2 WHOLE Years

Yesterday was our 2-year wedding anniversary!

May 20th, 2010 -- a PERFECT day! 

I woke up early so I could hit the streets with the sunrise for a 5-mile run. I love running at that time of the morning. It is so spiritual to me and I feel completely connected to the beauty of our earth. 

I made it home in time to see my cousin Lauren pull up to do my hair and makeup for the big day. By about 8:15, Joey was at my door waiting to pick me up for a date that would be unlike any other we had been on -- a date to our sealing! We excitedly drove to the Mesa Temple, as my mother trailed us with my wedding dress.

Our sealing was beautiful. To walk into a room with so many members of our family and friends was perfect. I cried through the whole sealing because I was so happy and I could feel the spirit so strong. That day when we left the temple, we weren't just leaving as an "engaged" couple as we had done so many times before. We were leaving as husband and wife! 

I remember standing just inside the temple doors, looking out at all of our family and friends waiting outside. It was the start of summer, and we made them wait out there for nearly 45 minutes, until our photographer arrived -- in the HOT Arizona weather. Hopefully, when they all look back on that day they don't remember that part ;) 

Our reception was picture perfect! Mason jars full of flowers on all of the tables, pictures everywhere, and delicious treats (my mom and sister in-laws made all of the sugar cookies and they are our fave!!!). We arrived early for more pictures with our families and by the time we finished, our guests were arriving. We stood in line for an hour greeting everyone. Weddings are so awesome in the fact that you get to see people that you haven't seen in such a long time! My cousin, Lauren, wrote a song for us, so she played her guitar and sang in front of everyone while our nieces danced around next to her. We ate cake (chocolate cake with peanut butter mousse!! -- We are both peanut butter and chocolate fanatics!), chatted with everyone and loved everything about the reception! The 2-hours flew by. I remember being so tired, to the point where so much of the evening is blurry in my mind (that 5 am run, after going to sleep at 1 am that night before, were catching up with me!). 

The car wasn't pulled up when we finished walking through an aisle of bubbles so what did Joey do? He whisked me into his arms and ran away with me to where our car was hiding.

And the next morning we headed to Hawaii. Oh how I miss Hawaii!

We are SO happy! We spend 24 hours a day, everyday, with each other and we love it! I can truly say that we are BEST friends!

We are SO in love!!!! :)

These past 2 years have flown by! Like ridiculously fast! I never would have thought that on our wedding day that for our 2 year anniversary we would be sitting in China, having lived there for 3 &  1/2 months already. And ya know what? I LOVE THAT WE ARE IN CHINA! 

We had a PERFECT anniversary weekend in Shanghai! 

But more on that later.

It's time to Skype with family and head out on a run!

Don't Miss This One!!

It's crazy to think that in the same time we have been in China (3 months!!!!!) we will be living in a whole new place. A place we have only spent 24 whole hours in thus far! It will be our home for the next 3 years. We will be embarking on our next grand adventure in less than 3 months... LAW SCHOOL! 

Where might this place be, you my ask?

Well, I will give you a hint...

We will be sporting lots of red on football Saturdays! 

Too vague? Sorry about that. I'm not good at this whole hinting thing. 

Ok. Ok. I'll just spit it out!

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Keep going!

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LINCOLN, NEBRASKA! 

It's true. We are going to be corn huskers. We've never been any good at the whole "School spirit" thing but I hear we're gonna have to change that cause let's be honest, the University of Nebraska LOVES their husker football!! 

We NEVER, EVER, EVER(!) thought we would end up going to Nebraska. Joey added it to his list of schools just as an extra option after his friend told us how much he likes the law school there and Lincoln itself. 

So back in December, we flew over and explored the option ourselves. It was the first school we had visited so we didn't really have anything to compare it to, but we loved it! We were actually very surprised how much we liked it! The school is beautiful!! And the town is just as lovely! One of the current students there showed us around and filled us in on the Lincoln "scoop". We left with a feeling of total excitement about the school and the town. Even once we visited 5 other schools, Lincoln still stood out strongly in our minds. 

Before catching our flight out of Omaha, we went to the Winter Quarters Temple. It is beautiful! It solidified how happy we felt in Nebraska and I immediately knew I would be okay living there. 

We will be very sad to be so far away from our families but we are excited for this next chapter in our lives. And... THEY BETTER COME VISIT US!!! :)

University of Nebraska - Lincoln, we'll see you in 3 months!

Hangzhou -- Hot, Humid, and BEAUTIFUL

Hello May!!! This is our last full month in China. Time flies!


This past weekend we ventured to Hangzhou. It is known for it's beautiful, lush, West Lake -- as you will see just shortly!

Getting there was less than pleasant. The slow trains here are extremely unreliable. We got to the train station on time, but it was delayed 2 hours! I don't think I would have cared quite as much if we would have been able to spend those 2 hours in the nice, bright station -- but no -- we had to sit in the dirty, dark and smelly station (the joys of being cheap and taking slow trains!). To put it another way, this is the type of place that has a trench for a toilet. See --

Aim for the trench. Suddenly you'll see a flood of water go underneath you. Scary huh?

Eventually we arrived late that night, after a tight 4 1/2 hour ride. On the "T & K" trains you sit facing other passengers so most of the time, your knees are smooching the other persons knees across from you. After 4 hours it gets old! But sitting that way saved us a whole $15 :)

Saturday we took advantage of their awesome bike system they have there. They have bike stalls all throughout the city where you can get bikes. You basically pay a deposit then are given a card. With the card, you can go to the various bike stalls, swipe the card then it releases the bike to you. The first hour is free, so you can get a bike ride it around for 45 minutes, return it to a different stall somewhere in the city and pay nothing. Walk around for a bit, then get a new bike and do the same thing. We did this all day, touring around the city, traveling miles and miles either on foot or bikes. It's about 6 miles around the lake, with long causeways to walk across, all lined with trees and shops! We returned the bike cards later that day, got our deposit back and did pay a single penny to ride the bikes. It was so awesome! 

Here's our day in picture detail --

We loved the tree lined areas! That guy looks like he's just taking it all in :)

Relaxing by the beautiful "West Lake"

This tree was growing up through the Starbucks! Tons of the buildings had trees growing into them, so they just build around them.

Bamboo Forest

Umm any FRIENDS fans out there?? I was shocked and thrilled when we saw this place!! The day this show ended was a very sad day. We had a season finale party at my house (so many people showed up I can't even remember who. Even Joey says he was there! Too funny.) and after the show ended I remember Brooke and I just sitting there, completely saddened that our favorite show had ended. Oh how I miss those days!

They even had the show playing in ENGLISH when we walked in!! The place was so cute and all of their food items were named after the cast!
"Monica's Cookies", "Joey's Pizza", or "Jenn's Cobb Salad". Loved it!

The not-so-fancy red bikes we rode for FREE all day

This is my "yummy in my tummy" face. We ate at this Indian Place.
I know I've said it before, but WE LOVE INDIAN FOOD!

We tried to walk on this grass and some policeman blew his dang whistle at us! Busted!

Isn't this place beautiful?!!

Sunset at "West Lake". Our travel book told us not to miss this time of the day and boy was it right.

Joey's new car. Lamborghini anyone?

The Phaeton is a $90,000 Volkswagon!
This street was lined with all of the fancy car dealerships. Maserati, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Rolls-Royce, Porsche, Mercedes and more. 

The city nightlife glow

By Sunday, our legs were just beat from the previous days adventure but we still made it out for a few hours of exploring through some chinese shops and alleyways. The alleys are lined with tiny shops, or stalls rather, and sell the local meat. Chickens and ducks were crammed in cages awaiting their slaughter, while other stalls had tubs full of eels, fish, and SNAKES -- all alive, just waiting for the next hungry belly to come along and purchase them for dinner. Eww.

Rainy day at West Lake

Chicks for-sale!

Not sure why this piggy soldier had boobs!

Inside a McDonalds!! It was 3 stories and slammed with people. At least it was pretty!

Strange architecture

I don't know how many big bellies we've already seen with the start of the warmer weather! Men just walk around with their shirts pulled up!! It's just icky. I even saw a cook at a food stand -- shirtless -- but still wearing his apron!

We love trees!

Relaxin on one of many bridges

We endured a run through the rain to the train station that evening and made our way back to Changzhou. 

While it was a short trip, we packed in what we could. Including a ridiculous amount of baked goods from the nearest French bakery! YUM! :)

We don't teach on Monday or Tuesday this week so we're just laying low. 

We'll have 2 whole days of teaching this week :) then HELLO weekend once again!

China is beautiful