Memorable Gift

One of my favorite presents for Christmas this year was my wedding book.


Thanks to Ashley Madsen for creating this wonderful memory for us! Check it out at her website here.

First Anniversary Adventure

Ben and I have officially been married for one year now!
As Ben put it "One year down!"
Things were a little tough at the beginning as we moved to our new apartment in Ithaca, Ben was studying for his CPA and PhD "comps" exam, and I was busy student teaching. Everything was new, and COLD! But we got through it and things have been great after the tests were over.

We were planning on celebrating our anniversary after our trip to Arizona for the holidays but Ben's twin, Doug, and his wife Annie made some plans we couldn't resist.
(Ben and I share the same anniversary with Doug & Annie! Cute right, twins getting married on the same day... just Ben was 5 years after Doug :) )

So we decided to go to a cabin a couple hours away, in Strawberry. Some may think that Arizona doesn't have any snow... but think again after seeing these crazy pictures.

The four of us drove up to the cabin and knew that a snow storm was coming that night. What we didn't realize was how bad it was going to be. We made it up there just fine and got cozy in our cabin. The rest of the trip was quite the adventure.

-We couldn't find matches anywhere to start a fire
-Made friends with the local Strawberry folk
-Played the longest game of Monopoly EVER

-Tried to stay warm by our fireplace (as it took all night to get up to 60)

-Tried to get dinner in the town, but all the roads were closed... power was out... and nothing was open.

-Woke up to about 15-20 inches of snow
-Couldn't get our car out of the driveway

-Used our cross-country skis to get to breakfast

-Skied on the closed highway

-Attempted at shoveling our way out of the driveway
-Thought we were going to be stuck another night
-Called our Strawberry friends and had them pull us out of the snow

And yet we managed to have a wonderful time/adventure for our first anniversary! The drive home was very snowy, but beautiful.

I'm not sure what we're doing for our next anniversary but I dare to say it might not be as crazy as our first! Thanks for the fun memories Doug and Annie!

An Arizona Christmas

After our fun trip to NYC for Thanksgiving we realized that it was already December and time to get ready for Christmas! I was being practical and didn't think we needed a tree for only a couple weeks before we left for Arizona. This was the result of the lack of tree...

Chandelier ornaments!

We had a lot of goodies and music playing... as well as some decorations, thanks to Nana!

After a hard last week for Ben we finally headed to Arizona to spend Christmas with BOTH of our families. How nice it is to have our families live 15 minutes apart so we could share the holidays with everyone!

My sister Rachel, Tyler, and baby Jackson came for the week before Christmas so we got to spend time with them. Some of the highlights were bowling, golfing, movies, dance parties, dinners, and so much more!

We had a nice Christmas Eve dinner with everyone.

We got to see the Arizona temple Christmas lights and other fun activities.

After opening presents on Christmas morning at my house we headed to Ben's house for the next week.

We had all sorts of fun with the Lewises... sibling rivalries, the twins arm wrestling, and brother sports

We got to have fireworks on New Years Eve...

and got to participate in the Lewis annual pot&pan/instrument banging to the neighbors

We played a lot of games at both houses and had a very fun warm holiday season!

We celebrated our first anniversary and went to the Mesa temple to remember our special day

We're excited for the new year and can't wait for new adventures and memories to come!