Our first apartment!

Our apartment finally feels like home for us, now that we got all our moving boxes and suitcases and everything put away.  Our apartment is so big so we still need to fill some wall space, but that will come later.  Right now we are just happy to have a nice and cozy place for the two of us!

living room!

so glad we have a nice fireplace for the winter :)

dining room table

kitchen

bedroom

Our bedroom is so huge!  There is just a huge open space, the size of another bedroom back by our dressers. 

This is our washer and dryer.  Haha, I have never even seen a 2-in-1 washer dryer before.  I used to not mind doing laundry, but I can't stand doing laundry in this machine.  It is SO tiny!! We can fit about 5 or 6 shirts in here at once.  When we wash towels, we can only wash 2 at a time!  It takes like 2 hours to dry our clothes too....so annoying!  I guess the only good thing about it is not having to switch the washed clothes to the dryer since its combined.

 office/guest bedroom.  Visitors are welcome anytime!!!

bathroom

We love our first apartment!!! Come visit us :)

month of craziness!

August has been such a crazy month!! 

I start teaching 2nd grade on the 22nd of August, which meant I had to leave Maryland early and come out to Utah to get everything in the classroom all set up and attend training and meetings.  That left us no choice but to have me drive out while Andrew finished his internship.... :(

Andrew's sweet grandma drove with me from MD to Colorado to make sure I would get there okay.  It was fun having her to talk with and keep me awake!  We listened to an exciting mystery book on tape which kept us wanting to be in the car to know what was going to happen next.  Luckily we had plenty of time to listen to the whole thing on our 25 hour road trip. Getting to Colorado was nice because we stayed there one night and got to rest up for the next big drive.  Grandma went to Montana to visit her brother, while my mom and cutie pie nephew packed up to go to Utah! 

Things didn't go exactly as I had planned in Colorado...my car was full of clothes and wedding presents from DC, so  we wanted to hook up a trailer to the back of my car in Colorado to drive out all the wedding presents from Colorado to Utah. Unfortunately, ford explorers are not compatible to hook up a trailer to for some reason, nor any other stinkin moving truck company. Our only option left was to rent a 14 foot moving truck and tow the explorer on the back of the truck.  Not only was it expensive, but it was SO long!  I was so nervous to drive it. Look at this thing!!!

 

We left CO springs at 7 in the morning and got to Utah at 7 at night.....it was the longest and maybe even in the worst 12 hours of my life.  I don't think I have done anything harder in my life!  It was pretty windy and all I could see in my side mirrors was the trailer kind of swaying back and forth!! Luckily we all made it alive :) 

I am SO thankful my mom came out with me.  I don't know how I could have done everything that needed to be done without her.  We woke up at 6 in the morning and went to bed at 1 in the morning usually every night.  Setting up an apartment is kind of hard with moving everything in, but on top of that I had to set up my classroom and go to meetings!  My mom did such a great job with my classroom, it looks amazing mostly because of her!  (pictures of the apartment and classroom to come soon!) My mom and Ethan left today, so it is so quiet in my apartment all by myself.  I've missed Andrew so much and can't wait for these next 10 days to go by so we get to be together again! It has definitely not been fun being away from eachother for 3 weeks, especially as newlyweds, but we are grateful he was able to stay and work and make more money for us and pay for all the expenses it took to get out here. I'm glad I have such a hard workin hubby!! With all the technology we have now, atleast we get to video chat and virtually see eachother! hoping the next 10 days go by fast!!!

Happy 23rd Birthday!

Our blog has been slacking because my life was taken over by independent study classes.  They are the worst!! 

Anyways, Last Saturday was Andrew's 23rd birthday!  The birthday boy was lucky enough to get some breakfast in bed :) I surprised him with a sausage and hard boiled egg mixture he's had and loved for his whole life served over an english muffin.  It is such a yummy breakfast.  We then met up with our brothers and sisters to raft the Potomac river!  It was such a hot day (118 degrees!) that the river felt like bath water.  It was very enjoyable to swim in.  We even were all brave enough to do some cliff jumping! 

                                                         Emma came too and loved it!
After a long day in the sun, we went back and took naps and got ready for a great night at Dave and Busters. 

                             Andrew would not take any serious pictures while we were waiting to eat!

                                                              Emma and Uncle Andrew

                                                 I'll let everyone know that I won! =] haha...even if it was only by a few seconds

our favorite game...the horse racing!

got so many tickets from this machine!

                                                              opening more presents!

We had a great day spent together and with our family.  I love you hubs and can't wait to spend many many many more years together!

golf, golf, golf!

This past weekend, we played lots of golf.  Andrew has always loved golfing, but lately he has REALLY loved golfing!  The other day we were driving and he said, "Babe, I love hanging out with you so much, but I really love golfing too.  It isn't very much fun playing golf with people who aren't very good.....so you need to get really good so I can spend time with you AND get to golf!"  haha. I've only played a round of real golf twice in my whole life.....so I have some work to do!

So we headed to the driving range Friday night.  Andrew was teaching me how to hold the club and swing correctly.  I'd have to say, I've made some progress and can now hit a ball a whole 120 yards! :) guess I'll have to keep working on that to hit the real course again.  Despite not being too great at it yet, it was a lot of fun....minus the 15 mosquito bites we both got! Andrew, on the other hand, was hitting atleast a good 385 yards.  He was hitting way past the range and into the trees!!

                                                                   my studly hubby!

Saturday we decided it would be fun to go mini golfing and work on our putting skills!  That's one thing I can hang right there with him, I'll admit, I'm a pretty good mini golfer! We decided to place a bet and whoever won got a whoppin $20 spending money.  (gotta love being newlyweds!)  We're both very competitive, so it was pretty intense.  Unfortunately for me, he won.....which I wasn't too happy about. However, he only won because there were so many stinkin gnats in my face the whole time!!! All in all, it was a great weekend and I can't wait to be back in Utah and golf with him and Jord! 

Lazy Sundays

After a long week of work and fun on the weekends, we love having the down time on Sundays to relax and be lazy.  Our church starts at 9 A.M., so we always have to get up early.  We are also teaching primary for the summer!  The 6 year old kids just wear us out! :) We love coming home and having lunch and then taking a nap.

Last Sunday was a special day because of Father's Day. My dad is in China, so I only got to talk to him via email, but I had to let him know how grateful I am for all he does for me and my family.  We're lucky to be living in DC this summer and be surrounded by our family members out here. I sure did get lucky to have amazing in laws! We went to Andrew's parents for a delicious dinner.  I'm grateful Andrew has such a wonderful dad who taught him well...he sure raised one heck of a boy!

                                        Our precious niece, Addie.  We love her so much!!

Even though Andrew and I don't have kids yet (and hopefully not for a little while) when the time comes, Andrew is going to be the most amazing father!  He loves kids and is so good with them.  I'm lucky to be with him forever. 

Bomb Threat

There was a change in our summer plans....We ended up living in Washington D.C. for the summer!  Andrew is doing an internship this summer with a company called policy impact, and I am nannying for 3 little kids every day.  We have loved living in D.C. so far because there are lots of fun things to do and it is nice having so much family around and getting together for FHE, date nights, etc.  However, there are days like today where I don't like living here so much. 

I take Andrew and my brother-in-law John to the metro station every morning so they can get to work in D.C.   Just as I was getting home, Andrew texted me saying there was a bomb threat on the metro by the station they were almost at, so the metro took them back to the original station.  I turned around to pick them up and took them to a different station.  It took FOREVER to get there with all the traffic.  The lady is now in custody and the police are trying to figure out if she really did have a bomb or just wanted the attention.  It is scary living here since this place is such a target for disaster!  I worry about Andrew working in D.C. 

Oh yeah, and I also hate the humidity.  It makes it feel so hot and gross here.  Other than that, we are loving it here! :)

Honeymoon in Bermuda!

Warning: Lots of pics!!!

After a busy wedding week followed by a busy week of lacrosse, we LOVED our relaxing and fun week in Bermuda! 

Day 1: We flew out of DC early Monday morning and got to Bermuda in the afternoon.  Bermuda is such a beautiful little island!  The taxi driver took us the long way to our hotel to show us around the island.  Our suite was AMAZING! The first thing we did was lay outside and tanned while looking at a map trying to plan out our week.

We tried renting a scooter that night, but they had already closed, so we decided to walk to go get some dinner.  There are tons of roads with no sidewalks... so we had a couple close run ins with some cars in the street! We got lost a few times, finally got some food to eat, and took it back to our porch to watch the beautiful sunset!

Day 2: First thing we did when we woke up was go and rent a scooter!  The scooters were so fun to ride, although it was a little weird driving on the other side of the street. 

It was Bermuda Day, so there was a huge parade in Hamilton that we went to.  Our favorite was the gombey dancers and people who played the steel drums.

It was such a nice day out that we left the parade early and headed to the beach.  I'm so glad we did because the beaches weren't crowded at all!  We walked from Jobson's cove to horseshoe bay.  It was amazing, there were so many awesome coves. 

We ate at the Swizzle Inn for dinner.  The food in Bermuda is okay, but way overpriced!  Our cheapest meal was like $40, just for sub sandwiches! Most the shops close by 7, so we would go watch the sunset and spend the rest of the nights relaxing in the hot tub or watching movies.

Day 3:  We woke up and went to the grocery store to buy some breakfast food and made some breakfast at the hotel.  The hotel we stayed at offered a complimentary round of golf, so we couldn't pass that up.  Turns out a complimentary round of golf turned into spending $150!  Forget to mention how much it would cost to rent clubs, a cart, and buy some balls.....  Oh well, it was a fun day anyways!

 We spent the rest of the day poolside and got nice and fried! My poor shoulders were burnt all week.  Each day they would get a lot of sun, I'd wake up with it turning to a tan and just a little pink, but I never gave them a break! 

Day 4: We wanted to go on a fun adventure, so we decided to go snorkeling.  The scoot ride to Dockyard was pretty far, but atleast it ended up being a nice day.  We had a great time snorkeling and saw some cool fish and even some sea turtles from the boat ride! 

The water in Bermuda is so clear and blue you can see everything in it! Our snorkeling guide was awesome, so funny and told us all about Bermuda. 

That night, we went out to a nice dinner and then watched the sunset at the beach.  There's nothin better than watching the sunset at the beach with your hubby! 

Day 5: We headed to St. George's to check out some of the shops they had there.  Andrew got a new bermuda tie.  I was going to get some perfume before the price tag said $160!  Ridiculous!  We visited St. Peter's church and kissed under a moon gate for good luck :)

Day 6:  The end of our trip was approaching, and we wanted more sun, so we spent the day lounging around at the beach and drawing fun things in the sand. It was a beautiful, but very crowded day!

Day 7:  We weren't ready to leave living the good life, where we had nothing to worry about and nothing to do but relax.  We were, however, ready to be back to good food for cheaper price! 

Couldn't have asked for a better honeymoon, we are so blessed to have been able to go there!  Now it's back to reality of cleaning, cooking, work, and school!