June

Wow! It's June -- how did that happen??

Summer has begun and now Tyler will spend the next 3 months of his life in Parade Homes in Utah! From Utah Valley to Northern Wasatch to Salt Lake then Park City ... busy summer but they've done a lot of homes this year!!

Right now we've got the Utah Valley Parade through June 14th. Check him out, he'll be in home 14 & 16 with the system they installed!

WE MOVED

It was sad to leave our little apartment in Provo. We'd lived there ever since we got married! But now with both of us driving to SLC every day -- it didn't make much sense to waste hours driving & hundreds of dollars on gas each month. So... for the summer we are living in the Papa's house in Lehi. They are in Cali this summer, so we're just renting it from them while we find out where we really want to end up in SLC.

Upstairs we've got all our bedroom furniture, but downstairs it's mostly their stuff. We're enjoying living in a neighborhood and excited for this new phase of our lives!

Vegas Take 2!!

So, there was an earlier post about Tyler going to Vegas and leaving his wife behind.. well this last Vegas trip, the wife was invited! A week after graduation we stayed at the Luxor for 2 nights on the strip. Tyler did a little work while Rach did a little sun bathing. We saw 2 cirque de solei ?? spelling ?? shows -- KA and Le Reve. Both awesome and very different from eachother. Ka was the fire picture, and Le Reve was a water show.

It's been a crazy two weeks since that Vegas trip, Rachel went to Arizona for 3 days, Tyler went to St. George, & we moved to Lehi! So it's been crazy and we'll update in the next day or so with some more pics of our temporary house in Lehi...

GRADUATION

I'm a BYU Graduate! We had a fun weekend with family & friends in town for graduation last week... It's kinda crazy that now we are both BYU Grads, leaving Provo and joining the young professional crowd. Salt Lake City -- here we come!

Vegas "Getaway"

So these past couple weeks have been full of exciting events! The end of the semester is coming and the weather has finally gotten nice! General Conference was great and we enjoyed attending sessions in the conference center and sitting down with the general authority's familys (thank you Travis!) We even got a little suntan after sitting outside, who would have thought!! Rachel attended her last class at BYU ever, and a then a last-minute 6 day trip to fabulous Las Vegas! The only thing wrong with the situation was that the trip was taken just by Tyler, as Rachel stayed home ... working and taking finals - Lame!


The above picture is a bit misleading because he wasn't leaving his wife for fun on the strip, his company had a last minute deal to go down and install their automation system in this very formal $4 million dollar home (see below) So he's staying at some random cheap hotel, down with a couple guys from the company working 12 hour days. Since it was so-last minute, they had only 2 days to completely install the house.

There is a Parade of Homes down in Vegas this month so thousands of people will be coming through this home. Tyler gets to show off what their company can actually do in this house rather than sitting in the garage with a tv like he had done in other Parades. It was a pretty good last minute opportunity, it's just been really stressful for Tyler and a long week for Rachel. Tyler headed down early Tuesday morning and is heading home tonight (Sunday) so 6 days later .. we can celebrate the end of the semester haha.

Obviously this house is pretty big, and they wanted 8 plasma TVs! I figured they just wanted one in every bathroom and bedroom wall possible, but then Tyler sent the following picture...

I don't really understand the need for 3 tvs on one wall, especially when they're all showing the same movie on all three AND they're in the "billiards room" -- which doesn't look like the coziest setting. Either way, they wanted to drop the bucks, so they're not going to stop them. There have been several people who have been very interested in the company so hopefully this crazy week will all be worth it in the end.

One last final on Tuesday -- then Rachel will officially be a BYU Grad!!

Maybe one day we'll have a backyard like this???

The rest of March

Tyler and I had a fun easter by eating dinner with my grandparents and other extended family up in Salt Lake. We also went with Paige and got to pose with the Easter bunny, lucky us! My mom still gets Paige and I easter dresses and now Tyler even gets an Easter tie -- and of course she gets it to match my dress ..

Here is a pic with my cousins and grandpa posing out by the golf course. On my dad's side of the family, I only have two cousins - here they are - Dure & Sarah. A little different from the typical Mormon family reunion haha. Anyways, my grandpa really is a nice guy - he just refuses to smile for pictures. Even at our wedding it was a struggle to get him to grin just a little bit...

I walked into our bedroom one night after doing homework in the other room to find this scene. Ty just looked so comfy on our huge bed. For those of you who have been to our little apartment, you've probably felt our soft bed. Ty has pretty much everyone feel it because we're both obsessed with it! As Tyler says -- go King or go Home .. ok he doesn't really say that - but we love our King bed.

Last weekend I took a quick trip down to Arizona to be with family and go to my friend Brook's wedding reception. Here are some pictures...

Now Tyler & I are getting ready to leaave Provo. I graduate this month! April 24th - can't believe it! But now that I'll be working full time in Murray, we'll be wanting to live a bit closer to Salt Lake. Tyler's job takes him all over the valley, but he's finding himself in SLC more and more often, so it will be good for both of us. It will be weird to leave Provo - I've been here for 4 years, Tyler's been here ... well .... forever, right?? Well , life is changing but we still are loving each other more and more each day. It's been a great 13 months of marraige. We love seeing all your updates as well!

Tyler Writes

Rachel has been saying I need to post on our blog for a long time. I go in the other room to make a phone call and guess what pops up on my screen while I'm away!? So here I am entering the blogosphere..

Rach and I are staying busy, I'm very proud of Rachel, she's doing quite the balancing act right now. She is finishing up her accounting degree this semester (Tuesday, Thursdays) and working 8 hour days Monday, Wednesday, Friday with her new accounting firm Child, VanWagoner, Bradshaw. When I stop and think about how talented she is it really amazes me.

I should probably introduce Rachel to some of my friends who moved away from Provo before we were married. She is from Mesa, AZ. She is the oldest of four children, one sister at BYU (who happens to be dating my lil bro!), a bro in high school, and the cutest 8 year-old brother I've ever seen. Rachel is a great runner, she won the 800 meter run for Arizona in high school, and was all-state jazz choir, and obviously very smart to be an accountant. I know I'm bragging, but she really motiviates me to develop my talents. She is a constant reminder of what hard work can become, she is obedient (to a fault, if that is such a thing). For all of you who know me, you know I'm the opposite. I'm naturally kind of a person who slides by, and normally bend rules, etc.. So she helps me get more to the good side.

Some things most of you will never know about Rachel.. she has a 1000 different voices for different moods, loves to jump in my arms, is always up for a good cuddle (which I'm always willing to do), is a great dancer, and is actually really ghetto.

There's a little info on Rachel, in terms of what I'm up to. I'm working on Imperium Smart Systems, a company that focuses on home automation and home theater. Quick example, we tie in a home's systems. We program it so a homeowner can push a "Goodbye" button on a touch screen and the security system will arm, lights go off, thermostat turns down, and music turns off. The trend nationally is very good for our product, and we've done well in making our self well-known. We won a national Microsoft competition, and I was interviewed today by a writer for USA Today! So that's pretty sweet. It's been a great learning experience trying to create something from scratch, it's ten times harder than I thought it would be, but it has also been very rewarding.

Anyway, for all of those who read this know that I enjoy keeping tabs on you and hope life is joyful! Please keep in touch!