Sergeant Summers!

It was a long time coming, but he made it! On February 1st, David was promoted to E-5!! That means he's a freakin Sergeant! Our parents are proud of him, I'm super proud of him but I know David is very very proud and so happy (as he should be!) He has worked so hard over the past four years and he was ecstatic to find out that he made points! And what's even better is that he found out on his birthday! What a great present!

On the Fifth, David got pinned at C.O.B. (which is a meeting type thingy at the end of the day.) And me being his wife, I got to pin him...and punch him! :) I was totally nervous about going in front of his whole battery but it was a very honorable thing to do...and it made me even more proud of him! If that's even possible. :) It was very neat for me to see him in Army mode and listen to what is expected of him as a sergeant. He has gotten some secondary duties and has been on the funeral detail for close to a month now. It can be pretty time consuming but it's all part of the job! :)

Us with our friend James

After Thanksgiving and before Christmas...

We got to go on a marriage retreat!! Thanks to the Army, we were able to travel to Austin and stay in a beautiful resort and spa and it was ALL paid for! We were there for about three days and those days were full of amazing classes where we learned about our love languages. It was very helpful learning about better ways to communicate with each other and we are still putting those lessons to use! Along with the great lessons, we also had amazing meals!

Our beautiful hotel

The great view

Us in class

They set aside one night for all of the couples to have a beautiful candlelight dinner. I was totally surprised to find out that we would be having such a special night together and I didn't bring ANYTHING that matched the occasion. I tried to get David to take me shopping real quick...but to no avail. So that night, we got sat at a table that was in a room lined with candles overlooking the lake. Each wife got a long-stemmed rose and we both were served champagne. The three-course meal was absolutely delicious, something that you would see on the Food Network!! Afterwards, we took advantage of the dollar beers that were being served at the bar and played some pool. David taught me how to actually shoot well and I beat him. :) He swears that he was just going easy on me...

Us at dinner

Our beautiful (and delicious) dessert

The beautiful sunset from our balcony

It was our first little vacation together and I call it our little honeymoon. It was a very relaxing couple of days and we're definitely signing up for the next one!

The Holidays!

It was exciting for David and I to have our first holiday together...Thanksgiving! We were mostly settled but we chose to order a Thanksgiving dinner from The Cracker Barrel. We had all of the traditional foods and took it to the big lake that is close to Killeen. It was a beautiful day and it was very fun to have that meal together.

After Thanksgiving, Christmas came too soon. We found out that David would be able to take leave and that meant that we would be going to Idaho for the holidays! That made David very excited because it would be the first Christmas where he would be with his family in the last three years. Much to my dismay, the only way we would be getting to Idaho would be driving. That was the longest drive of my life! We left Killeen around eight o'clock on a Friday and arrived in Boise around 9:30 the next night. We kind of lied to our parents about our arrival time and surprised them all at my parent's house a few hours before they thought we were supposed to be there. It was so fun to see everyone! We both were so happy to be home so we partied and played some beer pong with everyone! It was a blast.

Throughout the next two weeks, we switched our time between Boise and Emmett. It was very exciting for me to see how David's family celebrates Christmas and their traditions. I found that I was having so much fun with two families. The Christmas festivities made me realize that I actually have a new family and that meant more friendships. It's all very exciting.

On Christmas Eve, we had both sets of parents at my parent's house and had some great food and went to go look at Christmas lights. David and I were starting to get super sick so looking at lights had been cut short but once we were back to the house, we opened presents!! It was fun watching our families faces as they opened their gifts from us. And we also loved all of the presents we recieved! We're so grateful! Then on Christmas Day, we went out to Emmett and spent the day with David's family. That was a lot of fun getting to talk and catch up with all of the cousins. David's family has a tradition where a lump of coal is given to a family member who has had a hard year or who the family is very proud of and David got it this year! It was a very emotional moment for the whole family but I loved seeing it and learning about this tradition which is new to me.

For New Year's, we were supposed to go out to Tanza's (our cousin) house to celebrate. But earlier that day, my car mysteriously broke down. The guys worked on it for a whole day and little did we know, it was only out of gas. That was definitely my bad. But it gave us a good reason to be home for an extra day!

We started driving back home early on the second. This trip was a lot longer but I actually let David rest and drove for a few hours. We finally got back into Texas on the third around noon. It felt good to be home and get back to the normal grind of every day life!

The Big Move

The time finally came for me to join David in Killeen, Texas. It had been a long wait so we both were very excited to be together! I had booked a flight for the 12th of November and it came very quickly!

I was extremely busy getting all of my stuff packed up and ready to get shipped off. My family and the in-laws, along with Elliot, got together one night to load up a huge trailer with all of our furniture and many, many boxes. It was a strange feeling knowing that I would be moving to Texas soon. I'm very close with my family and especially with my little brother so we all partied hard the night before I left and cried a lot!

When the twelfth came, I was ready to get all of the emotional stuff over with and just get to David. I'll never forget seeing him come up the escalator that day. We were both so excited. David showed me around Killeen on our way to our very first apartment and strangely, it reminded me of Nampa, just with more culture. :) I had some idea of what our apartment was going to look like before I had moved, but once I was in it...I was somewhat shell-shocked. It was little but a great starter home nonetheless. (wood-paneled walls and all!)

We started unpacking and organizing things right away. My dad and father-in-law drove all the way down from Boise in my little car that weekend so it was fun to have them see where we live. David showed them around Fort Hood and we stopped by the museum. That was a great thing to see and it put a lot of things in perspective for all of us. It made us even more proud of David.

After the dads left, it was just us and we were ready and willing to start our little family!

The Wedding (planning and all...)

When we planned to get married, it was the end of August. I had always wanted to get married on the 27th of September becuase my grandparents and parents had the same anniversary. And since we didn't want to wait, that left us about a month to figure out what we wanted to do.

We had planned on flying me down to Texas and eloping. It was going to be a very simple little ceremony since we didn't have much time. But the thought of not having our families and friends there to witness was starting to weigh heavily on our hearts. We finally figured out that David could take a couple days off and we could have the wedding that we were meant to have. That left us two weeks to plan!!

Those were the craziest, most stressful weeks of my life. I was stressing out trying to figure out everything and it was very difficult for David and I to be on the same page while he was in Texas and I was in Idaho. But, thanks to our lovely mothers, everything had gotten worked out. My mother and I, along with helpers, put together all the flowers. David's aunt had made the boutineers for the men and his "second mom" gave us a great wedding present by providing the food for the reception! Thank God we have hook-ups because I don't know how this would've been possible!!

The big day came very quickly. Our wedding was on a Sunday and David flew in on the Friday before. As soon as he was in town, we got our marriage license, ran a few errands and as we were on our way to Emmett (and after being burnt with a cigarette cherry) David pulled over at Freezeout Hill. It's a beautiful spot looking down at the valley. And that's where he proposed to me!! It was everything I have ever dreamed of. Then we went and partied. :) When Sunday came, I could not believe I was getting married to the man of my dreams! I was full of nerves! The weather was absolutley beautiful, the park was beautiful and everything had come together amazingly. It was a great ceremony with the perfect vows that we had picked out. It was a surreal feeling!

The wedding party before

Saying our beautiful vows

You may kiss your bride!!

Favorite

That's definitley us

We had a small reception after the ceremony and we all ended up playing beer pong in my parent's backyard. It was such a fun day that was full of celebration. At the end of the night, we ended up in a beautiful suite at the Garden Hilton in Eagle where we spent the first night together as a married couple. :)

David saying thanks to our family and friends

Chillin' in the backyard

Sadly, David had to go back to Texas the very next day. That sucked!!! But it just gave us more reason to get me to him quickly!

Our Lovely Story.

David and I have one of the most interesting stories. We met each other while we were still in high school through his then girlfriend and my then best friend. We partied together a few times but eventually, we lost all contact and I stopped being friends with his ex so we hadn't seen each other or had any contact for a little over a year. (I think)

Then one day, while I was on Myspace, I saw a bulletin that David had posted about him breaking his wrist. Out of nowhere, I messaged him and we started writing e-mails back and forth. I found out that he had just gotten deployed to Iraq so I decided to be his pen-pal. :) We wrote e-mails back and forth for several months until we started talking on the phone. And when the phone-calls started, they did not stop!! David would call me at any chance he got and I would talk to him no matter what I was doing or where I was. We would talk on the phone all day, then we would chat online, then we would use the webcam. There was constant communication while he was deployed and with that communication came very strong feelings. '

David and I never really had a talk that made us "official," it just happened. And I was the most smitten girl out there! Little by little, his deployment was coming to an end and we both knew that when he was back in the states and back home, we would be inseparable. I will never forget that day!!

I had planned on going to the airport with his parents and best friend to pick him up on a Sunday. But before we did that, David and I decided that I should hang out with them all and get to know them before the big day. I was sooo nervous! But I gathered my nerves and went to go meet them at a small bar that's very close to my parents house. It was a lot of fun getting to know them over a couple drinks and as we were waiting for David's best friend, Elliot, John (David's dad) got a call from him. He said he had a present for him and to come outside to his truck. We all went to see what he was up to, and as soon as we stepped outside all I heard was Cindy (David's mom) start screaming. I turned to see her jump on this freakin' hot guy...and my heart was pounding!!! I was shaking so bad, freaking out as he walked towards me. :) He surprised us all!

David was on leave for about seventeen days and out of those seventeen days, I had only worked about five. We were together all the time. David is from Emmett so we spent a lot of time out there and in Boise. We partied a lot and he even got me to go camping...which was an experience to say the least. :) We caught the first Beer Fest in Boise and it was a blast hanging out with our families! It was the best month ever.

After David had gone back to Texas, we planned on seeing each other at least once a month. But after about two weeks had passed, we knew that we could not spend another minute away from each other. So...we decided to get married!!!