New Years in Seattle

We were fortunate enough to be able to see both of our families over winter vacation. Christmas in California and New Years in Seattle. We got there EARLY Monday morning and left that Saturday. It was such a quick trip that we didn't do a ton. When we got there we were pretty exhausted so all we did that day was go to 5 Guys, which is Dan's favorite place in the world, and go to the amazing Sound of Music Sing-A-Long that our family friends put on every year. This is seriously one of my favorite things. No pun intended. Our friends rent out an old, crappy theater to play the movie and sell tickets to cover the cost of renting, unlimited small popcorn and sodas, and prop bags. There are rules to this sing-a-long. Of course you must sing, but during certain songs you use your props like, wave your white flowers during Edlewisse, bark like a dog when you see Rolf, hiss when you see the Baroness, boo when you see nazis, pop your poppers when Maria and Captain Von Trapp kiss for the first time. It's really pretty great. We aren't usually a musical watching family but when we go to the Sound of Music Sing-A-Long we get pretty obnoxious. Yelling at the movie, over-participation if there is such a thing, operatic singing, we don't hold back. 

Unfortunately, that night and the next day (New Years Eve) Dan and I got food poisoning which pretty much ruined us for having much fun. I was 95% after like 2 days but Dan stayed pretty ill for the whole time. That didn't stop us from going to the city, or meeting up with friends, playing mexican train, hiking, duthie-ing, shopping, or going to Alki beach. All it stopped us from was eating too too much (except when we went to Indian lunch buffet) and overall that's probably good. 

It was a fabulous trip, too short but Dan had to get back for school and I had to come back and be unemployed. 

Just a few pictures:

We went to the Seattle Aquarium and this beautiful Pacific Giant Octopus was giving us a show. Loved it

Maybe I should consider being an aquarium janitor like this guy... just SNUBA and vacuum gravel. Sounds alright 

Skip to our last day, about an hour before the airport when we went to Alki. Love this place so much!

Some days I really kick myself for leaving this beautiful place but then I never would have met the love of my life. 

Welcome 2014, these Waltons are ready for it!

Christmas in California

Definitely one of the hardest part about being newlyweds is family time. My family is very local to Provo- I have grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles all within like 30 minutes of where we live. On top of that my mom came down at least once a month last semester for recruiting at BYU so we definitely spend more time with my family- not because we like them more or anything, but because it's just easy. 

This year was our first Holiday season being married so we had to divvy up time between the two families. We decided Thanksgiving in Washington, Christmas in California, and New Years in Washington since Thanksgiving is so short. 

Thanksgiving was great and we're still married so I think we'll call that one a success. Dan is a good sport and puts up with my crazy family and I think he even likes it most of the time. That or he just does it for the mountain biking. 

We spent Christmas in California with Dan's family. It was my first Christmas away from my family and that was definitely a little sad but it was so great spending time with my new family and getting to know them better. Also it was California so it was warm and that was a pleasant change from Provo's 10 degree weather we'd been having. 

It was so relaxing, we went to San Francisco one day and just walked around and got some Vietnamese food. We usually slept in until 10 and just lazed about and made Christmas treats and then ate too many of them. We read books and watched movies and just sat outside. It was fabulous. I'm definitely missing that California sunshine right now. 

I'm excited to go back and spend more time and holidays with the in-laws but I'm also really happy that this Christmas we'll be with my family. 

Pictures:

Beautiful San Francisco day and a crappy camera

The view from dad Walton's office is pretty great

Oh Christmas tree

And a Christmas pup!

If we had sent out a Christmas card it might have looked like this...

We went to the Hunger Games. UW vs BYU... it's embarrassing how bad BYU is sometimes

Happy Hunger Games and belated Christmas from the Waltons!

Our Apartment: Living Room

Finding housing in Provo is not always easy, especially when you have to find "married" housing. I realize this is really only a thing in Provo but it really restricts things. Also, because every day it seems like someone new is getting married or engaged it's like a battle to the death to get a good apartment. THIS is why Dan and I settled on our cute and very little basement apartment. To give some perspective on how small it really is our entire apartment could fit into the living room/kitchen area of my parents house. We think it might be 700-800 sq feet but we're really not sure. Good news though: we pay like $500 a month + utilities.

Anyway, this place is old. Faux wood paneling and disgustingly awful couch in the living room, awful wallpaper in the kitchen, it definitely needed some fixing. Unfortunately because we're renting and only going to be here for 5 more months we never really cared about making any dramatic changes. But because we do have a lot of stuff and also we like things to look nice we have redecorated some to make things look... presentable. 

Here is what we did to our living room.

So ignore all the crap we have and notice faux wood paneling and the awful plaid couch bottom left. Oh and the curtains on the window left and door.

From the other direction. 

Here's what it looks like now:

New couch, rugs, desk, wall art, table clothe on coffee table, and mini bookshelf 

From the other way: couch and other big bookshelf 

You guys, I love this couch. Yes it's inflatable but it is also suede and has cup-holder armrests. We haven't had a couch for like... 6 weeks and I was looking for jobs in bed for two weeks and it was AWFUL.

Black and white pillows from Ikea and heart pillows from Target dollar section over the years. 

Book case with so so many books and things. Russian banners courtesy of Dan's mission

My favorite wall: art by friend Lyse, venn diagram print from Etsy for our wedding,

scarf hanging- Target, and wedding pictures. 

Desk, wall art, etc.

Over all I'm really happy with how the apartment looks and the living room is definitely my favorite room especially now that we have a couch. The only thing I plan on maybe doing before we move out is fixing the curtains because they're awful. You may have noticed that I did change one of the curtains and that it looks really awkward. Well that's because it used to be a pillowcase and I made it a curtain using my very rudimentary sewing skills. 

Extra since you read the whole blog!

This really doesn't show much of anything except

 those are all boxes from moving and gifts. Piled above

 my head. It was ridiculous and moving is the worst. 

P. I. Z. Z. A.

As of yesterday I have been married to my best friend (cliche) for five months.

It has been the best 5 months of my life, even though it is not always sunshine and lollipops I wouldn't have it any other way. 

When we were dating one of my favorite things to do was cook dinner together. Generally the work was split about 35-65. I am kind of controlling when it comes to cooking so I would usually do most of the cooking but Dan always helped out when I would let him. Dan really is a good cook and the things he does when we cook together are absolutely essential. For example when we make orange chicken I usually ask Dan to thaw the chicken and make the orange sauce which he learned how to do on his mission. It's delicious to say the least. He'll also sometimes be in charge of breading the chicken or flipping the chicken while it's frying. All completely necessary things, especially the orange sauce. I could make it without him but it wouldn't be the same and it would be a lot more work. 

The one thing though that I think we are both completely equal in our cooking efforts is making pizza. My favorite food. We have been making pizza for about a 18 months now. 

Our first attempt was fine but it was also kind of a disaster. Edible but... well... here's a picture. 

You can't really tell but there's like 3/4ths of a inch of crust under the toppings. It was tasty but not quite right...

We now have a very specific way of making pizza. Dan is the dough maker- I don't touch it. That's how it goes. My only job is to dress the pizza. Sauce, cheese, toppings, seasonings. Dan doesn't touch those unless he's grating cheese for which I am always grateful. Together we make a darned good pizza. 

We tried a new recipe the next time we made pizza and that was a true success. This recipe made two full sized pizzas (in retrospect I think the other recipe did too... oops) so we were able to experiment with toppings. Our classic pizza was always a classic pepperoni (tomato sauce, cheddar cheese, pepperoni (extra), parsley, oregano, and red pepper flakes). Our first experimental pizza was a Jdawgs pizza. For those of you who don't know what Jdawgs is it is a delicious hot dog place here in Provo, UT. They make a delicious sauce that's kind of like a sweet and spicy light BBQ sauce. That's really the only way I can describe it other than delicious. This pizza used the Jdawgs sauce as the pizza sauce, pepper jack and cheddar cheese, polish sausage, pepperoni, and red pepper flakes. It was so so so good! 

At first I was a bit nervous basing a pizza off of a hot dog but it really is delicious. 

We stuck with those two over the last 18 months but we decided to make pizza tonight and we didn't have any Jdawgs sauce. We decided on another favorite of ours- chicken bacon ranch (but we substituted bacon for pepperoni). We mainly just didn't want to leave our apartment so it was our lazy man's pizza. Again, I was a bit nervous trying something new but neither of us were disappointed- it was delicious. Dan near perfected the pizza dough and the toppings were also amazing!

We still always have to have a classic (okay maybe that's just me and really as a safety precaution it's a good idea when you're making a new kind of pizza to know you have a good pizza being made)

This was the face Dan did when I asked him to show me how he felt about the pizza. I think it was a winner. 

Definitely love pizza and I even more definitely love this husband of mine. I think I'll keep him.

On Red Vines and Twizzlers

I have always been made fun of for my "oversensitive taste buds" or picky eating. My mom always says that when I was a kid I could taste the difference between brands of hotdogs and goldfish crackers. You guys. There's a difference. Especially when you're trying to pass off crap mystery meat hotdogs for all beef ones. And really, Cheese Nips are gross and Cheeze-its and Goldfish are far superior. BIg differences between all. I can't be the only one who notices this.

Anyway this was a little issue last Valentines day. Dan, in his great kindness and love for me got me a bag of twizzlers. I really appreciated the thought and it really was so sweet... but I hate twizzlers. It's like the only red licorice I can't do. Luckily I caught them the day before Valentines day and he felt bad and went and bought me other candy that I did like. Not that it really mattered- it was still very sweet and a valuable lesson learned.

So the other day I was making banana bread and Dan was in the shower when all of a sudden I hear "Katie!, Red Vines and Twizzlers are completely different!". At first I couldn't really understand him- context, walls, and running water made that really difficult to understand. So I walked closer and he explained to me that red vines and twizzlers are different. To which I replied- duh. So different. He hadn't thought about it until November 2, 2013 while I had been thinking about it practically my whole life. I guess he was thinking about movie candy and how red vines and coke sounded good but twizzlers and coke would be awful and since the coke hasn't changed red vines and twizzlers- although similar candies- must be different. Everything is a proof in our home with a math genius.

While it was completely random and kinda weird, it was really nice to be validated. They're completely different which means I can like one and dislike the other. I will not be mocked. It was kind of like the time that Dan came to watch Half the Sky with me to understand why I was minoring in Women Studies. That Dan, he's a good one.

Random thoughts on empathy

If you could color me any emotion, I think it would be empathetic. Alright- it's not really an emotion but what color would it be? Mirror? Clear? Green? It's not orange because that's loneliness (Big Bang Theory shout out). Okay it's not a color it's not an emotion. But I have an overwhelming gift of empathy.

This gift is sometimes really great- I can feel really happy for friends very easily. I feel their happiness. I understand what they're feeling and it makes me so so so happy for them. It's great being able to rejoice in other people's happiness. It has helped me create bonds with people I normally wouldn't have bonded with. But as with all good things there is a down side. I feel my empathy works more in the negative too.

The first time I noticed my empathy was when I started watching tweeny bopper shows like Degrassi or really anything on Nickelodeon or Disney Channel. I loved those shows for some reason. It was like looking into my life- except that it was completely different from my life. It was like looking into my life if it were written to be on television. The thing was I couldn't watch a full episode. I would have to change the channel if anything awkward or embarrassing was going to happen. It felt like it was going to happen to me- that this social awkwardness that my 12 year old mind was trying so hard to avoid was occurring to me simultaneously with the characters on these shows. If you're wondering this still happens to me when I watch TV and when I'm people watching in the math building on campus. So awkward.

I see it more in my life now. I see it when I read essays or stories about people losing loved ones or having miscarriages. Those are the worst, the miscarriages. Oh my goodness how those hurt my heart. It's an awful thing to go through, loosing a baby. I can't imagine it but when I read those stories my empathetic heart opens up and I can't help but feel some of that pain.

I don't know why I'm so empathetic, it's just how I came. It's nice sometimes- I can see arguments from other's view points, I think about how others are affected by things a lot. It helps me to avoid awkward or rude circumstances. But at the same time... it doesn't.

A belated birthday gift

For Dan's birthday (in April!) I got him a gift certificate (Groupon is my favorite) to Max Zip Line in Provo Canyon. We had gone before and had a great time so I figured it would be a good birthday gift date thing. Well with work and school and a wedding over the spring and summer we didn't really make time for such adventurous outings. Unfortunately the gift certificate expired at the end of September so by the time we got through our first few weeks of school we were kind of pressed for time in the zip line department.

We eventually made time for our date (easier said than done with our schedules) and had a blast! It had been rainy earlier that day and we missed our scheduled time but they were super flexible and let us jump on with the next group. It was kinda cold (we went about 6:30 pm and it was snowing in the mountains higher than us) but with thick enough coats it was great! (Although I definitely needed thicker socks/shoes) We zipped through the trees and changing leaves of Provo Canyon and chatted with the super friendly staff. We'll definitely keep going as long as there are Groupons.

PICTURES

You should definitely check out Max Zip Line in Provo- they have a groupon right now for a night tour. We did it last year and it was super fun!

On choosing a wedding dress

Confession. I bought my dress before Dan even proposed.

We got the ring custom made and it was taking forever to get done and my mom was in town so we said to heck with it we're getting the dress. I told Dan the night before we went shopping for the last time that if he was going to back out he'd better do it then cause we were bouts to drop monies on a dress. To which he replied why would you think I'd back out. He had a point. 

Back on track

Choosing a wedding dress wasn't super difficult for me. I knew what I liked and what I didn't like (lace yes but not too much, beads yes, but not too much, mermaid NO, princess No, A-line maybe, Full skirt- yes, tulle yes, etc.) We'd looked at wedding dresses before and I had found some on Pinterest that I LOVED.
ex:

There was one especially that I just wanted so badly. V-neck, beaded fill, full tulle skirt. Gorgeous. And it looked amazing on the model.

See. It's gorgeous. 

My mom and I looked at a few places and there were a few dresses that we liked at each one. We went to Gateway Bridal down in Salt Lake City, UT (which, though we didn't buy the dress from there, I'd recommend it- good selection and not outrageous prices). I showed the lady helping me the dresses I liked and wanted to base my ideal dress on. I showed her my "ideal dress"and she told me that they had it!!! AND it was on sale- it had been a sample so it was old and worn but nothing a good steaming couldn't fix. I thought my dreams had come true. I had her pull the dress and put in on and BAM! the dress looked AWFUL! cue tears. It made me look fat. I'm 5' 6" and fluctuate between 125-130 lbs. Not fat. I have a 34C chest which is big but not outlandish. But this dress made me look/feel plus sized. 

It's the same dress as above.

 I just looked like a whale in it.

So I didn't really cry. It was fine. I just blamed it on the dress. It was old and worn and it pulled weird across my chest etc. The darn dress! But you know what? It wasn't the dress. It wasn't that I was fat. The dress of my dreams just wasn't meant for me. The model wearing the dress probably had an A or B sized chest and was a model. Lets be honest- I'm skinny but I'm not size 00. This dress was made for someone who needed to look fuller not for someone who actually has to wear a bra. And therein lied my problem. I wanted a dress for a model not for me! The dresses I looked at were meant for women who didn't have my body type.

Up to that point I had only been looking for dresses that had full skirts and didn't really accentuate the curves that I have. Luckily- because I figured this out after I bought my dress- my mom pushed me to try some more fit and flare (not mermaid) style dresses that were more flattering in showing off my figure instead of hiding it under tulle. My mom actually had a dress pulled off a mannequin that caught her eye. I had totally ignored it because it was all lace and tight fitting and had this huge flower feather sash thing that I was 99% against. Luckily the sash came off so that changed my mind about it about 50%- enough to give it a chance. This also meant we could add a sash that had some jewels on it which broke up the lace making more my style. {Also- side story- the first time we looked at dresses I found this other PERFECT dress that had this polka-doted lace-y fabric that was perfectly summery. It's called point d'esprit and it's fabulous. Simple and fabulous. I'd kind of been looking for another dress in that fabric because, like I said, it's fabulous}  Anyway side story over- this dress my mom had pulled had point d'esprit fabric underneath the lace in the train! It was a sign from the wedding dress gods that I needed to get this dress. Eventually, this dress that I had completely written off at first glance became the wedding dress of my dreams. 

After I decided on the dress we had to bring in alterations. Originally the dress was sleeveless and a little too low in the front and back so we had to fix that up a bit. We continued the point d'esprit fabric in the extension of the sleeves (1/2 sleeve flow-y with lace trim) which was a dream come true. We purchased an entirely different sash from BHLDN. We got some lovely jewelry to go with it (earrings Anthropologie and necklace Nordstrom's) and the most perfect shoes (online somewhere). It was perfect, perfect, perfect. 

Perfect

Moral of the story. Just like in all other shopping dress for your body type. Find a dress that flatters your shape. Find a dress that you love and that makes you feel beautiful. Also be open minded- don't write off dresses just because they're not exactly what you think you're looking for. Try on all kinds of dresses- you'll actually know instead of assume that something looks good or bad on you. I'm not saying you can't get a princess or mermaid cut dress- if that's what you dig then dig it hard. Get what you love but make sure you're not leaving your actual perfect dress behind. 

Looooooong Beach

Easily the WORST thing about going to school at BYU is that it is not within simple driving distance of the beach.

THE WORST

Dan and I got some good beach time whilst in Hawaii for our Honeymoon (ps. I'm married and we went to Hawaii for our honeymoon) but it wore off far too quickly. So we decided to get the H out of Provo (the day of the first snow fall) and drove 15 hours to Long Beach, WA to spend some quality time with the sand, water, and family.

My family and my aunt+uncle+4adorablekids rented a beach house in Long Beach and invited us to come spend the weekend with them. It was a perfect getaway.

Dan and I left at 4 AM Provo time and it had just started snowing. (suckers) and we pulled into the beach house at 5:00 PM exactly Washington time. Being the first ones there we took a little stroll on the beach and watched locals and tourists clamming in the sunset. The Westover's and my family finally showed up and then the craziness began.

If there is one thing you should know about my little cousins it is that 75% of them are in absolute L. O. V. E. with Dan. And the other 25% are boys. So with 4 little kids in the house Dan always had 2-3 girls <10 climbing on him or chatting his ear off. One of my favorite things about Dan is that he doesn't get bothered by kids- he truly loves them and is so patient with them even when he's stressed about school.

The rest of the time at the beach house was spent eating, listening to conference, playing mexican train, hiking, and playing on the beach.

It was a truly fabulous weekend with family and the love of my life.

I don't know why I live in Utah.