Utah Weekend

This weekend we headed to Utah for a last minute mini vacation!  Eli managed to acquire some free tickets to an exclusive Imagine Dragons concert and asked Nate to go with him!  (crazy story how he came upon the tickets and after the got these two he actually won two more!!  He gave these to some other friends.)  I didn't have to work on Friday this week and Nate didn't have any tests so it worked perfect for us to go.

We left Friday around 12:30 and headed first to Salt Lake City.  We had a free night at a Marriott (due to our Marriott card) that we needed to use by the end of the month so it worked perfect that we decided to go to Utah.  When we got to SLC we went to our hotel and Nate stayed there for a few hours while I went to visit my best friend, Alexis, who just recently moved to SLC.  It was soooo great to visit with her and her cutie patootie daughter.  Her husband is in dental school and they did shots for the first time that day so when we got home I went with them for celebratory custard :)

Saturday morning Nate and I went to the Salt Lake temple.  He went once before his mission (so like 4 years ago) and I had never been there so it was a real treat.  It was absolutely more beautiful than I could have imagined inside.  It's no wonder it took the early pioneers 40 years to build it!  I really wanted a picture outside but it was a little difficult because there were at least 10-15 weddings (seriously, probably more haha).  We had to sneak onto the picture spot in between newly married couples and since no one else was around, I asked a groom to take our picture.  Is that bad??  Nate was embarrassed.  But I was going to get a picture!

After the temple, we went to the oulets in Lehi.  We stop there every time we go to Utah now.  It's a problem.  Because we always buy things!  I never really shop for clothes otherwise so as long as we don't go to Utah often I guess it's okay.  We continued south to Provo and met up with Eli there.  He wanted us to take him suit shopping so we did that for a bit although he didn't find one he was ready to buy quite yet.

At this point it was a little after 7:00 and Eli wanted to get in line for the concert because doors opened at 8:00 and he wanted a good spot.  When we left the mall there happened to be a random crazy blizzard that started so they had to wait in the cold for an hour before getting into the building.  Both of them loved the concert though!  Nate was a little worried because he loves Imagine Dragons and was worried they wouldn't be as good live and didn't want to be expected to jump up and down the entire concert haha  He said they were even better than on their album and so he was very glad he got to go.  Eli was even interviewed for the local news!  There were only 200-300 people at the concert and they were in about the sixth row so needless to say, the "seats" were fantastic and they will probably never have the opportunity to see a major band perform that close because those seats would normally be hundreds of dollars!  Can't beat free!!

Eli on the news.

This is how close they were...the camera wasn't even zoomed!

The Velour (left) is where the concert was.

While they were at the concert, I went to go visit my friend Sarah Jane!  Its been so long since we'd seen each other and I loved catching up with her and hearing all about her wedding plans.  She went with me to pick the boys up after the concert and we decided to go out to Chili's for dinner.  I seriously can't remember the last time I laughed so hard!  The other people in the restaurant probably thought we were crazy but we didn't even care.  It was a much needed night out with friends :)

Today we slept in again and got home before it got dark and we've just been home chilling ever since then.  I've caught up on blogging (since I never do it anymore) and scrapbooking our life away.

Happy Valentine's Day!

This Valentine's Day was the first one we've spent just with each other.  Our first one we were still dating and were on opposite sides of the country.  Last year we spent it in Georgia with Jessica and Chelseanne's families.  This year was just us.  And it was wonderful!

I got Nate his traditional gift...a puzzle of a picture of us with a secret love note written on the back.  This tradition started while we were dating.  I had never had a boyfriend for Valentine's day so I had to do something special.  I don't know how I got the idea, but I purchased a customized puzzle from Walmart of a picture of us and then wrote a message on the back.  To do this, I had to put the puzzle together and then flip it over and write the message.  Last year I did the same thing, just with a picture from our wedding.  This year it was harder to pick a picture because we had so many good ones!  Last year he didn't put the puzzle together until August so we will see how long it takes this time....

Anyways, the Friday before Valentine's Day I had to work in Rexburg until around 3:00.  When I got home I was super tired so I decided to take a nap.  We had originally planned on going to the Idaho Falls temple on Friday after I got home from work but with me being so tired and Nate working on a quiz (and for something in the mail I did not know about) we just decided to go on Saturday.  Nate still wanted to go to Olive Garden for dinner though.  He woke me up from my nap to go out to eat and when I walked into the kitchen there was a beautiful bouquet of flowers and box of chocolates.  Isn't he perfect?  It gets better!

I got ready to go to dinner and was going to touch up my make-up but couldn't find my make-up bag in the drawer where it usually was.  I asked Nate if he knew where it was but he didn't.  I thought it was weird but then just didn't think much of it.  We had a great time at Olive Garden.  I ordered a chicken and shrimp carbonara but they forgot the shrimp so they gave the dish to me for free!  Holla!  Even after ordering dessert our bill was only like $25.

We got in the car to come home and Nate drove across the parking lot and parked right in front of a hotel and announced that's where we would be spending the night!  I didn't believe him until he showed me the reservation on his phone haha  He had packed all my stuff and so that's why I couldn't find my make-up bag.  The only things he forgot were a hairbrush, toothpaste (both of which we got from the hotel) and regular clothes for the next day.  He did bring all of our temple stuff and a dress so the important stuff was covered!

On Saturday, we slept in and then went to Smitty's for breakfast/ lunch.  Nate's family used to go there all the time when they'd visit his dad's family in Idaho.  I, however, had never been there.  It was delicious!  Apparently, it used to be a chain store that became Perkin's restaurants, but this one stayed as Smitty's.

Isn't he so cute?!

After lunch we finally made it to the Idaho Falls temple.  It was a fantastic experience and I'm glad we got to go before it shuts down in March for 18 months for renovations and updates.  By the time we got home on Saturday it was almost 5:00.  It was a great Valentine's Day weekend!!!

Idaho Falls Temple

Today I had a work meeting in Idaho Falls and so Nate met me afterwards so we could go to the temple.  I've been there before for baptisms and Nate doesn't ever remember going there.  Nate's parents were married in this temple so I've wanted to go for a while.  In March they are going to be closing it down for eighteen months to do some renovations and I thought it would be good to go before they make a bunch of changes!  We sure picked a snowy day to go!  We didn't have time to do an entire session so we just did sealings.  I guess we just have an excuse to go back now!

Christmas Break

Yet again, I'm dropping the blogging ball.  Oh well.

Christmas this year was fantastic!!!  I was able to get three days off work (plus we were scheduled to be off for four days) so we took the red-eye out of Salt Lake City on Monday the 22nd and arrived in NC Tuesday morning.  Chelsea lent us her car for the duration of our trip and it was such a blessing!  We picked her car up in Charlotte and then drove north to Greensboro.

My family just moved to NC at the beginning of November and so everything this Christmas would be new.  They bought a house just a few minutes from my dad's parents and his brother so for the first time in my lifetime, my family is living close to other family!  I loved being able to see my grandparents and cousins this holiday.

Zach was supposed to get home before we did but a job interview held him up in Ohio.  He finally got there late on Christmas Eve.  My family doesn't have a ton of Christmas traditions but one of my favorites is watching "It's a Wonderful Life" on Christmas Eve.  It took some finagling this year for us to all fit in the living room but it was worth it.

Grandma and Grandpa Tucker

 
For most of our visit, we slept at my uncles house down the road but Meredith wanted us all to sleep at home on Christmas Eve.  Since this house is significantly smaller than our last house with less than half the beds, we slept on the living room floor...  We were actually going to sleep in Noah's twin size bed but then just fell asleep watching Everybody Loves Raymond (what else is new) and stayed on the floor.  I'm so glad the majority of my siblings are teenagers or older now and appreciate sleeping in on Christmas.  I used to be a grouch when I was the only one who wanted to sleep in!

I think I'm still sleeping...

Nate finally got the Ipad he's wanted since before we were married!

Isn't he precious??  Socks, candy and scented candle wax in his stocking.  I'm the best.

We spent Christmas day lounging around and then went to Grandma and Grandpa's for Christmas dinner with the rest of the family.  Why didn't we get a group picture with everyone?!?!

My immediate family hasn't been all together since our wedding so we took the time to get a family picture.  Of course, not everyone wanted to be in the picture but that's what happens with six kids.  We took this picture on the land that they are going to start building a house on.  Next year we could have Christmas in yet another house!

Eli and Meredith decided to have a photoshoot in the field.  I wish I stole some of their pictures but I only have a few of the ones we took on our phone...

Our family gift exchange...I got a baby name book from my cousin.  It's the same baby name book I got him a few years ago and he just had a baby so he told me it was my turn.  He was nice enough to cross off Everett, since that's the name they used haha

The day after Christmas we headed to a cabin 2.5 hours away where Nate's family was staying for Christmas!  What a treat that we got to see both families even though they technically live in different states now!  While there, we went to a gem mine, watched some movies, played some games, went out to eat and just had fun!

View from the cabin.

 Breakfast (which was really lunch).  We found a FANTASTIC place to eat which was totally worth the forever wait.  The kids didn't love it as much as the adults as the food was a twist on regular breakfast flavors.

At the "mine"

We would steal her if we could...

On Sunday we left the cabin and headed back to my house.  We made it just in time for church where I happened to run into one of my friends from the Hill Cumorah Pageant and school.  After church we went to an extended family dinner with my grandpa's brother's family.  It was fun to meet some more of the Tucker clan!  The next few days were spent playing lots of games, watching movies, and relaxing.

Playing Five Crowns.  Obviously I was the only one who knew a picture was being taken...

Playing Charades.

This is how we fell asleep one night.  We're so cute.

One day we went to downtown Greensboro.  While we were there we went to the Civil Right's Museum.  The museum is located in the old Woolworth's dime store where the Greensboro sit-in's took place in 1960.  It was amazing to see this little bit of history and it is so well preserved.  Of course, you can't take pictures sooooooo yeahhhh.  I learned that my dad's middle school principal was married to one of the original college freshman who started the sit-in.  I also had never thought of the fact that my grandma grew up right in the midst of the civil rights movement in the south!  She remember the sit-ins happening and having to use separate bathrooms etc.

Both of the above pictures are from Wikipedia.

Walking around downtown Greensboro...

Meredith with her imaginary boyfriend.

If you're still looking at these pictures...you're crazy.  But I'm going to keep going!

The Monday after Christmas Zach left for Germany (that's a long story...) and then on Wednesday Meredith and Eli left for Ohio.  So with just Nate and I left at home we decided to abandon the family and go visit his family for the rest of the trip.  Back to Charlotte we went!  It was really great because not only did we get to see Chelsea's family, but Jessica's family drove up from Georgia for the New Year so we got to spend more time with them too.

The Smith's traditionally have appetizers on New Years Eve and throw a fun party for friends.  Since it was just us three families, we decided to do our own version of this and buy our favorite appetizers from local restaurants.  We got apps from probably 12 different places and it was delicious!!!  Such a fun idea!

Playing Tripoly to pass the time.

Getting ready for the big moment!

Peter put on a fireworks show for us so we all cuddled under the pergola Nate built when we were in Charlotte last year :)

Annndddd a few more pictures of the cute kiddos to finish the trip off...

Bailee doing my hair

 Just look at this face.  Adorable.