Valentine's, etc...

Over Valentine's, I had 4 days off in a row.  It was amazing.  And went by WAY too fast. But we had fun celebrating the holiday of LOVE :)  Haha.  It's probably Tanner's least favorite holiday.  Maybe that's a typical guy sentiment, I don't know.  I don't particularly care for it specifically as what it is, just more a reason to celebrate and have fun.  I like any holidays for that reason.  Tanner is a great gift giver, but not a great wait-er for the giving or the getting.  So my present was given to me as soon as it came in the mail.  Probably the 3rd week of January.  It was a nice new dress coat to wear to church, etc, since I don't have anything dressy.  It's awesome.  For one reason or another, the fact that something was coming in the mail for him got leaked out and then he incessantly kept asking me what it was.  There was no chance of that waiting till February 14th either.  He got that the day it came in the mail, but it was at least IN February.  I spent hours a day, each day for the last month making him a scrapbook of our last 2 years together.  Basically from when we met to the end of last year.  I think it's basically awesome.  Minus a few typo's.  Dang it.  It's so nice having our pics organized and in chronological order and something fun and easy to look at without having to get on our computer.  I decided that's going to be a new tradition for me.  I think a family scrapbook once a year will be great.  I feel inspired by my mom who spent thousands of hours documenting my life from birth to high school and even some after.  They are amazing.  I'll never be as awesome or crafty or creative as her, but I think I can handle the online scrapbooking.

For the actual day of Valentine's, we had a ward social.  The Relief Society put it on with the help of one of the young women doing it for one of her personal progress goals.  They had the gym all decorated really nice, mood lighting, fancy tables and place settings.  The young men and women were our servers - dressed sharp in black pants and white shirts.  We had a yummy salad and rolls for our first course and then chicken, potatoes and veggies for the main course and yummy chocolate things for dessert.  They kept our drinks filled and were so polite and professional.  The food was delicious and I was just really impressed!  They did a newly wed kind of game with our old Bishop as MC (we got a new bishopric a week ago).  He was hilarious.  He is hilarious.  We'll miss him but he has definitely served his time - in a bishopric or stake presidency for the last 17 years.  Wow!  They also had a dance floor that people actually danced on and a little photo booth with some cute props.  It was a great way to spend the evening.  And I bet the food was better than anything we could have got in any of the restaurants around here!

But speaking of other restaurants, Friday we went to dinner with some of our friends to a new Mexican joint in town.  Los Compadres.  Our roommate serves there sometimes and had been telling us that it was really good.  So it was definitely time to try it out.  It actually was pretty good.  I think I had maybe a tiny bit too high of expectations, but compared to other places here, it might be the new place to go!  After that we got some DQ and hung out for a bit.  So much fun.  We really just feel so blessed to have met the people we have up here.  So many great people and we are really making some great friends.  It's going to suck when people start moving away from here and we all go our separate ways.  Don't need to think about that though.  We'll enjoy it while it lasts!

Saturday was a lovely day.  Tanner was still pretty sick with a cold so we bagged probably our last chance at getting on our one time used cross country skis (we'll be ready for next winter though!), and just enjoyed a nice, relaxing, lazy day at home.  We did manage to get out for a walk with the dogs and a trip to the new self-serve frozen yogurt place in town, My Swirl.  And that place did NOT disappoint.  Just as good as any place in Utah.  Oh glory.  Expensive, which is good.  That will keep me from going there at least once a week.  But it was SOOO delicious!  With a decent Mexican place, awesome frozen yogurt, and US - Williston really could be a vacation destination.  Just sayin'

The dogs had a blast.  It makes me happy.

It was a good weekend.  This last weekend was pretty good too.  We made another trip to My Swirl with some other friends and their awesome, entertaining boys.  And Saturday I made a trip to the temple in Bismarck. Oh how I miss the days when the temple was 20 minutes away.  I left at 4am, picked up a friend in Minot, 2 hrs away, then drove to Bismarck, another 2 hrs away.  Session was 2 hrs, then we ate lunch at Mackenzie River Pizza (delicious and oh so unhealthy), and then back the 2 hrs to Minot, drop Sara off, and then 2 more hrs to home.  12 hr journey, 8 hr drive, just to go to the temple.  I'm not complaining. I know some people have much more difficult times getting to a temple, but man, were we spoiled.

Pretty little thing.  One of the smaller ones.  Kind of reminded me of the temple in Accra - but like 50 times less amazing.  Can I say that about a temple?  I don't know.  But seriously, the colors and paintings and designs in the Accra temple are like the most amazing things I've ever seen.  Made this one seem a little plain.  But still beautiful, ok?  But Accra is definitely my number one temple I've ever been to.  If you're ever in the area...

Discover the Spirit

Tanner left me for Utah this week - so I'm blogging again.  I miss his funny blogs so hopefully I can get him to do the next one :)  Most of you are aware of the Niederhauser chaos and drama that's been going on this week.  I don't plan on getting into it here.  But Tanner's work was really generous and let him take some time so he could go home and be with his family and support them and his dad.  His parents didn't know he was coming so it was quite a surprise.  I'll be flying solo for the next several days.  But that's okay because I have to work the next 5 days anyway.  No great work stories or pictures to share this week.  But as of today I've officially crossed over.

My plates came in the mail a few days ago.  It's finally been warm enough to go outside and change them.  So I did that today.  Still waiting for Tanner's plates in the mail.  But we both did get our ND driver's licenses a week ago.  Tanner primped up his stache to full awesomeness and then we went and got them.  Right after we got home he shaved it off.  It was apparently becoming more work than it was worth.  Now he probably understands why I don't ever do my hair.  When we told one of our friends that he shaved because we went and got driver's license pics, he said, oh that makes sense.  But he thought he shaved before the pics.  Haha.  Nope.  It will be forever immortalized in that driver's license photo.  I asked him if he wanted to get pulled over now so he could show it off.  Luckily he said no.

That same friend recently talked us into purchasing some cross country skis.  I've been wanting them forever and I knew people had mentioned you could go up here, but we just never got around to committing to getting any.  Well he has been building and clearing up a sweet trail down by the river and through the trees and he said we should get some.  That was all Tanner needed to be totally on board.  So in further attempting to "discover the spirit" of North Dakota,  he did all the investigating and we purchased them a couple weeks ago.  Last Saturday was the first day we had to go out together with them.  So we met up with Mike McBride (aforementioned friend), at the trail head all geared up and ready to go.

One small problem.  The guy we bought our skis told us the boots we were buying from another online site would fit the bindings we were purchasing from him.  Well - he was wrong.  And we didn't even test out our stuff till that morning.  Turns out the boots did NOT fit the bindings.  I was so saddened by this.  Mike happened to have a pair he was going to send back that would fit Tanner, so Tanner got to get that worked out and go with him later that afternoon while I had to work.  We sent both our boots back and my new ones came in the mail yesterday!  Perfect timing for a beautiful, perfect day off!

I realized a few things out on that trail with Rozzi as my trusty companion.  One - it was much harder than I was expecting.  Tanner said it was when he went.  And I knew it was a good workout.  But I haven't been on skis for quite some time and this isn't your straight, groomed, smooth path that I had experienced all the times before.  It was curvy and narrow with lots of trees and little ups and downs that you had to maneuver.  I struggled a bit. Two - it was good for my heart to be outside, recreating.  It's probably blasphemous to mention this, especially in North Dakota, but it made me sad that winter is ending.  I don't want the snow to melt.  I'm just getting into this!  I guess if nothing else, we'll be excited about winter coming next year!  And three - although I never have and still don't have a problem doing things by myself (I'd rather that than not go at all), I don't find as much enjoyment in it as I used to.  Made me miss my hubster.  And re-made me so grateful that he's my forever adventure buddy!  Now just hopefully the snow's not all melted by the time he gets back here.


And why not finish off with another cuddle pic of our kids?  They're so cute.