Our New Hobby

Lance next to our bikes

A couple of months ago I went mountain biking with my old roommate up Green Canyon. All it took was the one time for me to realize I was addicted. I started looking for a good bike to buy that same night. I never realized how expensive bikes can be until now. Lance and I rented two mountain bikes from Aggie Blue Bikes and I took him to the Green Canyon trail. He agreed with me...mountain biking is AWESOME! We decided that it was a good activity that we could start doing together. Luckily, Lance's parents are letting us borrow a bike; however, one bike makes it difficult to do anything together. A few days ago, I really wanted to go for a bike ride, just around the neighborhood. So without thinking twice, we went and bought us a new mountain bike from Wal Mart. I originally was totally opposed to getting a bike from there, but we decided that we just need something that works and will get us around, not something incredible. We're not exactly hard core bikers...yet, so we didn't feel the need to spend too much dough. We haven't had a chance to take them on a real trail yet, mostly because we need to acquire a bike rack first. Hopefully we can get that soon.

Lance on the new bike

On a different note, the USU-BYU football game is tomorrow night. Lance and I both have the night off and will definitely be attending and cheering our team on. Based on what I've seen of BYU this year, I think we have a decent chance of winning. We're both excited and anxious to see what happens. GO AGGIES!!!

The Beginning of the End



Here is a more recent photo of the two of us.



     School has officially started and is in full swing. Lance even had his first exam this morning. It is crazy how much busier school makes our lives. It is an exciting and weird time for me. I am graduating from college in December! This is my LAST semester in college. As of right now, I wont be doing any sort of grad school, so this could be it. I am excited to be finished with exams, homework, staying up late to write papers, waking up early for class, and all the not-so-great things associated with classes. I am excited to get my diploma and be able to say, "I did it! I finished." I am not so excited to leave the student life behind. I will deeply miss the basketball games, football games, and all other student activities. It will be sad to slowly see my close group of friends spread out and go their separate ways. Our friendships will last, but it will be hard to be as close as we once were. I will miss the excitement of a new semester, and the relief when finals week is finally over. I'm scared to face the "real world", especially since I'm not entirely sure what the plan is. Basically, work somewhere while Lance finishes school, then let him do all the working. Sounds good, eh?
     So our lives are pretty hectic right now, and it seems like we just go from one thing to the next, never having any sort of break. I guess it's good to be busy, however it is very exhausting. So here is a schedule of what one of our typical weeks might look like.

School Schedules:

I have a 9:30 class on M,W,F. Plus a 11:30 bowling class at 11:30 on M & W. Lance has only one class at 11:30 M,W,F. I have a 7:30am lab Tuesday morning, then a 9:00am class and a 10:30am class. Lance's Tuesday/Thursday schedule is not very nice. He has a class at 7:30, 10:30, 1:00, and 3:00. The breaks are nice for homework, but also make for a really long day. He usually comes home around 12pm for a quick lunch, then heads back to class.

Work Schedules:

     I am schedule to work 37 hours a week with Chrysalis. I work three graves a week, one Tuesday night, one Friday night, and one Saturday night. The rest of the shifts are usually from 7-11pm or 3-11 pm. I have also been working at an after school club from 3-5:30pm M-F. I was planning on working there for a while, but with school and Chrysalis, I decided it was a bit too much, so I will only be working there until a replacement can be found. Lance has been working around 30 hours a week at Wal-Mart, but he is going to drop down closer to 25 for the semester. He typically works from 3-11pm or 7-11 pm every day, except 2-3 days off during the week. Because I work graves, this often causes us to be on completely opposite schedules, and we usually miss eachother. He will get off work at 11pm, and I will go into work at 11pm. No fun!

     We are very busy and don't see eachother nearly as much as we would like, but it helps us enjoy the time that we do have together. We both made an effort to have Sunday's off, so at least we get that day to spend together. We are still loving our new apartment and we are excited for this next year.

Random story: After my bowling class on Monday, my instructor pulled me aside the class and told me that I should consider joining the bowling club, and possibly even compete with them. He said they are traveling to Vegas in a few weeks and travel between 3-5 times a semester to different tournaments. Didn't expect that to happen! Weird. I'm not a horrible bowler, but I wouldn't say I'm good either. Must just see potential, I guess. Haha. Part of me really wants to do it, and there is a chance I'll at least go to practice. It's a bit pricey to compete, so I'm not sure about that yet. But doesn't it sound like fun?

Temple Thursday

      One of my best friends from middle school, Jessi Hilton, has recently gotten married and moved up to Logan. We have been trying to plan a time to hang out and do something. Yesterday, we decided to do a temple session in the Logan temple then go to dinner afterward. Jessi and I hadn't seen each other in over two years, and even then it was just for a few minutes. We met in the temple and went through a session. Lance and I have not done very well making an effort to go to the temple since we got married. We have been a couple times, but not nearly as many as we would've liked. It was so nice to be back in the temple, and it was even better to share it with friends. The temple just brings so much peace and really helps Lance and I feel really close. We have made it our new goal to go to the temple at least once a month.
     After the session, we went to Cafe Rio for dinner. Lance and I usually go to Costa Vida, but we decided to try switching for once. I used to not be able to tell a difference and I thought people were crazy for having a preference between the two. But I can now officially say that I like Costa Vida a lot better. Dinner was still good though, and the company was great. It was a lot of fun catching up with each others lives and getting to know everyone again. The boys seemed to get along really well too. It was a great evening and I am excited to do it again.

Summer 2010

During the summer, it felt like all Lance and I ever did was work. We were both working over 30 hours a week, and I was taking 12 credits of summer classes. So it didn't leave much room for play. But looking back on all of our pictures and thinking about all the individual things we did, we actually had a pretty good summer!

Lance's first time on a horse. What a stud.

A couple of weeks after school was out, we took a much needed vacation down to Southern Utah. We spent a day with my family, riding horses, visiting, and having fun. Then Lance and I went and spent a day in Vegas, mostly just walking around and seeing all of the sights. Lance had never been to Vegas before, so it was fun to see his reaction.The next day we went to Zion's and hiked Angel's Landing. It is one of my favorite hikes ever. My two sisters, Kim and Cindy, also came with us and we all had a blast.

Lance and his cute goggles at sand dunes.

Las Vegas

Las Vegas

After we had spent some time in Cedar City, we headed back to Salt Lake to go to the Sand Dunes near Delta with my dad. The first night was pretty windy and we weren't able to ride much, but the second day was great and we rode until we were tired. Again, it was Lance's first time going and we had so much fun. He got several rides in the dune buggy and we were able to ride the four-wheelers. He was cautious at first, but did very well. In fact, there were times I was a little nervous because he was trying things I don't think he was quite ready for. Obviously we both made it out alive, thank goodness.

Lance and my dad in dune buggy.

Lance and I at bottom of Angel's Landing.

That was our main vacation for the summer. For our anniversary we went camping for one night up Green Canyon. We made tin foil dinners and had s'mores. We didn't plan very well because when we got up there we didn't have plates, silverware, or anything to eat with. We improvised and used some pieces of plastic and cardboard. We set up our tent for the very first time and had a very relaxing evening. Neither one of us slept much that night due to giant rocks in our back. I think it is time to invest in an air mattress or at least some foam pads so we can be more comfortable camping. But it was still fun roughing it. We got up early the next morning, headed home for breakfast, then decided to go spend the rest of the day at Lagoon. We had fun while we were there, but by about 5pm, both of us were so exhausted that we ended up coming home.

Hiking Angel's Landing

Check out our new tent :)

Home-made Pizza

That is pretty much all of the major stuff we did during the summer; however, we did a lot of small things. We had a punch pass to the aquatic center. And while I mostly went without Lance so I could relax and lay out, there were a few times we went together. We rented mountain bikes and went biking up Green Canyon. We floated down the canal. We were outside a lot playing sports. We played on our ward softball team and we kicked butt. We moved into our new apartment. We made home-made pizza. We watched a lot of tv series and movies. We played a lot of Mario Kart and Smash Bro on the Wii. We went for walks, we played games with friends, and did anything else that we thought would be fun.

Lance starting the fire.

We had to use plastic for our utensils.

My First Post :)

I have been wanting to start a blog for quite a while now, but for some reason I always found something else to do. As Lance and I had our first year anniversary, I finally decided it was time. I am horrible at keeping a journal, especially since we got married, and I really want some sort of record of the things we are doing and the places we have been. Solution = blog. So I've spent the last week trying to figure out how the heck to use the thing. I have had a lot of help from friends and I deeply appreciate it. There are still a few more changes I need to make and a lot of things I need to add under the other pages, but I figured that this was a good place to start. So...let the Hinton blog begin...