CAUTION: Firework emits shower of sparks

I love the 4th of July, it is by far one of my most favorite holidays (top 3 easy). This fourth of July was looking to be one of the best... started off with a pancake breakfast at 8am (the time was rather unfortunate) but happily I got to take a nice long nap afterwards :) Who doesn't love naps! My adventurous husband found a rope swing in the middle of this random small town about 15 minutes outside of Rochester, so he, our friend McKay and I all headed out to this rope swing (into a river) to spend our afternoon:

It was proving to be a great 4th of July as we had a lot of fun at the river. Later that night came the fireworks and Kevin and I had a firsthand experience of what to do when a firework unexpectedly explodes in your hand. Here are the steps:

1. Hold fountain firework in hand while it emits sparks.

2. When firework unexpectedly explodes with ground flowers into hand, drop firework and immediately run burnt hand under cold water.

3. Put ice on hand and head over to watch big fireworks in the sky. Wait 5 minutes until extreme pain sets in.

4. Hurry home and think of home remedies aka put in cold water (only thing that made it feel better- I also tried burn gel and a gauze wrap as directed online but he was in so much pain that he ripped it off less than 5 minutes later.)

5. Wait until injured party realizes that the pain is too extreme and agrees to be taken to the E.R. take picture of injured hand and relax in the E.R.

6. Doctor says the hand has 2nd and 1st degree burns, receive prescription for hefty pain-killer and allow hand to be lightly covered in neosporin and wrapped in gauze roll.

7. Go home, let pain-killer/narcotic set in and sleep. Wake up next day and take one more picture of hand.

8. Take E.R. doctors advice, "Next year you won't buy fireworks because they're all made in China and they are all crap. Just crap. Fireworks are worthless and terribly made." Haha.

9. Laugh about it. :) And try not to burn hand (or any body part) with fireworks next year because it hurts!

What a great 4th of July :) Happy Birthday America!!

My First 2 Quilts

I had some time on my hands, so I decided to learn how to and actually make a quilt from start to finish. Picking out the fabrics, cutting the fabric, putting the pieces together, sewing them all etc. And here's how my first 2 turned out!

Unfortunately I don't have a picture of that one all finished but I do have this one all done:

They turned out a lot better than I thought at first. Now I have a quilting bug and want to make more!! Here are some quilts I'd love to make in the future! :)

What Love Is Really Like

I guess I used to think that love was supposed to be like the movie "The Notebook". Mostly because I love that movie; the crazy out of control love, passion that burned like wildfire in their lives, the gradual ascent the little steps that lead them to that love, the part where she sees him in the newspaper and the spark is lit and she has to go see him one "last time", the ride on the river that ends with kissing in the rain, the moment when she pulls back up to the house and she just shrugs her shoulders as if she couldn't help but return to him and finally the part at the end when they die together in the same bed holding hands as their last gesture in this life together.

When I look back on the time I've known Kevin and the first time I realized that I loved him, my life has been a less compacted version of the notebook, it didn't take place in an hour and a half, but over a year. I didn't at first think that Kevin and my love could even live up to the love of "The Notebook" or any Nicholas Sparks movie for that matter, but it does! Just because their isn't an hour and a half movie about it, that's no reason our love isn't as strong. I say this because loving Kevin completely swept me off my feet and took me by surprise, I can't even believe it now.

I wasn't sure about marrying Kevin because the world made me think that my love had to be crazy and passionate and take my breath away from me all the time, it didn't then but it does now. Marrying Kevin was the best decision I have ever made. Our love was a little seed when we were dating, I don't even think we knew what love was then; now that we're married it's growing even more. It won't become a tree or a flower or what it's meant to be for many years to come. That's why "the notebook" is so great, because it shows their love turn into a flower. A young love that keeps through time and hardships and struggles... one of my favorite lines from that movie:
Young Noah: Would you just stay with me?
Young Allie: Stay with you? What for? Look at us, we're already fightin'
Young Noah: Well that's what we do, we fight... You tell me when I am being an arrogant son of a bitch and I tell you when you are a pain in the ass. Which you are, 99% of the time. I'm not afraid to hurt your feelings. You have like a 2 second rebound rate, then you're back doing the next pain-in-the-ass thing.
Young Allie: So what?
Young Noah: So it's not gonna be easy. It's gonna be really hard. We're gonna have to work at this every day, but I want to do that because I want you. I want all of you, for ever, you and me, every day.

That's what love is, working at it every day and looking back to see the miracles that happened in your love along the way. One of the biggest reasons I decided to marry Kevin is because a wise friend told me a story about the first time she remembered being in love with her husband, and that's what she held onto when times were hard. That's what I do too. I remember being on Lake Shasta holding on to Kevin while we rode around on the seadoo; he hopped off to go on this rope swing and left me on the seadoo... as he flipped off that rope swing, I knew I loved that crazy, adventurous boy. :) For some reason I knew then without a doubt that there was something special about him, that's a memory that I will keep in my heart forever... love comes easy, not hard... and that's what love really is.

Getting Farther Away

This picture is how I feel right now. Kevin is in Minnesota and I'm here in Utah (health reasons), we're separated by 1,286 miles--20 hours of driving. It's hard to be apart from each other, my heart goes out to all those wives whose husbands are in the military and are separated from their husbands for a long time. It's been less than a week for me and I miss him like crazy. Being married is great because you have someone there for you all the time, someone who is always on your side, always there to support you and listen to you, who loves you no matter what. It's so great to be married, but I miss having my husband with me all the time. I can't wait to go back to Minnesota and be with him, who knows how long that's going to be though. Just waiting on the doctors to speed things along. I'm glad there is skype, and phone calls and texting- that helps but it's not the same. He was having a rough day at work so he called me to vent, I just wished that I could be there with him! Sigh...

Dive For Dreams

By E.E. Cummings

dive for dreams
or a slogan may topple you
(trees are their roots
and wind is wind)

trust your heart
if the seas catch fire
(and live by love
though the stars walk backward)

honour the past
but welcome the future
(and dance your death
away at this wedding)

never mind a world
with its villains or heroes
(for god likes girls
and tomorrow and the earth)

Lack of Luster

Sigh.

I don't know what other way to start out this blog! I keep reading on facebook about all these amazing trips people are going on and adventures other people are having and I'm jealous. I want to go on an adventure/vacation too! My younger sister is in Jerusalem for the summer for crying out loud! She went to turkey last week... and for those of you who don't know, Turkey is beautiful! (A favorite vacation spot for many people I met in England though I've never actually been there.) This is my rant of jealousy and nostalgia for the past vacations and adventures I have been on. Don't get me wrong, Minnesota is an adventure and we've seen some cool things and I've never been to so many free zoos BUT Kevin is just so wrapped up in work that my adventures are often cut short OR not taken at all. For example, I want to go see one of the great lakes, I want to visit Chicago, I want to go up Duluth and drive through the pretty scenery, I want to go to Nauvoo and see the church history sites around there, I'd love to be able to go to my friend Brooke Rodda's wedding in Kentucky. I want to see things but alas as Kevin often reminds me, "we are here to work." I am sick of working, when does the fun start!! Haha :)

Pictures from past adventures I wish I could repeat! And no pictures from places I still want to visit

*WARNING* Lots of pictures

New York City!

New Orleans

Camping

Canada

Yellowstone

Bryce Canyon

Lake Shasta

Motorcycle Riding in the desert

Zion National Park

Mexico

Seattle :)

England

Let's Meet My Bed

Hello queen sized bed.

You are covered with moss green sheets, and on top of that a white, green and grey comforted Kevin and I purchased via gift-cards at Super Target. Unfortunately you have been my home the last two days.

I won't blame you for my badly tweaked neck. My husband will, he thinks it's the nap that I took on you. Since when I woke up from laying on you, I tried to look over at him and I experienced some intense pains, he blames you. Thinking the pains would go away fairly soon, I was surprised by the intensity of pain a tweaked neck can provide (even tears of pain), here I am still laying on you in pain 25 hours later.

Fortunately for me, you are large enough to hold me, and my husband's laptop on which I have been watching a plethora of hulu shows and the occasional clip of Jeremy Wade's River Monsters on Animal Planet. Also you are quite comfortable, you keep me warm and my husband has put anything I need within reaching distance. (Kool-aid, my computer, aleve, my phone, even food sometimes!)

As much as I love you (because who doesn't love their bed), it's been no fun sitting here hour-after-hour immobilized by my kinked neck. Please hurt me no more! Don't miss me too much when I leave either.

Much love,
Amanda

Minnesota

We're finally here in Minnesota after driving for many, many, many hours (more than I care to count) let's review them! First Kevin and I drove down to California (13 hours). We spent some time there for a second reception in the form of a fantastic fiesta party. Then we drove to Park Moabi in California (5 hours), a campsite on the Colorado River. We spent the week out on the water and motorcycle riding across the desert! It was lots of fun, even if the weather wasn't being very cooperative! Kevin and I spent one night in our tent while a storm raged on the outside, wind and rain. Wahoo! :) Then we went off to Arizona and spent a night with Kevin's brother Garrett and Garrett's family. (1 hour) Next we drove up to Utah, got some R&R at my house (8 hours) and repacked our car. We woke up and started driving, (21) hours and ended up in Minnesota.

The only advice I have for anyone driving that way is that it's worth it to stop BOTH times in Wyoming to get the 50 cent ice cream cones, they were delicious! That's the only thing I remember about driving through Wyoming and most of Nebraska... otherwise it's flat and the landscape doesn't change very much. Minnesota is a pretty state, although I miss my Utah mountains. It's a rolling hills kind of flat here, with lots of trees. We like it so far.

It's definitely fun to be in a new place that Kevin and I have never been too. We are looking forward to exploring and having some new adventures. :) So far we have done 2 things here.

1. We went to Mall of America, Kevin hates malls so we just walked around for a while and got some lunch. Kevin was most excited about the lego store :) Overall our impression of Mall of America was (in Kevin's words), "An amusement park surrounded by a mall, Minnesota's excuse to get an amusement park because it's too cold to have one there. Other than the roller coasters it's just a mall." I felt a bit the same, it's just another mall. It was big and did have some cool stores though. So if you're not like my husband and you enjoy malls it's a fun place to go plus there is an aquarium inside! We have yet to go there however :)

2. We went to Como Zoo & Conservatory. It is a free zoo, we went and walked around for a few hours. It was pretty decent for a free zoo, although crowded. They had the cutest little baby orangutan and a polar bear! My favorite. They also had a beautiful conservatory of plants. Kevin liked the indoor place where they had birds, a snapping turtle and some really cool fish. Overall it was a good and fun place to spend a few hours.