Zion Trip (Half Marathon)...

March 23, 2013...I was suppose to run the Zion Half Marathon (the first year they had been given permission to run just outside the park).  I started training in January for the race, and found out I had a torn meniscus in my right knee.  I was sooo bummed!  I tore it the previous year during the half marathon

that Mandy Woodhouse put on through her company down Big Cottonwood Canyon.  Becky Weaver and I were running and I tore it.  I just didn't realize it was torn until I started training for this one.  I actually went in and got it checked out because I was having so many problems with it.  I signed up for the Zion Half Marathon and was so

excited to have some of my friends to run with.  We had Josh Caraccio, Brian Chatterton, Lake Leafty and Kristi Swan that had decided to run it from the pharmacy at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center.  We were so excited to enter as a team.  We all had started training months before, so we were just talking about it all the time and just having fun knowing we would be going on this trip.  Anyway...when I found out my meniscus was torn and I wouldn't be able to run in the race, I decided that I was going to go support my friends even if I couldn't run!  It was such a fun trip to go on!  John came with me and Josh and his dog, Roxie, came

along as well.  We got our hotel at the Pioneer Lodge (my favorite place to stay down there).  It is right outside the south entrance to the park.  The finish line was about 3/4 a mile away.  John and I got up super early to take Brian and Josh to the finish line so they could be bussed to the starting line.  We dropped them off and then went back to bed.  We tried to time their finish line perfectly, but we didn't

quite make it.  We saw Josh running by while we were walking to the finish line.  We took some pictures and met them at the finish line.  They did such a great job!  We went out to breakfast right after with Josh, Brian and Camille (Brian's wife).  Then we decided to go on a hike.  We did Angel's Landing.  If you took your medals to the top of Angel's Landing within 24 hours of the race and take a picture of you at the top with your shirt on and your medal, you are able to be in the Angel's club! You can get into the race next year for cheaper and

have the bragging rights as well!  So...we did just that.  It was so much fun to go up there and do that hike again.  John and I had done that hike months before, and we found our heart-shaped rock that we left on the side of the trail under a rock.  It was amazing that it was still there, and that we actually knew exactly where it was.  We took a picture and then enjoyed the rest of the hike.  It was fun to do the hike with other friends.  It is a really nice hike, and I can't believe that Josh and Brian both wanted

to do it after they had just run 13.1 miles.  They are crazy good sports.  After the hike, Brian and Camille had to get back to their kids in northern Utah.  Josh, John and I stayed and explored with Roxie.  We parked on the side of the road towards the northeastern side of the park and just went exploring.  It was beautiful!  We went to the petroglyphs and then we kept hiking back into the canyon.  We found a spot and

Josh just fell on the warm red rock and stayed there with Roxie.  John found a big tall "altar" that he wanted to climb too.  I started climbing, but I was slipping on the rock and was nervous I would fall, so I decided to not go any further.  John kept going, and I decided to just take

pictures of him.  He got to the top and found all these other big petroglyphs.  He said there were a lot of them and they were really big and far away.  They were in the distance and he didn't have a camera, so he couldn't really show us what they looked like.  We are thinking that next time we go to Zions, we won't do any of the hikes we've done before.  We decided that we will just park on the side of the road and hike into the park and just

explore the canyons.  There are no limits there, you can explore everything.  There is so much to see and so much explore that you miss so much if you just go on the normal marked hikes.  It is the hiking off the trails that really allows you to see so much of the beauty that is there.  The way the red rock was formed is just so crazy!  Anyway, we had a wonderful trip, and decided that our fun tradition to go to Zion every year needs to remain!

Missouri Trip...

February 27, 2013...John and I went back home and had an amazing trip to Missouri!  We

hung out with Chatham and Donna, Mom and Dad, Helena and Bobby and Wyndam’s whole family.  We even got to hang out with Grandpa and Teresa!  I LOVED being home.  It snowed 10 inches one day and then 4 days later it snowed 12 inches.  I can’t believe how much snow they got out there.  We got snowed in two of the days and John and I played Mom and Dad in Rook the whole time!  We played sooooo many games.  It was so much fun!  I REALLY LOVED spending so much quality time with Mom and Dad.  I don’t usually get

that much time with them, so I am so glad that I got to be with them.  We ate lots of ice cream and made apple crisp.  Dad made some delicious food.  He had most everything planned out before we got there.  One of the days that it snowed in, he made a yummy quiche for us and then as we were playing games and got hungry, he made us some macaroni and cheese.  He just kept feeding us the yummy food that he always makes.  He made us steaks in the middle of the night practically.  It was supposed to snow a lot one night, so we decided to go over to Wyndam and Melinda's.  Well, we had prepared steaks and they were

thawing out while we were gone visiting.  We didn't end up getting home until 11:30pm.  It was snowing and I really just wanted my steak.  I was so hungry!  Well...Dad put his coat and hat on and headed outside.  He went to the pool room, started the grill, and made me, John, himself and Mom some delicious steaks.  What other Dad would do that for his daughter?  Well...mine does!   We spent a lot of time with everyone while I was home.  We had a dance party at Wyndam and Melinda's.  Those kids were so funny, and just attached themselves to John.  They all liked him and kept asking me when we were getting married.  (They had met John when they came out to Utah several months before.)  We went to dinner with Grandpa and Teresa.  We invited them over for dinner with just us and Mom and Dad another night.  That was really good

to just spend time with them as well.  Another thing we did that was soooo much fun, and completely hilarious, was the "Harlem Shake!"  You will need to google this to get the proper understanding of what this means.  Chatham got all of us to participate and had us dress up and do the Harlem Shake.  It was sooooo funny!  He is making a video, and we can't wait to see the actual finished product!  Helena (John's sister) lives out there with her husband, Bobby and two kids.  They invited us over to spend the night.  We went over one night and invited Chatham and Donna to come eat dinner and play games.  We had some yummy food and then just laughed all night long playing really fun games.  It was really good to just spend time with Chatham, and we

all laughed so hard.  After Chatham and Donna left, we watched a 3-D movie and ate popcorn with Helena and Bobby!  They were so happy that we came.  The next day we went rollerskating with my family and Helena came with one of her boys!  We just skated around and had ourselves a good ole' time!  I just felt like the whole trip was wonderful, because we met in Missouri!  It was nice to go back and have you reintroduced to my parents and enjoy Missouri together again.  One of the things that I did while home was look through some of the letters I had downstairs in the basement.  I knew that John and I wrote back and forth, but he thought maybe we hadn’t written that much.  I really knew I wouldn’t have thrown them away, it was just a matter of finding

them.  I went downstairs and found a box labeled “letters” and brought that upstairs.  I forgot to sort through it until the night before we left.  I opened the lid, took out the memory book on top and the first stack of letters that had a rubber band around them were my letters from John.  There were 43 of them that he wrote me from the time I went to Ricks College through his mission.  I was sooooo excited.  I read 18 of the letters that night and just giggled to myself the whole time.  He was so cute, and every single letter he told me he loved me.  He was dating Jessica at the time, and we were only friends and I knew that.  In one of

the letters he said, “If Jessica and I don’t get married (yeah right) you and I will get married.”  I laughed so hard when I read that.  On the airplane, we read through a bunch of the letters.  It was so much fun to go through those letters together.  We just had such a fun trip, and can't wait to go back!  My parents really enjoyed hanging out with us and getting reintroduced to John!      

Battle Creek Falls...

February 18, 2013...We decided to go on a fun hike up to Battle Creek Falls in Pleasant Grove, Utah.  It is only about a mile up the canyon.  I have done this hike during the summer and spring, but never during the winter.  The waterfall had this ring of ice around it and the water was falling through the ice

ring it had created.  It was absolutely gorgeous!  The waterfall also created an ice bridge.  You could walk to the other side of the creek on it and the water was flowing under your feet.  It was just incredible!  You found a cute heart-shaped rock and held it up to me.  I just thought it was so cute that you were even thinking of a heart-shaped rock.  I

wouldn't have even thought of finding one, because the ground was covered in snow and ice.  You were just cute and found one in the freezing cold water!  I just love you!!!  We went to the top of the waterfall, and the view from there is also amazing!  I love going on hikes with you!  We really have done so many things together.  I love how active we are, and how we are always going on a new adventure somewhere!  This just added to our outside adventures!!!

Our First Valentine's Day...

Happy Valentine's Day...For Valentine’s Day, John text me this cute quote.  "I've been scared of a lot of things, but I have never been scared of loving you..."  (I know it is kind of cheesy, but I
LOVE cheese.)  He kept sending me quotes throughout the day.  Here are some of the quotes he sent:

“There is no remedy for love other than to love more.”

“Love is a mental disease.”  - Plato

“A loving heart is the truest wisdom.”

“Love:  a temporary insanity curable by marriage.”

“The love we give away is the only love we keep.”

“It’s how you make me smile when I never even wanted to laugh.”

I left work at 2:00pm to make sure that everything was ready to go for our fun night together.  I had EVERYTHING perfect!  I told John that he could be in charge of my birthday and I would be in charge of Valentine's Day.  I was sooooo excited all day long for our night and to see him.  This is how our night went.  John came over around 5:45pm.  I blindfolded him and drove up South Fork Canyon, up Provo Canyon.  (This is the same location that we spent our third date.  We went up there and laid a blanket down and he held me while I rested.)  I wanted this Valentine’s Day to be a great first one that he would remember.  I left him in the car and had to go with plan B (someone had already claimed my plan A location).  I set up a fire, lit some candles, set out the chair, got the food ready and went and grabbed him.  I had him open up his eyes as we got to the location and turned on the music.  (I made a play list that had a bunch of love songs on it and brought up the portable speakers.)  He kind of had to help me get the fire going again, because it went out when I went to get him in the car.  There was snow everywhere.  It was super cold, and just as wintry as you could imagine.  His present from me was a card from me and a double seated camping chair.  He loves camping, but doesn’t love the chairs.  They don’t allow him to sit close enough to me and they are uncomfortable.  I got him that chair so we can always sit close to each other and be comfortable.  He LOVED it so much!  I put blankets under us and then we covered ourselves in blankets and ate some yummy Cheesy Pizza Pasta Salad I made along with strawberries and tomatoes.  Then I got him a smore’s cooker as well.  We made some smore’s and he cooked them over the fire on his new little smore’s rack.  It was soooo much fun!  The music set the mood perfectly.  It was really cold, but we cuddled all night long.  We kissed, talked and just enjoyed each other’s company.  We also danced a little.  He knows I love to dance, and that is why I made the play list.  It got cold though, so we didn’t dance for too long.  We are going to dance on my birthday.  We watched the stars and just enjoyed being together.  I just LOVE my man so much!  I wanted him to feel special.  Earlier that day I had gone up to that location to make sure things were set up perfectly.  I found some heart shaped rocks and laid them out on a big rock up there.  I took John over to the big rock next to the location where we first spent our time together.  It is where he found our very first heart shaped rock for my mom.  We have never picked up a rock in that location for us before.  I let John choose which heart shaped rock he liked the most and wanted to use for our Valentine’s rock.  He chose one and then we took it home with us.  It was such a perfect night.  We paused and looked at the stars.  They were so bright out there.  The moon was a little sliver of a crescent and it was just a gorgeous and clear night.  I had such a perfect night with the perfect man.  He told me he loved me so many times.  When we were sitting in our chair, I could feel him staring at me.  I asked him what he was doing.  He just looked at me and said, “I’m just looking at my future wife!”  When he said that, it sent a little electricity through my body.  So cute!  I love how adorable John is.  We did have a wonderful night.  He is excited to plan next year’s Valentine’s Day.  Everyone at his work the next day asked what he did.  He told everyone and they were so impressed what I did for John.  They thought I was so sweet and told him how lucky he is to have me.  They all thought it was so romantic.  I asked him if he told them what he did for me…because that is just as equally cute!  When he got to my house last night, he gave me my present. He had gone to

Michael’s and got this cute little jewelry box.  It is small and precious.  He sanded it down and stained it and he also used a little tool to burn words into it.  The top of the box said, “Guess Who’s Beautiful” in cursive.  Then you open the little top of the box and it is a little mirror on the other side.  On one side of the mirror it says, “You” and the other side it says, “Are” then along the top it says, “ILY” which stands for I Love You!  Then there is a little drawer that slides out.  On the bottom outside of the drawer he wrote me a little

message saying “Cheli, I hope this is the first of many Valentine’s Days we get to share together.  I love you!   Johnny”  I love my man.  He took a LOT of time to do that box.  He was so cute to put it all together and spend so much time doing it.  I was so impressed.  I absolutely LOVE it!  The time he put into it means so much to me.  He is just such a sweetheart!  Today he sent me this cute text.  “Hey Sweetie!  I was just

thinking of you and want you to know that I really love and appreciate you so much!  I am so lucky to have you in my life!”    Then he called me and told me how much he loved me and how much last night meant to him.  I LOVE that we have each other in our lives.  We are both very blessed.  I know we will always love one another.

Snowshoeing in Logan...

February 2, 2013...We went and visited Krista and Tyler (Tiny) Wilkinson up in Logan, Utah for a weekend.  It was the first time we had seen them since they came down and we cooked them enchiladas

when we first started dating.  It was so much fun to see them!  We really get along with them, and enjoy being around them.  We stayed for the whole weekend!  Krista's parents (Jim and Gayle Whitteker) let us stay at their home.  It was so nice of them, and they just really wanted to meet you and get to know you.  We all decided on Saturday morning, that we would go snowshoeing.  I had been a couple times, and you had never been.  it is a nice cheap activity and keeps us all active.  We went to the base of the mountain and went across the mountain ridge and back.  It was just beautiful!  Krista challenged me to a race, and she totally won!  I kept falling as we were going.  Something was wrong with me, and it was just so funny!  I

enjoyed snowshoeing with you for the first time.  You were so cute in your camouflage outfit!  I loved making fun of it, but I secretly loved it, and it kept you so warm!  It really was fun just being active and hanging out with Tiny, Krista and her parents.  After we went snowshoeing, we went to Aggie Creamery.  We also went to Charlie's Ice Cream, because I can't go to Logan without getting my Charlie's Ice Cream!  It was so much fun to take you to these places that I love and want to introduce you to.  I have always loved Krista's parents, so I was so happy that we got to spend a lot of time with them.  Jim showed you his scooters he was working on.  You

really enjoyed that.  We also played some Nertz games, which Jim and Gayle are professionals at.  We lost every single time.  We measured both of us on their door to their garage.  (They measure anyone that would like to get measured on their door, and draw a line and put your name next to the line.  The next time you come back, you can measure again to see if you have grown.)  It is a fun family tradition that they started a long time ago with their family.  They really are such a great example of how to create a happy family!  They always have so much fun together.  The picture of Krista with Max (her son's) mask on, says it all!  On Sunday, we went to church with Tiny and Krista and then we left.  I really enjoyed our weekend together.  It is really fun traveling with you and introducing you to all my friends and their families.  We will

need to do a lot of traveling to get to all of them, but we can sure try!  Thank you for always being willing to take an adventure with me...I LOVE going on adventures with you!