Our visit to Utah

Meghan and I were able to spend the first part of June in Utah. After 5 months of selling cars, interning at EY and studying for the CPA exam, Meghan and I were ready for some quality time with family and friends!

Upon arriving in Utah, we stopped for burgers at the sorely missed In’n Out. We then saw my family (who we stayed with). We had extended family over for dinner and had a great time celebrating family birthdays for the month of June.  It was wonderful to be home, I really miss seeing my family regularly.  As my siblings and I have gotten older and sibling rivalry has eroded, visiting with them has become something that I look forward to almost more than anything else. We were able to see John and Anna more than any of the other siblings. We wished we could have seen more of David, Jenny, and Katie!

On Monday, I spent time on BYU’s campus while Meghan studied. I had a great time seeing professors whom I had worked for as an undergraduate. We also saw Meghan’s great-grandmother Jackson! We also enjoyed some delicious SLAB pizza and I bought a SLAB shirt. I have been meaning to buy a SLAB shirt for almost a year (I’m cheap, unless it comes to buying books). We had some time to kill so we drove up to Sundance and enjoyed the beauty of the mountains from the chair lift.  In the evening, we headed south to enjoy a barbecue with our friends.

Laren, Jessica, and their son Carter Helms were gracious hosts, going above and beyond in providing more than their fair share of food as well as opening their home to so many people. In addition to the Helms’, Mike, Drake, Shayli, the McKells, the Smiths, Ben and Audrey joined us for burgers, bocce, brats (the meat), and brats (the kids—joke!).  It was so great to see everyone. As we’ve gotten older (I know, 25 isn’t old), we’ve realized that it’s harder to make friends as adults and couples than we ever realized before. After 5 months of having only a few friends to spend time with, it was amazing to see so many friends in one place. Our only regret was not getting a picture of all of us.

Tuesday, we spent the evening with Meghan’s aunt (Melissa) and uncle (Drew) and their daughter (Brooke). Drew and Melissa were the first two members of Meghan’s family that I spent prolonged time with, and we love them to death. We went to the Mandarin in Bountiful. If you haven’t been there, you should TREAT YO SELF and go. Best Chinese food in Utah, hands down. Afterwards, we went back to Drew and Melissa’s, where we enjoyed delicious Neilson’s frozen custard. Brooke, who is two, has always been special to me, because one of the first nights I spent around Meghan’s mom, Brooke jumped on my lap and sat there happily for 20 minutes. I felt as if I had passed a job interview with her mom because Brooke liked me. (something I had been worrying about intensely).[i] Yes, I’m superstitious and a dork, or a superdork.

From Wednesday to Saturday, I was absorbed in Mormon nerdery. A friend organized a tour of the Church History Library in Salt Lake City, where I learned more about how the LDS Church is preserving its history, and saw a typescript copies of D&C 138, as well as the letter that Willard Richards sent to Nauvoo pleading with LDS leaders not to avenge the deaths of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. Afterwards, we had lunch at Red Iguana. I was in nerd-vana. 

For the next three days, I attended the Mormon History Association in Layton. I heard some excellent papers on different aspects of Mormon History, but just as enjoyably if not more, I met up with old friends, met some in person for the first time, and made several new friends. I also met my advisor at UVA, Kathleen Flake, who is a phenomenal scholar and will mold me as a competent and confident academic. She doesn’t have a lot to work with, but that’s not her fault.

Due to a series of unfortunate events, I presented my own paper at MHA by myself, rather than in a panel, which is customary at academic conferences. My presentation, which came out of my paper that won the best undergraduate paper prize for MHA, centered on how Latter-day Saints reacted to the 1890 Woodruff Manifesto. I gave my paper as calmly as I could, and then answered questions for 20 minutes. I didn’t feel great about the presentation, but Meghan assured me that it went very well. (It went great! Joey is a phenomenal presenter. I love seeing him present. –Meghan).  I’m glad that I have at least one unconditional fan out there!

Joey asked me to write about this part because he wasn’t there. While Joey was at MHA I was able to have some fun of my own. On Thursday I went to lunch and shopping with Audrey, Rachelle and adorable Avery. Friday I was able to hang out with my grandparents visiting from Las Vegas and to go

see my cousin Brooklyn Newby's 6^th grade graduation. Saturday I drove up to Ogden with Audrey to go to the dinosaur museum with Ashley, Devon, and there two adorable children Colson and Beckett. Rachelle and Avery joined us too. Oh goodness, what a delightful afternoon it was! I love to see my friends as mothers and to play with their wonderful children! I was in heaven these three days being able to see and spend time with so many people I love. I had been a little lonely in Virginia. -Meghan

The last few days we were in Utah, we soaked up time with family and friends. We hiked up to a waterfall and enjoyed lunch in Park City at a favorite, Loco Lizard. We enjoyed seeing my cousin Ben and his fiancée Manisha, as well as just hanging out with family. Anna and John took a lot of time to hang out with my parents, Meghan and me, and spent the evenings eating delicious foods, playing Bananagrams, and just enjoying each other’s company.

When the time had come for us to return home, our flight back to DC was delayed for 4 hours and then canceled. Luckily, all clouds have silver linings. We took a flight out the next morning, which had a layover in Phoenix, where our dear friend Lorina lives. We were able to see her for a half hour and enjoy the Arizona scenery. Lorina has been Meghan’s best friend for many years, and has also become one of my best friends. We were frustrated with the canceled flight, but were very glad to be able to see her!

When we touched down in DC, we went right to bed. We were exhausted from our day’s travel and our adventures from the 10 days previous. We took off 8 hours later for our trip to NYC, which you’ll read all about in our next blog posts!

-Joey

---

[i] I knew I wanted to marry Meghan at this point…I had just told Meghan that I loved her. (Cue Full House “awwwwwwwwww”)

Dog Sitting

The last few months have been a whirlwind. Get ready for some awesome posts about what we have been up to!

Right after I finished my internship in mid-April my parents asked me to come dog sit for them. They had a new puppy, Nellie, who was about 6 months old at the time and they didn't want to have to find a  place to leave her for 10 days while they went to Mexico. I gladly obliged. Who would turn down a week in Charleston, SC? Unfortunately Joey couldn't take that long off of work but he was able to come down for three days out of the week and we made the most of what time we had.

Although we would have liked to have had my parents there to spend time with, it was kind of nice to have the whole house to ourselves. We woke early, took the dogs on lots of long walks, ate yummy food, shopped at the outlets, went to our favorite spots in Charleston, and of course took walks on the beach. It was beautiful weather because it was still spring and not yet to hot and humid to be outside. 

Joey has never had a pet dog before so it was fun to see him bond with the dogs. They are quite a handful but so much fun. Sam has been our family dog since high school and I love her to pieces. Nellie is a little mischievous and rowdy but so cute that you can't help but love her. Joey even let her cuddle with him on the bed! He tried to teach Nellie how to play fetch but she would just get so mad that he wanted to take her toy away. 

Joey said it was the best vacation ever! I think that might be a little bit of an exaggeration, although it was pretty much perfect. He had been so stressed with work I think it was just nice for him to get away and for us to have a little time together.

I also got to spend a few days with my parents when they got home from Mexico. It is always so fun to be with them. It was not neither enough time but I will see them again soon!

Now here are some pictures...

DC Adventures

May has turned out to be a busier month then I imagined! Joey is busy with work as usual and I have been spending my time studying away for the CPA Exam and trying to make a dent in my long list of things I wanted to accomplish in May. In the little spare time we do have we are trying to take advantage of living in DC while we can! Now, lots of pictures!

{At the beginning of April we went to see the famous DC cherry blossoms. We were a few days early for the peak blossoms but it was still very beautiful. It was perfect weather and a fun outing.}

{Cute hubby with the Washington Monument in the background}

{Aren't we the cutest?}

{The next week we went on a boat cruise on the Potomac. It was sunny and beautiful and we loved learning all about DC from the tour guide. Joey and his history nerdness was happy!}

{Not the best pic of us, but the only one I have from the cruise. Good thing we have seen more sun since then}

{View of the Lincoln and Washington from our boat}

{My sister was off work one day so we decided to go to the national zoo. I always love the zoo and this one did not disappoint.}

{The beavers were a surprise favorite! We got to see them being fed and they were so cute.}

{I loved the panda! It was so cute eating the bamboo.}

{For Mothers day we decided to go to Mount Vernon. It was the perfect day! Sunny and 75.}

{Joey as Washington, isn't he handsome?}

{There were so many sheep! I loved them. I was so excited to see the sheep sheering but we missed it. Joey thought I

was crazy because I was more excited about all of it then the kids were.}

{I wanted to do a cartwheel and have Joey take a picture. He was very reluctant but finally agreed. He only let me try once though because he was so embarrassed of me.}

{This week we went paddle boating in the tidal basin! I have been wanting to do this forever but last summer it was to hot. It was perfect this week with a nice breeze.}

{Our duck friend Harold. He kept following us around and I loved it.}

My First 5K

Last year around the end of September I decided I wanted to learn to run and to work up to running a 5K without walking at all. I have NEVER been a runner but heck, why not try!

I started off really slow and by the time I had worked my way up to being ready it was December and I guess people don't really like running in the snow because there were zero 5Ks going on....

Then I moved and started a new job and it was cold outside and a list of a bunch of other excuses, needless to say, I stopped running. I talked to my sister and we decided to train to run one together in May. I put off training for the above excuses until about mid April and then panicked and started running again. Five days before the actual 5K I ran 3.1 miles for the first time ever! 

The day of the race was overcast and perfect for running and it was so fun to be running with my sister who worked so hard to train. I felt pretty good running. I was VERY slow, but steady, the definite tortoise in this story. I ran the whole way though and made it to the finish line! It took 32 minutes but I am proud of myself for making my goal! I am also so proud of my sister Kenz as well! She ran it in 26 minutes, and she, like me, has never been a runner. Go us!

 {Before the race}

 {Joey was such a good supporter! He woke up so early even though he had to work a 12 hour day}

 {SISTERS}

{I did it!}