Summer Surprises!!

What a crazy summer!! First of all, our house is in bloom! I came home one day and the roses out front had EXPLODED. 

This is such a better picture than the gloomy, rainy one from a few months ago. It's really starting to feel like home!

Also, at the end of June we got an addition to our family. His name is Moony, named after the werewolf Remus Lupin in Harry Potter. 

 

So far he's been such a good puppy! I was prepared for potty messes everywhere, all shoes being chewed to a pulp, and general puppy naughtiness, but he tries SO hard to be a good boy. Only a few little messes here and there, and floors can always be cleaned. Ü (Thankfully, no shoes have been harmed.)

And of course last but not least, we finally shared some fun news with our family and friends. 2014 is looking to be an exciting, fantastic year! December 9th. It's a boy. We are thrilled. :D

MIA no longer!

It's crazy to think that almost 6 months have passed since the last time I updated our blog! And what a whirlwind those months have been. We have hit the highest of highs and lowest of lows. I'm glad to say that now that things are settling down a little, I think we've come out better than hoped for. 

So what's new since October, you ask? Well, the current list includes:

• New year

• New town (in a new state)

• New house

• New ward

• New police officer job for Levi

• New loan specialist job for Brittany

and pretty much, a whole new life!

Levi started working for Chubbuck City Police Department mid-December, and then in January they sent him to the Idaho POST (Peace Officer Standards and Training) academy. That meant that every Sunday, he would leave Logan, drive to Pocatello to meet up with the other newly hired officers, & they would ride to Meridian together. Friday nights after class, he would hurry back to Poky and then on to Logan. Roughly 10 hours of driving total each weekend. By the end of the 10 week academy, we were both FRIED. 

While Levi was learning arrest techniques, emergency vehicle maneuvers, and criminal code, I was still living in Logan working 10-12 hour days at Thermo and spending the evenings looking for a job and house in Idaho. (Geez, just rereading that sentence made me want a nap.) By mid-March, everything was starting to come together. My last day working for Thermo Fisher was on the 12th, we closed on our house on the 13th, Levi graduated from the POST academy on the 14th, we moved on the 15th, Levi started at the police station on the 17th and I started at Idaho Central Credit Union on the 18th!
What a week!! 

Couldn't be prouder of my Officer Nutt and all his hard work!

Aaannnd this is what it looks like when you are finally done with 10 weeks of insanity. Ü 

Now that things seem to be calming down a little, we are excited to get settled into our new life and maybe start on our house project list. Yay! Ü

Day 730!

 

 

Funny how the last 2 years seems like it's flown by, but at the same time, it seems like we've already been married for forever! (In a good way. Ü) We took our traditional trip down to Salt Lake to wander through temple square with the crazies, looking at all the lights, and stayed at our favorite antique hotel, the Peery.

 

 

Benihana's was a FANTASTIC choice for dinner! And who knew we would end up sitting with a lady from SE Idaho who's son was in Levi's class, and one of my coworkers haha. Small world...

 

 

Love my best friend even more today than Day 1!

 

 

Why hellooooooo!

Hey guess what! We're still here!! Ü 

As summer started winding down, life started speeding up! August included Hadli Mae Larsen's baby blessing, working the chiropractic booth at the fair, Zane's 6th birthday, several weddings, two demolition derbies, Morgan's 9th birthday, the Brigham City temple open house, teaching a lesson AND giving talks in church in the same day, AND ..... a job interview! 

[pause for breath] 

September has been been even busier - I started my new job!! It's at Thermo Fisher, which up until now I'd never even heard of. (And I still can't adequately describe what they do there. ...Which is why the name is hyperlinked.)  But I am now their main receptionist and report to the executive team. Every day I find out more duties within the scope of my position, and while feeling completely overwhelmed, I still LOVE it! I sincerely miss my daily naps, and all of my patients, and being able to keep Facebook open in the background constantly... but new experiences are good, right? :) And I am slowly getting used to being gone 9 hours every day.

We also went to a BYU game! 

Thank you bossman Todd!!

Don't judge me, I know I usually openly detest BYU, BUT it was the Les Schwab sponsored game and Levi's boss gave us box seats! Who could say no to that. And then he asked "Do you have any friends that would want to go to a BYU game too?" Only one. :) Logan Baker is one of our great friends, and he loves the Cougars. So we planned it out with his wife and told him we were just going to breakfast... and then got on the freeway instead of coming home. I wish we'd had the camera on to catch the look on his face! It was a great time.

We love our Logan and Chloe!

I think Levi's favorite part was the food . . . 

Catering from Tucanos

The BYU marching band was a lot better than Weber's. A lot.

Weber

BYU

And all that was just in the first week of September. Since then, we've had Alyssa June Nutt's baby blessing, Parade of Homes, stake conference, new internet and tv... what have I missed? Levi spends almost all of his days off hiking and scouting for deer now. Hunting season is almost upon us! And then I will get to be a single woman til my birthday! Hello, late nights with Hastings rentals and Chili's takeout. :D

VACATION!!!

(Disclaimer: This post is very long. What can I say, I take a lot of pictures on vacations if I manage to remember the camera.)

We finally made our trip home to Oregon!!! It was SO much fun! A couple barbeques, lots of swimming, and a huckleberry trip later, we are officially exhausted. 

Grandpa Berry, Aunt Mel, and Katie having watermelon milkshakes at Lloyd and Rachel's.

Oop. They caught me taking pictures...

Mr. Corbin showing us how to play Super Mario.

Grandma touched up my layers. She's my hair magician.

Tuesday night, Grandpa and Grandma took us up on the mountain to find some real Oregon huckleberries!

We found some itty bitty wild strawberries too
 

Grandma found a really good patch right off the road.

I think Levi ate more berries than made it in his bucket...

Grandpa telling us about "Over yonder"

SUCCESS!! We ended up with just over a gallon total. Not bad at all :)

 Then Grandpa took us a little higher on the mountain to a lookout point so we could see the whole valley and have a picnic.

Wednesday we had a barbeque at Hilgard Park with Uncle Rick and Aunt Sharon.

Sharon with Rick's sister, Susie. Levi, Cody, and Rick in the background.

Ali, Avrie, Jaycee, and I worked hard to catch the itty bitty fish in the  shallow, warm water.

Levi fit right in with Dad's side of the family, talking about guns,  hunting, and fishing with  with Cody and Rick, and then helping the little girls catch...

...nasty crawdads!!! Bleeeechhh. No we did NOT eat them.

Miss Avrie was very brave and even held a fish in her cupped hands.

And Miss Jaycee had a lot of fun with the crawdads, and teaching me how to catch the fish in plastic cups.

Eventually we had to say goodbye, so Thursday we started making the long trip home. Rick and Sharon fed us breakfast and gave Levi a tour of their place. Levi really wanted to bring home the Harley they’re selling (I admit, I wanted to buy it too), but he finally decided he was content with all the salsa and jelly they gave us.

On our way home we stopped in Baker City at the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center.

It was too hot to walk any of the outdoor trails, but we went through the maze inside and learned a lot. (i.e. It was considered a “good” day if the wagon ruts in the road were less than waist-high. And so many people died that it averaged out to be about one grave every 80 yards along the trail.) Levi and I are both sort of... well, ok, we’re definitely nerds. So we greatly enjoyed the museum. :D

We then stopped in Meridian to see a senior couple, the Kynastons, from Levi’s mission. I love hearing all the fun stories from his two years in Florida.

Drove a couple more hours, and made it to Twin right at dinner time! We love getting to stop and see Aunt Erin and her family. Erin and I can talk shopping for hours. Levi and Jesse can talk hunting for hours. Cracks me up how well Levi fits into our crazy family. :)

The sun was gorgeous as we left Twin Falls. Too bad cameras suck at capturing that beauty through tinted windows....

And the moon was gorgeous too. And massive.

And then finally, 14 hours after we said goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa Berry, we pulled into the farm in Arbon. Talk about a long day! We spent our last couple days off recuperating from our traveling. Levi got the flu and my allergies kicked into overdrive, so we were both pretty miserable. But we did manage to find enough energy to go for a ride on the horses.

This was the first time I’ve been on a horse in over SIX years. Three days later and I still can’t sit properly.

Sunday, our friends Dustin and Cami blessed their baby girl in sacrament meeting in Arbon. Afterwards, we partied a little more and had lunch with all their family and most of the people from the branch. Levi was not happy with me for buying two watermelons while in LaGrande. (Something about having to pack them across two states, in an already full car.) BUT that watermelon sure was a hit at the lunch. :)

After sleeping in a camper for 8 days, being on the road for 23 hours total, and being out of cell service for 3 days, it feels fantastic to be home! We laughed as we unpacked and realized how many shoes were in our car…

Add in the 2 pairs we were already wearing, and boy were we prepared!

Thank you, Family, for the great vacation!!!

Solar Eclipse 2012

We were lucky enough to live in the area that would be able to see the solar eclipse last Sunday! I tried all week to find somewhere in Logan that had the special solar sunglasses, but couldn't find any. I think the news said the planetarium in Salt Lake sold over 20,000 pairs. Not much hope for us then. So we did exactly what they told people NOT to do, and tried looking through several pairs of sunglasses, and a camera lens. Which means while we're probably going to go blind, at least we got some decent pictures!