Christmas Time Again!!!

We had another great Christmas together! Kyle surprised me and got a tree for us this year. Last year in Rexburg we weren't at our apartment much during Christmas time so we didn't get a tree for ourselves. But we got a tree this year! It was a lot of fun and made our apartment smell like evergreen :)

Decorating the Tree

Sarah was asked to be a bridesmaid in her former roommates wedding a little before Christmas time. So my family came down and spent some time with us on their way to Idaho for the wedding. We had a mini Christmas with them and that was really nice. We went to see Voicemale (male a capella group) in concert at Thanksgiving Point and before the show we drove through the Christmas light they had set up. I love a capella music - it's so cool what they can do with their voices. While my family was here we also went to the temple.

Oquirrh Mt Temple (hope I spelled that right...)

Then mom and Sarah took off to Idaho and my dad took off for California to see his mom and sister. I got to see some of the photos from the wedding and Sarah looked great and it looked like a fun wedding. This was the wedding for her roommate that I did engagement photos for. It would have been fun to be able to go. After my dad spent a few days in Cali, he took off with his mom and sister for a road trip to Colorado - where my cousins were. On their way through to Colorado they stopped by to say hi.

Kyle, Me, Grandma Anja, Aunt Suvi, Dad

And then. . . it was actually time for our Christmas Vacation!!! We spent Christmas in California! It was the first warm Christmas of my life. The weather was So nice and I wished that I hadn't already packed away my summer clothes so that I could have them in that warm Cali sun. While we were there we got to do a lot of fun things! We rode four wheelers through the desert, took bikes through the island Coronado, visited the new Mormon Battalion in Old Town, went on a hike and spent some time in Balboa Park taking family photos!

At the top of the hike!

We looked so cool back in 1847. . .

And of course I had a lot of fun taking some family photos!

Christmas day was a lot of fun! We got up early and did gifts and breakfast before church at 9. Then we all had a nice nap after church (at least I know I crashed). Kyle and I got a great camping stove and an awesome wireless internet streaming blu-ray player! We've now collected all of the Harry Potter movies on blu-ray, hehe.
Christmas was so nice!! I keep telling Kyle that I can't wait till he is in school again so that we will have longer vacations. Thank you Hadley Family for a Wonderful Christmas!!

One Quarter of a Century!

I am very behind on blogging. . . in case you haven't noticed. SO, here I am at the computer to get caught up it all. And the first order of business is (drum roll. . . . . . ) KYLE'S 25th BIRTHDAY!! Yay! We had a fun evening, starting with gifts. I always have a lot of fun getting gifts for Kyle; his birthday and holidays are pretty much the only time I'm allowed to shop for him, hehe.Opening his gifts!

Showing off some of his loot. . .

After he opened his gifts we headed out for his Birthday dinner!! Ever since we moved down here to Utah Kyle had been wanting to eat out at Tucanos. . . It's a Brazilian grill style restaurant and it is Yummy. The waiters come around with big skewers of different gourmet grilled meats cut you off whatever you want. And for all of the side items they have a massive buffet with all delicious foods.

Here we are! We got the Brazilian lemonades and they were very good - just like everything else!

And Kyle was a good sport and let the waiters come over and sing him happy birthday while he danced around with this tambourine! It was a lot of fun. Hope your 25th year is a great one Kyle, Love You!

Birthday and Halloween

Birthday Time Again
I recently turned 23! Kyle and I both had work but we celebrated that night. We started out by opening gifts!
Thanks everyone for remembering me during my birthday! I felt like I had So Many gifts. Not that gifts are what matters, but it was still fun to get them. :)

Here I am with two of my favorite gifts from my wonderful husband! He got me a Snuggie!! I've always thought a snuggie would be a neat thing to have and I was SO right! I Love my snuggie, it's so warm and cozy and it has sleeves and so I can use my arms and not get cold. It's everything the infomercial says! I could really be their next spokes woman. Also, I got a nice wii gun and hunting game. I'm not so good a wii games that involve racing or sports, but shooting I can do! So those have been fun gifts. I think Kyle is secretly jealous of my snuggie because I'll find him using it sometimes, hehe.

After gifts we went downtown to Bruges Waffles & Frites. It's a tiny little Belgian restaurant that, of course, has been featured on Man vs. Food. On the left is Kyles sandwich, the 'machine gun' which was the sandwich featured on Man vs. Food. It's got sausage, Frites (which are double fried french fries) and special, Belgian sauce. On the right is my 'waffle monster' which features ice cream, strawberries and a peanut-butter type spread that is made out of cookies and actually has no peanuts (i hope that made sense, I can't remember the real name). Yummy!

And here I am with my birthday Hershey pie :) 23 has been good to me so far. To celebrate my new age I have signed up to run the Utah Valley Marathon on June 6th! Kyle outlined a training program for me (it's convenient being married to a certified personal trainer) and so far, so good!

Halloween in Utah
I really felt like we would get some trick-or-treaters this year, since we are in a complex that has a lot of kids and since we are in the middle of a neighborhood. I got some candy and was all ready to pass it out and tell the kids how great they looked in their costumes. But no one came. Oh well. I even set out our awesome jack-o-lantern and everything
This must have been what scared the trick-or-treaters away. . . It was supposed to be a witch but I think the nose makes it look more like a scare-crow. Not our best pumpkin ever but it was still fun to have. Another Fall-ish thing we've done this year was to making caramel apples!! The caramel apple kit was a birthday gift from Kyle's mom.
We weren't the best at dipping the apples but they sure turned out yummy! Well, that's what's happening with the Hadleys for now! We sure are excited for the Holidays!

Graduation & Movin' On!

Well, it's been a while and a lot has happened! First of all, Kyle GRADUATED!

Doesn't he look good as a graduate? And always :) I think this is my favorite picture of him from graduation.
And here I am with him. Graduation weekend was a fun one. Kyle's whole family got to come out and celebrate with us. We had his graduation dinner at Texas Road House (it is by far our favorite place to eat out when we are celebrating something). Kyle was able to make some bbq for his mom and April and introduce all of his siblings to his new found hobby- disc golf :)
On Saturday we went to Lava Hot Springs and spent the day floating the river there. It's about a 15 minute float and then you hop out and walk the trail back to where you put in. We rented a 3person tube and a 4person tube and took turns floating down together. I don't have any photos from my camera :( But I know there are some on other cameras, so if I get them I will add them. Kyle and I had floated the river before and we had pretty good luck as far as not getting thrown out, etc (a couple of the spots have sneaky rapids, and you can also choose to go over a little water fall at the start). Unfortunately, not everyone had such good luck. . . but we all had fun! And before we left Lava we cooked up (I should say, Kyle's dad cooked up) a very tasty dutch oven dinner! On Sunday we took a family portrait. We went out in the yard after church and I got to practice my photography skills with the timer set and a tripod. We will do some more at Christmas.
I think this one turned out the best - it had the least funky shadow lines. On Monday we loaded up and headed out to Yellowstone! We spent the day driving through the park and checking out the attractions. The animals were surprisingly scarce but we spotted some none the less! Then, that evening we went to the Playmill theater and saw Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. We really enjoyed it!! I had always wanted to go the the Playmill theater and I wasn't disappointed! And even though plays and similar performances aren't really Kyle's thing, he loved it too. We were glad we had the weekend to spend with family and grateful for everything they did for us!

And so, that left us both graduated and itching for adventure! We were looking on-line for jobs in UT and AZ. When we looked into the cost of moving vans we realized it would be Significantly cheaper to move (closer) to Utah. And so, we packed up a few days worth of clothes and headed to UT in search of jobs and housing. We mostly stayed with Kyle's grandparents but we were also able to cash in on one of our Christmas gifts. For Christmas, Sarah had given us a one night stay at the Anniversary Inn is one of there themed rooms. We stayed in the nautical room. It was very snazzy. And the best part was the breakfast in bed!
When we arrived they had us fill out our breakfast request cards and then the next morning a knock came at the door and we found this waiting for us. So yummy and so pretty. Thank you Sarah! Job searching and apartment searching was a little stressful, not going to lie. But Kyle and I took turns being optimistic and we made it through! With a job lead in hand and an apartment we both agreed on, we packed up our Rexburg apartment and headed for West Jordan, Utah!
And we had just enough room for everything, as you can see. Kyle was worried that the 10ft truck wouldn't be big enough - I assumed it would be plenty big with room to spare. Turns out, it was just right. The drive was pretty uneventful (thank goodness!). Kyle has a reputation for crashing things when he drives them for the first time. . . So, needless to say, I was a little nervous to have him drive the moving truck- but everything made it in once piece! The initial job lead Kyle had (with 24hr fitness) fell through - I guess the gym isn't really doing so well so they didn't want to hire him on and then have no clients to give him. But, we are okay. Kyle found a full-time job at Furniture Row. The managers there loved him so much they told him he could have any job he wanted (sales, warehouse, driver/delivery). He chose the warehouse so that he wouldn't have to work Sundays. He's enjoying that and still getting used to it. He has been sore some because he spends all day (he works 4 long day a week) moving heavy furniture. But we are grateful that he found a good job! And as for me, I'm still figuring things out. I'm currently managing the apartments we live in (saves us on rent!). It's been an adventure so far. But managing isn't too demanding since there are only 20 apartments. I'm hoping the company will have me take on some more so that this can be my job and I won't have to find additional, part-time work. But we will see. I should have it all figured out for sure soon. Anyway, I thought I would post some photos of our apartment!!
Notice the new couch? Our old couch was pretty beat up, and we didn't have room to bring it - so we went furniture shopping! And we found this sectional on a great deal! When you walk in our front door you look R and see the kitchen, L and see the living room. There is a wall dividing the living room & kitchen. Then if you exit the kitchen or living room you come to our bedroom and laundry area. Bedroom is on the L, laundry area on the R. And then, at the very back of our apartment, is the big bathroom! It is definitely an upgrade from our Rexburg basement. Lots of room, bigger bathroom with a tub, storage galore, and our own laundry! We really have settled in nicely. It's fun being closer to Kyle siblings and other relatives. And, that is it. I feel like I've been typing away at this for a Long time - but that is okay, there was a lot to catch up . . . until next time.

Yellowstone National Park

We got the chance to visit Yellowstone with my parents last month. They were in town for my cousin's wedding (he also got married in Mt. Timpanogos!). So after the wedding we headed to Yellowstone and spent Saturday and Sunday driving through the park. It was a busy and fun weekend.
Touring through Yellowstone gave me a chance to use my snazzy camera to practice my nature photography :) I had fun getting pictures of all the awesome animals we saw.By far the most exciting thing that happened to us at Yellowstone was the BEAR THAT CROSSED THE ROAD RIGHT IN FRONT OF US. I was excited. I had been wanting to see a bear the entire time - we had seen one before this, it was super far away but still cool. Then, a little bit later - there (s)he goes, waltzing by right in front of us! Can you say perfect timing or what? We saw the snake as we walked the trail down to this area where the warm water runs into the colder water making it a great temperature for wading around. We had fun walking around in the water and finding 'hot spots' and 'cold spots' and spots where you could have one leg in the warm water and one leg in the cold water. The photos from that weren't on my camera... I'll have to post them if I get them. And the Bison were Everywhere and we got crazy close to them a few times. We were also able to get out a couple of times and walk the trails through the hot pots AKA stinky pots :) Those were fun to look at once you got over the smell.


There were also places to get out and look at waterfalls and other geographically magnificent views. The top picture is from the 'Grand Canyon' of Yellowstone, and the lower photo is the view from another trail.

And of course, you can't go to Yellowstone without seeing Old Faithful - the most famous geyser of them all. I'd seen Faithful before while on a ward trip, but here is Kyle next to the grande geyser.

And that is pretty much the sum of our trip. Thanks to my parents for having us along!

One Year Anniversary!

Kyle and I have been married for over a year :)
For our anniversary we planned a road trip to Boise. The road trip was centered around about a dozen disc golf courses. We would drive a little, stop and play a course, drive a little more, stop and play another course. We drove to Boise and stayed 3 nights there. Then we drove to Lake Walcott state park in Rupert, ID and camped for two night. Finally we ended in Pocatello for a couple of nights. So here is a little about what we did in those places:

Boise
Of course played a few disc golf courses. We also made it a point to eat at a couple of the local places where the Man Vs Food guy had visited.

at Rockies' Diner (you can see the man vs food photo behind us)

and at the Flying Pie Cafe - REALLY good pizza! When Man Vs Food went he ate the spiciest pizza - but we played it safe. We got to fill out comment cards
which they had framed all over the place - we tried to make ours good
so they would make it into the frame :)

We also got shakes from Fanci Freeze, not because man vs food when there,
but because Mark and Natalie had told us they had the best shakes. And they weren't exaggerating. Yum! Dad, you would be jealous.

We also went to Zoo Boise. It was a pretty small zoo but it was fun. When we first got there we were at the marsupial exhibit. There was this one lady who was calling out the baby marsupial's name (which I can't remember.. we will call her Bouncy) "C'mon baby, c'mon Bouncy, get on out so we can see you..." Then when the baby would peek his head out of mom's pouch the lady would get really excited and run to go tell the different clusters of people, "Hey guys, Bouncy is poking her head out you should come see." . . . Kyle and I were a little confused by this ladies enthusiasm. We pictured her visiting the zoo everyday with her season pass and giving all the animals names she liked for them. Well, we came to understand her enthusiasm when she ran over to Kyle and I to tell us that the leopard (again, she used he leopard's name) was "sitting really pretty in a sun-beam right now" and we had to go to get a good view. She then followed us to the leopard's exhibit and gave us a 15min history of the leopard's life and explained to us how she was a Zoo volunteer! So she was actually using all of the animals real names. That made it kind of a cool Zoo experience - whenever we ran into her we pretty much got a detailed tour of the particular animals. I have never even imagined such an enthusiastic zoo volunteer before - she knew the names of all the goats in the petting zoo and Everything. It was cool. One of our favorite animals were the meerkats.
Initially, I was where Kyle was and he was where I was. When the meerkats noticed me they got really scared and split in every direction - this gave Kyle a good laugh. So, I stepped away for a little bit and then Kyle and I traded places so I could see the meerkats run off. . . . Well, Kyle must have a way with meerkats because they were just chilling. And when they noticed him they didn't even care. Hehe. I promise I wasn't even trying to sneak up on them or anything. Oh well. While we were staying in Boise we also took a day trip to Idaho City- an old, abandoned, touristy "ghost town." It was just an hour or so away from where we were staying.

Idaho City

don't I look cool with my camera :)

Idaho City seemed pretty cool. I guess we got there a little late to really get a good understanding of it's significance though. The visitors center was already closed and pretty much no one was around. So we just wandered around the old buildings and I practiced my photography by taking Lots of pictures of Kyle, hehe.

this was on a little stage set, so i guess they have performances sometimes.

And here is a photo of what the buildings kind of looked like (taken on my new camera- it turned out quite nicely I think) Everything was really dusty. When I would have Kyle sit down for a picture he would stand up and be dusty, and when I would sit down for a picture I would stand up and be dusty. But it was neat and the drive to get there was through a really scenic canyon. So that was fun.

Lake Walcott

Kyle selected this place for us to camp because it has a disc golf course. :) It was a really pretty area. We were one of just a few campers. We ran into these scout leaders one night who gave us their tasty leftover homemade french fries - so that was cool. It was a little bit chilly the first night. Thank goodness for our winter-weather-ready sleeping bags (compliments of Mitchell - thank you!). The second night wasn't really that cold.

so here is the view from our campsite! our tent is right behind me.

We also tried to go fishing. We didn't catch anything :( But Kyle got to go out on the dock and practice his fly fishing! He has to cast a line back behind him and then kind of whip it to make the fly 'dance' on the water in front of him.
Do you see the sunglasses he is wearing? He got those at a kiosk in the Boise mall. The guy selling them was Asian. I felt like he was Chinese. He tried to make sales the same way I remember the Chinese people would try to sell me things "Oh, those look Very Good! Make you look very handsome/beautiful," hehe. So I asked him where he was from and I was right! I got to tell him about how I taught in China. It was fun. And of course, he gave Kyle like a $10 discount on his sunglasses. And then after he had bought the sunglasses the guys told us he was also Mormon and that he wanted his daughter to go to BYU! That was fun. Chinese people are cool.

Disc Golf Adventures
There were so many photos of disc golf from this trip that I had to combine them all into one. We took a picture at every disc golf course sign, or if there wasn't a sign for the course, at the basket, etc. We also have pictures with views of the neat areas we got to play in. And pictures of me knee-deep in mud trying to rescue a disc Kyle threw across a creek. . .that was fun :) But I got a disc stuck high up in this bushy tree and Kyle had to try for 20min to use this long PVC pipe to poke it out. Overall we ended up losing one disc :( But in the adventures to recover our discs that we threw off-course, we ended up finding two new discs! So we came home with one more disc then we left with. Pretty cool.


And that pretty much sums up our recent adventures! In Pocatello we just relaxed, played some disc golf, and Kyle took the GRE. It's his last semester and he will be applying to graduate schools in a few months. He got a great score for the physical therapy schools he wants to apply to. He's really enjoying his internship at Rexburg Rehabilitation. I'm still working and am now also having fun doing photo shoots for people :) Still for free so I can build my portfolio but one day I will bring home the bacon with my photography! Well, maybe not but it can at least be a 'hobby job' :) That's all for now!

Snow Adventure Galore

We got in one awesome adventure this winter . . . Kyle and I went with Mark and Natalie to go cross country skiing for a day! Neither of us had gone before but Mark and Natalie had and they were excellent teachers (and I suppose we were pretty good students too. . . hehe).

The trails were pretty scenic - we got to go around a big lake (which i thought i took pictures of but i guess not...). We stopped to eat our packed lunches at the "warming shack" where we met a cool old couple who were cross country skiing enthusiasts. They taught us that back in the day people used to x-cty ski in their Levis . . . this meant that when they fell their Levis dyed some of the snow blue. To this day they call the spots in the snow where you can obviously tell someone had fallen a "sit-mark" (cause it used to look like someone had been sitting in the snow. . . i actually just looked it up it is a "sitzmark"). Pretty cool, huh? Well, between the 4 of us we made our fair share of sitzmarks. But we had a lot of fun. No Major crashes. . .
UNTIL. . . Suddenly. . .
Kyle took a spill. He was fine (thank goodness!!). But his rented BYU-I ski boot was another story. The binding broke making it impossible for Kyle to snap into his left ski. We all used our creative juices to try and tie his ski back to his boot - at one point we thought we had it, too. But to no avail - whatever we tried would just slip off when he tried to go again. SO, Kyle had to go the last couple of miles on the BLACK DIAMOND (forgot to mention that earlier...) trail with one ski. Pretty much, he would put his left foot down, which would then sink about knee-deep in snow, and then some how push off so he could glide a little on his right ski. Crazy. But, he made it!! I don't think I would have made it... And at the end of it all Kyle said he wanted to go again! What a trooper. And, as for the boot, the rental place said they weren't going to charge us because the SAME THING had happened a few other times . . . Um, why were the still renting those boots out if they knew they were faulty? . . .