Our first year: July-December 2011

So, I am still playing catch-up with this blog. I think I will need to write about 5 or 6 more blog posts (plus a few extra posts about India) before I will be fully caught up with what Andrew and I are up to these days. Now that classes are over for me and Andrew is still in school for another month, I have some time on my hands, so expect quite a few posts coming up. These are mostly for us and our “journal keeping” more than anything else, so sorry if they are really long. Hopefully you can enjoy all the pictures!

At the end of my last (aka first ever) post, I left off with our honeymoon to Mexico. About a week after we got home, we had an open house with our friends and family in Utah. 

At the Brigham City Open House: July 8, 2011.

The Kennedys hosted it in their backyard and it was quite a ball. A big thanks to the Kennedy family for all they did to get the house and yard (and the newly painted fence!) sparkling and beautiful.

Andrew's parents and Grandma Stratford

My awesome sisters-in-law Caroline and Rachel.

I want to give a big shout-out to Logan Havens for coming to the reception spur of the moment and documenting everything. We have him to thank for all the great pictures!

Andrew and his dad both wore matching kilts the whole night. I thought they looked pretty spiffy representing the Kennedy clan.

The Scottish theme continued at the end of the evening with a surprise bagpiper performance. I think this may have sparked Andrew's subsequent research into how much a set of bagpipes cost. (Turns out they are really expensive, so he had to settle for an accordion. More on that another time.) 

Another memorable part of the night was when one of Andrew’s good friends from Brigham City, Michael Brown, gave Andrew his wedding present.

Yeah, it was a sword.

The sword is currently hanging on our living room wall.

Here are some pictures of my family at the open house. Andrew and I loved seeing our families all interacting and having fun together--seriously!

My parents.

Me, my older sister Rachel, my mom, and my younger sister Camille.

The yellow and blue quilt below is the bride's quilt that Andrew's mom made for our wedding. On the right (it's a little hidden) is the picnic quilt that all the Kennedy/Stratford gals helped tie at a bridal shower before we got married. We had them on display at the open house. Lots of love and memories in these quilts. 

The open house was a wonderful night to remember. After that, things kind of went back to "normal" and we began to figure out this thing called being married. 

Overall I'd say our first summer together was a great one. We went on a few camping and canyoneering adventures in July and August. The most memorable one was in Blue John Canyon. 

Getting ready to repel.

Learning how to stem was scary, but I liked it by the end of the 10 hour trip.

This is the same canyon where Aron Ralston had to cut his own arm off (ever seen 127 Hours?). While none of us lost limbs, we did actually become majorly dehydrated. We were not prepared for the insane rock climbing required to get out of the canyon, and as a result the trip took about 3 hours longer than we thought it would and we all ran out of water WAY before the end.

On a ledge almost to the top. I thought we would never make it.

Out of the canyon, heading back to the car. 

Once we got back to the car it was another hour-long drive to any type of civilization, but eventually we made it and everyone was okay. 

Random building by the trailhead. I think we all want to die at this point.

Ironically, on the drive there we saw this sand dune and thought this would be a funny pose. 

Besides just playing in Southern Utah, there was also a lot of work to be done. Earlier in the summer I had been chosen to be the student speaker at the BYU Commencement Ceremony which was the second week of August. Delivering that speech in the Marriott Center was stressful but exhilarating, and overall a once-in-a-lifetime experience. 

The summary of my speech was how much I appreciated that at BYU, spiritual and secular learning are really interconnected. If you want to see the full speech my dad uploaded it to YouTube here. (I debated whether to include this link because I hate watching myself talk, but Andrew thought I should. Don't feel obligated to listen to it though.)

The President of BYU, Cecil Samuelson, and his wife Sharon.

Andrew walked during the August commencement as well, since he was going to graduate in December and graduation ceremonies are only in April and August. It was great weekend.

As soon as commencement was over and I had officially earned my Bachelor Degree, I immediately started studying. I was getting ready to start a Masters program in mathematics that fall, and the first major hurdle was passing two 4-hour qualifying exams in Abstract Algebra and Analysis. The last week in August leading up to the quals was probably one of the most stressful weeks ever, but thankfully I passed both of them!

During the fall, Andrew took on his final semester of undergrad, which included a diving class and a pottery class—why not? 

In October he began the exciting/terrifying process of dental school interviews. Andrew flew to the east coast three separate times within a month and a half, and let me say that I got pretty good at driving to the Salt Lake Airport! But it was all worth it, because by the beginning of January he had been accepted to all five schools where he interviewed. We felt extremely grateful and blessed that this long application process ended in such a positive way for us. I was and still am so proud of Andrew for all of his hard work to turn his goals into reality. 

While Andrew was traveling across the country, I was undertaking my first (and awfulest-is that a word?) semester of graduate school. Getting a masters degree in one year was kind of insane now that I think about it. I had to take 12 credits of graduate level mathematics that semester, and I just about died.

My second home: the Talmage (aka Math) building.

Andrew was extremely supportive during my multiple breakdowns over Topology—probably the most frustrating class of my life. Thankfully I had other interesting classes that kept me motivated to finish my degree, and I survived the first semester.

Overall, let’s just say that the fall was quite a change from the summer, but we learned a lot and grew together through the challenges.  

In between all of the craziness we were able to spend a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with my family in La Crescenta, CA. We road tripped down from Provo, UT with my sisters Rachel and Camille and my brother-in-law Chris, and it was a blast. Even though it's a 10-hour-drive, we kind of miss being able to do stuff like that now that we are in New York. 

I guess Camille is the one taking the picture.

We went to Andrew’s house in Brigham City, UT for Christmas and up to the Kennedy family ranch for New Years. Let me just interject here to say that I love the Kennedys! They are a super fun family and I feel really grateful to have such wonderful in-laws.

Caroline got us all mustache straws.

Going shooting at the ranch. 

Well, that's it for our first 6 months. Coming soon: how we ended up in Stony Brook, NY.