NEW BLOG!!

We have a new blog!!
This will officially be my last post on this blog. Sad. But exciting!
You can now follow us at our new address.
Please update your blogs and come join our new life at:

www.thestoryofchuss.blogspot.com

This blog has been good to me! Its followed my life for the last few years and Ive loved it. There is so much going on in our lives now, so Im glad to capture it all on our new blog.

Thanks everyone for looking at this blog.
Hope to see you on our new one :)

Wowza

Its almost December!!
Where in the heck has time gone.
Because of all the wedding plans, my Halloween wasnt quite what I am used to. I am usually all out, I love it!In fact, it just took me like 10 minutes to remember what I was. I was a tich preoccupied at that time knowing I was going to get married in a few days!!
But I was pretty happy with how my costume turned out.
A few of my co workers worked really hard on our costumes this year! We spent lots of late hours putting these bad boys together.
What do you think? We made these out of camping foam, yellow fabric, old jeans, some spray paint and a lot of late hours!

We won first place in our work contest.
Speaking of work...I just celebrated my 5 yr anniversary with my company yesterday. Sheesh, time flies.
I bought Russ and I a couples costume, but we didnt end up doing anything Halloween night, just preparing for the big day. We did however go to dinner at Sugarhouse BBQ. Ill tell you what, what a great time to go to dinner! There was only one other couple there and it ended up being our friends! So we got to have dinner in a fantastic restaurant all to ourselves.
Obviously big things have happened in my life this past month. We have almost been married a month and I couldnt be happier. During this Thanksgiving month I surely feel blessed.
Because of my new life, I felt a new blog was in order! Ive started working on a new blog and am almost ready to launch one of many post...wedding, honeymoon, all life in between.
Stay tuned.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! And happy Cyber Monday.
PS. I STILL think Black Friday is the worst holiday ever invented. I can not think of anything that makes me more ornery (Well, maybe the DMV) then the thought of throwing Thanksgiving aside, staying up or waking up at ridiculous hours and fighting someone for something that is going to save you a couple bucks. Nope, cant do it. See?? I told you it makes me ornery! I just got almost all of my holiday shopping done in the comfort of my desk, in less than an hr. And Im sane, Im happy, and Im warm :) :)



Happy Holidays from the Black Friday scrooge!

Bridal Showers

I feel like such a lucky gal.
I have had the most amazing support the last couple months in preparing for this wedding. My soon to be new sister in law, Russ's sister Sarah, threw me an incredible shower with all his family and my immediate family. She had decorated her place in my wedding colors and had printed pictures and hung them all over her house. It was so great, and I had a fun time.I cant believe I didnt get one photo!
My aunt Katy through me a shower with all my family. We shopped around Gardner Village and went back to her club house for yummy soups, salads and breadsticks. I can not believe it, but I didnt get one picture there either!
My wonderful friends from high school had a get together the other night over dinner.
I love you girls, thanks for the fun time and your support.
I at least got a pic with my phone!

Left to right..
Annie, Kailey, Tiff, Sandy, Heidi, Jeanette, Lauren, Me, Linds.
I play on 2 soccer teams, a womens team and a coed team. My womens team played in a tournament to end the season. After our game the girls organized a dinner to celebrate my upcoming wedding.
Thanks Sweaty Betty's!

Thanks to everyone that has helped in sharing all the excitment with me! Its been so much fun, and I appreciate all of you and your offers for wedding help!

A gentle woman indeed.

My niece Oakley is probably one of the funniest little kids I know.
She has such a clever sense of humor, and is always so friendly.
Apparently right now she has watched a few too many movies about princes.
Earlier this summer I had stopped by my parents house and my sister was also there and was out in the yard with all her kids. I was talking to my mom and sister and Oakley kept trying to get my attention. When I finally looked, she was on her knee with a pine cone asking me to marry her. I wasnt engaged at the time so I had no idea where she came up with that one!
I was out to my sisters a couple weeks ago for a birthday party and as I was leaving she frantically runs ahead of me, runs down the stairs and plops on her knee with her hand held out to help me down the stairs.

Its really weird having a 4 year old being a..."gentleman" but hilarious!!
A couple of days ago I came to my parents house during my lunch break to see all the kiddos that were playing and to have lunch.
As soon as I pulled into the driveway all 6 of the nieces and nephews came running out to my car. I see Oakley pushing through the kids, I open the door, and boom! Down on a knee, hand out. It killed me. It's so hard not to bust out laughing.

Thank you Miss O, I feel like a princess indeed.
Where do kids come up this this stuff?
Not only is she a gentleman she is a killer soccer player :)

What up Heise!

As Ive mentioned in previous post, my brother Cody and his family moved to Idaho the beginning of this year.
I hadnt seen them since I had been engaged so Russ and I decided to go up for a weekend and play. My parents also had planned on being there that week so our trip overlapped a bit.
We had a great time.
My brother lives in an amazing place with so many fun things to do!
The next morning after we arrived, we woke up really early and went zip lining! I really cant think of many things I love more than to zip line. The rush of stepping off the plat form, the feeling of cruising high over pretty land below, and then of course the excitement of coming in for the landing at mock 9.
Gangs all ready!

Me and Mei

The fun 4 wheel ride to the top..

The view from up top. It was really pretty to see the Snake river from above.

I was so proud of this little guy.
He was the first to go down (with the help of a guide of course) and he was terrified! He was trying so hard to be brave, but had to let a few tears fall.

After seeing the rest of us come down and getting a few zips under his belt he was having fun!

Russ and I having fun..

I was also so very proud of my mom! Her first time zip lining and she did great!

I have to give "funniest zip liner" to my dad. He just held his hand above the line and acted like it was no big deal. It almost looked like he was walking on air.

I will give the "The most handsome zip liner" award to Russ.

I dont know what award to give myself.
My brother dared me to start going upside down. But with each line, you only have so long and its really hard to flip your body upside down when you are harnessed at your waste and moving fast.
Each line I got better and better until I was completely upside down and hands off the line.

Well, as soon as I enjoyed my time upside down, I knew the end was coming soon. So the same strength you have to get upside down you have to use to get back up. As soon as I was upright I was coming in really fast and the brakes snapped and broke. Yep. It hurt. So I slammed into the end coming really fast and because I hit so fast, I immediately started sliding back down the line until I was just hanging above the ground in the middle of the line. The guides had to hike down and throw me a rope and pull me back in. All while my dad was laughing hysterically of course.
Initially, I was coming in so fast I moved the cable out of the way of my face, which left my arm in the way. I thought for sure I broke my elbow. But it was fine and still such a blast and got feeling better throughout the day.
I love this picture of my brother and Mei.

The best part about this story, is the company felt so bad,we all got free t-shirts and free admission into the hot springs! Score!
After zip lining, we went and played some golf.



My arm was still actually hurting at this point so Mei and I went and got everyone pizza. I love being able to spend one on one time with each of my nieces and nephews. We just sat in the pizza parlor waiting for our pizza to cook,shared a slushy and chatted. I cant believe she is almost going to be eight!
After pizza, golf and relaxing for a bit, we all went down to the hot springs! It felt so amazing! The hot spring is fed into a big pool so its nice and big and feels so warm and amazing!
We took full advantage of the "free" entrance. Next to the springs is a pool with a water slide which was like $1 every time you wanted to go down. But since we got the free pass, me, Cody, Mei and Russ went down that slide so many times. It was a blast! It was also cold and raining so it felt great going from a cold water slide and running next door into the warm hot spring!





We put the kids to bed and stayed up late playing games.
Russ is really modest with his winnings.

So much fun Kemps! And for any of you going up near Idaho Falls, swing in the Heise Zip line. You wont regret it. The people are great and its so stinkin fun!
PS. If you go, try and go upside down. Its really hard and I am not joking when I say its the worst my abs have ever felt. Such a great core workout.

Pre-Wedding Diet

The Utah State Fair came into town not to long ago.
I have the best memories of the state fair growing up!
I look forward to it every year and would go every day if it was free. I love the food, I love to people watch, I love the rides and all the gadgets and gizmos a plenty!
This year, with wedding planning and rain, our fair schedule was a bit off.
One Saturday, we did wedding plans earlier in the day and ran off to the fair for a few hours.
The fair isnt exactly a perfect place to go when you are trying to fit in that wedding dress that has already been altered to fit you perfectly. But come on! Its the fair! The only thing I missed this year was the fried peanut butter and jelly. Mmmm, I love it.
We started off by sharing a foot long corn dog.

But that of course was just an appetizer, and mighty good one at that.
We then decided we had to try the pizza Philly steak sandwich!

We polished that off with a bag of jalapeno chips.
As we were walking to the big yellow slide (Who doesnt love the big yellow slide??) we passed the peaches and creme.
That was sure a treat.

Dont let all these pictures of Russell fool you. I consumed equally half.
There is just something about the big yellow slide. Grabbing a burlap sac and heading for the top.
Even though this is a hideous picture I love that you can see the fair grounds and SLC.

Russ and I have terrible luck. If we ask someone to take a picture for us in a cool place, they generally miss whatever it is we want in the background. For example; we went to SEAL beach and there were of course seals ALL around us. We asked this nice person passing by to take a picture of us and the seals and it was literally just a picture of us. There were loads and loads of sun bathing seals and there was not one in sight on our picture.
I asked another very nice lady to take a picture of us and the big yellow slide.

She must have heard big yellow shed. Thanks anyway lady.

After playing some fun carnival games, attempting to win a goldfish, seeing the carved butter attraction, looking through the art and photos, talking to bee keepers, begging Russ for the cutest "Its SO fluffy!!" (Said in Despicable Me voice) bunny rabbit, and enjoying some intense people watching, we prepared our departure with a funnel cake. And yes, we finished the whole thing.

If you are thinking I look high, thats because I was. High on sugar and fried goodness.
You would think after eating all that you would want to fall into a food coma.
Instead, we went straight to a BYU-UTAH football party. The nice friend that was hosting had made home made chili. We couldnt be rude an decline her offer so we wrapped up the night with a nice bowl of chili, rolls, and cookies.
I think at this rate my dress should fit just fine....gulp.
GO UTES!!!!!

The Proposal

APPOLOGIES:
I must take a quick second to say sorry to anyone out there that reads my blog and has suffered through my terrible spelling/grammer and other mistakes.
I dont have a ton of time to blog, so when I do I generally do a few posts at a time and have them scheduled to post in the upcoming weeks. By the time I get to 3+ posts I am burned out and I never check my spelling or reread anything. Ive skimmed over the last few posts and its embarrassing. So, I do appologize, and I promise I am not as dumb as I sound.
Onward!

Right now, we are a month out from the wedding! I am getting so excited, and have kept extremely busy planning the last couple of months.
But lets first start with the proposal!
If you dont know Russ, and if you havent gathered from reading my blog, Russ LOVES the outdoors. He's been a ski instructor, river guide, worked with troubled kids in survival camp in the middle of nowhere, and the guy hikes a ton!
On July 24th, we had been up to Heber helping my parents move a few things in my uncles home. My uncle passed away last year and they were getting ready to rent his place. Russ asked if we could do a quick hike while we were up there.
It was SO hot. And we had been moving things in a very hot house and I just wasnt in the mood, but said I would go.
Moving took longer then we thought and I inherited an AWESOME old fridge and had to go back down to the valley to take it home. What I didnt know, is Russ was planning on proposing to me up in the mountains! I had NO idea.
So we totally ruined his plans by me getting this fridge and having to go back down to the valley to get it from my brother in law who offered to take it down in his trailer.
We got back to my house and unloaded it and I could tell her really wanted to go for a hike still. I was hot, I was tired but he was pretty adamant and he had been so nice to help my family so I gave in.
Since we had been moving, and I had known he wanted to hike I was wearing the ugliest outfit. Ugh...why does that always happen? I was wearing shorts that were 4 sizes too big, my hair was in pigtails (I never wear my hair in pigtails), and I knew it was going to be a hot one, so last minute I grabbed Eckos leopard print bandana to use on my head. Regrets.
So on the way up, I fell into a coma from being hot all day and driving in a truck without AC.
In this picture, we had just gotten to the trail head and I had just woken up.
But I love it because you can see I am not wearing a ring!

We started the hike and I started waking up a little, and tried to change my attitude about being there so Russ could have fun, plus once we got up into the mountains it was cooler then the valley.



Russ and I had talked about getting married and even had gone ring shopping the week before. BUT, I didnt know for sure what I wanted. I had picked out a band but didnt know what shape of diamond I wanted and we only had about a half an hr to look. The whole next week after we had looked we had something every night. So half way up the hike Russ started telling me how he was looking up honeymoons. I told him I thought it was sweet, but dont you think we should start with a ring?
He said the ring shop was closed on Monday due to the Pioneer holiday and we could go on Tuesday. He started asking me what shape of diamond I wanted etc.
We continued our hike with intentions of making it to the top of the mountain to a lake. After about an hr of hiking we ran into snow!The end of July and trail was completely covered in snow. Russ, unbeknown to be, was planning on proposing at the lake. He already had planned to propose up in Heber, and that plan got ruined, so when his plan B wasnt working out either I could tell he really wanted to just hike in the snow.

We started to hike in the snow, and it was steep, slippery and cold!
I could hear water running under us at certain points, and just felt it wasnt safe.
I told him I thought we should turn around and I didnt really want to be playing in the snow in July!



We started to head down the mountain and decided to just call it day and hike straight to the car. Russ told me he needed to go to the bathroom, so he ran down the side of the mountain out of sight.
After a few minutes he came running back up and I noticed he didnt have his backback on. I told him he forgot his backpack and he said there was a beautiful waterfall down the mountain a ways and he wanted me to come see it.
So we started down the steep mountain side and we came across a grove of trees.
Attached to the trees were blown up pictures of the 2 of us.
Russ is a VERY thoughtful person and will suprise me with something (flowers at my house when I come home from work, notes left for me to find them etc).
He told me he wanted to do something sweet for me since he had been dragging his feet in getting me a ring and didnt want me to lose my patience with him. So at this point I just thought he was being sweet and still didnt have a clue he was proposing.
He had picked a bouquet of wild flowers and tied a ribbon around them. He handed them to me and grabbed my hand to walk me over to the trees.
We went through each picture and he told me these were just some of his favorite memories of us and the fun times we had. There was a picture of us from Thailand, a picture of us camping with Ecko, one from our most recent roadtrip and a few others.
Then there was a big blank white piece of paper. He said he left it blank so we could take a picture of the 2 of us on the hike to add to our collection.
He set up the camera on a timer (which we always do) and had me go stand with the waterfall to my back.
He took a picture and hurry and ran over!
He went back to the camera and said it wasnt a good one, lets do one more.
So he set it up, ran over again and...

I could NOT believe what was happening!!
He totally and completely shocked the heck out of me! He said the sweetest things in the world, and asked me to marry him :)
I love how thoughtful he was and how we have an actual picture of him proposing to me!
My ring, I love it! I wanted the petite band and he surprised me with the diamond.

I wish I had a better picture of all the trees with the hanging pictures, but here is the blank one he hung for the engagement picture, and you can see some of the others in the background.

I know this is a major no no, but right after we got engaged Russ carved our intials into the tree :)



I honestly feel so incredibly lucky to have found a guy like Russ.
He is one of the most positive, genuine, thoughtful, and FUNNEST guy I know.
Can not wait to be married to him.

Porcupine

We were loving the summer heat, and wanted to take a swim.
Russ talked about a place he used to go cliff jumping back in college.
We packed up the truck and Ecko and decided to go camp and swim up at Porcupine Reservoir!
Ecko loved getting out of the heat and taking a dip in the COLD water.

Russ brought his "Too cool lounge" which is basically like floating on the water in a blow up mattress.
I was so proud of Ecko! We got her to come on the lounge and float clear across the lake so Russ could impress the 100 people out there cliff jumping!
Ive said it once, Ill say it again..I have the coolest dog ever.

We paddled out to a really high rock with tons and tons of people. We watched everyone hesitate and finally jump off and Russ decided he wanted a turn.
He climbed the rock, and with out any hesitation did a beautiful dive off the top.
I wish I had a picture or a video, because not only was his dive amazing, but everyone up there was totally blown away so it was funny to hear their reaction.






After we got back to Russ's truck a few people came and told us someone hit his truck and ran.
Russ has an older truck that he doesnt care about so he was kind of bugged, but didnt care all that much...until we started to drive and couldnt turn left!!
So we had to take his truck apart so we could turn the wheel.
We called the cops and by a miracle and making an incredibly long story short...they caught the guy who did it. So that was lucky for us.
That night we had a fire next to the water, roasted some hot dogs and slept under the stars.
The next morning we went for a really quick dip in the water and headed back to the city!