TheKnot

TheKnot

December 4, 2009

Justin made dinner reservations at the Pearl Cafe & Bakery in Missoula for 7:30 on Friday evening. We both had never been there before, but heard great news about the food. When we arrived we were taken to the 2nd level and seated at a table in the corner overlooking below. We each had a glass of red wine. This was also our first time ordering red wine. Justin ordered salmon with rice pilaf and I ordered steak with mashed potatoes. In the mean time bread was served. We enjoyed each others company while we ate dinner. I had my leftovers boxed. After waiting for awhile our waitress returned with a glass dish of M&M's. I glanced in the dish and saw blue and pink M&M's with black writing on them. I grabbed a few and some said, "Dana" and others said, "Will You Marry Me?" Justin came over to my side and on a bended knee said, "Baby, will you marry me?" as he flipped open the box with a gorgeous ring. I said, "yes!" I slipped on the sparkly diamond ring, stood up and hugged and kissed my fiance! Everyone upstairs applauded and said, "Congratulations!" This was a special and memorable moment. Thanks to my Justin! I would have to say the happiest and best moment of my life. We stayed at the cafe till 9:30. Time flew by! As soon as we got outside I couldn't wait to kiss and hug my fiance again. I was jumping up and down with excitement. It was hard to get my eyes off my engagement ring for quite awhile. It is amazing knowing you have found your soul mate to spend your life with forever. xox

SnOwMoBiLiNg

Justin and I went snowmobiling for the first time together on Saturday, January 30th. We were invited to join a group of about 30 people going snowmobiling around Seeley Lake. We found two sleds that we could borrow. One was my dad's and the other was Justin's brother's sled. We really wanted to get outside this winter and do some kind of activity. We decided there was too many people going on the Seeley trip, so just the two of us went riding on the mountain roads in Stevensville. I am glad we did it this way since it was my first time riding one by myself and we could go at our own pace. We packed a lunch, swisher sweet cigars, a lighter, and paper to start a fire. We came to a spot where we thought it would be nice to enjoy lunch around a fire. The lighter that worked perfect at the house would not light to start a fire. Good thing we were not stranded and needed to get warm. We rode a total of about 20 miles and stayed warm throughout. It took some time for me to get the feeling of the snowmobile, I took my time and went slow on corners and was able to accelerate more on straight stretches. We had a great time!!!

Getting Married!

Justin proposed to me at The Pearl Restaurant in downtown Missoula on December 4, 2009! I have never been so excited in my life! Justin is everything to me and I am looking forward to our future together.
We are in the planning process and have booked the ceremony and reception location at the Heritage Hall at Fort Missoula. My sister got married there in August 2006 and I loved the location. Now we will be getting married there August 2010. The Heritage Hall lets you rent the facility for the whole weekend. We can start the decorating at noon on Friday, have our wedding on Saturday, and gift/clean-up on Sunday. It will work out perfect! We found a photographer, Dylan Wyman, thanks to my brother-in-law's co-worker who had him for their wedding. We love his photography and he will be there the whole day to capture all of the special moments! Next up, we are meeting with a caterer Monday. Looks like Johnny Carino's Country Italian! Mmmm, everyone should be in heaven with this choice! We are most likely going with RMF Entertainment for the DJ service and they will play music for the ceremony and reception. They can be there until 2AM. Hopefully, everyone will dance their hearts out :)
Our colors are royal blue, silver, white, and the accent will be yellow.
I'll keep you all updated!

~8 Months Together~

As we were sitting on the 'M' we decided we needed a mini getaway for our 8th month being together. We have been extremely busy searching for a house to buy!! House hunting has been exciting and stressful. We have had some good news and what seems like a lot of bad news. (More to come on that situation.)
We celebrated our 8th month together at Quinn's Hot Springs on Tuesday, October 20th, 2009. This was our second time at that hot springs. We called in sick to work...shhh...slept in and bought a smoothie for the road trip. We arrived and purchased wrist bands for the day. We enjoyed relaxing for awhile in the hot mineral pools and practiced our swimming and goofed off in the larger cooler pool. We had a blast! It was nice to go on a weekday with less people being around. We had a burger for lunch and split a dessert of creme brulee, which was delicious! Then we drove up the road a ways and filled cups full of refreshing mountain spring water, went for a little walk and explored around the hot springs, and played a game of checkers. I won't mention who won....I did! hehe:) We waited til it started to get dark and went in the hot tub and mineral pools one last time before heading home. We didn't want to leave, but figured we better make it to work on Wednesday.

Justin + Maui = AMAZING :]

Justin and I boarded the plane on March 29, 2009 for a 7 night and 8 day vacation to Maui, Hawaii. This trip was planned and booked about 2 weeks prior to departure. We both were ready to escape the cold dragging weather in Montana and head somewhere warm. We stayed at a really nice place that had a kitchen and a murphy bed. :) We loved having an ocean view and were able to whale & shark watch from our balcony! We did so many different things: obviously sunbathing & playing in the ocean, then explored the depths of the ocean in a submarine trip, did a little snorkeling and saw amazingly colorful fish directly beneath us, and went to a festive luau where we had front row seating unannounced to us that meant sitting on pillows at a table a foot off the floor. lol! We drove around the whole island too! We stopped along the way and hiked to different waterfalls by boulder hopping then pretty much climbing mini cliffs to reach a few. We went to a farmer's market and bought delicious fruit and banana bread. We ate at restaurants that had ocean views and shopped in stores in Lahaina town. There were many other things we wished to do but didn't have enough time. Also, since it was whale season some things were not offered like renting jet skis or wind surfing. The last day we had a zip line booked and it turned out to be canceled due to the high winds in the mountains. We were bummed about that:( but ended up going to The Maui Ocean Center and snapped pictures of critters that we had not seen on the trip including: really crazy lookin' fish, sea rays, up close shots of sharks, jelly fish, sea turtles (too bad Justin wasn't able to catch a ride on one), and a bunch of other things that live in the ocean that you would never even know existed. Oh, I forgot to mention how good we looked in our bright blue PT Cruiser driving around the island blasting Hawaiian music or repetitive hip hop tunes.
We had the best vacation together and are looking forward to planning another trip to Hawaii. Here are a few of our pictures out of the 700 some we snapped.

Lovin' Every Second

Wow, it may be hard to believe, but I am actually posting a blog 6 months later. My life has changed a lot in those last months. First off, I am in a relationship with the most wonderful man, Justin. I have known him since the end of November 2006. We have officially been dating since "around" Feburary 20th, 2009. I'll explain this "around" business. Justin and I took a vacation together to Maui, Hawaii during my spring break in March. Everyone was asking us if it was our honeymoon and one person asked, "Well, how long have you been dating?" It seemed a little strange to say about 6 weeks so I said, "It has been awhile. Justin, how long would you say?" haha! He replied the same and we laughed as we kept on walking. Then I realized we should figure out our anniversary date. We both were not exactly sure. I whipped out my calandar from my phone and we thought it had to have been the 20th of feb. which landed on a Saturday. Therefore, we discovered our anniversary day in Maui.
I graduated from The University of Montana May 16th, 2009. I now have my Bachelor degree in Health and Human Performance! Woohoo! I had a graduation party at my Mom and Russ's house after the long commencement ceremony. Friends and family joined me in the celebration. I am planning on getting certifed as a Personal Trainer and Health Fitness Specialist through American College of Sports Medicine in the near future. (I need a little break from studying.) I am working full-time at a law firm that I have been employed at for three years now.
Other exciting news was moving into a duplex in May. I have one other roommate who is in the military. I have been getting some decorating done and making a list of all the appliances I should purchase soon. Alright, a long blog to try and update about my life 6 months later. I'll add more blogs very soooooon.

Enjoying Winter Break

Well, as you can tell I have fallen way behind on posting about my life. To back track a little...I went to the Carrie Underwood concert with my sister, Megan, and my friends, Sara and Karie. It was a blast! I love her voice and all of her songs! I have no idea how many times I have listened to her CD, Carnival Ride.
I had a wonderful Thanksgiving with my family and went shopping on Black Friday with Megan. Then the first few weeks in December were committed to studying for finals. I completed my second to last semester of classes and I am currently on Christmas break. YAY! I have been busy with shopping and working. The shopping sounds exciting, but not so much the working part. I plan on making more time for fun stuff. I happened to purchase a Wii Nintendo around Thanksgiving time. It came with a sports pack including: golf, bowling, boxing, baseball, and tennis. I am practicing up on my skills to take out into the real world. Haha!

In Loving Memory

Chelsey and I in Sandpoint, ID. Her "famous" tongue sticking out :)~

Sara, Chelsey, and I out for Sara's 21st Birthday

I had a really close friend pass away August 8, 2008. Her name was Chelsey Marie and I am lucky to have had so many amazing memories with her. It has been one of the hardest experiences I have ever gone through, still going through, and always will for the rest of my life. The feeling is indescribable. I still get goosebumps and sick to my stomach knowing that she passed away. I don't want to believe that this happened, but I know I cannot live in denial. I think about her everyday and know that she is in a better place. It will be a long process and I have people there whenever I need to talk, share thoughts, laugh, and just let it out.
I plan on sharing many of our memories on here so get ready for some entertaining stories!!!
I love you Chelsey! ♥

Step by Step

My senior year started at the end of August. I love the feeling knowing that I only have two semesters to go and then I get to graduate! We are about 6 weeks into the fall semester and it is going by quite fast. It can be very stressful at times with deadlines and exams, but somehow I pull it off last minute. I really need to stop procrastinating! I turned in my graduation application yesterday so that's one step closer to finishing. I most likely will go back to school to get my graduate degree, but I'm definitely taking a break.
I have had a blast attending the griz football games and tailgates:) The photo is from the time I went with three of my friends, Sara, Aubrey, and Kaleigh. We met at Aubrey's house and added peppermint schnapps to coffee to get the game day started out the right way. Haha, don't worry I'm not an alcoholic by any means!
As of now, I am excited for the weekend because this has been one long week! Hopefully, I do something fun so I can write about it;)

Past, Present, & Future

I am new to this whole blog thing. My sister, Megan introduced me to this and as I read over a few blogs that others wrote I decided it would be good for me to write about my life as well. I look forward to writing down my past memories, thoughts, my current life, and plans for the future. It will be fun to look back and reminisce down the road. It is hard for me to think of things to write right now, but I'm sure I will get in the swing of it and ramble on at times about absolutely nothing:)
This is my last weekend before fall semester classes begin on Monday, so I'm going to make the most of it. Last night I stayed with Megan and her baby girl, Adalyn. We had fun shopping and eating at the Pita Pit...mmm, so delicious. I still can't believe we stayed up talking and looking back at old pictures from various occasions until 2:30 in the morning. We sure had a lot of laughs, especially looking at our stunning outfits that we thought were "cool" back in the day. We have to go to our Dad's later for dinner, it should be a fun time. K, I'm outta here ♥