Woooooow. I'm pathetic. Or just really busy... It's been, once again, too long. I'm averaging like 3 blog posts a year. I swear I'll get better. I swear. 

This summer has been out of control for us. We've been everywhere it seems, and still in our trusty van. Which is starting to seem a little less trustworthy as the months go by. Here's the only photo of the van I could find. 

I feel like Sandy needs to be in all of my blog posts. That should do it.

 In June, Preston left me for a week. He went to my favorite place (California) to get spoiled by his parents. And I'm glad he had a blast and got to go to the new Cars Land at Disneyland. Let's just say he still owes me for that one. Haha. Pictures of his adventures:

That's our good friend, Doug. We love Doug. Preston got to hang out with Doug in Hollywood. Luckkkyyyyy!!!! Then he ate legit Filipino food. Again, luckkyyy!!! I'm glad he got to go though. I'm grateful whenever we get to spend time with our families.
 At the beginning of July, we drove to Boise for about a week. We had a blast with my family, and celebrated a million different things. Chelsea's birthday, my party day, my mom's birthday, and Blake's birthday. We also went up to say goodbye to this guy before he left for Basic Training for the Air Force.

That's my brother Dan on the left and his "wingman," which is what you call your bunk mate in the AF. Anyway, it was a tough goodbye. Dan and I have always been close, and this means I won't get to see him as much as usual. Man. Isn't he awesome? Ladies... haha. We had a blast during the Fourth, which included rafting, fireworks, and a sweet sunburn for the pasties like myself. The Saturday before we left, we went with my family up to the river to just play around and swim, and we all had a BLAST. And Preston ended up a mermaid. Not merman. Mermaid. See?

If you look closely you can see the leftover sunburn on my shoulders from a couple days before. Woof. But what an awesome time we had!

Isn't he adorable? Yes. He is. July passed in a flurry of awesome and heat and before school started, we went on a vacation to San Francisco with my family. We drove six hours the first night to get to Nevada where we met up with my family and drove the rest of the way the next day to CA. Six? Seven hours? I don't remember now. I'm blocking it mentally.  We camped outside of Santa Cruz at Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. Love those Redwoods. We got to go to SIX FLAGS! We had a blast and got to see way more of San Fran than I had ever planned! We went to the wax museum, the aquarium, we took a cruise underneath the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz, we ate awesome seafood, and spent hours in Chinatown. WHAT A BLAST!!!! We tried going to the beach in Santa Cruz... mistake. Until Sunday when we went to the tidepools and they were AMAZING. Haha. And let's just say church out there in the boondocks was... educational. We don't regret going in the least. Here are pictures from that awesome adventure.

Those are in no kind of order.... but you get the idea. Those sunglasses Preston has on were a hit. Wherever he went, people wanted their picture with him. Typical.

 Well....After spending 5 days with my family, Preston and I left early the next morning to drive down to SoCal so we could spend the night with Preston's family before we made the final leg to Arizona. We had a blast and ate at my favorite, Joe's Crab Shack. Yes, every time I'm down there, I do indeed gain 10 pounds. Worth it. We went to bed full (to bursting), and woke up way too early to drive down to Arizona. Another 6 hours in the car. Kill me now. We hit some place called Blythe... What in the heck is Blythe??? Anyway, that was when the heat hit. We still had hours to drive, and we had to turn off the A/C because the van was overheating... Seriously, kill me now. We got to AZ and drove around for a heat-filled half hour before meeting with friends for lunch. At a place that was closed. I was near-tears at this point from the heat, and then we decided to go to the mall. Best decision of that entire trip. It was so nice and cold in there. And they had Orange Julius. Saved my life. We went to the rehearsal dinner for the friend's wedding that we were actually down there for (Josh, you will owe me for the rest of your life, probably), and ate good Mexican food. I feel like we're eating every second. Weird. We played some sand volleyball in the heat (midnight and it's 99 out? no thank you), I went to bed. That was how we spent the day of our first anniversary. Love you babe. He stayed up with the boys/bachelor party until like 4am. I feel no pity. We woke up, got ready for the sealing, and headed off to the temple. (sorry for the lack of pictures of this part. Preston's phone is where they're at, and he's at work as I write this. I get an iPhone tomorrow, so the one-sided owning of pictures is about to die.) Halfway to the temple, I check my wallet to make sure I've got my recommend. Got it. Preston starts looking around for his wallet... it's sitting on the bathroom counter back at the house where we stayed. Where his recommend is. Too late to turn around. He calls the temple to have them call our stake president so he can get permission to go in. It doesn't go through until the sealing has actually started... I could have sat out in the waiting room with my husband... nu uh. no way. This was the main reason we were there and there was no way I had suffered through that heat to sit it out. Sorry love. It was a beautiful ceremony, and Preston was happy to at least be in the pictures. The rest of the night was spent eating, talking, laughing, and posing for pictures. It was a beautiful wedding, and we are glad we can be supportive of our friends. Even our mission president and his wife showed up! When we were talking with them, they mentioned that Elder Shepherdson, one of Preston's good mission buddies was speaking the next morning in church. At 9. Preston, being the thoughtful, loving, caring person/friend that he is, wanted BADLY to make it to that homecoming talk. Our friend Vandy was riding home with us, and he wanted to go too, so they decided we'd leave right then, drive through the night, and then make it back the next morning for his talk. I slept the whole way. I don't even feel bad. They took turns driving and keeping each other awake, and by the time Sunday afternoon rolled around, I vowed to never go on "vacation" again. Which isn't true. But Preston did promise me we never had to go to Arizona again. A promise I will DEFINITELY hold him to. Last, but not least for this post, Preston's mom and stpedad came to visit us for Labor Day weekend. We had a blast with them, and once again, ate some more. We went bowling, and what the heck?? These guys were there!

I love me some Sandy Smith. And I'm so glad Tegyn was there too. Man. She pretty much fits in perfectly with us.
 We were then visited a couple weekends later by Preston's dad and stepmom, ate a lot more, went to Preston's best friend, Logan's wedding reception, and also got SPOILED OUT OF MY MIND by Preston's parents. While he went to work that Saturday, we went to RC Willey and got a brand new table and chairs for our very formal dining room and Sam's Club for an awesome gel mattress topper, new pillows, sheets, and luxurious throws!!! Oh MY!!! Spoiled indeed! THANK YOU!!!! (pictures en route.) We love all our parents to death!!! Well, this post is entirely too long, and I'm tired of writing. And I forgot to say we took family pictures when we were in Boise. We had soooo much fun with our photographer Tawni. She's the best!!! Here's what I could steal:

I obviously saved the best for last. While the summer was awesome, I glad and excited for fall to show some gorgeous colors. And yes, we did have a lot of fun. We had a lot of trials too, but somehow, we always seem to come out ok. We love you all.