Family Reunion at Bear Lake

Yesterday, we made our way up to Bear Lake for the Smith Family Reunion. We are renting a really nice, huge cabin that all 25 of us are staying in. We are staying here until Friday morning, and then me and Jesse are making our way down to Cedar City to go visit my family.
So far, this trip has been really fun. When we arrived here yesterday, we checked into our cabin and then spent the rest of the day hanging out in the cabin and visiting.

This is the pizza we had for dinner last night.. It's the biggest pizza I have ever seen!



Today, we decided to go down to the beach and spend the day there. We were able to rent a huge floaty thing that we were able to pull behind the boat we got to rent for the day.

Here's all the adults trying to figure out our plans for the day



Here we are on our way to the beach!



Jesse and his mom



Here are all the cousins out on the floaty



And the boat we rented. I have never ridden in a boat until today, and it is so much fun!! It's definitely something I want to do again.



I got extremely burned, but spending the day at the beach was a ton of fun. Tomorrow we're supposed to be going to an ice cave, which I am very excited about.

The Backstreet Boys and a Wedding Dress- 178 Days :)

Last night, me and my sister Heather got to go to the Backstreet Boys concert in Salt Lake! It was one of the best concerts I've been to. Our seats were amazing and most of the people there were girls our age; it was awesome. They are still just as good as they were when I was 7 and saw them in concert :)

Heather and I waiting for them to come out on stage
Our seats were so good!

Today, I had my first and only dress fitting. Jesse came with me so that he could see the dress on me and he seemed to really like it :) It's so perfect. Everything is becoming so real now that we have so many things planned out and I'm getting more and more excited everyday.

181 Days

We have officially booked a place for our reception! Today, we went and toured The Victorian in Layton and I loved it so much that we booked it right then. It's a house that's 115 years old and has been renovated into a reception center. Everything about this house is gorgeous, and the reception package prices aren't too bad either. I am so incredibly excited about this place!

Jesse and I also worked on the basement a little bit more. Before we start framing, we had to waterproof the walls. Here's Jesse painting the walls and looking good :)This is how excited I am to finish the basement

183 Days- 6 Months

In exactly 6 months from today Jesse and I will be married! I can't believe how fast it's coming. Something else very exciting happened today- I bought my wedding dress! It is beautiful and is everything I wanted. I got it from Alyse's Bridal in Orem. It's an ivory color, pretty form fitting, and is covered in lace and very intricate beading. I wish I would have gotten pictures of me in it, but I forgot my camera; I had no idea I that I would find the perfect dress today. I'll definitely put some pictures up when I go back next week for my first fitting. Another great thing about the dress is that it fits perfectly, I don't need any alterations on it, they just have to put in a bustle in the back and then it will be ready. Next step in all this planning is to find a reception center within our budget... That might be difficult.

184 Days

Since this is my first post about Jesse and I it seems fitting that I give a little background about us. Jesse and I met when I got a job at J&J Garden Center in March of 2008. Jesse had already worked there for a year when I started. We never really talked to each other until August, and our first date was in September. We have dated ever since. On April 30th of this year, we got engaged. At first, we had set our wedding date to March of next year so that we would have plenty of time to save up for the perfect wedding, but in light of recent events we have now moved the date to December 18th of this year. We will be married in the Salt Lake City temple. I can't believe that all of this is actually happening, but I couldn't be more excited. Jesse has become my best friend and I can't wait to marry him.
Once Jesse and I are married, we plan on living in my parents basement. The basement is completely unfinished right now, so we have a lot of work ahead of us to get it to where we can live there. Today was our first day working on it, and we got quite a bit done. This is what the area of where our bedroom will be looked like before we started working


This is Jesse in the process of cleaning :)


and this is what it looks like now, at the end of day 1

It may not seem like much, but we got rid of a ton of junk we had down there and we really made a lot of progress. I'm so excited to get this huge task finished, even though that may not be for a few more months.
Not only have we started this project, we have also started planning for the big day. So far, we have decided on our colors, scheduled a sealing date and time, set up a budget, and I have started to shop for a dress. These next few months are going to be crazy but I am so excited to get all of this planning and preparing underway :)