The Past few Months

Wow! Have not blogged in a long time! Let's just say the past few months have been anything but easy!. Finished my fall class, added more duties at work (which I really love driving Carly to school everyday, gets us up and out early :)! ) My sister and my mom moved to Montana in October. Helped my dad and brother move. They stayed at our house for a few weeks, with the animals! We were a circus! Matt has been working and traveling like crazy. Steilacoom football made it to the playoffs!  I also thought it would be a fun task of making our Christmas gifts, tad overwhelming :). Dad moved to Montana. I visited Montana. We had the holidays in between. Not my kind of relaxing holiday season I had planned. Oh well on to a new year! Praise the Lord!

So please bear with me with the next few posts :)

Montana Summer Vacation

So I know I have been a MAJOR blog slacker and I thought I would share with you some of my favorite things we did in Montana this summer! (wont all fit in one blog so keep checking back)
 


Matt & I about to hit the road!



We stayed in Missoula the entire time except when we were at the lake! (get to that in a minute). So we drove everywhere else for day trips (we are a little crazy!) Our first day trip was to Philipsburg, MT.



A whimsy coffee shop in the town



 

 Its a cute little town (no stop lights). It has a theatre and its right outside of a ski resort. One of its most popular attractions is panning for sapphires (I have never done it, but hope so one day)

 



The amazing architecture


When we go to Philipsburg we love to just visit the shops and take in all the beautiful architecture this little town has. We also had lunch at the local soda shop.

But no stop in Philipsburg is complete with out a trip to the world famous Sweet Palace! They sell fudge and make old fashioned salt water taffy (which they have one whole wall dedicated to just taffy). They have a sugar free section, a hard candy section, gummy section, jelly belly section, and way to much to count! We usually spend $40 - $70 at the Sweet Palace (its where we get our souvenirs!)

 



Matt & I ready to get our loot!



Our Goods!

  

After a few days in Missoula we packed up the car again and went on another road trip to Flat Head Lake! Specifically Big Arm, MT! Here we spent 4 days with no cell service or TV just books, food, family (all 42 of us), and all the lake has to offer!



The Main House



The Bunk House, Water Slide, Fire Pit



The rest of the dock and boat house

 

Matt & I relaxing in the swing

Our beverage fridge! Never enough to drink ;)

Our View in the Daylight

 

Our sunset!

 


Emma & I getting ready to go tubing!



Relaxing before our wild ride (after a long CRAZY ride Emma did a back flip out and landed in the lake)

 


We like to boat, kayak, swim, ride jet skis, float!

 
 
 

About to go for a dive!

 

Getting ready for a boat ride!



Inter tubing! We only had 2 dislocated fingers and dislocated toes in the whole 4 days (I think that's pretty good!)
 




Another AMAZING sunset!

 

Every night ended with a fire and talking and we were lucky enough to have a night of singing and a guitar playing!



And of course we always had SMORES!





Hubby & I packing up to head to one more reunion and 2 more weddings and only 3 days left of vacation!





There is nothing like this place! Its magical!



YouTube Date!

Matt & I @ my Sweet 16 (2 weeks after he asked me out)

So Matt and I have been super busy lately and with the holidays coming up money is extra tight. We are also about to celebrate our 8 year (dating) anniversary next week so I thought I would share with you guys a fun cheap (possibly free) date night that we love to do even when we had just begun dating that will leave you laughing for hours.

 

First off how this idea came about:

Senior year

I love Elisabeth Hasselbeck! She had mentioned this idea on The View and I thought it was a fun idea. So one night back in high school Matt brought over dessert (a personal cake with a fun pink ring to be exact) and for about three hours we sat in my room cracking up at YouTube videos. Even eight years later we still love to do it.

 

 

 

 

Our Wedding Day
(September 5th, 2010)

 

I thought I would share a few of our favorite videos! (a tip to the best YouTube date pick one video and then on the right side of the screen there is always related videos or similar and we choose one after ever video)

 

 

 

 

 



Hope you all enjoy some of our favorite videos!

Happy Fall Yall!

Happy 4th of July

Hope everyone had an amazing holiday! Here in Steilacoom we lucked out! The weather turned out to be a perfect low 70's for the day which was perfect for our day of activities planned! Our little town knows how to celebrate!


Matt and I started off the morning preparing our house for a family BBQ in the late afternoon! After everything was set my parents, brother ,and sister came over and we went and enjoyed the town's parade and street fair. We also saw lots of old friends. Nice part of a small town :). Afterwards it was BBQ time! Matt's family and mine came over along with the Buell Family (the family I am a nanny for) and we also invited our new neighbors to join us. We had a blast! The kids had a water table to play and tee ball while everyone played badminton and bocce ball. It was great to have all our families together.

Alex and his Jana

Eric 

Sara and Jackson the Badminton champs!

Matt and our nephew Jackson

Our nephew Trevor

My little sis Chloe

Dylan and Sara

Goofs

 My dad and I

Love my parents!

My Pinterest Creation!

After everyone left and Matt and I cleaned up we decided to walk down to the waterfront and enjoy the firework show the town puts on. During our walk down one of the parents of Matt's players saw us and invited us to view the fireworks from his home. I have to tell you its the best view! We got spoiled! We were given cookies and drinks and my favorite chocolate covered strawberries! The fireworks were amazing. After the show we walked home and we passed out.
 

We had such a fun day! It gave us even more reason to love our little town and we decided we will host a BBQ every year! I am already planning for next year ;) only about 360 days to go!

We Moved!

The biggest change besides the death of my Nana is we decided to move to the beautiful little town of Steilacoom. We are renting a little one room cottage and we love it. We moved a whole 8 minutes away from Matt's parents house. Its the town Matt coaches for so its nice to be part of that community! It is right on the Puget Sound so we are a 5 minute walk to a beach and a 10 minute walk to the main part of town were there are restaurants and all the community activities! We are so happy to have a place to call ours and have BBQ's. It needs some work but for the two of us we are in love!

Back to the world of blogging!!!

Wow! My how life changes in a matter of 7 months. Lets see!  Well in November my boss was diagnosed with breast cancer and so Matt and I went into major helper mode! I went from 3 11 hour days to at least 5 12 hour days which some days we more like 14 or 15 hour days.  Oh and did I mention I am still in school? But we are still alive and love the kiddos so it makes it all worth it! My boss is still in treatment and doing great! She is scheduled to be done the last week of July!  In the midst of it all I was offered an amazing job and decided to decline. God put me here to help this family and that is what I am going to do, they are truly my second family (did I mention that they agreed to keep me till next fall!) In February Matt was offered a paid coaching position for the JV baseball team and he has also signed on for another year of football! He also received a promotion which is AMAZING!!! but lots of traveling but he gets to go to Montana and Idaho so he is happy to always see family and friends during his routes!

On a sad note my dear Nana passed away suddenly. She was an amazing lady who loved us all so much no one will ever take her place. I am still struggling with it all but I know she is watching over us all and we will see her again one day. I just have to keep saying take it one day at a time. Which is easier said then done. We were able to go to Montana for her service over Memorial Day weekend. It was great to see how loved she was and how she has touched so many lives. I will never forget the way she loved me.

So much has happened and I know I am leaving lots out but I am starting to get better at all this blogging and will stay more committed :)

Crazy things are going on!

Sorry I haven't blogged in over a month. We have been busy! Matt is doing an incredible job at coaching and really loving it! He also found out he already has a paid job this summer to coach which is really exciting! I went back to school a few weeks ago and I love it but its difficult to get into the groove again. My nana has been in and out of the hospital and so I have been busy with that lately and helping out my family. Hopefully we figure out what is going on! So we just pray life calms down so we could enjoy this beautiful fall!