funny to watch. Most of them just sat there but one little boy knew what he was doing and went straight to his mom. Who would think of an idea like this? 

 Here is a picture of the big ship. This is the new one that they started doing in January of this year (Dream). It was the biggest ship that I'd ever been on. We were on the the tenth deck at the back. We had a balcony that made it fun because we opened it so that we could be connected with the rest of the family. Everyone could come and visit without having to leave their rooms.

After the cute sailing away party, and traveling through the night, our first stop was Castaway Cay. We were woken up with the boat trying to dock, man was it loud! This is Disney's own private island. It was a relaxing place to:  swim, snorkel, build sand castles, ride bikes, play volleyball, and last of all get a nice sunburn. It was fun to go snorkeling and see all the big fish! I hadn't ever been in such clear water where I could see so deep. I wanted to go and touch them but the salt water in my mouth wouldn't be worth it! They really fixed this island up with a nice white sand beach. On our bike ride we were able to see the rest of the island and it wasn't that pretty in the middle where they hadn't done work to fix it up. Not a lot of people actually see that part of the island though. We also stopped here on the way home also but we were all a little more tired the second time around and most of us just sat and enjoyed the great weather.

Our second stop was Nassau, the biggest island in the Bahamas. We were told that there was a lot of great shopping on the island so that was the first thing I wanted to do. It reminded me a lot of Mexico with cheap stuff that you can usually get for less if you just pretend that you don't really need or want it. Here it was in one big white tent with spots that they rented that went clear to the ceiling of the tent, it was really tall! Spencer got three great traveling shirts to add to his wardrobe, he loves his traveling shirts. I got a magnet, my favorite thing to do is find the most unique one out there that I won't see on any other fridge. I think I accomplished my goal, we found a flamingo and it is way cute and unique for sure.

haha.

After shopping it was off to scuba diving. It was Michelle, Christina, and my first time. We got on a bus that would take us to the place where we would do our first dive. On the way there Jason said, "Well we're not in Kansas anymore." The guy behind him started to laugh and said, "I'm from Kansas!" We all laughed for awhile about that. How often does that really happen? What he meant by that was they could take us where ever they want and we would have no idea. We were in a foreign land and just had to trust others. It was about a 40 minute drive and I never got used to the fact that they drive on the wrong side of the road. It was weird....but we got there in no time and then it was time to dive! Our first one went down to 90 feet. There was a coral reef wall that went from 6 feet to 6000 feet. There was no end. Michelle was funny to watch, she just wanted to touch everything and keep going lower and lower. Our second dive was by a plane and boat crash. It was neat to touch all the coral and see what would happen. One of them that the guide showed me attached onto your hand. It felt so weird. Spencer's favorite were the things that looked like little christmas trees. Now I want to go diving again. There is so much to see underwater, it is like a whole new world.

This was such a fun trip! Thanks grandma and grandpa for all that you do for us. You guys are the best!