My 23rd Birthday

 My birthday seemed to spill over into lots of days of celebrations with lots of friends and family. It started with a great dinner at Tucanos the first weekend in November; I love all the free meals restaurants send for your birthday. :) My birthday weekend Gerrit took me out to dinner (CPK, yum!) and to the symphony in Salt Lake where we heard beautiful renditions of Beethoven and Wagner. The next morning my good friend Jessica threw me a brunch party with all our old roommates, and a big surprise--one of my best friends, Sam! Sam lives in Arizona, but came up with her nice boyfriend Nolan to celebrate my birthday weekend. It was such a fun surprise! That night Gerrit and I enjoyed watching a fun BYU football win at LaVell Edwards Stadium.

On my actual birthday my little brother Marc and my sister-in-law Rachelle both came over for dinner. Gerrit did a great job on the meal and the cake! He's so impressive :) The following weekend we went to see the musical My Fair Lady at a theater in Salt Lake and went to dinner at the very yummy Tiburon. I should have taken a picture of my herb-crusted lamb tenderloin with blueberry reduction and a risotto cake. What a great birthday! I'm so grateful for all my wonderful friends and family who take care of me and love me. I was overwhelmed with all the cards, messages, and phone calls I received. I love you all!

 CPK!

 Before the symphony at Abravanel Hall in SLC

 Sam, Sarah, Kenz, Jennie, me, and Jessica (and Chelsea in spirit, who left early for work)

I love these girls!

With the boys

BYU Football--and they won!

 I got lots of pretty things!

And I enjoyed a wonderful meal, all prepared by my sweet husband.

Outside the theater before My Fair Lady

I wish you could see how much it actually snowed; it was crazy!

Outside of Tiburon Fine Dining in Sandy

One Busy Weekend

Gerrit ran his first marathon last week! It was the Top of Utah Marathon in Logan, and it was storming the entire time. I was pretty worried about him; it rained and hailed, and there was lots of thunder and lightning. It made me very nervous, but he did great! We also had fun staying with Grandma and Grandpa Winkel; they're always so gracious! That night we (unfortunately) went to the BYU-Utah football game, which was the most depressing event I have ever been to. Luckily we ended the weekend with a very fun Sunday dinner with all my old roommates. It was the first time since our wedding two years ago that all six of us have been together! We drove our husbands a little crazy with lots of excited chatter, loud laughter, and difficulty focusing long enough to get a decent picture. But it was so fun. :)

Love that medal!

This picture was taken before the game when we were still smiling.

 Take One...

 Take Two...

 Take Three...

And on take four we're all smiling :) Love these girls!

Happy Two Years!

A few weeks ago Gerrit and I celebrated our two year wedding anniversary. I can't believe it's been two years already! We had a great day: we participated in our stake day of service in the morning and painted a house, we did sealings in the afternoon, and we went to Gloria's Little Italy for dinner. We also had been keeping a jar of notes for each other for about month; we kept some cards next to it and we would write things down that we loved about each other and stick them in the jar. So on our anniversary we pulled them all out and I read Gerrit's about me and he read mine about him. I think that was my favorite part of the day and definitely something we'll do again. We had a really nice day!

Getting ready to paint a house!

After doing sealings at the temple

 Enjoying dinner at Gloria's

Our First Pet

I was going through our summer pictures and realized that I never posted about our first pet! Back in May we decided to get a baby duck. We went with our friends Justin and Marissa to a farm store and each got a duckling for $4. We named our little yellow duck Guard Duck (see the comic strip Pearls Before Swine), and his black friend was named Tyron. They lived together in a big box and they were adorable. When they were out of their box they would follow you around chirping, just like you were their mother duck. It was so fun. Sadly after about a month they were attacked by a cat and both died. But we loved them while we had them!

Weddings!

This summer Gerrit and I got to participate in lots of weddings; it just seemed like that kind of summer. We were lucky to enjoy weddings of friends an family and were able to attend some beautiful sealings. The pictures here are from the Jake and Laura Basilius wedding, the Manuel and Tiffany Delgado wedding, and the Eric and Jennie Swenson wedding. All these brides were beautiful and all the grooms seemed pretty happy :) As we get closer to celebrating our second anniversary it has been lovey to participate in these weddings and reflect on our own sealing and family. I love weddings!

Gerrit and I both got to know Jake while he was serving in the Spain Barcelona mission. He was a great missionary, and we love Laura even more! They are such a great couple and had a beautiful reception in Salt Lake.

Manuel and Tiffany (Gerrit's cousin on the Winkel side) got married next. They were sealed in the Timpanogos temple. Their wedding was the first on the Winkel side since ours (in August 2009), and we were happy to pass on the title of the newest married couple!

The latest wedding was Jennie and Eric's this past Friday (August 19). Gerrit couldn't come, but I was able to be there for the entire wedding weekend and all the fun events! They were sealed in the San Diego temple (in the same room where Gerrit and I were sealed!). I just love Jennie and I have never seen her so stunning or so happy. I also got to enjoy the weekend with two other old roommates, Sarah and Mackenzie. It was so fun to spend time with them both! And of course, San Diego lived up to all the expectations--it was a beautiful weekend!

Catch Up: San Diego Trip, Gerrit's Birthday, and a Roommate Reunion

I'm a little behind, but I wanted to post some pictures of our earlier summer adventures, starting with our San Diego trip. The end of June/beginning of July Gerrit and I got to go down and visit my family before they moved to Lima, Peru. We got to be there at the same time as Lauren, Russel, and Natalie, which was so fun because we all got to be together! We did all the things we love to do in San Diego, which included lots of sun and lots of food! It was great to be home! (I don't know how I didn't get more pictures, but I only have pictures of me and Gerrit. The rest of the family was there too!) 

We went to Sea World, which was so much fun!

 We spent the fourth of July at Grandpa's house in Carlsbad with lots of family.

I don't think we've ever been on a vacation without going bowling. This one was no different!

Right before we left to head back to Provo. I love you San Diego. 

Gerrit turned 24 on July 9th. We celebrated by going to dinner at Texas Roadhouse, where Gerrit got a big steak, his favorite. :) I made him a banana cake with cream cheese frosting, his cake of choice this year. It was pretty yummy!

My sophomore year of college I lived in an apartment with five great girls. Out of the six of us, one went on a mission. She went to the Ukraine and recently came home. Four of us were in Utah at the time and decided to go to dinner and meet her at the airport. It turned out being a very fun, very long night!

On Temple Square before heading to the airport to see Mackenzie.

Jessica, me, Sarah Jones, Mackenzie, and Chelsea (and our love to Jennie, our other wonderful roommate who couldn't be here)!

Swan Valley, Idaho

The best vacations are always the ones where you spend the whole time in your bathing suit and you eat a lot. This was one of those vacations :) We had a great time at a cabin in Swan Valley, ID with our good friends Justin and Marissa. We also got to meet Marissa's great cousin Amber, and her husband Brandt who joined us for a few days. We spent the day on the boat on this beautiful lake and I enjoyed napping in the sun, and trying out tubing and wake boarding (Gerrit was already a pro). In the evenings we would roast hot dogs and play games and watch movies, and I think I ate at least 15 smores. Yum. The only downside was the swarm of mosquitoes that continually tried to eat us every night. Thank goodness for bug spray! Overall, it was a beautiful, relaxing, and very fun little trip! Marissa, Amber and I enjoyed chatting, snacking, and sleeping on the boat.

Marissa, Amber and I enjoyed chatting, snacking, and sleeping on the boat.

 Gerrit went tubing with me because I was a little nervous, but it turned out being so fun!

 I was pretty nervous to try out wakeboarding too...

 

...so I made Gerrit get in the water with me :) 

But I actually got up! And it was fun! Now my arms are just a little sore :)

Gerrit didn't need any help

Thank you camera self-timers for this picture!

The whole area was gorgeous

One non-bathing suit activity--the boys loved playing laser tag in the woods around the cabin.