goodbyes are always sad

Well, vacation is over.. back in Rexburg trying to get used to real life. 

our trip was AMAZING :) 

We left late Thursday to Pocatello, Slept there and got up bright and early to get on the road! Although to be honest it wasnt very bright. It was kinda gloomy for most of the trip but for those of you who dont know I LOVE gloomy weather. Rainy days are my very favorite. Well.. other then when its raining and sunny in the middle of a beautiful street with lots of trees covered in beautiful Autumn leaves. That has gotta be my favorite. But that is not at all the point. The point is I was with my husband on a beautiful day headed on a road trip and the destination was sister time!! I was happy :) 

It was a happy week. 

 If you would like a summery of each day spent in Nevada continue reading :)

DAY ONE 

7:00 a.m. the happy couple is sleepy.. but excited :) 

We drove about 8 hours were we met up with the Millwards at Scheels in Reno. We went on the farris wheel, played on the escalator, and looked at fish.

 We then when to Olive Garden :) 

love love Olive Garden :) 

DAY TWO 

Mini beach day! We drove across the border to California to visit this beautiful beach. I wanna say it was called Vikings Home? I could be wrong about that.. so I guess there was the Sweden queen that spent her summers here and on that little island is a small house that she drank her tea every day, and you can take tours of her castle. We didn't.. I did look through the windows a bit though :) 

Friday nights are pizza movie nights at the Millwards household. But for this week they were with us in Reno Friday night so pizza movie night was moved to Saturday. 

Did you know you can make pizza on the grill? 

Marsha is a genius. It was delicious :) 

DAY THREE

Sunday was one of my favorite days! Marsha does the music for the primary so rather then going to Sunday school Michael and I visited primary with Benjamin and Abram. We sang happy songs and watched the adorable kids learn about the importance of participating in good media and staying away from bad. So cute!

For dinner that night we did something I was especially excited for. Amatriciana :) 
Made with HOMEMADE pasta!

cute outfit :)

awesome and exciting :) 

While Marsha and I are in the Kitchen making preparing dinner Michael (my husband) and Michael (her husband) were outside practicing golf by hitting the balls into a large net. Until Michael (my Michael) hit the ball hard, and outside of the net and hit some guys house. Thankfully not through the window! But both boys came running inside to avoid talking with the person that would probably soon come out of his house to find out what the noise was. I wish I had a picture of their faces. Classic. So Michael joined us in making pasta :) 

also! that night we celebrated national smores day! It was a couple days late.. but still lots of fun! 

DAY FOUR

There is a great swim center not far from their house. We went last time I was there and it was a BLAST! The highlight of that visit was Abram jumping off the diving board into my arms. He wanted to SO bad but was terrified. He got up there and was shaking so bad that the whole board was shaking. I had seen knees knock together before in cartoons.. but never in real life. He finally jumped and squealed with excitement once  in the pool again. That was a memorable experiences for sure!

Abram didn't jump this time. We just watched Michael do tricks off the diving board. One of the best parts of that swim center is they have two large slides and there never seems to be a line at them for some reason. So we run up the stairs and slide down over and over! It can be great exercise for sure!

OH! and Trader Joe's of course!! Trader Joe's is pretty much one of the coolest grocery stores ever! Honestly.. I couldn't tell you why I like it so much.. but happy things always happens at Trader Joe's. The nicest people work there! Its like Costco! Only.. like 1/8th of the size. And, ok its not like Costco at all. But I do love Costco. Anyway, They have cool bathrooms.. that is probably the best part of Trader Joe's :)

DAY FIVE

I honestly cant remember what we did on this day.. it was Tuesday. And I know that we went to the temple in Reno. It rained on that day. We ate grilled cheese. Humm weird. Maybe that was the day that we went to Costco to buy socks and cereal. Haha could be.

RENO TEMPLE :) 

DAY SIX 

BEACH DAY! 
SAND HARBOR 

Other then forgetting the beach umbrella, that day was perfect.

First of all, I normally don't get in lakes and such because its always so cold and i'm kinda a wanny about it. BUT this water was AMAZING!

We built a.. mm.. I don't really know what you would call it actually.. in the sand. And ate sugar snap pees and probably the best PB&J I have ever had. AND PEACHES! We did that on Tuesday too! Farmers market to buy peaches. Almost forgot.

 We all got a little burnt I think.. Except for Michael who got way burnt! The tops of his feet are still red. Poor guy. I guess from now on we should put sun screen on every hour instead of every two. :) And me and Marsha both look like we have a dandruff problem from sun burnt scalp. Still, so worth it! Best day ever! It was SO fun!

We had a dance party and made home made chicken pot pie that night
then went to bed,
and in the morning said goodbye.as
I cried driving away from the Millwards home toward our next destination.

Thanks for the great week Marsha and family!

WE LOVE YOU! :) 
cant wait to see you again!

vacation

In 3 to 4 days Michael and I will be taking a summer vacation to visit some of my favorite people on the planet. 

THE MILLWARDS 

also known as my sister and her family :) 

YAY!! I cant wait!! We're leaving on Friday! (that is if Michael can get off work a day early..) If not we'll leave on Saturday. I'm keepin my fingers crossed for Friday. Because 1 more day or vacation = even more happiness. 

In anticipation of going on this exciting trip I have been thinking a whole bunch about my last trip to visit them. We made some great memories that week. It seems like FOREVER ago. but really it was just under a year ago last September.

 That was a splendid week full of 

inside ferris wheel rides

coloring 

delicious home made food 

Trader Joe's

puzzles 

sandy beaches 

dance parties 

the Tangled soundtrack 

watersides 

the spider man dance 

shaky diving boards 

Donald Duck 

laugh attacks 

late nights 

children's books 

in and out 

pasta made from scratch

 and.. 

lots of tears when the week ended. 

Looking forward to creating more good memories :) 

Greys

This makes us laugh
every time

So, thought we'd share :) 

a perfect day

You may recognize the name Mandy from previous posts. Today's post is about her :)

Also from reading previous posts you know that I am a little homesick, and yesterday Mandy was nice enough to bring a little piece of Pocatello to me :) and we had a perfect day together! Full of onion rings, shopping, cheesy pictures and ice cream of course

thanks for the adventures Mand :) 

Pocatello

Probably the best thing about living in Rexburg is that Pocatello is only and hour and 15 min away :)

 I LOVE Pocatello :) 

I love lots of things about that beautiful town, I would write a list.. but we'll just go with my top 3 

1. Family 

2. Farrs (well.. more the like people associated with Farrs..) 

3. Costco 

This last weekend my oldest brother Bill who lives in Pennsylvania and Marsha who lives in Navada was in Pocatello. So of course Michael and I went down to be with them, Its finals week here at BYUI so Michael had lots of studying to do on Saturday so for most of the afternoon he got left out of all the fun. It was some good time for bonding with my sisters however. We visited the supply house (which is another thing Rexburg doesn't have..) Costco, one of my FAVORITE places. And Walmart, not such a favorite place.. but we were getting ready for Abram's birthday party (Abram is one of my adorable nephews) so it had to be done. We had a great time! Except for the part where I slammed Melissa's finger in the car door.. It took her nail polish off and everything! Thankfully none of her finger bones were broken which was a huge plus because I slammed it pretty hard. P.s. Melissa sorry about that.. again. 

Eventually Michael couldn't take anymore studying and he took me out to dinner at Red Lobster :) Our last date before his mission was at Red Lobster so it was kinda fun to go back now all old and married and stuff.  We ordered crab legs. Michael thought the whole crab leg experience was a good adventure to share together. Word of advice, crab legs are a terrible thing to order when you are starving. :) 

The weekend trip was to fast. Time always go by to fast when we visit Pocatello. Even though it was quick we still got to do Abram's birthday party before we left! :) We celebrated with a HUGE chocolate cake from Costco & root beer floats.

birthday boy :) 

mom and sisters :) 

I love love getting together with family :) 


I also finally got to finish a project I have been excited about for a few weeks! Our bedroom was looking a little empty the first 3 months of marriage due to lack of a headboard or picture frames. So, I decided to do a picture collage! I had it all arranged and nailed to the wall with pictures selected when I realized there is no good place to print pictures in Rexburg. So I sent them to Costco and waited patiently until I could pick them  up this last weekend! And now my pictures are finally up!!

WO-HOO! 

almost summer

This summer hasn't quite felt like summer because Michael has been in school, BUT even though our schedules are crazy we have been able to have some adventures :) 

like the 4th of July! 

We had a BBQ with Michael's sister Michelle & brother Phillip as well as their families. 

Bought some fireworks. 

Played with fireworks. 

Only a little bit though because we wanted to do the rest after dark :) 

We waited inside watching some netflix and cuddling on our couch for the dark to come so we could watch Rexburg's firework show. Only bad news, apparently Rexburg does their fireworks before it gets dark.. so, we missed them. Haha oh well :) We did the few fountains that we bought and shared our sparklers with the neighbor kids. So we did have some firework celebrating in the dark! :) 

Last week we visited the local pool and went swimming! 

iIs called Rexburg Rapids. It was pretty enjoyable :) We were out in the sun for about an hour before it started to rain. But I LOVE rain so I am not complaining :) 

That Saturday we also went on a date and we did something truly legendary! 

dinner and a movie :) 

and it was GREAT! 

There is a sandwich place here called Gator Jacks. And its AWESOME! You feel like your in Disney land while your in there, the food is great and it comes with a cookie! Highly recommended :) 

Following Gator Jacks we saw the new Spider Man! 

Then we went to Kiwi Loco!

 I know what your thinking.. cookies and frozen yogurt all in one night? what fatties. 

But for what its worth, I put real fruit on my yogurt! Because Kiwi Loco has real fruit! Which is awesome! There is nothing better then fresh Kiwi on your Kiwi Loco. 

Its been a good almost summer for us. Its about to become even better when Michael finishes school in 2 days and it becomes summer for real! Cant wait! We have big plans :) 

wrapping up the end of June

I am aware I am a terrible blogger.. I have some catching up to do! I decided to create a blog so I could  

document our lives. Once upon a time I was incredibly good at keeping a journal. I pretty much stopped that when Michael went on his mission and all of my journal time went to writing letters to him. We kept all the letters so we still have so much of our lives written down. Since he has been home I have been awful and writing down memories. Which is horrible at such a great time in my life! So, the blog is my way of trying to keep track of moments complete with pictures :) Therefore, I need to be better at it! 

Easter this year landed on April 8th. Just so happens to be the day after we got married! I gave Michael a little Easter basket on our first morning & holiday together. One of the things in this basket was a small carton of egg shaped chalk, which we planned to use at some point in the future. We finally had a chalk date one Saturday night a few weekends ago as part as out pizza and movie night! 

The last two weekends we have gone to back to our hometown to see our families and make a trip to Costco of course :) The first weekend we were there we spent some time at Michael's sister Cindy's house went swimming in her pool with a few of his nieces and had a BBQ :) 

 went to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the performing arts center with Britt and Mandy. It was directed by Michael's sister Lisa. I knew of a few people in the show, some of our family on Michaels side & our friend Whitney. But It was very exciting  to see that I knew the majority of the cast from being in past shows with them. Its always enjoyable to watch shows with people you know and love performing in them. It was a great show! I'd have to say my favorite was watching Steven, Michael's brother play Potiphar. 

After the show we had some best friend time. He went to hang out with Justin (P.s. If I write about Justin in the future I will most likely refer to him as J-dog.. just a heads up.) and I finally had time to chat with Mandy.   Which was wonderful! I wish we had enough time to visit all our friends when we come to Poky. I haven't seen my Jennica in FOREVER! Someday soon :) 

During the week me and Michael mostly work and go to school and that is basically it.. 

although I did go swimming with Emily this last week!! 

I also worked the families snow cone shack with my friend Rachel while they were all in Lagoon! Jealous! but the shack was enjoyable for a day I have to admit :) 

Since Michael and I couldn't go to the family reunion because of work we decided to go surprise them on Sunday. Spent the afternoon in Pocatello relaxing and talking :) It was great to see everyone.  

and...

GREAT NEWS!!!!

WE ARE PLANNING A TRIP TO GO SEE MY SISTER MARSHA!!! AHH!! :) :) 

im SO excited :) 

Were also looking forward to the 4th of july! No work, no school! Just parades, BBQ's, fireworks, and lots of lovin! :)