Christmas Sweater Party

Every year Dustin's friend Tanner Camp throws a Christmas sweater party.  We look forward to it every year because it is so much fun.  Except we always play this awful game called grievances. It is pretty much a game of public humiliation.  We sit around in a circle and people go around and tell all the things that bug them about anybody in the circle.  I thought it would just be funny but you soon come to realize it turns serious as people really do bring up past arguments.  Like I said AWFUL.

Temple Square

 

Because we were too busy planning our wedding last year we never made it up to Temple Square to see the lights, It made our Christmas feel incomplete so we promised this year we would go up.  What was even better was that we happened to go up on the night of the Mormon Tabernacle Christmas concert and even though we weren't lucky enough to get tickets they broadcast it in the Tabernacle so we got to watch it. Not as good as live, but still awesome.

Gettysburg

While I was working in Maryland Dustin, Steve, Braxton, and Marissa went to Gettysburg. 

Washington D.C.

National Archives! Where Dustin got in trouble for sneaking pictures of the Bill of Right ha.

Ford's Theater where President Lincoln was assassinated.

National Treasury

Gorgeous Building! Dwight D. Eisenhower offices next to the White House

The White House

Washington Monument

Lincoln Memorial

At the Lincoln Memorial there was an awesome view of the Washington Monument.

Thanksgiving Dinner

Halloween!!!!

I was out of town for our ward Halloween Party so luckily my father-in-law is a bishop of a student married ward so we went to theirs!! 

Lucky for me my husband could not have better parents.  I love Mark and Janeen so much.  We had a blast with them and we are thankful our families live so close so that we get to see them a lot.

Nauvoo

As a last hoorah before Dustin and I came home we went to Nauvoo with Janel and Kyle and their family.  It was an amazing experience.  We had so much fun seeing and learning where the early saints of the church went through so much.  It made the history of the church feel more real and close to us. 

 

 

 

 

 

Red Sox vs. Royals

Dustin and I went to our first major league baseball game when we were in Missouri.  We went with my sister and brother-in-law Janel and Kyle and their 3 kids.  It was a blast!! And I learned all the rules of baseball finally!! I have always heard people say, "top of the 9th" and I had no clue what it meant.  It amazes me how guys know the rules to every sport!! Dustin plays soccer so I figured that would be the only sport he knew backwards and forwards but nope he knows them all!!  

Kansas' Underground Salt Mine

The Salt Museum was amazing!!! It was so huge!!

Since the salt mine is 650 feet underground it is tornado proof, hurricane proof, bomb proof, and safe from almost everything! It also stays at a perfect 68 degrees so after World War II John F. Kennedy turned it into our country's  personal safety deposit box where he kept our nations most important documents.  Then the movie industry started using it to keep the props safe from like every movie ever made since 1920. And now they hold stuff from every state and most countries.  It is very hush hush though even the workers have no clue to the extent of what is stored in the underground vault storage..  But we got to see a few awesome props that were on display.

Yes that is Brad Pitt's shield from Troy

I of course LOVED seeing Arnold Schwarzenegger's Mr. Freeze costume from Batman & Robin.

And George Clooney's Batman suit!

And the snow man from Jack Frost :)

Harry Potter!

July 12, 2011

Dustin and I LOVE Harry Potter.  He probably doesn't want me to admit that,  but it's true. We go to bed to it countless times a week. Well that and The Office.  So naturally we had to get tickets to the midnight showing opening night! We wore our wizard and muggle shirts along with our Griffindor scarves, who knew the people in Kansas don't dress up for opening nights, in Utah we would have been way under dressed.  But the movie was great! We were just sad it came to an end.

4th of July!

Dustin and I have spent the summer living in Wichita, Kansas while he is selling alarm systems, so unfortunately we didn't get to spend one of our favorite holidays at home in Utah with our families :( but luckily my brother and sister-in-law and their 3 kids are out here with us so we got to spend the 4th with them! Cami and I took the kids to the splash park in the morning while the boys went to work. Then the boys took off early and we all went to a Mexican restaurant, which of course was empty because who goes to eat Mexican on the 4th ha, but then we met up with some of the other families out here selling and did some small fireworks and sparklers with the kids.  Then after that the country club was putting on a firework show for their members and even though we weren't members someone had the brilliant idea of hopping the fence, so we did :) We had a fabulous time getting eaten by the mosquitoes and watching the fireworks :)

Adam ondi Ahman

While we were in Missouri we went to Adam Ondi Ahman.  This place was my favorite.  It was so peaceful.  The only place I can think of that compares to how peaceful it was is the temple.  It is just a big open field in the middle of Missouri, but it has such a special feeling there.

Independence and Liberty Jail

At the end of June Dustin and I and James and Cami and their family made a trip down to Kansas City, Missouri to go see Dustin's sister Janel and her family.  We had so much fun hanging out with them.  And the Saturday that we were there we made a trip out to Liberty Jail and the visitors center in Independence.  When I found out that we were moving to Kansas for the summer I said to Dustin, "As long as we see the church sites while we are out there I am on board." So luckily it worked out :) It was so amazing to see where such amazing doctrine was written and to see the places we have heard so much about.  

U2 Concert!!!

 This concert was incredible!! I read that the U2 360 degrees tour was the largest concert in the history of the world!! They weren't kidding.  My favorite song in the whole world has been U2's With or Without You for as long as I can remember.  I still have a voicemail saved on my phone from when Dustin and I were juniors in High school and Dustin called me and played it on my answering machine :) It was the first concert we went to being married and that was the icing on the cake!! 

Draper Family Pictures

My cute little brother who left in May to serve his mission in Lubbock, Texas

Honeymoon!!

January 2011

We had the best honeymoon ever!! We went to Vegas for a few days to see The Lion King and The Blue Man Group and then right before our wedding Dustin surprised me with an added week in Cancun! Apparently Dustin had my parents in on it as well because he had my dad in charge of getting my passport.  And my dads reasoning was that he needed it to put it into a fire proof safe just in case ha, and even though I thought it was ridiculous I believed him!! We had a blast though and Dustin sure set the bar high for marriage expectations when within the first week I was surprised with a trip to Cancun :)

On the way home though we missed our flight so my cute husband pushed the chairs together and went and bought us pillows and blankets and made us a bed ha.  Even though we weren't excited to come home and start work and school we were excited to come back to OUR apartment and start making it OUR home.