Our First Semester Together

As for our first semester together, there's not much to tell, and we don't have any pictures to go along with our story :(  We would go to school at 8:00 am and get home around 6:00 pm every day.  Nick and I both really enjoyed most of our classes this semester.  For those of you who don't know, my major is communication disorders (otherwise known as speech-language pathology and audiology), and Nick's major is the classics. This semester I got to take Hearing Science and Acoustics and Medical Speech Pathology, and I just loved both of them! Nick got to take Latin and some Greek literature classes and he really enjoyed those.  We both got really lucky with our jobs this semester.  Nick works for the microbiology department researching early church history, and he gets to choose the hours that he works, which was really nice.  I worked for Bookstore Custodial, and it was so nice because I got to sit in an office and do homework for 4 hours unless someone called in a spill or something that I needed to clean up, and that didn't happen very often.

For Halloween, we got to take our nieces trick-or-treating, and we just loved it! They dressed up as a baker and a cup cake. It was so cute!

I ended up getting really sick at the beginning of October.  I was really weak, nauseous, and every time I got out of bed I felt like I was going to faint.  I went to the doctor 3 times in the next 3 months, and they had no idea what it was.  Right away they thought I was pregnant, but don't get too excited, it's not true, haha. Then, they did tests on my eyes, heart, thyroid, lungs, and a few other things, but they couldn't find anything wrong. Turns out it was a combination of mono and an inner ear infection, and they both have not gone away yet. I am better than what I used to be, but it's still pretty bad.  There are some days where I have the strength to go grocery shopping or hang out with family as long as we just watch a movie or play games or something.  I ended up not doing too well in my classes since I couldn't go to class for the second half of the semester, but I passed all of them, which is all I was asking for!  This semester I am only taking 9 credits so hopefully I can get rid of this soon! I have been very blessed with such an amazing husband.  He has taken care of me so well, and I know it put a lot more stress on him because he had to work and go to his own classes and take care of me at the same time.  He says he will take care of me as long as it takes, but we both want this to go away as soon as possible so we can go back to normal life!

Christmas was really fun for us.  Both of our families came to Utah, so we didn't have to travel anywhere! It made it crazy with both of them here, but we were so glad we could spend it with both of them.  I mostly stayed home to rest except for Christmas Eve and Christmas, but Nick went snowboarding and to a movie with his brothers, and he loved it.  Also, Nick's sister, Jess, had her baby at the end of November! He is so adorable, and I'm so sad that I've been sick so I haven't been able to see him or the rest of their family too much.  I'm excited to get better and start seeing them more often again!

Overall, this semester wasn't too bad, but we are excited for and hopeful about this coming year.

Lily and Ella Date

One of the last things that we did before school started was go on a Lily and Ella date.  Our niece, Lily, called us up one day and asked if she could go on a Nick and Liz date. It was the cutest thing ever! We ended up taking her and her sister, Ella out for a few hours.  First, we went bowling.  Lily got 3 strikes in a row! Ella didn't care too much about knocking down the pins, but she loved doing a victory dance every time someone knocked anything down. Lily also loved dancing to the music.  They are both really good dancers!

Then, we got some ice cream cones and went to the park! The ice cream melted a little too fast.

We got to watch all the ducks in the pond, also.

It was such a fun day, and we just love spending time with our nieces.  They are so adorable and sweet, and we feel so blessed to live so close to them and their family.

Our Honeymoon at the Happiest Pace on Earth

After the wedding, we were so happy to finally be able to rest from everything.  For the first few days, we stayed at our new apartment, went shopping, and decorated everything.  It was so much fun! Then, we went down to Flagstaff, AZ for the reception down there.  We spent some time with Nick's family and went to the Grand Canyon.  I had never been before so it was a lot of fun. The last night we were there we went to the reception.  The weather was perfect and everything was so pretty.  I love how gorgeous Flagstaff is! The only problem was that there were so many mosquitoes!

The next morning we headed out on our adventure to California! Nick's mom drove us down to the Phoenix airport (it was so hot!). Our flight was only about an hour long, and before we knew it, we were in California!  It was gorgeous!  I just love seeing palm trees everywhere!  The first thing we did was go pick up the car we rented, and it was bright orange! It was super nice though.

We stayed at the Double Tree Inn, and we got some huge, warm cookies when we signed in!

For the rest of that day, we went to Newport Beach.  It was a lot of fun, but it was really cold.

That night, we walked across the street to The Block at Orange.  It was a pretty awesome mall with lots of good places to eat and shop! I got some adorable new shoes, and Nick picked out a new tshirt and jeans that he really liked.  Then, we ate at Lascari's Italian Grill.  It was so good, and they gave us free cheese cake since we were on our honeymoon!

The next two days, we went to Disney Land!!! I had never been before, so I was so excited! We got there right at 8:00.  We ran to our first ride, Indiana Jones, and it was awesome! Somehow, every ride we went to had almost no line when we got there, but when we came out, the line was like an hour long!  We were very lucky.

We ate lunch at the Blue Bayou.  It was this cute little restaurant that the Pirates of the Caribbean ride goes through.  It was pretty dark, and they had candles on the table.  The food was good, but I liked it more because of the atmosphere.

We also got to see a musical of Aladdin.  It was really cool, but we mostly did it to get out of the heat for a few hours.

That night, we got to see the World of Colors.  It was so cool, and they played some of my favorite songs.  Sadly, we were so impressed that we completely forgot to get some pictures of it :(   The next morning, we were going to go whale watching, but we were so exhausted that we wanted to sleep in.  We flew home that night, and Jess (Nick's sister) and her family picked us up.  We went to Olive Garden for Jess's birthday, and then we were finally home again.  It was a lot of fun, and we didn't want to go back to work the next week.