Geocaching

***Warning! This post contains spoilers of geocaching sites and containers. Continue at your own risk, you hardcore geocachers!***

Last night, Austin and I went on a date.

He had this date planned all week long, and stood-his-ground by not telling me what we were doing; even though I tried to get it out of him a countless number-of-times.

So finally, as we were pulling out of our driveway last night, Austin told me we were geocaching!

For any of you who don't know what geocaching is, the website describes it as:

"... a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online. Geocaching is enjoyed by people from all age groups, with a strong sense of community and support for the environment."

So, this is exactly what we did!

And let me tell you, we were definitely beginners.

Luckily, there are some hidden containers located in our neighborhood, surrounding neighborhoods, and nearby deserts.

And yes, these are rated the easiest of easies!

To begin, the first two hunts that we attempted were epic failures...

[This is my attempt at a sad face after we gave up trying to find the second one.]

BUT, when it came to our third hunt, we finally had some success!

The treasure was a toy skunk.

We thought this was real cute since the name of this hunt was, 
"A Real Stinker."

Our fourth hunt had us passing through this:

After about an hour of searching through the desert with our flashlights, 
we finally decided to go onto the next one.

Like I said, we are definitely beginners.

However, our last two hunts were successful [maybe because they were very easy-finds].

We had so much fun geocaching and recommend it to just about anyone!

If you are beginners, like us, they have hints and clues as to 

where to find the treasure.

Austin and I definitely plan on going again. 

I am sure that we can do better than our 3/6 that we found this time.

Oh, and once we were done being hardcore geocachers...

 ...we grabbed some burgers, snuck them into Harkins, and enjoyed eating our little feast while watching HP7.

It sure was the best date ever; with the best man ever.

I Sure Do Have a Gorgeous Sister

Last night, my little sister went on a date.

This was not just any date.

They were going to the ASU Institute dance and I was the one who set them up!

So of course, the girls had to get together to help her get ready!

And the result...?

 

 

...A beautified Kelly who is ready to dance the night away!

Goodness, I sure do have a gorgeous sister; inside and out.

We had so much fun helping her get ready.

I love me some mother-daughter bonding time!

And her date...

So cute!

To Celebrate... Or Not to Celebrate...?

Do any of you know who this man is??

...
........
...

It is Dave Elkins; the lead singer of Mae.

Austin and I celebrated our One Year Anniversary by going and watching them play!

Just before the concert, we went and grabbed a bite to eat:

Then we headed to watch and sing along to this:

They put on a fantastic show!

It is Austin's all-time favorite band and he just loved every single minute of it.

However... all we could talk about, think about, and cry about [me being the crier] was our little guy back at home.

We could not stand being away from our sweet boy!

Major separation anxieties were occurring; making us wish we had just celebrated our anniversary at home.

We will never do that again.

[Even if he was completely out of it the entire time.]

Busy Times

Dinner Date!

We had the pleasure of going to Asian Cafe Express with Austin's sister, Natalee, and her husband, Greg!

Shopping

I absolutely love Target.

I have been missing Austin at nights because he is crazy busy coaching volleyball, going to Mutual as a leader, and going to school.

So, I have been spending my time shopping for baby things with my family!

So fun!

Amazing Jakes

I was fortunate enough to go to Amazing Jakes with my mom, two brothers, and the girls I nanny!

We had a lot of fun playing around for 5.5 hours.

Sad News

This week was my last week nannying these girls. =(

I am going to be spending the next few weeks preparing for the arrival of our sweet boy.

With that said, does anyone know of someone looking for a stay-at-home worker?

Like possibly an online job of some sort??

That would be great! Thank you.

Update

So first off, I want to address all of you who are having a hard time with certain aspects of this blog. I know I am. First of all, sometimes my entries disappear. Second, I will save and post a beautiful entry and the next time I log in, it is all out of order. Third, people have been telling me that they cannot "follow" this blog. Well, I finally got the first two problems figured out... and now for the second one. Does anyone have any ideas?!

Also, the reason for the small amount of entries is because my computer, as well as Austin's computer, will not let us download pictures off of our camera! This is definitely a shame. It will all be figured out soon though... hopefully.

Well on a happier note, here is a single picture we were able to get! We are dressed in our 50s attire for our brother in-law's murder mystery dinner birthday! The scene was set at a cute diner in the 50s. Enjoy!

Birthday Surprises

Last weekend was my 20^th birthday... and little did I know, my sweet fiancé was planning a super special birthday week for me!

He secretly dropped goodies off at my work!

He told me we were going somewhere... and we ended up at the Arizona State Fair!!!

He took me to the Lady Antebellum Concert! I didn’t even know who it was until they came out on stage [yes, he is that good].

We went out to eat at all of my favorite restaurants!

He took me to a huge corn maze, [we got lost!] and to a cute pumpkin patch!

Thank you, Sweetheart, for making this the best birthday I have ever had! It was perfect!

Loving Our Busy Lives!

Hello, and YAY for entry number two! These last few weeks have been crazy due to the fact that…

*We are planning a wedding!

*We are trying to spend as much time together before summer is gone!

*Austin is working in the wee hours of the morning at UPS.

*Austin is starting a new season of coaching club volleyball for Molten.

*Austin is beginning a new job as a runner at a law firm.

*& I’m working my last days at In-N-Out in addition to starting my new job at True Imaging!

The Wedding!

We have decided a few things for our special day! First and foremost, our colors come from nothing but a...

PILLOW that my mom found at Target! I LOVE these colors! We are going to add black to this of course and put a touch of silver here and there in picture frames and such! Luckily we are almost set on our photographer, invitations, decorators, and my dress! Also, our address list is coming along great! My amazing AUSTIN spends hours upon hours typing up addresses! He is so wonderful! If you don't think we have your address, leave it for us and we will send you an invitation!

Summer days are almost over!

Here are some of the things that we have been up to...!

We attended one of Austin's family friend's wedding reception!

We went out to dinner with my sister and brother-in-law at Buca di Beppo!

My sweet Austin took me ice skating! We had a blast!

Our FAVORITE place to eat is the Thai House. We are weekly visitors!

We attended Katrina and Devin Cammack’s open house here in Phoenix!

We love being together!! :-)

[[By the way, Austin wanted me to point out that it is MY hand under his chin in this picture!]]

Austin’s Busy Work Life

So yes, Austin will be working three jobs now and will have a beyond crazy schedule! He works the EARLY morning shift at UPS and just added two more jobs; plus he is going to school full-time! He is kicking off the club volleyball season coaching the 18 year olds. I got the privilege of going and watching him pick his team at tryouts! I also snapped a few pictures of my man… :-)

His other new job will be as a runner at Maxwell and Morgan Law Firm! He will be assisting the lawyers in anything that they need him to do! I am so proud of Austin! He is such a hard worker!

Bye Bye In-N-Out Burger

So yes... to all my fellow In-N-Out workers out there, this is my last week at store 218! I am now working full-time at an imaging center where they do CT scans, ultrasounds, MRIs, mammograms, xrays etc. I do the paperwork. I love my new job, but will definitely miss working at my favorite fast food restaurant! I will definitely come back to visit!

So here is our life in a nutshell! We hope you all enjoy our blog! :-)

New Bloggers!

Well hello to all those fellow bloggers out there! You have officially entered the blog of Austin and Kaitie! We have decided to start a blog to let all of our family members, friends, and loved ones know what an exciting life we lead! I, Kaitie, will be doing most of the blogging, but Austin will be sitting by my side supporting me the entire time! :-) 
To start off, Austin and I will be getting married on November 21, 2009 in the Mesa, Arizona Temple! We are happily in love and very much excited to start our lives together! Because Austin and I knew we were meant for each other right away, there are many family members and friends asking us how we met, how long we dated, and how Austin proposed! Well everyone, this is the place for all of your answers!

Our Story!
Austin and I have a great story about how we met! It all started when I was up at BYU Provo this last year. I was talking to my mom on the phone one day and she started telling me about this handsome returned missionary that she saw at a stake activity! He was with his little sister, Jessie, so after asking around a bit, my family was able to figure out that he was her older brother!

So what does any typical girl do when they hear about a handsome boy?! She tries to find him on Facebook! I was his sister’s “friend” and so I looked up her family on her profile. When I found a guy that looked like the description my mom had given me, I added him as a “friend” right away! :-) Once we became Facebook friends, Austin started leaving comments on my page soon after! He also instant messaged me every time I came online! At that point, we had decided that we better get together sometime over the summer when I came back to Arizona.

The next thing I knew, I deactivated my Facebook account so I wouldn’t get distracted from schoolwork while on the computer…! I lost contact with Austin then for a few months. When I came home from BYU in April, I decided to start a new Facebook. One of the first people that I added was none other than Austin himself! Of course he emailed me on there right away! ;-) We quickly exchanged phone numbers and about a week later, I called him to ask if he wanted to go out with me and some of my friends! So, the first official day we met was May 28, 2009!!! That night we went with some people to Tempe Town Marketplace. For those of you who don’t live in Arizona, it is a huge outdoor mall that has a live band playing every Thursday night; and of course we went on a Thursday! Afterwards, we walked around a bit and went to Red Robin for some dinner... and guess who came and sat right by me?! Austin!!! :-) He and I both agree that on the first day we met, we instantly felt like we were best friends! We both felt so comfortable around each other!

Not even a week later, Austin asked me out on a date! With going out of town and conflicts in our busy schedules, the date didn’t happen for a few weeks. BUT we were both determined to make it happen. So finally on June 19, 2009, we went out on our first official date!!!!! From that day on, Austin and I have spent every moment we have together. There has not been ONE day that has gone by that we haven’t been together! We are so happy! We have come to the conclusion that we are PERFECT in every way for each other! I know that I personally could not have found anyone that fits me more wonderfully than Austin does! So within less than a week of dating, we already knew that we wanted to be married! People may say that it is quick, but there are times that you just KNOW. That definitely happened to us.

.:OUR DATING DAYS:.

So less than a month later, on July 15, 2009, Austin proposed!!!! That day was an exceptionally long day at work, but when I got home at 5:00, Austin was standing in my kitchen with a big bouquet of red roses! It was adorable! He was also very handsome and all dressed up for a night out! I quickly got ready and we headed out to see the new Harry Potter movie! He knew that I had been waiting so long to see it! Afterwards, we went to one of my favorite places [even though I work there] and we took the In-N-Out to go! I had no idea where we were going to eat it, so I just sat in the car next to my love while he drove us to our mysterious destination. We ended up at one of his best friend’s house; where his quad was sitting outside the garage. This is a point, I will have to include a small flashback… At the end of our first date, Austin took me quading up the mountains that are near the big PHOENIX sign in North Mesa! We sat on the top of the mountain and overlooked the WHOLE valley! It is gorgeous up there! So on the proposal night, he took me up there again! So cute! This time, we put the In-N-Out in his backpack while we made the fun trip to the top of the mountain! When we got there, Austin laid out a blanket and played some soft music while we ate our mighty delicious food! I couldn’t have asked for a more romantic night with my amazing man! There was a lightning show off in the distance, some monsoon wind, and the lights of the big city going on for miles and miles. I won’t go into too many details, but that is when he got down on one knee and sweetly asked me to marry him!!! After my response, much loves, and Austin dropping the ring and losing it for a short while, I was finally engaged to my wonderful Sweetheart.

So there is our story, with many small details left out of course ;-) ...Because that is all you get for now! I hope to be updating this blog regularly with new information and fun activities that our lives bring! Thanks for stopping by. We hope to see you again real soon! 


Much loves, Austin and Kaitie