1 Year Anniversary

Finally, a post on our 1 year anniversary adventure!

Wow....took me long enough, right?

I keep thinking to myself even to this day, "We've been married for 1 year! 1 YEAR!" I know 1 year isn't no 5...20...50 year anniversary but I love thinking of the progress we are making in life together and how we are going to continue dominating for many years to come.

Dillon wanted to plan our 1st anniversary and I must say he did a marvelous job. Because our actual anniversary fell on a Monday and we have school and work we went away to Salt lake for the weekend and stayed in the Sheraton Hotel.

We headed out after work and on our first night there we went to Texas Road house for dinner and relaxed for the rest of the evening watching movies.

I have a love for hotels;

the big beds

fluffy pillows

nice bathrooms

elevators

hot chocolate 

the service

(The list goes on)

and it's just nice staying somewhere other than your own home once in a while.

Early the next morning Dillon woke me up and told me to get ready. 

He then drove us up to Park City which to my surprise he had a horse back ride scheduled for us. I was ECSTATIC! I have wanted to go horse back riding FOR-EV-ER

and that day my dream came true.  Everything was just right, we ended up having our very own personal horse back ride tour through the pretty mountains in Park City. The morning couldn't have been any better, it was overcast and a little chilly and the fog low on the mountain definitely added to the experience.  It was what they all called, "A cowboy morning for riding." After several hours of riding we went walking around Main Street and looked through some art galleries and went to lunch at Bandits Grill & Bar.

Later that evening we went shopping at City Creek Mall and then to Massage Envy for a 2 hour relaxing couples massage.

For dinner we went to PF Changes and for dessert we went to Sammy's and got our favorite pumpkin pie shake.
All of that was followed by another evening of pure relaxation.
The morning we headed home consisted of sleeping in, a mini photo shoot
of my handsome hubby and breakfast at Denny's. Oh how I didn't want to jump back into reality.

Even though we celebrated a few days early on the day of our anniversary we still did a little something special.
For dinner I had made my pork chops with a white wine sauce and we drank from our Bride and Groom fancy cups that we drank from the day Dillon proposed.
As part of tradition we broke out our wedding cake we had saved in the freezer from our wedding day. Surprisingly it held up quite nicely it was a tad bit dry and the berries were sour but other than that it tasted pretty good.

Dillon and I started a tradition that we picked up from my parents
every year for our anniversary we decided we would do a sealing session at the temple. For our first year we decided we would return to the temple we were married in, the Oquirrh Mountain Temple.
I absolutely LOVE that temple it is magnificent!
I knew when I entered into that temple for the open house for the first time that it was the temple I was to be married in.
What a great way to celebrate our 1st anniversary, I still can't believe it has been a year already. I can't wait to see what else life brings us :)

*Winter*

Okay okay I have realized I have been lacking on the blogging which is a no no because that is my way of keeping a journal seeing as how I can never stick with writing it down on paper. I decided I needed to try and improve on being more consistent with writing, especially as the Holiday season is coming to a start. SO from here on out I will try writing at the very least once a week. So for a quick journal entry for today before I head out to class, we woke up to snow and ice on our wind shields and it was very wet driving to work.  Luckily the blast of snow we received didn't start until I got to work. UGH! I hate this part of the year! don't get me wrong I love this time of the year not only because of the holidays but I am in LOVE with fall/winter clothing but I LOATH driving in it! Come to find out there had been 33 cars in accidents just during the morning including 3 semis and 1 cop car all within like 2 miles! so traffic was a nightmare especially on my way home from work, it took me 1 hour to get home when usually it takes 15-20 min cray cray! We'll see how long it lasts though, Utah tends to be Bipolar when it comes to weather. Can't wait to come home from school and relax with my hubbas and watch Halloween movies sippin' on some coco 

Um...yes please??

1 year anniversary!

Holy moly! I can't believe it has already been a year since I married my eternal companion. Who ever said the first year of marriage is the hardest/worst was either lying or I have an AMAZING life a head of me. Dillon's grandma sent us a card for our anniversary and in the card there was a quote in it that said

 "When soulmates meet, they often feel as if they have always known one another and have been in love before, perhaps in other lifetimes. Soulmates open each other's hearts in a way others cannot. There is a definite feeling that destiny has brought them together and will forever keep them in each other's arms". 

Love it! Love him! Love us!

1 year baby!

Dustin + Dani

I loved photographing my brother and sister-in-law this weekend! Although it was pretty chilly the colorful leaves were amazing and made for awesome pictures.

 We had a great time laughing and goofing around.

Hope you enjoy these sneak peek photos and make your way over to my Facebook page to see the rest of their shoot :)

Kaui and baby bump

I had the funnest time taking pictures of my beautiful cousin she is the cutest prego mama ever! We threw her a surprise family baby shower this past Saturday which was so cute I definitely enjoy planning events! To her surprise the pictures that were supposed to be for my class were actually for her very own baby shower. Here is a sneak-peek of her Maternity shoot my photography blog is under construction but  you can check out the rest of this shoot on my "Chelsey Swanson Photography" Facebook page.  Enjoy! :)

Hawaii Trip day 4: Nanakuli Beach

Man oh man we are suffering tonight. We spent the day at Nanakuli beach park and swam at the beach all day.  It was a gorgeous beach with hardly anyone there and pretty nice waves; however there was zero shade for us to sit under.  We played in the waves and buried Ashley in the sand making her look like a crab and then they buried me making me look like Ursula.  Brandee was the artist of the sand designs and they looked so good! After 4 or 5 hours at the beach we were burnt! We got lots of sun at the beach my shoulders are burnt pretty good and Brandees back and legs are burnt.  The real lobster is Dillon his whole body has sun burn designs.  We have spray on sunscreen and so I sprayed it on his body not knowing we needed to rub it in after we misted his body. At the end of the day he had lines where the sunscreen was sprayed on and lines where it is sunburnt! His body looked like modern art.  We are suffering from our burns for now but later it will turn into beautiful tans.  After we swam at the beach we went to Baldwins again and got shaved ice then we went to grandmas to say hi and witnessed C.J shoot the geckos with his BB gun, it was so sad. We then headed back to Grandpas for the delicious dinner Aunty Dawn made.  For dinner we had lettuce wraps and fresh stir fry it was so yummy.  We had a fun day at the beach but now we have to deal with our sore sunburns for the next several days.  

Brand and Dillon Seeing who can dig the fastest lol

Summa luvin'

1st Church Calling

Well late last night Dillon and I got a call from Brother Mecham the 1st counselor of the bishopric asking if we could meet with him early Sunday morning.  We sort of knew what this meeting was going to be about seeing as how we substituted as primary teachers last week and our friends who were primary teachers were moving. Sure enough we were called to be primary teachers for the 6 - 7 year old kids. Today at church we were sustained and set a part as primary teachers. We are glad to finally have gotten a calling and to be in the primary.  We are excited to start teaching and being able to get to know the kids in the class we substituted for last week.  We have about 8 kids, one little boy needs more attention than the rest and he just loves Dillon, he is Dillon's little buddy.  The kids call us Brother and Sister Swan because Swan is prettier lol they have so much energy and are just so smart.  Can't wait to start next week :)

Just thought I would share this hilarious video that had me laughing for quite some time yesterday.  

It's a video that Brandee showed me on YouTube and I'm thinking you guys will enjoy this too!

  "twin cities..Minnesota 50 Tyson!"

This right here is 50 Tyson lol crack me up!

This is Kevin Hart making a video like 50 Tyson

Hawaii Trip: Day 3 Polynesian Cultural Center

Today was an extremely long fun filled day we left early to head down to Laie to go to the Polynesian Cultural Center. Uncle Trenson was so kind to hook us up with tickets; we are so blessed to be so loved by family.  The tickets didn’t only include a full day there and the night show but also a free buffet dinner! We were definitely surprised when we found out it came with the dinner as well. We had to plan very well on what villages to go to so we could participate in all the activities and see the little show each village had and also make it to the canoe show.  We danced in the Hawaii and Tahiti village, played games in the Hawaii and Aotearoa village we also played with the poi balls and got tribal tattoos in the Aotearoa village as well. We then started a fire with wood and a stick and basket weaved in Samoa then we played music and sang in Tonga and Fiji. Dillon looooved the PCC his favorite village was the Samoan village he thought the guy doing the show was hilarious, he showed us how to husk a coconut, crack it in half, shave the coconut meat, start a fire with a stick and wood and use the husk of the coconut to make a fire and there was also a guy that climbed a coconut tree.  The day was very hot and humid but we were hit with a little sprinkle of rain that only lasted a few minutes but did major damage to our straightened hair. PCC was one of the activities we had planned for our vacation that I was looking forward to taking Dillon to.  I really wanted him to get to know the Polynesian culture and learn about Polynesia so it was great seeing him get so involved and excited about everything.  After touring the villages we started to whine down and we were able to eat at the buffet in the Prime Dining Hall the food was delicious.  We then hung out at the little shops at PCC for a little bit then found our seats and watched the show.  During intermission we bought the sorbet dessert they were selling I have noticed things have changed a lot since when we would visit often growing up.  They used to serve the dessert during intermission in a pineapple with the crown cut off filled with ice cream and fruit nevertheless it was still incredible. I loved today, I loved the show, I loved that Dillon loved it, I loved being there with my sisters and my husband I love Hawaii!