Our First Christmas Part 2 & New Years

Ok here's the second part of our Christmas adventure! Told more through pictures this time:

We went to Tortilla Flats...a Ghost Town!

A pretty extensive vacinity

Check out this HUGE cactus!

 

Beautiful scenery! ...and us ;)

We're caged Love Birds! In front of what I think is a whore house...

See the heart we're making?

I caught Mary smiling!

Beautiful Canyon Lake pit stop

POLYGAMIST FAMILY!!! (to the right) Click on the picture to zoom in.

Why do the men look normal and the women so obvious?

Another pit stop in Superstition. Cool tree w/Indian and buffalo with houses underneath

Fun family activity, like a "Secret Santa"! We went to Goodwill (thrift store), all got $5 to spend on a present for another family member and this is what Papa Stone got. So great! 

This is a steam burn I got from opening the pot to our Christmas Curry :( It hurt for days!

This is Elder Cava (pronounced "Thava"). Loren helped prepare him for his mission while in Fiji and now he's in Phoenix! We were fortunate enough to take him and his companion out for lunch--thanks Jon and Amelia for letting us borrow your car!

Full, happy, Fijian boys :)

After Christmas, we returned to St. George and the two of us soon left for Kanab, UT. A cute town also known as "Little Hollywood" for its many Western film productions, including films with Ronald Reagan and John Wayne. 

Gorgeous desert sunset

The darling vacation home my in-laws let us use for New Years weekend! It's a historic home once owned by G. Franklin Swapp in 1912. The Stones did an incredible job fixing it up!! The before and after pictures are amazing!

A fireplace in our room--sweet!

AND nice kitchen!

We hiked to a nice spot and had delicious sandwiches

Nice view!

Loren likes to climb things and freak me out. There was a very long fall if he fell backward!

We saw an honest to goodness American Bald Eagle! But of course when we put our car in reverse to check it out again/take pictures it flew away. And dropped its dinner (a rather large and mangled bunny/jack rabbit)! This picture was taken as we were hiding in the bushes waiting for him to come back. He didn't and the crows claimed his prey.

New Years Eve with our sparkling cider--Apple Mango flavor! Mmm mm mmmm!

 

Pretty scenery as we drove back to St. George and then to Provo.

Now Loren and I are just doing school in chilly and now snowy Provo. More holiday back tracking updates to come! Love you all for reading my blog! :D

Take a Seat: Our First Christmas (part 1)

I'm currently having a lie-in. Is that what British people say? Anyways, I'm sick with a sinus infection and decided that it's time that I catch up a little on blogging. This is the first blog post of the year...and in months. Whoops. I'll make a New Year's resolution to blog more often.

I always think of things to comment on or talk about for a post but I never bring myself to blog about it. Like how I want a seat in my shower. I was dying to have one as I bathed this morning and my head was pounding. I wouldn't have cared to shower but I already felt I was disgusting and sick people don't need to look more gross than they already do. So yeah, I propose that more showers include a small seat for such times. I also want to make a little shout-out to my husband Loren who has been so great at taking care of me! He fills up my water bottle often, holds me when I'm hurting and even made my favorite "sick soup" when he got home from class today! He's so wonderful! Marriage is great--single people are fooled when they think they're living "the life."

So let's catch up on our lives real quick. Most recent news, I'm applying to graduate school. I'm applying to 4 different places and am willing to go to any of them because I'm just desperate to get in. My GPA is average but our program is becoming increasingly more competitive. So we'll see where I get in :) And because I'm a 5th year senior *cough cough* I'm taking it easy my final semester--7 credits! I'm taking Humanities 202 (my last GE), swimming, racquetball and beginning sewing! I've never really touched a sewing machine or know anything about the subject so this will be an adventure. I'll post my projects so you can see what an amateur I am, ha. But don't worry, I'm not completely wasting my time. I'm also working for BYU still and volunteering with a former professor in her clinic involving Palatometry. You can check out her blog or google it if you would like to know more.

While I'm finishing up my undergrad career, Loren is only starting his. He just started his 2nd semester as a freshman at Utah Valley University (UVU) and his first he did excellent in! All A's/A-'s!! He's enjoying his current classes as well but it's hard to get in the right ones because it seems like there's a waiting list for a lot of them. Loren was working as a custodian for his school but it was the night shift and his classes started around 7 or 8:30am so I hardly saw him at all during the day. Needless to say, we arranged our schedules so we could see more of each other. After all, we still are/act like newlyweds :)

I'll work my way back through the months I never blogged about. So first comes Christmas! After a tortuously stressful finals week, Loren, his sister Jessica and I whisked off to St. George for a 2 week blissful, school-free break! We spent the first 5 days Christmas shopping, wrapping presents, preparing for our trip to Phoenix and having fun. Part of that fun was seeing Sherlock Holmes 2. I don't want to excite your expectations too much but...it was freaking AWESOME!! Better than the first, I'd say. We even went to see it twice :) Ok, I'll stop. But go see it. Now.

After we hung around Southern Utah, we made the long trek to Phoenix. The reason we went there for Christmas is because the oldest child in the family, Danny, is doing his residency there and can't get time off for a visit. So we decided to go to him! We had to split up the party of people since there were 10 of us total. Basically the married children (Me, Loren, his sister Amelia and her husband Jon) stayed with Danny at his house while the other 3 kids and mom & dad stayed at a house they rented...which was unfortunately located about 40 mins away from Danny's. But we made it work! The view from the back porch was nice

Here's the close up of that fountain

It was once the world's largest fountain for 10 years. Pretty cool

We did other fun activities, like gingerbread man/woman making (a Stone family tradition)

Loren's creation. Possibly an alien

My creation. Can you guess that it's a zombie? :)

We hung out with some family cousins, the McCowns, at a frisbee golf park. Played some of that. Mary LOVED the swing!

Check out that smile!

Then we went to the Mesa temple to see its Christmas lights. Really fun but cold.

 

And we also hiked Squaw Peak on Christmas Eve.

We thought we were half-way. Pssh! Not even close!

We thought THAT was the top. Just the beginning.

Still not the top. Good enough for us though!

We didn't make it to the top. Old ladies and toddlers did and they assured me I was almost there. But I saw people literally climbing to the top. Yeah, I'm ok here. Thanks, though! The hike was fun and pretty but a little frightening for me. I can probably count the number of hikes I've done on one but definitely not 2 full hands, so to see people just hopping down this sloping mountain would about stop my heart, particularly when they were close to the edge. Also, I thought wearing Chacos was a good idea. They're meant for hiking, right? Apparently not. I got a few comments on them like: "you're wearing sandals?!" or "wow, you're brave to wear those on this hike!" And those people were right because I got blisters. Wonderful. Then we had Christmas that night because Danny had that day off. There were so many presents and lots of smiles on people's faces.

Then came Christmas day. We went to church where Jon's little brother is serving a mission--the elder was completely surprised! There were 2 happy brothers that day. And I was surprised by my former Young Women's leader Linda Abbeg, we happened to go to her ward as well! It was so fun to see her and her adorable 4 month old son :) This was also the day we saw the famous fountain. The kids didn't feel like going for a walk around the park but returned home to play games. But we didn't have a key. So we made due by having Rachel (the youngest and most petite) sneak in through the cat door!

For dinner we had "Christmas Curry," as I like to call it :) And we delivered some to Dr. Daniel Stone while he was working late that night.

I'll stop there. It's taken me like 3 hours to write this post because I keep sneezing, peeing (sorry, TMI. It's all the fluids) and taking a step back from a throbbing head. But I hope you'll return for the next half of our trip! :)

What I have is enough

I have a very, very blessed life. I know it and I try to recognize it often. I am abruptly reminded of it when I see a homeless person, hear a story of those who are financially struggling during these hard times, or see a handicapped person. But there are times when I think the grass is greener on the other side, so to speak. I'm not saying I want those hard times at all, don't get me wrong! I get jealous of things that other people have or are doing. I think I'm missing out on opportunities others are taking--spontaneous, frivolous, far-off trips or the adventure of starting a family (still going to wait on this one a little while). I feel like some of the people around me, like in my ward, are so amazing and that I could be that way too if I was given their callings and handled the trials they had. I could be a creative, thrifty, DIY wife (& future mother) if I were to search Pinterest long enough...and set aside enough time to buy and make such researched things. I could be incredible and always know what I've got when I've got it (remember that song "Yellow Taxi" by the Counting Crows? I wouldn't lose whatever it is that I have).

Really, Samantha? You're ridiculous. Get over it. Be happy with what you've got because it could always be worse. Am I right or am I right? I should just roll with the punches. Take life as it comes. You know all those cliche sayings. The thing about cliches, though, is that they're true.

But no matter what I'm feeling, I eventually snap out of it and realize that I have the Gospel in my life and that is enough.

Fall Fever

"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower." ~Albert Camus

Fall is my absolute FAVORITE season! It seems like a lot of people I talk to love the summer and hate that now it’s so cold out. Summer’s great, especially when it comes to water sports and such but I hate being hot, sticky and sweaty. That’s basically how I can succinctly describe any summer I’ve experienced in the following places I’ve lived: Mississippi, Japan and Utah. This is especially true when lugging around a backpack all day at school. An exception to an insufferable summer is Vancouver, WA. It’s the perfect temperature there and one of the most gorgeous places you could visit. So basically, when Fall finally arrives I accept it like it's the Queen of England!

I just can't get enough of how crisp the air is, how gorgeous the leaves are when they change color, and the scrumptious delights that are baked during this time of year. It's like, "can life get any better?" Nope. :) Let me show you through pictures:

We can walk to the temple without sweating before we even get inside. And yes, Loren was growing a beard.

It's BYU Football time! First game of the season!!

Unfortunately, that was the horrendous game against Utah. We won't talk about it any further.

This game we won! But what's better-we got front row seats!! Cosmo was always 3 feet away me, never next to me. Poo. Btw, thanks Amelia for knocking some sense into me because

I LOVE BYU FOOTBALL!!!

I get to see this everyday. And what can I say? BYU has a gorgeous campus :)

Fall = General Conference (if you want to know what General Conference is about, go here). I am fortunate enough to get tickets from my former Bishop, Rob Wallace--thanks again!

Conference while bf/gf--2010.

One year later. Conference as a married couple ^_^

Colorful landscapes going up Provo Canyon for a little BBQ/picnic. Beautiful, right?

The studly cook

Our fellow picnickers--BFF Candice (left) and Jessica (Loren's 2nd youngest sister)

Just one of the many yummy things I get to make in the Fall. Banana squash with dill sour cream sauce. Mmmm.

Fall is also when Halloween happens. We went to St. George the weekend before to spend time with the Stones. 'Twas fun :) We just relaxed, went on a triple date to a corn maze (I had never been to one before) with Loren's younger sisters, and ate delicious food. Patty definitely knows how to make healthy and filling food. I love eating there!

The two boys on the ends are brothers. Cute how it was a family affair, huh?

Rachel (whose head I'm trying to bite) looks positively devilish. :)

I will never cease to love Fall. I found this quote that perfectly expresses my admiration for the season (and my dream to fly) "Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns." ~George Eliot.

See how much we're in love, with each other and Fall?

Oh so busy and bridal

So when I was engaged, I was WAY too busy to blog. Even now I think I'm too busy to post, yet I take time to read other people's blogs... Doesn't make sense, right? Well I just want to catch you up on things that happened over the summer:

• I was taking my Advanced Writing English class--Technical Writing. I heard it was a breeze, especially from the professor I signed up for. Turns out, she gave up her class to someone else. I though, OK, no big deal. Apparently, the teacher (but in reality, a grad student) I got thought someone died and made her Queen of AllmattersEnglish. She taught straight from her powerpoint slides (which she instructed us not to do--what the heck?) and she gave us dumb projects that she graded way too harshly for the in class time she gave us to work on them. We were required to write a 10-12 page research paper, a proposal (of which there was no page requirement but she said that she would think we were missing something if we didn't have it at least be 4-5 pages long. That's half the original paper length, woman!), and to top it all off--a 4-5 page review of a classmate's paper where we had to talk about its strengths, weaknesses (not being too harsh or easily, otherwise WE would be docked points), check the correctness of its quotes and resources AND give a grade that was within 5 points of what the teacher would grade it. Freaking ridiculous, right? I'm so glad that's all over with. I couldn't put up with her cheery but hard-A crap any longer. I was so ticked off from it all that I now only semi-regret writing her a scathing student review. She deserved it.
• Anyways, I also got a job. I'll embarrassingly admit that it's the first in my college career. Fortunately, it deals with my major. It's called SEEL (Systematic & Engaging Early Literacy). Essentially, it's developing early elementary lessons that are geared toward teaching literacy through strategic but fun activities. If that doesn't make sense, I suggest that you check out their website--http://education.byu.edu/seel. It's pretty interesting :) I started volunteering with the SEEL team back in February, gathering materials for the lessons that are used in the classrooms. But in April, I got a paid position and my first assignment was to do assessments. Throughout the year, the Kindergarten kids were taught letters, spelling, reading and other skills like sound onset and rhyme and I tested them to see how well they learned those skills. It was kinda fun because the kids were cute but it took weeks to do and got old because I had to test 50 kids 3 separate times. @_@ But I've got different tasks now and it's pretty great! The people I work with are fun and smart and I'm hoping that this will help me get into grad school (Pleasepleaseplease)!
• Oh lastly, I was engaged and planning my one and only wedding. It was so hard to do by myself. Normally, girls around here (going to school, LDS, have family close by) usually have their moms plan their weddings and the girls periodically just give their input. I wish that was me! I didn't even go all out on my wedding by choosing a fancy-schmancy reception center with a caterer, hundreds of flowers, etc., etc. and it was still hard. I could at least ask for help and opinions of family members and my wonderful BFF Candice Thomas. Without her, I would have crumbled under the pressure of trying to get everything to be decent, nice and put together. Candice and her family were like my family away from home--they helped me look for places to have the reception, made food for the reception, helped set up and take down the decorations and there for the much needed moral support! Oh how I love and appreciate them!!

Now on to pictures and a story :) (Background part) I had a hard time finding a photographer (because I didn't realize how far in advanced I needed to book one...whoops) but fortunately, had people reply to my facebook reply asking if anyone knew of a good photographer that wasn't ridiculously priced. A girl that's married to a guy from my old ward suggested his sister--Lacey Jones (http://www.facebook.com/laceyliiphotographypage?ref=ts). Her work looked very nice, I especially liked her prices, but most importantly--she was available! She was so nice and great to work with.

So on August 9th, 3 days before my wedding, we drove to the Salt Lake Capitol Building to take my Bridals.

I really like this picture...except that Loren's hand on my stomach makes it look like we're expecting. Not the case, fyi.

It was around this time that it happened. A tour bus of Chinese tourists unloaded from their bus and started walking up the stairs to where we were. They were flabbergasted when they saw us. We were shocked to see them. They started to take our pictures, too! They kept saying things to each other in Chinese, with the occasional English phrase shouted at us--"Beautiful!," "Congratulations!," "Wow!," and the like. I felt so weird. They were expecting to see American-type architecture and learn historical things...yet we were their first site. Sort of funny.

So as my photographer (Lacey) was taking this picture, a couple of Chinese ladies stood right next to her to take my picture. I felt like a star ^_^ So when they finally entered the Capitol Building, we all had a good laugh at the odd situation we were just put in. And then, a bus full of Italian tourists flooded the steps!! No joke! They were a tad bit more understandable when they were talking amongst themselves (all good things, of course) and they even chanted for us to kiss so they could take our picture! Haha :) We kept running by the tourists and they were always so sweet. That was the highlight of my day, by far!


Here are some of my fave pictures...even though you can see all of them on my facebook page.








If I have time tomorrow, I'll write about my wedding day. Stay posted! :)