May 2003 toJune 2004

After our short honeymoon it was off to Colorado for the reception in Monte Vista. After the reception there we headed back to Salt Lake and ended up talking with an elderly couple on the same street as my parents that needed help around the house and had a 1 bedroom apartment in their basement. We ended up moving in and searching for jobs. Matt starting working with my cousin at Majestic Meats and I about a month later started at Discover Card in the collections department.

For Independence Day we decided to go to San Diego and we stayed with Matt's aunt and uncle. I drove an '85 Bronco at the time and Matt had a '91 Festiva so we took his car without air conditioning and it was a hot drive to get there and back but we had fun.

July 2003 - San Diego, CA
Seaport Village

Matt's uncle even took us down to Ensenada, Mexico.

I remember the food at this Mexican restaurant was really good but I don't remember which restaurant it was.

We went to the local swap meet and drove over to Coronado Bay to see the beach.

They were working on the San Deigo temple so it was closed when we were there.

July 2003
My eyes are closed but it's the only picture. This was taken at the Jordan River Temple at one of Matt's friends wedding.

September 2003
We decided to go up the canyon and take pictures since the leaves were changing.

October 2003
Jackson Hole, WY
We took a weekend trip up to Jackson Hole and stayed at the Best Western Hotel. We only paid $65/night and now the same hotel is $200+/night even in the off season. Jackson Hole has become alot more expensive to stay at over the last couple of years.

This is at Jenny LakeDecember 2003
Millcreek Canyon
My brother Logan took pictures for us for our Christmas card.

Christmas Card 2003

2 Bedroom Duplex in Holladay (Aug. 2003-April 2004)
December 2003

While I was taking down Christmas decorations Matt went around and took pictures of our place. I'm grateful to have the pictures because they're fun to look back on but I wish the place wasn't a mess when he took them. There wasn't a dishwasher and I hated hand washing dishes.
There was NO counter-top space. The microwave took one of them and the dish drying rack took the other but at least it had washer/dryer hook-ups.
Yes, I hung pictures too high on the wall. Live and learn I guess.
This was our first Christmas tree. A little bare and now I have too many ornaments and only half of them fit on the tree.I was in the second bedroom taking down the decorations off the window. I was 2 months pregnant at the time. We told everyone we were expecting with an ultrasound picture right before Christmas.

January 1, 2004
Sherwood Hills Resort; Logan, UT

We still go up to Sherwood Hill's every New Year's and this year we were snowed in for a couple of days. They didn't keep up on the plowing and so the road getting back to the highway was blocked for 2 days until the could get all the now cleared.February 2004
Matt interviewed and was hired at Zion's Bank as a part-time teller since he was starting school. He has worked at Zion's Bank ever since most of the time as a teller as he went to school since the schedule worked around his classes.

April 2004
This was at my grandparents house where we always went for Sunday dinner.
April 2004
This is also when we moved to Brookside Apartments and I started managing apartments. It was such a great blessing because I really wanted to stay home with Kaleb but we didn't know how we would make it work so it was an answer to our prayers. And I've been managing apartments ever since.

May 2004
My friends Amber and Kelly threw me a baby shower and here was a game where I had to talk on the phone, hold the baby, and hang laundry at the same time to get me ready for multitasking.
June 15, 2004
And this is probably the reason I went into labor that night and my water broke. I was already 3 cm and 90% effaced so my body was ready but this might have helped. I didn't actually jump, I just kind of walked around on it.

Next up, the birth of Kaleb. Luckily I bought the CD of those pictures when I developed them so I don't have to keep scanning in every picture. We didn't buy a digital camera until right before Kaleb turned 1. For some reason I thought film was better--what was I thinking?

The Wedding

Our photographer was one of my YW leaders at the time McKenzie Hansen. She did a great job and we have tons of pictures from the wedding so I tried to pick out some of them. My bridals were taken at Memory Grove. Here are a couple of the pictures.

My dress was from Alyssa's Bridal in the University Mall in Orem. Since wedding stuff was done on the weekends when we came to Salt Lake Matt went shopping with us so he saw my dress when I bought it. I thought I would want a big poofy dress but I didn't like them when I tried them on. I loved the lace-up back on this dress and the square neckline. Jennifer styled my hair for me for bridals and on the wedding day.

We were married at 10:30am on May 16, 2003 in the Salt Lake temple. My mom was sick in the hospital and they wouldn't release her that morning so she wasn't able to go to the temple ceremony but they released her a couple of hours later so she was there for the reception. It was a windy day but no rain so I didn't mind the wind.

Matt had trouble keeping his eyes open during pictures that day, not sure why but so many of them had his eyes closed.

Matt and I with my dad.

Matt's parents.

You can see Amber Gillespie in the background trying to hold my veil down.

This is one of my favorite pictures.

The reception was at Friendship Park which is located at the Stake Center by the old Cottonwood Hospital. It was outside but had a roof in case there was any rain and I think it was $25 to rent the space for the day which was an added bonus.

My siblings (Logan, Daniel, and Amber) and both sets of parents.

My bridesmaids, Amber G., Amber and Angela.
(I'm an "A" name too...funny.)

My siblings, crazy to think Daniel is married now and Logan is getting married in June. He looks so little in this picture.

My dad's parents.

I think I have some pictures someone else took of the reception area and how it was decorated but this is all I have for right now. We had the kitchen area separated with dividers and in front of the dividers were lots of trees with lights on them and a fountain. Each column had trees with lights in front of them and then there was a present table, sign-in table and a table with pictures of Matt and I. The tables had candles and a vase with gerbera daisy's and silver goldfish swimming around.

We bought the fish the night before but we put them in a container that must have had soap residue or something because they all died that night. So after the ceremony Matt and I ran over to the pet shop to buy more fish.

The refreshments were punch (I think sprite with raspberry sherbet, not sure?) and cheesecake (plain or cherry topping) and a chocolate mint.

Before the reception we took some pictures on the swings, slide and merry-go-round.

My friend's parents owned Granite Bakery and so we ordered the cake through them. The flowers were done by a lady in our ward and I told her I wanted gerbera daisy's on the tables, white roses in my bouquet and everything else she could pick. I told her bright colors and wildflower types of flowers. She did a great job.

My car ('81 or '82 bronco) was trashed. This picture is when they were still decorating the car. The had put tons of glitter confetti all over inside the car and the outside had everything all over the windows, cookies, paint and even dead goldfish. When we got to the hotel (The Inn at Temple Square) I felt bad for the guy that had to valet park for us because I'm sure he was covered in the confetti.

It was a great day and so many friends and family helped get everything ready and helped with the food and clean-up. We spent a night at the Inn and Temple Square and then spent 2 nights in Park City. We didn't have a honeymoon other than the first night planned because we were going to be driving to St. Louis but since that didn't work out we went up to Park City.