Painful Tragedy

I know all of you have been just sitting on the edges of your seats waiting for us to post something new on our blog. Well, the only excuse I have is that we had a bit of a tragedy in our family a couple weeks ago....

My best friend Amanda gave me a plant for my birthday almost 3 years ago. This plant traveled with me from school, back home, back to school, back home, to my grandpa's house for babysitting, back home, to Utah. It's kind of like a small child and it's been thriving so well, growing about 4 times it's original size.

Well, Toren and I woke up to a beautiful, sunny day a couple weeks ago. I decided it was a great day to clean out the car. I also decided that my Birthday Plant would probably enjoy basking in the sun a bit, so I took it out behind our complex with me.

It was a great day for myself and my Birthday Plant. A few days later, the tragedy of my actions set in when I looked out our back window and saw my Birthday Plant still outside! It had been exposed to freezing nights and forceful winds, and it did not look good.

I brought my Birthday Plant inside and tried to revive it with some water. Over the next few days I continued to water it and hoped for the best. It was to no avail though. The damage had already been done.


Finally Toren took it out to the dumpster while I fought the urge to cry. That Birthday Plant had been with me a long time. I think Toren was secretly relieved that we wouldn't have to carry it with us as we drove to Columbus for the summer.


We're done mourning now, so expect more frequent posts in the future.

Fantasy Characters

Today Toren and I discovered which Fantasy characters we were most like. We answered a series of questions on this online quiz. Here are the results:

Toren is comparable to: Aragorn from Lord of the Rings

Putting your appointed path ahead of any inner conflicts, you make your own rules for the benefit of all.

If my life or death I can protect you, I will.

And I am most like: Anakin Skywalker from Star Wars.

Struggling for self-assurance over hidden angst, you are highly adept and full of surprises.

I find your lack of faith disturbing.

Obviously the quiz offers lies as results. So, I took it again.

My new results: Galadriel from Lord of the Rings.

Possessing a rare combination of wisdom and humility, while serenely dominating your environment you selflessly use your powers to care for others.

Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.

Now that's much better. Take the quiz for yourself though you might have to take it two or three times to get accurate resuts.

A Trip to Sin City

When Toren told me last week that he didn't have classes on Monday or Tuesday I nearly collapsed with joy. Then I told him that we were going on a mini-vacation to get away from frozen Utah. And after church on Sunday we were off to Las Vegas.

To ensure we'd be able to eat on our mini-vacation, Toren and I stayed at a rundown hotel just a couple blocks away from the Strip. It was...mostly clean. Luckily we didn't spend much time in the room. We hit the sights as soon as we got there and we spent all of Monday walking around.

My favorite place was the Luxor. It felt like you were actually in Egypt. No, I've never actually been to Egypt, but I can imagine.

We also loved Mandalay Bay. There, we visited the Shark Reef Aquarium. We saw a golden crocodile, piranhas, eels, barracudas, jellyfish, and lots of fish and sharks. We even got to pet sting rays (they're really slippery and kind of rubbery). Toren wanted to put some Scuba gear on and jump in with the sharks. Lucky for me that wasn't included in admission.

We spent most of our time meandering through the different hotels and casinos. They were all spectacular. We got to explore a Chinese garden in the Bellagio, gaze up at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, walk along the streets of New York, New York, and contemplate the great things in the world with Roman gods in Caesar’s Palace.

On Monday night we treated ourselves to the Broadway musical Mamma Mia! Toren was a little skeptical, but he’s been singing the ABBA songs ever since. It was amazing! After the musical, we walked back to the Paris and enjoyed some French treats and said goodnight to Sin City. We drove back to Springville Tuesday morning, completely rested and refreshed.

Happy Valentines Day!!!

Well it's the end of the Day of Love. Toren and I didn't do much to celebrate... Yesterday we went to Texas Roadhouse (I'm still suffering from stuffedstomachiosis). Today we watched Deal or No Deal and the new LOST. It was an incredible day, though. In honor of me, Toren wore my Valentines Day present all day.

And in return, I made him homemade pancakes for breakfast.

I love my husband.

Happy Valentines Day!!!

V-Day Tag

My friend Leah tagged me! Someone answered all these questions on their blog, told Leah to answer them all, so she did, and she told me to do the same thing, so here are my answers, and make sure you read to the bottom because I may have tagged you!

1. How long have you been together? We met last May...and started dating almost immediately (Thanks to me. What can I say, I'm a girl who knows what she wants and what's best for him). So I guess we've known each other for like 8 months and have been married for over 4 months.


2. How old is he? 26


3. How old are you? 24


4. Who eats more? Toren for sure


5. Who said "I love you" first? Toren...and I didn't say it back until like three days later. He was ticked!


6. Who is taller? Toren..by like a lot.


7. Who sings better? We're both pretty awful, though he'll try to tell you he's good.


8. Who is smarter? Me..hands down :)


9. Who does the laundry? I do, normally. Every Monday.


10. Who does the dishes? Toren always does the dishes after dinner.


11. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? I used to, but then Toren started telling me scary stories before we went to bed (against my will), so we had to change sides of the bed so I was further away from the window.


12. Who pays the bills? We both do I guess.


13. Who mows the lawn? No clue. Not us. No one really because there's been like feet of snow covering the grass for months now...


14. Who cooks dinner? I always do, but he always thinks they're very delicious.


15. Who is more stubborn? We're both pretty stubborn on certain things.


16. Who kissed who first? He kissed me first and totally caught me off guard, though he'll claim I was "putting out the vibes all night." It's not true though. He just couldn't resist me!


17. Who asked who out? He asked me out first..after calling 10 different people around the area to track my phone number down. He was truely smitten.


18. Who proposed? He did.


19. Who is more sensitive? Me, for sure.


20. Who has more friends? We probably have about the same.


21. Who has more siblings? He does: 3 sisters and 1 brother. I have 1 sister and 2 brothers.


22. Who wears the pants in the relationship? We both do. Or maybe I do?


23. Who are you tagging? Tevya and Jill

What a Merry, Merry Christmas!!

Well…it’s been far too long since I’ve posted on our Blog. Don’t worry, I’m ashamed and it will never happen again. A lot has happened in the last two months. I’ll try to give a thorough update:

To put ourselves in the holly jolly spirit, Toren and I made stockings for our first Christmas together. I know it's really hard to tell whose is better. What can I say, we’re a talented family!

We were able to spend two whole weeks between Washington and Oregon visiting both our families. It was amazing…and we cleaned up pretty well gift-wise. We were also honored to be Mary and Joseph in the traditional Spader Family (my mom’s side) Nativity. As you can imagine, Toren was absolutely thrilled.

While in Washington, we were able to do some scuba diving in the Puget Sound. It was freezing, but pretty incredible. Local divers sunk some interesting things (a boat frame, a VW beetle, an oven) in the area a few years ago, so there was tons of cool sea life growing there. We also saw a couple crabs, tons of sun stars and starfish, and some really ugly fish. The hardest part about the dive was getting into our flattering wetsuits.

We went with Toren’s family to a Cirque du Soleil type performance called Do Jump. It was pretty sweet and briefly inspired me to want to take up gymnastics. The only problem is that I can’t even successfully land a cartwheel, so I don’t think I’ll be able to go very far.

We rang in the New Year at the Cheesecake Factory with friends in Oregon and then again with a Silly String war in my parents' garage with my family.

All in all, it was a great holiday season for us. If only it came more than once a year!

Viva California and Mexico!!

Well, Toren and I just returned from a week and a half of absolute fun and no responsibility...obviously a lifestyle far from normal for us...sort of. We spent 3 days in Disneyland and then left for a cruise along the Mexican Riviera. We flew into Los Angeles on Thanksgiving morning. We enjoyed waffle cones and kettle corn for our Thanksgiving feast. Despite the warm weather, it looked like Christmas in Disneyland. The castle was even covered in snow (as you can see in this picture).


We absolutely loved California Adventure. Neither of us had been there before. One of our favorite attractions was "It's Tough to be a Bug." Here's us in our 3-D Bug Eyes. Flattering, aren't they?


And, of course, Toren's favorite ride was The Pirates of the Caribbean. After our first ride on it, it inspired him to act like a pirate all night. AAAaargh!


Oh yeah, and we also got to visit Snow White cottage. It was tiny! No dwarf sighting, however.


And when we thought life couldn't get any better, we got on a huge cruise ship headed for the western coast of Mexico. We spent a few days relaxing, sleeping, eating, laying out by the pool...living the life...and then we made our first port stop in Puerta Villarta. Toren went scuba diving in the morning, while I took some decongestant medicine and slept (I think all the germs and Disneyland got me sick). We spent that afternoon walking around the shops downtown.


The next day we ported in Mazatlan. There, Toren and I watched an amazing folkloric show, shopped around, got massages (one hour for $15!!), and swam in one of the resort pools. It was a full day, but we wished we'd had even more time.

Our last stop was in Cabo San Lucas. Luckily, my sinuses were mostly cleared up by this time, so Toren and I were able to go diving together. It was incredible. We started out at about 90 feet and then made our way up this rockery area (Toren actually swam down to 110 feet to check out an eel, and yes, he was properly reprimanded). Our second dive was actually much more eventful. We started at about 25 feet deep and first watched some seals play in the water. They were fairly close to us, though we wished they would have come closer. After watching them, we basically swam around this giant rock where all sorts of animal life lived. We saw huge groupers, a sting ray, a couple eels, starfish, and tons and tons of fish of all sizes. It was incredible. Toren was hoping to encounter a great white shark, but no luck this trip.


And that's a complete overview of our trip. It's good to be home, but we're ready to go back. The 30 degree weather and snow here sure makes us appreciate the 80 degree weather there. Oh yeah, and of course we bought a few souvenirs. :)