Our Escape From the City

Tired from the traffic, all the people, the desert, and mostly the heat; we escaped it ALL!! Nick has been missing the mountains from home and we've thought, 'if only we were in Wyoming!' But we've found this weekend, that we don't have to be in Wyoming to get the escape we've been longing for. Nick has always heard of people talk about how neat and relaxing Mount Charleston is, but he has never been able to check it out. We decided that it was time to go see what it had to offer. :) We did our Saturday chores around the house and yard and then took off for the "mountain". We were trying not to get too excited because we didn't want to be let down by what we would find. The closer we got to the mountain, the more beautiful it got. It began to rain the closer we got and so we were lucky enough to watch an amazing lightning storm fill the sky. We were so excited and it was ALL we had hoped for. We explored the entire mountain side and found out two down sides to the whole deal: 1. You can't actually drive over the mountain. The road just kind of flips a you and sends you right back down the way you came. There was a man sitting in a booth at the top and he laughed at us when we asked if there was no way to get OVER the mountain. We had to explain to him that we were from Wyoming and that's the way it was there. :) He told us the only way to the TOP of Mount Charleston, was by walking. An 8 mile hike actually. :) 2. And secondly, we were hoping we MIGHT get lucky enough to find a stream to fish from. But... after exploring the mountain side and also asking the booth man, we found that there is no water. I know... very weird. But we had to stay positive and just enjoy and relax in what we did have. My cousin Jess called me once we were heading back to the city and I had told her we just went to the mountains. "Mountains? In Nevada? Like with no rocks, pavement, and real trees?" she asked. Yes, that's right. Pine trees and beautiful mountains. Take a look...

(Mom, I told you Nevada isn't ALL that ugly... these are for you)

Not bad huh? It was just what we needed.

Once we returned from the mountain, we did something that has needed to be done for a LONG time. Both mine and Nick's mom FULLY agree, although Nick was NOT so convinced. He says that 'Every guy has one and they love it. It's a must have.' Yes, I'm talking about a cap. One that has dirt built up on it from being worn for FOUR years. One that's frayed across the bill, one that holes in the back from killing flies. Yes Nick... it is past time to let go. So we did it, we bought him a NEW CLEAN hat. And I must say that it looks VERY nice.

Here is the old hat....

And then the NEW CLEAN one compared to the OLD one! :)

Now that's what a WHITE hat is supposed to look like! :) Mom's we knew you'd LOVE to see this because both of you have been wanting this hat to only HANG on the wall and NOT been seen in public. LOL!! :)

Saturday Night Entertainment

This weekend we had the opportunity to attend the Imperial Hawaiian Luau. Your probably thinking 'what the heck is that?' Well, a good friend of Nick's, by the name of Fa'afo'i Tuitama, is in this show on the Strip at the Imperial Palace. We were walking out of church last Sunday, and he stopped us and told us to come check out his show sometime. Since it's our one month Anniversary :) we thought it would be the prefect time to go. He told us to give him call when we wanted to come and he'd hook us up. Sure enough... we were his guests for the night and it was
an amazing show. Not only was it a show, but there was also a dinner (a very GOOD one!) :)

As soon as the show had begun they asked where everyone was from and had people stand when they called out their home state. Of course they didn't say Wyoming, but they DID ask if anyone was there to celebrate an anniversary or recently got married. We raised our hands and they proceeded to have each and every one of those couples go to the stage and dance while they sang a song. Nice huh? LOL!! One of the ladies that was sitting across from us grabbed our camera and took a picture of us. :) Pretty funny...

Anyways... the show was amazing and so fun to see. Tuitama was great and it was SO kind of him to do that for us!

After many songs and dances, the best part of the show came by Tuitama himself... watch this video... it's AMAZING!!

Pretty sweet huh?
The whole night was so fun and what a sweet man for doing that for us.

Family fun & Vegas Reception

It took me a while to get the pictures from our trip to Vegas and our reception here, but now I have them...
After Nick and I were married, my parents and younger sister helped us move to Vegas. They drove the Tahoe with the Uhaul and Nick and I drove my car. We're SO grateful to my parents for helping us move, because it couldn't have happened without their help and support. It was two day trip and we were happy to have made it safely here. Now this was the first time for my parents to come to Vegas. Of course we had to drive INTO Vegas in the daylight. You should have seen the look on my parents' face as soon as I told them we were right outside of Vegas. This is a picture my mom took of the outskirts.

They were NOT impressed with the scenery. LOL!! Can you blame them? They have the Bighorn Mountains right out their window to enjoy everyday. Anyways... Once we got INTO Vegas, they relaxed a little when seeing how beautifully landscaped all of it is. Once we got all unloaded and unpacked we met Nick's family who flew to Vegas. The next couple of days were fun and relaxing as we showed them the Las Vegas Temple and of course, the Strip. We didn't spend much time on the Strip, but we all enjoyed the water show. :)

My mom took this awesome picture of Angel Moroni! :)

A few days afterwards, we had our reception. This reception was done by Carl and Steph Combado. They are good friends of ours from here. It was pretty laid back compared to the main reception that we had in Wyoming (I still don't have those pictures); however, it was really fun. The purpose of this reception was for me to meet people from Vegas.

I met a lot of people and we had a good time. :) I'm excited to post the Wyoming reception. :)

A surprise from HOME!!

We had a great surprise this week. My cousin Melissa was in town for the week for a Kindergarten Teacher Conference. She was pretty busy with classes and site seeing, but she made just enough time to see us today before heading home to Montana. It was great getting to visit with her while have brunch at the Peppermill. It's nice to see a familiar face from home. And it's even better when you're a little homesick! ;) Thanks Melissa! :)

Home Sweet Home!

Since Nick has been in Vegas, he and I have been very blessed and are staying in this house for a year. A couple is on their mission and we've been asked to house sit for them until next June. We gladly accepted this offer and have been loving every minute of it (even if cleaning it takes A LOT longer than a little apartment) :). It's a very big and nice beautiful house. It has four bedrooms and two 1/2 bathrooms. It is way too much for just the two of us, but we're okay with that! :) And look what the bonus is...

... a pool in the back"yard".

That's our FAVORITE part. Yes, we know we're being VERY spoiled and come next June reality will set in. :) Our hearts are full of gratitude for the blessings we've received while living here in Vegas. Isn't it funny how things fall into place when your where the Lord wants you and when you're doing your best?

Our Honeymoon Adventure

Nick and I talked about going on a honeymoon but decided that because he had already taken 3 weeks off of work for the wedding, that we wouldn't have much time. So we planned to just wait and do something for our One Year Anniversary. Well, little did I know that he had something planned as a surprise for me. :) Laura, one of our good friends in Vegas, asked Nick what we were doing for out honeymoon. He explained the situation and that was that. Then she said let me pay your way to Disney Land for a day and a hotel room for two nights. That way we'd have just enough time to have some fun and then be able to get back to work. Nick was hesitant, but agreed. They kept this a secret until the night Nick and I opened all our wedding presents we had gotten at the reception. We got a lot of really nice gifts and all of Nick's family and mine was there to watch. When I thought we had finished opening all the presents, Nick grabbed one that was behind the chair and said that I had forgotten one. It was only addressed to me, so I thought that someone who wasn't able to get to my bridal shower might have just brought the gift then. I opened it up and was SHOCKED!!!

Laura had bought this stuff and put a little card together for me. There was also a letter inside the card that explained her wanting to do something really special for our wedding. I was so overwhelmed with excitement and joy that I began to cry. Like I said before, Nick is a keeper. He's always doing amazing things for me.
We headed for Disney Land on Monday and planned to return to Vegas on Wednesday night. Before we left town that morning, we stopped by the bank. The guy that was assisting us told us that since we were going to California and would be near Laguna Beach that we HAD to see the ocean. He went on and on about how pretty it is and how close it is to Disney Land. He was so excited for us that he got on mapquest right then and printed us off directions from Vegas to Laguna Beach. We were excited and made our way out of Vegas headed for Laguna. The drive was about four hours long and seemed to go by pretty quickly. I was being the navigator while Nick drove. We were following directions perfectly and according to the mapquest directions, we were ALMOST there. This is where our adventure begins... We pull off the interstate into what mapquest TOLD US was LAGUNA BEACH. It didn't look like much, but we continued to follow the directions. It took us down side streets and we kept looking at each other like what the heck? But we kept on going. Finally the last direction took us down a dead end street. We were not very happy. The neighborhood was FREAKY looking and we knew something wasn't right. There was a man standing in his front yard watering his lawn and so Nick rolled down the window and asked him where the heck Laguna Beach is. The man laughed at us because OBVIOUSLY we weren't in the right place. He told us that Laguna is back down the interstate a ways. He gave us some crazy directions and we turned around and headed for a gas station. We were so mad that mapquest totally screwed us up. Later we found out that the town we were in, Commerce, California, is a very scary place and people were amazed that we made it out safely. Scary Huh? ANYWAYS... We decided to forget about Laguna Beach for the day and to just drive to Annaheim to our hotel. We got there within 30 minuets and all was well.
The next morning we got up early had some breakfast and got on the shuttle that took us to Disney Land. Nick told them it was our first time so they gave us pins that we wore around all day. :)

(NOTE: The date on the pictures is not accurate. Our camera was not set right.)

Right when we got there we were a little overwhelmed by the amount of people, but we got a map of the resort and headed towards the things we wanted to see. Our first ride was the Indiana Jones ride. It was a blast. The warning said those with back problems should not get on this ride... LOL!! But it's a good thing I did because it wasn't that rough. It was a blast. :) We then went on a Safari Boat ride and a couple of smaller other things. We decided that Splash Mountain was a MUST DO.

Here's a good story... EVERYBODY knows about this ride and it always looked pretty fun, so I agreed to go on it with Nick. The people who work at each ride saw our 1st visit pins and automatically put us in the FRONT of the car. GREAT IDEA... I wasn't very happy. I can't even believe I went on this ride. LOL!! Nick was pumped that we got the front and had a blast. I don't like this ride AT ALL! I handled all the other rides just fine, but this one was too much for me. LOL! You have to check out this picture, it's priceless...

It looks like I'm just screaming and kind of having fun, but I told Nick later that day when we were laughing about it that I wasn't even screaming. I was trying to catch my breath. You know what the air just sucks it out of you... ya, that's what I was doing. LOL!! Pretty hilarious. We get a good laugh out of it every time. :)
We had a pretty fun and exciting day. We did a lot of things, but will have to go back sometime because we didn't have time for some of them. We went on the King Aurthur Carrousel...

On the Matterhorn Bobsleds...


Dumbo the Flying Elephant...


We watched the parade...


We just had a TON of fun doing little stupid things too...

This was right after getting off Splash Mountain, that's why we're SOAKED!! We found these newly-weds mickey hats and didn't want to buy them, so just took a picture LOL!!


Nick practicing his firemen skills... :)


Is he the chosen one?! ;)

And MOST IMPORTANTLY of ALL... We got to meet Mickey :)

We went back to Disney Land later that night and watched the AMAZING firework show.

On Wednesday morning, before checking out of our hotel, we asked the lady at the front desk how far it was to Laguna Beach. They gave us an ACCURATE map and we found that it was only 25 minuets away. We had a BLAST at Laguna Beach too. We stayed for only 3 hours because we still had to drive home to Vegas that night.

The water was FREEZING and Nick carried me out to the water and took a picture right when a wave had almost knocked us over. LOL!!

Our 3 day honeymoon was a BLAST!!