Trip to Colorado/Giullian Family Reunion

So July 17-20 we had a Giullian reunion in Estes Park. We had decided to go out a few days earlier to see the Putnam side of the family, and we even got Megan and Ashlee to fly out for it! While we were driving to pick them up from the airport, Brandon, Taylor and I were discussing the times we could leave. I'll give you a hint: One of us wanted to leave at 3 AM and 2 of us said HECK NO. So I threw out there, "Why don't we just leave tonight?" We ran it by Megan and Ashlee, and they were up for it. We each agreed to take turns of about 2 hours, and to have at least 3 of us up at any given point. Just to be safe. I wish we had pictures from that, but we made it in about 10 hours, and got there at 4 AM.

I had only been to Grandma Putnam's house at night before, so when I woke up in the morning (more like noon, to be honest) I was amazed at the view I found!

The house backs up to the beautiful Windsor Lake. It also made a good running loop. While we were there we watched some pretty good thunderstorms (and rainbows)

played some games, and went to Senor Jalapenos for dinner one night. Which, by the way, had the most delicious and sinful dessert ever. A snickers bar deep fried and covered in whipped cream, powdered sugar, and Hershey's syrup. With ice cream on the side, of course.

One day, we went to Horsetooth Reservoir. Along the way we got to go to see the construction site of the Fort Collins CO temple. I can't wait to see it when it's done, and I wonder what number temple it will be for us!

During our trip out there, it started raining and hailing on us! Luckily we were under a pavilion.

That Thursday we went to the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park, CO. I wasn't sure what to expect, since the only YMCAs I've been to are gyms, but this was fantastic! The altitude was killer though.

Every day I was amazed by the beauty of the place we were staying in.

The one stop I wanted to make while we were there was to the Stanley hotel. It's a haunted hotel, most famously known for the filming place of "the Shining" and "Dumb and Dumber". Again, it started pouring right as we got a picture. So while we look super happy, we're just screaming because it's raining on us.

We got to see some of the bottom floor, which we got a tour from Grandpa Giullian. He got to play there when it was a bustling hotel. It was way fun.

On the last day, we went zip lining. It was an 800 foot zipline, but what I didn't know was that you had to climb up on a log to get to the zip line. It took WAY too long for me to climb up, and I did it one time and one time only.

We left early Sunday morning to go to Utah to a Murphy family reunion, with Taylor in tow. On our way out of town, our directions took us by the Stanley hotel 3 different times... creepy!

 While we were driving, we made it to over 12,000 feet elevation. It was scary, because at some points we didn't have a guard rail. 

But there were some visitors along the way:

One of the elk was so close to me that I could have reached out and touched him... but I didn't.

Colorado is beautiful when you are driving through the Rockies... but then once you're on the other side it's pretty much the same as Idaho. For about 80 miles out, they advertised a town called "Dinosaur, CO". It was just before the border into Utah, and it was supposed to be the gateway to the Dinosaur National Park. So we expected something. Wrong!

It was a trailer park. The only unique thing about it was that the street names were all dinosaur names. Whoopie. And where the dinosaurs lived was the WORST! Dry, flat, and covered in tumbleweeds that buried themselves in our car.

We made it to Vernal, and I told Brandon we HAD to go look at the temple. Because we probably weren't going to go back to Vernal unless a family member got married there. So Taylor took a picture of us.

That is temple #20 for us! Very cute, small, but we were grateful that we changed our plans to go to Vernal for our first anniversary. It would have been cool for a person who was obsessed with dinosaurs, but as we are not... ehhhhhh.

And besides me slamming my toe in the car door (ouch, who even does that?) and a flash flood warning, we made it to Utah! We even got Taylor to his shuttle with 2 minutes to spare. Now, on to the Murphy reunion!

Weekend of partying! (Memorial Day Weekend)

Brandon and I are constantly in the struggle between time and money when we want to go explore. Exploring during the school year was always hard, because of homework and whatever. Our first summer= time. Second summer we had time, but Brandon wasn't working so money was lacking. This summer, we can finally afford to explore (a little), but we don't get to spend much time together on the weekends.

So, fast forward to this week. Brandon got called into work on Tuesday 4 hours early, which meant he didn't have to go to work on Saturday until 6. We decided to go to the wind caves. That's the hike we tried 2 years ago with Dallin and Mikey. Where we didn't make it. But we were DETERMINED this time!
On the way up to the trail, we noticed some snow on the side of the road. Weird, since it was 65 degrees outside. But we kept going. When we got to the trail however, we realized it would be harder than we thought to get to the caves. The trail was completely snowed over! We could only make it about 500 feet. Fail.

 We decided since we were 3/4 of the way out to Jackson, we'd make it out. The pass was BEAUTIFUL, and besides a motorcyclist almost making himself our new hood ornament the drive was uneventful.

We were walking around, and saw that Jackson Hole has a "Ripley's Believe it or Not!" exhibit. I LOVE visiting those places, so I said let's check out the price. It was $12 a person, so we went. Here were some of the highlights from there:

Allosaurus skull.

Made entirely out of matchsticks.

This cat was made entirely out of used up dollar bills. $2,000,000 worth, to be exact.

This picture was made out of dryer lint. Pretty impressive for sure.

The world's largest ball of barbed wire. So obviously I'm trying to look scared.

A single whale baleen. Which just shows how massive whales are.

Us and the world's tallest man... something I'm pretty sure is at every Ripley's exhibit.

This 20 foot long snake skin belongs to a snake commonly found in Miami. Greaaaaat.

Buffalo couch?
There were also bears, vampires, and statues of all the Wild West figures. Annie Oakley, Jesse James, Butch Cassidy, Billy the Kids, etc. Oh yeah, and the world's largest belt buckle collection!
Unfortunately, the pizza place we like in Jackson got closed down so we just got a bagel at a shop for lunch. We took the scenic route back, through the Palisades (where I saw lightning strike the ground, which was intense) and Swan Valley. Of COURSE we had to stop and get square ice cream from Rainey Creek.

Then I brought Brandon to work, but since he only worked for 4 hours we decided to go see the new "X-Men" movie at 10:10. Seriously, we were in party mode! Something about the warm weather...
Sunday we decided to go camping (yes, on Sunday. But it was free so it was like a sleepover outside.) We went with our friends Trent and Chelsea, who by the way is 34 weeks pregnant and a TROOPER! Luckily they had an air mattress for her. It was just way fun to sit around the campfire at night with friends and talk, even when we heard a pack of coyotes... luckily Trent has a pistol.
So Monday, we got back from camping, showered off the smoke smell, and decided that instead of going into work to do paperwork, we'd go to Mesa Falls. I love driving north of Rexburg, because it's so beautiful once you hit Ashton and north.

That was at the lower falls. We heard there was a hike to the upper falls, but after driving around to the upper falls and realizing we'd have to pay to park there we kept driving to Island Park. Brandon wanted to go fish at the dam, so that's what we did.

I ended up just napping in the car... we didn't have pillows while camping.

Now time to wrap up the school year!!

2 Years Ago.

WARNING: It's mushy. But I can do that once a year, right?

So, it's our anniversary. I can't believe it's already been 2 years. I know that in the long run that isn't a long time, but it's surprising because it doesn't feel like it! It's a good time, being married to this guy.

Over our second year of marriage, we have:

-Visited 5 temples (Brigham City, Provo, Redlands, Jordan River, and Billings)

- GRADUATED COLLEGE BABY! Even though apparently that doesn't mean too much with my degree...

-Run 2 5K Fun Runs:

-I got my first post-college job as a Special Ed teacher in Rexburg.

-We became an aunt and uncle to the world's cutest boy, Dane (who is so big and almost 1!)

Seriously though, our lives have been so blessed. I'm grateful for the job I have, and for the chance we have to save money and hopefully pay off Brandon's BYU-Idaho debts before he starts his P.A. school debts. (Hopefully.)

Today was not supposed to be a big deal. We already went to Billings and Yellowstone to celebrate, and Brandon had to go back to work. He's going to be working full time, which means I won't see him for much of the week. So I was a little sad, but we tried to make the morning out of it. We went to the temple and did sealings (see here for more info) for family names, and then went and made breakfast. Brandon then got ready for work and left, and I was going to go to my classroom to work on organizing things. About 10 minutes later, I got a knock on the door. I opened it and Brandon came in with flowers and said, "I don't have work today." I squealed... a little embarrassing for me but it was totally warranted there.

As you can see, I was thrilled. Brandon had just gotten home from being gone for a week and a half, and I was glad to get another afternoon with him.

I wouldn't say marriage is bliss- bliss seems to imply that you are ignorant of what is happening and just la-di-da. It's like the best class ever. It's a time to learn and work on your people skills big time. You learn compromise, faith, communication, patience, love, charity... hmm. That sounds familiar.

I love going to the temple on our anniversary and doing sealings because it reminds me of the wonderful things I felt on our wedding day. We are reminded of how blessed we are, and how every problem we have with the world right now can just melt away, even just for half an hour at the temple. (Note: we couldn't get a good picture of me in front of the temple so I'm not going to post it. Too sunny and windy.)

But here's to another happy anniversary to the biggest weirdo I know, my best friend, the person I married up to, the man who inspires me every day to be better.

The week of Dallin's farewell.

WARNING: Picture overload.

Going down to California was the best decision ever. Even when I left I had to refrain from parachuting out of the plane to stay there for another week (no, really).

First up, silly pictures of Dane. He's my favorite, and I did not let him go.

He learned to clap to and crawl while he was there.

He surprised himself.

He warmed up to us, and liked Grandma. She gave him all the treats.

But, one of his favorite people was...

MURPHY. He loves dogs. He liked seeing Murphy from above, because that made him feel bigger.

 I wasn't there for this, but my dad said he cleared his tray when they were eating outside, then ran his feet on Murphy's head when Murphy started eating all the food.

We got there Friday night, and just played a few games then went to bed. Saturday was time to set up for the big farewell, but we did have a picnic that night. Dane loved the ribs.

We wanted to do a big Frisbee game with the family like we did when Austin was leaving, but it's harder when there's a big personality in a little body there. So some of us left early.

Sidebar: Dane LOVES his baths. Alyse was turning on the bathwater, and he heard it and started shrieking and wriggling. Then, he rolled over and crawled further than he had crawled before to get to the bathtub. It was hilarious. He played with a kitchen whisk the whole time, and was so happy to just lay down in the water. (I have a picture of that, but I have a feeling Alyse wouldn't want Dane's naked beauty on the Internet.) But he also loves his towel, and got so excited when Alyse pulled it out.

Him giving Alyse a head bump... his way of showing that he likes you.

Once she put him on the ground, though, he wanted out of that towel. Too much to do!

Sunday was a good day. Dallin gave a great farewell talk, which you can listen to here. A bunch of his friends showed up, including people who don't go to our church. They all sat in the front, and seemed to be eating it up. We had a lot of family over for lunch, and it was good to enjoy their company before the mobs of friends came. Poor Daney was so overwhelmed by so many people wanting to say hi that we took him on a couple of walks that night.

After the friends left, Dallin was set apart. We took a picture to commemorate it.

Before Brandon left on Monday, we went to the pool with the little Sine girls.

Lucia and I were matching.

Of course Dane was there, in all his glory.

Dane wanted to crawl in the pool... silly boy.

This is Dane's Murphy face... big eyes and saying "Oooo! Ooooo! Oooo!"

We took Murphy and Dane on a lot of walks with the Sine cousins (who also loved Murphy).

Before Alyse Tommy and Dane left, we made sure to get some pictures with Dane everyone. This is my favorite one of me and Dane.

Seriously, unplanned same face? Best ever.

After we dropped off those 3 at the airport, we went to Balboa Island with Annie, Caroline, and Claira. I got this picture of them on the Ferris Wheel.

We already know about sending Dallin off to the MTC (here). It was sad, so we decided to go celebrate somewhere special. Where is a better place than Downtown Disney? We went to Goofy's Kitchen, and here is what happened:

Lulu was so excited to see "Doofy", until he got close. Then she freaked out. It was cute, and I don't blame her. He's a dog and like 7 feet tall!

Dale was creepy. He kept blowing kisses at me and squeezing me too tightly. Eww.

 (SO CUTE)

The highlight of the day was when Sleeping Beauty showed up. Lu could not take her eyes off the princess... When she was going to take a picture with Lu, Sleeping Beauty said, "Can you put your waffle down sweetie?" Lu just stared at her and immediately dropped the waffle on the ground. Sleeping Beauty said, "Well, that's no good anymore!" hahaha she was a classic princess.

Until she asked us to pose for a picture with her. Ew.

Derp.

And then there was Aladdin. Bethany and I were excited to party with him... even if he was wearing more makeup than us.

 All the little girls with Pluto. Lu was a little wary.

Rafiki

Baloo.

I'd say it was successful.

Also! I got new running shoes! I'm so excited. I went to RoadRunner, which is a store that measures your feet and analyzes how you run. After that, they gave me these shoes:

They're excellent. The next morning I ran 3.5 miles without feeling like it. And I ran a mile to time myself, and did it in 9:03. Now I have a time to beat!

The next few days were a lot of detox. I just enjoyed sitting at home... I feel so comfortable there.

We got Boba before we dropped Bethany off at a basketball tournament, and then brought me to the airport. As I left, I couldn't help but think "Why can't Brandon get a job down here?" I know, it's wishful thinking.