Wedding Bells Rang for Mike and Me!!!

Yes. I got married!!!! That's why I've been missing in action from my blog since February of this year. Had to plan the wedding, put my condo up for sale, get married, go on our honeymoon, partially move into his house, change my name, yada yada yada. Mike and I got married on Saturday, April 11, 2015 at the Mount Timpanogos LDS Temple in American Fork, Utah. We had a "small and simple" wedding day, but it was still such a whirlwind! I got to workout that morning at my gym, shower, get my hair done, and then Mike picked me up at noon or so for our two o'clock in the afternoon sealing/marriage time. All of Mike's family was there. A lot of my family was there. And we had a lot of our friends there at the temple too. Then we invited all of our temple guests to dinner at Magleby's in Springville. And that was our wedding day! We really enjoyed it even if both of us felt like it flew by too fast and we didn't really have a chance to soak it in. The very next day, Mike and I flew to the Big Island of Hawaii for our Honeymoon, but that will come in a different post. Here are some of my favorite pictures from that day.

Mike's dad, Marty, carrying in my bouquet

Parker, Robyn, and Chandler

Dad and Joan

I love all the different facial expressions in this pic!

Both of our families

Just my side of the family

with my parents

with my sisters and mom: Teri, Mom, me, Jill, Joni, Robyn

with Mike's side of the family

Two handsome Kniephof men

with our friends

with some of my besties that could make it: Janie, Jenn, me, Jen, and Lindsey

Mike's row of male besties

My First Ever Winter Backpacking!

I tried winter backpacking for the first time ever! But I have to admit - it might not have been true winter backpacking since it was 45 degrees as we hiked in and probably barely hit freezing for the low that night. :) But I'll take it and count it as winter backpacking. We hiked into the Diamond Fork Hot Pots so we could dip in the hot springs too. We started hiking in after work around 6:30 PM and then hiked out by 9 or 10 AM Saturday morning. I slept in two sleeping bags - a 0 degree bag and a 25 degree bag. Ha ha! It was probably a little overkill for that warm of a night, but I wasn't complaining since I was nice and toasty - seriously! The trip was actually pretty fun! The only bummer about it was the 4 miles on the road hiking in from the gate to the actual trail head. 

In my two sleeping bags and loving it.

That's me trying to pack up in the morning. 

Our friend, Dave

Waiting to start the hike back to the cars; (left to right) Mike, Steve, Larryboy, and Tess

Quiet Birthday

This year's birthday ended up being pretty quiet. It was going to be awesome! My sisters were coming into town for our annual sisters ski weekend.... but then I got sick with a nasty case of the flu. I had a fever! So then the ski weekend was canceled. I was feeling better by the day we would have gone skiing, but I was still really weak and dizzy/lightheaded. Teri came down to take me to Kneaders for dinner (which was lovely since I hadn't been eating much for several days and what I had been eating was getting very old), and she brought some lemon cupcakes too! Then on the Monday holiday (Martin Luther King Jr Day), I felt well enough to go for a little walk/hike in the snow on the Whiting trail. That's where Mike and I took this pic.

Houston with the Cooks

Right after Christmas, Mom and I flew down to Houston to be there for Whitney's wedding! And then to spend New Year's with Joni, Adam, Ethan, Adam, and Whitney Kay.

Whitney's wedding was beautiful and wonderful. I'll let the pictures do the talking - down below. They had the reception at this really cool, old plantation and the owner kind of hung out with us as we brought in the drinks and favors the day before. He was such a cool old man! He had some really neat old family photos on the walls of the plantation, and so he and I got to talking about those. Then the day of the wedding came and we weren't too rushed, really, since Joni had other people there to set up and take down the reception. We went to their sealing at the Houston LDS temple, had a quick lunch at Joni and Adam's house, and then we rushed off to the plantation for pictures, the receiving line (that thankfully I didn't have to stand in), a catered dinner, dancing, cake cutting, and sparklers and fireworks for the get away of the newlyweds.

New Years was spent at home watching the New York Time's Square special, drinking nonalcoholic champaign, eating chips and salsa, and popping crackers. Then everyone went to bed before midnight, but I stayed up watching Netflix so I could text Mike at midnight to wish him a happy New Year.