Celebrations!

Last week we celebrated my 23rd birthday!  I know that is young, but to me I feel so old!! I just turned 23 and have almost finished my 2nd year teaching, been married for 2 years, and we just bought our first house. And it doesn't help that my not so little brother anymore just turned 18! 

I've said it before, but I have to say it again... being a teacher is so great! What is better than having 22 kids loving you? My kids are the sweetest (most of the time). They spoiled me this year with treats, gifts, and so many hugs and I often overheard them throughout the day telling eachother to shhhh....it's Mrs. Harding's birthday! We can't be rude to her! :) Maybe I've engraved that into their heads a little too much ha ha.

I am so blessed to have the greatest family, friends, and husband. I couldn't have asked for a better day or better way to start my 23rd year!! My sweet hubby took me to Cafe Rio with our brothers for dinner and surprised me later with my favorite cake: ice cream cake!

He also bought me the best gift! My roomie brought her clarisonic to DC a few weeks ago and had nothing but good things to say about it. I really wanted it so I'm so glad Andrew bought it for me. Seriously girls, if you haven't ever used a clarisonic before it is AMAZING!! Definitely worth the money. My skin has never felt softer than it does after using this. I recommend it to everyone!

Next celebration....on May 10th we finally closed on our house! We were lucky to have lived in such a nice apartment in Provo for 2 years, but it's so great to finally have our own house. We realized we were going to be in Utah for a few more years with our work, so we figured we mine as well start building up equity. 

Packing everything up was awful. I have no idea how we accumulated so much stuff in 2 years! We had to pack everything during the week which is more difficult since we both work. Look at this mess.....our last night in our apartment was spent having a sleepover in the living room since we had already put our bed frame in the Uhaul.

Friday night--first night moving stuff in! Such a long, hard, and messy process. I'm happy to say it doesn't look like that now! We are loving getting everything all moved in and organized.

I'll be putting up pictures of the house soon once we get it all organized and the way we like it. We are so fortunate to have been able to buy such a beautiful and perfect townhouse for us. Everyday we love coming home. Home sweet home!

We also celebrated our 2 year anniversary this week! We celebrated by going to our favorite restaurant Communal....hits the spot every time. Seriously if you go, order a side of Mac n' Cheese....it's the best ever!  It's been the most wonderful 2 years of marriage. We've definitely had some arguments, but the best thing about being married is knowing your spouse's feelings, forgiving one another and treating each other even better than you thought possible.  I feel lucky to have a man who treats me with so much love and kindness. He's been the best thing to happen to me and I'm happy everyday because of him. I'm glad I married such a hard working man and someone who is already doing a great job to provide for our family. Part of my patriarchal blessing says that my husband will provide for me so I will not want, and I'm already seeing that in my life now and am so grateful for all he does to do a great job at work. I absolutely love everything about him! I'm a lucky wife and right now we are just having the time of our lives together!!

a glimpse into my future!!! :)

Life is so good!

Girls Trip--Nike Half Marathon in DC!

April has just been a month full of traveling for us! No wonder it has gone by so fast. Somehow I only have 18 days left of this school year!!  

Last weekend I met up with my sister and old roomie for a girls trip to DC to run the Nike women's half marathon. It was so great to see them! 

The trip started with an early flight to Denver. Andrew booked my flight so that I'd have a layover in Denver so my sister and I could be on the same flight. Turns out my dad had to do some work in DC so he booked the same flight as us too. I'm glad he decided to come because we got to enjoy the Air Force Officer's Club because of him in the airport where we stuffed our purses full of free drinks and snacks! :)

We got our rental car, picked up Brooke from the bus station and headed to Georgetown to go to the Nike store. Once we got there and finally found a parking spot (practically impossible to find), it was closed! So frustrating. So instead we found our name on the wall of the Nike store and of course got cupcakes. I had never been to Sprinkles before but the cupcakes were amazing! We had Sprinkles one day and Georgetown Cupcakes the next day and I think Sprinkles is the better! 

 Afterwards we were starving and decided we'd find a Chipotle. All 3 of our phones were almost dead and we needed the maps to find a Chipotle and also to get back to our hotel. We literally drove around Georgetown for 45 minutes trying to find a parking spot. We couldn't find ANY and then ended up at a different Chipotle then our phone told us to go to somehow. It was just such a nightmare. I don't know how people who live in Georgetown just go out to dinner on the weekends!!

The next day we woke up early to go back to the nike store and then met up with all the Harding/Hunter ladies for lunch. I married into the best family. They are all such great ladies and I had so much fun catching up with them. Not to mention, my mother-in-law Dawn is the best little hostess ever! Thanks for the delicious pre-marathon lunch Dawn!!

so happy Rach drove from UVA so I could see the kiddos. And of course they are darling as ever!!
Seriously making me baby hungry! 

After lunch we headed to the expo to get everything for our race the next day. It was such a gorgeous day in DC.

bestie since freshman year!

After the expo we met up with my dad for a carb loaded dinner and then went back to the hotel and went to bed. The next morning was an early morning. We had to be down at the front for our taxi at 6:15. But the weather couldn't have been better to run 13 miles in! It was sunny but not too hot with the perfect breeze. It was the best course I have ran and was beautiful running by the Potomac river and through all the National Monuments. I was so proud of my sister who ran the half 5 months preggo!!

It was great to have both my in laws and my dad there to cheer us on! My dad was on the street cheering for us around 12 miles and then ran down to the finish line to see us cross too.  I love love running but I'm most looking forward to just getting to run normal amounts of like 4 miles everyday rather than 7-8 and give my body a break! 

after getting all our post race goodies & Tiffany's necklace!

After the race we went back to our hotel to shower and check out and then headed to Cafe Rio and Sprinkles for our post half meal! Brooke lives in NYC now and hasn't had Rio for months which we all know is far too long so of course we had to have it! It was a short weekend together but I'm so glad I got to be with my sisters for those few days. 

Andrew took advantage of our girls weekend by taking a guys trip to Vegas with some of our brothers to spend the weekend golfing. We hardly got to talk to each other much because of the 3 hour time difference and how quickly our phones were dying. I couldn't wait to get home to him though. Being apart always makes you realize how much you miss each other. I got home late Sunday night to the sweetest note and there was nothing better than getting into our extremely comfy bed and snuggling with my man. So lucky for our marriage. 

Costa Rica part 3: Puntarenas

The last 3 days of our trip were spent in Puntarenas. We didn't spend time exploring the city of Puntarenas because we stayed at an all-inclusive resort so we never needed to leave!! We loved relaxing at the pool and beach for 3 days but definitely ate and drank way too much! How could we not when it was for free???

walking along the beach & Andrew told me to try to pick a coconut but obviously I didn't get very close!

These guys were everywhere!!! The smaller ones were so cute.



The people at the hotel thought it was our honeymoon for some reason. Probably because we looked younger than a lot of the people that were checking in so they just assumed, but we didn't mind the candy bar :)

Beautiful sunsets while walking on the beach. 

All of our time was seriously spent lounging in these chairs drinking a smoothie or eating at the buffets. ha ha it was quite the life! And also quite the reality check when we got home and didn't have anyone cooking for us or making us whatever drink we wanted. 

We brought SPF 15 sunscreen...don't know what we were thinking because neither of us had seen the sun in months! So even though we were putting it on like crazy, we could tell we were getting fried. Andrew had to go into the gift shop and buy a $25 bottle of SPF 30 sunscreen which helped... but we still got fried anyways!!

seriously can't even count the number of drinks I had. It was so great!
I probably ate 15 whole pineapples while being in Costa Rica too! Definitely missing all the fruit I had.

Having fun with our underwater camera! 

double fisting pineapple smoothies! 

the snack bar!

Missing this right about now. I could go for a ham and cheese wrap and pina colada right about now.

drink bar

pool bar

This is where we ate lunch and dinner everyday. It was just a huge buffet dining hall and so many different options of delicious food! They even switched up the food every day which was so nice so we didn't get sick of it. Definitely recommend all-inclusive resorts to anyone. Especially people who drink-they definitely get their moneys worth. Andrew and I joked that we got our moneys worth with all the fruit I had!!

We had such a great trip together and made so many great memories. It was so nice to get away with no work and just the two of us! We've had an amazing 2 years of marriage (almost!) and just honestly couldn't be happier.  

Costa Rica part 2: Canopy zipline, rappelling, and horseback riding

The second day was our favorite day! We woke up to a beautiful warm and sunny day and had such a great view of the Arenal Volcano. I took so many pictures of the volcano....Andrew kept saying it wasn't going to go anywhere ha ha but I just couldn't get over how cool it looked! Our tour guide said they used to be able to see lava everyday, but for the last 3 1/2 years they haven't seen any lava, which could be scary because something big might be coming eventually they think. It would have been way cool to see the lava though.

We got picked up by our tour guides to go on a canopy tour zip line, rappelling, and horseback riding. The view was incredible! 

right before the 1st zip line!

   

first zip line

burn from the wire....hurt so bad!

Before we started, the tour guide told us to be really careful not to have our bodies spin because it makes you go slower and then you can't make it to the other side. The first zip line I felt my body start to spin so I tried to correct it with my arm and unfortunately where my wrist wasn't protected by the glove, I was burning my wrist on the wire. It was burning for like 5 seconds before I finally could move it. It was too bad it happened on the first zip line too because I had to go through the next 8 with it stinging! Now I have a huge lovely scab that will definitely scar!

The tour guide made me wait until the last person to go so I could go upside down with her. It hurt more than it was scary! ha ha the harness was so tight upside down. And I hit a few trees with my head! Good thing I was wearing a helmet :)

Andrew took a sweet video while he was zip lining. So glad he didn't drop his phone in the rain forest!

After we finished the zip line course, we rappelled down a mountain to the river. It was so beautiful and so fun. 

 

Such a studly husband :)

first time rappelling for me! 

We really wanted to see a monkey while we were in Costa Rica. I kept looking all through the zip line course but couldn't find any. When we were done rappelling, we went to the house where some indigenous people live. We learned about their culture. My favorite thing they do is when they greet someone they both knock on eachother's right shoulder and say Capi Capi which means like happy life.  They stay in the house all day and make different kinds of art. We bought two cool souvenirs from them, one that is an ornament that has capi capi written on it! :) 

After we were done in there, we were about to go horseback riding and our guide pulled us in to look at the spider monkey he had spotted. He was hilarious. He made us take like 100 pictures of the monkey, every time it moved he said now, now, now!!

The tour guide also showed us these cool leaves that close when you touch them.

Senor Alex was the best horseback riding tour guide. He was so funny and had me laughing the whole time. It was also cool that it was just Andrew and I with him because he took us on a different path than he normally does so we could go down by the river. I told him it was my first time horseback riding and he kept calling me a natural rider and saying how I need to get into horseback riding! 

down by the river....we got off and watched him try to fish because the fish like to eat coconut. It was pretty cool watching them come so fast to get the little piece of coconut.

This video cracks me up so much. He made us have so much fun because he constantly made the horses go fast.

at the end with a beautiful view of the Arenal Volcano!

That afternoon we went to the Rainforest Cafe and Bakery. It was so so good. We ate way too much dessert while we were there-but how could we not with all their delicious pastries?? Also, I ordered a club sandwich expecting it to be like a club sandwich here. It was different- it had egg, ham, tomato, cheese, and like a shredded BBQ chicken, but actually pretty good!

Checking out all the different hot spring pools they had at our hotel

Seriously the hot springs were amazing though. They had different levels of temperatures so the higher you went up the hotter the pools got. This pool was the hottest and felt like a hot tub but I loved how it had the build in lounge chairs so you didn't get too hot being in there. 

We had so much fun in this waterfall. It doesn't look like a ton of water but it just dumps on you!

haha- tried to take a jumping picture but it was so wet that I actually fell and hurt myself in the process.

so awesome

They had the funnest water slides there too. This one was pretty short but was steep so you went flying into the pool! 

This picture was taken as we were leaving La Fortuna the 3rd day and driving to our next destination: Puntarenas. We left La Fortuna at a good time because it was so foggy you could hardly see anything. We couldn't believe the difference when we got to Puntarenas because it was completely clear skies, sunny, and about 100 degrees.