Summer 2016 Part 1

It's been an exciting summer for Evan and I! Starting with completing our first 10k race at Universal Orlando to moving from Oklahoma to Mississippi to visiting all of the family members possible. Here are a few memories from along the journey. 

Our first adventure was the race in Orlando. It was the biggest race we competed in with more than 10,000 participants! We spent some time in the parks (really just the Wizarding World of Harry Potter) and we spent time at the pre-race event - which included a meet and greet with BB8!

 

Race day was overwhelming and exciting and exhilarating! We bested our times at 1:45:00.

 

After the race we met up with some friend from Oklahoma to explore HP World again!

 

Then we prepared for moving from Oklahoma to Mississippi by packing up the house and getting it ready to be sold. UPDATE: our paperwork is all completed and we should close THIS Friday!!

 

 

Our week was full of farewell parties, including a great last hurrah with our Edmond 3rd Ward friends. 

 

My parents came to help us pack up the moving truck, drive to Mississippi, and unload all of our stuff. We definitely had fun along the way too :)

 

 

 

Their favorite part of the trip was eating all of the fresh seafood!

We moved so early in the summer so that Evan could go to Pitkin, CO to set up a new course with the faculty at the University of Southern Mississippi (USM) called Field Camp. It's for the senior geology students to put all of their skills to the test in the real world. To say he had an awesome adventure is an understatement! 

 

While he was gone I worked in the house/ back patio - sprucing it up and making it feel like home. I also had surprise visitors! My sister's sweet family kept me company during the third week and we had a blast exploring the coast/ Hattiesburg area. 

 

 

Then came the text from Charith - what if we road tripped out to Mississippi to visit you guys? My reply: sounds awesome to me AND I'll even help get you here! I flew to SLC to meet up with Charith and the kids. We drove through the night and stopped at some awesome places along the way - including a quick stop to take a picture of Evan's mission area.  

 

We met up with Kirk in New Orleans on the 4th. We stayed to watch fireworks and spent the night so that we could explore this cool city all the next day. 

 

 

 

And what do you do when you just want all of the beignets? You bring some mix home to make your own! Especially when Reid says "I just love them!" How can you deny him more of the sweet goodness?

 

We had so much fun adventuring with the KC crew. 

 

 

 

 

Then we took the band on tour and drove to California to visit Quinn and Dewi's family. 

 

And then we played and caught Pokemon and played and caught Pokemon and played and didn't quit until they kicked us out!

 

 

 

 

 

My favorite moment was when Hazel said to Safira, you totally have feelings for Aunt Lacey! Lol. Right back at ya kid. Building relationships with these sweet kids is worth all the hours in the car. 

But the road called once more and it was time to take the KC crew home. Of course we made the best of a long trip and of course we drove straight through. 

 

And guess who I found when I got to Washington?! I went to the room where I was going to sleep and saw a tuft of hair sticking out of the bedding. I almost turned around to tell Kirk some rando was in the bed already and I couldn't sleep there. Then Eli gave me a sly look and I hesitantly pulled the covers back. EVAN!!!!! I maybe didn't stop hugging him for 3 hours straight. After a long nap it was time to get up and play again. The week went play with all the family, catch all the Pokemon, eat all the food, sleep briefly, repeat. 

 

 

 

 

AND NOW we're flying home (and still playing PokemonGo) to spend two days recuperating before driving to Minnesota. 

 

See ya on the flip side!

Spring Cleaning

Skipping over anything important that happened the last couple months...

We are in spring cleaning mode. We've been in our house a little over 1 year and it's time to get real. Real about what we moved in and haven't touched in that year and real about how stuff junks up over just one year.

So.

Spring cleaning is also happening in preparation for my parent's visit. They have made it a goal to come every May - and I am super excited about it! We have some landscaping projects to do and my mom is going to help me organize/ clean the garage. We might post pics of the projects...

One project that I've been meaning to do and never got around to doing - just got done.

Enjoy.

The Happy Couple:

 Our Wonderful Parents:

The Smith Family:

The Whole Group:

Let Them Eat Cake:

It's a Pig Roast:

Yes, that is a canoe that we are dishing out food out of! Every summer my family has a pig roast. When Evan and I were planning our wedding date we decided that since a party is already happening, we'll just make it a wedding party. 

So, after 4 1/2 years, I finally scanned in and posted the Minnesota wedding pictures - thanks spring cleaning!

Love Always,

Evan & Lacey

Galveston, TX

We've had a great 2013 so far! A lot of this has been because I stuck to my resolution to walk every day. Turns out it's been really great for our health, not just physical but metal and emotional too. It's also led to a lot of adventures: trips to the Zoo, walking with friends in local parks, and just finding fun things in our neighborhood. One of those adventures was an incredible surprise trip to Galveston, TX this past weekend. Galveston is an hour and a half outside of Houston, on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico.

 
Before Galveston, we had to go through two big cities: Dallas and Houston. The road took us right through the downtown of each of the cities - it was so neat!

 

 

We got in pretty late Friday night and woke up Saturday morning to this:

 

That was worth every second in the car and so was our first walk along the shore.

 

 

  

I should mention that I have some new lenses for my phone camera - birthday/ Valentine's gift from Evan. The lenses are a fish-eye, macro, and wide lens. This trip was the perfect place to try them all out. After our morning walk, we drove up and down the shore to get the full scope of the island. Here are some pics from the Northeast shore.

 

Along our way, I couldn't help but notice how different things are in the inner-city part of the city. The buildings are so colorful and so cool on the outer edge, but a couple blocks in and you see how the hurricanes have left the less fortunate buildings deserted and in ruin.

 

 After lunch at an awesome place on the main boardwalk called The Spot. My favorite thing there was the eclair :) In the afternoon we went to Moody Gardens. It is this crazy cool place that has three pyramids: the Rainforest pyramid, the Aquarium pyramid, and the Discovery Museum. We spent our time in the aquarium and got to see all kinds of wonderful animals: penguins, turtles, sharks, sea horses and this crazy cool sea dragon:

 

 

The Moody Gardens are also a great place to just walk around. There are wonderful plants that make you feel like you are visiting a tropical oasis.

 

 

The next two were taken with the macro lens and they turned out great!

 

 

 

They also have a paddle-boat that you can walk around and maybe take a trip on. We just admired it from a far and enjoyed the beautiful colors of the sunset. 

 

 For dinner we went to the cliche Rainforest Cafe. But Evan had never been there and it was a great opportunity for us to go. They had some huge aquariums and we spent our long wait checking out all of the colorful fishes.

 

The next morning we had a few hours to soak up the sun and spent it walking along a beautiful beach. Both of us have a nice sun-kissed glow after this trip - I love it!

 

 

 

This was the best Valentine's/ golden birthday gift a girl could have asked for! I'm so grateful to Evan for planning all of this and impressed that he kept it a big secret. Next week I'll be off to Arizona to visit my Grandma Leila and see my parent's, sister, niece Sophe, and Grandma Dorothy. It'll be the first time in 8 years that I'll get to spend my birthday with all of them - perfect for my Golden Birthday (turning 26 on the 26th of Feb). 

Hope you all are having a great year and we are looking to plan a trip for Washington for the summer - maybe over the 4th of July.

Love - Evan and Lacey