That time we went to Disneyland! (Honeymoon)

I guess I should tell you about our honeymoon! We'll work backward. I promise, wedding pictures are forthcoming.

We stayed the night at the Little America (thanks to some great aunts and uncles who gave us a great room!) and in the morning, we began our drive to California.

We were met with a storm, which washed away a lot of the window paint and decorations which our friends had so lovingly put on our car. We listened to "Matched" on audio book, and just talked a lot. It was great, but long, since we did the whole drive in one day.

But at long last, we reached Disneyland!

 Yes, we are wearing "Just Married" pins. It was so much fun. Wearing them started a lot of conversations, and almost every worker congratulated us. (Even though sometimes it was an obligatory, bored "congratulations.")

 It was so blasted hot. We carried around a water bottle all day long and kept filling it up even though the drinking fountain water is not cold. It's water. Whatever.

 We ate a fancy dinner at The Blue Bayou. Sam and I both love Cajun/Creole/Southern food. It was so yummy. And it was so fun watching all the people go into the scary depths of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

Roller coasters are so much fun, and I'm so glad Sam and I both will go on pretty much anything. We did have some firsts, though. (Please note the random bystanders in the photo. It's part of the DLand experience.)

 It was my first time on Storybook Land. Yes, it took me 21 years to go on this ride. I guess I was always too busy going on hard core rides to go on this simple, adorable Disneyland classic.

Sam went on the teacups for the first time! Usually spinning makes him dizzy...

He's OK. Don't worry.

 We waited an hour and forty-five minutes for the new Cars ride, Radiator Springs Racers. It was worth the wait. It was broken down for an hour, and took fourty-five minutes to fix it. But we met some new friends in line, so it was worth it.

It was a great way to begin our journey of marriage.


Our favorite rides (and why):

Meg--Space Mountain (We went on this about four times), Indiana Jones (just because), Thundermountain Railroad (we rode it right underneath a sky full of fireworks), and Matterhorn (Yeti, even though they don't have the snuggle seats anymore)

Sam--Space Mountain (music makes the ride super fun), Indiana Jones (Such a classic, and just so fun), and Midway Mania (reminds him of me, because I raved about it forever and it's way better than Astro Blasters)

-Meg

83 Muffins

I haven't blog recently because Sam's computer has been broken, so he has to use mine to do homework. And homework is more important than blogging. Sorry.

And then I had the infection from Mordor. It was so terrible and lasted a week. I am so sick of cranberry juice now. I'll leave it at that.

BUT!

I have to tell you all about the time I made 83 muffins. This really happened, a few weeks ago. I know you're asking why. Sometimes unexplained things occur, and you just have to accept them.

There are some hypotheses concerning this incident.

There were like five parties in one weekend that I had to bring things to.

It's fall.

These muffins are delicious. This recipe is fantastic.

Making muffins is relaxing and fun. Why stop.

-Meg

The Climb

On Labor Day Monday, Sam and I went hiking.

It was a difficult hike. We started far too late and erroneously thought that the path that was shortest would be the quickest.

It's unwise to go straight up mountain when there isn't a cloud in the sky and you only have one bottle of water between the two of you, and one of you (who's physically weaker by default because she's a woman) works at a desk job 40 hours a week and is seriously out of shape.

At the end (which I thought would never come) I had feelings that were similar to those I experienced after my half marathon, about a year ago. I'm about as sore, too. I felt proud that I had accomplished such a feat, and I was trembling because I was hungry and thirsty.

I don't know how I would have done it without my Sam. We had to pause about every 10 steps to take a breathers, and I even had to sit down at times because I was worried I was going to vomit or pass out. (Yes, I felt very lame and out of shape.) Sam was patient.

As we were taking one of our rests, where I couldn't hardly talk because my throat burned so badly, we saw a man running up the mountain. The very same trail we had been scraping our knees on as we marched slowly up toward the cloudless sky. And this man is running as if he's actually going down hill. As he passed Sam and I, huddled under the pathetic shade of a lousy bush, he said, "Great day, huh?" and he was not out of breath. I don't know how he did it.



(The group from last year's hike.)

Last year on Labor Day, a group of us did this same hike, except we took a different route that was still very challenging, but nothing compared to this. That hike a year ago was when Sam and I really started talking and getting to know each other. I still remember the spot on the trail where he told me he had five siblings, and he was the youngest.

(The group from last year's hike, again.)

This year's hike was fun because it was an adventure. It wasn't walking through shady forested canyons, but up steep grades, on ridges of dry grass and dust. There were no switchbacks and hardly any shade. The view at the top was great, though.

It was so great being with my honey. (Yes, I'm calling him "honey." This is what happens after bonding experiences.)

-Meg

So awesome

It would be so awesome if I could do eyeliner equally awesomely on both my eyes. Usually one gets it pretty good, and then the other one turns out to be lackluster.

It would be awesome if my hair really were that color. But thanks to Instagram filters, it looks a lovely auburn.

I had another cousin born yesterday! That makes two this year! (Also had a niece born this year. So many lovely babies!)

Utes won their game tonight! Yay!

Now go back to your lives. And I hope my eye photo doesn't creep you out to much and haunt your nightmares.

-Meg

Good at picking toilet paper, not at being a good sport

The other day, Sam complemented me on the toilet paper I had purchased. This seriously meant a lot. I know it sounds stupid, but I felt so good that he had recognized my amazing gift at toilet paper discernment. I had stood in that bathroom aisle for a good three minutes trying to decide which toilet paper was the best deal without being sand paper.

Because seriously, some really cheap toilet paper can give you paper cuts. This happened to someone I knew.

This toilet paper had puppies on the package, so I knew it had to be good.

In other news:

Settlers of Catan is a great board game. It's complicated and takes about as long to set up as it does to actually play. But it's fun, usually. If you've never played it...basically you try to build this little civilization by collecting resources to build stuff. The other night we were playing and I was losing. I was losing bad. It was like Sam was the United States and I was a little African third world country. It was terrible because I had no chance to win. I had made some stupid mistakes in the beginning of the game, and especially when you're playing with two people, it's hard to recover from that.

And I started crying. Seriously. I was in tears over a board game. Sam was pretty calm, even though he was thinking: "This is a ridiculous reason to cry." Because it totally is. But he didn't say anything rude, he just suggested we go to sleep. That was a good idea. I don't know how he was so patient, but he was. Seriously, it's super stupid to cry over a board game.

In my defense: I was tired, and I always lose at Settlers. And my birth control makes me super moody (I blame about everything on my birth control. It's great.)

But it was stupid.

Anyway, Sam still loves me and so does Jesus.

-Megan

p.s. I did win Settlers yesterday! First time EVER! 

p.p.s. Did you know that Sam and I met playing Settlers? Yes. 

Grandma Dalebout

My great grandma Dalebout was 102. She died today, and we are going to miss her.

But she did live a very long, full life. She was kind and sweet, and a very good cook. I think we'll be making cheese spaghetti in her honor.

Even though this wasn't sudden, it's still sad. I will miss her. She was my last living great grandparent! I know I'm very lucky to know all of my grandmothers and one great grandpa.

-Meg

Mundane, but Merry

I want to blog more but I don’t know what to write about, really. Our life is great, but not super exciting. We go to work, we eat food, we try to be social and not become social recluses...


We don’t have a TV yet, so we play games, read books, or clean the apartment in what little spare time we have. It’s kind of nice not to have a TV. There isn’t anything quality on hardly except the news. Which is depressing, but interesting. Movies are great, even though we don’t have a ton. I like movies there’s less chance we’ll be watching sleaze, since you can research what’s in it and there aren’t stupid commercials to worry about.


Now Sam’s in school, so he’ll have homework and studying to do. We’re still planning on getting a TV, but I’m in no rush. We’re doing our research about it, and trying to find a good deal. Because we can survive without it!


We’re busy, but it’s not as crazy as when college was going on in my life. I’m glad we have things to do, a direction to go in, and stuff to work on.



I like cleaning the apartment. I don't know how long this will last. But for now, it's still fun. 

-Meg