September

I didn't get to write for all of September. so here is a few things from our lives recently!

Keaton is back for his second year of sciences at MacEwan and liking it so far. In between studying, he took on the challenge to build us a home desktop computer, and we're pretty happy about it. The reason why he decided this was because I told him it would be nice to have a desktop and my laptop is getting old. I'm happy I have a computer savvy husband to take care of all our technological needs!

Courtney and Tom welcomed their baby girl into the world!

Vera Jacklyn Stringham is a beautiful and healthy baby. 

We can't wait to meet her! Jackie was able to be there with them for all of it and sent us all lots of pictures of little Vera!

My favourite photo of her (so far)!

On September 23, we took part in the Edmonton Food Drive. Our routes were pretty short, but that's okay. When we dropped the food off at the church, it felt so good! It definitely makes you want to help as much as you can! 

That night was also the Women's session of General Conference. I had to work, but I watched it the next day on the computer. And oh my goodness, it was a good meeting! I love hearing from the women leaders in the church. I'm getting happy just typing about it! I love those women so much.

A couple months ago, Aunt Nancy sent us an email asking if we wanted to buy her Coldplay tickets since she bought them for her and her family, but plans had changed and she decided to sell them. Keaton and I weren't too sure at first since we had already seen Ed Sheeran in July. Eventually, we decided to take the tickets and sold them on behalf of Nancy. Keaton's friends Kyle and Aidan, along with Aidan's fiance Morgan, attended with us. I also sold two tickets to my assistant managers roommate. 

On September 26, we had dinner with Kyle, Austen, and Caitlin before the concert and we walked to Rogers Place. We were up pretty high, but still had a decent side view. 

All in all, it was an amazing concert! SO colourful!

General conference took place over the weekend! I had to miss the Saturday afternoon session due to work, but I just caught up today! I'm really impressed with all the talks!

It was heartbreaking to hear that Elder Robert D. Hales passed away right after the Sunday morning session. But everyone pressed forward because of what we believe, that there is life after death and it was his time to leave this mortal state. 

But after the Sunday morning session, Keaton and I made waffles, eggs, and bacon for a little conference brunch. I don't know if we'll make it a tradition or not, but it was nice to have a good Sunday brunch!

Now today is October 2, and we got a bit of snow here in Alberta (not really a surprise though, there's already snow in Jasper). A few nights ago, we got to see the Northern Lights from the field in front of our apartment building! It was at 1:30 a.m., so I was quite tired, but it was really exciting to see them so bright in the city! Hope to see them again.

And to end this post, there has been some recent violence in Edmonton and more in Las Vegas. 

Can I leave with one request? ... p l e a s e  b e  n i c e  t o  e a c h  o t h e r  

It's sickening to see so many innocent people being killed or injured by horrific violence. At times like these, more than ever we need to stick together as families, friends, and teammates. 

Summer road trip!

I was lucky enough to get this past weekend off, so we decided to take a quick road trip to southern Alberta! I had to work until 9 p.m. on Friday night, so Keaton picked me up and we went home quickly to grab all of our stuff, got gas in the car and we got on our way. We downloaded The Other Guys form Netflix and watched that, I dozed off for a bit so Keaton put music on for himself. We arrived at Grandma and Grandpa Gibb's in Calgary around 1 a.m. and got settled to sleep around 1:30 a.m.

Saturday morning, we packed up again and had breakfast. We got to see the grandparents before they left for their own trip to Taber. We left shortly after them to head down to Cardston. During that, we listened to a talk and LDS music. 

We got to the Cardston Temple around 10 so we could attend the 10:30 session. When it was done, we went down the cafeteria to have lunch and we got to see a couple more sections of the temple. It was so big and so beautiful! I loved it all!

We made our way outside for a couple pictures then went to the Cardston Book store in town. We got an Al Carraway pillow that says "Laugh a lot and Follow God", I got Sheri Dew's book called "Worth the Wrestle" and Keaton got an keychain oil vial. 

We made our way to great aunt Carol and great uncle Ray's house in Mountain View, about 20 minutes away. We changed clothes and went on their back deck to shoot the gun at some targets. It was my first time shooting a gun so that was interesting! They took us for a drive to see if we could find any gophers to shoot, but we had no luck. When we got back, I took a short nap while Keaton watched TV with Ray, and Carol made dinner. We had dinner and then dessert, and it was all good! Keaton then called a woman named Deb who we know from New Brunswick since it was her birthday, and they had a good chat. We then ventured outside since Carol told us one of their cats had kittens but she couldn't find them! We checked around a barn and some old farm equipment, and saw a couple cats but no kittens. We went back to the house and Ray asked Keaton to move our car to a different spot in the driveway. As he was doing that, he and Ray saw the momma cat and decided to follow her. I got a text from him saying they found the babies! Carol and I went out with a flashlight to find the momma cat with her 4 or 5 babies! 

(By the way, Alberta is really pretty)

We went back inside to let the momma be with her kittens and we played a round of Oh Heck and had some treats. We chatted for a bit and started to head to bed around 11. 

I woke up before Keaton on a Sunday so I could do my hair and then he got up. Ray had to leave early for a meeting and when we we came up for breakfast, Carol left shortly after to pick someone up. Before heading out, we checked the kittens again. 

Sacrament meeting at church was good. There was one speaker is who about to leave on his mission, so that was good to hear! 

We left after that to go to Waterton. We arrived at the Bear's Hump hike parking lot and changed in the washrooms of the visitors centre. Luckily it's only a 1.2 KM up and the same back down! The view was great at the top! We stopped at the Prince of Wales hotel to see the view again. We drove around the town, went down near the beach to feel the water and drove by a car show, and saw Cameron Falls. 

Cameron Falls behind us

We got a text from Carol saying Keaton had left his toiletry bag, so we filled up the car with gas and left Waterton to go back to get it. Carol also provided us some snacks for our drive home. We had "Surfs Up" playing on Keaton's phone, but I started to doze off, so he put music on instead. 

When we arrived in Calgary, we got permission from Theo and Kenzie to go into their house (since they weren't home) to fill up our water bottles. This is pretty embarrassing but our car doesn't have air conditioning, so it was an oven driving up from the south! And we needed that water!! 

Driving back home to Edmonton, there was some traffic on the highway from an accident. We were lucky to pass it pretty quickly, but the people heading southbound were pretty backed up! We finished watching Surfs Up then started watching Hook, but we paused it before as we got back into the city. When we got home,we unpacked and showered (we wre so sweaty from the car!) Then made smoothies and finished watching Hook. 

It was such a good weekend to spend together, with family and good scenery and of course, the temple!

Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa + Ray and Carol for all the hospitality!

Ed Sheeran - Taste of Edmonton - Fairmont Hot Springs

Despite being tired and busy all the time, this past week was pretty great!

Tuesday, I worked 9-5:30 then Keaton picked me up and we took our car to Southgate to catch the LRT downtown. Getting into Rogers Place actually wasn't too bad. James Blunt started pretty much right as we found our seats. He's really good! There was intermission after him, so we did a quick bathroom trip and we got popcorn and water. I was a little late running in as Ed Sheeran started, so I was freaking out a bit. But we got to enjoy all of it together. He was so amazing! For his last two songs, he came out wearing an Edmonton Oilers shirt and the crowd screamed so loud! 

I'm really glad we decided to go. It was Keaton's first big concert and he loved it too! 

On Wednesday, I worked 11-7:30 then we did the same as the previous night, parked at Southgate and took the LRT downtown. We got off at Churchill Square for Taste of Edmonton. It's a way for local restaurants to set up booths or trucks and serve samples of their best dishes. I wanted to go since last year when Keaton went with his family and it sounded so cool! 

I can't remember all the names of places we sampled from but we had:

-Pad Thai and Thai chicken wings

-Green onion cake

-Duck wings and mac & cheese balls

-Churros and soft serve ice cream (not pictured)

-Lemon Heaven lemonade and Grizzly Paw Soda Company root beer

We also got to walk around the fountains at the square and got to see the building that says "Take a risk. It's the most Edmonton thing you can do." which is super cool!

Thursday, I worked 9-5:30 again. I had to stay a bit late, so Keaton came into the store to get me. He noticed a pair of shoes that he liked and tried them on, since I had told him we should get him new school shoes soon. He agreed and liked the ones he tried. Meanwhile, there was a pair of black flats I had my eyes on, since my black flats are very uncomfortable (because they're from payless...) and because Winnie ate part of them. So with my discount, we both got some new shoes and we love them! Seriously, if you haven't tried Rockport shoes before, we both recommend!

We went home and got all our stuff ready to be picked up to go to the Gibb family reunion. Jackie and Eldon arrived and we drove to Peter's in Red Deer for dinner. We drove into the night to get to Fairmont Hot Springs in B.C. We arrived at the rental house around 1 a.m., so we quietly got ready for bed. 

Friday morning, we got up for breakfast and got to see our Gibb family members. We were going to do a hike at one spot but it was closed because of fire risks. We went back to the lodge and did a 2.8 KM hike that went around the resort a bit. We went back the rental houses and relaxed for a bit before having lunch. We went swimming later in the afternoon. The pools are natural mineral water pools, one cold and one hot. They were pretty great. And lots of the boys were jumping off the diving boards. After swimming we had dinner, and Austen, Caitlin, and Spencer arrived soon after that. Then we played our first round of Gibb family Jeopardy, organised by Aunt Terri. It was pretty funny and clever! I was put on the same team as Caitlin, and our team won the round! Surprisingly as we're the newest members of the family! We went back the pools for another swim. I wasn't feeling well, so I laid back in a chair and watched the sun set over the mountains and relaxed (it was a vacation after all!) 

We went back the rental house and played a couple rounds of Telestrations and the guys played Mud on the pool table in the basement before going to bed.

We got up Saturday and had our breakfast then played the second round of Gibb family Jeopardy, which was also fun. We chilled a bit then had lunch, then games were played. Some more swimming was had and Eldon took the GoPro this time and took videos of the guys jumping in the pool. And Terri even jumped off the high dive!

Dinner after that, with more visiting and chilling. Then we had our last round of Jeopardy! Again, a lot of fun doing that! I got asked to play some rounds of The Game of Things, which is actually a pretty fun game! Then to finish off the night, some more swimming. I mostly stayed in the hot tub though. Back at the rental house, we looked at the photos and videos that Eldon and Terri took at the pool and chilled before going to bed.
Sunday we got up and cleaned up the rental house and got ready for church.

So, a good thing about this resort was that there was a church building right down the road from where we were staying! How convenient?! They even asked Jackie and Eldon to give the opening and closing prayers and asked Keaton and Austen to bless the sacrament! The meeting was very good too. We only stayed for first hour since most of us had to get on the road to home or next destinations. However, that meant saying goodbye (for now) to Courtney and Tom, as they start their move to Toronto this week. It actually was rather emotional. But we are excited about their future with their baby on the way and Tom's new schooling program!

We went with Jackie and Eldon to meet Austen and Caitlin in Banff. I know it was Sunday but... Cows Ice Cream was in order! Mountains are cool and all, but nothing beats a little taste of home! We then took a quick drive to see the Bow River falls. 

We then hit the road for Calgary, and had dinner at Theo and Kenzie's new place, which is super great for them! 

On the way back to Edmonton, it worked better for us to go with Austen and Caitlin and get dropped off. And once arriving home, we unpacked!

*I wish I had some more pictures, but that's okay. There will always be mountain pictures and some more family pictures may still come later!*

**Thanks everyone who made the weekend so great! Can't wait for the next one!**

Like I said at the start of this post, even in all the craziness of life, we're still enjoying our fun outings and being married in general!

MOUNT ROBSON

We left July 3 in the evening with Jackie and Eldon. I had to work until 5:30 p.m., so Keaton took me home to change and get all my stuff and we all made a quick stop at Dairy Queen. The van has a DVD player, so we watched "What About Bob?" and a Mormon comedy version of "Pride and Prejudice". We arrived at Robson Meadows Campground to spend the night there with some people from our group. Keaton and I shared a tent with Austen and Caitlin. Mom and dad shared with Uncle Curtis and Jeremy. 

We had a good breakfast in the morning then made our way to the visitors centre to check in and watch the safety video for hiking. 

Gibb and Clarke squad

We parked the van on a road near the start of the trail, made sure we had everything and everyone's packs were fitted right. And we started!! We did about 6-8 kms for Kinney Lake and stopped there for lunch. We then did about the same amount to Whitehorn, where we set up tents to stay the night there. We played some games near the river and had hot chocolate too! 

We got up that Wednesday and packed up to hike the rest of the way to Berg Lake, and most of it was uphill! About half way up, we stopped for lunch at Emperor Falls, which was really cool! When we arrived at Berg Lake, we set up tents again and went to the shore. An ice berg had broken off the mountain, so the guys decided to climb all over it, which was hilarious! Keaton stood on it so it looked like he was surfing! Keaton and I, along with Jeremy and Sam decided to hike Toboggan Falls with caves at the top. Curtis was with us for a bit, but turned around. I don't blame him, it was hard! It was about 3 kms straight up! After some struggling, we made it up. The guys decided to explore the caves. I went in a bit, but I decided to sit outside for most of it. They came out all dirty from the wet cave walls, but they loved it! We hiked back down and went into the lake again really quick. 

We had dinner and all chatted for a while. 

Emperor Falls

View of Mount Robson 

Outside the caves

Thursday, Keaton and I, along with Jeremy and Tim and Sam, got ready to hike to Snowbird Pass, which is 11 kms up and the same back down, so a total of 22 kms. I'm gonna be 100% honest, I WAS DYING. I thought Toboggan Falls was hard, but there were parts going up where we may as well have been actual rock climbing!! Once we got that out of the way, we stopped for lunch in what the guys call Gary's Meadow (Gary was one of their young men leaders when they hiked it a few years ago, so he claimed it as his own!). Keaton said the meadow reminded him of Lord of the Rings and I said it reminded me of The Sound of Music.

We kept going another while to get to the top of the pass. Since we left in the morning, it probably took us about 3-4 hours. But once you reach the top, there is a cliff and you can see a giant glacier and the mountains across from it are Alberta mountains!! So we could see AB from BC! I was so tired but so happy we made it! 

We started the trek back down, which probably took us about 3 hours again. 

We ran into some people from our group who hiked half way up but decided to go back down so we got to chat with them a bit. When we got back onto flat surface, I started to realize how much in pain I was in. 

Plus I got a BAD sunburn on my chest and arms! Seriously, WEAR SUNSCREEN! (I'll try not to make that mistake again!)

At the top of Snowbird pass

Rock loveseat

Back at camp, Keaton and I immediately changed into swimwear and went to the lake to cool off our sore muscles and sunburns. We rested for a bit then had a late dinner. 

We played some cards with people, then went straight to bed. 

On Friday, the plan was to hike back to Whitehorn. But that morning, we were talking about possibly hiking all the way back down. We said we would think about it more at Whitehorn. Keaton and I had slept in a bit longer haha so we had to eat breakfast and pack up quickly. Curtis, Jeremy, Austen and Caitlin left before us, same with two other families we went with. Jackie and Eldon waited for us, which was nice of them! We all kept a good pace together. 

We stopped for lunch after Emperor Falls with some of our group we met up with. We hiked back down towards Whitehorn, where our group was waiting for us. We all decided to just hike all the way back down. For a bit of it, we had some thunder and light spitting. But it cleared up for the rest of the way. Keaton and I were on our own for most of that part. Again, I WAS DYING. After hiking 22 kms the previous day, and about the same that day, I was toast! 

After Kinney Lake, I thought I was going to throw up most of the way. We actually chatted with a couple who were walking close to us when we saw some trees fallen on the path! The wind from the "thunder rain" thing had knocked down two trees!! It was so crazy! As a joke, I said to Keaton, "I just climbed down a mountain, now I have to climb over some trees?!"

But we eventually made it back to the van! Our first group had already left for the hot springs in Jasper. We waited about 30 more minutes for mom and dad. We drove back to the visitors centre to use actual indoor plumbing! We were so sore and walking funny! 

We left and got on the highway for Jasper. Eldon decided to pass a car in front of us. But a truck decided to tailgate us as we did. We got back in the lane and the truck went speeding ahead of us and actually gave us the middle finger! We didn't know what we did! But as he sped off, the van didn't shift right and jolted. Something was definitely wrong. Lights started coming up on the dash and Eldon put it in neutral. We came around a corner and pulled over. He tried to restart it multiple times, but it wouldn't go. We were stuck on a highway in BC with no cell service! Eldon flipped the hood and was trying to figure out what to do. He stood out on the road with Keaton to try to flag down cars, then Jackie tried. Keaton said "Kayla, it's up to you now!" Basically using my body and cuteness to get people to pull over... I was frustrated but I didn't let it show. So indeed, I stood beside the van with a box of cookies, with my thumb pointed outward. Jackie also made a sign that said "Jasper or cell phone" which Eldon held beside me. Luckily, within 10-15 minutes, a truck stopped in front of us. He didn't have room to drive us, but we gave him our roadside assistance information and Austen's cell number so the guy could call for us when he got to Jasper. Just as he was out to leave, another guy with a completely empty truck with a back seat showed up and said "I already passed you guys but I realized how un-Canadian of me not to stop, so I turned around!" He was so nice to offer us a ride to Jasper! We packed up some things from the van and had to leave it there with the 4 ways flashing. We got to chat to our driver, whose name was Mark. Once we got back to cell service, Eldon was on the phone with roadside assistance, Jackie was looking for rental cars and hotels, and Keaton was trying to get a hold of Curtis or Austen. And me, I was just texting my mom and sister to tell them I was alive! 

Once in Jasper, we figured out the van couldn't get towed until the morning and the rental car agencies were closed at that point (this was about 5:30 on a Friday evening). We had no other choice but to book a hotel room. We got the first decent priced one we could find at The Crimson. Uncle Tyler offered to come get us, but we said we would figure it out. 

Amid all this craziness, it was actually a blessing that we hiked all the way back down that day! If this had happened on Saturday instead of Friday, we would have had much bigger delays! 

It was pretty funny though too. The four of us were all walking funny from leg pain and I had a huge sun burn. But luckily we got our stuff to the hotel room, then Keaton and Jackie and I went to the pool and hot tub. 

We got in touch with Austen who said they tried to get to the hot springs, but they had closed from thunder, so they started to head back to Edmonton. Keaton and I showered while Jackie and Eldon were at the pool some more. When they came back, they showered as well, then ordered pizza. They walked to pick it up, while Keaton and I went to a small grocery store to get aloe Vera gel and root beer. It was probably around 9 p.m. when we started eating. (By the way, if you're ever wanting decent pizza in Jasper, try Loulou's Pizzeria!)

We then found out there was no rental cars available for the next day, so Jeremy ultimately offered to bring Tyler and Lisa's van to Jasper to pick us up, which we humbly accepted! We went to bed after our long and hard day. 

When we got up, Eldon and Keaton had to wait for the tow truck driver to pass through Jasper so they could get more of our stuff out of the van. After they did that, we went for breakfast. The hotel was nice enough to offer us a free breakfast after having so much troubles! We stayed in the room until Jeremy got there for us. We packed up the van and checked out of the hotel. When we got to Edson, we got to see the van. They said they would look at it on Monday, so we cleaned everything out, just in case. We stopped at Dairy Queen for lunch then headed back to Edmonton. We watched "Flushed Away" on the drive. 

*Update since then: The mechanics checked out the van and it is dead. RIP Odyssey :(*

Back in Sherwood Park, we started right away to sort out camping gear, since we borrowed most of it. After that was done, Keaton cut the grass while I watched some of Batman Begins with Caitlin and Austen. Mom and dad drove us home on their way to drop off camping stuff at the Rolfson's. Keaton and I unpacked at home and started laundry. We thought about going to get groceries but we were so tired! 

We actually finished Batman Begins on our own, then went to bed!

So, I wasn't too sure how I would do on the Mount Robson hike, but it turns out I did amazing! We all encouraged each other and were all able to conquer our climbing! 

We all had such a great time, even through the pain and mosquito bites! 

22 and 150

First things first: I changed the website URL to include my new last name, so that is cool!

My Birthday!:

The Sunday before my birthday, we had family dinner at the Gibbs and Jackie had made me a giant heart shaped chocolate chip cake! I only ate about half of it with ice cream because I had just eaten dinner too! 

So the Monday before my birthday, I went to work, just like any normal day. I was helping some customers when a guy walked in with a rectangular box. I asked him if I could help him with anything. He said he was looking for Kayla Gibb and I was like "Oh that's me!" then I realized what was in the box. I signed for it and got so excited. Just like last year, Keaton had sent chocolate covered strawberries to my work! I texted him a really quick thank you and it was great! The customers I was helping wished me a happy birthday too! 

(For anyone who doesn't know, I got the same gift delivered to me last year at work, and it was so sweet!)

On my actual birthday, I had the day off, so I lazed around and watched Grey's Anatomy. Keaton got off work early and took me to WEM where I got a new jacket and socks from Mark's (both intended for the Mount Robson hike). We went to Red Robin for dinner, and I got a free birthday burger! Our waitress came when we finished eating and said if we filled out an online survey, we could get a free dessert! We did just that and we got a slice of cheesecake. We took it home and I called my mom for a bit. Then I was picked up by my visiting teaching companion so we could head out to visit teach! She is super nice and the women we visit are so great! After that, I came home to see Keaton and got to watch some more Netflix and indulge in the cheesecake!

Canada Day weekend:

June 30 marked one year since I first came to visit Keaton in Edmonton. We decided to recreate what happened when I did! After I got off work on that day, we went home to pack up an overnight bag and we went to Sherwood Park. We played some cards with Jackie and Eldon. Then around 10 p.m., we went to the same McDonald's to get dollar drinks! We took them home and watched How I Met Your Mother (last year was The Office). We then to bed, in the same room I stayed in!

2016 vs. 2017

Saturday, we got up and got ready for the holiday! First was pancake breakfast at town hall! We watched most of the parade, but we were mainly waiting for the Sherwood Park Music Festival float, since Jackie was helping with that one! We waved at her when she went by, then we decided to walk around Festival Place. 

Before heading out, we got Uncle Milts old fashioned root beer, which is great as always!

(Please note, Keaton has East Coast Lifestyle and I have Prince Edward Island. Some guy walked by and tried to tell us they should say West Coast, but we ignored him, because we're all Canadian here! Why does it matter if we wear a bit of East Coast pride?? Also, I'm from PEI, so it totally counts!)

We drove into the city and went to Duchess Bakery, where Jackie took us last year for lunch. Keaton got a meat quiche, and I got a vegetarian one. Both came with a salad. We also got one of their mini cakes and a chocolate chip cookie! 

(Not the best picture, but it was so delicious!)

We parked the car close to MacEwan and took out food on the LRT to the legislature building. We walked up to the spot we got engaged where they have a couple tables to eat at. It was special and so nice outside! We walked around some more and heard some music and saw lots of cute dogs!! 

We drove back to Sherwood Park and went with Jackie to a BBQ at our family friends, the Boutin's. It started raining a lot so we had to eat inside but it was still very good! Austen and Caitlin and Courtney all joined it as well. Eldon was there for a bit, but he was helping set up fireworks at Festival place so he had to leave early!

We went back home and relaxed for a while and played some Wii Mario Kart. 

We drove to park at Sherwood Park mall to watch the fireworks, which were pretty great!! There was some traffic while leaving, but we got home safe and sound! 

Canada Day was so great and I hope everyone was able to enjoy it!

Couches, crock pots and cookies!

We've been busy. We work full time, we've been trying to get our apartment in order, we have family events and we also have to sleep sometimes! Haha but we've been doing good! 

I've decided not to put a lot of wedding photos on the blog since they're all on Facebook anyway, but this is the one I posted on Instagram for our one month anniversary!

Hey Keaton, I love you a lot

As for our apartment, we recently got a new/used couch and ottoman. For anyone who doesn't know, when I moved into the apartment, we got a free couch, thinking "hey, a free couch that's kind of functional." Then a couple weeks ago, we were like "....Yeah, let's look for a new couch" because it wasn't as cushiony and it looked dirty even after we cleaned it! 

Keaton looked on Kijiji and LetGo and he found a leather one from a guy in Lamont. Uncle Tyler was nice enough to take Keaton in his truck to pick it up, and Jackie and Eldon brought it to us over the weekend in their van! (Thanks guys!) We also got an ottoman from a guy in Windermere, which is actually in great condition, despite being 10 years old and in a house with cats! We're quite happy with it! We also got some nice curtains for our living room that are very sweet. 

We also try to cook together. One night, Keaton made cookie dough then we made the cookies after he picked me up from work, so that was a good team effort for our delicious cookies! I've been trying to use my Crock Pot. So far, I made chilli and root beet pulled pork. Both turned out so good!! I can't wait to try more things. Feel free to send me recipe ideas!

(The night I made pulled pork, we had poutine with it! SO GOOD)

Sunday was Father's Day as well! We went home to Sherwood Park and we talked to my parents on Skype for a while. We also made our thank you cards so those will be around soon!! We had family dinner and we also had the sister missionaries over for that! We gave Eldon a shirt with Darth Vader on it that says "I Am Your Father". After dinner, we chatted for a bit and played the game Psych on our phones. We came back into the city and stopped by the house Keaton used to live in to visit his former roomates and play a couple rounds of Super Smash Bros.

And driving home, we saw an amazing sunset!! Good thing we live on the west end is what Keaton said. I just love pink clouds!

We have some more busy times coming up! Next week, we have my 22nd birthday and Canada Day is next Saturday which will be great! #Canada150 I'm really excited for it!

I have a red PEI shirt to wear, to remember home and to wear red for the day! :)

I'll try to write again soon! <3

#married

Keaton and Kayla Gibb

May 12, 2017

Halifax Nova Scotia Temple

-

BEST DAY EVER

(Photo: Bryan Fraser)

(Photo: Samantha Moses)

(Amanda took this one, and I like it!)

On our wedding day, I went to the Pinsents' house to get ready with my bridesmaids. The very talented Victoria did my make up and Nichla helped with my hair! Jackie and Kenzie came to meet me and take me to the temple for our photographer (Samantha Moses) to get our first look pictures. 

Keaton and I had to go into the temple an hour early to make sure everything was set and in order for us to get married. 

The ceremony was amazing, as most sealings are. We had our family and good friends who came from quite far to see us get married in the temple that I grew up around and the one in the area Keaton served his mission in. How great is that?!

We got changed and came out to see everyone. It was cloudy for a bit but the sun decided to come out for us! We got pictures for a while then went to meet with everyone at Wharf Wraps, which is a great seafood restaurant in Eastern Passage. They were so great!

The next day, Keaton and I drove back to Charlottetown to get ready for the reception. We started with a receiving line, then we had a short ring ceremony and our first dance and father/daughter and mother/son dance. Then we cut the cake and everyone had some refreshments. We had a program where we played the shoe game and we had speeches from Austen and Megan and our parents. 

We thank and love everyone who took time to participate and/or help with our wedding and reception. Weddings take time and effort, and everyone went above and beyond to help make those days very special for us. <3 

Washington!

Our trip began on Thursday at 4:00 am when Keaton, Jackie and I left Sherwood Park and picked up her parents and drove to the airport. We got our boarding passes and dropped off luggage and headed through security then got some breakfast at Tim Horton's. We first flew to Calgary (to meet up with Eldon's parents) then we flew to Abbotsford BC (I can now say I've been to 9 out of 10 Canadian provinces!) Jackie and her dad left the airport and went to pick up a rental car. We drove to the border and got through. We went to meet up with Eldon around Mount Vernon and he took us to a tulip festival called RoozenGaarde and there were SO MANY TULIPS!

It was so pretty though! We then stopped outside downtown Seattle for Chick-Fil-A which was great as always. When we got downtown, we dropped Eldon's parents off at his sister Yvonne's apartment. We took Jackie's parents with us to Pike Place Market and the Gum Wall. Keaton and I got dropped off at the Space Needle for a few minutes to walk around and see it up close and it was so cool! Got to live out all my Greys Anatomy feelings! ;) 

Keaton and I went with Eldon in his rental car to drive to Puyallup. There was quite a bit of traffic! We got settled at the hotel along with Theo and Kenzie and Courtney and Tom, and Austen arrived to spend the night with all of us. We also met up with Jackie's sister Kim and her husband Tom and three of their daughters Kassie, Brittin and Belle. We all went to get food at Sonic then took it back to the hotel to chat. We also spent some time at the pool while Jackie and Eldon went to Walmart. When they came back, we all chilled in their room and ate some snacks and talked, which was nice. 

Friday was the big day! I got up early to shower because I had to do my hair. I ate some breakfast with Keaton before he had to leave with Austen and his parents. I went with the rest of the siblings and Jackie's parents. When we arrived at the Seattle temple, we sat in the waiting room while Caitlin went to do her dress reveal to Austen. They both came in after to get ready for the sealing. Her dad came in around 11:30 to tell us we could get ready to head in. We switched our shoes for socks and waited a few more minutes. So the temple is really big and we went up to the third floor for the sealing! It was so beautiful though. It was my first time attending a sealing so now I know what to expect when my time comes! After it was over, there was lots of hugs going around. We went back down and outside to wait for them. It started to rain a little bit but there was a shelter over the door anyway! Then after some time, Austen and Caitlin made their way out as a married couple! And we took lots of pictures! (Also their photographer was great and so fun, she loved hanging out with our family!) the wedding party went to get more pictures so we went to a nearby location for the family lunch and it was very delicious. 

We drove back to Puyallup to stop at our hotel for a bit then drove to Buckley (Caitlin's hometown) for the reception. There was some food served, some Italian sodas, and a candy bar. They started with a small receiving line, the moved to cutting their cake and having their first dance. Caitlin also tossed her bouquet. We danced a bit with them and ate some cake. We then sent them off and spent some more time talking to people. It was a short reception but it's all they needed. We stopped for gas before going back to the hotel to hang out at the pool again. Keaton checked the score of the Oilers game the whole time, which they won!! 

After a long day, we were finally able to sleep!! 

Saturday, I got up early again, along with Keaton and Jackie's parents. We left the hotel at 8 a.m. to drive to Yvonne's in Seattle to pick up Eldon's parents. We got held up a bit at the border but we were able to clear some things up! Keaton and Papa went to drop off the rental car and get some food while we waited for them at the Abbotsford airport. Keaton's phone was at 1% when we got there, so I took his to charge and he took mine to use for maps and calling. When they got back, we ate some food and sat for a bit. We went through security and got on our flight to Calgary. We said bye to Eldon's parents. (Well not really good bye, more like see you in two weeks). The rest of us waited at our next gate for our flight to Edmonton. When we arrived, Keaton went ahead of us to get the van. We drove back to Sherwood Park to drop off Jackie's parents, took the van home and took our own cars back into the city since we left at the house. I went to my apartment to unpack then went to Keaton's to relax and talk about some of our own wedding plans.

All in all, it was a lovely time in Washington and I'm so happy I was able to go and celebrate Austen and Caitlin's marriage in the Seattle Temple!