Groban, Vivint, Wedding

First, I can’t believe Ezra only devoted ONE SENTENCE to my exciting birthday news last week. We’re going to a Josh Groban concert!!! I can’t tell you how excited I am. In 2007 he was in Utah when I was in Oregon, and he was in Oregon when I was in Utah. I would have gone then but circumstances were not in my favor. When I heard he was coming to Salt Lake City again, and the same week as my birthday, I told Ezra I would love to go. I tried not to mention it much after that because I knew tickets weren’t cheap, but he did it! I’m so excited! I’ve already got work requested off and my boss told me to have fun (thanks Carla!), so now I’m just hoping Ezra will be able to get work off.

That’s the other exciting news. It’s somewhat bitter sweet. Ezra got a job at Vivint! It’s full time, better pay, and includes benefits. We’re super excited, but this means he will be leaving the Provo City Library. We met at the Library and it’s been wonderful being able to work together. When we talk about work, we each know what the other is talking about. I won’t be able to see him when I drop stuff off in tech services anymore, or go say hi when I’m on a break. It’s going to be sad, but we think this new job is just what our family needs right now. He will be working both jobs for the next two weeks, so things are going to be a little crazy for a while, but we’ll figure everything out. I’m so proud of him!


Apparently the weather in Provo yesterday (Saturday) was pretty crazy with lots of rain, wind, and flooding. We unfortunately missed it all (we love storms) because we were up in Logan. One of Ezra’s best friends, Ryan, got married to an amazing girl, Christina. We were so happy to be there and support them. The weather tried to get stormy during their reception (the sun was shining and the weather was great at the temple) but it sounds like they were spared the brunt of it, thank goodness. Well, nothing I can say tops the news and happiness that goes with a wedding, so I think that’s all I’ll say for today.

Congratulations Ryan and Christina!

Breathing Room?

Well, I am now done with my portfolio submission to Nickelodeon Animation Studios' Nick Artist Program.  It is a summer internship that I am excited about.  I don't think that I will get it this year, but I loved the challenge of getting a portfolio ready.  I also have entered finals and have been busy with those, but I am not stressing out about them this time around I just have one more on Friday.

We have been up to Salt Lake 3 weeks in a row now and may end up there sooner than later. The Grandparents came into town on a trip through Utah, sightseeing, and on through to California.  It was unexpected, but welcomed.  I enjoyed seeing them since I usually only see them on holidays maybe twice a year.

Allison is still doing amazing in her classes and we are both super excited about a new app we have started using, MyFitnessPal, you can enter in what you are eating and it shows how many calories you are eating, plus other nutritional facts as well as your workouts and how many (presumably) you are burning. We'll keep you posted on how well it works. 

We were sorry to hear about the tragedy that occurred at the Boston Marathon on Monday.  Our prayers go out to those effected in the aftermath of this sad event.  We have some friends that run marathons and they were our first thought, luckily they are training for another event that they are going to next week in Virginia.  Hopefully they will figure out the exact reason and who did this soon.

Conference Weekend

It’s been a pretty great week! Why? General Conference!

For those who don’t know what General Conference is (if you do, you can skip this paragraph), it’s something that happens in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints twice a year, the first full weekend in April, and the first full weekend in October. It’s a conference where church leaders provide inspiring words, guidance, and counsel to everyone in the church. You’ll often find LDS families watching General Conference (which is broadcast worldwide) in their homes, or in their local church building. General Conference is broadcast from the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, which happens to be totally within driving distance of us.

I love going up to Salt Lake for Conference, even if we’re not in the Conference Center. So on Sunday, since the Provo Library is closed, Ezra and I drove up to Salt Lake and hung out on Temple Square. We watched the Sunday morning session of Conference in one of the Visitor Centers, and then went to Ezra’s Mom’s place for lunch. She had some pretty great pizza, and we decided we didn’t want to face the traffic for the second session at 2pm, so we just stayed put and watched it on TV.

Had to visit the Christus.

Too shy to ask a stranger to take our picture, so we did it ourselves. Not the best lighting, but we were happy to be there!

I love daffodils.

And Ezra decided to take a picture of me taking a picture of the daffodils.

After Conference was over we watched a new show BYU TV is producing called Granite Flats. The show was filmed entirely in Utah, and in some locations around Salt Lake. We drove around for a while with Ezra’s sister and her family trying to find some of the filming locations.

In one of the school sets we thought we saw that the name of the school was Granger. So we went to Granger Elementary School. This was definitely NOT the school it was filmed at.

While on the road I was researching it on my phone and saw that they were trying to purchase Granite High School for filming (the article was a little aged). So we went to Granite High School... which was completely closed off and had asbestos signs in all the windows and doors. Definitely not filmed there. We found out later that the school was about a ten minute drive from their house, so perhaps another day we will find the filming location.

After that we wanted some fresh air and stopped by Liberty Park and peeked in at the Tracy Aviary. We had a lot of fun getting out and sharing stories. It was a great conference weekend.

Some of the birds. Just chilling.

No major plans for this coming week. Ezra is getting his portfolio together for the Nick Artist Program so he’s been busy being artsy. We’re not really getting our hopes up about it. He said he wants to apply so he can frame Nickelodeon’s rejection letter. I think it’s brave to try something when you’re 95% sure you’re going to be rejected. So no matter what happens, I’m proud of him for applying.

Crazy week, but back home

We got back home to Utah to a ton of snow.  Our car was half frozen shut in the airport parking lot.  It was a good thing that we didn't need to fill up the gas tank since that was on the side that froze over.  We went back up to Salt Lake two more times throughout the week.  Once to help my (Ezra's) mom move into her new place, the next for Edward's (Ezra's nephew) birthday party.  It was fun and it is good to be back in the swing of things.

School starts back up for both Allison and myself.  It is an exciting time and stressful too.  We live farther away from BYU and the Provo Library now. I feel sometimes trapt with all the snow and distance.  It takes longer and is more difficult biking in these conditions (not to mention the deadening cold morning wind on your face as you ride a bike hurrying into work before the sun comes up.... eek, yeah, we've been driving lately).  This is just the beginning of snow though, maybe I should get some studded bike tires...  and a face mask.

We are, on the plus side, halfway out of the dark.

Icicles hanging from our house.

The poor plants have become encased in ice.

2012 Christmas Letter

We've been meaning to write a blog post, but things have been a little crazy since we made it home from the Northwest. So, to make up for it, here is a copy of our Christmas letter. Enjoy!

2012 has been a rather productive year for the Smith family. Here are a few of the highlights.

Allison became a reference librarian at the Provo Library in January and is absolutely in love with her new position. She rarely asks for time off but on Saturday, June 9th she took a day off to run the Utah Valley Marathon. She trained hard throughout the year and it was tough, but she finished in less than six hours and received her finisher’s medal. She can finally mark “run a marathon” off her bucket list. In August Allison decided she wanted to further her education and become the best librarian she could by receiving her Masters in Library and Information Science (MLIS). She applied to San Jose State University and was accepted. She will begin classes in January 2013. Finally, in November, Allison decided to participate in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). The goal was to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. She did it! Allison can now claim to be a novelist, even though it’s unpublished and may never see the light of day. That’s just one more thing she can mark off her bucket list.

Ezra went to California for a week in March with the Illustration department from BYU. They visited animation studios, video game studios, some fine artist personal studios, grad schools, and museums. He has a stronger drive to work in the animation industry but also continues dabbling in electronics and mobile app development. Having always been a little ADD when it comes to hobbies, he has had difficulties in choosing a major and sticking with it while in college.

We took our anniversary trip in August to visit Allison’s family, then toured various places in Oregon such as McDowell Creek Park, Enchanted Forest, the Oregon Coast Aquarium, Yaquina Head Lighthouse, and the Tillamook Cheese Factory. Then we traveled up to Washington, went zip lining, and saw Ezra’s family. It was a fun vacation and we look forward to planning next year’s.

To end the year, WE’VE MOVED! It was sudden but necessary because of some unfortunate circumstances with our home at [Address not available online]. Our new address is:

[Address not available online.].

We call it our best Black Friday deal because that’s the day we found it. We were finally able to start moving in on December 8th and are actually still in the process. We’ll officially be out of our old place on the 19th. This was definitely a move we needed to make and our new home is wonderful in all the ways our old place was lacking. Though the actual process of moving hasn’t been very fun, we really like our new home and it fits our needs well. Hopefully we’ll be staying here for quite a while.

We hope this letter finds you well and wish you a wonderful holiday season.

Best wishes,
Ezra and Allison Smith

I'll be home for Christmas

We have officially left our old place and now only have one home rather than two! On Wednesday after work we worked on cleaning our old apartment. We finished at eight o’clock which is when we had our manager scheduled to be over to check it out. She thought the place looked great and gave us our full deposit back. We were sooo happy to be done.

Our little Christmas tree, in our new place.

We slept in a bit on Thursday to recover from all the late nights and hard work we went through to get everything done. After I got Ezra to work I made sure to get laundry done so we had clean clothes to pack. After work we packed and got everything ready for our trip.

Well, I’ve never had any major problems with holiday travel before. This year changed that. Everything was fine getting to the airport. Our plane was a little late but not much and it didn’t cause any problems. We flew into Portland, OR and took TriMet over to the train station. Our train was running about two hours late. Apparently all the snow in California had slowed it down. So we made it to Lacey around 8 o’clock.

While in Washington we did a lot of packing. Ezra’s mom is moving down to Salt Lake City so our days in Washington were filled with packing and sorting through things. We made a lot of progress and hopefully everything will be done and ready when they take off this weekend. We also had a wonderful get together with Ezra’s family on Saturday the 22nd. I got to meet family members that I hadn’t met yet and I think I’ve finally met most of Ezra’s family.

We found some of our wedding cake in the freezer. We decided we should eat a bit.

Monday, the 24th was the really crazy day. We got up early and worked on packing things. I got a voicemail that there was an issue with our train. Great. I called Amtrak and they told me that the train that we were supposed to catch at 11:20 was running late, two hours late. They said to call back again at 12:45 to check on it. Okay. Well, there were a few things we still had to shop for and some bank stuff Ezra had to take care of, so we took our time getting that done. On our first stop Ezra asked about the trains again (it was about 10:20am) and he suggested I call Amtrak and check on it again. So I did. They told me there was a train we could catch that was supposed to arrive at 11:20 (our original time) but was running about ten minutes late, so it would be there at 11:30am. That train would take us to Portland, then we could take a greyhound bus down to Albany. Cool! We rushed through our last stop, which was Target. One of the items we got was a gift card, a normal, typical, every day gift card. It had some issues and took a while. We had a train to catch and I knew we would be pushing it so I sent Ezra out to the car and he and his sister, Casey, went back to the house to get our things. Then they would come back, pick me up and we would go straight to the train station. It was a great plan! The only thing was, we were slightly short on time.

We were pulling up to the train station and we could see the train sitting there. I knew this was a short stop and that we’d have to hurry. Then we pulled into the parking lot as the train pulled out. We missed it. I walked into the train station and asked about it. He said that was part of the train, but that our original train was running late and they didn’t know when it would arrive. We'd just have to wait. I had about an hour of frustration and then was fine. I just don’t like being let down. I felt like we were so close to being back to our normal schedule but then had that ripped away, and literally seeing that missed opportunity chug away. So we sat and waited. The train arrived around 3:40pm and we finally made it to the Albany train station at 7:45, about 3.5 hours late. I was really just relieved to be back in Oregon and so close to home.

Then we were pleasantly surprised by our welcoming party! Who pulls up? None other than my mom, sister-in-law, and my adorable new nephew Oliver! I’m ashamed to admit that Oliver was a little more exciting than anything else and when we walked in the house and I had Oliver in my arms I may have forgotten to greet my dad… Oops! The rest of the family was just starting on desert when we arrived so Ezra and I ate dinner and then didn’t have to wait for desert. It was great to see my family. And play with Oliver. Oliver trumps all.

Auntie Allison and Oliver!

On Tuesday we had a great big family breakfast, opened presents, hung out and relaxed, then in the afternoon we had more family show up and did some more presents. In the evening we got to watch the new episode of Doctor Who. Awesome! Oh, and throughout the day there was a lot of Oliver. Did I mention that Oliver is the best? I love being an Auntie!

The Christmas tree! All ready with Santa's gifts.

Britney, Oliver, and Matt getting ready to open Oliver's stocking.

Sleepy Oliver.

Such a happy baby! He loves watching the village scenes around the living room.

Auntie, why are you taking pictures of me?

Today has been a pretty relaxing day so far. Britney and Oliver showed up this afternoon and I got to see my adorable nephew some more. I have to get my Oliver fix because I won’t see him again until sometime this summer.

So, that’s the news from this past week! It’s been a busy one, and we won’t leave Oregon until the 31st. So hopefully the rest of this vacation is just as fun as the first half has been!

Neck deep in the middle of moving and needing to get ready for vacation

We have spent the past week and then some packing and moving and moving and packing, not to mention cleaning, there has been a bit of that too.  We really like our new place. And it wasn’t until the third time we were here (when we started moving stuff in) did we see it in the daylight and realized that it is pink.  But that is okay.  It is our pink elephant of a house (cottage? So we have been told, don’t ask).  It reminds me of my aunt and uncles old place when I was really little because it has this awesome 70s wood paneling.

We can’t seem to find a spot for our lovesack though; it is just huge and devours anything it is close to.  Also we think we have figured out how to solve any drought problems Utah may have in the future, every time we tried to move a load from one house to the next, it would start raining or snowing. Very inconvenient, but skiers, snowboarders, and those that like campfires in the summer… you are welcome.

We will be leaving for vacation in a few short days and am very excited to see our families.  Allison has a new nephew to meet and we are both in need of some good ol’ Pacific Northwest goodness. 

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

Thanksgiving

Today, Ezra and I are celebrating our 4 month anniversary. :-) YAY!

This year, I'm thankful for my amazing husband and the fact that he chose me. His kindness, thoughtfulness, and selflessness always amaze me. I married my best friend and perfect match, we are so blessed.

I was going through my phone and deleting some old photos and I came across some from our wedding day. That got me to reminiscing, so I thought I'd share some photos from 4 months ago.

A note left to us by our friends. They decorated our hotel room while we were still at the reception.

We stayed a night in Port Angeles, WA. Naturally, a Twilight themed display.

Must more my taste. Harry Potter all the way!

We also stopped in Forks, WA because we wanted to visit the rain forest. Ezra's ankle was bugging him so we stopped to get an ace bandage... at "Bella's First Aid Station."

Yep, Forks High School. Doesn't look anything like in the movie.

When angry at phone, shoot laser beams at it!

Newlyweds! Honeymoon!

Stopped in Astoria, OR and went to the Goonies house.

That's it! Right where they filmed it!

Climbed to the top of the Astoria Column.

So one night we were just going to bed, and I heard this weird sound. Something was hitting our curtains. I asked Ezra what it was, he said it was the AC (he was half asleep). He shined his cell phone toward the window and we saw this big black spot jumping up and down. Ez got up, put his glasses on and we turned the bedroom lights on. "Allison, get a glass!" He caught it and brought it over to me (I wasn't wearing my contacts). It was huge! We let it go outside, but man did I freak out!