Engagements {Great Salt Lake}

We ended our day at the Great Salt Lake, where the storms had brought with them an incredible backdrop.

I love him, you know?

A HUGE thanks to McKenzie Deakins for being such an amazing photographer.

And that, friends, marks the end of our engagement pictures recap. Hope you enjoyed!

Engagements {Capitol Hill}

Next, we changed in our little portable closet (suburbans with the back seat taken out and deeply-tinted windows, anyone?) and headed up to Utah's own Capitol Hill for some classic shots with my soldier.

Next: Last but not least, casual pictures at the Great Salt Lake.

Engagements {City Hall}

It was important to us to take traditional Sunday-dress pictures to send out with our invitations.

So, Matt brought out his favorite suit, my mom sewed me a pretty dress (they just don't make modest dresses for tall girls), and we started our engagement session at Salt Lake's City Hall and The Exchange Place. Here's a little sampling of all the great pictures McKenzie took at those locations (I'll post the others separately). You'll have to be watching your mailbox to see our favorite picture from this series, though :-)

Next up: My man in uniform.

An Easter Lesson

There is something so innately powerful about the pure and simple testimony of a child.
Tonight, my family watched The Testaments to celebrate the real reason for Easter, Christ's resurrection.

Immediately after the movie ended, 2-year-old Gabe stood up and sweetly announced to everyone,
"My Jesus loves me."
It was a neat moment.

Then again, I guess there's always room to learn. Gabe has been struggling lately with the concept that you can love more than one person at a time (and therefore takes turns loving Daddy, Mommy, or the favorite sibling of the moment).
When Gabe repeated the same statement a little later, we (forgetting his current love hang-up) asked him if Jesus loved Joshie, too. "No," he replied. "My Jesus loves me."

Banquet at the Broadmoor

Every spring, Air Force hosts their annual football banquet at the beautiful Broadmoor in Colorado Springs...

...which means that, thanks to my handsome football-playing fiance, we get to enjoy a nice little date at the 5-star hotel.

It was kind of crazy to officially mark the end of Matt's time with Falcon Football at the banquet last weekend. Even with all the injuries he had to deal with, it was an incredible experience that we're both grateful he was able to be a part of.

(Matt's senior media day picture)

And now, with that said, I can get around to posting the rest of our engagement pictures. Stay tuned!

All the world is waiting for the sun

Although, a little rain never hurt anyone.

This would be a little preview of our engagement pictures, taken by the fabulous McKenzie.
Care to see more?

PS- the title comes from a Breaking Benjamin song that Matt sings to me with his guitar. Just in case you were wondering.

Sharks & Stingrays

So, after two years of begging and pleading, I finally convinced Matt to go to the Denver Aquarium with me. Everyone says it's a must-do in Denver--which was good enough reason for me to go--but we didn't know much about it other than that. I think we were both pleasantly surprised by how entertaining (and educational, of course) it was.

In fact, Matt was entertained from the moment he got to put on his scuba gear.

The aquarium takes you through different ecosystems, showing you which fish (and a few other animals) live there and providing some fun activities along the way. Matt went mining for gold in the mountains...

... and then we got the weather report in the desert. Bet you can't guess who's more excited about the warm desert sun.

We especially enjoyed the rainforest, which had a bunch of fun animals like a tiger, turtles, parrots and PIRANHAS! I dared Matt to stick his finger in their tank (because we're really mature like that), but he didn't (because we actually are somewhat mature). I think he was a bit creeped out by their beady little eyes:

Since the tiger was asleep, the turtles took home the prize for the rainforest section. Maybe we're just easily amused but they were cracking us up! They'd be sitting on their rocks and then carefully inch toward the water... and inevitably dive/fall in before they were quite ready. It was pretty cute.

Then we got to the "ocean," where Matt tried (unsuccessfully) to communicate with the fish.

The ocean section had a few of these tunnels, which are always fun.

Even more impressive, however, was the huge shark tank that let you get up close and personal with the, um, precious things.

Matt was a little apprehensive at first...

...but then he warmed right up.

And just when we thought our little aquarium tour was over, we walked into the stingray exhibit and got to pet the little guys! I may or may not have been a bit jumpy every time they'd turn and look at me while I was petting them.
Matt, on the other hand, didn't seem to mind.

It was a good time.

General Conference

Wasn't General Conference incredible? Thanks to the snowstorm that canceled Matt's track meet, we got to enjoy the sessions live at Steve & Jodie's instead of having to TiVo them. We loved the timing of it this year, just one week before Easter. While we usually think about Christ's birth for the entire month leading up to Christmas, we don't tend to spend much time preparing for Easter and the celebration of His resurrection. This Conference, we learned so much about our Savior and the Atonement (especially from Elder Holland), and it really puts things into the proper perspective. We're so grateful for leaders of the church and for the the opportunity that General Conference gives us to hear from them.

Spring Training & Sprinting

I was on cloud nine walking off the plane into 85-degree weather in Phoenix. Seriously, give me Matt & the sunshine and I'm a happy girl. Adding best friends and sports to the mix? Even better. Matt's roommate, Anthony, is from Scottsdale and was home for spring break, so we had our own personal tour guide of the city. We figured there was no way we could visit Arizona in March without hitting up a spring training game, so we ended up at the A's stadium to watch them play the Padres.

The next day, Clark & Shelley flew in with the same idea, so off we went to another baseball game. This time we saw the Angels take on the Mariners. Working for the Bees made me an Angels fan, so it was fun to see them play!

We had to leave the game early to get some pre-race pasta in Matt, so we enjoyed a late lunch at Macaroni Grill while catching the Sweet 16 action. Then it was off to Arizona State's Sun Angel Stadium for the big meet.

It was a night meet, beginning at 5 and ending at 10. Not only was this incredibly convenient with the heat, but it created a really cool atmosphere for the races. Matt tore it up on the track, placing 7th (of 40 big-school athletes) in the 100, shaving another two tenths off his 200 time, and running a solid first leg in the 4x400.

100 Meter Dash:

200 Meter Dash:

Prepping for the 4x400:

Fresh out of the blocks:

Impressive, no? I was glad Clark could be there to get these pictures of Matt--I'm always too busy cheering to focus on my camera, and he's always moving too fast for my little point & shoot to take a halfway-decent picture anyway.

After all that hard work, Matt definitely deserved the 4x4 meal he ordered at In-N-Out late that night. I'm not sure my sitting+cheering efforts were really worthy of the cheeseburger, fries & strawberry shake I devoured, but they sure were a great ending to a lovely little vacation.