Newlyweds at 3 months

Everyone says that the first year of marriage is difficult, but does that really ever deter anyone from getting married? I sure hope not. Ben and I recently celebrated our 3 month anniversary, and our discovery has been that the first 25% of the first 1.0 year of marriage is actually pretty amazing. How's that for a statistic? As a side note, statisticians say that 98% of statistics are made up... so let's just say we're madly in love.

24th of July Camping

For the 24th of July weekend we went camping up near Cascade Springs with Landon and Liesl, who we commend for bringing little baby Andelin to join us. We found a beautiful meadow to camp in with a new found friend, Rex, who insisted we borrow several items from his trailer full of camping gear. The men loved doing MANLY things like setting up the new tents, looking for firewood, and building a raging fire. My favorite part was the food: eating delicious tinfoil dinners as well as an amazing dutch oven breakfast provided by Landon and Liesl. Camping is the greatest!



The manly men (Landon and Ben) searching for firewood.












Ben making delicious tinfoil dinners. As every mountain man knows, a good head lamp makes the meat much more tender.

Lake Powell

In July we had the awesome opportunity to go to Lake Powell with Ben's grandparents and family. Athena had never been but absolutely loved it! What a beautiful place. We water skied, jet skied, sun bathed, hiked up a slot canyon, all the while staying on a beautiful houseboat. Thank you Poppa and Grams!











Where we parked the houseboat. Can you see it?






When you get married you still don't know a lot about each other. I had yet to find out that my husband is the best looking man to have water skied Lake Powell. But I could have guessed that... :)

Belize & Honduras!!!

When Ben & I were dating, I told him I wanted to take him back to my mission after we had married. He didn't seem opposed to a trip to Central America (big surprise :) ) so we bought our tickets to visit my home of 18 months even before we'd picked out a wedding photographer. Little did we know, the return to my mission would be an amazing, breath-taking, and possibly life-threatening experience. We decided not to call it our honeymoon, but a "learn-to-survive-in-Central-America-moon".

Day #1- Arrive in Belize. Visit the Altun Ha Mayan ruins, go to Orange Walk to visit members there.
Day #2- Take the Lamanai river cruise. Have a wild monkey sit in my lab. Hike up the tallest Mayan temples in Belize. Take a bus to Belmopan. Visit with the Bonilla's and many other families I love so much.
Day #3- More Belmopan visits, take a bus to Dangriga, then to Placencia. Enjoy a beautiful ocean view in a seaside cabana.
Day #4- Take the boat to Honduras. Have our passports taken away by immigration, get ripped off by a taxi driver, stay in the hotel because we're too afraid to leave, visit Andi (Ben's friend from his mission) and eat dinner at his home in Choloma, take a $25 late-night taxi ride back to the coast in a torrential rain storm while clinging to each other in the back seat.
Day #5- Bus into Tegucigalpa. See the angelic face of my mission companion. Go to dinner with Karen, Geraldine and Hermana Macias and enjoy reminiscing and great meat. Sleep at Karen's home.
Day #6- Church in Karen's branch. Fun in La Valle de Los Angeles. Quickly say goodbye to Karen and her mom after running and banging on the cabin door to catch the bus back to the coast. 5 more hours on the bus feeling exhausted. Sleep in a hole-in-the-wall hotel in San Pedro Sula for $20 American.
Day #7- Get on a bus in San Pedro Sula to catch the boat back to Belize. Hit a strike on the highway and take back roads that men charge buses to get through (think rocks in the road, chains across it, etc.). Make it just at the time the boat is leaving, wait 2 hours for the boat to leave, cry tears of joy on boat to have made it out of Honduras alive. Arrive in Placencia, Belize and take small airplane to Belize City, where the Dunford's pick us up. Ferry to Caye Caulker where we FINALLY get to relax in a hotel on the beach.
Day #8- Snorkel in the sea, get sun burnt to the max. Find ants in my backpack and all over our hotel bed, move hotel rooms. Relax in a hammock on the porch, walk the dirt path by the ocean.
Day #9- Take ferry back from Caye Caulker, taxi to the airport and fly home. Amazing, and event-filled trip :)

We're Married!!!

On April 23, 2010 we were sealed as a family forever in the Provo Temple.It rained on our wedding day, but we barely noticed. Who could pay attention to the rain after having had such an amazing experience? What a blessing to be so in love and marry someone so wonderful :) We're so excited to see where life takes us.