Derek's 27th Birthday!

The love of my life turned 27 yesterday, and it felt like I’d been waiting for this day all my life. Getting a chance to celebrate the life of the person I love most in this world, the person I pledge to love forever daily – what could be more special than that?

On Thursday, we went to shop for some supplies, but I banished Derek to Petco until I was done because I didn’t want him to see what I was buying or where it was from. I got some decorations, and ingredients for some treats I wanted to make for him, and I was set.

On the breakfast menu was french toast, cinnamon rolls, beef bacon and chocolate covered strawberries that I had stayed up all night making, lol, those were mostly for me. Speaking of which, isn’t it awesome being married, because everything they get to enjoy, you get to enjoy right there with them? Lol!

On his birthday, I got up early, made enough food to feed a small army and waited on him to show up for his first surprise – breakfast. I’d told him he’d be just be picking me up to go do something fun, and to text me when he arrived and I’d meet him at the car. So he didn’t know I’d cook or have anything ready at the house. When he got here, I ran downstairs with a little banner that said“Happy Birthday” and told him to come inside, and this was all set up. Plus mood lighting during breakfast, because that’s just how I roll, lol.

Yes I got a husband card, because we’re getting married in less than 40 days!!! 🙂

After breakfast, he opened his card which told him what the rest of the day consisted of, plus some mushy words from me, and then we headed out!

The second surprise was him and I taking a trip to the city, since we haven’t been there together since we moved to our little town. The third surprise was dinner at one of our favorite restaurants and watching Central Intelligence which had just come out, and because Kevin Hart is one of his favorite comedians. That movie is HILARIOUS, we definitely recommend it!

We walked through the city, went into some shops that are definitely worth going back to, including this store, Electric Gentleman, that sells jeans made from real, made in the USA denim, using the same techniques Levis used back in the day before jeans were mass produced. We got a couple of things for the wedding, and got Costco memberships. #adulting

The next day (Saturday) we celebrated Sabbath, by reading our Bibles and going into town to take some pictures and practice working the camera. We caught the tail end of the farmers market, and took a long walk on the beach and watched the boats going by. It was a pretty chill day.

Sunday, we went out to our wedding location with our friends who’ll be photographing the wedding, so we could get some test shots and figure out where the best places to set up for pictures are. You definitely have to figure out the lighting if you’re having an outdoor wedding, especially being at the beach and having minimal shade. After the photo session, I’d arranged a mini birthday-party involving our friends, which we ended up having back at my condo.

Our friends brought some steaks, I made some hamburgers, and we sat around the living room and talked for a couple of hours, it was a really good time. Oh and I made black forest, strawberry cake. It turned out pretty good. I didn’t remember to take a good picture, apart from taking this while I was frosting it, to send to my mom. So for the finished result, use your imagination, lol.

It was opening weekend at the ski resort we live by, so we got to ride the ski lifts to the top of the mountain. There was a lot of food, live music, and so much to see!

Long story short, it was a really great weekend and fingers crossed, I’m pretty sure I’m entering marriage with a surplus of wife points, lol.

Hun,

3 days were barely enough to celebrate who you are, and the impact you make daily in this world. I love you more than words can say. 

Your future wife, 

Jo

Boys At The Beach

My family 😍

Engaged!

I’ve been laugh-smiling for what seems like forever now. WE’RE ENGAGED!!!

I officially get to marry and spend forever with the love of my life!

We both knew and talked about wanting to get married from pretty much the week we met. But Derek had asked me if I wanted the official engagement to be a surprise, and I said yes. (Lol, I said yes :-D) Anyway, so a surprise was planned.

He told a couple of friends, and one of them almost let the cat out of the bag to me. Then, a few weeks later, I happened to check his email and saw a rush order for my engagement ring, and in the email he wrote the ring guy, he had said he needed the ring so he could propose on a certain date. I was so bummed to have accidentally found out and ruined the surprise, but it turned out the email wasn’t accurate, even though I had my nails done and makeup done and I was ready, lol. That day turned out to be a bust, and so I was back to being in suspense. Every time he picked me up to go out, I thought that would be the day, but it wasn’t.

Until today. I had the car today, so I had to go pick him up after work, and my hair wasn’t done, I had just un-manicured my hands, I just had shorts and a sweater on — all to say, I had no idea this was happening today! We drove around for a bit, because he said he had errands to run. I ended up picking up nail polish at Walmart, and did my nails absentimindedly in the car while I was waiting for him to run in and out of stores, “looking for something.”

Then we went to the post office, where he found out my ring hadn’t been delivered yet, and he was so disappointed, so I thought for sure, it wasn’t going to happen, and I couldn’t understand why he was upset, because I figured we had to wait until the weekend anyway, so it would be fine.

Well, we kept driving around town and just hanging out, and listening to music. We drove north through a couple of towns, and ended up getting off on a dirt road we’d been on before to go to these waterfalls we’d heard about but had never made it to. Our friends had wanted to go hiking the trail to these falls and had suggested it to us the weekend before, but he changed the subject so quick, it kind of raised my suspicions. So now heading down this road, I started guessing what was about to happen.

He still tried to confuse me though, until I noticed we’d driven around the same spot twice, and he finally gave up and made his way up to the trail. We got there, parked the car, and he went to get something out of the trunk, and to get my door. He walks up, hands me a dozen roses and leads me down this trail, and my heart is racing and I start to get all emotional, and I said, “I’m not crying, don’t look at me.” And he said, “Why are you crying?” And I said, “It’s a big deal!!!” Hahaha 😀

When we got to the falls, I was turned toward them, looking at the water, and I was petting our puppy Rex who was with us, and I turned around to Derek on his knee, with an open ring box in his hand! He gave a great speech and at the end asked, “Will you spend the rest of your life with me?”

I said, “YES!”

And it was the best moment ever!

We’re SO over the moon!

Somewhere along this hike, I asked him if he’d remembered to bring the bear spray, because hey, it’s bear season and all the bears are out of hibernation, and he said that he did. Only to tell me afterward that he didn’t but he didn’t want me to be worried the whole time. Lucky for him we didn’t see any 😉

More details to come…check out our Facebook and Instagram @therunyonranch

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Your love and well-wishes is present enough, but if we’re honored with a gift from you, a small envelope for our future is a delightful blessing. Check out the link to our Paypal Wedding Registry.

Joanne's 26th Birthday

I turned 26 yesterday, and it was quite honestly the best birthday yet. I got all dressed up, and got picked up for a surprise dinner at Panhandler Pies. I really liked the restaurant, it was cute and old-timey, and we were in and out before the dinner rush so I liked it  even more, and their burgers are GREAT!

We came home, popped in a movie and ate peanut butter pie. Who needs cake when there’s pie?!

All completed by this epic sunset view.

The next weekend, Derek came to pick me up because he’d planned a surprise party with his housemates at their place. He tried to play it off like we were just going to hang out around the house. This is my “yeah right, if nothing’s happening, then why do you have the camera out” face 😀

They had balloons and streamers up and helped Derek make all my favorite food: french fries and Hawaiian pizza, lol. We ate and hung out, and it was a great day!

26, here we go!

Apartment Tour I

So a brief history.

I got my first apartment when I was 19 when I went to college. It was a little 200sq.ft studio, that only had a bed, a desk, a small FM radio, a propane cooker, and probably the worst bathroom you can imagine. I moved back home in about 4 months, and did the 3 hour commute for the next year, before I found a new place, still around like 250sq. ft or less lol. But I loved it, it had a balcony, I had a TV, I was pretty much set.

Then I moved to California, and lived in a big, beautiful house, with 2 palm trees on the outside and the greenest grass ever, with 4 roommates. That lasted about 3 weeks, before I moved yet again, and again, and again, and again. Some places were great, some not so great. Any time you have more than 2 adults living in the same house, more often than not, there’s going to be tension. Let’s just say my patience level reached it’s limit about 3 shared houses back haha.

This history is just a preface to give you an idea of just how excited I am to finally be in charge of my own space, to have my own bathroom, my own kitchen, my own fridge (at least until we get married 😉 ) To be able to have clean, shiny, disinfected tile surfaces – haha. I LOVE this place, Derek did great finding it 🙂

Yes, we have a mirror hung 7 ft up in the air. It’s a running joke 😀

Funny story, one of our first dinners here, we got a huge Papa Murphy’s pizza to make at home, and we turned the oven on and it wasn’t working. We spent probably 20 minutes trying to figure this oven out, checked the fuse box, even texted the landlord to find out what was going on! We were hungry and ended up just cutting up the pizza into slices and baking it piece at a time in that little toaster oven. Pizza was great, but the cheesy mess afterward was not! The next day we found out you have to turn on the knobs on the silver box on top of the oven to turn the oven on. I was only slightly embarrassed, haha, but it makes for a fun memory.

I like this picture, this is us, me with all the pretty things, the Woodsman with all the fun things.

Got these Willow Tree sculptures my first night home, and I love them, and this handsome guy 😉

You can see the Lake in the distance…

Hope you enjoyed the mini-tour!

Moving To Idaho

I’m about to share one of the world’s best kept secrets. Idaho.

I don’t think I would ever have looked at a map and chosen Idaho, but now I can’t imagine my life anywhere else.

It felt great to be back on the road together, and listen to some familiar tunes, and try some new restaurants, and see some new sites.

One thing that I have to keep at the forefront of my mind is a reminder to be thankful. People pay hundreds, if not thousands of dollars to experience the beauty we’ve gotten to experience in the past month.

My friend asked me if I felt like I was dreaming haha. Honestly, I do and I don’t. I do because I dreamed about days like this and moments like these for the majority of my life, and I dreamed about sharing these experiences with someone I loved. At the same time, I don’t, because everything feels so normal and natural and very much like real life, like this is where I was made to be, and that I’m with the person I was meant to be with, and I just fit into a space that was mine from the very beginning.

I feel like I’m alive for the first time in a long time, haha, I know that’s a lofty statement, but it’s true. I feel like the colors are brighter, and the air tastes sweeter and I feel a sense of freedom I hadn’t felt in a long time!

Unlike driving from Idaho to California last January, this time, our car did pretty well. Also unlike previous trips, we were able to take our time, and stopped along the way to take some pictures, on our (early birthday present) new Nikon!

So now we’re in our new home town, I’m in my new apartment, I enjoyed a couple of cold days up on my mountain and got to light a fire in my fireplace for the first time ever, but that’s a story for another day.

I can’t wait to see what all this season has to offer!