Catching up! Summer 2016

Wow, I have been terribly bad about blogging this summer. I guess since Steven's been done with school I haven't had too many nights home by myself to update my blog. Shame on me. I will get better--but for now, some major updating! I apologize in advance for the length of this post.

STEVEN GRADUATED FROM COLLEGE! Yee-haw! We are so excited to have college behind us now, and have seriously enjoyed only having to worry about our full time employment, and taking care of each other and our home. Steven is still working at his sandblasting job, for now. He is hoping something will pop up in his field here soon, but if not--he has considered obtaining his teaching certificate and pursue a career as a high school English/Writing teacher. I think deep down he has always wanted to teach, because it is a job he can do and also be able to look into coaching high school football (which is really his dream job I think). I am still working as a designer full time, and work has been super busy! We have done so well this summer with sales which is really encouraging and I am so excited for some of the new products we have coming!

Celebrating Steven's Graduation with his family

We went on a 4-wheeler ride out to help Steven's dad move some water. We got a little dirty along the way.

I bought Steven and myself some hiking gear this last spring (thinking we would be hiking all summer long). We have used these like, a grand total of twice. Haha! But when the weekend rolls around we have a lot of other things we need to get done as well and it has been WICKED hot lately (which also makes it hard to get out). It's starting to cool down slightly now though, so maybe we will get in a few more hikes before winter rolls around.

Steven's "Doofy Hat" his brother gave him. He loves it.

We tried out our ice cream maker this summer. I don't think the recipe we used was the best (the texture was a bit off), but it did make good homemade peach milkshakes!!

Dinner together!

 Heading to Steven's parents again to have a little "mini-vacation" for Memorial Day weekend. We saw this crazy weird homemade camper on our way down. Steven thought it was so awesome (even though it was quite ghetto looking too.. Haha)

What-the-WHAT?

Hiking in Almo

Even the panoramic doesn't do this valley justice...

Hiking with friends!

Back home for our steak dinner on Memorial Day

We thoroughly enjoyed having our holiday off together!

 We have been so blessed by our families since we have been married. Our washer and dryer were given to us by Steven's aunt and uncle right after our wedding. We have been so spoiled! However, this spring the washer was struggling to drain water and finally quit spinning all together. Steven and I spent a Saturday trying to diagnose the problem to see if it was worth it to fix. Turned out to be a transmission problem and we decided it wasn't worth the fix, so we bought a (used) new one. The best part? The new one still matches my dryer (but is a model year newer than our previous one). We were still super grateful we didn't have to spend a fortune to replace our washer!!!

"New" Washer

I planted flowers in the yard again this year!! Can't wait for my own yard so I can get a little more crazy with the gardening!!

Steven and I went to the farmer's market here in town one Friday night to check it out. We shared a HUGE scone (with an assortment of flavored butters) and some mexican corn. We even bought a bag of Washington cherries to bring home!!

YUM!

 Since Steven is no longer a student--and I haven't been a student in over a year now, we made the switch from our married student ward to the traditional family ward. We have loved being in our new ward and are grateful for our new calling as primary teachers! It's rare for a husband and wife to get to serve together like that and we have been enjoying getting to know the kids in our class and attending sharing time and singing time with the kids!

After church

 We still love to get a sweet icy treat every now and then (ok... probably more often than we should...) But there was one night in particular we saw some small planes practicing some aerial tricks, so we enjoyed the free show while we ate our Italian ice. 

We also attended one of my cousin's weddings earlier this summer. It was fun to get together with some of my siblings and my mom for a couple of days!

We made our annual trip to the drive-in theater back in June as well. We saw Finding Dory and Alice Through the Looking Glass. Well, I should say that we saw Finding Dory, and Steven saw Alice... I always fall asleep during the 2nd feature. But it doesn't start until after 11 PM and that's WAY past my bedtime!!!)

Waiting for the sun to set so the movie can start!

Snuggling with snacks helps the time go by though. :)

I honestly don't remember what was special about this picture... We are probably getting ready to eat or something....

 My company has an annual summer party at the local waterpark. Steven and I had a blast going down the huge water slides (and trying out some mermaid tails of course!!!). It was a little chilly out that night (which was a bummer because it had been BLARING hot all week up to that), but everyone (us included) seemed to have a good time regardless!

After swimming at the Fin Fun company party

 For the 4th of July we spent the entire day hanging out at the park with friends. It really was a blast just lounging around in the shade and cooling our feet off in the river while we waited for fireworks. We are so grateful to have such good friends so close right now!!

The girls!

I love these ladies!

The whole gang!

Steven and his little buddy, Quinton!

Waiting for the sun to go down.

Still waiting... But we had good seats!!

Kayla's face!! :P

Almost time!!

As I mentioned above, we are primary teachers in our new ward. We teach the Valiant 8 class. We currently just have 2 boys in our class, but they are awesome--we love them. 
We have also loved getting to do primary type things for church--i.e. coloring, drawing, making cool stuff, singing fun primary songs and acting silly during singing time. Our boys have so much energy and they can be difficult to keep up with, but they are ours and it's been fun to get to know them.

Steven didn't finish his in class this day, so he finished at home. What a cutie!

We colored and assembled our armors of God!

Any guesses on what this lesson was on? We made one main flag for the lesson and had each of the boys write their own too. These are Steven's and mine.

 Steven's company is so generous. They provided us with a Sam's Club membership for the next year, so we immediately went to check it out. It really just made us miss Costco, but this is what's here.. And the membership was free, so we will take it!

OUR FIRST SAM'S CLUB EXPERIENCE! 

 We of course had Steven's annual summer work party as well at Heise Hot Springs again this year. We didn't go swimming, but enjoyed the yummy food, visiting with some of his coworkers, and the beautiful view of the river. We even took the windy back roads home so we could follow the river back as far as we could. It was a lovely evening!

Steven skipping rocks on the river.

 A couple weeks ago we had a weekend BBQ with some of our closest friends. We mostly hung out at the park all day and just enjoyed the beautiful weather and each other's company.  I love when we get together to do fun things like that. It makes for a fun-filled Saturday!

For our 3rd anniversary we actually celebrated a couple days early by going out to one of our favorite fine dining places in a neighboring town. It's a little expensive so we usually save that place for special occasions--mainly our anniversary. On our actual anniversary, I actually cooked Steven steak this time and I have to say that it turned out really good, if I say so myself. Steven even seemed slightly impressed with my steak skills as well. 

It's hard to believe that we have been married for 3 years already! It doesn't seem like our wedding was that long ago, but we have enjoyed every moment we have had together so far, and are eager to see what our future has in store for us. Lots could change in the next little while, and life may be SO different in the next year. But Steven has been my rock and has given me all the loving support he can, so bring on the changes! We are in this all together!

This last weekend we went to Boise for a couple days to visit my brother, his wife, and their cute little 3-year-old daughter. They are expecting their second child this month, so I did some maternity/family photos with them. They took a couple photos of us for our anniversary as well. I will share those on my next blog post. This week has been crazy, so I haven't got to editing them just yet, but plan to get those finished this weekend.

Until next time!