1 Year Down....

On March 11th, we celebrated our 1 year anniversary, and we did it in style in San Diego.  Here are some of the highlights:

CORONADO ISLAND

The first couple days we stayed on Coronado Island at this amazing lodge called 1906 Lodge.  The room was fabulous, but the service was even better!  They recommended some good dinner places for our anniversary dinner, made the reservation for us, and paid for our dessert!  Plus, they were just plain friendly!  For the big night, we went to a seafood restaurant called Peohe's that was right on the pier.  The hotel told them it was our anniversary so they gave us a special table with flowers on it (no other tables had flowers) AND gave us customized menus that said "Happy Anniversary Ben and Kathryn" (which we of course kept).  Other things we did on Coronado included sitting on the beach (it was too cold to actually swim), checking out the Hotel Del, riding bikes around the island, and finding some great places to eat!  Coronado was great!  

Coronado Beach

Peohe's for our anniversary dinner

biking on the island

on the pier at Coronado Island

 SEA WORLD

You can't go to San Diego without a visit to Sea World (well, I guess you can, but we didn't).  We had a great time seeing all the animals and catching a lot of the shows! 

 WILD ANIMAL PARK

Instead of the zoo, my parents recommended we try the Wild Animal Park.  And we are glad we did!  We got to ride a tram through some open area where they have animals like giraffes, rhinos and other African animals.  They also had more standard type exhibits for things like elephants, lions, gorillas, etc.  And every day they do a 'Cheetah Run' where they let a cheetah run the hundred yard dash off leash for everyone to see their speed.  We got some video of it, but I'm not going to try and put it up here.  Just know that it was FAST. 

                                                                                     I LOVED this baby gorilla

Giraffe feeding IS as fun as it looks!

 Along with this fun stuff, we also visited Old Town and the Mormon Battalion Museum, Legoland (which by the way, while fun was definitely kid-oriented.  The displays were really cool to see, but we didn't do any rides or spend much time there.  Luckily we didn't have to pay the full price entry fee because we had a pass---but I'd definitely recommend waiting until you have kids to stop here), and did a session at the San Diego Temple.  

We had a WONDERFUL time and couldn't think of a better way to celebrate our first year together.  Now more than ever I look forward to Eternity and everything in between!

Since Christmas...

...there have been a few fun things happen in our lives:


February 19th we celebrated Ben's 30th birthday.  Poor thing was actually kind of sick that day, but I did a "Ben's Favorite Things" day; giving him various gifts related to his favorite things (i.e. root beer and ice cream = root beer floats; Jurassic Park movies = he likes dinosaurs, and also those movies; some games, etc). The only thing I got a picture of though was Dessert Waffles in Bed:

March 11th was our 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY!  Time flies!  We had so much fun too.  We went to San Diego for a few days in honor of the occasion and had ourselves a mighty fine time.  I'll post separately about that awesome week, but here's a little preview: 

My brother Ryan and his wife Anna were sealed in the St. George Temple on April 28th and we were able to drive down and be there!  It was such a great experience and we are so happy for them!  Because of the way they did things, this is actually wedding #3 for them!  In the words of Anna, "That's one for the government, one for us, and one for the man upstairs." They are so fun, we love them!  

So that's been life as we know it lately!  Hopefully with summer upon us we'll find some fun things to do before the cold sets in again!



 

One of these days I WILL blog again. I promise.

Christmas and All That Came With It

I know, I'm a little behind in posting about Christmas--but if you look at my track record for blogging you shouldn't be surprised. However, I am going to talk about Christmas and the weeks leading up to it, because it was AWESOME.

Although this is not Ben and my first Christmas together, it is our first Christmas married, so we wanted to do our first year with a real tree:

Trucks are over-rated :)

The tree was the perfect size for our apartment, and the bottom was perfectly shaped to fit Ben's awesome train under it:

 And of course we visited Temple Square and saw the fabulous lights (and got really cold):

And then got to spend Christmas Day with both our families!  We had Christmas morning with Ben's family.  They came to our apartment and had breakfast and did all the traditional Christmas Morning stuff with us.  Ben's family is split between AZ and UT right now, so we didn't get to see everyone, but we sure had fun with the ones who were there!  Then Christmas night we went to my parents for dinner and presents with all my siblings and their families. As usual, we had a great time and there were some great gifts given!  We are so blessed to have such amazing families.

CHRISTMAS WITH THE GEDDES':

   CHRISTMAS WITH THE KEMPS:

{this was meant to be a picture of my sister and

bro-in-law--but unintentionally turned into this

hilarious photo of mynephew}

We got these hilarious fleece blanket pajama things
for my sis and her husband. Best gift ever!

 First Married Christmas=FREAKING AWESOME! :)

Lately...

So we haven't been up to much, but things have happened here in the last month or so....(warning: this is mostly a picture-less post, I hope you'll still read it though)

New Opportunities...
At the beginning of November, I got a new job!  Hooray!  Seriously, it is an amazing blessing that came at exactly the right time for me.  

I'd worked for Wells Fargo for about a year and a half as a teller/lead teller. It wasn't a bad job; I enjoyed the people, the pay wasn't bad-but the job was originally intended to be a temporary, just for a few months, kind of deal and it obviously turned into quite a few more. It was okay for a while, but I was getting burned out, especially since I didn't really love the job to begin with. I finally hit the "move up or move out" wall, couldn't find any "out" jobs, so started trying to "move up" by applying for banker positions within the company. I didn't want to be a banker since their main job is sales, which I really don't like doing, but although I wasn't excited about it, I could do the job and do it well. 

So over a couple of months I applied for several openings, interviewed at most of them, and had GREAT interviews!  My feedback was always, "you were the best one we interviewed...but we went with someone else." SO frustrating!  I was working really hard to be the right person for the job, and Ben will tell you, I came home from work discouraged and frustrated just about every day for months.  And then...


I was browsing KSL after another disappointing banker interview and found a job that looked interesting.  And it just so happened that Trish, one of my good friends, worked there.  So I called her up for some info on the job and she told me to send her my resume and she'd get it to the right people.  The next day I got called for an interview and went in that same afternoon. Two days later I got asked to come for a second interview a couple days later. I had my second interview, and that same afternoon I was called and offered the job. What?!?!  I'd been trying for months to find something new, and this all happened in a span of 6 days. I didn't need to think too hard about it though--I knew after my first interview that this was the job I wanted, and when it was offered I didn't even hesitate to say "yes!" 

So...you are now looking at (or, I guess reading about) the new Surgical Coordinator at the Mount Ogden Eye Center!  I've been there a little over a month now.  I'm one of 2 that do various parts of the job, and I love it!  I work with doctors, patients and surgical centers in regards to scheduling and coordinating eye surgeries.  I have no background at all in ophthalmology but I'm learning a lot as I go and I can't wait to learn more (someday soon I hope to be able to go watch one of our doctors perform cataract surgery). The people I work with are wonderful, it's a two minute drive from home, my hours are 8-5 Monday through Friday and I'm making a difference there...could it be any better?  

I can't even begin to express how incredibly blessed I was by the timing of this great opportunity. (Interestingly, in the midst of all this I had had one more banker interview.  I withdrew from consideration when I accepted the eye center job, but the regional manager proceeded to call to ask me to stay, offer me the banker job and more money...but I finally found a job I knew I would enjoy, so I didn't hesitate to thank him for the offer and turn it down).  I testify with all my heart that when we pray for and work hard for our desires-the Lord comes through at the right time with the right way to fulfill that desire.


So....long story, but great outcome.  Thanks for indulging me while I express my excitement about this new step in my life.  


Thanksgiving...
I LOVE FAMILY!  I can't say it enough!  And Ben and I have been blessed with such amazing ones!  There are some people who struggle with their in-laws, especially when the holidays come around and you have to figure out how to share your time without offending, hurting or angering anyone. But both of our parents' are so understanding and accommodating that we don't ever have to worry about it.  It's wonderful!  


This year we went with my family to my grandmother's house to join a small but fun group of family.  My aunt and uncle and one of my cousins and his family came in from out of town to join us and it was delicious and fun!  I love it when Ben finds things in common with members of my family, and he did just that with my cousin.  What a great day! 


Since we missed Ben's family on Thanksgiving, we devoted our "Black Friday" to avoiding shopping by eating leftovers, playing games and doing puzzles with them.  Once again, a small but fun group and a wonderful family to be a part of! Who could ask for anything more?

(And curse me for not taking any pictures!  I guess I was having too much fun!)


Christmas is Coming....
And it deserves it's own post. Soooo....
 


 ......TO BE CONTINUED.......(tomorrow)

Pumpkins

It's no secret that I hate Halloween.  Okay, maybe hate is a strong word, but I can say without hesitation that it is my least favorite holiday by a long shot.  Lucky for me, Ben feels the same way.  So the chances of us ever decorating and/or dressing up for Halloween again are pretty slim (don't worry--we'll still let our kids dress up and go trick-or-treating, we're not that bad).  

However, there is one Halloween tradition that I DO enjoy--and that is carving pumpkins. We had ourselves a good time of it this weekend too:

 We didn't know what to carve in our pumpkin
so we "Google'd" it.  :)

Bobbie-Jo and Jeff's awesome Ninja Turtle pumpkin

Jeff wanted to cook pumpkin seeds later-
but he had to dig through the goo to get them! 

In order of creators: Anna, Ryan, Ben & Kat, Kat, Bobbie-Jo & Jeff

 And tonight we will celebrate the holiday with a yummy fall dinner (I'm thinking soup and bread bowls), cozy up with a (non-scary) movie, do a puzzle, and hand out candy to whatever kids happen to drop by.  

Here's to another Halloween successfully celebrated without a costume.