Wedding Day, Yay!

Well as many of you know, my little brother Kyler tied the knot with the girl of his dreams on Friday, September 7.  I am so happy for him and Stephanie and so excited to have Stephanie in our family.

I drove to Boise after my last day of work on Thursday (sad), and spent the night at my kind brother Chad’s house. I picked Chris up from the airport at 8:00 the next morning. I was so excited to see him that I left the car running and got out of the car. I purposefully left the door open so it would not lock, but the darn door shut by itself and locked. 20 minutes and $60 later we were on the road to Boise. We made it to Rexburg at about 1:20 pm, just in time for the wedding at 2:00. It was a beautiful ceremony and it was so fun to be there with all of our family. We had a wonderful day. Afterwards we took pictures outside of the temple, of course, and then had a yummy dinner at my Uncle Lynn’s church in Idaho Falls. Kyler and Stephanie were so happy. They had a really cute video made by Stephanie’s brother that was really fun to watch. The reception was the next day in Burley. We spent the day helping set up the reception, running errands for my mom, and watching the BYU football game, of course. The reception turned out really pretty and again it was just really fun to be with everyone. They are having an open house this weekend in Arvada, Colorado, where Stephanie is from. I wish we could be there but we are now in Spokane for the long haul, so unfortunately won’t make it.

It’s hard to believe my little brother is all grown up and married…sigh. It was a fun weekend though. Chris and I had to get up early the next day and start the long drive back to Spokane. We stopped in Twin and saw some of Chris’ family on our way out. We had to get back so I could do drug testing for my new job on Monday, and Chris could make it to school. Here are lots of pics from the weekend. Enjoy!

Side note: I just have to say that I will really miss everyone I worked with for the last 2 years in Twin. I love all the girls I worked with. They were all my best friends, especially in Twin when I didn’t have a lot of other girlfriends around. These were the girls who I told everything to, got advice from, and looked forward to seeing every day. I got to know their spouses and kids, and I will just miss them all! They all did so much for us when I was sick and I will never forget that. Besides the people that I worked with directly in my department, I had gotten to know many nurses, aides, pharmacists, and even doctors. Even though nothing was perfect there, it was a good place to work full of wonderful people. I always have kind of a hard time with change and saying goodbye, so I was proud of myself that I didn’t cry.  We will miss everyone in Twin-our ward, our friends, and especially our families but are very excited for this new adventure, for the new people we will meet, and definitely excited for Chris to get done with school! p.s. You can get direct flights from Boise to Spokane for $69. It’s a 42 minute flight. Just sayin’.

Labor Day Weekend

Well this Labor Day was a little different than usual. As I mentioned in my previous post, I was able to fly to Spokane and spend the weekend with Chris since I had another interview. We had such a good weekend. I got there Wednesday night. My interview was Thursday. Chris does not have class on Friday so Friday I went to the school with him for awhile while he did homework, and then we went grocery shopping (poor Chris had nothing in the fridge).  Saturday we went to a place called Cat Tales Zoological Park. It’s a place where they rescue big cats from the wild and care for them. It was kind of fun. We saw lions, tigers, mountain lions, white tigers, a leopard, a panther, and one black bear. What was cool was you got to see them so close up and saw the workers there interacting with some of them. Then we went to a place called Manito Park, really close to our house. It is a 90 acre park full of other little parks. There is a playground area, splash pond for kids, a pond to feed fish, another pond that is really pretty, a lilac garden, rose garden, Japanese garden, and I’m sure other things. We didn’t have time to see it all but we saw a lot of it and it was really fun. Sunday we went to church in our new ward and I flew home Monday afternoon. It was really fun just being able to relax and be with each other!

 Here is Chris "reflecting" in the Japanese garden. 

 I had to reflect as well.

Story Time

Once upon a time there was a girl and a boy who had been married for almost a year. They had been through a lot together in those few months, and just as things were starting to get better, they found they had more decisions to make and more things to stress about. The boy had been accepted to graduate school in Washington, so they were planning on moving there in August. They spent all summer looking for jobs for both of them with no luck. They questioned their decision to go, wondering if they were not finding jobs because they shouldn’t go. But they had felt right about it when they made the decision to move and knew that the only way the boy would eventually get a better job was to finish school. They kept looking and looking and were getting so frustrated. The girl especially needed a job so she could keep her health insurance. Finally at the end of July they found an opening for a full time dietitian position at a hospital (oddly enough, also called St. Luke’s) in Spokane! They were so excited! She quickly applied and sent them her resume. Within 2 days they called and wanted her to come to Spokane for an interview. So the boy and girl drove the long drive there so she could have her interview. She felt like it went well and was very hopeful. While they were there they looked at some apartments to live in and found one that they liked. It was smaller than their house now, but it would work just fine and the boy and girl finally felt like things were going to work out. Then the waiting began.

After stressing and worrying for so long, they had previously decided that if the girl didn’t have a job by the time they were moving then she needed to stay in Twin Falls and continue working at her job there until she found something in Spokane. The boy and girl did not want to do this, but felt they had no choice. A week and a half went by and still no word on the job. The manager had gone on vacation for 2 weeks and hadn’t made a decision before she left.

The time came to pack up the moving truck. They were afraid they weren’t going to be able to fit all of their precious things into the truck, but they managed to and all was well.

The next morning, the boy and girl said goodbye to each other, not knowing when they would see each other again. There were tears, and both drove away from the house in sadness. They next few days were very hard. The boy drove to Spokane with the moving truck, his dad, and his stepmom. But when his dad and stepmom left, he was all alone and very sad. The girl was still looking for jobs and hoping for the one at St. Luke’s.  Two weeks went by and the boy and girl finally decided that it was too hard being separated. After lots of thought and prayer, the girl gave her two weeks notice at her job in Twin. The boy bought a plane ticket to come for the girl’s brother’s wedding the next week. They were happy because they knew that they would finally see each other after 3 long weeks.

Then an unexpected call came. It was the hospital in Spokane. They wanted the girl to come for a second interview!! This was really good news! The girl arranged to be gone Thursday and Friday from work, and was able to fly to Spokane and have another interview. The boy and girl were so happy to be together again-after only 2 weeks instead of 3! It had seemed like so long, neither of them understood how other people live separated from their love longer than that-it was so hard! They had a wonderful weekend together over Labor Day weekend. They went to a park with large cats (lions, tigers, and there was one bear)! They went to a huge park near their apartment that has many beautiful gardens and ponds. They loved spending time with each other. The girl had to fly back to Twin on Monday, to finish out her last week of work, but this time the goodbye was much easier knowing that they would see each other again in 4 days.  

They were still waiting to hear about the job. By this time it had been over a month since the first interview and time seemed to crawl by. But on Tuesday morning the girl received a phone call offering her the job! She was so excited and immediately called the boy to share the good news. The boy could not believe it either and they both said prayers to thank their Heavenly Father for this wonderful blessing. So much worry and stress was lifted off of their shoulders that day. They could finally be sure that they were doing the right thing.  They were both able to go back to Spokane together after the girl’s brother’s wedding. The girl started her new job and they lived happily ever after.

Redfish Lake

 At the beginning of August of we were able to go camping for a couple of nights with some of my family. We went to Lake Alturas and met my mom, brother Kyler, Aunt Shirley and cousin Alisen, Uncle Kendall, Aunt Anne and cousins Josh and JJ, and my sister Tysi and her husband Ron and their kids. We got there Thursday night and set up our tent and ate some yummy tinfoil dinners. Friday we all went to Redfish Lake nearby and played on Kendall and Anne’s boat. The weather wasn’t very cooperative and we had a little rain and lots of wind, but it was still fun. Saturday morning we got up and packed our stuff and went home. We were in the middle of moving and felt like we needed to go home and get some packing done. Everyone else stayed for the day and took the boat out on Lake Alturas.  Here are lots of fun pics:

1. Kyler decided to set his tent up as far away from anyone else as possible, and Halli followed him to “help.” I told her to smile and if you look closely you can see her using her cute little fingers to point to the corners of her mouth as she said “cheese!”
2. I followed them out there and Halli dropped down in the grass and said she was hiding. You can see her and Kyler peeking up from the grass.
3. Halli loves “the beach.” She saw it clear from the parking lot and starting yeling “the beach!”
4. Kelsi and Jenna love it too apparently. J

1. I was a wuss and had my sweatshirt on and towel wrapped around me.
2. Halli also loved riding the boat.
3. Kade was tough enough to wear a pink life jacket, and learned to kneeboard in the cold and rain.
4. Again, I look silly with my sweatshirt but I like this picture of Kyler and I.

1. Kelsi got her dad’s fishing pole and actually caught a fish a few minutes later…a really dead stinky fish.
2. Kyler is all ready to learn to water ski! 

1. Just chilling on the beach. It was Kyler’s birthday so he is holding some cookies made for him by his beloved Stephanie. He was sad because he missed her.
2. Everyone is just having lots of fun.
3. Halli was so upset at Kyler  for “sitting on her sandcastle,” even though it really was just a big hole in the ground.
4. Cheese! 

1. Saturday morning before we left Chris and I walked down to Lake Alturas. The weather was much better and it was really pretty.
2. Don’t mind us looking gross and unshowered. 
3. We stopped and took this picture on the way back at the top of Galena Summit.
4. We planned to go home and do a temple session and then get to packing, but Chris’ cousin/best friend called and wanted him to go boating with them one last time. So we went and did initiatories at the temple and then went boating with Chris’ friends for awhile. They had the boat at Chris’ grandparent’s, so we went there and it was nice to see them again before we moved. Somehow they talked me into kneeboarding. After watching Chris and Kade do it the day before I thought it looked easy enough that I could do it. So I was glad I did, it was pretty fun. I hate tubing and don’t think I’m strong enough to wakeboard, but I really enjoyed kneeboarding.