Four Awesome Years

On Thursday, June 24th, we celebrated our four year wedding anniversary. We went to P.F. Changs for dinner and enjoyed a very relaxing evening together. We have loved these last four years and are excited for the years to come and the adventures they will bring. I love Kevin a whole lot and I feel so lucky to be married to my very best friend.

Erin's Wedding

I returned last week from a wonderful trip to Utah for my best friend Erin's wedding to Ian Checketts. I flew in super late on Wednesday night and had a little sleepover with Erin and one of her mission companions. We spent the majority of Thursday and Friday doing wedding errands and hanging out with old roommates :) It was seriously a great few days. We all got together for dinner on Thursday night and had fun reminiscing about all the funny things we used to do. After dinner, we made pazooki (an old favorite) and laughed the night away.

Brie, me and Ambree

Erin and Molly

Mr and Mrs Checketts exiting the temple.

The sealing was awesome and was performed by her mission president who happens to be the Temple President of the Oquirrh Mountain temple. Erin looked stunning. I loved her dress :) Fun fact...I was with her when she bought her dress back in April and she actually purchased her dress from the same little shop that I bought mine at :)

The bridesmaids...me, Monica, and Ian's two sisters Lauren and Hannah. Poor Lauren had surgery on her ACL a few weeks before the wedding and ended up having another surgery the day before the wedding due to an infection. She was a trooper to show up in heels!!
The old roomates all together again. It had been over a year since we were all together, and it was definitely fun to see each other again. I miss these girls...and the funnest part was how we just picked up where we left off.
Needless to say, it was a little windy outside the temple. And by that, I mean that it was probably the windiest day of my life. It was a little tricky taking pictures because you had to choose between holding your hair, or holding your dress. Molly opted for the dress. Haha.
It was a little less windy at the reception, which turned out really nice and I loved the decorations. Just imagine a lot of wrought iron, topiaries, beautiful flowers, and hanging lanterns in corals and creams.
Me and the beautiful bride. Erin and I were roommates in college for a few years and have remained friends ever since. I really love this girl and it was fun to be there for her special day. Now that we are all married, we decided that we are going to start planning annual girl weekends to stay in touch...since we no longer live very close. (Oregon, Utah, Florida, and soon-to-be California)
After the wedding and clean-up, I bummed a ride back down south with Brie and Jeff to visit family. I only was able to spend about 24 hours with the Robinsons, but it was a great 24 hours :) We of course took Sunday pictures, and here is my cute cousin Heidi and my cute Aunt Lori.
I will look forward to the next trip...

Wasted Bread

This is what happens when you let your bread rise for 6 hours instead of one. So, my Grandma makes the best homemade bread I have ever had. Something about it is just awesome....especially when accompanied by homemade strawberry jam or cherry jelly!

I decided that I would attempt to make my Grandma's bread, so I got her recipe and went to work. It took a little longer than I thought to prepare the dough because I was supposed to halve the recipe, but for some reason, I thought I had already halved it when I wrote it down a month ago. Obviously this was not the case as I was adding 16 cups of flour to my mixer! I had flour EVERYWHERE! The bread was supposed to rise for an hour before I could bake it, and I realized I wasn't gonna have time to finish before we were meeting with a realtor. So, I figured, I would just bake the bread in 2-3 hours when I thought we would be home. By the time we got home, 6 hours had elapsed and the first thing Kevin said when he walked in the door, was "Yep, it overflowed!"

Despite the wasted dough and mess to clean up, the bread turned out well and we have been enjoying yummy toast ever since. Hopefully, after repeated trials, the bread will turn out as perfect and fluffy as when Grandma makes it!!

Orlando Temple

Last Saturday we had the opportunity to go on the Youth Temple Trip. The closest temple is in Orlando, which is about 4 hours away. All I can say, is that I have been spoiled in every other place I have lived because the temple has been at most an hour and a half away. I think it makes you appreciate it a little more when it is so far away, but then it makes it harder to go as often as you would like. Fortunately, they are building the "South Florida" temple about 30 minutes from where we live right now. That are currently figuring out all the permits, etc. and then they will start the build. So, in about two years, we will no longer need to make that long drive!! We saw preliminary pictures at a special Fireside we went to and it will be beautiful.

Overall, I think the kids had a great time on the trip and it was exciting to be there for a lot of the girls who were going for the first time. The Spirit was strong and I think the youth recognized the importance of the work they were doing. Something Jeffrey (my missionary brother) wrote in his last letter to me perfectly applies... "without the link that baptisms for the dead makes, we can't be perfect and the Earth will be cursed." (D & C 128:18)