Happenings

Despite the hundred degree weather, we are fairing pretty well here in Las Vegas.  While Mom and Dad are still shoveling snow, we are blasting our air conditioning--I am going to have to learn to cook without turning on the oven this summer.

In March Rod and I both turned a year older.  Rod turned 23 and myself, 22.  We are trying to stay as young as possible--jobs, callings, and marriage sometimes makes me feel old.  I am getting used to being called "Sister Gonzalez" although I still cringe a little.



Rod and his carrot cake :)

 

CPK for my Birthday!

Another big event happened in March.  I ran my first half marathon! I ran the 6 Tunnels to Hoover Dam half marathon.  It was along Lake Mead, alongside a small mountain providing some much appreciated shade during the course.  We also ran through the tunnels used by trains to carry in tools to make the Hoover Dam.  It was probably a pretty easy course for some, but it was tough for me--running 13 miles on gravel was a little different than my usual treadmill workouts.  My only goal was to run the whole course (no walking) and I accomplished that so I consider it a success! But I probably won't be doing it again for a long time...

After I finished!

I know this is gross but my whole body was covered in dirt--you can see the difference.

 

While running, Rod went into the casino and sat in a massage chair...

 

I am loving my job still and see miracles happen for the little ones I work with, it is truly the best job ever!   Rod is still enjoying his work at Winder Farms.  We have worked the past couple weekends at festivals and farmers markets which have been pretty fun, but I'm glad it's not my job!  Rod also finished another semester of school in April! Only a couple more to go! I'm not sure how he stays motivated to do online classes, but he does it and never complains!



Our lovely booth at the Children's Fest

 

At Our Big Easter Seals Event

Girl Vacation!!! My mom, my sisters, and I all met up in Salt Lake City for a weekend of girl bliss.  It consisted of shopping, chocolates, a very funny play, hotel, talking, and laughing.  I wish we could do it every weekend, we had a blast!  

Park City

Sisters



All the Girls!

Perhaps my favorite picture from the whole weekend...

At the theater

 

Rod and I got to go to Salt Lake for conference in April.  We went to Rod's mission reunion, saw some friends, stayed with Becca and Sam, and visited family (another GREAT weekend!)

At the Conference Center

 

New callings are all the talk in our little family.  I am now a Webelos leader in our ward.  We only have a couple boys and I'm not sure how much I can teach them about tying knots and building fires, but I'm sure I will learn something if they don't.  Although I know very little about ten-year-old boys, I am pretty excited about my calling and I love hanging out with the boys.  Rod also got a new calling--Primary teacher for CTR 5.  He was all sorts of excited about it until the first day  (He doesn't have a co-teacher yet so I am helping out until they get one).  There was 1 boy in class the first day and we couldn't really handle him with the 2 of us so it's going to be interesting! 

I'm trying to learn to cook as well as my mom and I don't think I'll ever get there but I have made a roast and a ham which I was pretty proud of so I'm getting better!

 

Will You Be MY Valentine?

Valentines day is a little lot more exciting when you are married and have someone you really love to share it with.  This valentines day made me so grateful to have an amazing husband.  He is seriously the best.  I am not easy to live with and he puts up with me so patiently.  I am so in love with him, it's the greatest! I realize that I'm still on cloud 9, but I am planning on staying there forever because it's a good place to be.

Rod had never had puppy chow so I made it festive for Valentines Day 

We made a very fancy (for us) dinner

 

And chocolate covered strawberries...










What's Valentine's Day without your favorite chocolate?

Our ward threw a Valentines dance on the 19th which was our 2 month anniversary! 

Today's the day, the wonderful day, the marvelous day, the day we got our pictures back!

I've been SO looking forward to getting our wedding pictures back and today they came! I love them all and cannot even pick favorites but here are some of them...

HUGE shout out to our good friend and incredible photographer, Rachel.  The pictures could not have turned out any better.  Thanks so much!

Oh so very handsome...

Best Day Ever...

With the Best Man Ever!

Rocking the Winter Jacket and Boots

So blessed to be married in the temple.

Rod's parents

The best man that ever lived, aka. Dad

My best friend, aka. Mom

I have about a million pictures of me and this girl on my wedding day.  I absolutely love her!

Sibling Lovin'

And more sibling lovin'

Sisters

and brothers!

Blessings

I am a list person and we have had so many blessings in the last month that I just HAD to write a list of just a few of them.

1.  Rod and I are settled into our new place in Las Vegas! After weeks of travel it feels good to be at home.  We love our new little apartment.

2.  I started my new job and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! (So far at least!) I have been able to play with kids and hold babies... could it get much better than that?  I am so grateful for the people that I work with.  They have all been so nice and welcoming.

3. My new car.  After many years of driving the brown Prism, I was glad to say goodbye.  My new car runs great (and turns on the first time I start it).  It doesn't eat up oil and it gets great gas mileage.  I'm loving it!

4.  The GREAT deals we have gotten on our furniture.  We got a fancy new bed for cheap, a nice table from Craig's List, and a super nice couch and a TV for free!  We are living large.

5. Friends old and new... Rod's coworkers have been our best friends for the past few months and we love spending time with them! They have helped us out a ton! We also made friends with a couple in our ward who just happens to be our neighbor.  We had FHE with them tonight and we didn't even get to the activity because we talked too long...

6.  Our new fancy iphones.  As lame as this sounds, they have been so helpful!  We were able to communicate when we were in Mexico, my phone is my GPS which I use every day for work, and I can get emails for work (and not for work) right away.  It sure is a handy little gadget.

7. We have gas in our apartment! ( We went without for a week).  We get to take hot showers and cook on our stove!

8.  Our families- we love our families! They are a huge blessing and have helped us out in so many ways! 

9.  We are married! It is such a blessing to have each other.  Not only do we avoid all other drama, but we love being together all the time.  We are grateful to know we will be together forever!

10. Having the Lord in our lives is the greatest blessing of all.  He has helped us so much in the past month to get through everything and get settled in.  It is incredible how much Heavenly Father knows us. 

The First Weeks...

The first few weeks of marriage have been pure bliss chaos.  We've certainly had an adventure. On Wednesday, December 19th, we were married in the St. Paul, Minnesota temple.  We had a wonderful day, saw amazing people and had a perfect day.  It really couldn't have gone much smoother.  We decided to take a couple of days and go to some Bed&Breakfasts and one really fancy hotel and call it our honeymoon.  Night one of the honeymoon I wake up, not feeling so great.  The next day I was trying to be a good sport and walk downtown but ended up throwing up in nearly every store (or gas station) we went to.  We spent most of the day in the hotel lobby.  We did get out the next day and enjoyed some of what Minneapolis has to offer. 

Wedding Day

Honeymoon

He ate this...

While I ate this...

Next we had Christmas with the Taylor family.  It really can't get much better than having everyone home for Christmas (and eating all of Mom's treats). 

All the stockings!

From Minneapolis we flew to Texas and the next morning caught a flight into Mexico City.  When entering Mexico City, some people took Rod away because they said he couldn't travel without a Mexican passport.  He was only gone for about 45 minutes, but it was long enough to get my nerves going.  They told Rod to either get a passport or her would have to pay a fine of $30 to get back into the US.  (No big deal!) We were grateful we were able to get there and be with his family. 

We did some awesome things in Mexico.  We went to a castle, went to the city center, hung out with lots of family, had another reception with his family, and ate TONS of delicious food! (I never knew what a real taco was until I went to Mexico).  

Inside the Castle

I love Rod's family!

Ruins

Tunnels Under a Monastery

Churros and Hot Chocolate...you can't get them like this in the states.

Leaving Mexico was harder than I thought it would be.  I was able to get my ticket and luggage all taken care of very easily.  However, Rod was another story.  They said he couldn't leave without a passport.  So, we went down to talk to the immigration people.  They told us the same thing. So, I left Rod and got on the plane to Las Vegas alone.  The man by me on the plane may have been grateful to have an empty seat in between us.  But every time I looked at the empty seat, the tears would start flowing.  I think I cried all the way to Las Vegas.  I had to spend some hours with some friends of ours in Las Vegas until they could take me to get my car.  By midnight I was settled into my hotel room...by myself.  The next day I had to sign our contract for our apartment and run a few other errands.  I was not expecting to be on my own doing this so it was a stressful day for me.

Meanwhile, my poor husband was having a stressful day of his own, much worse than mine.  He found out he could not get a passport and leave within a day or two so he decided to take a flight to Tijuana, Mexico.  From there he caught a shuttle into the US, ran around the San Diego airport and caught another flight back to Las Vegas.  It was a sweet reunion when I picked him up at the airport.  Leaving your husband of two weeks in Mexico and not knowing if he is going to be able to get back is not a wonderful feeling. 

I found out my wonderful grandfather had passed away the night before I left Mexico.  So, we moved our stuff into our apartment and then headed to Utah to the funeral. We returned and had a mess of a time with the electric company, gas company, internet company, and every other company you can think of.  We went without gas (and took very cold showers) for over a week.  Rod had to do his homework in places like the mall and spent late nights using McDonald's Wi-Fi.

It has definitely been an adventure, but we are sure grateful that we have each other.  We have had some wonderful times along the way and we LOVE being married.