Summertime And The Livin Is... Easy?

I don't know if our summer has really been easy, but we have been having some good times despite all the crazy hours of overtime at Ty's work and my 15 credits in summer school! I have 3 Semesters left including this one. I'm exhausted and my brain is frying, but in April it will ALL be WORTH IT!
Here are a few of the fun things we squeezed in this summer:

  

We took a drive up to the Logan to go to the temple and dinner with our friends Austin and Sam. They took us to this place called Angie's for dinner and we took the "Clean the Sink Challenge"- a sink full of the largest ice cream sundae I'd ever seen! We finished it, and rolled our way out of the restaurant.

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We went camping 4th of July weekend with the Kings. We had hobo dinners, too many smores, and peed in the bushes. Despite my best efforts to pile on sunscreen, I got some severe kind of "sun poisoning" burn on my legs. Thank you lake reflection.



On the 4th we went to the North Ogden Cherry Days Parade. It wasn't anything fantastic, but we had fun with Mom and Dad King. After the parade Ty and DadMark took their precious time wandering between each classic car at the Cherry Days Car Show, while MomDeb and I lagged along complaining about the humidity and discussing whether the car's colors were cute or not. We all went to lunch at Iggy's with Grandma and Grandpa Carter, and then went to the movies to see the 3rd Transformers- epic movie!

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Vacation Over

So after coming off our vacation high and returning to Utah, Brittany threw her back out and Tyler got apendicitis... We just can't win!

Luckily we were able to identify that Tyler's pain was most likely his apendix and listened to Brit's dad when he said "Go to the hospital NOW!" We hurried Ty to the ER where he had a CT Scan, some morphine, and surgery with a few hours. They got his apendix out before the apendix burst!

On a side note, Tyler is very amusing on morphine. He discovered his toes and waved at the nurses with them. When the surgical nurse came to get him and asked for Tyler King, Ty pointed to himself and said, "That's this guy in the bed." He would start giggling for no reason, and telling funn jokes. Best of all, he mooned Jarid :)

We were so grateful when the Doc came out and informed us that surgery went great and Tyler would heal quickly. We stayed at the hospital til' Ty could take a few walks around the halls, eat solid food, and pee. When he accomplished the list we took him home. He had to stay home from work for a week and a half. When he finally did get to go back to work he was totally excited to get out of our little apartment, but totally not excited to be put on light duty AKA office work!

P.S. the little appendix doodle is by our family cartoonist Jarid King :)

VACATION!!!

After a crazy semester with 15 credits and still working full-time, Tyler thought Brittany surely needed a break before she piled on another 15 credits for summer. They ran away to visit Jason and Alex in California. Jas and Alex were fabulous hosts and gave us one awesome weekend! We spent one day at DisneyLand, where Jason gave all the fun facts we would ever need to know about all things Disney! I don't think anyone knows that park better than my brother!!! We had so much fun. There is no place like DisneyLand: it is truly the happiest place on earth! We got to ride every ride we wanted to and just had a blast. The firework show was absolutely unforgettable! I was amazed.

The next day we relaxed by starting with the most fabulously delish breakfast at The Original Pancake House where Jas had Ty try their signature Apple Pancake- basically pancake apple pie. After breakfast we finished the day at Huntington Beach to enjoy the sun and the sand. However, the day took a hilarious turn when Jason was pooped on by an overhead flying seagull. Sorry Jas, but it totally made our day! Jason freaked out and had a cow. It was rather amusing!

On Saturday we all headed over to Knotts. It was warm, and we had to wait in a lot of looooong lines, but the rides were worth it! Tyler had a lot of fun, since the extent of his roller coaster experience was Lagoon.

Tyler loved getting to know Jason and Alex. They are sooooo much fun! Jason kept us laughing the whole weekend and we loved every minute of it!

Mary Poppins!!!

 Visiting Shaun <3 brother="brother" love="love" p="p" you="you">

Mom and Dad Visit

Since I moved away from home almost 5 years ago (that seems like sooooo long!) I always look forward to visits from my parents!!! I was so so glad when they got to come for spring break 2 weeks ago. It is always so fun to see them! My mom is my very best friend, and I miss her terribly everyday. My dad is my hero and I look up to him so much. I'm a Daddy's girl, and there is just something about his hugs and his words that comfort me even in the most difficult times. With how difficult this month has been for Tyler and I, it was such a releif to have my parents so close for even a few short days. My mom taught me how to cook up our family's traditional St. Patrick's day meal, and it was DELISH! They even wore over some crazy wigs to our dinner. They threw me a birthday party a few days early so we could celebrate together. It was awesome!

March Madness...

That phrase has a whole different meaning for us now! March has been a pretty insane month of some big trials for the King household.

Early Tuesday morning on March 8th I (Brittany) was driving along on the freeway to swing by Autoliv to drop off Tyler's work pager to him. There had been a bad snow storm the day before, but this morning was clear and sunny and traffic was moving smoothly at normal speed. As I moved to the far left lane I noticed an accident up ahead, and just as I thought I would move over to avoid the cars pulled over ahead I hit black ice and lost control of the car. It was total slow motion after that. I was terrified and knew there was nothing I could do to stop at this point. I was sliding so quickly towards the other cars, and all I could think (since I had never been in any kind of accident before) was "I'M GOING TO DIE!"

Before I knew it I was slamming in to the first car, the air bag exploded, and then I felt another jolt as I hit the next car. I screamed for what felt like forever. The hot air and dust from the air bag felt like it was choking me and I couldn't get my door open for fresh air. The highway patrolman finally got to my car to check on me. He had to yell at me to get me to snap out of my panicked screaming. He asked me if I was okay. I looked around I checked my face, arms, chest, legs.
Amazingly, I did feel okay.

When the paramedics arrived to check on us they opened my passenger door to help me out. Until now I hadn't noticed that my passenger seat was totally broken, but the EMT was lifting off salt bags that were piled on it. He asked me, "Were these here before?" I explained to him that they weren't, but they had been piled in the back of my car to weigh it down during the winter. His eyes bugged out, and I didn't understand what the big deal was. He explained how it didn't make any sense how these salt bags slid into my right, front passenger seat while my car was sliding to the left side and slamming in to the other cars at 75 mph. If even one of those bags had hit the back of my seat my back would have been broken. If one had hit me in the head, I would be dead. Immediately I was saying a prayer to thank Heavenly Father for sending an angel to be with me that morning.

I walked away with a lot of bruises and pain, but nothing broken. Unfortunately my cute little car that I hadn't even had a year yet was a goner.

But you know what they say, "Bad things happen in threes."

The next week Tyler was stopped in a parking lot and an old lady back in to his bumper. We were annoyed but laughed. It was so ridiculous that this would happen now! But she paid to have Ty's bumper fixed up and he got to drive around this totally sweet 2011 Dodge Truck for a few days. No big deal.

Tyler got his car back and it looked brand new. Not even 3 days later Tyler was stopped in a line of cars at a stop light coming to pick me up after work. He looked in his rear view mirror and saw a car coming up behind him. He thought as he looked back that the car was going too fast. He knew the car was not stopping. Sure enough this girl slammed in to Tyler, Tyler slammed in to the next car, and that car pushed in to the next car. Total Mess! Thankfully, Tyler was also being watched over and walked away with only bruises and a busted knuckle. But his car was also deemed totaled.

This month has been quite a trial. I felt so hopeless. I found myself feeling so frustrated and angry. I sat down one night and just cried, thinking "How can this all really be happening?" We got married in the temple, we pay our tithing, we go to church and read our scriptures and we try our best to live so righteously. Why was this all happening? What had we done wrong to be so punished? I opened my scriptures and looked up versus on Trials. As I read I began to feel the love of the Lord. I realized that we were not being punished for anything. This life here on earth is a test. Will we stay faithful through life's ups and downs? Will we stay close to the Lord when things get hard? Will we endure to the end? I knew then that my answer to these questions would be "YES!"
I wouldn't let this shake my faith.

These scriptures from Ether 12 really uplifted me!

v6. I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.

v12. For if there be no faith among the children of men God can do no miracle among them.

And we have seen miracles! Through our trials this month we have been blessed with amazing friends and family that have been angels in our time of need. The Lord has truly blessed us. We are so grateful!

Sometimes You Just Need to Run Away...

Brittany was drowning in school work.

Tyler was wiped out from his job and overtime.

There hadn't been a lot of restful sleep.

At the final breaking point of the week Brittany called Tyler and asked him if he would run away with her on Saturday... Tyler said he would! So without any plans they hopped on the Front-runner to head down to Salt Lake. They wandered around making each other laugh and spending money they probably shouldn't have. It was a BLAST! They bought a Fish Eye Lens Camera, but since they didn't have batteries for flash some of the pics were too dark to turn out... But when they used it later with Flash the pics turned out sooo funn!

Brittany and Tyler probably have more fun walking around, doing nothing than any other two people in the world.
What a blessing to be married to your very best friend!

Remembering Grandpa Garrett

A year ago tomorrow (February 4th) will be the day we said goodbye to the most loving and fun Grandpa. I was blessed with many sweet memories with my Grandpa when I was very little. Visits to the Garretts in Utah are among my favorite childhood memories. Moving here after graduation and being able to form such strong relationships with my family here was the biggest blessing! I will always be grateful for that opportunity to be so near my Grandpa in his last few years. I just thought I would share a few things that were my favorite things about grandpa...

• trident gum!
• his jokes- always hilarious!
• telling him long lengthy stories about who-knows-what! (when I was little)
• when he'd fall asleep in the recliner at our house and SNORE- sooooo loud!
• Satellite- cupping his hands behind his ears to get better hearing quality
• which went with always having the Closed Captioning on TV, which now we all prefer =)
• when he bit Jason at the Raptors Game- best story EVER!
• when Jason and I thought we were going to die on the drive home from the Raptors Game
• Christmas 2008- when we were all here, together for Christmas
• when he told me he really liked Tyler. Grandpa was the best judge of character.
• when he asked Tyler and I, "When are you getting married?"- we'd been together a month
• visits and walks down the hall at the care center during his last weeks.
• Singing his favorite hymn as he left us.
• Feeling his presence and his love in the bridal room at the temple. It meant everything to me to know he was there.

Love You Grandpa!

Our First Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

What a great year Tyler and I have had! I can't beleive how it has flown by. 2010 was such an amazing year! I don't know how 2011 could top, but it can try!

2010 started out bitter-sweet. Having Ty come home and finding out I was madly in love with my best friend was more than I could have ever imagined! Fortunately, Tyler was able to meet, spend time with, and get the stamp of approval from my Grandpa Garrett before passed in February. I will always be grateful for those Thursdays and Sundays we visited at the care center.

The rest of the year just flew from engagement to wedding! It was fabulous!

Here are some pics from our first Christmas!

Christmas morning!

Tyler trying out his sweet bobsled/to pagan/snow toy that Jarid made him!

Visiting the lights at Temple Square.