One full Weekend

Friday, May 6, was Dallin’s sister’s wedding. Chandra and Roland got married in the Draper Temple, and it was amazing to be up there again because that’s where Dallin and I got married – even the exact same sealing room! The day was beautiful – we were nervous it’d end up being cold and rainy, but the weather was great. You have to love an entire day of being with family and taking lots of pictures. :)

Saturday we decided to take advantage of the great weather and go on a morning hike. Dallin’s Dad, sister (Tara), brother-in-law (Gary), brothers (Ryan and Jason), and niece (Haley) all hiked the Y with us. That was the first time Dallin and I hiked the Y together. The hike wasn’t a breeze, but it was so much fun and I loved being out in the sun. I even tried laying upside down on the Y – talk about a weird sensation that you’ll fall off the mountain at any second! I’m a bit of a scaredy cat, and it showed.





Later that day we celebrated Mckinley’s 1st birthday – I still can’t believe she is one already! She has such a fun little personality and Dallin loves making her laugh, which is so cute. Here are a few pictures of her eating her cake/éclair. She is so cute!!




Even though we have been super busy, I don’t think we would change it. It has been so fun being with family and friends. I started school again (summer semester), but I’ll make an extra effort to make sure I blog more. Life is great, and we feel lucky to be so happy and have so many wonderful blessings.

A Plethora

So I know we haven’t blogged for a while, so now I have so much to blog about. I thought I would have some time to catch up on everything since school ended, but a week of little did I know we would just have more to do. Better late than never. :)

Dallin took me to my first-ever BYU volleyball game this year, one of our many “firsts” as a couple. We went with Dallin’s Dad, brother (Jordan), sister (Chandra) and her now husband Roland. The game was pretty fun, but it would’ve been better if we won.




Right after the BYU volleyball game we went to Provo High’s prom. Okay, we didn’t go, but we did go see Dallin’s little brother Lincoln and his date walk down the library steps at promenade. We watched couples for about 30 min and only saw one girl fall – not bad. :)




Easter came and went so fast. Last year, the Easter Bunny came and gave each of us a movie. Dallin thought it was my parents who snuck downstairs to set out our baskets, and he was a little unnerved ‘til he found out it was me…silly Dallin. So despite Dallin’s nervousness, the Easter Bunny came again. He was so nice and left me a new swimsuit and game (Reverse Charades!), and Dallin got a new book (Millionaire Next Door). After that, we had an Easter egg hunt at the Salmon’s and got tons of candy and gum. It was so much fun feeling like a little kid again.



Dallin is now a quarter-of-a-century old – he turned the big 25 on April 26. I asked him what he wanted to do and he said nothing (typical Salmon). But if you know me, that won’t fly. So, we went out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse (so GOOD), one of Dallin’s favorite places. They made him sit on the saddle and everything while everyone gave a big YEE-HAW! I thought the night was so fun and I think Dallin liked it more than he lets on. :) As for his birthday gift, for months now I’ve been saving up money to get Dallin’s birthday gift. I knew I wanted to get him some golf clubs but I had no idea what to even look for. So I asked my sister-in-law Jessica, who loves golfing and is really good at it, and she helped me find some nice clubs for him. Dallin has already used them a couple times, so I’m glad I got them for him.





I was able to join my niece Melanee and the rest of the 1st graders in her school on a field trip to the Hogle Zoo. I love the zoo, but I thought it would be boring or hard to watch these kids on a fieldtrip. Don’t get me wrong, the kids were hyper, but my sister (Mindee) and I were only in charge of 3 (including my niece), so it wasn’t so bad. The day was really fun, talking about all of the different animals and seeing these kids light up. Melanee’s little crush was in our group so I had to take a picture of them together. She told me she’s going to marry him or someone like him. :) I think the tigers were my favorite part of the whole zoo, because we got so close to them.






So while I was with the 1st graders at the zoo, Dallin got to go with the boys of the 6th ward on a scouting trip to Goblin Valley, just for one night. Dallin said it was freezing cold at night, but the trip was still a lot of fun. They played lots of games (tag, steal-the-flag) and went on a few really cool hikes. I think Dallin’s favorite part was just being able to hang out with his brother Lincoln the whole time.

Festival of Colors

Last Saturday, Dallin took me to my first Festival of Colors at the Hare Krishna temple down in Spanish Fork. Dallin has gone before with some buddies, but I had never been. I was definitely a little nervous about going because I wasn’t super excited about getting the color in my hair and face. I'm so glad I went though because it was SO MUCH FUN! We invited some of Dallin's family to come with us – not everyone could come, and we ended up going with Jason and Shannon and their girls. Shannon and Brynlee came as spectators (not a bad option), and watched as we got all colored up. Haley loved it and really got into it – she had some sunglasses and a mask for protection, and she looked so cute. We were all pretty much completely covered with colors by the time it was over. We had such a great time, I think the only thing I didn't like was doing the laundry afterwards. I had to bleach/wash our shirts 4 times to get the color out. Now I know why Dallin told me to wear something I could probably just throw away afterwards! :) Next year we'll have to make sure we get more people to come with us, and do it all over again! :) Hare Krishna!

Make-Over, Sleep-Over

So the other night Dallin and I volunteered to watch our niece Melanee and nephew Trevor so my sister and brother-in-law could celebrate his birthday. Melanee was planning on sleeping over, since had swimming lessons in Provo in the morning which Dallin and I could just take her to. And for the longest time Melanee has asked over and over again to play with Haley (our other niece, on Dallin’s side) so we called Jason and Shannon to see if we could have Haley over for the night. Then we figured if we were watching Haley we should see if Brynlee wanted to come too so Jason and Shannon could go on a date. So we ended up having all four kids (Mel, Trevor, Haley, & Bryn) and it was so much fun! We watched some Disney movies, and while Dallin was playing with Trevor (doing manly things of course . . . like sleeping and lounging) I gave the three girls a make-over. They were so much fun – we did make-up, hair, and everyone got to put on dress-up clothes. Made me feel like a kid again, and I loved every minute of it.

The One Year Mark – Already!

I can't believe Dallin and I have already been married over a year. Time really does fly by, especially when you’re having fun. :) There are days when I feel like we just got married, and then other days I feel like we have been married forever (perhaps because we pretty much have been together forever…), but I wouldn't change anything about it. I love Dallin more today than I did on our wedding day. I won’t lie, he continues to impress me with how hard working and dedicated he is. I think my favorite part of being married is our pillow talk we have before we go to sleep. :)
Anyway, for our anniversary Dallin took over and planned the whole weekend. We went up to SLC to spend the night. I didn't know for sure what we were going to do but Dallin had it all planned out. We went out to dinner and then went to a musical "A Tale of Two Cities" at the Hale Center Theater. I wasn't completely looking forward to it because I didn't know anything about it, but that changed quickly. The play was so amazing, I loved every minute of it! I also knew how much Dallin loved me because he missed the BYU vs. New Mexico tournament game (when Jimmer dropped 52) to take me to the play. True love for sure. The next morning we went to the Salt Lake temple to do a session and sealings. Neither of us had been to a live session before – it was really neat and the inside of the temple was so incredible and pretty. I’m so glad we did sealings – I didn't cry on our wedding day, but I did get a little teary-eyed in there. Finally, when we came home, I walked in the door and there were a dozen tulips sitting on the table with a present next to them (Dallin loves getting sneaky and having other people help him surprise me). The present was a nice journal with a picture of the Salt Lake temple on it – so it was all part of one big plan! Dallin says the traditional 1-year gift is paper, and the modern 1-year gift is a clock, so the journal was kind of a combination of the two. :) The whole weekend was amazing, and I loved being able to just spend the time with my husband. I can't wait for many, many more anniversaries to come.

Happenings

The last two weeks have gone by really fast and Dallin and I were able to do a lot of fun things. We got invited to attend the Utah County Republican Lincoln Day Dinner. Nu Skin sponsored a table and Dallin scored some tickets – we’re always excited about a sweet, free dinner. We didn't really know at first what the dinner was for, but quickly found out once we walked into the room and saw Mike Lee, Orrin Hatch, Jason Chafetz, and many, many, many other politicians. We stayed long enough to hear Senator Hatch speak, took a quick picture as evidence, and took off.


Two Sundays ago we attended my cousin's (Steve) homecoming. He just got home from serving in the Washington DC South Mission. He did an awesome job on his homecoming talk – he has definitely grown so much and it was so great to see him. As proof of how small the Utah, Mormon world is . . . earlier in the week, I was talking to some friends in my health class about my cousin coming home and I was going to his homecoming, and I found out one of the girls wrote Steve on his mission and the other is from Washington DC and had Steve over for dinner a few times! It’s a small, small world…after all. :)

So Steve’s younger brother is currently in the MTC getting ready to leave to his mission. Well, we knew what time on Sunday he would walk around the temple…so we thought we would walk around the temple at the same time. We got up there and waited for like 20 minutes. We must have seen over 300 missionaries, which it was awesome to see all of them, but they weren’t exactly what we went for. :) Finally, we decided to just leave because we hadn't seen him. As we were walking out, guess who we ran into (purely my coincidence)...my cousin! It was awesome. He looked all grown up and so good. We took a picture and bragged about it to his parents.


Last Thursday was Karen’s (Dallin’s mom) birthday. Dallin asked her if this is finally the year she turns 30, but she said she’s still only turning 29. :) The whole Salmon family got together to celebrate on Saturday – we ate pizza, had cake and ice cream, opened presents, and watched the BYU basketball game. Dallin and I were in charge of making the cake – it ended up looking pretty bad, but I’m told it tasted great! Ha ha, oh well…I guess the taste is what really matters. It was a fun day.



Last Saturday, Dallin scored sweet, courtside tickets to the Jazz vs. Kings game. That’s right – courtside seats! I’ve never been so close before. It was awesome having our feet right on the floor. We got a sweet dinner before the game started, and snacks during halftime. We took a ton of pictures. What made it even better was the Jazz pulling out an exciting OT victory. I'll be honest; I was busy watching the Jazz Bear for a lot of the time. There was a little girl, about 18 months old, that Bear picked up and played with. She didn't cry the whole time he had her, and it was at least a couple minutes. When he finally gave her back to her parents she started blowing kisses to him. It was so cute. So it was a fun night, and it was just awesome going with Dallin and having such great seats. :)





Oh yeah, last but definitely not least…Dallin's little sister is getting married!! I’ll leave the story and everything to Chan, but she and Roland are getting married on May 6th. Can’t wait! :)