You’ve been bugging us for a while now, and we are proud to say that the rumors are true….

We’ve switched back to blogger. I just want so badly to be consistant at blogging and Tumblr is less user friendly. Also, Dave promised me that he would post more if we switched back to blogger. So, look forward to that. Also, to give you incentive to add our new blog address to your blog scrolls I have posted not one but TWO new posts. Yes, I know, I’m surprised myself. So, without further ado… I present our new blog address:

http://daveandlizheywood.blogspot.com

I promise to be better at posting. :)

My very most favorite day in the world. I love August 17. Today, one year ago, this happened…

I can hardly believe Dave and I have been married for a year now. In some ways it seems like we’ve been married forever (in a good way), in others it seems like this year just flew by and I my mind is playing tricks on me.

There have been: a few tears, but more laughter. A few fights, but more fun. A few cupboards left open, but more dishes done. A few spontaneous spendings, but more money saved. And a few stupid things said, but many more “I love you”s.

Unfortunately today also happens to be Dave’s first day of law school orientation :(

But we celebrated on Monday with a game of Tennis, Golf, lunch out, and Dinner and evening in Park City. It was wonderful to spend the entire day with Dave. He doesn’t like it when I get too mushy on the blog so I’ll just say this: This has been the most wonderful year, a learning curve for sure, but it’s been a great journey. I love him even more then that wonderful day I married him!

This will be embarrassing. But at this point I do not even care. Please watch the following clips in secession and then ask yourself this question: What type of person am I?

There is really only one answer to that question-and I have become the former. Despite the fact that I’m 40 years too late and Neil looks kinda like a child molester. Live on Neil.

Dave and I constantly discuss the fact that we are inconsistent bloggers. It isn’t because we don’t DO anything, on the contrary we have been soooooooooooooo busy this summer. The following is a list of things we should have but haven’t blogged about:

The St. Louis ending to our trip in June

Canyoneering with the Thomas Fam in Moab (where our camera gave up the ghost to the river!)

Lake Powell with Hancock side of Dave’s extended family

Spontaneous camping trip with our friends the Clyde’s

My never-ending job hunt (which has basically lasted all summer long, so I really don’t have an excuse for not blogging)

Our day-trip to Logan where we toured the Pepperidge Farm Factory and bought a HUGE bag of goldfish discounted for $2.00 (we also saw a play, and ate at an AWESOME mexican restaurant)

Watched my parent’s house and my little brother for the weekend, where Dave actually let my FOURTEEN year old brother drive the car….(my parents know now, so the secret is out)

I discovered how to make the BEST homemade lemonade ever, and made it four times in 2 weeks.

Not to mention the REAL SALT LAKE game we went to where we actually thought to snag this picture (although let the record show we both hate how this one turned out):

Our last trip of the summer was my family reunion in Oceanside (sorry, this was the only picture we took).

It was so great to be with my family, we love them so much and have so much fun when we all get together. Dave did take the following picture when we stayed over night in Vegas. Don’t look too close-I’d been traveling all day.

While in California we got to see some of Dave’s family too. Dave’s uncle John was kind enough to put us up for the night and introduce us to a seriously AWESOME italian restaurant and afterward we got to see Dave’s aunt and her family on her birthday!

We’re sad our vacationing is over considering how much we both love to travel and that the next four years we will become even more poor as Dave goes to law school and kisses his grown-up job/salary good bye.

However, we’re happy to be where we are right now and who we’re with. We had an awesome day today as we went to the Wasatch County Fair and then to hit some golf balls at the Wasatch State Park golf course-just for fun. Dave and I are determined to become pro golfers, but I will definitely need more practice….

Notice his form…

Notice how I’m not even swinging at the ball really, that’s how bad I am… :)

But I am happy!

Thanks for the wonderful afternoon Dave!

Alright I give up! Dave has been pestering me to write about the days we were in Nauvoo. I wish I had pictures of us to upload but….we lost our camera to the river (more on that later).

Saturday: We started out by eating breakfast at Grandpa John’s Café. And went straight to do a session in the BEAUTIFUL Nauvoo Temple. I know I’m a little biased because I served my mission there and all, and I went to the Nauvoo temple EVERY WEEK, but seriously, it really IS the most beautiful temple. Dave loved it too.

We took the Wagon ride to get a good overview of the layout of the city and then popped in on my mission president an his wife. We LOVE the Ludwigs, and I’m fairly certain they love Dave :)

We toured the FLC (Family Living Center), the Bakery, the Blacksmith, and Brigham Young home before we headed into the air-conditioned NVC (Nauvoo Visitor Center-should I stop with all the abbreviations? :) for “High Hopes and River Boats”. I tried my utmost not to sing along.

Of course a trip to Nauvoo is not complete without dining at Hotel Nauvoo. No joke, it is the BEST food in town. Dave and I felt like Bob Wiley chowin’ down on Faye Marvin’s hand-shucked corn.

That night it rained, so we watched “Sunset on the Mississippi” inside L, oh well, you win some, you loose some.

We turned in early but not without switching between some “Everybody Loves Raymond” reruns and X-men 2 (thankfully it was on the TV to prep us for X-Men First class!).

Sunday:

This is SO embarrassing, but we missed church! Those extra dependable cell phone alarms just didn’t come through. And because church is at 8:00am in Nauvoo we naturally did not wake up of our own accord to get there on time. However, we made up for it by going to the Carthage Jail. I LOVE Carthage. I was trained there, I trained two sisters there, AND served there right before I went to New Jersey. Needless to say it has a special place in my heart.

Dave, in spite of being warned to keep quite and not be a smart aleck, insisted on asking the sister where the bloodstain is.

Let me take a moment to clarify right now:

            1)No one can prove that the dark spot in the Martyrdom room is actually blood. It could be ink or any other liquid substance. Further more, it is unlikely with all the blood being spilt in that room that day that only one spot would remain, and we certainly can’t prove that if it was blood, and if it was from that fateful day, that it would be Joseph Smith’s blood.

            2)The floor plank with the dark stain was removed from the Jail in the 1980’s people! It hasn’t been there for almost 30 years! Visitors were so obsessed with “the blood stain” when they came to Carthage that they were distracted from the spirit in the room. Consequently President Kimball said this, “We’ve mourned over a stain long enough, let’s have it removed.” The entire plank is gone, it’s in church archives.

So next time you visit Carthage, don’t go looking for it. Don’t bend down and proudly exclaim, “I think I see it!” In fact don’t bother the poor sister who gave you the tour with questions about the bloodstain, I can assure you that she, just like we did when I was there, keeps a running tally of how many times she gets asked that question J

The rest of the day was full of more homes and sites. My favorite is always the Heber C. Kimball home. We found the Johnston’s serving there, they were there as a senior couple when I was there! Dave’s favorite was the Browning Gun Home. Yes, that’s the home of THE Jonathon Browning.

In the evening we went to a fireside where Susan Easton Black spoke about the SL Temple and Nauvoo Temple being bookends. After that, in true Nauvoo fashion we went to the Ludwig’s for an ice cream social. I was only somewhat self conscious that this was what we did every Sunday night on my mission. Dave commented about how he tracted J in the rain.

Alright Dave, you promised me you’d do St. Louis if I did Sat and Sun of Nauvoo. She’s all yours ….

We spent our last morning in Chicago eating deep dish pizza for breakfast (again. just me though. Lizzie had a bagel). We took the brown line for a while to see the city, and then we walked around Millenium Park to take pictures at the Bean and to feel bad for at least 30 kids who wore their swim suits to the fountains only to find a cruel sign that said Shut Down for Maintenance.

We ate lunch at Portillo’s, and then picked up our rental car for the second leg of our journey.

We left Chicago in a snarlnof traffic. It took about an hour to drive 20 miles on the freeway. We finally distanced ourselves from the mess, and four tollbooths, five hours, and a bag of Neon Sour Gummis later, we were pulling into Nauvoo.

We got a room at the Motel Nauvoo. Not our first choice, I’ll admit, but the room wasn’t actually that bad. There must have been something spooky, crazy, or just off about the room, though, because inside of it was the first time I can ever remember that Lizzie felt warm and I felt cold. That just doesn’t happen with us.

Lizzie is the best tour guide for Nauvoo. She served her mission there, and so is a fountain of Nauvoo Knowledge. We spent our first evening in Nauvoo watching the Rendezvous in Old Nauvoo show that the senior missionaries put on. It was a lot of fun. Lizzie knew all of the songs and all of the lines and I was not embarrassed at all when she started singing along. Ok, I guess I was SLIGHTLY embarrassed. The show was a lot of fun—some of the senior couples really get into it. They did a great job!

We began our second full day in Chicago with leftover deep dish pizza for breakfast. I noticed the incredible amounts of cheese they put in the pizza the second time around. Lizzie ate her piece without reheating it; I had to put mine in the microwave. There was just too much cheese to feel good about eating as a solid mass—i needed it liquified.

We spent the next hour or so walking to the Northwestern campus. We toured the law school (beautiful facilities! I loved it.) and then we did some more window shopping on the Magnificent Mile, mainly because Liz discovered an Anthroplogie store (what’s so great about that store, ladies? I still don’t understand)

After about twenty minutes looking for the Metra station at Millenium Park (Google maps: yes, technically, you are correct, the station is underneath the park. But the entrance is across the street on a completely different block! Please change your map accordingly), we boarded a Metra train and headed south to 59th street and the University of Chicago campus. We toured the law school. Lizzie loved the UChicago campus, while I preferred the Northwestern diggs. While at the Chicago campus, we also walked all around the campus looking for a sweatshirt for Lizzie (long story short: women get cold, especially when it’s very windy, even in June). We found the perfect jacket and then caught a bus for….

…the Museum of Science and Industry. We happened to come on a free day, which was a wallet-happy surprise. Highlights of the museum: robots, astronaut ice cream, tsunami wave exhibits, and a crazy interactive mirror.

After the museum closed, we caught a bus back to downtown, then hitched onto another bus to Navy Pier. We ate at the Harey Carey restaurant. Lizzie didn’t really like her club sandwhich but I had the Holy Cow burger and it was incredible. It was juicy, flavorful, and had the perfect amount if sauteed mushrooms and onions. After dinner, we walked to the Shakespeare theater and watched a two-actor murder musical called Murder for Two. The show was funny and entertaining. We both enjoyed it.