The First Big Adventure in Arkansas

We traveled to Arkansas to visit my family for Christmas. It's quite different than any visit we have had to Texas... and it has been AWESOME! There is so much to do with my family. We jumped on the trampoline, played slam ball, swung on the swing, made smores and a dutch oven dinner, played darts (which I have won almost every time), ping pong, Apples to Apples, and also got to experience the first Walton store and Walmart museum (which was really interesting, actually). Today was the real adventure though. The boys went golfing, so my sisters and I stayed home and played Mario Party, had a dance party, did darts, slam ball, and then went for a bike ride.

I was really excited to ride bikes. The boys were home from golfing, so Zach wanted to come with us. I was looking forward to riding bikes on all the hills, coasting down the hills, getting an adrenaline rush and stuff. I wasn't expecting any real danger because I feel confident with my ability to handle the bike. However, when we went to the garage to get the bikes, I did say, "Everyone get a helmet," which no one wanted to do, and I was talked out of wasting our precious time to look for one for me. I checked the brakes on my bike and noted that the back one wasn't working, so I had to be careful. But the first one seemed fine, so I wasn't too worried.

As we started out, we had to go uphill to get off our street. It was a beast. When we got to the top, I decided we should go down this street that ends in a circle driveway, thinking it would be safer because there were only two houses on the street and pretty much no traffic. Not being familiar with the area, I did not think about the steepness of the hill or anything of that nature. I led the pack of us going down the hill, at first whooping with excitement with the rush of coasting down the hill. Looking back, this whole experience is funny to me.

My whooping turned into terrified screams as the hill got steeper and I realized that my brakes were not working. Period. My first thought was, oh crap I am not wearing a helmet. Then I started screaming at Zach that my brakes weren't working, but of course, he couldn't do anything for me except laugh. I got to this slight uphill part that made me slow down a little, so I started feeling better about it and thought, ok, I won't die. I was still going really fast, and then I went down hill again and picked up even more speed. As I approached the circular driveway in the end, I saw that there was a basketball hoop knocked over on it's side, but that there was still room to go around it as I made the turn to go back up the hill. I still wanted to stop (and also wasn't sure I could made that sharp of a turn), so I started dragging my feet on the ground until I thought my ankles might break off and picked them back up. I finally got to the quick turn to go back up hill, but I didn't make it. I slammed into this small pole, falling off the bike and landing in a thorny bush. My right leg was completely twisted in the bike, and I felt like I couldn't move my leg. I thought I broke my knee. But I didn't :) After I got over the initial shock of falling off my bike and not being able to move my knee, I got up and walked around. Zach saw the whole thing, and he tried so hard not to laugh. I'm sure the crash looked ridiculous. Emily and Krista arrived after I had already fallen, and they were concerned that I had hit that basketball hoop and knocked it over. Now that would have been a crazy crash. It was really funny when Emily asked me if that had happened.

But I walked the whole way home, and by the time I got home my knee felt a lot better. I tried to keep myself moving all day so I didn't let it tighten up. I even still went swimming this afternoon. Now that I have slowed down and have let my body rest, I am kind of in pain everywhere, mostly in my right leg though, and my neck and back just feel shaken up and slightly in shock, but I feel really lucky that my crash wasn't worse. It really wasn't as bad as it could have been, and the more I think about it, the more I laugh at myself. It's just so dumb and funny, and for some reason it makes me happy lol.

Tomorrow we are going to Crystal Bridges (art museum), and I am so excited! Then we have my family's ward Christmas party, then it's Christmas Eve, then Christmas! Merry Christmas everyone!

We did some Christmas baking!

For more information, visit my other blog.

Yes, we did some Christmas baking with our first free day from work and school, and it was awesome.
6+ hours in the kitchen. Creaming, mixing, beating, baking, and cleaning! We are beasts :) It was AWESOME!

Playing in the kitchen is a fun activity for us to do together. We smashed bags of candy canes against the walls to crush them, we danced to Christmas music, we did LOTS of dishes, and in the end, we got to deliver plates to some of our neighbors and friends.

 Look at how staticy the wrappers are! They were stuck to the walls and everything!

Car Accident Update!

I forgot to post this earlier!
I am doing awesome! I switched chiropractors and he has made the biggest difference in how well my back is healing. I have made great strides over the past couple months, and I hope to continue to do so well! I currently can swim 14 laps in the pool and run a mile and a half. By the end of Christmas break, I hope to be at 2.5 miles, and I'm taking a swimming class next semester, so that will help with my swimming abilities :) We are so excited with the possibilities this opens up for us now! I can hike and play basketball and do lots of stuff that have been off limits for the past year.
Also, the case is closed! No more dealing with insurance companies and wondering if medical bills with get paid or not! It's a great feeling :)

 One day, we will grow old and be like this, walking around the track still :)

2011 is coming to a quick close!

I can hardly believe that this year is almost done. It has gone by so fast. And yet, so slow as well.

Most importantly, we have seen God's hand touch our lives all year long. We have been very blessed.

Ben started an internship with Northwestern Mutual. He sought long and hard to get an internship and had a really hard time. We both could not figure out why he was so qualified for many he applied for, why he did so well in interviews, and then kept getting no's. It didn't make sense until he randomly got a phone call to "network" with a random guy in the business school whom he didn't know. Everything fell in place from there. This kid was doing an internship with Northwestern Mutual and just mentioned it to Ben, who looked it up, applied, interviewed, and got hired really fast. Looking back, it is obvious to us how the Lord played such a strong role in getting Ben where he needed to be. He loves this internship because he has a passion for what he is doing, and he really believes in what he does. If you want more information on what he does, you should talk to him :) The end goal is to be a financial planner, and he has a great start right now. And we both think financial planning is super important, especially with the economy right now.

Obviously my thing lately has been school. I took 16.5 credits this semester. 7 classes. To all you students out there, I don't recommend that unless you have lots of guts, believe in yourself that you can do it, and really want to put yourself through hell. Haha. It was tough, but now it is nearing the end! I have seen the Lord touch my life and my schooling all semester long. First of all, I know that I would not have been able to make it through the semester with Ben working so much and me studying so much had it not been for many answered prayers. I also would not have done very well in my classes if it were not for many answered prayers. I have had many tender mercies: classes randomly getting cancelled and me being able to finish assignments that I was just planning on not turning in; Ben doing dishes when he didn't want to but knew that I didn't have time and the dishes were stressing me out; also getting food from people who I will not name but thank with all my heart. There has been so much more! That is just a taste.

I want to let everyone know that I truly believe that God is out there and that He knows each of us, our trials, our desires, and our needs. I have learned this semester that when we put Him and His work first, we will succeed. He will not let us down. Earlier this semester when Ben was working too much and I was studying and stressing too much, our lives were a huge mess. When we finally talked and figured out how to balance our lives outside of the home with our lives with each other, and when we started making sure to put God first (through service to others and through daily scripture study by ourselves and with each other) we balanced our lives much better. I started seeing even more tender mercies in my life! I know that God loves us always, but when we really make an effort to show Him our love and gratitude for Him, He blesses us even more. ***Disclaimer: our lives are far from perfect or easy. I am simply stating the optimistic and blessed side of our lives :) We still have lots of trials that we are getting through, but we are getting through them with the Lord's help!

Here is a shout out to everyone who has helped us this semester in any way at all, from simple things like asking how my day or week have been, to smiling, to hosting family get-togethers, and to just being our friends. We love all of you!

Here is a mini semester in review:

Conference weekend: while the boys went to Priesthood session, the girls stayed home and made some halloween and home crafts. It was super fun! 

 We got to go to the Sunday afternoon session with a couple from our ward, Erin and Josh Matson :)

 One of Kilee's homework projects: breaking a social norm for her Multicultural Education class

 This is just us being cute. And Ben being manly.

 NWM Halloween Party... needless to say, Ben had the better costume!

 Two of Kilee's friends from school. We spent a crazy weekend in Midway for a conference... And what happened in Midway stays in Midway

 Kilee picked up art again and remembered her love for painting. She wants to really keep up with it and not let her talent waste away like it did after graduating high school.

 We are just in love

 It's almost Christmas, and this just about wraps up the year!

It's September 29

Today marks the one year anniversary of... (dun dun dun) THE CAR ACCIDENT.
The car accident was both a good and bad thing (that's being optimistic).

It's not ideal to be faced with a car accident right after getting married, but it provided us newly-weds with some great opportunities to learn and grow together. For example, we had to buy a car together. Through that, we learned about managing our finances together, and also discussing, agreeing, and compromising on ideas. That was only a minor part, but it was good (and the new car was worth less, so payments were cheaper and it's already paid off!!!). The bad stuff was of course my back injury, dealing with insurance, having piles of medical bills sitting in a box in our apartment, my head injury and emotional trauma from that, falling behind in school, and the list could go on. However, all that "bad stuff" was also good. It's funny how you can look back on what you thought was a horrible experience and see what good has come from it. We have learned patience and compromise. We have truly learned what it means to love. We have seen each other at our worst, and we still love each other. We have gotten to heal together and grow closer to each other and God. We have both developed a new talent in swimming (the fact that we can swim multiple laps is a talent in my opinion). We have learned to analyze situations. We have learned to serve each other--along with others around us. We have learned to manage time. THERE IS SO MUCH GOOD THAT COMES FROM A BAD EXPERIENCE! No matter what the experience. We are able to look back on many experiences and see what God has been trying to teach us. And we are still learning every day :) The most important thing we have learned through it all is to have faith in God and in each other. God has promised us some wonderful things, things that are way to personal to share. But I want everyone to know that I truly believe in God and that He knows each and every one of us and that Jesus Christ has felt our exact pain for every situation. I have been very, very blessed this year, despite the fact that I was in that awful car accident :)

Now, it's a year later and my back and neck are still struggling. I went to a different chiropractor, got new x-rays and an evaluation from him, and we learned that I really haven't made much progress in the past year. It's sad, but now we have a goal. With this new chiropractor, we have set the goal for 30 visits and are aiming to reach my maximum  healing potential. That's going to be approximately 4-5 months. I might even be able to run a full mile by next weekend (not sure. We still need to discuss that). One of my life goals is to run a marathon. I got to a point where I realized this year that I will probably never do that. I got really down on myself and thought I would not even be able to run a full mile ever again. But now I have hope, and that is why I am sharing this with you all. Dr. Erickson has told me that after a year, I should have progressed a lot more than I have. He says that after our 30 treatments I should be able to do whatever I want. We are giving him a 6 week trial and doing x-rays again to see if I'm making progress like he says I should. If I am, we are sticking with him until I reach my potential. And I'M GOING TO RUN A MARATHON ONE DAY. I'm also going to do a triathlon. So, if there are any of you in the Provo area who want to experience this joy with me and eventually run and train with me, let's do it :) I'll probably do a few small races next summer and maybe a sprint triathlon. Then work up from there.

And now I really want to thank everyone who has stood by us this year. You know who are you are. You have helped us get through hard times. We love you!

One year!

I can hardly believe we have been married for one whole year! It has gone by so fast. I still go through flashes where I can hardly believe we're married. Haha. It's so crazy!

To celebrate our first anniversary, we did quite a few awesome things! First of all, we went on a cruise. Yes, we survived the hurricane (we didn't even touch it) in the Bahamas. Our cruise was AWESOME! Here is a brief recap of our adventures:
Monday: Nothing super exciting happened because it was the first day on board. We played two games of horse. We each won one, and then stopped. We get a little competitive, so we needed to stop at a tie ;) We also just explored our ship. We were very tired because we had a red-eye flight coming in and basically no sleep, so we went to bed around 10. This is where our day gets exciting. Around 10:30 I wake up all confused (Ben is still OUT) because there is this rattling noise at the door. I couldn't figure it out at first, but then I woke Ben up. "Someone is trying to break into our room." He, being my knight in shining armor, looked at the door then fell back asleep. Then someone starts pounding and shouting, "Let me in!" So, me being the brave one (I love you, Ben) got up and opened the door just a crack to see this very large black, drunk, woman who was beating down our door but looked flabbergasted to see that she had the wrong room.
Tuesday: Ben got stung by a jellyfish. And we went snorkeling. With sharks! Luckily, out of the three Bahamian ports, the one we actually got to go to was Nassau, the only port we had booked an excursion. We went snorkeling to three different spots (the first two being Hollywood film areas), and the last spot we went to was out in the ocean. It was full of reef sharks. They dropped down this bait box for the sharks to attack, and we got to carefully slide into the water and watch them 25 feet below us. It was very cool. We know you are all jealous.
Wednesday: We had an unplanned day at sea in our efforts to stay away from Hurricane Irene. It was awesome nonetheless. The best things were us getting to see about fifteen dolphins swimming alongside our ship for 15 minutes. We were running around the track, and then stopped because we saw a little group of dolphins. As we watched them, we saw so many more just swimming along. It was one of my favorite parts of our vacation. It was just so peaceful to watch them, and it made me grateful for the beauty that God has created. The other cool thing was learning to salsa dance... :D I loved every minute of it. Ben loved me loving it.
Thursday: We went to Key West and hung around the beach. It wasn't really exciting except for when a homeless man tried to bum money off us. We really didn't have anything to give him. We left it on the ship. But I'll admit, he was one of the pushiest homeless men I have ever met, and the situation made me a little scared. But Ben handled it with class, and we are still here to tell the story.

So the cruise was a week before our anniversary, and yesterday was the real day! Ben planned the whole day, and he did a marvelous job! First, we did sealings at the temple. Then we went to Color Me Mine and made somewhat matching ice cream dishes for fun, went to dinner at a sushi place, and yes we did see the important part of the BYU football game. The last part was the big surprise... dun dun dun... BEN SURPRISED ME WITH TICKETS TO SEE JON SCHMIDT AT THANKSGIVING POINT! I'm such a winner. For those of you who don't know, Jon Schmidt is my piano playing idol. He is amazing. I have seen him live once before, but Ben hadn't, and it was just so great. Ben loved it, and I did too.

So basically we have been married for one year now and are still crazy in love. He is definitely the hugest blessing in my life, and I'm pretty sure I am in his as well ;)

End of Summer

It's the end of a busy summer, and I obviously did not keep our blog up to date on everything happening. Our summer has been simply fantastic. I would not trade it for anything in the world. Ben and I had the opportunity for many adventures. We visited St. George with his family, a first for me, and then Nauvoo and Missouri church history sites, a first for us both. We have both worked hard and are good budgeters, so we were able to take a magnificent vacation together right at the end of the summer for our first anniversary/honeymoon/big finish to our first time together without school interfering. School starts Monday, and life will become absolutely crazy once again. While we both enjoy school, learning, our majors, and all that jazz, we are both excited for the end of next year when we will be able to move into the next phase of life. Ben is 25, so I'm sure this is what he expected at this time in his life. I, however, definitely did not expect any of this quite yet. The past year has brought us so many challenges and blessings, and we have both grown in ways we could not have otherwise. We are grateful for all of our family who has supported us and strengthened us. And we are excited to start a new year of our lives!

Update on the cruise to come :)

I know, I know, we are the coolest. Ever.

This is a little delayed. It's Tuesday, and this crazy cool thing we did happened Thursday.

I love Ben :) He is so great at giving me what I need. So last week was kind of a bum week for me. It really defeats the purpose of not doing school so you can spend more time together when your work schedules conflict and you actually work opposite hours. I closed 3 nights last week. Thursday night, I didn't close, but I had a Relief Society activity that I wanted to go to 1. because it was about emergency preparedness, and we are NOT prepared for any emergency, and 2. because I wanted to get to know people in our new ward. So I had four nights stolen from me between Monday and Saturday. I was a bum. After the R.S. activity, I wanted ice cream. Ben didn't. But I convinced him to get me ice cream on various conditions. Our giving each other condition after condition turned into getting ice cream, getting Scott Pilgrim vs the World from Redbox, and building a fort. Best night at home in our new apartment? I think so :)

And so, we had a marvelous night and my bum week faded away amidst the ice cream and 7 evil exes under the roof of our fort.

I Love Summer

Ever since we have been married, our life together has consisted of school and other kinds of stress. Of course, there are always going to be stressors in life, and I am grateful for those. I am grateful for the opportunities we have to learn and grow together, and we are looking forward to our futures, whatever they bring.

One of the best decisions we have made was not to take any classes for Spring or Summer terms. We have been able to experience life outside of school, outside of the BYU bubble together, and it's been amazing. We work, I play the piano, draw, and spend time with my grandparents and friends and family, and we get to spend quality time with each other that does not involve school. I'm glad we found each other (on that rough road :D) and that we get to spend forever together!

St. George!

This weekend was SO fun! We went to St. George with Ben's family. I've heard a lot about St. George, but I have never been because I'm not from Utah. I decided if I end up having to live in Utah for the rest of my life, St. George would be an acceptable option.

We actually did a lot this weekend. I was not expecting to be as tired as I was. It was wonderful (especially because of my back problems. I don't remember the last time I did so much).

Friday
1." WAHOOOOO! Dinosaur tracks!" (quote by Garrett Luthi. I love that kid)
We went to Johnson farm to see the dinosaur tracks. It was really fun, and the kids seemed to enjoy it a lot, especially Garrett. The entire ride there, "Kilee, are you seeing the dinosaur tracks too?" "Yes, Garrett." "WAHOOO! Dinosaur tracks! Uncle Ben, you see dinosaur tracks?" "Yep." "Wahoooo!!!"

 There was a sandbox for the kids to uncover tracks. They liked it. Except for Garrett who doesn't like touching sand :)

2. After the dinosaur tracks, we went swimming. That was so much more fun than I expected. It's been a long time since I went to a pool with tons of kids. It had water slides, fountains, sprayers, dumping buckets, the whole works. It was so fun! I went down the slide a few times with Porter, Garrett, and Tyce. Ben went down much more than me. He even went down by himself a few times. That's why I love him hahah.
3. Pirate Island!
We all had Groupons for Pirate Island, and we spent a few hours there. It was definitely not as good as the Orem one, but still fun. I got to sit by my little buddy, Porter. We ate lots of pizza, played lots of games, and the kids all won little toys and candy. The only picture I have is of Garrett in his pirate getup that he won.

Saturday
1. We went hiking. To be honest, I had no idea what to expect. I had only heard this place referred to as "the turtle road" so I thought we were just going to walk down this dirt road that had cacti and turtles or something like that. It was nothing like that! Everyone had way more fun than we thought! We walked into this little area that had little desert mountains that we could climb up. Steve, Steven, Porter, Becky, Shannon, Cecilia, Ben, and me ended up being the ones who climbed everywhere. We went as high as possible. That was by far my favorite thing we did. I love hiking and climbing things. It was so fun exploring and climbing around.

 

 2. After hiking, the rest of the family went to a little water park thing, but Ben and I went to the St. George temple. It's a beautiful temple. 

3. And then we went to Silver Reef, a silver mining ghost town. There wasn't much there, but I guess you can't expect much to be in a ghost town. We discovered that the ghost town 20 miles farther away is the most photographed ghost town and is more intact, so had we known that we probably would have driven the extra miles for it. Oh well, it was fun anyway!

The rest of the day, we pretty much just played games, then the family kind of split in half for dinner. We went to Anasazi Grill, which was kind of out of the budget for most people. But Ben loves it, so we have been saving for it so we could go. His parents and Katrina came with us, then we watched Megamind when we got home! I love Megamind. If you haven't seen it, you should. While we did that, they went to Fiesta Fun then came back and caught the end of the movie. Then we stayed up talking a bit, and everyone left on Sunday morning. What a great weekend!

You've all been waiting for it...

Here it is! The Ben and Kilee Luthi blog. We are excited to give everyone all of the juicy details of our love life. Just kidding. But I bet whatever you want to know, and whatever you don't want to know, you can find out here. We love you!