"Wicked" Awesome!

 The famous musical Wicked has returned to Salt Lake City this summer, and they are once again doing a drawing for seriously discounted tickets before each showing!  

Last time it was here we went and tried to win tickets and on our very first time Matt's name was drawn ha ha!  So my sister and mom went.  This time we went down on Saturday, for our first time and Jeff won!!!  I got me one lucky hubby :)

 These tickets only cost us $25 dollars each and they were amazing seats only 5 or so rows behind the orchestra!! 

This was a first experience for the both of us and we absolutely L.O.V.E.D it!!!! Oh my goodness it was amazing!

Poor Matt is feeling pretty gypped so we're going to keep going until we win tickets for him.

24th of July

Last Friday we went to the Bountiful Handcart Days parade, mostly to see Matt and the other 2,000 stripling warriors.

 For those of you who don't know, a Bountiful man had some vision of gathering 2000 young men to recreate an image of Helaman and his army of stripling warriors and walk in the parade.  They actually ended up with 2,200 boys/men and it was definitely worth fighting the crazy parade crowds to see!

 Helaman... the man who had the idea.

Pictures don't do it justice.  The line of boys just went on forever and ever down the street!  It was pretty cool!

 On Pioneer Day we went down to Mapleton to celebrate with my siblings and their families.  We started off our celebration with the Mapleton parade.  Afterwards we went to a little carnival at the park, had lunch, and the girls played some carnival games.  

 Mike brought out his toy for us to try out :)  Way to go Mom!

 The Helicopter Ping Pong Ball Drop.  As it sounds they dropped balls from a helicopter, each of them having a number on it.  They then drew some numbers and the winners won bikes!  Matt and Lexie both participated, but didn't win.

 Taya's "mustache" :)  She cracks me up!

"Reunited and It Feels SO Good!!"

Oh man... I can't even describe how crazy happy I am to have my hubby back home!  I picked him up from the airport Saturday afternoon and I seriously never stopped smiling that entire day.  I felt like a giddy little teenager.  Jeff successfully finished and passed his simulator training in Long Beach and now has a few days off until he starts flying - the real deal!

I've been having this serious craving to revisit my childhood and go to an arcade... so we went to Nickelcade in Taylorsville!  And I loved it.

 We were loving us some skee ball, crusin' the world (racing), pinball, shooting some Jurassic Park dinos...

 One of Jeff's childhood favorites:  Time Crisis (shooting game)

And here's our loot we got with our tickets :)

We also went to Costco for free samples (one of our favorite Saturday activities), rented a movie to watch with Matt, and mostly did a lot of snuggling :)  

A Wegner Update

So here's the latest scoop on the current lives of the Wegner's... 

(I apologize in advance for the novel, but it has been awhile so there is a lot to update on)

Jeff started his SkyWest training on June 4th and is still currently in the process.  For the first few weeks that he was doing his ground school in Salt Lake, we were able to see each other for at least a day or two on the weekends.  Jeff took a big test (and passed!!) on June 26th, completing his training in Salt Lake.  He was awarded his WINGS and got a couple days off!!!  That day also happened to be my 22nd birthday so Jeff was able to come up to Logan to celebrate with me.  It also happened to be our last night in our Logan home - our first home!  (which I will miss dearly...)

 SO proud of this boy!! :)

 Ow Ow!  Doesn't he look dang good in his uniform?!  

So on June 29th, Jeff started his simulator training in California.  He spent three days in Fresno, and then had a couple days off to travel to Long Beach where he currently resides.  He's got 11 days in Long Beach (two weeks in California total) and THEN he gets to come home!  But then... he has a couple more weeks of training where he is actually flying routes.  Phew!  The poor boy... hopefully he will get a much needed break after all this training.

As for me... This summer I have been working at my same job that I've worked at for the past three years, and I am going to seriously miss it.... :(.  I spent a lot of time packing, cleaning and moving out of our apartment.  We moved everything down to Bountiful where half of our stuff is in a storage unit and the other half in my parents basement.  And I am now currently homeless... again ha ha.  My job in Logan ends on July 16th and then I will be officially living with my parents until Jeff finishes training, and we know where we will be based and what we'll be doing.

So as you can imagine this has been a roller coaster of emotion and an often stressful situation for the both of us.  Jeff's training has been extremely intense/stressful and he constantly faces the possibility of not passing a test and failing... I think he's "enjoying" it a little more now though since he is actually getting his hands on and practicing in the simulators.  For me, it's been sometimes quite lonely and stressful having to move and pack without Jeff, and being homeless.  

However, I am so very thankful for everything we've been blessed with and the love and support from family and friends!  Though it's been stressful, we have been blessed and everything has worked out ok.  We are so blessed to have wonderful friends who were so willing to help me move and let me live with them, and just family and friends to keep me company.  It's been a difficult month for us, but I am grateful for it, and we have grown stronger because of it.  It's encouraged me to become more independent and I have grown closer to the Lord and I know that he is taking care of us and knows what we need.  

Independence Day!

Happy 4th of July!!

We've had a pretty good 4th here at the Rau household.  Pretty low-key, but still nice.  Last night I went to the Eaglewood fireworks with Matt and my mom and met two of my high school best friends.  Then Mom, Matt, and I went to the West Bountiful parade this morning.  I only went for the candy :)

Overall, we had a pretty relax holiday.  I only had to work Monday and Tuesday this week so now i've got nearly a week off... not sure what I'm going to do, but nice to take a long break.