Best Husband EVER!!!

Well, Ben and I are both a bunch of crazies, I know. We're always trying to cram as much as possible into each day. That's just how I feel about him. I don't ever feel like I'll get enough, the more time we spend together, the more time we want to spend together. It especially helps that we're always doing something crazy and fun together.

Over Labor Day weekend, we went to Island Park with my parents and two other couples who happen to be very good cooks! Right before we left, Ben showed me the brand new Black Diamond backpack that he bought me at the Canyon Sports Labor Day sale. I've been needing a backpack of my own so I can stop having to rent them from Ben's work and now I can customize and adjust it to fit me perfectly.

On our way up, we stopped at Walmart in Idaho Falls to pick up some things and they also happened to be having a big sale too so we got Ben some new shirts and he surprised me with a fly rod case! No more plastic case that requires me to completely derig my rod after fishing each time which will save me a lot of time and tippet:)

We didn't make it to Island Park until almost midnight so we snuck in quietly and went right to bed. In the morning, after waking up to a chilly morning and some delicious, hot and savory style steel cut oatmeal, we tried to make a plan for the day. The weather showed afternoon thunder storms so whatever we wanted to do, we had to do it fast. Somehow, I convinced myself that it was not too cold to go out on the boat to waterski and surf... Boy am I glad I did that! I haven't had one single opportunity to be drug behind a ski boat this entire summer until Island Park. I felt so good water skiing!!! Seriously, there's not a lot that can compare to the feeling of doing the smoothest, tightest turns possible while being drug 30 mph behind a speed boat. The exhilaration, the breathlessness, the sore muscles that you forgot were even there afterward is so amazing and unique to that sport alone. I love it!!! ...although my arms, back, and legs are still sore even though that was three days ago! Ben doesn't have quite as fond of a connection with boating as I do since he's only water skied about 4 times and each of those times was with me and my family, but he still gets pretty excited about being there with me and going out for his annual "glorified drowning" session. He did so good! He got up and skied and did some pretty good turns in the process and even had enough energy to wake surf in the end.

After boating followed by a nice lunch, we inflated the tandem kayaks and took off to float Big Springs. It was a long, slow trip in the river, it was rough and didn't help with the sore muscles. I must admit, however, that Ben and I did cheat a little down the river... we brought along our trolling motor: Bagheera! She loves swimming so we just hooked her leash to the front of the boat and let her go swim. We even took small pebbles and tossed them out in front of her to keep her going fast and in the right direction.

The rest of the weekend was pretty cold and windy, even rainy at times with snow in the mountains so Ben and I did a lot of reading, playing with the puppies, hot tubbing, walking, four wheeling, and watching our new addiction: Dexter. I must say, it's really weird that Ben and I are actually getting into a television show together. We don't even have TV at our house because we really just don't watch it that much and whenever we try we usually make it to the first commercial when we both lose interest. (it helps that Ben and I have been watching Dexter on Netflix so there aren't any commercials!)

Overall, it was just a really great weekend to be able to go out and have a "couples retreat" so to say, even though it was with my parents and their friends, it was perfect. We were so included and had so much fun with the group and at the same time we didn't feel we were the ones who needed to entertain so we also got plenty of alone time with just him and me. I loved it so much and Ben and I needed it more than I think we realized at first. I love him so much and I'm so proud of how well he's doing at school and work even through the 19 credit hours this semester! He really is pretty amazing.

Women On Edge: Week 2

Yesterday was our second meeting for Women On Edge (my womens climbing group). It was great! Last week, only 2 girls showed up but this time, there were 7 so with the three leaders that made 10 women all working together to climb! I was so excited about the turnout and I hope it keeps going that way if not increasing! The only downside was that the 2 girls from last week didn't show so it was 7 new girls so yet again we had to start over with the belay clinics and all, but it was so worth it. The other downside was that 3 of the girls seemed to come just so they could climb together and they didn't really want to be much a part of our group including warm up and cool down and getting to know each other. They were still fun but we'll see if they actually ever make it back here, the other 4, however, were so much fun! They were pushing each other, working over fears, trying difficult routes, and during cool down exercises, we had so much fun together! We all got in a circle and went around saying our names, something about ourselves, and then demonstrated our favorite stretches. I really think that at least some of them will be back and really participate in the group. I can't wait for next week!

I LOVE MY LIFE!!! ...hopefully it continues as it has been.

Well, first of all I must say that work today was amazing! I had a good, solid, class IV patient (nice messy perio) on whom I was able to use some local anesthetic which I haven't been able to do since school because I've been to big of a wimp to do shots for the Dr. but no more!!! Watch out cavities... here I come! It was fun to do something different and to actually feel like I'm working really really hard for that patient. I'm also coming in special just for her because I really enjoy working on her and she really seems to trust me and my hands. It seriously feels so good... I get the biggest high from doing hard work and stressing myself out and seeing that the patient actually appreciates and really does trust me and all the hard work I do.

Second of all, this summer has been a blast! I know you really wouldn't be able to tell from my blog since I hardly write anymore but I've just been so busy! I work on Thursday and Friday only for now with some subbing as an assistant and/or hygienist at my office and other local offices. I loved that schedule this summer because Ben worked Thursday and Friday with some Saturdays so when he was done with work on Sat or sometimes even Fri, we could head out on some crazy climbing, fishing, rafting, backpacking, camping, or whatever other type of adventure we felt like having that week with no need to be back until Wednesday night! I may have lost out on a few job offers over the summer but I don't regret it one bit... it was so worth it!!!

The problem I have now is this fall. I have all of this free time with only working two days a week and all but Ben will be starting 19 credits of intense Clinical Lab Science classes to finish up his license and degree. On top of that he will be running a monthly climbing clinic at Weber's rock climbing wall and working every other Saturday at the WSU Outdoor Programs. I don't know when he'll have time to be with me or if... I'm so worried about what I'm going to do with all of that time. I'm going to be running a weekly women's climbing group called Women On Edge at the Weber wall in the Stromberg gym. (ps. it's open to all students and community members... it's free for students and for community it's $5.00 per week which is a great deal and basically helps with equipment costs. So if you're a girl and you climb, or you've always wanted to try it out, come join us!) Aside from that, I don't know what's going to happen or what I will do to try and fill my free time... I guess a lot of painting and knitting! Hopefully all goes well.

Climbing My Guts Out

After a month long break from the rocks, we're now back with a new fury! I climbed with our buddy Chris at WSU's wall while Ben was on the Green River with the boys, and since he's been back, we've been climbing like crazy! We went to Logan Canyon on Monday with Chris and Erica and then Ben's Buddy Brad and his friend Jake came into town so we went to the Ramp Routes on Schoolroom, 9th street, Hole in the Wall, and Nuts N' Bolts in two consecutive days! Tons of hiking and climbing so I'm beat now! I love it! We're going out to the boulder field tonight, just Ben and I.

22 much better than 21!

My birthday was very very good. The day before, Ben and I drove Chris to the airport and hung out for a while in SLC. We really just wanted to go to REI to get me some Chacos but they didn't open until 10:00AM. We went out to breakfast at some little local diner and listened to our crazy book on tape called Wildfire. After getting my sweet green chacos, we ran home to get ready for our family pool party with Ben's cousins. It was so much fun to have all of them over for swimming and BBQ. The cousins are so awesome and cute! We got a little rained out at the end so our party came to a very abrupt stop, but at least we got to swim for quite some time.

For my birthday, I had work all day and Ben got stuck at his work a little late, so our date didn't get started until almost 7:00. We went out to Outback for steak and ribs and then came back home and listened to the rest of our book on tape.

Learning how to Live

Sometimes in life you're faced with tough decisions. I thought I understood that phrase, but now I'm starting to realize that once you're married, it's a whole different world. Ben had the opportunity to go on a once in a lifetime trip with one of his best friends, he'd be gone on a river in Idaho for a week without any way to contact me or anyone else the entire time. And he's supposed to leave tomorrow (three days after we got back from our honeymoon). What do I do? It's an amazing trip for him, and once in a lifetime, but it could be dangerous and I'll have to be without him for a week just ten days after our wedding... I'm trying to be a good wife, I love him so much and I want him to be happy and I'm hoping that by letting him go, I am doing what is best for us. It'll be really hard for us both to be apart that long so soon. However, I know that it should be worth it, Ben loves rivers and camping, he's almost like a fish in that he needs them to get by. I can always tell when it's been too long because there's just a pent up longing inside of him that I can see causing him to become kind of stir crazy. Whenever he returns from long adventurous trips like this, especially when he goes without me, he always returns better than when he left, it's like the flame inside of his eyes burns brighter. It's really hard to explain, but I know it is important for him and, in turn, for us. As long as he makes it back safely, I'll be 100% okay and it will have been very worth it.

Driving to Island Park

Ben and I left for our Honeymoon in Island Park on Sunday afternoon, it's about a four hour drive plus we made a bunch of stops on the way so we didn't get there until it was already almost time for bed. It was so much fun, as always with Ben in the car. We listened to the first part of a really intense book on tape about crazy government plotting with weapons of mass destruction.
Ben filling up at the gas station... yeah I know I take a lot of weird pictures but it's fun for me.

Just me in the car, on our way.

Stopping for lunch at arctic circle... Triple berry shakes are amazing!

This is his hand with his ring, I was so excited about the ring, but we think it may be too small, we got it in his size but tungsten is kind of a sticky metal so he really can't get it off without tons of soap and water and force. I'm kind of worried that it may damage his finger so he hasn't worn it for the past few days :(.


This is Ben trying to take a picture with me while keeping his eye on the road... such a good driver! hehe

Honeymoon to Island Park!

Our original plan for our Island Park trip was to come up here and fish our guts out with a few intermittent trips to Yellowstone in between. On our way here, we picked up some year long Idaho fishing licenses and a fly tying kit so we were stoked and ready to slay some hog.
When we got here, we realized that Idaho has the most confusing fishing rules we've ever seen. Luckily we decided to stop at the local fly shop for some guidance on where the best place to fish was. We learned that most of the rivers and streams around here are closed! All we could fish was Island Park Reservoir which is huge and difficult to fish, or we could drive all the way back to Ashton or we could head up to Madison and buy another fishing license to hit the hot fishing spots. Not wanting to buy another license, we headed to Ashton the first day and tried and tried on every part of the river that was legal to fish and didn't catch a single thing. Ben and I each got a bite but we didn't land any. Bummer

Ben holding up the biggest fish we caught the whole day: his fly.

Being happy standing by my dirty car that was so tastefully decorated by our friends and family, even though we told them not to touch it. Thanks guys... at least it was cute:)


Second day we went up to Yellowstone and within 10 minutes of being in the park we pulled off onto Riverside Drive and saw this:

A small pack of gray wolves feeding on a moose or buffalo... not quite sure which. They were across the river so we felt safe but they were so huge!!! These pictures seriously don't do them justice. The two light wolves were smaller but still way bigger than me and the dark wolf was just massive!!! I think he was either hurt or old or both because he was limping on his front right paw and instead of going for the good meat that he'd have to rip off the bones, he went for the soft parts that had been cast aside by the other two.

On our way out of the park we stopped by here again the the small wolves were gone and so was the carcass but the big wolf was there laying in the grass still soaking up some sun.

This elk we saw along with a small herd of cow elk along the side of the road. We were so excited at first we took tons of pictures but then we realized that elk are seriously everywhere in Yellowstone so the excitement quickly wore off.

This is the firehole waterfall that was so cool, Ben wanted to kayak it... thank goodness that's not legal. Yikes!

This chipmunk was hanging out around the firehole swim area and him and his buddy scared me half to death by jumping out of the rocks all of a sudden right next to me. He was a little stunned to so he stuck around for a bit to let me snag this sweet picture.

Ben posing near the swim area... unfortunately way too cold still to swim.

Yes, this picture was taken through my windshield in the parking lot. He decided to jump on my hood instead of fly away when a car came to park right where he was standing in the next space.

Honestly can't remember what this hole is but the pools are my favorites with all the cool colors and this was a fun picture of both of us.

One of my favorite sites called Red Spouter that kind of reminds me of a mini version of the top of a volcano. In the summer it's thicker mud instead of the red water but either way it's pretty cool.

I think this was Fountain Geyser or something like that...

This is just next to Excelsior Geyser and Grand Prismatic pool. It says that Grand Prismatic pool pours out 500gallons of boiling hot water per minute into the firehole river!

Grand prismatic pool!

Grand Prismatic pool... again with both of us.

Ben stretching outside the bathrooms in the parking lot.

Cool picture of our car... With a Bison right behind it!

Stretching again in Black Sand Basin. His back was hurting so he stretched the whole time!

Old Faithful... of course!

Whoa! It's still going!


Ben and I decided after Yellowstone we needed a slow day so we hung around the cabin (which was fine in the bad weather. He worked on tying flies and I played with the puzzle my dad got me. It was a very good day. The morning was a little too eventful though... First of all I must explain the doors here in the cabin: when they're locked you can go out but you can't come back in. Ben and I decided to take my dad's advice about swimsuits being optional in the hot tub and went out for a peaceful morning soak. You guessed it... we didn't check the stupid doorknob and as soon as we shut it we realized what we had done. We were locked out! ...naked! Yikes!!!! I remembered my dad saying there was a lockbox with a spare key out front so Ben grabbed the towel and went for a little walk in search of the key while I waited in the hot tub. I finally grew tired of waiting so I threw on the sarong that Ben for no apparent reason brought out with us and wandered around the yard too. We found the box but didn't know the combination... and we had no cell phones. After fiddling with different numbers for a while I sucked it up and walked to the neighbors to ask for a phone to call my dad. The neighbor answered and luckily he actually had a spare key! As I walked across the yard back to our cabin he yelled out to Ben: "Hey, next time you get locked out... put some clothes on first!!!" Moral of the story: when it comes to the hot tub, always bring a spare key with you!

Ben playing with his fly tying kit. He's so good at it it's taking him over.

Later that day we decided to go fishing so Ben drug out our little raft and trolling motor and drove us across the lake

It was pretty cold and we struggled with the lines getting tangled in the wind for a bit and the boat was taking on some water in the bottom but it was a very fun little outing and a perfect end to a very fun "lazy" day.

Ben fishing across the lake with his home tied wooly bugger flies! We didn't actually catch anything but we felt some real hits... we also felt a lot of false hits. I can also proudly say that I caught the most "grass pikes." (literally a large string of grass... exciting at first but a real let down when you realize your "fish" isn't actually fighting.

Wedding

So there it was, the most memborable, important, and wonderful moment of my life so far. That moment I've been waiting for, dreaming about and imagining for as long as I can remember. Now, I must say I'm not one of those girls who had every detail planned and drawn out since she was 10, more like someone who is so clueless and easy going that I didn't even have the slightest idea of what I wanted, I just knew that I wanted to be married to Ben. I knew I wanted a white dress and an outdoor wedding and that I was going to enjoy my wedding food and cake. For being completely unaware as to the proper wedding etiquette and being totally carefree and open to whatever my mom, aunts, mother-in-law, dad, and any other random person or friend I would come in contact with suggested, it turned out to be perfect. The whole wedding was awesomely fun and it was exactly how I had "envisioned" it. We had a taco cart there along with tons of fruit, salsa, guacamole, chips, and brie cheese as well as rice, beans, cake, and Coldstone ice cream cake! (yes, I was in heaven!!! and even more so with my new husband!)

It wasn't without it's mistakes but I was still very happy.

• The photographer showed up late, but my Aunt Karla had decided to show up early to snap some fun photos of everyone getting all ready.
  
• Right before I walked down the aisle with my dad, I had heard that Ben was inside waiting for me. I was freaking out! How can I walk down the aisle and see the love in Ben's eyes if he was at the top of the basement stairs waiting for me? I walked out anyway... whatever happens happens right? and there he was staring at me with the strongest moment of awe and love and excitement I've ever experienced.
• During the ceremony, my mom's dog Tikki decided she wanted to be a bridesmaid (still not sure how she got outside) so she walked herself down the aisle and tried to start wrestling with Bear my puppy who had been part ring bearer. It was so cute, the actual ring bearers: Brody and Marcus (Ben's cousins) were petting and playing with the puppies the whole ceremony!
• When Bobbye showed up with the coconut/green tea wedding cake she opened the box and the cake looked kind of like a smashed watermelon! It was in pieces and there was frosting all over the box! Lucky for Bobbye, I was a very good bride to have a smashed wedding cake. She pieced it together, refrosted it, and stuck stargazer lilies over the damaged parts. It still turned out very nice.
  
• After the wedding, when Ben and I had already left for the hotel, Hailey (my sister) decided to give the groom cake (my surprise peanut butter bars for Ben) to Ben's family. We didn't realize until the next day so I called Sue Bauter and she said that it was already half gone but she'd save the rest of it until we got back from the honeymoon... :( sad day.
  

Okay, so these are out of order, but this is us in the hotel room just before Ben went out to put the parking pass in the car. When he had been gone for a couple minutes, I heard the door open and close again so I ran out to greet him but no one was there! He actually didn't show up again for another 5 or so minutes! ...they do say that hotel is haunted... who knows? This is in the getaway car that everyone so thoughtfully decorated with streamers, car paint, saran wrap, oreos, condoms and a pregnancy test! Yikes!!! Ben had to lift me up and set me in the car and then he ran around the car ripping off any problem decorations. Before we took off to the Ben Lomond Hotel! (such a cool place!)

Preparing to be a bride

Aside from loving and supporting my fiance Ben as usual, especially as he is taking his Practicum exam for clinical lab sciences, I have been very busy with the help of Ben preparing for the wedding. We sanded and stained the entire deck (which is HUGE for those who haven't seen it in person). We also weeded the whole yard and created a beautiful arbor which will soon be the background for our wedding ceremony if all goes well, especially the weather. I've also been working on gathering together all the decorations and arranging for flowers, food, drinks, cake, pictures, and all of those other little wedding needs.
This was the first trial of my wedding hair. Ben's aunt Emily is doing my hair and she's so much fun! This day, at first it was just Emily and I playing with my hair until she put the veil in... then we both almost lost it. Then it became real that I was getting married to her nephew and that she was going to help me get ready for it. We've been discussing options as far as taking care of my grand growout line of brassy to ashy hair. We talked about extensions or coloring. Extensions would be expensive but I really didn't want to color my hair either. Chelsey gave me the option of using a toner and said her mom who is also a very talented stylist could probably do it. It's just a temporary color used to take the brassiness out of the ends of my hair and mellow out the color change. Thanks so much Karen and Emily for helping me with all of my crazy hair so far. You two are seriously awesome!
This is still a before, I'll get an after shot later, I just haven't received any yet:) The other biggie was the dress! The most important and memorable part of a wedding is the picture collection that remains. Therefore, hair and dress, as well as tux, ties, and good photographer are pretty important.
This is the back of my dress without the bustle that my mom so cleverly devised. It has a pretty long train and is actually a size 4 but we are able to cinch it down to fit me VERY snugly.
This is the front, it's so pretty and I absolutely love it! It really does make the whole wedding seem more real and I'm getting VERY excited!