Living in the Iceburg!

Here are updates of what happened since last I wrote.

1. Thanksgiving happened. It was so nice to go to mom and dad's house and spend some good time there in Inkom. I'm going to miss that place when we move to Oregon, so many memories. Buzz spent some time taking various pictures of different kinds of birds for his ornithology class that he is taking. I'm super surprised that not only does he enjoy the class, but he's a rock-star at naming birds now! We might do a Big Year someday!

2. We took some friends from the ward and went up to Victor for a fun getaway weekend! The townhouse is one of my more favorite places to go and little baby boy just LOVED the carpeted stairs. He spent most of his time sliding down them and laughing. We went snowshoeing up Teton Canyon, ate lots of goodies and played games by the fire. If you haven't played Farkle, I highly recommend it.

This is Grayson, he's adorable. The end.

Oh my heart!

3. A freakish cold snap rammed its ugly head into Rexburg and now the city is truly Iceburg. I'm a cheapie and so I have a hard time turning on the heat in the house because I don't want to pay for extra heat. I'm kinda worried about our fish (Timothy and Squish) freezing though. Buzz and I mostly just huddle around the space heater in the living room but we finally decided to turn our bedroom heat all the way up to 50 degrees. Compared to rest of the house, it's nice and toasty! The bathroom is also a nice spot to hide out because it heats up so fast...so needless to say I spend more time brushing my teeth in the morning with the door shut than usual.

4. Buzz and I got our first Christmas tree! Last year we were at mom and dad's for the holidays so we didn't bother with getting one, but we wanted some holiday cheer in our apartment so we caved. We both really wanted to cut one down, but we just couldn't find the right time to do it because I get home so late so we went to Brohlims and bought one. Not nearly as fun, but it's a nice looking tree and makes the freezing house smell good.

Notice, that we wear our hats inside the house. :)

Happy Christmas!

Ahhh Cute! Our little family!

While visiting mom and dad's house, I thought that it might be good idea to take some family pictures, but mostly I just wanted to capture the amazing fall colors that were around. Dad was kind enough to take our pictures for us, and he was the epitome of patience as we ran around like little kids and goofed around. I love my husband. It's nice to know that I can act like a 4 year old with someone else and feel good about it.

So here is what we look like in October 2013. Not much has changed, just a few pounds added here and there. I'm still learning how to edit pictures on Lightroom, so this is the best I came up with.

I'm blessed to have this man as my bestie and eternal companion. Never a dull moment.

City of Rocks Trip 2013

I'm trying to remember some of the fun things that we did this last summer. I'm still in the process of going through pictures and remembering things we did, but I happened upon some awesome memories from when Buzz and I made a little weekend trip to the City of Rocks.

We planned out the trip a couple of weeks in advance to make sure that we secured a good camping spot in the park. The weekend was gorgeous! City of Rocks is a perfect name for this incredible place. Boulders the size of small skyscrapers are everywhere and hippies from all over the world gather to hang out, climb, and have a good time.

Unfortunately for us, I forgot that most of the routes require traditional rock climbing gear (trad), which we didn't bring with us because we assumed that there would be more bolted routes. It was a bummer because we didn't do much climbing, but the trip was still really fun because Buzz and I were able to hike around all day and explore the Park. Now we know where to go next time!

Alaska 2013

Buzz and I had the opportunity to travel back to his home state of Alaska. I have always wanted to go, especially since we've been married, but we decided that this was the time to do it.

I can't really describe how wonderful it was. The scenery was incredible, the mountains huge and the colors were vibrant. It was really a blessing to see where Buzz grew up and I fell in love with it immediately.

For a brief synopsis of our trip: we arrived in Anchorage and visited Buzz's sister Kammi's new twin babies. We then drove the incredible drive down to Kenai where we stopped along the way at Whittier.  We spent most of our days around Kenai, visiting family, going on hikes, and just playing around; but we also traveled to Captain Cook State Park and played on rocks and the mud, to Seward to go sea kayaking, and to Halibut Cove Lagoon to spend some alone time with nature and a cute cabin. Those are just a few of the million things that we tried to cram into our trip to Alaska. I'm really excited to go back and am grateful for the family that made the trip such a memorable one.

Now for the pictures...trust me, this trip was a blast!

We look extraordinarily attractive on our tandem bike.

Whittier Tunnel

I decided that I wanted to dip my head in glacier water.

So I did....and it was cold. Really cold.

Our water taxi out to Halibut Cove Lagoon.

Our humble abode! This little cabin had a hobbit sized door and inside there was a wood burning stove, a set of bunk beds, and some shelves where people would leave items that they thought would be useful for upcoming travelers. We left some toilet paper...just in case. Plus, this cabin served as a welcome haven for those trying to escape the bugs!

Apparently this is a famous place...I wouldn't really know.

When it was all said and done, this trip was well worth the money and time that we put into preparing it. So much happened that it's hard to describe it all but I'm so excited to go back!