Randon and Bethanie

We're Still Here!

2011-01-30T19:46:00.000-08:00

So Katie and I promised to blog today-- we even shook on it. In an effort to stay true to my word, I will come out from behind my "oh, it's been too long" mask and give ya'll an update.

Randon and I spent the summer in Virginia. He had an internship with Ernst and Young. It was a great summer and it only furthered my love for the best city in the U.S.-- Washington D.C. of course.

We did lots of fun things this summer. This is us at a National's game. Obviously.

We went to Mt. Vernon. I may have enjoyed this one a little more than Randon. I love this kind of stuff!

This was a very friendly donkey. We bonded.

For the 4th of July, we decided to do it up big and go downtown. Everyone says that you only need to do it once in your life because it's so crazy. I disagree. It's all about where you sit. I guess if you were to try to find a spot on the Mall, you would have a hard time. We sat on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial. It was a beautiful view and it wasn't too crowded. (Yes, I realize that we match-- Randon was a little embarrassed, but I thought it was cute.)

On the steps before the show.

This is us on our two year anniversary. Randon took me out to a nice dinner in downtown Leesburg. We went to Lightfoot, which is a restaurant in what used to be a bank. The building was beautiful and old fashioned. It was great!

Us in front of the Washington D.C. Temple.

All in all, it was a great summer. Many thanks to Randon's parents for housing and feeding us. We had a blast in the "concrete suite."

Randon got a full-time offer with E&Y! We expect to start in the fall. Anyone have any good housing suggestions?

Fourth of July

2010-01-01T20:07:00.000-08:00

Welp, Randon is still watching football, so I guess I have time for another catch-up post. We stayed around Provo for the 4th this year. There is a pretty cool parade, and we live right down the road from the stadium, so we were able to see the Stadium of Fire fireworks from the lawn in front of our complex.

We started the festivities by making an American flag cake. Man that was tasty.

The finished product.

Me and the finished product.

There was a little rain shower in the middle of the parade. We got a little wet, but it was hot so it felt good.

Randon and I liked different things about the parade. Here are some of my favorites:

The floats

The marching bands

Here are Randon's favorites:

He really liked the llamas but...

His favorite thing about the whole parade was watching the boys who had the pleasant job of scooping the llama and horse poop, as depicted above. Let me tell you, there was a lot of poop.

Our spot in front of our apt. complex to watch the fireworks.

There were quite a few people out on the curb with us to watch the fireworks. We were all very confused and disappointed when they abruptly ended after only a few minutes. Randon and I waited for a while just to make sure that they were really over, decided that they were, and packed everything up. Of course, as soon as we got half way to our apartment, they started up again. Apparently, they were doing a scene from Wicked. Alphaba hadn't finished defying gravity until after we packed up.

I was a little bit obsessed with fruit desserts this summer. This is a scrumptious cake I made with strawberry filling. It was rich. We gave half of it away after we realized that we were getting fat.

This was before the icing started melting. We tried not to use the air conditioning as much as possible. Icing doesn't like a warm apartment.

Randon sustained a lot of injuries this summer. Most of them were on his legs. By the end of July, both legs looked like this. Some of those were from softball, one was from golf, and some were from slipping on the nasty greasy floors in the Seven Peaks kitchen. Gross.

This is how he felt about his legs. Sad boy.

Summer = Co-ed Softball

2010-01-01T19:51:00.000-08:00

Man, writing all of these summer catch-up posts is really a bad idea. Here I am looking through all of our summer pictures and reminiscing about those few months of lazy days by the pool while it snows outside. This is not helping my dread of another semester, nor is it improving my relationship with Utah winters. Anyway, Randon and friends reunited as the Little Debbies. I, of course, was the team mom/cheerleader (not that I did a single toe-touch, or even got off of my blanket, for that matter). In the end, they were the best! They won the championship and got the coveted intramural champion t-shirt. Bravo!

Pre-game huddle... sort of...

The Great Randoo.

A rare strike from Janna :)

Thank you Jill for fake running so I could get this action shot.

The Little Debbies in all of their glory.

Viva Las Vegas

2010-01-01T19:22:00.000-08:00

I've decided that I'm not very good at blogging. I thoroughly enjoy reading everyone else's blogs, and even have the audacity to get upset if some one hasn't updated in a while. Like I have any room to talk. So, without further adieu, here was our summer:

We went to our dear friend Jimmy's wedding in Vegas. It was a blast. Other than the wedding festivities, we played in the city.

Me and my hubby on the strip.

Inside the Bellagio. They did a beautiful, as always, flower thing inside. It's always one of my favorite things to do -- go see the flower thing... display... thing...

Randon was having a little too much fun with the water that was shooting in lovely arcs over the walk way. He stuck his hand in one of them and got Jill all wet. Notice the "I didn't do it" face that he's putting on. Nice try...

One of my dearest friends being... scared?... surprised?... flaunting her perfect eyelashes? Yeah, that's gotta be it.

Friends!

Waiting for the water show at the Bellagio.

Still waiting...

I told Randon that this is his punishment for not smiling in pictures. Booya.

The water show! I believe that this one was "Viva Las Vegas."

Summer Fun

2009-09-05T11:19:00.000-07:00

This summer started out with Duncan and Liz's wedding. It was beautiful!

Yeah, sorry about your car...
Randon and I both got summer jobs at Seven Peaks water park. He was my supervisor. Yeah, believe it. It was nice to have season passes, but other than that, Randon's face pretty much shows how we felt each day before we went to work. We would rather be playing at Seven Peaks than working there...

The Last Catch-up Post!

2009-07-27T09:44:00.000-07:00

Ok- This is the last catch-up post. I promise. After I get this one done I'll start blogging about things that have happened over the summer. I guess that's catching up too... whatever. Here is our first Christmas together!!

Our first Christmas tree! I got it for free from a neighborhood garage sale that my school put on. I wasn't even sure it had all the pieces, but it did- along with two strands of lights, bows and ornaments hidden at the bottom of the box! What a find!

I just love early mornings eating breakfast (which is still on the table- oops) by the lights of the tree. Our cute little apartment was so festive!

Blue Condo throws the best parties. This one had a place to decorate your own Christmas cookies and a chocolate fountain. Jill and I made the best looking cookies, if I do say so myself.

Me and Randon at the party. Thanks for letting me borrow your sweater Janna!

Sorry, Jill. I had to.

Randon's uncle had box seats to a Georgetown game. We happily came along.

Us in the box. Oh, someday I will get Randon to just smile like a normal person for pictures...

Randon's cousin got married in the DC temple.

Haha...

Randon is happy to be there, I promise. This is my first day out of the house. I came down with a nasty stomach flu on the plane ride over. Needless to say, I was spending more time on the couch than seeing the sights.

We saw a concert put on by the DC missionaries at the visitor's center. It was really cold that night, I don't know how Randon stayed warm in just that hoodie... Notice the scruff on his chin. He and his brother call that a "shovel" and they always grow them over the holidays. I would like to change that tradition...

It's so hard to get a good shot at night with lights all around. This was the best one. Again, I promise Randon was happy to be there and that his face does not reflect his mood.

And now I can finally blog about summer!! Whew!

Another Catch-up Post

2009-07-26T12:40:00.000-07:00

OK- I think I can fit the rest of the year up until summer in this post. Basically, that means this will be a Thanksgiving/birthday/Christmas post (does anything happen between January and May? Oh wait... Valentine's Day...). Anyhow, here is my last catch-up post. I hope.

My sister and brother-in-law were kind enough to have the family over for our Thanksgiving feast. I think my nephew, Avan, and Randon are sizing each other up. He's going to make such a good dad some day...

My mom made these delicious gingerbread boy cookies. I think I ate half of those.
Randon really enjoyed dinner. It was spectacular. Sorry Pamela, I didn't get a group shot or a shot of our delicious spread of food. This will have to do.

Before we left for Pamela and Adam's, my mom stayed with us for a couple days. She brought us Christmas and birthday presents! This is a typical picture with the presents. I can't tell you how many pictures we have of me on my birthday, piled high with presents.

This is on Randon's birthday. This really began the transformation of Randon. Notice the basketball shorts and t-shirt. Very typical. Then he opened his presents and...

He's still hanging on to those shorts, but notice the lovely argyle sweater! We're getting there!

OOOH! Blowing out the candles in a collared shirt with the argyle over it! Looks like we traded... now I'm in the t-shirt...
And here you have it: Randon's first "outfit." He looks so good! Pants that aren't 3 sizes too big! And yes, believe it- he's wearing loafers. See ya Jordan...

We went out to the Olive Garden with some friends for his birthday dinner. Note: Randon is wearing his new outfit.

Randon and his best friend Matt almost share a birthday. They are only one day apart, so we had a joint party.

I will have to do Christmas in the next post; this one is getting too long.

Catching Up: Halloween

2009-07-25T08:41:00.001-07:00

For some reason, I feel like I can't post anything current until I post everything past. So here is Halloween!

Carving our pumpkin.

The finished product.

Randon made an excellent ghost, while I was Little Red Riding Hood. No, you didn't forget the part where a ghost comes and scares the wolf away. We didn't do a couple costume thing, as hard as I tried...

Thanks Spencer and Aly (or should I say John and Sara?)! We had a great time!

Marital Bliss

2009-06-29T08:26:00.001-07:00

I found a folder in my pictures that I had named "married life." So, here is a taste of what it is like to be married to Randon Tagg. (It's the best-- you should all be jealous).

This is our living room. Oh! What's that on the TV?? ESPN?? No way! What a shocker!

As you can see, space is not something that they divvy out liberally at Cambridge Court. I don't mind though; it just forces us to cuddle more. :)

And the kitchen. Apparently this was taken around Halloween. Although I love pumpkin, we do not usually have one carved as our centerpiece. Gotta love the expression on Randon's face...

This is us in the conference center. Things to know about Randon: he doesn't really like taking pictures. Therefore, you will always turn out with one of two faces: weird, or extremely cheesy grin. This one was a weird face.

To save money, and for pure convenience, we decided that I should be Randon's hair stylist. I attended the Duncan Glen hair school, watched a cut, and was supervised on a cut, and I was ready to do my first solo cut. This is a before shot. Yeah, it's just funny...

Notice how confident I appear. Randon is actually not doing one of his two smile variations. He is actually very nervous. As he should have been, I still didn't know what I was doing at the time!

And the finished product. I am sweaty from going over everything so many times and fading to perfection, but satisfied. I don't think he had seen how amazing it looked yet, so he didn't want to appear too excited just in case it looked bad.

One Sunday, I had the sudden urge to bake something. This actually happens a lot. I blame (and thank) my mother. So I discovered that we were, of course, out of everything. Everything except peaches that is. I decided to make a peach pie.

Randon was pretty excited about it. He helped me peel the peaches and then claimed that he had made the whole pie. This picture is payback for that. (Note: this is his cheesy grin)

The finished product was divine. The pie, however, took us a long time to finish off. It turns out that Randon doesn't really like pie all that much, and I really just enjoyed making it more than eating it. Don't get me wrong; it was delicious. I just couldn't justify stuffing my face with pie all the time. It really is more something to share. So, I'll make you pie if you'll be our friends. :)

From the top...

2009-06-27T09:45:00.001-07:00

We have finally jumped on the bandwagon (and when I say "we" I mean "I" because Randon will not ever touch this blog). I'm going to be honest, I've put off blogging for so long because it intimidates me. I look at our friends' blogs and they are all so craftily formatted, their comments so witty, and their lives seem to be filled with such fun activities! I also feel astronomically behind, seeing as I was not "on the ball" and didn't start us a blog while awaiting a proposal. We have been married for almost a year, so this might be a long post. Those who do not have the endurance for such, turn back now. So I guess we should start at the wedding...

It was beautiful. It was the happiest day of my life. It was all of the wonderful things that you can say about a wedding. But, I feel like the thing that Randon and I tell people most often about our wedding is this: it was hot.

This is me in between shots, trying to get a little air through all the layers of non-breathable fabric. It was like wearing a portable sauna. I think I am sassing someone about it...

Notice the paper towels in Randon's hand. We had to literally mop our brows between each shot. I'm pretty sure that at this point, we didn't mind.

It all turned out better than I could have hoped for, despite the vengeful Georgia humidity. We had so much love and support from our friends and family. Here are a few of my favorite pictures.

Who can pick just one maid of honor? Janna is my best friend from Utah, and Christen is my best friend from Georgia. I wanted them both.

The bridesmaids: Janna, Christen, Pamela, Emily, and Shawney. Who can guess which ones are related?

The groomsmen: Breton, Dad, Randon (does he count even though he's the groom?), Matt, Tyler, Jason, Chapman, and Max. Most of these guys are related, so it's not as hard to guess. Jason and Breton: you are at our wedding, not our funeral...

The whole family. We just love them all!!

This is a special shout out to all of our friends that flew out for the wedding. I would have been WAY more stressed without everyone's support! It really meant a lot to Randon and I that you all could come! I'm glad that you all got to have a taste of the South. Ask any of these girls to tell you the story of buying me a garter...

My Provo girls. They can't be beat.

I think this is my favorite picture ever. Besides all the mushy kissing ones, that is. This is right before I tossed my bouquet. I think there might be someone who wants it, but she's being so subtle... She didn't end up catching it. Christen beat her by a dive.

Ok, so much for the super-post. This is more time consuming than I anticipated! That's all for the wedding. I'll just end with this picture. It's just so typical Randon...