Only one week left of summer! Where did the time go??
I feel like I am always saying that, but in this case I am
pretty excited about the time moving quickly because that means that our
wedding will come faster! T-minus 10 months!
So first things first- wedding plans. Last time Jeremiah
wrote we had just decided on a date and venue which was a big decision, which
we are still very excited about. And since then, we’ve made a number of smaller
decisions. The one that I’m most excited about is that I picked out my wedding
dress! I obviously can’t describe it because Jeremiah reads this blog and I am
leaving it as a complete surprise. But I absolutely love the dress! I went to
about 5 different stores to look, and found some other nice options but kept
coming back to this one (which I tried on at the second store we visited). On
top of loving the dress, the store we went to, Uptown Bridal, was a really
great, no-pressure place. They were very helpful and very patient with my indecisiveness.
We have also decided on out colors (not sure if that was mentioned previously)
of gray, navy blue, and sage green. I picked out my bridesmaid dresses already
too! This decision needed to be made pretty quickly because my sister-in-law is
pregnant with baby #3! We wanted her to be able to try on the dress and find
her size so she knows the approximate size she’ll be after she has the baby in
January, rather than having to guess or wait until just a couple months before
the wedding to order. So I am very pleased with that decision as well. Finally,
my sister Emily took our engagement photos and I made save-the-dates that I
just got in the mail. They are so cute! We’ll be sending them out in the next
month I imagine. Those are some of the big things we’ve done and so our next steps
are booking our photographer, DJ, and florist. Our venue is all-inclusive so
they have these vendors that we can choose from, so that shouldn’t be too hard.
We are also looking into honeymoon locations, which has been really fun. Especially
after this summer where I have not left Arizona much, I am itching to travel! We
are focusing in on Maui, HI, Mexico, and a couple other places in the
Caribbean. But if anyone has any other suggestions or tips about these places,
let us know!
Sneak peak at one of the engagement photos my sister took.
Outside of the wedding planning we have had a pretty
eventful summer despite having not travelled much! For one, the detail I
briefly mentioned in my last paragraph- my brother and sister-in-law are
pregnant again! YAY! Paisley and Parker are getting a new sibling in early
January of 2017! This will be my fifth niece/nephew and I can’t wait. On the
flipside of this, my family has some harder news too… About a month ago we
found out my sister and brother-in-law are moving to Philadelphia, PA. They are
moving for my sister’s job with General Mills, so it is going to be great for
their family… It’s just hard for us here in AZ! I have loved having Heather and
George close by and I won’t get to see Madeline and Luke as often as I’d like,
but it’s a new place for us to travel to and there will be plenty of occasions to
see them still. They leave this Saturday, the 13th, and I can’t
think about it too much yet or I’ll get too emotional!
Luke! Almost 6 months already!
Jeremiah is in his last week of his internship at Stryker
Sustainability and has really loved the experience. They have kept him super
busy with multiple projects so the time has flown by for him. Even though he is
really busy, he is enjoying all of the work as well as the environment he is
working in. Maybe he will work there in the future at some point too! Who
knows? For now, he is gearing up to start his official last year at ASU as a
Masters student. Along with the required 12 credits he will be working as a TA
for FSE 100, an intro to engineering type class for undergrads. This is a
highly sought after job that he will be so perfect in! He has always been an
awesome, patient tutor for me and is really great at explaining concepts. So
I’m excited to see how this role goes for him.
This summer I have been working at a physical therapy
office, which I started back in February. It has been going very well! I really
enjoy meeting so many patients and it has been an awesome experience to learn
about physical therapy. I have also been taking an online Physics class, which
I am sooo ready to be done with. I’ve got a few more weeks… I can do it! The
class is especially annoying because I am only taking it so that I can apply to
certain PT schools that don’t take high school AP credit. But that’s okay; it
will be worth it!
Something fun I have done this summer is a lot of hiking! I
have always loved hiking, but have never gone very consistently. Luckily, my
friend Jess helped me change that! Jess is a friend of mine from ASU who is a
very avid hiker. She invited me on a hike back in June and we went once a week
until she went home to Tucson, but I kept it up either by myself or with other
people I recruited to hike with me here and there. Arizona is so beautiful, and
it is really awesome to get up and active so early! In order to hike here in
the summer, obviously it has to be early! But Arizona doesn’t get more
beautiful than the Grand Canyon, which I hiked in July! Jess and her mom and a
few of her mom’s friends had planned for quite awhile to hike the Grand Canyon
in July and luckily a spot opened up so that I could join them. So amazing! We
went and stayed on the South rim on a Thursday, hiked down South Kaibab trail
starting at 4 am Friday morning, stayed at Phantom Ranch at the bottom, and out
Bright Angel trail on Saturday. It was hot but it was worth it. The canyon is
spectacular from the top, but truly a different experience to hike down into
it. At the bottom, as I said we stayed in Phantom Ranch which has cabins and
campsites. We stayed in a cabin (with AC thankfully!) and hung around the grounds playing
games, swimming in the creek, napping, and enjoying the delicious beef stew and
cornbread that the Phantom Ranch employees prepare. The hike out was 9.5 miles
of gradual, and some parts steep, uphill. It was a little daunting, but we took
it slow and steady and the whole group made it up pretty close together and
without any injuries! I loved getting to experience the hike with Jess and the
other ladies I went with were so much fun. We also met a girl from France on
our way down, Camille, and spent a good amount of time with her! How brave to
travel across the world and hike into a huge canyon by yourself! I made a GoPro
video of our trip, so feel free to check that out too.
Isn't that amazing??
We made it out!
So that is what Jeremiah and I have done individually, but
together we’ve done many other fun things! For one, we travelled to Kansas over
the 4th of July weekend! Some of his extended family live in Salina,
KS so we were able to spend time with them. One of the days we were there we
went to a nearby lake and spent the day jet skiing and tubing! So much fun!! I
love jet skis. We also went to a fireworks show, tried a cute little burger
place called the Cozy Inn, played a lot of ping pong and other games, and
enjoyed the company. We flew out of Wichita and one of my friends (and a bridesmaid),
Stephanie, lives in Wichita so we were able to stop in and see her and her
husband! She made us the cutest brunch all red, white, and blue themed since it
was the 4th of July. They also had just recently gotten two kittens
so I got to see and play with them. Another small trip we made was to the Grand Canyon for a quick visit with Jeremiah's family. We stayed in a cute little house in Flagstaff and then took a train to the canyon. The train ride was really nice, and a great way to beat lines to get into the national park.
We forgot to take a picture before Kyle had to leave for work.
We have been really lucky to be able to spend a lot of time
with friends this summer, including tubing down the salt river, going to
movies, doing an Escape Room, and other miscellaneous get-togethers. We’re
lucky to have so many great friends! In fact, Jeremiah is moving into a house
with three of our friends this weekend! The house is in Tempe and he is really
excited to make the move. But he is also cherishing his last few days at home
too!
This semester I have a very full schedule with 15 credits,
which includes finishing my Honors Thesis and working 10 hours a week at my PT
job which will count as my required internship for my major. I will also be
working 15 hours a week as a first-year success coach. I am really excited for
this new job! It is something I’ve been interested in for a long time, so next
time I post I’ll let you know how it is. So it’s going to be full, but should
be really great!
The summer had no spectacular Europe trip, but we still
managed to make it a great one.
I randomly won a helicopter ride from an Instagram contest. It was SO cool!
A view from the helicopter!
Jeremiah and I took Paisley on a date night of dinner and bowling. Can't believe she started Kindergarten last week!!
-Hannah
