Happy times!!

Lance and I have been having the best summer. My family came out to visit for the fourth of July. We had such a great time, shooting and fireworks and eating and all other sorts of fun things. I didn't take any pictures though :(. Lance and I went to the Stadium of Fire and saw Carrie Underwood preform, along with a great patriotic service. We were way at the top row of the stadium but we were lucky because we had an amazing view of one of the best sunsets I have ever seen. It was gorgeous and made the night perfect.







We went camping up in Provo Canyon the weekend before the Fourth. Lance knew a really cool spot right by the river. It was beautiful and we had a great time, even though Lance cut his finger pretty bad. Good thing he had his first aid kit. It's almost healed now. We also hiked Stewart Falls for the second time about a month ago. We found the tree were Lance carved our names last October, which was actually the first time we ever talked about getting married. Time flies :). It was a great hike.







This weekend we celebrated Marissa's 21st birthday! Since she refuses to ever actually let me celebrate with her on her actually birthday, we had to put it off a couple days. We went to Seven Peaks Water Park with her and Andy. We had an absolute blast, even though Lance and I got sunburned pretty bad. Why the heck do we go tanning then? Useless.





We found out a couple weeks ago that my sister Sharon is having a baby girl!! Even though I was convinced it would be a boy I am sooo excited. She and Andrew are coming out here for a weekend in August and I am throwing her a shower! Everyone is invited :). I made her some adorable burp rags on my new sewing machine (easy enough for an amateur like me) and I also just finished making her a baby quilt. It is super cute (denim, pink and green) but I don't have any pics yet. Right now I am working on making a matching pillow with the extra fabric. I can't wait to have another niece.



We finally got our wedding pictures and printed and hung them around the house. I love them. I finished the wedding photo album but I'm still working on the scrapbook. Lots of pictures.

This week Lance's parents are coming to visit. I am excited but have a ton to do, especially cleaning. They are actually staying up in Park City to watch our niece Gracie for the weekend. PS we also have our first nephew, Cal Johnny Brunson. He is so adorable. Good job Shay and Britta. I can't wait to meet him.

I have so much going on this week with school too. Finals are only a couple weeks away and there is lots to do. I suspect we will be very busy for a while! But we are absolutely loving life. We are the luckiest :)

Married Life

Soo.....life has just been absolutely crazy since the moment Lance and I stepped off the plane back into Utah. Not only did we have all the typical post wedding to-do lists and stress, but we were also totally stuck in vacation mode! Fortunately, we both took a couple days off work to just run errands and try to get things in order. We had a ton of unwrapping and unpacking to do, which took a couple days on its own. Other things we accomplished on our list: legal name change, new phone/Verizon account, organizing house, bank account changes, cleaning, school items, exchanging/returning gifts and completing our registry, shower and wedding and birthday and graduation presents for friends and family, internet in the condo, insurance, paying of student loans, grocery shopping, taking care of miscellaneous wedding items, etc. That's not even everything. I know its not. I just cant think of anything else right now. On top of all of that, we got asked to help with the Webelos cub scouts every week right after we got back. So far that has been a little intimidating, but we are trying. There is lots of other church stuff to do as well. It seems like there are never enough hours in the day. On top of trying to get all of that done, we have both been working full time (ok, I never really get in a full 40 hour week. But I try.) Lance and I are having a blast though. It is so much fun setting up our new home. We have so many plans and dreams for our future. We can't wait until we have a house with a yard and a garden. Right now the condo we are living is works great though-- we feel very blessed to be so fortunate.

Amidst all the craziness of the past few weeks, Lance and managed to go down to Texas for Memorial day weekend to hang out with Lance's family and our sister-in-law Britta's family, who was visiting too. It was such a blast, even though we were only there for two and a half days. It was a much needed break. The only downside was the while we were traveling there, my keys were stolen out of my luggage at the airport. Sad, I know. So we worried about our car and condo the whole time we were gone, but thankfully everything was safe. We still had to replace everything on my keychain though, which started to get expensive (do you know how much car keys cost??!).I curled my hair that morning but we can't tell because of the Texas humidity.

While we were there, Joy and Brent's glass table snapped right in half! Too many people leaning on one side looking at photos....
Lance's mom captured us dancing in the middle of a Texas thunderstorm. We just couldn't help it; it was so romantic.


The great news is, this is my last week of work! Next Monday, full-time summer classes start for me. Although my feelings about that may change in the next couple weeks- I am taking a pretty full load so I can try to graduate sooner. So I have about a million things I am trying to finish before classes start. There are still some things in the condo that need to be organized, thank you notes to be written (slowly but surely working on it!), plants to plant, pictures to take care of (hopefully wedding pictures by the 26th!!), and lots of other things to get down. I am trying not to get overwhelmed and to take it one step at a time. To-do lists have been my best friend for the past 6 months, and I know they wont let me down now! Wish us luck with everything going on, we may need it!

PS I am going to be an aunt again at the end of the year, I am absolutely thrilled, and I am positive that its going to be a boy. We find out July 8th. Just wanted to state my official opinion. :)

Honeymoon!!!

Lance and I have been back from our honeymoon for a month, so I figured its about time to write a blog about it. Basically, all I can say is that it was the most amazing honeymoon I could have ever dreamed of. It was straight out of a movie. After staying in the honeymoon suite in a hotel near the airport on our wedding night, Lance took me an isolated resort in the Bahamas for a week and a half. It was GORGEOUS. The only beaches I have ever been were super crowded ones. But here we had entire beaches to ourselves. The resort we stayed at (St. Francis Resort-- I would recommend it highly to anyone) was pretty much the only thing on the island, and it only had 8 little duplexes, about half of which were full when we were there. In this picture, the restaurant is on the left and our room was on the right.

The resort is owned by this adorable older couple from South Africa who live their on the island with their son. They run the little restaurant that we ate lunch and dinner at everyday. The only way to get to the island was a water taxi from the nearby larger island, Great Exuma, that had a little airport we flew into.

Our honeymoon was so relaxing because there wasnt a whole lot to do. Our room was nice but simple, and there were no phones, internet, or tvs. We had a balcony that looked out onto our beautiful white empty beach. Here was the view from our room:

There was lots to do on the island, so we spent our days tanning, playing in the water, building sand castles, hiking to different spots, kayaking, snorkeling, and just walking on the beach.



The sand was soo soft. Every morning, they brought breakfast to our room, then we would go play on the beach or in the water, and then usually do other activities in the afternoon. By late afternoon we were always exhausted so we would have an early dinner. (They had great food. Hamburgers, pizza, steak, lots of seafood for Lance). The sunsets were beautiful every right; it was just so romantic.

In the evening we usually went for walks on the beach and then would go back to our room and watch Lost on my laptop. It was just so nice and relaxing and romantic. I have never had so much fun in my life.I really do think I am the luckiest girl in the whole world! Lance and I were pretty sad to leave but we had so much to look forward to when we got home!
Starfish Bay! One of our favorite places to snorkel.

On one of the last nights there was a big storm and the waves were huge! Lance cut up his leg getting this picture.
Dinner the last night-- we dressed up a little. Still swimsuits though :)

Leaving the island for the last time. Best honeymoon ever!!

Wedding!!!!

YAY!!! Lance and I are finally married. Seriously, I thought it would never happen. But it did, and we have now been married for just over three weeks. I have a ton to write about, but not a lot of time, so I'm going to just give a brief outline. We don't have our official wedding pictures yet so the ones in this post are from Lance's mom and grandma.

First of all, our wedding day was perfect. I could not have asked for anything better. We were worried all week because it was supposed to be raining (we even bought a really cute umbrella we could use in pictures if we had to), but it was beautiful and sunny the whole day. That morning was crazy; I had to get up at 6:30 to make sure I was ready on time. I spent the whole morning rushing around (thanks to Marissa and Becca for being the best bridesmaids and dutifully helping me!). We got to the temple at one, and our sealing was at two. The ceremony was beautiful, but I don't remember much about it. We were so glad that many of our family members and friends could be there with us. After the sealing in the temple, I changed into my wedding dress and Lance and I came out of the temple. I actually found out later that he came out without me to shave beforehand:(. Anyway, walking out of the temple with my husband was the best feeling I have ever felt.
We couldn't stop smiling. Lance kept staring at me and telling me how beautiful I was-- it was adorable. We took lots and lots and LOTS of picture for the next two and a half hours.













I was so impressed with our bridesmaids and groomsmen- they were so patient! By the time we were finished we were exhausted but barely had time to grab some Burger King and head straight to the reception.

The reception was amazing. SO much better than I could have imagined. Seriously I had a blast. The music was awesome (we picked it out :)), the decorations beautiful, and the cake delicious.














We didn't really have a receiving line, but instead just wandered around talking to guests. We had our first dance as a couple to our song, "Two is Better Than One".






Lance taught me how to two-step and I didn't even mess up!






Then we had a father-daughter dance, which was great. My parents are amazing. They helped out so much with everything.




My dad even built us a mini wishing well to put cards in which in now on our front porch and I will keep forever.









Our cake was beautiful, with our awesome Mr. and Mrs. Smith-style cake topper-- perfect for us.

Luckily Lance was a gentleman and didn't shove it in my face.












We also did the bouquet and garter toss, which was a lot of fun.










All the wedding flowers turned out BEAUTIFUL, which was good because I really wasn't sure how they were going to look, but I loved them.At the reception my father-in-law also sang 3 George Strait songs (he is a King George impersonator) which were great. We actually started a spontaneous line dance to one-- that's what you get with a bunch of Texans in the room! He also sang "I Cross My Heart" which Lance and I slowed danced to. It was soo romantic. I have never been so happy before. We are so grateful to all our friends and family, they did so much to help us, especially our grandparents who put in so much effort to be there. We ended up leaving the reception around 9:45.
Lance's siblings decorated the rental car we were taking--it was so cute. One of Lance's friends boxed up some food from the reception, which was great because it was delicious and we didn't get to eat any there. They also had everyone make a tunnel and cheer as we ran out to the car.

It was so much fun. Lance and I stayed in the honeymoon suite at a hotel near the airport that night. We had to get up at 5:30 the next morning to catch our shuttle to the airport. The day was a fairy tale but very long and we were so tired.

Under 2 weeks!!!!

The good news is, I survived my wisdom teeth removal. Barely. Actually, it really wasn't that bad. I was only on pain meds for a day and a half. Lance was sooo sweet and took really good care of me. He even wrote a blog because I asked him to. What a sweetheart. Anyway, here are a few other updates from the past couple weeks:

Bridal showers:
Marissa threw me pretty much the best bridal shower EVER. All my friends/roommies/sisters that were in town came (and others were very much missed). I got fantastic presents (lots of cute lingerie!) and we played fun games like Kelly Scene-It and the Lance/Kelly answer match game. We also burned our kissing map with stickers on all the states where the boys we kissed were from. It was a great way to move on from the past....

My aunts also threw me a really great shower for all the extended family that I have in Provo. I got so much great kitchen stuff including a pizza stone, dutch oven, ice maker, donut cutter-- all traditional Larsen favorites. Yum!

My 21st birthday was also a few weeks ago. Lance and I celebrated it quietly, but he did make me an angel food cake and decorated my kitchen! We went to dinner and saw a movie later on. He also got me the cutest present: a blanket that has a baby picture of me woven in to it. It was so unique and matches one that he received as a present a while ago. I think we are going to display both of them at the reception.

Easter/General Conference. Awesome. I LOVE Easter. It has always been my favorite holiday. Celebrating it with Lance was the best. We made Easter baskets for each other, dyed hard boiled eggs, and even made a Easter bunny house! (kind of like a gingerbread house...new tradition? I think so.) We has a delicious Easter dinner with Shay and Britta (Lance's brother and wife) and Stuart and Genevieve. We also really enjoyed General Conference. I managed to stay awake for almost all the sessions, and Lance loved priesthood session.

I am soo happy that I am finally done with school! I took my last final yesterday and I just have to finish writing one paper. It feels great. Now I can focus on work, moving, and wedding stuff! We are almost done with everything! There are just a million little details that need to fall into place. It's actually really starting to stress me out, especially because I can't control everything. But I'm so excited about it all.

Bad news: I'm worried about BYU football. Lance and I went to the Blue and White scrimmage last weekend. It went okay, but most of the team is just so inexperienced and we don't even know who the quarterback will be. And the real blow: Harvey Unga is withdrawing from BYU. NOOOOOO!!!!! He was pretty much the glue (and the talent) of the team. He and he girlfriend are withdrawing for "honor code violations." Guesses anyone? I'm so upset. It's going to be painful next season.

Today was my last Sunday in a BYU singles ward. What a sad part of my life to end... NOT. I realized that I managed to make it 3 years without ever having to give a talk one. How lucky. Lance and I are going to visit our new ward next Sunday. I'm so excited-- it's a family ward!

My friend/roommate Annie (who would have been the 6th bridesmaid) left on her mission this past week. I miss her already. She is going to be awesome.

Yesterday Lance and I went to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point for the first time. It was really really beautiful. There were so many unique flowers that I had never seen before. Unfortunately we don't have a working camera right now so we didn't take any pictures except this one on my phone of super mini daffodils! So cute!

Clearly, we have been super busy the past few weeks, and it's only going to get worse I think. Tomorrow after work I have dentist and shopping to do, and I'm going to start moving my stuff into Lance's condo! Honestly I can't wait to get out of this house... Next week can't come too soon! I'm going home in nine days....can't wait to see my family!!

Wow long post. Sorry folks :)

And the countdown has begun...

So Kelly had her wisdom teeth removed today, and she's currently sound asleep, which has given me the perfect opportunity to provide a quick update on our oh-so-interesting lives :).

So we're down to less than three weeks before the Big Day. We've handled just about all of the loose ends that were driving us crazy: we've managed to stay pretty current on thank-you notes, we've resent returned invitations, we've firmed up reception/decoration details, Kelly finally heard back from the flower lady and lined up the flowers, and I finally got my tux. I have the wonderful privilege and distinct honor of wearing a blackish tuxedo with a purple vest and purple bow tie...a very masculine shade of purple of course, but that should go without saying :).

We had a nice little family dinner on Easter with Shay and Britta, Stuart and Genevieve, and some other friends, and now we're just about sick of left-over ham :). As part of my "Easter basket" (a foreign concept to me I must admit), Kelly got us tickets to the "Man Expo" for this past Saturday, and it was a blast...all kinds of cars, off-road vehicles/toys, exhibitions (wake boarding, skate boarding, vehicle demolition, etc.), and a few firearms and accessories. Way too many nutritional supplement booths if you ask me though...

This morning Kelly was scheduled to have all four of her wisdom teeth removed. After hearing horror stories from Stuart and Genevieve and Shay and Britta, we were a little nervous as you can imagine. But as it turned out, Kelly's top two came right out without any problem whatsoever, her bottom two weren't quite ready, and the Doc didn't feel comfortable removing them since they were still embedded in the nerve. As the Doc was outlining the situation to me, he explained that Kelly's breathing had been somewhat restricted during the surgery so far and asked if Kelly snored. Kelly, still in the surgery chair in another room, yelled adamantly with numb mouth and slurred/grumpy voice, "I don't snore!" The doc and I just started laughing. :) It was adorable. Of course, the nurse stated that Kelly would probably not remember much of the next 24 hours...but we'll see.

I love spring!!

YAY! Spring is finally officially here. Today was beautiful. After church Lance and I went to the park and threw around the frisbee for a little while. It was soo nice. There were a ton of other people there though so it was a little crowded. Last fall, I planted a bunch of flower bulbs in the little dirt patch outside my door. The daffodils are starting to bloom! I love spring! It is totally the best season. And work is starting to get fun again instead of miserable and cold. Hopefully no more shoveling snow-I'm an optimist! And only three more weeks of classes!

The big news for us this week is that we FINALLY, after hours and hours of work, got invitations sent out! We are all done with them except for maybe 10 we need to hand deliver. What a great relief. It was stressing me out so bad. The only real big thing we have left to plan is flowers. Only 40 more days left! Oh and I think I found the centerpieces I want for the reception. They are super cute and pretty cheap.

I am excited too because we got our first Bed Bath & Beyond present from our registry from Lance's grandma, Mumsy. She is so sweet. I'm excited cause our registry is pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. She also sent me some birthday decorations and a bridal shower and wedding scrapbooks! She really is so thoughtful and generous.

Speaking of bridal showers, I am sooo excited for mine this weekend. Marissa has gone all out- she really is the best Maid of Honor a bride could ask for. She has been so great and supportive this whole time, and she has come up with some great shower ideas (some of which she wont tell me about....). This weekend is going to be awesome with my shower and then the Festival of Colors after and then next Tuesday is my birthday! I will finally be 21! Lance wont tell me anything he has planned. ugh. I hate surprises. Not really. But they are hard for me.

Last weekend was really cool. Lance and I hiked the Y (he had never done it before. 8 years of living in Provo. And he is so outdoorsy. How is this possible? He claims he just like to avoid cliche things. I guess that's a possibility.) at sunset. It was a beautiful view. On Saturday we had to go up to Salt Lake to take care of some stuff, so while we were up there, we saw the new Alice in Wonderland movie in the Imax theater in 3-D. It was really good. I would recommend it to anyone. Then we went to Tucanos for dinner because I had a free coupon for my birthday month. Tucanos is delicious. One of my favorite restaurants because it is all you can eat of like 10 different meats cooked Brazilian style, plus a salad bar. Mmmm....

This weekend was pretty low key for us. To reward ourselves for finishing invitations, we took a little break from wedding planning. On Friday night we got to babysit my niece, Chiara. She is sooo cute but unfortunately doesn't like me much (shes only 4 months. shes hasn't learned yet that i will spoil her outrageously.). So of course she cried a lot, and of course Lance was the only one who could get her to stop, so he would put her to sleep and then I would hold her. It was tiring but still fun :) Stuart and Gen are such great parents.

Church was really good today. Annie gave her farewell talk. She is leaving for her mission in England in just a couple weeks. I cant believe it. Sunday School was really good too cause we started a new marriage prep class and it was just such good discussion. The teacher had us make lists about characteristics of ourselves and our fiance(e)s. Lance put some really sweet stuff about me but I laughed out loud when he said athletic. Does he have me confused with someone else? I sure hope not. That would make things awkward on the wedding day.

Speaking of Lance, I asked him the other day if he would ever write on this blog. He said he wouldn't mind, but he didn't want Merrill to think he was wussy. Haha. He prolly has a valid point. Hi, Jamie. Please show this to Merrill. I miss you and Darci. On that note, I hope everyone has a great week! Happy Monday!