Anniversary Goodness!

Since the week of our anniversary was so crazy, we decided to party over spring break! And what a party it was! Woot! We started off the week by enjoying our wedding cake! Yes, it was a year ago and YESSSS it was still delicious! My parents did an awesome job at packaging the cake - first they saran wrapped it, then came the foil, then they wrapped it in a bag and sealed it in a box! It tasted like it had been made yesterday. Mmmmmmmm - tasty!

With the rest of our time off, we decided to take a little vacation to good ol' Salt Lake City! On thursday, we stayed the night at Castle Creek Inn in Sandy. It's such a cool place! We stayed here on our honeymoon. The rooms are all themed around castles. They even have lion-shaped door-knockers.......and since Cortney was wearing a lion shirt, I decided it was only appropriate to snap a picture of the pair.......

On Friday, we headed to the slopes at Snowbird! The snow was a bit crusty, but the company was great!



Afterwards, we headed to La Quinta Inn in Salt Lake and got ready for a night out on the town! We went and ate some Chinese foods at Charlie Chow's. Mmm Mmm good!

And because neither of us had ever ventured to IKEA before, we decided to check it out! What an awesome store! We found all kinds of awesome things we liked! If only we had a shopping spree to that store! And as a bonus, we found a dark shade for our window so I can sleep better during the day. Afterwards, we enjoyed time watching some episodes of the Office - what a funny show! I'd never seen it before and we're starting to get into it - ha!
On Saturday, we enjoyed a delicious continental breakfast and then spent the day at the Gateway window shopping. We also saw the new movie, Alice in Wonderland (in 3D). It was a pretty good show - very creative!
After that, we got to go to the Jazz game! Woot! I always love going to the Jazz games. They're so much fun! This time, food was included in our tickets! Bonus!

We also made a very important decision this last week-we got a new camera! It's a Nikon digital SLR. Holy cow, that camera's got power! I love it! We're both hoping to get into photography a little more and learn about the photography world. Here are some shots from the night we took with the new camera.......






I'm excited to be able to capture more.....here are some of the first pics we took. We love it!




It was such a great weekend! It was nice to be able to spend so much time together and to have some fun! Too bad school starts right back up tomorrow :(

Happy 1st Anniversary!

Yes folks, it's been a whole year since we were wed! How time flies! And what an awesome year it has been! I am so happy for the decision we made to be married for time and all eternity! We have been so blessed this past year. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to spend FORVER with my best friend! I am grateful for the gospel in our lives and for the help that it gives us daily, and for our Savior Jesus Christ who made it possible for the happiness we experience. I have learned so much this past year and am soooo grateful to have such a wonderful, understanding, handsome, helpful husband to be by my side in everything I do. I love him so much and look forward to the years and the wonderful journey ahead of us! Isn't marriage the best?!?



I just love this guy!

Mission and Moving!

Last month I was heading into work when I got a phone call from my dad: "We have some good news for you. We got our mission call today!" We didn't even know they had put their papers in! They were called to the Mississippi Jackson Mission and are going to be gone for 18 months!

We are very excited for them! They will be awesome! They entered the MTC on the 8th of February and after a quick stop back here at home to pack up all their things, they are headed out to Mississippi! It's been a crazy month! They had 19 days from the time they got their call until they had to be to the MTC. So quick! They were able to speak in church a few Sundays ago, and thus all of my siblings were up visiting. It was awesome to have everyone together again! It will definitely be a great blessing for our family to have our parents serving a mission!

Here are some pictures from the night they were set-apart....






Good Luck, Elder and Sister Erickson!

While they are serving in Mississippi, Cortney and I will be living in their house and taking care of the yard (and the kitty:) ). We moved from our first apartment/house in South Ogden to my parents' house here in Clearfield on the first Saturday of February. It was definitely a good move! We have the whole house to ourselves which is nice (compared to having a family with 2 screaming kids (and screaming dad) and a dog living in a one-bedroom apartment below us). We are excited to have all this room! And the people here in the neighborhood are nice, which is a big plus. And we'll get to plant a garden! I'm excited for tomatoes and cucumbers......mmmmmm! We are already loving it a ton.

Here is us by our first house......(single tear.....)


It was a fun year living in our first apartment - it was perfect for us!
YEEE HAW!!!!

M-town Trip - Epic Road Trip Adventure!!!

Last weekend we had the opportunity to head down to Monticello to visit my sister and her family. As we were preparing our things and getting all packed up, I got a phone call from my sister. This is how the conversation went (not exactly, of course):

Kim: It's snowing like crazy and the wind is blowing like mad and I think it would be wise to just stay home.

DeAnn (looking out the window at our clear skies and clear roads here in Ogden): Naw, I think we'll be fine, really! It's can't be THAT bad, can it? We'll take the Subaru in case it snows and we'll be just fine.

Kim: Well just so you know how bad it is, they cancelled school for today and tomorrow and the drifts are pretty deep. I really advise you not to come.

DeAnn: Well, we really want to come, so I think we're going to!

Kim: Well okay, just make sure you call me back and leave a message on my phone saying it's not my fault when you guys die so our family doesn't blame me!

DeAnn: ha ha ha! It can't be that bad!

But.....

Dun dun dun........ it really was!!!!

Here's the story of our epic extreme winter driving adventure. Just a warning, it's long and detailed, so sorry! So, we leave around 3 in the afternoon and for the first 4 1/2 hours, the roads were great! Some little flurries and a small portion of the trip driving on partially snow covered roads. Not bad.......

We filled up in Moab and called Kim to let her know we'd be there in an hour. As we headed out of Moab, there's this electronic road sign that says: "Extreme Winter Driving - Travel NOT ADVISED!" At this time, it was raining a little and we just laughed at the sign. As we drove on, it began to snow lightly - no problem. As we get about 15 minutes into our drive, I see flashing lights ahead. I think to myself, "Was I really going that fast?" and then as we got closer, I could see that the police was blocking the road, meaning the road was closed. Bummer. The road was closed right at the turnoff to go to a city called La Sal. So we turned into a little parking lot there to wait a little while to see if they'd let up on the road closure. There was no cell phone service so we couldn't call anyone to let them know. So to entertain ourselves, we started watching The Emperor's New Groove. I was getting a little antsy and thought to myself, "Self, I bet there's a way around this road blockage!" So I had Cortney hand me the Utah road map from inside the glove box. As we looked, we saw a "local road" that wrapped around from the road to La Sal right back to the main road we wanted to be on. SO, we thought about it, talked about it, and decided to try it.

There wasn't a label on the road on the map, so we just guessed which road it was we needed to take. As we got closer to turning off onto this road it started snowing a little heavier. "This ain't that bad," I thought to myself. As we started on this road, there was one set of tracks in the snow from a car that had traveled on the road. The visibility was still good, so I stayed on my side of the road, using the tracks of the car to help guide my way. As we continued driving, the snow flurries got worse and worse and as we were driving, it felt like we were going into warp speed because of the way the snow was falling. I stopped a few times to let me eyes rest. As we followed the road, we came to a fork where the other car tracks had turned off....

We decided to keep going on the same road we were on and promised each other that if we started feeling wrong about where we were going that we would turn around. Well, we kept going and kept going and kept going and there was still no sign of....a sign or anything that would lead us to believe we were headed to the main road. I told myself, "Self, if we don't hit the main road in 15 minutes, we're turning around and staying the night in Moab." About 2 minutes later, we reached a stop sign. Hooray!

We turned onto this road and I, still being skeptical to whether or not it really was the main road, just kept driving. When I saw the sign for the turnoff to Canyonlands, I knew we were on the right road! We laughed because on this road there was a sign just like this one.......ha ha ha!

There were maybe 3 or 4 cars that passed us coming the other way, but we didn't see any other cars after that. The visibility kept getting worse and worse. Luckily for us, we had brought the Subaru which does AWESOME in the snow! We made it up a huge hill (passing parked cars that earlier had failed in the attempt at making it to the top) driving in the middle of the road because the visibility was so bad.

After we made it to the top of the hill, we couldn't really tell where the road was because of the visibility. To solve this, we used the reflectors on each side of the road to help us stay in the middle of the road. At this point, both Cortney and I agreed that this was possibly the dumbest thing we could've done. The reason we did it? Well, for me, I am stubborn. I wanted to get there so bad, and I was going to get there!

After a few miles of following the reflectors (which seemed like ages), we saw in the distance a snowplow coming and plowing the other side of the road. After he passed, we were able to follow in his tracks until we arrived in Monticello. As we got into town, we passed the road block from the other side. There were a few policemen outside of their cars and as we passed, they just looked at us like, "How'd you guys get through?!?" or "Where did you guys come from" - you know the look.

We were SOOOOO glad that we made it! Man, that trip was exhausting! We are now Winter Driving Extremists. We decided that from now on if a road is closed, that it is closed for a reason and not to try and weasel around it! Luckily for us, the drive home was a breeze with no extreme winter conditions :) And yes, we made it home safe and sound (to our house with a temperature of 50 degrees; our furnace had broken while we were gone) !

Overall the trip to Monticello was a lot of fun! We just hung out at the house for a couple days (we were snowed in). Cortney was able to set up Kim's computer and their Wii. We enjoyed playing the Wii sports with the kids. On Saturday we headed to Cortez to pick up a few things for the computer and other needed items. It was great to be able to spend some time with the T fam! Here are some epic pics from the trip.......

We tried to get out of the driveway, but instead we got stuck. It was that deep.....

K


If you'll look closely, you'll see my 12-year old nephew, G driving the car....ha ha ha!

K and G

Cortney, K, and I on the way to Cortez (Kim was in a store)


Epic sunset picture taken on the way home....

Trip to Kemmerer!

Over the weekend of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we took a trip to visit Scott and Holly and their family! It was a lot of fun! We got there Sunday afternoon and just spent the day with the family! It's always a lot of fun going to visit the E fam! There's never a dull moment!

We always like playing the Wii with the kids. This time, Cortney brought the new Mario for the Wii and the kids loved playing it! It was a lot of fun! We also played Mario Kart as well - you've got to play that at least a couple times when you visit the E fam!



It was a lot of fun! We probably spent too much time playing the Wii, but hey, it was worth it! And everyone had a blast! It was also fun being with the little kids who were always cheering on those who were playing the Wii.





We love you guys! Thanks for an awesome trip!