it's been awhile

So we haven't been the best at posting lately. Probably because we've been so busy doing stuff!
Labor day weekend we headed down to California to spend some time with my parents and Neal. Mike hadn't been to L.A. before, so we spent a day and drove around and checked out the place. We must've gone at the perfect time, because there was the least amount of traffic I have ever seen in the city. Thanks Mom and Dad for letting us visit!




The next weekend Michelle and her friend Jon came to town to bike the most amazing/insane/crazy/fulfilling race ever. They participated in the Latoja, which is a 206 mile race from Logan to Jackson Hole. Since it was such a long race, they needed a support crew to meet them at certain stopping points and provide food for them. They did such a great job and were so dedicated in completing the race! We're so proud of you!




The following weekend Mike participated in a race of his own. He biked the Moab Century = 100 miles! What is the deal with all these crazy people riding their bikes so far?! Mike had a wonderful time seeing the beautiful sights while on his ride. At one point he could here tribal drums helping him keep his momentum while climbing a steep hill, and when he got to the top, the drummers were there! How fun! He did such a great job. I'm proud of you hun!

Loving Life in Paradise

We just got back from an amazing week in Hawaii! Because of work and internships we postponed our honeymoon until now but it was definitely worth the wait.

Here are some of the highlights of the trip:

- Monday morning we woke up at 2:15 to go see the sunrise at the top of the volcano. Here's a picture of the sunrise.


Ok, so we didn't get to see a sunrise due to weather but once they took us a little farther down the volcano we got to ride bikes all the way down to the beach- it was 28 miles. We only had to peddle a couple times, and the ride was very pretty.

In case you couldn't tell, it was a little rainy that day and we're trying to show off our muddy backsides on the beach.

- On Tuesday we made the best out of a tough situation. A tropical storm hit Hawaii and we had to alter our plans a bit. But we went to the Aquarium which ended being very fun.



- On Thursday we started our day with some zip lining in the mountains. We had some near death experiences but ironically it wasn't even on the zip lines it was on our ride up to the zip lines in vans and ATVs. It was so pretty in the mountains and zip lining was a blast. The last zip line was about 2/3 of a mile and it took about 1 full minute to get to the other side of the canyon.

Just notice how big Marie's smile is in this picture. It pretty much shows how much fun the day was.

- After we got home from zip lining we showered and heading straight on over to a Luau at the Hyatt. I went down and waiting in line early so that we could get a good seat. We ended up getting amazing seats which made the show so much better. And of course the food was amazing.




- On Friday we left our hotel and drove across the entire island and went on the road to Hana. It's a long drive but a very pretty one. We spent one night in Hana which is much more quiet and secluded then the rest of the island. The rest of the pictures will just be ones of our drive there and our stay at Hana.

Notice the rainbow trees behind me in this picture.

The only black sand beach in all of Hawaii.

The pool at the very nice hotel we stayed at in Hana.

Since Hana is on the east side of the island, it makes for some cool sunrises.

On Saturday morning we woke up and went to Hamoa beach, which was probably one of the prettiest beaches I've ever seen.

And this beach had some of the best waves to go body surfing in.

Overall it was a great honeymoon. Thanks for making it such a great trip Marie, I love you.

Our own "Extreme Apartment Makeover"

Today we had some exciting news, we got new floors in our kitchen and bathroom. However, this required that we remove everything from our bathroom which wasn't an easy task. But we made the most of the situation and we took some before and after pictures from last night's bathroom and how it looks today.

It worked out perfectly since we forgot to take before and after pictures when we moved in. Here are the pictures:

I know, nasty right?

Look at that beautifully assembled bathroom space saver. Not bad considering I whittled it out of one piece of wood.

And this is where Marie's artistic touch comes in handy.

And this is our 10 year supply of bath crystals and lavender bubble bath.

this is my favorite picture of us

for our wedding, my parents got us a professional picture of us. it's beautiful! my favorite picture of us! we have it up in our front room in our apartment, and we sure do look good! hopefully people can recognize us :) thanks mom and dad!

california reception

life has been just amazing for us. it is astounding that we not only had one, or two, but we had a total of three amazing receptions. this past weekend we had our final reception at my parents house. it was magical how my parents (with the help of many!) transformed our backyard into a magical ambiance. Neal took some very artist pictures of the reception. i'm so impressed with his photography skills! i can't believe my little brother in diapers is growing up into a talented teen! it was also really fun and nice to have all of my siblings (thanks for lending them in-laws!) be there, and of course Michael's parents. my family just fell in love with Mari-Lynn and Brad, Michelle saying she'd like to adopt them as her in-laws, and Mary Ann and Nathan had them be there "god-parents" at the airport to get through the faster family line with security. we have been blessed to spend so much time with family, and have also been blessed with how generous people have been with their gifts. thank you so much everyone!

the entrance to our backyard. Michelle made the beautiful sign, and there are glass vase type things hanging in the trees with floating candles in them

Neal's artistic shot of our guest book table


table for presents

food table my dad made from our swing-set! my dad is AMAZING!

another view of the backyard

my adorable expecting sister and daddy-o

Mary Ann and my beautiful mother

a picture of my Grandma Roach smiling! yeah! i'm so glad she came

the handsome photographer, Neal

the Wilsons with some friends in Claremont. it's always fun seeing friends in different places

Nathan was such an excellent server!

Michelle finding someone to socialize with

the newest nephew Stephen is already taking a liking for Michael

all the sisters having some fun

Minnesota Trip

Well, we're starting to feel like a rock band on tour and we just got back from Minnesota. We had an amazing 4th of July weekend with my family and it all started on Thursday with a very nice wedding reception for us at Wayzata country club. The food was amazing and it was nice to see lots of family and friends again.
We then spent a very fun filled weekend with my family and we golfed, swam, jet-skied, went tubing, went to a new movie, barbecued, saw some good fireworks and had a lot of fun. Thanks mom and dad for the amazing weekend, we had a blast.


One of our highlights is that we were also able to visit my grandparents who weren't able to come to our wedding and especially my grandpa since he was originally going to seal us but wasn't able to because of his health.




If you want to follow us more on tour we'll be in Claremont this weekend.