the christmas time.

Christmas, like most of the normal human race, is my absolute favorite time of year.
This Christmas was no exception.
We started off our Christmas vacation by traveling to Cour D'Alene, Idaho where Tanner's grandparents cabin is located. This year it was a 'Clark' Christmas, so everyone was planning on coming together for Christmas this year.
Tanner has a MUCH bigger extended family than I do, so it was a little different than what I have been use to with my family, but it was so fun and I really won the lottery with the family I married into!

We were able to stay in his grandparents neighbor's cabin because they live in a warm place during the winter and stay in the cabin for the summers (smarties). It was really nice to be able to have that house to ourselves as a family to be able to open gifts on Christmas morning just as an immediate family. And also, somewhere to go when you needed a second of quiet ;)

Tanner's grandparents had set up a schedule of activities for when the whole family arrived... it kept us busy, busy, busy but it was worth it! The schedule included a family fun center full of bowling, mini-golf, water park and banquet room full of food! Then it included a huge 3-on-3 basketball tournament at the local church building (that lasted 4 hours might I add!) and then the night ended with a delicious baked potato bar and a gift exchange (we got a waffle maker! We've been wanting one for a while... score!)

Tanner got a home defense shotgun for Christmas from his dad that he was STOKED about. Me... not so much.. but at least we have it for emergencies ;) He got all kinds of accessories to go with it including a bunch of ammo, so Tanner was set. We both were spoiled beyond belief this Christmas... we are truly blessed! (thanks family!)

Then after an amazing Christmas at the cabin, we headed to Vancouver the next day to visit my family. Once again, we were completely spoiled rotten and enjoyed the time to relax and see more family... that's what the holiday's are all about right??

All in all, it was an amazing, beautiful, well-spent Christmas vacation that we both never wanted to end!

Tanner & I went a little overboard on Christmas presents for our families... Thanks Amazon Prime! ;) 

My first attempt at sugar cookies from scratch... and they turned out great! They were a hit. Whew.

One of my favorite gifts from the hubby... he knows me so well :) 

Banquet room full of family and room at the family fun center!

The extremely competitive Clark family 3-on-3 basketball tournament! 

Speaking of going overboard.. Troy (tanner's dad) had a little too much being in charge of gifts this year... but none of us are complaining! ;) 

Cutie Nikelle opening one of her many presents! 

We got to Skype Cory in the Philippines! It was so great to see his face and hear his voice. 

No caption needed.

Asian boy.

Mr. Max and Me.

Love that mother of mine! (Yes, we have matching coats!) 

Candie.

When we first got married, we decided that one of our first financial goals was going to be to buy a new car that would last us for many future years to come. After the entire summer of working hard and researching, we decided that we wanted a 2013 Mazda3 Hatchback in Pearl White with the specialty package that included a Bose stereo system and sunroof. Yeah. We like to pretend we are fancy.

We test drove one while in DC and this gave us motivation to save up and work hard. Luckily Tanner was able to work extremely hard this summer to make it possible for us to prepare for the largest purchase of our lives thus far. He's a stud. But I digress.... at the end of the summer we went to Vancouver to see my family and while we were there we decided we would buy it then so we could just drive it to school when the time came.

Before getting to Vancouver I got in contact with the Mazda dealership there in Vancouver so they knew when we were coming and what we wanted exactly to make sure they'd have in stock. Pretty much the easiest sale of their life. Just have it ready and we will come get it.

Well the day finally came and my parents dropped us off at the dealership... we weren't leaving without our car. What we didn't expect is how DIFFICULT and LONG the process is of leaving with the car... After 5 hours of filling out paperwork, meeting with various different departments and convincing them that we indeed had the financial stability for this purchase- we were FINALLY on the road in our new baby :)

Although every long hour in that car dealership was worth it, I don't look forward to buying new car anytime soon. I got my fix of stale popcorn and awkward salesmen for a long time.

The first thing we did while driving away from the dealership was come up with a name for 'her'. After little deliberation, we came up with and decided the name "Candie". Must be spelt "ie" instead of "y". This makes a big difference in the interpretation of her name. Although the explanation behind her name is confidential, her name is Candie and she is p e r f e c t. 

(Oh and did I mention, in the midst of those 5 long hours, Tanner was able to use his amazing sales skills and talk down the salesmen $6,000 from his original offer? Yeah. Attractive.)
By the time we walked out of that dealership, the salesmen was not only barely making any commission off of us, but he even admitted how impressed with us he was. People like to underestimate us. And we like it.

We were able to drive with away with exactly what we wanted, specialty package and all, and only 16 miles to her name. That's a beautiful thing.

Candie:

Tanner finds himself taking multiple pictures a week of her. I only put a couple, to spare you from the rest. It's like our child. Except she doesn't cry, doesn't poop and is constantly playing R&B. and I'm okay with that. 

Dear Candie,

Welcome to the family. We love you.

xoxo,

the clarks.

Our Humble Abode.

Throughout the entire summer in DC, I couldn't help but daydream about when I would be able to finally be reunited with our wedding gifts and an apartment that we would actually be living in longer than 3 months. Since we just moved out to DC with the bare essentials, we didn't do any decorating and the only thing that hung on our walls was one mirror I had made out of spoons. I couldn't wait to be back in Rexburg, open all of our wedding gifts and set up our first real 'home'.

After many box openers, garbage bags full of packaging, meals on the floor and shopping sprees later.... my daydreaming days were over and our first home was finally coming together. It was a fun experience to go out and buy things like our first couch, kitchen table, tv, entertainment center, etc. Neither one of us had ever needed to buy these things until now, and it was fun to do it together :)

So without further delay; I present to you Our Humble Abode.

Kitchen 

                            

Family Room/ Kitchen Table

Bathroom 

Spare Room/Storage for all wedding gifts/my extra closet ;)

Our bedroom :)

Laundry "room" :) 

We LOVE our new apartment and feel more at home every day. I love decorating it and making it our 'safe haven' away from school and work and the chaos of the world. It also helps that I have the coolest & sexiest roommate ever. 

Xoxo,

the clarks.

4,808 Miles.

I know. I'm bad. But it is about time I finally took the time to update the look of our blog and actually post on it! I can't believe how long it's been since I've posted and so much as happened since then, so I'll try my best to quickly update so I don't have to play this rigorous game of catch up any longer.

As the summer came to an end, there were mixed emotions of excitement, stress and sadness. Lets be honest, we were not sad that our hard summer days were finally coming to an end (until next year). However, stress ran pretty high in our home between Tanner trying to get as many sales as he could in our last days there, to me finishing up with the family I was nannying for and also making preparations to pack up all of our stuff in 5 suitcases. We decided that since we are coming back out next year, we would just leave my car with Tanner's boss so that we can use it out there next summer as well. Plus we were planning on buying a new car at the end of the summer anyways, so it worked out great. The downside was that we needed to pack everything into the 5 suitcases we got there with though. But that's a whole other story.

Anyways, since Tanner got offered to be a Team Leader next year, he was required to go on a 'business trip vacation' to Hawaii with all of the other team leaders for the company. The wives weren't invited until after the 4 days of training were over, but since we already had a family vacation in Sunriver planned- it wouldn't have worked with timing for me to fly out there after their meetings were over.

So since Tanner got to fly to Hawaii, I wanted to do something fun instead of sit in an empty apartment all by myself. It just so happened that my BFF Aunt Ericka and my Grandma were coming for their annual trip to NYC that weekend.... Boom. Idea. I got online and there are charter buses that take you from DC to NYC for only $30. Perfect. So on Friday I took the bus and met up with them for a fun weekend!

My aunt and grandma were so nice as to let me tag along with them for a couple days. We packed a ton into those couple of days though! Shopping sprees on 5th Ave and in Soho, Saw Annie on Broadway (they bought me a ticket last minute when they found out I was coming.... how sweet.), yummy dinners, walking across the Brooklyn Bridge and The Shake Shack.

It was so fun to be back in NYC and reminisce on when I lived there last summer. I missed it. It was definitely time to be reunited with the city I am so in love with. It was the perfect ending to our summer living on the East Coast.

Brooklyn Bridge

View from the Brooklyn Bridge (If you squint you can see the Statue of Liberty)

Love the Street Performers 

I was pretty excited about this flannel and vest I found at one of my fave stores in NYC

Brooklyn Bridge with Grandma

SHAKE SHACK. This place will change your life. Even if you have to wait in line for 2 hours to get a burger. Worth every minute. 

View from our hotel! 

Times Square

Gotta love people watching in Times Square. Homegirl is killin' it. 

ANNIE!

Annie on Broadway with Ericka!

Again, the people watching. So perfect. 

Grandma's first time on the Subway! (she was holding on tightly ;)) 

Most perfect day to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge 

While I had so much fun in New York, I couldn't wait to get back, get our stuff packed and get back to Vancouver to see my family that I hadn't seen since my wedding. While I was in NY, I looked up on 'Find my Friends' app (Tanner is the only one I find.... I like stalking him), and because he was in Hawaii, we were 4,808 miles away. The farthest away we had ever been from each other since we started dating. And I hated every single mile of it. 

Tanner with his new 'TaylorMade RocketBallz Driver' golfing in Hawaii. 

(He was clearly HATING the distance as well..... right?) 

Tanner flew from Hawaii to Portland to meet up with me and it was a sweet, sweet reunion. When people say "distance makes the heart grow fonder", it is true. and so does 6 hour time differences. So by the time we were both back on the West Coast- together- I finally felt like myself again :) (gag if you must). 

See you again in 6 months- East Coast! I'm going to enjoy my distance from you while I can.  

Xoxo,

the clarks.