Here Goes Nothing....

That was exactly my thought as we packed up the U-Haul and started on our path from Springfield, MO, (middle of the country) to the West, Salt Lake City. All I knew about this future home of mine was that it was incredibly populated by followers of the Mormon religion, that there was the best skiing and snowboarding in the country, and that it was SO beautiful. I just had no idea HOW beautiful. I was leaving behind my family (whom I hadn't lived more than 5 hours away from EVER) and so many friends. But, I was so happy to be starting a new life with the love of my life.

Flash back to last June when I was a Camp Companion at Camp Quality, a camp for kids with cancer. The first night, I leave the main hall to call my boyfriend. He had big news for me. There was a job opportunity that he was interested in. He's amazing at his job, and I wanted nothing more than for him to be somewhere he loved. But, at that time, I was in school working towards a new degree in Dietetics, something that I was passionate about. I just told him to do what was best for him... all the while secretly hoping it wouldn't happen, and we could stay where my family was.

Well, he ended up applying for the job (with my full support, truly--all I wanted was for him to be happy), and we waited for a very long time with no word. One day, I came over to his place after work, and while we were watching TV, he got a phone call changing our lives. He got the job! And he asked me to move to SLC with him.

I agonized over whether or not I should move. I wanted to stay and finish my degree, but I knew there was no way I could be without him for that long. I ended up telling him that I would stay in school and move as soon as I was done. That decision lasted a whole 12 hours before I knew I couldn't handle it without him. So, I decided that no matter what, I would move with him, whether we were married or not. I knew he was the one I wanted to be with for the rest of my life, and I wasn't going to live that far from him. I gave up school and a potentially great job. But it was the best decision of my life.

He proposed in September of last year (more on that fun story later!). I, of course, said yes, and we immediately starting planning the wedding because we decided that it would be much easier to not have to worry about planning a wedding from 20+ hours away. Though it only gave us 3-4 months to plan a wedding, it was the best decision for us. That boy was incredibly helpful in planning the wedding (how incredibly lucky am I?) and actually made as many of the decisions as I did, while still allowing me to have anything that I really wanted. We even decided not to spend as much money on photography as I had originally wanted to because we were trying to cut costs, and he made sure over and over that it was really okay for me. The photographer, by the way, turned out to do an awesome job. He designed our save the dates, invitations, thank you cards, everything. Without his help, I don't think I could've planned it in that little of time. My mom and sister, also, were INCREDIBLE. They took care of so many details since I wasn't living where the wedding would be (about 2 hours away). They met with vendors and helped so much with all of the small details. My mom and dad decorated the venue, and 100% honestly, it was decorated the best I had ever seen at this venue. The venue already was gorgeous, but they did such a good job that even the manager of the reception area posted pictures before the wedding with all of the decorations. Everyone loved it.

The night he proposed! Sorry about the poor quality--my camera was slowly dying!

January 18 was the day I married the love of my life. I am so blessed and can't even begin to describe how happy he makes me and how much I love our life together. It was an absolutely gorgeous and amazing day, and I will write more about the details later, but even with small stresses, I couldn't be stressed about ANYTHING overall. Everyone kept commenting on how happy I looked, and I was legitimately over the moon happy. It was wonderful.

Best day of our lives!

Two months later, we were packed up and moved to where we currently are today. We've spent at least 40% of our time here hiking and enjoying the beautiful outdoors (that may be a slight exaggeration, but I swear it's pretty close!). I found a job that I love and enjoy getting up to go to work every morning. My husband is working very hard training at his new job, and as soon as he is officially done with training, we plan on buying a house. For now, though, we've had fun decorating our apartment and dreaming of the house that we plan to buy. We're just enjoying married life.

Our new home!

Enjoying the beautiful outdoors!

I hope I don't bore you as I share details of our story, but that's what this blog is about. It's a way to keep in contact with all my friends and family back home and reach out to new people, as well. I promise to share recipes (I am loving cooking and baking!), a million pictures (I take wayyyy too many as it is!), and all of our travels. Hopefully it'll be enjoyable reading along the way. :)

Love,