Bigger and better things

A lot has happened since the last time I posted.

• We finished finals successfully!  We finished finals on Tuesday and finished the week with some fun spring activities that we didn't take any pictures of.
• I got in a car accident :( That darn University Avenue is a killer.  I have sworn not to drive on that road during any busy time of day.  I'm almost too embarrassed to put a picture up but I'm sure you are all dying to see what I did to our lovely, reliable, wonderful car. Before and after.

• Doesn't that just tear your heart out?  Well, everything worked out great, the car was considered a total loss and we received a lovely check from Geico a few short days later.  
• It took us almost a month to find a new car, but last week we finally bought one!  It is an 04 white Toyota Camry.  We are hoping it lasts us a long. LONG. time.  And I'm sure it will if we treat it nicely! (sorry we don't have pictures, but I promise it isn't very exciting)
• On April 23rd we celebrated our ONE YEAR anniversary!  Cool, huh?  My little brother told me that he never thought we'd make it this far.  We celebrated the day with a lovely walk, Costa Vida and a trip to the Riverwoods where we wasted $4 trying to win an iPad and then watched the Hunger Games!  Which we were both quite disturbed by.  Nonetheless, it was a great day!  We've had a really awesome year. Some of our favorite memories include our wedding (of course!), fun trips to Manti, Las Vegas, St. George, Logan and our honeymoon cruise, kayaking with my parents, the cabin with the Wilson's, rafting, hanging out with family, celebrating Christmas, dreaming about an iPad, getting an iPad(!!!! still the coolest thing either of us has ever owned), walking to school together every morning, date nights, dinners, me suggesting we go out for pizza but instead Riley makes one (happened at least once a week), fun parties, meeting new people in our  super cool ward, getting locked out of our apartment on several occasions, and many, many more!  
• Last weekend we went up to Logan to visit Brandon and Chelsie.  They showed us a pretty awesome hike that I may, or may not, have been extremely sore from the next day.  Pass the Popcorn is a really awesome game!
• Riley and I attempted a dutch oven pizza at Bridal Veil falls... after forgetting our lighter and trying to use a car cigarette lighter, riley drove down the canyon to get a lighter (talk about dedication).  Unfortunately not even that would make our two year old coals light...  we ended up cooking it in our oven at home and renting War Horse. 
• Riley took the GRE and did aawwessome!  We will keep you all informed when we figure out where we are going!  Which we won't know till.... next spring! Until then, folks!  (ok, I will most likely update before then...)

Despite the busy schedule Riley and I have this semester, we found the time to go to st. George and spend some time with my family. We woke up early Saturday morning and I drove us to cedar city so that Riley could try and study for the gre. I am not sure how much he got done between singing, worrying about the check engine light and the many cows to look at. I am not one for driving long distances so Riley graciously took over in Cedar City. We made it the aunt Judys beautiful condo around 10. We rushed in and were greeted by the whole family!- minus katelyn, which would have been a real shocker. Brad, Mandy, Jane, Annie, Claire, Matt, Stacy, Graham, Kelli, Jake, riley s. and my parents were all there! It really was such a treat. We spent the day playing hard. We went to the park, ate lunch, played tennis, went shopping, ate pizza and played some more. There is nothing I love more than spending time with my siblings and darling nieces/nephew. Jane, Annie, Riley and I formed a team called the "non stink" team. This involved spraying other people with stink while being resistant to any smell they might try to spray on us. Jane and I also spent some quality time flipping boogers-not as grotesque as it sounds! We enjoyed watching Matt and Jane do the monkey dance, the pillow dance, and a fun sleeping show. You can see it too!  If you listen closely you can hear them say, "pillow dance, pillow dance, pillow dance" over and over. Very clever.
*** I couldn't get the video on... I'll try again another time. But just wait, it's awesome.

On Sunday we woke up and got ready for church.  Then at eleven we had the big event... Claire's blessing! It was lovely.  She is the best baby I've ever seen. Didn't hear her cry once! So good.  We got to enjoy more family for a couple hours before coming home.  I will admit though, that I was so sad to leave everyone.  I really just love being with my family.  Riley can attest that there were almost tears several times.  And full on tears a couple of times too.  It's just so sad.  Luckily we have amazing technology like cameras, skype and email that keep us in touch with each other.  And now, the pictures!!

Jane and Riley spraying stink on the picture taker

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Mom and baby Claire. Isn't she cute?

Graham is so fun. Still can't believe he is walking!

This was at our team spot.

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Do I see modeling in Graham's future? Perhaps.

I really don't remember doing this. But Kelli is holding Claire. Cute.

That's her chocolate covered strawberry next to her. 

Jane had to shield her eyes from the sun. I don't blame her. The sun was so hot! (which by the way, I miss very much)

Oh! And I LOVE plateaus. I think they are the cutest thing!

This is what I created on the ipad. Not bad, eh?

Then came Christmas

We've got a lot to recap on! Let's see... Since I last posted a lot has happened.  We celebrated Christmas, which I managed to only get a few pictures of.  But it was wonderful. Riley and I were spoiled by both families. We even got to talk to Katelyn (serving in South Carolina) Matt&Stacy (in Arizona-but I guess Idaho on Christmas day) and Brad/Mandy/Jane/Annie (Kansas). It was so nice to be with everyone! We spent Christmas Eve/Morning at the Wilsons where we played many many games and finished the night off by sleeping outside.  Don't ask me why I even tried because I only got a few hours of sleep.  I came inside at 5:30 am.  It wasn't completely miserable but I can say I will NEVER do that again.

The week following Christmas was spent with family doing fun things!  With the Wilson's we tried to go to the Copper Mines, played games, went downtown and other things that I can't remember.  Everyone was there this year and we had lots of fun!  Later in the week hung out at the Serafine's with Graham.  He is the cutest!  We went to "we bought a zoo" and had some delicious food! It was so pleasant to spend time around everyone!  On New Year's Eve my mom and I went shopping. I only spent ten dollars but got running shorts, a nike shirt, and two things from banana republic. It was truly a lovely shopping day!  We went to Zupa's (yyyyumm) with the Wilson kids and rang in the new year with a new game "Smurfing" and Dick Clarke (poor guy).

Overall it was great! We really enjoyed ourselves. As nice as the holidays were, it was good to come home and get organized for the new semester.  Which has already been very busy. Looks like I have three papers due next week. Ouch. We have a lot to look forward to! In a few weeks we go to St. George to see Brad/Mandy/Jane/Annie and Claire (who will be blessed).  In February is Riley's birthday. March is Kate's one year mark on the mission. In April we will have been married for an entire year (wow!) Life is good. Happy New Year!

Here are the pictures (I'll have more once Erin emails me some!)

 I'm really not sure what I'm doing, but Riley is opening the ipad. Which, by the way, we LOVE! It has been a welcome addition to our apartment.  Words with friends, GE Shuffle, solitaire, iBooks and Tomb Runner are all awesome. In addition to the real reasons we bought it, of course!

And a random picture of LouJean and Merrill!