I don't even like turkey

Thanksgiving. A great holiday that I look forward to every year. I had to work on Thanksgiving this year and it was the first time we would be away from family and therefore away from moms and grandmas who know how to cook. Colin suggested that we to a restaurant to celebrate. I am a big believer in traditions so I simply knew I had to attempt cooking a Thanksgiving dinner. I decided we would have the essentials: turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls, salad and pie. So I went online and found the easiest recipes I could and went for it. It was mostly edible. The turkey was okay at first and then I realized that I always prefer ham over turkey. I thought everything was delicious and I was so proud of myself. Colin was not so thrilled but I wouldn't even let him comment about anything because I knew I would punch him if he said anything negative. Overall we had a lovely dinner.

I love Thanksgiving so much because it is a great time to reflect on all there is to be thankful for. I am so grateful for just about everything in my life. I feel so blessed to be able to have such a wonderful husband. He is such an amazing person and he finds a way to love me despite my craziness. I am grateful for our families. We both have such different but amazing families who love us and would do anything for us. I am thankful that Colin and I both have jobs that we mostly love and that allow us to live in the amazing city of Chicago. I am also so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and the testimony I have that he is the Savior of the world and that he loves me and all of us. I could continue this list on for another 3 pages but you would be bored I am sure. Basically if you are reading this just know that I am grateful for you. I am sure that no matter who you are you have affected me in ways that you may not know and you have made me a better person through your friendship and example. I love this holiday season and I hope we can all enjoy it! 

Halloween Adventures

 Once again I have let months go by without updating this lovely little thing. Luckily my attractive husband posted all the songs he has been singing for the last few months. He is really so talented and I love listening to him sing.  I just wish he would make our bed when he posts videos on our blog :)

The past couple months have been full of exciting adventures and boring everyday life. The last week in October Colin and I both went to visit our families. I went to Denver and Colin to Utah. It was fun for me to be able to spend time with my family. My parents just moved to a new house less then a mile away from our old one. It was a little sad going home to a different house, but I really like the new one, so I got over it pretty quick. My sister Tamsen also came in from BYU and spent the weekend at home. We had some pretty epic times...

Facials....I am pretty sure we all broke out in acne the next day.

Watching my sister Becky in a marching band competition. She is the smallest one with the biggest instrument.

 We also went to a place called Anderson Farms. It has become a family tradition to go there every year and pick out pumpkins and go through the haunted corn maze. It was so freaking scary. 

I had a really great time with my sisters. They are the best. I also loved just being in Colorado. It snowed while I was there and I thought it was just gorgeous. It is such a beautiful place. It was nice looking out at the mountains and not at buildings.

Colin and I returned to Chicago a couple days before Halloween. I had to work Halloween night so all we really did was go to the Chipotle right underneath our apartment building. We dressed up as nurses...Colin's genius idea. I was already in my scrubs and he put on another pair of my scrubs. It was the most pathetic Halloween costume ever.  But it got us our $2 burritos, so I guess it was worth it.

Music To Be Thankful For

Happy Thanksgiving! I am so grateful for my wife Andrea who brings all of the holiday spirit into our marriage. I am pretty sure if it were all up to me, I would not eat turkey on Thanksgiving, not dress on Halloween, and not wear green on St. Patrick's day. It's not that I don't enjoy all of those things, I just need somebody with a little more pep to get me going on the holidays. I think she is planning on blogging about our different festivities so I won't go into any more detail about them. Unfortunately, Andrea had to work Thursday, Friday, and Saturday while I have been off work so I have had way too much time on my hands. So here is my blog post to dump off some of the songs that I have been playing lately.

Imagine Dragons - Bleeding Out

If you haven't heard of Imagine Dragons, then you should definitely check them out. I first heard them at a battle of the bands at BYU my freshmen year, and now they off winning MTV Music Awards and stuff so that's pretty cool. I guess Brandon Flowers and Tyler Glenn were getting lonely as the only Mormons making it big in the music industry. Other songs from them to check out: It's Time, On Top of the World.

Grouplove - Close Your Eyes and Count to Ten & Love Will Save Your Soul

Grouplove hands down wins my best new artist of the year award. They are so original and catchy. You have probably heard these songs already but if you haven't then you need too: Colors, Tongue Tied, Itching On a Photograph.

Carly Rae Jepsen: Call Me Maybe

As much as it annoys me, I have to admit that this song is very catchy. And since everyone else in the world was doing their own video to it, I thought I would join the bandwagon. I did change it up a little bit. Other song to check out by Carly Rae: None - not even this one.

I'll Be There

This last song is a new one that I started writing back when I was still in school. Once I got married and working, I never really found time to finish it. But I finally did, so I hope it sounds alright.

Chi-town

Our first week in Chicago was so full of adventure. When we drove up to our apartment for the first time I nearly died. I was overwhelmed with how different it was. There were people everywhere. There were cars everywhere. There was parking...nowhere. It was crazy. We finally found a parking garage that was two blocks away from our apartment. We moved all of our stuff in from the car and we set up our air mattress and there we were, in Chicago! We spent the next few days making tons of trips to the nearest Target (30 min away) and the nearest Bed Bath & Beyond (3 blocks away). We bought a mattress, a computer, a desk, a microwave, and folding table and chairs. We had sub-leased the apartment for 3 months. We had not seen the apartment before we moved out. It was very old, had no AC and was just not what we wanted.  

 Through a random miracle we were able to get our of our contract and we moved out a week later! We only moved two blocks away down the same street. So now we live in a high rise apartment with a parking garage attached! (Moving twice in the same week was awful btw, don't ever do it). I can now say that I am a professional U-haul truck driver. 

Here is a list of things I have learned about living in Chicago. 

-5 and 6-way intersections exist

-5 and 6-way intersections are impossible navigate. 

-It takes 30 minutes to drive one mile.

-Quarters are a rare commodity

-Wells Fargo does not exist in this city

-Everyone loves baseball for some reason

-There are cops everywhere, but I rarely see people getting pulled over
-Gas is so expensive ($4.70/gal) 

The list could go on and on. Now that I have lived here for 4 months I can say that I love it here. There is always something fun to do. Our first week alone we went to the beach, to a comedy club, to 3 museums, to the zoo and tried a ton of great restaurants right on our street. Here are some of the other great things we have done...

Free Death Cab for Cutie Concert

Boat tour with Colin's company

Watching Pride parade

Navy Pier

Cubs game

Museum of Science and Industry

Millennium Park

Planetarium

Basically Chicago is awesome and you should come visit!!

Journey to Chicago

After we returned from Florida we had a couple of days to get all of our stuff packed to move across the country. I was so excited to start such a crazy adventure. The reason we moved out to Chicago was Colin got a job with a consulting firm and he was scheduled to start at the end of May. The plan was to drive Colin's car out to Chicago. All we really had to pack were our clothes and wedding gifts. We had absolutely no furniture. We didn't even have computers because both of our laptops died a week before graduation. All of our stuff would not fit in his car though, so we ended up renting a U-box from U-haul. All we had to do was go to the nearest U-haul in Littleton and fill this storage unit with all our stuff. They then shipped it out to Chicago.

We had a few hiccups in our journey. The first one being that the car wouldn't start the day before we left. We tried to jump start it a few times but nothing was working. I was freaking out because I thought it had died for good (its a '95 Buick Skylar so this was a possibility). Colin then had the great idea to put a gallon of gas in the tank and see if it would start then (This was not obvious at first because the fuel gauge said we had a quarter of a tank left). We put in a gallon and it still did not start. For some reason Colin thought we should try another gallon, so we went back to the gas station and bought another gallon. It started!!!! The stupid thing was just out of gas. I made my mom swear not to tell my dad about the whole thing. I knew he would not let us leave if he found out. She didn't tell him and we left the next day!

We split the drive into two parts. The first day we drove 8 hours to Omaha, Nebraska. It was also Colin's 23rd birthday. I felt so bad because it had to be the worst birthday ever.  We ate at Applebee's to celebrate his life and then spent the night in an extremely ghetto motel.  

The next day we drove another 8 hours and finally got to Chicago!! We had no problems along the way. The drive was horribly ugly and boring, but I am glad we made it safely.

Disney World

Two days after our Colorado reception we packed our bags and flew down to Orlando to spend a week in Disney World with my family. My family is in love with all things Disney. I had not been to Disney World in about 4 years, so I was excited to go back! Colin had been to Disney World a few years ago, and lets just say he is not as in love with it as I am. We still had a wonderful time in the happiest place on earth! ;)

 My mom bought these hats for us. I got Colin to agree to put it on for one picture. This is the picture. 

We spent four days at all the different Disney parks. My favorite park is Animal Kingdom because I love animals I guess. 

 One of the highlights was when Tamsen and Colin auditioned for the American Idol Experience at Hollywood Studios. 

I got to sit in on both of their auditions. They both did a great job but neither of them made it. I was still a proud wife/sister. 

We also spent two days at Universal Studios which is like 20 minutes from Disney World.

The best part of Universal was the Wizarding World of Harry Potter! 

The butter beer was delicious!! 

One of my favorite parts of the trip was at night my sisters would come into our room and Colin would do magic tricks for us. We also played poker with my sisters and they were way better then me. It was a great time and I am sure we will have many more Disney adventures throughout the years!!

Wedding Reception

Hello again blog world. It has been weeks since I have spent some quality time with you. This is due to the fact that I am so dang lazy when it comes to writing on this thing. Oh and my precious lover decided to post an extremely embarrassing video of us singing together. Anyways, I have decided to spend my day off catching the world up on our lives. Unfortunately that means going all the way back to May and giving brief descriptions of all the exciting things we have done since then.

The first major event that needs some attention is our Colorado wedding reception. What a long time ago that was...May 5th to be exact. There are many things about that day that should never be remembered. Like the fact that I spent the first half of the day ordering my army of decorators around as we prepared for the reception. This army included my mom, my three sisters, Colin, and other amazing family members that randomly showed up throughout the process. Once again I was possessed by a demon known as the bridezilla!! Despite my craziness, we were able to prepare a lovely reception!

Here are some pictures of our work. 

    

We had such a great time at the reception. So many lovely friends and family were able to come and it was so great to be able to catch up with everyone.

Some of the most memorable moments were:

Cutting the cake:

I dominated. 

 

Throwing the bouquet: 

On my first try I accidentally hit my grandma in the face.

Luckily she survived. 

On my second try my sissy Tamsen caught it. I hope what they say about catching the bouquet is true...

and Dancing!!

Dancing is something Colin and I didn't really plan for at our wedding because Colin hates to dance. 

To my surprise my family decided to break out the moves. I was so happy. 

Me trying to convince Colin to dance 

 I had such a great time and I am so grateful for everyone who came!