1st Time Camping!

Oct 19
Nate hadn't been camping in awhile, so we went before it got too cold. We pulled all of our stuff together and made our tin foil dinners. We drove to Split Mountain Gorge. It was a pretty campsite, right next to the Green River.

 Setting up the tent...

 We got a fire going and it looked fantastic!!! Nate had packed something mysterious in the cooler. He said I wasn't allowed to look in it. We talked and cooked our tin foil dinners.

 I was REALLY hungry...so Nate took a picture of my chipmunk cheeks. The flash was really bright and so my eyes make me look a little stoned.

 Nate looked a lot better with his tin foil dinner.

 S'MORES!

 I was so excited to roast marshmellows. Once Nate finished his dinner, he brought out his surprise...

 It was so great! The little brownie cakes tasted so good. We forgot cups, so we had to drink out of the bottle. Looks just a little scandalous...

 It was a great birthday celebration! We soon got pretty tired and decide to kill the fire and go to bed. We didn't bring pads to sleep on and Nate forgot his sleeping bad--made for terrible night of sleeping. Nate would cuddle up close for warmth, then he'd roll away due to his sleeping position, and finally get cold, having to roll back. It was kind of funny. I was warm the whole time! (which is rare) We were able to see the stars from our beds and it was awesome!!! There were so many and I saw a shooting star! Nate and I have a game going on to see how many shooting stars we can see compared to the other. Currently, I'm ahead by 10! :)

Beautiful morning to wake up to!
The next morning, we woke up pretty fast. We packed up our camping gear and loaded it into the car. We then drove home to get ready for our trip to Salt Lake.

UEA Weekend

Oct 17-19

I was so grateful to simply have time to breathe for myself during this time off. On the first day, I slept in pretty late. I was able to sit down and actually read a book. I read Shifting by Bethany Wiggins. It's a great read. Little sci-fi, little bit of legend, and a bit of romance. I read basically all day.

The next day, I was a bit more productive. I cleaned, Nate worked, I worked on our costumes and received somethings in the mail....

My dad had sent me my birthday present. Inside the box was all ten seasons of FRIENDS!!! I flipped out! :)

Of course, I had to watch a few episodes.

Later that night, Nate and I made a fort.

 (sorry, the video is sideways)
It's pretty great, right?

 We watched some tv, ate some hummus with chips and made some funny faces

Blurry photo of hummus and Sunchips

On Friday, I relaxed more. It was so nice to sleep-in in our "new" bed. The memory foam and Egyptian cotton was well worth it! Next, Nate ran to Walmart to get something (I don't know), but he was gone for a long time. When he came back, he had yet another birthday gift for me. A shelf for the kitchen! After seeing my seester-in-laws shelf numerous times, I decided that kind of decoration would go perfectly over our table. I'm excited! The brackets weren't my style, but all is well, we figured out the details. (more on that at a later time)

Nate and I then spent the rest of the day getting ready to go camping that night...

Game Night

October 12

The original plan was to go camping or fishing, but with the rain, it didn't happen. So instead, we had the Dunbars come over for games, cocoa and fun.

We started the night off with playing a couple rounds of Bang. Lol We joked about the context for awhile. We struggled to bang (shoot) anyone else but our spouses for awhile, due to the context. Hah. I won the second round like it was nothing! So awesome!!!! (Never happened before) And then we played a round of Wits and Wagers: Family. I made some hot chocolate and we talked up the rest of the night.
It was a ton of fun! Thanks Mallory and Randall for coming over, we had a blast!

Early Birthday Gift

October 9

Nate has been anxiously awaiting my birthday gift. It finally came on Tuesday! He called me after school and told me that I couldn't enter the second bedroom and made me promise. When I got home from school, I saw this...

 He gave me a tail for some reason.

When he got home, he had to "set it up". I was really confused, but let him do his thing. When he was done, he had me come downstairs and I had to find it. I didn't notice anything except what looked like new sheets and the bed was higher. He had me lay on it and I noticed that it was plushy and form-fitting.

He got me memory foam and egyptian cotton sheets for our bed!

 Although now I never want to leave it when I get up in the morning. It feels THAT good!

Thanks Nate! I love you!

Canadian Thanksgiving

October 8

Amongst SEOP conferences, Mallory invited me over for her Canadian Thanksgiving celebration FHE. I guess Canadians celebrate the holiday in October instead of November like we do. I don't know. Nate had classes that ran late so he couldn't go with me, but it was fun.

I didn't take my camera so no pictures. Sorry...

We were going to eat a roast, but had pizza instead. Then, as was tradition, we watched 'Strange Brew'. For those of you who don't know, the two main characters are the voices of the moose in Brother Bear, ay. 

It was good to meet other young couples in the area as well.

General Conference

October 6

Nate had to work the first part of the morning, as did I. We watched conference, played games and drove around to different yard sales in the morning. During the afternoon session, we looked for Boomer singing and cleaned house. I ran to the school for an hour and when I came back, Nate and I left for the Dunbars. Nate went with Randall to the Priesthood session, while I chatted with Mallory. 

My dad and brother showed up around 8 and the fun began.

We ate dinner, played some kinect Xbox games (Boomer enjoyed them) and hit the sack.

The following morning, Nate made us breakfast as we watched the Sunday morning session. It was really good. I mean, Elder Holland's talk was INCREDIBLE! We talked and played games for awhile before making dinner.

I made my very first loaf of bread!

It actually tasted good surprisingly. My dad had to help with the moisture aspect. I forgot to pay attention to the high altitude when adding the ingredients. 

We ate dinner, including dutch oven potatoes. :) We enjoyed the last little bit of conference before my family left and went to the Dunbars for games. It was a great relaxing weekend.