So, the wedding went successfully. Me and my husband for time and all eternity were married on December 18th, 2009 in the Draper Utah temple at 10:24 AM.

It's funny but in a way you don't really get to take in all that happens that day. It's full of running from one place to the next with hardly any time to just breath. The second we got out of the temple it was picture time then straight to the luncheon at 1:00 and then off to pleasant view for the reception that night. (which we

spent from the time we arrived getting ready for) Although it was busy it really was the most wonderful day I could have asked for. Everything went perfectly and if not perfectly then it was pretty dang close because it felt wonderful! It wasn't snowing, everyone managed to be where they needed to be and most of all I was finally married! After hours of shaking hands and welcoming people for being at our reception we danced, cut the cake, threw the flowers and the garter and then we were off in our chocolate syrup and Oreo car.

For our honey moon we went to Las Vegas. I learned fast we weren't in Utah anymore. While in vegas you can't look down or up. You basically have to keep your eyes straight forward so you don't see any type of pornography. Everything was so expensive on the strip!!!! Thank goodness for the Walgreens across from our hotel and the Denny's and McDonalds a block away. It was so nice being able to relax and just be the two of us. We saw a wax museum, cirque de soliel mystere put on by treasure island, a shark reef aquarium, the Bellagio fountains (to christmas music), and a lot of lions and tigers and dolphins (oh my!), along with a lot of other things.

On our honeymoon my new husband got sick. It was either a bug or food poisoning but either way not what I was expecting to happen. We also got the news that beita (spencers grandma) had passed away. Even with all this we had a fantastic honeymoon and enjoyed the rest of our trip.

We flew back into Salt Lake the night of the 23rd. The next day we went to visit my family. We did all of our christmas traditions that day because we were gonna be with Spencer's family for Christmas eve and then we were leaving that morning for LA to go to beitas funeral.

It was a little different not being able to spend christmas with my family. It was my first time ever not being with them and it was kind of hard. Don't get me wrong I LOVE all of the new additions to my family, it was hard to be away from my mom, dad and brother. I did have a GREAT christmas eve and felt very welcome. ( as always :D )

The next morning after the nieces and nephews opened their gifts from Santa we headed off for LA. We arrived at 7:30 that night. The funeral was the next morning. Even though it was all in Spanish there was still such a great spirit. I am so thankful for the gospel and for the knowledge it gives that we will be an eternal family for time and all eternity. I am so very thankful for the temple and for the blessings the we receive when we go. I am grateful for the opportunity that I had to be married in the temple to my dear husband.

Even though it's been over a week, it still hasn't sunk in all the way that I'm married.

nearly one day before the wedding

It sure is amazing the amount of last minute details you overlook. The last few days have been jam-packed from 10-10 with them. It's amazing, i'm actually exhausted and ready for bed before 11. I spent 3 hours in the walmart photo line today. All I needed was 30 4x6's and 2 8x10's but since they were on 4 different disks (which each had 600 or so pictures on it) it took FOREVER!!!!

We picked up the tuxes, the wedding dress and some christmas gifts while we were at it. By the time we were done, we all were ready for bed.

6 days to go!!!

Having your friend get married a week before you can do many different things. 1. put a lot of stress on you. 2. be a major party or 3. become a complete competition. I have found it to be a little bit of each. The first thing to hit you is competition. Who gets what done first, how they did it and how fast they did it. Next is the stress that hits you because the other person has either gotten what you had plan to do this week done two weeks ago, or you're having to change your plans because you jumped at the first thing that seemed to be good because you wanted to get it done before the other person. The next and greatest thing to hit you is the amazing party that it is. Having a friend that understand how you feel and the stress your feeling is a great help. Not to mention the bachelorette party. It's so much fun to be able to tease someone and then get teased right back. It also adds to the experience being happy for not only yourself but being so happy for someone else at the same time.

Being LDS and endowed the night before it was such an amazing and wonderful experience to be able to go to her temple wedding and to be there to support her and her husband felt so wonderful. It was also very nice to be able to see one before your own just so you know what to expect.

One thing me and me and my fiance noticed is how big of a day it really is. We didn't even do anything but show up for the temple, find the luncheon (in a white out snow storm might I add) and show up to the reception when we so wished.

Our day is going to be a long day but I know, not just from viewing this wedding, that it's the right thing that is taking place in the right place and that no matter what happens it's all going to be worth it to spend the rest of eternity with my future husband.

the week before the wedding

So I've decided that this blog is now going to be all about the things that I'm going to be going through being a newlywed next friday. Although I'm not married yet I thought that it would be nice to have this all set up and ready for that very instant I become Mrs. Banks. I look forward to the funny times, the sad times and the just insane outrageous times that are sure to come. I look forward to sharing this time with all of you.

my pocket book

Since I work at Wal-mart of course I've been scheduled every sunday that I've been in town since we've opened. However!!! I've been sick for the past couple of days so this gives me the opportunity to call into work and go to church. (Sorry Jannine :( i didn't know anna would call in too..) woops.

My pocket book isn't getting filled but my spiritual jug is and I figure that's more important right now :)

South Dakota Road Trip Day 5 and 6

Day 5:

We went to Deadwood, South Dakota home of Wild Bill, Calamity Jane and many other outlaws of the west. I had the opportunity to be volunteered by the actor of Wild Bill to be Calamity Jane in the reenactment of the death of Wild Bill in Saloon 10. 

Next was Devils Tower which was really neat followed by Custer's Last Stand and the Battle of Little Bighorn.  We stayed in Billings Montana. 

Day 6:

West Yellowstone. we traveled from Billings Montana to West Yellowstone through the Bear tooth pass. It was absolutely amazing! We were at 10,900 and somthin' ft in elevation. we were on top of the world. Luckily for me the top of the world has a bathroom... literally. there was a motel at the very top called The Top of the World and luckily they had a bathroom. (well, out-house but it was wonderful) We then entered the park and saw coyote, wolf, bison, and fox. Tomorrow we head home and this has been an amazing trip however I do miss Spencer and I'm ready to see him again. I LOVE MY FAMILY!!!! 

South Dakota Road Trip Day 4

Mt. Rushmore, Reptile Gardens, and Bear Country: rain rain and more rain. 

Everything we did today was in Rapid City South Dakota. 

Our first activity of the day was we went to Reptile Gardens.  Reptile Gardens is the most complete reptile collection in the World. Me, myself, I'm not a real big snake fan but the croc's and gators were pretty cool. Of course, it started raining the same time as yesterday. so we went into the indoor place. We got to touch a giant tortoise, a baby croc named fluffy, and i touched a snake too! 

the Next place we went was called bear country. pretty much you get to drive through this park and they have animals out in the open just walking around but they're separated by fences and cattle guards so that they don't eat each other. We saw Elk, Reindeer, Arctic Fox, Rams, Mountain Goats, Black Bears, Wolves, Bison, and Grizzly Bears. We also got to go through this babyland and saw the baby animals. In addition to all this, a front row seat to the show of how those baby animals were made. we had mountain lions and black bears mating feet from our car right in front of us. yeah the lady in the van beside us covered her face. haha she was embarrassed. ;) 

 

Mt: Rushmore!!!!

ALL I HAVE TO SAY IS BEAUTIFUL, AMAZING, UNBELIEVABLE AND ASTONISHING!!!!!

How  to Wrestle A Crocodile Presented by Justin Recorded by Colette. :0

South Dakota Road Trip Day 3

Custer SD to Rapid City SD: a whole lot of indian stuff :)

Our first stop today was at Crazy Horse monument. It was really cool. We didn't go in because the whole point is this statue that the indians are making for a memorial to crazy horse and since we could cheat and see it from the road we saved the 30 or so dollars and got a picture from the road. 

next stop was at Custer State Park. Inside this park is Sylvan Lake. this is the lake where National Treasure Two was filmed. It was really nice!!! Blake and I got to go on a Paddle Boat Ride. 

Me putting my hand in the same place as in the movie :)  

this is Sylvan Lake. 

Blake and I were trying to find my parents after getting done with our paddle boat ride and suddenly a freak lightning and rain storm came out of nowhere! We spent the next half hour trying to find our parents.  We finally made it to the car and we got stuck in a hail storm! I'd never seen hail this big before! 

Finally the hail stopped and we got to see a whole bunch of animals! We saw buffalo, a ground hog, turkeys and what they call "begging burros". pretty much they are donkeys that expect you to feed them. they were really fun! Below are some pictures from that. 

Later that evening we arrived in Rapid City. We went Bowling (Blakes activity (he picked that because we didn't want to go pain balling.)) We also swam in our pool at the hotel. Tomorrow, Reptile Museum, Bear Country and Mt. Rushmore. :)

Total Mileage: 

South Dakota Road Trip Day 2

From Wyoming to South Dakota: FINALLY IN SOUTH DAKOTA!!!

The day started out pretty much like the first day except that we got a much earlier start.

 I was awoken at 7:30 to get ready to eat breakfast at the hotel which ended at 9:00.  The process of having four people get ready at the one sink in our hotel room was a challenge. Even though Blake and my Dad didn’t hardly use it the challenge came with there being only one outlet for me and my mom. This one particular outlet had held my phone and camera charger the night before and then needed to be equipped with a blow dryer and curling iron that morning. All of us girls know the somewhat necessary bag of makeup that we usually decide to bring on all vacations besides girls camp. Those two makeup bags took up the whole sink. My brother could hardly get through the mess to brush his teeth.

            Breakfast was good. Usually I’m not a breakfast fan because it makes me sick that early in the morning but who could pass up donuts, hot chocolate, orange juice and fruitloops!?!? (I know, so healthy)

After breakfast we went out to load the car. Since it had been dark the night before we were oblivious to how bad our car had been attacked by bugs from the long trip the day before

As we left the hotel parking lot and were going to fill up with gas, we got a nice little surprise by nature. There, out in the field was a mother antelope and her two baby fawns. It was so cute!!!

The next spot on our trip was walmart. I know, I just can’t seem to stay away from that place. Blake and I had some fun messing around on our way and in the store.

            Blake still wasn’t too happy about driving around in the middle of nowhere. 

Yah we have a great time just messing around. I took Blakes hat. I think I look pretty good in it :) . 

After Walmart we were finally on our way and we came across all these antique cars that were driving from New York to Seatle Washington. It was pretty cool so I tried to get some pictures of them

 

Since the Cars were much more interesting from the side, I gave my camera to Blake so he could get a picture of them. These are his attempts….

Second attempt: still no dice

So my mom decides she can do a better job and
tries her luck with the camera… she told my dad to slow down which Blake says was cheating because he had to try and take it at 60 MPH 

Needless to say, she didn't have very good luck either...

So me, thinking that it’s my camera and I know how to work it . I say, “give me my own dang camera. I’ll do it.” My Dad even pulls off to the side of the road and stops. This is the picture I managed…

Yes, the picture I took wasn’t much better…   So no such luck with the old antique cars…      

We then went to a mammoth dig site. It was really interesting. apparently a bunch of mammoths got stuck in a hot spring and couldn't get out over hundreds of years and so they died from either drowning, exhaustion, or starvation. So when they were trying to build a housing development they found the bones, donated the land and now it's a huge tourist spot. It was really quite interesting. 

these are some pictures of the excavation site. 

yah it was really cool. we also went to wind caves which was really nifty. None of the pictures i took worked out but i did take a video of the natural enterence to the cave. they call it wind caves because depending on the berometric pressure wind either blows into or out of the cave. 

Total miles traveled: 

South Dakota Road Trip Part 1

Wyoming: the plethora of nothing. 

       Today my family and I started our Road trip to South Dakota. Our day started out with preparations to leave. Finally at 2:45 we were ready to leave. It was a five and a half hour driving trip of nothing that was really six and a half with our stops for dinner and rest room. Overall it wasn't so bad. Thank goodness for my ability to fall asleep quickly in cars. I slept for almost 2 hours of the trip.  That is pretty much the extent of the day today. We went from Pleasant View, Utah to Laramie, Wyoming. (home of the cowboys) total mileage: 394 miles 

   getting ready to head off.  

                                    these are some cool rock formations on the way there. 

                                     all we saw for hours... 

yeah Blake was ready to end it  my mom figuring out where to go next. she is the one who planned this whole trip. she's really good at figuring it all out. :)

 

Trying to get updated :D

haha alright so i'm going to try and get updated on all of this stuff that has happened. I'm going to go back to May 18, 2009. Spencer made breakfast for me :D!!!! i've never gotten breakfast like that before ever! also!!! he bought me my favorite flowers ever!!! orchids!!!! oh he's so sweet!!!

mm it was delicious!!! He also ate with me which made it twice as good! :D

Then, on Memorial day I got to show Spencer how big of hicks my family and I was at one of my relatives farms.  these are some pictures and maybe some video of it :) 

 this is my brother Blake :D 

two of my favorite guys 

This is Ally (the youngest being held by my cousin (her mom) Marie) and Olivia watching my dad trying to get one of the calfs to come over so they could pet it. 

isn't he so handsome? i think he's got the whole hick thing down!! 

gosh i love this guy!

More random Pictures:

Video from the day :)

 This was SO funny!!! haha those two were hilarious!