Life: January - February

The last main highlight of our trip to Oregon was watching the little girls perform at the high school's little mini dancer camp. Those girls can move!

We had a great break in Oregon and were very sad to leave! Luckily we didn't have anything exciting happen on the trip home, either!

We did come home to an apartment that smelled horribly like rotten chicken though. Apparently some chicken juice got behind the fridge and stunk up the whole place. Kyle and his brother moved the fridge and Kyle bravely cleaned it all up. He's the best! The beginning of the semester was insane for me with my two comprehensive exams, multiple presentations, and our conference submission deadline. Kyle did a tax internship this semester, so luckily he was there to pick up the slack when I was at my busiest because his job hadn't gotten crazy yet. Seriously, there was more than one week when I didn't even walk into our kitchen because Kyle made all of the food, packed it for me, and did all of the dishes. He's the best!

I made him take a first-day-of-work picture.

My sisters and I got to sing with the Beckstrand girls a couple of times for different Young Women programs. We all love the Beckstrand girls and it was so fun to get to sing with them, especially as it will be the last time for a while with Jessica and Shannon both moving out of the state. 

The beginning of February marked my class' thesis defense. I was super worried about it, but because I had incorporated the feedback I had been given a couple weeks before into my project, I passed easily. In June I will officially be Master Dowdle!

The weekend after my thesis defense Kyle's family came to town for Presidents' day weekend/Valentine's day/Adalyn's birthday. Again, we had a great time playing together, eating good food, and laughing. We went to the Norman Rockwell exhibit at the MoA one night (which weirdly enough Kyle and I had already seen). We also got to play at Provo's new rec center. That was a lot of fun. But also super tiring! We celebrated Adalyn's birthday on Valentine's day Sunday by everyone coming to our Sacrament meeting and then spending the day at our house because, surprisingly, it has the biggest space. Kyle loved that his brothers got to stay with us and the four boys could play some video games together (thanks to his parents giving us their old TV and Xbox for Christmas). It was also on this trip that we discovered Rose's Sneakerdoodle ice cream at the BYU creamery, which has become our favorite. So that's good.

The Provo City Center Temple open house started in January and went until its dedication in March. Kyle and I went early one Saturday morning and toured it and then I got to be an usher for a couple of shifts since we are in the temple district. It is seriously so beautiful (sidenote: we did a session there for the first time and it was so neat because all of the windows give it so much natural light!). 

We also went to a few basketball games in January and February for our date nights/days. My cousin Taylor has been cheering for BYU for three years, but she got married and is transferring schools so her husband can play football somewhere else. We are sad that we aren't going to be able to watch her cheer!

Life: September - November

I am so behind on blogging that I don't even know where to start. 

Once we got moved in to our apartment in Provo we started to get more in the swing of things and our Fall went by pretty quickly.

Both of Kyle's parents' birthdays are in September, so they decided to come and visit their "big" kids for their birthdays. It was a fun trip full of shopping, good food, visiting with their old friends, and hiking. The highlight for Ryan, Jordan, Kyle and I was the Boise State vs. BYU football game. We got a ROC pass for Ryan and sat at pretty much the top of the student section. But man was it worth it! Such an incredible game! Ryan actually didn't have a voice for a few days after because he yelled so much!

While we were in California for the summer, my family all went hiking and camping and Kyle was super jealous we couldn't go with them. So when we got back we quickly started planning a hiking trip with Alicia and Peter. We ended up staying the night Friday night in Cedar City and then driving down to spend the day at Zion National Park on Saturday. We hiked most of Angel's Landing, as well as the Weeping Rock, and some of the waterfront trail (I can't remember its name). The boys were super excited to take the kids on Angel's Landing, but man did it make me nervous! Everything was fine though. By the time we got down from Angel's Landing Will was more than a little excited to get to actually walk by himself and he really enjoyed running around like a big kid!

 

At dinner after, Will was captivated by the BYU game on

Neither Kyle nor I are much for Halloween. This year we ended up moving apartments (just in our complex) and then spending the rest of the time with Alicia's family. Will is just starting to understand what trick-or-treating is, so it was a blast to watch him go up to the door and be delighted when they gave him candy! Since we don't have our own kids, we are continuously grateful Alicia and Peter are willing to share theirs with us!

Alicia asked if I would take pictures of her family in the field behind their house and she took a few of us too. We obviously spend a lot of time with them!

In November I went to Chicago for the ABCT Convention to help present a poster. I had heard a lot about the food there and, I have to say, I was not impressed. The best food I ate was at a random Thai food restaurant we found. The weather was beautiful though! Paige and I had a lot of fun sight seeing, especially by the waterfront. We also always go to dinner with everyone from BYU who came and that is pretty much always a highlight for me. 

This year for Thanksgiving we were at my parents house on actual Thanksgiving day. Kyle and I got there before pretty much everyone else because we have the least amount of people so we wanted to be there to help. We had a delicious meal and afterward we watched "Once I was a Beehive" which is a darling movie, no matter how cheesy. At night we went up to Andrea's house for dessert because all of Andrea's siblings and their families were up for the holiday. Man, all of my cousin's kids are getting so old! There was a whole group of teenagers and it was super weird! We also got everyone to share with us some of our favorite Beaver stories. We just had a blast!

Kyle's family also came to town, so the day after Thanksgiving we had our second Thanksgiving with his family. Again, the food was really good. I'm still trying to remember everyone's names and stuff, so I'm not 100% comfortable with his extended family yet, but I'll get there. While they were in town we also went to Savior of the World and walked around Temple Square after eating a delicious dinner. Kyle's cousin Tyson was nice enough to take some pictures for us!