Darren and Aubrey: July 2011

Today was a wonderful day. My parents came up to Oregon for my open house tomorrow night. Darren and I took them to Wakena Falls and Multnomah Falls to go for a hike. We did the 5 mile loop around the waterfalls and it was beautiful! My mom absolutely loved it! She kept commenting how beautiful it was and how it looked like the Garden of Eden. I felt super out of shape on the hike because I haven't done much of anything since I got married. All Darren and I do is lay around and sleep in! What can I say though? We're newlyweds! Oh, and Darren's mom makes delicious dessert EVERY night! Really, every night. I love it! Except I don't love what it's doing to my body. So the whole hike I thought I was going to pass out because I couldn't breathe! But other than that it was so much fun. When we finished the hike we went to get an ice cream cone at the bottom of Multnomah Falls but we decided to share one because we were going to go to Chipotle for lunch. I have never been so excited for lunch! I was wiped out and so so hungry. We had to walk back to our car which was half a mile away but we couldn't just walk on the street because the street was too narrow. We had to walk on this little trail just above the road. My Dad offered to run back and get the car for us and I loved that idea. I was fine just sitting and waiting but everyone else just wanted to walk back to the car. I decided to go with them because I didn't want them to think I was lazy, but I should have just let my laziness win that time! When we were about half way through the little trail I stepped on a rock and I heard the loudest snap I have ever heard. I looked at Darren and said, "Did you hear that?" He said no only because he thought what he heard was a tree branch breaking off. My mom said she could here the snap and she was at least 20 feet in front of us! When my foot first snapped I just thought that I twisted it wrong and the pain would go away in a second but that did not happen. All of the sudden the lateral side of my foot went numb and heavy and I couldn't move it at all. I couldn't even move it off the ground. Darren had to give me a piggy back ride back down to the street while my parents went ahead to get the car for us. We got some ice from one of the little venders at the bottom of Multnomah Falls and we iced my foot all the way home. I was so bummed we never got to eat lunch! I was so looking forward to it! We went back to Darren's house to see what we should do and to call different doctors and things. We ended up going to Urgent Care. I got a couple x-rays and they told me that I have a proximal fracture of the fifth metatarsal. Boooo. The doctor said that this particular foot fracture is one where you can't put any weight on the foot at all. I guess some foot fractures can be walked on and heal just fine, but not this one. I can't put any weight on it at all! I have to go to a Orthopedist in a couple of days where they will really tell me what to do and cast it if they need to. It is such a bummer because mine and Darren's open house is tomorrow night and I can't really stand up! We will see how it goes... I wish I at least had a cool story to tell, but oh well!

Our wedding day finally came, although I really never thought it would! It was a perfect day and we really couldn't ask for anything more. It was so exciting to have all of our family and friends come down to support us. We were sealed in the San Diego temple at 11 am. I guess if I could change anything about my wedding it would be the time we got married. I always thought I wanted to have a really early wedding so I wouldn't have to wait around all day and be nervous. Well 11 am is way too early. I had to wake up at 5 in the morning to start getting ready. I didn't go to bed until 1 the night before and so I was super tired. I had to get all made up for my special day, and that took forever. Darren and I had to be at the temple at 10 to get everything situated. While we waited for all of our friends and family to be seated in the sealing room, Darren and I were taken to the Celestial Room to wait. It was so wonderful sitting in that beautiful room with Darren. We had about 20 minutes to just talk to each other. It was such a sweet moment that I will never forget. When we were brought into the sealing room it was so surreal to me. My heart was so full and it was so wonderful to be surrounded by people I love. Our sealer was perfect! He gave us wonderful advice for our marriage and I actually found out after the sealing that we were related. It was so funny because that day at the temple there were a lot of people that my family knew and all the temple workers kept telling me they knew someone from my family. The sealing was so wonderful and powerful and I am so grateful that I am sealed to the man I love. After the ceremony was over we were walking down the grand staircase and I asked Darren if he felt different, he said yes and I told him I felt different too. I wasn't sure if I would because it seemed so weird to me that one moment you are single and the next you are married. But I did feel different. I told Darren I felt more committed to him, and I actually did feel like his wife. Coming out of the temple was so exciting!! It was so much fun to have all of our family and friends cheering for us, I truly have never been happier in my entire life. It was so worth all of the waiting that we did to get to this pure and sweet moment. It was a moment of pure bliss that I know Darren and I will never forget. Darren repeated to me over and over that day "This is joyous." And really everything was joyous! We took some pictures and then we went to my house and started getting things ready for the reception. Everyone went over to the Stone's to help set up for the reception. I can't begin to thank all of the people who helped with my wedding. Everyone was so generous and helpful, I felt truly loved. I have to admit, right when my reception started I was getting really nervous about how everything would turn out. I was afraid no one would show up or something would go terribly wrong. I was blown away how well things went. So many people showed up and everything went so smoothly! We even left the reception on time! I loved our reception! I loved how everyone was so happy for us! Happiness was contagious that day! I already miss my wedding day. I have told Darren several times that I want to live that day over again. It was just the perfect day and I am so glad that I was able to enjoy every moment of it. I started the day off with the attitude that I wouldn't care about anything that went wrong because it really only mattered that Darren and I were sealed. It was a good thing I had that kind of attitude because had I not, the day might have not been so perfect. This is just proof that things go wrong surrounding a wedding...

The first thing that went wrong was Darren's Dad lost his tie. We looked everywhere for it the morning of the wedding but it was nowhere to be found. The second thing that went wrong was my Grandma's temple recommend was expired. She was calling people all morning trying to get into the temple and luckily she made it in. The third thing that went wrong was while we were putting pictures in picture frames one of the large frames snapped in half. The next thing that went wrong was a major one. While my Dad was driving the centerpieces over to the Stone's one of the branches flew out of the trunk. My brother Josh ran into the street and tried to collect the broken pieces but they had already been run over. My Dad decided to break off parts of the other centerpieces to fix the broken one. Luckily, no one noticed. Not even my Mom. We decided not to tell her because she might have a melt down. The last thing that went wrong was the sparklers didn't light fast enough. It ended up being really funny though and everyone was such a good sport about it. Leaving the reception was so fun with everyone cheering us on! I am so glad that all of the little things that went wrong ended up being really funny to me. I have never been happier in my life! I love my wedding dress so much and I am so glad that I have one more opportunity to wear it! We are having an open house in Oregon on July 9th and I am so happy that I get to wear my dress one more time!

I am so happy that we took pictures before our actual wedding day! It made the pictures on the wedding day way less stressful! And you can't even tell the difference between the pictures taken on Wednesday and the pictures taken on our actual wedding day.