How We Ended Up Here (part 1)

This last week has been crazy and full of emotions. I have never really been an emotionally person, at least I didn't think so until about last Friday night and since then I have so much emotion stirring around inside me. I'm happy, excited, anxious, nervous, scared, sad and so many other feelings that I don't know what words to describe them, but I'm feeling all of it. When I stop to think about it, all I to do is cry. Yes cry. I have never cried so much in my life, but ITS A GOOD THING! All of theses feelings are good, yes my life is changing so fast that I just want it to stop but I can't wait for what the future holds. Along with thinking about the future, this week I've also been thinking about what got me to this point. The point where Chase and I first met and started dating and when we each said those special words "I love you" and when we decided we wanted to get married and now here we are 4 days away from being married! All of these events were all leading to Monday March 11, 2013.

Last spring semester I had plans to go and work for Zion Ponderosa as a guide. But I guess the Lord other plans for me because the saturday before finals I crashed on my mountain biking breaking my arm, I was not going to be able to work for Zion with this injury so my only option was to move back to Provo and live at home and basically bum it off my parents until my arm healed. I was so disappointed, I did not want to go back to Provo. But it was for the best and it wasn't all that bad (I do love Provo and all the people there, I promise). So back in Provo, I of course started to go to the single ward. Wahoo! Yes I realize Chase and I are typical single mormons who met at the single ward activities. But I only went to two FHE nights (I only went for the free food people). I had no intensions of looking for a suitor. The first time I noticed Chase and his cousin Cody and didn't really talk to them but I kept my eye them. The second time they came up to my friend Jessie and I and started talking and wanted to hang out. As I walked out to my car they were there and basically yelling across the parking lot, Cody asked for my number and I noticed that Chase pulled out his phone to and put it in. Sometime after that Chase would text me and invite me to go climbing or biking and I would be no you dummy I have a broken arm I can't do any of those things. He also invited me to go see a movie with some friends and I turned him down to go up to my cabin with some other friends. This happened pretty much all summer long.

So one day Chase had called and left a voice mail asking if I would want to go on a group date with him and Cody and their friend, I called him back and I said yes. Finally in the middle of July, after all summer we would have our first date. He picked me up the next day, and I remember being so nervous, I always get nervous for first dates but I was really nervous today, I have never had a face to face conversation with him, he was always so quite. But the whole time on the date we talked, we talked about everything. We didn't really spend much time with anyone else in the group, we were always off by ourselves. For the date we went to the crepe place on state street, then went up to the canyon and Cody and his date and his friend made peach cobble while Chase and I went did our own thing. Honestly the only person I remember on that date besides Chase was Cody, I had no desire to talk to anyone else but Chase. At the end of the date I was smitten, honestly I was so surprised by how well we got a long and I how much I liked him. After that it was about a week and a half before we were able to go on a second date and on that date we had our first kiss and ever since then I haven't been able to stop kissing him since.

After two weeks of dating and hanging out I had to move down to St. George for school again, but Chase came down with me and helped me move in. Seriously he is such a sweetheart but everything was perfect. His family lived down here, so luckily we were able to see each other every weekend. He came down 5 weekends in a row, thats commitment, he must have really liked me to travel that much to see me, but I really liked him too cause I traveled up on some weekends to see him too. Normally long distance relationship you rarely see each other but we were able to see each other every weekend, but don't worry it was still the hardest time of my life. Long distance sucks.

During that time our relationship was getting more serious. I remember the first time Chase said that he loved me. We were hanging out and watching a movie in my jeep. We would have little drive in movies where we would fold down the seats in my jeep and set up a lap top and put pillow and blankets in there and made it all comfy and we would hang out. It was during this that he said he loved me and I the first thing I said was No stop talking, you can't say that. He could not have loved me. We barely knew each other, we had not been dating for that long and we only saw each other on the weekends. After he left that weekend to go back to Provo, I knew I loved him too. That week was I dying to see him and to tell him I loved him too. When I told him the first thing he said was "well I said it first!" Haha best reaction ever. I knew I wanted to marry this kid, but that talk came later.

 Just a few pictures of us while dating and traveling back and forth from Provo to St. George and some skype pictures cause we had so many skype dates!

I realize I have just wrote a novel so I will end this post here. I'll share more thoughts and stories later! 4 days people, 4 DAYS!! I cannot wait, I've never been more excited for anything.

Our Favorite Things to do in STG

I have been fidgeting around with this blog for a week now. Having this blog is a big deal I mean it has to be cute and have some kind of personality to it. So I had Chase take a wack at it and this is what he liked and I like it too. I love it. He is cool, I'm glad he likes the idea of this blog and will help me with it cause I have no clue what I'm doing so everyone bear with me on this. 

Basically Chase and I do everything together and we always have fun. We love to go mountain biking, hiking, canyoneering, climbing, ya know the usual fun stuff that you can do in St. George but we also love to go to museums! Yep thats our favorite Saturday activity. Ok so we have only been to two museums down here but they are the coolest things ever. Like my favorite is the air museum. They have the coolest jets and the men who volunteer there are so sweet and smart and I could talk to them for hours, ok I so I have talked to them for hours. Chase and I took our bridals there and it is was so much fun! It was a little awkward at first cause there was so many people there but everyone had fun. My parents loved the air museum and one cute old man asked if he could take a picture with his phone and send it to his wife. Basically awesome. I love it there, I might go and just hang out there cause I'm bored, its that cool. Its also free, you can't beat a deal like that!

My dad was so excited to be there. 

Also today we went and checked out the dinosaur museum, still super cool. You learn so much by going there and its crazy to think about dinosaurs being here. The dinosaur museum did cost money to get into but its worth it. Chase and I spent two and a half hours there and we learned so much so its worth it. 

Besides going to museums Chase and I on Presidents day went hiking over by Snow Canyon. It was so much fun and we got so much needed sun. We were hiking along just talking and Chase goes do you know what would be fun, if we make a cairn. Cairns are stacks of rocks that help mark the trail. So we did and we made it BIG. 

   

I told you it was big. Now we are going to be making cairns every where we go.

Also on the hike we found some petroglyphs! I have done this hike many time cause its the beginning of Arches canyon and last time I did this I noticed there were signs for petroglyphs and I have been determined to find them. You had to be in this narrow canyon and it didn't look like there was anything on the walls. 

But once you looked closer you saw this and so much more! There was stories written on these walls and it was so cool! 

 Its a goat or ram of something.

Thats basically what chase and I do with our free time. We learn and explore cause we are cool! So if you are ever bored in St. George go check out those museums they are great, especially the air museum!

Also I get married in 2 weeks! So much to do! 

My First Blogging Attempt

Well here goes nothing, I am starting to blog. What has the world come to? Me, Amy Francis (soon to be Nelson) blogging. First off I'm not a writer, I'm also not creative, I don't have or take any cute pictures but I like to have fun, especially with my soon to be husband Chase Nelson, and of course my never failing family. So this is my life and the things I do. 

Why did I start blogging? I have the best job in the world, seriously. I work at the Outdoor Recreation and Adventure Center or ORAC. Basically all I do is sit on the computer and hang out with the awesome people I work with. Don't worry guys I occasionally rent things out, fix bikes (mostly flat tires), clean and on saturdays thats when the fun starts, I get paid to go on activities. Like rock climbing, cayoneering, rappelling, paint balling and my favorite mountain biking. But anyways back to why I wanted to start a blog, when I'm sitting at work all bored and have finished all my homework I read blogs and I love it! All the blogs I keep up on are amazing and so cute! So they are what inspired me to do it. The blogs I am currently following are people I know but only from their blogs, which is so incredibly creepy! My favorites of course is Riki Laws or now I should say Sanford. I love her blog, its so fun and she is gorgeous! Also, Something Devine I don't know her but her photos and videos and her work is amazing. Seriously she is so cute. Like I said I'm a major creep! But thats what got me started. So here is my sad, sorry, pathetic attempt at my blog, I am determined to get better. Like I said before this will be about the things in my life, all the fun things I have the opportunity to do. 

I feel so blessed! I have the absolute best family in the entire world. My parents are by far the most amazing, perfect examples in my life. They do so much for me and I cannot tell them how much I love and appreciate them. My sister will always be my best friend. We don't have to talk everyday but I know she cares and loves me and I would do anything in the world for her and my brothers. Sarah also married Sam Thomas who by the way is the coolest brother in-law, he's kind of a big deal and they are expecting a little boy! But now Joe holy moly he is my bro hoe. I don't know what I would do without him. He is my best friend too. We do lots of things together but we also butt heads a lot. I might hate (thats a really strong word, more like really dislike) any and all of his girlfriends. I'm sorry to all of you who have dated him but its true. I don't like you because you take him away from me. So all girls stay away. He is my best friend. Then we have Jake. The odd ball baby of the family. Jake is nothing like what you would expect, seriously this kid came from no where. He comes off as a stinky teenage boy who only like football, video games and being lazy. But he is more than that, he is hilarious! Like seriously I've never laughed so hard when I'm around him. He is more of a sarcastic, blunt funny. Don't worry he is still my best friend. He is the most helpful person I know! He complains a lot and its takes a lot of persists to get him moving but once he does he is awesome! If you didn't catch the pattern my family is my best friends and I love them. I would not be the person I am today without them. I also have been blessed with a large extended family, packed full of uncles, aunts and cousins and we all came from the most amazing grandparents, Larry and Ann. I LOVE MY FAMILY. 

Now moving onto Chase Nelson, my true best friend and the love of my life. I know most everyone is taken back by our relationship because it came out of no where. Trust me I'm the most surprised. Now I have a lot of guy friends, friends who I had crushes on in the past but have always found it best if we stayed friends, so now and what felt like forever I was "one of the guys" best feeling ever (not). So when I had my first date with Chase I was smitten, seriously after he dropped me off I knew it was something different, I wasn't going to become one of the guys! It was the best. Basically after our second date we saw each other everyday until I had to move down south for school but we still managed to see each other every weekend. Guys, I can't begin to tell you how miserable the long distance relationship was. It was the worst. On the weekends one of us couldn't come up or down, we would meet half way in Meadow. Our meetings in Meadow were the best. Who knew that little town would mean so much to me now because I love that town for being there so Chase and I could have long drives talking on the phone with each other, sitting in the back of his truck with a picnic and having the leaves be all fall and pretty and of course lots of kissing that would be interrupted by scary guys knocking on the window asking why we are parked outside their barn. Meadow will always be a special place for me. Fast forward to now, I am 22 days way from marrying him (my best friend how lucky am I) and I cannot tell you how excited I am! March 11 needs to come faster. I'll share more about our dates and the proposal and stupid wedding plans and things. But I have never been so happy and have felt so blessed in my entire life! 

Also I'm going to share lots of pictures cause pictures are the best and Chase and I took our bridals yesterday and I am in love with how they turned out. I've only gotten to see a couple of preview pics but I love them! So enjoy the pics!

All four of us after the worst/best job

The whole dam fam at Sarah's wedding

Just a peek! You will see lots more pictures of Chase and I