Hop on over

I just realized there are plenty of people subscribed to this blog, but not my new one. If you are still interested in what is going on in mine (and Emily's) lives, head over to http://ruotifamily.blogspot.com/ and subscribe there.

Also, for all my friends whose blogs I follow, start posting! I want to know what is up in all of your lives! :)

New blog!

Friends and family,

Emily and I have setup a new blog for following our adventures together. Keep track of us at http://ruotifamily.blogspot.com/

Love,
Scott

Finishing up April

So, I am really behind on blogging, I know! That is what happens when you get married, go to Hawaii, hike the Grand Canyon, and start an internship at Google, all within the space of a month! I’m going to try and get caught up as soon as possible though, and so I’ll be writing about at least two weeks every week until I get caught up.

So, in the third week of April we were smack dab in the middle of wedding planning. We were trying to figure out how much everything would cost, what would happen when. It was all a little crazy. Both of us were really ready to just be married and have all of this finished.

We had a little break in the week when we went to our ward’s closing social. It was a really great affair with a lot of food! It was at our Bishop’s house. He has this crazy large house, with its own downstairs basketball court and workout room. That is where we were, eating, watching ward videos, and there was a dance. Truth be told Emily and I ditched before the dance, but the event still helped us stay sane during that week.

We were also busy planning for our Utah reception. That event was being taken on solely by Emily and I, without any help from parents. Luckily we had the help of Robin Smilanich (my cousin’s wife’s mom). She was just the best. Without her I am not sure what we would have done. She helped us figure out just what we needed, and also helped us from making any significant mistakes.

Somehow while all this was going on we also managed to finish finals, move out of our apartments and get Emily home to Gig Harbor. Really, it is kind of a miracle that it all worked out. I still can hardly believe it. Still we got it all finished.

And that brings us to the week of the wedding, which you’ll have to wait until the next post to see. Luckily it will come with pictures, so hopefully you will like it a little more! 

Wedding Rush

As you might be able to guess, life has been a little crazy with planning for a wedding. I can now truly sympathize with those that say the semester they planned a wedding was the hardest they had ever had :)

In the last couple of weeks we have rented my tuxedo for the wedding, bought another suit for the reception, attempted to figure out logistics for our Utah open house, looked at pricing for various catering and food options for that open house, looked at hair extensions, white shoes, dropped of bridesmaid’s dresses, got temple recommends, applied for a marriage license, and Emily had a bachelorette party.

Still, in the midst of all that there was some breaks. Last week was conference, and Emily’s brother was singing in the Saturday afternoon session. Emily’s parents came down for this, and so we had a fun weekend with them together. It was good to be able to spend some time with them.

We also had a really fun time at seeing some old friends Karin and David. Emily and I know them from the FLSR, and so it was great that we were able to have dinner with them and catch up on old times. It is just sad that they might be leaving Provo before we get back at the end of the semester. Hopefully that doesn’t happen and we can see them again, but that is a little selfish to hope for :)

Emily and I also got to have several small dates, which always helps things. They are probably what keeps us sane. I am glad that we had this time together. And that is where we are now, still rushing frantically to get things finished, but hopefully with some other small moments to help it all go well.

Quick week

This has been a good, but busy weekend. On Sunday we took Emily’s mom back to the airport. We then stayed around in SLC. We went to a concert at the First Presbyterian Church. Emily had a friend from Wentworth performing there. It was a good concert and it was really good to see him.

The rest of the week was largely focused around preparing for the wedding, while still managing to fit in homework. We got Emily’s wedding dressed hemmed and cleaned. We found a pair of shoes. We played with hair. You name it and we did it (ok, maybe not, but it felt like that).

On Friday we had a little break. Emily went to a relief society and I went to my sister Crystal’s house to watch the boys. It was a lot of fun, and they were really good. Emily then came over and with Crystal and Bart (her husband) we watched Les Miserables. It was a good night.

Saturday Emily and I went to the traditions ball at BYU. This might just be our first real tradition, as we have done it two years in a row now, and plan to continue going each year we are at BYU. It was really fun, and it was good to just have time for us to dance together. It was the perfect end to a wonderful evening!

More wedding plans

Well, the wedding preparation just keeps coming. You would think we would get a break, but it never comes. Last weekend was about registries and setting up our wedding website. We got it all done over the next week, but it was quite the struggle. It is really hard doing anything for hours at a time. But those are done.

This last weekend was a lot more fun. Emily’s mom came down for Emily’s bridal shower. It was a fun experience. We got to work on invitations with her, and just enjoy her presence. It was also a help to the wedding planning, as it was much easier with her in the same place. The bridal shower was also fun (or so I hear, I was only at the very end, but that part was still fun!)

And that is what I have been up to. That is the short version, but I am exhausted and don’t think I can write coherently right now…

Preparing for a Wedding

Wow, these last two weeks have been pretty crazy. I never thought that I would be so busy. Wow, was I wrong. Not only do I need to get everything figured out between Emily and I, it also seems like everyone else wants a say too. It has sure been an adventure.

Still, amongst this Emily and I have been able to have a lot of fun! Two weeks ago we held a lab party. This was everybody that works in my research laboratory. We got together at my Uncle's house and made pizza together. It turned out really well. I had recently learned how to make pizza from a real pizza chef, and I wanted to try it out. Let me just say, it was the best pizza I have ever made, and some of the best I have eaten. The crust was just to die for.

Other fun things were that we set up two of our friends on a blind date. We made dinner together and then played "Wits and Wagers". It was really fun time, and a great way to spend our weekend. Emily and I were invited by our bishop to have more group dates, and we are certainly enjoying it so far!

The last fun thing recently was getting engagement pictures. We both got all dressed up and coordinated and headed out to Layton to take the pictures. It was a lot of fun! The photographer told us what to do every step of the way, and that is exactly what we wanted. He also had a really nice piece of land with a lot of good places to take picture. It will seem like we went to 4 or 5 places for pictures, but really it was all within maybe 5000 square feet. A lot of fun!

And that is where life leaves me now. Just trying to take care of all the little things before Emily and I are married. I hope everyone else is having a good (and less stressful time)!

Busy, Busy Life

This has been a fun last two weeks. Sorry I didn’t post last week, I just wasn’t sure what I would post! Life has been good, but not the most happening.

Let’s see, Emily and I have managed to go to someone’s house each Sunday for dinner. It is nice to not have to spend Sunday at our apartments. They are not crazy messy, but they are not super clean either. It is nice to get a break from the mess. Two Sundays ago we had dinner with my aunt and uncle, and then last week with my sister. Both times the food and conversation were wonderful!

Another interesting thing that happened was Emily got her car fixed only to have her brother crash it a few days later. It wasn’t a bad crash and no one was hurt. It was just funny due to the irony that as soon as she got it fixed it got broken again!

We also got things set up for our honeymoon. We are going to be spending the majority of it in Maui, but we are also going to spend several days in Oahu. We are super excited. I have never been there, though Emily has. Regardless, we are both looking forward to it. The cold weather we are having now just makes us want it even more!

On Thursday we had a fun valentine’s day. Emily made me breakfast in the morning. At night I took her to Sleeping Beauty (a ballet.) It was a lot of fun. We then finished the evening by getting some frozen yogurt. We were going to go to the chocolate, but unfortunately it wasn’t open.

Other than those small adventures we have just been busy with getting ready for a wedding a surviving school. Emily has two block classes right now, so it is like she is taking 20 credit hours, though in two weeks a lot of that will go away. That will be really nice for her. It will certainly give us more time to plan for a wedding.

And that is my life till now. Sorry that this post is so hurried and terse. I feel like I never have time to just write. Hopefully we’ll get more of that come summer! 

Proposal

This has been amazing week! First for the big news, I got engaged! Emily and I are getting married!!!

It feels great to be able to come out and say that. We are planning right now to get married on Saturday 4^th in Seattle Washington. We will be having a reception there that day and also hopefully on the 18^th in Utah. I’ll definitely post more details as everything firms up this week.

The proposal was also fun. On Monday I went and ordered the ring for Emily. We had gone ring shopping, but that was just to help me know what she liked. I still had to make the final decision. So I picked one that had a really pretty halo. In fact it was the only one with a Halo that we actually liked! It was just perfect.

I then spent the week telling Emily we still need to look at some different styles. I did this so she wouldn’t know the proposal was coming up :) (It worked too!) On Thursday I picked it up. Luckily I go to the gym every day, and so t didn’t raise any questions to have me gone for a while.

Friday was the day I proposed. We started the night by going to dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory. It was really yummy! We had both been craving Italian food, and so it was perfect. After that we went to see Wreck it Ralph in the movie theater. It was a great movie. We were both nearly in tears by the end of the movie :)

After the movie we went and walked around the Riverwoods. This was the site of our first “official” date. It was just great to walk around and talk about all our memories over the past year. We finished the time at the Riverwoods and went and got hot chocolate to warm up a little bit.

Once warm we headed up into the canyon to go and look at stars. This is one of our favorite activities to do together. This was also the only clear night the whole week. We got to look and the stars and it was wonderful! It was cold though, and so we didn’t stay too long. As we were walking back to the car I told Emily that it was okay that we didn’t stay too long since we could do it for the rest of our lives. I then told her that if that was the case I should make it official. I then got down on one knee and proposed to her!

She was speechless for a few seconds before yelling “YES!!!” It was really fun. I also had a photographer hidden to take pictures of the moment. Because it was dark we had the photographer come out to ensure that we could get some really good pictures of the night as well.

And that was the proposal. A great night. Emily loved the ring and the proposal. A great way to start off our engagement!

Birthday week!

This has been a fun week! On Sunday I got to go to my Nephew Kashe’s birthday party. It was just adorable! I loved getting to see how much he and Koda are growing up. Emily wasn’t able to go, and that was the only sad part.

Monday wasn’t as cool as it could have been. We ended up spending the whole day just doing homework. There was a good reason for that, though. Emily’s birthday was on Tuesday! That is why we had to get homework out of the way.

For Emily’s birthday we started out by going to Tucanos for dinner. It was super good. We had so much fun there. We even got the waitresses to sing to Emily, which of course made her super embarrassed :) It was still great fun. It was then time to give her her birthday present. It was really exciting because I had bought it and told her about it over three months ago. This whole time she has been dying to know what she was getting. Instead of telling her I just started driving around, letting the anticipation brew…

In the end we ended up at Hale Center Theater in Orem. I had gotten her season tickets to the Hale Center Theater! She was so excited. She had never before been to theater in the round. Her first play was Lend Me a Tenor. It was super funny and we both enjoyed it. It was just the perfect birthday present and she loved it!

We ended her birthday by going to get frozen yogurt. A great night and best of all she loved her birthday!

Wednesday and Thursday were filled with the ridiculousness of trying to get phone plans changed. It is amazing how hard TMobile can make everything… They are super cheap, but it every other way I would hope to never have to deal with them again.

On Friday we had another fun little date night. We made curry and Chinese food for Rob and Janelle. It was great to see them and it feels good to do something for them. After that we watched a bunch of Once Upon a Time. It was a fun night.

Man, it is good to have Emily back! Every week is better than when she was away :)

Phantom

This week has been a pretty good week! It all started with a great Sunday. Emily and I went to one of her friend’s mission farewells. That night we also got to go hear President Uchtdorf speak at the CES broadcast. It was a really good talk. After the talk we visited with Serena from the FLSR and then went back home and had some friends over for food and games. It was a great Sunday!

The week was good, but it sure was cold. On Monday morning after swimming my swimming suit froze solid between my car and my house. It was just crazy! It was also really fun at the gym this week because Emily came with me Wednesday and Thursday. It was really fun and also motivated me to work better. Hopefully we will be able to keep going together, but it depends on whether she can get a well price monthly plan or not.

On Friday Emily and I went and saw The Phantom of the Opera. It was really fun. The actors did well. At the end of the performance the actor that played the phantom proposed to his girlfriend. It was really cute.

On Saturday Emily threw a birthday party for herself. It was great, she got to see so many of her friends. I kept myself busy in the kitchen keeping everyone fed, but that was wonderful since it let Emily focus on enjoying herself.

So, overall a great week!

This has been a fun week! It has been really great having Emily back, everything is better! It is also good to be back to a ward that is mine. It is a little strange though, our sacrament is in the auditorium in the Maeser building, and so we have a balcony where half of the students sit. Really quite strange, still it is good to be in my own ward now.

Sunday night was great. Emily and I went over to my uncle’s house for Sunday dinner. We had pork with a delicious pineapple glaze. We also had Jello salad, roasted broccoli, and something else I can’t remember (but it was good!) Emily and I then made a bunch of cookies. We made some coconut cookies and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies! It was wonderful!

On Wednesday we went and got frozen yogurt. It has been a little bit since I got the chance to do that, and it was just the perfect thing to do with Emily back. They also had some really good new fruit flavors, it was great!

On Friday night Emily and I went for a date. We started by going to the Graduate Student Soup Social. It was amazing soup, but the activities didn’t interest too much. Instead of staying we went to the MOA. They had a good exhibit about super hero art. It was very interesting. We finished our date by going to The Chocolate. I love the chocolate!!! It was a perfect first date for us back in Provo.

On Saturday Emily and I did different things. She went to hang out with her freshman roommates, and I went to hang out with Sean, Pasha, Jared, and Jordan. We went to Village Inn. Our food took forever to get to us. Our food took forever and that was really annoying. Still it was great to talk to everyone! It is good to have Jared back in Provo. I miss having my friends in Provo.

And that was my week. It was a great week!

Christmas Break

This has been a great last two weeks. There has been quite a bit that has happened. I will try to get it all down.

A week ago was Christmas week. On Monday I went to Salt Lake to spend Christmas Eve with my father. He, Chris, and I went out to dinner at Red Robin. It was really good, but I ate way too much (a habit that has persisted for these last two weeks :/ ) We then went and watched Frankenweenie. I know, wrong holiday, but it was still a lot of fun. It was good to be able to spend the day with my dad.
For Christmas I went to Bart and Crystal’s for the day. It was really good to see them and the boys had gotten an inflatable jumping castle. They had so much fun with it. It was cute to see how much they were enjoying Christmas. That was probably the best part of the day.

We also had a really good dinner. Then there were presents, and I got some really nice gifts from my family, especially Crystal :) To end the night we all watched The Bourne Legacy, because it is about as Christmas as it comes ;)
Wednesday was another good day. Ryan and Chris came over and we setup all three of my computers to play some Torchlight II. It was just an awesome time. It was like the old days, having LAN parties, especially the part where it took us forever to get things actually working! The only sad part was that Jason wasn’t able to make it with us.

He made up for that on Thursday by coming over to play Madden ‘13 with everyone. It was a fun time. I also sent that day getting ready to head to see Emily in Washington. I left my house at 5:45 AM on Friday to catch a flight to go see her. It was really good to see her. It was hard being apart for fourth months, but it just felt so natural and right to be back with her.

It was a little strange being in Washington though. There was no snow! I just seemed so weird after the beautiful white Christmas we had had in Utah. I got to say hi to Emily and her family. We looked at her pictures from China. We then went out and got some Thai food, followed by a trip to Zoo Lights! I have actually never been to Zoo Lights anywhere, and so it was great to get to do that with Emily!
On Saturday the great adventure was throwing a surprise party for Emily’s mother. She was turning 50 and so Emily and her dad wanted to throw her a surprise party. It involved me and Emily in the kitchen for three hours, but it all worked out. Her mom was really surprised and it was just a great party. I was glad that I could help Emily with it!

On Monday Emily and I decided that we would spend New Year’s Even up in Seattle. We started by watching The Hobbit and the Pacific Science Center’s IMAX theater. It was really fun, even if it was a little long. We then walked around the area for a little. Eventually we hit up the YSA dance in the area. We finished the night by watching fireworks about the space needle. I guess that wasn’t really the end of the night since it took us almost 3 hours to get home. It was ridiculous! Oh well :)

On Tuesday Emily and I spent the day with her little brother and sister. Her parents and older brother were away skiing. Still, it was a lot of fun. We made German pancakes for breakfast. Then there was a bike ride. Emily’s sister then went to a friend’s house, and we spent the rest of the afternoon making snowflakes with Emily’s little brother. He really fell in love with making them. I think the next time I go to Emily’s house I will find all their walls covered with snow flakes!

At night Emily’s parents took everyone out to dinner. We went to this really good Mexican restaurant. It was crazy how much food they gave us. It was probably the biggest burrito I have ever eaten! Still it was really good. We’ll certainly have to go again. We then finished the night by watching You’ve Got Mail. Got to love the chick flicks! (I do.)

On Wednesday Emily and I got to go out on the ocean on one of her friends boats. It was a fun little cruise around the bay. It was a lot of fun. After that Emily and I went to Tacoma and had fun playing around in various stores. I then had to head back to Salt Lake, which was really sad…

The rest of the weekend was spent moving into my new apartment and helping Emily move in as well. We are staying at the Elm apartments. They are pretty nice apartments. The only problem is that parking is terrible. On Sunday, after dinner with the Whitings, we spent about half an hour finding a parking space, which still ended up being ½ a mile from my house. Ridiculous!

So that is what I have been up to. It has been wonderful having Emily back. Everything is just better now. I hope that everyone else also had a wonderful Christmas!