Christmas Letter

 *This is my first attempt at doing a Christmas letter... let me know if you like it or not..****

December Update!

Its been a fun past little while, so I figure its time for my monthly (ish) updates on what we've been up to!  Obviously, since I posted a couple of things this last month, you know some of what we have been up to.  But here is the list of things we've been doing for about the last month or so.

-Dressed up as Doctor Who and River Song for Halloween!
-Celebrated my birthday with my parents and on our own!
-Celebrated our first anniversary!
-Celebrated our first Thanksgiving with my family!
-I went Black Friday shopping with the girls! (And had a fabulous time!)
-We got callings in church!  (Ward organist and chorister)
-Found out that many of my friends are pregnant and most know the sex!  So far there is 1 boy and 1 girl, and we'll know at least two more in the next few weeks!
-Finished up the semester!  (Well, not quite yet, but give us about a week and we'll be done!  Yay!  You have no idea how happy that makes me!)
-Decorated the house for Christmas!   The tree looks fantastic, but it can't be plugged in because there are no outlets near it, so its not lit but it looks great!

We are very excited for this Christmas and to get to spend it with Dan's family!  We have most of our Christmas shopping done already, which is very surprising cause usually it's last minute on some people.

We hope you have a fantastic December!!!

Happy 1st Anniversary!

So Dan and I celebrated our first anniversary yesterday!  We had a great day and enjoyed the time we got to spend together.  For part of the day Dan had to work on rocket team stuff, which was good and bad.  It was sad that he had to go work on that during our anniversary but it was okay because it gave me the time I needed to finish his present!  When he came home (with beautiful roses!), we enjoyed cheese and wine (okay it was really sparkling cider) for appetizers before we went to dinner.  We exchanged gifts and went out to dinner!  We spent about an hour in Best Buy before we went to dinner because Tandoori was really busy.  But we enjoyed a very peaceful dinner together and a nice evening at home afterwards.  (We made a quick stop at the amphitheater first  because that is "our spot".)

For gifts, I made Dan (and partly for myself) a book that included all the poems that Dan has written throughout our time together {special thanks to Mallory for helping me with it!}.  It also included pictures from our times together and all the adventures we have gone on.  And because the traditional gift for your first anniversary is paper, we decided to get each other paper.  By this, I mean we are going to get our passports.  Dan doesn't have one and mine says my maiden name.  We decided on passports because then if we ever wanted to go on any adventures outside of the USA, we could!  I think it is a fantastic idea!

Here are a list of things we have done over the last year!
-We got married
-Spent our first Thanksgiving together with Dan's family
-Spent our first Christmas together with Wendy's family
-Bought our first car!
-Went on our first SWE adventure together (in Palm Springs)
-Went to Vegas!
-Went to the WAC championship game in which the Aggies WON!
-Went on lots of hikes, alone and with lots of friends
-Went to Oregon with Dan's family
-Went to Craters of the Moon
-Spent 4th of July in AWESOME Rupert!
-Went to Bear Lake
-Went on our honeymoon to Zion
-Hiked Angel's Landing and a slot canyon
-Went camping in Idaho
-Went to Four Corners
-Went to Arches
-And many many trips to the ZOO cause we are awesome ZOO MEMBERS!

Happy Quarter-of-a-Century-Day to me!!

Well... I turned 25 today.  And I must say, having a birthday on a Sunday makes for a very uneventful birthday!  Especially when it's also on daylight savings.  That one extra hour was kind of nice though! 

Some fun things that has happened in the last year since I turned 25.
1- Last year on this day, I went through the temple for the first time!
2- Two weeks later, I married a fantastic man whom I love dearly and couldn't imagine life without.
3- Finished my first semester then year of grad school.
4- Got elected as a region position for SWE
5- Went to conferences for SWE in Austin, TX and Chicago, IL!
6- Really got started on my thesis project!  (Let's just hope I can finish it before I turn 26!)

There are many more things that I've done this past year but a lot of them involve Dan, so I want to save them for our anniversary! 

But I can't believe how fast this year has flown by!!!  Seriously, its been crazy! 

Yesterday my parents came to visit and we had a lot of fun.  Mostly we just shopped in Cache Valley but that is okay because we never go shopping here anyways!  And my mom is such a bargain hunter so its so much fun to go shopping with her!  They also brought me a DQ ice cream cake which is my all time favorite cake!  (There is no cake involved in this cake.)  I am very blessed to have so many people in my life that love me and care for me! 

Its been a fun past year and I hope the next one is just as fun!  Maybe I'll be able to say I graduated with a MS degree too! (Seriously though, I better be done by then!)  And who knows where we will be in a year from now.  We could be here or in a number of other places.  I am definitely looking forward to another year! 

Who says being a quarter of a century old can't be awesome?  Cause I sure don't!  I'm gonna rock 25 like no other!

Happy (late) Halloween!

Fall Break Fun

So for Fall Break, Dan and I, and our friends Jeff, Michelle and baby, (and the USU Rocket Team) went down to New Mexico to the Navajo Nation!  The rocket team were down there to do outreach to 800+ elementary school kids about rockets and rocketry.  They did an awesome job!   Afterwards, we went to the Four Corners Monument!  It was fun to see all the different booths that people had there.  Baby even got a free bracelet even though he's a boy haha! 

That night we were going to go to Arches and find a campsite and camp for the night.  Well, there wasn't a camping site or hotel room within a hundred miles of Arches.... So we ended up sleeping in the car, with four adults and a baby, and a lot of stuff still in the car.  Let's just say it was not exactly the best night's rest any of us had gotten in a while.  But we went into Arches that morning and did some hiking and had a fantastic day!  I'll post more pictures later!  But for your enjoyment, here is a video from that morning.

Help!!!

So I need some ideas for a couple of things.  My birthday is coming up and Dan has been asking me what I want, but I don't know what to tell him.  There's not really a lot of things I want currently, I mean I have a few ideas that would be nice but none of them are must haves.  Here's my list so far:
-hiking shoes
-camelbak backpack
-one of those cool chairs that I posted about earlier

Anyone have any other ideas?

Also, I need a good idea for Dan's anniversary gift.  Our first anniversary is about six weeks away and I don't know what to get him!!!  I know the first anniversary gift is paper but I don't know where to go with it.

P.S. He won't read this so don't feel bad about posting any ideas!

Sunday dinners

We enjoy cooking around here.  A couple of weeks ago, before school started, we decided that we wanted to try our luck at making Indian food!  It was really fun and delicious. 

Because of this, we decided that we really wanted to try making a lot of other new things.  So this weekend, we decided that we wanted to make French Onion Soup for dinner!  Boy it was delicious!  We even found a recipe that was French Onion soup for 2!  Perfect serving size and everything!  We enjoy cooking together cause it's like a mini-date for us when we do that.  Today was no different!  We had a blast cooking and enjoyed eating it together. 

Here's a picture of our soup!

I want...

one of these!

Or some various form of this...
The end...

First Day of School!

HAPPY FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!!!  (At least for everyone that started today!)

Today was our first day of school... kinda.  So Dan has lots and lots of classes (17 credits) and I have one class and thesis credits.  So really it was only Dan's first day, mine is tomorrow.  But I will be working on my thesis this semester doing my research and finishing my plenum design!  Yay!  Go me!  But Dan has lots of classes he wants to take and he is also going to be working on his senior project this year, the rocket team.  This means I am going to be an engineering widow this semester.  This might be a good thing though cause it means I can get a lot done for my own stuff without feeling like I'm abandoning Dan.  But at the same time, we're not going to see each other except at night.  Here's a peak at our schedule for the semester.

So ya... we are never going to see each other!  Good thing we make dinner a date every night more or less!  But overall it should be a good semester!

Some of our goals for the semester include:
-Get better at doing FHE
-Exercising every day (or at least every other day)
-Get my research done and thesis started!
-Rock the rocket team!
-Have fun!
-Go on more dates
-Follow our budget more closely

I hope everyone has/had a great first day of classes!  I'm betting I'll enjoy my first day tomorrow!

August Update

So life has been pretty busy lately.  For the last month we've had trips and things to get done all before school starts.
To start the month off, we went on our honeymoon!  It was FANTASTIC!!!!  We stayed at this amazing little bed and breakfast in Parowan and loved every minute of it.  We went to two plays at the Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City, Music Man and Richard III.  We hiked in Cedar Breaks, Kanara Falls, and Zion NP.  And we just had a fantastic time!
We also moved!  We are so excited to be closer to campus!  We love our apartment even if it still isn't all together yet. 
I also got to go to a SWE (society of women engineers) event!  It was SO AMAZING!!!!  I went to Austin, TX for a few days to learn all about my region collegiate position that I have this year!  (I get to keep up a blog for the region and let them know what's going on and give advice!)  If you ever wanna read it, it's the Region B blog on the side! 
We also are trying to get as much work in as we can before school starts.  It's been a fantastic summer and we are sad that it is almost over but excited to start our last year at school here! 

Easy peasy pumpkin squeezy!

So this has nothing to do with pumpkins but it is really easy. Today we made what I am now going to call the Merkley Easy Enchilada. We again just took stuff that we had lying around to make it.
All it is is chicken, black beans, salsa verde, sour cream, cream of chicken soup, cheese, tortillas and some enchilada sauce from the packets or whatever.
Mix together everything except the enchilada sauce into a bowl and then you can either layer it like a lasagna or spread it into tortillas and roll and place in the casserole dish. Then spread some of the mixture on top of the tortillas.
Preheat oven to 325 and mix up the enchilada sauce. Drizzle some on top and pop it in the oven for like 20 minute and you are good to go!
I've seen this done a lot of different ways but this is how ours turned out and I thought it was delicious and very filling. Add some roasted anneheim peppers as a side and it would have been even better! :-)

Food!

So we love food here! And so I thought I would like to start just taking pictures of the food we make cause I think it looks amazing. I figured why not share it! So if people want any recipes for what we make let me know and I'll get it to you! But tonight we made stirfry with brown rice!

Oregon... how I love thee!

So two weeks ago Dan and I, and Dan's family went to the Oregon coast for a week!  I LOVE it there!  Seriously, I can't express it enough how much I love the green, the rain, the temperatures, everything!  I, one day, hope to live in Oregon, or at least someplace as beautiful and green as Oregon.  We had a fantastic time!
The first day we mostly just drove... we drove all day long!  But it was a fun drive, whoever was in our car got to listen to The Hobbit!  We also stopped at Shoshone Falls on the way and the water was even higher than last time!  It was cool to show Dan's family a place I grew up seeing. But we made it to Portland that night and everything was great!
The next day we went to OMSI, which if you don't know what OMSI is, its the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry!  It was basically a big nerd fest!  Loved it!  While we were there, we watched an OMNIMAX movie about the Hubble Space Telescope.  (Omnimax is basically a big imax theater that is dome shaped instead.)  We also got to take a tour of the USS Blueback (SS 581) which was really cool!  I don't think I'd ever really want to live on a sub but it was really cool to see how things were.  (Dan would love to go into a nuclear sub now and so would I honestly.)  It was really a neat place!  After we drove to the house we were staying at.  Along the way, we stopped at Cannon Beach and walked on the beach while we were waiting for everyone else to catch up with us.  (We had to take two cars..) 
The next day, we got up early and went to the Newport Aquarium!  I like aquariums and zoos (if you haven't noticed) and this was a great one.  Not only was it a neat aquarium with a tide pool where you could touch some of the sea creatures, but they had an entire portion that was outside!  How cool is that?  The had these birds called Tufted Puffins that live along the coast and was one of the birds that we were hoping to see while we were out there.  (Sadly we never saw a tufted puffin in the wild.) 
After the aquarium we drove to Tillamook to go to the cheese factory!!!  Yay cheese!  We got to sample some cheeses and everyone got ice cream!  They had one of the most delicious ice creams I've ever had!  White licorice!  Yummy! 
The next day we stayed closer to the house.  In the morning we went on a hike up one of the mountains nearby and got to look out over the beach and ocean!  It was beautiful!  After lunch, we went back to Cannon Beach to see the tide pools and play on the beach!  It was a lot of fun!  I built a sand castle on the edge of a lake... which was fed by another lake, which was fed by the ocean.  (It was a little complicated haha)  But it was a lot of fun.  My castle withstood a lot more of the tide coming in than any other structure we build along the way.  It only died when I jumped on it!  That night, Dan and I went down to another beach (I don't remember the name) and watched the sunset on the coast!  It was gorgeous!
The next day we went to a cute little branch nearby for church.  It reminded me of how much I love going to church outside of the Mormon Belt.  While we still are taught the same doctrine, church outside of Utah/Idaho/highly LDS population, is more focused on being an example to others and missionary work which I really love.  It was also fun to be in a church with older people as well.  They always have entertaining insights.. (For example, apparently if you are a Gemini, you don't really like being told what to do unless you are explained the why.)
Monday we went to Astoria!  We went on another little hike from this cathedral tree to the column (technically I didn't walk it because I needed to move the car but I hiked back down after getting to the column).  Then we climbed up the Astoria column and tossed our airplanes off the top.  Dan's lost his tail and pretty much just crashed to the ground.  Mine, however, flew on for a really long time.  It went farther than everyone's plane.  (Unless you count Kyle's but I didn't see if fly so I don't believe that it went farther than mine.)  After lunch, we crossed the Astoria bridge into Washington.  Dan's parents were planning on getting some fresh salmon for dinner that night so they went off to find some on their way back, but Dan, Kathryn, Matthew, and I went on to explore a little bit of the Washington coast and Cape Disappointment.  We even went up to a lighthouse.  It was a fun drive and we enjoyed it!  That night we had salmon and crab with dinner!  Delicious (well I really only liked the crab but the salmon wasn't bad definitely better than most fish)! 
The next morning was the day we were leaving, so Dan and I woke up really early and packed everything up and went to Ecola State Park for the tide pools there!  Man they were awesome!  We saw some large crabs and about a billion starfish!  It was really fun to climb around on the rocks!  We also saw our black oyster catcher there!  And another bird but I can't remember what it was right now!  If you ever are going to the northern Oregon Coast and are wanting to see tide pools, I really recommend this place!  There was practically no one there and they were really cool!  It was also only $5 for a vehicle so it really was worth the money.  On our way back through Portland we stopped at Multnomah Falls!  It was really full this year!  Then we drove back!
Overall this was a fantastic vacation!  We had a lot of fun with the family and seriously enjoyed being in such a beautiful place!  I love it!  I'll do another post with pictures!

Happy Early Birthday Daniel

So Dan has been getting all his birthday presents early this year. His parents had the bow for his violin rehaired! Now he can actually practice!
From me he got a map of the world. That may sound like an odd gift but he loves being able to see where things are in the world with news and such. It also spawns a lot of interesting conversations around dinner since it is hung by the kitchen table.
Anyways, I knew he as going to be very excited about a map and I was trying to keep it a secret. It came on Tuesday when we were both home and there was no way I could have this long tube without giving it away so I just let him open it early! He was soo excited to get the map! It was fun to watch him open it and then have us stick it up on the wall!
Happy birthday Daniel! I love you!

You're an engineering... you must be smart!

So I normally don't do posts like this.. but this has really been on my mind for the last few months.  Maybe it's being in a new ward and having to introduce myself over and over again, maybe it's just people's reactions but either way, it's something that has really got me thinking a lot lately.

When I meet someone knew, people always seem to ask what I'm studying.  And I tell them engineering.  And then almost always I get some sort of reply of "WOW! You must be smart!" in any form.  But that's not true.

Now I'm not saying I'm not intelligent, because I would like to think I am.  But just because I'm an engineer doesn't mean I'm smart.  But there are all sorts of people in professions like that.  The teachers who think of new creative ways to instruct their students are smart people.  The way business professions can increase their revenue just by changing their business style are smart people.  The way anyone who can creatively express their ideas are smart people. And so many other things.

All that being an engineer means is that I had to dedicate myself to school a lot more than some people.

I'm not saying that I didn't play as an undergrad.  Trust me I did.  I'm also not saying I passed all my classes with flying colors, because I definitely didn't.  (Just look at my transcript.)  But I had to make school more of a priority.  I had to outline what homework was due next because otherwise none of it would get done.  I had to learn how to manage my time better.  I had to learn how to teach myself materials when I wasn't getting the instruction from my professors.  I had to learn to make myself get involved in other activities to make sure I wasn't only dealing with engineers.  I had to make sure that the other classes I wanted to take actually educated me and weren't just fulfilling some silly requirement. (Which I wish I would have done better.)  But just being an engineer isn't what has made me smart.

What's made me smart is taking the time to do those things.  Taking the time to educate myself in other areas besides engineering.  Throwing myself into conversations that I may not have a lot of background on but wanted to learn them for the sake of knowing them.  Listening to things on NPR and TED.  Reading books and searching the internet about random things that come into my mind.

Together, all those things are what make me smart.

But anyone can be an engineer...

(let me know what you think... I have another one I'm writing about engineering and math... and probably one in the future about why I personally chose to be an engineer.)

Easter!

This year we went to my parents for Easter!  (We usually do!)  And it was a blast!  We had a wonderful time!  Yesterday we went to the Twin Falls Temple and it was amazing!  I learn new things all the time when I go!  We also got to go to Shoshone Falls (which I posted about yesterday!)  It was really awesome!

Afterward, we went home and had dinner and Ash and Slade came over!  We got to hang out with them for most of the night!  We also got to color eggs!  Dan and I had fun with them.  You can see them below!

So every year for Easter, we have an egg hunt!  But it's only two dozen eggs that we dyed and they are only hidden in the living room of the house.  (This started a few years ago between me and Cole but now its between Dan and I.)  Last year Dan one, but this year I was determined to win!  It was intense, but I hit the jackpot!  (Plus my dad hid 3 in his bedroom to make it more interesting but it didn't work like he planned haha oh well.)  I won 13 to 8.  We are now 1-1, maybe next year we'll see who really is the best.

We also got our baskets when we came home from church.  We got some tomato plants!  And we each got our very own golf set!  We were really excited about that!  You can see our video of our adventures below as well!  We're excited to set up a mini golf course in our apartment this summer!

The grandmas also came out for a delicious dinner that my mom made!  We had cornish game hens and they were fantastic!  We also had some fun with some bubbles.  If I get a hold of those clips I'll add them too.  Overall it was a fantastic weekend!  I'm so glad we got to go home and spend some time with my parents.  We haven't been there since Christmas!

(Well maybe I'll get the video on here.. its not working right now but here is the link if you wanna watch it.)

All of our Easter eggs, plus my favorites sticking out!  (I like the dino!)

Wendy's Easter Basket!

Dan's Easter Basket

Everyone's baskets

Shoshone Falls

We went to my parents for Easter and while we were there we went to Shoshone Falls! It's the Niagra Falls of the West! It was cool!
Here are some pictures from our adventure!

Busy Busy Busy

I feel like I have lots of posts that say this.  We are crazy busy!  But sometimes it's so true.  Since I haven't blogged since last month I can do an update of everything that has happened.

-We went to Vegas for the first time (well me for the first time that I remember)
-Had a fantastic party with my Bullen girls and their respective men!  (And Jon of course who counts as all of our respective men!  We love Jon!)
-Dan's brother came home from his mission!  I got to meet him for the first time.  He had the fun adventure of meeting not one, but two new sister-in-laws.  Dan realized afterward that Amy and I should have switched places but it was too late then haha.
-General Conference (Which is always good!)
-Dan took the FE (Which I'm sure he slaughtered!  He's just cool like that.)
-Dan's cousin got married!
-We got to spend some time with Cole, Brandi and Sadie (only on night but its better than nothing!)
-We are tentatively moving in August (technically we signed the paper but we could cancel up to July 11th.)

We also have a busy month ahead as well.
-Easter!  I'm so excited for Easter!  We are going to my parents and I'm happy!  Plus I'm going to win the egg hunt!
-Another one of Dan's cousin is getting married and we get to go to the sealing!
-THE SEMESTER ENDS!!!!!

That's all for now!

Spring Break!!!

This is an awesome spring break already.  Not that it can beat last years... I mean seriously, the cruise was awesome!  But this year, Dan and I got to have spring break together!  We started it off at SWE conference.  We had the fun privilege of riding "le bus" for 14ish hours to BEAUTIFUL PALM SPRINGS CALIFORNIA!!!!  Oh it was amazing!  (Well the bus ride wasn't...)  But I love SWE conference.  It is one of the things I look forward to every year!  There are awesome people there and you get to learn such cool things and honestly, I just love the fact that I am surrounded by hundreds of other women in engineering!  What made this year even better was I got to share that with other people.  Dan came, and one of our friends Evan came.  (Yes they are both guys, and yes they knew it was a women in engineering conference.) 
Thursday we got on the bus at 5:00 am!  But when we finally got to Palm Springs, we went to dinner at this awesome 50's diner! 
On Friday, we started the day out with a hike at the Coachella Valley Preserve.  It was really cool and quite beautiful!  We were right on the San Andreas Fault the whole time!  How cool is that? 
Saturday was the conference it was FANTASTIC!!! Oh my goodness, the breakfast keynote speaker was amazing!  The lunch was really good as well, it was all about changing the way people (mainly kids) think about engineers and help paving the way for a future in engineering.  And the dinner keynote was from one of the first members of SWE, Pat Brown.  She joined SWE in 1951, SWE started in 1950.  And not only that, she was a past president of SWE, in our own region!!!!  It was soo cool!  I even won a lava lamp from annual conference lava lounge!  :-)  It is currently going in our living room. 

Anyways I'm pretty sure Dan had a fun time.  I know I did!  And hopefully I'll get to go to many more conferences!  (Especially region next year, its in HAWAII!!!!)  When I get some pictures from conference, I'll be sure to add them on.  Until then, stay tuned for our awesome vegas trip this weekend!

Happy Valentine's Day

I can't believe how lucky we are.  A year and a few days ago Dan and I told each other "I love you."  Well it wasn't quite like that, it was more like, "I'm going to tell you something that might freak you out.  I think I love you."  "That does freak me out, but I think I love you too."  But either way, it was love, hard and fast.  After that day, Dan decided that he needed to move out of the e-floor so we could actually date.  We started officially dating the day he moved.  Now, a year later, we are still in love, married, and having a fantastic time being so. 
For Valentine's day, we ended up going to Papa Murphy's and buying a pizza, running to A&W and buying rootbeer and going home to eat.  We had a lot of fun.  We set the table with our awesome fancy glasses and had fresh flowers, and a panda.  That's right, we had dinner with a panda! 

Dan got me a pillow pet panda for Valentine's day!  They are just so cute.  (I don't care if you make fun of me I think they are awesome!)  Dan got a love note written on engineering paper and some candy.  (I tried to think of something good but that was all I could come up with.  I'm pretty sure he liked it though!) 
We spent most of the rest of the evening doing homework like good little engineers do.  But we did get to go visit some of our Moen friends before we got dinner!  I miss hanging out with all of them! 

Update

Well, things have been going pretty well for us lately.  Last weekend we were able to go down to Tooele and spend time with my brother and his family.  It was so much fun to hang out with them!  The kids were so fun and it was really fun to just stay up Friday night talking to Phill and Allie.  On Saturday, Phill, Allie, Dan and I went to the SLC temple to meet up with Dan's family to do a temple session.  It was really cool to see the inside of the SLC temple, I had never been in it before and it is just beautiful!  After the session, we went back to Tooele and hung out with the family until about 7 when we left.  Overall, we had a fantastic time with them and couldn't have asked for a better weekend.
School is going pretty well.  Dan seems to be doing well in his classes this semester and I am definitely enjoying mine more.  I'm finally making some progress on my research project as well which is good.  We haven't been able to exercise as much as we would like but there are only so many hours in the day. 

And last but not least, I think I found a new show that I love!  Doctor Who!  Oh my gosh it is amazing.  I have been watching it on netflix and it just makes me laugh.  I'm on to season four right now and I'm not sure what I'll do after I finish it because its the last session available on netflix.  And now I really want the TARDIS cookie jar.