Reminiscing

I guess after weddings and celebrating an anniversary around the same time, you start to remember some of your old memories.  I wasn't the best at writing in my journal when we were dating and I want to make sure there are some things that we remember.

The first one was our first date.  We totally don't remember an exact date because it was all kindof a blur in the first part of December 2006.  We decided to start dating like the first week of the month.  We held hands during a movie night where we were watching Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at my apartment.  I remember all that happening while we were still in school and had all my roommates there.  Then Christmas break came.  All of my roommates when home and I was there by myself working for a little bit before I went back to Colorado for Christmas.  Nate was there too and we planned on me taking him to Show Low while I went home.  We then realized how busy we were and that we didn't go on a real date yet.  So we did.  If I would guess right, I think our date would have been on December 19th.  Nate got some gift certificates from the family he worked with so we decided to use those for our date night.  We went to El Charro Cafe in Safford.  I was super nervous jittery for some reason, but it was good food.  After dinner, we went back to my apartment, and just relaxed for a little bit.  We were talking and then it lead to us having our first kiss on my little love seat.  Funny twist in the story though.  Within the hour of us kissing, I went into the bathroom and threw up.  I thought it was just cause of my nerves and my stomach was all in knots, but it turns out I had a little flu like bug.  I was in bed the next day or two.  Nate was nice enough though to come over and help me clean up my Christmas stuff by taking my tree down and helping me pack to go home.  He was just so sweet to me and we honestly weren't super close by now, but we did have a hard time being apart from each other during the Christmas break.  After that, it's history.  I came home, we were together and got engaged in February.

 Next is our first Valentine's Day together.  He usually isn't the super romantic type, but boy did he put all he had into this one.  He informed my roommate that he was going to come get me early in the morning so she told me to be ready for that.  He came, woke me up, and took me for a drive.  We went to the duck ponds in Safford.  There was a little gazebo there and he had breakfast for me, with waffles.  He had a rose for me.  We ate, danced, snuggled under a blanket, and watched the sun rise over that gorgeous pond.  So perfect.  I was pretty tired, but that was by far the most romantic thing that has ever happened to me. 

Next is just a simple thing that I want to remember, that Nate and I use to write each other cute little notes saying hi and I love you and nothing too big, but we would leave them on each others cars under the windshield wiper when we were going to and from class.  Usually it was when our cars were parked down by the music building.  He may have left a flower a time or two as well.

Another sweet moment, our first dance.  We were on a date, the specifics I don't remember for sure.  All I remember is him driving around on this dirt road and then all the sudden we are on the top of a hill with a great view and we get out of the car just to look at it.  Then Nate turns on the song Yellow by Coldplay, and there we danced under the stars with an almost full moon.  I loved it.

Rest of the wedding weekend

After Milissa's wedding, we still had the rest of Labor Day weekend to hang out and do whatever, so mom decided to take us kids and grand kids swimming at Skyline pool.  Oh man did those kids have so much fun.  Kayton has totally figured out his floating vest thing and so I didn't have to do too much with him while we were in the water.  Merrick on the other hand doesn't have one yet, but he always wanted to be out in the water and not just in the little kid area.  Thanks to other family members being there, we were able to leave the kids for a minute to go on the diving boards and go down the slide together.  It was such a blast and I'm glad my mom invited us to go.  The hard part was that it was during nap time, so that was so hard on the boys, but it didn't stop them one little bit from having fun.

 

Then later that night, we had plans to go back to the Hummel's house because Nate wanted to see them and visit with them.  So we went back and got dressed and then headed out to their house.  We didn't really have any plans until the last minute and it turns out, that they were going to go swimming that night with their family too.  So in we went again.  We had a lot of fun seeing them though and Nate misses seeing his buddies.
We were going to leave that night to go home, but everyone was just so tired and wiped out from the weekend, that we stayed one more night to catch up on sleep.  We did attempt to go to a ward that morning but at least we did get through sacrament and then it was just too much for the kids so we had to come home.  We stopped at Grandma and Grandpa's and said goodbye then headed out.

 

 

The car ride was suppose to be an amazing drive while the kids slept the whole time, and of course that didn't happen so that added to an even longer and more tired night for the kids.
That evening though, we were invited to go out to dinner in Pinedale with my mom to do dinner and roast marshmallows over the fire.  (side story: Dallin really likes a girl named April that he met on his mission, so he invited her to come down for this whole weekend as like a super long date for them so they could get to know each other better.  They did all kinds of activities with her and had all sorts of things planned and family dinner was kind of an end of the week thing.)

Ringing the Pinedale bell for their first time

It was a fun way to spend Labor Day weekend and we are definitely worn out from it and happy to be vegging out here at home.

Milissa's wedding

What a great weekend for us and our family.  One of my other little sisters got married.  Milissa (step sister) got married to Bryce Bishop.  I was so lucky that I got to go down.  She got married on Friday the 30th, but she took out her endowments the day before so I went down Thursday afternoon.  Nate had to work on Friday so I just went down with just the boys and then Nate would come for the reception the next night.  

So Thursday night, we got to the valley and I ended up staying at my friends house who only lives like 10 minutes away from the temple.  She was amazing and watched my kids for me while I was at the temple.  The endowment session was amazing and we had so much family there together.  It was a late night session, so after it was over, we all had to just go home and I put my kids to bed.  After kids were in bed, we stayed up and talked for a while.  This led to a long day on Friday.

Doing preschool lessons with friends

Watching a movie together

So tired in the car

On Friday, there was a brunch in the morning that I took the boys to.  It was nice and small, and I enjoyed it.  The plan afterwards was suppose to go back to my friends house and put the boys down for a nap.  The hard part about that though, was that there were friends to play with and so they never took a nap.  This lead to a long night and many many breakdowns from Merrick and lots of Kayton having a rough time when I wouldn't let him do something he wanted.
So, I left the kids about 3 o'clock to go to the sealing.  It was such a great ceremony and I loved being a part of it.  All the siblings were able to be there with grandparents and we loved every minute of it.  She just looked so happy and in love and I love seeing that in young couples.   After the ceremony, I got to see my nephew Hyrum which was just amazing.  Totally didn't help my baby hunger at all.  Anyways, the bride and groom came out and who would have guessed, it started to rain.  It was cloudy and everything all afternoon, but just for the little bit of time we were out and taking pictures, it was raining.  I think Milissa kind of loved that it was raining though.


So, I headed back to my friends house to get the boys, get them dressed, and head to the reception.  It was so pretty and all food and things were so good.   Nate got to the reception about halfway through so that helped my night a lot.  My favorite part was getting to see a lot of my extended family that I haven't lived by in such a long time.  Fun fact too.  Bryce Bishop and his family were in my ward when we lived in Mesa before my mom got remarried.  So since they are still in that ward, I saw a few different families from then too.  It was so much fun saying look at me all grown up with a husband and 2 kids.    It was so fun to see her again and catch up.

 

My sweet new nephew Hyrum

Fun fact: Bryce's sister, Katie, is married with four kids and lives in Texas, but she use to babysit us while we still lived in that ward.  I think thought it was so fun to run into her again. 

What Kayton looked like for most of the reception

It was such a beautiful day and I am glad we were there to be a part of it. 

Last fun fact:  This is now the 2nd brother-in-law that I have who I met in that ward and so I knew them and their families before they married my step sisters.  It's so crazy how things work out like that.