Kruger's Pumpkin Patch

Lately, Brad has been working really hard for midterms, and has gotten home pretty late because of that, construction and public transportation not meshing well, and some crazy situation with one of his classes. I thought that I would pretty much NOT see him all weekend, but he surprised me with spending the whole day with me on Saturday, provided I help him with flashcards when possible.

We had a Living Social deal that I had bought that was good for two admissions to a corn maze, two 25 lb pumpkins, two roasted ears of corn, and two caramel apples, all for the price of one. Um, yes please! We went up to Kruger's Corn Maze and Pumpkin Patch, and had a grand ol' time.

I thought this was a beautiful view of the farm. And though the clouds looked foreboding all afternoon, not one drop of rain fell upon our heads.

This is in the corn maze. Obviously, we should have had the roasted corn first, since Brad got hungry so quickly and was willing to eat a caterpillar. Maybe someday I'll learn.

After I took this picture, and Bradley looked at it, he pointed at me and laughed saying, "You married me!"

Both this picture and the above picture were us on top of the look-out tower in the middle of the maze. Anyone familiar with our navigational skills will understand why it took us quite awhile to find our way outta there. Those that are not familiar, count your blessings.

Me pointing the way.

Ok, the tower is where the spider's head is, and this picture is facing toward the spider's abdomen/bum.

I just wanted a picture of me with the corn.

Us in the corn maze. This was in the skull area of the maze.

Sigh of relief, we made it out. We have GPS on our phones.

Brad looking cute. Or annoyed I'm photographing him. You choose.

I liked this little pumpkin. I named him Rolly.

Brad's pumpkin. It's kinda flat on the other side, but its front is rally nice.

Some things never die. Including, tying a coat around your waist. It's surprisingly convenient. But so are fanny packs, I imagine.

Ok, the roasted corn was dipped in butter, and then sprinkled with lemon pepper.

Yeah. I know. You're jealous.

I never eat caramel, and rarely eat apples, but this thing: AWESOME

It tasted like those caramel apple suckers!!!

It was a fun day. Just saying.

Later that evening we went to Brad's sister, Ashlee's house, and had food and fun times. She even treated me to a deep conditioning for my hair! It is silky smooth, and shiny. Today, Sunday, the fam all got together for dinner after church, and we ate, and talked, played with the kids, and then played a game called Tic. Or, Tick. Or, Tik. I'm not sure which one, but it doesn't matter. I WON! By a whopping 2 points! Whoot!

I sure am happy. And not just cuz I won...

Keeping it weird

Last weekend, and just when I thought I couldn't bear being away from my family a minute longer, two of my siblings said they wanted to come hang out with me. Best unbirthday gift EVER. Jeremy and his girlfriend Mary drove down from Tacoma to "check out Portland," and Lisa and her hubby Evan drove from UTAH to "hang out/watch the BYU and OSU game."

So, we played.

Brad and I had signed up to do a service project with the church, to volunteer at the Oregon Food Bank. We figured we should go. Oh, and we wanted to. Fun little side note: Turns out the service activity was for THIS weekend, and we didn't show up. We went the wrong weekend and worked for an hour and a half bagging frozen peas with people we did not know. Then we didn't go this weekend cuz we thought an hour and a half is PLENTY of service for one month, thank you very much. Anyway, we went and did that while Lisa, Jer, and Mary went for a walk at the Arboretum.

After we got done serving the greater Portland area, we came home and put together dinner in a crock pot, and while Brad stayed home to "study," Lisa, Jeremy, Mary and I explored Portland. Pictures below...

Evan, during all this, was at the game. BYU spanked 'em!!!

I really do love this city's motto. This is Mary, Lisa, and I being weird, I guess.

Once we got to Portland we went straight to the Farmer's Market. It was so fun. Free samples of food everywhere, flowers, tons of people. It was like an outdoor Costco! Except, you don't really buy in bulk.

Here is Lisa and I at the market. I'm on the right.

This is at Powell's Books. Largest new and used bookstore in...the world! I dunno if that's true, but it is an entire city block. I just thought these bike racks were cute. All book titles relating to bikes!

Lisa being artsy fartsy, I guess.

How Portland is this?!?

And this?!? (Note the umbrella in his pocket)

Look closely. This is the line approaching Voodoo Doughnut, another Portland claim to fame. And yes, we did wait in that line, and yes, it was worth it. But I don't think I'd do it again. Go on a weekday.

They actually have a doughnut just like that little guy with a pin sticking out of it.

Jeremy and Mary. Jer's doughnut has chocolate frosting, crushed oreos, and peanut butter drizzle on top. Um, whoa.

Lisa and I, and yes, that IS a maple bar with 2 strips of bacon. Surprisingly delicious, especially considering I don't love bacon. Or doughnuts really.

One disturbing and sad thing I saw while enjoying a doughnut, was a man digging through the trash can to find a half-eaten doughnut to eat himself. Ugh. So sad. I would have thrown away half my doughnut had I known.

Once we were all back at home, we ate pot roast and had some rhubarb flavored dry soda that Jer and Mary brought, which was a fun, new experience. After that we all played a kickin' game of Jenga. Guess who lost? ME. Guess who didn't lose the next round? ME AGAIN!!!

Then Evan came home, and we coerced him into making chocolate chip cookies. It was his responsibility because... Well, because he was willing. Jeremy really shoulda done it cuz he lost Jenga the second round. Brad went and bought chocolate chips, and then we had a cookie fest.

Next day, they all left me.

Reason enough

I have, once again, fallen in love with the Northwest. Keep in mind, I haven't lived here during a winter for quite awhile, so that could change. Sadly, yes. I AM that flippant. Anyway, this deep, strong, un-ending loyalty and love for the PNW stems from something you just can't get anywhere else: blackberries. And these berries alone are reason enough for me to want to live here permanently.

Blackberries ANYWHERE other than up here are gross. Period. But if the berries are native, born and bred, one blackberry pie is worth a month of rain. At least. So, once the rain REALLY starts, I revoke all whining rights for an entire month.

Also, jam. Blackberry freezer jam makes a house a home, and let me tell you. We have a home.

This is the lovely pie I made out of hand-picked-by-us blackberries. Cheesy, is it not? The 'J' stands for 'Jenn,' and the 'B' stands for 'Brad.' The heart, I will leave to interpretation.

This is the pie all done.

Funny story: We actually ended up going to some people's house for dinner, and we offered to bring dessert. Well, originally we were just gonna take a no-bake cheesecake, but then we made this pie, and there was no way we could eat it by ourselves. So we took it, too. Letters, hearts, and all. Brad wanted to take them off, but it just wasn't as funny without them.

A moment of silence

Now, I don't mean to make light of anyone's passing. That is not my intention. I just thought it was ironic, or perhaps somehow perfect, that on the day Steve Jobs decided to move on to bigger and better creativityness, this is how I found my husband (Ah! Still feels weird to say that word. Or type it!).

*Please note, he did not leave room for me on the bed.

One month of bliss...

Flowers from Brad. And we found these Martinelli's attached to a sweet note from Brad's mom that morning. So thoughtful!

This is US, one month in to Married Life, Duhn! Duhn! Duhn!! Actually, we don't look too tired yet. School has just begun....

On September 27th, I woke up to Brad kissing my goodbye and telling me, "Happy One Month!"

Shoot.

I never remember important things!!!

So, all day I'm thinking, I hafta do something special. Gotta think of something cool. What can I do to celebrate 1 month, for heaven's sake?!? Then, I figured, if I just planned a date, and dressed cute, and did my make-up, it'd be PERFECT. I know. Bask in the cleverness and creativity.

So, that just put me on the difficult path of trying to plan a fun date. Even more creative: Dinner and a movie!

I'm so lame.

Anyway, as I'm getting ready for our date, Brad is sitting out on the couch reading facebook stati or Drudge. So, I come out, thinking this will be the greatest, cuz I actually had to put a lot of thought into our date, and I reach the living room and there are 2 dozen ROSES.

Dang it. I win at Lame-ness contest AGAIN.

But Brad is sweet!!

Honeymoon

Now the honeymoon/hornymoon. Ok, first of all, I just want to say, Brad spoiled me. We went to Sandy Eggo, and it was perfect for me, for several reasons.

A) I love moderately warm weather. Nothing over 80, and nothing under 68. Guess what the weather was like? Yup. Like that.

2) Interestingly/embarrassingly, I get anxious about traveling. I do like seeing new places. I like being exposed to different cultures. But, I still get anxious about it. I didn't want to worry about passports, customs, different languages, driving on the left side of the road, or being taken prisoner. Someday I'll enjoys those adventures, but I didn't want to fret for the honeymoon. Nope.

C) I LOVE THE BEACH

D) I do not love ONLY sitting on the beach. Our thought process was as follows: "Let's go to Aruba! Or the Cook Islands! Or Costa Rica!" (my anxiousness begins to set in) "They have pretty good beaches, I imagine, since I see them on my screen saver every day." "Only wait, if we spend everything we have on getting there and staying there for a week (we are not rich) then all we can do is sit on the beach once we get there." "OR - we could spend less on travel, and be in a more familiar land (sigh of relief), and then have some moneyz left over for doing things!" "Brilliant!"

DOING THINGS...

Here is Brad atop the USS Midway. This is something that is interesting, worthwhile, and should not be missed. Word of warning: It is a VERY long tour. I enjoyed that it was self-guided, so you could listen to and see as much as you felt like listening to and seeing. We lasted a good 3 hours before we got hungry.

Something cool: We saw Donald Duck and Goofy on this ship. Drove all the way down from Disney Land, so, it MUST be worth seeing.

Me at our favorite beach that week, Coronado. It was huge, with soft sand, crashing waves, not too many people, and a significant number of Mexican restaurants nearby. Another neat thing about this place is that every 5-10 minutes a helicopter or jet flies overhead because the naval base is purty close.

The famous Hotel del Coronado just before sunset. It really is beautiful, and old. And, I will say this for them: they have a very friendly staff. We clearly were not guests, but we were looking around for places to ride bikes, and they were extremely helpful and kind. Even gave us a map. Of course, the bike rentals they led us to were affiliated with the hotel, however, they were nice BEFORE they knew we wanted to rent bikes.

Speaking of bikes, here is mine. We rode around the whole island (I believe a 6 mile loop). My legs got burned. Toasted. Cooked. Fried. Note to self: Believe what everyone tells you about sunscreen.

This is at the Wildlife Safari Thingy.

Just thought these little guys were pretty, also at Wildlife Safari. We were actually this close to them. They were cleaning each other up, I think.

No, Brad is not choking on his straw, nor is he gaping at the monkeys mating. This was overlooking the tiger area.

Seaworld, PREsoak. Oh my goodness, so nervous!

Bradley and I, prior to the show.

Ok, this is still PRE soak. Don't worry. It worked.

Honestly, I just included this giraffe cuz she looks how I imagine you may feel after reading all that. But don't worry! Almost done.

Anyway, we had a wonderful time. We went to a few nice places to eat, sea-kayaking, beach hopping, running, and to the Wildlife Safari Park, Seaworld, and the Sandy Eggo zoo. We went to the Olde Globe Theatre and saw Much Ado About Nothing. Oh! We stayed at a bed and breakfast called Britt Scripps Inn, and the food was so delicious. Scones every morning, with your choice of 3-4 menu choices, made after you order. It was darling.

Here she is. Our initial thoughts when we walked inside were along the lines of, "What did we get ourselves into???" but it was amazing. I'd go back.

Freshly baked scones with freshly cut fruit, and freshly whipped cream.

Shoot. I just drooled on the keyboard.

This was our room. The bed was ginormous! We had our own bathroom, of course, and each room had a TV and DVD player. And, okay, this is actually embarrassing. One day I left my sweaty running clothes on those basket-y things at the foot of the bed, and their staff FOLDED MY STINKY SWEATY CLOTHES. Gross. We tipped well.

Wedding

Ok, so I'm already almost two months behind. I'm going to post some wedding pictures (only a few), then the honeymoon pics, and I'll give a brief description of each. However, this may turn into a very long post. I know everyone always "apologizes" for long posts in their blogs, but I will not! And I WILL be offended if you stop halfway through. I'm needy that way.

Wedding pictures FURST.

Here is the beautiful temple we got married in, Timpanogos. One thing I am so grateful for, is that we have temples where we can be married and bind families for eternity. It's exciting (so far) that Brad and I get to be best friends even in the next life. Brad's excited, too.

See?

RoseMary, Brad, Me, Don (Brad's dad and stepmom)

The Brobergs, the News, the Johnsons, and the Jacksons (My side)

The Johnsons, Asays, and Behunins (Brad's side)

Brad and Kaylie

These people (my siblings) are dangerous to invite to weddings. They will make you cry.

Mommy and Daddy

Love these peeps.

Brad's mommy

Brad had a hard time saying goodbye to his little Janie...

So, in case any of you were worried about us not producing cute kids, just look at these little rascals!

Each one of these is half Johnson, so our odds are good, I'd say.

It was the end of August in Utah, so this day, while it looks lovely, was in actuality unbearably hot. Well, unbearable for me. This is why I am SUPER glad I had a light/short dress for my wedding gown. However, this foresight did not make for my lack of foresight regarding the shoes. Seriously, in all of these pictures I look like I'm smiling, but really I'm wincing.

All joking aside (I wasn't joking), I really am so grateful for our families. I am so lucky to have such an incredible, supportive, loving, and funny family. It almost isn't fair that I got another one when I married Brad. But I'll take it!