Memorial Day Weekend 2013

Recently Marshall and I have been loving living in Utah. The spring/early summer is so pretty here and we are loving the nice weather. We have started going on walks together, in the evening, and we have decided we live in a beautiful place. This is a picture from one of our walks.

 We also have planted a bunch of pots to put on our balcony and one of them has strawberry plants that have started to bloom.

We love Memorial Day and had a great one this year. On Saturday Marshall planned a surprise date to take me on that was so fun. We went up to Ogden to a Mexican restaurant for dinner, then to a driving range (where we realized we both could use some golf lessons), then to a drive-in movie to see Epic. We had so much fun and the weather was perfect all weekend.

 On Monday, which was Memorial Day, Marshall had off work, so we started the day with one of Marshall's favorite breakfasts...

 After breakfast, we got ready, then drove up to Bell Canyon to do the hike to First Falls. This is one of our favorite hikes we have done. On the way up, there are amazing views of the Salt Lake Valley. Then you come to the reservoir where a lot of hikers spend some time, then head back down. If you keep going (so far up the mountain) you come to First Falls. It is a beautiful waterfall that was very powerful on the day we went because of all of the snow melt. We had a picnic up at the falls, then made the (painful) trip back to the car. We were both sooo sore after this hike!

After the hike, we went home and spent some time relaxing at the pool, then went had dinner and went to see the new Fast and Furious movie. 

We had such a great weekend!

Our Re-Done Condo

Our new condo is almost done! We moved in this past Saturday and have set up most of the condo already. We still have a few final touch ups and things to find places for, but we already love what we have done. 

So here are the "before" pictures, just as a comparison, of the kitchen and living room.

These are the after pictures of the same rooms. We re-did the flooring and repainted everything. Marshall and I have done everything ourselves.

In the laundry room, we repainted and laid down a tile floor.

 

In the first spare bedroom, we repainted and had new carpet installed.

This is everything we have finished so far... More pictures to come!

Our New Home

Marshall and I have been thinking about what new home to purchase. We have been renting a condo since we got married and our lease is up this summer, so we knew we had to start looking around. We were having trouble finding a house that was exactly what we wanted, so we had considered building a new house, but the same week we were talking about it, a condo in our current neighborhood went up for sale. We decided that it would be a good idea to invest in the condo as a rental. Since we don't have any kids yet, we thought it would be good for us to live in the condo for a little before we use it as a rental. So, we put an offer in, then heard back a few days later that our offer was accepted. We closed on the condo the last week of February and have been redoing the interior since then. We will hopefully be done with everything this week, so I don't have "after" pictures yet, but here are the "before" pictures. You will be amazed at how different it looks when I post the after pictures. 

 

The kitchen and living room are all in one big main room when you first walk into the condo.

This is the front door and the hallway that leads to the three bedrooms.

Below are pictures of the two spare bedrooms.

The laundry room, storage room and guest bath.

This is the master bedroom. We love that the condo has two balconies.

 The master bath has two separate areas. The sink area is open to the bedroom and the shower and toilet are in a separate area.

We love our new condo and how all of the re-do's are turning out. I should have the pictures of the finished condo up within the next two weeks.

We hope everyone has had a fantastic Easter!

The Month of Love

February has been such an exciting month for us. Here is what we have been up to...

(Most of these pictures were taken on my phone, so sorry about the quality.)

On February 1st, Marshall took me on a surprise date up to Brighton to go snowboarding. I'm not all that great at it, but we still had an amazing time.

 That same evening, my brother and sister-in-law (Adam and Brittany) had their sweet baby girl, Laela. Marshall and I went straight from snowboarding to meet our new little niece. Brittany did amazing with the delivery and I don't think I have ever seen a more proud new daddy than Adam. 

 A few days after that was the Super Bowl, so we had a few friends over to the store to watch on the big screen. Marshall hates the color purple, but agreed that if the Ravens were in the Super Bowl, he would wear a purple shirt. Luckily, the Ravens not only made it there, but also won, so my decorations weren't a disappointment. We had so much fun and were able to meet Ryan and Jill's adorable new baby boy for the first time.

Another exciting (but not it a good way) thing that happened this month is that my younger brother Ryan was in a pretty severe car accident, where his car flipped three times. Luckily, no one else was involved in the accident and Ryan amazingly walked away with a few scratches, really sore muscles and whiplash. He didn't even end up going to the hospital. We are so incredibly thankful to our Heavenly Father that he is okay. This is a picture of the car after it had been towed.

February 10-15, I went down to Las Vegas to watch my niece and nephews while Travis and Kim went to Hawaii. It was such a great week! I love those little munchkins so much and was so happy to spend that much time with them. I have the best husband in the world who was supportive of me going, even though I was away for Valentine's Day. 

Jonathan and Christopher needed boxes to take to school for their Valentine's parties, so we looked on Pinterest to get some ideas and this is what we came up with. Jonny's minion box had to be the best in his class, and Chris loved making his monster box.

 On Valentines Day, the kids woke up to hearts all over the walls and a little present for each one. They of course all got candy, but Jonny and Chris also got new Spiderman shirts and Anella got a new Minnie Mouse sippy cup. After school we went to Towne Square's play area, so the kids could spend time outside in the beautiful weather. (I miss Vegas weather so much!) That evening to celebrate we had a Valentines dinner with Grandma and Uncle Ryan, then the kids took a bubble bath with red water.

 While I was down in Vegas, I could not get enough of this little girl! Anella is at my absolute favorite age for kids (19 months) so we had so much fun dressing her up and going to Target while the boys were at school. All three of these little ones are such bright spots in our family and I miss them so much when I am in Utah.

 

I got back to Utah late on Friday night, and my handsome husband came and picked me up at the airport. I was so happy to see him! Although I love being with my family, I hate being away from Marshall. We had decided to celebrate Valentines Day on Saturday, so when I woke up Marshall surprised me with a box of chocolates, and Nordstrom gift card and this necklace...

After we got up, ate breakfast and got ready, Marshall had a whole day planned just for me. He knew I had wanted to see the movie The Guilt Trip, but we hadn't gone yet, so he looked it up and it is now only playing in one movie theater in Utah. Luckily, it wasn't too far away, so we drove out and watched the movie. After the movies, Marshall took me to Nordstrom and was sooo patient while I shopped. I got a few new things, but tried not to spend too long in there. For dinner, Marshall took me to The Melting Pot in downtown Salt Lake. This is where we went for Valentines Day last year and is where Marshall told me he loves me for the first time. It was such a great day and I feel like the luckiest girl since I am married to such a great man. 

For Marshall's Valentines presents, I made him a Valentine for each of the first 14 days of February. Each had a little treat attached to it, like "You are one hot 'tamale'" with a box of hot tamales or "You have stolen my heart" with a box of Reese's hearts (since they are his favorite). I also gave him a framed quote from Pride and Prejudice since that is his favorite movie.

What a great month this has been!