The Joys of Summer

So this summer has been full of adventures! Some good, some not so much. We left Utah in May to go on vacation with Hanna's family to the Outer Banks, which was awesome because the beach is our favorite place ever. We had a great time chillin with everyone and soaking up the sun. Hanna more than Chris, as you can see from the farmer's tan. Hanna went for a jog one morning with Leah and found this shark washed up on shore. It was really sad. No one believed her, so we had to get a posse to go check it out.
Hanna's Aunt really wanted to climb up this lighthouse but no one would go with her. Hanna finally volunteered, and as you can see she really loved the experience. But eventually she warmed up and got to check out the view.

One of the things we love the most about the beach is having a campfire right on the beach. So one night we planned a massive cookout for everyone. We all roasted hot dogs over the fire and then hunted for ghost crabs. It was a good time but still no one is as fearless in hunting crabs as Coty! Sammy and Leif caught a ton of them.






Grammy and Grandpa also planned a treasure hunt for the kids. They got some good booty out of it. We're pretty sure Sammy has a bright future in pillaging.
We're so thankful to Liz and Phil for setting this whole trip up. It was such a good time.

But most importantly from the beach trip, we were all reminded that Jared is always right!

After the beach we headed off to Charleston Wv for Chris's summer internship at Jackson Kelly. This is the luxurious condo we had waiting for us. That's what happens when you rent an apartment online without seeing it first. The guy said it was a "cute little place." And while we recognize that cute is a subjective term, I think this place definitely stretched the word's definition...


We moved into another place, which was about half a step better. It was infested with cockroaches and covered with cat pee. And the water was off and we couldn't get it on for the four days we lived there. But that hadn't stopped the previous tenant from using it anyway. So the whole place was pretty putrid. So then we moved again, and the one we have now is inhabitable. Then Hanna went to visit her family for about a month in New Mexico. She had a great time out there and was really happy to spend some time with her mom, dad, sisters, and mainly her little nephew Lewie.
When Hanna got back into town we went to Asheville NC to celebrate our 5th anniversary. Crazy! It was a cool place. Tons of good food. Way too much of it. Had the best pizza of our lives there, Mellow Mushroom. If you ever find one, drop whatever you're doing and eat there. And send us some too. We also got to see the city's firework show while we were chillin at the hotel's pool. It was really awesome, mainly cause there was no one else there.

We have used every chance we get to sneak away from Charleston to see family and friends and different parts of West Virginia. Hanna spent a week in Shepherdstown with some friends, and this weekend we went to Fayetville to check out the New River Gorge Bridge. It's crazy tall.


All in all its been a pretty good summer. We really hope that yours has been as well! Up next for us is a quick trip up to Boston to spend some time with Hanna's cousin Jeremy. Then it's back to Utah for us so Chris can finish school and Hanna can start hers at Aveda.

Over The Last Five Months

So we're still alive! Its been a crazy couple of months, and we have been super busy. But its all starting to slow down now, kinda. Since we last posted, Hanna got into Aveda, which is a really awesome cosmetology school which just opened a location in Utah. She starts in October and is super excited about it. So everyone will be getting Aveda stuff for Christmas!!!!
Chris just finished his first year of law school and is really glad to be done. Just two more to go. Grades don't come out for at least another week, so he's pretty nervous about that.

We just got back from a trip to Vegas with our friends Jed and Ali Goodell. That is one crazy city. But we had an awesome time and managed to leave without blowing our whole life savings, so that was a plus. We saw a Cirque du Soleli show which was probably the coolest thing we've ever seen. But we're glad to be back in a state where prostitution, gambling, and most other things are illegal.
Now we're spending the next week packing and moving. Chris got an internship with a firm in Charleston, WV so we'll be spending the summer there. We're super excited about it. Just a couple hours from home, and we'll be around on weekends to hang out. Then it's back to Utah in August and tons and tons of school. Can hardly wait!!!!!!!

Christmas!!

We escaped Salt Lake for a couple weeks to spend Christmas with Hanna's family in New Mexico. Hanna's work ended well, and she has thoroughly enjoyed the time she has gotten to spend with her family so far. Chris's semester is over. We'll see in mid January if it went well... Before we left Hanna made this sock monkey for baby Lewis, which was super cute.



We went on a hike with Sarah, Phil up this mountain. Since Phil was leading the hike, there wasn't actually a trail. So we climbed straight up rocks through cacti and bushes. The view was awesome.





This house had a million Christmas lights. Obviously, Sarah was very shocked by it.


Leah with baby Lewis. He normally is pretty happy....

See?

We built gingerbread houses, and "we" means Hanna. Chris just ate the M&M's and watched the Utah game.



And it snowed, which was pretty nuts since it's New Mexico. But it was way cool and we made this rad snowman. And that's Dad's arm in the corner. He was sweeping, big surprise...

Babies Football and the American Dream

So we're an aunt and uncle again! Second time in a week!! Jared and Coty had their fourth (and last?) kid on October 30th, Adeline Olive. She was 11 pounds. She takes after her aunt Hanna... and everything is small on her except for her ultra chubby cheeks. We can't to see her, as well as our new nephew Lewis.


Halloween was a blast this year. We dressed up like Kiss and went to Provo. I think people thought we were Satan... The trick-or-treaters' moms all wanted to take pictures of us. But other parents wouldn't let their kids come to the door... Good times. Tyler didn't have a costume so as punishment we made him be the cat. No one wants to be Peter Criss, not even Peter Criss.


Hanna agreed to go to a Utah game, which actually was a lot of fun. We went with one of Chris's law school nerd friends Spencer and his wife Katy, they're way cool. We look stupid in this picture because we were eating nuts. Not really sure how it happened.... So Utah won, which was nice.



Hanna has been working so hard on this baby blanket for baby Lewie over the last three months. It turned out to be a lot bigger than she planned. Maybe he can carry it around till he's twelve like that dirty kid from Peanuts. It was the first blanket she made, and while it turned out well, she's probably going to be buying all future ones...


Life is going well. Just the same old same old. We're really looking forward to having a couple days off for Thanksgiving, and even more so looking forward for Christmas break. December 18th can't come soon enough. We're going down to New Mexico to hang out with Hanna's family. Good times. We'll actually be able to eat for the first time in five months.

OktoberFest

hat a month. We both turned 24 and therefore are now in bed by 9:30 every night. Leah just had a baby and Coty is going to have hers Friday. So we have a new nephew and will be getting a new niece in just a few hours. But most importantly, Chris has discovered FailBlog and now has one more thing to distract him from studying.

We went to Justin and Amanda's to carve pumpkins.
As you can see, Tyler's pumpkin was rotten. After taking this picture we realized it was also filled with maggots and spent the next five minutes crushing them.

And the finished products. We tried to do the Death Star, but Chris screwed it up. Luckily Nathan was able to do it some justice.


Oh yeah, and it snowed the other day. Like all day.

Fall Has Sprung!

In celebration of the first day of the best season, we decided to have a Fall feast. This was especially cool since there isn't really a Fall here in Utah. Well there kind of is, but its nothing like a good old West Virginia Fall. So Hanna made this Gypsy Soup, which totally looked and tasted like Fall and a pumpkin pie to help us store up fat for the long winter that awaits us.



Aside from eating good food, everything else is going well with us too. Hanna is working at a preschool at the U, and is enjoying it for the most part, except for when she has to change diapers and is thanked profusely by the kid the whole time for "changing my stinky diaper." Chris's school is going well. He spends almost all day staring at a screen or a book and can feel his 20/20 vision slowly depreciating.

Around The World In 30 Days

So it has been a while, yet again. We are back in Salt Lake City now, and everything is going well. We moved into married student housing at the University of Utah on August 1st, and have succeeded in transforming our little cinder-block jail cell into a habitable home. Chris starts school next week, and Hanna is in the midst of a job search.

July was an amazing month. We kicked it off by first of all quitting our jobs, which we were both fed-up with. We then flew out to West Virginia to see family and friends for a week, which was an amazing time; it really reminded us of how much we love it back there. We got back and immediately packed up for a road trip up the coast of California. Starting in San Diego, we hit LA, San Francisco, the Redwoods, Portland, and Seattle, and a hundred other places in between. We got to see family and friends scattered throughout the trip, and are super grateful for the couches, spare bedrooms and great hospitality. Now that we’re settling back into a routine, we’re very glad we got to take that trip. Who knows when our next get away will be…
So far Utah has been a good time. We shoot down to Provo whenever tie and budgets allow and have gotten to spend some really great times with friends there. But we really do miss living with Hanna’s family in Las Cruces. There was always someone to talk to and something to do, and we will always be grateful to them for opening their house (and pantry) to us for seven months.

We would say that we'll update soon, but who are we fooling?