Happy 1st Anniversary!

So Dan and I celebrated our first anniversary yesterday!  We had a great day and enjoyed the time we got to spend together.  For part of the day Dan had to work on rocket team stuff, which was good and bad.  It was sad that he had to go work on that during our anniversary but it was okay because it gave me the time I needed to finish his present!  When he came home (with beautiful roses!), we enjoyed cheese and wine (okay it was really sparkling cider) for appetizers before we went to dinner.  We exchanged gifts and went out to dinner!  We spent about an hour in Best Buy before we went to dinner because Tandoori was really busy.  But we enjoyed a very peaceful dinner together and a nice evening at home afterwards.  (We made a quick stop at the amphitheater first  because that is "our spot".)

For gifts, I made Dan (and partly for myself) a book that included all the poems that Dan has written throughout our time together {special thanks to Mallory for helping me with it!}.  It also included pictures from our times together and all the adventures we have gone on.  And because the traditional gift for your first anniversary is paper, we decided to get each other paper.  By this, I mean we are going to get our passports.  Dan doesn't have one and mine says my maiden name.  We decided on passports because then if we ever wanted to go on any adventures outside of the USA, we could!  I think it is a fantastic idea!

Here are a list of things we have done over the last year!
-We got married
-Spent our first Thanksgiving together with Dan's family
-Spent our first Christmas together with Wendy's family
-Bought our first car!
-Went on our first SWE adventure together (in Palm Springs)
-Went to Vegas!
-Went to the WAC championship game in which the Aggies WON!
-Went on lots of hikes, alone and with lots of friends
-Went to Oregon with Dan's family
-Went to Craters of the Moon
-Spent 4th of July in AWESOME Rupert!
-Went to Bear Lake
-Went on our honeymoon to Zion
-Hiked Angel's Landing and a slot canyon
-Went camping in Idaho
-Went to Four Corners
-Went to Arches
-And many many trips to the ZOO cause we are awesome ZOO MEMBERS!

Happy Quarter-of-a-Century-Day to me!!

Well... I turned 25 today.  And I must say, having a birthday on a Sunday makes for a very uneventful birthday!  Especially when it's also on daylight savings.  That one extra hour was kind of nice though! 

Some fun things that has happened in the last year since I turned 25.
1- Last year on this day, I went through the temple for the first time!
2- Two weeks later, I married a fantastic man whom I love dearly and couldn't imagine life without.
3- Finished my first semester then year of grad school.
4- Got elected as a region position for SWE
5- Went to conferences for SWE in Austin, TX and Chicago, IL!
6- Really got started on my thesis project!  (Let's just hope I can finish it before I turn 26!)

There are many more things that I've done this past year but a lot of them involve Dan, so I want to save them for our anniversary! 

But I can't believe how fast this year has flown by!!!  Seriously, its been crazy! 

Yesterday my parents came to visit and we had a lot of fun.  Mostly we just shopped in Cache Valley but that is okay because we never go shopping here anyways!  And my mom is such a bargain hunter so its so much fun to go shopping with her!  They also brought me a DQ ice cream cake which is my all time favorite cake!  (There is no cake involved in this cake.)  I am very blessed to have so many people in my life that love me and care for me! 

Its been a fun past year and I hope the next one is just as fun!  Maybe I'll be able to say I graduated with a MS degree too! (Seriously though, I better be done by then!)  And who knows where we will be in a year from now.  We could be here or in a number of other places.  I am definitely looking forward to another year! 

Who says being a quarter of a century old can't be awesome?  Cause I sure don't!  I'm gonna rock 25 like no other!

Happy (late) Halloween!

Fall Break Fun

So for Fall Break, Dan and I, and our friends Jeff, Michelle and baby, (and the USU Rocket Team) went down to New Mexico to the Navajo Nation!  The rocket team were down there to do outreach to 800+ elementary school kids about rockets and rocketry.  They did an awesome job!   Afterwards, we went to the Four Corners Monument!  It was fun to see all the different booths that people had there.  Baby even got a free bracelet even though he's a boy haha! 

That night we were going to go to Arches and find a campsite and camp for the night.  Well, there wasn't a camping site or hotel room within a hundred miles of Arches.... So we ended up sleeping in the car, with four adults and a baby, and a lot of stuff still in the car.  Let's just say it was not exactly the best night's rest any of us had gotten in a while.  But we went into Arches that morning and did some hiking and had a fantastic day!  I'll post more pictures later!  But for your enjoyment, here is a video from that morning.

Help!!!

So I need some ideas for a couple of things.  My birthday is coming up and Dan has been asking me what I want, but I don't know what to tell him.  There's not really a lot of things I want currently, I mean I have a few ideas that would be nice but none of them are must haves.  Here's my list so far:
-hiking shoes
-camelbak backpack
-one of those cool chairs that I posted about earlier

Anyone have any other ideas?

Also, I need a good idea for Dan's anniversary gift.  Our first anniversary is about six weeks away and I don't know what to get him!!!  I know the first anniversary gift is paper but I don't know where to go with it.

P.S. He won't read this so don't feel bad about posting any ideas!

Sunday dinners

We enjoy cooking around here.  A couple of weeks ago, before school started, we decided that we wanted to try our luck at making Indian food!  It was really fun and delicious. 

Because of this, we decided that we really wanted to try making a lot of other new things.  So this weekend, we decided that we wanted to make French Onion Soup for dinner!  Boy it was delicious!  We even found a recipe that was French Onion soup for 2!  Perfect serving size and everything!  We enjoy cooking together cause it's like a mini-date for us when we do that.  Today was no different!  We had a blast cooking and enjoyed eating it together. 

Here's a picture of our soup!

I want...

one of these!

Or some various form of this...
The end...