Birthday Surprise!

Yesterday was my Grandma's and my brother's birthday. I decided to ask for work off and drive up to Ogden to surprise my Grandma for her birthday. I showed up with flowers and she was so surprised she just kept starring at me. I almost had to let myself in the house. It was perfect! She still had her curlers in her hair, I loved it.

We spent the morning relaxing together, but in the afternoon her siblings Don, Dorothy, and Burton came to visit her as well. We went out to lunch with them and had a very nice visit. I think it really made her day to have all these visitors.

For the evening festivities we went out to dinner with the family. Here is a group shot of the whole gang that came out to dinner.

After eating lots of pizza and cheese bread, we capped the night off with Grandma's favorite dessert, carrot cake. It was yummy! I think she had a great birthday! Happy 79th Grandma!

Do you want a s'more? S'more of what?

Last night we went over to our friends' house to have a summer night cookout.

We roasted hot dogs for dinner.

For dessert we made s'mores! It isn't a campfire without s'mores.

Robert biting into his first s'more ever! Yes, surprising I know, but as you can see he really enjoyed it!

We also roasted Starbursts over the fire. I think this was Robert's favorite part of the night. Lexi was such a great hostess. She kept passing out the Starbursts to everyone.

After we were finished eating everything in sight, we took our party to the trampoline.

We had so much fun! It is really starting to feel like summer. We love being outside having fun with friends. Thanks guys for an awesome night!

Kelly Clarkson Concert!

Random...I get a email from Robert while at work asking me if I wanted to go to Kelly Clarkson's concert that night, so of course I said, "Sure." I didn't even know she was in town. I love Kelly Clarkson. Well it turns out she was in town, literally. Her concert was right across the street from our house at the Utah Valley University's baseball stadium for Orem City's Summer fest. I was so excited Robert found out that her concert was that night, and luckily for us there were plenty of lawn seat tickets available. For lawn seats it only cost us $15 each. I couldn't believe how cheap they were selling them for!

This is us waiting for her to come out! We had to get there early to get good seats since it was general admission, and boy did we get good seats! We were only about 125 feet away from her. I still can't believe we only paid $15!

I was nervous though because it had been raining everyday since June began, and of course this day was not unlike any other. At 4 pm it started raining hard, so I sat at work starring at the window in disappointment thinking our fun evening outside would be ruined. However, just on my drive home from work it stopped! It finally let up just in time for us to go to the ball park to reserve our seats. Nonetheless, we still went to the concert prepared for the worse. We had our tarp, blankets, and rain ponchos.

Happy that the rain appears to be holding off!

Well it did rain on us a little but nothing too bad, so we were feeling pretty lucky.

And lucky we were after the rain dispersed. It left the most beautiful rainbow that arched right over the stage! You could not ask for a more perfect backdrop to an outdoor concert!

In the end, the concert was awesome! She sang all of her biggest hits, so I had fun dancing and singing along all night!

5 years ago today...

I was falling in love.

Today marks our five year anniversary of Robert and I being together! This is a picture from the first week we met. We were swimming together in one of the pools on the cruise boat. Got to love summer love!

I am so thankful to have met and married such a wonderful man. He is everything I could have asked for and more! Tomorrow we will celebrate our one year wedding anniversary! It has been one of the best years of my life.

I love you Robert! Thank you for being my companion and best friend! You mean the world to me!

Memorial Day Weekend Part 2

After we decorated the graves, we decided to head up to Lava Hot Springs in Idaho. We wanted to take my grandpa back to the town where he grew up, so he could visit his brother.

This was Robert's first trip to Idaho!

The scenery on the drive up was absolutely breathtaking. It made for a fun road trip.

Once we arrived in Lava Hot Springs, we stopped in to visit with my grandpa's brother Wallace. I think he really had a good time. My mom, Robert, and I left him to chat and catch up with his brother while we went out to have a little bit of fun.

We started with a ride down the river. Although it was not one of the warmest days to float the river, we could not pass it up! I'm not going to lie, the river was freezing! However, we were glad we did it! Here we come!

The river was actually pretty rough for most of the way. We were just happy we didn't fall off our raft! We saw many others who did not have as an enjoyable experience. :)

Well it was time to come back in and we were freezing! I was glad Robert braved it and jumped in to push us ashore. Otherwise I think we would have kept floating on down the river. After getting out of the cold river, we decided to warm up by sitting in the natural hot springs with my mom and spent the rest of the afternoon soaking up some sun while relaxing in a natural warm pool.

We did it!

When we were finished relaxing in the hot pools, we came back to their house to get changed and cleaned up so we could go out to dinner. We took them to a little hamburger and shake place downtown. We all had a good time visiting and spending the weekend together. After dinner, we made the long drive back home and had to come back to work.

Memorial Day

Memorial Day, a day to remember those who have died serving our country. In my family and for many others, it is also a day to remember family members who have passed on. It is a tradition my mom upholds of decorating and cleaning those graves. I have had the opportunity to do this every year since living here in Utah for the past five years. This will probably be one of the last opportunities I have for a while since we will be moving in August. I was worried I would not get the chance to put flowers out this year because it was looking like it was going to rain all weekend. We lucked out though, the sun came out just in time!

This is the Dutch wooden shoe and flower arrangement I put together for my Grandpa Tolsma who was born and raised in Holland.

My cousin Mikell's grave. I bought her the most beautiful flowers! I bought these pink azelas and put a "Pink Ladies" sign in the pot to remember our favorite movie that we watched an endless amount of times.

My Grandpa and mom.

Robert was a big help. He made sure every plant was firmly grounded.

Mom working hard to clean it up.

This was the beautiful arrangement that my mom bought for her mom (my grandmother). I love it! It completely reminds me of her.

My Grandma Whitehead's grave up in Wellsville, Utah.

My Grandpa's parents in Logan, Utah.

Oh the pretty flowers! Isn't my new camera awesome? I love it!

I love this picture! As you can see, we had fun spending time together!

The Start of Memorial Day Weekend...Began with a visit to the Salt Lake City Hogle Zoo

This past Saturday, Robert and I went to visit Salt Lake's Hogle Zoo with some of my good friends from Georgia.

We loved seeing all of the animals. Robert and I still act like kids. We had a great time, especially since it was FREE to get in. You can't beat that.

Giraffes fascinate me. What an incredible creature.

Nice black bear...

Angry black bears.

Ahhh...
Jason you might remember this lion. There is a photo of you as a kid drinking from the same fountain.

Robert's favorite animal, the penguin.

Jean and Kamie. Thanks girls for inviting us to go to the zoo with you!