finally satisfied

so kolton bought a pickup a few years ago.

three to be exact.

and he's just never been real happy with it. well, the looks of it anyway.

i've heard him tick off on his fingers all the things he wants to do to it countless times.

so many times that i could list all the improvements "needed" if i was so inclined.

and at the very top of the list: new rims.

well, guess what.

his dream was finally realized in the form of four boxes stacked by our garage door.

it was kolton's graduation present from both sets of parents. and even though he went back and forth on what exactly to spend his gift money on (seriously, he was driving me crazy! i'd get excited about a tv or an ipad and start planning accordingly and he'd change his mind) once he made up his mind there was no going back.

and we are both happy because he got exactly what he wanted and i no longer have to hear the pickup improvement discourse.

he even went so far to declare it the "happiest day of his life."

hmmm....

the fourth

Even though the Fourth of July was quite a long time ago I still feel the need to record our activities. For future generations, ya know?

Anyway.

We went back and forth ten million times on what exactly our plans were for the fourth. Kolton was done with hay so that wasn't messing up our plans, but me going to school sure was.

We finally ended up going with Kolton's family on a Razr ride up to Packsaddle Lake.  And we had so much fun!

At the very last minute I packed our swimsuits as a precaution. I thought we'd be doing a lot of Razr riding and very little (if any at all) swimming. But it was so dang dusty that we just stayed at the lake, had a nice little picnic, and swam.

We were so dirty after the ride to the lake. I don't know if you can see it, but our faces were filthy.

The kidlings had a nice time playing in the dirt and freezing water.

                                                   Taven

Lily wasn't loving the water

                                               Madison was!

There was even a rope swing and "diving board" for the big kids to play on.

Teagan on the "diving board"

Kolton was being a bit too brave for my liking.

Tyson

                                                         Ethan

And I stayed in character and was a big ole wanny like usual. I did finally go off the rope swing but it took four minutes of persuasion and crying and wanny-ing before I finally just did it. We have video proof of the whole ordeal unfortunately. My voice gets high pitched and shaky when I'm scared to death. I was begging Kolton to just go before me (even though he'd been four times already) and it finally took Bear standing behind me and letting me know that the only way I was getting off that log was by way of rope swing for me to cowboy up.

I was near tears at this point while trying to convince Kolton to just let me climb down. It doesn't look that scary, but it WAS! for me at least. no one else really seemed to have any trouble with it.

                                         

After that near death experience it was about time to head home. So we packed up and headed out of there getting equally as dirty on the way home.

We even got to see the fireworks. iIm like a little kid when it comes to fireworks and let Kolton know that there was no way I was missing out on the fireworks. So on the way home we were leaving the gas station and saw a little Rexburg show going on so we pulled off to the side of the road and watched for about ten minutes before heading home. I got my firework fix to top off a perfect fourth.

i don't love my lawnmower.

But Brevan does!

The other day I decided it was high time to mow the lawn. Mowing the lawn used to be my very favorite job. I loved my parents lawn mower and it was a good excuse to hike up my shorts and enjoy some sun.

But then we inherited an old lawn mower and mowing the lawn is the last thing on my list of things to do. Always.

We really are glad to have a lawnmower and I use it all the time, it's just really small and usually runs out of gas halfway through the job and does not turn very well.

But other than that, it's great!

Anyway, so when I decided it was time to mow the lawn I pulled out the old thing and went to work. As per usual, it ran out of gas about halfway through. After searching in vain for a full gas can I decided to abandon the job and have Kolton bring home some gas when he came home for lunch.

So I went inside and started on my Saturday cleaning. When I was almost done I heard the lawnmower running outside. When I went out to investigate I saw this young man had taken over my post.

Believe me, he was a lot happier than he comes across in the picture.

He and my dad had stopped to grab a fourwheeler and found my stranded lawn mower. They filled her up with gas and Brev went to town.

I told him I'd take over, but he was loving the job and I wasn't about to argue with him. So he mowed my lawn that day and he and Tylee have done it a few more times since then. It's been great! And we all get what we want. Brevan gets to drive a John Deere mower and I can sit in the house and watch tv do other really important stuff while he works!

he calls him maximus

I call him Max

Maxie

Maxine

Maxi-pad

Maxie-waxie

Maximum

and

Maximus Decimus Meridius, Commander of the Armies of the North

Whatever his name is, he's just about the cutest dog ever (or so we think)

It was Memorial Day and we were in town at lunch with Kolton's family. His uncle had some puppies he'd been trying to give away but we had a million excuses as to why we couldn't take one of them.

Finally on this day we realized that our excuses weren't really all that good and that maybe we should just take a puppy.

Let me tell you-it was a BIG decision. We went back and forth for about an hour and then finally said yes without looking back.

The next day he was delivered to us. I heard Kolton pull up in the pickup and went outside to see if we had made a mistake. I looked around the corner and saw a little ball of brown and black running at me and fell head over heels. And I'm a cat person!

 But he's really been a good little dog when he's not chewing up everything in sight and digging up my flower beds.

We still kinda like him.

Kolton loves having a buddy to take to work with him and I like the prospect of having a running buddy if I ever decide to take up running.

He's just a little guy for now but he's grown so much and I've got a hunch he is gonna be huge. At least I hope one day he'll grow into his ginormous paws.

 Apparently we are dog people now!

Bear Lake

Last weekend was a really great weekend.

First of all, I finished off the semester! It was a beautiful day. It's been so hard to want to go to school this summer. I've had to drive in to Rexburg every single day and it's just really been a drag. I did start listening to the Harry Potter books on tape and that was great because I actually looked forward to the drive so I could listen to my book. But I finished with all my finals on Thursday and we headed down to the Hansen reunion in Bear Lake.

I had never been to Bear Lake before so it was a fun little adventure.

 The first day we went on a little razr ride to an ice cave that really wasn't impressive or large or anything special, but in order to get out of the cave we had to climb out of this scarier than heck crevice in the rock. I don't exactly know how Kolton drags me into these things, but I don't like it too much.

Once again I was a complete wanny and would not climb out of this hole. You can't see it in the picture, but we were standing on a small ledge that we had climbed onto and then were climbing up a little farther to get out of there. The only thing standing between me and falling to my certain death down the dark hole in the rock was Kolton's hand that I was using as a foothold. More than for my own safety I was worried that putting all my weight on Kolton would knock him off balance and down the dark hole. Cuz I'm noble like that.

But after more crying and persuasion and wanny-ing I stepped onto my makeshift foothold and climbed out of that hole. My hands and legs didn't stop shaking for half an hour.

Kolton, of course, handled it like a pro and then went back for round two.

I don't love it when he does things like this.

Once out of the hole I stayed far away picked flowers and chased butterflies with Lily and Madi. That's my kind of time! No danger involved.

ethan and kortni. both of whom are only about ten million times braver than i am.

Once everyone had their fill of climbing out of scary holes in the ground. We continued on our razr ride and somehow Madi fell asleep. I have no idea how because it was the bumpiest dang ride I have ever been on!  

That evening we went to the lake to play on the beach. This was my favorite part of the whole trip. The water was so beautiful and and warm and the little kids loved it! We could walk out forever and the water would be just at our waists. We had so much fun playing for a couple hours.

ready to go!

Shannon and Calvin. Calvin especially LOVED the water. I couldn't believe it, but he just had the time of his life crawling around in the water and sand.

kortni and Lil

The next day we went to the Minnetonka caves and had a little tour.

It was neat to see the cave formations and we all had a nice time.

The whole fam-damily



The chipmunks were eating crackers out of Lily's hand.

That afternoon we rented a boat and everybody got to jump on the wakeboard. We had a lot of fun and especially loved the cabless tractors they used to put the boats in the water.

The next morning we cleaned up the lodge and then had a little picnic lunch at Bloomington lake. We had to hike in, but it was worth it. It was so beautiful up there in the mountains. Kolton, Tyson, and Ethan went on a little hike up the side of the mountain and when they got back we headed home.

me looking really awesome in front of the mountain the boys climbed

the boys actually looking awesome on top of the mountain they climbed



And that was the end my friend! It was a great trip and we had a blast exploring, playing, and spending time with family.



the month of parties

July has to date been the month of parties for us.

We've been sneaking off every weekend for reunions and such and going to the lake every chance we get in between.

It's been awesome.

One afternoon in June we headed out to Mud Lake. It was probably not the nicest day because it wasn't real warm and was kinda windy, but we just couldn't stand it anymore. So I ran home from school and we took the boat out with Tylee and Seth and Austin and Krystal. And we had a nice time, even if there weren't ideal conditions.



look how happy we are!

It was a good day and only the beginning to a month of fun.

why potatoes are an integral part of our relationship

This love story is getting just a little too drawn out. the original plan was to write once a month on our "anniversary" but that obviously didn't happen. So I'll try to wrap it all up in the next....little while. no committments.

The summer of 2010 was bound to be the best summer of my life. I had successfully survived my first year of college which was a miracle in and of itself. I had been so nervous that I would flunk out of all my classes and have no friends. But I think I did alright on both counts.

Now I was home for the summer and had a handsome young beau on the line who would be living only 3 miles down the road instead of 360 miles as our previous arrangement had been.

The first night I was home I got to accompany him to town on a parts run. And I loved it. It just felt so natural and I don't really know how to explain it beyond that it wasn't really a forced or planned date but just a spur of the moment excuse to hang out with each other and do stuff that possibly serious boyfriend/girlfriend material peeps did.

But maybe I was reading too much into it.

Probably to Kolton it was just a parts run.

Go figure.

Anyway, that night I got introduced to the Turkey BLT at Millhollow and my life has never been the same. It's now our favorite place on the planet and we are seriously thinking of buying a franchise. if they are planning to franchise, that is.

Over the course of the next few weeks we saw each other every single night. I delivered cinnamon rolls to him one night while he was out working and every other night he would stop by for a couple of hours and we would chat, eat Reed's Dairy ice cream, and he would fall asleep on my couch until it was time to get in the cold pickup and drive home (that's been one of the highlights of marriage. he doesn't have to drive home anymore!)

And then we had our first argument. maybe a "tiff" would be a better descriptor. It's not even that. It was more like the first time I got mad at him and wanted him to know that I was mad at him. And it's so stupid and I can't even believe i'm telling the story but here it is.

So Kolton had come over every single night since I had moved home. I'd seen him every day and I was loving it. No matter what we were doing, installing a dishwasher, driving around the farm, watching a movie, or not even really doing anything at all-I was thoroughly enjoying myself. We were at that strange stage where I was still trying to figure out where we stood and if we should pursue this any further. If  he was even interested in me at all or if the Reed's Dairy ice cream was the only thing pulling him to my house each evening.

So after about a month of this Kolton got pretty busy planting potatoes and was getting up early and staying out late working.

So one night he called me after he was done for the night and told me that he probably wouldn't be coming over that night because he was tired.

I immediately got all fired up. I don't know if this was the answer to all my concerns or if I was just tired and crazy (probably all three) but I was NOT happy with him. And I tried to let him know by explaining myself (Not very well, I might add. I think at one point I said something along the lines of "I just want you to want to come over). When that tirade was over he simply said, "Okay. Well, I'm going to bed."

So I hung up the phone and fumed all the way through watching Pretty Woman with my mom and Tylee.

(That makes Kolton out to be real insensitive...which is pretty much how it went down! Just kidding. He really was tired and some part of me understood that but I just wanted him to want to come over and he apparently didn't, the big jerk!)

Anyway...

The next morning I woke up and felt a little better about the situation. (It's amazing what sleep will do for a person) But I still wasn't about to call up Kolton and invite him over. So I waited patiently for a couple of hours and sure enough soon my phone rang and I got an official invitation to ride in the buddy seat while planting potatoes.

Of course I accepted.

And then I had to swallow my pride and apologize for being such a crazy the night before.

He accepted.

And it was the best buddy seat ride I'd ever had.