Midnight Hot Chocolate Run

I thought I knew the town of Rexburg, Idaho pretty well, but this experience taught me something I never fathomed.

First off, Tom and I made the mistake of taking a late afternoon nap on Sunday after church (our church ends at 4). This napping made us stay up late last night. Tom was working on homework and I was just surfing the internet. But we weren't sleepy at all. Tom suggested we go get hot chocolate because it was no longer the Sabbath, but Monday morning!

We don't have curfew because we're married, so we decided to hit the town! We didn't understand what 'hitting the town' this late in Rexburg entailed.

This experience showed us just how dead Rexburg really is late at night/really early in the morning. We saw probably only three other cars on the road- literally, this is not an exaggeration. And every time we pulled up to a streetlight it magically changed into whatever we needed (a miracle in this small, slow town).

In our quest for food, we decided to see if Jack in the Box was open for some delicious $.99 tacos (no judgements, please). Unfortunately, they were closed. What about Wendy's? Open 2am or later, right? Wrong. Closed too. We thought the one 24 hour place that exists in Rexburg would be open, but Ramirez must've changed their hours. They were also a fail. We thought we were going to have to give up, or drive all the way to Rigby or Idaho Falls for a late-night snack. We settled on the only store open, the gas station Maverik. We got hot chocolate and a hot dog. I love Tom even more for his idea to go out at 1:30am Monday morning. Now we know what Rexburg is really like.

(Please disregard the extreme enthusiasm on our faces about gas station food/drink.)

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

December date night= double date making gingerbread houses!

Tom and I made gingerbread houses with Zack and Amy, our engaged friends. It was so much fun. We made gingerbread villages, to be exact. They were a bunch of tiny houses that you make and decorate.

The finished products:

Thanks Tom and Zack for planning date night. I love Christmastime!

Happy Thanksgiving, a Bit Late

We enjoyed Thanksgiving in the warm Arizona sunshine. It was beautiful the whole time we were there. It was hard to go back to Rexburg where snow accumulated daily. On Thanksgiving morning, we went on a hike to the wind caves in the Superstition Springs mountains. The hike was beautiful and exhilarating.

Our cute little dog Titan came with us on the trial. He had a great time and made friends with another dog named Sauce.

Tom enjoyed soaking up the sun. He got in touch with mother nature.

Here's my sissy overlooking the Phoenix metropolitan area.

I didn't take many pictures at our actual Thanksgiving dinner. Ashley was really excited for the turkey.

Thanksgiving dinner was delicious. Thanks a million Mom! This year was a small group. It was my immediate family minus Tyler, Ashli and Krew who ironically went to Idaho for Thanksgiving. Fortunately, my Gma was with us. She's the sweetest Grandma ever and we call her Gma because she's gangsta like that. After the Thanksgiving festivities meant that Christmastime began. We helped with the tree, went black Friday shopping and made a gingerbread house. Tom and I put the house together and Ashley, my Mom and I decorated it.

The most eventful part of our trip for Tom was going to the Phoenix Suns game with my Dad.

Our trip back up to Rexburg was eventful, to say the least. We ended up leaving on Sunday instead of our intended Saturday because Tom and I slept in. We left my parent's house in Gilbert at about 6am and made it to our friend John's house by about 6:30. John joined us for the trip and probably learned a lot more than he wanted to about us. But, seeing as it is a 15 hour car ride, it comes as no surprise that we got a little wired.

Anyway, we made great time to Las Vegas, but the trouble came in Cedar City. There was a huge snowstorm that sent us back at least an hour and half. However, despite being in stand-still traffic on the I-15, we still believed that we could make it in one day. But, as we traveled on the snow was still bad. We had to stay in Provo that night.

Thankfully, John had a friend with whom he stayed, and Thomas and I stayed with my old roommate Sarah and her husband Daniel. Thank you Sarah and Daniel! They were so nice and kind to let us stay with them. Let's just say, this Thanksgiving, I was grateful for them. We promptly emailed our teachers like good little students and drove the rest of the way the next day. Finally, we made it home!

Now all we have to do is rock our finals and we can leave this forbidden tundra for the warm tropics of Miami. But for now, the snow is making me feel very festive. Christmas is all around! It's literally a winter wonderland here!