Summer and Fall Fun 2009

We have a very busy and fun-filled summer, and its finally time I got around to blogging about it! It started off with visits from Branncik's parents and then my family (Brannick has to bribe people to come visit us with free dental work).
But after getting all fixed up in the dental chair we had a lot of fun playing tour guides around Oregon, including hiking to lots of amazing waterfalls, a jet boat rides down the Rogue River, and a trip to Crater Lake. Then Brannick and I went to Utah to run the Wasatch Back relay race. Brannick and I were on a team with ten other people, each running three legs, for a total of 112-miles, from Logan to Park City. It was an interesting experience, both tons of fun and complete torture at the same time.
We then took trips home to Nebraska for the 4th of July (see previous cow post) and then to Arizona for my sister Allison's wedding. And in between all of our big trips we've kept ourselves busy with canning, sewing (things I never thought I would be interested in doing), camping, triathlons, and shooting Brannick's new revolver.

Meeting the Cows

Brannick and I went to his parent's house in Nebraska for the 4th of July and I finally got to meet the rest of his family...the pet cows! Brannick mom and dad live on 80 acres and have kind of a hobby ranch where they raise 8 cows and harvest hay once a year. I've only ever been to there house in the summer time to help with the hay, and the cows always spend the summer on a big ranch so they can spend "quality time" with a bull, so I've never met the cows. But this time his mom and dad took me to meet the cows, and it was quite an experience. They warned me that the cows might not be as nice and tame as they normally are after being around wild cows so much, but as soon as the cows saw and heard Brannick's parents (and saw the big bag of food they were carrying), they broke from the wild cows and came running. It was so sweet (and kind of weird) to see how much the cows loved Brannick's parents and how affectionate they all were with each other. They all swarmed us, which was a little scary for me at first because I had never been that close to cows, and they are HUGE strong animals.
I didn't even care that they were all covered in flies and slobber because they were so cute and lovable. The funniest part was when it was time to leave and the cows just followed Brannick's dad like he was the pied piper because they wanted to go back home with him. And when they finally realized we were leaving without them they all just started mooing. So now I feel like I have finally met and been accepted by Brannick's whole family, including the cows Oreo, Annabelle, Muffin, Sweet Pea, and four other ones who I can't remember their names.

Our honeymoon in Costa Rica was amazing! We rented a car and drove all over the country, which was an adventure because there are no street signs, street names, or really any traffic laws in general. We stayed at the base of volcanos, rapelled down waterfalls, rode zip lines through the rain forest, swam on beautiful beaches, white whiter rafted through the jungle, soaked in romantic hot springs, saw breathtaking sunsets, and saw lots of wildlife (including a HUGE spider that chased me down the hall way of our room one night).

One of the highlights of our trip was going on the "Crocodile Man Tour" where our guide, on two seperate occasions, got out of the boat and feed the giant crocodiles by hand, it was insane, and the perfect honeymoon!The guides had lots of scars on their hands from previous tours that hadn't gone so well.

I am finally getting around to Blogging, Connie is going to be so happy! Brannick and I were married February 20th, 2009 in the Mesa, AZ Temple. It was the perfect day, clear blue sky, pleasantly warm but not hot, all my family and friends, and the most perfect man I could ever imagine.
My wonderful and incredibly creative mother planned and did all the decorations for our reception that night in Tucson. And not even a major construction project in the church cultural hall the day before the wedding could stop the celebration. Thank you to all of my amazing family and friends who were there with us, and for those who supported us and sent their best wishes from a distance, you all really made the day so much more special for Brannick and I. We don't have all of our pictures back from the photographer yet, but here's the link to see the ones of Brannick and I. http://www.sloanphotographers.info/darkroom/share/?client/2009/emilybranicktemplesession