Happy One Year

Today is the one year anniversary of when I married my best friend. I cannot believe it's already been a whole year since our big day! Our wedding was so perfect. The weather cooperated, all of our best friends and family were there to celebrate with us, and most of all, I remember feeling so happy and excited to start my life with my amazing husband. And what a great first year it has been. I thank Heavenly Father every day for putting Ryan in my life. He is my best friend, biggest supporter, and my better half. His example makes me want to be a better person every day. I feel so blessed to have married such an amazing man and into such an amazing family. This past year, we have done a lot of traveling, house updating, and had lots of little adventures along the way. Every day with Ryan has been special, but here's a few of my favorite memories of our first year...

Our Honeymoon in Cancun
My First Utes Game

Watching HGTV shows together

Road trips

Singing "Let it Go" from Frozen at the top of our lungs

Pretending I'm not falling asleep when you read to me every night

Our weekly trips to Lowe's for building supplies

Watching Vampire Diaries and The Bachelor

Arguing over the water temperature in the shower

Our terrible potential baby names (for the future of course)

You always replacing my decorative soap dispenser with your Star Wars one 

You singing in the shower

Going to Mexico...twice

Watching you play with our niece and nephew

4-wheeling at Gooseberry

Surprising me with Tim McGraw tickets

Our trip to the South

Your surprise 30th birthday party

Doing building projects together

Nightly back rubs

My first NFL game in New Orleans
Trip to Mississippi & New Orleans 

A kiss every morning before you leave for work

Our First Holiday Season Together

 I had my gallbladder removed & Ryan took care of me

Hosting parties at our house

Michael Jackson show in Vegas
Trip to Chicago and Michigan

Ryan truly has made me happier than I ever could have imagined. Our first year together has been amazing. I look forward to our future adventures and to eternity together.

Happy Anniversary to my handsome husband!

Big City and the Big House

This past weekend was my first trip to a big city and to a Utes game on the road! We stayed in Chicago and then took a little road trip to Ann Arbor Michigan to watch the Utes play. I was surprised at how much I loved the city, and I may have become a <little> bit of a Utes fan. Ryan and his friends booked the trip back in February when they found out the Utes were playing Michigan at the Big House. Ryan grew up a Utes fan-- you know, the kind that has season tickets, travels for road games, has Utes everything and randomly shouts "Go Utes" to anyone he sees wearing BYU gear. 

Here's the re-cap of our trip...

We left Wednesday afternoon and arrived in Chicago around 10pm. We found a cheap hotel near the airport and got dinner at a little biker bar down the street and then went to bed. Then Thursday morning, we took the "L" train into the city, dropped our bags at our hotel (The Hilton Miracle Mile), and started out on our adventures. We had lunch on the 95th floor of the John Hancock building where we had the coolest view of the entire city and Lake Michigan. It was awesome. Then we walked down Michigan Avenue past all of the shops and down to the Chicago River. We went on an architecture tour down the Chicago River and learned about the buildings along the river and the history of Chicago. They also took us out to Lake Michigan, where we got a great view of the Chicago skyline. It was really interesting and we learned a lot of fun facts about the city---like that if you fall in the river, you should get a tetanus shot because of how dirty it is. We also walked to Millenium Park to see the famous Bean and we also got to see the Buckingham Fountain. There really is so much to see in that city. That night, the rest of the crew flew in and met up with us for dinner at the famous Giordano's Pizza. 

Friday morning, we got breakfast and then jumped on the "L" train to head to Wrigley Field for the Cubs game. We walked around and checked out the whole stadium and got our First-Timer certificates. It was really fun to be at a Major League game in such a famous stadium, but let's be real....baseball is boring. We did get to watch my Grandpa's favorite team <the Dodgers> and Clayton Kershaw play, so it was pretty cool. After the game, we went back downtown and did a little shopping and then met up for dinner at The Luxe Cafe. Then we hit the bed early for our early morning road trip to Ann Arbor. 

Saturday was game day. The boys decided we needed to leave at 6am to be there in time for the game. After a long drive, we pulled into Ann Arbor around 11am and were greeted by lots of tailgating Michigan fans. We were interviewed by our local news station too. We wondered why the stadium gates weren't open yet, and it turned out the game was at 3:30 Michigan time---duh. So we woke up before the sun for no reason. But we made the best of it and had some extra time to explore Ann Arbor. It was a cute little town, and all of the Michigan fans were really nice. Everywhere we went, people would say "Welcome to Michigan" or "Welcome to the Big House". I was really impressed. We found our seats with the other Ute fans and soaked up the moment in that awesome stadium. The game was pretty intense, and with 7 minutes to go in the 4th quarter (Utes were up 26-10), it started POURING rain and they delayed the game until the storm passed. We stayed in the stadium as long as they would let us and got some cool pictures of it. Then they moved all of us to the Crisler Arena and we sat there and waited for an update on if they would resume the game. It kept raining and lightning, and the forecast wasn't looking good. Since we had a 4 hour drive home, and the weather wasn't letting up, we decided to hit the road back to Chicago. We were all drenched and freezing by that point. We were about an hour away, watching ESPN on a phone and they announced they would resume the game. Ryan and I wish we could have stayed to watch the Utes finish Michigan off with a bang, but oh well. The Utes won and we will never forget that little adventure, that's for sure! We got back to Chicago really late, packed our bags and were up at 5am to head to the airport to go home. 

It was such a fun trip, and I really fell in love with the city. There was so much to see and do and it was such a cool place. The Utes game at the Big House was such a cool experience too, I loved it all. And I loved making memories with my awesome husband Ryan. He's the best and I'm thankful that he's mine.