Summer Time Adventures

I know, I know. I haven't blogged in almost 2 months but I'm here to make it up to you.

Forgive me?

To be fair we have had tons going on. Funny how life gets quiet and then picks up suddenly for awhile.

I would say things are quiet now but they're still busy, just in different ways. 

Without further ado I will catch you up on life. 

I'll keep dialogue to a minimum until then end of the post, sound fair enough?

To start I found Cheerwine in Rexburg at this cute vintage candy store!

For those that don't know it is a North Carolina original soda. 

I believe it is a cherry, almond flavored cola. (No alcohol I promise)

Garett graduated with his Bachelors in Microbiology! 

I'm so proud of him, if y'all only knew how hard he worked!

(P.S. Yes in case you missed it I am pregnant with our first baby which is due in January, gender VERY SOON to come)

After the semester ended we headed down to Utah to spend time with my family, some old friends, see Grandma and Grandpa Bonds and attend my dear friend Haley's wedding.

I also satisfied my deepest pregnancy craving with doughnuts!

Munchkin is growing big and is constantly kicking and wiggling.

It makes me so very happy. 

(Baby can't reach my ribs yet)

This was me at about 17 weeks.

My dear friend Haley and her very lucky man.

What a beautiful bride! So glad I got to be there!

My very handsome little brother

(Sorry Aaron, I know you don't like this picture but you look good anyway)

After that we headed down to the fabulous Southern California.

Not before we saw rain in Las Vegas though.....weird...

Once we got down there we went camping at the beach.

Falling asleep to the sound of actual waves at night is probably on my list of all time favorite things now.

Plus no bugs!

Me, before I took a nap in the sun and burned my left shoulder pretty badly.

It was worth it though because I got to see Garett surf for the first time since he has been home from his mission (roughly 5 years).

He's mine! Isn't that wonderful?

I finally had California Pizza Kitchen!

My cup left a Red John smiley face though. O.o 

(Google The Mentalist for more info)

Of course I got my Panera Bread!

(I have a deep love of food, don't judge me.)

Tay's cat, Buddy loves me. 

He thinks my lap is a great napping place.

After almost 2 weeks away from home we are back in Rexburg. 

We loved getting to see so many people that we love dearly and it was by far one of the best trips we've ever had. We feel blessed to be able to be close enough (relatively) to see so much of our family all in one trip. 

Now we're home and working on packing up and moving to a new apartment to make room for our sweet little munchkin. I start my last semester of school in a little under a month which I am excited for but in no rush to start. It'll be fun, exciting and a little sad to be done with BYU-I. I've had a wonderful 4 years here and I have fallen in love with this little town.

As I said before we are very close to finding out the gender of our munchkin so make your bets now. 

So far it's pretty much split down the middle.

We've been enjoying quite a bit of rain this last week which I love not only because I love rain but because we live on the 3rd floor which gets  hot in the summer.

Things are great and busy as we are starting to prepare little by little for baby to come.

We now have some of the basic things like crib, changing table, etc and it's exciting to start preparing for munchkin.

More than anything I'm falling in love with my baby every day. Baby is very vivacious and wiggly and it fills me with joy to know my baby is working hard on building those strong muscles. I'm looking forward to meeting baby in roughly 20ish weeks and being a mom.

Don't get me wrong I'm certain it's probably going to be the hardest thing I've ever done, but also the most wonderful. We couldn't be happier to be on our way to becoming parents.

It's a crazy but exciting time in our lives. We're grateful to all the support we've had thus far and thank you for all the well wishes and positive energy.

I hope all is well with y'all.

I'm hoping my next post will be for the gender of our baby so stay tuned!

Megan

Year in Review of 2013 (Part 1)

I know it's half way through February but it's never too late to reflect. Most of this is from last year with a few from January so enjoy!

(Also these are in a random order so just go with it).

This fall Garett and I got to meet our all time favorite author Brandon Sanderson!

He's very laid back and very nice and just a cool guy.

Also he is not as nerdy as he looks. 

Sometime this year Garett made me a traditional African dinner (though with much more meat than they would have had). It consisted of meat drenched in soup mixes, fried cabbage and sadza (which is like a mix between mashed potatoes and play-dough). You pinch it into a small bowl and scoop up the other food with it. Also it has the consistency of peanut butter without the nice flavor and VERY messy. Apparently you only eat it with one hand so the other one stays clean to grab your cup with.

We celebrated our 1 yr anniversary in August and just 2 weeks ago celebrated 18 months of being married.

Man does the time fly!

During the 7 week break we went to the sand  dunes with out friends and played Betrayal at the House on the Hill!

Also in the summer we went to Yellowstone with my parents for a weekend trip and got lots of love from a bison. 

Out best friends Katy and Sam got married! =D 

I took intro to Studio Lighting and learned I never want to have my own studio, but also learned some fun stuff:

Like textured lighting

 How to shoot glass, which is evil but slightly less evil than metal spoons. 

Had an AMAZING Christmas break with my family where we saw and fell in love with the movie Frozen and had lots and lots of fabulous family time. 

Also I have been growing my hair out and Garett grew out his very attractive beard!

I got my first smart phone and immediately loved snapchatting with my little brother and friends from back home!

Garett's mission president became a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy and gave his first talk in General Conference in October! Also I got to meet him for the first time in April and let me tell you, he is an awesome, powerful yet funny man. 

I was on track for spring and fall where I took lithography and watched people build a teepee in the middle of campus. 

Got addicted to Community! Thanks Sam! Anyone who considers themselves even slightly nerdy should watch this.

Saw the edge of a storm.

And enjoyed some lovely rainbows after long days at work.

 Fell in love with our popcorn maker!

 Tried out bangs a few weeks ago.

I like them some days.

Also watched the Superbowl this year with friends and ate WAY TOO much, but it was totally worth it!

Remembered my deep deep deep love of Mexican food and places to eat that have "taco" in the title. 

Trimmed Garett's beard

And got taught my this awesome lady for 3 weeks during my studio lighting class. Hoping to take portraiture from her in the fall! Her husband was eh...(he was my main teacher)

Overall is was a fun year! One more post soon to come to finish off this year in review!

Yellowstone Part 3

And finally Part 3!

Behold Old Faithful

And more and more elk!

And playing in some freezing, beautiful lake water!

<3 p="">

Skipping rocks

He's very good at it!

And some waterfalls!

Chipmunk!

And Garett and dad decided to play around

And of course the beautiful Tetons <3 p="">

It was an AMAZING break which was greatly needed.
Garett and I were able to kick back with my awesome parents and we had a wonderful time!
Thanks mom and dad! <3 p="">

Meg B.