Christmas Bucket List, take 2

last year david and i celebrated our first holidays together. it was so much fun. we had a lot of plans on our christmas/ winter bucket list and were did most of them despite being in school and going through finals. this year we decided to make another list (surprise surprise). we have not forgotten thanksgiving by any means, but celebrating a joyful thankful season for two months is more our style.

-temple square lights 

-visit Santa

-elf date- from the movie elf:)

-make gingerbread men

-go sledding

-write a letter to Santa 

-look at the Macy's window display 

-snowball fight

-hatch's hot chocolate

-build a snowman

-watch frozen

-polar express night

-festival of trees
-tubing
-ice castles
-park city date
-sundance film festival
-lights at the gateway
-zoo lights
-take pictures with as many santa's as possible

-forgotten carols

-make sugar cookies 

-grand america display

-learn to ski

-christmas movie date night

football season

football season was bittersweet. i was so involved this year and it was so much fun. yesterday was the last game (rivalry week vs colorado) and it was hard not to be so sad that it was my last game ever in the muss as a student. i have loved my time being in the greatest student section in the country.

i got to run the flag for the muss on the field. it was a little embarrassing but what a great experience. heat, sleet, snow, rain, wind and everything in between, i have been in those stand supporting the greatest team in the country. thank you utah athletics for the best year of my life.

get up 4 game day

sometimes, really cool things happen in my life and i could not be more grateful. game day came to utah and it was so much fun to be apart of it. it has been such a fun football season so far, and i love my utes more than ever.

i had friends who camped out for game day 2 nights in advanced. that is three days of sitting outside waiting for this epic event. i was somehow chosen to compete in the cheez it fan of the week competition. it was pretty lame, but i did get to meet sam ponder and was on national television.

after that ordeal, i got to watch game day backstage in their vip area. it was awesome being able to see them from the front and afterward we got to meet them. what a fantastic morning.

the funniest story of the day was when john stockton was there as the celebrity of the week and he walked by us. he was sort of just standing there and i wanted a picture. i had no idea he usually didn't take pictures with people or autograph things either but i just sort of yelled to him "hey, john" (because apparently i am on a first name basis with him, and he looked over and i asked to take a picture with him. it was pretty hilarious.

halloween

halloween is one of my most favorite holidays ever. i would dress up all the time if i could. there was even a halloween from my days back in provo where i dressed up in three different costume..in one day. david and i love disney and want to coordinate disney costumes every year. this year has to have been my favorite year ever though. meet russell and kevin, from up. isn't my husband the most adorable thing ever?!

 it wouldn't be halloween without a few haunted houses in there as well. the haunted forest is my absolute favorite here in utah. and of course, i am destined to be a holiday home decorator and usually do my sister's house and mine.

 i am pretty good at chalkboard signs if i do say so myself. it has become my specialty:)

one year

i sure love celebrating anything and everything under the sun. if there is a holiday, i am probably celebrating it. i love celebrating the little things in life among the big things. however, one of the biggest celebrations i was looking forward to was our anniversary.

some don't think of it as a big deal, and until you are actually married it really doesn't matter, but why not celebrate the one day that changed your life forever.

we chose to get married in october, which will luckily always be around fall break. bad news about this day, there is always something going on. this year was no exception. college game day was in utah, there was a football game, my aunt got married. busy busy busy.

we already went to disneyland as our "big" celebration, but we wanted to celebrate the actual day as well. friday night we went to ruth's chris steakhouse, which was highly disappointing. i know some love it, but when i am paying quite a bit for a piece of chicken it should not be over cooked. the service was fantastic though so all was well. after we started on one of the disney puzzles we brought back from our trip (a week later and it still is not done).

 sometimes i cannot even handle how adorable my nephews are

the next day i went to game day and after we went to my aunt's wedding in brigham city and went to the temple. what an incredible way to spend an anniversary than in the temple with your spouse. we loved it.

we rushed back to salt lake (stopped along the way to pick up our cake) and made our way to the tailgate. i had to volunteer because of the muss, but i love the atmosphere on campus during game day.

the big game was fantastic and probably some of the most intense moments of my life, but utah pulled off another sweet victory and we could not have been more happy. we love our utes.

i loved celebrating my favorite team with my favorite boy, and i am so glad we got to experience it on our anniversary.

the one year old cake...

when i started wedding planning, i knew that i wanted a cake. it was the only time in my life that i would get a big fancy gaudy, over the top cake. funny thing is, i don't actually enjoy cake all that much. i just wanted it for the decoration (an expensive decoration, silly me). i looked high and low over salt lake for a baker and finally found a cute lady that baked out of her house. we had a testing, it was easily the best cake we had ever tasted. she got my vision. she knew exactly what we wanted and made it happen.

terrible pictures with our puzzle in the background:)

fast forward to the wedding day and the cake was perfect. it turned out even better than we talked about. we cut the cake, barely tasted it, and made our getaway. my dear mother packed us a plate of that cake though and i took a bite later that night and couldn't wait to finish it in the morning. well david accidentally left the bag open and the cake dried out so i never got to fully embrace our delicious wedding cake. per our instructions, she froze the top tier of the cake. we opened her freezer many times and saw our cute cake top sitting there waiting for the year mark to come when we could defrost that beauty and finally taste it.

the other half is still frozen in my parent's freezer

here we are, a whole year later and we finally got to taste the cake. i almost forgot it until we were in a rush to get back to salt lake from a wedding in brigham city and remembered that it was in my parents freezer.

we knew the cake would not taste as it did on the wedding day, it was a year old after all, but that cake was still delicious. if you ever need a baker, cake dame is magic.

fall bucket list

now that we are well into fall, better late than never to post our fall bucket list. as you can tell from previous posts (christmas bucket list here), david and i are obsessed with bucket lists and doing fun seasonal activities.

-carve pumpkins
-take pictures in the fall foliage
-make caramel apples
-go to haunted houses
-make halloween costumes
-dress up for halloween
-go to a halloween party
-watch a scary movie
-go for a drive in the mountains
-go to all the football games
-finish our Disney puzzle (i know this isn't really fall related, but something we want to do)
-drink apple cider

family reunion

all of my family is from idaho. both sides. i was born in pocatello and shortly after we moved away. idaho hold some of my dearest memories and nearly all of my family members still live there.

now that everyone is older, it is much more difficult to get together. my grandparents are celebrating 60 years together this year, so we got together with everyone for a night. i had not seen a few of my cousins in over 10 years. that is waaayyy too long. it was such a fun night though to get reacquainted with everyone.

i don't know why, but i always get a little emotional when i look around in a big family setting and realize the legacy i am a part of. it happened at david's family reunion a few summers ago and now. when i realized how two people created a family and those families created more families and they were the leaders of that. what an incredible experience to be able to look at all your children and grandchildren and know that you were the reason for this. 

my grandparents are 2 of the most kind, caring, selfless people i have ever met. i have never heard them speak unkindly to or about another person. i have countless memories of them coming to every even possible while we lived in idaho. they also trekked to wyoming every winter to watch us in the nutcracker ballet. they were some of the biggest supporters i had growing up. my grandmother is one of the most humble patient people ever. she raised 6 rowdy rambunctious boys and i have never heard her raise her voice.

most of the cousins...still missing a few

185

this weekend was the semi-annual conference of the lds church. 

it is always just what i need to hear, and so good for the soul. 

my strength is renewed, i have received guidance i needed, and 

i may have finished a craft or two ;)

Disneyland Anniversary Trip

i most definitely hit the husband jackpot with david. not only does he want to be a pilot, but he also loves adventure and will go along with my ideas including visiting disney as much as possible.

we decided for our first anniversary to visit disneyland again. not only did we get engaged there, but it is my most favorite place on earth. i love it so much and could probably live there. we bought our tickets way back in february because there was an awesome deal going on and played the waiting game. the dates in september worked out a little better for us than over our actual anniversary and we loved disney this time of year.

we left early wednesday morning and arrived at the park only a little after opening. it was not too busy and we immediately rode a ton of rides. after playing in disneyland for a few hours, we jumped over to california adventure and played there. it was so much fun. in true david and emily vacation fashion, we found our way to the grand californian lobby and took a little nap. it was much needed and we felt so refreshed the rest of the day.

we ended the night in disneyland with the new paint the night parade and disneyland forever firework show. both were incredible. the parade was so fun and the firework show was even better. disney sure does know how to do things right.

the next day we had a magic morning for disneyland and rode space mountain, star tours and astro blasters right away. it was a lot of fun. side note: they revamped the matterhorn which made for a much more pleasant riding experience. we skipped around from park to park and watched world of color. they also re did that for the 60th anniversary and it was amazing. it was great before, but now it really highlights the legacy walt left behind. we watched the firework show from the front row in disneyland again and it was even more amazing. they say it is a different experience from every place in the park and this was the best yet.

the final day in disney we started in california adventure and met olaf! i am obsessed with anything frozen and meeting olaf sure was fantastic. we were walking around the park one day and i sort of laughed to myself and told david i loved disneyland because it is acceptable to walk around wearing minnie mouse ears on your head and it doesn't matter what age you are. you can still enjoy it at any time in your life.

on saturday we made our way to downtown la to the fabric district. i have dreamed of this place for months. i could not wait to go. i saved up was so excited. it blew my mind. i could not believe how fantastic this place was. we stayed for 3 hours and i could have been there for 6 more. i got over 60 yards of fabric and i cannot wait to start sewing! i am now a pro packer getting all of that fabric to fit into 2 carry on suitcases and 2 carry on bags with the rest of our other stuff.

after the fabric district fun, we went to the beach. no vacation is complete without a beach in david's book. it was fun to just relax in the sun and hang out after days of walking (we walked over 40 miles in three days).

we wrapped up saturday night watching utah annihilate oregon as well as wandering through downtown disney.

sunday- we relaxed, packed up and explored downtown disney some more. we wandered through the disneyland hotel and that was so fun. one day we will be able to stay there:) we shopped a little more and then headed into la to visit the temple. it was really neat to see. i love when temples are smack dab in the middle of a busy street in a city and this glorious site is just in your face. it is always special to see different temples.

after we saw rodeo drive and then aldcla. this was especially exciting because dance moms is my favorite show and guilty pleasure. i can't help but to love it.

 i am a wimp when it comes to splash mountain. it is my favorite ride, but i hate getting wet

 david's face :) :)