High School Musical

In some ways I feel like Nate and I have tons of high school memories and then in some ways I feel like we barely have any at all.  Last week we went to the local high school's musical and it brought back all sorts of fun memories!

Fall 2007 The Wizard of Oz - Junior year of high school I was one of the assistant directors for our high school musical and Nate played the part of the Tin Man.  I honestly think this show was where we started to become real friends and not just people that went to church together.  We could laugh and joke around and-- dare I say it-- flirt a little.  Gosh I just thought he was the cutest thing ever.  Sadly, once the show was over and we didn't have an excuse to hang out everyday, we stopped hanging out every day haha  I can't find a picture of us together so this one will have to do.  Ain't he adorable?!

Fall 2008 The Christmas Carol - Senior year I somehow convinced Nate to try out for the fall play (even though it wasn't a musical).  I still have no idea what I said that got him to go along with it but I'm sure glad he did!  I was cast as the Ghost of Christmas Past and I'm not even sure what exactly his part was called...a village person I guess haha  Well I also was cast as a girl named Caroline who was a poor married woman that Scrooge screws over.  At the time of the first read of the script, the part of my husband hadn't been cast.  Guess who got the part??  You got it!!  Our scene together was literally one page long and it seriously took every fiber of our beings to not crack up each and every time we did it.  Nate and I trying to play a concerned and loving husband and wife??  It was the most hilarious thing I'd ever heard of!  And I secretly LOVED it.  Especially at the end when he would put his arm around me as we walked off stage.  And we would put our heads really close together and just laugh our way off the stage as quietly as we could.

Nate is on the far left wearing the hat.  I am the ghost in the back.

I can still hear Nate say this first line of our scene.  It has been a running joke of ours ever since then.  A friend was being funny and edited this picture shortly after the show and I still love it.

Fall 2012 Beauty and the Beast- After Nate got back from his mission we started hanging out quite a bit.  I asked him to go see Beauty and the Beast with me at the local high school.  It was kind of last minute and we got there maybe 30 minutes before the show started.  It was definitely a popular show because there was a HUGE line for tickets.  We were seriously doubting if we would get into the show and almost left but stuck it out and were literally some of the last five people let in.  Sadly, once we got in, they dimmed the lights (it was already quite a bit past the time they were supposed to start) and there were only single seats available!  There wasn't anywhere for us to sit together.  At the time, I think I just wanted to see the show so I picked two end seats for us that were a few rows apart.  Nate was obviously frustrated we weren't sitting together.  Later, I would learn he was certifiably ticked since he didn't care one bit about the show and was just going to be with me.  Well, 10 minutes into the show the kid next to me threw up and so that family left and Nate was able to come sit by me.  Hooray for sick children!

Fall 2014 Seven Brides for Seven Brothers- I had the urge again this semester to go see a show and so we decided to see the high school musical again.  We showed up an hour early to avoid long lines and easily got into the theater (we were literally some of the first five people this time).  It was nice this time around to be able to hold hands and rub shoulders without feeling awkward ;)  My back was killing me throughout the show though so we left at intermission.  Oh well!

The empty theater and my new boots.  Booya!

The moral of the story is...we have a lot of fun going to shows and I love it!  I'm glad I'm able to share my love of live performances with my very best friend and that we have so many memories together!

Pumpkin Patch Pickin'

Last night we were able to go to a pumpkin patch with all of our awesome friends!  It was so fun!  I can't even remember the last time I went to an actual pumpkin patch to pick out a pumpkin.  I ended up picking like five or six pumpkins...oops.  In the end I just go three.  One to carve and two to paint.  I'm trying to be crafty nowdays!!

Isn't my husband one hunk of hunkiness?!

None of us had stuff to carve pumpkins with so we went to Walmart and then went to the other Smith's to carve and paint!  Tess and I went the artsy fartsy way while the guys and Caroline carved.  Granted, I did hollow out the guts of ours.  Nate just carved one pumpkin since space was limited.  We have another bigger pumpkin to still carve! 

Ours looks pretty good all lit up!

General Conference Weekend

I didn't even blog in September!  Soooo my excuse is that I haven't even gotten my laptop out in over a month.  I think I'll go and backdate some blogs that happened in September so that when I look back at my blog I don't feel like such a bad person.

Two weeks ago we headed down to SLC for General Conference!  We left Friday morning since Nate doesn't have Friday classes and I don't work on Fridays.  We had multiple things to get done while in Utah on Friday.  First, we stopped by Provo to see Eli.  He had stuff to do that evening and so did we so we only spent about 45 minutes with him.  We took him to Walmart though to do some shopping so it was productive time.

Next, we headed up to Lehi to go to the outlets.  It's our sick addiction.  Outlet stores are so tempting!!!  Nate got a new pair of Nike's and I got a new dress and sweater from J. Crew.  I think we've been to these outlets 4ish times and we always go to Nike and never buy anything so it was about time he got a pair of shoes.  I, on the other hand, always end up getting something haha  It's bad.

After the outlets we headed further north to Draper to hit up IKEA.  We got an unexpected gift of money recently and decided that furniture is what we wanted to spend it on.  Nate has been looking at furniture online for MONTHS so we thankfully already knew what we wanted.  I'll have a post about what we got in the future.

After IKEA, we drove further north to Murray, UT to head to our favorite Desert Star Theater to see Dracula!  This was the third show we've seen at this theater and we love it!!  Highly recommended for anyone traveling through Murray.  Family friendly entertainment, great actors and free popcorn!  It's a dinner theater and we usually eat somewhere else but this time we couldn't wait to eat so we got a pizza there.

After the theater we headed further north again to Salt Lake City where we spent the night.  What an exciting day!

On Saturday we went to the first session of General Conference.  With 20,000+ Mormons walking around you are bound to run into people you know.  On our way out I ran into one of the PAs I work with and his family as well as a guy I knew from doing the Hill Cumorah Pageant five years ago.  I'm kind of surprised I didn't see more people I knew haha  We watched the afternoon session in our hotel room and then the boys went to the Priesthood session in the evening.  During that time I decided to walk around the mall for a bit and then stay in my room and read a book.  It was nice to have some quiet time to myself!

After that session we all (Nate's parents and brother) went out to dinner at Texas de Brazil.  YUM!!  I've never been to a Brazilian steakhouse before so I suggested it and I sure am glad I did!  The food was fabulous and our server was hilarious.  She was from Brazil, close to where Nate served his mission, so they were able to talk Portuguese which was fun to listen to.  For the record, my favorite meat was the lamb.

Sunday was more conference.  We watched the morning session in the hotel and then had tickets to the later one.  I actually got pictures this time!

With our nieces Taycie and Kambrie.

After dinner on Sunday we headed back up to Rexburg.  Not my favorite drive but I stayed awake the entire time to keep Nate company.  I think we watched a movie or something but I don't remember.  Probably Everybody Loves Raymond actually...it's our secret-not-so-secret addiction.

Well, there ya have it!  One update on one thing we did in the last month together!  It really is fantastic having Nate back home with me.

The Straw Maze

Friday night date night is my favorite!  Especially when we get to go with friends!  Tonight we went to the Haunted Straw Maze with our friends Brian and Tess.  I have only been to a haunted maze one other time and a haunted house once.  Let me just say, haunted things are not my favorite!  I like adrenaline rushes from things like roller coasters....not crazy, bloody, creepy, scary creatures.  Tess and Brian actually said they were talking ahead of time about how funny it would be to go with us because we'd both be scared but Nate would probably act all tough anyways.  We haven't been friends for that long and they know us so well already :)

We had to wait in line for about an hour and then we were speedy quick through the maze and finished in about 35 minutes.  It actually wasn't too bad...although I did not let Nate get far from me!

Brian and Tess need to work on their scared faces.  We've mastered ours.

Ohio is for Lovers

After a looooongggggg four weeks away from my favorite person in the whole world I was finally able to see him last week for a weekend.  Thankfully, I was able to get a day and a half off of work and so I left Wednesday afternoon after working in the morning.  I arrived very late Wednesday night in Cincinnati.  I will be completely honest, it was kind of an awkward reunion!  In my head I was picturing a made-for-movies run up to each other and a lengthy embrace and long overdue kiss, embarrassing anyone who was watching.  It was more like a first date...an awkward hug, no kiss, and neither of us knowing what to say to each other.  We got in the car and just looked at each other and laughed because it was just weird to be with each other in the flesh!  We both realized at this point that we hadn't had a proper kiss so we took care of that ;)  The entire car ride back to Lima (2.5 hours) we were just a little in shock, I think.  There's really no other way to describe it except that it felt like a first date with neither of us wanting to do something wrong.  By the end of the car ride we were over it and back to normal though.

We slept in Lima Wednesday night and then got up early the next morning and headed to Cedar Point in Sandusky, OH (2.5 hours north...again).  When we got there is was super hot, sunny, and muggy.  Not the most fun.  I must be getting old or something because I could not handle the roller coasters like I used to.  I've never had problems riding them before but I got so lightheaded and nauseous this time.  It was really rather annoying, especially for Nate who wanted to ride as many rides as we could.  

(As a side note, our first "date" was to Cedar Point, just a month after he got back from Brazil.  I surprised him in Ohio (I was working in Idaho for the summer) and we decided to go because neither of us had been there in two years.  Until that day, I don't think I'd spent more than a few hours with him, and definitely not alone with him!  I'm not sure what we talked about all day but I guess it went well!) 

After only three rides I had to sit down for 45 minutes with my head on Nate's lap to try and recuperate.  Nate convinced me to go on a few more rides and then said we could leave after that.  Our next ride was the Magnum.  For those not familiar with Cedar Point, it's one of the older steel roller coasters.  It has no loops and you're held in by just a lap bar...it's also quite jerky.  Well, this was the fourth ride of the day and before riding I put my phone (my "new" iphone) down my shirt because my pockets were really shallow.  It was under three shirts and a bra so I figured it was pretty secure.  I was wrong.

The second hill on the ride must be pretty steep because one second all was normal and then the next second my phone was literally floating in front of my face, slowing turning over on itself.  WHAT THE WHAT?!  I could NOT believe what I was seeing, and it was happening in slow motion!  After reaching for the phone and missing I finally was able to secure it and snapped it to my chest where I held tight for the rest of the ride.  Nate missed the whole thing but for the remainder of the ride I was screaming at him "DID YOU SEE THAT?!!?  THAT WAS THE COOLEST THING IN THE WHOLE WORLD!!  THAT WAS SUPER NINJA SKILLS RIGHT THERE!!!  HOLY COW I CANNOT BELIEVE WHAT JUST HAPPENED!!" etc.  And I kept it up even after the ride finished.  I didn't realize it but Nate said that everyone around me thought I was talking about the ride, which is not that great of a roller coaster haha  Oh well.  I wish I had a movie of it though because it was seriously the coolest thing I've ever done...and totally ninja of me.  

That got my adrenaline pumping and the nausea left for a bit.  But after a few more rides it came back.  Not that I'm going to complain about super short lines (like 10-20 minutes for the big coasters) but it didn't give me much time to recover haha  Such was the case after our second time on Millennium Force.  We got off and saw there was basically no line so decided to go a third time.  We literally (and I mean literally in a very literal sense) walked onto the ride with no wait, whatsoever.  It was amazing and I don't think that will ever happen again.

We went on the Ferris Wheel...

We ended up leaving the park around 6:30 which was just perfect for me.  I'm sure Nate could have stayed longer but I couldn't bear to get on any more rides.  We decided to go eat dinner at Chili's and then I thought we would be on our way back home for the night.  I fell asleep in the car on the way to Chili's (which was not more than 15 minutes away) and awoke to realize that we were not at Chili's but at a hotel in Sandusky.  It was a wonderful surprise!!!!  I was so exhausted and a night at a comfortable hotel with a huge jacuzzi was just what I needed.  We changed clothes and then went to dinner.  I got some chili-mango tilapia which was....not my favorite.  I won't be getting that again!

We slept in the next morning and then headed down to Columbus at noon.  We got there just in time to see a movie at the Easton Mall.  We watched Guardians of the Galaxy in IMAX.  I quite enjoyed it!  After the movie, we went to exit the theater and followed the wrong exit signs because we ended up in the behind-the-scenes area of the mall and "exited" out the loading dock area hahaha

After the movie we drove to the other side of town for dinner.  Nate had made us reservations at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse.  We ate there the night we got engaged last year and wanted to go on our engagement anniversary this year but it's in Salt Lake so we couldn't.  Celebrating our one year wedding anniversary seemed like a good occasion though!  They were so kind to us and even had rose petals on the table for us :)

Their ahi tuna is to die for!!!!

He's so cute.

They also treated us to dessert which was heavenly.  It even included a candle for us to blow out!

My sister Meredith just moved to Columbus to start school at Ohio State and so I begged Nate to drive us to see her even though it was a bit out of our way.  It was great to get to see where she lived (which is basically a dump...sorry Meredith) and meet one of her roommates.

Bad quality.  Good picture.

Friday night we also spent at a hotel in Columbus.  We watched Mr. Peabody and Sherman (we started it the night before and neither of us remember falling asleep....) which is hilarious and I definitely recommend it!  It's a kids movie but I thought it was really well done and unexpected.  

Saturday noon we finally headed back to Lima so I could see my family for a bit.  We hung out at my house, got my "new" phone activated (I had it at CP just to take pictures since Nate's camera on his phone doesn't work) and went out to dinner with mine and Nate's parents.  My phone died before I could snap a picture so I'll have to get it from my mom sometime.  We went to a Japanese steakhouse in town.  Our waiter probably thought we were crazy because we stayed for an hour after our meal was over and just talked.  The place wasn't busy at all though so we didn't feel too bad.  

Sadly, my flight was to leave at 7:30am out of Dayton so we had to leave my house at 4:45 am.  

Oh, also, my family is moving November 1st to North Carolina so this was the last time I would be in our house that we've been in for 11 years.  It was kind of sad to say goodbye to everything but I'm happy for my family so I just tried not to think about it.  I was going to go swimming one last time and swinging one last time and sit in the hammock one last time etc etc but couldn't really bring myself to do it.  It was just too sad.

Back to the story.  Nate dropped me off at the airport at 6:00 and I was an absolute wreck.  I couldn't stop crying and just looking at him made me cry more.  I don't even know how I made myself walk away and into the airport.  But I did.  And then I called him as soon as I got through security (which is a breeze if you are TSA precheck, by the way!  I highly recommend it for anyone that flies even just once or twice a year! SO worth the money.).  At 7:00, the airline attendant came over the intercom and said that our flight was going to have some weight-balance issues (whatever that means) and that they needed 6 people to change their flight before they could take off.  They offered $400 delta dollars to anyone who would change.  I figured I was in no hurry so I got some information and called Nate to see what he thought.  The flight they would get me on wasn't going to leave until 12:15 so long story short, Nate turned around and came to pick me up so we could spend a few more hours together.  As if that weren't great enough I told the lady I would change for $500 instead of $400 (that Peruvian bartering spirit works well for me sometimes!) and then she transferred me to another lady to give me my voucher and that lady ended up giving me $600 since that's what she gave the guy before me.  SCORE!!!!  That's a roundtrip ticket home for Christmas...for free!!

Nate got back to the airport around 8:00 and we decided to go get breakfast at Bob Evans.  That idea lasted until we parked in the Bob Evan's parking lot and realized how incredibly tired we were.  So we settled for cuddling in the back seat and both sleeping for two hours.  It was wonderful!  It actually really was.  When he dropped me off at the airport for a second time it was so much easier.  I think we were both less tired, less grumpy (not early morning) and we were just so grateful for the extra time together.  It was "easy" to give him a hug and a kiss goodbye and be okay with the fact that I wouldn't see him for three more weeks and that it was all going to be okay.  We both felt 100% better with the second goodbye.  Switching flights was a blessing in so many ways!

Now I've been back for a week and there are only two weeks left!!  And only one more Sunday (which is usually the hardest day).  I cannot wait to have him back at home with me.  And to have him cook for me.  I eat worse than I ate when I was single haha  I went to Winco and bought five (FIVE) frozen dinners which I basically never buy.

I love that boy with all my heart and he planned the perfect weekend/ anniversary/ birthday celebration for me.  He's the best!!!!

Two Dates

Last week was my last week with Nate for the entire summer so we tried taking advantage of it and spending as much time together as we could!  On Thursday (the 17th) he picked me up from work.  He came to IF to get our car's windshield fixed (it's been cracked for an entire year) and then just hung around until I was done.  Sadly, that meant he has a couple of hours to kill because the windshield was fixed at 2:00 and I don't get off work until after 6:00 (and I was rushing to get my stuff done!).

He had already wandered around stores for a few hours but he wasn't hungry so we didn't want to eat quite yet.  We settled on walking around the mall for a bit.  The amazing part of this story is that we didn't buy a single thing!  That's quite an accomplishment for us :)  However, we did walk by some of those massage chairs and splurged a whole $2 a piece on a ten minute massage.  Best $4 we ever spent.

After our massage, we went to Texas Roadhouse and had the best steak we've ever had at a Texas Roadhouse.

On Saturday (the 19th) I was convinced we needed to do something fun because it was the last day we'd have together since I work during the week.  I've always wanted to go to the IF zoo and have never gone so that's what I decided on.  Nate woke up not feeling well so I didn't think we'd have time to go (I had to work at Broulims in the afternoon) but he sucked it up for me, because he loves me!  The zoo was little, but still fun!  I especially loved just listening to all the little kids there talk about the animals.  The monkey's were probably my favorite because they actually did more than just lay around.

There was a little, itty, bitty amusement park outside the zoo and I wanted to go on the ferris wheel but Nate thought it looked too sketchy so we passed.  To his credit, it was pretty old looking.

Funeral for Grandpa Bob

We flew to Ohio for a last minute weekend trip at the beginning of June.  Nate's Grandpa Bob passed away and so we went for the funeral.  Even though we had to go for sad reasons, it really was a great trip because all of Nate's siblings, and their spouses, were able to come as well.  It was just a big family reunion!  And of course it was great to see my family as well.  We flew out Thursday afternoon and then back on Sunday so it was a quick, quick trip.  We really missed Sawyer...as you can tell from the only pictures we took haha