The Best 6 Months

Do you know what today is? Of course you do! But I'll tell you anyway. It's mine and Ky's 6 MONTH ANNIVERSARY!!! Yes, I too am flabbergasted that he has put up with me for so long. Nevertheless, we celebrated this most momentous occasion. I will now proceed to tell you how. 

Our day began at 8am when Ky went off on his morning run. I myself alternated between consciousness and sleeping for about another 45 minutes before awakening. Then I prepared us a most fancy breakfast; Peanut Butter Cap'n Crunch. A breakfast fit for kings. 

We were going to celebrate our 6 months of matrimony by attending a temple session at the Provo temple, but I had a really hard time getting to bed and I always feel super guilty when I doze off during a session. So we decided to postpone. What did we do instead you ask? Well, we watched "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" of course. It's so romantic. 

I went off to work as usual and when I came back, a candle lit dinner was waiting for me. I truly am the luckiest girl in the world. 

We popped some bubbly... carbonated apple cider bubbly. 

A very common tradition is to wait until your one year anniversary to eat the top tier of your wedding cake. Since I am an impatient person, and also I didn't think the cake would taste good after a year no matter how you tried to preserve it, we ate our cake! I can honestly say that it tasted as good as the day we got married. 

I am very grateful that I married the man that I did. I love him very much and each day it becomes apparent that I only love him more. Our wedding song was "Then" by Brad Paisley. The lyrics have become more real to me since that day. Look it up, you'll be glad you did. 

Just because I'm an extremely nostalgic person, here are some of my favorite wedding pics! Enjoy. Fun fact: we got married on a Tuesday, celebrated our 6 month anniversary on a Tuesday. Funny how those things happen. 

Home Sweet Oregon

It's funny how one accumulates more than one home as they grow up. Corvallis is, and always will be, home. I still refer to it as home and it's logged on my phone under the contact name "home". Which really made me think long and hard about Provo and what it is to me. I'll be honest and say that it's still growing on me. Sure, my permanent home resides within the city limits of Provo and it will forever hold a special place in my heart as mine and Ky's first place together. Shoot, I'll probably even miss it when we move some day! That being said, let me tell you how it felt to really go home. 

Friday the 31st I hopped on the 6am flight out of SLC airport and arrived at PDX at about 10:45am. It was the best feeling ever to look out the plane window and see GREEN!!! BEAUTIFUL GREEN TREES!!! My eyes hadn't seen something like that in a loooong time. The best part was at baggage claim when I spotted my mom and sister about 40 yards away. I felt like doing the slow-motion movie run towards them, which at that point Alex would sweep me up in her arms and cradle me like a baby. To everyone's relief, I refrained. But my mom was pretty darn excited to see me. She even sped walked toward me. I was honored. 

Now, I have to tell you that there is a little guy that was very excited to see me. I wasn't sure if he'd remember me or not, I mean, he is only 3 1/2 years old. We all expected him to think I was Alex; but the moment I walked into the room he peed out of pure excitement. 

Yup, this guy. Not only did he pee once, but about 7 more times. Also, every day when I woke up he'd come sit on me. That's love people. Pure love. 

That night was great, just hanging out with my family like the good ol' days. My brothers are typically non-emotion showing guys but I could definitely tell they missed me. Just check out Derick's expression when I attacked him after baseball practice. 

Anyway, the real reason I visited had to do entirely with Saturday morning. Alex received her endowments in preparation for serving a full time mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It was an amazing day filled with the spirit and lots of pictures. Also, Olive Garden. So lots of pasta. 

That night we watched "Madagascar 3" as a family. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. Good, clean, wholesome entertainment for the whole family. 

Sunday was also great. I went to sacrament meeting at my home ward, what a great feeling to be back there again. In the same building in which I had been attending church since age 8. After hitting up the 3rd ward, Alex and I went on over to the College Hill ward (a.k.a. the singles ward); my old stomping grounds. Now THAT was awesome because I went back to the place where I met my husband. Very fond memories. And many close friends too, I felt so unbelievably happy to be there. Here's a picture of me and my good friend Tyler Young. He's one of my best friends and the sweetest kid you'll ever meet. Seriously. 

That night I went over to my in-laws place for dinner. I had just seen the Manns so that was cool. But I do have to say that the highlight was seeing Scott and Sue for the first time in almost 5 months. I missed them a lot. Fun fact: Ky proposed in his living room so I got to be all nostalgic there too. You see why it's hard to leave home? So many important landmarks! I'd be lying if I said I didn't cry when I left their house that night. Correction: I balled my eyes out the entire drive home. Not my finest hour; luckily I know the road back from Ky's house like the back of my hand so I was pretty much in auto-pilot while I let the waterworks flow. 

Monday brought fun activities too; like helping my mom take care of Anita. Pretty much one of the cutest babies in the universe. Also, a great dancer. But she's half Colombian so it's in her blood. Here are a few gems from our time with Anita. 

We took a walk along our neighborhood. Troy probably saw a squirrel. 

You just don't see anything like this around here. 

See what I mean? She's so photogenic. 

Then we visited the institute again and I saw 2 of my favorite people. The one and only Sis. Nelson... 

... and the best institute director EVER, Brother Richardson. 

Then Alex and I walked around campus. I got to be the tourist and took pictures of everything. I didn't quite appreciate OSU's beauty until after I wasn't a student there. Funny how those things work out like that. 

That night I went out to dinner with 4 of my best friends in the entire world. Unfortunately we were missing 1 member of our wolf pack; regrettably she was home sick. But, we had a blast and it was awesome catching up with them and going back to normal as if no time had passed at all. My only regret is that I didn't take a group picture! I even took my camera, just forgot. Barnacles. 

Sadly, all good things must come to an end. The dreadful day came when I had to leave home. Known to the rest of the world as Tuesday, known to the Porter family as a sad day. The only upside to leaving home is that your brothers give you hugs! It's fantastic. Although David is still very resistant, Alex and I must continue to break his spirit. 

Fortunately I got to see Shann and Teagan one more time before leaving. Teagan does this super cute thing where she jumps from lap to lap and giggles non-stop. A.D.O.R.A.B.L.E. 

My mom and Alex drove me to the airport and we said our goodbyes there. They held it together pretty well, which honestly made it worse for me and I cried my way to security. How embarrassing. Funny story: my mom told me "tell Ky we love him, and tell him we'd love him more if you moved back to Oregon." True story. 

That was a lonely trip home, but I will admit that I was dying to see Ky again. When you spend nearly all day with a person, it becomes pretty hard to leave them for 5 days. So that was the silver lining around my cloud. 

Home is where the heart is. My heart will forever be divided between where I am, and where my family is. Home sweet Oregon.