Jon & Emmalee Day Family: June 2012

I'll do my best to keep this short- but here goes my attempt to summarize Jon and I's first year together! So much happened this year, it's crazy! I've broken it down into the bigger things that happened throughout the year.

Jon and I. Sometimes we're kinda weird. :)

Reception and Family Reunion: We had our third reception/open house on July 2, 2009 in Rochester, MN. Jon was having difficult getting very many days off of work so we had to leave the night before (July 1st) right after work- around 6:30pm- and drive straight through the night in order to arrive in time for our open house. We dorve with Jon's brother in his jeep and switched off drivers throughout the night. At the very beginning of the trip we had a minor freak out when we discovered that Mark's car liked to randomly swerve and jerk when you pushed on the gas or brakes at high speeds. We stopped to get it checked out quick and had them tight the lugnuts- or whatever they're called- and just decided to go with it and hope we didn't die! The drive was super long (20 HOURS!!) and it was really difficult driving through the dark hours of the night but we thankfully made it without incident. We had our open house at the Squires home ( a friend of Jon's family and also my sister in law's parents). A lot of people came to support us and it was great to meet a bunch of Jon's highschool friends- although I'll admit I was a bit intimidated by them.

The next day was the start of Jon's week-long family reunion at Flandrau State Park in New Ulm, MN. His whole family came out for the reunion so I was able to meet all 46 "fun, crazy, very nice, and slightly loud" Day family members. (I put that description in quotes because I took it from my journal. It's funny to read what my first impression of my wonderful Day family was!) We played sports, bocce ball, croquet, had a big water slide, made home-made icecream, played board games and all sorts of fun things. On the fourth, we lit lots of sparklers and everyone waved them around and the kids all ran around dancing with them. Jon and Mark put together a fire building contest with their brothers. Jon got 2nd behind Steve. I was a proud wife :)

Day Family Reunion 2009

Me being a good wife after Jon scorched himself playing on the slip-n-slide all day without sunscreen.

Making our home-made icecream!

Summer Jobs: The summer of 2009 Jon and I were both able to get jobs on campus. Jon worked in the campus accommodations office and I worked as a custodian for the dorms. Jon's jobs have always been way better than mine. Despite cleaning up after nasty youth conference kids all summer, I met a lot of great people and friends working at Heritage Halls. Seriously, I will never understand why some kids do the things they do. Pizza in the toilet? Really?? And that wasn't even the worst of it! Anyway, the job was great because Jon and I had the same work hours so we were able to carpool to work together (awesome since we only had one car!) and even meet up to eat our lunches together.

Hiking Fun: For the 24th of July, Jon took me hiking up American Fork Canyon to a place called Silver Lake. We had to drive up the canyon quite a ways in order to get there and on some very treacherous roads. We kept hoping and praying we wouldn't die on the way there. Thank heavens our prayers were answered! At one point, when the roads were really bad, I suggested we park the car and walk the rest of the way. Jon looked at me and said, "We can't! Didn't you see the sign? It said 'NO TRAILERS'." I thought he was joking but, bless his heart, he actually thought 'NO TRAILERS' was referring to people looking for a trail or walking on it...aka, hikers. It was pretty hilarious and I got a good laugh out of it! Still laughing three years later :) The hike was about three miles there and three back. It was very beautiful and the lake was amazing. We jumped in the lake a few times, despite it being pretty cold.

Hike to Silver Lake

Beautiful Scenery!

At the lake.

Jon jumping in.

My jumping in looks way less cool than Jon's.

Another fun hiking trip we went on was to Stewart Falls. We went with Jenn and Kallan and their kids as well as Becky and Catherine. We went on this hike at the end of May 2009.

Stewart Falls

Jenn & Brooklyn, Becky, Me, Catherine

On the trail!

Gardening: After getting married, Jon and I moved into a family home of his in American Fork. We decided that we wanted to plant a garden and see how it turned out. We had quite a bit of skepticism from family members but we were determined that we were going to make it work. Our neighbor helped us plow up a spot in our back yard and Jon and I got to work planting. Turns out we are quite the green thumbers! By the end of the summer we had quite the amazing garden for first-timers!

The beginning of our garden.

Our amazing work!

So proud of our little garden!

Southern Utah Trip: In August 2009, my parents decided to take a trip down to Southern Utah to visit my Grandpa Rider. Becky, who was living at home that summer, decided to go with them and convinced me to come too. Jon wasn't able to get work off to come and Catherine was working in Denver for the summer. So, me, Becky, and my parents took a little adventure. Despite almost dying on the way there, we had an awesome trip. We were able to visit my grandpa and go to a bunch of cool places. We went to the Grand Canyon one day and to Zion's National Park another. At Zion's my sister Becky convinced me to hike Angel's Landing with her. It was absolutely terrifying. I seriously almost peed my pants a few different times. Angel's Landing is 5785 feet in elevation. At some points, the trail is only three feet wide with 1300 foot sheer drop offs on either side. For someone who is terrified of heights, this was not a good idea for me. I almost turned back a few times but Becky made me keep going. I'm glad she did, it was cool to accomplish! However, I will never ever hike it again! We even found out on our way down that a lady had fallen off and died the day before. Had I known this on the way up, I definitely wouldn't have hiked it! It was a fun trip and made for some good bonding times with my family.

Me and Becky with Grandpa Rider

At the Grand Canyon!

Dad, Me, Becky, and Mom at the Grand Canyon overlook.

Beginning of the hike to Angels Landing

Freaking out a little bit at the death sign...

The final ridge we hiked along.

Becky and I at the top of Angel's Landing!

View from the top!

Becky, Mom, Dad, and Me at the Grand Staircase National Monument.

Softball: In the fall of 2009, Jon and I decided to co-captain a co-ed softball team in American Fork. It was so fun! We had a lot of our friends and family members in the area on our team and we had a great time. Since Jon and I were the captains, we got to play the positions we wanted so that made it even better. I played first base and Jon played left field.

Our Softball Team!

Jon and I after the final softball game.

Holidays: For Thanksgiving 2009, we road-tripped with Russ & Heather, Amberly & Brett, Mark and the kids out to Gilbert, AZ to spend it at Jon's oldest brother Scott & his wife Allison's home. It was fun, though a little weird, spending Thanksgiving in a warm climate. We went swimming, playing sports, went to see "New Moon"- which all the men hated-, and did some Black Friday shopping. We also stopped by some fun sight-seeing places on the way there and back, including Horseshoe Bend overlook and the Glen Canyon Dam. It was a fun little vacation!

Glen Canyon Dam

Horseshoe Bend


I'm a little terrified of heights!

Thanksgiving Day 2009

Swimming on Thanksgiving break. So crazy!

Jon being the awesome sportsman he is :)

We split Christmas between our families. Jon's parents flew out to Utah and we spend a couple weeks with them and the rest of the Utah Day's playing games and making treats before heading up to Idaho. We spend Christmas and New Year's with my family in Idaho. It always great to spend the holidays with family!

Mistletoe!

Our first Christmas! 2009.

Wrapping present Christmas Eve. (My parent's home in Clifton, ID)

Christmas morning in Clifton, ID.

My lovely chocolate creations!

Christmas 2009.

Jon felt pretty rustic and manly building the fires in the wood fireplace over the break.

Grant Thornton Internship: Mid-January through Mid-March of 2010 Jon spent doing an internship for Grant Thornton in Denver, CO. I needed to stay in Provo and go to school so that Jon and I would stay on the same school schedule and we'd still be able to graduate at the same time. It was terrible being married and doing long-distance. Luckily, Denver isn't too far away and plane tickets were cheap enough that we decided it was worth the expense to fly me out to Denver to see Jon a few times throughout the internship. We were blessed to find Jon a great little house to live with nice, clean roomates and Jon had his own room- which was great for when I was able to visit. While he was there, we were able to do a little sight seeing in the area and see some movies and things. In it's own way, it was a nice little adventure for us. I was definitely glad when it was over though! When he completed the internship he surprised me and came home a day early. I was so surprised I started crying. I hated being apart and was so happy to have my husband home!

Our visit to Estes Park near Denver during Jon's internship.

Outside Jon's apt. in Denver.

St. George Anniversary: We spent our first anniversary together in St. George at the same Days Inn where we stayed on our honeymoon. The weather was amazing and we had a great time. We spent a lot of time enjoying the pool. We also went mini-golfing and, despite it being incredibly windy, it was actually pretty fun. We spent two days in Zions and went on some random hikes. One day we were in the regular part of Zion's and another we were in the Northern part called the Kolob Canyons. We toured Brigham Young's winter home, visited the temple, went on some hikes around St. George, and had a great week together. St. George is one of our favorite spots! We might just retire there one day! :)