A Little Bit of Summer

Getting married in the spring was a brilliant idea. It was very nice to have just a little bit of calm before the storm of real life hit us in the fall. Paul still has a few years of school left, and since I graduated in May it would be my turn to be the bread-winner of the family for the next little bit. In school I studied elementary and special education, and trying to find a full time teaching job in Cedar City is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. The odds weren't in my favor. Especially as a recently graduated, inexperience, non local, young-looking girl. 

Paul received an internship on campus at SUU auditing the purchasing cards. In the summer he was able to work full time, and during the school year he would work part time hours. So he is set for the next little while. It is me that needs to find something to keep me busy. 

From January through May, I spent as much of my time substitute teaching as possible. I was hoping that this would give me some experience and a foot in the door. During the months of May, I applied for multiple full-time regular education teaching positions. I didn't receive any of them though. This was a trying time for me because I had worked so hard, I had done everything I felt I could to put myself out there, and yet I was not being recognized for my efforts. I kept my fears of not finding a good job to myself, however, and put my faith in the Lord. 

A few weeks after the job interviews that I had, several postings for special education teachers appeared within the district. I applied for both, and went out to Three Peaks Elementary to meet with the principal. As soon as I walked through the doors, I just felt like that school was a good place to be. It felt good, and normal, and right. I had strong feelings that this place would be where I would be teaching for the next several years. I went to the job interview, and within 3 hours of my interview, I had been extended the opportunity to be the 3rd-5th grade resource teacher at Three Peaks Elementary. Of course, I said yes. My search was over. Now I just had to survive the summer until I could start teaching. 

Paul and I had several small vacations over the summer. During the 4th of July week, we went with Paul's cousin Summer and her husband Tyler Izatt to their beach house in Newport California. We got to go surfing, kayaking, boogie boarding, and just relax and play games. 

At the end of July we went on an overnight backpacking trip with my parents. We went up into the Uintas, and camped at a lake. Through the whole hike there was snow on the ground, and when we got  to the upper lake of our hike my dad told us we had to jump off the cliff into the water. It looked like a lot of fun until we saw the ice chunks floating on most of the lake. If any of you know my dad, you probably guessed that yes, we did jump off the cliff into the ice berg infested waters. Paul was smart about it and stayed on the rocks. My dad, little brother, Tallus, little sister Kalena, and I all jumped in to the ice cold water. It was so cold I had to remind myself to breathe, But it is a memory I won't forget. 

Also that weekend, Paul's little brother Peter got home from his mission. We went to greet him at the airport and it was just a little awkward meeting him for the first time as his brother's wife. But it was good to meet him all the same. 

The beginning of August, we were privileged to travel to Montana to go to the Blatter family reunion. We traveled with my cousin Carsey and her husband Levi. It was quite a road trip. We stayed in an old baptist summer camp on twin sized beds. It was so "fun" to share a teeny summer camp bed with Paul, but we survived. We visited some hot springs, went on several hikes, and of course, talked and swapped stories. 

This summer has been pretty busy. It has been fun, intense and full of blessings. We just love our life! :)

HoneymoonS

Our honeymoon took us to Park City, Utah. We did a whole lot of nothing all week. We watched Big bang theory, walked up and down Ole Park City, went on a snow shoe trip, and went tubing.

Our honeymoon wasn't a huge story to write home about, but two months later we went on our REAL honeymoon. Thats the story I want to elaborate most on. 

After two months of being married Paul and I were blessed with the opportunity to go to Oahu and Kauai. The first stop, Oahu was to go to a wedding in the Laie Temple. Paul's "adopted" sister from Norway was getting married there. 

Because we decided to detour to Oahu, we were able to visit Pearl Harbor, and swim with sea turtles.  

Pearl Harbor was an amazing experience. Its hard to believe that history really took place right where I stood. 

After Sofie and David got sealed in the temple, they wanted to do a beach wedding. While we were waiting for Sofie to get all pretty and stuffs, we took a trip to a local beach. 

This beach is known for having lots of sea turtles beach on the shores. There is a rule that you are not supposed to touch the sea turtles, but when you are swimming in the ocean and they swim pretty much right into your leg, you don't really have a choice not to touch them. I did get to cross "swim with sea turtles" off of my bucket list. Sometimes beauty comes in one of the simplest forms. 

Also while we were waiting we took a trip to the Dole plantation. I never knew there were so many kinds of pineapples out there! There were teeny tiny pineapples, red colored pineapples, long skinny pineapples, all kinds! It really was so neat to see how we get the pineapples that we have. 

That evening we had a lovely wedding ceremony on the beach for Sofie and David Redford. Somehow we managed to find a pretty secluded beach. The ceremony was short, sweet and to the point. But the ocean setting in the sunset was beautiful. 

While we were on Oahu, Paul and I were also able to visit a swap meet, and visit the old Iolani Palace, One of the only Palaces in the United Sates. There is so much culture and heritage here it just amazes me. 

The plants and native animals are also very intriguing to me. I wish I could have seen more of them.  This is us hanging from one of the crazy trees that populate Hawaii

After the awesome adventures on Oahu, Paul and I took a plane to the island of Kauai. 

Oahu was beautiful don't get me wrong, but Kauai was just breath taking. You know all those pictures that you see that are beautiful and look photo shopped, yeah well they really aren't photo shopped. Kauai really is THAT beautiful! 

I mean look at that picture below! That is a picture of the Na Poli coast. Paul and I hiked along the Na Poli coast one of our days on Kauai. 

We only did an eight mile day hike, but it was still something spectacular. We hiked through a huge bamboo forest and ended up at a really large and gorgeous waterfall. 

The hike back was a little scary because it was getting dark and we were worried about being stuck in the middle of the jungle during a flash flood or something like that. 

While on Kauai, Paul and I were also able get a free surfing lesson. We ran into a guy on the beach that had a surfboard and he just let us take it. We weren't professional when we first got on, but, I think there was at least one wave that both of us rode in. So that was pretty neat. 

We went on a horseback riding trip to a waterfall. The horses were pretty much trained to walk the same path over and over again, but somehow, Paul and I got our horses to deviate their normal course for just a little bit. 

We visited the Kilauea light house with Paul's Parents. They came to Hawaii for the wedding, and somehow ended up on the same island as us after the wedding. Anyhow, as a family we all went out to the light house and sort of visited the bird sanctuary. 

There were several other wonderful stops we got to make while we were there. One of them was to a beach called Tunnels beach. It is known for the coral reef that looks like a lot of tunnels. That was my first experience with snorkeling. We snorkeled two other places on Kauai. All of them were different but they were all so beautiful. 

Another stop we went to was the blow hole. It is called spouting horn. It is a hole in the rocks that turns into a "geyser" type thing. when the water pushes into a cave it shoots it out the top. 

We hiked to a waterfall Wailua falls. It was supposed to be just a drive to the waterfall, but when a local hobo told has how to hike down to it, we decided to do it. The trail was super steep and kind of scary, but luckily there were ropes to hold on to. 

One of my favorite stops was at a local swimming hole. Not very many tourists know about it. You kind of have to be in the "IN" crowd to know about it. Some how my parents found out about it and told us how to get there. There was a rope swing, and a water fall you jump off of and a pond you swim in. It was so much fun to swim in, but it was scary also. It had been raining the whole week before we got there so all of the rivers were flooded and rushing really fast. No one go swept up in a rushing current so it was all good.

We tried to do a hike through some tunnels but the roads were too flooded we couldn't get to the hike spot.  We did find some huge jungle leaves and as big as me!

The last place we stopped before the airplane was Waimea Canyon. It is basically considered the Grand Canyon of Hawaii. The roads were kind of closed off so we couldn't drive around everywhere, but we did get a few beautiful views of it before we had to leave the beautiful oasis of Kauai. 

There is so much that we did on our second honeymoon, I probably didn't write it all, but we loved the fact that our first experience traveling together turned out to be so memorable. 

 

Marriage

I know I am pretty much a year behind in writing this, but pretend that all of my blogs are up to date. Eventually they will be. I hope. :)

March, 12 2011
Today is the beginning of the rest of my life. After 4 hours of sleep its almost time. Of course most of the morning was spent getting all prettied up. At about 9:30 or so Paul came to pick up his future bride. We went to the Draper Temple and pretty much did what ever the lovely temple workers told us to do.

While we were waiting for everything to be ready, our sealer came out and gave us a little bit of counsel. Robert D. Hait, son of David B. Hait came out and introduced himself to us. He told us how wonderful and hard life would be. While we were in the sealing room, Elder Hait had everyone laughing. It was a very respectful and spiritual ceremony, but it was also full of joy and laughter and lots of jokes. Before either of us new it, we were married!

Now I know that it is a kissing picture, but what can you expect when you just got married.

After the wedding we had to take pictures, of course, and that took only half of the day. ;) Its a good thing I was the happiest I have ever been, so all of the walking, and smiling, and pictures didn't really seem to bother me.

After all of the crazy picture taking, we had a wedding luncheon to attend to. Now, this wasn't just your average wedding luncheon, this was a Kylee style wedding luncheon!

We didn't have any special catering, or ice sculptures. It was all about fun and simplicity. Pizza and sandwiches baby! thats the way to have a party. :)

After the luncheon everything is a blur. I am pretty sure that we had a few hours to help set up the rest of the reception. I know that we were barely able to get to our reception and have it ready on time. But we were ready thanks to all of the wonderful help we had. 

Our reception wasn't any ordinary reception. I had always wanted to have a Luau for my reception. As you can tell by our decore, we did have a wonderful, festive Hawaiian Luau. 

 I think my favorite part was having my dad and several of my brothers/brothers in law to wear a lava lava for the reception. Now check out that cake! I think the bobble headed monkeys are the best part. The cake was a fiasco because Paul shoved it all over my face, but it was definitely a memorable event. 

 

After the reception we had to drive all the way to Park City. Our car was completely unrecognizable though, so our first stop was the car wash. 

Getting married was a wonderful experience. It was very chaotic and it all happened in a blur, but I am glad that I was able to survive through it all.  

Almost there.....

March 10 2011

     It is two days before I am getting married to the most amazing person in the world. I haven't seen him in almost a week and the anticipation of seeing him tomorrow is going to be so wonderful! This past week I have been working on the finishing touches for the wedding. Making sure dresses fit, getting food cooked, and setting up for the reception.
    Because I was having a luau for my reception, I wanted it to be kind of out doors-y. But because it was the beginning of March, and only two weeks ago there was snow on the ground, I figured I had no hope of having a warm out door reception. Paul and I decided to have our reception in the pavilion at my home ward. Despite being called a pavilion, it really is completely enclosed. So with a few industrial heaters and some decorations, it would look quite snazzy. Tomorrow we will have access to the pavilion for set up. Then it will be only a matter of hours before I will stand there with my new husband.

March 11, 2011
   
     It is Friday, and one day only before I am getting married! I am so excited, but the stress of it all is actually starting to dawn on me. We have to get everything set up today so that tomorrow will be a smooth transition. Basically as soon as I got up this morning I went over to the church to help my parents start setting everything up. We had to sweep and mop out the cement floor, hang decorations and pretty much turn an old, empty outdoor building into a building suitable for a luau!

   
     Paul came over today to help. It has been really nice to have the extra help. We surely wouldn't have gotten so much done if it weren't for him! At the very center of the pavilion there is a ring bolted into the ceiling. From this ring we wanted to hang a decoration, but we didn't have a ladder long enough to reach the top. With some creativity, we decidedly placed a step stool on top of a picnic table, then put the ladder on top of the step stool. With this rickety system, Paul climbed up the ladder and fished a rope through so we could have some awesome decorations. The whole time my mom and I were watching, we were just praying that we would be going to a wedding tomorrow rather than a funeral.

       At about five in the evening we had most of the decorations put up. The tables were set up, the foliage and decore were both in place, and the only thing that was left was a bride and a groom to be standing under our little hut. At five Paul had to leave to go and help his family with other wedding plans. I continued to set up little things here and there with my parents.

     My two cousins from Washington came into town, Morgan and Nicole, and they helped out a little bit as well. Around 7 P.M. my best friend arrived from Idaho. Lisa Walters was technically my maid of honor. Even though I didn't have one, she was the closest thing to it. She decided that we had to do one last thing as roomies before I was married.

     We decided to go get sushi! What a great way to spend the last few hours before you get married eh? It was great. The waiter even hit on both of us. Hehe. After an hour of just being girls and playing around we headed back to my house. I still had some things I needed to do to prepare for tomorrow's adventures.
      When we got back to my parents house, we had the privilege of making my bouquet! I had ordered a lot of loose plumeria flowers that I wanted to make a bouquet with. We got a Styrofoam ball and started poking pretty flowers into it. When we were done the bouquet looked really good. almost fake even! We also put together a few boutonnieres for the lovely gentlemen that would be in attendance. Maybe around 11:00 P.M. everything felt just about ready.
   
     It was then that I realized I needed to scrapbook some pages for our wedding book. I had printed some pictures of paul and I that I wanted to be in our guestbook and they hadn't been put together yet. While staying up late talking with Lisa and Morgan, I wondered what Paul was thinking about. Was he asleep already? Was he thinking about me? Was he just as excited yet nervous for what the new day would bring? With my head just swimming full of questions and wonderings I finally got the pages all put together.
      It is now 2:00 A.M. I am getting married in less than eight hours and I have not gotten any sleep. I probably should sleep. Even Lisa fell asleep before I did. I can do it. Just close your eyes and tomorrow will be here before you know it...

The Long Wait

        Getting engaged in November and waiting until March to get married was a BAD idea! Four months is a long long time to wait, but no worries Paul and I found a lot of creative activities to get us through the next few months.
        The week after we were engaged it was Thanksgiving. Lucky for me I got to meet almost all of Paul's extended family on his Mother's side during the Thanksgiving holiday. After knowing Paul for four months  I have met almost his whole entire family. Even though I didn't memorize everyones name, I left knowing a few. :)
        I was working as a long term substitute while Paul was going to school so we kind of got to see each other. I also started working at Brian Head Ski Resort just to keep myself busy. The free season pass was a big incentive for me also. Because I worked at a ski resort, I was not able to get Christmas day off. I had to work the 23-28 of December. That meant that while my family was in Salt Lake having Christmas I would be here in Cedar all by my lonesome working. Paul's dad was kind enough to buy me a plane ticket from Cedar to Salt Lake so that I could come home and be with my family for a little bit, and also be with Paul's family for a few days. My family was supposed to meet Paul's family over Christmas break. We all had dinner at Paul's house and had an early Christmas. It was really cute and kind of interesting to have all of my family there with his family.
        After I flew back to Cedar City I had a long few days without being able to see Paul. Working Christmas Eve and Christmas  was definitely a new experience for me. My roommate Bambi was still in Cedar for Christmas as well so we kind of buddied up and spent time with each other. The Leavitt family also invited Bambi and I over for Christmas Eve. We were able to stay busy, socialize, and enjoy the company the Leavitt's wonderful family. Christmas day I was in for a special treat. After I got home from work, Paul came to see me. He drove all the way down from Salt Lake just to be with me on Christmas. We had our presents for each other and stockings to open. It was so great to be able to see him.
         On New Years Eve we went on a date. We went to see Tangled in the Theater! It was quite a treat. I had also moved out of my apartment and moved into the one that Paul and I would live in once we were married. Paul and I started to make a gingerbread house on New Years Eve. We didn't finish it for a month, but It gave us something to work on.
        The rest of the months from January until March didn't have any special occasions. I got a sub job substituting for special education and was working full time. Paul just continued to go to school. We did get to go to my brothers wedding in February. That kind of gave us a taste of what our wedding would be like in a month.
       Finally it was a week before our wedding, so I went up north to get everything ready. Poor Paul had to wait a whole week so see me, but in that time I got alot of stuff done!!