Happy 1st Anniversary!

We had a wonderful anniversary, we decided to go out to a nice place in Denver and just enjoy some quality time. I found out about 10 days before this that we were expecting our first child. So, I was starting to feel a little tired and a little nauseated which has now gone away for the most part. Overall though, it was a perfect night. The food was fun to look at and fun to eat. 

Greg surprised me with gorgeous flowers, such a thoughtful guy! I really loved them.  

Empanadas, they were extremely delicious. Why do they always give so few!? But, I loved the arrangement on the plate. 

Here comes our food, they put it on fire just for us! 

Greg got his favorite, carnitas. 

I got one of my favorites, fajitas. You can't tell, but they really had it arranged so neat. The rice was in a pyramid, and then you can kind of see the tortilla accent to the guacamole. YUM! 

And of course, dessert. We got a delicious bread pudding.

Hard to believe a whole year has passed, not that long really, but relative to us-it seems like we have been together  a while! Everybody says the first year is the hardest, I think we were lucky or ignorant because it was an amazing 1st year, and it just keeps getting better! 

A few random facts...

I made my first layered cake, something I have been wanting to do for a while now! 

Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting...

What the Fort Collins, CO temple will look like. I can't wait. I hope we are here to see it dedicated! 

I won a play dough contest at work, so they gave me this huge cookie! 

Froze our buns in the cool Colorado air, but we had so much fun watching Paige's band, they got FIRST at the state championship. They are so good, I can't wait to see them next year. 

Got our first new couches, and probably the only new ones for the next ten years! We got a killer deal and it is so nice to have a couch to sit on. We were lucky enough to borrow and receive some free random seating here and there, now we are proud owners of our very own! Here is what they looked like in the store. 

A cute little monster was born, Mr. Noah Morgan. And this is the day I got to meet him. He is such a handsome baby! After 4 months of life, he finally got the gift I made for him! His gift is the first sewing project I've completed in about 7 years, and part of the gift was the first sewing project I completed all by myself-without supervision!

I have some adorable pictures of Noah sporting the monster bib design, but I still need to figure out how to upload them correctly  I can't seem to get them through...so, more to come hopefully. But this little machine has been a great friend to me. I never thought I would enjoy sewing so much. I recently got interested and  my parents bought me this great machine! I even have a table to keep in on at home. I love picking out fabric and seeing a project completed.

 

 

Play ball! Greg and I went to a Rockies game in September, we had a blast. Greg loves the baseball games. It was my turn to plan a date together, I surprised him with the game! He thought we were going to a haunted house in Denver....

Greg is quite the basketball player! He always has lead us to believe that he is terrible at it and tells the story of how he got a breakaway and trip over the ball landing flat on his face. He said the coach yanked him from the game and yelled, "Sloat, I told you not to dribble, just pass it to so and so!" He got in there and played hard and made tons of shots, I was so impressed. He is an awesome ball player!

And, last but not least, Greg will dress up for Halloween if he can get a $2 burrito from Chipotle...

The Rockies

We do live close to a whole bunch of outdoor possibilities  unfortunately, it takes us about 3x as long to get some where to begin exploring then it did for us in Utah. Actually, it might be as much as 6x depending on where we plan to go. And, we are both unfamiliar with the new terrain so it is difficult to find where we are going and to find the best places to go. But, on our little adventures trying to find places to climb some rocks, we may not find the rocks to climb, but we see some beautiful views. On this particular day it was our worse turnout, we hiked for a total of about 4 hours or so, an hour in, and then a couple of hours trying to find the areas we were looking for, and then it took us over an hour to get out. We did eventually find a place to climb, but by the time we had gotten there, it would have been too dark to stay long. Such a bummer. After 4 hours of hiking and a 3 hour round trip, it was a little discouraging to only have climbed for only about an hour. But! Like I said, we do have some pretty photos. And, with all the exploring we are getting to know our new play area!

Once we get it all figured out, no only will we enjoy the view, but we will get some great climbing in too! 

A Tour of Nauvoo and Carthage Jail

No doubt, the temple in Nauvoo is very impressive. We went right there before going to our hotel, it was late, but we couldn't wait to see it up close. Of course, in such a small town, it wasn't hard to find at night or in the day time. 

Carthage closes earlier, so we started our day out here. They had some incredible paintings at the visitors' center.  Here is the brethren leaving Nauvoo, leaving the temple they had spent so much time on. I have never spent a significant amount of time on something that I had to leave and no longer enjoy. And I certainly have never had something important that I built, get destroyed. Who knows how they felt, and how much anguish they experienced and this must have been a large part of that. 

Starting the tour of the jail....

The senior missionaries were terrific, I had to take this picture. I did a lot of this on temple square. It was a little different there, but the same idea. 

Not a great picture, but the gardens at Carthage were amazing. They had some amazing plaques/tributes/quotes, along with statues. 

Inside the jail, this is where the jailer and his family slept. 

Once they were in jail, they started their time on the bottom floor in a well lighted room. This was their window. Once the jailer became afraid for their lives, he moved them upstairs. 

Here is the jail upstairs, same time of day, and so very dark. You can see when you look at the windows just how thick the walls were. 

They had these tiny windows that let in little slivers of light. 

When the mob came, they were in the room adjacent to that part of the jail. I love these old nails, so imperfect, square, and incredible to see. 

This is the window that Joseph Smith fell out of when he was shot. 

A bullet hole in the door to the room, this is the bullet that took Hyrum Smith's life. 

Window from the outside, where Joseph fell. 

Joseph and Hyrum, an inspiring brotherhood. 

This is where Joseph Smith is buried. 

Joseph Smtih Sr, and wife, Lucy. 

The blacksmith, where you get the famous nail rings. The senior missionaries were so thoughtful and informative. I enjoyed the challenges and spiritual messages they shared with us all along the way. I didn't get a picture, but the houses were amazing! A lot of them are used for tours but a lot are also used for housing missionaries. My mom has her eyes set on being a missionary in Nauvoo and living in one of these historic homes! 

The shows at night were hilarious and fun! They had some throughout the day as well. I enjoyed all of them, very entertaining. I didn't get to go to all of them I wanted to but now I have a reason to go back! 

A mouse trap, how perfect is that? They'd put a piece of cheese on that piece in the middle of the bucket. The mouse runs up to grab the cheese or piece of food and end up falling in the bucket. Caught! 

A beautiful view from the Smith Family Cemetery area. 

Amen! This is what it is all about....