Hike Date

I love going on hikes (I'm going to miss the Utah mountains!!!), so Sam surprised me the other day with a hike date! We went up and hiked around a little bit by Bridal Veil Falls and then enjoyed a picnic dinner. It was sprinkling off and on throughout the evening, so we were the only ones on the trail!

Sam showed me his amazing skills:

 

I was duly impressed!

Here's where we ate our picnic-right next to this very pretty river. It was really dark, though, so I tried out the nighttime feature on our camera, but I didn't hold my hand steady enough. Sorry it's blurry!

 

 

Here's a picture of a cool plant we saw:

And a broken tree:

It was a fun night!

I Wish It Were An April Fool's Day Joke...

Sam had a doctor's appointment on April Fool's Day. He had a strange lump on his foot that he wanted to get looked at. Well, the doctor told him that it was a cyst that needed to be surgically removed! He said he didn't think it was cancerous, but they needed to do a biopsy that would give them the information they needed in order to know for sure.

After Sam went to the doctor, he was told that he would need to have surgery the very next day! It was nearing the end of the semester, so it was very hard for both of us to be able to spend the entire day in the hospital. We didn't really see another option, though, so we made the appointment.

That night, the car key got locked inside the car, and since we had recently purchased the car, we didn't have another copy of the key yet. Sam called a locksmith's office, and he was told that someone would be there shortly. Sam asked how much it would cost and was informed that prices started around $30. Well, over an hour later, the locksmith came. After fiddling with the lock with his tool for about 5 minutes, he gave Sam the invoice, which was for $150!!! We were very shocked about that, but the locksmith said that prices were always about $150, so the information given was incorrect.

So between the two incidents, it turned out to be a very expensive April Fool's Day! We were hoping that our bank account would be spared because of our insurance, but unfortunately the surgery was still around $1,000. Thankfully the cyst was not cancerous, though! I managed to get a few pictures of Sam at the hospital, but they are pretty low quality because I took them with the laptop since the camera was at home.

I held up the computer and told Sam I was going to take a picture. He was still pretty loopy from being knocked out, and he muttered, "Just as long as you're not going to make fun of me on our blog with them!" I told him that was precisely what I planned on doing. :)

 

 

 

 

It was quite the adventure! We left the hospital and drove straight to BYU Campus, where Sam insisted he had to take the Biology GRE! I told him there was no way he could, but he insisted upon it, even as he was waking up from the anesthesia. He told me he could name all the amino acids and started listing them off before he got silly again and started making up a crazy amino acid named after me. It's amazing what medicine will do to you.

Another funny thing that happened was that the nurse told me that she was going to wheel him out into the hall from the recovery room, so she said, "Do you want to go out with me?" She said Sam just stared at her like she was insane. I'm glad to know my husband is loyal, even when mostly unconscious!

All is well now, Sam was only on crutches for a few days, and he is now healthy and somehow managed to score well on the Biology GRE despite his state of being!

The Case of the Exploding Potatoes

Shortly after we were married, we were having someone over for dinner, so I was making twice-baked potatoes. In case you aren't familiar with these, you bake the potatoes without any foil on in order to create a hard shell out of the skin which you then scoop the insides out of. Then you mix the potato insides with milk, sour cream, butter, cheese, and cooked bacon, and then re-fill the shells with the mixture and cook the potatoes for a few more minutes.

Well...here is a word to the wise. Make sure you poke all of the potatoes with a fork before you cook them! I wanted them to bake just a bit faster, so I turned up the temperature on the oven, and I hadn't poked them. A few minutes later, we were in the other room and heard a very loud BANG! I knew almost instantly what had happened. When I explained to Sam, his protective instincts jumped in, and he stopped me from going to the oven! In case another one exploded, he wanted to protect me.

So he tentatively walked forward, armed with an oven mitt, opened the oven, and this is what we saw:

Not one, but TWO exploded potatoes!

I was more concerned about the fate of our pending dinner than the explosion, I think.

Close-up of the empty shells

The pictures don't do it justice-the oven was completely covered in potato!

Sam was intent on not letting me help clean up.

Well, I guess we won't have to scoop out these shells! :)

And yes, I know I probably get a little bit carried away taking pictures of things as trivial as potato explosions. It keeps us entertained, anyway!

Some Happy News

Sam and I wanted to have kids right away, so we were very excited to see this:

I'm now 22 weeks along! More pictures will follow!

Our Humble Home

Here are a few pictures of our apartment, taken right after we moved in.

The living room

Sam playing the piano

Our kitchen-with the lovely avocado green stove!

Our bedroom-my Grandma Campbell made us the quilt, and my Grandma & Grandpa White gave us all of the bedroom furniture!

And here's our bathroom-Sam's brother, Joseph, made him a fish that we put in there. We took some pictures of it to send to Joseph on his mission...

And finally, a little random bit of fun for Sam's family. 

This picture was taken of Joseph when Sam's family was on a trip last year in Ocean City.

Sam wanted to take a look-alike picture to send him! :)

A Budget Friendly Honeymoon

Our honeymoon was very kind to our wallets! My dad's company had a basement apartment they were renting out in Eastern Utah, so they let us use it! It was nice to just go and relax there.

It was absolutely FREEZING out there! Sam had a good time taking pictures of me after he stacked about every blanket we had on me.

Here's the kitchen!

And here's the living room.

We got to go to the Vernal temple while we were there! Here is Sam in front of the doors.

Then we put the camera on timer, but the only place we could put it was on the ground. Hence the somewhat awkward and unflattering angle...

We had such a great time! Even though it was nothing extravagant, it was nice to get out of Provo for a while and just be together.


When we got home, we went to the place where Sam's car was waiting to be repaired, because my wedding band was locked inside! The only problem was, it was New Year's Day, so they were closed. Since they were up in Salt Lake and we live in Provo, we didn't want to leave without the ring...

No problem! I'll just break in!

Sam watched diligently the whole time.

And then he carried me back to the car. Meanwhile, my dad snapped pictures of us.

I'm glad we made it through that one without setting off any alarms or anything!

The Beginning

Well, we've had this blog for awhile now, but I wanted to start at the beginning and document our lives together from day one. So here is a flashback to about 5 months ago, December 27, 2008:

Coming out of the Mt. Timpanogos temple!

Here is the whole gang.

The typical picture of the "forced cheer," while those who are more inhibited simply smile...

In this one, our photographer told the newlyweds to kiss, and Jocilyn and Ryan thought she was referring to them! :)

Notice here their sheepish smiles.

White Family (minus Breanne, who is on a mission in Taiwan!)

Brady Family (minus Joseph, who is on a mission in Guatemala)

White Parents!

Dad & I

Mom & I

Brady Parents!

Dad & Sam

Mom & Sam

Sam & I with Bonnie, a woman he taught on his mission-she was on a mission at temple square when we got married!

And now, for some of our favorite couple pictures!

I love Sam's face on this one.

So Sam was supposed to dip me down and kiss me. After about ten seconds...

...I couldn't contain my laughter any longer!

My arms got progressively redder as we were out longer-it was only about 12 degrees when we were getting our pictures taken!

One of many pictures we got after wading through the foot-deep snow-I think my feet were in the beginning stages of frostbite when I hobbled back into the temple to change! A sweet lady came over with a blanket/shawl thing and started wrapping it around my feet to thaw them out!

Sam wrapped me in his coat in between pictures.

When we were done with pictures, Sam swept me off my feet and carried me back out onto the sidewalk! The photographer snapped a few more shots. :)

My flowers froze outside the temple, and when they thawed out the lilies were nothing more than limp strands of petals. So the flower shop repaired my bouquet with what they had on hand for the reception.

This is Sam & I with my sweet Grandma Campbell!

With Grandma & Grandpa White

A good friend of mine, Natalie

Sam & I decorated our wedding cake!

The finished product:

This cake would soon be completely smashed into my face by that innocent looking guy there...

Here he is, caught in the act!

Weird picture of me, but it shows the aftermath!

The events leading up to our wedding day and our wedding day kept us so incredibly busy-life was crazy! We were trying to get checked out of our apartments, moved into our new one, take care of all of the Christmas festivities, make our wedding slideshow, drive all over Utah in efforts to take care of everything, and the list goes on...and on...

The night before our wedding, I only got 3 hours of sleep, and Sam scarcely got more than that. We were both averaging about 4 hours of sleep per night for the few weeks leading up to the wedding. Added to that exhaustion, his car broke down literally in the temple parking lot, so hurried arrangements were made to get us up to our reception and later, on our honeymoon. The day was filled with craziness, and the craziness hasn't stopped since we began this wild ride together! But we are loving our journey toward eternity together, and through all of life's stressors, Sam has only gotten sweeter. Never an unkind word escapes his lips, and his actions are always full of service and thoughtfulness. Life together is utterly blissful!