23, and with me

It was John's birthday October 2nd.
I had planned to surprise for him with a camping trip, but John's friend ended up giving us a late wedding gift and presented us with tickets to conference! Of course we postponed the camping trip to the following weekend and got to attend Saturday Evening conference session only a few rows back from the front. It was a once in a lifetime experience to be able to see it that close and it was certainly worth it. Thank you Nathan...




For our camping trip, we went to American Fork Canyon. It was quite a cold night, but overall, the weather was quite nice. Thanks to John's mom, we had things to make s'mores! I love s'mores, but it really bothers me when the chocolate is rock hard and not melted enough. This frustration led me to the idea of cooking the marshmallow, putting it in the graham crackers with the chocolate on the bottom, and then roasting it again over the fire to melt the chocolate. It was delicious:



BUT here's the disclaimer...



The McCarthy's were kind enough to lend us all their camping equipment. They even gave us a propane stove to make some hot chocolate. That tasted really good after waking up to a cold morning...



We hiked Saturday morning up to 'silver lake.' The trees were quite colorful, and the sun was beaming just right, prime conditions for a hike I'd say!





John's birthday reminded me of the days when I thought I'd never be over the age of 15. Time seemed to move so slowly at the time. My future seemed so far ahead, the time when I'd be driving, off to college, and married. But, lo and behold, 5 years later, here I am. I am married, about to start a profession, and I have a blog! Those things seem so grown up, :) Time seems to run so much faster, but I try to not miss anything as it flies by!

A wrinkle in time

The truth is... I should be studying for a test right now, but my lack of updates have been eating away at me. There comes a point in your life where you just need to drop everything your doing, and get things done on the To Do list that may not be priority, but are long past due! So this is me doing just that. Cheers to an update!

John and I got married August 20th, 2010, it was definitely the best day of our lives. The wedding was beautiful, the reception was perfect. I couldn't have asked for a better day.

























John and I spent some honeymoon time in Ouray, Colorado. If I were to vote for some of the most beautiful places on earth, this would be one of them.



















We moved into our first condo apartment together. Moving in was a bit of a pain, but once we got settled in, I took a liking to the place. I can't wait to decorate, of course we'll have to wait till the budget permits... ;)

Then came school.
Oh school.
In my opinion, it's never a good idea to be on campus for more than 6 hours a day. Our schedules this semester leave us no option but to stay on campus 11 hours 3 days out of the week. But we learned from our mistakes, after 2 weeks of it. We will be sure to not torture ourselves in that way next semester! But we have to bear it for now.

Our busy schedule hasn't kept us from having multiple cooking adventures. John and I do quite well with cooking meals, creative meals at that! This was a ramekin dish John invented with leftovers we had in the fridge: complete with chicken, potatoes, peas, carrots, a creamy soup with bread, topped off with sharp cheddar cheese. It was one of the most delicious things I have ever beheld:



As a result of chocolate cravings and cheap strawberries, I came up with this: cocoa whipped cream filled strawberries, with chocolate drizzled over the top:



One of the first confessions I made to John after our marriage is how much I LOVE chocolate milk. We shortly bought some Hershey's chocolate so that I could have some :) This was a photo I took after being especially excited for a big glass of chocolate milk. John wanted plain milk... Opposites attract




John is loving his Sound Recording. I am loving my anticipation to start Dental Hygiene school. Ah, the taste of satisfaction! The Goodman life is wonderful :)