Water, water everywhere

This past weekend was the first time I've been away from Andrew since we've been married! It was kind of weird to make the drive up to Idaho by myself and to not have him with me while I visited with my family. But I'm glad I went up there to get to know my future sister-in-law better.

After camping in Firth Friday night for the Mortensen family reunion, I went shopping in Rexburg and helped my mom with the bridal shower for Megan, my brother's fiancee. It was fun to hang out with family and remember my own bridal shower, which happened about the same time last year.

It was also a rather eventful week because of this:

This is a picture from KSL of a parking lot in our condo's complex that was flooded Friday morning by the Little Cottonwood Creek, which also flooded Murray Park and caused our neighbor's sewer to back up. Every morning when we left the house for work, we were putting all of our belongings up on the table, couch or bed and praying we wouldn't come home to a flooded apartment. It looks like the worst has passed, but we're praying that the water doesn't get any higher! :)

S' Wonderful

I had a lovely weekend with Andrew in beautiful IDAHO!! Of course, it didn't start out too lovely...

After Andrew drove for three hours through horrible construction zones and standstill traffic, we ended up stopping in Pocatello to get our marriage license -- only to go through metal detectors and find out that with 15 minutes before closing time, we were $5 short in cash for the license. As Andrew ran to an ATM downstairs in the courthouse, I furiously filled out the form (my hands were shaking so badly I could barely write) and gave the woman my driver's license.

Once we'd made things official, we raced to Rexburg, making it to the distribution center with only 5 minutes to spare so I could buy my temple clothes. Andrew and I snarfed down Arby's (the only food we'd had in hours), and I got into my wedding dress for some quick bridal pictures in the BYU-Idaho gardens. Once we'd gotten a few pictures and the mosquitoes were biting us, Andrew and I finally made it to St. Anthony -- at about 9:30 at night. Our short trip (if traffic isn't too heavy, I can make it home in about 3 1/2 hours) had worn us out.

After I stayed up talking to my sister until about 1 a.m., I finally fell asleep -- and woke up at 5:30 when she decided to get up an HOUR AND A HALF early to make it to a class in Idaho Falls. I was not exactly happy -- but my time in the temple more than made up for it! We hurried home for a bridal shower that ended up being really fun, and then Andrew and I escaped for a trip to Mesa Falls, my FAVORITE PLACE in the world!

We finished off Saturday with a barbecue with Becky and Brandt and their cute kids. They shot me with Nerf guns (the kids, not Becky and Brandt) and dropped plastic spiders in my lap. Good times. :)

Two weeks from tomorrow, we will be MARRIED in Idaho Falls! I can't believe it's almost here! Andrew will be my husband for eternity, and we'll start keeping house and fixing plumbing problems and cooking and praying that we can scrape by with two meager incomes. But most of all, we'll be loving each other and working our hardest to make each other happy forever.

As George Gershwin would say, "S' wonderful. S' marvelous." It really is.