Summer Happenings

So we got back from our trip to California a couple weeks ago and it was so much fun! We had a blast. It went by way too fast though. Shem and I left Tuesday after work and drove down to Winnemucca and stayed the night and his aunt and uncles house. We got up really early Wednesday morning and drove all the way to San Francisco and met my family at the Giants baseball game. Before going the game Shem and I got to drive over the Golden Gate bridge! It was so much fun. Every hill that we went up I kept expecting to see the bridge and then when we finally did I got really excited. Shem just laughed at me.


Once we got to the game we stayed for a while and then headed back down to the Ghiradelli square area. We walked around the wharf and found an In n Out burger to eat at! Yum Yum! While we were eating there was a bum out on the street that had a cardboard sign that said: "Tips or donations 4 marijuana research". Atleast he was being honest about what he wanted the money for! We thought it was pretty funny. Shem even got a picture of him and the guy gave him a peace sign. So after we filled ourselves up with yummy hamburgers we walked over to the Ghiradelli ice cream shop and had sundaes! Shem and I shared (only because we were so full from dinner) the Warm Brownie Sundae. It was delicious! Worth every single calorie. After we got done eating we started our 2 hour drive down to La Selva beach where the house my parents rented was at. We drove along Hwy 1 so that we could see the ocean pretty much the whole way down. It was so pretty! The sun was setting and the waves were coming in and it made the 2 hour drive go by a lot faster!


Thursday morning we got up and headed out for Pebble Beach to watch the 1st day of the US Open. I am one that cannot get that excited about watching golf on the television. It gets to be a little boring after about 2 minutes. But I really enjoyed being able to go out and watch the Open. This was my 2nd Open, I went 2 years ago with mom and dad to the one at Torrey Pines in San Diego. Pebble Beach is right on the ocean and it is beautiful. We also forgot to wear sun screen so we all came with very red arms, heads and legs! When we got home Shem, me and my niece Kathryn went down the beach and were able to play around a little. It was almost sunset so we didn't get to get in the water but we did have fun getting our feet in. Shem has never had his feet in any ocean so we made sure we got it done on this trip!


Friday Shem and my dad went back to the tournament for the morning and then we all met up in the afternoon in Monterey for the day. We ate at the wharf and have some really yummy clam chowder and then we headed over to the Aquarium for the remainder of the afternoon. That was a lot of fun. We got to touch some really cool sea creatures and see some really amazing animals. After that we headed back to the house to celebrate my nephews 2nd birthday!


Saturday Shem, my dad and my brother headed back to the tournament again while my mom and me headed to an outlet mall close by! After a day of shopping and golfing Shem and I were able to met back up together and go on a date together. We had a lot of fun. We went out to eat at the Fish Hopper (right on the ocean!) and Shem got Prime Rib with Shrimp Scampi and I got Crab and Shrimp stuffed Lobster tail. It was all so yummy! After dinner we headed back to the wharf and got our souvenir. When we were down the Friday we saw a lady who was doing those caricature drawings so we decided to get one done of us. It was fun but they are expensive!


Sunday was a long boring day. We got up early and left for home. We drove straight through, stopping only for gas and lunch and 12 hours later we got home. It was a very long drive but it was worth it! We had such a blast. Thanks mom and dad for a great time!

So that is a re-cap of our trip. Sorry, it was a little long. Now it is back to real life and work. It was a nice break but I guess we had to come back to work eventually...unfortunately!

Happy Anniversary!

Shem and I celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary on Sunday, May 16th. I cannot believe that it has already been a year. It is amazing at how fast it has gone. It has been a wonderful 1st year and we both are looking forward to many more! This anniversary wasn't exactly what we had planned but as we know, things happen and we just do our best to handle each situation. We started our anniversary weekend by attend the sealing ceremony of one of Shem's old roommates. We got a phone call from my parents right before we were heading into the temple to tell us that my Grandpa Wagoner had passed away that morning. This came as very hard news for me. I love my grandpa very much and was very close to him. He was such a wonderful man and example to me. I miss him very much but am very thankful for the knowledge of eternal families. I know that some day we will be together again. As we went into the temple it was very hard for me because the last time I saw my grandpa was at our wedding, which was almost exactly a year ago. It was a great comfort being there and remember seeing him in there at my wedding.

After the wedding we headed up to Sun Valley for the weekend. It was so nice to be able to get away and not have to worry about anything! Finals were done and we were just able to relax! We went out and explored the city of Ketchum and Sun Valley. We even went bowling at the Sun Valley Lodge. It was a lot of fun! It did rain a little on Saturday but it wasn't too bad. Shem bought a walking stick as a souvenir. He loves it! As you will see in some of the pictures.

After we got back from our anniversary weekend and grandpa's funeral, Shem had been checking online for his final grades constantly. This past semester was a tough one. Shem took on a very full load and also his part time job. He was worried all semester that his overall GPA was going to drop. He has set a goal for himself to have it go up each semester and was getting nervous as the semester progressed. Grades finally got posted and he did amazing ! He did raise his GPA again and did awesome in all of his classes! I am so proud of him. He put in a lot of time and effort into his classes and it paid off! Good job Shem! But now school is over for the summer and it is nice having my husband around more. We are both just working full time and are able to work the same schedule so we are still driving into Boise every day together. We have a lot of fun adventures coming this summer and are looking forward to attending Aunt LaRue's wedding next week and our big adventure to Monterey Bay!

Sorry there are a lot of pictures! Enjoy!

Standing out side the amphitheater at Sun Valley

Shem "falling" on the hockey rink



Shem showing off his bowling moves



We found this awesome chair so we had to get a picture

Shem in the cowboy chair with his walking stick


Happy Anniversary!


At our wedding last year with my Grandma and Grandpa Wagoner.

Finally updated!

It's been a while since we posted anything, sorry! Life just seems to be as busy as ever. Between work and school our lives are very busy. Shem is still working hard at school and work. We only have 4 more weeks until the semester is officially over and I know that both Shem and I will be very happy when it is. It has been a tough semester and I am looking forward to having my husband around more often this summer.

I cannot believe that we will celebrate our one year anniversary next month. It is amazing how fast time flies. It seems like just the other day we were counting down to our wedding day and now it is almost our anniversary.

We just got time off approved from work for the middle of June so that we can head down to Monterey Bay, CA for the golf US Open at Pebble Beach with my family. We were going to fly but airline tickets are ridiculous right now! Plus we would have to rent a car so we decided that we are just going to drive down. We are very excited and cannot wait! My mom and dad rented a house down by the beach and it looks amazing!

My family's Biggest Loser competition ended a couple of weeks ago and my brother Jarom won. He really kicked it into gear and swiped everyone out of the running. Good job Jarom! Shem and I did not do so well. I was having some health issues and quit working out for a few days and then that turned into weeks and then I just got out of the habit completely. But after watching Biggest Loser this past week I am ready to get back in the habit again.

Nothing really new and excited has been happening in our lives. Just work and school. We did purchase a freezer about a month ago off of craigslist. That was a very exciting day, at least for me! I have already started stocking up and Shem just laughs at me. I love stocking up on stuff when it's on sale. You just never know what is going to happen!

We did do family pictures with my family while my sister and her family were here from Denver a few weeks ago. We had my brother in law take a few pictures of us since our only family pictures are from our wedding! I'll post some, I don't know if that is ok, so if it's not Lynds, just let me know and I'll take them off. :)

Great Weekend!

We had a great weekend! It was my dads 60th birthday and my mom decided to surprise my dad and fly my sister home from Denver to help us celebrate. I have not seen Sadie since my wedding 8 months ago. My other sister and I went and picked Sadie up at the airport Saturday morning and then we headed over to Cheesecake Factory for some sister time. I LOVE that place! We had a lot of fun and we had the most amazing dessert, Red Velvet Cake Chessecake. Oh my goodness was it amazing. We said we didn't care if we gained weight this week because it was worth every bite!

For my dads birthday all of his children and their spouses and children wrote a letter to dad and told of their favorite memory and what they have learned from him. My brother put it all together and made a book with our letters and pictures. It turned out perfect. We were all excited to give it to dad and he was very touched by it. We hope that you had a great birthday dad. We love you!

Nothing else is really going on in our lives. We are just busy with work and school. Shem has a very tough semester ahead of him and so we are just trying to stay on top of homework. It makes me glad to know that I am already done and can just support and help my husband while we get him through!

Biggest Loser

So Christmas eve my dad announced that our family was going to have a Biggest Loser competition with our family. We started January 5th and are going for 12 weeks. At the end of each 6 weeks who ever has the biggest percentage of weight loss will win $100 and the overall winner gets $100. So there is the potential to win $300! There is a little motivation! So Shem and I are trying to become our families "biggest loser" but after this last weeks weigh in I am getting a little nervous! I got 1.4% and Shem didn't gain or lose anything. But my oldest brother lost 5.9%!! My sister created a blog for our weight loss. If you are interested in everyone's percentage you can check it out (it's listed on our blogs we follow). Wish us luck!

Our family has been very blessed lately. Shem recently received a job opportunity for a research group at BSU. He can work 10-20 hours during school and full time during the summer and during other school breaks. He is doing research for his field of study, electrical engineering. This is such a great blessing in our life. Not only will we not have to worry about finding Shem full time work this summer but the knowledge and experience that he will gain will be invaluable. He also found out that he made the Dean's list with honors for this past semester! I am so proud of him. He has put a lot of time and effort into his studies and it is definately paying off. I am so blessed to be married to man who values his education and wants to do the best that he can.

Shem is also putting his new golf clubs to use. We just got back from our date for the week and we went to the driving range. It was a lot of fun to be out there with each other trying to pretend like we knew what we were doing! We both had some really good shots and some really bad ones! But we had fun and we both look forward to the weather getting warmer so that we can stay out longer and maybe attempt to actually play some holes.

So I am home sick with strep throat and thought I'd start our blog. We are new to this so please be patient with us as we try to get everything figured out! Last New Years Eve I was sick and I told Shem that next year I would not be sick so we could celebrate New Years Eve together...looks like I was wrong. When we were at the doctor's office yesterday I promised him next year I will not be sick. I guess that means we have to put off having kids for another year so that we can actually celebrate a New Years Eve together before the kids come!

Christmas was awesome this year. We celebrated our first Christmas being married and it was everything I could ever ask for. I woke up about 3:30 and slept off and on until Shem finally woke up at 7:11. Santa was very good to us this year. Shem got some BSU t-shirts, a knife sharpener, pair of shorts, and a polo shirt. Santa brought me a chair massager, slippers, a bath towel, and an outside thermometer. I even received 5 pairs of hand warmers in my mitten. Santa must know that I am always cold! After we opened our presents we had a simple breakfast of cereal and coffee cake. We went over to my parents later for Christmas dinner and to open up our presents from them. My parents purchased my passport so that we can go up to Canada and I can get back into the States! It is nice knowing that that is done and should be here in the next couple of weeks! Shem got a HUGE surprise from my parents. His very own set of left handed golf clubs. My dad, being the very talented golfer that he is, won a golf tournament this fall and seeing as he has almost everything he could possible need spent his earnings at their club house on new shoes, golf balls and a complete set of clubs for Shem. We are very thankful for this fun gift and for my dads generosity. As soon as we got home Christmas night Shem had the putter out and was already practicing. The next morning we woke up and the first thing he said to me was: "Do you think there are any driving ranges open today?" We ended up going out to Purple Sage with my dad and Zach, Mackenzie, Kathryn, Davis and James came out too. We had a lot of fun going out and hitting some balls. I even hit some. I have not been on a golf course since I was in the 6th grade but I have a feeling now that my husband has clubs I will be out there more often...


My sister has this amazing embroidery machine and so we made our mittens together this year. They turned out great and want everyone to see them. This one is mine. (And no, we are not pregnant. We just put Mom and Dad because we will eventually be parents...)


I asked Shem what his favorite Christmas symbol was and he said a horse (surprise, surprise). So we found this one. I thought it was perfect since it combined Canada, Christmas and his horse!


Right before we opened presents...


Shem checking out his new golf clubs!



At my parents house with our Office calendar and my passport papers!