Park City Photo Shoot

Last weekend when Nate was in town we took our official engagement pictures with our wedding photographer. Here's the link to his blog so you can check them out!

PC Engagements (click here)

Completed Family

My future brother in law returned home from his mission in Finland this past week... meaning I finally got to meet the last member of Nate's family! Welcome home Dallin!

Elder Dallin Quinn, McKay (younger brother), Paul (dad)

Nate wasn't arriving until the next day, so I met up with the Quinn family and rode with them to the airport. Upon arrival Dallin greeted each family member in turn with a hug. Once he got to me, however, he stuck out his hand. No hugs for this young lady, he said! Not part of the family yet ;) Thanks to Grandpa Arave for taking care of the introductions for us... introducing me as an investigator!

Engaged

If your first thought upon reading the title of this post was something along the lines of, "Lauren has GOT to get more creative with her titles... they're all the same!" then you were wrong! This title is NOT the same, but rather completely different. Although I have talked quite a bit about our engagement recently, this is not about MY engagement.

Friday night, my younger sister, Robyn, got engaged to Andrew Yenchick! We are so excited for them to be married in the Salt Lake Temple in June!

Congratulations!

Robyn and Andrew

Valentine's Dance 2011

300 Questions

Nathan and I have been reading this book:

And I recommend it. For everyone! Ok, especially for engaged couples or recently married couples. The book is comprised of 300 questions (obviously) tailored to LDS couples and is divided into six categories- things like finances, past relationships, and future hopes and dreams. Nathan and I started answering questions from it during the time we were making the marriage decision and have loved finishing it up throughout our engagement. I've enjoyed the book for two reasons. First, it's helped me get to know Nathan deeper than I ever could comprehend before. And second, and just as valuable as the first, I've gotten to know myself better! It forces me to come up with opinions and learn how to voice them! If two people in a marriage partnership are going to be able to come to conclusions on any sort of decisions, they better learn first how to have opinions, and second how to reconcile those opinions with the other's.

It is interesting to note that although many of the questions inherently come up in dating, many are questions we had never even thought to ask each other! The book provides a safe environment to ask hard questions and address seemingly hard issues- issues that not only might come up in marriage, but invariably will come up in marriage. If you do choose to make this book part of your relationship, I hope it has as much of a positive impact for you as it has for us.

NO MORE SCHOOL PLEASE!

I knew this day would come. The day that I wished school was over. Here it is. Nothings has changed, per say, in my circumstance- same long distance engagement, same classes, same pending (ever closer!) wedding date. I've made a conscious effort up until this point to try and enjoy my education and make the most of it all the way until the end. Well, today I'm impatient.

Happy Valentine's Day!

So, Nate and I celebrated Valentine's Day last weekend... or so I thought... I got a call bright and early this morning from my sweet fiance. It went something like this:

"Lauren, will you be my Valentine?"

"Of course!"

"There's one condition... you have to move out here and live with me."

"Ok, I can do that. Can you take my word for it for now? I'm not going to be able to move out for a couple of weeks..."

"Perfect. I just need you out here by April 30th... to use the tickets I just bought for the San Francisco Ballet!"

What a romantic of a fiance I have! So here's to our first date as a married couple in SF on our first weekend in the city.

BUT... that's not the only celebration of the holiday we had today. Nate received a package at work today! Surprise!!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Engaged in San Francisco

This weekend was my first time back to San Francisco since we were engaged. Nate and I spent the weekend out there together, celebrating Valentine's Day and trying out the "city life" together. We took every opportunity to ride public transportation, eat amazing (and new!) food, hang out with other young couples in the ward, and explore the city together.

Every weekend Nate and I spend together is always packed to the brim full of plans. Since our time together is limited, we always try to maximize it- wedding plans, SF life plans, and most importantly spending time with each other. One of our favorite experiences of the weekend (I'll spare you ALL of our favorite experiences) was taking engagement pictures with Brad and Danielle (a cute couple just starting their career in SF... in our ward... and also my cousins...) in downtown SF. They were so generous to spend their Saturday afternoon with us and photographing us! Some of our favorites are below:

You have the classic trolley pics... (the question is: "hold on" for what?? Is that trying to have a deeper meaning here??)

...the Bay Bridge and beautiful bay...

...City shots

The Muni Bus

And then this one- just because I think it's funny: