Sam's Birthday and Idaho Falls

For Sam's birthday I treated him to a road trip to Idaho Falls. It was on our list when we were dating but we never got around to it:) So Friday we hit the road. It was a really nice trip. Everywhere was green and the trip not too long. We went to the Idaho Falls temple and also to Famous Big Juds to try our hand at a one pound hamburger!

The funny story of our trip was the hotel. I booked our hotel at the Shiloh Inn as I had heard it was a nice place to stay "A four-star hotel at a two-star price". Here were a few warning bells

1. The decor embraced the 1970s. The ceilings in the hallway were only 6 feet high.

2. The front desk lady keyed the wrong room and so we ended up walking into someone else's room. When we heard the "hello!" we quickly shut the door and walked away.

3. As we walked into the lobby to inform about the mistake there was a huge bethoveen sized dog drinking from the lobby drinking fountain with assistnce from the front desk lady.

4. Scantily dressed ladies outside the convention center as the Shiloh was hosting a cage night that evening

Needless to stay we didn't stay there but instead went to the nearby Hilton Garden Inn (Highly recommend!!!!) It was truly an experience.

The infamous Shiloh Inn!

The temple grounds were absolutely breathtaking. Also, the lilacs were in bloom (one of my favorite flowers!!!!)

Most importantly!!!!! The birthday boy!!!! Happy birthday!!!!

Happy Easter!!!!!!

Well Easter came around with much excitement. I've never eaten so much candy in my life!!!!! We were able to spend time with both our families as the Lefgren clan got together on Saturday and the Talbot/Carter's got together on Sunday. It was nice to see everyone. I also reintroduced Sam to dieing (dying?) easter eggs as he hadn't done it since childhood. Hope you enjoy the pictures!!!

Catch Up

So the time has now come to play catch up:) First, is our fabulous trip to DISNEYLAND. We had been discussing where we wanted to go for our honeymoon . . . anyone who understands the Lefgren curse knows why we chose to do our travel part of our honeymoon 2 months after the wedding ha ha ha. Sam knew how much I love Disneyland so he graciously suggested to go to the happiest place on earth. It was a fabulous trip. We spent three days at Disneyland and on Sunday go to go visit my sister Camme in Las Vegas. Here are a few of the pictures:

We found these bride and groom Mickey Mouse hats but don't worry we only wore them in the store not in the park:)

One of the things we did was have "Breakfast with the characters". It was so much fun. They even gave us magical "honeymoon" pins. These pins came in quite handy. As we were boarding onto the Indiana Jones ride this man was getting ready to stop us to wait for the next group. He looked at our tag and said "Ah, you're celebrating I'm not going to stop you."

Sweet!!!

This is us riding Splash Mountain. I am terrified of this ride. (I know its silly) But I was determined to ride it with my Samuel as I knew it was one of his favorite rides and I was determined to conquer my fear. So by day three I was ready to take it on!

It was so nice to get away for a little while and just enjoy the sun, fun and my sweet hubbie. Since we've come back things have gotten back into the swing of things. Work and school still keeps us madfully busy. We are getting excited for Easter and conference as we get to celebrate Jesus's resurrection and listen to Pres. Monson and the General Authorities. I'll try to post soon!!!!!

Draper Temple Dedication

I'm trying to be a better blogger so I'll try to give everyone an update. (Sorry there won't be any pictures though). Sam and I continue to go to classes and work. Although Spring Break is in two weeks and we are so happy as we will be going to Disneyland!!! We're really excited. I've started making lists in my head of all the rides we need to go on, what parades we're going to watch, characters to meet, etc. It will also be nice as we're making a little detour to see my sister in Las Vegas. Yesterday we had a pretty cool experience of going to the Draper Temple Open House. It was very beautiful but a bit stressful getting there. Between parking and busing from the chapel and the lines the whole experience took about 3 hours. However, the temple was beautiful and amazing. The video giving an overview of temples was a nice reminder. Elder Holland gave a beautiful testimony on how Heaven really wouldn't be Heaven without families and I thought how true that is!!!!!! He also said the the truth of families is not a matter of good sociology but of theology.

I know . . . I know . . .

So yes I know. It's been over a month since we've updated our blog. I always thought that life would calm down. . . it hasn't. We've come to realize that we don't actually get to see each more than when we were engaged. Between my work projects and Sam going to school, things are almost as hectic as before the wedding. (Sam has this fabulous idea that newlyweds should be able to take a year off from everything and just enjoy the time. We think it would help the divorce rate. Maybe Obama could put that in the economic stimulus package.) Anyway, for those who want to know for our honeymoon we went to the Alaskan Inn up Ogden Canyon. Sam was very sneaky and wouldn't tell me. Then when he did tell me, he told me we were going to the Best Western High Country Inn on 12th street. I tried to keep a smile on my face but was so excited when we turned left on 12th street instead of right. However, I did forget my makeup so Sam got a rude awakening to a wife with no makeup for four days:)

This was our quaint little get away. It was a cute cabin with just enough snow to make us have to stay inside:)

I think Sam enjoyed the complimentary Apple Cider a bit too much:)

One of our favorite activities . . . eating (Breakfast food is at the top of our list!) . . . . By the way, don't pay attention to the non-makeup face:)Here's our favorite food story. After we came back from the honeymoon we decided to order takeout Chinese. We thought they would be small little Chinese boxes not realizing they were in these huge container. She gave us the food in a orange crate box. (There are still two more containers not shown in the pictures). Needless to say, we ate Chinese for quite awhile.

Finally, we have to thank and credit our friends Abbie, Jeremy, Jenn, Matt and Stephanie for their wonderful job decorating our house. It was so nice to come home to.

Busy Times

Well as you can tell, things have been a little bit busy. (8 days and counting!!!!! Woot!!!!! . . . That was Sam:) Between the holidays and wedding plans we spend most of our time driving and fesitiviting . . . I don't know if that's a real word but will use it. Here are some pictures of just some fun activities and our wedding pictures. No we didn't actually get married yet but we took pictures yesterday pretending to be married so we won't have to worry as much on our wedding day . . .once again 8 days and counting!!!!! We really are so excited!!! We want to thank Sam's brother Jared and his wife Kimber and his sister Lei for taking the pictures. Also, mom thanks for helping with the dress . . . who knew it took so much to get someone into a dress:) Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Doesn't he look so manly in my winter cape!!!!!

I really like my boots!!!!

It was really getting cold!!!!!

This is one of my favoites!!!!!

Just kidding . . . . I think this is my favorite!!!!!

Here is our Gingerbread "tent" . . . There wasn't enough graham crackers to build the double wide we wanted to:)

Engagement

We began the adventure of getting our engagement pictures taken and hopefully moving on to the next step of wedding announcements. We both took off work on Friday so that we could get pictures taken during the daylight. (We here its better that way although I'll have to take their word for it because most of the time our schedules are a little bit crazy that we don't really see the daylight.) It was pretty exciting because it meant that Sam and I got to go shopping for new clothes and I have to say I think we looked pretty good. Especially Sam . . . he's a cutie! We would like to thank Lille and Lei for taking time to help us get the pictures done. They were so great and the pictures looked fantastic. We shot the pictures at the Talbot orchard and also a nearby park. We had a lot of fun. Here are some of the pictures from Lille's camera and as soon as we get the other's I'll post those.

Once again, thanks to our wonderful photographers!