Wedding, Birthday and Conference

Whew, lots of fun crammed into one jam packed, family filled weekend.

To kick off the weekend we headed to Idaho Falls to witness the marriage of this beautiful couple.
We are so happy for Tosha and Logan and excited to have Logan join the family. It was a great day despite a few minor hiccups. Like it only raining when we were trying to take a few pictures outside of the temple, oh and the caterer for the wedding luncheon having the wrong day, no biggies :) But we made it through the day and the reception that night was BEAUTIFUL! Congrats again Logan and Tosha, we love you!

Due to extended family staying at Dillon's parent's house, we came back to our house that night to enjoy a restful nights sleep in our own bed after a busy busy day. Then it was up bright and early on my birthday to pack a bag and head back up to Shelley to spend the rest of the weekend. We got ready and Dillon let me open my presents from him before we headed out. He spoiled me with a fishing license, a few movies (including 'UP' YAY!!), some earrings, new tweezers and chocolate Reese's eggs :) I'm a lucky girl, thanks baby!We got to Dillon's parents house at the tail end of breakfast and the beginning of the first session of conference. It was so fun to spend the day with so much of Dillon's family.
Dillon's Aunt Lisa also had a birthday that day and before they took off we were able to blow out candles together and have some yummy cake.
(our camera is a little slow, thus the awkward "after the candles have been blown out" pictures)
The rest of the day was spent hanging out with the family that didn't have to head home and watching conference. That evening the boys all headed out to the priesthood session of conference and us girls headed out to the movies. There wasn't a very big selection of movies that fit into our schedule when we needed them to so we decided on "Mirror, Mirror" with Julia Roberts. It was a cute movie that kept us laughing, but still a little cheesy and predictable :)
The movie and priesthood session got over within just a few mins of each other and the boys headed in to Idaho Falls to meet us for some yummy dinner at Cafe Rio. After dinner it was back to Dillon's parents house for some hot tubing, MORE cake and candles and presents.
We were all WAY too full for more food so they sang to me, I blew out the candles, then the cheesecake was put back into the fridge for the next day :)

Thank you Thank you THANK YOU to all of Dillon's family for all the birthday wishes and hugs and to his mom for the cakes and present! It was a great day, I am one lucky girl.

Sunday we got to spend all day in our PJ's listening to conference and eating way too much food. I definitely thought that conference was extra amazing this time around. Maybe it was just because I actually stayed awake for ALL 4 sessions for once :) I don't know. But I felt like so many talks were written just for me just at the time that I needed them, I love it!

Basically it was just an amazing weekend and birthday spent with amazing family!

Spring

For the past month or so the weather has been teasing us with a day or 2 of spring here and there. Even though we really didn't have much of a winter, we've been LOVING the nice, spring like weather and have tried getting out and enjoying it when we can. On one of the first nice weather day we packed up and went shooting.Lately, Dillon and I have kind of become obsessed with the show 'Top Shot' on the History Channel. Since we only get the basic channels, we try to keep ourselves entertained with whatever shows we can find on Hulu. Top Shot would be one of those shows. We watched season 1 a while back on Netflix and shortly after got rid of Netflix. And now, thanks to Hulu, we have cruised thru seasons 2 & 3 in a ridiculously short period of time and now have to slow down and watch season 4 just like everyone else, week by week. So, inspired from the show, we came up with a little challenge course of our own. With a point system and everything. Haha.We did need Colby there to keep track of our points tho since we lost track very early on. Oh well, Dillon still beat me.

Our 'Top Shot' poster pictures. HAHA!

We have also taken advantage of the nice weather and gotten out and done a little fishing. The wind hasn't cooperated too well with the whole "It's Spring" thing so we have only gotten to go a few times. But, it has still been fun.Since moving to Blackfoot we have definitely been able to see a huge difference in the fishing in Blackfoot and the fishing in Rexburg. Meaning, we used to catch fish in Rexburg all the time and now we are lucky when we catch a fish at all. (One of the many reasons we miss the Rexburg area). So.....during Dillon's spring break I took a day off and we headed up North. Oh was it cold but Oh was it so much fun! We were only fishing for about 2 hours but in that short period of time we caught 18 fish. Yes, 18! I am 99% sure we haven't caught that many fish in the 20 months we have lived in Blackfoot.

Hey, I never said our fish were big.

My sweet husband built me a fire because I was freezing.
And we saw this big guy as we were hiking in and again as we were hiking out.

Now, hopefully mother nature will realize that it is now ok to remain Spring and we can have many more days to spend out in the sun.

Bengal Basketball

We finally did it. Last month we finally made it to an ISU game of any kind.

We tried going to a basketball game earlier in the season with some friends but were disappointed to find out (after we got there) that Dillon and his friend Terry did not have the new student ID cards and therefore they would each have to buy a ticket for themselves at full price then pay full price for us wives to get in (instead of at 1/2 price). So, since we weren't about to pay over $30 each couple to watch the ball game, we left. And since we don't live in Pocatello Terry and Sarah were kind enough to let us come crash their house. So after getting some yummy ice cream it was off to their house for a movie. It wasn't how we planned the night but still fun nonetheless.
Thanks Terry, Sarah & Bryker :)

Well a couple months later, and after Dillon got the new ID card, we tried one more time to go watch the Bengals at their last home game of the season. Terry and Sarah weren't able to go with us this time but thankfully Dillon and I were able to get in at the free and discounted student/spouse rate. We weren't expecting much since it is ISU sports but, much to our surprise it was a lot more fun than we thought it'd be. But that doesn't mean it still didn't completely remind me of a HS game, especially since they weren't even planning in the Mini Dome due to High School State Wrestling Tournament. Ha Ha.
After an intense game against Sacramento State the Bengals were beat by 3 points. But of course we had to document the occasion with a few pictures since it was our first and possibly last ISU Bengal Basketball game :)
Coming down from a dunk, that he missed :)
At least his went in
I tried the whole second half to get a good picture of this guys hair......but this is the best I could get. If you can't tell, he takes his Bengal basketball season very seriously by cutting his hair to look like tiger strips.

Happy Birthday

Feb 22nd was Dillon's 27th birthday! TWENTY SEVEN! In 3 short years he will be 30. I'm married to an old man.

For his big day we really didn't do much. We went to school and work as usual. Boring. When he got home from school he did homework. Boring. When he got sick of doing homework he opened presents. I wish I could say that this part of the day was not boring but, when you are poor college kids birthday presents really aren't very excited. Just necessities.
Modeling his new hunting vest
After the present opening fun we headed up to Shelley to hang out with Dillon's family. All of Dillon's siblings had things going on that night so it was just us and his parents. They took us to Texas Roadhouse for dinner (yummy yummy) then it was back to their house for some African pie and hot tubing.
Getting a Texas Roadhouse birthday "YEE-HAW!" (he loved it ;)
Overall it was a pretty chill day but still a fun day.
Hope you had a Happy Birthday Love! Happy 27!

President's Day Weekend

For President's Day weekend we took advantage of not having school or work Monday and took off to spend time with both our families. We started off in Star Valley Sat morning where my mom and sisters and I had ourselves a little craft girls day. We spent the day crafting away, most of us making fun spring wreaths while the others brought projects from home that needed finished. We always love the idea of getting together and doing crafts but once we get underway, we wonder why the crap we thought it would be fun! HA HA. But in the end it really is fun and I personally think everything turned out really cute!

Sister's crafting...cute.
Good thing you can't hear us all cussing at our flowers. or each other :)
My wreath

That night we put the boys in charge of babysitting and us girls hit the town! Oh the thrills of having a night on the town when you live in SV. We started the night off by eating out. Usually when the girls are together and we have to decide where to eat... it. takes. forever. We all suck at making decisions. But, lucky for us....this decision was easy. Not everybody likes Mexican, Emily didn't want Pizza Hut, Burger King was quickly vetoed so hometown Hegg's was it. After a very entertaining and yummy dinner we couldn't head back home too soon so instead, what did we do? (Remember we were in SV). We cruised main of course. And oh what a thrilling 5 mins it was!! :) Then, it was time to head home and make sure the kids were still alive and my parents house was still standing. The rest of the night was spent just hanging out, playing some Just Dance, and just having fun. Sunday afternoon as everyone headed to church we skipped out on church (sinners, I know) and headed to Ogden to meet Dillon's family up Ogden Canyon.

Me kicking Emily's butt in 'Just Dance'
The little ones LOVE 'Just Dance'
Even "pintheth sotha" (translation: princess sofa) joins in on the dancing.
Don't mind my face, she farted. Guess it was just too much "hard work" :)
"ROCK ON"

Sunday evening was spent hanging out, hot tubing, and having fun. Monday morning? Skiing of course. Now, I really am not a skier. I skied for the first time with Dillon 4 years ago at Kelly's Canyon in Rexburg for about 2 hours. Then just a few days later I spent 2 FULL DAYS skiing with Dillon's family. It was intense. The next time I went was with his family again in 2010 (only 1 day this time) and then this year. So, I'm really not very good. There is much too long of a break in between each time. Too bad it's such an expensive sport. But, despite not being very good and being VERY VERY sore the days to follow, it was a lot of fun!

Riding the lift with the Merrill boys.
Landon, Beau, Dillon
At the top
Then we got home and it was back to school and work. ugh. But it was a very nice weekend away spending time with our families.

Valentines Day

Valentines Day.
I have really come to love this holiday.
Mostly because it is the perfect opportunity to tell, and show, this man how much I love him!
Sadly this is the only picture I took of our Valentines Day together.
I didn't even get a picture of the cute decorations and CD of love songs Dillon put in my car or the Mt Dew and paper heart trail he set up that led to our bedroom. (Such a cutie)

For our date this year we decided to brave the crowds and go soak at Lava Hot Springs. We left early in the afternoon in hopes of missing the Valentines Day crowd. And we did. When we got there, there were probably only about a dozen couples there spread throughout all the hot pools and we were the only ones under the age of probably 40. Haha. But, the longer we were there the more couples/families came and the younger they got.
Once we were sufficiently pruny (is that a word? it is now) we climbed out and headed home, stopping in Pocatello to grab a free pizza we 'won' from Papa John's.

Although we really didn't do much, it was a much needed, very relaxing, day spent with the man I am totally in love with!

Church ball

The month of February means church ball.
For the men, basketball. For the women, volleyball.
As I said in my first post, I was called as the Young Women's volleyball coach. That has been fun but I am glad we are almost done. Haha, there is only so much you can try to teach and so many times you can say "nice try" with a smile on your face :)
But every Wed night, after the young women play, the old women get a chance to play. It has been really nice to get out and do something active and, for the most part, fun. Some of the wards in our stake take old women volleyball very seriously and are very competitive. But, it has still been fun. And thanks to one of my nosy little young women that was supposed to be holding onto my phone and keys for me while I played, I have a few pics to prove that I have been playing.
Us old ladies warming up
Dillon has also been lucky enough to get in on the church ball action every Friday night (that we haven't been out of town) and has really seemed to enjoy it. Again, some of the wards in our stake take it very seriously and are very competitive but luckily Dillon hasn't almost punched anyone yet this year :) Funny part is that the ward that he hates to play in basketball just happens to be the ward I hate to play in volleyball as well. And for the same reason, a certain husband/wife combo that fit VERY well together.
I don't have any pics of him (bad wife I know, maybe next game) but I do have this video that my little bro introduced me to that seems to be very fitting.
HAHA. oh good old church ball.