Where has the time gone?

Seriously...is it almost September? Where has the time gone? I felt like I should give a little update. There may not be anyone who even reads this but I want to do it for me.  So anywho..I have just started my last and final semester of the Bachelor's program...YAY! I have to say it has already been a stressful event. Haha..I think I might have to miss the first day of class because of my dumb work schedule. BOO!! But I am excited and ready to get the ball moving and get my degree!

The Summer Update..

Sheesh! The summer sure does fly by but we have done some fun things this summer.

First..I have had a few bike rides.  My first one was in May. Terra, Kylee, and I did 50 miles around Layton area for Cinco De Mayo.  We had a lot of headwind and that really took a toll on our energy but we finished and I even won a shirt! (I never win anything).  My next race was Little Red.  I rode with Terra, Kylee, and her friend Amber! We rode 70 miles around the Logan area.  It was a beautiful ride and we had fun camping out in our tent the night before the race! We actually woke up to rain but needless to say, we finished and that is all I cared about! :) My next ride was in August and we did 35 miles up in Mountain Green.  That was also a fun ride and it was just me and Kylee! We hadn't been training as much as we would have liked for that one so the 35 miles was perfect for us.  Our only preparation was our pasta dinner at Brick Oven the night before..oops! hahah..

Second...Kyle has been playing in lots of golf tournaments with some buddies from work.  He has done pretty well and has taken 1st and 2nd a couple of times.  His favorite was when he won first place and they didn't even get a prize! Who does that??

Third..I went to Girls Camp for the first time as a leader! I guess our stake always does camp as a stake instead of every other year as a ward.  (I'm not sure why).  So we went up with all the other wards to Camp Woodland up in Morgan.  It was definitely all that I remember it as.  The songs, the cooking, the tents, the river running, and of course the testimony meeting.  I actually got to listen to my old neighbor Meg Johnson speak and she did an AMAZING job! She really brought the spirit and the girls loved her.  She is awesome! It was a good experience and I was able to bond with the girls but I was definitely glad to get home and get into the shower and sleep in my bed!

And of course..we did some of the summer have-to's! We have had a couple of bbq's with friends, fireworks (oh man, that day was fun! We had kids shooting fireworks at our car, so we enjoyed them off the side of the road instead!), went to the fair, swimming at the in-laws, and we even checked out the farmers market for the first time this last week.  I really enjoyed it.  We have also been busy with birthdays...Kyle's sisters, mom, step-dad, my dad, and the best of all is coming soon! Kyle is going to be 27!!!! Man, he is getting old!

Here are only a few pictures...

The Fourth of July...

The Pizzeria for Kyle's step-dad's birthday..

Oh yeah I went to Wicked..It was awesome!

SO..that's all the update I can think of! Until next time..

Out with the Old and In with the New!!

It's a new year, that means new changes!!!

First.....Malena and Lance had their baby....baby Cache!!! Woo hoo!!! He is the cutest thing and I am so happy for them.  They are going to be the best parents!! I am so lucky to have such great friends and examples in my life! They amaze me all of the time how great they are! I look up to them so much!!

Second...I got a new job!!! To be honest, I'm not really sure if this change is good or not! haha...Unfortunately, my favorite job in the world (working at Alpine Plastic Surgery) was hit by the economy and because I hadn't been there too long I was put on PRN status (basically, just working if they needed someone to cover).  So that meant I had to go looking for another job where I would be getting more like full-time hours.  So, after a few weeks off and a lot of relaxing and watching movies.  I decided to apply to Davis Hospital.  With all the not-so-good luck with finding a job before, I didn't think I would even be considered because I have never worked in a hospital before.  But I was called in for an interview and a week later, I was offered the position.  So I am working on the inpatient rehab/medical unit, full-time.  I am still in the orienting phase and I tried taking on a couple of patients of my own and I felt like I never went to nursing school. haha..  I was running around like crazy.  But I have learned a lot already and I know I will continue to learn from here.  It will be a change adjusting to working weekends and holidays (oh yeah and the whole going to work at 3 am and 12 hour shift thing) but it will all be okay.  That is what I am telling myself anyway.  :)

I am looking forward to 2012...having my BSN, doing some remodeling to the house, and whatever else life feels like bringing to us!!  HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Anniversary and Wonder Woman

We had our 2nd Anniversary in August and we celebrated by having a couples massage in the morning and then we drove down to Salt Lake to do some shopping at the Gateway and go to dinner! It ended up being a really relaxing day but it was nice to have that!  I only got one picture of us at the Clark Planetarium.  We walked through that while we waited for dinner time!

In September, I completed my first road bike race!! My friend Kylee and I went down to Payson for the Wonder Woman ride and we never thought our day would turn out like it did but it was well worth it.  We started the race about 9:30 (we were supposed to start at 8:30) or so and we didn't finish till 4:00.  We rode 60 miles and had a lot of fun and troubles along the way.  First off, we knew they would have aid stations every so many miles but somehow we missed the first one so we went about 30 miles before coming to a station.  We were really unprepared for that.  We had ate that morning around 6:30 or 7:00 and we didn't have anything till 1:00 and when you are on a bike that it WAY too long.  Let's just say we were running out of energy! All we saw was more and more road and no signs.  Luckily there was this nice man on the side of the road that was in his car, he had all his cycling gear on so we thought we would ask him if he knew where the next aid station was.  He said just about 5 miles and I think he could tell we were exhausted so he gave us some energy bars to get us to the station.  He really saved us!! 

When we got to the rest stop and "scarfed" our food.  We took a good 20 minutes there getting our energy back.  We got a picture with the Wonder Woman, hoping she could get us through the race.  We were already so behind but we were determined to finish.  Right after we had some lunch it started to downpour and let me tell you riding in the rain on a bike is no fun.  Then, the hail came and luckily there was a lady waiting for her friends and offered to let us sit in her car to wait for the storm to pass.  Turns out this was the wife of the guy that had helped us with the energy bars earlier.  We waited for about 25 -30 minutes in the car and then started on our way again.  We had to get a picture with these lifesavers of ours! There was no way we could have done it without them.  

The last half of our ride we were pushing ourselves! We wanted to give up, it was cold and we still had so far to go but we kept with it!! We had the volunteers checking up on us every so often and had some aid stations with milk, cookies, fruit, drinks, etc. to help us make it through. About 5 miles to the end, I got a flat tire but those volunteers changed my tire and we were back on our way.  And we finally finished!! Oh man, the feeling I got when I crossed the finish line was relief and accomplishment that I actually finished. It was a great day, I was sore and tired but I would definitely do it again! It was great!

Star Valley

I know this is from JULY but I wanted to blog about it just for my sake! So bear with me, I'm going to do a little catch up! At the end of July, me and Kyle made our annual trip up to Star Valley, WY with my family.  It was a blast!! This year my parents rented a house that was right where we used to go all the time growing up, it was beautiful and so relaxing! We went up with my parents and then my brother and his girlfriend came up a day later and stayed for the weekend! It was so fun to have them there! We did a lot of fun things...we love going to this restaurant for breakfast in Afton, WY.  It's just a little restaurant but it has the BEST breakfast!

Then we spent a little bit of time fishing, unfortunately the first day we were there Kyle broke his fishing pole so he couldn't do all the fishing that he was hoping for! And that was okay by me...we couldn't really be by them when they fished so my mom and I just sat on the shore with all the bugs so I could do without that! I didn't get a picture of my dad and Kyle fly fishing but this was the pond that was out our back door. :)

Jack and Hank even had some fun in the pond...we would throw their toys in the pond and they would swim out and get them.  It was actually quite entertaining since Jack never has liked the water, he almost sank to the bottom cause he had never swam like that before! 

And of course, whenever we go to Star Valley we go on a bike ride! I was excited to go too because I just got a new road bike and it was so easy and fun to ride! We had a good time!

My favorite part and probably the most eventful was the river rafting! We went up to Jackson Hole before the ride and had some lunch and did some shopping! We ate at this really good restaurant called the Merry Piglets. The eventful part was when we got to the river rafting place, it started to get really overcast and cold, even though right before it was sunny and warm.  And right as we were loading the raft into the water it started to downpour. We heard thunder and I was terrified.  Plus, we had just heard all of the stories about how high the water was and our tour guide actually said his last raft flipped completely over and everyone fell out except for him.  So..needless to say I was hanging on for dear life!  It was an adventure I'll tell you! We got soaked but it was fun!!

The last day we did some golfing, it was a great course but it was a little rainy and overcast but we had fun!

One of my favorite parts of Star Valley is coming home through Bear Lake and stopping for a raspberry shake.  We couldn't pass it up even though it was pouring and we wanted to get home fast we had to stop! (Note: don't drive through Logan canyon when its pouring rain, I thought we were going to die) We made it home and we had such a great time! Can't wait till next year!!

{Hank...}

We have a new addition to the Patterson family!! Meet Hank....

He is a cocker/springer spaniel mix and we got him around the first of June when he was about 8 weeks old so he is about 12 weeks old now! I knew the time would come to get a dog soon after we got into our house because Kyle loves dogs and couldn't wait to have a yard and a fence of our own so that we could finally have a dog! But, it has definitely been a change for us, a good change! We kinda feel like we got a good glimpse of what it would be like as parents (probably not at all the same but kind of right??!!) :) He has definitely been a fun new addition to the family! Kyle has been working his training skills and Hank can now do the basic tricks like sit, shake, lay down, and roll over.  We are still working on the biting and potty training but we will get there!! Hopefully! :) 

We've Moved!!!

That's right! We finally have a house of our own!!! We are so excited! We moved at the end of May, so we have been living in our house for about 3 weeks now!! Moving was a lot of work but I feel like we are finally settled in and I can't wait to start updates, decorating, etc.  Our house is in Clinton so we are a little far away from family and friends but it hasn't been too bad!! Here are a few pictures: 

Master Bedroom:

 Bedroom:

Master Bathroom:

Family Room:

Kitchen:

Living Room: (Don't mind our lack of furniture)

Downstairs Bathroom: 

Laundry Room:

Bedroom (maybe future TV room)

Office:

Backyard: 

Front:

We are excited to start some projects to hopefully make our house feel even more like home! Some of our projects are going to be: first, taking down the HUGE tree in the front yard.  It basically covers half of the house! ha! Then hopefully we can start updates on the bathroom and kitchen! :)  Anyway, we have loved our new neighborhood! Our neighbors are SO nice! I was a little nervous moving out to a new neighborhood, we  almost felt like tourist for a little bit, but they have made it so easy!  According to Kyle, all we need now is a dog!! I'll keep you updated!! :)

{Update..}

There has been a lot of good things that have happened lately!! We could not feel more blessed! It's just amazing how things always work out and there is really no reason to be as worried and stressed as we (maybe me mostly) are. Because everything will be okay!! We have been having problems with a car that we bought for Kyle. We bought the car in March and it was in the shop for a month, we just barely got it back last week.  We had to get a new engine and catalytic converter. Let's just say it was going to cost around $4000 - $5000 to fix.  I was stressed! We didn't have this kind of money, what were we going to do??  But luckily Kyle, with his selling abilities, got the dealership that we got the car from and Nissan to pay for the whole repair!! I could not have been happier!  Blessed! In other good news, I have been accepted to the Bachelor's nursing program at Weber State! I start in the fall!  I am nervous to go back to school but I am excited to keep learning more!! I love to learn and I just hope I can keep my motivation! But until I start school I am definitely looking forward to the spring (finally) and summer. All the camping, road trips, bbq's, warm nights, and tan lines...doesn't that sound nice??!! Now for the best news of all!!! Baby Dakota is here!!! He is such a cutie!!

Terra and Daniel are the best parents to this cute guy!!! I am so glad they let us come to the hospital and to their house so we can hold him and see him! They are such amazing friends, examples, and parents and we can't wait to see him grow up and see his personality!! There has been a lot of baby talk among my friends and family and I can't help but become a little baby hungry!! :) Don't worry I'm not pregnant! I need to get through school first but now I just can't help looking at the baby section when I go to the mall!  :)