September 2016

I've never loved camping. but we went with Brandon's family in September and the weather was gorgeous. No rain, no humidity, reasonable temps...if this was camping every time, I'd be in! We went to Monroe Lake and had a great few days with extended family.

Jackson loves playing with his cousins and aunts, so he was in heaven the whole weekend. 

Brandon started school in September and was such a diligent student. Unfortunately, he prefers to have the TV on when studying and I can't do two things at once, so most of our evenings ended up being him doing homework and me watching TV because it's impossible for me to look away.

I got called to our ward Young Women presidency and started to get to know the girls. We do lots of fun activities, including this one where the young women pampered the Activity Days girls with pedicures and manicures. It was so sweet to see them helping the younger girls!

Sometime during our courtship, Brandon told me he'd never been to a concert. WHAT?!?! My first concert was *NSYNC when I was 13 years-old, and my love of live music has led me to many live shows since then. I saw a Groupon one day for cheap Rascal Flatts tickets, so I surprised him and we enjoyed his first concert together! Neither of us are huge Rascal Flatts fans, so it was fun to go, experience it, and not feel conflicted about leaving a bit early to avoid the traffic.

This is a terrible picture, but its purpose is just to highlight the couple in front of us who stood this way the entire show - her standing in front of him, swaying and dancing, while he stood with his arms around her the whole time. I am obsessed with Brandon and I'm certainly not afraid of PDA, but this just didn't even seem comfortable. Not to mention, it was annoying for those of us sitting behind them.

Jackson and I made meatballs for the first time ever. He's a good helper in the kitchen!

Brandon went to the temple for the first time. Elders Boutoille and Tyler visited us every week for a couple of months, teaching Brandon the new convert lessons, so we were happy that they were able to come with us and perform the baptisms we did for Brandon's ancestors. Elder Tyler had actually already been transferred at that time, so both of their companions were also able to come with us. The Indianapolis temple is so special to me, so I was so happy to finally share that with Brandon!

On September 24th, Jackson turned 4! His mom put together an awesome dinosaur-themed party for him at her parents' house, complete with a dinosaur bones dig in the garden and dinosaur impersonators who danced with him! There were tons of people there - he is one well-loved little boy!

Brandon had drill that weekend but was able to make it home in time to catch the end of the party.

There's an ice cream place in Greenwood called Mrs. Curl. It's right on this little creek, and you can buy duck food to feed the ducks. One night, we got ice cream, fed the ducks, then played at the park across the street.

End of Summer

We were incredibly blessed and received a lot of gifts, gift cards, and money for our wedding that allowed us to get our home set up very comfortably. It took a while, but we were finally able to pull the living room together. I wanted to use the same colors we'd used for our wedding, so we could incorporate some of the decorations from the wedding. A lot of sweat, tears, and swear words later - I was really happy with how it all turned out!

Not long after, our air conditioning went out so we were sweating to death in our apartment over the weekend. Fortunately, it was an unseasonably cool weekend and we were able to open up all the doors and windows so it wasn't too bad.

I mentioned to Brandon one day about a Cirque du Soleil show that was coming to town and how much I loved the shows I'd seen in the past. So...he bought tickets! We had a great rainy date night watching "Toruk" by Cirque du Soleil.

Earlier in the summer, Brandon's step-grandpa passed away, so his mom and stepdad held a really nice memorial service for him. It was nice to spend time with Brandon's family and meet some of his extended family for the first time.

Groupon date night - preseason football. Our seats were incredibly high and there weren't too many great players on the field, but it was fun to be there. And the peewee football vs. team mascots halftime show was seriously hilarious.

Have I mentioned how beautiful summertime in Indiana is? We took Jackson to Holliday Park one night with a little picnic and had a great time playing by the river. That little boy loves throwing things into water - seriously, he'll stop at a sewage drain and throw rocks and sticks into it - so he and Brandon had fun throwing rocks.

On Labor Day, we spent time at home before heading down to my grandma's to spend time with her and other members of my family. Brandon helped her with something in her cellar, which was fun for me - I don't think I've seen the inside of the cellar since I was a little kid!

August 2017

You know how some people say they could never work with their spouse because they'd get sick of them or drive each other crazy? Yeah, I don't get that. I absolutely LOVED working with Brandon, although that was really all we'd ever known, since we met at work. It was really fun to start last school year together - going to school meetings and trainings together. And he was incredibly helpful in helping me move and set up my new office!

We had a lost a lot of fun staff from the previous year, but we also gained lots of fun people!

My uncle Julius hosted a family reunion for our huge Shoaf clan. All the original 13 kids were there, plus dozens of spouses, grandkids, and great-grandkids!

My friend Angela and her husband lived in Muncie last summer while he was doing summer sales. Between weddings and vacations, we didn't manage to get together until right before they left to go back to Utah. We ordered cookies from Insomnia cookies - hot and fresh delivery! - and chatted for hours. I love Angela and loved getting to know her baby girl Lyla.

Brandon and I hit up Military Day at the Indiana State Fair to see about some elephant ears. We walked around a bit and checks out some exhibits, then got right down to the food. I don't even remember what we ate, other than that elephant ear. That's alright, though, since that's really all we came for. I love Indiana in the summertime!