Change

CHANGE. It can be a scary thing. Or it can be exciting. Or Both. Sometimes it hits you hard and other times you barely even notice it happening. One thing about it is constant, though: it will always happen.

I have been thinking a lot about changes around me and in my life. My sister Brooke is graduating in a month. SO WEIRD. I still think of her as the sleepy little girl pointing to the doll in the toy car on Christmas morning saying "Get out!" But I have to admit, she has grown so much even in the last year but I didn't even realize just how much until now. Little babbling Brooke isn't so little anymore. She has become a beautiful confident young woman! And little Bit (aka Brittney Boo). It seriously hit me looking at her facebook profile pic that she is growing up too. I was thinking "Gosh, who is this gorgeous girl! She is not that rosie-cheeked baby I knew that was obsessed with barbies and barney anymore!" She's almost in high school!! Pure craziness. I love my sisters and am so excited for them at these turning points in their lives. I can't imagine how my parents must feel!

My Amazing Seesters :)

Another exciting change.. my best friend is getting

MARRIED! This makes me incredibly happy. Chelsea and I have been pretty much sisters for almost 10 years and I am so glad we have stayed close through all the changes in our lives.. and I just love that she found her Mr. Right and he put a ring on it. YAY! Love you Chels!

BFF's in Las Vegas

The Lovebirds {she's got the ring!}

Other changes, unexpected and difficult to handle, happen too though. At the end of last year I had lost two wonderful people in my life: My granny Ecco and my cousin Dalton. Granny Ecco, who almost made it to 100 years old, passed away quietly in November. She is now with her hubby in heaven. I will always keep my great-grandmother in my heart because she was an amazing lady and I loved her so much.

Dalton, who was just a few months younger than me, passed away in a car accident. For my whole family this has been one of the hardest changes to overcome. Daltonator had so much energy and was so full of life. I can't imagine times at our family cabin without him. I love him and miss him a lot and am thankful I have the spirit as my comforter to help me get through the hard times by knowing he is in a good place. And I'm grateful that this experience has led my family to become closer to his girlfriend Emi. She is so wonderful and we have come to love her as family!

As for me, I am trying to make some small personal changes, too. First on my list is eating healthier and working out. This week I have been pretty good at it. And of course, blogging is on my list too {keeping a journal of any sorts has never been my thing.}

Who knows what changes the near future holds for us.. Dug may start pharmacy school in June and we may buy a house and I might get in to dental hygiene school.. it's all up in the air at this point. I have always been a planner so flying by the seat of my pants isn't easy to do. I have always been uncomfortable with change.. it makes me nervous. SO.. I'm trying to be BRAVE with change because.. it's part of life. It's part of the plan. It's part of who we are.

Our Wedding Movie

I just loved watching our wedding video on our anniversary, and I finally figured out a way to put it on the blog {trust me.. figuring out all this blogging stuff has been a big leap for me!}

I am so thankful I made sure to get a great photographer/videographer because they captured our day so well. Enjoy!

(P.S. I will really try to keep from posting love posts for a while.. with our first anniversary it's just been on my mind a lot lately!)

One Year Down... Eternity to Go! ♥

Caution: My mushy-gushy-lovie-dovie side of me wrote this long post. Nuff Said.

I. Cannot. Believe. it has really been a whole year since we were married. Don't get me wrong though.. there are times when it's hard to believe that it's been only a year since we know each other like so dang well. Either way the shock comes, we are SUPER excited to celebrate our first official one year mark of a happy marriage together... and it is comforting to know that we have an infinite amount more to come! :)

I adore all the memories from our wedding day. Every time I think about our sealing makes my heart so full. At that very moment, I felt the spirit the strongest I have ever felt it in my entire life. Just looking at Dug across from me brought me to tears.. literally. I cried throughout the entire sealing because I was having the confirmation that this man, whom I loved with everything that I had, was mine for eternity and knew that our love would bring the most happiness anyone could ever experience. I also was in awe that I was finally accomplishing the most important goal in my life and the feeling was even better than I had imagined. To make those promises with Dug and Heavenly Father was the best decision I have ever made and I am so thankful that Dug found me and loves me and took me to the beautiful temple because it truly gave us a wonderful start to our lives together.

Life since that day has been so fun. Even though we are both busy with work or school, the times we get to spend together are packed with laughter. We constantly tease each other and are incredibly goofy at times. I can honestly say there isn't a dull moment. We have become able to know exactly what each other are thinking even if its not said out loud. Really. I don't know how many times we finish each other's sentences. And we both have learned a lot from each other. Because of me, he has been better about telling me what he wants.. and I, well, have been better about NOT doing that as often because of him. His calm personality has mellowed down my craziness {my little sister said to me "You seem different.. it's good, like you are more calm or something"} and my fiery personality has made Dug put up a good fight in our "Stubborn Wars"-- we are incredibly stubborn and it's quite comical. We have never really had an official first fight though as our what-could-be-a-fight's always turn into laughing/joking. We love it.. just being chill and layed back has made our marriage so enjoyable.

Since we are trying to be better at saving $ {we have sorta adopted Dug's brother/sister-in-law's moto: What are we going to do? SAVE IT!} we both decided to not buy fancy gifts for each other for our anniversary. We did, however, justify two buys by claiming they were for our one year: California Trip and Deep Freezer. The deep freezer may sound silly, but we got a good deal on craig's list and because we like to buy on sale then freeze stuff, our dinky freezer hasn't cut it for us! So I thought that was it, but sneaky Dug got something else.. and oops! I found out! And he found out that I found out.. which was partly good because the funny thing was that I was planning on getting him almost the same thing {along with some pampering, of course}, so it worked out to be a mutual gift.

See the picture above our bed? That's it! We both have wanted a big canvas picture.. it's sweet!

I am so happy to be so blessed with such a good husband and that we have had an awesome first year of marriage full of great memories.. and even happier there are many more to come. Love you babe!

(P.S. I must say, we loved conference along with attending our ward's temple session last night, they were perfect before our anniversary because they really set such a good tone!)

Baby.. it's time for a vacation.

Welp.. here goes attempt #2 at trying to be a cute little blogger wife. It's been almost a year since my last post, but that's normal right? I'll keep my fingers crossed that this time I will actually stick with it!

Since we have been married there has been many occasions where I become absolutely obsessed with vacations. First, it was Puerta Vallarta. Then Hawaii. Then a cruise. {Nope we did not go to any of these wonderful destinations.. they were only my fantasies that I researched for a potential vacation.} Sad to say that due to our busy schedule and low married-college student funds, we have not had the chance to go on my dream vacation. However, when Spring semester started I made absolutely sure Dug and I had Spring Break week off so that we could finally get to go somewhere. Note: We have been other places for family events like Idaho, Utah, etc which were super fun, but I seriously craved relaxing on the beach. Well Spring Break time rolls around and we don't have any official plans.. so at last minute we decide to take a short romantic trip to California. Perfect. Idea. It wasn't crazy expensive and we had a blast relaxing and spending time together {Best Part!}

Wednesday we slept in and started our road trip to Newport Beach, Cali. It was so fun singing along to our favorite music and laughing and getting to talk about just random things. Did I mention laughing?

When we got to the hotel we checked in, walked around the beautiful grounds, and went to dinner at an Italian restaraunt called Mama D's. It was delicious! Dug loved the bread there so much that he said he would be fine eating there every meal! Silly guy. We drove around the city for a bit, got some groceries, and went back to the hotel to get some sleep for the long day of adventure I had planned for us {much research=Good deals & Fun!}.

Our Cute Hotel Room at the Hyatt Newport Beach Regency

We woke up and drove~30min to Long Beach where we boared the Catalina Express on a quick hour trip to Catalina Island {along the way we saw Dolphins and Seals!} As soon as we got there we pretty much ran a mile to Descanso Beach Ocean Sports to get our double Kayak and full wetsuits/snorkeling gear. After Kayaking for a while (which we were really good at) we pulled off to a nice beach to have lunch. After several attempts to snorkel in the ICE COLD water- bad idea I must admit-we decided to just relax and play in the sand and kayak more.

Aren't we adorable? {Feel free to laugh because yes.. these wetsuits are the least flattering oufits. Ever. Plus, the sandals don't help!}

Kayak Gear

Artist: Breezy's Stud

We then went Parasailing. 1400 feet in the air to be exact. I may have peed my swim suit bottoms a little... and I was a little unwilling to let go of the straps to hold Dug's hand {he got a kick out of this.} The view was beautiful and we saw seals, dolphins, and basically the whole island! It was way worth it. But I'm sad.. no picture of us doing this. But trust.. we really did.

Just pretend that's us! We were a TON higher than this, but we had the same awesome smiley parachute.

After that we walked around the shops, got candy for Dug, shared a carmel apple, bought a cute tee shirt for me, and then had a nice dinner at the Avalon Grille. Then exhausted we fell asleep on the Catalina Express boat back to Long Beach and drove back to the hotel where we took advantage of the jacuzzi. Then we watched some Seinfeld, fell asleep, and drove home the next day.

Harbor of Avalon, CA... AKA Catalina Island

Short but Sweet. And much needed. :)

(P.S. Dug loves cool Odometer numbers and we hit the big 100,000 miles so he had me film it. Here it is!)