What we've been up to...

We didn't have room to move all of our gifts so we had to take a lot of them back in Utah.  It worked out great because instead of moving a room full of stuff we carried a few gift cards in our wallets.  So the Saturday after we got moved in Dave and I headed off to Target and Bed Bath & Beyond and bought everything back.  We had three carts full at Target and we've never spent so much in a day.  But now we have everything that we need :)

                                                             We wanted to embrace being in Texas so we made some great purchases that we are very proud of.  This is our texas door mat.  We also decided to take back the cheap waffle maker that we had bought and get a much more expensive Texas shaped one (we love our Texas shaped waffles in the mornings)  We also got a famous Texas star to put up in our living room and Dave promised he'd cook often if I got him a Texas flag apron.  It was hard not to buy the Texas star napkin holders or paper dispenser.  Bed Bath & Beyond has a Texas version of pretty much anything for the home.  We had to remind ourselves, "Let's not get crazy" over and over again.

 I think we've already gotten our money's worth out of the tool box that we bought for Dave.  We have a nice variety of furniture in our home but Dave is responsible for putting together a desk, night stand, mini book shelf and a tall bookshelf.  He worked so hard on all of the and they look great!

We've been loving the beautiful Texas sky that goes on and on.  We've seen some great sunsets

One of our favorite dates so far has been going down to the famous River Walk. We went over to the Tower of the America's afterwards and both had a Dr Pepper 750 ft up in the air.

 

 The San Antonio temple is only a fifteen minute drive (up to 45 minutes if you go between 3:30 and 7:00 pm)  It's absolutely beautiful!  It sits on one of the highest hills in the city and you can look out over all of San Antonio.  There are beautiful stained glass windows and fountains inside and out.  We love going and are so happy that it's so close.

 

 We also had some special guests come in for a visit.  Amanda was driving across the country with her mom, seeing all the places where she grew up.  Luckily, San Antonio is a big military town so we were on the list of stops.  It was so fun to have dinner and reminisce about old badminton days and how much we loved high school.

Our Apartment

 The kitchen that is just big enough for Dave and I to be in at the same time, it's perfect.

 

 Our lovely dining room set that Dave's mom found for us from a friend

We have a night stand now and our nice gel bed up on a frame

                                            This is our nice living room with our nice piece together furniture, donated coffee table, house warming gift couch from my dad, Dave's TV, and donated gold recliner.

Helloooo San Antonio!

Last month we packed up everything we owned in our two trucks and started the 1200+ mile trip from Provo, Utah to San Antonio, Texas. My dad graciously drove with us so we could have a 3rd driver to keep us company. The only furniture items we had were Dave's big screen TV and the $100 King gel matress that Jeff & Becca got us a great deal on (which we kept in the plastic and used as a cover for the bed of my truck)

We got a little bit of rain here and there until we got into Texas, where we seemed to be right alongside these huge dark clouds the whole time. About three hours out of San Antonio the road turned right into the clouds and we hit a pretty big storm with some nasty crosswinds. In the truck with my dad we felt this huge gust of wind that really shook the car. My dad goes, "What was that? I just saw David swerving, I hope we didn't lose anything." I turned back and everything looked normal until I realized that I could actually see out the back window. Rather than the mattress blocking most of the view in our rear window we noticed it was gone! We pulled off into the median and jumped out in the pouring rain to see if we could go find our mattress before someone got hurt. Turns out a cross wind somehow got our mattress unstrapped and flipped it over. Luckily it was still strapped on in the back so it was just hanging off the back of the truck, bouncing up and down. The plastic was a little scratched up but the mattress was just fine. We had a few minor casualities of a couple things that flew out, but I'm still grieving and not ready to talk about it yet.

We went out Monday morning to start apartment searching, armed only with some information from a couple local bishops. I guess it's not a common thing to move in in just one day so most of the complexes we visited couldn't get us in that day. We were starting to get a little worried when we saw a complex off to our left that wasn't on our list. They had an apartment all ready for move in that day and it was the best option we had found so we went for it. So, in one afternoon we got renters insurance, contacted both of our previous landlords, filled out an apartment application, passed credit checks, and waited for the managers application approval. The leasing office closed at 6 but we were in there til 8 and there were some dark clouds with lots of thunder coming in. As soon as we got the ok, my dad and David went to start unpacking while I stayed and went over the whole contract and signed a 13 month lease. They got everything inside except the TV before it started to pour.

And to top off the crazy day, they had parked in the fire line to unpack everything and the battery died so we couldn't move my truck. AAA came out and took care of us though. My dad was really enjoying one of his first Texas rainstorms. It was one of the craziest days of our lives, but in the end everything worked out perfectly.

Finally, home sweet home :)

Zions Landing

On our way back from California, we decided to stop in St George at Zion's National Park for one last hike before moving to mountainless Texas. It was beautiful!

Right before going up the world's windiest switchbacks, I was really dreading climbing up there!






We finally conquered Angel's Landing!

Lisa's 24th Birthday

One of my families long loved traditions is serving the birthday person breakfast in bed. I have lots of great memories waking up to singing and a fresh maple bar. It's kinda something we all expect now because we've been doing it for so long.

I was just thinking back to January when I decided to introduce Dave to this family tradition on his birthday. We were on a trip with some friends staying at a cabin and Cari Sue and I made him breakfast in bed, a delicious piece of french toast.

I was "surprised" early on the 27th of May with breakfast in bed. This breakfast in bed wasn't like any other I had ever had before. Check out this tray to see how much love and effort Dave put into this special birthday surprise. He's so great :) It was a great start to another year.

(included strawberries and bananas with chocolate dipping sauce, choc covered cinnabears, Trident, red vines, string cheese, pringles, eggs and ham with tortillas, bacon, donuts, juice, chocolate milk, and I'm sure there's something else I missed)

St Lucian Honeymoon

We got to go to beautiful St Lucia for our honeymoon. It's out in the West Indies almost down by Venezuela in the Caribbean. We had a honeymoon suite with our own personal butler, 24 hour included room service and tons of included activities. We were spoiled out of our minds for a week :)

We got a suite up on the bluffs away from all the big resort hubub. We had our own private pool right outside our room with the most amazing view.

The rest of the week we played on the beach, went golfing, ate too much gourmet food, went hot tubbing, drank strawberry daquiri's, went sailing, saw some amazing sunsets, enjoyed candlelight dinners on our balcony, tried almost every room service item, snorkled and soaked up a lot of sun!

Day 300!

On May 1st we celebrated our 300th day of dating by getting married. We were married and sealed for all eternity in the Fresno temple at 11:30AM. It was an amazing experience for us to share with family and friends!

We had a nice luncheon with a great Brazilian feast and then Dave and I headed off to Woodward Park to take some nice wedding pictures

The Reception was in my backyard in Fresno. It was absolutely beautiful! My parents had really worked hard on the yard and everything was perfect. We had a blast and it was great to see so many family and friends there.