Pictures, Wedding, Dinosaurs, and Primary

So this last week was quite busy.

On Wednesday, Aaron and I had our anniversary pictures. I know what you're saying, "But your anniversary was in March!" Well, you're right. We held off on the pictures till after Aaron's semester was over. I think overall it went well. I'm not very happy with my hair cut, but I made the best and I think mostly it looked okay. There were some pictures where the angle or something made my bangs look funky. We went to JCPenney and I found out that they have gone digital. The plus side: We got to have lots of pictures taken rather than the 12 limit they had when they used film. The down side: They got rid of most of their backgrounds so we only had one background (don't ask me why. What does that have to do with digital) and they no longer have stools and such to sit on, so all the pictures were either standing up or sitting on the floor. Weird. Also, they no longer have a sheet that has a 5x7 with wallets, only two 5x7s. I really wish they would have the option of one or the other. Having two 5x7s on a page would be nice if you want multiple for parents and such, but isn't so much when you just need one, and wallets would be nice to give out to family. Whatever.

But the photographer was really fun and we did some fun poses. She didn't always follow exactly what I wanted her to do (and, of course, I didn't know till afterward when we looked at the proofs), but overall I think she did a great job and I think the pictures turned out well. They'll be put up online soon, and when they are I'll send out an email letting people know how to view them.

On Friday, my cousin Josh was married to Katie. Very exciting. You could tell when they looked at each other that they are very much in love, and I'm so glad that Josh found someone wonderful to marry. The reception was quite an experience. I've never been to one that had real plates and waiters and such. The food was all right, but a little fancy for my taste. The desserts were interesting—they came on plates about an inch square. I needed three of them to feel like I actually was eating anything.

I got to see my grandma, which I was glad of. She's real sweet and an awesome grandma, I think. I'm glad she was able to come from Oregon for the wedding.

One thing that I really liked at the reception was that they had a photo booth where you could take your picture (the old fashioned kind with four black and white pictures on a stip). You were suppose to take your picture then paste into a memory book for Josh and Katie. It replaced the registry book. You could also take extra for yourself to take. I was so excited about this, and then forgot the pictures there. I could kick myself.

On Saturday, I went to my aunt's to see my grandma and spend time with her before she left (and my aunt and uncle as well). They were headed out to the dinosaur museum up at Thanksgiving Point, so I tagged along. It was pretty interesting. They had a lot of dinosaur skeletons, including two T-Rexes and two Supersauruses. I have to say, I thought the T-Rexes were bigger, from what they looked like on Jurassic Park, but they were probably onl 15 feet tall (and not the 25–30 that I was thinking). I'm glad I got a chance to there and see it.

Then Sunday I had my first time teaching my Primary class. I was called to teach the CTR 6 class last week. We only had three kids in the class, so it wasn't so bad, but they were pretty wiggly. One of the girls in the class impressed me. I'm not sure if she is 5 or 6 years old, but she can already read most words (not just the basic cat, ball, Jane, etc.) and she knew a lot of answers to the questions. It was pretty fun to be in Primary rather than Sunday School and Relief Society. I just stress about giving lessons to kids because I don't really know how to make it interesting and not bore them out of their minds (although, I know that participation and activities help). I think I'll like it better than when I was the Primary Chorister. At least as a teacher I have a lesson manual. Plus I only have to worry about a few kids rather than 20–30.

I've Been Married 5 Years!

So as of last Thursday, Aaron and I have been married for 5 years! I almost can't believe it—it's gone by so fast. I still remember when we were engaged and I thought our wedding day would never come, and now we've been married for 5 years.

Well, I've been stressing about what we should do to celebrate. I wanted it to be really special because it's such a milestone. Even though I've been trying to think of something for a couple months, when it came down to it, I came up with NOTHING! On the day of, we didn't do anything because we wanted to wait till Saturday. On Saturday, I went to the grocery store in the morning and picked up a bed tray, some whipped cream, and canned blueberry pie filling. Then I went home and made Belgian waffles, bringing them on the tray to Aaron who was still in bed. He LOVES blueberry Belgian waffles. We pretty much just hung out all day, mostly in bed. Finally we did some productive things (if you call playing video games organizing my spice rack productive).

By 6 p.m. I decided I wanted to at least go out to dinner. I let Aaron pick and he chose Outback (which is the same place we went to last year for our anniversary). It was a good choice. Aaron go the mahi mahi and I got pork chops with grilled veges (their grilled veges are to die for. They're like marinated or something. Mmmm!). The pork chops were extremely tender and cooked just perfectly. Since it was a special occasion, I got a strawberry pina colada—so good! And to top it off, our waitress was awesome and very attentive.

So maybe we didn't do anything really special, but at least dinner was fantastic.

So do you want to know what else I considered? Well, one thing I thought of was going on a hot air balloon ride. How cool would that be? It's something I've wanted to do since living in Washington as a kid and seeing the hot air balloons sail over Puget Sound. Well, I looked it up and everywhere I tried was like $200 per person for about an hour ride. Worth it if you can afford it, but sorry if we don't have $400 lying around.

I thought about going to Park City or Salt Lake City and staying at a hotel, but that would be quite a bit, too. This one hotel, Anniversary Inn, has themed rooms where you sleep in a bed shaped like a carriage or a gandola or in a forest. It looked way cool, but was all booked when I looked (and I'm not sure Aaron would have wanted to spend that much, but Costco has a deal where you pay $115 for $230 gift certficate there, so half price). Maybe I'll remember that for a future anniversary.

I thought of just doing something fun like laser tag or miniature golf, but I was worried there'd be a lot of loud kids there, which would make it a little less fun.

I also tried to think of something creative we could do, like I could decorate the apartment with a Hawaiian theme, or starry night them, or rose garden theme, but I couldnt' think of anything really definite. I think I would need more time to plan something like that. Again, maybe something to do in the future.

Oh, well. All in all it was still a good anniversary and the important thing is that we're still excited to be married to each other.

Anniversary Pictures

So Aaron and I finally had our anniversary pictures taken. We didn't have them done around our anniversary because Aaron was having a hard semester, but once it was over, I scheduled them. I got SmilesbyWire, which is where you can view the pictures online and if people want copies, they can order more. I like this because I can download copies of all the poses, even though they're low resolution, so that I have a copy of all of them and not just the ones we ordered. I believe we ordered 6 out of the 12 poses, but it's nice to remember what they all looked like. Plus, digitally they look fine, even if they're a little small. Anyway, if you want the internet address so you can look at them, let me know and I'll email you the link. Fun, fun!

The user picture I'm using right now is one of the poses. It's one of my favorites. I don't even think I knew that the photographer was taking it, but it turned out well. More fun than just looking at the camera!

My Anniversary Is in One Week!

Aaron and I have our 4th anniversary in a week. I'm so excited. I can't believe, in a way, that we've been married for a whole four years. It's gone by so fast. I'm excited to see what he'll get for me. I've given him some ideas to help him along. I got him a video game that he can play online called Guild Wars. He asked for it, so I know he wants it (I just hope he doesn't get into playing it for hours on end like many who play it do). I'm getting my hair cut on Saturday. As we do traditionally, we are having our picture taken. It's the only ones we really have of both of us together. It's hard to get pictures together when there is normally just two of you! So I'm having my hair cut so it's cute. I haven't had a cut in a year. I really hate having to go do it. I'm going to get a layered cut again, but this time, I'm leaving the length. It's now to about my shoulder blades. Nothing else to report.