OUR Long Weekend

Thank heavens for long weekends!!!! This weekend was one of those lucky ones. Friday was a blast; full of shopping, mostly just using the gift cards that we keep getting in the mail!!! Also, we went furniture shopping!!!!!!

When I could get Eric to stop playing in the kids bunk beds, or trying out every leather couch we walked by we were looking for a bedroom set. We picked out a gorgeous set for our bedroom which includes the headboard, footboard, sideboards, 2 night stands, a dresser with a mirror and a chest of drawers. We love it, and we hope we have a enough room to fit it all hahaha. it may be close.

We also went putt putt golfing at Mulligans, and we were gonna hit the batting cages too but we both had flip flops on. Eric beat me by 6 , so yeah, my putt putt golfing skills need to improve. :) But the course was huge!!! and it was gorgeous with tons of flowers and waterfalls, and caves!!! We have been wanting to go since winter and was just waiting for it to get warm enough again! Saturday we spent the morning at the Jordan Rivers temple doing a sealing session with our new ward. It was truly amazing for both us to go and do sealings for others 2 weeks after our own sealing. It was just an incredible spiritual experience. Afterwards we ate lunch in the temple at the cafeteria, and then headed to do errands around town. Sunday was church and then we drove down to Provo to have dinner and play games with two of our great friends from college, Shellena and Carson.

 Shellena cooked an awesome dinner. There was tons of food, salad, carrots, fruit salad, rolls, mashed potatoes, braised beff tips, and Jones soda!!! Yumm, we also had homemade cookies and cream ice cream for dessert. We then played settlers of america. I bought the board game for Eric as one of his christmas presents this year and we haven't had anybody willing to play with us until last night. We had a blast with our friends and can't wait to do dinner again!!!

Their little girl Story Rae!! 

Figuring out the directions

Me making ice cream

Me and bestie roomie ever

THE Fantastic FOUR

Sunshine It's Summertime

What better way to start off the summer season than with a pool party!!! Last night for FHE, Eric and I drove over to his sister’s place for a pool party. Eric taught our lesson and we brought left over Jones soda from our reception and cheese balls for a snack. (Bet you can’t guess who likes cheese balls, lol).  So after a great lesson from Eric about Father’s and the Proclamation to the Family, we all changed into our suits and headed to the pool. We were going to have the pool party at our pool but it turns out that every Monday the pool is closed for cleaning, which we appreciate. J The pool at Dan and Kyli’s was fun though and we had swim races, which I would proudly like to state that I beat everybody ( yes this includes the boys) in a race where we had to hold our breath and see how many lengths of pool we could swim underwater. I practically grew up as a fish in the water, and I took swim classes in college, and played water polo, so I basically am a fish hahaha. So anyways yeah I won. I was pretty happy to rub it in the boys’ faces cause that’s what girls do hahaha. As for little Brooklyn who is 1 now, she loved the pool. Eric and I had fun playing with her trying to teach her how to kick here legs when laying on her back. Accept for the occasional “NO NO” she would scream,she really enjoyed the water. Even when she was shaking cause she was so cold, she was smiling and laughing. And I almost forgot, a pool party would not be complete if pizza wasn’t involved… seeing as how we established pizza Monday with Dan and Kyli a while ago. Haha So We had pizza after the pool and just enjoyed the sunshine and warm weather! We are so excited for summer. Eric and I were just talking about how summer is when all the best entertainment is.  All the new hot summer movies come out, the best concerts, and rodeos, and fairs. We are excited to have so many more options of fun things to go and do. Anyways HAPPY FIRST DAY of SUMMER!!! Hope you’re excited…cause we sure are!!!!!!!!!!!!!! J

Adjustments

Well if you've ever been married then you probably understand the reasoning for this next post. Adjustments. It's one of the biggest parts of starting a marriage off. A friend told me this week, the first year is an adjustment, the third year is hard, and the seventh year is rough, but once you make it through those years its pretty smooth sailing..hahahha Well Eric and I have already been making lots of adjustments. Some are definitely more easy than others, some are fun, and some are gonna take time to get used too, but I just think of it like this, its all part of the fun of NEWLYWED LIFE....
Adjustment #1. Family Ward! Eric and I attended our new family ward today for the first time, and we both really liked it. We already met tons of people our age that are pretty newly married, and they all live in our apartment complex or down the street. We are even so cool that they already added us into their River Oaks couple texts as they call it, and all the couples get together and do BBQs and go out on doubles and things like that, so yay for new friends. Neither of us are shy so we had no problem introducing ourselves today, but Eric told me that we can't be friends with couples that have children hahaha he's kidding..I think..hahah anyways church was fun but definitely an adjustment from a singles ward. Babies staring at me all sacrament making cute faces and smiling and laughing is my main distractor, I can't help it. They are just so darn cute. Also a distractor, Eric falling asleep haha and also playing games like figure out where that person is from based on their accent, and who in this group is as Glen Beck referred to as, The Amazing Mr. Plastic Man, in the room. hahaha.
#2. Not having enough room for all mine and Eric's stuff. We've been checking for other places to live in the area that are larger than where we are living right now, cause we're in a one bedroom and between me and him and no storage space, we are becoming creative of where to put stuff. Thankfully we were able to use some of our gift cards to get some organizers a cute bookshelf some baskets, and stuff, but with all the decorations from the wedding left over we are going to be busy on KSL soon trying to sell stuff just cause we don't have a place to put it. But the thing is, this place is super nice, very safe, we just moved all his stuff in, and very affordable (which is hard to find in the area). Not so hard in Rexburg. I saw a super nice 3 bdrm 2 bath house to rent for under $700 in Rexburg on KSl, and that included almost all of the utilities, and it was newly remodeled. We pay about that for our 1 bdrm. I told Eric we need to move  back hahaha.
#3. Finances.....oh yes that dreadful word. hahaha right now Eric is just moving into the Valley after being in WY. so he is busy and back on the prowl for a job. It has been quite a feat trying to find him work around here in his chosen profession so right now he is kinda looking for anything and will just work until something opens up for him or he gets into grad school. This means we will be on a tight budget for awhile, but I have all the faith that as long as we pay our tithing and live our lives in accordance with the gospel we will be blessed, and thus far we have been. Before the wedding I could see no way how we could survive off of just my income to pay all mine and his bills, but the more I budget everything just works out and we will survive just fine. We may not be able to do or buy everything we want at this time but we won't have to go into debt either.
#4. Fun stuff I love about being married!
- Always having Eric there in the morning to make me laugh, I am so not a morning person but he surely is. Which I never realized really until recently.
-Announcing myself as Lesley Hale at Church for the first time...fun but still weird. hahah
-hearing everyone refer to me as his wife...I love it!!!!!
-Having help around the house to clean and put things away.
-Having Eric be so handy, he hung all our curtains, and pictures ....not one of my many talents.
-He is so cute and most days he packs my lunch for work and leaves me cute little notes.
-Him serenading me with his guitar as I put on my makeup.
-Having him take the trash out!!! LOVE LOVE
-We are already thinking alike, hahaha, we both wanted to watch the same movie after church and said it at the same time...hahaha

Well there is plenty more of this we are getting adjusted to, but its been fun thus far, stressful at times, but never a regret of the BEST decision we've both made to be together forever. We love each other and this is just the beginning to the most wonderful and wild adventure he and I will take together. LOVE HIM!

DATE NIGHT

Eric and I had our first date night as a married couple on Friday. I got off about 3:30 and after hanging out for about an hour with his sister Kyli at our place eating cheese balls we took off. First we wanted to go use lots of our gift cards from the wedding so we hit up Bed Bath & Beyond for some fun shopping and then over to target. We got well over 1000$ worth of stuff....all for free...well for us hahahaha lots of sheets pillows towels, kitchen gadgets, a really cool mirror I wanted, plates, curtains, and bowls, etc. Just stuff we needed! But it was fun. I do't think Eric had as much fun getting new home decor like me but he said spending the time with me was the fun part hahaha. So after shopping, we headed over to Chick-Fil-A cause we got a coupon last week for 2 free meals, YUM! So after our free meal we ate at the park, and walked along the Jordan river, and then we headed home to unpack. After the boring part of unpacking and putting away stuff was taken care of, Eric locked me in the bedroom for 5 min and told me not to come out. After awhile he came back and grabbed me...he had set up on our balcony dessert and a movie. We watched Finding Neverland and ate raspberry sherbet and drank lemonlimeade. So fun! We just cuddled in our camp chairs and had a blast! I love my husband. He is such a cutie!

Honeymoon in the Cabin

Do to my short time frame off work for the wedding (very sad :( ) Eric and I had to keep the honeymoon small and plan for a  BIG trip later. I was ok with that. Originally my dad was going to pay for the honeymoon but after him being in the hospital for 5 months that just wasn't feasible. So we planned...well Eric planned....are own little honeymoon. The first night after the wedding we stayed at the Little America in the honeymoon suite!!! That was another gift from his parents to us! Super Sweet! The place was super nice and and had a huge bathroom! I took pictures but I promised eric I wouldn't put them on here hahaha. Alright so then Thursday after the reception we drove 2 hrs....yes 2 hrs...got in about midnight to his parents cabin up in the mountains in wyoming that they have a time share on. I t was really nice...His sister Kyli and his mom went up early and decorated it for us, and stocked the fridge and pantry....I think we could have been set for a good 2 months instead of 2 days. hahhaha We hiked and had lots of fun while we were there but it definitely wasn't long enough. The last day of the honeymoon we drove back down to Salt Lake and stayed at the Grand America! Now that place is luxury! We had a bellhop take us up to our room on the 15th floor, where Eric had set up for rose petals to be scattered on the floor all the way to the bedroom and then he had a heart shaped with rose petals placed on the bed with music playing, and chocolate covered strawberries, and the lights all dimmed. Just gorgeous. The bathroom was huge with an enormous closet, and everything was covered with marble and floor to ceiling mirrors. It was a dream!!! Just Stunning. We had the pleasure of going to their indoor pool and spa, totally worth the money, and we ate dinner at the Garden Cafe. I think our bill was close to 100$ just for the two of us to eat dinner, but man was that food delicious....like umm have you ever ordered an 18oz steak at a restaurant before...yeah thats what Eric got. I got this amazing chicken fettucini alfredo with bacon and peas in it!!! YUMMY! Anyways the trip was short but still Fabulous!!! and we can't wait to go on our BIG trip...we are still trying pick a place where we want to go cause there are so many its hard to narrow it down!!!!!

View from our Hotel room of the Valley

Eric snuck a picture

The dining table in the cabin

Our menu for the days we were there....all meals were planned in advance

The welcome sign on the door

The Bedroom was decorated so lovely for us!

The cabin den

Us @ 2 am trying to get unpacked and the stove to work

our food for 2 months, I mean days hahah

the cutsie toilet paper

out hiking...yeah I know...not a good hair day hahah

the deer we saw

Eric takin in the scenery

The Happy Newlyweds

A HALE of a WEDDING

Well WE DID IT!!! We're MARRIED!!! Yeah it's pretty crazy. I'm still getting used to calling Eric my husband when introducing him to others. The wedding turned out PERFECT, just everything we could have imagined....yes there were things that didn't go exactly according to plan but if something doesn't go wrong then your not planning right as my friend Kylee tells me. :) So a short wedding week recap goes like this.
Tuesday: Lesley got endowed at the Salt Lake City Temple....is was magical...just AMAZING!

Wednesday: Wedding at 10:45 at the Bountiful Utah Temple, and luncheon at the Old Spaghetti Factory in  Trolly Square. The wedding was gorgeous, the bride's room magnificent, and a ton people there to celebrate with us. I hope I will get more pics up soon but right now I just have pictures from other people's cameras and no professional shots yet. As for the sealing, I would be lying if I told you I didn't get teary eyed a couple times throughout the day. It was just the happiest day for Eric and I and we neither of us were nervous. There were just no doubt in either of our minds that we were making the right decision. We've been best friends for 5 years, and now we will be partners throughout eternity. How could life get any better!?!  Here are a few pictures from the BIG day.

Thursday: Reception. The reception was going to be held outside on a ranch but the blizzard and flood warnings for Thurseday prevented that. Yes I said BLIZZARD. Thats Star Valley for ya. Snow in June. Crazy I know. But we still had an awesome turn out, and had amazing friends and family step and help set up everything for Eric and I as we drove up there that afternoon from Salt Lake.  Here our a few pics of everything!

If you wondered if we smashed the cake in each others faces...well we did! hahaha

Our first dance!

Hale Parents dance

the boys took the wheel off our car so we couldn't leave and wrapped..yeah..thanks guys!

The girls that helped with everything!

Now real life begins. Work Grad School, babies. Eric is so afraid we are gonna have a honeymoon baby, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed thats not possible!!!! But his mom says he is getting old so he needs to start soon hahahaha. He turns 29 next month!!!! CRAZY!

I love my Girls

Tonight was AMAZING with my girlies! I have the best friends EVER! I haven't spent as much time as I have wanted to with them recently just with the wedding planning and work occupying the majority of my time….but the past two days Eric has been gone back up to Pocatello, IF, and Star Valley he won't be back till probably monday night so he can be there for my endowment session on tuesday morning and then the wedding is the following day! But anyways, yeah I miss my girls. We have been best friends since working together at Gringos in college…and at the time it just so happened that Steff and Sydney (sisters) and I all lived int the same apartment complex. Syd and I were gonna be roomies but her apt was full so steff and I ended up living together and it was a match made in heaven. She was the funnest roommate ever. We've all been friends ever since and all ended up together 5 min. apart after college in the same town. Kinda funny how Heavenly Father keeps important people that bring joy to your life so close. Tonight I drove to Sydney's after work and she had a huge…mind you…..HUGE… "basket of fun"…as she likes to call it. :) It had a lot of things I can't wait to try, and I'll just leave it at that hahaha. Then we went to the mall…she wanted to buy me a few more things…and she did. hahaha more things for the honeymoon. We had a blast, and then we all went to Texas Roadhouse where the girls treated me to dinner, and then went back to her place and went hot tubbing. It was just an awesome night without the boys…even though I miss mine VERY much, it helped to distract me from all the pre-wedding stress and jitters and just added to the excitement. It was also cool cause today was my last day of work till we come back from the honeymoon!!!!! SUPER Excited about that. Anyways I love my friends they have been so supportive throughout the good and bad times, and always no matter what are there for me. Best of all when we are all together there is never a silent moment or a time we aren't laughing are heads off. I need comedic relief in my life and man let me tell ya, these are the girls that do it for me!!! I love you Sydney, Steffanie, and Janelle! Thanks for my FABULOUS last friday night as a single woman!

Janelle

Steff

Sydney