June 2012 we celebrated four years of marriage by going to one of our favorite restaurants in Salt Lake called Bambara. It was my first time trying clams. Definitely don't eat clams if you aren't comfortable with the person you are with because you look very strange slurping them out of the shell.
I won't even post the picture of me eating them because I look like an idiot. David managed to look somewhat normal.
I had the gnocchi and sweet roasted corn. I still crave this dish six months later. Best corn I have ever had in my life.
You can't eat at Bambara without getting some creme brulee. I believe these were fruit creme brulees. Not as good as their trio chocolate creme brulee but still amazing. (And you can't eat creme brulee without thinking of my favorite movie...."you're never gonna be jello. Creme brulee will never be jello.")
This was in June when my brother Adam and his family came to Utah for the youngest Dynes's wedding. This was my first time meeting my niece Miriam. She was so precious! Such a well behaved baby and seriously one of the cutest babies I have ever seen in my life! (David says this picture doesn't do her justice. She is SO cute. And he said it doesn't do me justice. Rude.)
This was at my cousin Tara's wedding, also in June. David and Paul were twins that day.
I couldn't get enough of the twins. They were so cute together! And Paul is seriously one of the most hilarious toddlers I have ever known.
TWINS!!!
Me and the boy at his wedding. No more single Dynes children! He and Kelsi are a perfect match for each other.
In the meantime, we sold our house in April of 2012 and started building a new one. Here it is almost completed. We moved in August 2012. We love it. It has a lot of features we really wanted in a house.
This is from the Spanish Fork Rodeo in July. My company, Edge Homes, bought box seats so all the employees could go. It was a fun night!
Didn't take this picture fast enough, but in August we went and saw Wicked in Salt Lake at the Capitol Theater. It was AMAZING! I highly recommend it if you have not gone. We bought the soundtrack months before going so we knew all the songs. It was actually David's first professional production to go to. He was blown away!
Working on the new house. David was kind enough to paint stripes for me while I supervised.
They turned out great! And only took about one hour to do. Love how they came out!
Here is a shot of our dining area. We decided to go outside of the box and put a fireplace in the kitchen rather than in the living room.
We also tiled our very first backsplash. Here is the before showing the wall just empty.
And after! David did a great job. I love how it turned out! (And SO much cheaper than having a professional do it!)
I drove my first golf cart. Weird, right? My work had a golf tournament in September down in Elk Ridge. It was a gorgeous day and a fun event.
We also attended a BYU game in September. Again thank you to my work. They gave us the tickets.
As part of the tickets, we got a meal before the game, snacks at half time, and we got to go on the field during the second quarter. It was so cool to be down with the players. David was like a kid in a candy store. He walked by Riley Nelson and told him "Good job Nelson." Nelson responded with, "Thanks buddy." He also slapped Mike Alisa on the shoulder. I told him not to be a creepy fan. :)
Another shot of our kitchen. Found these stools on Overstock.com. Love them!
Following the trend of white ikea furniture, I bought these night stands and lamps from Ikea and put them together myself. Only had one mistake and you can't even see it. ;)
Before Halloween we carved pumpkins with my old roommates. Here is our Dark Knight pumpkin.
Here are all the pumpkins! Courtney hands down carved the best pumpkin. Can you tell which one it was? Hint: sea urchin...or was it a sun burst? :)
I was very proud of myself for finding this sweet hat. It really does keep your head extra warm!
In October we went to Texas for my friends Noelle and George's wedding. What is a trip to Texas without some Papa Mex? I'm drooling just looking at this picture.
We were able to spend a little bit of time with our newest niece Kayla. She was adorable! Snug as a bug in her swaddle!
You also cannot visit Texas without going to Shipley's and getting donut holes and kolaches! YUM!
We spent one day in College Station visiting David's good friend Danny Brown and his wife Megan. Danny just finished his MBA at A&M and is also in vet school. The field was open so we were able to just walk right on!
David and Danny saying good bye! And yes David changed that day out of his A&M shirt and in to his BYU shirt since there was a BYU football game that afternoon.
George and Noelle's wedding! Both of them went to high school with me. It was so fun to see people I hadn't seen since high school. Their wedding was one of the most fun I have ever been to. The bridal party and bride and groom entered the reception dancing to Gangnam Style and did the dance from the music video! The bride and groom's first dance was my favorite first dance I have ever seen. The whole thing was choreographed - I recognized a lot of the moves from Dancing with the Stars! It was the cutest thing!
In November, I went to Seattle for the first time. David was out there for work so I joined him one weekend. In case you can't tell, our trips, our lives for that matter, are centered around food. This was a place in Bellevue called MOD Pizza. It was SO good! I wish Utah got one of these. People here would love it!
We had breakfast one morning at this restaurant called Chace's. It was yummy as well. Both were recommended to us from my friend, Natalie, who grew up in Bellevue.
Like everyone who visits Seattle, we went to Pike Place Market. It was a really cool place. It was freezing cold that day but still fun to walk around.
We stopped at Piroshky Piroshky and had a piroshky. We got the smoke salmon one and the white chocolate/raspberry one. Yum!!
After Pike's Market we went to the Seattle Aquarium. Definitely better than the Salt Lake Aquarium. They even had two octopus. Octopuses? Octopi?
After the aquarium we took a boat tour around the harbor. Here is a shot of Seattle. You can see the space needle on the left. The tour was actually really interesting. I really enjoyed it. David had to close his eyes most of the ride so he wouldn't get sea sick. :(
Behind me was the coolest Target I have ever been to. I know I'm weird to get so excited about a Target but it was SO cool! Seattle was definitely a cool city. David says we can get a retirement condo there and then by all our groceries from Pike Place Market.
The next day we visited the Boeing Museum in Seattle. This is the cockpit of an SR 71 Blackbird - David's favorite jet. He was excited to get to sit in it.
They also had an actual former Air Force One plane that you got to walk through. This was the Air Force One that was used just before the current one being used by the President. It was really cool to walk through it.
By our garage door, we had Edge build a mudroom bench. Natalie and I got together while David was out of town and made sweet bench cushions. Here is the one I made. I love how it turned out!
This picture is from Thanksgiving Day at David's grandparent's house in Provo. In keeping with Dynes tradition we went and saw Skyfall, the new James Bond movie, that morning. We really liked it. Then we headed over to have dinner with David's family and cousins.
This is us at a Jazz game in November. David's uncle let us use his season tickets one night. The Jazz played the Sacramento Kings that night. It was so fun to see Jimmer again! BYU basketball just isn't as entertaining without him!
The seats were awesome! And there is Jimmer!
For my company Christmas party, we rented out a fastkart speedway for a little bit. Fast karting is like go carting but the cars go up to 40 miles per hour. Here is David getting ready for his ride!
This was only about half the track. It was massive! Just as I predicted, I came in last in my heat. I will admit it: I am a nervous, bad driver!
After the fastkarts, we went to Benihana for dinner. We had the entire second floor of the restaurant for our company. It was a really fun night. I am so lucky to work for such a great company with the best coworkers!
In December we got ready for Christmas by decorating, watching Christmas movies, and drinking hot chocolate!
One of David's friends sent us some sweet pictures of David in college. That is David on the folk dance team at BYU!
Haha there he is in front! These pictures are awesome!
This is us at our annual King Henry 110 Reunion Christmas Dinner!
All the former roommates! I am so lucky to have these friends in my life. They are the best!
Preparing to host Christmas at our house! I have never in my entire life had a refrigerator this full!
Starting out the Christmas celebrations with some Just Dance!
Hanging out with my nephew Christopher and rocking the hat!
We all went ice skating at the Gallivan Center the Saturday before Christmas. Christopher is only two and half years old and he LOVED it! He did not want to get off the rink but thankfully the Zamboni came so we were all forced off.
Sunday before Christmas. We decorated ginger bread houses at David's grandparent's house with all his cousins.
Christmas Eve dinner! David's family has a tradition they call Journey to Bethlehem. You travel from Nazareth all the way to the Inn in Bethlehem. On the way there you stop at a restaurant for some traditional middle eastern food - you know like pitas, olives, fig (newtons), pomegranate seeds, cheese, etc.
David and I were chosen to play Joseph and Mary. I'm looking pretty good with that baby bump!
Christmas was wonderful and it was so great to have all of David's family over for Christmas Eve/Christmas Day. We even had David and Kelsi come stay the night on Christmas Eve. A total of 11 people in the house! Hopefully once our basement is done we can double that number with Dyneses one year! One of my favorite gifts were these sweet snow boots from David. I love them! They are completely water proof!
We spent New Year's Eve at David's parents house. We made muddy buddies, sang songs from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and finished out watching the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. It was a fun night!
David started the New Year with a black eye from basketball. This wasn't even the worst it got!
And an unknown neighbor caused us to start the New Year with a giant U in our yard! We'll find you one day and retaliate with a giant Y!!
That sums up our 2012! It was a fun year and I am so grateful for all the family and all our friends that make each year so wonderful. Here is to an even better 2013! We can't wait to see what it brings us!
