Last week, Stephen and I were up in Washington visiting my sister Sarah and her family! Neither of us had ever been to Washington, and it's only a 13 hour drive to my sister's house, so we decided to road trip up there after Stephen completed his internship the first week in August.

We drove all day Friday and got in late Friday night (just a bit later than we should have thanks to apple maps for making us WASTE a full 30 minutes driving in a large circle). On Saturday morning we loaded up in Sarah's mini van and went to Flaming Gyser State Park.

It was beautiful! There were lots of trees, some hiking trails (which we did not go on thankyouverymuch haha), and a river. We went down to a rocky place where Sarah's three boys were brave enough to get in (the water was WAYY too cold for swimming if you ask me!). After they splashed around for a few minutes, they discovered water-striders which they called crickets. Soon they made a game of trying to find as many as they could. At one point Cameron (age 6) shouted, "Look! There's one MILLION crickets! ...One THOUSAND crickets! ...One HUNDRED crickets!!!!!" hahaha. Those boys crack me up.

(PS HD is always better. ;)

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han.

When my family was out here during Christmas Break, we decided to take a trip to see the lights on Temple Square. Since there were 26 of us going (including aunts and uncles and cousins) we all took Frontrunner together. Apparently UTA has this sweet deal that you can pay $20 for four people for an unlimited Frontrunner/Trax access. (Thanks for paying, Dad!) I tried to find some impressive statistics about how many lights are used to light up the square, but unfortunately I was unable to find anything of the sort. Needless to say, it was beautiful. And freezing. But it was really fun. Especially watching Stephen and Mckay compete in a jumping race up the stairs in order to keep warm while we were waiting for the train. And then when Jess fell after running up the down escalator...HAHAHA. We were all dying. We only laughed harder a few minutes later when Miriam also fell at the exactly same place after doing exactly the same thing!! I'm cracking up just thinking about it..

What a wonderful time of year!

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han

To read about our trip to Temple Square last year, look here. 

As embarrassing as this might be to admit... I started mentally composing a "one year anniversary" post WEEKS before our one year anniversary...but unfortunately the time to write it came and went while every nook and cranny of my brain was (and is) filled with "the 6th grade thoughts" and all previously meditated drafts of this post are nowhere to be found.

However, I would STILL like to share just a few reasons why this past year (+ ~1 month) has been THE BEST YEAR OF MY LIFE -- all thanks to that guy who I met one fateful morning five (!!!) years ago.

Here are some of my favorite memories from this past year: (SIDE NOTE: Some/many of these will probably be "you had to be there" moments I am posting more for our future benefit than anyone else's. Feel free to read about them, but by no means feel obligated to think they are as funny as we do ;))

+ One day I was talking to Stephen about macaroons. I asked him if he'd ever had one and I showed him this picture because he wasn't sure what I was talking about. He glanced at the picture and exclaimed, "Those look like tiny hamburgers!" 

+One night we were laughing so hard and we couldn't fall asleep. Finally I said, "We REALLY need to go to sleep!" After a few minutes I said, "Are you sleepy?" and Stephen said faintly, "nooo...buut if I talk in my sleeeeepy voice I miiiight be able to convince myself that I'm sleeeeepy...." 

+I honestly can't remember how it started, but at some point I started saying, "I love yo' mind and yo' body and yo' souuul." Now Stephen says it too and I think it's hilarious.

+When we ate dinner at the Cheesecake Factory the waiter came over THREE different times to ask if we had chosen what cheesecake we wanted for dessert. After he left each time we would start talking and forget we were supposed to be choosing a cheesecake. I loved that we would rather continue our conversation than choose (and consequently EAT) cheesecake. ;) (But don't worry, we eventually decided on a cheesecake, and eat cheesecake we DID!)

+One day I was scratching Stephen's head when he said, "Ya...I'll DEFINITELY pay our future children to do this." (This is particularly funny if you realize that my dad used to pay us kids a quarter for every hour we would scratch his head. hahhaa. I don't remember if that was exactly the ratio but it was something equally as ridiculous ;))

+Stephen and I are somewhat infamous in our family for our extremely memorable (and highly skilled ;)) renditions of Happy Birthday that we often film and send to people. Hopefully those videos are promptly deleted and not kept for future blackmail purposes...

+A few weeks after we got married, we were getting ready to go to sleep and Stephen said, "We need to say prayers." Almost instinctively we both called out, "PRAYERS!" at exactly the same time. We were laughing so hard we silently agreed to make this a tradition. We probably do this 2-3 times a week now and even though we've done it well over 100 times, we still think it's hilarious. 

+When Stephen walked into my classroom to meet my class a couple of weeks ago, all of the boys exclaimed excitedly (almost in unison), "WOAH!!! He IS buff!!!!" HAHAH. It was seriously the best. One of the students in my class asked him, "How many times a day do you work out?" (Nothin' like 6th graders to boost your ego, huh? I'm pretty sure Stephen is rethinking his career path ;)) Having Stephen in my classroom for just that couple of minutes was SO much fun. I wish he could come to school with me everyday. :)

I know there are MANY MANY more instances that illustrate how much fun we've had this past year, but I'm afraid if I try to write them all...I'll never finish this post! 

Stephen is without a doubt one of the funniest, kindest, most intelligent, patient and caring men I've ever met and I COULD NOT BE HAPPIER at the notion of spending not only "til death do we part" but wayyy after that, too! 

Here's to forever with my best friend by my side! 

I'm so glad I married happy ;)

Last weekend Stephen and I were able to spend a few days at the family cabin on Montana!

My phone didn't get reception up there and I have to admit it was kind of refreshing not checking Instagram and Facebook every hour. (Though I will admit I snuck in a game or two of Two Dots and Jelly Splash...) Instead we filled our time by sitting at the lake and getting sunburned, playing games, doing puzzles, eating delicious food, taking naps, reading Divergent, visiting with family, and not getting dressed until noon [or later]. Of course we also attended a play at the Playmill Theatre in West Yellowstone. I have loved going to plays there since I was a little kid, and this year's production of Beauty and the Beast did not disappoint!

After church on Sunday we went into Yellowstone National Park. It was beautiful! We joked about how people probably thought we were Mennonite, especially based off of dad's and Stephen's outfits. It gave us a few good laughs.

It was so fun to finally introduce Stephen to the cabin I have many childhood memories from! One of my favorite memories from the cabin was when I had a pioneer-themed birthday party there when I was little. HAHAHA. How many kids do you know who have pioneer-themed birthday parties complete with square-dancing, candle making, bonnets, and a covered wagon cake?! OH how I love my life. (And my mom for always planning such FAB b-day parties.)

hehehee. It might be impossible for me to look at this picture without giggling.

And Lys, if you ever read this - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! 

I love ya!

This fourth-of-july weekend was tons of fun! Stephen and I went up to Grace, Idaho with our friends Bryce and Melissa, and Isaac and Chelsee. It was so much fun relaxing, four-wheeling, exploring around the farm, playing Taboo, swimming in the pond, laying (lying?) on the hammock, eating delicious food, watching fireworks, playing with puppies, and staying up wayyy too late chatting about toilet paper! It was also fun re-visiting the spot where Stephen and I got engaged last April :) According to Chels, we are all officially "real friends" now that we've taken a roadtrip together, even though we've all known each other well over a year. haha.

Grace Weekend from Hannah Olson on Vimeo.

Grace Trip, 2013 :)

Thanks for the wonderful weekend, guys!