that one time we sat in the front row.

We had been wanting to head up to Seattle this summer and visit Nick's mom and for Nick to do a little job shadowing/interning for her boyfriend, Gordon, at his company. Of course one of my first thoughts is to check and see if the Yankees happen to be coming to Seattle at some point. Lucky for me they had a series scheduled in July. We wanted to get some good seats so we searched for some in the lower area of the stadium on the Yankees side. There were some that we were eyeing about 10-15 rows up which is pretty darn good if you ask me. But then we saw these random seats on the 5th row for practically the same price. We click on the link and it says "actual front row". Well, if that didn't make the decision a no brainer I don't know what would. The tickets were a screaming good deal so we hurry and bought the tickets and from that day forward I was like a little girl waiting for Christmas to come. 

The entire experience was a dream come true. It was so cool to watch the players and actually be able to hear their conversations, not to mention we had a permanent foot rest (the dugout) the entire game. We definitely were living the good life. I could probably go on for about a day but I decided to just name our favorite moments of the night and then overload this post with pictures. 

We had the best seats in the house. Right behind the Yankees dugout. ••• I was so close to Derek Jeter I could touch him. (okay, that was one of my top moments, probably not Nick's.) ••• It was the first series Ichiro Suzuki was an official Yankee so that was pretty cool. ••• Ichiro gave Nick a head nod. They're pretty much BFF's now. ••• We got a ball the Yankees warmed up with. Yes, every Yankee infielder has touched this ball. ••• Even though the chicken tenders were as much as a meal at Cheesecake Factory, they were pretty dang good for ballpark food. ••• There was some serious contention in the air - mainly because Hernandez hit Jeter, Ichiro and A-Rod (can we say "intentional"). A-Rod didn't come away so lucky and ended up breaking his hand. ••• This hand-breaking incident led Nick and me to make our debut on ESPN even though it was almost a month later, it's still equally as awesome. ••• I was in a daze 99.9% of the time. I kept telling Nick how freaking cool this was. It was completely unreal. ••• It was an overall great night of baseball, minus the fact that the Yankees lost. They did end up winning the series though which is all that matters. 

the first of many.

Today is our 1-year anniversary. I'm still sort of in shock that it's already been a year. It seems like just yesterday that Nick and I started our life together. I seriously can remember every little detail about that day - from getting sealed together for all time and eternity, Nick being so sick that I wasn't even sure we'd be married for more than a day, let alone a year. I didn't realize that I could ever be more in love with Nick than I was on that day, but I'm pretty sure my love for him as doubled over this past year.

But enough blogging, I'm off to Vegas with the love of my life to celebrate the anniversary of our big day.

overnight trip and a jazz game.

For Valentine's I got Nick and I tickets to go see the Jazz vs. Heat game the first weekend in March. I was going to get tickets to an earlier game but I really wanted to see them play the Heat so we practiced patience for a couple weeks and then the day of the game, we packed an overnight bag and headed north. 

We got there a little early and just decided to go straight to Gateway. The only purchase we made was a sweater from J Crew (it was only $22 - what a steal!) because I was absolutely freezing in my non-winter attire. Since we'd just been to Vegas the week before and ate at CPK we decided to try out Tucano's for dinner. Note to anyone that is going to Tucano's: If you're going to go there, go when you have oodles of time and a big appetite because you get fed til you can't eat anymore. Seriously, the food was so good. The salad bar alone was to die for! After we stuffed our faces with every kind of meat imaginable (Nick even ate a chicken heart?) we headed over  to the game. 

Our seats were nosebleed seats because I'm cheap, but in my defense they were the best of the nosebleeds if that's even possible. We didn't need oxygen masks and we could actually tell who the players were from where we were sitting without watching the TV. And honestly, who cares where we were sitting because that game was amazing! The Jazz were actually ahead pretty much the whole game. We were kind of wondering how that was happening to be honest. But just as we said the words, "LeBron is having an off night" he decided to turn his game on, literally. He didn't miss a shot in the 4th and went from having 17 points to ending the game with 35. Ya, we jinxed it. But luckily the Jazz still came through with a buzzer beater win! Well just say I'm super glad I picked this game to go to because it was everything I love about basketball and more. 

We spent the night in SLC and then headed back home once we got up and going the next morning. Of course we had to make a quick pit stop at Krispy Kremes because that is mandatory. It was such a fun weekend and I hope we can make it to another Jazz game before the season is over.

One day I'm going to remember to bring a real camera and stop relying on my iPhone...

a last minute getaway.

These past few weeks have been crazy busy for both Nick and me so we decided a weekend getaway was needed. I booked us a room for two nights at South Point in Las Vegas and as soon as Nick got off work that day, we were off. It was so nice to just escape St. George for a couple days. We ate and ate and ate, and of course had to do a little shopping. We even went to Gold & Silver Pawn Shop since Pawn Stars is one of Nick's favorite shows. To be honest, we felt like it was a little bit of a letdown. The shop was slightly ghetto but it was still cool to go. Unfortunately none of the guys from the show were working - that would have been pretty sweet. So our weekend ended up being pretty awesome. We got to spend the entire weekend together without any work or other obligations getting in our way. Last minute getaways are the greatest and should probably happen on a regular basis.

On my phone, my red-eye edit wasn't this scary. But now that the photo's enlarged it's a little frightening. Oops...

will you be mine?

I have been wanting to surprise Nick with tickets to a Jazz game for a while now and I decided Valentines would be the perfect excuse to get us tickets without him knowing. You have no idea how hard it is to surprise this guy. Seriously, he is impossible. One time I just sent him a text and asked him if he worked that weekend and he replied by saying, "Why, are you buying Jazz tickets?" Really? How does "do you work this weekend" translate to "I'm buying tickets to the Jazz game"? I swear he's a mind reader. But anyways, I successfully surprised him my second go-around and boy am I proud of myself.

Nick was the ultimate valentine too. He knew all I wanted was a pretty flower arrangement from Bloomers and he made it happen. What a stud :) He even had them delivered to me at work since he was busy on a granite install in Mesquite. They are absolutely beautiful and my silly instagram photo doesn't do the arrangement justice - if only you could smell them. The smell travels throughout the whole apartment.

We kept things pretty low key and celebrated our day of love with dinner at Pasta Factory. Then, instead of going to a movie we redboxed Breaking Dawn. Ya, I kind of wish we hadn't done the latter because man was that movie awful (sorry for all you diehard fans out there). Don't get me wrong, I loved the books but the movie was painful. The music alone almost got us to turn it off and see if a new episode of Pawn Stars or Jersey Shore reruns were on. But it didn't ruin our day, it just added the comedy I guess. 

So yes, our first married Valentines goes down as a rather good one. But honestly, who needs one day to celebrate love when you get to be with that person every day? Cheesy? Oh well..that's just what happens when you get married I guess ;) But any holiday that gives us an excuse to give presents is always welcome in my book.

our first christmas.

We had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner with the Carter's. This year we had it a little more low-kay and casual because our group was cut in half due to missions and other family obligations. It was still a great time though to celebrate the holiday with our good friends. 

After the Carter's left we opened our Christmas Eve presents - pajamas. Kacey and I got to be twinners this year in our super awesome "saturday pants" that I pretty much live in. 

Later that night Nick and I headed back to our place and finished up all our wrapping. Luckily Nick is quite the wrapper (serious) so I had a nice little helper to get the job done. Nick may have made fun of me though because I have OCD and had to make tags for every present - including all of his. But hey, he knew this when he decided he wanted to marry me:)

When we were done wrapping we called it a night because we knew we were going to have to get up bright and early to have our own little Christmas before heading over to my parents to talk to Zack when he called from Africa. 

Seemed like 7:30 crept up on us and we tiredly got out of bed and enjoyed our own little Christmas together. It was so fun to have a little time to enjoy Christmas - just the two of us.  Talking to Zack was great - he had actually surprise called me on Christmas Eve (technically it was already Christmas in Ghana) and it was so fun to be able to talk with him.

After our phone call it was off to church and then we spent the rest of the afternoon with Nick's family. We were on the go almost all day but I personally deem our first married Christmas a total success. Christmas is all about being with the ones you love - and that's exactly what we did.