Valentines:

February 14

Now I have to say I have never been a fan of Valentines Day. Not because most of my life I was single but because I saw it as over the top and more about hearts, candy, roses and jewelry over what it should be, loving people. Therefore I never had any expectations and told Dan that I didn't want him spending money on overpriced flowers on the day of. I would be OK celebrating V-Day, if we did it a day after since it seemed like everything would be less expensive. He told me we were going to go to dinner and I thought, "well that will be fun, I've never really gone to dinner on V-Day so it's worth doing at least once." Well Tuesday morning arrived and I was super tired and not ready for a day of work. I got ready and when I got downstairs I noticed a big surprise. I never expected it at all but for me it was perfect! Better than stuffed animals, chocolates, roses and everything else. We both are a little different in our taste than most people so for me I couldn't have asked for anything more. He got a vase, filled it with rocks and leaves, got branches and made a tree. The leaves were construction paper he had cut out and on them he wrote things he loved about me. There was also a frame that said "I love you because...." That night we went to dinner and it too was perfect. It was a small Italian restaurant in an old house in Logan. It was so quaint and the food was delicious. At the end of the dinner I received a rose and as we left it started to snow. Needless to say It's been the best Valentines I've ever had. I am one lucky girl.

"Le Nonne"

As a side note: Saturday we went to the Hardware ranch and were able to see over 300 Elk. The weekend before that we had gone to the cabin to celebrate Dan's birthday. It was the first time Dan has been snow mobiling and it was a blast.

January 18 2011:

My favorite quote, I read this every time I feel like traveling, which is pretty much all the time. It inspires me:

“I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any.” -Ghandi

2011 Recap:

It has been a crazy, fun, different, exciting, life changing year. So much has happened. Dan's mom was diagnosed with Cancer. Then he proposed to me and four days later he left for Peru for an internship for 3 months. We both graduated from Utah State University and most of all we got married. We have traveled a lot, gotten our first apartment, and learned a lot, believe it or not I am actually attempting to cook and to be crafty...none of which I ever thought I'd be doing. Our future plans went from two separate plans to one grand plan. I can only hope that 2012 holds just as many adventures as 2011! (no....not a baby...)

LOGAN:

So Dan and I had no idea what we would be doing once the fall semester ended. He graduated with a double bachelors in Accounting and Economics and I officially graduated in International Studies. I have been working a few jobs here and there, the summer I worked at Content Watch while Dan did an internship with the Church. I started working at Wilson Elementary in the Special Education department. I loved those kids. I then was offered a full time job on campus working in the Box Office. It's not glamorous but I still like it for the time being. Dan was offered two different internships, one in Logan and one in Ogden. He chose the Ogden one and now we are officially staying in Logan until he finishes his masters degree. It's nice having a plan of action though the unknown is pretty exciting. I was telling Dan we needed to jump on a plane and go somewhere cool for three months until his masters program starts...but for now I guess we'll have to wait ;). The winter has been really mild and normally I would be sad for this since I love the snow but I have been really wanting the summer to come so we can float the river, hike, camp, and go climbing. We've never spent a summer in Logan so I'm pretty excited to do so.

Holiday Season:
December 13- Jan 1

I love the holiday break. No school, no work (for now), lots of food and family. Dan and I had decorated our apartment with a small tree, which of course I forgot to take a picture of. This year has been a little different than most. There wasn't any snow and I now had two families instead of one. We spent the first few days in Farmington so that Dan could work on Jamie and Brent's basement. Then went to St. George around December 20th. We left kinda late but we decided to stop and see Yuba Lake. It was pitch black and chilly but the stars were so cool. It was a lot of fun to spend time in St. George. We had family pictures, hung out with his family, went rock climbing and more. Christmas eve day it was so warm and the boys went bouldering while I watched. It was so weird to have it be that warm the day before Christmas. I'm a "White Christmas" type of person. That night Primavera had prepared a special Mexican dinner. They had raised a goat for a few months (it once even chased Dan), with the intent to eat it on Christmas. They did all the work and we were all interested to see how it would come out. While I was eating breakfast before going bouldering, the goats head was in a bucket, starring at me. It was however, better than I had anticipated and I loved having a traditional Mexican Christmas. Another tradition they do is open all their presents at Midnight instead of waiting until morning. The whole family was over and the craziness began. It was a lot of fun and there was wrapping paper and happy faces all around. It was around 2 in the morning before we went to bed and it was definitely new for me to sleep in on Christmas day. It was a nice relaxing day and it was fun to be able to spend time with his family, especially since his mom was visiting from Seattle where she has been receiving her treatments for her cancer. It was a special Christmas. We had to leave around 5 p.m Christmas Day in order to get back to Farmington to have our big Christmas family exchange the next day. Once again we had a crazy time with the big Bishop Bash. More chaos ensued and it wasn't until after new years that things started to calm down. We all went and saw the new Mission Impossible movie, went and did baptisms at the Logan Temple, played games, played A TON of volleyball and enjoyed the noise, mess and chaos that comes with our big family. I even got to celebrate Kami's b-day at the pie which has been a tradition stemming from our SVU days.

New Years was probably one of my favorite nights. It started out slow. It used to be that the whole neighborhood would be over, we had tons of food and there was so much going on. There are a lot of children in the Bishop house and so we a few years ago we came up with a plan. We turn the clocks forward and at 8 pm the clocks turn midnight and we all celebrate with the kids. This way they are able to have a fun new years and still get some sleep and the adults can then enjoy New Years. It has been a tradition for the last few years that everyone jumps in the frozen pond. This year seemed a little bit more calm and nobody was really up for the polar plunge. Except of course my mom. At the last minute we decided we couldn't let our tradition end. So Jill, Kelsi, Aubrey and myself ran out at midnight for the big plunge. Since it has been such a warm year the edges of the pond hadn't frozen. So instead we just ran straight in, breaking the ice as we went. Not the greatest idea. My poor mom ran in and rammed right into the ice, knocking the wind out of her. I hit my head and Kelsi scraped her knee up. After we got out we realized my mom was bleeding. Her whole arm and leg had been scraped up, we even thought she might need stitches. It was the best war wound we've ever had in the polar plunge. Tradition continues! Things calmed down and everyone headed back to their normal lives, until next year.

Christmas at the Flores':



Mo-Tab Christmas Concert:
Bishop Christmas:
Visiting Temple Square:Logan Temple:

Trey dressed as an elf:
Visiting our cousin Brent before he went to the MTC, welcome to Utah elders :)
The Great V-Ball games:
This is what happens when you fall asleep:
Happy New Years (at 8:00pm):
Ready to jump in the pond:
Freezing!!!
Poor Jill got many cuts and bruises:

THANKSGIVING WEEK:
Oct. 19-27

I forgot how much I love holidays until they end. Dan and I were lucky enough to get work and school off so we had the whole week off for Thanksgiving. We drove to Farmington Friday night and then we drove to St. George on Saturday. We were able to get a lot of much needed rest before we started the real party.

Hector took us hiking in Snow canyon on Monday. It had rained and the weather was perfect. Hector takes people that want to lose weight on hikes so we asked him to show us one of the hikes. It was a lot of fun but I realized just how out of shape I really am, perhaps Dan and I should join the program. It took us about two hours and we hiked up, down and all around. I knew I'd be sore the next day.

Tuesday we decided to finally do the big climb that Dan had told me he would take me on. It is called Leopard Skin and it's about 350 feet high. After the first pitch we had to wait because we needed to untangle the ropes and fix a few things. Another climber had gotten stuck and so Dan had to climb over and help him out. By that point I was starting to talk myself out of climbing. We were about 200 feet up and I psyched myself out...in essence, I failed. I ended up repelling back down and they continued up the rest of the way. When I touched down I realized that I would be haunted by this until I actually conquer Leopard Skin, so I hereby vow that I will by this time next year have climbed the full thing. I still had a blast and got excited that I married a hot rock climber because then he could teach me all of his vast knowledge. I shall be the young grasshopper. I have really come to enjoy rock climbing.

Hector is contemplating the climb:


We tried many things over the Thanksgiving break, we tried going to a spinning class and we tried going 4-wheeling but our attempts were in vain, luckily for us we have lot's of time to get all the fun in we want. Thursday the whole family got together and I was able to experience a Flores Thanksgiving for the first time. It reminded me of the Bishop side. We both come from big rowdy families so I loved it. For the first time we decided to go out for Black Friday, at midnight, not at 4 a.m. Bbbbbiiiiigggg mistake. I have never seen so many people in my life. We gave up after about an hour of driving around. The next morning we ran to Best Buy (Dan's brother Louise was there) we grabbed our video camera that we've been wanting for months along with Dan's video game he's been really wanting and we were outta there....that, folks, is how shopping is done. We ran to Target as well then we headed back to Farmington. We forgot to take pictures except for a few, we have been getting worse and worse but hopefully we can get back to taking good pictures.

We headed straight to the Cabin which I was very excited about since it has been such a long time since we've been there. There wasn't enough snow to snow mobile but we were still able to hot tub and had a blast hanging out with the family. Saturday we had our big Hockey game we have every other year over Thanksgiving. It was so much fun. This year we were actually able to play hockey instead of weaving in and out of children. I love this tradition.

Saturday night we were going to go to Temple Square to see the lights but it was so crowded we decided to try again another time. It was so fun to be able to spend so much time with both families.

David was trying to suck up flies

Girls (and Dan) Weekend:
Oct. 11-13

So Aubrey decided to come up and partay with us this weekend. She also brought her cute friend Mary Jensen with her. I have been teasing them both for months now about coming to play with us in Logan so it finally happened. Our great friend and neighbor Kenzie Smith brought them up for us and that night we all just hung out. Dan and I were thoroughly entertained watching the youngins' wrestle around with so much energy. It reminded me of when Danielle (Mary's older sister) and I were that age...they were just mini us'. Finally we all went to bed and gratefully we all slept in which felt so good!

Dan was great and made us all chocolate chip waffles and eggs and then the girls decided they wanted to finally conquer their fear of watching the movie Insidious. Even though it was midday it was dark outside due to the rain and sleet, they were still terrified but in the end they conquered their fear. Afterward we went to get facials and Dan went climbing. The girls loved getting pampered and it was only six bucks. We decided we needed to finally be active so we went bowling....Dan and I were certain we would beat them so we made a wager. Losers had to buys dessert. Well after carrying Dan through the entire game we still lost... Afterwards I had to go to work for a few hours so Dan, being as great as he is took them shopping (even though he did stay in the car because he felt weird ha ha)

They had really wanted to go sledding so while I was at work and after the girls went shopping Dan was going to get the tubes filled with air while the girls gathered all the snow stuff. well... Dan left the apartment and got to that gas station across town and realized that he had forgotten the tubes. He had to return to the apartment to pick them up and while driving back decided to play a little prank on them. He opened our front door without them knowing and rang the doorbell. They saw the door and they freaked out so they called Dan scared out of their mind. So Dan told them to lock the door and to hang tight because he was on his way home. So after closing it once it somehow opened again ;) They freaked out and they ran into the main bedroom upstairs and locked the door. They then proceeded to climb into our closet and I got a phone call at work with Aubrey terrified saying there was a man in the house. I got worried until I heard them scream when they saw Dan. They are still freaked out but it has to be one of the best pranks ever. After they were able to gather their wits they picked me up and we headed to Old Main Hill. It was a blast but boy did it make me realize just how out of shape I really am! We had so much fun and after a while we decided to go to Angie's before it closed to clean the sink. Well, Mary and Aubrey were determined to do it on their own, I didn't think they could do it so I challenged them. If they could do it they wouldn't have to pay me back for some of the clothes they bought. Well needless to say.....they did it. they ate the whole thing and I don't think they'll want ice-cream for a very long time. We lounged around at home while they continued to get their extra energy out and finally at 2 a.m they were asleep.

Sunday we went to church and then went over to Mike and Michelle's apartment to make pizzas. Soon enough it was time to take them home. A great weekend with the kids and well worth every moment. I wish I had more pictures but we have became lazy once again, don't worry we'll get back into it sometime soon....especially since Thanksgiving is coming up.