The Last Two Tuesdays of Summer and My Trooper of a Husband

All summer long Johnny and I have had Tuesdays as the only day we both have off work. So Tuesdays became our Saturdays and we've been cramming them full of fun things for our whole marriage. We have a whole list of Utah summer activities we wanted to accomplish this year, but we only have so many Tuesdays in one summer.

As school starts Monday, this past Tuesday was our last day off together and we wanted to go out with a bang. We went to Park City to experience first-hand the thrill of the Alpine Slide! But before we left Orem, Johnny had a follow up appointment with the periodontist. We thought it would be a minor thing, just a couple of stitches and then we'd be out. We were wrong. Johnny had gum graft surgery back in February or March-ish. Apparently some of it didn't take because he had to redo one side of his gums on Tuesday. After this surgery he looked pretty rough - his poor cheek is still swollen. But he was determined to take me to Park City. I tried to convince him to stay home and let me feed him pain pills but he wouldn't have it. So with me behind the wheel and him with one side of his face numbed, off we went!

We drove up Provo Canyon and stopped in Heber at the Dairy Keen for the BEST fresh raspberry shake we've ever had the privilege of indulging in.

Seriously, sooooo delicious. Even if Park City was completely closed, the trip would have been worth it just for that raspberry shake.

Once we got to Park City, we hopped on the ski lift and rode it to the top of the mountain. Then we raced down the Alpine Slide.

We may or may not have interrupted our race for a quick picture.

Then we decided to try out the Alpine Coaster. It is basically a one man roller coaster that you control your own speed on. It was so much fun! I wish we could have done it all day long.

Johnny's view on the coaster.

We finished up with a yummy mango snow-cone and then we were off to the outlet mall! Look how cute my husband is with his swollen face.

We spent a couple hours shopping at the outlets and got Johnny some nice new jeans for $15 as well as a new shirt. He tried to get me to buy something but I think I'm just too picky. We still had so much fun browsing the stores. After that, we made the beautiful drive back to Orem.

Once we made it home, my trooper of a husband decided it was time for a haircut. His mom and I cut it last time for him, but this was my first time to do it alone. We're going to save so much money with me cutting his hair, as long as the emotional damage from having an inexperienced hair dresser doesn't outweigh the cost of regular professional haircuts.

(Before is on the left and after is on the right)

With that full day and a nice 24 marathon to finish up the night, it was definitely one of our best days off all summer!

Last week for our day off we went to Antelope Island! Johnny's family would go there in the summers growing up, so he described it to me with such fond memories. It's like ten minutes from his parents' house and basically it's just an island on the Great Salt Lake. Having lived in Utah for the past three years, I thought it was a crime that I had never been to the GSL. So we planned a little Antelope Island trip with Johnny's sister Jeanette and her three kids. It was definitely quite a bit different than I had imagined but I still loved it. We had a nice picnic lunch and then played in the water which was so salty that even I could float! I was so excited because I can never float, I just sink like a rock.

Alana, McKayla, and Brandon on the way to Antelope Island for their first time! Brandon is much more excited than he looks.

Let me now teach you everything you need to know about brine flies. They are EVERYWHERE at Antelope Island. Just ask Jeanette's van.

My husband the mud monster.

Alana laughed the entire time we were burying her.

I think it's safe to say we all love Antelope Island.

We have had such a spectacular summer but now it's time for school again. I'm taking 16 credits and working 16 hours a week. Johnny is taking 17 credits and working even more than that, so it's going to be a crazy semester. Hopefully we can still see each other from time to time in the coming months. We are getting excited to have everyone back at BYU though! Last night we picked up Laura from the Provo airport and got her settled into her apartment at the Colony (her new apartment is right above my old apartment from sophomore year)! Right before that we had Thai food with my cousin Becca and her mom, Aunt Carol. It's so nice to have these girls back - I've missed them so much this summer!

Life is so exciting right now!

Babes and Waterfalls

Biggest and happiest news of the summer - Baby Bailey is here! For details check out my beautiful sister's blog. All I can say is that she is beautiful and she is perfect and I want to hold her so bad! She just had her newborn pictures taken yesterday. Every time I look at them I fall in love with all 7 lbs 11 ounces of her.

Emily has a great photographer for her kiddos. I love Bailey Joyce! I was in the room when Emily had Tanner so it's been hard to be away from home right now. Needless to say, Johnny and I have been trying to keep busy.

Here is what has been occupying our time as of late:

• A trip to the Jordan River Temple. We recently decided that we want to visit as many temples as we can together. Since there are approximately 1 million of them in Utah, we figured this is a great place to start.

• Attempting to decorate slash furnish our apartment. Staying true to the newlywed college students that we are, we don't have much money to spend on unnecessary items. That is why we spent $20 on five pieces of furniture. We bought a dresser with drawers that never close correctly upon first attempt, two end tables, a coffee table, and a little entertainment center thing from this apartment complex that was getting rid of all their old furniture. We also received two free couches because we are very lucky people. We decided to paint the end tables red and use them as nightstands by our bed. I forgot to get a before picture, but they were just like oak or something. We even used primer because we're real experienced at painting.

I still need to paint our dresser black, but then I think I'll basically be done with our bedroom. The rest of the house is calling now...

• Dinner with my cousin Jon, his wife Erin, and their sweet kids Michael, Rachel, and Jacob. they had us over for some delicious hamburgers, and we even had s'mores for dessert! It's always fun to spend time with the cousins.
  

• We've been hanging out with Jason! He's back until the end of August and we've had the privilege to spend last Friday night and basically all of Tuesday with him. On Friday we mostly just went out to eat and talked a lot and played Farkle party (feel free to ask who won most of those games) then watched Sgt. Bilko. Oh and Jason modeled one of our new (to us) couches.

Don't they both look so good?

First they were great friends and roommates, then we were all great friends and they were still roommates, and now we're still great friends and Johnny and I are roommates.

• On Tuesday, I took my Bear Den to Thanksgiving Point to check out farm animals (yes, I am a Cub Scout leader). When I got home, Johnny and Jason were playing college football on the PS3 just like the good ol' days. We had some left over red chili burritos and then headed up Provo Canyon to hike Stewart Falls! It was so beautiful! Here's lots of pictures from that experience.

Does anyone else have kissing under a waterfall on their places to kiss checklist? It's always been pretty high on mine, and on Tuesday, that dream finally came true. Only instead of feeling like a dream it felt like an instant brain freeze to the hundredth power, which I thought was only supposed to happen when you eat cold food too fast. I'm telling you, the mist coming off of that fall alone was enough to get us both shivering. But we didn't let that scare us away. We went under, nearly got our heads pounded off by icy water, closed our eyes and kissed faster than we even know was possible. When we opened our eyes, it was too hard to see anything but we hurried out from under that waterfall like our lives depended on it. When we saw the picture Jason took for us, it looked like we weren't even under the water at all! But every sensation in our bodies told us that we were under that water. Johnny asked if I wanted to do it again, and of course I said yes. He was not expecting that and I think he was actually really disappointed that I said yes because then he couldn't back down. We made the trek again and got a little better picture and it was such a rush! We literally felt like we were going to pass out, like it took years off of our lives. Who would have thought something as simple as kissing under a waterfall would be so difficult?

What a success story. Don't mind my awkward legs or the fact that it looks like Johnny wet himself.

Once we got back from our adventure, we ordered pizza and watched Pearl Harbor, and two of the three of us may or may not have shed a tear at the film.

• Last Sunday we had Margo, Daren, and Scott over for Sunday dinner. I was a little nervous to cook for them, but with Johnny's help everything turned out fine. They are so complimentary! I think they said something nice about everything they ate. It was really nice because they could probably tell I was nervous about it. So even if the food wasn't great, they definitely made me feel like it was.

• Kelsey's open house! My dear friend Kelsey Faye Hogge (Ewing) got married last Friday, and she had an open house in Morgan, UT last night. Johnny and I drove up to see the beautiful bride, her cute husband Tyson, and the lovely Hogge family. They are such great people and I hadn't seen them in forever! So that was a fun trip.

That's all for now. But don't even worry, there will be so much more so very soon. We're still trying to have lots of fun before we start our senior year of college!

On a Happier Note...

Now that it's officially August I thought it was time to post about July. July is one of my favorite months of the year. I love the 4th of July and everything associated with it. Growing up, we'd usually have a Drake Family Reunion in Arkanasas over the 4th, which meant boating, fireworks, brisket, watermelon, and my personal favorite summer activity, a canoe trip on the river! It's always so much fun to spend time with the cousins. That being said, I also really enjoyed my first Fourth of July away from home. On Saturday (the 2nd), once we got off work, Johnny and I drove right up to Layton for his brother Scott's birthday party. It was very fun and of course there was lots of delicious food. We spent the night at Johnny's parents' house and went to church with them the next day. After dinner we drove to Copperton, Utah to visit Margo's dad, Grandpa Bodily. It was my first time in Copperton and I absolutely loved it. It's just this cute little mining town that looks like it came straight out of a movie. It was so fun to see Grandpa Bodily, too. I haven't spent a whole lot of time with him, but he's super funny and I really like visiting with him and hearing his stories. On Monday, we watched Daren walk in the Clearfield Parade. He is a principle at an elementary school in Clearfield so he walked with some of his students. Then we got all packed up and drove to Bear Lake! Which would have been completely perfect except almost everyone was feeling pretty sick that weekend. Here's everyone who went: Daren, Margo, Nate, Claire, Norah, Scott, Johnny, and me. Here's everyone who felt sick: Margo, Nate, Scott, and Johnny. Norah was sick a little bit earlier in the week so she was better by the camping trip. Still, all the sickies were such troopers! The stomach flu lasted about 24 hours for most of them, so they just had to take it easy for a while. By Monday night, we were able to go watch a firework show, and by Tuesday morning, everyone was feeling much better. We packed up camp and went to the lake to swim and play all day. It was such a fun trip!
We forgot our camera but luckily Margo is always prepared and willing to share her pictures.

Scott's Party

this is how Norah smiles for the camera - she's very enthusiastic

the star of the parade

watching Johnny's celebrity of a dad

cuddlin' at the freezing cold 4th of July fireworks show

skipping rocks like a champ at Bear Lake

you can't pose for a picture like this and then expect for it to not get posted...

the whole camping crew

I basically love camping, which is perfect because Johnny loves camping too. I'm sure we'll have many years of camping trips to look forward to. We can't wait to take our future children on these trips with us. It will be so much fun!

We missed Jeanette and her family, Sharla and her family, Ryan, and Amy on this trip. Amy has been on Catalina Island all summer long, working at a Boy Scout camp. She comes home in like two weeks and we're so excited to have her back!

Nate, Claire, and Norah moved to Phoenix in the middle of July. We already miss them lots! Norah is just so dang cute!

On the 24th (which also happens to be a big holiday here in Utah), we drove up to Layton to have a birthday party for Jeanette. We had a wonderful dinner and Aaron made my favorite kind of cake - yellow with chocolate frosting. It was delish! After dinner we played some tape ball (an Allred family tradition), a nice game of Horse in which I almost beat Scott (but at least I got Johnny and Aaron out - first time ever!), and did some fireworks for good ol' Pioneer Day.

watching Jeanette open presents. my husband is a goof.

Also in July, Johnny and I got to go visit Sharla and Ben and their twin girls, Gracie and Clara. Sharla made us a yummy dinner and then they went out for a date night while we watched the girls. They are so cute! And so good too! We basically just put them to bed and didn't hear from them for the rest of the night. It was so much fun.

I think that about covers last month. July was kind of a roller coaster of emotions, with lots of ups and downs. I'm grateful to start up August. School starts at the end of the month, and that means Laura and Becca and Christian get back to Provo! I miss my family mucho, so I can't wait to have them back. And Emily has her baby girl this month! Probably at least by the 10th! I'm so sad I can't be there - it's gonna be killer to not get to meet that little girl until Christmas, but I guess that's what happens when we live 1361 miles apart. Oh, and our dear friend Jason Dale Lane is taking a little vacation from dental school in Minnesota and returning to Utah for August! We can't wait to spend some quality time with him. It's going to be a great month:)