Life in New York

Life sure has changed since we moved to New York, but they're all pretty much good changes!

Because we came here with just what fit in our car, we were forced to ask members of the ward for help, and that's something that I don't really like to do. I'm the kind of person that likes to just do my own thing and not ask anyone for help because I am stubborn and like to think I can do lots of things on my own. It's certainly taught me a lesson though and I'm thankful we had the opportunity to be in this position. The ward here is so amazing. On our first Sunday, it seemed like almost everyone in the ward came to shake our hands and welcome us into the ward. It was very welcoming and nice to have that since we came here not really knowing anyone! Immediately, we got invited to dinner for almost every day of the next week, OK it wasn't really every day, it just seemed like it!

We have made some friends in the ward, and it makes me not want to leave here and leave our new friends! It has been so nice to feel so welcome!

Moving on with life here in NY. We didn't really want to spend a lot of time and money seeing things during the month of June since my parents are coming here for 2 weeks in July and we'll be doing a lot of things then, but we have seen a couple things around the state.

A couple weeks ago, we randomly took a trip to the Erie canal locks! We arrived just as a boat pulled into the lock and the lock man (I know they have an official title...but I just can't think of it...) opened the gate some and we watched it fill up. It was pretty cool and interesting. Then he asked me if I wanted to open the gates and of course I said yes, so I did! It was pretty cool and I never knew that we lived RIGHT by the start of the Erie canal.

David and I love to go hiking (you wouldn't know it if you were on a hike with me because I'm SO dreadfully out of shape) and we looked up some hikes in the Adirondacks and decided to give it a whirl. David found a trail that was about an hour's drive away so last Saturday morning we packed some lunches, packed the car and headed to Mt. Hadley.

We were hoping to head out of Waterford at 9, but had to make a last minute trip to WalMart to get some bug spray (and thank goodness we did because the bugs were TERRIBLE!) We ended up getting out of town just before 10 and we made it to our trail head around 11. We loaded Ellie up in the Baby Bjorn, grabbed our bags and water and headed up the trail. Oh, I forgot to mention that this trail was marked as "Moderately Difficult" so I knew to expect a pretty good workout.


The trail started with a straight up hike, and it continued that way until we were almost to the top! Talk about a difficult hike! I'd like to know who classes these hikes, because moderately difficult it was not! It was most certainly closer to the difficult category!


We took breaks about every 10 minutes because I was dying and I am SO out of shape!!! Ellie LOVED being outside and she loved seeing all the trees, rocks and plants. She was good the entire way! Not one peep of discontent! I was SO amazed. We had timed things right so we would make it to the top at about the time Ellie needed to eat, and after a long grueling hike, we made it! I fed Ellie and we took a nice little break before we decided to head back down.



The journey down was a bit better because it was all down hill, but because it was all down hill, it was really hard on my knees! On the way down just before we were finished, Ellie started to fall asleep and it was the funniest thing!


Once we got back down, we ate our lunch, cooled off in the car with the AC running, and headed to Jimmer's hometown for a quick drive-through before we went home.

Jimmer's hometown: Glens Falls. It's big and we had no idea where he lived, or else we may have gone to his house ;)

It was a good Saturday and a lot of fun! I look forward to many more fun Saturday's like this to come!

I'll edit the pictures in later...blogger won't let me upload them for some silly reason!

Oh, deer!

Yesterday while traveling home from Roosevelt, David and I had the great (more like horrific) experience of hitting a deer.

Yep. We were about 20 minutes out of Roosevelt, maybe even less. It went like this:

I was talking to David and playing a game on my phone, as I do oft times while traveling to keep myself occupied. I looked down and continued to play a bit of bejeweled and David and I were no longer talking. The next thing I knew...*SMACK/WHAM/THUD/SMASH* and a jerk of the car. David said, "We just hit a deer." and I didn't know what to think! David calmly slowed the car down and pulled over. We were both OK and he called 911 while I called my parents to tell them the sad news.

Apparently, this now very dead doe decided to run/jump/leap across the road as we were coming, and thought that it might win. Well miss doe, you lost. The score is deer=0 car=0 Shari and David=1. David had just set the cruise control to 65 about a mile before we hit the deer. He saw the deer just before we hit it but didn't have enough time to do anything but hit it, so he braced for impact, held the steering wheel tight and wham. The damage was done. Luckily, the deer was in the air when hit it, trying to jump away. It was also a lucky thing that it hit his side of the car so I didn't get too much of the impact.

The DNR officer was the first person to show up after the people behind us stopped. She checked to see if the deer was dead and sure enough...it was. We broke all of its legs and tossed it to the other side of the road. At least I can feel good that it had a quick death, and didn't have to suffer...stupid deer anyway!!

Anyway, we waited around for the trooper to show up for a while, but we kept ourselves occupied while we waited. David got all the insurance business settled and my mom showed up. We sat in her car while the UHP trooper did the paperwork and almost 2 hours after we left Roosevelt, we were on our way back for the night.

After we got to my parent's house, David and I went to the hospital just as a precaution to get me and the baby checked out. I was monitored for about 30 minutes and there was no sign of labor, or anything so they let me go.

We stayed the night in Roosevelt and came back this morning in the good ole S10. I loathe that truck but I'm thankful that we were able to get back home because of it.

Now we are just waiting to hear from our insurance rep to see what they're going to do about the car. They may decide to total it, which would be sad because I love my car, and I kind of just want it back...

Oh yeah, David walked away without any bruises, but I wasn't so fortunate. I've just got a sore chest right where the shoulder belt was. It's not fun, but hey, we walked away virtually unharmed. I'm very thankful that things turned out OK and that nothing worse happened. It was also a huge blessing that we hit the deer not to far from Roosevelt so my parents could help us out.

I'm glad it's mostly all the way over and I sure hope it never happens again!

First anniversary

On September 4th, we celebrated our first anniversary. Can you believe it?? Where did the time go??? For our anniversary, we had crepes for breakfast, then decided to exchange gifts. Because the traditional gift for the 1st year is paper, I made David a picture book of our first year together, and got him a gift card to Amazon.com. He sent me on a scavenger hunt which was somewhat frustrating--because I don't like when I can't figure things out--and at the end of the hunt, there was a beautiful 160 GB iPod Classic just for me! Do I have a great hubby or what? ;) David also gave me roses, and they were very beautiful. We mustn't forget how we ate the top layer of our wedding cake! It was still pretty good considering it's been in a freezer for a year! Good job, Tabitha! I looooved our wedding cake!

Top layer of our wedding cake! Yum!

Roses from David.

After the gift giving, we got ready to go to the Draper Temple. I love that Temple (and all the others, too) SO much! The Draper Temple is so beautiful inside and I loved being there again. It brought back tons and tons of memories of our wedding day, and it was probably my favorite part of the day.


When there's nobody to take a picture for you, this is the kind of picture you end up with. :)

After we went to the Temple, we headed up to downtown SLC for dinner @ The Roof (Tenth floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building). The food was delicious, the atmosphere was perfect and we had an awesome view of the Salt Lake Temple from our table.

View of the Salt Lake Temple from our table.

Overall, our anniversary was GREAT! We kinda celebrated in two parts, because the Inn we wanted to go to that weekend was booked solid. This past weekend, we went up to the Inn at Snow Meadows at@ Bear Lake. We saw Bear Lake, played in the water a bit, and had an enjoyable time @ the Inn. Saturday morning, we had seriously the BEST breakfast I have ever had in my life. Super loaded omelets, Belgian waffles, hash browns, you name it, we had it! After breakfast, we got a raspberry shake (of course!) and headed to Logan. We walked around campus and drove around the town until we decided to leave.

Check out the pictures from Bear Lake:

We stayed in the "Fishing Room" and this was our super cozy bed.

I think this bathroom was bigger than our bedroom here in Provo! I was so nice!

There was a cozy little couch in our room as well.




Our Saturday of play ended with a trip to Ikea to find a great lamp for our bedroom, bumming at home and watching Date Night.

I think our fist anniversary was a hit all around--even if we celebrated two weekends. I'm so happy I met David way back when, and that we ended up together. I love him with all my heart and he's the best thing that's ever happened to me! Here's to many more anniversaries to come!