January + February Photo Dump

Wow I can't believe we're already halfway through February 2016!  This year seems like it might go by just as fast as last year.  This won't be an involved post - just a few pictures.  I haven't taken very many this year, though.

I have like no pictures from the beginning of January.  We had a New Year's Day party, but I did not feel well that day, so I didn't really take any pictures of our friends who came to party with us. 

 Towards the end of the month, we had our first show at Hale Center Theatre - Beau Jest.  It's the story of a Jewish girl who hires an escort to play her made-up Jewish boyfriend.  It was incredibly funny and  a lot of fun.  We took a selfie before the show started.

This is one of the scriptures I've been "ponderizing" lately.  I love the message that the Lord will lead us throughout our lives towards the promised land if we keep His commandments and that we will know He is in control.  It is a great comfort to know He is guiding my steps.

On the Sunday of the Superbowl, Peter and I dressed to support our teams.  

Me, the Carolina Panthers (of course!), and Peter, the Denver Broncos.

I also made blue Carolina Panther snickerdoodles to share with his family (who are mostly Broncos fans, although one or two of them support the correct team). 

 Dressed in our teams colors that evening for the game.

This week, Peter sent me flowers at work for Valentine's day!  He even remembered that calla lillies were my favorite flower from our wedding! 

The 

Last night, Peter took me on a surprise Valentine's Date to the Utah Symphony, who was doing a 75 Year Celebration of Broadway with guest vocalists.  It was really fun.  Our two favorite numbers were "Defying Gravity" from Wicked and "Music of the Night" from The Phantom of the Opera.  Morgan James sang "Defying Gravity", and she definitely had the power for that number.  Peter said he got goosebumps.  Hugh Panero, the singer who performed "Music of the Night" had played the Phantom on Broadway for 2500 performances!  When he started that song, we knew why.  It was gorgeous.

Summer Wedding

A few weeks ago, I had the honor of being a bridesmaid in my cousin's wedding.  As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, I have mainly been to weddings that are held in our Temples, where we don't have the typical ceremony with bridesmaids, groomsmen, flower-girls and ring bearers.  So this was a new and perhaps unique experience for me to participate in a wedding ceremony as a bridesmaid.  It was really fun!  She was a beautiful bride, and I was grateful to be included in the ceremony.  The wedding was in the groom's parents' backyard, and the groom's father, who is a Bishop in the LDS church, performed the ceremony.  Listening to the words he gave to the couple, I was touched with the feeling that marriage between a man and a woman, when both parties enter it willingly, is sacred to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, no matter where the ceremony is held.  I am grateful to be sealed and married to my kind husband, and I'm so glad my cousin has found a man to love and be loved by.  

Congratulations, pretty lady!

The (Mis)Adventures of Spring Break 2014 Part 1

I tell you what: Spring Break was an interesting experience this year.  First of all, it sort of snuck up on us.  We didn't officially decide what we were doing until like the week before, but we went to see my brother and his family in Texas.  We looked at plane tickets, but they were too expensive.  Looking back now, we might have flown.  It probably would have cost the same haha.

We actually got out of town more quickly I think than we ever have before.  I got done with class at 3 (normally I have a class at 3, but our professor pretty much told us on Wednesday that he didn't expect many of us to be there), and we were heading out of town by 4.  We had about 7 hours to drive to get to Gallup.  We took back roads, which was mostly fun.  However, this was the night our misadventures began.  Let's just say the speed limits on back roads through Arizona are rather slower than those on Utah freeways, and reservation cops don't like it when you surpass those limits...

Surprisingly, both of us were able to get past this one fairly quickly.  We were obviously a little irritated at ourselves, but at that point we couldn't change it, so life goes on.  We actually ended up talking most of the ride, which was really fun.  I think sometimes we both get caught up in life and forget to just visit with each other, so it was nice to take time to do that.

Saturday, we didn't get out as early as we planned (we overslept a little...oops).  Most of Saturday went by rather smoothly.  But Saturday night, we had another adventure, this one starring a kamikaze deer.  We had driven all over the back roads of Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, and where do we run into a deer?  On the highway, surrounded by several other cars, about half an hour or forty minutes from our destination.  I had just looked up to talk to Peter, and I hear this loud thud tha-thud thud.

Me: What was that?
Peter: A deer. (He had caught a glimpse of it right before it hit us).
Me: (higher pitched) A deer?  We hit a deer?
Peter (calmly): It's okay.  Jess, it'll be fine.

I was seriously freaking out because I know deer can really bang up a car.  We pulled over to the side of the road several hundred yards past where we actually hit the deer.  Peter gets out first, while I stayed in the car, afraid of seeing pieces of deer still clinging to the outside of my door.  (We actually don't know what happened to the deer after we hit it.  It was dark, and we didn't see it when we got out.)  Peter tells me it's clear and asks for my help, so I get out to hold the light.  The front corner of the bumper and the front passenger wheel well (Peter gave the names or else I'd have just said the bumper lol) are pretty torn up.  The wheel well is sort of flapping, and we need to get it secured up so that it doesn't rub against the wheel or anything else on the car it might mess up.  Unfortunately, we have no duct tape in our car. (I know one thing that will be in any car I own now for the rest of my life).  Peter digs out the first aid kit, and we find this thing of skinny medical tape.  Since we have nothing else, we try it.  Peter has to use a lot, especially since it keeps tearing.  Not a good sign for something that needs to hold up for another 40 miles.  Peter eventually does get the pieces taped up out of the way, though.

We're a little worried because the tape seems weak, and there is a little bit of rain as we're getting into town. As we got back on the road, we said a prayer, thanking Heavenly Father that we were safe and that the car was still in good shape.  We also prayed that the tape would hold up until we got to my brother's house.   I'm pretty sure that tape was held together by prayers, especially since we made the left turn into their neighborhood and heard the wheel well scrape the wheel a bit, which it hadn't done up until that point.

It could have been much worse than it was.  I am so grateful that neither us nor the car were seriously hurt, and I know there is something we're supposed to learn from this experience.  If nothing else, I think facing this together brought us closer to each other and helped us learn to trust each other more.

Stay tuned for the next adventure!

A Month of the Journey in 10 Minutes or Less

So, at the beginning of the semester, I had big plans about writing a blog post every single week! Yeah… we all see how well that's worked out thus far. I haven't really had a whole lot to write about. Peter and I have gotten back into the routine of school, and not a whole lot changes for us. I still don't have a ton of homework, which in turn decreases motivation to do any of it--terrible, I know. (Don't worry, mom, I am getting it done :P).  I have really enjoyed using the tablet I got through the CSIS department. It's so much lighter than carrying around my laptop. That thing seriously doubles the weight of my book bag.

I guess I can talk about school a little bit. Three of my classes seem to play off of each other some: Computer Organization and Architecture, Microprocessors, and Operating Systems.  Architecture is fairly interesting, if a little slow-moving.  I'm learning a fair number of Linux commands in Operating Systems, which is good since I don't have a whole lot of experience with Linux. Microprocessors, let's just say that the only reason I understand anything in that class is because I'm sitting next to James. We are building a tankbot, and I think it could be a kind of fun class. The problem is that the teacher explains everything at once, and/or explains the next step like 1-2 weeks before most of the class is ready for it, and then expects us to remember it all and just do it.  Plus, I think he assumes we have more background knowledge than we actually do. So, I just plug along, and when I get to the next step and have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing, I turn to James and he explains it to me. What's nice is that he doesn't do it for me, but explains every little piece I have a question about, so I actually do end up with at least a semi-complete understanding. We'll see how well  I truly understand it during the midterm, I guess.

Mobile Apps is one of my favorite classes because we're doing what I actually love about computer science: programming.  The only drawback is that since we're learning Objective C (the language used for programming iPod and iPad devices), I can only use a Mac because the best program for writing Objective C is Xcode-- which is really good, but the only version is for Macs.  And seeing as I don't own a Mac this becomes a problem (anybody want to lend me one? Haha, just kidding). I really would like to practice Objective C and work on my homework assignments at home, but I haven't found a way to make that possible.  So I guess I'll start scheduling more time to be at the school so I can work in the Mac lab!

Finally, I'm taking a forensic science class.  This one is basically an in-depth review of other classes I've taken.  However, the teacher has told me that in replacement of the final paper, I can give a presentation in class on Computer Forensics during that section of the semester!  Truth be told, I'm kind of excited for it.

Peter and I are both taking the Doctrines of the Gospel institute class, albeit at different times.  The teacher is Sister Cox and I love her.  The class is great!  I've really been enjoying it.  It is the highlight of my Tuesday/Thursdays.  Plus, it counts as a scripture-based class, which I need to graduate.  Win-win!

I can't tell you much about Peter's classes, but his schedule is lighter this semester, too.  He is enjoying the Master's level class he is taking, which is good because it is down in St George, and I think it would be really hard to make that trip each week if he didn't like the class.

Also, the company he'll be working for after he graduates (Café Zupas) came to the career fair this week, and while they were here his recruiter and the COO (Chief Operating Officer, for those not too savvy with business terms) took him and their other hire-ees here in Cedar out to dinner to make sure they knew they weren't forgotten.  :D   The COO was also the speaker for the Business department lecture series today, and Peter went to all of that.  I came for the tail-end (I had work for the first part) and got to go with Peter to the luncheon afterwards, where he officially introduced me to the COO.

In non-school related news, last month our stake did it's annual Marriage Symposium.  The symposium has been fantastic both years we've gone.  They have speakers come in and talk to us about how to build happy marriages.  One of this year's speakers was John Bytheway!  He was really funny, and gave some really good tips.  The second speaker is a family life professor at BYU, Mike

Goodman, and he actually spoke to us about marital intimacy--not about the mechanics (of course) but about the spiritual aspect of it and how men and women think about it differently.  It was an awesome talk, especially since it's not a topic we usually talk about in church but one we as young married couples need to understand better.  Another cool thing they've done at both the marriage symposiums we've gone to is a text message survey.  They ask questions about things we're doing or our opinion on different things, and you text your response in.  The niftiest part is that the results show up live through the website that hosts it, and we get to see the answers from all the other married couples immediately!  They had questions geared toward the brethren as well as questions geared towards the sisters, such as, "What does your spouse spend too much time doing?"  For the sisters to answer, the choices were like watch sports, play video games, homework, etc.  For the brethren to answer, the choices were things like social media (Facebook, pinterest and the like), talk on the phone, and homework.  I really enjoyed both the marriage symposiums I've been to; and to any married couples living in Cedar next year, I would highly recommend going.

Well, I think I've covered a month worth of stuff fairly well with this little post.  I will try to be better.  I should have something more to say during the next week, what with Valentine's Day being tomorrow.  Love y'all!

1 Year!!!

We celebrated our first anniversary by going to see Brigham Young’s Winter House and Jacob Hamblin’s house.  Then went out for dinner.  It was kind of fun symmetry because the houses were decorated for Christmas, and last year on our honeymoon we saw Biltmore Estate all decorated for Christmas.

We learned that all the wood, and even this "marble" are actually hard wood,
painted to look like the type of wood or marble that they wanted it to look like.

The owner of this trunk wanted the rounded top so nothing
would be set on top of it and she would always have access
to its contents.  Pretty smart!

This is the master bedroom, and they believe this is the original
color

Brigham Young had his portrait painted sitting in this chair.
The portrait is hanging in the front room.

Outside of Brigham Young's House

Outside Jacob Hamblin's House

Jacob Hamblin's saddle

Jacob Hamblin was a peacemaker to the Native American tribes.  He did a lot of travelling, and didn't really spend much time in this house.

It's strange to think we've been married a year.  It seems like forever, and it seems like just yesterday.  I love you so much Peter.  I'm so glad I chose a year ago to be sealed to you for time and all eternity in the Temple of the Lord.  Happy Anniversary!

Disneyland!

So, I pretty much have the best husband ever.

Preface:  My birthday has occurred during Fall Break for the past several years.  A few weeks before, we had discussed making a trip to Disneyland during Fall Break, but we ultimately decided that it was a little pricy for us and that we would forgo it for now.  Or at least, I thought this is what we had decided.  Thursday night before the break, Peter tells me that he has a couple surprises planned for me for my birthday.  He asks if I want to know what they are or if I want to wait.  Being the lover of surprises that I am, I decided to wait.  Boy, was it worth it. 

Peter finished earlier than me Friday afternoon because the middle school where he usually works had a fall break starting Thursday or Friday.  When he picked me up from work, he handed me a piece of paper and said, “These are for you.”  I looked down and the first thing I saw was a picture of Mike and Sully from Monsters, Inc.  Then I read the words next to the picture.  2-day tickets to Disneyland!!!!  No way!  I’m not sure what face I made, but Peter said he wished he’d had a camera.  I never thought he would surprise me with that!  I thought for sure it would be something smaller.   He tells me he already has snacks and the car and stuff mostly packed except for my suitcase.

We arrived home, and I found another gift waiting for me: an electric piano keyboard!  Peter had planned on getting me one before he decided to buy Disneyland tickets.  He said he decided to do Disneyland tickets because it might be our last chance to go for a while since he’s starting a new job right after graduation.

Then I got to open my package from my mom while in a “hangout” call in Google plus!  I was completely spoiled for my birthday.  She got me two new skirts with shirts and necklaces to match, two long gold necklaces (I had requested one), and lots of snacks and goodies, along with an entire Halloween package with goodies, a tablecloth with matching towel, and lights!  She’s awesome!!!

We stopped to get gas and Icees (we love them!) at Maverick
on our way out.  Hence Peter's blue tongue J

So we packed up the car and headed out of town.  We talked for the first little while, and then I turned on my Disney Mania play list, and we listened to it almost all the way to Barstow where we were staying the night.  To prepare for the next day, I also colored a page in my Disney Princess coloring book:

We stayed the night at a little hotel in Barstow, CA, which was nice and clean, which is really my main requirement for hotels that we stay in.  The next morning, we got up and got ready to go to Disneyland!!!  I don’t think I’ve quite explained how incredibly EXCITED I was.  I was INCREDIBLY. EXCITED.  Okay, now I’ve explained ;)

Here we are, all ready to head to Disneyland!
(I'm wearing a Minne Mouse shirt, of course!)

Finally arriving!!!

We had to pass through Downtown Disney to get to the park,
and we saw this and a couple other really cool Disney Lego creations!
They're made of normal size Legos!!!
We saw another that was Maleficent the Dragon fighting Prince Phillip
later, but we never got around to taking a picture.

So, if you look closely at Minnie on my shirt: that was my
emotion all day long lol

Peter's turn to pose in front of the entrance

Aaah!  I'm in front of the castle!!!

I discovered that the castles at Disneyland and Disney World are different!  The castle at Disney World is Cinderella's, but the one at Disneyland is Sleeping Beauty's, and you go under it to get to Fantasy Land!  We also did a little self-guided tour inside the castle, where they have a bunch of the original artwork telling the story of Sleeping Beauty.

When we first got to Disneyland, I seriously didn’t know what to do or where to go first except the bathroom.  After the potty break, we sort of wandered around a bit, taking in Fantasy Land and wandering through some of the shops.  Did you know you walk underneath Sleeping Beauty’s Castle to get into Fantasy Land??  So cool.  We stepped into Bippity Boppity Boutique and saw a little girl complete the transformation to Princess Tiana.  After that I noticed all the little girls who had their hair in tight buns with sparkles, and thought, ‘You went to Bippity Boppity Boutique!’. 

Blurry picture at Pirates

Finally, we decided to ride Pirates.  There are a few more dips in this ride than in the Disney World version, and Jack Sparrow is everywhere!  I’m quite sure I didn’t even find all of his incarnations that are hidden throughout the ride. 

After Pirates, we wandered through Tarzan’s Tree house, which is basically just a self-guided walkthrough tour with lots of things to look at.

Then we stopped by to watch Rapunzel’s Show, which was totally fun.  The only thing we were disappointed about was that Rapunzel did not do any of her own singing!  What’s up with that?

 It was still really fun, though :)

Waiting outside in line for Space Mountain!

Next, we waited in line for Space Mountain.  I think this was our longest wait of the day.   Somehow we managed to either time things well or get fast passes for everything else we did and avoid super long lines.  Even Haunted Mansion, which had a very full line because it was decked out for Halloween, moved us through pretty quickly.  However, this line was totally worth it.  I think Space Mountain was my favorite ride.  It’s inside, and the ride is completely in the dark, so you don’t know what’s coming up next.  It was a blast! (pun intended :P).

This picture is actually in front of the
ride; it's just too dark to see!

While we were in line for Space Mountain, we saw a few people with Happy Birthday button’s on.  Well, we were there for my birthday, so I looked up how to get one!  And after riding space mountain, we went to City Hall on Main Street to get me a birthday button!  The rest of the day, almost every cast member I passed wished me a happy birthday, usually by name (they put your name on the button).  It was so sweet!

As we were headed to go get Fast Passes for the Indiana Jones Ride, we saw the Tiki Room was about to start, so we dropped in to watch.  In Disney World, they’ve changed the Tiki Room show to include like Zazu from Lion King and Iago from Aladdin, but I was tickled to discover that the show in Disneyland is the classic one!  When I was younger, I would listen to a CD called The Music of Disneyland, Disney World, and Epcott Center, and it had the Tiki Room song on it, and I was very happy to see the actual show.

Then we went back to Tomorrow Land for Star Tours, and we saw two Storm Troopers!

We had planned on meeting Rapunzel, but we didn’t get over to where she was going to be as early as we had planned, so there was an hour long wait.  Peter, to his credit, said if I really wanted to meet her, we could stay and wait in line, but we ultimately decided there were too many other things we wanted to do to waste the time waiting in line.  I don’t regret it at all. 

We hadn’t had lunch, and by this point poor Peter was starving.  I grabbed some kabobs from a little place in Adventureland, which I ended up sharing with Peter because they were pretty spicy, and a frozen strawberry lemonaide, which really hit the spot (I was pretty thirsty and it was hard to find truly cold water in the park).  We watched a bit of a show in one of the restaurants Peter looked at eating at, but he decided he wanted something different, so we went over to a little Mexican restaurant Rancho del Zocalo so he could get some food.  We ate outside, and there was this little bird that was fearless!  People obviously had fed it before because it came super close to where we were sitting. 

If you look closely, you can see the bird :)

Peter's Skull arm paint!

My skull arm paint!

After we ate, we went over to this little area where they were doing a little Dia de los Muertos celebration, including free face paint! We got little skulls painted on our arms.  The guy who did mine was more creative than Peter’s guy, whose shift was about to end.

We thought there was a parade, but we were mistaken on the time, so we went back over to Haunted Mansion.  It had a special Nightmare Before Christmas Theme for Halloween.  Peter described the storyline to me since I’ve never seen the movie.

Mandatory self-portrait!

We grabbed Fast Passes for Splash Mountain then went back over to watch the parade.  I’ll let the pictures and videos explain that J

Some of the parade pictures are blurry, but you can still tell what, or who, they are of!

Peter was trying to take a picture of the float, but it focused
on the girls in front of him.  I think the picture is really cool!

I'm pretty sure this one could be made to look artistic :)

Rapunzel, my princess!

This is a little harder to see: chimney sweeps!

Dancing Princesses and Rapunzel's Float

I love that the Float is for all the Disney Princesses, but it's Rapunzel's tower!

We tried to get into Astro Blasters, but it was closed.  So we went farther into Tomorrow Land.  We started to do a Finding Nemo ride, but decided to do Autopia instead, which was pretty fun.  Then we rode the Disneyland railroad back over to New Orleans Square so we could ride Splash Mountain.  We ended up in the back of the log, which I was actually very happy about because it was starting to get dark and to cool off by this point.  The guys in front of us got soaked, and we got a little wet, but definitely stayed relatively dry compared to them.

We went over to redeem our fast pass for India Jones, but the ride was closed, so they told us to come back later and they would honor the fast pass because we weren’t able to go during our actual time.  This actually worked out better for us because we were able to make it over to watch the fireworks!  During the show, Tinker Bell zip-lines in front of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle.  They also simulated a bunch of the rides using fireworks!  It was awesome!  The two I remember most were Haunted Mansion, where they simulated the room that stretches, and Pirates where they simulated the Canon Fire between the Black Pearl and a town.  Oh, and they simulated Star Wars with green and red lasers and fireworks!  It was really cool.

This one shows Tinkerbell zip-lining!

Here's the Finale!

My fantastic birthday
icecream :)

After fireworks, we grabbed ice cream on Main Street.  The girl who served us was super sweet!  She teased us that she was adding one for her to our order.  Then she put whipped cream, sprinkles, and a candle on my ice cream for my birthday!  She told me I was supposed to go get a button for first time visitors, but it was so late that we never got around to that (Sorry!).

Then we went over to watch Fantasmic.  I was starting to get grumpy because I was tired of standing, and my ice cream was dripping, and I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to see around this big post.  But then the show started, and I was giddy with excitement again (oh, and I could see just fine, btw).

Bell and Beast Dancing

Snow White and Prince Charming

Ariel and Eric

Maleficent the Dragon

Boat with Everyone at end of the Show

Videos!!!

  I was super excited to see Fantasmic again because it had been my favorite show from when I visited Disney World in 8^th grade.  Let me just say, it did not disappoint!

After Fantasmic, we went back to Indiana Jones.  We got through the line fairly quickly.  During the ride, there is one part where you go straight toward this boulder that’s rolling towards you (like in the first scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark).  I screamed.  You couldn’t see how you were going to get past it!  At the last second, you drop underneath it!

It was an awesome, exhausting day.  If you couldn’t tell, we did not do Disneyland in a very organized fashion.  We went over here, then over there, then back over here, around the block—let’s just say we got our exercise in that day!  Somehow, though, we managed to fit in pretty much everything we wanted to do.  We didn’t leave much out.  It was fantastic.

Here’s a link to the map if you wish to trace our route: https://disneyland.disney.go.com/activities/disneyland/map/