Spring is Coming

So spring is slowly starting to creep its way into the Maine weather patterns, though today you would have assumed winter would be here a while longer. Nevertheless, I can feel that spring air and sunshine are coming and with it, hopefully, a better attitude about being here. Things are going alright for us these days, though there seems to be no job opportunities coming our way to carry us back out West. So in the mean time, I am working at the local tanning salon and Dallan is contemplating a Masters Degree. I have been having a bit of fun with my photography class though and of course now I desperately want a camera. 

photography class picture

Some bad news came last week when I found out my dad's surgery for his colon went badly at some point in time and he took a turn for the worst. Finding this out at about 10pm I booked at flight around midnight, packed, left at 3am for Portland Airport(2 hrs away) for a 6am flight. The roads were terrible since it had just snowed about a foot, and then of course as fate would have it we had a "maintenance issue" with plane and it was delayed 2 hrs causing me to miss my connecting flight. My new connecting flight was another hour and half wait until they then were "cleaning" the plane and needed to delay it another hour and a half. Needless to say I was finally arrived pissed off. haha. Luckily, my Dad pulled through and is doing much better now, but it certainly was a big scare. 
Spending time in Colorado with my sisters was a good time for sure, along with my cute little niece! Jared hooked me up and introduced me to Keegan from the D Bar Desserts (Judge on Food Networks Cake Challenges) which was really fun! He was a way nice guy and told me I had potential, so now I just need to work my way up to being on Challenge! haha. I also got to get me some Costa Vida while I was there and ate an entire large sweet pork salad in one sitting! I usually only get about half way through, so it was pretty impressive that I ate it all. It was so good! YUM! We also decided to take on a little interior decorating project while my dad was in the hospital and redecorated his living room which was a complete disaster. He has been to South Africa twice now and took some cool pictures so we blew them up and redecorated his room to fit a modern african theme. turned our pretty good if I do say so myself, considering we didn't spend much!

Dad's new living room!

I think we accidentally moved to the Arctic!

So as I'm sitting here this morning looking outside at the snow falling and blowing around and I see all of the over 12 ft high snow mounds everywhere, I feel like I minus well have moved to the Arctic! At least then I would have some really cool snow dogs and I'd feel like I was working for National Geographic, and maybe I would. But alas, here we are in Maine.
Dallan and I took a little trip over Christmas/ New Years and went to Washington and Florida, and on a cruise! Which was so so nice, not quite as good as our honeymoon, I don't really like Carnival that much, but it was nice just the same. We went to Freeport and Nassau which was very pretty. I hate places like the caribbean and the bahamas though because you always want to move there because its so pretty, but the surrounding areas are some of the most run down and ghetto places you will ever see. It's such a disappointment really because it detracts so much from the beautiful place that it is! Not than I'm trying to rip on the people there for being poor, I just think its weird that some of the most beautiful places in the world are some of the poorest, especially if there was no tourism.
I have never seen so many morbidly obese people in one place in my life. I would say that at least 85% of the cruise ship were just that. Needless to say as I'm sitting at the buffet looking around, I suddenly loose my appetite to eat so much food as I see others stuffing their faces with platefuls of food. That's probably mean, but it is a pet peeve of mine when I see horribly overweight people shoveling huge amounts of food into their mouths. There was a lot of good people watching though, I think that is one of our favorite pastimes!

We also made it out the Hogwarts! That is to say "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter!" It was so cool, unfortunately so insanely crowded we waiting one hour to get into the park, and the 3.5 to get into the harry potter world, during which time we were in front of the most annoying group of older people ever! This one lady was acting like a drunken college girl laughing at EVERYTHING and thinking she was just so hilarious, and let me tell you she had the most annoying and loud laugh I have ever heard! I think that you probably could have heard her from the other side of the park.
 We did get to go with my sister Nicki, which was really fun! I haven't seen her in forever and sadly we only had that one day before she left to go back to UT.

So since being back I have started taking a class at Dallan's school and am teaching myself German and French. For some reason I always fall into a French accent when trying to have a German one. We are going to Utah in May at least, maybe I'll venture out somewhere in March too for spring break, preferably somewhere warm!

Seriously though, we suck at blogging!

So it's been quite a while since our last update. Dallan and I became Uncle Dallan and Aunt Dana when Sophie was born in July! She is very very cute and is growing so fast already! So August came around and Dallan got a call from a College in Maine about a job opportunity they wanted him for. So like August 8th or something they flew him out there for an interview and basically offered him the job of a Live Sound Instructor, which he accepted! They wanted us out there by the 16th! So we had one week to pack up our whole house, but unfortunately Dallan was going to be out of town in Wyoming on a gig that whole week, so it was up to me. Lets me just say, we have a lot of stuff! Moving sucks and doing it that fast with no help sucks even worse. I guess I could have asked someone to help, but really I figured I'd spend more time talking and instructing them on what to pack where that it wouldn't really be very helpful at all. Luckily friends and family came to help us load everything in the moving truck!
So off to Maine we went. I had no idea what it was going to be like, having never been anywhere in New England other than NYC, which I don't think really counts. After stopping in Colorado, we drove for 4 days with Sadi in tow. She was a good girl of course. So finally we arrived in Bangor! It was dark and I felt totally lost and out of place, and there were no city lights or many stores and I'll admit I was freaking out a bit. We spent the next 2 weeks trying to get our living situation sorted and were able to get a really nice town home less than a mile from Dallan's work. We really lucked out because lets just say I was crying the first day after looking at some of the dumps in the area!
So we (well mainly me) are slowly adjusting to the town being much smaller than any place I've lived before. The bigger city of Portland is 2 hrs away, which we just found out they are opening a chipotle in and they also have Costa Vida! So we don't make it out there very often. I got a job a Macy's which is... well it's retail and I hate working retail,  but I needed a job, so at least its a little income, but I'm gonna try and find something else if possible ASAP. Dallan is enjoying his job alright and things are going well. We aren't sure how long we will be here, but we'll just have to see what comes our way!
Oh I almost forgot, I totally got a calling after the first week of being here basically, in the Young Women. First Counselor! I keep thinking I'm not old enough to be a First Counselor in YW, but I guess I am cuz our Secretary is 21 and our President is 32. Weird though! And it gets better because my first lesson I had to teach was on Chastity! Like the hardest/ most awkward lesson, but it actually went really well and wasn't awkward which was good.
The fall leaves were very pretty but didn't last very long. We did get some delicious apples from an orchard, the best way to get them in the fall. We spent Thanksgiving with a family from the ward, which was good and delicious! And now we are getting ready to go to Washington for Christmas followed by Florida for new years, and hopefully and cruise to the Bahamas! YAY!!!! We haven't been a vacation just to the two of us since our honeymoon really, so this will be fun! We miss all of our friends and its been really hard to find any up here. People are a little.... interesting. In fact its kind of like watching "people of walmart" all the time! No one in our ward are our age really, but at least we have each other!
Oh also, we went and saw Harry Potter 7 on IMAX and it was so good! I'm so exited for the next one because that is the one where everything is going to happen and it is going to be awesome! And now we get to go to Harry Potter World in a couple weeks and its going to be awesome!

Wow, it has been so long, we suck at Blogging!

Well lets see, our last post was in August which means it's been 7 months since our last post! Wups! Well, for starters Dallan and I both had our birthdays in October so we went to Disney World with my sister Sjanna and my brother-in-law Jared. It was a lot of fun and it was Halloween so naturally we went to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party! We dressed up, I had made a Mary Poppins Costume and Sjanna was Snow White. The boys were party-poopers and didn't dress up of course, but it was a lot of fun and we got a lot of candy! We also went to SeaWorld on one of the days we were there and we saw that they had that new roller coaster ride the Manta Ray or something? Anyways, what you do is you sit like a normal coaster with your feet dangling, then they lift you up so that you are laying flat down on your stomach so its more like you're flying or swimming I guess. So we start going and I hadn't even looked at the tracks because I didn't think to (I don't do too well with all roller coasters) and we start going and it barrel rolls you SO fast and multiple times, and then I see the loop, and I'm thinking thats weird..it looks... OH CRAP! yea so you know how you usually go up backwards over a loop? yep, not on manta ray! you are laying down and then you dive head first straight down and keep going over the outside of the loop!!! it was awful! well, at least I thought so! Dallan and Jared really liked it but I felt kinda sick after. THEN I was really smart and went from there directly to the Kraken! I had forgotten that the last time I went I got up to it, looked at the track and left and never rode it... so I didn't do that this time and got on. And I was SO SO sick afterwards plus it was really hot outside which didn't help. But all in all it was still fun! I mean it's Disney World!

So in November Dallan and Sydney and I all went to Nashville to visit, I think for Dallan to try and find a job? I don't really know, I just tagged along. But we went to Paramore concert the first night and saw Taylor Swift! She was sitting like 4 rows ahead of us. Then we kinda mossied around and went to Franklin and to the Parthenon, or is it the Pantheon? nope, Parthenon I think.

Thanksgiving: well, Dallan and I successfully hosted and made our first family Thanksgiving dinner! Dallan's parents came out and I think we did a pretty good job! It was tasty!

Christmas: Dallan and I both had to work, Dallan at Costco and I at Sundance again as a snowboard instructor. I had to get nose surgery at the beginning of the month because I literally couldn't breath through my nose at night and it was really becoming a big problem. So its all fixed now and I breath great and am so happy! its the first time since I can remember that I can sleep on either side of my body and still breath! Might sound silly but its a big deal when you haven't been able to! Anyways, Dallan and I ended up working Christamas eve and went over to his Aunt's house for dinner and it was excellent! New years came and I honestly went to bed around 10 because I had work early and had been working like 7 days in a row.

Lately: well more recently, Sundance ended and I'm not on the job hunt! AGAIN... I applied to work at Disney World again, or rather auditioned and didn't make it! not even fur! I was so mad, but APPARENTLY they are being really stingy with who they hire and aren't hiring much, so I guess I can't feel too bad about it. Also, Sjanna, my sister, is pregnant! with a little girl! YAY! should be cool, I've never really been around a baby before, she is due end of Julyish. My sister Nicki came out to visit from Hawaii in March which was fun! I hadn't seen her in a while. She is engaged and is supposedly getting married in September possibly? Syd's b-day came up as well, and I made her cake of course!

Alice in Wonderland/Tim Burton inspired, cuz I know she likes black and purple.

So basically now Dallan and I are just looking for jobs, and I have been updating the house a bit, landscaping and I repainted our kitchen table and made pillows and stuff. It looks cute I think. Well spring is here, and I'm hoping we move here soon and then I can find something more permanent to do!

PS- I learned to do backside 360! (that is a snowboard term if you were thinking something dirty)

We went to Europe?

So we went to Europe in mid June this summer! YAY! It was fun of course. Yep, me, Dallan and his parents went off to London where we met up with Sydney( Dallan's sister) who was doing study abroad there. Lets take a recap of what happened whilst we were there: (I'll do my best to remember anyways)

DAY 1:

Left for New York City with Dallan, and lets just say we will NEVER fly into JFK airport ever again if we can avoid it. Besides waiting for an hour to taxi, we then had to wait another hour for our bags. So we spent the evening and most of the next day in New York walking around the city, ate at Olive Garden while it rained, and then went to central park! We then got to spend another 2 hrs waiting to take off that evening for London. I wish I could say I slept like a baby on the plane at least, but that wasn't the case. Even with taking 2 unisoms, I could not get comfortable enough to sleep! I hate plan seats!

DAY 2:  We Arrive
So we get to London and get on our trains to Paddington Station and then from there we somehow manage to cram into the little taxi's that they have with all of our luggage! I love their little taxis! I mean, not comfortable by any means, but they are somehow cute. I felt very Harry Pottery.

Anyways, having not slept all night and being up for 31 hrs tends to take its toll. Somehow we managed to have enough energy to go to this Peter Pan play in Kensington Gardens (where the story originated) which was pretty cool. So we hit the hay early that night, around 8 I think, I was exhausted and my allergies which I never usually have flared up so bad I couldn't even concentrate on anything but how itchy and sneezy I was!

DAY 3: Site Seeing!
The next day we made it out fairly early and got on one of those tour bus things, gay I know, but actually quite an efficient way of getting around to all the sites you want to see, I would recommend it. Anyways, we headed off first to Buckingham Palace where we watched the changing of the guard, or tried to, but it was so crazy busy I couldn't really see anything. The best part of this experience was this crazy lady behind me who seemed to think I was a leaning post that she could grab onto to push herself so SHE could see! What the heck? do I even know you, I am not really comfortable with strange women grabbing my shoulders. So after failed attempts at getting her to stop using me as a pushing post, we left.

Next we ventured to Big Ben and Parliament! and while we were there we toured inside of Westminster Abbey, not to be confused with West- minIster Abbey, hahaha. I knew what it was but I did say it wrong once and got caught! (just by syd though) Unfortunately they don't let you take pictures inside of the Abbey, but it was quite cool, lots of history.

Next was my favorite non-historical part of the trip! Very non-historical- we went to the Tranformers 2 Premiere in London in Leicester Square. Yeah we got to see all the stars as the arrived to the Premier and we surprising close as they came around to sign autographs! Syd almost got Megan Fox's. All I can remember is some kid screaming "take off your clothes" to Megan Fox, and then of course all the girls were crazy about Shia, who is just as cute in real life :) love you Dallan.

Anyways, we then moved on and went over the London Tower Bridge and to the Tower of London.

DAY 4: Just the 3 of us...

Well Dallan's mom wasn't feeling too well this day, so the 3 of us set off on a tour led by our guide Sydney. First off to lunch at the Hard Rock in London. Apparently we Americans pronounce the Thames River "funny" 'cause they say "thymes" or something. Also went to the Disney store and some crazy store just packed with people that it was so annoying I only made it out with one $4 shirt!
Anyways, we toured around shopping areas and stuff and made our way BACK to Buckingham Palace now that it wasn't so crazy packed with people. Then we were off to find Abbey Road , ya know, like as in the Beatles? Then off to the London Eye. Course by the time we got off our "tube" stop i was starving and not the happiest camper, so we made an amazing McDonald's stop! Love McD's!!! Turns out its kinda expensive to ride on a ferris wheel... and I'm just not that into ferris wheels. But hey, we saw it and it was large.

Day 5: Off to Paris!

So we take the Eurostar to Paris and that evening are off to visit the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe. Turns out the Eiffel Tower really is BIG! Like the Statue of LIberty is disappointingly small, but this really is as grand as you think it is! We stopped by a little cafe near the tower to have dinner which was yummy. I was going to order in French because I had been practicing and learning some French to be prepared, but then everyone else starting just talking in english, so I felt dumb ordering in French :(



DAY 6: Lots to see!
Well, this morning as I recall didn't exactly start great. After waiting a good hour to finally leave the hotel, we went back to the tower so we could go to the top. Unfortunately, by the time we did actually get there, the line was 3 hrs long which meant we just lost 3 hours of our day! So we had to hurry to check out first, Notre Dame. We ate some lunch after at this little cafe and I got this AWESOME baguette sandwich which I would fly back to Paris for.

Next was off to the Louvre which was so cool on the outside! not that the inside isn't cool, but I just like the architecture. Of course we then saw the Mona Lisa among many other famous and sometimes interesting paintings and sculptures. That place is HUGE! I mean you could spend a whole day there if you are into that sort of thing.

Next was my pick for visiting, the Chateau de Versailles! Just the Palace ya know and gardens. Apparently we missed by one night this cool fireworks show they do in the gardens in the summer evenings. But we did get to hear the music playing as they tested it while we were there so that made it fun! Felt like I should have been in a big dress.

DAY 7: Back to Jolly Ol' London

Well it was back to London. We were going to go to Rome, but it was just too expensive and would take like 9hrs to get there, so whatever, another time perhaps. We had to of course stop by Kings Cross and go to Platform 9 and 3/4! Then Syd wanted to take us to Portobello Road which I only had heard of in the classic Disney film Bed knobs and Broomsticks. Turns out not as cool as you might think. It was just one big,huge,long farmers market along this road. SOOOO much stuff for sales. We kept walking and walking, finally hitting the food area and then I was done with it.

For lunch we went back to Kensington Gardens and ate at the Orangery. I was daring and got something no one expected me to eat, and it was great! Loved it actually. some shredded beef thing with bread.

That evening Dal says he's going out to get a drink, an hour later I begin to panic. Where is he? it doesn't take but 5 minutes to go get a drink across the street. did he get mugged? stabbed? is he laying dead somewhere in a dark alley and now I have no way to reach him since we can't use our phones? I finally got dressed and set out on a search. My first thought was that he was in his parent's room, only I didn't know which room they were in. Luckily I ran into his mom just outside my door, asked if she had seen Dallan, and she told me he was in their room. WEH! what a relief.

DAY 8: Cheerio!
Welp, that concluded our trip to london. We flew out the next day, stayed in Connecticut with Dallan's aunt that night, and flew out the next day back for home! What a trip! Long, lots of flying, but once in a lifetime!