rapid city, sd

update:
Josh and I have moved on from casper to the black hills of south dakota. not going to lie, I was terrified of south dakota. I mean, the homeland of Dances with Wolves? Seriously? Not much going on in this dear town.
However
I have changed my tune. We took the scenic route here, through a couple different national forests and state parks, which ran through the Black Hills. The Native Americans have inhabited the Black Hills since at least 7000 bc, but this mountain range is famous because of the dense forest that is so easy to get lost in.
and....
MOUNT RUSHMORE!!
I have to say, I don't understand why anyone would come up with the bright idea to start carving some random presidents' faces into a random mountain range in random south dakota, but I'm pretty sure I wrote Mount Rushmore down on my bucket list for Mrs. Riley's senior project. And I would hate to disappoint 18 year old Liz. 


...

back on subject.
I'm really impressed with South Dakota! It is absolutely gorgeous here, and because we're so close to Mount Rushmore, it's a total tourist trap. There's a water park in our hotel and every other hotel in a 25 mile radius. There's at least 7 mini golf joints, go carting, museums, Bear World, Reptile Land, seriously. It's a very fun and old town that Josh and I have loved so far.

four faces in stone and my best friend by my side

we went to mt rushmore and played.

look at this GEM. I get to nanny this adorable girl and her sister for part of the summer <3

and a shameless drop of my amazebeans wedding picture. this summer is amazing 100% because of my man

casper, wy

whhhyyy. whyyy wyoming whyyyy.
just my little take on the classic John Mayer song.
update:
josh and I currently live in casper, wyoming.
in a hotel.
which is fiiinnneeee. LOVE it really. we've been living in hotel for... 5 weeks now?
yep. five weeks.
it takes some adjusting, especially because my body and my heart and my brain and everything is telling me NEST NEST NEST. I want a home and I want it to be ours, but for now this is what we have and honestly I couldn't be more grateful.
Josh LOVE what he does, and that makes me so happy. when papa's happy erybodys happy.

wyoming is actually pretty beautiful.

this is from our drive out, tornado formed a couple minutes after we saw these clouds

josh works from 11:30 until around 10ish every day, saturdays are longer. while he's out, I'm in the hotel. I had to learn how to stay positive and entertained, so I taught myself to knit!

it's going to be a blanket. just you wait and see!

 I try to have dinner made 3 times a week or so, but it's really difficult because we only have a mini fridge in the hotel room. I brought a crockpot and a griddle from home (thank heavens for wedding presents!) josh's favorite is fajitas.

I should get extra points for creative use of an ironing board.

 SUNDAYS glorious sundays. no work on sundays. we always find a meeting house and just go to the 9 am ward. we stay for the first hour, and take the rest of the day to unwind from a long hard week. there are some manly men out here who like to spend their sundays hunting and fishing, i'm totally out of my comfort zone but i've learned to take it all in stride. our first sunday in casper we went shooting, I spent the majority of the time moo-ing at the cows. last sunday we went to the North Platte River. I soaked up the sun while the men caught my dinner
and it was beautiful

don't be fooled, the water was about negative a trillion degrees

it's been hard for sure, but I wouldn't trade this experience for anything. josh and I have been able to have some great adventures so far, and we're not even halfway done with the summer. I've met great people and learned so much about... guns. we're both having the time of our lives, and the best part is that we can spend it together.

i'm hard pressed for entertainment so I throw a party whenever I can. I made josh a CROCKPOT CAKE for our monthiversary and he thought I was the biggest dork

then we got dressed up and went to see the fault in our stars. josh sobbed his eyes out and I pretended not to notice

mrs. miles

Yesterday was truly the best day of my life. I can't even begin on the whirlwind of emotions that I experienced in a 12 hour period- and OH MY HECK I'm so blessed. I had the COOLEST bridal party out there. Everyone went above and beyond! Janna and Brooke did so much to help me all through the day, my brothers were hilarious and very helpful. They all definitely made up for the damage done to my car. UGH. my carrrrrr

But to the point:

I always said I wouldn't be all over the internet on my honeymoon, and Josh and I already have some rules laid down for using our phones- but there are exceptions to every rule. That's what my momma always told me.

We're in Park City tonight and tomorrow before we get on our cruise on Thursday, we're staying at the Chateaux at Deer Valley (ooh la la). It has been a LONG two days- and Josh and I just crashed. I woke up from our little nap and it is a complete blizzard outside. The directv in the hotel is down because of the storm, and Josh is still sleeping. SOOOO I just can't pass up this opportunity to share my TOTES AMAZE bridal pictures.

Seriously. Amazing. Travis is an amazing and talented photographer. My brothers just adored him, which says a lot.

This one shows off my booty and I LIKE IT

ok seriously the wind and my veil were out of control.  LOVE

so funny. Travis said "kiss", so we kissed. eyes closed obvi. Then Travis said "grab her neck". Eyes still closed, Josh tried, but grabbed something else.

engagements

okayyy we got our engagement photos back and I'm dying.

It's so great to see pictures of us together- besides screenshots of snapchats 

hashtag blessed

Josh and I were just talking last night about competition.
I am NOT a competitive person at all, and we were trying to figure out why.
When we got to the bottom of it, we realized it's because I hate negativity, and that seems to be the root of competition.
Which goes right along with comparison and envy- it's all a competition to be the best, the prettiest, the richest, the smartest, the most well liked. Isn't it?
I am always comparing myself to others. I'm constantly jealous because so and so has the most beautiful hair, whatsherface has incredible style. They have more money than me, life seems to be so much easier for them, et cetera et cetera.

As Josh and I were talking, wedding planning came up (obviously). I was frustrated because it just seems like one big show. I'm worried about the worldly details when it should be about the eternal covenants we're about to take. Then I remembered a quote I saw on pinterest, of all places.

"Comparison is the thief of joy"

And how true is that. If I spent half as much time noting what I have been blessed with, how much I have been given and what I have to be grateful for, as I do comparing myself to others- I would be so much better off.

DAD'S RULES

My dad made some rules for us growing up, because we were a pretty aggressive, cynical, and negative family I guess. One rule was that every time we said "shut up" we had to pay my dad a dollar.


I still owe him $2,678

Another rule (and this was mostly for my mom) was for everything negative said about someone, we had to say 5 positive things. I just said some unkind things about my roommates, so I need to spread the positivity.

1- I'm getting married in 83 days! That's some pretty great news if I've ever heard it. Josh works from 9-5, and I didn't have much going on today so I got a lot of the planning done. yay

2- It was so beautiful outside today. It was like, 45 degrees and sunny. My favorite kind of day hands down.

3- Finally made it to Swig, the knock off of Slurp which is a knock off of Sips. I'm not a fan of dirty diet coke, or dirty coke, or dirty anything really (well, not anything lolz) but I do love a good Vanilla Pepsi! mmmm mm mmm mm mmmm

4-  Wore my new jeans today, looked fresh to death

5- Got my tax return yayyyyy



ohhh hahahaha if you're looking for a good time, go to Josh's blog. He made it like two years ago or something like that and it is just ridiculous  haha I died.

joshsnowsmiles.blogspot.com

Of Monsters and Men

A NOT SO SERIOUS POST

I probably shouldn't start back up in the blog world because I'm kind of a private person- but hey, new beginnings call for new beginnings. Right? Right.
So here goes:

I became a private person on April 23rd, 2013. The day I arrived in Salt Lake City from Birmingham, England. Without a doubt the beginning of what was to be the saddest time of my life. Not that it's your business, but I came home from my mission because I was dealing with mental and emotional issues that manifested in very physical ways. It was hard. It was hard to deal with, it was hard to talk to President Rasmussen (who, by the way, is my hero. Probably the most caring, understanding, and loving man EVER. He knew EXACTLY what to do to help me) and it was so so so so so hard to walk off the plane, into the arms of my parents who were surrounded by families of missionaries with balloons and banners- a welcome home I would never receive.

A month later, Elder Miles came home from Fort Worth, Texas. I'm not even going to get started on that whirlwind, but just know that I am incredibly proud of him and the way he has held his head high. He's a keeper.

Which brings me to my point! Not so serious, right?

I got a job at Dillard's for the summer, not sure if I would return on my mission. August came around and I got an apartment with the lovely Kellie Hogan at the not-so-lovely Branbury in Provo. I was enrolled in classes, and Josh moved to Provo as well.

We spent a lot of time together- either because we really loved each other or because there's not much to do in Provo, I'm not sure. (KIDDING Josh you know I like you)

I think we always knew that we were going to marry each other. Obviously, nothing works out like you plan, and we're the epitome of that cliche. Coming home from the missions really set us back, and it was hard to gain credibility as a couple from that point. But the New Year rolled around, and I think we knew- we were ready.

So here's the deal. I was working one Saturday, like the 11th? And he wasn't. And he drove to Bountiful (without me knowing) and asked my dad for his blessing. He told me that he walked into my house and all my brothers and their friends just got there after snowmobiling. So kudos Josh. Those are some intimidating children.

I don't know how because I know everything, but Josh was able to talk to my parents and get everything planned without me knowing.

January 18th: Neither of us had work, and he called me at 8 am to tell me we were going skiing. All of my ski clothes were at home in Bountiful, so I had to run to the mall and buy ski pants and a beanie and stuff from Zumiez. We went to Sundance and I taught him how to ski. Which was really unfair because it was his first time, and I had been skiing my whole life, and he was already showing me up. UGH. But it was a really really fun day! We had a blast on the slopes and it was good to spend the day with him.
We went home and showered and then met up again to go to the Ice Castles in Midway. We got up there and it was PACKED. Packed I tell you. They were herding people through those babies like cattle. So I told him no way no how am I waiting in line for 3 hours in the bitter cold for that. (Sorry Josh, I guess that ruined his plan) But he was a trooper! So we kind of hung out, and then headed back to catch our dinner reservation at the Melting Pot at 9:30 (How did I now catch these clues??)
We were driving on this road, in the middle of nowhere, when he starts stressing out that the car is acting weird. We pulled over- I was scared to death that we were going to be murdered. It was pitch black outside, we were in a muddy ditch, in the middle of nowhere, with a flat tire. He asked me to come help him change the flat, so I grudgingly got out of the car. I walk around the corner and he was on one knee with the most beautiful ring ever. I was so surprised!
Honestly- I did NOT see that coming. I am so happy he was able to surprise me, and I am so happy that I get to spend eternity with that boy. What a blessing! I am incredibly grateful for Heavenly Father and His profound influence in my life. I know that nothing works out the way you expect it, but I am proof that the Lord works in mysterious ways. We've been through our fair share of trials, and I fully expect many more to come. But with the Lord on our side we can conquer them all. Of that, I am certain.