Grand FREAKING Canyon

Every year a guy in my parents ward, Bro. Hinton, hikes the Grand Canyon RIM-to-RIM (North Rim to South Rim). I've always wanted to do it since forever ago but always was busy with either cheer or work or whatever. Well Bro. Hinton talked Jackie into doing it which she then talked me and David into doing it. We started doing the practice town walks then actual hikes every Saturday in September. Well Braden and Porter started getting jealous and since Tyler had done it twice before they have always wanted to do it too, so they started practicing with us the last few weeks!

There ended up being 15 of us hiking it altogether. Friday, October 16th we left around 8:30 PM because we had to wait for David and Jackie to get off work. The rest of them left earlier that day. It was a 7 hour drive (YES, it SUCKED!!) but we finally arrived then an hour later we started hiking.

It was an awesome experience and loved it but definitely one of the hardest things I've ever done physically, emotionally, and mentally. The last 4 miles are all switch backs and seriously it was SOO HARD! I'll admit I cried most of the way up those last 4 miles! BUT I had my kind, sweet husband with me the whole time that pushed me to keep going!

Quick cute story... As we were hiking across the bottom of the Grand Canyon we were talking about how much faster he is than I am but I jokingly said "IF you really love me you'd stay with me the whole time and not leave me when we go up hill"! Well it came and I was having a really rough time up the last part and I told him "Just go up with Braden and Porter, you can leave me" And he said "You said if I loved you I'd stay with you so I'm staying with you!" AWWW he's such a sweetheart! So we finally made it! THANKFULLY!!!!

SO here are some PICS!!!

Our family + Katherine before we started hiking at 5:30 AM!! (ya i look like a freak!)

The whole group! OOHHH look at good ol' Bob on the right! haha (he was a character!)

Ever since I saw the first Twilight movie I've always wanted to climb up a huge tree and look out to a beautiful view with my lover like Edward and Bella did. Well seriously this was my view! You can't tell in the picture but as we were hiking down, this view was THE VIEW I've always wanted with my lover!

We took pictures at every bridge! My studly husband at this bridge!

This was our group we stayed with till we got to Phantom Ranch (which is basically a little more than half way from the North Rim at the bottom).

Braden and Porter at this swampy looking scenery bridge!

The four of us continued to go ahead and this is us crossing THE bridge which is the bridge going over the Colorado River!

See those mountains in the distance? Yup all the freaking way up there is where we went! UGH!!!

After those first switch backs I started my first tears! (which wasn't even the worst of it)

This sign says "DO NOT attempt to hike from the canyon rim to the river and back in one day. Each year hikers suffer serious illness or death from exhaustion." ... YA - I know why now!

Us at the top!

Braden made it 2nd at 9 1/2 hours!

Porter made it around 10 hours!

David and I made it in 11 hours!

Yes, we are crying! I was just so happy we both made it!

Jackie and Katherine made it 12 hours!

The whole gang!

Everyone was done by 12 1/2 hours which is the fastest the WHOLE group has done in the many years Bro. Hinton has done it! (I think!)

Awesome experience!.. I think if I were to do it again I'd do more training

BUT that's IF I do it again!!

;)

Almost One...

David went to Virginia/Washington D.C. for his good buddy's wedding, Jeff Drew. Jeff married a girl from there, Lauren Young(now Drew!)

I'll be very honest. This was no fun! I stayed home all by my little lonesome. AND yes, I stayed at my own home and didn't stay at any parents house!

Short phone calls, David having a blast without me, and sleeping by myself is what made the long 4 days drag out!

Even though it wasn't fun on my part. David had lots of fun spending time with his buddies and seeing all the sights in D.C.! He was thoughtful took pictures and took videos around the town.

This video was my favorite because he makes the funniest facial expressions and he has such a dirty mustache! Plus he's just so dang cute!

Of course he didn't take any pictures of the wedding though... (boys will be boys!)

While he was in half way across the states, what kept me happy was thinking we'd be going to VEGAS the next week for our ANNIVERSARY!!! IT ALMOST BEEN ONE YEAR!! YAHOO!

After we had just drove past the dam, we came around the corner seeing "HELICOPTER RIDES"! We both had never been in a helicopter so we stopped and took a 2 minute ride!

It was AWESOME!!

We finally made it too our hotel! As soon as we got there we showered and got ready for the night! This is us chillin on the bed!

That night we saw the Cique Du Soleil show "The Beatles - LOVE"! It was AMAZING!!

We had awesome seats, due to David purchasing them a little late! (I didn't complain!) haha

The pic below is blurry but obviously we weren't the picture takers!!

What else do you do in Vegas?! You gotta play a few slots! It was actually fun although we didn't win anything. We lost $7, which we thought was good.. i guess!

You can't tell what we are standing in front of here but its the "Bellagio" right before the fountains came on! Those are always a hit!

One of our goals is to go to a different temple when we go out of town. So we escaped "Sin City" and took a trip to the Vegas Temple! It was very refreshing and we were glad we went!

The celestial room is by far the prettiest celestial room we've seen out all the temples we've been in!! (Which isn't many temples, but it was super pretty!!)

If you look closely you'll notice David wearing jeans. Why? Well he was a smart one and forgot to bring his hanging clothes, so we had to take a trip to Ross and buy him a new shirt and tie to look somewhat presentable going to the temple!

After the temple we went walking down the strip! We visited the M&M Store and Coca Cola Store! And NO this isn't soda we are drinking (we aren't drinking pop for the whole 2010 year)! It was soo hot and we definitely enjoyed our Slurpee!

We were sick of just standing there smiling in front of everything so here's us doing handstands in front of "New York New York"!!

The picture in front of the huge "Luxor" building was a pretty funny story. We need someone to take a picture so David goes up to this guy and asks him to take a picture and the guy doesn't speak English very well so all he says is "pic-ture?" and David says "Si!" and then the guy's friend comes over and says "Did he just say 'Si'?" and starts laughing and then says "We don't speak Spanish we're from Wales!" haha it was super funny!

(Maybe you had to be there!)

We then made it back to our hotel to pick up the car and go down to the "Stratosphere" hotel to ride the rides! We were in the observation part and David starting getting scared so we hurried up and rode the two rides we purchased! They were soo fun but definitely scary!! I'm really sad we didn't buy the picture they took when we did the "big shot" because David's face was soo hilarious! He was definitely scared!

Us in front of our hotel! We loved the "Mirage"!!

Vegas was a hit ... BUT ... back to the real world of hard school classes and boring work!!

Hope you guys are all doing great!

David's the BIRTHDAY BOY!!

My wonderful husband turned 23 today!!

I'm so sorry for everyone else because I definitely have the best husband in the world!! I could write all the reasons why I love him but the post would be too long!! But I definitely love David so much and I am so grateful for a husband that is willing to take care for us and holds the priesthood faithfully and always makes me happy and others happy! I love this guy to death want to wish him a very very special and happy birthday!!

I love you babe!!

News! News! News!

We've had so much exciting news happen the last few weeks and I'm so excited to finally share!!

But first I wanted to tell all about our fun and hilarious Family Home Evening tonight!

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Any of you newlyweds have this book? Well we got it as a wedding present and tonight we combined two of the activities!

The first one was called "Hand In Hand". It says in the book "when you were engaged, people probably thought that you had been surgically joined at the hip! Now you can re-create that unity by spending and evening hand in hand."

We tied up our hands together and our feet together!

We then made "Scripture Cookies"! It gave us a scripture to look up and it had the ingredients in the scriptures! (ex: 1/3 cup Psalms 55:21... Butter!)

The hardest part were cracking the eggs! I think we got all the shells out! :)

David and I with the cookies and scriptures right before we put the cookies in the oven!

Even though it was TONS of fun making these, I highly advise to not use the recipe in the book! We ended up throwing away the "biscuit" looking cookies! They were pretty gross! haha

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Well now onto the most exciting news David and I have been waiting for for months!!

I FINALLY GOT A JOB!!!

One day my sister, Jackie, called me and said she saw on Emerson Elementary's marque (next to Carson JH) that they were hiring teacher aids. So I went down and asked the lady in the office! She basically looked at me as if I was retarded and told me they had already filled all the teacher aids! So I left super bummed but I was headed over to my parents house and I thought I should go check out Field Elementary (next to Poston JH) and see if they had any openings for teacher aids! Well the lady I talked to was so positive and helpful and basically told me I would get the job! I had to fill out a paper and bring it back the next day! I seriously left in tears... of joy! So of course I did and she told me I then needed to go get my finger prints at the HR department. Which means I need to bring my Social Security Card for them to copy. Well when I went home to get it, it wasn't there!! I realized that it was never sent to me when I changed my name!! Long story short, I went down to Phoenix the next day to get my SS Card. It all happened so fast but now I'm working at Field Elementary as a teachers aid! Yes its not the greatest job in the world but it will help me get my foot in the door with public schools!

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My next exciting news caught me TOTALLY off guard!! Well let me give you all some background! Two Sundays ago our Bishop was trying to find out who could all play the piano. So of course I said I could! So I was thinking "oh great I'll probably be getting a piano calling!" Well Wednesday came and of course I get a call from our Bishops planning guy asking if I could meet with our Bishop on Thursday night and to bring my husband along! So going into our interview on Thursday night I was so SURE that I was getting a piano calling! So as we're sitting in the office Bishop says "Well we are changing up the Primary Presidency and the lady called as the President as asked you to be her SECRETARY!" I was totally shocked! I wanted to cry by being over whelmed! I know it doesn't sound like a big deal but to me it seems like a HUGE calling! I've only been a little ol primary teacher! I feel like I'm still a little girl!! How am I supposed to be in a presidency?! Well I accepted and was sustained and set apart on Sunday! Although it's a little scary, I'm SUPER EXCITED to work with the ladies that are in the Presidency and continue to work with the little children!

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I'm sorry if I bored you but that's us in a nutshell these days! I hope everyone's summer was great! I wish all those who start school a good luck and all those who have kids starting school good luck as well! And the rest of you that don't fit in those categories... good luck to you too I guess! :)

new vs. old

Remember I got a sewing machine for Christmas?

Well so did my sister Jackie and my sister in law Candice.

Candice and her sister started making a purse with their new sewing machines. Then recently Jackie made two purses. My mom then made a school bag for Ellie.

Well after all this, I was getting pretty jealous of all the fun, BUT I don't use purses! The primary bag I've been using is pretty ugly and manly. My dad used it back in the day!

So I decided to make a church bag! I think, it turned out super cute! My mom helped me understand how to make it and probably sewed a few things for me but I made most of it!

Old Primary Bag

New Primary Bag

I'm so proud of it and so happy to finally use my sewing machine!
Me and Jackie did take pictures together sewing with our machines but Jackie has those on her camera so when she posts them, check out her blog!

time to sit back and unwind...

We've had soo much going on and its been forever since I've blogged so I will tell you all this should be a long one!!

We were able to take a break and go to California with the Nielson's!!

We had tons and tons of fun!!!

The wet suit gang!! Don't we all look so attractive!!

Can't get enough of the beach!! Love it!!
David and Jonathan coming out of the ocean with seaweed!! EWWW you guys are gross!!

I had to put this one up!! He's just too cute not too!! I hope when me and David start having kids they are as happy as this little guy is!!



So who have heard or seen the TV show Minute to Win It?? Well one night Pam said we had to come of with something for someone to do and they have to TRY to do it in a minute?

David had to stack two bocce balls on top of each other!

Matt had to put Desitin (thats all we had) on his nose and transfer cotton balls from one bowl to the other bowl.

Kristin had to step on a broom and flick the broom enough to not hit the table and hit the plate for the plate to launch a marshmallow and catch it in a cup!

Jon had to strap this tissue box to his back and try to get 8 salt packets out of the box.

Jonathan had to roll himself in toilet paper!

This was the after math of him spinning so much! Boy was it funny!

T had to tie on a nylon to her waist with a ball in it. She then had to use the ball to hit another ball across the room!!

Kim had to stack three apples on each other!

I had to stack ?so many? cups in a pyramid and then unstack them! I'm pretty sure I was the only one who didn't do it in a minute!!

Jenni had to put together the front of a cereal box!

Amber had to blow of a deck of cards but not blow off the bottom white card

Pam had to pull the cards out from underneath the bottom of waters without knocking the bottoms down.

It was so much fun and soo funny to watch everyone be silly!

One day we were so lucky to go to the Newport Temple with Jon, Pam, T, and Matt!

The four of us in front of the temple!

Playing some bocce ball at the beach!

We had a pinata! Everyone fighting over candy!

Most of us enjoying the hot tub!

We then had family pictures at the beach before we left home!

Mine and Davids little family! haha

The Nielson Clan!

Thanks Mom and Dad Nielson for the trip and thanks to everyone for the tons of fun!!

My BEST friend got MARRIED!!!

While Chad went on a mission to Argentina for two years, Anais patiently waited for him and got married on July 10, 2010!!! Congrats!! Love you both!!

Me and Anais at her reception!

Well I'd like to make a special shout out to my mother and father!! TODAY is my Mom's birthday and next Wednesday is my Dad's birthday!! So me and David decided that we wanted to plant my mom and dad flowers in the flower garden spot and make a sign!

The finishing touch!!

This is the sign that me and David both made!!

Happy Birthday Mom and Dad Arnett!!

After we planted flowers at my parents house, we went over to David's parents and cut there bushes for them! Man was that some hard labor!! We rested the rest of the day!!

Well thats pretty much our summer so far! Besides trying to enjoy the heat, I've still been trying to get interview after interview but no luck yet, so if you know of any jobs out there feel free to send them our way!!

Next weekend we get to go to Utah for David's friend, Brad Marsh, wedding! We get to get out of the heat but of course right when its starting to rain!!

Hope you all are enjoying your summer!