Easter Weekend

Let me first apologize for my lack of cute, pastel plastered Easter pictures. The hubs and I are pretty terrible about remembering to take pictures. We're working on that...

Although we don't have the photo proof, our Easter weekend was pretty dang great. Good food, good people, good times.

We took a trip up to Pocatello to visit Kendal's sweet parents and arrived around 7 p.m. on Saturday to smiling faces and a delicious Easter feast. Since Lucy had plans to fly to Arizona to care for her mom early Sunday morning, we celebrated the festivities one night early so she could join us.

The food was SO good. I seriously STUFFED my face. I felt kind of bad about not being more involved in the dinner conversation... I was just over there scarfing down everything laid before me haha... chicken and shrimp fresh from the grill, a new recipe of jerk ribs Lucy wanted to try out, an assortment of yummy veggies, GF pasta tossed with even more yummy veggies, and spinach/ feta cheese naan (she's been hooked on naan ever since Kendal and I went with them to an Indian restaurant here in Logan). Gosh, I wish you all could enjoy a bite of every dish right now. I guess when you marry into the King family you get to eat like a king too!

Once my focus wasn't completely consumed by the food (pun intended) I realized Lucy had decorated pretty much every corner of the house! The whole place was SO cute. I don't know where she's collected all those fun decorations from but I want tips! There were twinkly lights with colorful flowers and ornaments hung in the spaces between the bulbs, festive table cloths and pretty tulips, and beaded strands of ribbon hung over all the doors. It got me feeling so excited for when I get to be a mom with a real house that I get to light up with all kinds of cheery decor!

We spent Saturday night relaxing and sharing stories. OH and of course munching on carrot cake with vanilla ice cream once our tummies had a little more space :)  It's always fun to hear about the family history and the silly jokes Corey manages to slide into every conversation. Haha all I know is that I couldn't have picked a better family to marry into. I got so lucky!

Lucy had an early flight to catch so I barely missed her and Corey leaving as I pulled my groggy morning self out of bed. I didn't even notice that Kendal had left our room to say goodbye so when I woke up to footsteps and voices upstairs I got myself up there as quick as I could! When I got to the top Kendal called me over to the couch to at least wave goodbye as they pulled out of the driveway.

We had a little Easter scavenger hunt prepared for us so once I woke up a bit more we decided to get started on that. Lucy had pointed out the starting point the night before so we walked over and opened up the first egg to find our clue. This little activity was definitely a highlight for me. It's been years since I've participated in an Easter Egg Hunt... especially one without older brothers terrorizing me and swiping all my findings from my bare hands! Haha sooo many teary-eyed baby Claire Easter videos. But this year I got to be on a team with my husband and we had a blast working together to find the next egg. Some of the eggs were actually quite a challenge to find so that added even more excitement to our hunt! Also Kendal let me dub myself "Keeper of the Eggs", giving me each clue to store in my hoodie's front pocket. I felt like an aussie kanga with a pouch! One of the funniest moments was when we were looking for an Easter basket in the garage. Kendal found a basket on top of the refrigerator and checked inside for the next egg. But all he could find was a grocery bag filled with corn nuts! Hahah we thought maybe that was our prize, which would have compared to Kendal's idea of giving someone a chicken pot pie for Christmas! But when we double checked to make sure they weren't just pulling our legs we found an clear egg that blended in perfectly with the basket. I'm not sure why that tickled our funny bones so much, but it did! We continued on the hunt and eventually found the very last hiding place. Our prize was hidden away in a colorful jar and to our delight we opened it up to find TWO gift cards! Olive Garden and Coldstone :) Some of our very favorite places! It's always exciting getting gift cards because they give us a reason to have a night out... especially because I can be so stingy with our money. It was so nice of them to plan that little scavenger hunt for us. A very pleasant surprise indeed!

I wasn't feeling too well after we finished so I went back downstairs to rest a little more while Kendal took a bath. Unfortunately that didn't help much because I spent the rest of the day feeling a little under the weather. But we met Corey at church and enjoyed the Easter messages together. My favorite part hands-down was the primary performance. They sang two songs and did such a nice job! Children's voices are the absolute sweetest. They brought such a strong spirit right into the meeting in a matter of minutes. The church choir also sang some songs, which Corey is a part of, so we got to enjoy those numbers as well. It was great! We sat in on his Sunday School lesson afterwards and felt like rock stars being introduced as his son and daughter-in-law :)

Post church consisted of more good food- complete with risotto, bringing me right back to my beloved Italian days- and solid Sunday naps.

We may have only been there for 24 hours but that time was filled with many happy memories. Huge thanks to the Kings for making sure our first Easter together was egg-stra special! ;)

LET'S GET HIGH [on love]. Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros.

Kendal and I will soon be coming up on 3 magical months of marriage! WHAAAT. It seems like just yesterday we were being sealed to each other in the Salt Lake Temple, celebrating the day away with our loved ones.

Although 3 months deems us as total marriage newbies, I think we are rocking this whole marriage thing. Sure, we have our disagreements… but if we didn’t, this journey we’re on together couldn’t really be constituted as an adventure, right? And Gordon B. Hinckley himself said, “Love is meant to be an adventure”. So as long as you can agree to disagree and choose to be happy rather than to be right (p.s. read that last piece of advice online the other day and LOVED it), you’re doing better than fine. PLUS – those tiffs don’t even compare with the many highlights each day has brought to us since 12.30.15. 

Without further ado, I present to you our very first list of “Marriage Peaks” [because anyone who knows me knows that I love a good list]

v  Sharing a bed. And why did I place this item at the very tip top of the list? Because that boy’s freakishly warm body never fails to warm up my constantly subzero toes. Slipping my feet under his legs as I’m falling asleep may be the greatest thing EVER. However, I should point out this might be a different story for Kendal… sharing a bed with me has shown him what it’s like to sleep with an alligator. Most nights he takes it like a true champion. But on some occasions I’ll wake up to him shoving my body across the bed, moving me away from my assumed pose – smack dab in the middle of the mattress, sprawled out like a skydiver in free fall. (Sorry honey)

v  Sharing chores and other responsibilities. Let me tell ya, it is SO nice to have a partner who helps keep our home a happy place to be. After a long day, solo work is the last thing anyone wants to do. But when one person tackles the dishes and the other takes care of the vacuuming and sweeping, those mundane jobs aren’t so bad. And it’s all done in half the time. Cheers to that!

v  And then there’s the things that a helpful partner is ESPECIALLY nice for… doing those things we just really can’t stand. Ironically, Kendal does a better job at not turning green while pulling clogged hair out of the shower drain. And I am the designated spider killer in the relationship. (teeheehee totally serious over here folks)

v  Sleepy good morning snuggles and kisses. There’s just something extra special about those moments when the sun is streaming through the windows and we’re still cuddled up in our warm blankets.

v  Date night, every night. Whether we get to enjoy a slow night in, complete with pizza and a Redbox or go out with some of our fun married couple friends. It’s so wonderful to not have to deal with those “your place or mine” texts as we figure out plans for the evening. All we have to do is walk through the door and our night together can begin right away! It’s a truly beautiful thing.

v  Never having to say goodnight. Of course we always say goodnight as we are curling up to go to bed, but oh my goodness… one of the best things about being married is never having to say goodnight and go home. Seriously, it’s the biggest game changer. We can now peacefully go to bed at a reasonable hour because we aren’t forcing ourselves to stay awake as we procrastinate leaving each other for the night. Our bedtime has changed from midnight or later to 10:30 or earlier. IT’S THRILLING.

v  Getting to do our own thing while still having the fun of being together. As two separate people, we naturally have our own separate interests. And sometimes I just really like kicking back and binge watching Grey’s Anatomy (I’M FREAKING OBSESSED BTW), while Kendal plays some Xbox. Life in our little studio apartment allows us to always be in close proximity to each other so when we both get the itch for our guilty pleasures Kendal will turn off the sound on his game and I’ll turn my volume up so he can hear it. It’s fun for us to do this because he pays close attention to what’s happening and asks questions to stay up to date on all the drama. Then whenever I gasp at some gross condition a character has, he’ll run over and check out the gore with me. It’s a good time. And we both get to do what we want J  Always a win-win activity!

v  Living together forces us to solve our differences promptly. Which is so healthy! When we got frustrated when we were dating, it was too easy to escape the issue by leaving and going home. Though it’s definitely good to take a minute and step back until you’ve calmed down, I find it more beneficial to resolve things sooner than later. This way there isn’t time to build any resentment or bitterness toward the person or the issue. You also get to observe the other person as they go through every stage of whatever emotion and you really learn a lot about the best way to handle things. 

Oh – and for those curious about the title of this post – It’s simply a song I like. Give it a listen if you’re wanting to add a little groove to your day J It’s been stuck in my head and I thought it was fitting considering the peak of a mountain is the highest point and these “Marriage Peaks” have got us high on looooove. Amen and amen. 

P.S. Pictures have a way of spicing up just about everything, so here's a little photo of the husband and I at our Stake's Valentine dinner + dance. We've been on a lucky streak lately because at this event we won a gift card to The Elements restaurant here in Logan (which is basically one of the fanciest places in town) and just the other night we went to a Vivint recruiting dinner to support one of Kendal's buddies and won an IPad Air! We are SUPER pumped about both victories.

Also love the married student ward we are in and recently received the calling of Sunday School teachers together! It's especially fun because this will probably be one of the only church callings in our life that we get to share. XOXO