Christmas at the Gublers

So to start off our trip, we went to the Gubler's household. For those of you who don't know, Kyle has 8 brothers and sisters, and 4 nephews and 3 nieces. All of his family lives around his parents, so when we come into town, its a big deal. Kyle's nieces and nephews love him, and by chance when we got married, they started loving me. So at his house, when we would sit down and in the next 5 minutes all of the kids are sitting on top of us! So here are some fun photos of the kids and the funness of the Gubler household.


Then we went down to temple square to see the lights. Oh my how beautiful! I can't believe that some people think that our church isn't christian! We went to go and see Luke II, the Christ statue, and saw all of the lights.

Busy-ness of the holidays!

We finally made it home for Christmas! The trip here was long and tiring. First, on our way down here we figured out that our flight was 2 hours later than we thought, so that gave us time to drive our friends (Peter and Shelly) to the La Guardia airport and then we headed our way to my beloved JFK...sort of. The only time I've flown in and out of JFK is on Jet Blue, which by the way the terminal is beautiful! Nice and spacious and I just love it. But come to find out the Delta terminal is crowded and junky, no outlets anywhere! Well we made it to the security line, and I, thinking that I would go through security super fast, put my license in my pocket so when I got there I wouldn't have to take it out of my purse, only problem is when your license falls out of our pocket! So once we got there, we'd been to a grocery store, taken the rental car back, gone on a train and a million different places, we figured that we'd take our chances with my Yale Student (affiliate) Id. Luckily by some small chance, the lady had some christmas spirit and let us on the plane! So we got to our terminal around 5:30 we waited and got some snacks with the small money we have just to fill us enough until we get in around 11:00 utah time. Well that didn't happen. We got on the plane around 9:30, 3 hours after we we supposed to be leaving. Delta never really said that it was weather related, they just said that it was "out of their control". So we got on the plane so excited to take off and be done with this whole experience, right? Wrong, we sat on the plane for 2 more hours. And when you have 250 people on the plane, chances are that people are going to have to go to the bathroom, people get hungry, and kids start screaming. Clastrophobic people start throwing up and getting sick. Yay the holidays right? So we finally took off around 12:30, 5 hours after our supposed time, and people were cheering. We got free eye masks, free headsets, and free blankets. I felt ok the whole time just sick to my stomach and my throat was getting sore (from all the sick people on the plane, 2 hours gives you enough time to spread your airborne diseases around the WHOLE plane). So when we finally made it to Utah 3:30 their time (5:30 ET) we were just happy to be home. Wow the busy-ness of the holidays!!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

So growing up in Wyoming really helped me fall in love with the snow! I remember one year it snowed 3 ft in May or something crazy like that and we had like a week of snow days. (we had to go to school on Saturdays to catch up). Anyways, moving out here and talking to some of my coworkers really discouraged me. They told me that it definitely doesn't snow here as much as it does in Utah. But anyways I was planning on no snow whatsoever! But luckily today it snowed!!! And it did last Sunday as well! Here is our beautiful Connecticut snow! There is last weeks snow fall.


And this is today's!

O Christmas Tree!

Last weekend, we decided that if we were going to get a tree, we might as well do it on Saturday, besides we always decorate for Christmas as soon after Thanksgiving as possible. So we ventured out to Joseph's Tree Farm in Hamden, a town away, and they had 8 acres of trees that we could choose from. This is what we came out with.






This is us cutting the tree down! Eventually we decided on a Bulgarian Fir, which is exotic! Needless to say, I fell in love with it!





Then we came home and decorated it and had a fun time!

Thankful

So as most people close to me know, I cannot sleep past 7:00 am, even on those special days that Kyle and I have off. He can sleep until around 9:00 or so, but as for me, well obviously I'm up this early blogging. But when I woke up, I started thinking of all the things I'm grateful for, and wow were there so many! I think Thanksgiving should come once a month, football and everything. I should have started this like Becca and said everything I was grateful for once a day until today, but here we go.

• I'm grateful for the gospel and the knowledge it brings to my life.
• I'm grateful for eternal marriage and the fact that I get to be with Kyle forever.
• I'm grateful for kids and how dang cute they are.
• I'm grateful for our house, and even though most of the time its messy, I still love being here.
• I'm grateful for Kyle and the motivation to come to more school even after he gets his bachelors.
• I'm grateful to be at Yale. Once in a while, Kyle or I realize that...wow....we are at Yale!
• I'm grateful for moms, and how great they raise children.
• I'm grateful for siblings to teach us the things mom doesn't ;)
• I'm grateful for my job, and no matter how much I complain about it, I'm starting to love it
• And I'm grateful for letting Kyle into my life. No matter how much I liked BYU and how much I wanted to go to France, the past 11 months have been way cooler than anything BYU and France could offer me.

Loving life is great, but stepping back and counting your blessings and the reasons why you love life, makes life worth loving.

SOS

Help! I know you guys out there are smart people, and I'm not so computer literate, so I need help. As you can see we are stuck on this Halloween layout because every time we change our layout, it deletes all of our friend list, is there anyway to not delete that while redoing our background?

Beeca's visit!

So a few weeks ago, I know I'm slow, Jacob (Kyle's brother AKA beeca) came to visit us! It was our second family visit since we've been here, but our first family visit since our stuff has been here. It was nice to have a family member here, and it made me realize that I'd been too busy to get homesick. Well now that everything is slowing down and we're making it into the end of November and December, I'm starting to get homesick.

Those of you away from your homes know what I'm talking about this time of year. I miss the snow and being around family this time of year. Growing up in Wyoming, 3 feet of snow was common from October until April. Utah has a little less, but here, I think they only get slush. That means no snowboarding on natural snow, just man made, and no snowmen! But I am feeling the cold bite of the winter coming here. Yesterday it was only 29 degrees at 5:00 pm, of course the sun had set an hour before, so that might be the reason why, but still brrrrr! Those of you from Connecticut, what is there to do in winter that might keep us busy?!

Well family, we miss you terribly and want more of you to come out here!

Halloween!

Happy Halloween! I just love it when this holiday comes. It has the two best things ever - candy and dressing up! Kyle finally got talked into dressing up this year. Last year, he didn't know me as well, and now he knows that you only have to be super mature 364 days of the year. Here's a sample of funness that happens once a year!This is Kyle as Dwight K. Shrute from the Office.
Unfortunately, we have no pictures of me as a jailbird, but I'm sure you can all picture it.
Happy Holidays!

Pictures as Promised!

So here are some pictures of the drive we took a week ago. The colors are just gorgeous. I only wish the pictures could do them justice. I guess some of you may have to come visit next fall to see for yourselves! It was kind of a dark cloudy day, but still beautiful. Enjoy!

Good News!

So after going to the doctor everyday this week so far, and getting ready to go again in 15 minutes, I decided to think of some good news. So someone has to have good news in the midst of all this mess right? Well I'll start with my good news, I went to the doctor on Monday and they took an x-ray of my hip, and the good news is that the hip problem is totally muscular and my joints are fine. The doctor believes that it is my back so after buy a heating pad, the hip is finally feeling great! Kyle's good news is that so far he's passed all of his dreaded tests and is ready for more to come! So what is your good news?! I would love to see all the positive things that are going on in the lives of the people who mean so much to us!

Another Week (or 2) in Connecticut!

So here we are in the beauty of the fall, so Kyle and I decided to drive around a bit to see the beautiful fall colors. So this post was originally meant for those pictures, sorry mom, but I left our camera out in the car, and my wheelchair (office chair) won't go down the stairs, and the car is way far away since they are redoing our parking lot. So this is just an update.

So we are busily going faster and faster into the school year. Kyle is doing wonderfully in all of his classes, and he got 100% on his anatomy written test yesterday!! I knew he must be smart, of course he got into Yale and now is kicking some Yale butt! So we are all proud of him and he's studying like crazy. That's pretty much all he does, study. But he found a really great study partner that they get along great and they are an awesome family.

I am of course just working away. I'm not sure how long I'll be working a ton if my bum hip keeps acting up. Seems like its getting worse, but I have a doctors appointment on Thursday, we'll just see if I can last that long. But other than that, I'm keeping busy on sewing and craft projects.

Tomorrow, after work, we are going to Lyman's orchard to pick apples and pumpkins, so we'll definately take our camera there and post those pictures as well. Well we love you all and thanks for checking up on us!

And Life Goes On...

So we've been here for almost 2 months now! Wow. We still aren't moved in completely yet, but we're slowly working on it. That's our "Family Home Evening" every monday. I think Kyle is expecting to come home one day and see everything unpacked and this wonderful home he has, but after my bum hip acted up, my suprises are limited. However this week we got most of the office moved in, I think that we are focusing on that, because after 8 months in our last apartment, it still wasn't moved in. Next up is our bedroom which suprisingly got pushed back to the end of the list, mainly because no one besides Kyle and I see that room. But that's our progress so far. I'm still busy as ever at work. Today was d-day because we had a system conversion, (for you friends at DFCU, theirs isn't as bad as ours was, sorry) and of course they put the "new girl" on the drive-up so if people get mad at the long line of cars, I can just explain how slow I am because I'm new right?? Life is different here, coming from a world of sheltered life to people asking me how I can share my husband with other wives (usually a sarcastic remark comes from me at this point) is so hard. But it does have its advantages. People at my work really stick up for me, especially they know I don't drink or have coffee, and I can't really say that they are curious, but they are noticing I'm different. Kyle I know is having fun at school, and suprisingly he has more days off than the whole 'scary' program led us to believe. Almost enough where I want to quit my job and hang out with him all day, but this way I'm at work til 6 and he can study all day long. (lucky!) He comes home everyday telling me cool things he learns. Half the stuff he has to show me because I don't know medical things like him, but its cool to see him so excited about seeing a pacemaker and his curiousity of human life and everything! His teachers are very impressed by him and I"m so proud that he's going for what he wants to do in life.

This weekend was a blast. We decided 3 weeks ago that we needed some time to go and think at the temple. So we set last saturday to be the day to go after I work (again). So of course we were in the midst of Hurricane Kyle all weekend (Kyle has been thrilled this year because he was going to get a stormed named after him) so it was a complete downpour, but still makes life interesting. So we headed out and the temple was closing at 3, so we had to hurry. We made it about 20 minutes before the session and in the locker room I heard one of my friend's voices, so that was fun, out of the 7 people there, 4 of them were from our ward. But after that we found somewhere to eat, and I decided that my body wanted Queso from Chili's!! So we ended up there which was good and we checked into our $60 motel, which suprisingly was not bad for that price. And sunday was a day I needed. We met my sister in Boston, her getaway before she has another baby, and we partied. Kinda, we went to church and walked all around the city catching up on things. But sadly we had to leave halfway through the day because Kyle had an appointment, but still good to see family.

Well that's the latest in our lives. Just waiting to get to the doctor about my bum hip so I can walk again! For now I'll just sit in my nice office chair I just bought and roll around the house ;)

The Last Day of Purgatory!!

Yes it is true, we're getting our things tomorrow! The movers called today around 4:00 pm and said that it would be here tomorrow morning but they wouldn't give us a specific time. So granted, the one day that they come we are short staffed at work and I can't take tomorrow off, and it's the first day that I work until 6:00 pm instead of getting off at 3:00. So I called my work to see what I could arrange, and the nicest lady is covering my shift for me! So I'm getting off at 3:00, which is still a problem because they are coming in the morning. So I remembered in the contract they have to call us at least 24 hours in advance, so we called them back and they were conning us saying "well since you've been so patient and such great customers, the latest I can come is is 4 or 4:15". Yeah they are so like that, but don't worry we will have Yale Security Police here and at least 2 other guys from the ward here. So we'll have plenty of witnesses and they won't con us into anything. So everything is worked out and hopefully everything will go smoothly. Thank you everyone for your support and prayers. And we'll post again soon when we're settled and let you know how it went.

Dead Car and HAZMAT

After 5 hours of studying today, I think I'll update our blog since Makayla is still at work. This week has been a fun one as I have now made it through the first week of classes. We wanted to share a couple experiences from this week.

On Monday we had a Labor Day barbecue with my class and we were on our way to it and stopped at Walmart to get some chips. We were in there for maybe 10 minutes, came out and our car battery was completely dead. I knew this would be coming sometime soon because it was the original battery (6 years) and I have also been noticing slower start times, so I was pretty sure what it was. We asked a security guard who was patrolling the lot if he would help us jump it. Then we drove to the party and turned off the car and tried to start it and it was still completely dead. After another jump and $87 later, we again have a working car! We had a barbecue later that evening with our neighbors as well.

On Tuesday night there was sort of kickoff party for the School of Medicine so Makayla and I went to that. (who can resist free food!) It was in an outside courtyard behind a builing and the fire alarm went off, so we had to go back through the building and out the front entrance. I guess it was a chemical spill of some sort and there were fire trucks and ambulances, so it must have been a bit serious.

Thursday I got fed breakfast and a way nice lunch again by the School of Medicine, so its been pretty nice. I love Yale and any activities that we have with the med students!

I'm just trying to get a regular study schedule down so I can get into a rythm and it's been a pretty good week. Next week will be a better indication. I could go on forever but I guess that's enough for now! Oh, one more thing, there was a representative from the Disabilities office talking to our program about study skills and she mention that the PA program was probably the most difficult program at the univerisity! That made me feel better! Later!

Orientation Week!

It has been almost a week since we posted. Last Saturday Makayla and I made some lunch and went up to the look out at East Rock Summit park and had a picnic and played some frisby. It was a fun afternoon and it was good to get out and do something. It was a beautiful day. That night we decided to kick off our last day of freedom before school starts by going out to dinner. We went to a Thai restaurant called Thai Taste. It was delicious and actually not very expensive :) We were glad for that! Then we went over to the home of Clay and Jessica Shorter, one of our neighbor families and played the Wii with them. It was a fun evening and a great day that helped to get our mind off of things.

On Sunday we got the wonderful opportunity of substituting for the 5-year-old primary class! Let's just say that it was an experience we will remember! There were like 10 of these little sweet spirits! Good times! nuff said!

Makayla has worked every day this week and is doing an awesome job. She is a hard worker and I have been so impressed by her willingness to support me in my goals. I am so grateful that we found each other. She is so wonderful and means the world to me. I can't imagine life without her. I must be the luckiest man in the whole world to have such a beautiful companion!

She is enjoying her new job and is getting along well with her co-workers. Her boss even offered to loan us a TV!

My orientation started this week. All in all it was a good week and it was nice to finally meet my classmates and figure out who we'd be stuck in classes with for the next year. It seems like a pretty good group. Some of the highlights of the week I'll just quickly mention were: Welcome, PA program reception with the Dean of the School of Medicine, various presentations by computer support, Yale Health Plan, Security, disability insurance, a PA panel discussion and Q&A period, meeting our donor for anatomy (we do a full body dissection), and a ropes course yesterday. This was just a bunch of team building games and excercises out in the woods. It was pretty fun.

One thing I'll say about the PA reception was that Makayla was talking to a man for about 15 minutes and he was asking her all kinds of questions about her life such as if she'll be going to school, about her job she got and where she was from and really seemed to have a genuine interest in her life. After he walked away I asked if she knew who he was, she said, "No." So I told her she was just talking with the Deputy Dean for Education for the Yale School of Medicine. She was pretty impressed and excited that he was interested in her life and well-being. I am happy about that too. The faculty here is just amazing and are willing to help with anything they possibly can. The Dean of the PA program offered to let us borrow some of her cooking things or whatever we need while we are waiting for our things to come. She even said she would write Makayla a letter for school or work or anything that she needs. She also made sure we were able to find our meeting house for church on Sunday! What a wonderful person she is! Her name is Mary Warner.

This is a really great program and I am excited to get started into the course work on Monday, although I am a little nervous. But with the great support from the faculty and Makayla, I know I'll be able to get through it. I didn't have any school business today so I am at home and Makayla is at work so I thought I'd give y'all an update on what's been going on. We hope everyone is doing well and that school is going well for those who have started again! We love you all!

The Lookout

So Kyle and I decided to do something fun yesterday, well more blogworthy than fun. So I hurried to get done with work so I could come home and hang out with Kyle. So once I got home he was ancy to go and do something. I don't blame him, he's been so good sitting in this house for 2 weeks straight. So we've heard about this drive that is just up this little hill behind our house. So after wandering around a while, we finally found what everyone was talking about. Really its a beautiful drive, trees everywhere, and looking out over the city and New Haven Harbor. There's this really cool war memorial statue upon the top of it. You guys should come visit us and we'll find some places to take you! We stayed up there for a little while and then went to Wal-mart, which we are sick of going there for all the little things, and bought some playing cards, a lamp to light our house, a frame to put our puzzle in, and a shirt for Kyle's first day of school. We've pretty much given up on our things coming all together. Broken promises and things are a little disheartening. Now that no one is even answering the company's phone, we have become discouraged. So we've been trying to do things to keep our minds off of it. Enjoy the photos!

We've Survived 2 Weeks!

Well, Makayla and I have been in New Haven for almost two weeks now and we're still alive! I decided to update our blog while Makayla is at work and I'm still free. So we finally posted a run-down of our trip to Hawaii, its a couple posts down to keep somewhat of a chronological order to this, so scroll down and check it out.

Well, we still aren't sure when our things are coming. We called the movers on monday and they said they would be leaving Las Vegas with our things on Monday or Tuesday and it should be here by this weekend! But they also told us they would call as soon as they leave and we haven't heard anything yet so I guess we'll try calling them back again today. We just hope it comes this weekend because my orientation starts on Monday and there is a dress code for orientation and all the clothes I have for that aren't here yet. I don't think they'll like me wearing shorts and a T-shirt! Oh, well.

Makayla is almost finished with her second week of training at her new job as a teller at New Alliance Bank! I think she'll be glad to finish up her training. She will be working part time but with the option to work extra hours if she needs to. She also is wanting to take a few classes to get her associates degree while we're out here so she has been looking into an accounting program at one of the community colleges out here. Her employer offers tuition assistance so why not? She hopes to then transfer to a university to finish up her bachelors degree when we come back home.

We have awesome neighbors and friends here in our apartment complex so that has been nice. They have helped us a lot with things that we need while we're waiting for our things to arrive. Even last night, one of the couples in the ward who lives in our apartment complex, Geoff and Emily, invited us over to chat and watch some of the olympics because they know we have been watching them on our computer. The computer is fine, but it's usually at least a day or two old, so not as exciting. Anyways, it was nice of them to have us over. Our neighbors across the hall, Brady and Whitney Pope have been awesome. They have loaned us a ton of stuff and made us breakfast one morning. They have been life savers. So we made them dinner and brownies the other day.

Every Sunday, I think mainly in the Summer, the members of our ward who live in Whitehall (our apartment complex) get together in the courtyard for a barbeque. It is really neat to visit with each other and get to know them. We have really enjoyed that.

It's hard to get settled into a new apartment when you don't have anything to settle in. We were able to pick up some living room furniture from craig's list so that has helped. We're just glad we brought our air matress in the car with us, although I can't wait for our bed to come! Our apartment is actually a lot better than we had expected. It is plenty roomy and in pretty good shape and in a good location. The laundry room is right below our apartment in the basement so that is really nice.

We've been trying to find things to do in the area before school starts. Last week we just worked on a puzzle all week, which was a fun thing to do together. Then on Saturday we went to the park and saw Shakespeare's Hamlet, put on by a local theatre group. They call it Shakespeare int the Park. We went with the Popes and sat on a blanket on the grass. It was pretty cool and a lot of fun. We are going to try to go see The Matchmaker next week for family home evening. We'll take some lawn chairs this time if our stuff comes!

Well, I am supposed to be studying medical terminology before classes start, so I guess I'd better wrap this up. As we get settled in we are going to try to keep this updated better and post more often so our posts aren't so long! Anyways, we're doing okay and we hope everyone is enjoying what's left of your summer!

We're finally here!

Well we all made it to Yale ok! Well.... Kyle and I did, we're not sure when our things will be here but we're here and we have enough to get us through. The first day we were lucky to have my Dad, Cindy, Korahle, and Casey to be coming with us. They drove all the way to Cheyenne with us, and then headed down south to go pick up a Harley! We ended the first night in North Platte, NE. We really didn't feel like we accomplished much, but I think that that's the farthest we drove of all the days. The second day we drove by ourselves to Princeton, IL. That was a blessing because my mom got us a nice hotel room for a senior citizen discount, either that or the girl was on something because my mom didn't recall getting it for that cheap. We didn't care! But we did notice on the side of our car was a small dent and a really funny thing happened. I was driving down the road, trying to give Kyle a break and a coyote ran out of nowhere and hit US! It ran into the side of us! The dent isn't big enough to report to the insurance company, but it does have a good story behind it. So the third day we were driving and we stopped and the college football hall of fame in South Bend, IN. We were there for a couple hours and once we got on the road we realized we weren't going to make it to our goal town tonight so we were looking at the map deciding if we wanted to stop at 9:00 or at 10:00 that night. We originally said every night at 9:00 we would make sure we are stopped, but something keep telling me to go a little further that night, and this is one of the rare times I listen to my gut! So we drove until late that night and pulled up to the "Traveler's Delite" hotel that we were planning on staying at, luckily we didn't give them a reservation, because when we got there it was a bar with three rooms on the back of it. So for $20 more, we stayed at the Comfort Inn which was a really nice hotel and the lady there gave us a discount as well. Well following my gut paid off, because as we started driving, Banks that I applied to months ago started calling me. New Alliance bank called me and set up an interview for Monday and Bank of America set up a phone interview for Friday. So I was getting really excited because the things I've been worrying about for the last couple months were getting close and I almost had a job. However, New Alliance Bank called back about 15 minutes later asking if I could possibly come in today, because if they would offer me the position, I would be starting on Monday! So Kyle stepped on the gas and we didn't stop the whole day. We got to New Haven and picked up our apartment key and went straight to my interview. Everything went well and thankfully my mom gave me some clothes before I left that had some slacks in there. So I had some clothes to look good and then they were doing some research on me and kept calling me on Friday, then they offered me the job! So I actually have a job where I can bring in some income, and take one class at Yale! Well audit one class, I get to sit in on it, but I don't get credit, just a good way to keep up my French. So I'll be working 27 hours a week and because they feel bad for me because I'm putting Kyle through school, they will let me work as much as I can and after six months, they will promote me either to a full time teller or work out on the floor oopening new accounts and doing loans! Well that's what's new in our life!

Tagging

Tag...Fives

Five things I was doing ten years ago:
1. Living in Lander
2. I was in 3rd Grade
3. My best friend was Rachel Bills
4. Rode my bike everyday
5. Didn't have a care in the world

Five things on my To Do List:
1. Go to the dentist
2. Move to Connecticut
3. Find a Job
4. Go fishing
5. Relax and enjoy time with my husband

Five of my favorite snacks/food:
1. Ice Cream
2. Fudge Bars
3. Chips Ahoy Cookies
4. Chocolate
5. And my many recent random cravings

Five things I would do if I was a billionaire:
1. Pay for Kyle's schooling
2. Buy a Viper
3. Build a house
4. Become a mom
5. Invest & Travel

Five bad habits I have:
1. Getting mad for no reason
2. Stressing to much
3. Not reading my scriptures
4. Procrastination
5. Sometimes biting my nails

Five places that I have lived:
1. Lander Wyoming
2. Green River, Wyoming
3. Salt Lake City, Utah
4. North Ogden
5. Bountiful, UT

Five people I tag:
1. I only know....well I don't really know anyone to tag, I don't have friends

HAWAII!!!

So once Kyle and I were done with our 9-5 jobs, we decided to have a little fun! You see, Kyle's friends, Tyler and Janna West and their new baby Lilia, are stationed for the Airforce in O'ahu, Hawaii, so we thought we would be so kind to come and see them. It was really the least we could do. So once we got there, it was about midnight Mountain time so we were really tired and went to sleep and woke up quite early that next day. We were very privileged on this trip because since Tyler is in the Military, we got to make it to all of the cool things that most tourists don't get to see. Our first day we got to take a special Naval tour of Pearl Harbor. We got to see the Arizona Memorial, which we learned so much about. There are 7 holes on each of the sides of this memorial, and also on the top representing the 21 gun salute. And the curvature of it represents initial defeat, and the higher sides represents the overall victory. We were also able to see the USS Utah Memorial which is closed to public access because the island it is on (Ford Island) is an active Navy Base so its the "Forgotten Memorial".


After this wonderful excitement, we went to the Swap Meet, which is pretty much a huge Flee Market. We got all of our souvenirs here because everything is so cheap. We then went out to dinner at Hale'iwa Joe's. Which is a very nice restaurant. And just an FYI, Hale'iwa is a huge surfing town in O'ahu, which is the same hometown that Jack Johnson is from!


The second day was a little more relaxing. We went on a hike to Manoa Falls, which the Hawaiian name for this means "trickling water", and then we went on a drive with our hosts around the South Shore of O'ahu. We went to a cool little beach park and bbq-ed dinner and went boogie boarding. The third day we were a little more adventurous. We got up around 4:30 and hiked the 'Stairway to Heaven'. Its 3,922 steps to the top that was originally built for the military satellite. In the beginning they had like a wooden ladder, which would be freaky. But then they replaced those with a wooden staircase, which you can see parts of off the side of the trail you are on now. But now they have these steel steps that are so sturdy, but still a little scary since the staircase is on a ridge with drop offs on both sides. But still its very cool. We went with Tyler and his friend. Now we woke up that early because technically its trespassing hiking these stairs. They put a Rent-a-cop out there to turn people away. Normally they don't cite you, but they can. Once we got down to the bottom, the guard was talking to us, and come to find out, he hiked these stairs a week before on his day off. Well once we were done with that we went home and slept, my legs were shaking so much that all I could do is lay down. But after that we did go snorkeling and saw the prettiest fish ever! We had dinner on the beach and watched the sunset. The fourth day we decided that we would go surfing, since we were in Hawaii we might as well right? So we had really good teachers, Janna and Tyler. Of course Janna couldn't come out there with us, but she coached us from the shore. So we paddled out there and figured out that surfing takes patience. Its not like snowboarding where you can go whenever you want, you have to wait for a good wave and hopefully it will be strong enough to take you far enough to work up the courage to stand up. A couple times we would catch a wave and wait a while to stand up, and by then the wave would die out. So it ended up that we were kind of boogie boarding on surf boards. But all in all we had fun. I quit when a guy accidentally ran over me with his surfboard, and Kyle had to stay out there until he caught a good wave, because he loves to end things on a good note. So we came in and Tyler wanted to go and catch some good waves. We then went home and rested.








The fifth day was Sunday so we went to church which we got to experience how great and different church is than it is in Utah. I loved going there. Kyle was also able to help Tyler bless their new baby. We then went for a drive to Punchbowl Cemetery. This is where thousands of soldiers are buried. This was a cool experience. The sixth day we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center which was so cool. Its hard to describe but we got to experience 6 different cultures of the Polynesians. Our very favorite was the Samoan culture. Not that the others weren't fun, this is just where we stayed the longest and they had the funniest shows. But we went to get some shaved ice between going to all the villages and the night show. The Luau was sold out so we had to find dinner on our own. So we first went to Mossumoto's for shaved ice then to a Thai place right next to it. We normally wouldn't eat dessert before dinner if it was up to Kyle, but the dessert place closed before the dinner place. We then went to the night show and that was so cool seeing all the different cultures preform for us. We also got to see the Hawaiian Laie Temple, we didn't have the opportunity to go do work there but we got to drive around it. The seventh day, our last day there, we went Kayaking in the ocean. This was really fun, hard, but fun! We kayaked out to an island and back. This was pretty much the only day where I got really burned. We put sunscreen on before we went, then put it on again before we came back from the island. However one -just one- of my legs got fried. So either the sun just really likes that leg, or we forgot to put it on that leg, it's all a mystery really. But we got to come back to Tyler and Janna's house and eat an awesome dinner before we had to catch our plane ride home. It was a great trip and fun to see our friends again. We had a blast! Check out our pictures!

Yellowstone...2 months later

So I know that I never update my blog, but now that I'm out of work and school, and really have nothing to do...I think that I'll be updating it a little more. So back in May we went to Yellowstone for a little trip away. I honestly don't remember all the details of this trip, but I hope that some of the pictures will paint a picture in your head. Enjoy!

Needless to say, we saw a lot of Bears and Snow. We did see some Buffalo, but who knows where those pictures are. Sorry for all the vague info! We've included our complete Yellowstone Slide show here for your enjoyment!

An American President?

So recently I've been really curious about the two men running for our national President. I did research on Obama, went to his website and to his "former" church website. There were some things that disturbed me. I like the guy, and those of you that are going to vote for him, don't take offence, but this is just me publishing my thoughts. The first thing that bothers me is how he puts emphasis on the racial aspect of it, how he's going to be the first "African-American" President. Growing up, I grew up in Wyoming, I've learned that either you are American or you're not. I don't get the in between stuff, and I think that if Obama wants to truly represent our country, he needs to consider himself an American. I understand that he is proud of his ancestral descent, but those ties were broken a long time ago and he should represent everyone in our country. I've also looked into his religion. Really what I got from it was it was the black version of the KKK. It was a very black sight. Pro-black, some anti-white. This is straight copied from the website, "Our roots in the Black religious experience and tradition are deep, lasting and permanent. We are an African people, and remain "true to our native land," the mother continent, the cradle of civilization." So if Obama remains true to the native land, what does he remain to us?

Yale here we come!

Wow!!! We really are moving to Connecticut! We just recenty got this little apartment for us, the 2 bedrooms are going to be nice when Kyle has to study and I'm playing our Wii or something. But I can't believe how little it really is, and we are paying so much for it! We really wanted a different spacious and more expensive apartment, but we wound up with this one for the social life and the convienence. We also got our student loan allowance. We are allowed $47,000 a year...yes I know that seems like a lot, but after tuiton and school expenses, we only have bare minimum for rent, we are hoping that I will soon find a job out there and will be able to pay for our food and utilities, and try to pay for our rent!!! AHHHHH! But I know that these will be the best years of our lives!

Well Hello Again

Its been a while and I thought I would get back on here so Korahle and Mals will quit hassling me for not positng. Well March 25th was Kyle's birthday and we had a whole week of celebration! First we went snowboarding and had a blast....Well my tailbone eventually healed up. Then the very next morning, Kyle, his brothers, his friend, me and my butt doughnut pillow went hunting for pheasants. That was so much fun! Not as much fun at big game hunting but still fun. All together we shot 13 which is 3 more than we paid for! So we got a bargain there.

Kyle recently get promoted to some kind of Lab position, honestly they all sound the same. All I know is now he can e-mail me more when he's at work and he's not so busy, but we get paid more...explain that! He's really enjoying it and still deciding his hours. I am working at Deseret First but moved to the Triad Center Branch which is a one person branch, and I'm bored to death! That is actually where I am right now! I guess I should start working sometime..

Happy 19th to me!

You heard right... I'm finally 19!! March 2nd was my birthday, and it was the best day ever! Although it was fast Sunday which sucks about having an early month birthday, but we got to celebrate my day all weekend! We headed down to St. George on Thursday for a cousin's wedding and we went shopping and bought me some clothes and had a great time in the sun. Then on our way home we went to Thai Ruby which has got to be my all time favorite restaurant! Then we went to Target and bought me a pretty sunday dress (definately 30's style) and headed home to have a great time. We went up to my Mom's house for dinner right as soon as we could to eat some good food. Tons of people that love me came to celebrate with me....Dad, Brice & Cindy, Korahle & Casey (it was her birthday on Thursday), Ashlee and her girls and my favorite FULL brother (Brice you are my favorite HALF) Taylor! And to top the weekend off we went to the Jazz game last night and just had a ball. I am so lucky!!!

VALENTINE'S DAY!!

Our first Valentine's Day together was one to remember! It started out great and we both had to work, but I played hookey and didn't go to class that night and got the house ready for when he came home! I cleaned it up and had a steak dinner all ready for him when he got home. He came home and gave me the prettiest roses I've ever seen and the sweetest card that made me cry... How lucky can I get? I had the house light by candles and that was the most romantic day of my life. But just to top it off, he made me breakfast the next day... :) WOW!!

The Year 2007!!

So we'll start out with Makayla, this year she had a big one. She turned 18 in March and went on to graduate high school in May. During this year she had many jobs, she started out at Herman Street in January, and ended there in Orem in October when the store suddenly closed. She worked her summer away there and moved out in August down on her way to BYU!! Once there, she took up a custodial job at a building on campus where she worked until November. Recently she picked up a position at Deseret First Credit Union as a Teller. She fortunately passed all but one of her classes and moved on to new things at U of U for the next semester. She is still majoring in French Studies and is planning on continuing that as far as she can. She is loving her new job and the people there. She went antelope hunting in September and was the first to get her antelope out of her dad and her brother!


Kyle started off this year working at Primary Children's Medical Center as a Certified Clinical Lab Assistant. He works there 3 days a week, 12 hours a day...by Friday that is one long week! He started out with a promotion to a Coordinator. And then once again started applying for Physician Assistant school; altogether he applied to 14 schools across the country! This spring while he was in Southern Utah, he hiked the Subway which was a great accomplishment for him! He also went on a horseback riding trip with his cousin, Phillip and had a great time. In the summer he worked it away just waiting until August when things kinda slowed down. Then the trips began...He first went out to Pennsylvania to Arcadia and interviewed there, he had a great time there with his friend Brandon. He even spent a day on the town in NYC! He also did some research about National Treasure and went to all the sights off that movie. He went back to Pennsylvania in October to Lock Haven, and that was the first acceptance letter we received! The next trip was in October to Las Vegas! He stayed down there with his cousin Chris, and didn't really get around as much down there, it was Halloween and he wanted to come home and get all dressed up. Trip number 4 was to three different schools back east, Yale, Quinnipec, and Duke. He started out at Yale and had great results, the Dean of Admissions called him 30 minutes after the interview offering him a position at the school! Quinnipec wasn't too impressive to Kyle, especially after Yale! Then he flew down to Duke and interviewed there staying with his cousin Jason...man talk about family and friends everywhere you go! We are still crossing our fingers and waiting on Duke! Kyle also was successful in hunting season, he shot a 4pt deer just up above his house.

This is where our story comes together. Makayla couldn't leave home without meeting a guy first. We met in June or early July at a dancing club in SLC. It took Kyle about a month to ask for my phone number, but after that, it was all downhill. We started dating the end of August and dated for about 4 weeks, several times a week, when he asked her to marry him. We then saw each other seems like everyday, if not then we were for sure on the phone or in some form of communication. It didn't take us long to find out that we were meant for each other...which is lucky for Makayla because she isn't very patient. Wedding plans were scrambled together and by December 14th things were in order and we were married in the Bountiful Temple. Makayla had finals the next week so we waited to go on our honeymoon until after Christmas. Her dad was also married on the 22nd and they were lucky enough to go to that. On our honeymoon we went to Carlsbad, California. We got a hotel right across the street from the ocean. That was a relaxing break until Makayla had to go back to work and so did Kyle. Life is going great for us and we are doing great!