Wednesday, October 21, 2009

A Taste of the Sweet Life

FYI: Seeing as how I usually just copy and paste this stuff into my electronic journal, its going to be a pretty long entry, so feel free to skip over reading all this stuff...it probably wont be very exciting :) This last week and a half I've been up in Utah for Kami's wedding. It was seriously one of the best weeks and a half of my life! That may have something to do with the fact that I got to go to the temple 5 times in less than a week and see my best friend get married. Not to mention that I got to catch up with all of my friends back in P Town and really live up the life I used to have there. I definitely didn't appreciate it well enough when I was living it.

Friday
I flew in (a little late as usual...my flights are hardly EVER on time) and right when I landed I get a text from JaeLyn telling me not to tell Kami that I was there yet. Chapan wanted to surprise her. I was supposed to meet her after work and head up to SLC with her to go get her marriage license. So, they called and told her my flight was late, which it was, and that she would just have to go without me. Luckily, it was only like 5 minutes late, so I was still able to surprise her :) JaeLyn took me over to where Chapan works in SLC and then we went up to the court building together and I got to pop out from behind a car to surprise Kami. She cried...I cried...lots of crying, but it was good. She was only mad at us for like 5seconds :) Later that night, we threw Kami a bridal shower and called it good. I've never seen Kami look so stylish! :) We stayed up talking as usual, ...and Kami ended up carressing my face when she was sleeping. Definitely hilarious, although, I suppose I deserved that after carressing her face with my foot back in high school while I was sleeping. I think I got the better end of the deal :)

Saturday
Kami took her endowments out on Saturday morning. It was fun since she took hers out at Timpanogos, where I did mine. It was fun to be back there. Momma Bear was right...she told me that when she came back to Utah and went through the temple after being in Dallas for so long, the big temples kinda feel TOO big. I kinda missed my little me sized temple. But I got over that soon enough :) After hangin out and lunching and stuff, Kami, Chapan and I went back to the temple to do a session that night at the Jordan River temple. Momma and Papa bear are temple workers there and Papa Bear was officiating so Kami wanted to go. That makes my temple count up to 6 at this point. Bring it on, baby! P.S. I decided I'm going to start doing a little mini scrapbook thing with all of the dates I went through each temple for the first time. I don't know why...but I can still remember each day for each of the temples...I'll count myself lucky cuz that usually never happens unless its in the form of a movie or song. :)

Sunday
Papa Bear gave a talk in church about temple worship which was so good! Although, I think one of my favorite parts of church that day was when Kami came into Relief Society, she pulled out a package of fruit snacks that she had packed extra for me :) It made me so much happy! I used to eat snacks during Sunday School all the time and for whatever reason, I haven't done that since I've moved back. Its the small things in life, right? Jeremy, JaeLyn, Papa Bear and I played a little round of Hand and Foot (JaeLyn and I stomped on the boys, by the way...totally awesome!) And then we wrapped it up with a little crud tournament. I must say that I wasn't quite as lucky at that game :) Emily and Matty came over for dinner and then we headed back to Provo. I made my rounds and said hi to everyone and then I got to go to singing time (one of my favorites that I've missed so much since I've been back), ward prayer and Disney night. It was so wonderful! Such a great day!

Monday
I woke up early and went to do a session with my friend Natania, in the Provo temple. It was so amazing...I turned around and guess who I saw, sitting in the chapel? ASHLEY STADLER!!! She's been in the MTC for like 3 weeks now and it was so wonderful to see her. We hugged and cried (yet again...I really should've kept count to see how many times I cried during this trip haha). It was so wonderful though. And Natania is serving where Ashley and her companion are going, so that was fun for them to tell her what more to expect and for Nat to know familiar faces when she gets there. Kami came down to Provo later on so we could do some last minute wedding shopping, which took just about all day. I think I pooped her out. :) But we got a lot of stuff done so that's what matters, right? Klark met us for lunch at Kneaders which was AMAZING. I've never been there except for breakfast before and it was so good! We went to FHE at the Stake President's house and then Jason came over and played yahtzee with Emily and I once we got back. I freakin love that game!

Tuesday
Verdon and I went to the Draper Temple (temple number 7) and we decided to do sealings. It was really cool...neither of us had done them before so it was neat to hear the promised blessings that you recieve when you are sealed in the temple for time and all eternity. Everyone else in the session were married so naturally they all gave the two of us a hard time. They kept tellin him that he needed to put a ring on my finger or that we should come back and do it for real next time. hahah cute old men. Definitely a funny experience. We both just laughed it off but definitely good memories, for sure. We met up with Marisa for lunch at this chinese buffet place and then I headed up to campus to visit with my old supervisors and coworkers. It was great! A little later, Erin and I went out for ice cream and to see Fame. We were so excited because Kherrington was in it and she was one of our favorites from SYTYCD. I remember, after it was over, we both just kinda sat there and were like uh...that's it? hahaha Apparently, it wasn't much like the broadway show of it. Erin remembered someone dying...and no one died, unless we both fell asleep. haha. It was still good times though, for sure. It was fun to catch up on life with her.

Wednesday
Wednesday was super fun! Emily didn't have to do her student teaching and her sister, Jen was in town. We met up with Jen Braithewaite and Britt (two of my old roommates) and went to Zupas for lunch. SO GOOD. That was probably one of my favorite restaurants in Provo. They have the BEST soups and sandwiches. After lunch, we came back to the apartment and played some songs on the guitar and pretty much spent about an hour watching funny youtube videos. We were all laughing til we were crying (count it...that's 3) and our sides hurt. So classic! Again...its all about the simple things in life, right? P.S. I learned how to play an A and a D chord on the guitar...watch out world, here I come! :) Afterwards we went and did some "girl shopping" which was a lot of fun. We finished up the night by watching Bolt with Adam...one of our favorites. So classicly awesome. "I'll snap his neck!" lol. I just cant get enough of that movie.

Thursday
I woke up a little early and went to breakfast with my friend Josh, from freshman year. It was fun to catch up with him. We went to Kneaders to get the all you can eat french toast! *melts* When I got back, we lounged around for a bit and ran some errands. Then, my sister and the Breinholt clan came up to go to the creamery...of course! :) There's no way that we could be in Utah without going to the creamery. This was Kandace's first time to experience the joy of the creamery ice cream too which was a tender experience for us Anderson sisters. Sadly, the girl that scooped my ice cream was no where near as generous as the dude scooping for my sister and Kandace. Hence my staring over at my sister's stash :) We headed back and attempted to take naps, to no avail. Later that night, we went to Kent and Kandace's boys' soccer games. Most of my time was spent on the playground, watching the kiddos...and playing a little too :)

Friday
The day before the wedding! Buckle up! We ran errands all day. We took the kids to the pumpkin patch so they could paint them while we were doing all the wedding stuff so they weren't bored all day. There were some last minute things that we needed to take care of...one of which was making picture frames to put on each of the tables at the reception. We came up with a plan and then got to work. It started out with me, JaeLyn, Meredith, Kami and Kandace and then they slowly left, realizing that we were in our element, leaving JaeLyn and I to finish it up. Chapan's family came over for some yummy homemade chinese food and we stayed up partying most of the night. Once everyone was gone, Kami and I stayed up for a while making sure she was packed and had everything ready to go for the next day so that nothing was forgotten.

Saturday
The big day finally arrived! Kami and I woke up dark and early to go get our hair done and then high tailed it off to the temple. Their sealing was BEAUTIFUL! It was really cool, because on the front row of chairs were all of us...all the brothers and their wives (and me)...just enough seats. It was perfect! I was doing okay until I saw Kami start to cry a little. Halla heard me whimper a bit and then reached over to grab my hand and that's when I kinda lost it. haha (count it...4). I didn't actually lose it til Kami gave me a hug afterwards. Holy crap we were crying like babies. haha. Loved it though. It was so special for me to get to be there. I absolutely loved it. It was just perfect. We took pictures outside, naturally (so cold!) and then headed over to Johnny Carinos for lunch. The reception was rockin too! It was so pretty. I wish my darn camera worked in dark places, but it doesn't so I have nothing to show for it. But it was fun. I got to see a few ppl from back in the day that lived in Texas while I was growing up and then moved to Utah. I saw a couple of my friends from Rexburg too so that was a fun surprise! The big joke that day was that since everyone else that was there was married, that Ron Dude (the Breinholt's youngest son who is on a mission) could be my date for the day. Good times dating cardboard, huh? :) In all, it was a stressful but WONDERFUL day. I'm so glad that I got to be there to share her special day with her.

Sunday
Emily came and got me from the reception and I spent my last day in P Town again. We had ward conference which was AMAZING. I loved getting to go back to my old ward and hear our bishop and stake president speak. They are just so wonderful. Afterwards, the Shell's (my old bishop and his family) came and took me up Bridal Veil Falls for an afternoon walk in the canyon. I don't have the pictures yet, so I cant post them, but it was SO beautiful. I showed my sister one of them and she said it reminded her of Anne of Green Gables. yeah. Loved it! It was so fun to be with them again. When I got back, Tiffany, Jen & Derrick, Mellissa and Zarah & Ashton came over for some good times. Klark came over to make us dinner...SO GOOD and then J Tal and Chris came over too. It was so much fun to visit with everyone! I loved every minute of it. Emily's apartment was in charge of ward prayer that night, so we skipped singing time to prepare our plans and then high tailed it off to ward prayer. It was fun to be a part of that again! We had disney night, one last time and then played Bang! after most people left. It was such a wonderful Sunday!

Monday
I woke up early and got all packed n junk and then walked up to see Adam at work until it was time for me to leave. I figured it was much better time spent than sitting around the apartment while everyone was at work and school. We had ourselves a nice little chat and then Marisa came and got me and brought me to the airport. Good times, right?!?! I headed up to FHE when I got back to Texas and actually had a great time with my friends playing Bang! (again...love it!) and then a few games of Volleyball. Let's just say that people want me to play, more because its funny to watch me attempt to play, than because of my skills. haha. Justin says that I look like someone from High School Musical when I try to spike the ball over the net. Not to mention that I make ninja noises anytime I hit the ball...needless to say, Will took it to another level and started using phrases from Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter everytime he hit the ball to go along with the ninja theme. hahah Good times, good times. Anyway, this is forever long and I've gotta go learn how to do the thriller, so I'm out! XOXO

Monday, October 5, 2009

Family Fun

Conference weekend was great! Its usually one of my favorite weekends of the year. And by 'usually,' I mean, 'always is.' :) I kicked it off by watchin Syd and Malla on Friday night for my sister and brother-in-law so they could go to the temple together and we had a blast! Those girls crack me up and they're so sweet! It was fun to kneel there together and listen to Syd help Malla say her bedtime prayers. Love it! So cute!

Saturday, I taught my dance class and watched the two sessions of conference with a nap somewhere in the middle. (in between sessions of course *teethy grin*) and then I babysat again. These kids are great though. I was sitting there and somehow we got on the subject of Star Wars and they pulled out all of the cartoon DVDs and laid them in front of me. I thought I was looking at heaven itself. haha. Needless to say, we all bonded through that experience. :) Once they were all in bed, I watched 27 dresses...that movie is more like my life than I thought. lol. It almost made me laugh cuz I'm almost positive that I've had some of the exact conversations that they have in that movie. Good times.

Sunday we had our traditional family breakfast, although a part of me did miss the 'conference pancake' from the last three years. The story goes like this...three years ago, we decided to make breakfast with a big group of people before the Saturday morning session. I was in charge of flipping the pancakes...I bet you can see where this is going. lol. I was trying to flip them onto a big plate and I missed... *blushes* Everyone thought it would be funny to leave it there throughout conference and then throw it away once it was over. You can imagine the questions we got when ppl came over. Uh...you know there's a pancake in the middle of your floor right? :) YOU BETCHA! Each conference after that, we always threw one of the pancakes on the floor in spirit of tradition. Conference pancake...how I missed this this time around! We also started up the traditional family back scratch/massage train. We even got Syd and Malla in on it. I'm sure we looked cool. Syd had put bows and crowns in all the girls' hair and we were all layin on the floor in pure bliss. It was great!

Oh, and my favorite talk of conference was Elder Holland's talk. Although, I think that might be everyone's favorite talk! lol Give it a listen if you feel the need! :)

And in super fun news...I leave for Utah this week! *jumps for joy* I cant tell you how excited I am to be back in Provo for a few days to be with my friends. I miss them so much! Provo, here I come!