thanksgiving, the first.

Besides when we were serving missions, this was the first Thanksgiving away from home for the both of us. We have lived in SF for 3 weeks and will be going home for Christmas in just 3 week, so we couldn't swing a trip home for Thanksgiving this year. We did miss our families, but this first Thanksgiving as a family of two in the city was so great!

We slept in super late, made blueberry muffins (which were a little burnt, we don't know how to use a gas oven!) and then headed out for an adventure. 

First stop - Billy Goat Park. We climbed trees and took in the great view.

Next Stop: The mosaic tile stairway. Just a beautiful stairway in a neighborhood, pretty neat. A family from Switzerland offered to take our pictures....so of course we said yes!

Then, we hit the beach! We were in hats and coats, but I have never spent Thanksgiving on the beach, and let me tell ya, it was not a bad way to spend the holiday. I still can't believe we live here! 

By that point, I was getting hangry (angry due to hunger..) and so we stopped by Fisherman's Warf to get me some fish and chips. After paying way too much for some junky fish and chips, the seagulls decided to go all Alfred Hitchcock on me and surrounded me. One landed in my hand with the fish and chips and the other one almost on my head. It was traumatic and I had a really hard time eating my food thinking of all the places those dirty birds had been. 

We were planning on being adventurous and trying something Mediterranean or Asian for our Thanksgiving dinner. Trying to make a turkey for just the two of us didn't sound that fun. We called around to all the restaurants in the area and only found one restaurant open, the Arabian Sky. When we got there it was cold, had bad lighting, and was full of middle easterners staring at us wondering what we were doing there. Any other day I would have been excited to try something new, but for some reason all the homesickness hit me at once and all I could think about was how much I wanted a real thanksgiving dinner. So, Miles being the patient person he is, let me have a mini melt down and  we left the restaurant. We kept driving around to try to find a restaurant that was open, but everything was dark. Just when we were about the throw in the towel and go home for cereal, we reached Powell St. We parked the car and started walking. There she was! All warm and cozy on the corner, Roxanne's Cafe. The sign in the window said they were serving Thanksgiving dinner. (MIRACLE) We went inside and had a cozy, delicious, well lit, Thanksgiving dinner. We sat by the window and watched the trolly cars roll down the street and talked about funny Thanksgiving memories and what we are thankful for. It was perfect. Thank you Raxanne's Cafe for saving Thanksgiving!

After dinner we headed home and set up the Christmas tree. We finished off the day by watching the Thanksgiving episodes of Community and Gilmore Girls, our favorites.

I'm so thankful for so many things this year. I am grateful for the trials and learning experiences I have had this year. I am also grateful for the miracles and countless blessings that have been showered on me this year. I am grateful for Matt Miles, because he is the happiest and best thing that has ever happened to my life. I am thankful for my supportive family and friends. I'm grateful for adventures and experiences that rip me out of my comfort zone and make me grow. I'm grateful for burgers, cherry ice cream, and a washer & dryer for my house. I'm grateful for stretchy pants, Target, and pickels. I'm grateful for friendly people and dance parties in the kitchen. I'm grateful to live in America.. I'm grateful for facetime!! I am grateful for the scriptures. & above all, I am grateful for my Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ, whom I owe every bit of thanks for my happiness and blessings. 

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all!!

home.

It is no secret that living in San Francisco is expensive. Like beyond expensive. My little Utah mind has a hard time wrapping around the fact that people pay the same amount of money for rent in an old dumpy apartment in the city that someone in another state pays for a mortgage on a very nice home. 

But alas, this place is amazing, so crazy people like us come. 

Miles is a huge Giants fan and has always dreamed of working in San Francisco. He landed an awesome job with EY in the city, and I am so glad he did. All summer while we were dating, I knew that he would be leaving in the fall to start his job in San Francisco. That fact was a source of lots of mini anxiety attacks and 'what do we do's! When we made the decision to get married and have me move there as well, I was so nervous, but in the back of my mind I knew it would be awesome and I think my non-anxious side was craving an adventure. 

Apartment shopping was the worst. Well, for Miles it was the worst. He moved out to the city the beginning of September and lived in and Airbnb while he looked for a place for us to live. Everything was either super far away from the city, wayyyyy too expensive, had a shared bathroom with the neighbors, or had no oven or something crazy like that. Miles ended up putting a post on Craigslist with our profile and what we were looking for, and miraculously a woman reached out to him and asked us to come look at her home to rent. That doesn't just happen people! She was moving out of the country and needed someone to take care of her house while she is away. Turns out that the house was perfect for us. Great location, size, price, and it even has a washer and dryer! Apparently we were exactly what she was looking for as well, because she is letting us rent her house while she is gone, and she left us all her furniture to use as well. HALLELUJAH! 

This little home of ours is such a blessing from God. Heavenly Father is so good. Just when we start to panic and think that things aren't going to work out, He always steps in and shows us that He is watching out for us and that He is in the details of our lives. I love Him so deeply for that. I wish I could write down and explain all the miracles that have happened in the last year for me, but they are too many to count and so special to me. I don't know what I did to deserve all my blessings, I just hope that I use them the way God wants and that I can share them with others. 

This little home is the place of so many firsts. Our first homemade Sunday dinner together. Our first dance party on the wood floor. Our first Thanksgiving. Our time being real adults. I never want to forget this little home. 

The proposal.

The week before my birthday I decided to bite the bullet and finally have my deviated septum surgery. I hadn't been able to breath out of my nose for years, so they went in and cleared it out and made it so I can breathe out of my nose. (what a beautiful thing!!) It made me pretty sick though. The doctors said it would be a couple day recovery, but since I'm a very special girl, it took much longer than that. I had my flight all booked to go see Miles in SF for my birthday weekend and I was NOT going to miss that. So, the morning of my flight I was wondering if I was going to be well enough to go, I was all sorts of emotional...but I went and didn't even barf on the plane like I was expecting. :) (MIRACLE)

While on the airplane, I sat next to the nicest woman who asked me about my trip. I explained that I was flying out to see my boyfriend who I knew would soon be my fiancé. (I knew Miles had the ring, it was my birthday, we had a temple date, there were no surprises.) Anyway, this woman was the sweetest ever and offered to drive me to the bart station where I could meet Miles so I wouldn't have to ride in scary Oakland alone. (MIRACLE)

Miles and I hadn't seen each other in a month. It was 5:00pm, rush hour, there were a million people in the train station, I got off the train, and there he was! We ran and hugged and it felt like we were in a scene from a movie as people rushed around us. Ahhhh. (MIRACLE! Love is a miracle!)

Miles had been living in an Airbnb with a bunch of strangers, so I didn't exactly have a place to stay and hotels were about $300 a night in the city, yikes. Thankfully, Miles has a mission friend who lives in SF and let me stay with him and his wife for free! (MIRACLE)

We had so much fun exploring the city together. I was worried that I would be an anxiety case and not like San Francisco, but thankfully I felt so at peace and had an automatic love for the area. (MIRACLE)

On Saturday, my birthday, we went to breakfast and went apartment shopping. A woman contacted Miles from Craigslist and asked us to come see her house. I will tell more of this story in another post. Turns out it was another (MIRACLE!)

I had a pretty good idea that Miles would propose on my birthday, I just didn't know when! We had reservations at a great sea food restaurant called Scomas for dinner. We got dressed up and headed into the city for dinner, or so I thought. We ended up going to the Golden Gate Bridge first. Okay, if you haven't been to San Francisco and seen the Golden Gate Bridge, put it on your list of MUST SEES. Seriously, it's just a bridge, but it is amazingly beautiful and breathtaking. We drove across the bridge and up to Battery Spencer which has a great view of the bridge and the city in the background. We took a couple photos and took in the view, then headed back to the car to go to dinner....but wait...Miles went down the wrong trail where no one else was! He was fiddling with his bag and being a little weird, and then it hit me, he is doing it NOW!

Me being awkward as I am says, "Wait are you doing this now?" He said yes. We hugged and kissed, he told me some really cute and special things, he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I said YES! He gave me the most beautiful ring that there ever has been. It was so happy.

Across the way was a group of people who had been watching us. After we were done they were all cheering and yelling, it was hilarious. Then, these two older guys walk over and are like "what is going on! let us take some pictures of you!" This video was the result. I'm so grateful for those old men from Baltimore for helping us document the moment.

After the proposal, we went back to the car and called my Mom obviously. We went to a great dinner and to ice cream at Ghirardelli square. What a dream! I remember that my face hurt from smiling and every few minutes we would look at each other and say, "ahhh, we are engaged!!!"

So, there it was. We were engaged looking over the most beautiful Golden Gate Bridge in the city that we would soon call our home. Every time I see the golden gate bridge I will think of that day and the greatest adventure that started there. I'm so glad to have Matt Miles. He knows me the best and loves me the most. Life is so much more exciting, happy, and adventurous with him in it.

(MIRACLE)

engagement photos

We were together for a total of 3 days during our engagement. Weird, we know. Miles was in SF starting his job, living in a nasty airbnb, and I was home in Utah working. We decided a long distance relationship was not our favorite thing, hence the 4 week engagement.

Miles was able to fly home for the weekend so we could take our engagement photos. It was so much fun being together and pretending to be models for the day. Our awesome photographer, Lindsay made it such an enjoyable, comfortable experience. We were so happy with how they turned out. Here are some of my favorite! You can see the rest here: http://london.pixieset.com/mattcarrie/

the temple call.

All of my life I looked forward to finding the person that I wanted to spend eternity with. It has happened, and it completely has surpassed my expectations. The past six months of discovering real love, being engaged, sealed for eternity, and moving to San Francisco have been a complete (whirlwind) & dream. I never want to forget this time of my life. I know that in years from now, I will look back to these days with longing and happy memories. That's why I started this here little blog, so I don't forget. 

Here is a little memory that I never want to forget. (I can picture us showing this video to our kids in 20 years and giggling about it.) Calling the temple to set a marriage date! We were both a little nervous, scared, but mostly excited to take this leap. I love Matt Miles and watching our nervous and excited faces as we made this step towards eternity together. I'll forever be glad we did.

                 

the first.