Still blogging but find our new page

So for those of you who don't know or haven't made the switch, I'm still blogging but using this page. After learning about all of the craziness involved in a transplant and really that with my case its uncommon, I've decided to document the journey in a new way. If nothing else it has been good for me. Just in case anyone out there is ever faced with a similar situation and like me is completely unable to find anyone else in the same boat, I want them to hopefully be able to learn through our  processes. The good and the bad (let's be honest its a rollercoaster).

Please Please come visit us over there and follow along with us!

I'm back and here to stay

Okay Okay so I have no excuse for my lack of posts....it started as I was too busy finishing school but I'm done and I still did not post for 4 months haha. I have made it my new goal to use my blog as a bit of a journal in hopes it will increase my blogging. Since it would no doubt be torturous to catch up all at once I will do a quick overview of what we have been up to and then for the big ones I will go back and give a bit more detail (maybe)...
 We ended last year pretty well. I was sick from about Thanksgiving on but I did manage to finish (and pass) my 20 credits and maintain my job, not so much either of our sanity but we sure tried. Brad's birthday was so much fun. I rented the flow-rider at Provo Beach Resort and had a party with our family and friends. I even had a cake made to look like a big Boston Red Sox hat but still made his favorite homemade cupcakes :-) I know I know hold the applause

He also pulled off a wonderful GOLDEN birthday for me. Yes 24 on the 24th pretty sweet. He had gold tablecloths, gold balloons, gold party favors, gold sprinkles on the cake that even matched the gold star confetti. In case you can't picture it yet it was a dazzling (or blinding) gold party. He even bought gold wrapping paper and bags for people to put their gifts in...WOW!

Christmas was with my parents and was incredible and we did much better working out the Christmas in a way that we could see both families. I got a teapot, a pearl set that I still am drooling over, an Ipad and Brad handmade me a huge mirror jewelry box. Yes ladies you should be jealous because he did an incredible job. I mean the wood is carved in vines and flowers to match our wedding invites and the inside is grey and pink because those were our colors. Its a mirror that can be mounted on the wall and then swings open to a HUGE jewelry display on the inside. I could not believe how creative and wonderful it was.

January was school starting and me still sick. We did get to go to Sun Valley which was so neat. It is a Tuttle tradition that I was anxious to be a part of. It is such a beautiful area with so many cute restaurants and fun places. Guess who was sick...oh was that not a difficult question? Ha well I decided that even though I had been diagnosed with pneumonia the day before we left ,Skiing would be good idea, afterall we were in Sun Valley. I learned that skiing in the cold with pneumonia is actually a bad bad idea. I just about cried getting off the mountain and was shocked that I made it down haha. So the other days that the family went skiing Grandma Tuttle, Kathrynn, and I had fun playing with the kids at the cabin :-) Brad had a wonderful time competing with, oh I mean skiing with his brothers. Beautiful place that I hope to go back to soon.

 We somehow made it through school even with both of us being diagnosed with Mono in March haha no official word on who gave it to who but I will say Brad recovered much quicker than I which brings into question who must have had it first ;-)

Brad was so incredibly excited to finally purchase new hockey gear!! It has been a long time coming and I could not be any happier for him. He loves hockey and is a pretty good player so it will be such a fun thing for him to have.


The best part was I GRADUATED!!!! Hallelujah!!! It was so exciting for me and of course we had to party. My mom threw a wonderful shoe themed party with a black and pink cake. Does she know her daughter or what? My parents gave me a beautiful Sapphire and diamond ring, my in-laws gave me $ to go buy a pretty outfit and yes it included sparkle shoes, and Brad got me a mattress that I had been begging for. LOVED IT!

The fun did not end there, we left a few days later for Missouri. This time we had Shannon (my sister in-law) and Brandon (my youngest brother) in tow. Taking Brandon was his graduation present from the Tuttle's and us as well. We were technically there for the Kansas City Temple dedication and a temple sealing for a couple that Brad taught but we managed to fit in a lot of other fun filled activities. We went to Nauvoo, Carthage, attempted Hauns-Mill (flooding prevented this excursion), Adam-ondi-ahman, Far West and all the best BBQ places. Such a special experience for us to share and one I will always remember!

Summer did not go how I planned but I will post about that next. Even though it did not go as planned it did fly by. Brad worked a ton, Ben started working with him which helped him save for school. We welcomed a new niece in June. Sweet tiny Aurianna and we celebrated Deacon (4) and Kyla's (2) birthdays. My family spent weekends in Park City for the 4th of July and a few weeks later we also enjoyed river rafting in Moab. With Brad's family we enjoyed a few weekends at the cabin. We helped my brothers move down to St. George because they are both attending Dixi this semester. Brad started school and I am still loving my job.
I know it was still long but give me some credit that is a whole year there! Stay tuned because there will be more to come :-)

Pictures that did not make the cut and any one who knows me knows that I LOVE pictures!!


Happy Easter Tobias

Deacon enjoying the Egg Hunt



BBQ

Red Sox game

Seven Peaks with the cousins

what to do after a horrible day? Go to the zoo with Mom of course

Aquarium for Friday 13th

Aurianna loves her Uncle Brad

Deacon and Kyla were so excited to meet the Bee

Summer 2011

Summer has been wonderful. I have not really kept up on the blog so here is an overview of our summer.




Tuttle family at the cabin

  We've taken a couple of trips to the Tuttle cabin up by Strawberry. We really enjoy being up there riding dirt bikes, playing on the lake, going for walks, and playing in the woods.                                                          

We started a monthly get together with our friends and have really enjoyed doing that. We've watched hockey games, played wii, played frisbee golf, enjoyed a lot of great food from everyone, and took a trip to the cabin with the group. Brad even surprised me with a pink wii remote while we were at the cabin with everyone haha love it! Its something we plan on continuing when school starts because hanging out as a group has  been really fun.

 We also got a cuddly kitten. It was a big step for Brad who typically does not like kittys

(He made an exception for this one)                                                                   
It was living in a scary house and all of the other kittens, even the mom, had been given away. We put it back on formula because it was too small. It was a good thing because we later learned when I took it to be neutered that it was only 2-3weeks old when it was given to us, oh and its a female haha. I told the vet I was there to have my kitten neutered and how old I thought it was. Man did I feel smart when she told me how wrong I really was haha. For all of you Arrested Development fans we named the kitten Tobias. Keep in mind we named her that when we though she was he but Brad won't let me change the name so Tobias it is. She acts a lot like a dog. She does well in the car and likes having the window down so it can blow in her face. You wouldn't believe the weird looks you get when your cat is hanging its head out the window haha. She comes when called, enjoys being scratched behind the ears and loves playing with tennis balls so we joke that she is our cat-dog.



        

          Gus and Tobias are friends.

  We've been fortunate enough to have the pass of all passes and it has been a blast! We have spent a lot of time at Seven Peaks! Brad and I have gone alone and enjoyed racing on the slides. I had so much fun when Shannon and I went together to just relax in the wave pool and in the lazy river. We even went with my family and Shannon for the 4th of July after we had gone to the balloon festival of course. It was wonderful. We played in the sun, I went to see Shannon's new apartment, then we went back to my parents to BBQ. The fireworks were so fun this year! I love fireworks so we drove with my parents to watch the fireworks at the Stadium of Fire! Love it!

My cousin Mckinley needed to have a "practice" sleepover so her and her brother Camden spent the night. We played with Tobias, watched Kung-Foo Panda (a 1st for Brad) and the next morning headed to seven peaks.

We really enjoyed the 24th with the Tuttle family. The night before was Lynn and Mary Jane's  40th class reunion and Brad, Shannon and I were asked to serve pie for the party. We had fun hanging out together and snuck to Glade's for food when we weren't needed in the Kitchen. Then the 3 of us headed to Grandma Tuttle's for a sleepover! She is seriously the cutest thing ever! The next morning we all headed to the Spanish Fork parade. Lynn and Mary Jane were in the parade and Mary Jane was so excited to wave to "her corner" where we all sit. After we ate lunch Brad and I started filling up water balloons and they were a huge hit. We played catch and water balloon volleyball. The little kids loved throwing balloons at their parents. It was so funny to watch Deacon with the water balloons.

The 26th was my mom's birthday but we gave her a birthday present a bit early and surprised her with tickets to go see Kenny Chesney! He played with Uncle Kracker and Billy Currington! They even played "you make me smile" one of my favorites. My mom and I love country music. Super fun! For the 26th the boys went and bought awesome fireworks and colorful fireworks for the birthday party.

The only thing that was a bit of a downer this summer was when Brad almost lost his finger. I was at home and I was a little upset because Brad was 40 mins late getting home from work, the night before he was 3hrs late so I decided I was turning my phone off and going to bed. Right as I found my phone to turn it off I received a phone call. It was Brad calling from a co-worker's phone to tell me they were on their way to the hospital because he had caught his hand in a machine called the fruit blender or something. Luckily he did not loose the finger and only required the doctors to put a few holes in his nail to relieve pressure and stitches around his finger to try to patch what they could back together. It has taken awhile for it to be okay enough for him to use and it will be even longer before the nerves heal but all in all he is very lucky.

In June we celebrated our nephew Deacon's 3rd Birthday and then in July we celebrated his little sister Kyla's 1st birthday. We gave Deacon a train set and he seemed to really like it so I guess we did okay. I couldn't make it to Kyla's because I was home sick but Brad took a lot of pictures and videos for me.

On August 12th Brad hiked up Timpanogos Mountain. 16miles total!! His dad said that is what he wanted to climb the mountain for his birthday so climb it they did. All of his brothers as well as a few friends made the hike. Way to go guys!


Summer has been a lot of fun and I'm not really ready for it to be over. We have been able to get to know some more of our neighbors and enjoyed evening walks. We've spent a lot of time with our families and even celebrated our 1 year anniversary but that post will have to come later :-)

Boston

Next on our list for summer fun was Boston!! One of my favorite places. I was so excited to have Brad meet all of my family that lives there. A lot of them were able to come to our wedding but not all so this was a chance for everyone to meet the hubby.

Brad having lobster at Quincy market

The first thing we did was go to Quincy market for some food (well first if you don't include fighting the downtown traffic for an hour to try to find a parking spot for under $20) Brad went straight for the lobster and I followed close behind with lobster bisque. Yum!


watching videos with the family at Auntie Jen's



Brad was wonderful and spent a lot of time with my family! We had a BBQ with them at my Auntie Jen's and everyone came to visit. Brad found 2  hockey shops that he really wanted to visit. One of the shops had a basement that was all goalie gear, it was like hockey heaven for him. At first I had fun trying on masks and blockers that were huge on me....then two hours later I was ready to go haha but he really enjoyed himself and I'm hoping he'll buy new gear soon.

We spent Mothers day in Newport. Gorgeous! We went with my Auntie Theresa and her two daughters Olivia and Shelby. We ate lunch by the harbor and then did the cliff walk. The mansions along the walk are incredible. Before leaving we went to the Newport creamery to enjoy some awful-awful's :-) best milkshakes!

We walked some of the freedom trail, ate a lot of sea food, and had a blast with all of the family. Of course you can't be in Boston and not see the Red Sox so we headed to fenway for a ballgame! We invited some of the cousins and had so much fun! The Red Sox won in extra innings and we were right behind home plate to celebrate the win!!!

 We were sad to have to head back home and it was only made worse when we got stuck in Denver. All of the planes that were going to land 10mins after us were re-routed to SLC....seriously the only time I wish my plane would have been late. Then they kept us in the terminal with most of the gates open. No big deal right? Wrong because it was snowing and I was NOT dressed for snow. Finally around 1am we decided to stop waiting and find a hotel. 5mins later they announced there would be no more flights out because they were out of de-icer hmmm. At least we had found a hotel right before. Then we had to go try to find our luggage that was literally all on the ground in a wet heap with along with all the luggage for every other passenger waiting. While Brad tried to track our luggage down I went to get a shuttle.....oh wait shuttles were done about 15mins before and they were not sending out any more. So we had to talk to random people to see if anyone was going the same direction and wanted to split the over priced cab fair. Denver has no hotels next to the airport so having to go at least 10miles in a cab at that time was a little difficult to work out. Eventually we got to a hotel. We were worried because our luggage was wet so we quickly took out our belongings....most of Brad's was wet and my clothes and souvenirs were dripping water when we pulled them out. Thank you to the airlines who decided to leave our stuff in the snow for hours and for being kind enough to tell us you only cover dry cleaning not water damaged straighteners, cameras or anything else of importance haha. We were lucky and caught an afternoon flight so we were able to sleep in unlike some of the people we met. And the hotel had a restaurant so we had an enjoyable breakfast and on our way back we were able to catch a shuttle :-)
We were sad to have to go back to work but wow what a fun vacation!!!

DC

So I have definitely neglected the blog for a bit. I've just been enjoying summer :-)
As soon as school was out we began our summer fun by taking a trip to the East Coast. We were lucky to be able to experience so many fun and exciting things while we were there. In DC we had the chance to tour the Capital...so many neat things there including the bust of Brigham Young. We stopped by the Supreme Court and the Library of Congress for some pictures.

Capitol

Doors to the Supreme Court

US Supreme Court

               Brad was very excited as our trip got closer because he realized that his favorite hockey team would be playing in the finals while we were there. So we of course could not miss that since neither of us had ever been to a NHL game. It was a very exciting game and the Lightening won! It was awesome to see them win other than we were among about 5 Lightening fans there. There were a lot of angry fans, one cute little woman even told us good luck getting home safe but not to count on it. haha really? There ended up being a ton of police all throughout the streets and the metro because it was the night Bin Laden was found. We decided not to go to the White House and just head back to our hotel. The next day when we did visit the the White House we saw President Obama walking his dog with his daughters. We couldn't believe how much security was needed for walking a dog haha. 

We also went to Ford's theatre. The history in DC is incredible. We were also able to visit a few of the Smithsonian's....so much fun! It was impossible to see everything but we sure gave it a try :-) I really liked seeing Julia Child's kitchen! Brad was such a good sport and let me stay there watching all of the video clips and everything. He even pretending like it was a big deal when I explained why people left butter there haha poor guy but he humors me so that I can have fun.

We did a lot of walking and visited all of the Monuments, I liked the view from the Lincoln Memorial the most. The monuments are amazing at night!

   



World War 2 Memorial

We had time to visit Arlington National Cemetery and see the changing
 of the guard.The one thing I had requested was that we visit Mt. Vernon.
 It was so beautiful. We took a tour and we were the only two people
with our tour guide. She showed us things that weren't open to the public
and a few things from the National Treasure 2 movie. (Brad thought we
 had both seen it but I hadn't haha but we watched it when we got back home)

We spent a night in Gettysburg seeing where Lincoln's address was, and taking a segway tour of the battlefields. The segway tour was totally worth it. Again we were the only two people with our tour guide and we were able to see so much and learn things we would not have picked up on if we had done it alone. Plus lets be honest segways are a blast!

Okay I'm sure most females can agree with me when I say a town of chocolate is pretty much the best thing ever! So with that being said we could not miss out on driving to Hersey Penn could we? Nope! Brad was super excited to have the chocolate milk :-) We made our own candy bars and did chocolate tasting from around the world :-) Um yes A-mazing

 

We loved this part of our trip and when it was over it was time to continue on to Boston