Summer Trip

Marcus and I got back a on July 25th from a big two week trip! We had an AMAZING time! Here is a recap of some of the things we did:

First, we went to Washington D.C. We stayed with my brother and sister-in-law. They have the most adorable one-year-old girl named Ashlynn.

Believe me, you can't help but love her!

While in D.C., we obviously did some touring. We went to Arlington Cemetery, The National Museum of American History, The Holocaust Museum, Ford Theater, The Capitol, and The Library of Congress. It was a great three days of touring (besides the humidity that I'm no longer use to and felt like it was suffocating me).

Arlington Cemetery
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington Cemetery

View of the Capital

We celebrated our one year anniversary while in D.C.
My Mom made us a wonderful dinner and it was great to be with family.
Here is a picture to commemorate :)

Ashlynn and her dad

The Holocaust Museum

Grisel, Kyle, and Ashlynn

The Capitol

This is me outside the Peterson House after the Ford Theater tour.
My parents have a picture of my Mom in this exact spot when
she was pregnant with me almost 22 years ago.

Next, Mom, Dad, Marcus, Shelby, Kendall, Tristan, and I drove up to New York City. Leah met us downtown and we toured NYC for 2 days. We spent pretty much all of our time in Times Square and Central Park. We saw the Metropolitan Museum and the Guggenheim Museum as well.

From left to right: Kendall, Marcus, Brittany, Tristan, Shelby, Mom, Dad

left to right: Kendall, Marcus, Brittany, Tristan, Shelby, Leah
Times Square
The Met

Empire State Building
Bethesda Fountain in Central Park

The Guggenheim
Manhattan Temple
The pizza place we ate at in NYC.

The highlight of the trip was:

It was AMAZING! Even better than I hoped!

I want to go see it again and again and again!

After all this traveling, we drove home to North Carolina. We hung around the house for a couple days. Then we decided to do a day trip to Top Sail Beach. It got windy as the day went on but we all had an enjoyable time. And what would a beach trip be without a few people getting really sunburned? Leah, Tristan, and I took one for the team and all got pretty sunburned. (And by that I mean we didn't re-apply sunblock like we should have).

While in North Carolina, we were able to see some friends from back home! It was really nice to catch up with old friends.

After a week in NC, Marcus, Shelby, and I flew to Arizona. We were able to visit Grandma and Grandpa Smith, Aunt Lori, and Bryce. We had a great time swimming, eating, and hanging out at home.

(I have no pictures of the second half of our trip. Oops..)

In the end, it was a wonderful trip. We're glad to be done living out of suitcases but we really miss our family!

This is my favorite picture of Ashlynn and I to end the post! :)

Thank you Smith family for a fantastic trip!! :)

Battle Creek Canyon Hike

We went on a hike with several of my co-workers and it was a lot of fun!
After the hike, we roasted hot dogs and had s'mores.
It was so much fun and we are grateful to the Schellenberg's for hosting us!

A couple of waterfalls we saw during our hike

Sitting around the fire.

We had a really good time!
We want to go back and do the whole
thing one day when we have more time.

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our sister AIMEE yesterday!
We love you and hope you had a fantastic birthday!! :)

First Try

I am taking a cake class and I'm loving it! So today I decorated my first cake! :)

It's a chocolate cake with a coconut pudding filling and a white whipped frosting.


I am obviously no pro- but I'm pretty proud of my first try.

Uplifting Messages

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints puts out videos with great messages. I love them! Take a look at the newest one:

Elder Holland: Good Things to Come

And don't be surprised if you find yourself going through and watching a lot of them! :)

We're still alive.

It's been over a month since my last post but Marcus and I are still around. We've just been extremely busy with Spring classes, work, and the LSAT.

On the bright side, MARCUS TOOK THE LSAT YESTERDAY! Hallelujah- it's over! We won't find out his score for a few weeks but I'm sure he did great. And we're both just very glad that it's over. Thank you everyone for your prayers in his behalf- they are much appreciated.

Spring term ends in 9 days. We are very excited to have a 2.5 month break from school. This break will include a visit from BFF Leah, and trips to D.C., New York, North Carolina, Arizona, and Washington.

This picture is from last summer.
But we're excited for the upcoming carefree and lazy days like the one pictured :)

Fun at the Zoo and St. George!

It's been awhile since I've posted and some fun things have happened in the Gilson house. A few weeks ago, Marcus and I went to the Hogle Zoo. I can't remember the last time I had been to the zoo and I had so much fun! Here are a few pictures of some of the animals we saw:

This is us enjoying our time at the zoo! :)

Then last weekend we went down to St. George to visit family. We walked around the St. George temple grounds. BEAUTIFUL!

Then we toured Brigham Young's winter home.

We also toured Jacob Hamblin's home. His story was really interesting.

It has been a good couple of weeks! :)

General Conference and Easter

General Conference weekend has become one of my favorite things! I love having the opportunity to hear from the living prophets and apostles and learn how to be better. One of my VERY FAVORITE talks was by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland that talked about love vs. lust. Go here to listen to it.
A lot of talks were about families and there was a lot of great insight on helping to raise a family. Although Marcus and I do not have children yet, there were a lot of things that I know will really help us when we reach that point in our life. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be a part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It brings so much happiness and peace in my life that I know I would not have without it. I am so grateful for the talks and testimonies I was able to listen to this weekend and look forward to reading them again when the Ensign comes next month. I really hope everyone watched General Conference. And if you didn't please go online and watch it. It is so worth your time.

(Greg Olsen- Prince of Peace
click on picture to learn more)

Marcus and I also had a wonderful Easter. We were able to watch General Conference with great friends. We also dyed eggs, ate great food, and played an awesome game called NERTS. Thanks again, Brock and Kate! Then we had dinner with the Messer's and Brittany. We always LOVE going to the Messer's and we hadn't seen Brittany in 3 months (way too long!) so it was so good to see her! We had a fantastic dinner and then watched this short Easter message. I am so grateful we were able to spend this holiday with family we love so dearly and share this wonderful message about Christ and His atoning sacrifice for each of us!

The last thing we had to do today was say goodbye to our cousin Jack. Jack is leaving on his mission to Maceio, Brazil on Tuesday afternoon and will be gone for two years to teach the people of Brazil about the gospel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He will be a wonderful missionary and we will miss him. But we are so proud of him for what he's about to do. We love you, Jack!