Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

What a wonderful year this has been. Dustin and I went on our first date on January 2 and we have been together every day since. We had a wonderful time dating and were engaged on April 17. After another 3 ½ months the big day arrived and we were married for time and all eternity on July 31, 2010 in the Manti Temple. It was such a special day for us, especially having wonderful family and friends there with us to celebrate. Almost 5 months have passed and we have been keeping busy, so the time has flown.

Dustin is studying Accounting and loving it. He will be applying to the program at BYU this upcoming June. He is working part time at two different jobs. He works at an English-teaching School called Nomen Global and recruits new international students. It is a good job and he gets to work with his Portuguese. And just recently he has started working for an accounting company called Exceptional Accounting. It is a bookkeeping business started by a BYU graduate who happens to be one of our good friends. When Dustin isn’t working or studying he is helping me with my homework or making his delicious chocolate chip cookies. Oh, and how can I forget his big news… on December 30^th Dustin will be getting LASIK eye surgery! He is counting down the days until he can say goodbye to his glasses and contacts. J

I, Amy, started the Dietetics program this year and just finished my first semester. That means in 3 semesters I will be finally finished with my Bachelor’s Degree. I love the classes for my major, and this semester I participated in a restaurant lab on campus called the Pendulum Court. Thank you friends and family who came and supported me. I work in the BYU bakery in the mornings before class and have such a good time there decorating cakes and making desserts.

We love our little apartment and feel so blessed for our lives and the opportunity we have to be together. We are so grateful for wonderful friends and family who take such good care of us and love us. We appreciate your love and want you to know that we love you and wish you the Merriest Christmas and a wonderful New Year!

Fall is Beautiful

School is flying by. Just 2 more weeks until Thanksgiving and then Christmas break will be right around the corner. That's exciting. Today we had a preview to Thanksgiving dinner... except no turkey. Just steak, mashed potatoes, corn, fruit salad, and banana creme pie. :) yummm... Yesterday we went to the BYU football and a volleyball game too and had a good time with my parents. As always there was good food involved, we stopped at the Pita Pit and Baskin Robins. And here is the rest of our update since I haven't posted anything for a while...

Halloween has passed but I thought it was better late than never to show off the pumpkin we carved. Well... when I say "we" I mean Dustin, but I sat right next to him for moral support and watched Food Network. " :) Dustin debated, but ended up deciding on the cyclops. Pretty cool!


Another day we went out to eat at a Korean restaurant. I went to Korea when I was 16 and I had been telling Dustin about Korean food since we started dating and 10 months later... we finally went. We got the beef Bulgolgi which are lettuce wraps with thinly sliced beef, rice, and other fillings. Dustin got to be a chopstick pro by the time we left. :) Yummm...

Now for the most exciting news... we got a couch! Grandma Billie is so cool that she got a new couch at RC Willey and didn't know what to do with her old one... and that means the newlyweds are now sitting pretty on a new couch. And it even has a couch bed! That means visitors won't have to sleep on the floor. haha...
**Happy November!!**

Work, Work, Work...

School is in full-swing. I am studying Dietetics and Dustin is studying Accounting. This weekend I have 3 tests to take and Dustin has one too. We are busy but super happy with our classes. It has been so much fun for us both to be studying the classes we are interested in. And we have still made time for some fun! I took part in a health-fair at Costco and was able to teach the employees the importance of eating "5 a day". It was a really good experience to talk to people about diet and exercise and just the importance of a healthy lifestyle.

We also went to Spud Day up in Shelley. I was absolutely impressed. I loved the parade, the free spud, and especially the Spud Tug. They pour instant potatoes in a pit from a cement mixer truck and the losing team falls into the pit. It was super fun to watch. haha...

Last weekend was conference weekend and we had another little trip down to Aurora. Dustin's parents came down to Aurora and we all went up to my parent's cabin and went on a SUPER dusty 4-wheeler ride. We all made it out alive and had a great time. We only stayed for the day, but the company, food, and entertainment were great!

We also got tickets to go to the BYU v. Nevada game. It was fun, but too bad that the Cougars decided not to play so well.
We decided to go to our favorite place, Cracker Barrel, to celebrate nine months since we started dating. I also have made bread pudding a couple of times, something that Dustin has decided he likes quite a bit, so I'm sure that'll be a Hanson family staple.

Married life has been all we have hoped for and we are loving being married to our best friends. Basically, we've been having too much fun! :) Until next post...

Our First Apartment

On July 20, 2010 we picked up the keys to our first apartment. We filled the place with boxes and left them until we got back from our honeymoon. Then the fun part of sorting through everything began. It took us over a week to get everything all clean and organized! My mom and grandma Billie came up to visit and helped me decorate and hang everything up. Now it feels like a home and we have sure loved the place so far. It is close to campus and Dustin's work so that is another big perk. And here is the grand tour...

The Bedroom

The Bathroom

The Kitchen

The Living Room

And that's the grand tour! We are so happy to be here after the long search we went through to find a place to live. It is just perfect for us. Life is going great! :)

The Happy Hanson's

Whew... I was going to make the first post about our first month but I went into so much detail about the honeymoon I decided to break it up into two posts or maybe three. Here we are already in September and we have been married for over a month now. School has started and we are ready and excited to do our best in our classes. We had a wonderful couple of weeks moving into our new apartment and relaxing. Here is a little of what we did in August. :)

Our first trip we went on the weekend after our receptions was to Cedar City. We stayed the night in my Dad and brother Aaron's condo in Cedar and the next morning went to go hiking at Zion's. We have issues with directions because we get talking and having such a fun time in the car that we miss exits and roads, etc... This trip was no different. When we finally got to Zion's at the entrance, the park worker asked us if we needed a map. Both of us said in unison, "No." and we drove on our way thinking... how could we possibly get lost we are just going to park and get on a hike. Well... we ended up missing the turn for the visitor's center and going on the scenic drive all the way through Zion. The road had terrible construction and so by the time we realized we had missed the visitor's center we were only about 5 miles from Mt. Caramel where my Aunt Cami lives. So we just went right on through and over to Mt. Caramel and Cooper my little 8 year old cousin took us both on a horse ride. We had a fun visit in Mt. Caramel and we even got to see the Disney movie site that was built on their farm for a western movie that Disney is making. It was pretty neat that Disney had found the site way out there and built such a neat set. On our way back to Zion we went and back through the construction... by the time we were 1/2 way through the park back to the visitor's center we had decided what hike we would take and then, Dustin's grandma called and said she had dinner ready! So, we just threw our hiking plans out the window and went down to St. George for dinner at Grandma Rasband's. It was sure fun to see her and visit. Before we headed back to Cedar for the night, I told Dustin we had to share an ice cream at Nielsen's Frozen Custard (my Mom's favorite). So we had a hot fudge sundae to share! yummm.... It wasn't quite the weekend we had planned, but we sure had a great time visiting family and talking and laughing all the way! :)




Next weekend was action packed as well... we headed down to Aurora and went to the cabin. Jason and Brooke Wilde came as well as our friend Luiz Maykot. We started out the day shooting at targets. We looked pretty awesome with bright colored earplugs in our ears. We all hit at least some of the targets. Then started one of about 10 rounds of frisbee golf for the men. I played one round and called it good. :) After lunch it was off to the zipline! We all went down to a zipline owned by a good family friend, Steve Camp. Steve and my dad helped to shuttle us up and down on four-wheelers. We had the idea to do a tandem-ride... so Dustin and I decided to try it. Yah.. not so great of an idea. I took off first which was fine until Dustin jumped too... the two of us together was too much for the line and it weighed us down enough for me to hit my shoulder on a stump on the way down. Then we made is through the trees with my arm stuck in Dustin's rope all the while picking up more and more speed. By then there was no slowing down and about 2 seconds later we took a crash landing on the hillside... Dustin on top of me. As you can probably imagine I got a massive bruise on the side of my hip along with some massive neck and back pain. I had a limp for a couple days but after a week of baths in Epsom Salts and covering my back and neck with Bengay, I am back in tip top shape. But anyways, back to the cabin trip... once we got back I layed down while the rest of the bunch went on a 4 wheeler ride. As soon as they returned... the frisbee golf continued until dinner and as soon as we finished the cobbler the boys went for a few more rounds until it was time to go back to Aurora. Throughout the day in frisbee golf there were many records set: Luiz has the out-of-country record, Dustin has the out-of-state record, and Jason has the out-of-family record. So, it was a successful trip for all involved! By then it was getting dark and we were all so tired from such an action-packed day, we went home and played some pool at my parents' house and went to bed.




The next morning we welcomed home Elder Shelby Harrison who served in the Cuiabá Mission with us. He's from Salina, which is part of my stake. It was great to see him and hear about how the mission was doing and the experiences that he had there. After the meeting and going to a luncheon held for him, our action packed weekend came to a close and we headed back to Provo and got a good night's rest for the first day of school!

Our First Week

Thank goodness for Labor Day and a little bit of time off so I can write our first blog post. I will get better as we go along, but here goes nothing for our first post. Let's start with July 31st. What a day! I don't even have words to describe just how heavenly that day was. We were married in the Manti temple just like I had always wanted and later that evening we had a beautiful reception at my Grandma's house just like I had always dreamed. The day went by so fast and we were so grateful for all the support we had from our family and community. Then off we went!

We went to the Manti Inn for the night and we were the only ones in the whole place. We made it out with Dustin only breaking one of the planks on the blinds when he was trying to open the window. :) It was a really nice place and we had a homemade breakfast waiting for us that morning. Then off we went to SLC to the Crystal Inn. We had dinner at Cracker Barrel one of our favorite restaurants. The only mishap there was Dustin locked the keys in the car. So, while he was calling the locksmith... I took a nap. :)

Then early the next morning off we went on the airport shuttle to SouthWest Airlines and took off to California. That was nice and the plane took us straight to the shuttle which took us to our Carnival Cruiseship. We had a good burger as soon as we got on the ship and then we walked around the ship and found our room. We had 2 cute little portholes. Only mishap there was Dustin's wheel on his suitcase broke (not by him, by the cruise workers who deliver your belongings to your room. :)

The next day was the best! We woke up early and the ship had made it to Catalina Island, about 20 miles off the coast of California. We took the little speedboat out to shore and went snorkeling. That was super cool! There were all sorts of orange, blue, red, and brown fish swimming around the reef. Only mishap there was Dustin didn't put his hand in a fist when they threw out the fish food and his finger was almost eaten by a fish. :) We had so much fun! And it was the perfect temperature in Catalina so we layed out on the beach and worked on our tans. It didn't go very well since we were using SPF 85. Then we headed back to the boat for a while so I could go to a fancy spa session with a full body exfoliation, body wrap, scalp massage, and hour full-body massage. Dustin waited patiently and watched ESPN. Now that we were fully relaxed we headed back to go parasailing. Talk about fun. It's like you're just floating in the air. We took off from the boat and sailed up on a rope that was 800 feet long. Then we slowly started falling until our legs brushed through the ocean and then we took off again and kept sailing. We could see over the cruise ship, out into the ocean, and the whole city of Catalina. When we got back it was time to hurry back to boat. But we had to stop at the candy story (it looked like Willy Wonka) and get some sugared candy.

That night we had a good dinner at the restaurant. That is when my first mishap happened. The waiter was bringing out my hot chocolate (I think I had like 12 cups on the trip) and he was playing a trick that made it look like the cup was going to fall in my lap. Well, I was eating a molten chocolate cake for dessert and it scared me so bad that my spoonful of chocolate catapulted onto my khaki capris.

Next we made it to Ensenada, Mexico. As we were walking down the streets in downtown we felt like we were back in Brazil. We bought a chess set that the vendor said was marble (though we have our doubts). :) We had fun just walking around for a little bit. Then as we were making our way back to the boat there were some horse drawn carriage drivers that were bartering with a man for a carriage ride back to the boat. The driver wanted $10 dollars for the ride and so the man just started walking away and ended up paying $3. Since we were walking behind them another man started bartering with us. I said, "$3 for us too?" He agreed to it and turned out I only had a $5 or $2.5o. And since he didn't have change we got a fancy Mexican carriage ride for $2.50. We laughed all the way back to the boat.

The next day we were at sea just making our way slowly back to California. We played a round of mini-golf up on the top deck and we had fun hanging out on the boat. That night was our last dinner. It was my favorite. I had steak and a baked potato. yummm.... Dustin's favorite part was his Baked Alaska for dessert. The food was great. We had Cinnamon French Toast every morning and just basically lived it up. :)

When we woke up it was already Friday and we slowly made our way off the boat and back to the shuttle. We had a 4 hour layover in the LA airport and while we were sitting there a little bird somehow had made it inside and was hopping his way around the terminal. It was entertaining. What a first week we had. The perfect vacation to start our marriage.