Happy 4th of July!

I love holidays. It is so exciting to have a day that is set apart from the normal day-to-day and celebrate in a unique and fun way. I really enjoy the 4th of July because it is a day for family, friends, fireworks and festivities! (I did not realize I was going for alliteration when I started that sentence but I'm just going to go with it) Half of the fun of the day is the preparation that goes into it, I think. I've been pretty excited to be able to decorate for holidays now that we have a little more money and space for it. Also, I love not having a job and can use my time to get a little more in to crafts.

I found this wreath on Pinterest and really liked it. It was pretty easy to make (hint: you wrap yarn around a straw wreath until it looks like this) but, as you can imagine, a little tedious. I still enjoyed it but the best part was being done and proud of what I had made.

Here's another craft I found on Pinterest. This was pretty much completely free. I took a bunch of paint chips from our local Home Depot, stenciled letters on the back, cut them out and hung them on some fishing line I had. The only cost to me was how embarassed I was grabbing thirteen paint chips unashamedly while others looked on. Anyway, it helped our house feel a little more festive.

I think we celebrated the day better this year than last-- where we hung out at home all day until we had a short barbecue with some friends and then got lost for like half an hour trying to figure out where the park with the fireworks was and then parking... yech. Anyway, this year we decided to go to the Boise Liberty Day Parade in the morning. Here is our view of the capital from where we sat-- I love the way that building looks.

Here we are, waiting for it to start. We went with our friends from the ward and played Idiot while we waited-- it was a lot of fun!

And so it begins.

Some pretty sweet unicyclers. Do you see how tall that one is? I would be terrified! I can't even stay on a normal unicycle! Bryan is pretty good, though. He has one here at our house-- he should totally have been in this parade.

I loved how they had someone barbecuing on the back of this float. I said more than once yesterday that it's probably illegal not to eat meat on the 4th of July. :)

Boise loves old cars for some reason. Last year we biked into downtown and happened upon this big old car show.

This car is made of wood. Wood. 

Gotta love those old colonial sunglasses from back in the day...

Chickens riding bicycles-- an American tradition. (There were some random marketing ploys going on here...)

This part was really cool-- I enjoyed the bagpipes a lot. I wish they'd had a marching band as well.

Boise also loves fancy cars, I guess. There are enough Miatas here to have formed their own club, apparently.

I get really riled up by politics lately (I guess it could have something to do with it being an election year...). In case you can't tell from the party I elected to include, I'm a proud Romney supporter.

I like these cool, old fashioned firetrucks. 

Of course I had to get a picture of this one!

Oh hey, Ben Franklin and Daniel Boone...

Okay so this is pretty cool. Boise is super bicycle friendly, obviously. If they weren't a a pub I think  it'd be pretty sweet to participate.

And finishing off our parade, Miss Boise. 

We got there maybe an hour before it started and got really good spots (minus the fact that we didn't bring anything to sit on) at the front of the parade. It wasn't too crowded so that made it even more enjoyable. After it was over, we headed back to the car and ran through an empty spot in the parade a block down... did I mention I was in a parade? 

Our friends invited us over to his parents' house for a barbecue and it was a lot of fun. It was just super relaxed and pretty much the perfect weather for the day. I even felt comfortable enough to play a little no-rules baseball with them and it was a lot of fun!

After that we went home and I crashed on the couch for two hours out of nowhere. We had some hotdogs for dinner and ice cream, just the two of us. A month or so back, we had found this nice street that had a view out over the valley looking into the city and around it. We decided we'd take our chances and go there to look at fireworks. There were people there but it was definitely not crowded. The only downfall was that there were some trees in the exact direction of the main fireworks and sometimes we only saw the top half of the fireworks. It was awesome because we were able to watch those fireworks plus all the other ones being set off around the valley. It was really a beautiful view and Bryan and I kept talking about what a nice street it would be to live on. 

Okay, so this isn't an actual picture from my camera but this is like what we saw. I love fireworks-- especially the shimmery ones. I wish I was a better photographer because I'm not able to catch nearly as beautiful as what I saw with my eyes.

This is the best I could get with my camera. Seriously though, they were gorgeous fireworks. 

Well anyway, another blog post where I still refuse to post pictures of our new home. Aren't I mean? We just ordered our new duvet cover so once that comes and I get it all set up I promise I will! I'm pretty excited. I think I'll take a video with my phone as well.

Callie

I'm pretty sure the word 'smitten' was invented to rhyme with kitten because that's what I am. As I type this blog, I have a sweet little kitten napping in my lap, purring so serenely. I can think of only one other thing sweeter than this.

We pretty much always had cats growing up. I would say I am both a dog and cat person but, as cats are pretty low maintenance, we seemed to have them most. Just last summer, we lost my sweet cat, Libby, to stomach cancer. It was pretty heart breaking-- I'd had her since I was eleven. I knew I wanted to get a cat of our own but we'd just moved to this new place and signed a lease saying we wouldn't have pets. If we did, I was sure we'd have to pay a lot extra on rent. I was pretty resigned to the fact that we probably wouldn't have pets for a while. I also thought Bryan wouldn't really want one for a while but, to the contrary, we both kept bringing up the possibility of a kitten. Last Thursday when I was picking Bryan up from work he told me he had a surprise for me. He had called our property management company to see if it was even a possibility. They seemed completely fine with it and said all we'd need to do was pay a pet deposit that was refundable and it would be fine! We were overjoyed and were going to go to the Idaho Humane Society the next day.

A week or so before we moved out of Utah our friends, the Pfaffs, started fostering some kittens for the Utah Animal Adoption Center. We hung out with them one night and were able to play with all the cute little kittens. There were two there that they had named Calvin and Hobbes that had orange/black/white coloring. Since Libby was a calico, I've always had a soft spot for cats with this coloring. All the kittens were cute but I was especially drawn to these two. Perhaps this visit was why we started thinking about the possibility of having a cat.

At the end of their time fostering, Jewel and Pfaffy adopted Hobbes for their own. After initially thinking the pair were boys, they found out they were really girls. It was around this time that we found out that we could get a kitten and told them. They kept telling us we should drive down to Utah to adopt Calvin so we could have matching "friendship kitten bracelets." I thought there was no way we'd drive all the way to Utah for a cat, even though in the back of my mind I kept thinking about how drawn I'd been to her and how I was worried I'd be disappointed in another cat from a humane society here. Bryan told me I should call the store they were at to make sure she was still there and when she was he surprised me and told me he really thought we should go! (He hates road trips even more than me!)

Utah Animal Adoption are the ones to actually adopt out a pet but they are housed in pet stores. Our little kitty was at a Petco in Farmington, UT. I called ahead and asked if we could reserve her and they said no. I explained that we were coming from Boise, ID for this cat and it would be a six hour car ride and could they please do it. She said they could hold her just for the day but we had to get there before the store closed. I said, "Okay, do you need my name or anything?" and she said something like, "Oh yeah, what is your name?" That felt a little fishy but I decided to just go with it and picked Bryan up from work. We hurried and packed and were out the door on our quest for kitten!

Five-ish hours later we got to the store (so much easier to type out than to experience) and I said, "I called earlier about reserving this kitten here." The employees hadn't heard anything about it (I told you it felt fishy!) but they hadn't sold any kittens that day so she was still there. They started on all the paperwork and then this girl started taking us up and down every aisle showing us what we could get for our cat... (Generally, I like to be left to my own devices when shopping...). The Pfaffs met us there and we headed to the register to buy all our kitten supplies and kitten!

Bryan rang up all the supplies while I was chatting with our friends and then the girl at the register said something like, "This is weird. I keep trying to ring the kitten up but it won't let me." They got the assistant manager, who said we couldn't use a debit or credit card because the money needed to go to the UAAC. We didn't have cash but I happened to have some counter checks so that wasn't a problem but then he said, "Actually, you can't adopt this kitten today. We need a signature from either the manager or someone from UAAC and neither are here right now. You will have to come back tomorrow at 9 AM." We were a bit taken aback and disappointed but Bryan and I are the types to just go along with it. We were ready to leave and come back the next day but the Pfaffs thought that was ridiculous, especially since they'd been the ones to foster the kittens in the first place. Jewel thought that possibly she could sign the paperwork since she volunteered at UAAC so they got her on the phone with someone from there to see what they said. That person referred her the person in charge of the cats at UAAC, someone who Jewel actually knew, who told her that it would be fine to go ahead without the signature. We told the assistant manager that, who looked unconvinced and went to call his manager. The other employees thought this was pretty ridiculous as well.

The guy came back and said, "Unfortunately, we can't take a check." We thought, "Oh, good, they're at least going to let us adopt the kitten today," and then he continued, "but it doesn't matter anyway because you can't adopt her today." Pfaffy and Jewel were very displeased and it was pretty evident on their faces. They said something to the guy like, "Why have cats here to adopt if you can't actually adopt them? That doesn't make any sense! Does it make sense to you?" The guy squirmed uncomfortably and said, "Um, no?" but he didn't really have any control so he couldn't do anything about it. We left disappointed but ready to come back first thing the next morning.

On the drive back to the Pfaff's house, Bryan and I talked about the whole thing and discussed what we wanted to say to the manager when we went in the next day. We wanted to tell her that we understood the process but that the employees should all know what it was and wouldn't get so far as to get most of the paperwork done and have us up to the register, ready to adopt before finding out we couldn't.

The next morning we came in and said, "We were trying to adopt this kitten yesterday but we didn't have a signature or something." The employee had no idea what we were talking about. Then we said, "We were supposed to get the signature of the manager-- Jeannette, or something?" A light went on and she headed to the back to find the manager. When she came back she had the paperwork signed and we never even got to meet the manager but we were, finally, able to adopt our kitten. Suffice it to say they will be getting a less than pleased review on the internet.

Anyway, we were very glad to have that drama behind us and to now finally have our new kitten! We decided to name her Callie since she'd previously been called Calvin but now we knew she was a girl. We took her to the Pfaffs, then Bryan's mom's house and then finally on our five hour car ride. Poor Callie had a lot of change over the weekend! She was so good in the car and didn't make a peep--she slept most of the time. Here are a few pictures I snapped on the ride:

One thing I love about Callie is how interactive she is. She plays with us and comes to find us to do so instead of keeping to herself. As I wrote this post, she woke up and started climbing all around me. I set her on the ground but she just kept climbing up into my lap. She loves being around us and we love having her around!

Yeah, my kitten is pretty much really adorable.

Back to Boise

Well, I promised pictures so here's what has been going on in our lives recently. As I mentioned, we were out in Maryland for a few days after moving our apartment in Provo. It was so great to spend time with my family. I have adorable nieces and nephew!

Here's sweet Ava playing with some little toys. She is so talkative! It was great getting to see their little personalities grow. Ava likes "spooky" things for some reason and often requests this Halloween song about an old lady who lives by a grave yard. Suffice it to say we have that memorized now. She's so funny.

We weren't in Maryland for our anniversary but our cake topper was there so we decided to eat it, as is tradition for the first anniversary. It was... interesting. Kind of freezer burned tasting. Not something I would choose for my normal dessert certainly, but I'm glad we followed the tradition.

Yay! Here we are with the cake! I also recently decided to chop off my hair. It had been long since like 2007 and it was really time for a change.

Look at that smile! Ivy has one of the sweetest little girl voices ever. She is a very sweet little thing and all girl. I wish I'd gotten a picture of Elijah-- he is so smart and loves Lego's. We watched him put together some Lego's that we got him for his birthday and he didn't need any help at all. We hadn't been in the house from the airport even a minute before he was trying to get Bryan to play with him. I'm glad he remembers us and is comfortable with us.

One day we went to IKEA with my mom and Lindsay and Ava. That was a fun trip but boy do your feet hurt after a day there.

Then we flew out to Colorado to watch Ainsley and Avery while Hailey and Brian were in Israel. We did a lot of fun things! One of the first nights we decided to have a picnic in the back yard.

Then they broke out the tether ball. They played this so much while we were there. We also went to the park and watched movies and took them around to all their fun activities.

Speaking of those fun activities, have I mentioned that my niece is a black belt in Tae Kwon Do? Yeah, she's awesome. She can break boards clean in half by kicking them or chopping them.

We got back to Utah and saw a bunch of friends and family before we left. One day we went bowling one day with Shelley and Ella.

Isn't Ella so cute? She's such a sweetheart.

Our friends helped us pack up the U-Haul. Getting this king sized mattress up the stairs was no easy feat but I am sure happy they were able to. I love being able to sprawl out on that bed. It so beats a queen.

Weston likes to climb things... including the contents of our U-Haul.

My mom and dad flew out to Utah to help us move. It was so nice of them! It made the whole process much less expensive (we'd been thinking of putting our stuff on a moving truck for some trucker to drive) and less stressful too.

So, we've moved to Boise! Yay! Once we got here we unloaded and went and bought a couch! No more blow up furniture for us. I haven't taken any pictures of our new place yet because it's just not quite ready. Everything is unpacked but a lot of clothes are still lying on the floor upstairs because we need to buy a dresser. Once that all gets put away, I promise to post pictures. Bryan and I bought smart phones so I might even do a little video tour with that and post it here as well.

We weren't able to get Wifi for ten days once we moved and it was killer. Seriously! I feel much better and more settled now. Bryan seems to be enjoying his job and that makes me very happy. We're glad to be here!

Woops

Where, oh where, has the time gone? My last blog post was in January... much has happened since then! This will be a fairly short post since I don't have a way to upload pictures right now but there will certainly be more to come later with more details specifically having to do with the past couple weeks and the week to come.

My two excuses for not writing more are these: stress and lack of subject matter. This was Bryan's last semester of being an undergrad! We have been relieved and overjoyed to already have a job lined up post-graduation. That was the good part of the semester... I'm not going to lie, it was a rough semester. Bryan had some really hard classes and ended up taking more programming classes than he really ought to. I was working as well, so we were just pretty much up to our knees in stress over getting everything done on time. As such, we didn't have a lot of adventures to write about but we sure have been having some recently!

I am so grateful that this semester is over. I am also extremely grateful for all the prayers that were said on our behalf to help us push through until the end. I have definitely seen God's hand in everything that has happened and know without a doubt that He is aware of our every need and wants so much to bless us. Bless us, He certainly did.

Well, we have officially moved out of our little apartment in Provo. We were out on the 18th (our check out was scheduled during Bryan's last final so I had to finish things up on my own. More stress!) and almost immediately flew to Maryland to spend some time with my family. We stayed with my parents, who also have the Handleys (Lindsay, Morgan, Ava) and the Brownings (Natalie, Ryan, Elijah, Ivy) living with them right now. Whew! What a packed house! I loved being able to see my adorable nieces and nephew and hang out with two of my sisters (both of whom are quite pregnant), their husbands and my parents. We were also able to see Bryan's dad and brother, who are living in Virginia. Bryan beat them both at Risk for the first time in his life so I think we'd say it was a success.

After this, we flew to Colorado, where we now are. My sister, Hailey, and her husband went on a trip to Israel and asked us to babysit their two girls for about a week. We have suddenly gained two elementary school aged girls, a house and a dog! It's nice to get a little practice in. We've been enjoying it a lot!

We also found and signed for a townhouse that we'll be renting in Boise! We're really turning into adults, huh? I guess after 25 years it needed to happen. We will be flying back to Utah on the 4th of May and then my parents will fly out and help us move with a U-Haul to Boise on the 7th! Bryan's first day is the 8th! A lot of exciting things happening now and to happen, so we'll surely post pictures soon.

I guess this post turned out to be a little longer after all! Tomorrow, Bryan and I will celebrate our first anniversary! Wow, has it already/only been a year? It feels like it has flown by but at the same time I feel like we've been married forever. It has been a crazy but great year!

Craft Day

Bryan's mom, Shelley and I have gotten into a fun tradition of having a craft day before most holidays. We switch off each time who hosts the craft day. It's fun to make crafts but the best part is just being able to spend time together. We started this tradition just before Halloween, then again for Christmas and our latest was for Valentine's day. We each made a Valentine Treat Topiary and then frosted sugar cookies and made cute little "cupid's arrows" to give out to friends, visiting teachees, etc.

It was my turn to host this time so everyone made the trek down to Provo. I made Baked Potato Soup for lunch, which was perfect because it was raining and snowing on and off. Nothing like a nice, hot soup to comfort you on a cold day. Bryan's mom and Mike had to drive through a blizzard to both get here and go home! Ella came with Shelley and at one point during the day she took her mom's umbrella out the door and stood on our doormat singing, "Under my Cinderella. Hey! Hey! Hey!" loudly to all the occupants of our complex. It was hilarious and so cute-- I tried to get a video on my camera but by the time I found it she'd pretty much stopped. Isn't that always how it goes? Anyway, we had a very fun day hanging out and doing crafts!