| girl time |

before i get married and move to washington, i wanted to have a sleepover with my nieces. kylie was a girls camp, so it was just alli and courtney. although it poured rain (i think we get more than seattle these days?), we still made it a party.

things to be noted:

+ did makeovers on the girls. i went all toddlers and tiara's on them and they l o v e d it.
+ ate a lot of watermelon (after all, it was national watermelon day)
+ swam in the hot tub (luckily, my parents place has one)
+ made endless amounts of duck tape flower pens
+ had a sleepover in the king size bed
+ played lots of dora memory

my nieces are the sweetest girls on earth. i'm serious. alli keeps things spunky and courtney is an A N G E L. i had so much fun with them and was grateful to be able to share that memory with them.

| shark bait ooo-ahah |

this last spring, scottie mentioned he wanted to check out the newly revamped aquarium in sandy. i wanted to go as well, but the only time i could was saturday. saturdays + teachers + places like that = no bueno. i love kids, but my weekends are a time to be kid free.

anyway, i had two free tickets. so since i have a new roommate here in park city (aka scottie), we decided to venture down there when we both had a day off. side note: we go to grab my tickets and they expired in may. awesome.

the aquarium was awesome to the least. i am a big advocate in hands on learning and the loveland aquarium provides the perfect opportunity. they had ocean exploration, antarctica (and penguins!), an african safari and utah exploration.

and let's just say after seeing a visual of how big great white sharks really are, i am fairly confident i could take one on. jk. they're H U G E. i actually just want to go cage diving in the ocean and see them from the distance.

overall, we had a great day. i was grateful for the opportunity to hang out with scottie. it is really starting to hit me that i am moving away from utah and won't have these simple opportunities and luxuries.

| ish is getting real |

i picked up my wedding dress the other day! i am so obsessed with it. i found it at the perfect dress in holladay, utah. i was lucky and found it the first day we went dress shopping. probably spent a little more than i should have, but it was too perfect not to. ready to get this show on the road!

breck and i challenged each other to read some of the church's temple prep/marriage prep articles on the church app. i read a lesson this last week that talked about success in marriage.  a quote i loved stated, "...pray to love the one you marry." never thought of it like that before.

also-my goal was to listen to the book of mormon before we got married. only took three months, but i finished! (insert high five here). i am so grateful for the gospel of jesus christ and the joy it brings me in my life.

| tis the season |

one of my best friends, cheryl, got married this last weekend! she is the most kind and most genuine person i have ever met. she truly wants the best for everyone and has helped me through many life trials! what's funny is last year at this time, we both would have never imagined we would both be engaged and married by summer 2015.

i am so happy for her and jordan. they got married in the draper temple and it was perfect! she had a million bridesmaids (okay, 16). i mean, you kind of have to when you are one of nine girls! my favorite part? after the temple another bridesmaid, laura, and i went to the gas station to get a fountain diet coke. we show up and the entire howard family was there getting their diet cokes too! it was classic.

| does this ring make me look engaged? |

here it comes. the post where the engaged activities begin. like registering at target and taking engagements. we registered at target in downtown seattle by pike's place. it is a very urban target (like there's an escalator for the shopping carts). we sent my parents to pike's place and we registered. it was way fun! however, because we are both older and already have things, we didn't register for much. so it didn't take too long! on our invitations we are going to state "due to limited living space in seattle, gift cards are appreciated." given we will be paying an arm and a leg for rent, we don't want to pay for a storage unit for a bunch of wedding gifts. plus, we don't need much.

the next weekend we took engagements in spokane! it was SO hot. i'm you can't tell in the pictures, but we were drenched in sweat.

| happy b-day america |

we spent the fourth of july week in seattle with my parents (and spokane the weekend before). it was a blast. we went to the ballard locks, found breck a suit and went on seattle's famous duck tour. the duck tour is a must! it is a land tour as well as a boat tour through south lake union. although it was hotter than hades, it was worth it. breck and i also went to a mariner's game. to say i love seattle is an understatement. i am so excited to begin our lives there.

| i like to move it, move it |

you know things are serious when YOU MOVE INTO TO YOUR FIANCE'S PLACE. yeah, talk about surreal. we found that it would be easiest to move my things to seattle before the wedding, rather than after. that way i am semi moved in and we won't have the stress of moving me.

my parents and i loaded a u-haul here in utah and then made the track to washington. i am so lucky to have the parents i do. they would do anything for their kids/grandkids. like, who pays for a u-haul and then gladly drives their child 16 hours only to help them unload it? scott and jolene, that's for sure.

| he liked it so....|

....he put a ring on it!

probably the happiest day of life thus far. and the best part? i had NO IDEA. sometimes i like to think i'm a pretty good detective, but he stumped me on this one.

i flew into seattle pretty late (due to crazy thunderstorms in utah). i felt bad because i knew he had work early in the morning. when he picked me up, i noticed how handsome he looked with a button up shirt and jeans. i just assumed it was a long day at work and he didn't have time to change.

we jump in the car and drive up to our apartment. when we got off the exit, he mentioned he had accidentally taken his dad's keys when he was home last. i offered to take them back to utah with me but he said his dad needed them asap because they were city keys for the baseball fields. his family friends' mom lives 5 minutes from our place. she lives in a closed community (with guards at the entrance) that over look the beautiful puget sound. there are estates after estates in this community. a lot of microsoft and amazon execs live there. it's unreal.

anyway, since she was "flying to utah the next day" he was going leave the keys on the back porch. her home was beautiful. however, there wasn't a lot of light. so me being the baby i am asked, "sooo how long are you gonna be?" he told me to just come with him so i could see the house. we walked to the back of the house and he "put the keys under the mat" (aka back in his pocket). then we started to walk back to the car and he said, "wait, she has this cool barn lets go look at it." (still clueless). we walk down this stone path. the moon was shining over the water and although it was dark, it was still breathtaking. as i turned the corner, i saw this swing set lit with white christmas lights, a picnic table, cake bites, a dozen roses, music, martinelli and a basket.

we danced and he held me and told me everything sweet thing you can imagine. after he knelt down and asked me to marry him we danced some more, swung on the swings and then made out way to the table. we drank martinelli, practiced feeding each other cake and then finally got to the basket.

he said, "since we are starting our lives in seattle, this basket is all things seattle." he included a dashboard holder for my phone when i'm trying to navigate my way somewhere, a mariner's t-shirt, dried honeycrisp apples from pike's place and my favorite bubble bath.

i totally melted. it was so romantic.

i feel so lucky to have met breck. he's a genius. funny. hard working. loyal. kind hearted. has a strong testimony. great family. stylish. and has enough nikes to last him for life (40+). i love him and can't wait for our many adventured ahead!

| rocky mountain elementary |

at the end of each school year i always get a little emotional. watching those students leave my classroom is a little harder than one might imagine. teachers spend 10 months with those kids, teaching them not only the curriculum they need to know, but how to be successful individuals. the group of kids i had this year was a different bunch. i told them i expect BIG things from every single one of them. they were all so motivated, determined, competitive, hard workers and truly had a special light about them.

i'm so grateful that i have had the opportunity to be at rocky mountain for the last three years. i truly feel blessed and know that the Lord had a purpose in leading me there. and because i was led to rocky mountain, i was also led to breck. double win!

i am going to miss my rocky mountain family. the friendships i've made. and the life long lessons i've learned.

| s p r i n g |

spring activities included:

last minute biking trip to boise

gillian turning the big 3-0

some "bunny" coming for easter

spring break in st. george

hiking angel's landing 

kylie and courtney's dance recital 

{ oh and kylie is now 12. whhaaa? }

third row jazz tickets and making our own kiss cam

breck getting pneumonia on our apt hunting trip in seattle 

mani/pedi's with all the girls 

getting stuck in the denver airport with my nieces

| grandpa ransom |

after christmas 2014, i had a feeling it would probably be the last time i saw my grandpa ransom. he was aging quickly and getting slower as the days went on. i knew i couldn't let christmas pass without getting few pictures with him and spending some extra time with him. the best part was that on christmas we all wore plaid for fun. without telling my grandpa he showed up in plaid too #twinning

in january of this year was his 90th birthday. he had been looking forward to this mile marker of a birthday for a while. he kept telling my mom, "i just want to get to my 90th birthday."

soon after he hit ninety (like literally days after), his health started to decline. FAST. he got pneumonia, went to a nursing home, got pneumonia again and the cycle went on. on the night of April 7th, i got a text saying hospice called and my grandpa had passed. he was only on hospice for a matter of hours. so that was a blessing that he no longer had to suffer. it broke my heart to think of him suffering. he was such a sweet and gentle man who loved his savior, jesus christ. he was a self made man who worked hard for the lifestyle he wanted. he loved his sweet wife beth, who he is happily with once again.

i will miss the drive up to grandpa's house. i will miss picking raspberries. i will miss swimming in his -40 degree swimming pool overlooking liberty lake. i will miss eating stale lemon drops. i will miss dropping in and watching mariner's games with him. i will miss him tickling us until we could no longer breath (okay, maybe not...). i will miss his the way he scrunched his nose when he laughed.
most of all, i will miss him.

families are forever.