July- Dates an' stuff

PICTURE. OVER. LOAD. 

What's new? Deal wif it. 

On the fourth of July Karl and I got to spend some time with my family. I loved it. 

the other day at dinner, I remarked that i missed Donny and Christine. 

It's true. I am so lucky to be near many of my siblings while living in Utah, but i am sad to be so far from Donny and Christine an their cutie little girls. Donny and i were very close when he lived at home after his mission, and while we were Rexburg, Christine and i were rocking the sister-in-law relationship. I miss them. 

We brought 2 watermelons to share, but not a knife to cut them. 

doh!

Karl cut them with Phillip's pocket knife, haha. Karl was sooooo worried that my nephew was right there while he was cutting. Karl is cautious around kids. I think it's adorable. 

This was the first time i heard any of my nieces or nephews call him "uncle Karl". 

It was Ryder who said it first that specific day,  and i about melted. 

I don't remember why Caleb and i were sitting in the middle of a field together, but we were, and i'm glad i took this picture. I feel like it's a genuine smile on both of us. Also, i love his hair long. He looks so grown up here! so different from my wittle bub who i used to tuck in at night with Hymns in Spanish in 2013. 

I like to leave ridiculous selfies on my siblings and friends' phones. because i can. 

sibs. 

I miss my hair. 

oh, did i mention that i chopped off my hair? because i did. It was an accident and i cried, but we'll save that story from the "Newly-wed" post on my newly-wed blahg. 

Provo sunsets aren't quite Rexburg sunsets, but they're still pretty great sometimes. no filter. 

Jonathan GASHED the bottom of his foot, so he came to my apartment where i cleaned and bandaged it. meanwhile Karl fell asleep. and then Jonathan fell asleep. and i thought it was cute. 

One night we went on a date and carved our initials into a tree because i've always wanted to do that. 

Karl has a best friend named Joseph. They are both CODAs. (a Child Of Deaf Adults), and they were companions on an ASL mission in San Jose, CA. Then they were roommates at Cinnamon Tree, and then Joseph was Karl's best man. 

This is us playing balloon volleyball one day in the quad. Joseph and Karl were even matching!

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhaha okay don't judge me. 

SO. 

My family has a flag that we fly on "Happy Hansen Day" every year in honor of my parent's engagement/marriage/forever union/ all our sub-sequential births/ our family in general/ GO HANSENS. 

k.

I love that tradition. 

My mom and Dad made the flag when they were first married, and flew it every year. I think it's adorable. I brought it up to Karl, he loved it, too. #HorlacherPride

So we decided that he would come up with the 'motto' and i'd design the flag. 

This is the rough draft sketch i did of what will be our flag. yes, yes, i know, there are 8 blank spaces for baby's names. don't judge me. who knows how many we'll actually have, but we want a lot and that's our decision. 

 I'll explain all the meanings and symbols and actual motto in May when i'm finished with the flag. I'm literally Betsy Ross making this flag, and i'm thrilled. 

We randomly decided to go roller blading one night while we were engaged because we heard admission was $1 off that night or something. IT WAS SO FUN. 

A) Karl dancing= hilarious and goofy just like me

B) Karl trying to roller blade was adorable.  I used to spend hours after school roller blading on my driveway, thinking i was michelle dang kwan or something. i can still spin around, just not nearly as fast as i used to. and i can't skate backward anymore. 

Karl was impressed with mah moves, i felt cool, and holding hands is fun. 

That was a good night minus having to through away my socks because they smelled SO BAD afterward. hahaha. 

I don't know why he always winks in pictures, but he does. 

technically this should be in my July-Sports Camps post because i'm in the dorms, but i tried out a bunch of wedding hair possibilities. 

I wish I had stuck with this one, haha. I could have avoided a lot of tears. 

I LOVE it when Karl plans dates. It's more likely that we'll both have a great time when plans them, because i won't be wondering if he hates what i've planned, and he's proud of himself for planing fun things. it's great.

We got free slurpees on 7/11 from 7/11, and then he said he had a surprise for me.

He took me to an adorable used book store here in Provo, tucked away downtown. I LOVED IT. and then he bought me a bunch of books!

I LOVED IT. 

hahahahahahahaha snacks and books? Karl, you know me too well. 

also, i think it's cute when he takes pictures of me. I like to see what he takes pictures of, it makes me feel like i'm getting a glimpse of what he values. What he appreciates. what he sees when he looks at me. He is tender. often i find pictures like this next one on my phone or his phone. 

Just pictures of me doing random things. 

He thinks i'm nice to look at. 

I like that. 

We really like trying new foods together. We don't get to cook together a lot since we've been married because he is at school right until dinner time most days, but he helps me whenever he can, and i like cooking with him. 

okay this may LOOK gross, but it was THE BOMB DOT COM. 

i found it on Pinterest and the instructions were all in Russian so it was a lot of guesswork for me, but basically you mix mashed potatoes with grated potatoes to make a patty, you put a cheese & veggie filling in the middle of the patty, you close the patty around the filling, you squish it a little so it's kind of flat, and then you fry it. 

mmmmmmmm.

(and in case you're wondering about the weird color, i use Red and Purple potatoes whenever i cook, because there are so many more vitamins in the skins than Russets.)

In late June we went to Target to make our gift registry. I've heard MANY different experiences related to this trip, so i was a little nervous.
The little clicker thing wasn't working, and i felt bad for Karl because i knew he wanted to support me but i also knew he didn't car if i got the cups with more dots or less dots. You know? He knew we needed a cup. hahaha. So i was stressed because i was trying to hurry myself along. 

Karl was a champion. 

To sign, "Champion" in ASL, you hold up your right pointer finger as if you are pointing upward. Then your left hand, in a slight cupped shape, bounces its palm off the tip of the right pointer finger, and your face expresses that whatever you're referring to is the best of its kind. Maybe blow some air out of your cheeks, stress the hand coming down onto the finger by furrowing your brow a little before your hand hits your finger, and then relax your face as it bounces back. 

Champion. 

THE best. 

the greatest. 

the winner. 

all of the above. 

I signed that to Karl several times throughout the trip because i couldn't find a way to tell him that he was being so thoughtful and kind and supportive, and that i appreciated his time. 

This is a picture he took at the store, trying to be goofy and diffuse my tension:

He really is perfect for me. He always know how to make me feel better. 

Karl's roommate Chris took this picture of us napping one afternoon. 

Awkward/funny:

I love to doodle. One night, Mallorie was down from Rexburg, and i doodled while we caught up. Karl did, too:

"I choose you!" wth him casting me out of a pokeball. hahahahaha. 

Karl does dishes, too. in case you were wondering, yes, he is practically perfect for me in every way. Not perfect. but perfect for me. 

Speaking of which, one afternoon, Karl decided to take me around downtown Provo to look for Street Art, because he knows how much i like dat stuff. 

so good lookin'

we found some!

This artist, i don't know who you are, but i think you're cool for painting genuises. 

Tesla fo lyf3

rude, Karl. haha

ps the Provo City temple is getting closer and closer to being finished, and it is gorgeous against those mountains:

Karl kicked my butt in Pool

A year ago, on July 24th 2014, Karl and i climbed a mountain to a Y that has been painted on its side to represent BYU. this is when we really hit it off and became friends. I was impressed with him, and i wanted to kiss him when we made it down the mountain because he was just so darn wonderful.  

This year, we climbed it again on the same day, July 24th. Pioneer day. 

only this time, i got to kiss him :)

(oh hi, Cornmeal)

Karl was kind and let me take my time climbing to the top, pausing as often as i needed to in order to keep breathing properly :) 

As we were hiking, Karl asked  me if i noticed anything about his outfit.

?

no. 

He laughed and giddily explained that he wore the same exact clothes as he had one year ago to climb. At the top, he was acting all silly, when i finally called him out, he said he had a surprise for me. He asked if i remembered what we did on top of the Y last time. I responded that we shined flashlights down at my friends who were in the park, and we read my Provo bucket list. 

"you brought snacks!" he added

"i did."

"GUESS WHAT?!" He beamed, and he whipped two "cowtales" out of his pocket. th very candy i'd brought with me on the hike last year. 

He's my favorite human. How sweet to recreate everything! I was completely surprised. 

love this sweet boy. 

He was incredibly helpful with the wedding invitation process as well. he helped me stuff, lick, address, stamp and send ALL the envelopes. I wanted to include little notes for certain people who i felt helped toward a temple marriage. He did too, so i painted little individual cards for each of those people, about 50 out of the 437 invitations we sent. He and i handwrote notes to those people, (I'd always fancied the idea, but Holla at Bret for showing me it could actually be done.)

I found this picture of him dancin' on a Cinnamon Tree calendar. LOL! get it, Karl!

chillin' with mah homie the Kool-aid guy

and that's July - the mostly dates with Karl version