Top 100 newlywed highlights!

Our wedding day was such a great day. We were sealed for time and all eternity at the Orquirrh Mountain temple at 9:00am. Walking into the sealing room and seeing so many people who we love and who love us was heartwarming and unforgettable. It was such a special surreal feeling to kneel across the alter and look at each other and see eternity. It was that same heartwarming and unforgettable feeling when we walked out of the temple and were greeted by all of our friends and family waiting outside. Unfortunately, it was quite cold and windy so we weren't able to get many pictures of the whole group but they sure were champs for sticking it out in the cold to greet us. After our sealing, we had a small ceremony where my dad walked me down the aisle and a good friend of the family, Bishop Neil Bushman, talked a bit about why being married in the temple was so important to us. Then we exchanged short vows and he presented us as a married couple. The ceremony was followed by a luncheon program where all of our family members had a chance to give a toast. Then that evening, we had a reception line and dance. We were having so much fun dancing, we didn't want to leave and ended up staying about half hour longer than we had planned. Of course, our groomsmen and bridesmaid did a great job decorating our car before we left. 

Landin planned our honeymoon at the Homestead in Midway. Originally, I wanted to just stay at home because I knew how expensive a nice hotel would be (I’m really cheap!) but I was very grateful Landin didn’t listen to me because it was so much fun. The hotel room was beautiful and it had a big cozy bed and a couch next to the fireplace and a big hot tub. They have an indoor crater that we swam around in (although it was freezing outside) and we ate sooo much good food at their little restaurant. We stayed there Friday and Saturday night and made it back into town for church on Sunday. Unfortunately, we didn’t take a single picture the entire time. Oops!

The month after our wedding, we went on a much needed 10-day road-trip that we refer to as our Honeymoon #2. We left the day after Christmas with hardly any plans and just went wherever the wind blew us. We stopped in St. George to visit a couple of my mission companions. We stayed with Hermana Smith (now known as Heidi Dewey) and her family. We also visited Hermana Croft (now known as Amy Crofts) and her family. We visited the St. George temple the following morning before heading to Las Vegas. We found a cheap hotel close to the strip, had dinner in a smokey casino and gave away $20 at the Blackjack table before heading off to California the next morning. When we go to California, we stayed with my Uncle Remi, Aunt Anka and cousin Megan the first couple days. They took us to eat Dim Sum which was a first for Landin and he loved it! He enjoyed all of the different asian food that my family took us to. We got together with all of my uncles for dinner at an authentic Cantonese restaurant and we also met up with my Aunt Kat and cousin Fiona for Korean BBQ and froyo. After staying with Uncle Remi’s family for a couple days, we headed up to Magic Mountain in Valencia which was the only pre-planned part of our trip. My mission companion, Hermana Powell (now known as Whitney Martinez) and her husband gave us tickets to Magic Mountain that were expiring at the end of the month that they weren’t able to use (score!) and we got hooked up to stay in a nice Embassy Suites hotel for cheap by the sister my friend that I met in China, Ekitzel. Then, the next day (my birthday!) we went to Hollywood and checked out the Star Walk and went on a tour and saw all the enormous houses of a bunch of famous people, including Tom Cruise and Justin Beiber (those are the ones I remember!) Then we headed back Uncle Philip’s and celebrated New Years Eve by singing karaoke all night with the whole Ung family. They even surprised me with a birthday cake and sang happy birthday to me. The next day we started our journey home. We stopped in Las Vegas again where the Croft’s hooked us up with their awesome timeshare condo since they knew we were coming back that way. We swam in the pool and hit up a show on the strip then headed back to reality the next morning. We had so much fun the entire trip and really enjoyed the fact that we had no plans and were able to fill our time with whatever fun opportunity came up as we went. We were so grateful for everyone that hooked us up and made trip even better!

When Landin was leaving his mission from Uruguay, he got bumped off the flight and had to stay a day longer and received a flight voucher for the price of the flight. He had planned on going back to visit Uruguay the next year but I came along and ruined those plans and we got married instead :) So since one flight voucher wouldn’t get us both to Uruguay, we ended up using it to go to Florida for what we call Honeymoon #3 to visit Landin’s good friend CJ. We stayed with CJ at his dad’s beach house and had so much fun. CJ took really good care of us. We played on the beach, went out fishing on their boat, went to Busch Gardens, went to a comedy club, clubbing, and basically just played and enjoyed the sun for a week straight.

Last summer we really wanted to go camping because neither of us had been in years. We didn’t have any camping things or have any idea where to go so we slowly started collecting camping items throughout the winter. Cindy (Landin’s mom) got us a really nice tent for Christmas, and I got Landin a sleep bag for Christmas and little by little we continued collection so by the time spring came around we were ready for a camping trip! We packed up the car with all our camping gear and our bikes and headed down south to Yuba Lake. We pitched our tent, set up camp, went for a few mile trail run, went on a 20 mile bike ride, cooked tin foil dinners over the fire, made s'mores, played cards and just enjoyed the great outdoors together. Throughout the weekend we added to our mental checklist of things to remember for the next time but for our first camping trip, we thought we did a pretty good job and had a lot of fun.

In the last two years, Landin and I have picked up many new hobbies together and have shared old hobbies with each other so now we have many hobbies that we get to enjoy with each other. One of the hobbies that we’ve picked up together is riding bikes. I’m not really even sure how it started, other than just because living downtown we noticed that everyone rode around on bikes and it seemed like a good idea so one day we bought some simple hybrid bikes. We started riding around downtown, Liberty park, to church or to Blockbuster to get a movie. It was such an adventure to just get out and be connected to the world and we continue to love discovering new places around town to bike.

Last summer, my older brother, Sam, got really into running and inspired/convinced Landin and I to join him and his wife, Meghan, in running our first 5k at the Provo Halloween 5k. Neither of us had really been much for runners but we were really excited about it. I woke up early a couple times a week for the couple months before the race and pushed myself until I could run a solid mile. My goal was to at least run a full mile and then I would walk/run the rest. Landin on the other hand, didn’t really worry about training. He just kept saying, “I’ll just show up.” I was sooo nervous the night before and the morning of the race but I was able to complete my goal of running the full mile and then I walked and ran the rest of the way. I pushed myself to run hard at the end because I knew Sam and Landin would be there waiting and I wanted to impress them by showing up sooner than they expected. (And they were impressed!) Landin had done exactly what he had planned, he just showed up and ran and ended up taking 3rd place in his age division. They made him a nice plaque and he got to choose a quote to put on it and he put “I’ll just show up.”

Landin is a serious swimmer. He swam competitively since he was a kid and all throughout high school. However, for the first year of our marriage we didn’t get in a pool once and he was really missing it. So last fall, we bought me a swimsuit and goggles and headed to the pool. I had taken swimming lessons when I was a kid so I knew how to swim, but I wasn’t a good swimmer by any means. Actually, the first time we went to the pool, I was terrible. I couldn’t figure out how to breath without getting water up my nose, my ears filled with water and a lap or two would wear me out. We started going at least once a week and Landin would very patiently work with me and teach me all the techniques. He would tell me I was doing great and made me feel like I was a good swimmer and encouraged me until I actually was a good swimmer. After a couple months, we signed up for our first triathlon which started with a 300 meter swim. I was so nervous about it! 300 meters felt like forever. But I did it! 6 months later, I looked back on those 300 meters and laughed as we were now swimming 1600 meters straight. Honestly, in the beginning, I only kind of liked swimming but what kept me going back was seeing how much Landin loved it. He would get so excited and happy and I could tell it meant so much to him to be able to share it with me. He was so proud of me when I did well and it pushed me and still pushes me to keep getting better. Now I really love swimming and I especially love sharing that hobby with my husband, who I also love very much.

Our first triathlon! We kind of got into triathlons by accident. Landin always thought doing a triathlon would be cool, but I can honestly say I had never thought I'd do one. We just happened to buy bikes last spring and enjoyed riding them around, and I had always liked running and had started up again since my brother Sam talked us into doing a 5k with them, and Landin had always been a swimmer and had just started teaching me so we figured we might as well put all three together and do a triathlon. We signed up for RaceTri’s Icebreaker sprint triathlon in American Fork at the end of December and had 3 months to train for a 300 meter swim, a 12 mike bike and 5k run on March 30 of this year. We trained pretty diligently for 3 months and were nervous but ready on race day. Sam and Meghan and the kids came to cheer us on at the finish line, which I was so grateful for. I really pushed myself through the run by telling myself that they were there waiting for me at the finish line and it motivated me a lot. Landin finished with a time of 1:27:48 and I finished at 1:34:04. As soon as it was over, we were ready for more and ended up doing a total of 5 triathlons before the season just recently ended.

In the last couple years, we've made 5 trips to Washington state to see Landin's family which is always a lot of fun. The first time we went out there was for Labor Day weekend in 2011 so I could meet his family right before we got engaged. The second time was for Thanksgiving and for a our second wedding reception. Unfortunately, the next time we went out was because Landin's grandpa was suffering from cancer and not doing well so we wanted to visit him to say goodbye. A few months later, we went out for his funeral :( He was such a good man ad I was really sad that I didn't get to know him better. On the bright side, we had a lot of fun spending time with all of his aunts, uncles and many cousins during both visits, then we went back a few months later and spent our Christmas break visiting with the family.

We've also made a few trips to Idaho to Landin's sister's house, Amanda. She and her husband, Trevor and their two girls, Ellie and Chloe live almost exactly half-way between us and their family in Washington which makes for a very convenient meeting place for a family get together. We've gone out a couple times just for fun and also for Chloe's baby blessing. We've enjoyed hanging out with Trevor and Amanda and especially Ellie and little Chloe!

For some reason, I was really excited about our first Valentine’s Day. I think it was because it was the first Valentine’s Day that I actually had REAL TRUE LOVE to celebrate. I started secretly planning weeks (maybe months) ahead of time. I ended up finding a cute pinterest idea and used a deck of cards to create a cute collection of 52 reason I love Landin. It took a lot longer to put together than I expected so I ended up having to sneak out of bed in the middle of the night the night before to finish it. I’m pretty sure he nearly shed a tear when I gave it to him in the morning (or maybe something was in his eye.) We decided not to go out to dinner to avoid the long waits and unromantic atmosphere of the commercialized Valentine’s Day night so instead I made a steak dinner and surprised him with sparkling cider and candles and rose petals all over our apartment when he got home from work. 

A couple weeks after attending our first branch (yes, a branch, not a ward) we were called as Youth Sunday School teachers together. When President McKeown, the branch president at the time, set us apart, he told us to enjoy the unique opportunity to serve together as husband and wife as it was a rare opportunity. We definitely did enjoy getting to teach together. It felt like being missionaries again and this time I had the best companion ever. There were just four youth in our branch and we got to teach the Book of Mormon class which I absolutely love. President McKeown was right though, it was short lived and a couple months later Landin was called as the Executive Secretary and I was left to teach Sunday School by myself until I was called as the Young Women's President shortly after that. 

Just over a year ago, Landin got a call from a counselor in the stake presidency asking to meet with both of us. We thought, “uh oh!” and spent a couple days speculating all the of different callings that one us might be getting. We were completely taken by surprise though when they extended Landin the calling as the 2nd counselor in the branch presidency at the age of 22! I didn’t even know that was possible! I was so excited for him and grateful that he was worthy and willing to serve. I’ll admit I was a little selfishly sad and worried about the time that it was going to take him away from me, and as silly as it is, I was sad I wasn’t going to get to sit next to him in sacrament meeting anymore since he would now be sitting on the stand. I got over that quickly and Landin quickly got to work. He slid into the position so fluidly that it seemed like he had always belonged there. Just recently, the 1st counselor moved out of the branch so they called Landin to be the 1st counselor. When the stake presidency came to reorganize the presidency and announced that Landin was being released as the 2nd counselor, the congregation gasped in disappointment. He’s so loved by everyone there. They think he’s just amazing for such a young man (and I agree!) They were relieved when he was then sustained as the 1st counselor. It’s been such a blessing for us to be able to be so involved in our branch and to have so much opportunity to serve the Lord there.

Living in a small branch has given us a lot of opportunity to serve which has been a great blessing and experience for both Landin and myself. I was called as the Young Womens president about a year and a half ago and have really enjoyed my time with the Young Women. The largest our group has been is 3 girls, and we've had a total of 4 different girls the entire time (Madelaine, Rosine, Betsy and Mary Claire) so it's been a relatively easy calling as a Young Women's president but I sure have learned a lot and grown to love these girls as well as my first counselor, Mariana. I've loved being able to get to know them and share my testimony of the gospel with them.

For our 1 year anniversary, we thought about going and staying somewhere fancy to celebrate but figured that all the fancy cool places to stay were only blocks away from our downtown Salt Lake City apartment. We decided to save the couple hundred dollars a night that it would cost to stay somewhere nice and go SHOPPING instead. We were in desperate need of some new clothes so we spent the entire weekend on a giant shopping spree and bought all the things we needed. We also treated ourselves to a Cheesecake Factory dinner. In the end, it would have been cheaper to stay a couple nights at a fancy hotel but it was totally worth it. We also thawed out the top peice of our wedding cake and enjoyed it with some sparkling cider. We were surprised that the cake was still very delicious. (Who doesn’t LOVE carrot cake?!)

When it comes to falling asleep at night, Landin always beats me to it. For as long as I can remember, it has always taken me a while to fall asleep. I usually lay awake thinking and winding down for a good amount of time until I’m finally able to fall asleep and sometimes it’s even kind of lonely because Landin dozes off right away. Well, one night within the first couple of months of being married, I was nearly asleep and figured Landin was already way long gone when he snuggled real close, held me tight and whispered, “I love you so much.” My heart pretty much melted and my eyes filled with tears. I was surprised that 1) he was awake and 2) thinking of how much he loves me! It was such a small little thing that meant so much to me. I felt so lucky and so blessed because even if he didn’t say the words, I knew and could feel that he really did love me so much.

When Landin and I started dating in 2011, he was a student at BYU. When we decided to get married, I lured him up here to Salt Lake City and slowly converted him into a Ute by buying him University of Utah apparel one birthday or Christmas present at a time. By the time he graduated with his associates degree at LDSBC and started his bachelor's degree he was truly converted into a Ute.

2011

2013

We went to a few University of Utah football games last year when Landin was still a student at LDSBC. I took him to the Washington State University game for his birthday and then a friend hooked us up with tickets a couple times. Since Landin is a U of U student this year, we made sure to join the MUSS (Mighty Utah Student Section) so we got some pretty sweet tickets and have made it to nearly every game. 

Since Landin love sports, its easy for me to find things to get him for special occasions! For our first Valentine's day, I got him tickets to a Jazz game and we've gone a couple other times with our Pass of all Passes.

I’m a little particular about my workspace. Whether it’s my desk at work, the kitchen while I’m cooking or my study space to do homework, I need to have an orderly clean space. If the area or the house is messy, I have to clean everything before I can even begin to focus. The weekend of our big anniversary shopping spree, I had to go straight home from work to take a midterm exam before we could start celebrating. When I got home, the house was perfectly clean and Landin had my computer and all my study materials including my favorite brain food and drinks set up in my favorite study spot. He’s so thoughtful!

During the summers, we often find ourselves going on 7 Eleven slurpee runs at all hours of the day or night. Its another one of those simple things that I've really enjoyed. We'll just stroll down the street hand in hand with our slurpee refill cup and just chat as we walk and then sit on the curb or the front porch of our apartment and drink our slurpees while we enjoy the pretty summer nights. We often find stray kitty friends along the way which is an added bonus for me! 

Our first summer in our little third floor apartment was miserably hot. I had never realize how hot summers were until I lived a summer without AC. We just used fans until my brother gave me his old portable AC unit. The first night with it was like heaven until it broke a week or two later. So we slept with all the windows open, no blankets, little to no clothes and just sweated our guts out! There was one particular night that it was so hot that we couldn't fall asleep so we decided to go for a ride in our car with the AC full blast and drank slurpees until we were so cold so we could hurry back and get into bed and stay cool long enough to fall asleep. On top of that, later the AC in our car also broke. IT WAS A HOT SUMMER! We look back on those times now and smile because of the memory but in the moment it wasn't funny at all.

Since Landin and I served in the same mission, we have a lot of mission friends in common. We both loved our missions so much and it's special that we get to share such an important part of our lives in common. We try to keep in touch with as many of them as we can and love getting together to catch up and reminisce about the great times we shared. We love all of our friends, of course, but mission friends are a very special kind of friend that help keep alive some of our most important memories in life.

I took the first semester off of school after we got married and planned on just working full-time to put Landin through school. Honestly though, I hated it. I felt like I wasn’t progressing and in a way, I just felt lazy. So we decided I would go back to school part time while working full-time (and Landin does the opposite, he works part-time and goes to school full-time) and that is working much better. Now that we are both students, we spend a lot of evenings having study dates. I actually think that it’s easier being a student when married because we can can mix our “social” life with homework life. This semester, we even managed to find a class that goes toward both of our majors that we are taking it together. (Landin is a Business Marketing major and I’m an International Studies major with a trade/commerce emphasis and minors in Spanish and Chinese.) It’s an online International Economics class and it’s been really fun to study and do our homework together.

One of my most favorite parts of being married from the very beginning and still to this day is getting to cuddling every night.

Baseball to the face: One night last summer we wanted to get outside and do something so we rode our bikes over the Liberty park to play catch. Anyone who knows me well, knows that I’m really not the most coordinated person out there and I’m really not good at baseball. Landin was going easy on me and kind of just lobbing the ball to me and teaching me how to throw properly. I started feeling like I was getting better and was getting a little less afraid of the ball. Then Landin threw the ball to me and I closed my mitt too soon and the ball tipped off my glove and hit me straight in the mouth! Without thinking I dropped my mitt and immediately covered my mouth with both my hands and looked at Landin with panic on my face. I didn’t know what to do and was afraid my teeth were going to fall out! Landin came over to me (and felt really bad) and got me to uncover my mouth and spit out all the blood. I could feel a chunk of my lip just flapping. Yuck! We didn’t have any water or anything to clean up with since we just rode over on our bikes so had to keep pressure on my mouth and keep spitting as we rode our bikes home. My face swelled up and I looked terrible for a couple days after but on the bright side, I felt justified in calling in sick the next day and got to spend the day with Landin since he didn’t have class that day.

We’ve really grown to love our tiny downtown Salt Lake apartment. It’s been so much fun to feel it change from just an apartment to our home. We’ve slowly added decorations and furniture and it keeps getting cozier and cozier. We love that its so close to Trax and buses that we don’t need a second car. For being downtown, it’s a quiet neighborhood yet there’s so much excitement close by. If Landin didn’t work in Riverton, we could probably even get by without having a car at all.

I love those moments when I get home from work and see that Landin put a meal in the crock pot that I didn’t even ask him to put in. He’s so great! 

Earlier this year I was given a really pretty orchid flower plant as a thank you from a couple of the doctors I work with and I loved it. It was purple and just so pretty. I know they are testy plants so I followed the directions as perfectly as I could so that it would stay alive but after a couple weeks, the flowers started dying one by one. I was so sad every time I came home and and found another one dead. I was having a particularly bad week when the final flower died and I kept whining to Landin that I was terrible at taking care of plants. The next day, he picked me up from the trax station after work and there was a beautiful fake orchid plant in the front seat. It still hasn’t died :)

I wish I had pictures or video to illustrate this but one of my favorite recurring memories is singing and dancing in the car. Landin is the kind of person that always has to have music playing in the car so we often find ourselves singing along and dancing. We've gotten really good at dancing with our shoulders!

Another one of my favorite recurring memories is when we sing hymns together in bed at night, especially when we sing Spanish hymns.

When I wasn't in school, I would come home from work every day and go straight to the kitchen to make an elaborate dinner that would be ready to eat the minute Landin walked in the door from work. Landin loved it, of course. But as soon as school started, that didn't happen anymore. I just didn't have it in me to work a full day, spend a couple hours in the kitchen, then sit down and study. So instead, we started making crock-pot freezer meals that cook all day when we’re at work, then we come home from work and eat and spend the rest of the night studying. We've really enjoyed this and I've really loved it because Landin and I do it all together. It’s an elaborate project that we work as a team to complete. We choose a bunch of meals we want to make, make a grocery list, go buy all the groceries together and then we prepare them. It usually only takes us a couple hours and then we’re set for at least a month. I’m always so impressed with how willing he is to help me grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning.

The lack of clothing when at home (no pics for this one)

I’m kind of a stresser. Okay, I’m really a stresser. I sometimes fill my plate a little too full and get overwhelmed quite easily but Landin is always so sweet and knows exactly how to comfort me. Most of the time, he doesn't say a word and just opens up his arms (or his jacket) and just lets me tuck myself inside his arms and breath (or cry.) What would I do without him? How did I get so lucky?

Living downtown Salt Lake is really great because we end up getting all kinds out-of-town visitors coming to stay with us, which we love! We have enjoyed very much having family and friends pass through and visit us. Unfortunately, we have a tiny apartment with no bed to offer but have been told our couch is very comfortable! People who have stayed on our couch: Cindy (Landin’s mom, Washington), Dave (Landin’s step dad, Washington), Jodi (my momi, Wyoming), Tom (step dad, Wyoming), Tammy (Aunt, Wyoming), Kyle (cousin, Idaho), Garrett (friend, Idaho/Washington), Erickson (friend from the mission, Idaho), Liz (friend, Farmington), Josh (friend, Farmington), Susie (mission companion, Provo), Taylor (mission zone leader, Provo), Neyo (family friend, China), Candis (Colorado).

Landin is a practical jokester. He loves to trick people and he loves to scare people. Sometimes I’m just a little too serious and I just don’t like to be scared. We learned these two things about each other in our first couple months of marriage. I worked until 5:30pm and Landin worked til 7:00pm so I always got home first and would make dinner and have it ready by the time he got home (that only lasted until I started school again.) So I got home one night and found the TV on the fuzzy black and white screen (like on poltergeist) which was really creepy. Then I walked passed our coat closet into the kitchen and noticed someone coming at me from the closet through the corner of my eye and nearly had a heart attack. Of course, it was Landin surprising me because he got off work early. He would also often hide around corners at night when I was getting ready for bed and scare me on my way to our bedroom. It got to the point that I was so afraid of him jumping out to scare me that anytime he went to bed while I was still getting ready, I would cautiously and quietly walk out of the bathroom to check the corners or I would call his name so I could hear him yell “what” from the bedroom, just to make sure he wasn’t hiding around the corner.

One of our most favorite Sunday pastimes is going to hang out with my brother, Sam and sister-in-law, Meghan and their three kids, Kaitlin (6), MaKenna (3) and Tyler (2). We love to play with the kids and try to chat with Sam and Meghan in between. We don’t have a lot of family around but we’re very grateful to have them around to spend time with. We love them very much!

Landin loves to compete. He loves sports, and he loves games because he loves to compete. Sometimes he itches so bad for some competition that we just have to play a match of Rock Paper Scissors before bed and of course, there’s usually some sort of punishment on the line for the loser, like having be the one to get out of bed to turn off the light.

We got really into playing chess for a while. I actually had to talk Landin into getting a chess board because I thought I was good at logic and strategy and I really wanted to play but it turns out that Landin is much better. If I remember correctly, I’ve only beat him once out of at least 10 games. Now Landin always wants to play, but I’m kind of sick of losing so our chess set is getting a bit dusty.

We play some very serious and very speedy games of the card games Speed and the California Speed version. It usually follows a game of chess because I need to feel some redemption (because I can actually beat him at speed!)

Landin and I had both never been to conference before but now we've been able to go together a couple times since we've been married. We're so lucky to be able to just drive or walk a couple blocks away from our home to listen to modern day prophets give us counsel, especially knowing the great lengths and distances many have had to go to be there!

We've made an effort to be more active over the last year and intended to get into hiking. However, working, being students and triathletes among other responsibilities didn't leave much time for hiking this summer but we did hike up to Ensign Peak and enjoyed the view of the Salt Lake valley. I love living in such a beautiful place!

We went window shopping at the Park City outlets just to tag along and hang out with Landin’s good friend, Garrett and his girlfriend. We spent a couple hours just walking around and looking at things but we were strictly just window shopping. Garrett and his girlfriend had one last store to go to before leaving and we happened to walk by Kay Jeweler and went in just to look. We happened to walk straight to the clearance counter without realizing it and found the exact (but real diamond) replica of the $30 Wal-Mart ring that Landin proposed to me with (while the real ring was being made) that was now falling apart and missing most of it’s jewels that I continued to wear on my right hand because of the sentiment. We had previously talked about replacing it “someday” and now that we happened to find the real diamond version for 50% off, we just couldn’t pass it up. I felt so spoiled and a bit guilty because I knew I didn't NEED a second diamond ring and especially because there was no special occasion to justify buying it but Landin was completely onboard and it was beautiful and sparkly on my finger, I just loved it and couldn’t say no. So we bought it and I spent the rest of the night (and the following weeks and months) staring at it. The next evening, while I was admiring my sparkly new ring, it suddenly dawned on me that the day before was the 2 year anniversary of the day that he proposed to me with the original ring. I couldn’t believe it! I still feel completely spoiled (cuz I am) but it added to the sentiment and I really felt like it was meant to be!

Original Ring

New Ring

Another one of the great perks/temptation with living downtown is that we have easy access to so many restaurants of every kind. We’ve really enjoyed trying all kinds of new foods including Thai, Vietnamese, Indian, Greek, Japanese, Chinese, Mexican, Lebanese, Ethiopian and even just plain American food. We love finding a new restaurant and love anything with some good spice!

Greek

Vietnamese

Italian

Mexican

Ethiopian

We've loved wandering around and discovering downtown.

City Creek

Temple Square

Downtown

This summer we ran the Color Me Rad 5k with our friends, Liz and Josh Horton The Color Me Rad run is friendly untimed 5k run that is more about dancing, having fun and getting covered in color than it is about running. People tend to dress up so Liz and I had fun making our cute lil tutus the night before. Since it’s not a competitive run and it’s untimed, we all ran it together rather than running at our own paces which made it really fun. Usually, Landin and I run separately, but it was fun to be able to cross the finish line together.

Another hobby that we've picked up together is Shooting Guns! Although I grew up with guns in the house I used to be afraid of guns but Landin and I have taken up shooting and got our concealed weapons permits. Sometimes I still accidentally close my eyes when I pull the trigger but I'm getting better ;)

A friend of my dad's in China wanted to send his son, Neyo, to the US to study and of course, my dad talked him into sending him to Salt Lake City. He had a family homestay set up for his first semester but he came a week early and stayed with us. Landin and I helped get him set up and established and showed him around. It was so much fun to introduce him to new things and have him in our home. When it came time to take him to his homestay family, we were so sad to leave him.

We FINALLY paid off the Prius! Wahoo! It felt like such an accomplishment!

Landin likes to wind down and watch TV every now and then and I'm not really a TV person but we've found a routine that works for us. Whenever Landin wants to watch TV, I sit down with him and use the time to pain my nails. And Landin, being the sweet man that he is, holds my nail polish bottle for me when I paint my right hand. Coming from a house of boys that hated when I painted my nails "in the house" (as opposed to outside?) I was surprised that not only did he not complain about the smell of nail polish, but he was willing to help me in the process. Seriously, how did I get so lucky? I have to ask myself this question all the time.

We competed in our first 3 triathlons with our very basic, heavy and not exactly fast hybrid bikes. We had our minds on new bikes for a while but were not wanting to spend a fortune. After our third triathlon, we stopped at Scheels because Landin wanted to get a new running hat. Long story short, we found a good deal and ended up walking out with two brand new road bikes! Having road bikes made a huge difference in our bike time. We love them!

We often get a random text from Landin's good friend, Garrett from Walla Walla (who currently lives in Rexburg) asking us what we're up to which usually means he happens to be in Salt Lake. We've really enjoyed hanging out with him during his random visits and have especially enjoyed when he's spent the summers in Utah.

Another thing we've enjoyed is reading books together. I've never been a big reader but it's been really fun to find books to read together, especially on long road trips or camping. We've read the Hunger Games, Dragon Bones, Agenda 21, Born to Run and have a few more on our list of books to read (once we're caught up on our textbooks!)

I've wanted to get into running for a long time but I seemed to always injure myself any time I would attempt so I never did get too serious about it however, I still had the dream of running a marathon some day. I even had the specific goal of running a marathon with my husband. When Landin and I were dating, I told him that and he pretty much said he hated running and that would never happen. Little by little, I think I've changed his mind. Its a lot easier and more enjoyable to get out there and run when we can do it together. In the beginning, a mile was a big accomplishment, but little by little we've surprised ourselves with our progression. We still aren't marathon ready just yet, but running has become a great hobby that both of us really enjoy and the idea of running a marathon isn't so far off as it used to be. 

We went snowboarding last winter. It was Landin's first time on a snowboard rather than skis and he did great. He actually spent the majority of the day on his feet unlike my first time. I was really impressed. It was really fun and even romantic being up there on the mountain together. If it wasn't such an expensive sport, we would probably spend more time on the mountain.

We have LOVED filling our summer nights together with fun things to do, like watching movies at the Capitol under the stars!

Another summer night activity we've enjoyed is going to the free Monday night concerts at Liberty Park.

Goodbye Geo: My faithful lil Geo was smashed last year when it was parked on the side of the street in front of our apartment. It was my first car and I really loved it because of that sentiment so it was really sad but we got a good laugh out of it because the person that hit it and ran, left behind their bumper along with the license plate. Since I usually take a bus or Trax to work and school, we really didn't need a second car anyway and we were able to pay the Prius off with the money their insurance had to pay us for it, not a bad deal! :)

It has been so much fun to be able to go to our mission reunions together every year. As I've already said, we both loved our mission so much and it's so nice to be able to keep those memories alive and share them in common. Some of my companions have had to miss our reunions to go their husbands' reunions instead so I feel really lucky that we can go to ours every year together and neither one of us gets bored. 

First Half Marathon 

Burrito

Hulse Family Reunion in Idaho

Landin graduating LDSBC 

11:11 kisses

Road Trips

For the first year and half or so of being married, Landin worked every day until 7:00pm so I usually came home and had a couple hours to myself to cook, clean, do homework or whatever. One day, Landin took the day off work and didn't tell me. So while I was at work he put together a delicious surprise dinner that was waiting for me when I got home from work. Plus, the dinner he made was a fancy fresh tomato pasta that I found in a magazine and mentioned to him that I thought would be good. He's so thoughtful!

We've had a lot of fun sneaking sweet little love notes in each others' lunches every now and then. I take a lunch to work every day and sometimes when I'm running behind and haven't put a lunch together Landin will help me throw a lunch together in the morning . I always love seeing what random items he puts in my lunch because there is usually something that makes me giggle.

We also have a great collection of love notes in general.

One day I came home from work and the house was a mess. I was tired and bit ornery and Landin knew I would be so before coming home from work, he stopped by the store and bought me a cookie pan and cooling rack.

Jobs We have been really lucky to have great jobs over the last two years that have allowed us to get through school and enjoy first years of marriage. Although they aren't jobs that we would want to be in for the long run, we're grateful we've been able to earn a living and support ourselves while being in school.

So since we got a little spendy with buying new bikes and a new ring for me recently, we've very firmly decided there is no reason to spend any money on birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas, Valentine's Day, etc. for a couple years ;) So this no-money-rule applied to Landin's birthday last month. It felt so wrong to not buy him anything but he kept insisting that I not get him anything. So I came up with an idea that mostly followed the rules. I had to be sneaky so I asked Sam and Meghan to help me buy all of Landin's favorite grocery items that I don't usually buy (for example, expensive orange juice, a certain flavor of toothpaste, frozen pizza, etc.) We went to visit them the night before and I took my backpack with my "homework" and they filled it up with all the items when Landin wasn't looking. That night, I sneaked out of bed in the middle of the night and put all the items in their respective places with bows on them. The next morning, Landin found all of his favorite things around in the cupboards, fridge, freezer, etc., with bows on them!

For Halloween I painted this beautiful Minnie Mouse pumpkin and was quite proud of it. Since we live in a third floor apartment building we didn't have a porch to put it on so instead it sat on our dining table for a week. It seemed like an okay idea until one morning Landin walked past it and found Minnie folded over and her guts were spilled all over the table and leaking on the ground. Yuck! Luckily, I was at work and escaped the clean up.

Country dancing I've always loved country dancing and am so grateful that I have a husband who is light on his feet and willing to throw and spin me around on the dance floor.

So we read the book, Born to Run, and decided to try out this whole barefoot running fad and so far we really like it. We each got a pair of Vibram toe shoes and started breaking them in. About a month later, Dr. Leiberman, who is one of the main researches that this fad and book were based on, put on an early morning program at the Utah Natural History Museum, where he talked a little bit about the theory behind barefoot reading and lead a little 5k run along the Bonneville shoreline. There were probably about 15 of us that showed up and ran with him. (Side note--the people that this book are about are called the Taramuhara. So we've already pre-named our non-existent future dog and running companion, Tara, after the Taramuhara running people! :))

Let's just say we've taken some awesome naps in the last two years. Whether after a long morning of Saturday training or after 3+ hours of church, we have come home and taken some solid naps. We cherish this kinds of thing knowing that once we have kids, we wont be able to just check out whenever we feel like it.

I think I've mentioned a couple times already how frugal I am. Also, Landin loves watching TV and movies. That being said, we have seen a lot of dollar theater movies in the last two years.

Frozen yogurt is my comfort food! If I'm grumpy, sad or just have a sweet tooth, I want frozen yogurt, so again, we've spent many nights at my favorite frozen yogurt shop down the street.

I've wanted a dog or a cat so bad but we haven't been able to get one since our apartment doesn't allow pets so instead we visited the Humane Society of Utah and play with their dogs to appease my puppy cravings.

Fitting a Christmas tree in our tiny apartment was completely out of the question, so for Christmas decorations, we decorated window and hung little stars from our ceiling.

Another one of our many road trips was to Wyoming to visit my mom in Pinedale. We had a lot of fun with my mom and Tom discovering the tiny town, checking out the museum, shooting guns and enjoying the beautiful scenery.

Another bonus of having served in the same mission is that we both speak Spanish so we can practice with each other and whisper things in Spanish when we don't want others listening in on us. Sometimes we try to only speak Spanish to each other for a certain period of time. We've had the goal to have an entire day of only speaking Spanish, but haven't pulled it off yet because we can only do it when there is no one else around so they don't think we're talking about them.

Landin has some adorable young cousins, Elena and Lorenzo, that we've loved to getting to babysit. We really enjoy taking them out to have fun and having them stay over at our place. It's been good practice (and birth control) being able to take care of kids. However, since they are half Venezuelan, we've learned that our ability to speak Spanish to each other losing some value when the kids speak Spanish. We may have to rethink whether we should teach our children Spanish.

Since Landin works at Stampin'Up! he is quite the talented card maker! I have come home to many beautifully made cards from him time after time. Not only that, but every year, they have a giant employee blowout sell and I get to stock up on boxes and boxes of card making items. We've enjoyed spending hours together making cards for family and friends (if you haven't ever received a homemade card from us, I apologize. We are better at making cards then we are at actually sending them.)

If you know me well, you know I'm a pretty emotionally sensitive person. It doesn't take a lot to upset me, make me sad or to make me cry. Thankfully, Landin is very kind and sensitive to my emotions. He knows when something will make me cry. It's gotten to the point that any time something sad happens and he knows I am going to cry, he turns and looks at me with big concerned eyes and says, "don't cry Kenya" and we both laugh. He handles me so well!

Have I mentioned Landin likes to compete? Anytime we go to the grocery store, or anytime we open the power bill, we play the game over/under. One of us guesses the total and the other chooses over or under, if that person is right, they win. Otherwise the other person wins. Also, pretty much any where we go or anything we do, Landin always challenges me with "I'll race ya!"

Hulu shows Some of our favorite Hulu shows include: Revolution, The Voice, Sherlock, Shark Tank, The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother 

We don't leave home without or coupon book and thrive on getting good deals!

We got the opportunity to appear in a YouTube video that Landin's company produced. We're practically famous now! 

I'm pretty certain that Landin and I haven't missed a single show that my brother, Sam's bands have played in the last 2 years. We love going to hang out with them, listen to their music and support them at their shows.

Take me out to the ball game, take me out to the crowd, buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks, I don't care if I ever get back, cuz it's root, root, root for the Bee's, if they don't win it's a shame, cuz it's one, two, three strikes you're out at the old ball game.

Our first Olympic distance triathlon was at Camp Yuba and we enjoyed all 55.5 km of it!

We love visits from Cindy! Landin's mom lives in Washington but we've been so lucky to be able to see here pretty regularly as she makes a road trip out here pretty regularly. We always have a blast when she's around. We love her very much!

Money Jar

Chasing the train on bikes: Yep, that's right. We chased the Trax train through downtown and CAUGHT IT!

Friends over for dinner

Chocolate milk with love note

The Manliest Blender

Paintballing We went for my sister-in-law's brother, Zac's birthday last year and had a blast. It was one

Our most recent exciting news is that we are buying a house! It's bittersweet as I've mentioned many times how much we love living downtown but we are ready and excited for this new chapter of our lives.