picky ducks

My days include a lot of sitting around. So when Nathan comes home I am desperate for human interaction and activity. The people at Walmart just stare strangely at me when I talk to them for too long. Same with the guy at the Del Taco drive thru. It's a problem guys.

So basically I drag Nathan out of the apartment every chance I get. Make him drive me through Del Taco (again) but this time I make sure the worker knows I do have friends. Not just friends, but a HUSBAND. Take that!

Then we proceed to eat at the park. My favorite park in the world. And I get so excited to feed the ducks. But I forget the bread. So I feed them some of my fries. And they turn up their noses at the fries! Don't even eat them! Who do these ducks think they are!? The Queen of England!? The Duchess of Cambridge!? The drive-thru guy at Del Taco!?

Anyways, I love these warm summer evenings with my smokin' hot husband. And even though I am occasionally bored, I can't really complain about getting paid to relax and do nothing all summer. I basically get to choose whether or not I am going to brush my teeth and hair each day. Just kidding. Kinda.

Here's some pictures of our adventure with the rude ducks and the balding man in a paddle boat. Watch out, things got craaazzzzzy. (No they didn't.)

I love Del Taco. Like.. seriously. But all 5 of those tacos are Nathan's.

This is what he did when I told him not to squint.

So pensive

This is when I stared getting pissed at those snotty ducks.

I feel like that one duck feels super uncomfortable that his friends have their butts in the air.

late night ramblings

It's dark right now and the light from the computer is blinding my eyes but I cannot sleep and there are so many thoughts bouncing around my mind. What else is new?

I can't help but smile at my sweet husband absolutely passed out laying beside me in bed. He works so hard, he deserves to be sleeping away like a baby. I love that he never snores. Maybe that will change as he gets older, but right now I love it. I love a lot of things about this man. Sometimes I can't believe this is my life. That everything I dreamed of for so long is mine now. I can remember years ago dreaming of who I would marry. In my patriarchal blessing I was promised I could marry "the man of my choice." I often thought about that as I have grown up. For some reason the idea of choosing always seemed weird to me. It makes a lot more sense now.

I don't feel like I have the traditional love story especially for Utah. We met so young. We took a while to come together. We grew up together as boyfriend and girlfriend. We were together for near 5 years before marriage was ever possible. It was hard, no question about it. But I wouldn't have it any other way. Those years tested and stretched us both and finally brought us together in the most beautiful way I could imagine. And it taught me what it meant to choose. As the end of Nathan's mission neared, I found myself doubting everything and wondering if Nathan was really who I should be with or should I open myself to other boys in my life or put myself out there. What if I married the wrong guy. I worried and stressed and then the line from my blessing came to my mind. Choose. I get to choose. And so I chose Nathan and peace was immediately brought to my mind. It was Nathan. It always had been. And I chose him. I was not destined for one man like some Disney fairytale. I was not forced into marriage by mistakes or circumstance. I chose Nathan. And he chose me back. I cannot believe how lucky I am somedays.

This blog post is just my late-night, sentimental ramblings but I feel like those need to be documented too. Life is no fairytale, but it's beautiful in it's own, special, sublime way. Most of it stems from the handsome, sleeping face lying right next to me. He is completely and irrevocably the love of my life. 

family, dogs, and wheelchairs

This weekend was.. um.. crazy and awesome and sad and great. Confusing huh? I will try to explain.

It was the Terry family reunion this weekend. Nathan's mom side of the family. I have met all the Merkley side, but only a rare few of the Terry side. And there is A LOT fot them. I have been facebook friends with a lot of them for a while so I was very excited to meet them in real life. It was like meeting celebrities haha.

Mom, Dad, Shawn, Jaden, Amanda, Brad, and the babies all came to Salt Lake Friday night. We met up with some family for dinner at Cafe Rio. I think the workers thought I asked for a grease quesadilla, because that's what I got. Clark discovered the front facing camera on my phone and fell in love. There was about 400 pictures when he was done.

We headed back to our apartment to show the family around our super fancy one-bedroom and practice for the family reunion talent show. Each family needed to perform some talents. We decided to do one all together and Mama Merkley chose the masterpiece song, "It's Ruff Being a Dog." It was hilarious! We couldn't get through practicing without laughing hysterically. Here's a little video of some of our practicing. We didn't film most of the laughing because we could hardly breath. We always lost in on Shawn's solo. At the end is the final performance. Yes we are wearing dog ears, black noses, and matching American flag shirts. Don't you wish you were us?

Shawn stayed with us that night and we stayed up late watching you tube videos. We are pretty crazy partyers. Shawn was getting over an infection in his joints, specifically his ankles. Friday was the frist day he had really walked on them in weeks. About 2am he woke up in excruciating pain. Nathan and Papa Merkley gave him a blessing around 5am, but by morning he hadn't slept at all and couldn't walk. He wanted to go to the reunion really bad, so we searched all morning for a wheelchair rental. Luckily we found one and Shawn was able to join in! Although the pain got worst all day :( Poor guy.

The reunion was great! Food and family and entertainment. There was some amazing talents and some hilarious ones and it was fun to meet so many people. It was great to hear so many stories from Grandmother and Grandfather and get to know how incredible their lives have been. And of course.. we sang like dogs.

My little buddy

Grandmother and Grandfather 

Talent show!

Family tree!

The Robisons!

Merkleys! 

Kalvin and Grandpa

It's a ruff life being a dog

all married within a few weeks of each other :)

It was so fun to get to know everyone, but unfortunately our night was spent in the hotel room convincing Shawn to go to the ER and then getting him there. The poor guy was in so much pain and it was only getting worse. We ordered some pizza then loaded him up. He got taken back really fast and we sat by our phones for updates. They ran some tests and we are still waiting to hear but he was able to at least get some sleep!

We headed back to their hotel early the next morning to spend some more time with family and say goodbye, but mostly we just watched Kalvin eat a muffin and played in the wheel chair. 

Even with all the craziness, it was wonderful to see family and meet so many new people! I love being apart of my new family. Keep our Shawny-boy in your prayers! We are hoping he gets better soon.

risky business

Guys I died my hair brown! This is a big deal for me. I have always been a big wuss when it comes to changing my hair. The most daring thing I have ever done was get bangs. And they weren't even full on bangs. They were side swept bangs. But I have been blonde my entire life and I was kinda bored of it. So bam. I did it. It's not too dark, but it's a perfect little change. Thanks to Jessica for making me do it instead of wussing out. I am quite liking it. I may be dark for a little while!

It's my third day of official summer vacation and I'm not bored yet, but I am still not used to not having anything to do. I slept in until 8 today and panicked when I woke up. It took me a minute to realize I could sleep all day it wouldn't matter. That's weird to get used to. I am making a daily list of things I need to do to keep me from going insane. Luckily, I haven't even started my thank you cards and I have a lot of fun projects for Jessi's wedding to keep my busy.

I have also decided to start Yoga this summer. I was hesitant to do this. Because, to be honest, I have always made fun of "yoga people" and there is a certain stigma that goes along with it. But when researching things to help with my anxiety and yoga is always on there. So I got a yoga DVD specific for anxiety and relaxation and let me tell you guys, even after just a few sessions, I am a believer! Not only is it relieving my anxiety, but it is helping my with lower back pain, making me more flexible, and I am sleeping like a freaking baby angel. I made Nathan try it with me last night because he is always complaining of back, neck, and shoulder pain. He thought it was kinda funny but he told me today his back is feeling way better. So there ya go. I love yoga. Although it is hard not to laugh when they say things like "inner smile" or make you chant "om" while you breathe. Those parts I don't really buy into, but all in all, it's helping quite a bit so far.

I don't really have anything else to share. My days are going to get more and more boring. If you need anything done, I'll even come into your house and clean in. Man I need a dog.. or a baby. Or both. Just kidding. (Not).

Honeymoon Mega Post

We are home from our Honeymoon!!! It was a freaking blast. We left 2 weeks ago and stayed in Vegas with Amanda and Brad for a bit, then to California with my family for a few days, then Cabo for 8 days! It was relaxing and warm and sunny and amazing. I could give a day-by-day blurb, but that would be super boring considering most of the time we just laid on the beach. So basically I am just gonna bullet crap we did and mix in some of our thousands of pictures.

-Spending time with family was so much fun. My nephews are way cuter than yours. And so is my cat. And so is my sister and her fiancee.

-We got champagne when we checked in. We didn't want to be rude so we kinda held it awkwardly through check in, meeting with the concierge, and being taken to our room.

-I cried for a good two hours over The ending of "Certain Girls." Guys.. just don't even read it. I was pissed.

-Nathan developed a love for sea shell collecting. It started to get weird. He later sorted all his seashells and started to give them names..

-We read a lot 

-We slept in every morning. One time until 11am. ELEVEN AM PEOPLE!!!! 

-We sat through an almost 2 hour time share presentation just so we could get some free stuff an awesome deals. It was grueling. They don't take no for an answer. I even told them in order to buy one we would have to take my husband out of school and not have kids and he said that was a great idea. After 4 different sales men, each one with a deal just for us, we got off with hundreds of dollars in activities and gift cards. I'd say it was worth it. 

-We played for hours in the ocean and I was only a little bit terrified of sharks. 

-We got special towel creatures on our bed each night. Nathan loved them. We also got free dessert brought to our room each night. Everyone at our resort was so friendly! I want them to be my real life best friends.

-This is seriously what most of our days looked like. It was perfect. And lazy. And relaxing. And sunny. And yesss!

-We watched some beautiful sunsets on the beach.

-We swam a lot. My hair might be a little bit green right now. Thanks chlorine! 

-I took several naps. Mostly on the beach. 

-We walked the streets of cute little San Jose looking for a fun Mexican restaurant. Wanna know where we ended up? Applebee's. I was too worried about the "quaint local" places being filled with people who wanted to rob us. 

-We went grocery shopping and I got to put my mediocre, high school Spanish education to work. 

-We saw TONS of military men and police men. The g20 summit started the day before we left. It was crazy, helicopters flying over every few minutes, navy boats patrolling. We felt really safe. Military men with machine guns guarded most of the resorts. 

-We watched a lot of tv. Nathan finally got to see heavy weights and they happened to show tons of Friends and The office. All in English! It was like a little piece of America. 

-Nathan bought me a bracelet off one of the beach sellers. he was nice but he was telling us the bracelets were 60$ because they were made of "real silver." real silver my butt. When Nathan acted uninterested because of the price, suddenly that "real silver" bracelet only cost 5 bucks. 

-I was a sun screen nazi and still got way more sunburned than Nathan. 

-We rode wave runners for an hour off medona beach and it was so fun! Nathan was like a little boy. He also thought it was hilarious to yell "yahoo!" every time we went over a big wave. Although, we did fall off one time. We still have no idea how it happened. We weren't even going fast. We were deciding where to ride to next, and then we were in the ocean. 

-We rode the bus to and from San Lucas! We felt just like locals. Except that we're American, very white, and took pictures of ourselves on the bus. But two bucks for the bus is way better than 40 for a taxi. 

-We got the most amazing pool-side massages in this little private tented area. Best thirty minutes of my life. I thought I was floating in a cotton candy cloud. 

-We shopped down town and at the mall in San Lucas. I'd been there before and it was fun to go back. We found the cutest little shop with handmade Mexican trinkets. Nathan bought me a beautiful candle holder. 

-We got Haagen Dazs!!! First time in forever since they closed the one at the gateway. We figured it was very fitting to get Haagen Dazs since its where we met. Plus Mexicans love it. There's one on every corner. 

-We paid twelve freaking bucks for a bottle of aloe Vera gel. It was much needed though. Stupid shop owner taking advantage of my burning skin. 

-We ate a lot of cereal. I was constantly craving it for Some reason and Nathan found some nesquick cereal that turns your milk into chocolate milk and he was a little bit stoked. 

-We visited the resort my family and I have been to the past few summers. It was fun to show him where I would go to check my email to see what he had written me that week when he was a wee little missionary. 

-We ate and entire giant jar of nutella in 4 days. Be impressed. Or worried for our health. 

-Our resort was not overcrowded at all like some places I've been in the past. One morning we had the whole pool to ourselves and the beach was so private, it was awesome. We loved our resort! 

-Thanks to free HBO, we got to watch a ton of movies including some terrifying movie with Adrian Brody and an alien/mutant child thing.
-We went on a lot of beach walks.

-We saw some people at our resort who looked like Mormons. Later at the grocery store we saw them again. They came and introduced themselves and after some small talk, asked if we were Mormons. We must have the look too. 

-I got whiplash from the wave runners. My neck and back yelled at me for the next few days. 

-I found a piece of coral on the beach, picked it up, and noticed something moving inside. We washed the thing out and it was a teeny tiny octopus thing. I loved him.

-We went out to a fancy dinner at the resort on our last night. My food was amazing. Nathan was unsure. His tacos came with cactus.

-We took a walk down the beach which turned into a walk into town for the sole purpose of getting ice cream. 

-Our shuttle to the airport decided not to come, so after our very angry phone call, they gave us a free cab. They claimed they called the hotel to tell us the time of the shuttle was changed from 1 to 12, but the front desk says no call came and we were out at the curb way before 12 because we had to check out early, and no shuttle ever came for us. Word or wisdom. Don't use TRANSCABO. I am very angry at them. 

-We waited in line for over an hour to check into our flight. Then waited ten seconds to go through security. Then our flight was delayed an hour.

It was a relaxing and perfect Honeymoon. And I am loving this husband of mine more and more every day :)

Happy Honeymooning!