October 1-7, 2018

This week was super fun. Monday we made chocolate chip cookies for family night. I also fixed my wreath so it wouldn't blow away. It was super windy this weekend. We also got our stairs fixed this weekend. They used to be cement and they were falling apart but now they are the metal slotted ones. One if the workers going my wreath and gave it back to us. It was super nice.

Tuesday we had an insane rain and lightening storm. The power went out while I was at work and we had to close early. It was insane. I ran out to my car a few yards away and got drenched in the rain.

We got new menus at work and they upped the price on a bunch of items so I ordered take out for Paul and I before they started using them. Hopefully I'll get better tips with a more expensive menu.

I'm working on Halloween so I wanted to get a cute Halloween shirt I can wear to work and going a cute BOO! one from Walmart. I love it. 

Paul has done amazing on good first exams if the semester. His professors are all impressed with him getting the best grades of the class! 

It was such a fun weekend coming down and being with everyone! We're glad USU won the football game against BYU. And hanging with the girls Friday night was so fun. We all got manicures, went to a Vietnamese restaurant for dinner, got some ice cream and went home to watch legally blonde. Such a classic! Haha

It was fun to get together and play games with the Roberts. We taught them the game of mow. Surprisingly, it was not that quiet when we played there but Paul's Dad did end up with half a deck of cards from penalties. Just saying. Lol

Conference was great, as always. President Nelson has challenged us to read the book of Mormon by the end of the year, go to the temple regularly, and fast from social media for 10 days. So far so good but we'll see how I do with these challenges! 

I made pumpkin smore bars Sunday and they were pretty successful. Paul had a quiz due this weekend so I read Much Ado About Nothing to him on our way home. It kind of gave me a sore throat but Paul got a perfect score on his quiz so it was okay.

Love you!

September 24-30, 2018

This week was pretty good. I got to work a lot and classes were relaxed. 

Paul was really stressed because he had to write his essay for the Goldwater scholarship and study for three exams. He took one so far that he feels good about. Being stressed has made his dizziness really bad. Hopefully after the last exam he will feel better again. 

I learned about our environment and how to influence my environment so it is more conducive to relaxation. It is helpful to have natural light, photos of nature or a nice view out the window. Indoor plants and even pets can bring nature into our environment and improve mood. 

I tried some of these things to help Paul not feel stressed at home and also I think that kind of thing is fun. We hung up photos of nature scenes that Paul's Dad gave us and I went a little crazy with the fall decorations but now our apartment smells like pumpkin spice! Haha it definitely has improved my mood. Paul says it looks nice ;)

Love you guys!

September 17,2018

This week was a lot of fun. It was great to be working more and Paul is doing awesome working on his scholarship. 

We were supposed to teach the scouts about marbles but we could not find marbles anywhere! So we taught them ultimate Frisbee instead. They're pretty similar, right?

Paul had his second physical therapy appointment this week and he said it went well. He was less dizzy for the weekend, so that was good.

Saturday we meet up with friends for dinner and then decided dessert was a good idea too. Paul wanted donuts but the rest of us wanted ice cream and Paul was a good sport to go to the rolled ice cream place I love so much. 

Then we played Hanabi with them (the firework game) and tried to play by all the rules this time. It is such a hard game but so fun! 

When we were headed home the USU game was only at half time so we walked over to the stadium and caught the second half of the game. It was a close and exciting game to watch! 

Sunday we came down and visiting Grandpa Reed for a little bit. Then we went to Mom and Dad's to get our stock of peaches and raspberry jam for the winter ;) haha. It was fun to hang it for a little bit. 

We hung out with Paul's family for the rest of the evening. We played games and visited. It was a very loud and fun evening. We also got some yummy peaches from Wendy and they let us take a 48" tv that their neighbors were getting rid of to get a bigger TV! So crazy! It's huge.

We made it back to Logan safely and had a fun end to the week. Love you guys!

September 10-16

This week has been pretty good. Still crazy with and school for the both of us. My first week at the Black Pearl went really well, everyone is so nice and it is fun working in a small restaurant. 

I ended up working my other jobs. There was a lot of drama at the steakhouse and the cooking classes only gave me two shifts a month. It's been a good change so far.

Paul is getting involved in more research projects with some of his professors and he's also a chemistry tutor. He is loving it even though it feels crazy to have so much to do. He's been pretty dizzy this week since starting PT but hopefully his second appointment will go better this week.

Paul was really excited about scouts this week because the theme was about science! We showed the boys a couple of experiments with static electricity and then let them do it. Then we had them do some coloring and learn about how colors mix together and how that changes them.

I was having such a good week working at the Black Pearl that I convinced Paul to go on a date with me there on Saturday. It was so fun because all my co-workers made the effort to come by and say hello even though it was so crazy. Our server was our friend from the market place, where Paul and I met, (Jackie) and she just sat down and talked to us for a little bit. She is hilarious! 

Sunday we went to the devotional to hear Elder Bednar speak. He had people text in questions that they wanted him to answer. Him and his wife did a great job and were very lively. I think a big theme was that we can't just pray or read our scriptures and expect everything to just happen to us that we want, we have to work for what we want while being prayerful and including Heavenly Father in our decisions.

That's it for us. Love you guys!

Also, please pray for Paul's Dad, they found a blood clot in his leg that's pretty scary.

September 3-9, 2018

This week started out fun with labor day. Paul and I went for a hike up Logan canyon. Neither of us had work, so that was nice to be together. We also made some pumpkin granola energy bites together too. 

Paul worked a lot this week and has a lot going on with school. It's going to be a hard semester for him.

 

I had a job interview this week for an Asian restaurant and I got it. I start work there this week. I got another job because my work is not scheduling me very much for some reason. I also went to another meal prep class on Wednesday and that was a lot of fun.

That's it for us this week. Happy anniversary to Mom and Dad! Love you guys!

August 27th, 2018

So, school started this week. It's been pretty fun so far. Paul is pretty excited for his classes. One of his classes focuses on the physics of chemistry and is supposed to be pretty hard. He's really nervous but excited for that one. 

We got since bad news this week. Paul's Dad was riding his bike to work when he got into a collision with a semi truck. The truck driver called the ambulance. He has a concussion, broken leg, broken rib, and a cut on his spleen. He has physical therapy for the next two weeks then he gets to go home. He is going to be okay though. 

So that happened Wednesday morning. Paul and I drove down to Murray to see him after we were done with classes. We spent most of the day with Paul's family until we had to drive home that night. Paul's dad's memory was not great and he kept asking the same questions for the five hours we were with him. Paul and his brother, Matt, gave him a blessing.

Jacob and Brianna came up to Logan this weekend and we went to the temple with them Saturday morning before either of us had to work. We went to Tandoori oven after and that was so yummy. It was fun to see them and get visitors ;) 

Kind of a crazy week! 

We miss Amelia! Hope she is having a good time so far in Argentina. Love you guys!

August 20, 2018

Not a lot happened this week, just working and getting everything done before classes started again. 

One highlight was that Paul was nominated for the Goldwater scholarship! It is the just prestigious scholarship in the US. He was nominated by his organic chemistry professor that he is currently doing research with. We are really excited and hope that he is selected! 

It was fun to come down Saturday for a BBQ with you guys. The corn was awesome. We loved seeing Nathanael and Whitney again. Bethany and Jessa were hilarious. We loved playing games and having a big slumber party with everyone. I actually slept really well on the love sac but we had some people give up and sleep in their own beds. At least there was enough room for 19 people to sleep over!

Andrew and Sierra taught us a fun game, Mao. It was really, really frustrating at the beginning but is our new favorite card game. 

Amelia did an awesome job on her farewell talk on love. She was very confident and brought a nice spirit to the meeting. We're really excited for her to go to Argentina and share that spirit with those she meets.

Thanks for the fun weekend. Love you guys!

August 13th, 2018

This week we came down for Paul's brother's wedding. We came down Thursday for dinner and games then Friday we set up as much as we could for the reception. Saturday we were able to attend the sealing in the Jordan River temple. It was a beautiful sealing and Matt and Hannah looked very happy. The luncheon was nice afterwards to see Matt and Hannah's love story. We finished setting up for the reception just in time before it started. It was fun to hang out with the family. 

Jacob and Brianna came because Jacob knew Matt in the MTC. They helped us clean up a little bit then I went home with them. Jacob and Brianna went to hang out with some friends and Amelia waited for me then we went to the movies with Mom, Eliza, and Sierra. We went to see Mamma Mia 2 and we all loved it. 

Sunday Ben, Jacob, Eliza, Sierra, and I played come thou Fount in sacrament meeting and I thought it went well. Then we played games and ate too much of mom's Bundt cake.

It was a fun week! We're excited for Amelia's farewell coming up this weekend.

Love ya!

August 6, 2018

This week was fun Monday we were able to come down to Salt Lake for Cate and Patrick's wedding dinner but had to come back to Logan before the wedding because Paul was not able to get work off. Dad and I were able to play tennis before we had to leave though. That was a lot of fun. 

The rest of the week was just work and hanging out. Sorry, not super eventful but a good week overall.

Love you guys!

July 30, 2018

This week was a lot of fun. I got home late from work Monday night to a surprise anniversary gift from my amazing husband. He bought me a keyboard piano! We didn't really have anywhere to put it so I got the rearrange the furniture the next day and now we have a cute music corner!

On Saturday, the day before our actual anniversary, we went bowling. It was kind of a struggle. . 

And then we went to bear lake for raspberry days. They had live music, a rodeo, a boat parade, and fireworks. 

Love you guys!

July 23, 2018

Monday was a boat day, which I thought was the best day to do it when all the activities and food are exciting and you want to explore. We were in charge of the family game night. Dad gave us a spiritual thought in preparation for pioneer day. He talked about their Church history road trip before the cruise and shared testimonies of the early saints.

We played a game called Smurf where you say a sentence, replacing part of it with the word Smurf and whoever is it tries to figure out what Smurf stands for. It's kind of like psychiatrist, if you've played that game.

Tuesday we went to Prince Edward Island. We were going to see Anne of Green gables but the rental car fell through. So we went in a walking tour of the town, a tour of the governor's home, and walked on the board walk. Paul and I went to a modern museum as well before returning to the boat. 

Wednesday we went to Sydney in Nova Scotia. We rented cars and went on a scenic drive of the area. We also went on a little hike that looked over the ocean. It was very beautiful.

Thursday we went to Halifax where we took a taxi tour through town up to Peggy's Cove, which is a little fishing town right on the Atlantic ocean. We had fun taking pictures with the lighthouse, climbing over the rocky shore, and watching the waves come in. We walked through the village too before heading back to Halifax. I think this was my favorite stop of the trip.

In Halifax, Dad, James, Jacob, Paul and I went on the board walk to see more of the city. It was very windy.

On the boat that night Gregg's family set up family feud for the family game night and it was way fun! Unfortunately we didn't win but that was the funnest game night of the trip.

Friday we stopped in Bar Harbor, Maine. This town was so beautiful! And it was crazy that we were on a big island! I had no idea Maine had so many islands. We took a bus to the national Park where we hiked along the shore to a beach. It was so sad because Bethany was so excited to go to the beach but she fell asleep right before we got there and didn't wake up until it was time to get back on the bus. Poor girl. 

Back on the boat we did a lip sync battle as our last game night. It was fun and everyone did a great job. Shout out to Peter for his awesome performance!

Saturday we ported in Boston, got a huge 15 seater van #partyvan. We didn't stay in Boston for very long. We drove by where the Boston tea party happened then drove out to see the minute men museum and Robert Frost's home. Then we went to Walden pond. Bethany and Jessa loved playing on the beach. 

We went to dinner later in an old inn/ restaurant that was originally built in 1716! So crazy, it's older that the country it's in. It was super yummy and our waitresses were so nice. 

The restaurant was across from a little Mill that was made by Henry Ford. It was so beautiful with a little waterfall and River going through it. Everyone was grateful to stick their feet in the water for a quick minute. 

After that we dropped Nathanael, Whitney, and their girls off at the airport. Then we went to our Airbnb and called it a night.

Sunday we drove or to Connecticut to see the Hartford temple. It looked very colonial American, which felt appropriate. After that we went to church then got dropped off at the airport. The fights went by pretty fast. The flight to Philadelphia was only an hour and the flight to salt lake was five hours but we slept through most of it. Our flight got to salt lake 30 minutes early, so we were able to make it back to Logan before midnight.

We definitely had an amazing first cruise experience. I tried escargot and we had a good time with the all you can eat ice cream (along with the all you can eat everything else (; ). 

Thanks Dad for the fun trip and letting us tag along!

Love you all!