finally getting settled!

It has been a whirlwind these past few weeks. We came home from Montana and had less than 2 days before we had to move. We got everything cleaned and packed and then high-tailed it down to Utah. We had to check in at our new place before 5pm, and we got here at 4:45pm! That cut it too close for me. We had some of our awesome friends and family help us get everything into our new place, and for that we are super grateful!

We have now lived in Utah for a little over a week and I am still trying to adjust. It is so different from Rexburg! We actually live near stuff now! I can just drive 1/2 mile down the road and have everything I ever want/need in my reach.

We are slowly unpacking everything for our apartment. We finally got internet and cable today, and last week we bought a new couch and a washer/dryer set. I suddenly feel so old by getting excited about new appliances!

Brandon started his internship yesterday and it seems like it will give him good experience! I am still searching for a job, and hopefully I find one soon. I need to be proactive and busy. The less I have to do the lazier I get. I am just hoping that I will be able to find something soon.

I guess I need to start cooking more since I have all this time on my hands! :)

Utah Bound!

Well it is official! We are moving to Utah next week for Brandon's internship. We have been waiting (and praying) for many months to know where we are heading after our college days. Brandon has accepted an internship with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a Product Manager Intern. He will be working in Riverton, UT from January until April. We will be making the move sometime next week so we can be somewhat settled by the time he starts his job. We are so thrilled and blessed to have this opportunity! I have been searching for a job, so hopefully something will present itself soon. I am just so happy that Brandon will be completing his internship and will be learning in such a great environment. He will have such a great experience and it will hopefully help us when we are looking for a real job in the future.

We are going to miss all of our friends in Idaho! It is going to be weird moving, but I know that it is the best thing for our little family.

We hope everyone had a great Christmas! Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

graduation!

The day I never thought would arrive finally did! As we were going through all of the events and ceremonies associated with graduation, it never really felt real. It felt like I was just going through the motions and that I would just have to start school again in a few weeks. I'm not sure when it will actually sink in, but I am glad that I am finally done!

My parents and sisters and Brandon's parents were able to come up for graduation. We loved having them all here to celebrate with us! Graduation day was also Brandon's 24th birthday and Kamilla's 20th birthday! It was such a busy day for our family. We were able to go to Applebee's (the only real restaurant in Rexburg) before the events for a birthday/graduation dinner. I felt so bad that both Brandon and Kamilla had to suffer through a graduation on their birthday! But oh well, they will get over it :)

It was so cold that night, so I decided it would not be the best thing to wear my open-toe black heels. But with the graduation gown I couldn't wear my boots either, that would have looked super weird. So I was stuck wearing my 4 inch (maybe taller) purple heels. My feet were killing me the entire night! Not to mention during the processional it felt like one of my heels was going to snap while walking to my seat! To avoid a disaster such as that, I had to walk slower. This created a HUGE gap between me and the person in front of me. People were staring.

There were two parts to graduation, commencement and convocation. Commencement is where all of the graduates gather and we are addressed by the President of the University and a guest speaker. Convocation is where the graduates separate by college and actually have their names read and walk across the stage to receive their diploma cover.

Commencement was in the new BYU-Idaho Center. It is the huge new auditorium and it can seat around 16,000 people. Our convocation was then held in the Hinckley Building on the opposite side of campus. We decided that we should walk over there because it would have been such a pain to find our cars and then fight for another parking spot. It has been a very dry semester. It has only snowed a handful of times and even then it wasn't that bad. Luck would have it that right as we were leaving Commencement it started to snow! And if any of you know Rexburg, you know how bad the wind is. The combination of the snow and the wind made for a very interesting walk from the I Center to the Hinckley.

Everyone always mispronounces our last name. They always say Heinrick or Henrick or some form of it. Brandon and I were joking that they would mispronounce it when we walked across the stage, and they didn't disappoint! At our convocation (I walked with Brandon's college) they had two different people reading the names. Brandon walked first and I was just behind him. Brandon handed his name card to one guy, and I handed mine to the other. They BOTH said Henrick! Haha it was so funny. And the guy reading Brandon's card said his major was Social Work when it is Sociology. Their mistakes gave us great memories that we will laugh at for years to come.

After graduation, we all came back to our apartment to have ice cream cake for the birthday boy and girl! All in all it was a great day! We can't believe that this part of our lives is done. We never thought it would come, and now that it is here we aren't sure what to do. We are still working on getting Brandon an internship, but we have a feeling that good things will start coming our way! Here are some pictures from the big day!

(at our apartment before the activities) 

(the BYU-Idaho Center during Commencement) 

 (right after Commencement--look at those shoes!)

(with my parents) 

(i love my sisters! missing Chad though!) 

(us with my sweet cousin Jaime who sat through the whole thing!) 

 (both of our families who came)

(officially alumni!) 

(the video of me walking across the stage. notice how he says my name! haha)

a new beginning

I can't believe that I am finally done with college. Sometimes it felt that it would never get here. But now it is here and it doesn't seem real. I have been finished with my classes since Monday and today was my last day of work. It hasn't sunk in yet that our time in Rexburg is over. This has been our home and security blanket for the past 4 1/2 years so it will be a very big change once we actually move.

We still don't know exactly where we are going just yet. Brandon has an interview tomorrow at a very up and coming company in Idaho Falls. Hopefully that works out for us so we can get things ready to move there. I don't really want to move to Idaho Falls, but a job is a job and we can't turn down a job at this point.

On a good note, my family is coming tomorrow! They flew into Salt Lake today and they are driving up tomorrow. I am so excited for them to get here! Maybe then it will actually sink in that I am graduating. These next few days are going to be really busy, but really great!

On to bigger and better things!

(our graduation announcement)

Kamilla's Visit/Trip to Jackson, WY

We have had a pretty eventful couple of weeks. My little sister Kamilla came up to visit us last weekend. I loved seeing her! She came up last Friday and stayed until Sunday. We wish she could have stayed longer. The weather that weekend was just horrible. It kind of ruined our plans. We were going to go to the Haunted Straw Maze they have every year in Rexburg, but the snow and the extremely cold weather ruined that for us. So instead we kind of had a lazy weekend just hanging out and being together. On Saturday we went to Idaho Falls for some shopping and then we walked around campus. Later that night we had our cousin Jaime come over for some of my mom's famous Chicken Supreme.

(me, kamilla, and jaime at our family dinner)

Later that night, we carved our pumpkins. The pumpkins we got caused us a lot of problems a few nights before. Long story short, those pumpkins almost caused Brandon to lose his wedding ring. Luckily we found it, so it all worked out. But anyways, me and Kamilla shared a pumpkin and Brandon did his own. But lets be honest, Brandon pretty much carved both pumpkins himself. I am not very good at carving pumpkins. Here is the final product:

(Brandon did Bane from Batman, and Kamilla and I did smurfette)

The next day Kamilla had to leave to get back to Provo. We really enjoyed having her here with us. Luckily we will get to see her in less than 6 weeks when we graduate! 

Yesterday, Brandon and I decided to take a day trip up to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It's only an hour and forty-five minutes away from Rexburg so we decided to try something new. On the way up there you pass some really really small towns. Some of them didn't even have a stop light. These towns made Rexburg look like a huge city. It's a good thing we went the day we did. You have to drive up this very steep and narrow mountain pass in order to get there. It would have been better if our car would of had 4-wheel drive, but we were able to get there and back safely. 

It was both mine and Brandon's first time going to Wyoming. It was fun being able to share that experience with each other.

(Wyoming state sign)

(me in front of the Wyoming sign)

(Brandon in front of the Wyoming sign)

Jackson is such a pretty place. It was such a pretty day and it was in the 50s! It felt so good compared to what it has been around here lately. There was some snow in the mountains but not as much as I thought. In Jackson's town square they have these elk arches that lead into the park. They are so cool.

(The Elk Arches in Jackson, WY)

(me in front of the arches)

(Brandon in front of the arches)

Jackson really is a beautiful place. I really love the feel of these ski/snowboarding resort towns. I love seeing all of the log cabins and all of the little shops that surrounded the town square. It was very quaint and peaceful. This would definitely be a cool place to come to during Christmas time to see the snow everywhere and the place lit up.

(Brandon and I in front of the arches)

It was really fun to get out of Rexburg for a few hours and to explore a new place that neither of us had been to before. Going to Jackson was on our "Rexburg Bucket List" so I'm glad we are able to cross that off! 

P.S. Exactly 40 more days until we are officially college graduates!

Oh, and I hope you guys went to Taco Bell on Tuesday to get your free doritos locos taco. We sure did!

The First Day of Snow

I hate living in Idaho because I do NOT like snow. It has already snowed twice this week and it just makes me so sad. It snowed on Tuesday but it didn't stick. But today we woke up to at least 3 inches of snow on the ground. The roads were horrible and slushy on our way to school, and no one here knows how to drive in the snow. Needless to say, I am so ready to move somewhere new, hopefully with less snow.

P.S. My sister comes up to Rexburg tomorrow! I am so excited! I have missed her so much :)

Allie...the Seller

So ever since we got married I've been trying to sell some of our stuff. Once we moved in together I realized just how much junk we had. It's pretty pathetic actually. We live in a 2 bedroom apartment and we only use one of the rooms because the other one is just plum full of the junk we never use. It really bugs me, so I've been trying to sell most of it for quite some time. I had some luck but not a ton. I would sell a few things here and there but not consistently. And since we are moving here in just a few short months I want to get rid of most of the stuff we don't want or use. I don't see a point in moving stuff to wherever we go when we don't use it anyways. It feels like a waste. Well a few people here in Rexburg came up with this fabulous idea to create a Facebook group where you could post stuff you wanted to sell and people could contact you about it. I have only been apart of this group for a little over 2 weeks and I've already made $33 on the junk we never used! I am just so happy that I can actually contribute in some small way. I am going to go through our spare room within the next few weeks and get the rest of the stuff I want to sell posted. I have decided to save the money we are getting so we can put it towards a trip for us or something! I am pretty excited to see how much more I can make before we tell Rexburg goodbye. Wish me luck!

P.S. Brandon just laughs every time someone comes to our apartment to pick up something. (He'll thank me later!)