A little bit of a change......

I deleted my previous blog for a plethora of reasons.... #1 being, it was titled "The Frosts" with the address of ryanandamanda.blogspot.com... it didn't really make sense to keep it because, well, Ryan never blogged on it, and I never posted anything because it was slightly overwhelming to post about OUR lives, and what WE were doing, and what WE did together..... #2 for me, it just makes more sense to have a blog just for myself, where I can type away, vent and document things about me, and how I feel and felt and reacted to certain, specific things in my life. #3 I felt a lot of pressure to post things that made my life look extraordinary and exciting, which to be honest, I really don't lead an exciting life! Extraordinary?? Yes, maybe to me, but not so much to others. We are very simple, quiet and settled, and I just stopped blogging because I felt I had to be impressive!! Among other reasons which I will keep to myself, I have decided to start my very own blog, where I can be myself, and use this as an outlet, perhaps journal even! So call me selfish or self-centered, but I am excited to start blogging again and hopefully I will be dedicated enough to keep up on it!

Island Park Cont'd

Island Park!!

This is a very belated post of our family trip to Island Park. My mom and dad were wanting a nice, relaxed family vacation, so they planned an incredible weekend trip to Island Park. We stayed at a place called Eagle Ridge Ranch... we had our own family sized cabin (complete with hot tub!), scheduled a couple horseback riding trips, went on nature walks, ate like fat people, watched Lion King only about 15 times, played games and slept a LOT (well, I did anyway lol). IT was such a fun weekend. We were so lucky to get Addi and Tess with us, Jake was missed very much by all of us, but we were fortunate to get part of his family! Thanks Mom and Dad for all you did for us. The mini vaca was incredible and totally hit the spot for relaxation and fun! Thanks for the food and making us feel like we were at a 5 star resort!! Mom I was so proud of you for riding the horse and not screaming once! You were sooo good!!

Addi was so cute on her very first horse back ride EVER! She was such a trooper and was so brave!

The hot tub was only like 90 degrees, so basically freezing for a hot tub! I only got in once, because it was so cold, yet everyone else thought it was just right. I was the lame one and froze the whole time we were there!! Sorry everyone :(

AT the Beach!

Tanessa took us to Cocoa Beach and we had the TIME OF OUR LIVES!!! Ryan and I boogie boarded and made sand castles and took a LONG walk on the beach (so romantic, right!?) However, he was Addi's little buddy. He is more of a "land dweller" so he stayed with her under the umbrella and played with her quite a bit. They were adorable to watch!!

Summer of fun (and many expenses) cont'd!!

I never got to finish my post that I published last week, so hopefully I can get this completed!! I promised my mom I would upload all my pics from our Florida trip, so i will try to squeeze as many as i can in this one!!


Ryan and I went to a really cool zoo while we were in Florida. Tess said it was the least impressive zoo there, but for us Idahoans, we were easily impressed!! We've NEVER seen an alligator or crocodile in real life, so for us, that just made it for us right there!!!
Check out the fat head on that sucker!!! It was so creeeeeepy being that close to the croc...
Pretty snapshot at the Epcot Center in Disney World. I LOVE IT THERE!

Close up!! I don't think we've ever had so much fun on a vacation. Ryan and I were all smiles the whole time!

Summer of fun (and many expenses)

It's almost sickening how long it's been since I've posted anything on here... I even deleted it for a while....but this summer, I actually have some things to post, so I am a little excited to get them posted!! Ryan and I have had an incredible summer. I am not used to having summers off and getting paychecks every month, so this has been one of the best summers ever!! This has definitely been a vacation filled with mini vacations!! Right before summer started, Ryan's sister Jenn invited us to Disneyland for a weekend, so that was vaca #1, after that I went to visit her again for about 5 days in Vegas, which was one of the best times I've had in my life, I just love her to death and feel very blessed to get her as my sister-in-law (vaca #2). THEN, we were invited by the Walkers and the Federico's to take a 4 day camping trip to Pine, which was quite an adventure!! Unfortunately the Federico's weren't able to attend due to a very unexpected death in their family (our love and our prayers have been going out to them ever since). So we went camping with the Walker family, who we love! Their family is our family pretty much, so we had a WONDERFUL time. We got a place right on the river, it was incredible! (vaca #3). The Tuesday following, we headed to Orlando to visit my big brother, Jakey, and his family. Words can't descsribe how much fun we had. It was incredibly fun, as well as incredibly meaningful. (vaca #4). I can't wait to go back!! I miss them soo much already. Each night we were there, I cried thinking of when I had to say goodbye to my precious Addi, and to Jake & Tessles. It just broke my heart. The night we said goodbye I cried myself to sleep and cried the WHOLE way home. Poor Ryan had to put up with the pitiful sobs for nearly 13 hrs!! He was such a trooper though!! Anyway, that's just my summer in a nutshell ( we had many more mini mini vacations to Pocatello to visit friends and family, and were able to have some visitors of our own here in Twin). Below are some pics that I felt worthy of posting!!
We got to go to Epcot Center at Disneyworld, it was AMAZING!!! Everyone needs to experience this!!
I am a HUGE Beatles fan, and in the "UK", they had a band called The British Invasion, that impersonates the Beatles and their music. They were so good, I was very impressed!
It was tough for us to leave the UK, since Jake served his mission there, it was pretty cool there. We even got a Galaxy bar!!! The best chocolate ever made I swear, and we have never been able to find it here in the states. Jake was bursting with joy hahah!!

Brutus' eyes look a little crazy scary, but my red-eye fixer wouldn't work on his little doggy eyes for some weird reason.
I was trying to take another picture with Brutus in this picture, and you can't really tell but he was licking my ear and it tickled so I started laughing and squirmed too much to get him in the picture, but Ryan likes this picture , so i posted it. Don't look at my messy nightstand! Yuck!Doesn't he look so precious in this picture? Cutest puppy face ever!
Ryan and his boy. They look adorable!