Mini vacation to Niagara Falls

Well, Neal and I just got back from our first vacation! (everyone knows the honeymoon doesn't count) Neal has oodles of Marriott points from traveling for work, and he also got Thursday and Friday off for the 4th, so we decided to celebrate our nation's independence by leaving the country.... that's right, we went here:
and here:
After crossing the border, we immediately heard "aboot" (which some people claim I say) and "eh" and saw Poutine everywhere.. it was quite the stereotype come true! We stayed on the Canadian side of the Niagara Falls near Toronto and for the first time in my life, I got to see the Canadian Side of the falls-- I LOVED IT! It's waaaaaay better than the American side, in my humble opinion. It wasn't even pouring rain the whole time! Here are some pics! This is the best way to get a picture with Neal:
Thumbs up for the Canadian Side:
I'm such a rebel:
We had to stay until the Falls were lit because Neal didn't even believe me that it happened...
The next day we went to Toronto-- I have to say, it was pretty ghetto. BUT at least we say a great play and ate Poutine. If you don't know what Poutine is, it's a super famous French-Canadian dish with french fries, cheese curd and gravy.. healthy, isn't it? DELICIOUS!
Toronto gets a thumbs down:
But I sure do love my husband! We had a blast, and the 8 1/2 hour car ride flew by-- well, as much as it can anyway, that's a looooooong car ride!
It was a GREAT trip-- and even better that the hotel was free! I wish Neal had 2 days off every week!

A post that has nothing to do with our wedding...

Neal and I are SOOOOOO glad we get to live so close to Cali and Josh and, of course, Piper (my sister, bro in law and niece). I'm already training her in the self portrait realm while I babysit--as witnessed above. LOVE HER! I told her to look excited... Cali might want to work on obedience, just sayin'.

In other news, our place is so ghetto that we're MOVING next weekend to the basement of a huge house in a nice neighborhood really close to where we live now. Pictures to come. We hope and pray it turns out better than our current rat infested, roach infested, leaky ceiling-ested place with sketchy neighbors.... I would say it seems that it couldn't get worse, but I know we're actually not that deprived here, it just feels like it with the rats, roaches, etc.

Neal and I still love being married--good thing too since it's only been a month!
Also-- I found semi cheap tickets to PARIS and bought them for next March--my spring break. Neal will have to take off 7 days but I'll only have to take off one--the perks of being a teacher! I am seriously SOOOOOOO excited to go back to France with Neal and show him what made me fall in love with France.

I'm also VERY VERY VERY excited to eat this... "pain aux raisins" my favorite French pastry-- that would be worth the trip right there.
I'm highly tempted to jump over to Switzerland as well, but we'll see how the timing works out. I don't want to skimp on France time. Anyway, SERIOUSLY CAN'T WAIT!

Our Wedding Day!

Okay, so I got the pro photos back, and wanted to post. Seriously, WHAT AN AMAZING DAY! The weather was gorgeous, Neal looked fabulous (and so did yours truly, if I say so myself) and loads of our family and friends came from all over the country to be there! Here's a brief schedule of the day.


5:15 Hannah is relieved when her alarm goes off because HELLO, she didn't sleep a wink!
6:00 Hannah gets her hair done
7:15 Hannah is running out the door of the hair salon as Ruthie is chasing her down with bobby pins
7:30 On route to the temple, Neal rolls out of bed---lucky!
8:00 Get to the temple, as they're walking in, Mom says "Hannah, I forgot my recommend, I'm not kidding. That's so funny! I kept on reminding you to get yours and I forgot mine... haha
8:00 Hannah does NOT think that is funny in the least and freaks out--she looks nothing like the picture above.
8:08 Temple worker hands Hannah a tissue because she "has a smudge on her nose"
8:08 Hannah politely says "it's my birthmark" and wishes she were back in bed. Neal punches temple worker in the face for bringing up her deformity on their wedding day--awesome!
8:27 Kaitie shows up with Mom's recommed--- HOORAY!
9:20 The most beautiful sealing ever...Neal is crying freely and Hannah gets emotional too-- WONDERFUL ceremony, FULL room of family and friends, happiness abounds


10:30 Neal pumps his fist and yells "wahoooooooo"s as they are exiting the temple, Hannah gets embarrassed, but they are both ridiculously happy!
1:00 Hannah and Neal roll up to the luncheon a half hour late, but hey, it's our wedding day, and I'm obsessed with pictures. Kaitie and Logan are champions, following us around, making sure my train is billowing and my lips are glossed and Neal's......... okay it was mostly for me.
3-5 reception at Oakridge County Club, LOVELY, loving friends and family flock, we start introducing each other as "my husband" and "my wife" it sounds fake but it's funny.
5:20 We leave the reception, go change and HONEYMOON!!!!!!




Our wedding photophrapher is awesome-- Erin Langford. I have a link to her blog on my blog list.


All in all... INCREDIBLE day and we LOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE being married! :) It's true, it's only been four weeks, but still! Thanks again to everyone who came, we love you all!!!!! You made the day even more special.

ADDENDUM: I was remiss about posting pictures of our FABULOUS cake made by the lovely Aunt Stacey: it was the best cake I have ever had (LITERALLY) -- we ate the top layer on our honeymoon, why would we wait a year?!?! anyway, THANKS STACE! YOU'RE THE BEST! Can't wait until Christian's wedding when I can eat more of her delicious cake! ;)
Okay, kind of an awkward photo but we didn't get a posed one of stace by the cake-- dang!

YUM!

sneak peek of wedding pics.....

Okay, so if you have facebook, you've already seen it.. but this pic is SOOO PRECIOUS!

and here's one of just me...
oh and one of my bouquet...
Those last 2 are actually from my bridal session... (which apparently is a Utah mormon thing... is this true?!?) anyway..... I'm still waiting to get the professional pics back from our wedding. In the meantime-enjoy these!

one last one taken by my AWESOME brother in law Logan. He followed us around everywhere snapping pictures so I could have more immediate feedback.... THANKS LOGAN!

I'm putting off running in the humidity... so here is an Eights blog

People. I will blog about my wedding... promise. It was the most WONDERFUL day ever. But I'm waiting to get professional pictures back. It sufficeth to say, beautiful weather, amazing sealer, great pictures, and HOT HUSBAND! I got this from Kalie. And she tagged me. I love her, so I obey.

Crazy Eights

Eight Things to Which I Am Looking Forward:

1. Seeing Neal when he gets home from work today-- 8 hours is a long time!!! ;)
2. Seeing Cali and baby piper this afternoon
3. watching "La vie en rose" tonight with Neal
4. Getting the mail to see what wedding cards/packages we got
5. Our Fourth of July trip to Niagara Falls Canadian side
6. using my cupcake tree dessert stand-- so cute!
7. starting a full time job teaching french this fall.
8. seeing Neal tonight... did I already say that one?

Eight Things I Did Yesterday:

1. went to the post office
2. spend 177$ at target and paid for ALL OF IT with giftcards
3. went to the temple
4. freaked out for an hour and a half tearing my house apart looking for our marriage certificate
5. was soooo relieved when Angie found it in her car
6. ate chicken nuggets from chick filet... chick-fil-a.... how do you spell that?
7. fell even more in love with my husband (it's true-- and gaggy)
8. had sex. twice. (what? you asked!)

Eight Things I Wish I Could Do:

1. be super thin without working out ever
2. dance
3. play the guitar well
4. see my family more often
5. not freak out so easily (see number 4 above)
6. not blame over people (aka Neal) for things that frustrate me (see number 4 above)
7. let things go faster
8. hang out with Neal all day

Eight TV Shows I Watch: wow. eight is a lot. I don't even have a TV!

1. LOST
2. Grey's Anatomy (don't judge me on this one)
3. Prison break
4. CSI (the original... too bad hottie man had to die but alas)
5. House, M.D.
6. Lie to Me
7. that's all I got... and let it be known that I WORK OUT while watching.... that's how I do 45 minutes of lunges. you should try it. it's awesome!


Eight People I Tag:

I don't know if eight people read my blog religiously enough to "tag" but let's see

1. Rachel Yates
2. Rachel J
3. barb
4. hmmmmmmmmmmm

My last birthday as a single lady (or single laytie, as Miranda would say)...

Well, thanks to all of YOU my birthday was GREAT!!!!! (Except for the whole Neal is nowhere near me part anyway)

My lovely dad got up and made homemade waffles for breakfast, and I got great gifts! Thank you, Mom, you're the greatest! ;)

Then I went here:
Which is Cafe Rio if you can't tell, with him:
Trent is the best! He's never forgot my birthday! Thanks, Trent. Then I got these:
from, of course, my fiance... LOVE HIM! He also sent me this in the mail:

yes, I know it's sideways... but I'm too lazy to figure out how to rotate it. It's a gift certificate to get a full body massage.. YES! Then I had a MARVELOUS homemade dinner by my Mom... even homemade rolls! It was delicious. And then, of course, we ate this:
Coconut cream pie... LOVE IT! So all and all it was a great day. Except I was missing him:

A LOT! My Rachel says it's gross how I always include a picture of Neal and me... well TOO BAD because given that our wedding is on Saturday, marrying Neal is pretty much the only thing I think about. That and..... you know....... Stacey's wedding cake! ;)

Current obsessions.....

probably in that order... is that bad? If you've had a skookie, I'm sure you'll understand.