Wyoming-The Equality State

Welp, Andy and I are here in WY now, and have been for about three weeks. We are here for work installing security systems for Vivint, and yes I am working a power drill right along side Andy. Whenever I told people what my summer plans were I would get the eyebrow raise and the question "YOU are doing it too?" Yep!! What else am I going to do? Sit in the hotel and beat my head against the wall? No thank you! I wasn't looking forward to it, but it actually hasn't been too bad. Granted it would be a lot better had we gone to New York or Florida to install, but with all we had to come home for we needed to be closer than that. So Wyoming it was! But on the bright side, now we know we never ever want to live here, so that's good in a way ha ha.

We started in Rock Springs, which from talking to people sounds like it's pretty much the worst part of this state. Who knew! We moved from there about a week ago, and we're now in Evanston, which is nice because we can go home on weekends and see our families. Another good thing is we will get to be here on the 4th. No lame UT fireworks for us!! We're going to load up on all the illegal stuff and have ourselves a party! My friend Bobbi lives here and she says that the 4th is the one day that Evanston is the best place to be. I'm excited!! So we are here until mid-July, and from then on I have no clue where we'll go. They are starting to move techs way up North to Sheridan and Montana, so I'm guessing we will be soon to follow.

Wyoming is an interesting place, not like Utah much. I

don't think I've seen a "nice" house here more than three, maybe four times. The majority of the houses in Rock Springs, and a good share here in Evanston, are all trailer homes. Even if a person is making quite a bit of money (around 100,000 a year) they still live in really old, run-down homes. Then the more money they make, the more trailers they add on to their first. Kinda funny. And people here like to drive the speed limit (ugh). I was shocked when we got to Rock Springs and their main road was 35 mph, and people were ACTUALLY GOING 35 MPH. Not a mile over! And if you did, you got a ticket. Luckily WE weren't the ones that found that out, but our buddy John got a ticket going 40. And groceries are so expensive here! We talked to one lady that would drive all the way to Riverdale in Ogden to go to Costco because she hated how much groceries were here. Nuts!! And as a dental hygiene student I can't help but notice how many people are missing half their teeth. Some

times even ALL of them. And they aren't even old enough to be in dentures!! It's the stereotypical hick cowboy around here. Gives me a little chuckle every once in awhile.:)

Even with all of WY drawbacks, I am so glad we came. Work is successful and we are doing really well here. And it has been the perfect opportunity for us. With how everything worked out before we came here, and how we even found out about this job I know this is where we are supposed to be. It's an adventure for Andy and I, and I love being able to spend so much time with him. So here's to hoping the rest of the summer goes this well!!

June 2, 2011

Alright, so I'm sure all of you know that I have had A LOT going on lately. What a wonderful couple of weeks it has been!! So many exciting things have been happening and I have so much to blog about. The thing I'm most excited to write about is MY WEDDING DAY!!! What a wonderful day it was! It started bright and early at 5:30 am when I got up. Fortunately I was able to get some sleep the night before, so when my alarm went off, I was out of my bed like a racehorse. I was waiting for the jitters to hit me, but the whole morning I felt so calm and ready to marry my sweetheart....until we got to the temple and handed them our recommends. I felt like I wanted to throw up! Andy kept laughing at me because he knew how nervous I was. But then we walked in and started getting ready and my mind went to other things, so I was alright. We sat in the Celestial room of the Salt Lake Temple and we were both in awe at how beautiful

and detailed it was. They came in and told us that our guests were ready for us and we were on our way in to be sealed! We walked in the room and of course I just started crying. It was so awesome to

walk into a beautiful room filled with all the people who truly love us. Our sealer was amazing as well! It was such a perfect morning!

After that we went and did the usual pictures on the steps, and then we got to go do our video. I love how it turned out! The wind was a bit of a pain to try and work around, but overall it was so much fun shooting it. This is the first draft with just the temple, but another one is to come with our reception as well. You can watch it here- http://www.vimeo.com/24701293

Then came our reception. It was an outdoor reception at the Victorian in Layton, and we were VERY nervous that it was going to rain.

Everything was set up outside, and while we were taking pictures it started to sprinkle. I was pretty stressed, and I will admit I turned into Bridezilla there for a minute (Sorry family). But it cleared

up, and while it was a little chilly, the weather was perfect! We had lots of friends and family show up and we were so grateful for everyone that came. We cut the cake, tossed the bouquet and garter, then rode off on the back of a firetruck. It was such a memorable night! One I will never forget.

June 2, 2011 was and will forever be the best day of my life. I'm so incredibly grateful I married Andy, and that he wanted to marry me. What a perfect day for the both of us!!

So Close!!!

We are down to 16 DAYS!! (Since today is pretty much over.) 16 days until i'm a married woman...Ho-ly Cow. I just can't even wait! It seems like we've been engaged for forever. I am through with all the planning, I just want to be married already! But this last month before the wedding has been the most fun. With all the showers and last minute details it has been a very busy month! I'm definitely glad I am home and a lazy bum with no job so that I can get everything done on all the little lists I find around the house with my name on them (thanks mom :)). But all the little things are done as well, so now I get to sit here and wait....and wait...and...wait. It's hard with Andy being in Wyoming until two days before the wedding, but we're survivin'. Can I just say I am so grateful for Skype!!!!!!!! At least I get to see him even if he's in another state. I'd probably go crazy without that.

Another thing I am counting down the days to is May 31st-the day I take my endowments out. That's two weeks from tomorrow!! Woot woot! I am so excited, which is honestly a relief. Growing up I was kind of afraid of the temple. I always wanted a temple marriage, but the temple was sort of a mysterious thing for me. Now that I am older and I understand a little more about the importance of it all and the opportunity for blessings, I can't wait to go through the temple. TWO WEEKS!!!

RCA Graduation

Yesterday Andy graduated from the Recruit Candidate Academy. WOOHOOO!!! This means he can now be a real firefighter :) I'm so proud of him!! It was a long, hard semester, but with a whole lot of prayer and hard work he did it. He's now applying at stations in Davis County, so we are keeping our fingers crossed that something good will happen for us. So yesterday I got to go to his graduation, and it was actually pretty fun (graduations aren't usually my idea of a good time). We got to watch this really cool video his class made. It's on Youtube, so you can go watch it here-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO_IpqZnDoM. Then we got to watch him get his certificates, and after that he took us on a tour around the school. Then off to Texas Roadhouse we went! It was a very good night :)

Congratulations Andy!! I'm so proud of you!!!!!!

Best Day of My Life...So Far

Ok so I think it's about time to post about my exciting news....I got an A on my Radiography test!! Ha ha just kidding. I'M ENGAGED!!!! It's taken me awhile to post about this, I know. So it happened almost three weeks ago on Feb. 5th. Andy and I had been talking about getting married for a little while, so our parents wanted to meet each other. We had plans to go out to dinner with my parents and his parents so they could talk and get to know each other. So me and my parents were just going to meet him and his at the restaurant we were eating at, and as we were sitting in the kitchen waiting to leave, I hear sirens going off down the street. Now for those of you that don't know, Andy is in the Fire Academy at UVU. So as soon as I heard the fire sirens going off I knew, and I started FREAKING OUT. I ran out to the front porch and up pulls a shiny, red fire truck with a big sign on it that says "Lexi will you marry me." I just stood on the porch with my hands over my mouth not really knowing what to do. I felt frozen in place, nervous, and insanely excited all at the same time. My mom came out behind me and said "Well, get down there!" So I ran down to the driveway, and he jumped out of the truck in a suit and tie with flowers in one hand and a ring in the other. I was shaking so bad!! Ha ha it was all so exciting!!! He got down on one knee and said "Lexi I love you so much. Will you marry me?" And then of course I said YES! This whole time I was oblivious to everything around me, so when we turned around I saw that his whole family had been there taking pictures and attempting to videotape it all. What a wonderful night, and such a creative way to propose!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have pictures, but I'm posting from Andy's computer and I don't know how to work it ha ha

Bear Lake

This past weekend Andy and I went up to Bear Lake and stayed with a couple of Andy's friends in their family's BEAUTIFUL cabin. Since we had Monday off of school for Martin Luther King day we thought it would be a fun way to spend our weekend. It was a really fun, unfortunately short little get-away. I brought my camera specifically to take pictures to post on my blog, but did I? No. I'm pretty much the worst picture taker ever. Anyways, obviously we couldn't play on the lake, but we were able to go sledding and hook the sleds up to the four wheeler (scary, painful, but pretty darn fun :D), play Curses, watch movies, sleep, eat, eat, and eat. It was a great time and I'm so glad that Jordan and Nicole let us come spend the weekend with them!! Hopefully we will get to go back this summer when we can play on the water!

Sub For Santa

So I know I'm a little late on this, but I thought it would be better late than never! A few weeks ago Mykenzie and I did Sub for Santa that RC Willey put on. My dad called and asked if I wanted to go help little kids shop for Christmas presents and my response was something like "Heck ya!!!" The he said "Well....before you get too excited...you would have to be in SLC at 6:15am." Bummer. But I did it anyways!! Me and Kenz woke up and met at 5:00 (ugh) and started drivin! We got to the address they had given us and the building was pitch black. I was not a happy camper. I was worried we had got out of bed insanely early for nothing, so we called dad and tried to figure out if we had the wrong day, the wrong building, or what. So he told us to look for a Sorenson Multicultural Center, and that was definitely not where we were. We got back in the car and went a block over and found where we were supposed to be. We waited in a looong line of volunteers, then finally got the little boy we were assigned to help. His name was Fernando, and he didn't speak two words of English. The one and only word I understood the entire morning was crayons ha ha. But they put us on these big charter buses and we set off for Wal Mart. There were cops blocking off the roads because we had about 15 huge buses all in a line, and it would have taken forever to get there if they had just driven there on their own. So we all got off all the buses, and there were SO many kids. Needless to say the toy section was a madhouse!! But it was really fun helping Fernando shop for Christmas presents!! He was basically pulling any toy he saw into the cart, so Kenz and I help guide him to the ones we thought he might actually have fun playing with. Then we went and picked out some clothes and socks for him to take home too. After we were done shopping we loaded everything back on the bus and went back to the Cultural Center. I was so glad that I went, even though I was incredibly tired by 10. It was fun to be in the hustle and bustle of things and know that we were helping out little Fernando pick out the only Christmas presents he would get. I love doing things like this!!!