How could I forget?

 We bought a new car! And I totally forgot to write about it in my blog update.

Our new car!

Danny and I have only had one car for a few years now and since we work in different cities now we needed another one. It was "my turn" to get a new car and this is not exactly what I had in mind but after driving a bunch of different cars this was by far my favorite! Thanks for the suggestion Danny :) We got a great deal on it and it is the "limited edition" so it has lots of great features like heated seats, dvd player, leather seats, etc. So I am really excited about it! We bought it from this guy who runs a little dealership on his own because he likes it so much and he always has great deals on some sweet cars. We were really impressed by him, so if anyone is in the market, here is the website: https://www.facebook.com/PkMotorsLlc?ref=ts&fref=ts Here is a picture from the inside (sometimes I want to sit in the back and watch a movie while Danny drives):

And in other unrelated news, my dad sent me a few pictures of Christmas with my family after reading my last blog post, so here you go:

My extended family on the "Foote" side is so big now that we have to meet in a church for our Christmas parties. My favorite things about this pictures are:
1. Russell still being in the nativity with all the little kids
2. My niece Addison and her cheesy smile with spread arms (she is on the far right). haha I love it!

 My Grandma Foote is so incredible, she is always so kind and loving but she also has such a great sense of humor. Just the other day she say saying how she likes hanging out with Danny because she feels like she can say whatever she wants and doesn't have to hold back. They both get really sarcastic when they are around each other, its hilarious. This picture makes her look like she is playing Santa Claus or something.

 And this pictures has nothing to do with anything but my dad sent it to me and I laughed so hard! If you want a good laugh zoom in on Andrew's face (he is the one on the bottom). Can you say road rash?!

Ok, thanks for letting me followup on the last post :)

So much and yet so little....

So clearly I am not doing so well on my blogging once a month goal. But once again, I will try to catch up all at once. I feel like we have had a busy few months and at the same time I feel like we have done so little, I will try to find entertaining things to blog about.
November:
Danny and I celebrated our three year anniversary! We didn't do anything too exciting but we found this cute little bed and breakfast in Logan called the Riter Mansion and stayed there for the night and then went to the temple the next day. It was great to get to spend a little quality time together because it was a busy semester for Danny! I had my cousin Carolyn take some pictures of us for our anniversary as well, here we are on our wedding day and then thirty pounds (ahem...) three years later.   

November 2009

November 2012

Also in November I completed one of my goals and donated my hair. I didn't tell Danny about my plan to cut it because I knew he would try to talk me out of it (I cried last time I chopped my hair off and made him promise to never let me do that again). He was sure surprised! Honestly, I have not missed my hair at all!

Not a great picture, but you get the idea

December:
Danny graduated! This is the end of an era. I am so proud of him! Even though it took a little (ok...a lot) longer than planned he stuck with it and graduated! He graduated with a Bachelors in International Business as well as Economics (two separate majors) as well as a minor in Spanish. He also completed three internships by the time he graduated! He really is pretty incredible. The last week of school was a whirlwind with us trying to pack up and move again so we didn't get to celebrate too much but we did snap a few pictures before we left. As ready as we are to move on, we're going to miss Logan! I get a little choked up every time I hear the Scotsman now days. Go Aggies!

Next up is Christmas. Oh how I love Christmas. We had three wonderful weeks of freedom between the time we moved back to Fruit Heights and when we had to start work. We got to spend a lot of time with family and friends and we enjoyed every minute of it. The pictures I take are always a little random, but I will try to tie them in.

Danny's parents went out of town for Christmas to visit Danny's brother so we celebrated early with the Fonseca family. Luz made her delicious sancocho (my favorite Colombian dish) and we exchanged presents. Danny's niece and nephew like Batman, so for Christmas this year I made them batman capes. It was fun to see them wear them around.

Nairi in her cape. One of her first words was "batman"

Xander in his cape

Each year on Christmas Eve we get together with Danny's extended family and have a big party with lots of food and games. Danny's grandpa and uncle always wear their traditional Colombian shirts so this year Danny and Jose joined them. haha I love this picture because you can tell that Danny's family has an incredible sense of humor, and we caught Abuelo mid-laugh. I love it!

Jose, Omar, Abuelo and Danny in their Colombian shirts

And the rest of the cousins got shirts for Christmas, so here they all are.

We also spent a lot of time with my family for Christmas but apparently I didn't take any pictures. I love it when my siblings come into town though and it was so much fun to spend time with them. 

January:
My little brother Stephen got married to his sweetheart Morgan. We adore her and are so glad that she is joining our family! I am so grateful all of my siblings have married so well and I have pretty incredible brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law. But... I believe I will write more on the subject of the wedding in my next blog post because I don't have pictures yet and every blog post at least deserves a picture.

Halloween

I love Halloween. So much. This year was a little rough because I didn't get as much time to plan as I would have liked. Those of you who know me know I LOVE to dress up, I just get a kick out of it for some reason. So it was sad that I couldn't put 100% into it this year.

For work at the USU Registrar's Office we had a rock star theme. Everyone else went all out and then I tried to just come up with something and everyone asked me, "When was Batman a rock star?" To which I would reply, "I'm a rock star and I wear what I want, when I want!" So.... that costume was an epic fail. All the other front desk people got trophies for their costumes, but not me :(

Aren't Ashlyn and Lauren adorable?

That night our good friends Karie and Tyson hosted a Haunted Halloween party at their place. Danny had to work that night, so he only got to stay for the first little bit. We did a spooky scavenger hunt and had really yummy treats. It was a blast! Again we were a little limited on time for the costumes but I think they turned out alright thanks to Danny's soccer jersey and a quick trip to the dollar store.

We are hiding, can you find us?

Where's Waldo?

Ok... no really, where's waldo? You will die when you find me. (Danny was gone, don't try to find him)

Happy Halloween! (and next year I'm going all out!)

25 things to do before I turn 26

So now that I only work part time, have Fridays off, all my craft stuff is in storage, and we have a tiny apartment, I have become...well.....really lazy. Most days when Danny asks me how my day was or what I did I just say, "I'm lazy....alert the media. Again. It could be a follow up special." (quoting one of the new shows we watch, Ben and Kate)
It has been really hard to find something to do or be motivated to find something to do right now for some reason. I guess when I have so much time then I put things off so that I will have something to do later, but things never get done. I have told Danny many times that I feel like I am not progressing, like I am just in this stagnant "limbo" stage where I am just waiting for the next phase of life. But after listening to Elder Uchtdorf's talk and many others in General Conference last weekend I decided that the time to make the most of life is now!
So in order to motivate myself and have some accountability towards life I decided to make a list of goals to work on. And because every list of goals needs to have a great title I decided to call it, "25 things to do before I turn 26."
I've seen people do these types of things of blogs before and I thought it was a great idea, but a bit strange to put it on a blog. But then I realized that this way, for whatever reason, I feel a little bit of pressure to get them done. I feel like I have announced them to the world (or the ten people that actually read my blog) and I have a responsibility to complete them.
I tried to make each goal measurable (I can say "yes" I did this or "no" I did not do this, no ambiguity), something that will stretch me, something that is attainable, something that I have control over, and something that will make me a better person (although I was tempted to put "watch every episode of Gilmore Girls" on there). So here it is:

25 things to do before I turn 26

1. Attend the temple once a month with Danny
2. Attend the temple on my own every week for at least three months
3. Complete the Personal Progress Program
4. Do my visiting teaching each month
4. Pay off student loans
5. Open a UIDAN savings account
6. Pass the Social Work licensure test
7. Read at least one book a month
8. Re-finish a piece of furniture
9. Sew a quilt
10. Run a 10k
11. Lose 7 pounds (I need to lose more than 5 but not quite 10)
12. Organize Recipes
13. Find 25 new dinner recipes (does anyone else eat the same 10 things for dinner?)
14. Donate hair
15. Start writing a personal history for me and Danny
16. Memorize where all the countries are in the world (I am the worst at geography)
17. Give a Book of Mormon to someone
18. Family Search Indexing (2000 points)
19. Finish scrap booking our wedding
20. Write a nice letter/email/thank you note to someone twice a month
21. Blog once a month
22. Go on a cruise
23. Read the Book of Mormon all the way through again
24. Take a Spanish class
25. Service project/donation/recruit or just find a way to contribute to the orphanage in Ecuador

Well there you have it, and here goes nothing!

Spring/Summer 2012 in Numbers

Well, as usual it has been awhile. And any normal person would catch up slowly by doing a bunch of little posts. But we all know I am not a normal person. So here goes all of Spring and Summer 2012... in numbers! Buckle up, its gonna be a long ride.

{ 3494.9 }

miles between Quito, Ecuador and Salt Lake City, Utah. This gap was FINALLY closed when Danny returned from his internship on  March 17th. I decided to make posters for him and have a homecoming because to me it felt like I was waiting for a missionary to get home. One that I was already married to! 

{ 5 }

times we have moved in the last 2 years.  Danny got another internship for the summer this time in Salt Lake City, so we packed up and moved. We were so lucky to live with Danny's cousin Jose, his wife, Analee and their son, Elias for the summer in Fruit Heights. We had a blast with them! Danny worked for Enterprise Rent a car and I got a job at Independence University, an online college owned by Stevens Henager. We had a great summer and it was so great to spend time with family and friends. (I seriously don't have a single picture of us with Jose and Analee or at work or anything....sorry!)

{ 28 }

years my wonderful husband has been alive! Danny's birthday is May 29th which means we usually get a long weekend for Memorial Day to celebrate his birthday. Awesome! Except....we celebrated his birthday by having the stomach flu over for a visit. It was pretty crappy. But Happy Birthday to Danny!

{ 116 }

degrees Fahrenheit in Phoenix Arizona in May at my friend Beth's wedding. But totally worth it. I had the best roommates in the world my freshman year in college and we have stayed close over the years. One of the roommates, Beth, got married in Phoenix and we were all able to make it! We spent the days shopping, laying by the pool, reminiscing, and laughing. I love those girls! Danny was not able to come with me, so I drove down with Karie and her husband Tyson which made the trip that much more fun. We stayed in Vegas on the way down and on the way home so we took advantage and spent the night walking around the strip and laying by the pool.

A perfect roommate triangle

Innocent I tell you, we were innocent

We were trying to blend in with the statues

{ 31:21:01.8 }

Hours it took for Danny and his RAGNAR team to run 192 miles.  RAGNAR is a relay race in which 12 team members run from Logan to Park City nonstop, meaning someone is always running. Danny was on a team with his cousins and brother and overall, it was challenging but a great experience. And they took 156th out of 700. Not bad!

{ 2 }

Number of pets we lost. Fernando the fish passed away early in the Spring from overexposure to Lucy the turtle's heat lamp. Sorry Fernando! Lucy the turtle made it safely to Fruit Heights with us. However we built her an outdoor enclosure and somehow she ran away (ironic for a turtle huh?) so she is literally lost.... I'm hoping someone found her and is taking good care of her. I have committed now to not having any more pets because I am not a very good caretaker.

{ 25 }

Years that I have been alive. July 27th I turned a quarter century old. This year it was the opening ceremonies for the Summer Olympics so the way I see it, the whole world threw me a birthday party! Thanks for singing at my party Paul McCartney!

{ 17 }

months my wedding ring was missing before.... I FOUND IT! This was a Christmas in July miracle! I lost my ring in January 2011 and I looked for it everywhere. I even had a group of friends over to tear my house apart looking for it. When we moved in May I thought it was gone for sure. Apparently there was one place we didn't look though because one morning I was looking for some new deodorant in one of our bathroom Tupperware when something sparkly caught my eye. There was a little plastic bag full of shower suction cup things (you know, the ones you hang your loofah on) and inside was my ring!!! Totally camouflaged. I wish I could have caught my face on camera. You know that feeling when all the blood rushes to your face and you want to curl up in the fetal position and start squealing with excitement? It was like that. And then it felt like I was newly engaged all over again, I would find myself staring at my ring all day. Pretty sweet eh? And just so you can get the idea of how beautiful my ring is....

{ 12,183 }

Feet above sea level, the highest point in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. In August we drove to Colorado to visit our friend, Eric. This was our only vacation we took together this summer and we had so much fun. Eric is a friend Danny worked with in Ecuador and when we heard he would be in Colorado we couldn't pass up the chance to go visit. Since Danny works for Enterprise he got a sweet deal on renting a Cadillac SRX and he was in heaven driving that around. While in Colorado we went camping, hiking, drove through Rocky Mountain National Park, shopped at the outlets in Castle Rock, and ate a lot of good food.

{ 23x23 }

the dimensions of our shower in inches. Inches people. Our TV is bigger than our shower. Smallest shower ever. But all in proportion because we live in the smallest apartment ever. We returned to Logan again at the end of August for Danny to finish school (woot woot!). Just to throw out a few more numbers, this will be the 7th year I have lived in Logan, and now our 6th move. Here are a few pictures to show how tiny our apt is. It is a studio which means it is just one room, and then a little bathroom off of that.

View as you walk in the door. To the right is the kitchen (seen below) and to the left is the closet (with mirror doors)

View from the kitchen, you can see the bookcase/kitchen entryway in the closet mirror, and the door to the bathroom.

The bathroom. Notice the smallest shower ever on the left as well as the fact that only a very small human could fit between the shower and the sink. Makes it difficult to brush teeth, wash face, etc.

The kitchen. This is the right wall of the apartment. And I would say the saving grace. Its small but newly remodeled.

It was hard to move again but being in Logan feels a little bit like coming home now.  Danny is working at Enterprise in Logan as well as the computer labs on campus again, coaching the USU men's soccer team, and taking 15 credits of hard upper level courses. He is amazing. He is also in his last semester of school and we could not be more excited. I got a job at the Registrars office on campus and I am also working as an equipment tester at ICON (they make exercise equipment) which basically means I get paid to work out!

{ 81 }

Years my beautiful, sweet grandmother graced the earth. My Grandma Taylor passed away on August 28th and while it was sad to have her leave this life and I miss her, it is such a blessing that she is out of pain and has been reunited with her husband at last. Such a blessing to know that families are forever! My grandma is such an example to me of faith, endurance, and charity. She was always finding ways to serve others and she loved us grand kids so much. She was an incredible quilter and I have a beautiful baby blanket that I grew up with, a quilt she gave me when Danny and I got married, and another baby blanket for our future children. We miss you Grandma! What a wonderful lady!

Grandma Taylor, Me, and Danny at our wedding

{ 6 }

awesome siblings. When my Grandma passed away, all of my siblings flew in for the funeral. While it was sad that the the in-laws, nieces, and nephews could not come as well, it was so much fun to have the original "Taylor Bunch" together. This never happens because everyone lives so far away. We had so much fun staying up late talking, hiking to the waterfall with Angela and Russell, having "mans night" at Buffalo wild wings (obviously I was not invited to that one), shoe shopping with Michael, and just hanging out. I LOVE my family!

Mug shot line up. Pretty sure Russell did it, look at that face!

So... I think not being photogenic is genetic.

{ 3 }

hours later... and I think I am caught up. If you made it this far I owe you a treat or something for caring about me enough to read all of that! Here's to not waiting another 6 months to update again!

 

Ecuador Part Dos

So I actually don't have much more to say about the days we were at the beach, but that is where I took the most pictures, so here are a few more that didn't make it in the last post:

Danny riding a wave on the boogie board

Danny and his co-worker Eric with the boogie boards

 

Danny and I with our boogie boards

The sunset as we were driving to the beach house

We drove back to Quito on Tuesday morning and then we were so exhausted we just relaxed the rest of the day. Danny's co-worker, Eric, invited us over for dinner and then they taught me how to play Risk. I killed them! (I'm usually not a competitive person but I NEVER beat Danny in anything, so it has to be mentioned)

Danny took the day off of work on Wednesday so that we could go see a few places. We went to the market and bought a few things and then went to a restaurant I had been to when I was in Ecuador the first time called, "The Magic Bean." It seemed so surreal to be sitting in the exact some restaurant I had been to almost three years ago, but this time I was here with my husband. It was amazing.

Danny enjoying his smoothie (mine was better though)

My half eaten meal- random picture I know

So I guess I'll just throw in this little disclaimer now that kind of explains the remaining four days of my trip. Danny and I hadn't seen each other for over six weeks and while it was so exciting to be in another country together and we had made big plans to go see a lot of different tourist sites, a lot of that didn't happen. Because when it came down to it we could either call a taxi, be in a car for a few hours, be at a site for an hour, and then turn around and come home exhausted... or we could make dinner together and watch a movie and just enjoy spending time with each other. Which is what we chose to do most of the time. I guess when it came down to it I flew out to Ecuador to see my husband, not a bunch of touristy sites.

So with that being said here is a breakdown of the few more exciting things I did while I was there:

For those of you who don't know this, I spent the Summer of 2009 working in an orphanage in Quito (see my short-lived blog http://marztaylor.blogspot.com/). This was another huge reason I pushed for Danny doing this internship in Ecuador (little did I know I wouldn't be able to go with him). I wanted really badly to go back to the orphanage (ideally with Danny) because it holds such a special place in my heart. For a lot of different reasons I won't go into, I was only able to spend one afternoon at the orphanage, and Danny wasn't able to come. But it was wonderful and at the same time really hard to take. Most of the kids that I worked with while I was there almost three years ago are still in the orphanage. I remember them, I think about them all the time, they make appearances in my dreams on a regular basis. I will never forget the things they taught me.

However, none of them remembered me. And I did not expect them to, I was just another "Chica de Osso" to them that was there for 6 weeks and then in came another group of girls to take care of them.

As much as I knew they would not remember me, it was still a hard pill to swallow. It was fun talk to little Samuel, (who was always biting Mateo and just learning how to walk when I was there last) and have him show me how to make his bed, and ask me my name, and hear him say it out loud. It was incredible to see sweet, quiet, smart little Daniella get adopted (her adoptive parents were there to get her the day I was there). She looked at me for just a moment and I will never forget it, she reminded me so much of my niece Samantha. It was funny (and a little bit sad) to watch Pete (who apparently no one calls Pete anymore, only Pedro) ride his bike around and totally and completely ignore the strange white girl calling him Pete (that was me). It was a tender moment to hold Emily and try to calm her two-year-old temper tantrum when the last time I held her she was a newborn. I could continue, but it was such a great experience for me. But it was too hard to go back again, it was time to move on, these kids had their new "Chicas de Osso" and I will just have to go on dreaming about them, praying for them, and loving them from a distance.

(Sorry no pictures from the orphanage- it is a strict rule for the safety and security of the kids that pictures aren't taken)

And...transition back to normal Ecuador life: (that day in the orphanage felt like a dream)

Danny went paint-balling with a bunch of people from the Embassy on Saturday, and then we went to one of my favorite restaurants in Ecuador, "Crepes and Waffles" for lunch. 

The paint-balling crew

Danny in action

Awful picture, but I had to document the occasion

I left to come back to Utah late Saturday night, and when I got back to the SLC airport I was choking back tears until the time I pulled into my driveway in Logan. I'm pretty sure the Park N Jet shuttle driver thought I was crazy. But its good to be back and to have had that experience, and as of today only 6 MORE DAYS til Danny is home for good (I just keep telling myself that).

Thanks for reading. Come again.

Ecuador Part Uno

Danny has been in Ecuador since January 7th doing an internship for the US Department of State and will be there for 10 weeks total. I made it about six weeks and then decided I couldn't do it anymore so I bought a ticket and flew down to visit him. It was great to see him and so fun to go back to Ecuador. Here is part one of my week and half there:

On Friday, Danny took me on a tour of the Embassy and then we drove to the Jama where we stayed on the beach for a few days:
This is the panoramic view from the balcony off our bedroom: (on the bottom picture near the bottom on the left is the infinity pool)

We spent three days playing games, swimming, boogie boarding, eating, reading, and laying in the sun. It was incredible. (I got a little sunburned)

One night it was raining really hard (not unusual for a beach town in Ecuador) and apparently the drain got blocked in some way. So the rain all came through the house, in the form of a river. It was so crazy. Luckily nothing got damaged because all the bedrooms were up stairs. It just came in the front door, down the stairs, across the living room, and we swept it out the back door.

In the front door

Down the stairs

Notice the towel we put down- we grossly underestimated the amount of water that would come in

Out the back door

 Living in a way sweet beach house only a few feet from the beach was one of the most incredible things I have done. Everything was so beautiful, it seemed like a dream. I kept thinking to myself, "Is this real life?!"

Stay tuned for Part Dos.