Home projects

As soon as we got back from Chicago we started working on projects around the house. We painted just about every room in the house and got new carpet and tile throughout the whole house. I'd be fine if I never saw a paintbrush again! It was quite a mess for a few weeks, but it was so worth it. We love how everything turned out. The colors aren't great in all of the pics- but you get the idea.

Jonny tore out all of the carpet and old tile. It was quite a chore, but saved us some money. I'm still trying to get everything back in order. I think we had about an inch of dust on everything in the house!

Jonny and his brother tearing out the kitchen. Jonny's family was so great and helped us a lot through the process!

This is the basement. The wall on the right is khacki. We painted the dark brown on top and stained the bead board on the bottom.

Another view of the basement. And Jonny's pride and joy for selling 300 this summer, his TV. Close up of the bead board.....

Looking up into the entry way.... Cubby was following me everywhere.

Looking down on the landing.... new tile and new khacki paint.

This is our new dining table. I love it! It'll be great since we're having Thanksgiving at our house this year!

The kitchen.....

Living room.....

Bedroom- we did a light tan wall and dark brown accent wall.

This is Jonny's favorite room- he picked it out himself. So it was only fitting that its Bingham Blue right? :)

This is my favorite room- the color looks really off in this picture though. Its a really pale green- not so bright. Then we stained the bead board in here too.

Close up of the beadboard and green wall

It was quite a project but its so nice to have done!!

Trip to Arizona

Last weekend I made a quick trip to Phoenix for my friend Robin's wedding and also to see my Grandma. It was such a great weekend. I saw a lot of great friends that I haven't seen in a long time. We all went to hygiene school together and we feel like family after all that we went through together! Friday night we had a girls night with Robin- we did a little shopping and went to dinner. It was so fun, it was just like we hadn't been away from each other! We had a lot of good laughs!Mindy, Kim, Robin, Colleen.

Ashley, Robin, Mindy, Kim

The new Mr. and Mrs. Stichler! The day was perfect and they make a great couple.

Kim, Robin, Mindy, Me- outside the temple. It was SO warm!!

At the reception. It was so pretty! It was at a friend's house on the lake and it was decorated so awesome. After the reception they left in a boat! I am so happy for Robin, JD seems like a great guy.

A view of the reception....

Me and my Grandma. I love being able to go see her and spend time with her. She is so great!

Halloween Festivities

This post has a lot of pictures- we had a fun Halloween this year.

First of all was our ward Halloween Chili cook-off and Trunk of treat. Neither Jonny or I had ever been to a trunk or treat before, so we weren't quite sure what to do with our trunk. But considering we threw it together at the last minute I thought we did ok. Jonny actually did most of it, and it looked really good. We even won an award for it. You can't see very well in the pictures but we had purple lights so our trunk was lit up. It was pretty cool. Jonny in front of his hard work.

Jonny holding our award. He worked hard for it.

HALLOWEEN WITH DEREK AND NICOLE.....

Derek and Nicole.... so cute :)

Jonny being our photographer....

Nicole and I making carmaled apples. It was really fun and they were SO yummy. We had a fun night with them- going to dinner, making the apples, and ending it with a scary movie. I HATE scary movies. Its a good thing Halloween is only once a year.

Some of the final products....

THE ANNUAL JOHNSON HALLOWEEN PARTY

Every year Jonny's aunt and uncle have a Halloween party. Jonny talks about all the memories he has as a little kid at the party. Melinda always has fun games like fishing, bean bag toss, cake walk, and of course the adult money tree!

Some of the boys....

Jonny and I....

The girls....

Decorating cookies.

Papa and Addie

The MONEY tree before we picked our envelopes...

I won!!!!

Derek and Nicole- the BIG winners!

Jessica and Tyler's big day

Jonny's little sister got married a few weeks ago. It was such a great day and the weather could not have been better! They are such a happy couple. Congrats Jessica and Tyler!Jonny and his two brothers Jordan and Josh Jessica and Tyler Day

Johnson siblings

The original siblings.... plus Tyler.

aww.... at the temple. It reminded me a lot of our wedding day :)

The Johnson girls

The growing Johnson family.

At the reception center- it was amazing there.

Bridesmaids.

Goodbye Chicago!!

About a month ago we said our final goodbye's to Chicago, and I don't think we could have been more excited to get back home. Chicago is an awesome city, but it wasn't too often we got to take advantage of the fun things to do. My Mom flew out to spend the last couple of days with us, and to help us make the long drive back to Utah. Isn't she great for riding in the car with me for all those hours? We spent a few days in Chicago, a couple of days in Nauvoo, a few more days in Omaha, and then eventually arrived in Utah. It was a long week of travelling but we had a lot of fun.

On our last day in Chicago we spent the day downtown. Jonny took the morning off of work and hung out with us for a little bit. This is Jonny in front of Soldier Field.

The Field Museum

This was us in front of the Field Museum- a museum that has everything from dinosaurs to plants to Native Americans to Pirates....... You could spend days in there. But a few hours was enough for us. I was lucky enough to even get Jonny to walk into a museum, let alone spend time in there :) They had a pirate exhibit.... but we actually didn't go see it. We happened to go on one of the museum's "free days" and didn't want to pay extra to see the pirates.

This is looking down at the entrance from the seond floor. I really felt like I was in the movie "Night at the Museum."

Chicago Double Decker Bus Tour
My Mom and I went on a bus tour of the city. It was the best thing! They had 18 stops- and we could get on and off the bus whenever we wanted. They had buses come every 20 minutes so we could really do whatever. We got to see all of the hot spots in the city without having to worry about parking or taking taxi's. We ran short on time because we spent so long at the museum, so we didn't get to do everything we wanted. But it was so worth it. I wish so bad I would have done this earlier with Jonny. It was awesome to see parts of the city we normally wouldn't have and hear all the interesting facts. They had great tour guides so you learned things you normally wouldn't. We even drove by Oprah's downtown apartment!

Cool statue we drove by.

My Mom on Navy Pier- one of my favorite views of the city.

An awesome old church- where part of "My Best Friend's Wedding" was filmed. The architecture of all the old buildings in incredible.

Driving on the bus.....

American Girl!

The Famour Bean in Chicago....

Our reflections on the bean.....

One of my other favorite views of the city. It is such a gorgeous place!

NAUVOO THE BEAUTIFUL

We stopped for two short days in Nauvoo and Carthage. This is one of my absolute favorite places ever. I love it there. Jonny's cousin is serving a mission there right now and we were lucky enough to see her in Carthage. She even gave us the tour! She is an amazing missionary and it was so awesome to see her there.

In Carthage Jail.

This is the cabin we stayed in in Nauvoo. Jonny's relative owns all these old little cabins that they've rennovated(?)- they were really old cabins that they've fixed up. Each cabin has its background of where it came from and who owned it. Its such a cool thing and the cabins are so fun to stay in.

The temple at night - so pretty!

OMAHA

My brother and his family live in Omaha so its always fun to see them when we're driving through and spend a few days with them. I didn't take many pictures while we were there- I don't know what I was thinking!

Mom with her 2 grandkids.

FINALLY HOME!!!!!!!!

With my brother's before my mom left.

We are so excited to be home! We're both trying to find jobs right now- which is the pits! Jonny is studying his little heart away to take his real estate test. And I'm.... just being a bum until someone wants to hire me :)

Bahamas Cruise

Here are some pictures from our fun cruise to the Bahamas. I loved the Bahamas! The water is beautiful and so warm. I hate cold water and don't like getting in if its freezing, so it was fun to finally get in the warm ocean! All together there were 16 people in our group, all young married couples. Jonny's brother and sister in law went too, so we had lots of fun with them!

This first picture is the first day on the boat- at the sail away party. I seriously love cruises, I think they are so much fun!Our first stop was at the Grand Bahama Island. We rented scooters and drove them around the island and ended up at a really pretty beach resort. Since it is September and the start of their off-season, there weren't a lot of people there at all. We pretty much had the place to ourselves! It was great! We laid in the sun, swam in the water, and played a little beach volleyball. And of course did some shopping. We got a little lost on the way back to the ship, but got to see a lot of the island so I wasn't complaining!

Our second stop was at Nassau. It was my favorite stop by far. We went to this awesome waterpark/hotel resort that a bunch of our friends had been to before. You could spend a whole week there on vacation and not get board! They had awesome water slides that all came out into the lazy river at the bottom, so you didn't have to get right out of the water! Then they had a water slide that went through a shark tank (we were in our own tube inside the tank). The landscaping of this place was awesome too! They had their own private beach, an aquarium, climbing wall, etc. I'd love to go back and just stay at the resort one day!

T
Some of the girls....
We were on the newlywed game- Jonny has wanted to do it every cruise that we were on. He was great at it, but I'm not so sure I was the best :) It was fun- and now I can check that off my list and never have to do it again! They recorded the show and then replayed it throughout the whole cruise on the TV in people's rooms. So the rest of the cruise people would come up to us and say stuff about it. I could have done without all the attention :) Half the group at dinner. They have the best food on cruises.

The group- minus a couple.

On the last day we stopped at a private island that the cruise ship owned. It was beautiful just like the others. There were jellyfish EVERYWHERE in the water, and people kept telling us they didn't cause problems. So some of the brave people went snorkeling- but I didn't. Two of our friends did get stung by them! That was enough to scare me! The boys played in a volleyball tournament and won first place! It was a fun, relaxing day.

Miami!

We just got back from a cruise to the Bahamas with a bunch of friends/family. We were able to spend a night in Miami before the cruise and then a couple of days after the cruise too. I had never been there and was so excited to see Miami in real life compared to how it is on TV in CSI Miami, Brooke knows Best, and Khloe and Kim take on Miami..... Ha can you tell that I keep up on my TV shows? :) Get ready for a picture overload.... A pretty shot of downtown Miami- it was so pretty at night!
This is Bayside Market- its like an outdoor mall. It had tons of shops as well as a ton of good places to eat. They had music playing and people dancing- it was a fun place. Miami definately has a nightlife!

Jonny and Cody at the Port of Miami- excited to get on the cruise ship the next day!

In front of the American Airlines Arena- where the Miami Heat play. It was so pretty with all the lights at night and the palm trees.

This was after the cruise.... Me and Sara in front of this super cute Boutique. It had the funnest jewelry and accessories for super cheap. We went to Lincoln Road on South Beach. Its a pedestrian street with shopping and restaurants on both sides. I have never seen more people with little dogs until I went here! Its definately a posh place. I have also never seen so many expensive clothes!

This was at the beach at the end of Lincoln Road. I have never been on a beach on the east coast- where the sun doesn't set over the ocean. The sky was still so pretty and I love seeing the skyline of big cities at sunset.

We ate at the yummy sushi restaurant called Samba Sushi. It was so good!

On our last day in Miami we went to Gator Park. I'd highly recommend it! We went on an air-boat ride through the everglades and saw all the alligators in the water.

This one they called Scar Face. He got in a fight with another alligator one day- he won, but lost his left eye.

Another pic of an alligator..... They swim right up to the side of the boat, it was kind of scary! Our guide would through bread out to them and they'd snap their mouth open and eat it!

You can kind of see our tour guide in the back- I don't know why, but when we were riding through the everglades on the boat it reminded me of scenes from the opening credits of CSI-Miami! The boat was really loud so they had us wear ear plugs.

Holding an alligator! He was 4 years old, and about 4 feet long. Thankfully they had his mouth shut or else I don't know if I would have done it!