Spring Break

Mark and I made it to California with just a few car glitches on the way that got us stuck in Nebraska for a night, but we made it! He is at Davis doing research and says he is really enjoying it!

For Spring Break, I went with my mom to Arizona and Las Vegas to visit Ryan and Brent and their families. Ryan's wife, Alicia was due any day with her baby girl, and we wanted to be there to see her. We got to Arizona early Saturday morning and Gwyneth Hadley Landes was born on Wednesday, April 20th. She is so tiny and is such a good, quiet baby.

We had a great time watching and playing with Cade while Ryan and Alicia were in the hospital with Gwen. We went to the Rain Forest Cafe, Ikea, the mall, and other places to shop.

On Easter Sunday, I woke up super sick with a 24-hour flu that Ryan had earlier in the week, so we didn't spend much time in Vegas because we wanted to get home and didn't want to spread my flu to Brent's family, especially Grace. But I wanted to see her so badly because I hadn't actually met her yet. She was a great, little, chunky girl! It was weird seeing Brent as a dad for the first time, but he's great with her! We went to lunch with Jessica and headed home.

It was great seeing my brothers and their families! I usually miss out on seeing them because I'm normally up in Idaho, so it was nice having time with them all to myself :)

April Fools!

For the past few weeks I had been searching for a fun, non-malicious april fools prank to play on someone this year. One day while the family was sitting together, my father-in-law started telling some stories and one was about a prank he did when he was in college. He and some friends filled some college guys' shower with crumpled-up newspapers. While he was telling the story, I knew that was what I wanted to do!

We spent last night crumpling up newspapers/magazines. When he was getting ready to leave this morning, he was shocked to find his car loaded with crumpled up newspaper/magazines! He had a laugh and took another car to work :)

101 things in 1001 days

I stole this idea from a friend who stole the idea from a friend :)

Update! Today is August 5, 2011 and I'm going to go through and color all of the things I've done since I wrote this post on March 18, 2011.

101 things I want to do in the next 1001 days..

1. Finish watching all the episodes of “Friends” with Mark

2. Drive to Rexburg

3. Unpack our car in Rexburg

4. Get tacos from the taco bus

5. Get Mark and myself new G’s

6. Get gluten-free spring rolls

7. Get my hair done

8. Drive to California

9. See Maggie for the first time in over 3 months!

10. See “Wicked” in theatre

11. Get a pedicure

12. Go swimming

13. See the movie “Tangled”

14. See “The Lion King” in theatre

15. Give Tiffany a haircut

16. Take Maggie to the lake

17. Take an online class

18. Visit San Diego

19. April-fool someone

20. Visit more than one temple in California

21. Beat Donkey Kong

22. See the sights I missed in Chicago

23. Graduate from College

24. Get pregnant

25. Have a baby

26. Move from Rexburg (for good)

27. Visit New York

28. Foster a kitten

29. Foster a puppy

30. Move all my bedroom furniture out of my parents’ house

31. Go to massage therapy school

32. Go out of the country

33. Learn how to really use my sewing machine

34. Read the Book of Mormon (again)

35. Consume less sugar

36. Drink more water

37. Lose weight (30 lbs would be wonderful!)

38. Go to Hawaii

39. Work out at a gym

40. Take up couponing

41. Get my Ulcerative Colitis under control

42. Do an internship

43. See my niece Grace for the first time

44. Go roller skating

45. Start a food storage system

46. Ride my bike to school

47. Read a novel

48. Go on a cruise

49. Go on another family vacation

50. Go to my mom’s 50^th birthday

51. Start walking in high heels again (without looking awkward)

52. Pay off school loans

53. Meet someone famous

54. Meet someone new

55. Paint

56. Finish watching “Seinfeld” with Mark

57. Ride a horse

58. Do nothing all day

59. Get a massage

60. Baby-sit for a friend

61. Get my legs waxed

62. Go to the dentist

63. Get a physical

64. Go to a farmer’s market

65. Buy myself something nice

66. Plant a flower (starting from the seed)

67. Lay out on the beach

68. Finish Spanish (one class to go!)

69. Go to IKEA

70. Move some place warm

71. Take a sewing class

72. Turn 23

73. Turn 24

74. Turn 25 (can you tell I’m running out of ideas?!)

75. Go to Disneyland

76. Get a job

77. Take Mark to the caves in Rexburg

78. Go to a wedding

79. Go to a baby shower

80. Go to a garage sale

81. Help clean out my parents’ attic

82. Play volleyball

83. Take my grandparents to lunch

84. Go to Wasabi

85. Reunite with an old friend

86. Have/go to a sleepover

87. Learn how to knit/crochet

88. Witness a miracle (this one will be the easiest since they happen every day!)

89. Make a new friend

90. Introduce someone to the Gospel

91. Go to a shooting range

92. Paint over my bright pink wall in my room at my parents’ house

93. Do a prank on someone

94. Sleep out under the stars

95. Eat sea food

96. Do a service for someone who isn’t expecting it

97. Write in my diary more often

98. Blogging

99. Scrap booking

100. Go on a boat

101. Go on a plane

Lately..

As usual, I have not been doing so well at keeping up with blogging. But I thought I'd let you in on a little bit of what's been going on lately.

In May, 2010, Mark and I drove to California for my dad's 50th birthday. We threw him a surprise birthday party in the shed behind my grandma's home. We played games, danced, and had a great time!

Mark celebrated his 25th birthday in 2010. I spent the day cleaning up the apartment and even wrote him a message on the driveway with chalk saying "Happy 25th Birthday Mark" and the numbers 1 through 25 from the sidewalk to the door. Well, while I was cleaning our room, I tried opening the bedroom window but it got stuck and when I tried hitting the corner to open it, I ended up cracking the window and got a really bad cut on my hand. My dear friend, Sandy picked me up and took me to the clinic. I didn't need stitches because it was such a clean cut, but I did have to have it wrapped up for a few weeks after that. I now have an ugly scar on my hand.. but am lucky that it wasn't any worse.

Mark and I went horseback riding with our friends, Will and Sandra, at their friends' house. It was Mark's first time and he did really well.

For our 2nd anniversary, we spent the weekend in Jackson, Wyoming. We went to a Scottish festival and a rodeo. Both were tons of fun!

These are pictures of some of my closest friends in Rexburg! (Kim in the purple, Lindsey and Andrew, and Sandra in the white) We were at a Pampered Chef party.

I decided that I wanted to take pictures of Mark and me with our dogs for our Christmas cards. They turned out amazing! I even got a shot with Mark and I kissing while the dogs touched noses. When the dogs greeted each other I yelled, "kiss!" and we caught it!

The month of December, 2010 brought a member to our family and also took a member from our family. Grace Elizabeth Landes was born December 28th to Brent and Jessica Landes. Sadly, Mark's older brother, Scott Tyler Ensign passed away on December 15th from a rapid battle of a rare cancer that was diagnosed in October. He was just a few weeks shy of his 29th birthday.

The family is wearing lavendar shirts that say "I wear lavendar for my [son/brother]". Lavendar is the universal color for cancer, since Scott's kind didn't have its own color (i.e. pink for breast cancer).

Mark and I moved to Iowa for Winter semester, 2011 to live with his parents while he did an internship at a local community center. We've had a great time and it has definitely been a blessing! We decided to leave Maggie at my parents' house and Mark is counting down the days 'till he gets to see her.

We are so close to Chicago (where Mark grew up). I had never been, so we decided to take a few days to visit and see it. For an early anniversary present, Mark's parents helped us out with some of the hotel/gas costs (I think they just wanted us out of the house so they could get a break from us... just kidding!). On Monday, Mark took me around his old neighborhoods and showed me where he used to live and where he went to school. On Tuesday and Wednesday, we hit the city. We purchased a "City Pass" where we were able to go to different museums and other sites around the city for a low price. On Tuesday, we went to Willis (Sears) Tower and rode the elevator up to the 103 floor and got to look over the city. After that, we went to the Art Museum, Buckingham fountain, Shedd Aquarium, and Navy Pier.

On Wednesday, we were so exhausted from Tuesday that we only made it to the zoo and the Science Museum. If I had to do it all over again.. I'd plan the whole trip for a week.. not two days. Our bodies were so sore from all the things we did that we missed out on the Field Museum, the planetarium and the "Magnificent Mile."

I'm sure I've left out on a few things.. but this is all I have pictures for :)

We're both excited to see how 2o11 turns out. Mark got accepted into an internship program for Spring Semester that BYU–Idaho has at UC Davis in California. He will be living in an apartment with other guys from the school, and I will be living at home with my parents for those few months. After the internship, we'll head back to Rexburg to finish school. Then we'll see where we'll end up after that!

Sasha Week!

My friend Sasha came up here (to Idaho) for a week in March. It was probably the worst time to come here because almost EVERYTHING seemed to be closed, including Yellowstone for road clearing. But we were able to improvise and I was still able to show her around for the most part. Sasha's REALLY good at taking pictures every chance she gets, so I have a lot of pics to post!