twenty days....

Daniel and I got engaged on March 31st, and now there are just 20 short days until we get married! I have no idea where the time has gone, but I have loved every minute of it. Driving in the car the other day, Daniel and I were talking about something that we thought had happened last summer, but we realized it was two summers ago! We realized that this is the third summer we have spent together, and that blew my mind. We have done so many fun things together, and I feel so blessed to have spent that time with such a wonderful person.

I guess time flies when you're having fun.

my life is a to-do list

So much for staying current in the blogging department.

I swear my life has suddenly become a giant to-do list and, let's face it, I'm about a page behind.

So much has happened since my last update! In an effort to not overwhelm anyone, I will just give the highlights of the past few weeks:

June 13-21: Went to Hawaii for a week with the fam!

June 21: Attended a fabulous going-away party for Marianne Schmidt!

June 24: Said farewell to Marianne, Lauren & Liz, some of my bestest friends in the world, as they headed off to London for Study Abroad!

July 1: Went to dinner at Olive Garden with my almost-sister-in-law Emily Sorensen before she left for law school in Spokane. No more goodbyes!

July 3: Went swimming at the grandparents house, and had a blast watching the Sugarhouse fireworks from the H-Rock with my favorite person.

July 4: Drove up to Daniel's Cabin for dinner and fun to celebrate the 4th.

July 5: Attended the always-fantastic Oakley Rodeo with John & Emma Lawrence!

July 6: Came down with an epic summer cold that may or may not be the death of me.

Oh, and speaking of crossing things off to-do lists, I have also committed to catch up on my wedding planning!

I have finally...

1. Picked out the groomsmen's outfits

2. Designed and ordered the wedding cake (yum!)

3. Finalized the guest list

4. Ordered my invitations

5. Scheduled my first dress fitting

6. and last, but certainly not least..... WE GOT AN APARTMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was so excited about #6, I was pretty much jumping all over the place! I was so discouraged with all the apartment-searching that I had started to doubt if we would ever find a place. And then...we walked into this one! As soon as we stepped in the door, Daniel turned to me and asked "Where do I sign?" I knew then that we had found it. It's a pretty big place, and everything is brand-new from the appliances to the carpet and paint. It's really going to be perfect for us. It turns out that I even grew up on the same street as the man that manages the apartments! He and his wife are absolutely darling.

Oh, and it also turns out that the ward we moved into happens to be the home-ward of none other than President Thomas S. Monson. We've been told he only comes once every couple of months, but that's enough to make me sit up a little straighter in sacrament meeting.

Park City & Sunburns

Usually, weekends with the soon-to-be Sorensens consist of a whole lot of "what do you want to do tonight?" and "I don't know...what do you want to do?" By default, this often leads to "which movie do you want to rent?" or, my personal favorite, "what time does [insert ice cream shop here] close?"

But this weekend, we hardly had time to sit down! I have to say, it was so much fun. It felt like the weekend was days longer because of all the fun we fit into two short days.

On Friday, I left work early to help with my little sister's birthday party. Her theme was "A Picture Perfect Party." The girls had a blast decorating picture frames, and going on an epic picture scavenger hunt! That's where I come in. I got to drive a group of girls around and take pictures of them doing the various things on the list.

With a dog.

On a slide.

On first base.

On a bench.

Underwater.

Terrorizing Fresh Market actually wasn't on the list, but we did that one anyway.

Shortly after that adventure, we had a date with a few of our best friends Emma & John and Marianne & Laird to go up to Marianne's condo in Park City. We ate dinner on Main Street, and went back to the condo for ice cream, board games, and a movie. Such a fun night!

We ran over a grapefruit.

Who leaves a whole grapefruit in a parking lot?

J & E

M & L

M & D

Team V.

The next morning, I had to wake up super early to go to a breakfast for my ward. Unfortunately for Daniel, I decided to call him when it was over. He told me that I didn't wake him up. He lied. When I showed up at his house, he was still in bed. Of course he was kind of cranky a really good sport about the whole thing =).

Perhaps my favorite part of the weekend was swimming. One of my best friends, Melissa, invited us over to her grandparents' pool.

We were all super excited to work on our summer tans. Perhaps a little too excited. We didn't exactly use sunscreen.

This was the result.

If you can't tell, we are kind of fried crispy.

I may not have gotten anything done this weekend, but I loved spending time with our wonderful friends.

Engagements!

Yay, pictures!! I am happy to announce that Daniel and I got our engagement pictures taken on Saturday. It was so much fun!

Our photographer was Sarah from Lindsay Jane Studios. She was absolutely amazing! Even though she's about 9 months pregnant, she was still moving all over the place and even laying on the ground to get her angles! Very impressive.

Anyway, we had been anxiously awaiting the release of the pictures. That may be an understatement - we basically checked her blog 7 times a day. And yesterday, we were excited to see that she had posted some samples!

Here are a few of them:

some kisses.

let's try to make Daniel not look like he's a foot taller than me.

this is one of my absolute favorites!

i love the reflection in this one.

and of course, the candid.

We could not get over this one!! We look like the world's angriest couple. Our darling photographer tried to take some more serious pictures, but it's obvious that Daniel and I can't do serious. She kept telling Daniel not to wrinkle his forehead so much, and you can definitely see him concentrating on that...haha.

We really do love each other, I promise.

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In other news, my family is going on a vacation to Hawaii this summer!! I can't wait to lay on the beach and go surfing and snorkeling.

We've definitely waited a long time to go on this trip. It was originally planned for last year, but my younger brother Steven decided to get his foot run over by a car just a few short weeks before our departure date.

A couple of plates and screws later, we decided we needed to cancel our trip. Luckily we were able to reschedule.

Unfortunately, we only bought enough tickets for my family (since we booked it last year, before we were engaged) so poor Daniel gets left at home. I'm going to miss him while I'm gone! Hopefully he'll settle for some truly awesome souvenirs, and a few epic picture messages that will come to him and random hours of the night due to the time difference.

Until next time...

Much love from Mandy

A New Beginning...

Well, here we are! We've decided to join the blogging community. The title seemed appropriate as Daniel and I are encountering a lot of new beginnings lately, and loving every minute of it!

To start off, I thought I'd share a little trivia about us.

1. Daniel and I met on July 25th, 2008 at a mutual friend's house. I won't go into too much detail, but I will say that Daniel wore a gorilla suit to Spoon Me that night. Love at first sight.

2. Believe it or not, I was kidding about the last part. And no, not the gorilla suit part, the part about love at first sight. We didn't actually start dating until several months after we met. I needed a little convincing, but luckily Daniel stuck around long after most people would have given up. I'm so grateful he did!

3. One of our first dates was to Color Me Mine. It was closed.

4. Our first kiss was on my front porch. Daniel basically ran away afterward. It was perfect.

5. He proposed to me on March 31st, 2010 on the very same porch where we had our first kiss. Needless to say...I said yes!!! We will be getting married in the Salt Lake Temple on August 16th. We have never been happier!!

And so it begins! We are excited to start our new life together, and to share some of our adventures along the way. We hope you'll join us!!

much love, M