Love to me is spelled N-A-T-E

An entry from one of my old journals dated February 16, 2014:
"Today in branch council I found out that they switched up the Elder's Quorum Presidency...Nathan Larson is now the new president...I actually kinda think Nathan is cute even though I literally know nothing about him, which is weird too. It's not like he's new in the branch, I just haven't crossed paths with him yet...."

That's how it all started and how little did I know that I would eventually cross paths with Nate in a really big way. I was serving as a counselor in the Relief Society presidency in the Dayton YSA branch and, as evident in my journal entry, once Nathan was called as our branch's EQP he left an impression on me. I had a crush on him immediately though I never thought anything would come of it, he was quite clearly out of my league.

I made a few really small attempts to be around Nathan during branch activities (Like asking my Relief Society President who knew I had a crush on him if I could take the sign up sheet to feed the missionaries into Elder's Quorum after it was passed around Relief Society so I could give it to Nate) My initial small attempts went undetected so I just accepted the fact that he was out of my league and figured it was best to move on.

It was almost two full years later that I showed up for a carpool at the Fairborn building for a YSA temple trip. Nathan had also showed up to the carpool and was showing off his new Saturn Sky (a sporty looking car with only two seats. Hmmm....) I asked if I could ride up with Nate, really having no hidden intentions, I knew I had struck out in getting any sort of attention from him but he was always such a nice guy. My only thought was that he would be nice to pass the time in the car ride to Columbus with.

The conversation up to the temple went over better than I could have ever expected. I remember thinking Nathan was so smart and he told me a lot of funny stories from his mission. Towards the end of the ride back to Dayton he was telling me about a funny story involving watching a scary movie at his sister's house when she lived in Texas. When he dropped me off back at the church building he told me to let him know if I ever wanted to watch that movie with him.

I of course jumped at the chance and thought this movie watching date would be a once in a lifetime opportunity. No way there could ever be more dates. Less than a week later Nathan asked me to go to King's Island with him (What?! A second date?? No way!) and we've been together ever since.

Nathan and I have really been through a lot together. He's definitely seen me at my worst and I've always been in awe of how patient and loving he's been towards me in those moments.

Which brings us to yesterday....

I took the day off work and we planned an all day date to Indianapolis since the Columbus temple has been closed for cleaning. I was thrilled to be able to spend the day with him exploring a different city but really didn't expect anything more than that.

After our session at the temple I asked if we could walk to the front of the temple so I could take a photo of the building.

Right after I took this picture I turned back to Nathan, only expecting to head back to the car and he then pulled something shiny out of his suit pocket and dropped down to one knee! It was a perfect proposal because it was at the temple, it was very sweet and private, and I was genuinely surprised by it.

Since I was a little girl my mom has always been advising me "Marry your best friend." I'm so happy to say that I am following her advice. Nathan is my everything: my rock, my friend, and my love.

All I can say now is September 2, 2016 can't get here soon enough....

Go Reds!

I got to meet Mr. Red today at our local Skyline Chili!

Spring Break 2014

I've had a long time obsession with New York City (most likely because of my obsession with the Today Show) and for Spring Break I finally was able to visit New York for the first time! I had a great time exploring the city with my friend (and fellow Miami alum) Lara. We weren't there for long but we did so much in the time we were there including seeing three Broadway shows (Aladdin, The Phantom of the Opera, and Les Mis), visiting the set of The Today Show (Lara was a good sport and Shakira was there doing a concert for the show), visitng the 9/11 Memorial, Times Square, the Manhattan LDS Temple, Julliard, The Met, Lincoln Center, Central Park and we managed the NYC subway system.

I had so much fun and miss the energy of the city. 

Times Square looks just like you would imagine: lots of TV screens and ads

Here we are visiting The Today Show

We got to be in the background of Kathy Lee Gifford's "Who Knew?" segment

Pictures from the shows

Outside the theater for Aladdin

Outside the theater for Les Mis

The Phantom of the Opera

How 'bout them dawgs?

We had a fun trip after Christmas visiting our dawgs in Georgia. Here's some pictures from over the weekend. (Heather I would really love some pictures of Anders with his tie on :) 

These three love watching TV. 

McKay looks like he's losing his patience after being constantly photographed 

Wow! No doubt these guys are brothers. 

Chillin' with Uncle Brent 

They're cute 

Anders rocking his bulldog look 

 Of course no trip with the nephews is complete without a visit to the local mall's train.

This is what happens when we give Mike the camera. 

A Night for the History Books

Dad and I went on another adventure last night. I don't know many dads (or anyone for that matter) that would be willing to be taken to so many random events with me (especially this one where I was at the height of my nerdiness) but my dad is the best!
Last night one of my favorite historians was in Cincinnati. Doris Kearns Goodwin (she's won the Pulitzer and her book Team of Rivals was the research basis for the movie Lincoln) was giving a lecture at The School for Performing Arts.

Apparently I'm not the only nerd in this city: the venue was so full that we had to sit up in the balcony. About 600 people were there!

Nerd selfie!

Dad just loves history books :) ...Not really but he's a good sport

The lecture was based on her new book The Bully Pulpit about Taft and Roosevelt. The lecture was great but the most impressive part of the night was her open mic Q&A session. Doris Goodwin is brilliant! People were asking her about a wide array of subjects (some of them seemed pretty random) and she could answer every question!
After the Q&A session they formed the autograph line and we were able to go on stage and meet her. (I got my copies of Team of Rivals, Wait Til Next Year, and The Bully Pulpit signed!) Talk about knowing everything...dad told her that he grew up in a city called Kearns in Utah and without missing a beat she knew the city and told us about who it was named after (A popular senator from SLC, no relation to her though). She was so cool! It was a great experience and I was nerding out like crazy!

Our First Reds Game

Dad and I went to our first Cincinnati Reds game yesterday! (Luckily we didn't go on the 4th,we looked at buying tickets for that game but it got rained out) It was a lot of fun and even though the Reds lost to the Seattle Mariners we still got to see Choo hit a home run! (and I had to resist my urge to do the Chop) Todd Frazier didn't seem like the best of batters but I loved his Frank Sinatra walk on music and even though we didn't win we still got to watch the Friday Night Fireworks!

Us in the sea of red

The Great American Ball Park!

$1 hot dogs! Clearly I spend way too much time with preschoolers because I kept thinking of the Mickey
Mouse Clubhouse hot dog song.

The only shot dad and I got together thanks to another Reds fan. 

Sunset over Cincinnati (I heard on the radio there were 33,000 people at this game!) 

The real reason dad wanted to come to the game

Friday Night Fireworks 

Pops!

This weekend dad and I went to a Cincinnati Pops concert. The theme of the concert was Broadway Night and the guest artist was Brian Stokes Mitchell (a Broadway singer we learned of from attending a Mormon Tabernacle Choir concert a few years ago)

We stopped by The Levee before heading to the show. (Heather: There's a kids' train that goes around The Levee now for Anders and Tom and Chee now has gluten-free bread!)

Tom and Chee out on the patio. Its a fun place to eat because it has a cool view of
the Cincinnati skyline

The concert was at Riverbend (which we both had never been to before) and we discovered that Riverbend is Coney Island's amphitheater. (Coney Island will be a fun place to take Anders when he gets a little bigger, they had a fun looking kids' area)
The concert was great! The Pops and Brian Stokes Mitchell were both stellar and it was a fun night of great music.

Andrea's Big Week

It's starting to dawn on me how close my baby sister is to being an adult. This week I took her to Sinclair to get her Tartan Card. (She's all registered and set to start Sinclair classes in the Fall.) I'm happy that she's going to Sinclair (my Alma Mater), now to work on convincing her to join Phi Theta Kappa....

This week she is also serving a "mini mission" (where she'll get the full experience of being a full time missionary, but for a week rather than 18 months) in the Cincinnati area. (Hamilton for those who know Ohio well :) Sadly I was working when she reported for her mission so I wasn't able to send her off. When I saw this picture later, I was blown away by how much she actually looks like a sister missionary (..and rocking my cardigan better than I do!)

Yes, baby sister is growing up, which is making me a sentimental wreck....