Looking Back

ONE year. I feel so wise and like I am now qualified to give marriage advice to anyone! (not really actually). One of the things I always wondered before I got married was if being married was boring. I came from a big family and I always had a lot of roommates so living with one person...wouldn't that get boring? I am happy to tell you that marriage is far from boring! Especially when you are married to Gil! Having your best buddy by your side actually makes everything much more exciting. Its so fun to experience something for yourself, but it is even better to experience something through your spouse. Everyone should just go get married right now. We've had a lot of fun times. Here are some of my favorite moments from our first year of marriage:

1. I asked Gil to pick me up a donut-cutter while he was picking up some other needed items at Bed Bath and Beyond while I was at work. When he came to pick me up after work was over he explained that they had too many options and he was afraid he would get the wrong one so he didn't buy one at all. I got really upset with him because I needed to make doughnuts for my co-workers the next morning. I pretty much didn't talk to him the rest of the way home because I was so upset. When I walked in the door there were flowers on the table along with a donut cutter. He had wanted to surprise me. He then had to patiently wait for me to cry for about 10 minutes because I felt so guilty.

2. When we were supposed to fly out for our Ohio reception we missed the flight buy 5 minutes. Actually-we probably could have made the flight, but the lady at the desk said we needed to be there 45 minutes early and we made it 40 minutes early....so they wouldn't let us board. SO SAD. We were talking to the people at the counter and I was getting really frustrated and annoyed, but Gil was calm. He said he felt bad for the ticket people cause everyone was getting mad at them (there were more than just us who missed our flight by a few minutes). I started to cry because I was so frustrated with the whole thing and they told us we couldn't make it on a flight until Thursday. So there I was, crying in public. Gil was trying to comfort me and figure everything out with the ticket lady at the same time. We were able to make the best of the situation by going to our family cabin instead (we already had work off) and still made it to Ohio in time for the reception.

3. One time we (mostly me) was 90% sure I was pregnant. My thinking I was pregnant lasted for about a month and finally we went to the dollar store to buy a pregnancy test. So we made our little newly-wed way to the dollar store to buy one. I didn't want go in so Gil went in and bought it. We come back to the house, I took it. and it came up negative We had decided earlier that whether it came out positive or negative we would celebrate by going to Carabbas to eat that night. When our waitress asked us if we were celebrating anything that night we nervously shook our heads no because we didn't want to say anything about it to her.

4. Doing the lazy man iron man together. It was fun! Gil taught me how to swim and I loved taking long bike rides with Gil.

5. Going to the temple together--when we first got married we had a goal to go to all of the temples in Utah before our first year anniversary...some of them are in the middle of NOWHERE though...so we still have to get to those ones..

6. One night we decided it would be really fun to have a sleepover in our living room. We hauled out the mattress and used a table + ottoman to set our TV up high so we could fall asleep to the movie "The Incredibles". At 5:30 AM we both woke up to a loud CRASH to discover that our new TV had fallen to the ground and was permanently broke.

7. The time Gil discovered what an eye lash curler was. He was watching me do it one morning and he goes, "So it like....squirts them up or something?".

8. Going to Disneyland together. There are a lot of rides Gil had never been on before that I got to live again through him!

9. Playing card games before bed. We don't do it a lot, but every now and then before falling asleep we get a good card came in. It's kinda fun chillin' on the bed and playing cards.

Clearly we have had some fun times. My first year being married to Gil has been amazing. There is no other word for it. There are some nights I can't fall asleep because he made me laugh too hard while getting ready for bed. Then there are the quiet times when we are simply doing homework side by side. It's kinda fun being in this stage we are in right now. We are just two youngins in love who have no idea where our little family will be in 2, 5, or even 20 years from now. The future is unknown! I like discovering it with Gil by my side. He makes it a lot less scary.

The Best

We seriously thought about what we should do for our anniversary for months! Every other day we'd ask each other, "What should we do on our anniversary?". Neither of us had ever had one before (obviously) and it was our first one...we wanted it to be a day to remember. Finally we had it all figured out. We were going to go up to my parent's cabin in Brighton right after the USA world cup game on Tuesday and stay until Thursday morning. We would have fun hiking Big Cottonwood Canyon, go into Park City for dinner, and spend time together reflecting on the past year and relaxing. It was going to be perfect.

Sadly, we found out a couple of days before our anniversary that the cabin had been booked by some renters! Commence operation find-a-new-anniversay-plan. We didn't have a lot of time to prepare so in the end we kicked off the anniversay on the day before by going on a hike (We feel like the day before is like New Years Eve...it was the LAST day of our FIRST year together. That deserved a special celebration too). Due to some car troubles we couldn't go far so we hiked up Rock Canyon. I can't believe I have lived in Provo all my life and have only been up that canyon twice! It is beautiful! Not to mention it is less than a mile away from our apartment. We didn't get very far up the canyon because Gilbert wanted to ditch the normal route and rock climb up the mountain. It was all fun and games until we got super high up and I started to imagine all sorts of ways one of us could end up seriously injured if we lost our footing. We said a prayer and were able to make it down safely. 

We ended the night by making fajitas and dragged out our mattress to watch "Once Upon a Time".

The next morning we made a yummy, healthy breakfast together 

then ventured outside to go on a bike ride to Utah Lake. When we got to the lake we had lunch and went for a swim. Again, it is one of those things I can't believe I have never done before while living in Provo. Biking to and then swimming in Utah Lake. The water even surprised us by being warm.

{Hurray for getting self-timer to work!}

 We ended the anniversary by going to one of our favorite restaurants: La Jolla groves. It involved a fantastic meal, a waiter we made quick friends with and some great conversation.

I love Gilbert. I love the past year we have been able to have together. Next blog post I'll talk about some of my favorite memories from year one.

Utah Lake

 

I don't know if I would say Utah Lake is a secret, but I would say there are a lot of people in Utah Valley that don't take advantage of this beautiful lake like they should. Even if you don't have a boat you can still swim in it or rent a canoe and have a picnic with your lover. Some people have this idea in their heads that Utah Lake is dirty and has sewage in it (okay I admit...I thought that as a child too).  I am here to tell you that is false!! The reason it looks a little bit muddy is because the lake is so shallow and the fish eat off the floor which makes the ground a little gushy...nothing to be afraid of. To all of my Utah friends, I recommend you drive down (or bike down!) to Utah Lake this summer and enjoy its beauty.