Mexico City, Day 1

We are here!! Finally!! I am so happy to be in Mexico to spend Christmas with my parents. Today was our first full day here and it was amazing. I don't know the names of the places we went/saw but I do have some pictures, which (I'm convinced) is the only reason anyone looks at blogs anyway. 

So, Saturday afternoon we jumped in the car and headed to Phoenix because our flight left Sunday morning from there. We spent the night with one of Anthony's old mission buddies which was quite convenient since they only live 15 minutes from the airport. It was a short stay with them, but still fun staying up late talking and telling stories. The next morning we got up and were pretty excited to get to Mexico. Our flight was short and everything went perfectly. We were both a little nervous flying into an airport we had never been to, in a country where we don't speak the language but everything turned out fine! My mom, dad, Harper, and Blair met us in the airport to have some incredibly delicious tacos before heading out. We then went to the temple visitor center and walked around admiring the beautiful temple grounds. It was really nice to be there and get a little peace after traveling all day. After that we drove further into downtown to find the hotel we are staying at. The traffic and amount of people here is incredible! Seriously, I've never seen anything like it. And my dad maneuvers through all of it like a champ. I could never drive here! Once we got to the hotel everyone was pretty tired so we spent the night in so we could be rested for today.

This morning we all got up and got ready to go out and explore the city a little bit. They have these double decker tour buses that take you all over the city, past historical sites, and you can get on and off them all day long. It was pretty sweet. Even though I had no clue what they were saying on the tour, it was still incredible to see all the buildings and architecture of the city. Also, did I mention how many people are in this city?!? The crowds are insane. There are people pretty much everywhere you look, and LOTS of them. Anyway, the tour bus was a good plan because we got to see most of the city without having to drive our selfs around and find parking everywhere. We ate at an Italian restaurant (I know, random) and it was SO DELICIOUS! Thinking about it makes me hungry again. After that we ended up back on the tour bus on our way back to the hotel. Tonight we went out and explored a little more around our hotel and were not disappointed. There is so much going on all the time it's hard to keep track. We didn't stay out long since it was getting late and we were tired, but the Christmas lights they have put up are beautiful. And the ice cream shop we went to was the best ice cream I've ever had in my life. Not exaggerating at all. It was so good. 

I don't have a lot of pictures on my phone, but I have enough to make this post interesting.  Tonight's our last night downtown, but there will be more exploring and pictures tomorrow!

Outside the hotel, dad and I trying to perfect the "selfie"

These two looking good:)

Enjoying some incredibly delicious ice cream!

I will take more tomorrow on my phone.

Hope everyone is having a safe Christmas break!

Evergreen Plantation

I was told I need to be better about blogging. So, here I am.

Last Friday we went on a plantation tour with some of our friends. I have wanted to do one of these tours since we got here so I was pretty excited to finally go.

Growing up my parents always took us on these educational tours and I remember not paying much attention after a certain point. I always felt like they talked soooo much and I didn't know how my parents paid attention the whole time. I usually ended up harassing my younger sisters instead of listening...I was kind of a brat. hahaha. Anyway, after this tour on Friday, I totally understand how my parents loved all those tours back in the day. It's fascinating to learn about history (even if parts of it are quite horrific and/or heartbreaking) and I've always loved history classes, but going to historical sites is always a whole new level of learning.


The Evergreen Plantation is actually a registered historical site and the woman who owns it still uses the grounds for "entertaining" (apparently shes a super wealthy oil heiress and has lots of rich friends to entertain/impress). She is also 90 years old. Sheesh. They also still grow sugar cane in the fields, which I thought was pretty cool. We seriously learned so much that I can't even write it all down on this blog or you will be reading for days. You will just have to go on a tour sometime and learn it all for yourself!


I will post some pictures on here, but all the rest are on my Facebook if you want to look through all 70+ photos there :)

Dang I'm bad at this.

I really am not good at keeping this blog updated.  It's a good thing no one really reads this anyway ;)

We are still in Louisiana and I'm still thoroughly enjoying  it! We got another puppy (I know, everyone thinks we are insane) and she's a golden retriever. We changed her name everyday during the first week we had her because we didn't really love any name we came up with! (I know, I know, it's a dog) It was one of our friends that suggested the name Rue and instantly we agreed that was the perfect name. Gemma and Rue have become the best of friends. It's great because they totally play with each other and keep each other company so I can get things done and don't feel guilty about leaving Gemma all alone.

 Also, we didn't have to house train Gemma (some kind of miracle dog...) and it sucks so incredibly bad. Seriously, it's not fun.  But she's so cute you can't  help but to forgive her.


Nothing really exciting has been happening. Anthony works all day every day (except Sunday) and I hang out with our dogs or run errands. It's been a nice little summer off from school but I'm ready to get going again in a few weeks!


I do have one funny story for this blog post....and of course it has to do with some kind of wild animal.

The other night while I was outside with the dogs, I noticed they were really focused on something across the field by the fence...Gemma was over there pawing at something and cautiously sniffing the mystery critter. It wasn't long before Rue noticed that Gemma had found something interesting and made her way over. At this point I assumed it was a frog or toad since they were always in the grass at night. I got a little worried that Gemma hadn't tried to pick it up since she usually didn't hesitate long before doing so with a frog/toad. My first thought was "oh no, she's found a snake" but quickly dismissed that thought since she hadn't been bitten yet. Haha. (Also, I wasn't about to walk over there and find out what it was.) During this little mental debate, I was watching both dogs get super excited everytime the mystery animal moved. Rue had started jumping around trying to catch it and before I could even blink, she had snatched the  thing up and was booking it towards me...I, not knowing what it was (but I could hear something squeaking at this point) took off running for higher ground. I was not about to let her drop whatever she had in her mouth at my feet. Nope. Not happening. I ran up a few steps of the first staircase I came to and watched as Rue and Gemma ran right past me towards the next staircase where our apartment is. I could clearly hear squeaking now and was a little worried Anthony would hear them and let them in with their "prize". I knew it had to be some sort of rodent from the squeaking. What felt like minutes went by (probably not even 30 seconds) before both dogs and our neighbors dog came barreling down the stairs. I didn't see anything in any of their mouths and couldn't hear squeaking anymore so I figured it was safe to go back down.  I had no idea what Rue had done with the rodent, nor did I care as long as it wasn't in our apartment....  (I was about to find out that it definitely wasn't in our apartment!) a couple of minutes went by before our neighbor came down the stairs with a Tupperware in her hands.  I was a little horrified to find out that she had heard the squeaking and thought it was her dog needing to go out to the bathroom, but when she opened her door, Rue came rushing in and dropped a mouse in her apartment!!!  Hahaha so disgusting.  Oops!  The thing was so scared (and probably injured) it didn't even try to run, which made for an easy catch. We laughed about the whole thing for a good amount of time before heading back inside.


I don't know why I am such a wimp when it comes to rodents/critters/etc...but it's going to take more than a summer in the south to cure that wimpiness! 

I don't have any new pictures to share but there are a bunch on my Facebook if you want to creep:) 

I hope everyone has had a nice, safe, relaxing summer! 

Xo

P

P.S. Let's just be honest here...I probably won't post again until after our anniversary on the 17th.

Louisiana

We are finally here!! 

It's only been a week since we got here but I feel like it's been a month. It's been so fun getting to know a new place and meet new people!

This last week I have been helping my friend Sarah (she works for Point) set up the office down here. We have spent just about everyday running errands to get everything the office needs. Surprisingly, it's been incredibly entertaining to run these errands. I feel like we spend most of the time laughing, which makes 2 hour trips to walmart worth it.

Yesterday we had to go to walmart to get a tv for the office. This was a seemingly easy task that we accomplished fairly quickly, but we had some other shopping to do as well. The nice guy who helped us told us to let him know when we were checking out so he could bring the tv out to our car. When we had finished our other shopping Sarah went to check out and I went to get the guy/tv. I definitely had the easier task, right? Ok, well I ended up having to wait probably 20 min because some lady was freaking out about getting cribs by Sunday and they were apparently out of stock. So she finishes her little rant and he tells her sorry and says he needs to help me. At this point Sarah has texted me and told me she's waiting by the car since I had the keys. Here's where it gets really awesome. So I am walking out of walmart chatting with the nice man pulling our tv for us, we turn down the aisle where I thought I parked and MY CAR IS NOT THERE. I immediately kind of freak out inside because I could have sworn I parked in that aisle. Now I'm standing in the middle of the parking lot, with a walmart employee and a tv, and absolutely no clue where I parked. Embarrassing. We start wandering through the parking lot when I finally admit to the poor guy that I can't remember where I parked! Ha! He obviously doesn't know what to do and just wants to get this job done. I started calling Sarah only to go straight to voicemail (her phone had died and I didn't see the text from her telling me so) when another walmart employee walks up to us and the guy helping me goes "She can't remember where she parked." Hahahaha! The new guy turns to me and says (while laughing) "you can't remember where you parked?!?!" I'm laughing now, but still incredibly embarrassed. I tell the new guy what color my car is and he starts walking with us to find it. Finally, I see it and get super excited that the awkward/embarrassing parking lot journey is over. I then walked up to Sarah laughing and tell her what happened while opening the trunk for the tv. The two very nice guys put the tv in for us and then one of them exclaims "Someone's got themselves a white poodle!" (because of all of Gemma's hair in the trunk) and laughs hysterically as we say thank you and they walk away. Literally some of the most embarrassing 10 minutes of my life. 

Needless to say, Sarah and I got in the car and started cracking up. Not only did those guys think I was an idiot, they also thought I owned a freaking poodle! 

Then, last night I was on the phone with my parents and we started talking about all the critters that live here. They proceeded to tell me how baby alligators and snakes sometimes find their way into people's toilets through the pipping and how I should always check myself for ticks. I mean, I knew about ticks and I had heard about surprises in the toilet, but they seriously freaked me out. After getting off the phone with them I went to help Sarah move the tv out of my car and brought up how my parents officially freaked me out. We then proceeded to spend 40 min talking about, drawing diagrams of, and googling ticks. Such a terrible idea. I went straight home, checked Gemma, my bed, and myself for ticks. And then I checked my toilet. 

It's been a great first week though and I'm pretty excited to explore this beautiful state all summer!! I need to take more pictures to show just how beautiful it is here. 

That's all for today. 

Love you all,

P.

Lately

Well, it's been a while. Again. 

Currently we are in Arizona getting ready to head down to Louisiana and I'm getting super excited for the move, even if it's only temporary! 

Arizona has been so great. So warm and sunny! We spent all day Saturday at the pool and I was kind of in heaven with all that Vitamin D! Today was a little warm (93 degrees to be exact) which kind of made me feel like I was melting. But other than that, I l-o-v-e all the sunshine. Also, Anthony has an amazing farmers tan...and by amazing I mean it looks like he constantly has a white v neck on! Hahahaha he might kill me for telling the whole world that.

This weekend we are headed to San Diego to see my family (what's left in sd) and his parents. I have already planned a trip to VG's and dog beach (the first being an absolute necessity). It will be so nice to see our favorite city (and some of our favorite people) for a few days! 

Anthony has been busy working, working, working! I've been enjoying helping him here and there and spending lots of time outside. Gemma loves it here with her two boyfriends (dobermans, Cash and Ramsey) and I love that she is wiped out every night from her continuos play date. We had to take her to the vet last week because she completely stopped eating (not even close to normal for a lab) and found out she weighs 72 lbs. 72. And she's 9 months old. They told us she is most likely going to be a very big girl. From all the research I have done, female labs usually max out around 70 lbs, all labs reach full grown height by 1 year and fill out completely by 2. So, in other words, she will probably be well into the 80-90 range in weight. Possibly more. Just more to love, right?

Anyway, you probably don't want to hear about our dog, haha. I was just shocked at that information. 

I am planning on taking a TON of pictures this summer so I will try to keep my blog/Facebook/Instagram updated with some of them. It's going to be quite the adventure and I couldn't be more excited! 

Until next time!

P.

Reminiscing

Seeing as it is Valentine's Day and my husband is out of town, I thought I would write a blog post about love....



just kidding.


But I am going to write a blog post about how we first met (so I guess it is kind of about love)...because for some reason I never wrote the story down and I have been thinking about it all day today... and I need a break from homework!


Here it goes.......


So, I didn't know it at the time, but Anthony and I had a really close mutual friend, Natalie Gertsch (Ek)! I can't remember where Natalie and I were going, but I remember her bringing up a guy she worked with and how she wanted to set us up. I remember her telling me he was in Arizona on a trip, his name was Anthony, he was from Ramona, and had some other girl he was interested in...ha! I remember saying something along the lines of "Well, we can take care of that!"*** (in reference to the other girl). And then I remember laughing and we moved on to another topic and I didn't think twice about this mysterious Anthony guy. I actually didn't remember this conversation until Anthony and I had been married over a year...oops.

****Disclaimer- I was mostly joking about this comment. Mostly. I mean, I didn't even know the guy yet!


Fast forward a week or two:
My singles ward (a group of single LDS young adults) was putting on a bonfire at moonlight beach for our Monday "family night" activity. Natalie and I had made plans to go together and hang out for a bit. While we were sitting in my room before going to the bonfire, Natalie was busy texting away on her phone and I was trying to figure out what to wear (story of my life). She told me she was inviting her friend Anthony from Frogs to the bonfire and I (not making the connection between this Anthony and the Anthony we had talked about briefly weeks before) didn't think anything of it and thought it was great she was inviting more people...the more the merrier, right?! (later I found out that the only reason he agreed to go was so that he could attempt to get a different girls number and not the one mentioned in the previous paragraph) Once we got to the bonfire, I honestly don't remember what we were up to until Anthony showed up...pathetic, I know. It was probably 30 minutes after we got there that he finally showed up. I remember seeing someone in all black, carrying a motorcycle helmet, and wearing a baseball cap walk up to our group and start chatting with Natalie though. I was obviously immediately intrigued by this stranger. From this point on, (this is embarrassing) I kind of kept tabs on that "boy with the motorcycle helmet." Once I got to Natalie, I asked who the mystery guy was and she goes, "Oh, thats Anthony from Frogs! I will introduce you." She then kept good on her word and introduced me to Anthony and his friend, we will call him Tom. We talked for awhile, Tom was making us all laugh, and someone came up and made some kind of crack at me being a great girl to take on a date, or something like that. Anthony somehow disappeared after calling me "facebook girl" (I was looking at facebook or something..) and so Tom and I continued to talk. Meanwhile, the whole time I was talking to Tom, I couldn't help but notice Anthony making his rounds to all the girls in my ward! hahahaha!! I immediately labeled him a player, but couldn't get over the fact that he was super cute!

Fast forward to the end of the bonfire:
After most of our ward events, we would rally a group to go get mexican food...no matter what time it was. So naturally, after a beach bonfire, we got a group to go to Filibertos. Anthony and Tom agreed to go with us and I was secretly hoping I could get a ride on the back of that motorcycle. I ended up riding in a car, I know, boring. After burritos, Natalie, Anthony, Tom, and I were walking out to the cars/motorcycle when Anthony handed me his phone to put my number in! ha! We then all parted our seperate ways and Natalie and I got in her car to leave. While we were eating I had sent her a text that said "set me up!" and she had shown it to Anthony so once we were in the car I immediately asked her what the heck that was and that I wanted to be set up with Anthony!! To make a long story short, they (Natalie and Anthony) were going to try to set me up with Tom!! haha! Oops, right?! I immediately begged Natalie to fix the whole situation, which she did because she is such a great friend.

After that night, Anthony and I were pretty much texting 24/7. He took me on our first date the Saturday after, it was St. Patricks day, and invited me to go with him to L.A. to pick up his dad from the airport that night. I declined since I had committed to a St. Patty's party earlier and had volunteered to bring some treats, but let's just say he had no problem finding someone else to go with him ;) (sorry Anthony!!). I invited him to go to church with me the next day though and dinner with my family after. He gladly accepted the invitation and I was pretty excited to get another day with him! After dinner on Sunday, we sat and talked until 1 or 2 in the morning... Stay with me because this is where all his charm comes into play (hahaha). We were sitting on the couch and had decided he better go since we both had work the next morning. He turned to me and said "Would you be upset if I didn't kiss you right now?" HAHAHA how cheesy, right!?!! Of course I said, "Nope." I couldn't give in that easily. Especially to that line!

Except, we still ended up kissing.  

oops.

And that was the beginning of it all. Within a week, we were inseparable. We started spending every free minute together. I would walk up and say hi after I had gotten off work (we worked across the street from each other this whole time!) and he would come hang out with me when he got off work. It was pretty great if I may say so myself.

So, in honor of Valentine's day, there is the beginning of our story!

and just for fun here are a few other great memories I don't ever want to forget:

1) In order to make our relationship "official" we had a conversation that went something like this:

A: "So, what would you say if I told you that I wanted to date other girls?"

Me: Slightly crushed, "Well, I would say if that's what you want, then that's fine!"

A: "Well, that's not what I want." OH the cheese that came out of this boys mouth and I L-O-V-E-D every word!

Me: "Oh?"

A: "I just want to date you!"

Me: "Well good, because I was actually going to be kind of upset if you really wanted to date other girls too."

2) Me telling Natalie that I totally had Anthony hooked....and Natalie FORWARDING that text to him!! That's what I get for being so cocky...

3) Late night burrito runs and having to drink numerous amounts of 5 hour energies in order to make it through the weeks...I think my heart/body is still recovering from all of those...

4) The fact that I was the stereotypical girls-love-motorcycles girl....Let's be honest, I was smitten by the whole mystery man on a motorcycle thing.

5) Everyone in my ward calling him "the motorcycle guy"

6) and lets not forget how he tricked me and surprised me with his proposal! Thats for another blog post though...

Just for memories sake, here are some of our first photos together (I am a cheeseball and love looking at things like this):

Sorry if this post was too sappy for some of you...


I love you Anthony!! Happy Valentine's Day!


xox
P.

Lately...

Ok, I'm done starting my blog posts about how I will be better about posting. I've accepted the fact that once or twice a month is about as good as it will get right now.

We haven't been up to much lately. Anthony travels a ton for work, which leaves Gemma and I in Rexburg with lots of quiet time. It's a good thing she is such a sweet dog. Also, it's a good thing she doesn't mind sleeping all afternoon while I'm gone.... We are both in our second week of the semester, Anthony is taking online classes & I am taking mostly on campus classes. I still work at one of the elementary schools and love every moment of it!  I've had the opportunity to substitute a few times, which has been both rewarding and incredibly eye opening.

Anthony loves his new job, even though it requires lots of travel and time away from home. It was a huge blessing for him to get this job and be so successful at it. Sometimes I have to remind myself of that. Especially when he's been gone for a week or two... 

After this winter semester we are packing up (temporarily) and heading to Louisiana for 4 months (I am REALLY excited about this!), where Anthony will work and I will play!;) (jk I might get a job too....) it's been a dream of mine to visit the south, so the thought of living there for 4 (of the hottest) months is really helping me make it through school! It's going to be one hot, sticky, awesome, southern summer! 

We don't have much more going on around here. I do have some pictures I can share, which is all you probably care about anyway! ;)

Here are some pics from Christmas:

Eason and Gemma aka new BFF's

Holding Jude = heaven

Of course VG's!

Gemma LOVING the beach!

Potato Chip rock 

Also, it's a bad idea to drive by your parents house while they are on a mission and someone random is living there... :'(

Aaaaand back to Rexy!

I WILL get better about taking photos...

Xoxo

P