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Can it be true? Has it really been a year already?!

I have so many wonderful memories of August 16th 2007.  For a girl who NEVER once thought about weddings until she was faced with the issue of putting her own together in 3 months. I can honestly say it was perfect. 

Mom, I have you to thank for that.

And now, I have been married to my perfect match for over a year and it just keeps getting better.  I can be pretty strong-willed and set in my ways sometimes.

 Matt was the only guy I ever dated who could keep up.

There is no point in trying to argue with Matt because he will just turn around 

and make me laugh with one of his many 'faces'. 

A trait I have definitely come to appreciate.

We went to The Tree Room at Sundance to celebrate and it was fun to just reminisce about all we've done and plan for all we want to do. 

Matt, you are perfect for me and I love you.

This may be my longest post ever but a LOT has happened. We flew out on our anniversary to visit my family. There we were greeted with this lovely 'anniversary' cake! Look closely, my siblings were trying to send me a message :) All in good time kids.

This past year my parents have been building a home and it is finally done! I can't believe they are all moved out of my childhood home and into the new one (almost). I said my goodbyes to 'North "E" Street' in February and  I LOVE the new place. Now instead of living in town they are in the middle of a beautiful cherry orchard.

Matt peeking out and enjoying the fresh country air.

Big Dawg aka my Dad exhausted from all the hard work.

To quote Family Guy, "I think this house is freakin' sweet."

Chloe showing me her new room!

Typical C.J having a staring contest with a horse
This picture doesn't really fit but I just had to put it because I love it. It's the view from

the front of our cabin, the lake is through the trees. We got to spend a couple days

here and I think it's Matt's favorite spot.

Okay so my sisters taught me how to 'leg wrestle' and I had to post this picture to

remind my siblings that I can still take them. I took on Chloe AND C.J. and threw 'em

both. (though to be fair i could only do it once and they beat me every time after that lol)

Can it be that my baby brother is almost as tall as me now? What is this world coming to?

FAMILY! Our time together is never long enough. I think I'll start a countdown chain

to the holidays now :) We love you!!

*Sidenote: Megan is now at BYU and I love having her around! Time is flying...

9 States in 2 days. 5 of them part of the "tornado ally."

I always thought I'd like to try storm-chasing and I thought our odds were good this trip

 The Panoramic view was pure blue skies except for this beauty. I snapped this out the window while Matt was driving.

To my dismay, it never developed into a twister, but it entertained me for a good 30 minutes.
Can you see the face? Off to the right...
The cloud did develop into quite the electrical storm, however. A bolt every 8-10 seconds was what I counted. This lasted for a good 10 minutes. 

The sky turned pink (way more than the pic shows) and it reminded me of the movie Ghostbusters, where the sludge fills the sky. 

2 Days in a car will make your thoughts wander :)

I can't believe we will be in Utah tomorrow.

on the road again...

Tomorrow morning Matt and I embark on our return to Utah. 

A 3-day cross-country road trip. It's cliche, but I really feel like we just got here.

Things I will miss about New England..

*My in-laws. Seriously. They have been so fun and so generous. I will have so many wonderful memories from this summer and it's all because of them (Tyler included!)

*New England accents/lingo. 

 For example: Brar --- female undergarment, bra.

Bundle--- grocery bag

Ahnt--- your uncle's wife

Jimmies--- sprinkles on your ice cream

Wicked--- a general intensifier,  "that's wicked awesome"

Gahbidge---trash is dry, gahbidge is wet

Carriage---a grocery cart

I heard all these at one point or another, usually  from rough looking females. The Jimmies thing really confused me at first.

*PANERA    like Kneader's, but SOOO much better.

*The Scenery. A path like this is found in everyone's backyard, you don't have to hike a mountain for beautiful lush scenery.

*Planet Fitness. Thanks for being there for me every morning at 6 am after I dropped Matt off for work, and thanks for providing me with many a character to 'people watch'. 

FRESH Seafood.  Delicious.

      

SOX FANS.  They are INSANE and I love it.

Along with them, I will also miss unlimited New England sports coverage on NESN. Especially Sports Desk. Who knew they show it four times in a row from 6 am to 8 am.  And yes, twice at the gym I watched the same episode 4 times...

Geeze, there is so much more I will definitely miss. I've loved experiencing the East Coast life for the summer. Time to get back to reality. Wish us luck on our 36 HOUR DRIVE!!!

8-8-08

I can't even imagine what it would be like to be here.

photo courtesy of Associated Press

8-8-08 also has a lot of historical superstition and luck for the Chinese.  Apparently the word for Eight -- ba -- is very similar to their word for wealth. Not only will there be thousands of weddings today, many are also planning on having their labor induced in order to have a 'lucky eight' baby.  Maybe we should just let the kiddos come when they please eh? 

This reminded me of last year when Matt and I were registering for our wedding. The lady assisting us said they had over 30,000 registries for weddings on 7-7-07.   Ridiculous.

Denouement.

Really? Do we really only have one week left till the cross-country drive back to Utah? Geeze. It has been an exciting, adventurous summer and now it is time to go back to normal life. 

I really am so proud of Matt and how hard he has worked this summer. We wake up every morning at 5:30  and I drop Matt off at his vanpool. From there he has an hour and a half commute into Boston where he works all day in his cubicle (see below). I've been able to work from home and hang out with Janice (by the pool*) while Matt slaves away. He has gained a lot of experience and has had fun but I'm sure he's looking forward to the role reversal of me working all day while he goes to school. Regardless, I'm a lucky wife.

Last week Ashlee came to visit which I was very excited for...it evened out the men-to-women ratio here in the Cook household.  It really was so fun to have her come play.
Ashlee, don't kill me for posting this, it was cute of both of you :)

Friday night at the Boston Temple .

The beautiful Boston skyline...I will miss this.
For dinner we went to the Chart House, a great restaurant on the Bay. While there Matt decided we should be " boat people".  Put that on the long-term life goal list.

                          My great In-Laws enjoying the city lights by the ocean.

I love the historic feel to the buildings in Boston. 

This restaurant used to be John Hancock's counting house.

Saturday Matt and I did what was probably one of my favorite activities of the summer. We went to Concord MA and rented a canoe and paddled up the Concord river to the Old North Bridge where the revolutionary war started. Amazing. I didn't end up taking my camera so these are photos from the web but you get the idea...

Saturday night Bryson cooked lobster. Meaning I met, befriended, and then dropped the little guys into pots of boiling water. Worth it. They were quite delicious, and the whole time I thought of Grandma Stauffer :) You know why.

Phew. This is a long post.  One week to go. I can't believe it.