Happy New Year!!

Welcome 2012! I would love to say that my new years resolution is going to be blogging better, but its not. I have not really felt like there is much to say these days.

A quick update on Natimus:

Nate is now working at REI-the Salt Lake store. He is completely in love with his job!! He loves the discounts and selling memberships. More often than not, he comes home with a new purchase after working. I love how excited he gets about a great deal!! Spring classes for 2012 are going to be a little overwhelming for Nate. He is enrolled in 21 credit hours, working a small amount at REI and also preparing for the MCAT that he will be taking in July.

A quick update on Me:

I have ventured away from archaeology for the winter and have started working up in Park City. I have been working at a new restaurant at the Canyons ski resort. Its called "Bistro at Canyons". I love my job. I have meet many great new people and I am loving learning how things work behind the scenes. Its also a different style of work. This new restaurant is the first Kosher establishment in a ski resort in North America. What a fun and exciting opportunity to help open this restaurant. Spring classes 2012 are going to help me to complete my associates. My goal now is to complete it before we find out where Nate is going to medical school.

Christmas 2011

What a holiday!! All of Nate's family was in town for the first time in a long time. We took advantage of that!! If we were not working, we were with family. Unfortunately this meant that we didn't get to Alabama. It was the first Christmas away from my family. It was sad, but next year we will just have to have twice as much fun.

We were able to spend Christmas Eve with Dan, Britten and the kids. How fun! Nate and I woke up 2 hours before the kids. We could not contain the excitement we were feeling about having them wake up for Christmas. Santa was VERY good to us this year. We had an extremely blessed Christmas.

New Year's Eve was a little more hectic. I had to work. But I managed to get to Nate by 11:58 and was able to ring in the new year with my sweetheart.

I guess I do need to decide on a resolution, but for now, this update will have to do.

End of Summer Extrava-palooza!!

Nate and I have been very blessed to spend the last 2 1/2 weeks in Ardmore, OK. I know, that may sound crazy-where is Ardmore anyway? We have been here spending time with Dan, Britten and the kids. Nate has been shadowing Dan at the hospital. He got to remove some staples, do an ultrasound and see someone's finger dangling by a thread...and he loved every minute of it. Nate has really enjoyed spending time with Dan and being in the ER.

Britten and I have spent alot of time together too. We have been making crafts, tye dying shirts and catching up on chick flicks, cooking and everything else under the sun. Its been really nice to spend time together.

The climax of the trip was our 5 day, 4 park road trip. It started Sunday night in Dallas with Mom and Dad and dinner at the California Pizza Kitchen! YUM! Then we went back to Dads hotel and swam and the pool. Around 9:00 we headed to our hotel-which took forever to find. Eventually we found it, got checked in and then our hotel room was a smoking room!! SO GROSS! Nate went and talked to the managment and we got a new room.

Monday we went to Six Flags Dallas! What a blast. It was REALLY hot and busy, but we had a good time. We left around 3 so we could being our drive to San Marcos TX. Once we got to San Marcos and got checked in we realized our room didnt have a functional AC! YIKES!! We got the hotel to give us a plug in AC unit. It was not good enough. We were literally sweating ourselves to sleep. Finally we got switched to a new room around 12:30.

Tuesday was our first day at Schliterbaun. I have been waiting to go here since I first saw it on the travel channels "best waterpark" show. We had a really great time at the original park. It was a sweet water park filled with water rapid rides. We loved it. There are no height restrictions for the rides and we finally decided to let Sami go. They have special kid tubes with mesh and a bottom. She tucked herself in and never wanted to get out. Walking from ride to ride she sat in the tube as 2 people carried her. It was so fun.

Wednesday was our second day at Schliterbaun. We went to Blastenhof and Surfenburg. These are the more traditional water parks-slides, lazy river, wave pool. These 2 parks where much more crowded, but still fun. We spend the day relaxing and trying to ride all the rides. Dan got pretty sunburned this day-lobster style.

At about 5:30 that evening Nate and I left the family. We got picked up by my half sister and her family. I have not seen her in 13 years. It was a great reunion. She was able to meet Nate. We got to meet her two adorable children and husband. It was short and sweet, but the start of something really good.

Thursday we went to Six Flags Antionio. When we woke up that morning Dan said he had a good feeling about going that day. When we arrived we got rockstar parking(Nate moved a cone on the 3rd row). To our suprise the parking lot was 1/5 full!! Dans good feeling was better than expected!! We rode every ride we wanted to! and most rides we walked on to! What a great day at Six Flags!!

For dinner on the LONG trip back home we stopped at Rudy's. We chowed down!! It was so delicious. We got stopped in Austin in traffic FOREVER because of construction. Then we got stopped in traffic again near Waco because of a horrible car accident involving many semi trucks and at least 1 police car. Eventually we made it home at 2:30 in the morning.

This has really been a wonderful trip and a great way to end the summer and kick of a new school year! School starts next week.

Pictures to come :)

Hiking the Subway!

Brian, Megan, Molly, Rachel, Nate and I hiked the subway last weekend. I dont know of a more beautiful place on Earth :) We had a really great time. Here are some pictures.

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On another note, Nate and I are finished with our dig down in St George. We have had a really good time down here. We have met some really wonderful people down here, excavated some freakin sweet archaeology and had many adventures. We are really sad that most of this summer has passed within the blink of an eye but we are REALLY looking forward to spending the next few weeks with the Wheelers.

Who knows when my next post will be, but...until then. Happy trails.

Where do i even begin!!

I know. I know. I am the absolute WORST blogger!! Scratch that. I'm the worst picture taker which in turn makes me the worst blogger. Since our last post for our anniversary, many things have happened to us.

• We went on a gigantic cross country trip to see my family in Alabama and Nate's in Pennsylvania. Scout and Grits came too! We stopped for a day in Kansas City and we got to see our friends Matt and Ang. Also, we got to see baby Rylee, Rianna and Deanna! It was a really nice visit! We stayed with my family for about a week and a half. We taught my family how to play rummy. We played several nights. That was probably the best part. Christmas morning was wonderful. Nate wrote me a song. It was beautiful. I sure am lucky to have him in my life. After Christmas we drove up Pennsylvania to see Dan, Britten, Dawson, Annie, and Sammi Jo! It was so great to see them. On New Years Eve, Nates mom flew into Atlantic City and meet us in Hershey PA to ring in the new year!! The tiny babies slept through most of it. It was still really nice to be out and about(freezing). A few days later we met up with Nate's dad in NYC! We were able to spend some time in time square! we had some delicious BBQ and headed to THE GREAT WOLF LODGE!!! (If you have never been, PLEASE go. You WILL NOT REGRET it!!) It was really nice to be with Nate's parents, Dan and Britten and the babies. Sadly we had to head back to SLC a few days later. That was a really, REALLY long, sad drive home. Overall, it was a wonderful road trip!!
• Since that vacation it has been all work for nate at school and mostly play for me. I had been looking for a job since the beginning of January. I was having a really hard time finding one. I did get to spend alot of time with family thought. I really love spending time with the kids in our family!!
• The next big thing that happened was that we got to go to south florida for spring break!! 11 days in paradise was just what we needed! Nate and i drove down to Las Vegas to catch a flight down to see his parents! Luckly we took jetblue. This was the first day of the March Madness tournament. We got to watch almost every game from 32,000 feet. We slept in everyday while we were there. The first part of the trip was fun because Nate and dad installed cabinets and appliances. While the boys were doing their thing, we drove around florida, top down in the convertible soaking up the warm sunshine that ft lauderdale had to offer. A few days into the trip we got some sad news. Britten got really sick and was probably not bringing down her family. We had been planning on going to Orlando to spend a few days in Disney World. So, we waited and waited for the ultimate decision. After being in and our of the hospital for 3 days, Brit left the hospital got in their car and they drove to the airport to fly to orlando!! She is such a super mom :) Our 3 days in Disney were magical!! i got as many funnel cakes as my little self could eat within 72 hours! some with fruit topping and ice cream and some with powered sugar!! Seeing Sammi on the ride "its a small world" was probably the best part!! First day was at Magic Kingdom. Brit got sick and left to go sleep for a while. We rode all the rides! it was really fun! Second day was animal kingdom! There are some freaky rides there!! We rode the rapids ride twice! We all got soaked!! Dawson didnt get as wet as he would have liked. It was really fun though! Our last day was at Hollywood Studios. There are not so many rides there. Mostly shows. The Aerosmith ride WAS AWESOME!! (thanks brit for pushing me into the chair and securing me into the ride, i needed a little push). We rode that ride the most!! It was just so fun!! Bright and early on day 4 of being in orlando we had to say goodbye to the babies and brit and dan. We drove back to ft lauderdale. we took a water taxi around the canals and saw all the GIGANT houses and privates yaht's. and went to nates favorite place in town! the rustic inn! Nate and dad chowed down on several pounds of crab legs. It was really fun to see those two go at it! Our last day in Ft Lauderdale was really fun! we drove down to the keys and went snorkeling!! It was so sweet!! however, our boat got back really late and we had to HURRY back to the condo, pack our bags so we could catch our flight back to Vegas. Our flight left at 8:10. We got to the airport at 8:00. We ran through the airport and got onto the plane as they were shutting the doors. It was really close!! we didnt get to say a proper goodbye to mom and dad but, it was a really wonderful vacation!!
• Finally, i am back in st george. I have just started up another archaeology dig with some really great old friends of mine. I am away from nate during the week. Its been hard, but hopefully in a few weeks time he will be down here with me. Making money and eating snow cones :)

WOW!! so, i guess there was alot to say. And this doesnt even really cover it. Sorry there are no pics, ill try to be better. i pinky promise :)

One year down, a bazillion more to go!

nate and i reached the one year mark! it came so quickly! this year many exciting things have happened to us. nate has been busy, busy, busy. nate started school at the U. he is doing really well. i am so proud of him. he has created his nonprofit-the green tee project. he has gotten involved with a club called tech titans. he also got invited to join the triathlon team at the U. i am just so proud of all his accomplishments. he is going to make a wonderful dr someday!

i really cant believe its been a year! a year ago today i married my best friend in the birmingham temple. it was the greatest day we have had so far! i love that natimus more than anything! everyone says that the first year is the hardest-but we have been so blessed. its been the best year of our lives.

one down, a bazillion more to go!

i love you nate!

Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Nelson!!

the rain from that day must have been good luck!

Dog Walk Gone BAD!!

Nate and I decided that Sunday we should take our dogs on an adventure. We found a park that has a trail that dogs can go and dogs are allowed to be off leash. We were really excited. We got there and the dogs were so excited. The trail follows a creek. Our dogs LOVE water. They swim anywhere. So, needless to say, they were stoked. At first sight of the water, they were gone!

Scout and Grits just hanging out in the creek.

At the end of the trail we decided to just let the pups play for a minute. Nate took a minute to call his mom back. I decided to sit on a perfect log that was right near the stream. WORST CHOICE EVER. After only sitting for a minute or so, I remember hearing Nate say "BEES!?" He hung up the phone quickly with his mother. I began to run. There were bees all over me! Even in my shirt. I probably ran for like 40 yards, stopped freaking out for a sec, only to realize there were still bees chasing me!! I started running again and screaming this time, i was SO FREAKED OUT! I slowed down again, only to realize there was still a bee in my shirt. AH! I began to realize I had been stung several times. I got stung twice under my chin and on my left arm. I also got stung right where my forehead stops and my hair starts. It hurt so bad, so I had Nate check it out. The freaking stinger from that dang bee was still in my head. Worst Dog Walking Ever.
Kinda random but about a week ago someone was talking about bees, and i though to myself "i forgot what it feels like to get stung by a bee.." NOT ANYMORE.
Nate did not get stung, but I am pretty sure that Scout and Grits got stung. They were rolling around in the grass. Who knows, I felt SO BAD.

We decided to go home after this great ordeal. On the way out we passed a dam. Scout wanted to get in so bad he jumped off the dam to the part below. That dog is freaking crazy!

Almost back to the car. While I was running, I dropped Grits' leash, so we had to hold her the last bit of the way when it turns back into an on leash park. Oh well, hopefully our next outing will be better than this. It should not be too hard :)

Our Wedding Book

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/invited/1

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Go to that website to take a glance at our wedding book. Megan Valantine is responsible for all its glory! enjoy!! and purchase if you would like :)

I LOVE OUR WEDDING BOOK!! YOU WILL TOO!