Dexter Family Established 2015

Going through the young women's program, if nothing else, taught me two important truths. 1) I am a daughter of God who loves me, and 2) Marriage and family are essential to God's plan of happiness.  These truths were ingrained deep into my teenage heart so that I would often find myself dreaming of the days I could have a family of my own and be married to the man of my dreams. The "drama" of having to wait for this eternal family of my own caused me a lot of heartbreak as I desperately tried to wait patiently for the right timing and made a lot of dating mistakes. As I entered my freshman year of college, my priorities started to shift. I started worrying about school, finances, friends, and finding time for fun and I wasn't so focused on marriage and family anymore. Instead, I left on my amazing mission and to my surprise (and my parents surprise), I found myself married a short 2 years later at the age of 21. Grant definitely is the man of my dreams when i...

We loved this family reunion trip to the beach. Grant and I flew on our first flight together and then got a rental car with his parents to drive down to Pajaro beach. We got to spend so much good quality time with the Dexter side of the family. We ate delicious meals, played volleyball on the beach, watched fireworks, and most especially witnessed Charis and Jared's engagement. It was definitely a 4th of July to remember!  Emerson made the trip so much fun. Baby snuggles are the best! Grant especially loved the volleyball on the beach. Games with the Pace's was a blast!  Jared and Charis got engaged! Wahoo!!!!  Our Trip to see the Redwood Forest. It was beautiful and the trees were amazing. Sadly, I wasn't feeling well that day and I accidentally left my phone at the hotel. I spent most of the day worrying over the phone, but luckily the Dexters were kind enough to drive an extra hour and a hal...

Happy 24th Birthday Grant! We celebrated by playing tennis, swimming, shopping and exploring Phoenix and even going out to eat to Grant's favorite restaurant Sweet Tomatoes.  I made Grant waffles for breakfast in bed and he opened birthday presents. I got him some new shirts to wear for work.  Sunday night the Grahams invited us over for dinner and made Grant the perfect dinner. They had decorated their house, made enchiladas, and had cake and ice cream. Then they gave Grant presents of a candy bar poster and other gifts. It was so nice to be around family and get to know the Grahams and Grandma Excel better. 

Grant started his internship with American Express so we made the move to Anthem. We love our new vacation home which has everything we ever need and more. We explored the community center and we love playing tennis and swimming. We had a mini miracle happen when we went to church our first Sunday. We happened to go to the wrong ward and we met Bishop Smith and his wife Camie. He happens to work for American Express and they have been so kind to us. They got to know our situation and offered to let us borrow their sons car for a few days while he was out of town. It was a miracle because I was able to go to my job interview, go shopping, get groceries, get Grant's birthday presents, and even go to the Phoenix temple. We hope that in 20 years we will be like that kind couple who helped us out when we didn't have any connections.  We made sushi for the first time and it was delicious! 

We took a trip to Idaho for General Conference in April. In between conference sessions, we went out on the lake and the paddle boat and went fishing. It was my very first time fishing and the only thing I caught was a branch stuck at the bottom of the pond..... So sad.... but it was beautiful day and I got to practice taking photographs of the lake.