Cross country ski date

So back for Sheldon’s birthday I bought us tickets to go Cross country skiing (in March) through the BYUI student activities. Honestly I was pretty worried it might be cancelled because we had been having warm weather and it seemed like all the snow had melted. Snow is important for skiing you know…

We had faith that the event would go through. So, Friday night we packed our lunches. I only really had peanut butter jelly sandwiches, granola bars, and little oranges to pack. We were ready.

There were only 5 people on the trip with 3 volunteer leaders. So 8. It was a fun little group. We all got fitted for gear and packed into the student activity van. We took off to Mesa Falls, in Targhee National Forrest, that is only about an hour away from campus. Not too bad. Best part is that the tickets were $10 each, which easily was better than renting the equipment and the gas to drive there. I highly recommend taking advantage of the outdoor adventures offered on campus.

Much to our surprise when we arrived there was PLENTY of snow. Funny how elevation has that effect.

It was a beautiful place. We overpacked warm clothes because we didn’t know what to expect so we brought heavy coats, gloves, and even snow pants. But we didn’t need all that. Throughout the ascent we began shedding layers. I quickly realized what a workout it would be. Soon we made it to the trail and signed in. This is where the back woods part of the skiing adventure began. There were lots of trees and slush/ice as obstacles along the way.

Little by little we learned the tricks to stay standing along nature’s path to the falls. But to be honest we all fell. A lot. It was pretty common, even for the volunteer leaders.

After so much wedding planning, Sheldon and I needed a fun all day activity for the two of us. It was a good quality date, but also quite the workout!

Well I had my own little scary moment. I was getting pretty good at riding the little bumps in the route, until we came to one that was particularly close to the edge of the cliff. I lost balance and fell, and my heavy backpack was dragging me down with it. I felt so clumsy and helpless there. The only thing between me and the edge was a thin little tree that would have caught me had a have fallen down even a few more inches. Stuck and scared I just sat there for a minute to gather my strength and balance again. Needless to say, I stayed very far away from the edge the rest of the trip. That sometimes required I take the long way around.

I think what kept us going was the hope to see the waterfalls, and also to have a lunch break. They kept looking at a tiny little map saying its only another mile-ish. Which was said many times… until we just decided to stop for lunch and skip seeing the falls. OOPS! I think the leaders got us lost. Oh well, it’ll have to be a hike trip in the summer.

Anyways after lunch we were all just ready to be done and were all tired. My legs especially were giving out and arms were shaking. Yet I was determined to make it back. Sheldon was my awesome support the whole time, he kept me going when I didn’t think I had the strength to make it back. But we did. We all made it back alive. I think they decided it was about 8 miles that we ended up doing total.

That evening we went to Idaho Falls and joined a few others from my ward to volunteer at a local soup kitchen. We made chicken noodle to give to the people there.

After all that hard work, we celebrated the Birthday of one of Sheldon’s best friends. We met up with a bunch of people at Texas Roadhouse. Food has never tasted so good!

We always like being busy and packing our short weekends full. We don’t have too much time together, so we have to enjoy the time that we get. This was a very full weekend, so it was a very good weekend!

Less than 40 days until the wedding!

I said YES to the dress!

 

Friday morning I woke up just giddy! I was going to see my family that afternoon!!!!

So this weekend we had had planned that some of my family would come visit me. This was going to be a fin girl’s weekend: Mom flew out from Illinois then drove up to Idaho along with Grandma and my sister! It was warming up outside too, so they didn’t have to worry about the snow on the drive up; which was a huge blessing!

 

Friday evening they threw me a bridal shower! It was so perfect. My mom has always been the ribbon girl so she made this “mum” for me. It was quite obvious that I was the bride… haha.

 

The Lounge here was decorated so nicely! There were flowers, tablecloths, balloons, banners, yummy food, cupcakes, beautifully wrapped packages, etc! It was wonderful! (thank goodness mom took pictures on her phone.)

 

Thanks to all my friends that came too! I felt very supported and loved!

 

McKinsey and Grandma did a wonderful job at entertaining us with games. I shared some funny stories and I didn’t get too embarrassed! Everyone was so kind to come and make time that weekend to celebrate with me. I also really appreciate the gifts! I truly have the best friends and family ever!

That evening I went to my family’s hotel room and we enjoyed just talking for the rest of the evening and like 5 minutes at the pool. It was a wonderful day…

 

Well maybe even more exiting than my bridal shower, the next day we had planned to go find my wedding dress! We had one day to do it while everyone was in town. So we went to 3 different stores; one in Rexburg and two in Idaho Falls. the best part is, we were successful! I probably tried on like 20 dresses, but we finally found the one!! (and no, I will not post pictures of it yet. hehe.) It was fun because once I found the perfect dress, we face-timed my dad and Rebecca so they could see it too! Currently it is at the seamstress to be altered before the big day!

I said YES to the dress!

 

Even though I only got less than 2 days with my family here with me in Idaho, they were times we will never forget. I wish you could have stayed longer! It means so much that they traveled the distance to spend this special time together!

 

 

My Valentine

To get into the Valentines day mood, I made sure to stop at the BYUI plant shop on Friday to pick up a new plant…. I got 3 cacti. perfect size for my bookshelf. I couldn’t resist! I also got a fun care package from my family with chocolates and these cute tissue paper pom pom decorations.

So we started the weekend at Applebee’s for dinner and both got a yummy macaroni and spicy chicken dish. We had to celebrate his birthday and 1,000 days together. That evening we watched a movie.

Saturday was our “Valentine’s day” so we exchanged gifts. I got flowers, a balloon, and chocolates. He got chocolate and a handmade jar of stars with “100 reasons why I love him” written on each one.

We also had lots of wedding prep plans; We bought Shel some new white pants, scanned in his baby pictures for a slideshow, and compiled all our addresses onto printable labels! I also bought Sheldon’s ring and we searched online for other details like ties and decorations.

That evening I made dough and cooked us a heart-shaped pizza. It was an easy fun way to do valentines dinner. Here is the simple recipe for the crust- thank you Pinterest!

After dinner, we had just enough time to dress up for our evening Valentine’s dance on campus.

The funny part is that we read on the schedule that it was a formal dance so we wore church clothes, but man were we underdressed…. some girls showed up in prom dresses! It gave us a good laugh along with the music selection of mostly disney…. Well, neither of us are very good at dancing, but we sure enjoyed ourselves!

On Sunday we did church in the morning. We had forgotten to have the sparkling cider earlier on… so we had it with popcorn. Cheers!

 

Love Is In The Air

I mean, we have gotten pretty good at taking selfies, but we thought we would take some time and get some real pictures taken for once. So we had our engagement pictures taken by the amazing CelineRachelle this weekend, her husband also came along to help out. She captured us exactly as I wanted, she’s so good at knowing personality styles and portraying that in her photos. I love the colors and everything about our shoot. She even edited them pretty quickly. I just had to share some of my favorites.

Our Wedding will be on April 22 in the Mt. Timpanogos, Utah Temple.

I love this man!

Yes, it was a cold day. Because Idaho. But it brings out the pink in our cheeks, right.

Okay saving these best two for last.

• Celine, you’re one talented girl. THANK YOU.
• Also, thank you to the Baylee for curling ma haiiirr.
• Sheldon… You’re a handsome man and I love you. Thank you for putting up with me and my desire for cute photosss.

We did end up doing some Sheldon activities that day since he indulged in taking mushy pics with me. We had good burgers and went rock climbing that evening. Just for the record I got up the wall 3 times even with my long painted nails. That should be worth points for something.

Another successful weekend with my man… and less than 3 months ’till the wedding!

Adiós 2015 (a year in review)

Well I made it through another semester, another year. Its been a great one, full of surprises, tears, and memories. Here is my year in review; month by month. (links to other posts included for further reading).

January-  I celebrated my birthday in the mission with my “hija”.

 

February- I served in Suncuan ward in the Atiquizaya stake, and went to see “Los Ausoles” as a zone activity.

 

March- I helped plan a talent show ward activity, and I changed areas to the Centro ward in Santa Ana.

 

April- We had two mission temple trips and brought the Familia Morán, I also experienced my first “quinceñera” party.

 

May- We went on a beautiful adventure with the Familia Melendez to cerro verde, and Raul got Baptized as my mission miracle.

 

June- I finished my 18 months as a missionary and flew back home to Chicago to see my family.

 

July- Sheldon and I reunited in Chicago after being apart for 2 years (too long) and I  started a internship job as a research and development scientist at Now Foods. I also went to help at Girls camp for a day.

 

August- Our family went on a vacation to California; Yosemite, San Francisco, and Monterey.

 

September- My dad helped me move into my new apartment in Rexburg and school began. Sheldon and I did some fun hikes.

 

October- Dad, Mckinsey, Sheldon and I all met up for general conference. We also carved pumpkins, went to a Lindsey Sterling Concert, went shooting… And my favorite: took a day trip to Yellowstone.

 

November- Sheldon and I celebrated 2.5 years together, went iceskating, I had a mission reunion, My parents came to visit for the weekend, I went to the Lloyds for Thanksgiving, We took a trip to Utah to see the lights.

 

December- I took part in a live nativity as a shepherd girl, and Sheldon proposed! I also finished my fall semester finals and flew home to Chicago to spend christmas with my family.

 

 

 

Engaged! (how it happened)

On December 5th 2015-  The man of my dreams and my very best friend asked me to marry him. 

 

Heres how it all went down:

Saturday (yesterday) we planned to go to the temple in the morning, then go to Idaho Falls to do some Christmas shopping, lunch, then in the evening go to i-jump with some of Shel’s friends. I thought it was a pretty packed day already- so I didn’t expect anything crazy to happen.

6:30- Wake up and get ready for the day

7:00- Leave my house for a Temple session (but we didn’t get in until 8:15)

10:30- Got back to my house to change to normal clothes

11:15- Drive out to Idaho falls

11:45- Arrive at Taylor’s house (Sheldon’s twin brother) wait for their little boy to wake up, and talk about our days plans for shopping. Also they convinced us to join them for lunch and take family pictures for their little baby’s birthday.

12:30- We ate lunch at Reed’s dairy. (Grilled cheese, Chocolate milk and Ice cream. Yum!)

1:30- We got to the Greenbelt to help them take family pictures by the beautiful wintery/ icy waterfalls.

1:35- I ask if Sheldon wants to take a “selfie” there as Taylor and Rachel walk around to the other side and leave Sheldon and I there alone.

1:40- Sheldon asks what our favorite memory is together and I think; “hmm… we have too many, maybe when we went to general conference” I said… And then he replied; “mine is right now” then he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.

1:41- Through a HUGE smile, I said YES! and hugged my new fiancé.

1:42- I then realized that Taylor and Rachel where there the whole time taking pictures. So sneaky, it was all set up.

1:45- They took more pictures of us and of the ring.

 

Basically the rest is history, we did end up doing some christmas shopping, and went to i-jump that evening. We celebrated with some chocolate pie too. But our day turned more to the excitement for our future and we called family and friends to share the news.

I LOVE my ring! So we actually went ring shopping while in Utah (previous weekend adventure) so Sheldon could see what I like, well he ended up ordering it and proposing before I could suspect anything. He’s also happy because he got a pretty good deal on it.

We are SO excited for our life together! As of now we do not have an official date set, but are planning for a wedding in the middle of April, after the winter semester ends. Then we will be sealed in one of God’s Holy Temples for time and all eternity .

I am one happy girl!

#ForeverTheLloyds