Fall Break in Utah

We have been looking forward to our Fall Break in Utah for a while now. Michael's little sister Rachel was married last Friday in the Salt Lake LDS temple, and Michael had two glorious days off of school, so we were so excited to take one last trip to see our families before this baby comes.

We made it to Salt Lake late last Wednesday night after a series of crazy events... this trip just came at a busy time and we were not prepared for it. Usually I just stay up as late as necessary the night before a trip and get all ready to go, but I feel like I have 40% of my regular energy level and 7 hours of sleep (or attempting to sleep) is my minimum requirement these days. So, I did what I could to get ready but we ended up not being able to pack until after work/school the day our flight left. Michael was with a patient that afternoon and the appointment went long, so suddenly we found ourselves getting home with 15 minutes to pack and leave for the airport. It was a scramble. When we got to the airport I realized I forgot my temple recommend, which I needed to go to the wedding, so our friend Brian rushed to our house after dropping us off to find it. Then we realized Michael didn't have his wallet, so he couldn't even check in. He called Brian to tell him to get that too, but then found it a couple minutes later deep in his backpack. When I was about to go through security, Brian called and said my recommend wasn't where I said it was - so I searched and searched again...and found it in my wallet. We felt like we were losing our minds. Poor Brian, thank goodness for patient friends.

Then I went through security and had way too intimate of an experience with the security guard since I can't go through the x-ray machines in my current pregnant state. That was, weird. We rushed to our gate and suddenly the straps on my bag broke and I almost dropped Rachel's very breakable wedding present. I would have been so sad! Then we were finally on that plane, one of those hurry-up-and-wait feelings, and a little way into the flight I got out my water bottle for a drink. That air pressure, though. Suddenly my water bottle was like Old Faithful, and water sprayed the ceiling and our nice neighbors in front of us and soaked me. It took me way too long to stop it from happening, too - I was too shocked, and just stared at that spraying fountain in front of me. Then I told Michael that my water broke. On the bright side, I was happy to be soaked... I am almost always hot these days!

After all that craziness, we made it to Salt Lake City and met up with Michael's family. On Thursday we hiked Ensign Peak and I just soaked up those mountain views. Mountains are so incredibly beautiful and comforting to me. It's crazy how much I miss the feeling of getting up high on a mountain and getting a good view of what's around me.

Doesn't Rachel look beautiful? Michael's sisters are so gorgeous, inside and out. It was so fun to celebrate with her on her wedding day. Spencer is a lucky guy, and Rachel lucked out too. They are both so great.

Our little baby hit 32 weeks just before the wedding, growing every day! I think he loved his first trip to Utah. I love being at weddings with Michael and remembering our own wedding day. I love him!

Our baby boy has two cousins following close behind him - me and two of Michael's sisters are due in November, then December, then January. We were quite a sight climbing Ensign Peak together, especially considering that we somehow all followed the kids up the steep side of the mountain rather than the actual trail for the last part of the hike. 

My nephew Ben. He entertained me during the reception with all his tricks and jokes, which are many. I just love having nieces and nephews, and they all LOVE having an Uncle Michael. He is constantly surrounded by kiddos whenever we are with either of our families. He would rather play on a playground than sit and chat any day, so it's a win for everyone.

After all the wedding festivities we spent Saturday with my family in Lehi at my brother's house. They have a sweet new little boy, Jonas, that we hadn't met yet so we were so happy we could have a quick visit with them. 

I'm considering just borrowing my brother's family for my Christmas card this year. I mean, look at that picture above. We're even spontaneously and perfectly framed by foam swords. With the dog, too. Picture perfect.

One of Jenny's friends was so nice to snap a picture of us all together on Sunday morning before Michael and I flew back to Indiana. It's hard to get a current family picture these days - this one will already be outdated once our little man joins us next month! But I love having pictures of all our different stages, even though once we have a new member of the family we can't really imagine life before or without them.

Family is everything to me. Sometimes this blog is full of things we're doing or places we're visiting or any other random but happy part of life. But in the end, this is all that matters to me. Michael and I are both so lucky to have wonderful, loving families. We are so lucky to now each be a part of both of our families. I believe that the entire reason I am on this earth is to do what it is I need to do so that I can be with my family forever, including with my Heavenly parents. I believe making it to that point comes from trying to be like Jesus Christ, and following His plan. If you want to know more about what I believe about families, you can read THIS, or watch THIS, or ask me anytime. 

Thank you, Daetwylers and Miners, for our fun weekend together! We love you!

Two Years Today

I'm interrupting this month of blog-silence for a happy celebration. Today we have been married for two years! It's hard to believe we were married for just two months when we made our move to Indiana, and now our four years here are already at the halfway point.

Look at that beautiful spring day at the Jordan River Temple. April 21, 2012 was just perfect all around. It was the bluest sky I think I've ever seen, brightest flowers, happiest people. We are two lucky people.

You should know, my blog-silence is stemming from the oh-so-long post about our spring break in Tokyo that I need to finish putting together. Can't skip that. So, everything post-Tokyo has been put into the waiting line. Which is a shame, really, because we've been really living it up around here. Paint ball excursions, Thunder Over Louisville, Easter fun, and some hard core spring cleaning. But I won't blog about that last one.

But I couldn't let my procrastination skip over this happy day - two years is exciting stuff! And this Sunday will mark four years since the first time I ever met Michael Daetwyler, in the Salt Lake City airport. Love at first sight. Except not really because we spent a couple years making things way too complicated, BUT, now we get to look back and remember it as love at first sight. And he's still just as dreamy as ever. We're having a good time over here.

Happy Anniversary, Michael!

Michael and His Birthday

Michael and I share almost two months of being the same age each year, then he moves on without me. Here's a picture of his dental life in action. He brought that project home to "catch up" but really I think he just wanted to impress me with his fire tools. It worked. Michael's dental life also kind of stole the excitement from his birthday - he had his monthly exam the very next morning. Basically he studied all day between phone calls from friends and family, and I just made a lot of food in the kitchen since he still has to eat at some point and food was our only form of celebration available. #dentalschoolprobs

He requested raspberry cheesecake for his birthday, and I did a slightly poor job of bringing this recipe to life. Maybe we'll just blame the results on the fact that I don't have a Springform pan, but there was definitely more to it than that... I have a love-hate relationship with Pioneer Woman recipes.

Michael has a love-hate relationship with pictures, but it is actually more just hate. I took this picture like 15 times, and you get the blurry one because he's making uncooperative faces in the other 14. I don't even know if he remembered to make a wish, he was so intent on being difficult through the whole experience. 

He brought his wishless birthday on himself.

Michael had no idea what was coming for his birthday. I kind of let him get comfortable with the assumption that I bought him Apple TV, because he's had his eye on that. But we actually had a BYU birthday instead - with some game day t-shirts and tickets to the BYU vs. Notre Dame game this month! We'll drive up to South Bend just before Thanksgiving and see our Cougars play. I'm sure we'll get all nostalgic. Unless we're too cold to feel any of that sentimental stuff. The best part is that Michael's friend Jason is coming out and heading to the game with us! Michael had no idea. Thanks for helping me pull off the surprise, Jason!

We seriously love all our friends out here, we have so much fun with them. We had a little FaceTime action between all the studying so that Thomas and Maybrie could wish Michael happy birthday, complete with some original song and dance. These two just love Michael. When they see me, and Michael isn't around, it sometimes results in tears.

It was a good day, even though studying tried to take it all. Michael slept about three hours last night, so his 26 experience is starting out a little sleep deprived. He got an A on his test though! Probably his birthday present of choice. 

Well no, THIS is still his #1 birthday present of choice... should I be worried about that? 

Happy birthday, Michael! I love, love you!

Celebrating 25

We had a birthday weekend over here. It was perfect weather (September is the best month, have I told you that lately?), and we had such a fun Saturday. Michael made me a wonderful crepe breakfast and creatively presented my presents. Pretty good, huh?

 

Do you see that laptop? (Not a present. Had that for a couple years now.) I'm talking about what's ON the laptop.....Wicked!! That was our birthday splurge, funded by our four-dog weekend and a 3am verbatim (which is dental school speak for getting paid to type up a class) by Michael. Work hard, play hard, people. I am way too excited to see Wicked again. This will be my fifth time, but Michael's first! Which has me excited enough for the both of us. Which is necessary, because I don't know if Michael is too excited? He's a good sport. Especially when I make him listen to the entire Wicked soundtrack with me on our long drives whenever I need to stay awake.

Living far away from my family is a bummer, but mail is not! Sweet, sweet people sent me birthday wishes from states away, and it was so nice of them. My sister even sent me a purple shirt, which is maybe the fourth purple clothing item I've owned in my life. I never wear purple? So she's helping me break my weird habits. I wore it yesterday, mind you. And yes, those are packages of Reeses and Oreos there in the corner that Michael wrapped up for my birthday. He's a smart husband.

When Michael asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday, I just said snow cones and bikes. I wish we lived closer to the Monon Trail, it's kind of pain to drive our bikes up to Broad Ripple for a ride. But when we do, I am in love with the whole day. So we got a Pink Lemon Sour (her) and Black Cherry (him) shaved ice, then hit the trail. It was such a beautiful day!

   

Michael made me practice relay handoffs with a stick the whole time. We got pretty good at it. Well, kind of just him. I'm a wimp on a bike, let's be honest.

 

After we finished our bike ride we hurried down south to meet Michael's parents for dinner. They stayed in Indianapolis that night on their way to bike ride in Michigan. We ate delicious Thai food with them and had fun catching up. They are so nice. We love living close to them during dental school.

Then Sunday came and it was the laziest of days. Normally our church is 3 hours, but due to some scheduling conflicts with other congregations, we only met from 10am-12pm that day. It somehow turned the whole day into a holiday...a lazy holiday.

This little cat calms my soul sometimes - I had a little anxiety about turning 25. I know, I know...you are all rolling your eyes and saying "That is so young!" And I know it is. But for some reason, it was the first age that I wasn't excited to turn. It rounds to 30. It means that I'm getting older which means my family is getting older which means life is changing which means there are different stages of life to get used to...and, it just all felt weird. Growing up is one thing. Watching families grow up and lives change is another.

But, I can rent a car now. Gotta focus on the positives of this new age of mine. And I have a feeling there are plenty of other good things waiting for me in 25. I just need a little direction and time to figure out what those things are. All in all, it was a perfect birthday, and all day I just felt grateful for how blessed my last 25 years have been. I have had a lot of treasured experiences and treasured relationships in a short time.

I really do love life.

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We're going to leave you with a product placement here today. I get paid big bucks for these promos. (False.)

Have you ever tried this chapstick from Bath & Body Works? I am full blown addicted to it. Not the bad kind of addicted, where they're putting something in it that makes your lips all dependent and weird when you can't find it in time...just the full on, could-quit-anytime-but-don't-want-to, healthy addicted. It's the best. And for three months they have been sold out in stores and online, which was conveniently when I completely ran out.... but it's back, people! Did you already get your year supply? No? Just me? Well, don't come to me when it's sold out again.

Also, last week my Excedrin looked like a flower, and it was the most pleasant medicine-taking experience I've ever had. So I had to show you. Kind of cool? Ok, maybe not, but in the moment I was pretty impressed.

Ok, that's all. Happy birthday to me! And to you, hopefully in September, because it really is the best month, you guys.... Ok, I'll stop with that.

To My Mom.

Tomorrow I will tell you all about this weekend...including the Taylor Swift concert! Tomorrow I'll tell you about how much fun it was and how I miraculously ended up with 6 tickets that night (making four happy friends and a good sport of a husband). And maybe I'll tell you about my first experience making curry with tofu in it, or my first experience making homemade yogurt (seriously). Later this week I might tell you more about my new love affair with coconut oil. Or maybe my new love affair with steam mops (ok, not this one, because that would be lame...but have you experienced them?). Maybe I'll tell you about my old love affair with Skype with some hilarious quotes from my niece as a bonus.

But today, I just want to tell you about my mom.

It's her birthday. And she is wonderful. Isn't she beautiful in this picture from her BYU days?

Happy birthday, Mom. I love you!

We had so much fun being part of your surprise party from a few states away yesterday. I hope you keep celebrating all day today!

Thunder Over Louisville

We heard it was one of the best fireworks shows in America. So last Friday, we drove down to Louisville to catch the show and celebrate our anniversary weekend. Michael surprised me with a delicious Mayan dinner reminiscent of Puerto Vallarta, and we had shrimp ceviche for the first time since our honeymoon. We should have had 32 piña coladas like we did on our honeymoon too... but we didn't. 

That morning we went to the Louisville Kentucky LDS Temple with some friends. Michael's parents are at the temple every other weekend, so we love when our trips overlap with theirs. They were so nice to take us to lunch afterwards, and we had fun catching up. After that, Michael and I debated over which was more ghetto - changing our clothes in the Olive Garden bathroom, or in the car. We had differing opinions, so we just divided and conquered. (You guys, car is way more ghetto right? Right?) Then we drove close to the riverfront and prayed that we parked in a spot that would let us out of Louisville that night...we had heard some horror stories.

They had an airshow going on all day, and we loved it. Michael loved it much more. It took us a while to walk to the airshow because he wanted to stop and watch every plane on the way. We met up with a lot of our friends on the riverbank who were so nice to save everyone spots. (And bring extra blankets for the thoroughly unprepared and forgetful couples, which was only us. Dang it.) We killed time watching planes, laughing with friends, playing with their cute kids, eating delicious food, and watching the sunset over the river.

Then the fireworks started. I grew up thinking that the Opening Ceremony of the Utah Summer Games, one of Cedar City's many gems, had the best fireworks around. They really are good, you guys. Stadium of Fire was pretty good too, but somehow in my mind Cedar's still ranked higher (my love for Cedar is strong, and apparently beyond reason).

But these. These were like nothing I've ever seen. They went on and on, from barges on the river and off the bridge. Sparks flew as they landed in the water, and they blasted a great arrangement of America's favorite theme songs over all the speakers. It was so.much.fun. you guys. I couldn't believe how great the fireworks were. Then, after an amazing "finale" that left us completely satisfied, they started them again. And THIS part was straight up crazy. They lit so many fireworks so fast for so long, it shook you. The sky filled up with smoke and almost hid the fireworks that were all competing for attention. It was incredible. 

After a few hours of waiting on the bank of the river, I had decided that it was a fun day but something we'd probably only do once. But after that fireworks finale....whoa. We will be there every year of our Midwest time. You should come.

We raced to the car after, and Michael took us straight down an oddly traffic-less road, right onto the freeway. There were no other cars, and no one in front of us as we crossed the bridge. Super odd, right? Then texts came pouring in from all our friends asking how to get home, because freeway entrances were closed. We still don't know 1) why Louisville wanted to close the freeways, 2) how the heck we found our way on so quick, and 3) if we did something illegal. ? We made it home in record time, people. 

So illegal or not, we're doing the very same thing next year. :)

p.s. Thanks to Heather for the photo of the fireworks, since my phone conveniently died right before the show!

Half of Fifty

Even though we were super happy when Lewis arrived on November 2,

Michael was a little sad about it.

If Lewis waited one more day, he would be born on his uncle's birthday!

And Michael was convinced that if this happened,

they had to name the baby after him.

Close, Michael, very close. Maybe next child.

Of course we had blueberry coffee cake in the morning!

Michael loves this stuff more than anything.

First it was doughy. Then it was burned.

He still loved it more than anything :)

(And don't mind those paint samples taped to the wall...

that is just me practicing my new DIY definition and thinking this paint project through.

Actually, do mind them. And help me choose.)

We had big plans for the birthday, which included the Indianapolis Zoo and all its glory.

Unfortunately, some clouds had big plans for the day, too,

and they dumped on us all day.

But that's ok, we'll take a rain check! Literally.

That night, we went with some friends to the Pacers vs. Kings game.

We were hoping for a Jimmer sighting...which we did get, 

but only because they put him on the jumbotron next to a picture of Paul Ryan

during the "politician look-a-like" bit.

Other than that, no playing time for our P-town hero.

We're still rooting for him.

Then, we went to the Naylors house to bust out the birthday cake!

After he blew out all the candles he said,

"Oh....I forgot to make a wish."

This made me sad for him,

but that's coming from a girl who wishes on every first star,

every 11:11, every railroad track crossing (feet up, fingers crossed),

and every yellow (sometimes red) light.

There's always next year, Michael.

And that was his happy 25!

I'm so glad this guy was born.

So, so, so very glad.

p.s. do you love our free shirts? XLs all around, everyone in the whole place!