If I Could Go Back...

I was cleaning out my 'random' documents file and found an old journal entry that I had written before I left Maryland, so I thought I would post it! This is how I felt before I came back to Utah!

"Wow! I cannot believe that in three days I'll be making the drive back to Utah. Surprisingly enough the feelings of going home are very,very bittersweet.

Don't get me wrong, I am very excited to be back and to be with my family and get this wedding completely planned but there are a lot of things that I'm not excited about being back to, such as being back in the mixture of millions of members, construction, dealing with cut throat drivers, and everything being cookie cutter and nothing all to extraordinary. I will miss the diversity of living in Maryland, the humidity, the brick row homes, beautiful old stone churches on every corner, green trees, the diverse people, amazing thunderstorms, the fatty foods from Bubba's and Season's Pizza, and being in a centralized area to so many awesome places!

I feel like living out here that I have grown up a ton, I have been sheltered for so long in Utah that I didn't understand that such cultures as in Maryland could be so different from the one that I lived in Utah. In Utah, everyone seems to be a member of the church, out in Maryland you'd be lucky to find a member randomly in a store. In Maryland, I strived to be able to feel the spirit and was able to recognize what things brought the spirit into my life; where back at home it was hard to differentiate because the spirit was always felt. I am excited to go to church out here and to socialize with individuals who have the same beliefs as I do because every day of the week being able to do that is a rare treat.

I will miss Maryland!"

Looking back on my experiences and photos, Maryland really is a beautiful state. When there are no mountains and just miles of plains, they produce some of the most beautiful sunsets. 

This was on top of the parking garage of where we lived, {we lived in the building pictured}. I will definetely miss the spectacular sunsets!

This picture was just taken a few minutes prior to the first picture. Beautiful!

This is a video of the sunset, I included this here only because we took video of the area near where we lived. The Catholic church I saw every day, the cemetery, the Towson Mall and where I lived.{Disregard some of Jamison's comments on the video...please!}. This is a neat video to always have to remember where I have been and what I saw during this summer.

Blog Overload

I am very excited to report that I now have the free time to start blogging! Now that the wedding is over and that I am now nestled into my new home with my husband that I can now blog! With that being said, there will be a lot of photos, and old news that I would like to catch up on since this is my form of a journal.

Please enjoy while I fill you in on both my old and new adventures. {Don't worry, there will be wedding pictures coming soon!}

Hugs, Kisses, and a new name change,

                Auburn Garner

24?!

Yes! 24 is correct! Jamison, (my husband) just turned 24 yesterday! 

{I tease him that he is now a quarter of a century, it didn't make him feel better that I am only a fifth of a century!} 

Our parents would groan if they knew that we thought that we were old! 

Because it is our first birthday as a newlywed couple, I had a lot of pressure, mostly self inflicted pressure...only because I had to make it a good one without breaking our 'hardly there' budget. So...with a couple tricks up my sleeves I had to get crafty with the things I had. Starting with my birthday sign, made out of markers and index cards...{hey...I don't know where anything is at still....sue me!} And with presents of some of Jamison's favorite treats.....I did my best to make his birthday his best one yet!

His first present happened to be in the fridge, so Wednesday afternoon after I had gone shopping he was banned from the refrigerator. He was a good sport for the most part, I think I starved him just a little bit though since he didn't have access to the fridge though...oh well! The stuff you sacrifice when it's your birthday! I sound mean...but to him, the present outweighed the sacrifice by far!

I got Jamison a gallon of Whole Milk, his absolute favorite! I had told him that when we got married that we were going to have skim milk throughout our marriage because whole milk is disgusting....hence the milk carton to the right...but for his birthday I thought I would let this rule slide for the day. 

Before we went to lunch at Panda Express, his favorite place to go eat, I let him open up one of his gifts. Once again, it is another of one of his favorite treats!

After a great lunch, Jamison had to go to his Ceramics class for a couple hours....so while he went to class Cierra, Paige and I tackled a dessert recipe that I had randomly found online that had potential of being liked by him. Since Jamison loves peanut butter in about anything, there was a really good chance that he would ike it, and besides that...this recipe had enough peanut butter to make anyone happy...that or to go into cardiac arrest!

The original recipe called for it to be in a loaf pan, but since I didn't have the correct size of pans for about anything, I thought cupcake sized bites would be better. And it was better! The dessert is so rich that it would have been difficult to have eaten anything more than just a cupcake sized bite!

It turns out that the little cookie on top looks like a tombstone, to make Jamison feel better about himself I told him that it was in Halloween 'spirit', he didn't seem to believe me..but I don't think he cared either way!

Before dinner and the dessert party, I allowed Jamison to open up the last of his gifts. He once again loved all of his gifts! {I was so embarrassed by how cheap the gifts were, but thankfully he loved how simple they were!} Jamison is so great!

 I had invited his family and my sisters to come to dessert at 7 o'clock at our house so he could blow out candles etc. Since Mama Garner is an excellent chef/cook/baker I was really nervous that my recipe I was trying out was going to fail. I was so worried that no one was going to like it that Mama Garner brought ice cream just in case it really did suck! So although I had a back up dessert, I still was nervous! Bless their hearts, the Garner family are such nice people that even if they didn't like it they still would have been nice enough to say that they had liked it. Luckily, everyone loved the dessert, including Jamison, and it was a great success!

This is the birthday man with his yummy leftovers! Judging by his face, he loved it! Success!

After a couple of rousing games of Crooked Rook with his family we watched a couple of episodes of Psych and called it early for bed! It had been a busy and eventful day and we were both tired from the festivities. 

After reading scriptures for the night Jamison told me that he had had a wonderful birthday, and that he couldn't have been any happier! It makes me so happy that my husband enjoyed his day, Happy Birthday Jamison!  

4th of July!

Amazing things happened when Hudson, Jamison and I went to Washington DC for the 4th of July, one amazing thing being proposed to by my wonderful now fiancé! I just thought for this post that I would let all the pictures do the talking, and in some areas make my comments be known. Enjoy!

If wanting to go to DC on the 4th, forget about driving!! The best way to go is by the Metro, for $9 you get an all day pass on the Metro and can travel into DC without having to worry about taking a car and finding parking spots! The only problem? Millions of other people too are taking the Metro too, it literally is the only form of transportation out here for the 4th that can get everyone in and out of the city in the least amount of havoc possible! 

And riding on the Metro is actually a lot of fun, it moves pretty quickly and when times start to get boring the individuals riding on the Metro are quite entertaining to watch. The Rail Operator was hilarious to listen to as well, you could tell he was enjoying working on a holiday so that I could go out and have fun....

When we finally got off the Metro we headed toward the Washington Monument (hard to miss!) so Hudson could take a look around. Hudson didn't have any pictures of the area so we made sure to include him in a lot of photos during this trip. I personally love this picture, it seems to fit Hudson and I's relationship to the T. We aren't touching, the look of harassment clearly shown on our faces. Hudson is my favorite.

The Washington Monument is huge!!

This is Hudson trying his best to look bad "A" protecting America. Strangely I don't feel very safe...

This is at the World War II Memorial, it was so bloody hot and humid that we had no choice but to put our feet in the water like everyone else. 

It was a beautiful, extremely hot day, notice that my hair is no longer long but up in a pony tail?!

In front of the Lincoln Memorial, that paper I was holding was smashed into smithereens by the end of the day. It was the thing thing a street vendor could have given me, a homemade fan!

The Lincoln Memorial is very neat, and in a room that is quite suffocating with all of the tourists and humidity!

Fail....

Much more realistic!

Jamison took this picture from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, it was so hot and only 3 PM that we decided to take a long rest on the stairs and to just hang out and snack on some food that I had brought. In the meantime we took pointless pictures that nonetheless were part of the experience!

After several hours on the stairs and a quick bite of food from a very expensive vendor...we headed back towards the monument to save us a spot for the fireworks later that evening. Who knew that it would take over an hour to walk to the other side, but it sure was worth it! 

These were our seats, right in front of the Washington Monument facing the Lincoln Memorial, with a couple of outstretched blankets and some friends from the office we all just hanged out and relaxed listening to the Navy Band perform!

I have this picture to show you the before and after stages of how many people filled into this field, so this is the picture earlier in the afternoon....

and this is right as the sun was setting (obviously!) It was crazy to see how many people could fit onto this field!

This shot was a glimpse to try and see how many people were on the stairs of the Lincoln, the lights happened to be turning on while we took this shot. The fireworks were getting closer!!

The fireworks were spectacular, and not too long into the show Jamison got on one knee and proposed! 

This was taken as we were racing back to the Metro station to beat the crowd of millions of people. We were lucky that only several thousand people beat us to the station and not the millions! There were so many squished into the square that it was crazy, and incredibly humid. It was so hot it was nearly suffocating, to be more disgusting I knew I was breathing at least several hundred people's sweat....even more gross I was covered in it! Yuck!

It was crazy, but definitely worth the experience. I would suggest everyone to come out to DC on the 4th of July. Nothing like spending the nation's birthday at the nation's capital!

The Big News!

                Dear Everyone:

So it turns out that I was a little burned out with the million posts I posted at the beginning of July. I just had a lot of adventures from that weekend previous to the 4th of July that I wanted to post before I divulged my not very well kept secret...but alas...I'll share it now!

I'm engaged!

It is one of the most romantic {amazing} proposals anyone could ever dream of. It took place in front of the Washington Monument...

while watching fireworks...

on the 4th of July at our nation's capital! 

It was perfect! 

Confession: I knew he was going to propose beforehand that evening, Jamison left his phone on the blanket and Hudson happened to have sent a text talking about the proposal that evening...for some reason I know all of Jamison's surprises! But I loved it nonetheless. 

Hudson supposedly took video of the proposal, but it didn't work. But the video he took after the proposal worked!

Jamison and I are getting married on October 8th in the Mt. Timpanogos Temple!

                              Hugs, kisses and now a ring,

auburn

Makes My Heart Melt...

Although my birthday was yesterday, {I'm now 20!!!} my sister Savanna and my niece Jade made a little video for my birthday! And it was adorable! This was the post that they put on the Gunn blog yesterday and I wanted to remember this forever!

Happy Birthday Auburn!

We wish you were here so we could take you to Italian Village for your birthday but since you are so far away, this little video will have to suffice. We hope you enjoy it.

Hope you have a great birthday. We love you and are thinking of you.

Love, Aaron, Savanna, Jade and Dahlie

See? Didn't that make your heart melt? It made mine!

Yesterday was a wonderful birthday with many renditions of Happy Birthday from both my family and the Garner's, an awesome package from home full of goodies, Hudson took me to lunch at Panda Express and Jamison did a scavenger hunt in the evening to determine where he was taking me out to dinner, which ended up being at the Towson Diner. All of the techs in the office made sure to wish me a happy birthday {I think Hudson put them up to it} and even one of the service techs, David, bought me cookies! It was a great birthday!

The Chocolate Wrap Up

Thanks again for taking us to Chocolate World! This is one experience that I hope to never forget anytime soon!