First Anniversary

Well, it has been one year since Danielle and I were joined together for time and all eternity. It has been a very interesting year, a time of discovery, joy, happiness, some sickness, and togetherness. We were both commenting on how it seems to have been both a long time and also how fast it has seemed to pass. For our first anniversary (because of my family reunion in Oregon) we were able to go to the Heceta Head Lighthouse Bed and Breakfast. We stayed there and also did some other fun stuff.

The day started off with us going to the Yaquina Lighthouse. It was a very low tie so they have had lots of tide pools that you could walk around and discover. These are some of the things that we saw. (Or in other words vacation picture time)

There were lots of these green things. Pretty cool.

There were lots and lots of starfish, I thought they were really cool, this was a tide pool that had several, with a couple different colors.

This one is a little hard to see because of the glare from the sun on the pool but it has some starfish and purple urchins.

This one is a little hard to see, but all of the little bumps on the big rock are seagulls or cormorants.

This was a huge star fish, if I had held my hand up to it while taking the picture (good idea now) my whole hand would have covered the middle section only.

Another one with a couple of different starfish, I guess I have a thing for starfish (besides the yummy goodness of starfish soup)

This is one of a starfish getting ready to dine on the yummy-ness of mussel soup!

A picture of (L-R) My beautiful wife Danielle, my favorite little sister Kristen, my wonderful Mom, and my favorite cousin named David, David.

This is a picture of a tick that started crawling on Danielle, okay, well actually it is a crab that was put on her hand while in it's shell and then got out and started crawling around, and by the way the crab's name is Hermie (the hermit crab).

These are Hermie and some of his friends (L-R) Pépe, Hermie and Lequisha.

Another little crab friend that we found, they are small but they are really quick and wiry.

After visiting the Lighthouse Danielle and I went to Florence and had lunch, then we explored a little around the town, got some Dairy Queen treats and then drove down to the beach, we stopped a little ways up from the beach on a little area that looked over the jetty turns the ocean into the river. Then we checked into the Heceta Head Bed and Breakfast. It is a lovely little light keepers house that was turned into an Inn. They had a nice little garden that included:

ARTICHOKES!!

After checking in and exploring the house a bit we decided to go to dinner, we decided on one place, but as we walked in I almost choked on all the cigarette smoke, so we went down the street a couple of buildings to a nice placed called the "Bay Street Grill" and it was a very nice little place, one of the things that Danielle liked about it was this, if you can't tell what is it, here is a better picture:

Yep, foam soap, Dani loves the stuff, in fact I now have two family members that every time they see foam soap they think of Dani.

Another interesting thing we saw at dinner was the nicest arrest ever made. Dani saw a guy in the restaurant that seemed to be one of the waitresses boyfriend, then he left, as he did a cop stopped him, shook his hand and than began to talk to him. Another cop came up and really animatedly shook his hand and then Dani said she thought he was going to hug him, but instead turned him around and put cuffs on him and took him off. After dinner we went and saw the Dark Knight, in what might have been the worst theater that I have ever been in, but the movie was still amazing, I loved it. Then we went back to the Bed and Breakfast and celebrated our anniversary buy eating the top of the wedding cake that had been frozen and saved, it was actually pretty good, and then we went up onto the lighthouse at about 10:30PM. It was amazing, the pictures don't do it justice at all. It was so amazing it was a bit of a spiritual experience. We saw almost absolute darkness, and then from this center light, pillars of light showing us the way to go, just how we would imagine it when Christ is likened to a light house. Then we thought it was amazing as we realized that the light in the light house is always shining, it is just not that we see its true and full power until the darkness comes upon us.

A picture of the lighthouse from the yard of the B&B.

This is one of Danielle showing how comfortable and luxurious the bed was.

This is a picture of the B&B from below on the beach, quite the house.

This is a picture that has the mists that were coming in off of the ocean, just below the lighthouse.

A picture from the beach of the lighthouse during the day.

Another panoramic view of the ocean with rocks leading up to the lighthouse.

After one year of marriage, I am more in love with my amazing and beautiful wife that I was on the day that I proposed to her at this lighthouse, more in love than the day we got married, and I know that I will be in love with her a little bit more tomorrow. I am a lucky man to have her in my life and to have her as my wife. I love you Danielle, with all my heart and for all of eternity.-Bryan

Catch up and Family Reunion

So as you have probably noticed, those of you who faithfully check (and those who are doing their monthly check) it has been a while since we have checked-in with the cyber-world. We have been having a pretty busy time of it. Some of the highlights have been that Danielle sold her house, we bought a new one, and moved, all the while Danielle has been diligently working at Clear Creek. Well we have finally gotten some time off and will do a bunch of blogs so that we can then take another break when things get busy and school starts. So on the 2nd of August we left home and drove to Depoe Bay Oregon for a Kennedy Family Reunion. It was a long drive but a nice one. I think that one of the best ways to keep up and explain what is going on is with pictures. So enjoy and I will just provide some commentary.




These are some of the pictures that we took on the first day that we were here in Depoe Bay, we went to church (it took for ever to find) then came back and had a relaxing day. This is the picture off of the balcony from our room. We are on the second floor and it looks right over the ocean (I know I know that was a Captain Obvious statement), but it is a really beautiful scene and we can hear the ocean all day when we are here.

Also on the first day we had a pod of grey whales that decided to put on a show for us. There were (at best count) 4 whales that were rolling around for a long time, this is a picture of a couple of them waving at us.

Up in the left hand corner is one of the sprays from the whale, at the bottom is someones head that was sitting on the rocks right outside the room. They were so close, really it was a stone throw away from us, they were very close and were doing lots of things.

This is another shot from our balcony along the coast, one that we get to wake up to each day we are here. We will try to keep you caught up and let you know what is going on; both with the trip and with our first anniversary (pictures from the day are coming).

While up at Clear Creek, we are at the mercy of the weather. The first week of camp we were bombarded by very, VERY large snowflakes. We had to come up with some fun things to take place of our regular outside activities. We did some really fun and creative stuff, but my favorite was when John Jay showed these videos on the projector and we just has some laughs showing then to the kids. I laughed, so you will too, unless you have no heart, or funny bone! :)

Here are some fun pics for ya!

Isn't my husband so cute! I gotta admit, he is the best! You know now why I love him so stinkin' much!! :)

My Side of the UnKnown Story

Once more, a shocker of all shockers, Bryan is actually going to BLOG. It is about time, I guess, but my wonderful Dani does such a wonderful job, I did not want to (and hopefully don't) bring down the high quality of this blog. If you have not noticed, we have been writing down a bunch of things about when we met, at least we will have them written down in at least one place. So I am going to chime in with a little bit of the story from my point of view (since it happened to me).

My first trip to Utah to meet Danielle was pretty darn good. I loved her before I came, I really wanted to be near her, and it was far being such a distance from her. Our first visit only increased these feelings, I loved her even more after it. Some of the highlights of that visit were first of all meeting her (see earlier blog for details), others were going to the Temple together, and meeting her family for the first time. At my first family "Sunday Family Dinner" just about everyone in the whole family was there, and not only did I get to meet them, but before dinner started, I "got" the "chance" to go around the room and name everyone by name. Now for those of you who do not understand the magnitude of this, you need to take into account a couple of things. This was the first time that I was meeting 75 percent of the people there, and there were over 25 people there. Lets just say it was a pretty nerve-racking event, I really did not want to mess up on anyones name. This was not, however, the most stressful/harrowing thing that happened.

Nope, having to name everyone in the family was pretty easy compared to what went on the day that I left. By the end of my visit I new that I wanted to ask Danielle to marry me, but that she wanted to meet my family before we got to that point. So we knew that she would meet my family the next month when we went to Oregon, but that it would happen before I came out to Utah again. When I came out from California to visit Dani the first time, my wonderful sister Kristen, pulled some strings and got me a room at the Deseret Towers (where she worked), so I was staying there by myself. On the morning that I was going home (a wonderful wintry Tuesday) before Dani picked me up, I knew that I wanted to talk to Danielle's Father, and ask him if I could ask for Danielle hand in marriage. This was the first time that I had ever come near this point, and was very very nervous. In fact while cleaning up my room to leave, and for Dani to come pick me up, I was so nervous that I threw up twice. When Dani picked me up I told her that I wanted to stop by her parents house and talk to her Dad, as we walked from her house to her parents, Dani thought I was going to pass out. She told me later that my hands were all clammy and I was as white as anyone she had ever seen (Jon, so white someone could consider me a snow demon). That was before I ever got into the house. I was so very lucky, because when we got there the only people around were Dani's mom and dad, so I went and asked Joe if I could speak with him, he smiled his knowing smile and said sure while escorting me to the music room. He, being the very wise person he is, knew what was going on (I guess it has happened enough times), so to help me out he first shared a story to try and help me calm down, (or to stretch out the torture). The story had to do with the fact that sometime the time leading up to an event is worse that the event, and it was. I told him that I loved his daughter and wanted to ask her to marry me, and he just smiled and said that it would be a wonderful thing. I was so happy, it was one big step towards Danielle and I starting out our lives together and being together for the rest of eternity.