The Adventures of Caity & Craig

A Photo-less Christmas

2012-01-02T15:07:00.000-08:00

'Tis true. I forgot my camera for all Christmas funtions this year. However, they were all wonderful! As per usual, we spent Christmas Eve at my parents. First was a small trip to my sister Alison's with Brittany and Shannon so we could learn how to make homemade pie crusts, which I'm very excited to put to use! Then we went back up to the parents' place out in Paradise to finish some last minute wrapping, enjoy a delicious ham dinner, and spend some time with the family before exchanging gifts. All in all Christmas Eve at the Jones's was wonderful!

Christmas morning, Craig and I awoke around 5:30 to have our little Christmas! Naturally Craig's stocking was filled to the brim with candy, while Santa surprised me this year with Sherlock Holmes, Tangled, and Alice in Wonderland in mine! I gave Craig a new razor set, along with some very soft Hollister clothes. I was very grateful for a long white robe ( I found a love for them on our last cruise), and a little black dress! This was our 4th Christmas together and year after year I become more and more grateful for the wonderful man Craig is, and amazed every year that just when I think things can't get better, they do.

After our little Christmas we took a small nap (it was 6:30 in the morning after all!) until about 9 at which point we headed up to Craig's parents to spend the rest of Christmas with them. We had delicious waffles for breakfast then headed off to church. It was a beautiful program, and the musical numbers were lovely. After church we were still tuckered out so Craig's parents let us crash on their couch for a bit. When we finally woke up (thanks to my dead arm) we had lunch all together, and man it was scrumptious! Then after lunch, as evening set in we sat down to exchange gifts. And Christmas day at the Nielsen's was as wonderful as ever.

I hope you all had a beautiful Christmas and are enjoying the new year.

Cruise 2011

2011-11-15T13:31:00.000-08:00

For our 3rd anniversary Craig and I took our 2nd cruise! We took the Carnival Spirit to the Mexican Riviera (2 stops were the same as our first, but we took 2 new ones too). We went for 9 days, this time flying to and from Logan to Long Beach. Because of the many different modes of transportation (car, boat, and plane all within 24 hours), it took our bodies a little longer to find our sea legs, but we had a blast throughout regardless! Here we are in Cabo holding Minnie and Micky as the owner called them.
We made stops in Ensenada, Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta, and Manzanillo. For more pictures, be sure to check out Craig's photo blog (http://photofieldtrip.blogspot.com/) This was our view from our stateroom's balcony of the Land's End in Cabo San Lucas.
Cabo San Lucas was one of our favorite ports last time, and this time it was just as wonderful. We didn't have an official excursion, but we walked throughout the city then took a water taxi and got a small tour that dropped us off at Lover's Beach for about an hour. We spent a lot of our time on what our guide called Divorce Beach (the Pacific Ocean side of Land's End-the waves were much, much stronger and it was much more dangerous to get near the water). The waves were absolutely gorgeous and Craig got some wonderful pictures of them crashing up on the rocks while I played in the water-and indeed, they had some incredibly strong currents!

As usual, we love spotting wildlife!

On our last cruise we didn't eat in the formal dining room that often so this time we ate there for most of our dinners. They always gave the option to dine alone or with others, this photo is from the one time we had a private table. Dining with others was fun, we got to meet a bunch of interesting people (intermingled with a few awkward ones), but most were a bit older than us and had great stories to tell, and were very social.
As always we love our towel animals and took pictures of each one, here's one of my favorites.

When we arrived in Manzanillo there was a strange noise outside. Come to find out it was all of these guys chilling on the dock!
In Puerto Vallarta we went on a horseback riding shore excursion which was a blast! It was Craig's first time riding a horse, and he got a great one to start on. My horse was quite the feisty one! Anytime any other horse would get close to him or try to pass him in line, he went bezerk and started biting at them! It was definitely an adventure!

At the halfway point in the trip they gave us two options, you could go relax in a natural hot spring, or you could ride Flora in the river (she was trained to swim). Naturally we chose the swimming. I initially was way too chicken to try it, but Craig was so excited, so I was just going to be supportive. But between Craig and our tour guide I caved to peer pressure and swam with Flora as well. It was so amazing, initially walking in the water towards the deep side I was terrified and trying not to scream so I wouldn't scare the horse, but once we got down in there and she was swimming it was so amazing! Definitely a thrill I highly recommend!

In Ensenada our official shore excursion was cancelled because the weather was supposed to be bad. So we hoped on the bus to take us into town anyway, keeping our eyes peeled for things we'd like to do. The bus was crowded so we didn't sit by each other, Craig sat in the back and I sat by gay Joe (that's how he introduced himself to me), and he was so much fun to talk to. When we arrived at the bus station, we followed the first tour guides advice as well as gay Joe's group and bought tickets to take the bus to La Bufadora! (essentially "the blowhole," but it sounds so much cooler in Spanish) The bus went through the countryside, which was gorgeous, and stopped at the open air market that we walked through to get to La Bufadora. It was fun to see the water spout up that high.

All in all it was a wonderful trip and a great way to celebrate us being married for 3 years now. It was a blast and I'm sure it won't be our last cruise! To end on, here's one of my favorite pictures of the sunrise as we pulled into the L.A. port.

Craig's 23rd Birthday!

2011-09-21T09:43:00.001-07:00

I'm super late on this, but I finally found some spare time so I'm going to play catch up for a minute here. I would take off the underlined text, but when I attempted to it brought up the javascript or whatever language window, so we'll be underlined today. This year Craig and I turned 23! For his birthday we went up to the cabin near Bear Lake to celebrate.
Hey look no lines down here! Anyway! Somehow I was able to make some pretty tasty French toast for Craig's birthday, I'm not sure how and have yet to replicate it, but they caramelized or something and were super delish! Craig got some sweet Star Wars Legos, the Emperor's New Groove, and a flipside Lowepro backpack for his camera, along with a lens gadget that kind of looks like a flower. The backpack was probably the favorite and got a lot of use on our cruise! I'm so grateful to have this wonderful man in my life and the we get to share our birthdays, anniversary, Christmas's and every other day in between with each other.

And if you don't believe me when I say he's amazing, you should see the old fashioned red bike he got me for my birthday! (picture will be uploaded later) So amazing!

Booked!

2011-07-27T10:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we booked a cruise to Mexico! As I may have mentioned before, when we went on a cruise for our honeymoon we made a goal to go on one every year. Unfortunately that hasn't quite happened for years 1 or 2 because we are still on a newlywed budget. I've been saving all of my tips and all of the change from our pockets and with a big, big help from this year's tax refund we are able to go! We will be leaving November 4 for 9 days in the Mexican Riviera. We are so incredible excited!

Frisbee

2011-06-20T13:15:00.001-07:00

So Craig and I haven't been up to too much lately, he's been doing the online classes and independent courses in his last semester (yay!) and I've been working and job hunting. This past Saturday we were able to spend some time together and mess with a frisbee I got from work, which was a blast. The weather here has been really nice lately, granted it still feels like spring instead of summer, but it's been really nice all the same.

As far as other random tid-bits go I'm blonde now, and Craig's hair was cut today (as you can tell by the photo below, I was slacking quite a bit). We've also been saving up and hopefully, if all goes well, we'll be able to go on a cruise later this year. When we went on one for our honeymoon, we made it a goal to go every year. Sadly we've missed anniversaries 1 and 2, but here's hoping we can go on one for our 3rd this year!

You can tell Craig was thrilled with me taking pictures just so I could put them on here! What a trooper he is!

St. George and Vegas!

2011-04-03T18:28:00.000-07:00

Here we are again, it's been awhile but Craig and I finally went on another adventure this past month. We left Thursday night to head down to St. George to stay with Craig's kind brother Jay and his wonderful wife Tara. We all had tickets to see Flogging Molly for Friday night down in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. As you can see, Craig and I know how to pack a car:
We arrived late Thursday night, slept in a bit on Friday morning, and headed down to Vegas together that afternoon. Jay in his stellar shades.

Customary feet on the dashboard picture, I forgot to take one on the way down, so I took one of Tara's on our way to Vegas
When we got down to Vegas we all hung out on the strip, window shopping and wandering and such.

After we got off the train we found this design on the floor and tried very hard to make it appear as they were stairs, many several minutes of entertainment :)

The sign for the main event

We were lucky enough to get there very early so we were only second in line, here's the crowd that was behind all of us
And the empty auditorium before the rest flowed in

Of course the messing with the camera before the show

Craig, Danny, Tara, and Jay chilling by the bar
The two pre-acts before Flogging Molly were The Drowning Men, and I can't quite remember the second act. the Drowning Men were quite good, the second band wasn't terribly impressive though.
The crowd behind us
And Flogging Molly was incredible! They were so incredible live! I would love to see them again.
This guitarist was so fun to watch! The band was great with the audience and danced around a ton! I loved watching them :)
After the concert we spent the rest of the weekend at Tara and Jay's place, which was awesome! Great company, great games, and of course lots of candy!
Saturday night, we went to their apartment's gazebo to use their grill where Jay and Tara made some delicious sausages with cheese!

Yum-mo!

And not to mention playing with Thenie (sorry if that's spelled wrong), and Pan Pan their playful kittehs!

A trip to Jay's wouldn't be complete without a little bit of rough housing of course!
All in all it was such a fun trip! We love visiting Jay and Tara, and hope to see them again soon!

Photography

2011-03-06T21:16:00.000-08:00

This is gonna be a quick post, I just wanted to post a link to Craig's new photography blog! It's http://photofieldtrip.blogspot.com/ . He's amazing! Today we went out and he practiced with taking portraits of me. It was so fun! Anyway, check it out!

Another Blog

2011-02-24T21:54:00.000-08:00

As you've probably noticed, I don't update this blog very often. Often times I feel like blogging, but I feel like this is where I should blog about Craig and I and our adventures together, not where I should tell stories about me. Craig also has a personal blog, so I started one for me, which I will try to update a bit more often. It's at http://justcaity.blogspot.com/

School and Such!

2011-01-23T20:36:00.000-08:00

Sorry the last two posts are out of order, I had issues getting the video up for the redwoods. But at any rate here's what we've been up to as of lately. Craig switched majors at USU and is now majoring in interdisciplinary studies in instructional technology. He's studying Maya and other 3D modeling programs, some psychology, video editing, and multimedia productions. Because of this switch Craig is now a senior and will be graduating with his bachelors degree at the end of this summer.

As for me, work has been slow so I have more free time the past two weeks, I'm still not sure what to do with all the free time! I spend more time at the gym and our laundry stays caught up (mostly). But I love having the weekends to spend with Craig-working between 50-60 hours a week like I was, I missed the hubby a LOT!

Overall life's been really good to us lately. We've been loving everything that's been thrown at us, and learning constantly. I am so excited for whatever is up next for us!

San Francisco!

2011-01-22T10:07:00.000-08:00

So, three-ish months later here we are finishing our road trip posts! After Yachats, Oregon we drove down the 101 through the Redwoods, which was my first time seeing them and I was amazed! As we were driving, we passed a car that had a video camera out of his sunroof, we thought it was brilliant! So here's the footage we got, set to "The '59 Sound" by The Gaslight Anthem:

We arrived in San Francisco at some crazy late night hour and went straight to the El Camino Inn. The most memorable part of the motel was at breakfast we dined with a couple that spoke a foreign language that we guess was Portuguese, and they reminded us a bit of the minions on Despicable me.
Craig had been to San Fran before and it was nice having him know which places we needed to hit and what we wanted to try there. One of the main things we both wanted me to see was the Golden Gate Bridge, however, when we arrived this is what I could see from the look out point:
Yeah, not much. Though in the morning we made our way over to Fisherman's wharf and got to see Ghiradelli Square (and got free parking for buying chocolates! Though keeping them cool on the ride home through Nevada was quite the trick!)

We never rode one, but I loved seeing the trolley cars around

One awesome thing that we did down at the wharf, besides eating fish and chips (not particularly my favorite, but I did try them), was going to one of the local shops and picking out oysters for pearls. We had some AMAZING luck with these! The first one I picked was a purple one that we put into a necklace setting, and for buying the necklace we got a free second oyster. We picked out a super ugly small one (they're supposed to be the best ones: the uglier the oyster the prettier the pearl, and the smaller oyster the bigger the pearl-supposedly), we got lucky again with twins! Two beautiful pearls, one purple and the other a purple/red/brown hue! We thought it appropriate to put the twins into an earring setting, for which we got to pick a third oyster free. Here's Craig picking out the oyster:

And here's the beauty that he picked!

And here's all of them, that we picked

Also while we were down by the Wharf we saw some guys doing spray painting art with pallet knifes, can and magazine clippings, It was so cool to watch how they did it! We actually bought the one that we saw him paint there.

I loved driving around and seeing all the tall buildings and sites

At the end of the trip I did get to see this much of the Golden Gate Bridge, though the fog never really lifted more than that.

Maybe next time the Golden Gate Bridge will show the rest of itself. But overall San Francisco was amazing! We'll definitely visit again!
Then off to San Diego we went!

Jay's Wedding

2011-01-22T09:45:00.000-08:00

Our road trip's last big stop was San Diego, California to go to Jay and Tara's wedding! It was beautiful and so good to spend time with family. August 12th was Craig's birthday, which was also the day that Jay and Tara went through the Temple for the first time. After the Temple session we went to California Pizza Kitchen with the family where Craig got a free dessert, which was kind of funny because the candle kept blowing out as the waiter tried to bring it out, but eventually he did make it out with it still lit! My camera's batteries were dying at the time, so this photo is from Michelle's Facebook page:
On August 13th Jay and Tara were married in the San Diego Temple, and it was stunning! As we waited for the lovely couple to come out we enjoyed taking a lot of pictures and portraits!

Craig and I with his Parents

The Matthews and the Nielsens: Beverly, Lane, Julie, and Terry with Grace, Gabi, Howard, and Kate

Of course there had to be some sillyness too! Here's Kate and Grace in Craig's suit coat

And Gabi adorable as usual!

And all of us ladies, Julie, Beverly, Michelle, and I

And then the happy couple arrived!

After the portraits and photos Craig and I went to P.F. Changs with Michelle and Craig's parents. It was delicious and we again had the awesome free dessert for Craig! Doesn't he look handsome in a suit?

On August 14th Jay and Tara had their California Reception at this gorgeous castle!

Again, they brought they brought their A Game and looked Amazing!

And the scenery was incredible!

It was amazing to be there for their happy day.

The next morning we began the long, warm trip home with Michelle! It was a fun road trip, it was great to be with Shell! We had good tunes, good snackage and good company, who could complain!

It's not a road trip without a bit of napage!

All in all, it was a fun trip and a great way to get a way for a bit!

Road Trip!

2010-09-26T16:39:00.000-07:00

The morning of the 8th we headed off to drive down the coast! As we started off the drive, Craig drove as I opened my late birthday present...

To start things off Craig gave me socks-super comfy ones at that! As well as a 8 GB memory card...

and a package from Woot!

The Woot! package contained my new shiny, gorgeous red camera!!!

I was so excited! My last camera was very trusty and faithful with it's 4.1 megapixels, but the red one swooped in with 12 megapixels and a whole lot of amazing features!!

Along the drive, I discovered a new love of mine. In spite of my irrational fear of going over them, I found a love for bridges. I almost always tense up when going over bridges (or stepping on manholes for that matter), but there is something beautiful about them that I had never really noticed before. Once I realized how amazing they were, every time I saw a bridge I would point it out to Craig and we'd give our opinion on the structure and whether it was a favorite or not. Here are just two of the many photos I took of bridges all along the coast

Here is a gorgeous lighthouse we saw while driving along the 101 in Oregon.

Craig's driving face.. he was determined to get to Yachats!

This is where we stayed in Yachats. Craig's family used to come to Yachats, Oregon when he was young and it holds a lot of memories for him. My family also traveled to Oregon a lot when I was young, though we stayed in Otter Crest which happens to be just North of Yachats. Craig has told me so much about Yachats since we've met so it was great for me to share it with him.

Did I mention the new red camera does panoramic photos? This is the living area/kitchen of our hotel room.

This is the hallway/bathroom that lead to the bedroom

And this is where we slept. I love panoramic photos!

Craig and I arrived in Yachats just before sunset and Craig took me down to check out tide pools for my first time. I had never seen most of the life that lives in them. It was incredible to see all of the creatures and how much color was in there.

Can I just say how much I adore the ocean?

Supposedly the stairs used to connect to the platform up higher, but eroded away or something, I thought it was funny.

Craig searching for some good tide pools to check out..Isn't he handsome?

And more with the love of the ocean..

Close up of one of the tide pools we checked out. I love the color!

Craig and I

The start of a gorgeous sunset!

To Be Continued...

Babysitting and Visiting Bre!

2010-09-26T16:05:00.001-07:00

From the 1st through the 7th we had the opportunity to babysit my brother Ryan's children Aaron, Alton and Kara while he and his wife Christy went on a cruise! Of course there was a lot of playing and pulling faces...

And a lot of playing at the park...

And of course Kara and I played with her make-up kit...

And Craig also got to outlet some of his creativity in sketching pictures of superheroes and villains for the boys

Ryan also introduced Craig to Bucky Balls, little magnets that are oddly addicting. Craig created a motorcycle with them..

and a lighthouse!

While we were in the area, I also got the chance to visit my best friend Bre and her two sons Ethan and Ashton with Kara.

Bre playing peek-a-boo with her son Ethan

Always a hit with the kids!

Me and little Ashton! He is getting so big!

Kara and Ethan posing for my camera

Aubrey has this awesome tee-pee that the kids loved to play in :)

It was gorgeous to be in Seattle and it was great to be around the kids and to visit Bre!
To be Continued...

First of Many: Joint B-day and Beginning of Trip

2010-09-26T14:33:00.000-07:00

Okay, to start of the first of many posts, we have a joint birthday party that my parents threw for us the night before we left.

Us chilling with my sister Allison, and my nieces and nephews Rachel, Andrew, Sarah, Ashley, Emily, and Jacob

Our delicious cake. You know you wanted some :P

I wish I remembered what I was wishing for 'cause I sure look intent on getting it! (I even blew out Craig's candle-woops!)

On July 30, we intended to leave in the late morning/early afternoon, so naturally we didn't actually leave till about 6 or 7 in the evening. We drove till about Boise, Idaho and began to look for a place to stay. As luck would have it, since this was the only night we did not reserve a place, everywhere was booked! We looked for about an hour and a half to two hours and finally gave up, pulling into a parking lot near a new office complex at the far end of one town. I was able to get some sleep in our tiny car, but poor Craig was unable to, you can tell he wasn't too happy about that...

The next morning, Craig gave me one of my early birthday presents: the most awesome shoes ever (next to the red heels he got me last Christmas of course!) Here they are in my customary feet on the dashboard photo:

After many long hours of listening to awesome music (Craig gave me a new CD every day of driving on the trip, ranging from 30 Seconds to Mars, Flobots, Rihanna, Radiohead, and the Gaslight Anthem. I love them all!) We arrived in Seattle!

To Be Continued...

Crazy busy!

2010-07-05T13:41:00.000-07:00

Sorry, I know I haven't blogged in so long! At the beginning of June I was made the new manager at Fox's Pizza Den (right next to Lee's Marketplace on 14th North in Logan), so I've been working 40-55 or 60 hours a week, nuts! But I am loving it! And Craig has been so amazing and supportive, and so great at keeping me sane.

Coming up next month we'll be out of Logan for two weeks! Yay! The first week of August we'll be in Seattle, Washington taking care of my brother Ryan's kids while he and his wife take a cruise, we're so excited to see them! Then after that Craig and I are going to road trip it down the coast to San Diego where Craig's brother Jay will be getting married to his fiance Tara in the San Diego Temple! It'll be a blast and I'm sure I'll have a ton of pictures to post then! Plus we'll have Craig's and my birthdays mixed in there too.

More to come soon!

Holiday postings!

2010-01-05T15:26:00.000-08:00

This Holiday season was wonderful! I hope yours was as well! On November 20 Craig and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary! I am so lucky to be married to him, he is my best friend and the kindest most understanding person I know! I am so grateful for the past year and am so excited to spend the rest of forever with him!

For Thanksgiving, I had the opportunity to make the turkey and most of the food, with help from my Dad and sister-in-law Marisa (the green bean casserole that she made was delish!), my mom even admitted that my orange-cranberry sauce from scratch was better than the canned kind, a very proud moment for me! Then on the Saturday after we had the opportunity to have our second Thanksgiving at Craig's parent's home which was also delicious, Craig's mom is an excellent cook!

Shortly after Thanksgiving we put up our Christmas tree in our living room.

Before

After...pretty, huh!

My side of the family celebrates Christmas on Christmas Eve, a tradition from my Dad's side of the family, so we spend the 24th with them. Though most of the men after Christmas Eve dinner decided to set up two Xboxes downstairs while my Dad read the Night Before Christmas to all the kids, and here's a few of the women patiently waiting for the men to come back

Craig and I so excited in our Santa hats!!

My family and I went in together to get Craig and Xbox Elite for Christmas (he's been wanting one for months but, being the saver that he is, couldn't talk himself into spending the money)

Growing up, each of us kids always received a teddy bear for Christmas, a tradition that is now being passed down to the grandkids. Here's my nephew Noah showing off his bear and animal crackers! (Note the cape he's wearing, my sister Brittany hand-made many gifts this year for the family! ~ capes for the young boys, tutus and wands for the girls, coloring kits for all the kids, and decorative Thank You and Greeting cards for all the women!)

My family got me Wii Fit-I love it and use it nearly everyday! The hula hoops and yoga are my favorites!

Craig and I had our personal Christmas at 6:30 AM Christmas morning, Santa was very kind this year! Craig got Gears of War 2 and Call of Duty Modern Warfare, along with a couple of movies and 3 Pounds of candy in his stocking! I got a gorgeous, long white coat, red high heels, and a real pearl necklace!

Around 10 Craig and I headed up to his parent's home to celebrate Christmas with his side of our family! Here's Michelle and I happily anticipating some yummy bubble bread!

Michelle and Christmas breakfast! Maple and Orange-Cranberry bubble breads, grapefruit and egg nog! Delish!

This is the gift us kids gave to Craig's parents

Craig gave Jay a bow and some arrows for Christmas!

All in all Thanksgiving and Christmas were wonderful! Oh, and I quit work at the theater just as I got a job at Fox's Pizza Den in North Logan so I didn't have to work on Christmas at all! YAY! I did work New Years Eve, but I got home two minutes before the ball drop so I was able to watch it with Craig! I hope your Holiday season was amazing! New Years Resolutions to come..it usually takes me about a week to solidify them!

So You Think You Can Dance!!

2009-11-18T09:16:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry I'm such a blogging slacker! But on the 7th of November, my sisters, Shannon and Brittany, and I went to the So You Think You Can Dance tour down in Salt Lake at the E Center!! It was so amazing! It was so crazy to see the people I'd been watching religiously on TV in person! I took about three hundred pictures! ...Most of which are super fuzzy, so, only about a hundred worked out.

Brittany and I drove down to Bountiful with her husband DJ and her daughter Rachel, stopping by DJ's parents to wish his Mom a happy birthday, and drop off DJ and Rachel, then Brittany and I continued down to Salt Lake.

Rachel and I being cool with our sunglasses on at night :P

We met up with Shannon just down the street from the E Center and parked together. Shannon had the tickets so I was shocked to find that our seats were on the floor!

Shannon and Brittany before the show

Here's a few fairly fuzzy pictures, the first is a group broadway number to the song "One," and I don't recall the second's song, but I'm pretty positive it's with Kayla and Brandon. There are a ton of links on YouTube and such, if you've never watched the show I recommend it, it is one of my favorites! And here's the links to two of my favorites from last season, if you can't tell I'm a sucker for contemporary pieces. (copy and paste into browser) The first is Addiction choreographed by Mia Michaels (Love Her) danced by Kayla and Kupono: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjhXNIJPkQU

Then there's this number choreographed by former contestant Travis Wall, danced by Jeanine

and Jason. Hope you enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY9fJ3s-TUg

California/Craig's Birthday!

2009-08-26T11:20:00.000-07:00

I know I'm a little late on this, but better late than never! Craig's 21st birthday came just ten days after mine (as always) on August 12th. To celebrate and to play we made the long drive to California! It was such a blast and it was so nice to get away! I went super camera happy while down there (Craig focused more on artful shots, which will be labeled as his nice camera-work), so here are a few that captured it a bit. We planned to start our journey at about 10 AM on August 11...of course we slept in and forgot things so we didn't actually leave till 2 PM.

Here is our courageous Craig staring at the long road ahead!

I got bored and started playing with the camera particularly early in the trip..

With every road trip I like to take a feet-on-the-dashboard-with-the-road picture, not exactly sure why, it started two years ago on a trip to Washington and has stuck ever since!

We stayed at the pleasant Good Nite Inn in Chula Vista, conveniently right outside of San Diego this small motel had a nice homey feel to it. As Craig put it: it's almost as if you could expect someone to come in and tuck you in at night. It was super cozy, bed's fairly soft (super important to me), nice staff, fair price, and free pastries and juice in the morning, we thought it was a fine choice.

Craig looking super hot...and annoyed already at my constant picture taking..in his birthday outfit (*outfit* not suit)

We love Coronado beach, we spent many sunsets walking up and down it- softest sand ever!!

I love that the sand is so smooth that you can see reflections in it. When we came down to get out our endowments at the San Diego Temple, we came here and Craig's mom took some amazing photos!

This picture doesn't capture it super well, but another fun thing that I love about the beach, Coronado in particular, is that some of the sand is super sparkly!

Craig and I visiting the San Diego Temple

Amazing photo of the Temple by Craigory. He took a ton of pictures of these trees, the red in them is amazing!

Happy Craig!

This one was actually taken by me- shocker! I kind of like it :)

Sadly, Craigory tripped over a curb around the Temple and broke one of his flip-flops :(

It was quite the tragic experience...except it was fun to give Craig a piggy-back ride back to the car!

My way of transporting Craig's gifts

I used a LOT of tape!

Craig tearing through the box's forcefield!

Craig enjoying one of his presents :)

Craig's little haul

Gorgeous view from the highway

San Diego skyline (taken on bridge to Coronado)

YUM!!!

As we ate our delicious in-n-out burger dinner on the Coronado beach, we made a friend. His name is Henry, we tossed him a few fries and he fought off the other seagulls that unsuccessfully tried to steal his prime spot, which kind of scared me 'cause he'd get all puffed up and made crazy noises!

One night, we strolled along the gas lamp district in San Diego and after like an hour or so of debate, finally decided to have dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory (which was my first choice before the long debate). It was surprisingly tasty, and good price in comparison to some of the other restaurants and bars on the street. At the end of the meal, a serving of ice cream is included, with the choice of vanilla or spumoni. I played it safe with vanilla while Craig tried the spumoni (kind of like neapolitan ice cream only instead of chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry it was chocolate, cherry, and pistachio) Craig said that it was a great ending to Italian food, I tried a bit and it had kind of had a fun flavor. If you get a chance, try it.

Craig chilling on the beach in Oceanside after playing in the waves, isn't he hot?? :-)

Craig and I playing with the Camera..

Kind of an odd progression...

And this is what Craig got for not wearing sunscreen at Oceanside. We stopped by Jay's place in St. George, where Jay was kind enough to feed us dinner, give our bums a rest from the car and helped Craig imprint a temporary white smiley on his tummy!

Once again, bored with a camera in the car, though the sun was kind of fun to mess with in this

Craig's serious driving face

Craig realizing I was taking pictures of his driving face!

All in all the trip was a blast! We also got to visit my brother Ryan, his wife Christy, and there kids Aaron, Alton, and Kara, sadly I didn't get any pictures with them this time, but they were fun to hang out with and visit for a day.

Craig was such a trooper on this trip! The last time we spontaneously went to California, I drove about 80% of the trip, this time I just couldn't do it, on the way home I was beat and Craig made the trek from Vegas all the way home! I was so grateful because I just couldn't keep my eyes open! We got home around 2 or 3 AM, and crashed so hard!! It was such a great experience (even with the sunburns and sore bums!) I love spending time with Craig, he is such a good husband and best friend! I hope you had a wonderful birthday Craig! You mean the world to me! Thank you for choosing me! I love you!!

Camera Happy Craig!

2009-07-31T13:27:00.000-07:00

For those who don't know, Craig and I moved out to Paradise (my parents have a basement apartment). I let Craig go a bit camera happy to take photos of the apartment - awesome way to inspire him to clean a bit :) Here's a few of the apartment

Living Room, front door area

Wood stove and our TV area

Office/Music room (uncarpeted, but we improvise)

Hallway (obviously)

My parent's TV in the Movie Room/Kitchen - Lego Temple in the corner :)

Our Kitchen

Me making my lunch. P.S. This is the longest my hair has ever been!

Fuzzy pic of our reading chair and closet

And the rest of our bedroom!

That's the tour!

The Logan Temple...Lego Style!

2009-07-31T13:22:00.001-07:00

Before we got married, Craig discovered my family's collection of Lego's (which included a many castle pieces), and he started to build the Logan Temple. Now, eight months later, it has crawled it's way out of storage to be completed! (well there's a few pieces missing off the top, but they couldn't be found. Still looks good though!)

That line down the middle is where it opens up to the inside!

Park City!

2009-07-31T13:05:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I know I've been super behind on blogging, so here's the start of me catching up on what we've been up to. Back in May Craig's parents were kind enough to let us have half of their hotel stay down in Park City! It was my first time going and Craig's first (as far as he remembers anyways) It was a ton of fun!

The stairway so super crazy and curved every which way, and was definitely a work out!

View from the stairway

One big highlight was the Olympic Park! I've never followed them much so it was great to see Craig's enthusiasm for them and to learn from him about them.

Here's Craig's Skiing Face!!!

Isn't he a great runner?!

This is totally random, but it was just in the middle of the parking lot and I was kind of photo happy, so here's a tilted shopping cart to close.

Quick update

2009-02-15T14:58:00.001-08:00

It's been awhile since I've posted so here's what's new: for those of you that didn't know, Craig is majoring in business at USU right now, and I'm working on building my Arbonne business, I'd appreciate any support so if you're interested in helping out contact me. :)

Please welcome the new addition to our family!

This Valentine's day Craig and I got each other iPhones! They are wonderful, super addictive, and brilliant! We love them and they love us back, they are a very welcome addition to our house!
Our first Valentine's day as a married couple was amazing! Craig brought me Delicious breakfast in bed, we went to the AT&T store and had a lovely shopping experience, and for dinner we had Olive Garden To Go which we ate on our couch with sparkling cider in fancy glasses while we watched Stardust. It was simply wonderful!

Happy Christmas!

2008-12-27T16:05:00.000-08:00

Our First Christmas together was amazing! We spent Christmas Eve at my parents home, ate yummy Christmas Eve dinner, opened gifts with the family, watched a movie, and had a great time! We went home, read the Christmas Story from the Bible, and got to sleep at about 1:30 AM. 6:30 AM Christmas morning we had sugar filled cereal, and looked through our stockings that Santa filled for us. Santa gave Craig Meet the Robinson's the movie and enough candy to last him at least two years; Santa gave me a wedding band and oranges the size of my head! After that we went back to sleep for an hour then headed to Craig's parent's home. After waking up Jay and Michelle we all opened gifts, and had delicious bubble bread and grapefruit for breakfast. Then us kids cuddled up by the fire to take a nap, after which the boys went out with Mom to build a snow dragon/ Godzilla! As the day wound down we had Christmas Day dinner and played a game of Hand and Foot-girls against boys! Snow came down good and hard Christmas night so Craig and I spent the night at the Nielsen home. That was our Christmas, more pictures to come!

Silly us!

Hunter, Dad, Brittany, and DJ on Christmas Eve

Aiden in my Santa hat. I don't think he knew what to do with it, he stood perfectly still when it was on his head, he is absolutely Adorable!

Craig and I received matching shirts! How fun is that!

Santa left a trail of Craig's candy as he snuck out the door Christmas morning, I suppose it didn't all fit in his stocking!

Mom and Dad Christmas morning

Bubble Bread and Grapefruit! Yum-o!

Cuddly Wonderful Christmas Nap!

Snow Dragon/ Godzilla!
Michelle Sandwich!

Honeymoon

2008-12-09T23:28:00.000-08:00

Our honeymoon was amazing! We took a 7 day Carnival cruise to the Mexican Riviera, leaving from Long Beach and stopping to port in Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas. One of our many towel animals, thanks to Supat our cabin steward.
Craig and I in Puerto Vallarta on a bus after wandering through the tropical jungle.
Our pretty cruise ship

Just a glimpse of our ship's sun deck
Cabo San Lucas' Land's End, the end of the Baja California Peninsula
El Archo at the end of the peninsula

Craig decked out in tourist attire.

Overall, honeymoon was a fantastic week. Now it's on to getting settled into our apartment!

Married!!!

2008-11-25T15:40:00.000-08:00

On November 20, 2008 Craig and I were sealed for time and all eternity! (Photos by Julie Matthews)

Don't you love the shoes!
This is one of my favorite pictures!

Place to live/Never forget your wallet

2008-11-17T08:49:00.000-08:00

Craig and I are no longer going to be homeless! YAY!! Here is how the blessed event came to be. You see, Craig and I were apartment hunting (of course), and while we were running errands I called on a "New Today" add in the classifieds. This wonderfully kind woman answered and we talked for a bit (over the span of two phone calls, so I could discuss with Craig in between) and she told us she was able to squeeze us in to see the apartment Friday at 5:15.

Friday comes, and the stress of packing for our San Diego trip hits! From 4:30 to like 5:13, Craig, my Dad, and myself run around like crazy headless chickens (well, not so much Craig, he was pretty chill about it) trying to gather everything, not forget anything, and not be terribly late. We head out, reach 2500 N. and Main to discover rush hour traffic with the stop light out. Because of the honking and the feeling of impending doom, we turned around to take fourth East. Ha! That was fun! It took us at least five, if not ten, minutes just to make it from 2500 to 2200 North. I was ready to give up on the apartment and just head to Salt Lake. Luckily enough, both Craig and my Father are just as stubborn and were determined to get to that apartment.

5:30 rolls around and we make it to the apartment. Thank goodness the manager was still there with another couple who came at 5:15. We looked around the quaint townhouse style place and liked it a lot surprisingly enough :) The price was right, and the timing was decent, so we put down a deposit and we now have a place to live!!

However Friday's adventure doesn't end there, no siree! We get to Salt Lake, park at Park 'n' Jet, and take the shuttle to terminal one. Check in using the super nifty do-it-yourself kiosk, grab our boarding passes and start toward the escalator which leads to security. "Do you both have your ID's?" my Father inquires. oh crap! runs through my head as I flash to giving my Dad change and putting my wallet on the floor of his car instead of into my purse... So we run to the courtesy phone thing, call for a ride to Park 'n' Jet and wait for the shuttle. We arrive at the car to discover that there was no need to unlock the car, seeing as my wallet was on the ground outside the car! Luckily we still made our flight and lived happily ever after (so far)

Morale of the story: Never give up, even when you're fifteen minutes late; and Never forget your wallet on the ground by your car especially when you'll need your ID to get on a plane. The End.

Some engagement pictures

2008-11-14T10:04:00.000-08:00

So I've been putting engagement pictures on a few posts, but I decided to clump some of them together, so here they are. (Photography by Brittany Blakely)

Less than a week!

2008-11-14T09:47:00.000-08:00

We have less than a week now till our wedding day, and we're starting to de-stress a little. All big things are taken care of (I think/desperately hope). Tonight we're headed to San Diego to go through the Temple tomorrow morning (so Amazingly excited!!!), and we'll be back on sunday. Tuesday all far-traveling family comes in-can I say how stoked I am to see everyone! Wednesday my bridal shower is at noon, at my parent's house, all family and close friends (assumingly just the girls) are invited...I don't know if we've sent out invites or not for that one, but if not, you know who you are, so come if you can :) and if you don't know where my parents live, give me a call and I'll tell you. Then Thursday morning we head for the Salt Lake Temple and become sealed for time and all eternity (YAY!). After that is pictures, hang out with family, maybe some more pictures, then reception from six to eight. I'm so excited!!!!

Registered and such!

2008-11-06T22:14:00.000-08:00

Another one of our engagements (photography by Brittany Blakely)

So we are now registered at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, and stuff has been getting done. The list of To-Do's is slowly getting smaller, and will hopefully be down to less than ten by the end of the week :) Yay!

Old Rock Church is my hero!

2008-11-01T10:56:00.000-07:00

So yesterday Craig and I went to meet with Amy at the Old Rock Church. Little did we know that Amy was really Amy Rasmussen, Lance Rasmussen's mom (Craig went to high school with Lance), which lead to a happy little reunion-type-thing at the end of our consultation (when the small world was discovered), fun stuff. Anyway, They are freaking amazing there!

Yesterday morning I was fairly stressed over centerpieces (which sounds like a silly things to be stressing about in my head, but there I was, stressing about centerpieces), I couldn't decide whether I wanted candles or flowers or round vases or glasses or square ones or tall ones or short of fat and so on and so forth, and I was all sorts of worried about cost and such. It was simply a big 'ol mess in my head. So we we're sitting there talking about the times and music and cake-cutting, and then she turns the page and asked if I'd like them to do the centerpieces! Apparently their included with the rental of the church! Beautiful! I was so relieved!!!! So we will have the round tables with the white table cloth, with square blue fabric on top of that, then a square mirror (sitting diagonal to the fabric) and then a square box-like vase on that with white candles in them! Yay! No more worry of centerpieces! PLUS they decorate the staircase and the windowsills and their bridal room is spectacular, and they're just the nicest people. Yay for Old Rock Church!

The first of our engagement pictures!

2008-10-29T10:46:00.000-07:00

Photo by Brittany Blakely

It's Official!

2008-10-26T22:09:00.000-07:00

It's official that our wedding date is November 20,2008! Hooray!!! We will be holding a rehearsal dinner Wednesday the 19th for family and close friends, Salt Lake Temple Wedding late morning on the 20th, and a reception/ball that evening at the Old Rock Church in Providence. Times will be posted at a later date as well as engagement pics once they have been taken. Yay!! I'm so excited! Our colors are M&M Blue with accents of White and Black! Love it! I have my dress (got it like two days after we got engaged, I love sales!), it's gorgeous!

P.S. Not only are we talking engagements and bridals, we're also going to get Groom pictures of Craig (affectionately called Groomals!)

90%

2008-10-24T15:18:00.000-07:00

We are 90% positive that our wedding date is November 20th. We will have a Rehearsal Dinner thing the 19th, and then Wedding and Reception/Ball on the 20th. That is the plan. This is 90% for sure. That's all.

We're Engaged!

2008-10-08T10:33:00.000-07:00

As most of you know now, we are engaged! I am terribly sorry that we have not set a date yet. I promise that we will have one soon and all family and attendants will be called as soon as it is set and the temple has been called. I promise!