Yay for Family!

This weekend Braden got ordained as an Elder. Congratulations Braden! We are so proud of you and your eagerness to accept those responsibilities from the Lord. Of course this meant that we got to make another trip out to Cardston and the ranch. It was silly of me to think that once we got married we would save money on gas. I feel like we make the trip home just as much as before but really I'm not complaining(other than about the ridiculous gas prices), we love going home!

Friday was Patrick and Christina Foote's wedding reception. Mark served with Patrick in the Elders Quorum presidency in Parkside and they really enjoyed each other so it was good to see them on such an exciting day. The reception was in Magrath so we headed straight to Cardston and stayed at the Drew's house. Saturday we went to the temple and did a session. That night Emily and Jones made us cream puffs and then Lauren and Cody dropped off Ryenn for us to babysit. It was so much fun! We love that little girl a lot. She was a little shy with everyone at first but it was exciting to see that she recognized me. She's really starting to like Mark instead of being so scared of him like she used to be. They had a good time together.

Ryenn loved playing the piano with Mark. It was good cuz Ry isn't
strong enough to actually press the keys so we just got to enjoy Mark playing.

We headed out to the ranch when she started to get sleepy. We arrived just in time to help move in Mom and Dad's new fridge and stove. It was fun to be with everyone but it was a late night for all and then an early morning preparing for Sunday dinner. Sunday was exciting! During Relief Society/Priesthood Mountain View took a ward picture and I was excited that Mark and I got to be apart of that. After church was the ordination and then it was home to eat! As usual it was delicious! We even celebrated mine and Marks birthday.

Taking the old fridge downstairs for Lindsey and Jeff
when they come.

The "new" fridge and stove!

Grandad was sure that Ryenn was enjoying the
big bites just like he was. It was so good though!

We love our families very much and we love their hospitality! Thank you all for lighting up our lives!

Doughnuts, Deuces and Homemade Dinner

Ryenn is Mallery's biggest fan!
She loves that goofy girl.

 That sums up our Monday. Mark and I were both excited to have a holiday. After church we headed out to Cardston and spent Sunday evening with the Drew's. Monday we headed out to The Ranch for some doughnuts and mom's pancakes for breakfast. Cody, Lauren and Ryenn were there and it was so fun to be with everyone. Mark and I were determined to go to Waterton that day so after a little prodding we got everyone (minus Dad and Cody) in the van and headed to the mountains. We took along with us a couple bikes which took up a couple seats in the van leaving Mallery to the floor and me on Marks lap. Mikhail had hurt his foot and wasn't exactly happy that he had to be drug along with us...until he got there then he didn't want to leave. Mallery and Mom took the bikes on the new bike trail part of the way and then Mark and I switched them. On our way into the town site we stopped at the Visitor Center to visit Blandine.
I worked with Blandine a couple summers ago when I worked at the Visitor Center and have loved that lady ever since. She is the koolest! She is about 57 years old, she was born and raised in France and she loves hiking, biking and running. When I worked with her she would often run up the Cameron Lake road and back down the Carthew-Alderson trail...BEFORE WORK! (For those of you who don't know, the road up to Cameron Lake is 16km and the Carthew-Alderson trail is a hike that usually takes about 8hrs) She is an incredible person. Though she is an amazing athlete and I admire her abilities, the thing that I loved the most was her faith. She is not a member of any religion but she loves her Father in Heaven and she understands a lot of what Christ teaches. She taught me a lot that summer and I look up to her so it was so good to see her again! I also loved introducing her to Mark.
After our visit we took off to the tennis courts and I snapped these beauties! It was a lot of fun!

Mom! Ha!

Mikhail had a hard time moving around.
This was after he had missed a ball, I think Mark
was trying to make him feel better.

Lauren is a babe no matter what she is doing.

And this is My Man! Definitely the best tennis player there.
I love Mikhail's face. So excited.

It was so much fun to play with everyone. We played singles for a little bit and then realized it was way too much work so we paired up and played a couple games. After we went back to The Ranch just in time for it to start pouring! Mom made breadsticks to go with spaghetti and caesar salad. It was soo good! We also got to enjoy Ryenn entertaining us with her noises and adorableness. All in all it was a great day! Mark and I drove home in the pouring rain which is always a kool feeling. Thank you family for having so much fun with us! We love you!

And Linds and Jeff we can't wait for you to join us!

-Kami

Saturday :)

Today felt like the first Saturday in a long time that Mark and I had nothing else going on. No trips so Cardston, Mountain View or Utah, we just got to stay at home. This morning Mark went to his first visit to the hospital. He is going to be volunteering there on Saturday mornings in the pediatric department. He's pretty excited about it, both to play with the kids and to figure out what he wants to do for a career. He came home excited to tell me about his tea party with a 3 year old girl. I wish I could have seen that! I really think I might join him. It sounds like so much fun! After lunch we came to the institute with our basketball and shot around a bit. Yay for nice weather but boy am I ever out of shape. I knew that I was but I never let myself do anything too physical to actually test it out but today it didn't take much at all for me to feel fatigued, so as much as I hate running I think I better start. I'm grateful for a husband that wants to be outside and be active. He makes my life so much more enjoyable :)

It was a bit cloudy but still nice and warm.
The net must have been new cuz our ball kept getting stuck.>

-Kami

This is the Place

This past weekend we went to Utah for Megan and Kyle's wedding. It was such an awesome trip! We had a blast! We drove down with Mark's parents and sisters and then shared a hotel room with Emily and Natalie. We drove down Thursday morning and arrived in Utah with enough time (thanks to Peter)  to check into our hotel and then walk across the street to temple square and enjoy the visitor centers. The weather was beautiful there, it definitely felt like summer. Friday Mark and I got up early and went to a session in the Salt Lake temple. It was magnificent! One of the high lights of the trip. After we got back to the hotel we loaded into the Traverse and took a trip out to Park City for some shopping. Mark spoiled me with new shoes, a new undershirt and a new cardigan. Everyone else was able to find something as well but Peter and Emily were the ones that did really well. Friday night we were able to go over to Colleen's sisters for dinner. There was a lot of new faces there for me but it was exciting to meet Mark's aunt and uncle, Pat and Don and his cousins, Steph and Vicki and their kids. We enjoyed some great food and even better company! I feel very blessed to have married into such an awesome family!

Saturday was the big day but the sealing wasn't until 3:40 so Peter took Natalie, Emily, Mark and I to the Utah Capital Building. It was amazing! Such a kool building! We enjoyed exploring the place and I took the opportunity to become reacquainted with my camera before Megan and Ricks wedding shoot. Megan had asked me to take some pictures after their sealing and I agreed thinking that it would be very casual and knowing that another opportunity like this would never come again so I had to take it. When I woke up that morning I was wishing that I hadn't. The nerves had set in and I had realized that this was kinda a big deal. More than anything I just wanted to be able to give Megan and Rick something that they could enjoy and that would accurately portray that day. I had been trying to find blogs of photographers that do wedding pictures at the Salt Lake temple so I could have some ideas. I was able to find a couple but when it actually came time I couldn't remember anything!

After our visit Mark and I were able to connect with the Wintch's. Mark taught McKinley(in the green) on his mission, preparing him to be baptized and he's thought the world of that boy and his family ever since. Mark loved seeing them again and I loved meeting people that Mark cared about so much.

This was THE hight light of the trip. The ceremony was beautiful and there were many words of wisdom offered that I was glad to hear. Megan was stunning, Rick was as handsome as ever and they were both glowing! After they had received their congratulations from everyone and it was time to start bossing people around for pictures, the nerves left and I was right in my element (as most of you know). It was so fun! I loved being able to spend that time with Kyle and Megan and see how excited and in love they were. The Lord blessed me with a perfect cloud cover (thank you Mark for your faithful prayers) which helped so much with my lack of equipment. 

We are so excited for Megan and Kyle but so sad that they will be living in California. They are definitely a couple that we have fun with but hopefully we will be able to visit often.

Congratulations Megan and Kyle! 

-Kami

The Beginning

I would like to introduce you to our blog. 

This blog was inspired by my sister and my new Kitchen Aid. No joke, I brought my beautiful black mixer home, made some bread and fell in love and that's when the thought went through my mind, "If I had a blog I would blog about my Kitchen Aid." Well ever since I've been coming up with more and more things that if I had a blog, I would blog about. And then there is my sister's blog. She does an incredible job with it! I love reading it so I hope that maybe one day someone will love reading this blog (I'm not expecting this until we have kids and we live far away from everyone). 

The title of this blog was inspired by our wedding song, This is Home by Switchfoot. It's not a love song at all, not a love song between two people anyway but as we listened to the words it described perfectly how it felt to be in love with each other. It was comfortable and exciting and... well just like coming home. We are so excited to be married, already we have learned so much and had so much fun! I'm excited to share our experiences with you to keep you a part of our life.

-Kami