Thanksgiving 2013: Part 1

We have spent the last couple of thanksgivings on our own, and although it's fun to make our own traditions, it's also nice to spend the holidays with family. So I was so excited that my family decided to make the drive out to Boise for thanksgiving this year! They couldn't come until thanksgiving day, so I cooked all day so we could eat right when they got here. And then when they came I was so happy and excited to see them that I forgot to take pictures of our table and our dinner! Oh well. It was a good night and we had a great thanksgiving feast!

The next day we took my family sightseeing. My brother wanted to go check out the BSU campus, so we took them on a little tour. Which is funny because we barely know our way around there, but we did our best.

(my sister brought her camera and took most of these pictures. which is awesome because I'm terrible at remembering to photograph things!)

It was fun to walk around, thank goodness it was a beautiful day! 

Later that day we took my family to the Festival of Trees. This is a fundraiser that a local hospital puts together. They get people to donate decorated trees and then they sell or auction them off to people in the community, or they donate them to organizations around town. The trees are on display for the public during thanksgiving weekend, and they were really impressive!

Great Gatsby tree

Favorite Movies tree

Polar Express tree

Wonka Wonderland tree

I'm so glad we went to this! I'm hoping it will become a tradition for us to go every year...

That night also happened to be the tree lighting ceremony downtown, so we bundled up and braved the cold! They had live music at the atmosphere was so awesome. Everyone was singing along to all the Christmas songs they were playing and were just generally happy to be there! 

before...

and after!

What a cool experience! My mom said she felt like she was in a Hallmark movie. We had such a good time, and I'm thankful we live in a town that has so many fun traditions during the holidays!

It's Autumn Time

This October was seriously magical. I don't know what it is, but I have never experienced such a good fall season. Probably because I grew up in the desert and the sagebrush isn't exactly charming. During any season. And then I moved to the frozen tundra where it goes from summer to winter pretty much overnight. I had no idea what I was missing! The trees here are so pretty and we live in an older part of town so the trees on our neighborhood and big and leaves are everywhere.

We live close to a bike path and I have loved riding my bike and looking at all the trees and leaves everywhere. I'm already excited for next fall!

Then the leaves started falling in our own front yard. I could not believe how quickly the leaves covered our lawn! 

Since this is our first place with a yard, it was also my first experience raking up leaves. And that was not as fun as just looking at the leaves, but it was a good workout. I ended up doing all the raking by myself because Ty has had to "work late" most nights. I'm skeptical that it was an excuse to get out of raking, but don't worry. Next year it will be your turn, Ty ;)

Girls Weekend

A few weeks ago Ty had to go out of town for the weekend to a training for work. Luckily it was the same weekend as Nevada Day, and because Nevada is awesome no one has school or work on Nevada Day! So my mom and my sister came to hang out with me while Ty was gone. It was so much fun to have them here! We always have way too much to talk about and stay up way too late. We went to the farmers market, did lots of shopping, I showed them around town, and we ate ice cream and watched chick flicks. What more could a girl ask for? It definitely didn't feel like enough time, but I love any chance I get to hang out with my family. I'm so thankful for these two and so glad we had a couple of days to just be together and enjoy each other's company!

The NBA Comes to Town

Last month the Portland Trail Blazers and the Utah Jazz came to play a preseason game in Boise. Since the Idaho Stampede is Portland's D-League affiliate team, the Stampede staff was in charge of putting things together and making sure that everything went smoothly the night of the game. This meant lots of late nights at the office and lots of stress for Ty. It was pretty much the first big responsibility and the first game night experience he had as a PR coordinator. I don't really know a lot about the behind the scenes stuff, but I know that a lot of time and effort was put into the game, and things ended up going really well. The arena was packed and people had to buy standing room only tickets, which made for a really fun and loud environment. Ty was so sweet and hooked me up with a courtside seat for the game! It was so awesome. It was crazy to have guys that I see on tv all the time right in front of me.

Damian Lillard (last season's Rookie of the Year) warming up

these guys are so tall!

tip-off

LaMarcus Aldridge shooting free throws

Ty walking away after handing the coaches their stat sheets. I'm not even sure how much of the game Ty actually watched, he was busy the whole time!

All in all it was a great night and a really cool experience! It definitely got me excited for the Stampede season. It's kind of weird to watch games by myself while Ty is working, but at the same time I love watching Ty in action. He is definitely in his element and I'm so proud of him for working hard to reach his goals and landing a job that he loves!

Happy basketball season!

Life in Boise

We moved to Boise at the beginning of August. We really feel lucky that things worked out the way they did for us to end up here. It was so relieving to be leaving Rexburg with a plan and an idea of what was coming next. It was stressful to try and find a place to live though. We wanted to find something close enough to my work for me to walk, and also wanted something bigger than the apartments we had been living in, but not huge since it's just the 2 of us. We came to Boise a couple times to look at houses, and left feeling discouraged that we weren't going to find what we wanted. 3 days before we were supposed to leave Rexburg we found out that we had been picked to rent a little duplex that we really liked. We were so happy! It has hardwood floor in the living room, the kitchen is painted red and all the other rooms are painted fun colors like yellow and green, we have a garage so we won't have to scrape ice off our car, a little backyard, and to top it all off it's a block away from my preschool. It literally takes me 3 minutes to walk to work. We are so happy that we ended up here and are having so much fun putting it together! Here are a couple of pictures of some projects we've been working on.

we found this table at a garage sale

and here it is after a few coats of paint! (p.s. how fun is our green wall?!)

we got this dresser off of Craigslist

and here it is painted, but still a work in progress. I haven't found the right dresser knobs yet.

I'm not going to post pictures of our house because no room is completely done yet, but we're slowly getting there and I'm really happy with the way things are turning out! Ty and I both agree that we appreciate our home a lot more now that we have been putting a lot of work into it. 

We've also had a lot of fun exploring our new city! The first few weeks we were here we would just get in the car and drive around to try and get more familiar with where things are. We spent weekends walking around downtown and taking trails just to see where we'd end up. I still don't feel like I know my way around very well, but I just need to give it time. Yesterday I took the car while Ty was at the Priesthood session and got lost trying to get to the mall. Umm, that's a slight problem. I will never feel at home in a place where I can't find my way to the nearest Target! I'm learning. 

Here are some pictures of things we've done in this new place we call home:

Ty participated in a street ball tournament for work. It ended with a dunk contest in front of the Capitol Building. Pretty cool! 

We've explored our farmers market. so many fun stands and fresh flowers everywhere!

we've given talks in our new ward (which we love),

chaperoned a youth dance, where we were mistaken for youth when we walked in. Thank you?

and we went to a Boise State game! we had a good time, but I will always cheer for my wolf pack!

We also celebrated our 3rd anniversary here in August! We had a fun dinner downtown and went out to ice cream after. It was a great night and I'm so thankful for the past 3 years we have been able to spend together. So much has happened, including this move and new jobs, and I can't imagine going through all of this with anyone else! 

isn't he so cute? I just love him. 

We're so thankful to be here and are so happy to be starting this new phase of life! I'll be honest, it has been a bit of an adjustment. Ty has already been so busy with work and I feel like we barely see each other, but we're figuring out our new schedules and feel blessed that we had such a smooth transition out of college. And so, here we are in the "real world" bracing ourselves for whatever comes our way. Wish us luck! 

The Riverhouse Reunion

I love going to the Riverhouse for Ty's family reunions. It's so nice to see his parents and all of his siblings, and hang out with our cute nieces and nephews too! I love watching Ty interact with all of the kids. He's going to be such a great dad someday (not an announcement)! Here are some pictures we took at the reunion!

We played lots of games, went rafting, played some volleyball & soccer, went to a Pioneer Day celebration, ate tons of food and stay up way too late talking. There's always so much to do when we go to the Riverhouse! I also felt like I got to know the older grandkids a little better this year. It's nice to talk to them and learn more about their personalities. Each one is so different and uniquely their own person; I feel so blessed to be an aunt to so many great kids!

so many kids everywhere!

this is the cutest thing I have ever seen

We also took some family pictures. This part of the reunion is always an adventure and usually involves a lot of crying, but this year I felt like everything went really smoothly and they turned out great!

Ty with his siblings

Ty is the youngest of 10!

Paul and Jenny with their grandkids

The whole gang! 2 parents, 10 siblings, 8 in-laws (one not pictured) and 26 grandkids 

(and one more born just a few days ago!)

I am so grateful to be a part of this family! At times it's overwhelming and crazy to have so many people around, but I love getting to spend time with all of them and getting to know them better. I wish we could see everyone more often. Thanks Paul and Jenny for letting us take over your house for a few days, Can't wait until next year's reunion!