Moving???

Jason and I have decided to make a new blog for the two of us. Hopefully, I will update it more than I have this one. This blog is moving to jepollard.blogspot.com. Just wanted to let you all know.

bridal pictures

For those of you who would like to see a little bit of my bridal pictures, here is the blog address.

http://ashleymaephoto.com/blog/?p=422

a weekend with the Pollards

This past weekend, Jason and I went to Bountiful with his family to meet Micheal's (that is Jason's dad) donor family. It was a wonderful weekend that we were able to spend with each other. We stayed with some friends, the Christensen family, in Bountiful and had a fun time with them as well. These are just a few pictures of the weekend.

Jason absolutely loves his nephew, Kayson. He is such a cute kid! He and Jason played with cars, tractors, and anything that had wheels the whole weekend. Sometimes I wondered if Jason had more fun with all the cars.

This is of the view from the house in Bountiful. It was gorgeous!


After meeting the donor family, we went to Liberty Park with them. This is all of us on the swings. That park is really fun. I think Lewiston City needs to purchase some swings like these and a Farris wheel to have in the park. It was a fun place to be with everyone.
This is a picture of my future in-laws, Michael and Tammi, at dinner.
And this is the girls in Jason's family and me at the dinner. (Tammi, Jordan, Jessica and her boy Kayson, Jenna, me, and in the back is Jayme)

a big announcement

Jason and I are officially engaged now. He proposed to me on Thursday night at Adam's park. I knew that something was up when he showed up at my door with a dozen red roses. Aren't they beautiful? He took me out to eat at Firehouse. Then on our way back to my apartment, he drove past the temple and stopped at the park. We walked around the park for a while, and he was asking me about when we first met and our first date and all sorts of stuff. Finally we sat down on a bench and were just talking when he handed me a letter about how much he loved me. When I was done reading it, he got down on one knee and proposed. It was so cute!

We stopped out in Richmond and then out to my parent's house to make the announcement. Mom attacked us as we got out of the car with the camera, so all the pictures are because of Mom.
The ring. I'll have you know he picked it out all by himself. He did such a good job. I know this isn't the best picture, but it's the best one we got.
Now, it's on to planning a wedding in less than two months!

better late than never

Well, I realize that it has been quite a while since I last posted, but it's better late than never. I've even been a slacker, because I haven't even been taking very many pictures to document what has been going on these past weeks. However, with the few I have, I hope to do a little catching up on my blog.

***A few weeks after General Conference, Jason and I went down to visit Jenn and Brandon. They took us to Cabela's which is a pretty big store full of every sporting goods things you can imagine. They have massive stuffed animals and really old fancy guns (like the ones they show in old westerns). They even have a huge fish aquarium! While we were there, Jason and I voted on the best looking dead animal they had on the wall in one of the section of the store. Now, I'm not sure which one we ended up choosing, but we did vote. We enjoyed looking around there and testing some of the stuff out (hence the picture of Jason in the camping chair....it was the most comfortable one, according to Jason). Brandon and Jenn also took us to a really good resturant, Typanyanki (?). The cook makes the food right in front of you, which is really entertaining. We really loved eating there! Brandon and Jenn were fun to hang out with. Thanks guys! (and sorry I don't have a picture with all of us, Jenn. I'm a slacker.)

***Did you know that there is such a think as a "wild cow milking contest" at a rodeo? I had no idea that that even existed, well, and I didn't even know that Health Days had a rodeo at all. I'm a bit out of the loop. Jason's roommate got him into being apart of his team to go out in the big arena...well for Smithfield city...and rope in this wild animal. If you think this sounds odd, it is and it's just about the funniest thing to watch these grown men chasing these wild cows.
***Shortly after our weekend with the Muirs, Jason came down sick with bronchitis for about a week and and half. He really didn't care for just hanging around his apartment, so it was a long week for him. By the time, Memorial day rolled around, Jason was feeling better. We went shopping and went out to Lewiston for some good family time and food (dutch oven potatoes and chicken, courtesy of Dad). We stayed out there for most of the day playing games and being with the family.

***On the weekend of the 28th of May, Jason and I traveled to Burley to be with his family. Saturday I woke up late to find that Jason had risen quite early (6:00 a.m. I might add) and had the garage all cleaned out and was moving on to removing weeds next to the house. But with these weeds, you would think a weed eater would be the answer. Well, Jason decided to do it another way. He took a wack at the weeds with his machete knife from the mission. It was quite the day, but we got some work done. While we were there, Jason dad, the chef, fixed us a wonderful meal before we left on Sunday. We had great time again with the Pollards. Thanks for letting us come stay!
***For those of you that don't know, Jason is a really really good cook. He definately is the better cook out of the two of us. The other Sunday, Jason offered to make dinner. In the end, he ended up making dinner for eight friends and family, and it was so good. Afterwards, we watched Meet the Robinsons with everyone and just enjoyed each others company.

General Conference weekend

This conference weekend, I had the opportunity to attend the Saturday afternoon session with Jason. It was awesome to be in the conference center and see the prophet. I had forgotten how big that place is! It was a neat experience. I loved being there with so many people and hearing the speakers. If you ever have the chance to go to a session of conference at the Conference Center, I highly recommend going!

We walked around temple square while we were waiting. That is a beautiful place!

Saturday night, the Hall clan got together at the Coppermill for a wonderful dinner. The kids got left at Grandma's house to eat pizza and watch a movie. It really doesn't seem that long ago that I was staying at home with the cousins while the adults went out to eat. I remember that we had some good times. From what I hear, all of the kids got along just fine. Cousins are just so fun!

Welcome back Karalee! We sure do love you!

a happy valentines day

For Valentines Day, my mom made my roommates and me a wonderful meal of chicken taco soup, rolls, and rice crispy treats. She is so good to all of us! This is the first time she had gone out of her way to make us a nice hot meal. She randomly brings us food or asks us to come out to Lewiston to have a hot dinner. It was a perfect valentine. Thanks Mom!

(This is the really yummy bears she made us for dessert...yummm!)

the big city

This past weekend, I ventured out of little Cache Valley down to the big city. I stopped at Steph's house to see the Gee family. Steph made me a wonderful grilled cheese sandwich and sliced an apple for me for lunch. Yummy! Emma kept bouncing around saying that she wanted to watch Mary Poppins the whole time (I guess I'm not that entertaining). Until Steph turned on the movie, Emma sang every song on the show, and let me tell you, she is going to be one famous little singer one day.

(I love this picture of Emma. Look at that smile. Aspen fell asleep soon after I got there, so she missed out on the photo shoot.)

Later that day, I met up with Jenn and Brandon. I want everyone to know how good of friends Yogi and I are. We're pretty tight now. Who would have thought? Maybe I'll get a dog of my own one day...that day is very far away though.

Rob and Kelsie let me go eat dinner with them and the girls at Zoupa's. (If you have never been there, go!!) At first the girls were a bit unsure having me sit right next to them in the car. Emi kept her head straight forward, not daring to turn her head my direction, but she silently watched me out of the corner of her eyes. However, they did remember who I was when we got into the light of the resturant. After we ate, they took me back to their house, where we played until Jenn and Brandon came to pick me up. I didn't have my camera, but we did have a good time together.

So I have never been to a theater outside of Cache Valley, so the Muirs took me to Valkery at a massive movie theater at the district. Wow! There were twenty theaters in one place! I was shocked at how big that place was. I think I had a bit too much caffeine at the movie, because when we got home around midnight, I was not tired at all, so Jenn and I stayed up way too late talking.

Well, staying up that late isn't the best thing to do when you have 9:00 church in the morning. We were just a little late, but we did make it. Jenn gave the lesson in the Beehive class, and she did a splendid job. After church we had really really good tin foil dinners and fell right asleep on the couch. Those guys just wore me right out!

What a way spend my long weekend. Thanks Jenn and Brandon, Rob and Kelsie, and Steph and Gardner for making it such a fun weekend for me!

a new group

For this next semester, my apartment got two new roommates, so this is the new group of girls in E-3 at Old Farm.

Alisa, Rachel, Lisa, me, Talor, and McKail.

an extra look at Italy

I took so many pictures in Italy (but not nearly as many as Lisa Marie), and I thought that Italy was such a beautiful country. So, I thought I would show you some of the other views of Italy that we saw. I love these pictures, but they just don't do Italy justice. It was simply beautiful.
This was the view from our hotel in Bologna
This is the harbor in Genova

These are the houses in Rimini.
The windows on San Luca. See the post below.
Italy, as seen from San Luca.

A little trip to Italy

Well, I can now say that I have been to Europe. Courtney, Lisa, and I had been anticipating the trip for almost a year, so on December 11^th, we were so excited and ready to go (even if that meant sitting on a plane for hours on end). This was a big trip for me, so this post is super long.

It was actually my first time in a country where I did not speak the language at all, and that was a little frightening for me at first. Even though I tried to say a few things like “hi”, “please”, and “thank you”, Courtney told me that I just sounded ridiculous and should just not even try. So, for the whole trip, I just nodding and smiling and acting like I know what was going on.

After we landed in Milan, we had our first and only experience with a taxi. Lots and lots of money later, we got to our hotel and headed out to the Duomo in Milan. It was massive and interesting to see. We spent time out on the piazza in front and window shopping by the little shops nearby.

The next day we got on a train to Alessandria and spent a few days with Nonna Angela, who is the cutest Italian lady ever! She was so good to us. She took us to shop at Oviesse, drove us around in her tiny blue car, and took us to church with her on Sunday. Courtney and Nonna even favored Lisa and me with a lovely duet of Homeward Bound by Simon and Garfunkel.

On Sunday night, we took a little train ride to Genova. We walked around the city trying to find the Mediterranean Sea. Since I couldn’t talk to anyone and Courtney wouldn’t ask anyone which direction the sea was, we ended up following our noses to the harbor.

We spent a few days in the city of Bologna next. My favorite place we went was the San Luca church. We had to hike up the hill and pass through the 666 arches that led the way in order to get to it. Once at the top, we were able to see the whole city and were able to see the beautiful countryside. We definitely got a workout to get there, but it was worth it.

Next, we visited, my favorite city, Florence. That is one beautiful city! We saw the Duomo (which as you can see is under construction), the David by Michelangelo, and just wondered the city. That night, we met up with a friend of Ron and Carol Mumford, and her and her little family drove us to a hill that overlooked the city (that was gorgeous!) and to a pizzeria. They gave us a real Italian experience and we had so much fun with them! I wish I could have spent more time in Florence.

The next, though, we headed to Rome. After our arrival, we went to the Colosseum and the Pantheon. The next day we went to the Vatican and that was an interesting experience. We also got to see the Sistine Chapel, but we couldn’t take pictures of it. At the end of the day, we decided to go back to the Colosseum and enjoyed our last little bit of time in Rome by looking at the famous structure that still stands after about two thousand years.

Our next destination was Rimini, Courtney’s last city he served in. We shopped in the little store that lined the streets. After seeing the west side of the country, we were all the way on the east side of the country, where we saw the Adriatic Sea.

By then, we were so worn out and ready to get home, but little did we know that we were blessed with an extra day in Italy.