It has been way too long!

Dear friends, we apologize for our lack of blogging and knowing that it may have caused deep sadness and woe, we humbly ask that you have sweet mercy upon us for this.

But it gives me great pleasure to update you all on what has happened these past two months.

8 Years of Annoyance and Love
In September, we celebrated 8 years of love. I read something on Facebook that says, "I love being married. It's so great to find one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life." I love Leslie so much and I know that I annoy her, but she is tolerant and will put up with great amounts of nonsense and she loves me no matter what sort of mood I am in. We were short on cash and decided that doing something simple would make this year memorable. So we wanted to check out this sub place called Firehouse Subs; it was decent but nothing to die over but it was a wonderful time to spend with each other. I took Leslie to buy See's Candy before this and she about died over that; so it was off to a great start. After that, we wanted to check out a mini-golf place that also had a batting cage. We played one round of golf and then went off to the batting cage. Leslie is very athletic and has always wanted to go to a batting cage together. I don't care much for it but this day was for her and I took a whack at it. I've been once to a batting cage but I didn't find it thrilling but this time I did it for her...totes adorb, right? We then came back to play another round of golf after hitting like 96 rounds of softballs and baseballs...I am a fragile little guy and the whole night my arms were a little flimsy from hitting; whatevs!

Food, glorious food. #welovefood

  Good looking fella, right there

My wife, what a powerhouse; she killed it.

HOLE-IN-ONE!!! What?!

   My life would not be complete if I didn't have this beauty in my life.

October, this best month of the year!

I love this month and all of the wonderful times that we have. General Conference was amazing and full of great insight. Even though it is most excellent to hear from our leaders, I always struggle with paying any sort of attention, because #1: I am at home in my pj's and that makes it extra hard to focus, but this year, I did not fall asleep and I took some great notes...holla! Leslie knows how I struggle with my attention span and bought me a Spirograph from Target...#loveher.

My new toy and I love it.

                                  

Leslie got herself a piano and it was like an early Christmas for her; it was a priceless moment and she was super happy about it and the best part is that she got it for free...WHAT?!

My cute wifey and her new toy. #blessed

                                 

Also, this is the best month because of Halloween; it's my Christmas and I spent a lot of time making things and decorating for it. 

 I found this witch on Pinterest and brought her to life.

Apparently I don't have any other pictures of my decor, but nonetheless, it was pretty fun. This year we dressed up; Leslie was a witch and I was Igor.

 I made the hat, which was another Pinterest find. It took cardboard and tinfoil and I hand painted the whole thing; it took 3 days to make it.

We took a trip to New Mexico with our dog

Leslie's youngest sister and her husband had a little girl in September and last month they had a huge family gathering and the baby blessing. It was a quick trip but we loved every minute of it. Even though Percy loves car rides, he knows that it is going to be a long one. I find that every time we go on a trip, we always seem to hit snags: low tire pressure, snow, ridiculous amounts of construction; it never fails, BUT...we got to be with family and meet our adorable niece. It was a fantastic time.

NOW!!!

School is going well and I am coming to the end of my second semester. It definitely has been challenging with a copious amount of school work and projects but I have been able to do some serious personal growth and self-awareness. I have met amazing people that are in the same program and we have made great friendships. Leslie is a rock star through it all and I am forever grateful and indebted to her for sacrificing what she had back home to come out with me and once again put me through school. I love her and am so in love.

WELL FRIENDS, THIS IS OUR UPDATE. I hope that you have been assured that we are alive and well and our still loving it here in the Springs. It did snow a couple days ago and is like 5 degrees; awesome!!! Until next time...

OH...BUT WAIT! I FORGOT SOMETHING. *Please play the video

BABY MAJORS COMING JUNE 2015

Oh what a glorious summer!

We are sorry that we haven't posted since July; we would like to claim that we were super busy, but let's be honest...we were a little lazy and kept putting it off; our bad.

So, since July we have done quite a few things:  we made a merry ole trip to our home state and how glorious it was, except for the drive.  Let's break down our trip: we drove 19 hours, slept for 12 hours and only spent 15 hours with the fam...46 hours all together; it was a very short time but it was great to be with them.  While we were there, we had the opportunity to witness the sealing of our niece Payton to her family.  Both of us got to dress our nieces in their temple dresses and then got them ready for pictures after the sealing; it was a great moment for us to bond with them and we will never forget it.

The Blakeley Family sealing July 2014

Our next fun event was Garden of the Gods...again.  This time we went with some friends.  We ventured deeper into the garden and walked around to different spots in the park.  Before we left, we stopped at a popular spot called Balanced Rock (no we did not travel to Utah.) It was another fun little outing.

Leslie got to celebrate her birthday for a whole week and she loved every minute of it.  

Monday was a Sky Sox game, a local baseball team.  We went to one game but were rained out so we switched our tickets for another game and it was a hit.

Sky Sox August 2014-best game ever ended on a home run in the bottom of the 9th.

Tuesday was Leslie's day of birth.  I picked her up from work, we went to See's Candies and the went off to dinner.  We found an Irish Pub called Jack Quinn's (no drinking involved) and then came home where she found a surprise with balloons and some of her favorite candy.

Wednesday we hiked this outrageous hike called the Incline and it was ridiculous.  Luckily we had a stellar support group that came with us; my friend Shayne and his girlfriend Cassie lovingly pushed us to the top of the it and we are so grateful for their help and encouragement.  If it wasn't for them, I'm sure we would have died before hitting half way.  It took us an 1 and 20 minutes to reach the top and it was glorious.  It was dark by the time we reached it but the view was beautiful.  Here is a link to information about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manitou_Incline

About half way

Almost there-look at the bottom, we climbed that.

The Incline August 2014.  Here is us with Shayne and Cassie.  Thanks friends for your help.

Friday Leslie's dreams came true...we visited one of the USA Olympic Training Centers here in the Springs and even though I'm not into sports and athletics and such, I was in awe.  A friend from our ward is the Sports Medicine director not only for the center in the Springs but also for the other centers here in states and she gave us a behind-the-scenes tour.  We got to see some pretty cool areas of the center and saw a few athletes but sadly we missed Phelps and Lochte a week too late; they were there and WE MISSED THEM BY A WEEK!!!! Lame!  But we got to see where they train and such.

Bobsledding was a must...Jamaican style...no? okay.

Go Team USA!!!

And the torches from the Winter Olympic games.

After our trip to the Olympic Center, we got ourselves ready for a camping trip with some friends and went to a place called Woodland Park.  We were there for a few days enjoying the outdoors and beautiful scenery.  Here are some pictures from last weekend.

We were sad because it was raining like crazy.  It always rains when Leslie goes camping; true story, she said it herself.

Our pup anxiously waiting to get outside and chase some squirrel friends.

I was playing with our friends' kids with squirt bottles...good times.

We also went shooting but did not get any pictures of that, however, I got one of Percy cowering in the car because of the loud noise from the guns...poor little dude.

It was a great weekend and we thoroughly enjoyed it with friends and the great outdoors.  We did a lot within the three weeks that I had off from school, but it starts up again tomorrow and I am more the excited to start.  I was going insane because I am not working and Leslie had the car, but it's okay, I spent those few weeks with my new friend the Doctor.  We went on great adventures but my time with him has come to an end while I educate myself further.  Thanks Doctors.  Allons-y and Geronimo!

SUMMER FUN!!

Well everyone, as you all know I started my new job last month. It is going great. I completely enjoy working at Peak Physical Therapy, I am the Front Desk Receptionist. It is really nice to be doing something with myself, and getting to do something I enjoy! 

Colby is doing well in school. He passed his first class! Whew! He was a little nervous but all is well and he did really great! Wish him luck on the next set of summer classes!

We have met some awesome people here in Colorado Springs and it has made the move a lot easier. We had dinner with a couple of families and it turns out we are popular with the kids. I guess we will live out our hopes and wishes through loving other peoples kids. They are great and I hope someday that we get to have our own. The only problem with that is that we wont get to hear "there's the Majors" during sacrament meeting from our own children, also they probably won't beg to sit by us!! :)

We love to see where Percy will park himself. This is a pile of blankets that I decided to leave on the floor because they weren't folded and I didn't know where they were going to be stored. He found it very comfortable!  

He also found himself in the middle of the sleeping bag that I left on the floor to dry when we got home from camping!! He is very resourceful...

PERCY IS THE VAINEST DOG THAT EVER LIVED! this is a photo of him looking at himself in the mirror, mind you he did this at least 10 times a day. We found out he is terrified of it. We believe he thinks it is a hole in the ground. It is incredibly funny to watch him (I left one mirror on the floor just for our entertainment)...

A few things have happened since the last post. We finally got the pictures up on the wall. It only took like 3 weeks or something!! It was very stressful because you all know how I want things to be perfect... I don't know that they are perfect but they are nice and make it feel like home. 

Colby and I went to walk the Garden of the Gods and it turns out it is so amazing!! It feels a little like southern Utah just randomly placed in the middle of Colorado Springs, Weird!! But nonetheless beautiful!

 KISSING CAMELS

We went on the family reunion this last week and had a really great time. Here are some of the pictures but there were many more taken by other siblings. We started off the trip with Water World which is only the most fun water park that I have ever been too. It puts 7 peaks to shame!! (no pictures of the swimming!!) We went to dinner at the Casa Bonita (the original Mayan) It was pretty fun.. Then we traveled  about an hour from there to Estes Park. Such a beautiful place to be. We went hiking, endured the rain storms, wind storms every night, and just had a fun time with family we don't get to see all the time.

CasaBonita Restaurant

Creuger Peak Hike with Aunt Barbara and family!! So beautiful...

Leslie is the best Smore maker in the world! :)

We had a lot of fun but I didn't get any of my own pictures of the camping part so this is all you get. It was really great and if you ever get the chance to go to Estes Park you should!!! It is incredible. 

Oh on a side note; Colby and I received callings today! I will be the RS Piano player and also the Sunday School Teacher for the 16 and 17 year olds. Colby is going to be the best Gospel Doctrine teacher that ever was! 

That is all. I hope I didn't miss anything. See ya next time! :)

What a week of curious wonder!

Well, this past week was the first week of grad school....woot! and boy was I anticipating it! 


     The past week was crazy good and that first week of school was intense; maybe it's because I haven't been in school for just over 2 1/2 years; that will do it to you.  It was actually a great week.  Monday, of course was the first day of classes and it was hard to get back into the studying habit and Tuesday was the aftershock of it all.

     Let's get into the realization of it all.  On Wednesday last week, I was at the library for 10 hours, 10 long hours; I never thought that I would be in that position, unless it was a job, but grad school is going to have to be like that for the next two years and yes, I knew what I was getting into.  But, since I know what I want to do, it isn't that bad, but like I said, I have been out of school for so long, I forgot what it was like.  

     Many of you might not know this about me, but I have a learning disability (ADD, go figure,) which causes some severe attention problems.  Well, I have taken the opportunity to use the Disability Services office here at UCCS; I've used them before, so it was not a surprise to have to use them again.  Anyways, one of the services that they offer is a note-taker; someone that is willing to take notes during class, email them to this office, and then they email them to me.  I had a letter to give to my professor, and after giving it to him, I noticed a guy in my class look down at my binder, which I forgot to close and I forgot that I had other copies to give to other professors.  Fast forward to the end of class.  This guy in my class has been coming with me to the library, (which by the way, I feel like I am cheating on the USU Merrill-Cazier Library each time I enter the Kramer Library; sorry guys.)  We get in there, do some studying and we each pull out PB&J sandwiches...holla for thinking alike.  He proceeds to ask if I need any help with notes and then says that he saw the letter.  I told him that I noticed and we chuckled about it.  Come to find out, he used to work in that office the semester before and has seen hundreds of that same letter.  I felt kinda sheepish and explained to him that I was getting used to the fact that I need their accommodations, but I had some reservations, just because I am a grad student....blah, blah, blah.  I hardly know the guy and he comes out and says that it doesn't reflect on my character and he was way cool about it; thanks Shayne for being awesome; a blessing in disguise.

     As mentioned earlier, I have been spending a lot of time at the library, and it was hard to stay there and not really know what I was reading.  I began to feel inadequate about the Master's program and the readings.  I mean, I know that I read a lot during my undergrad,  but Holy Hannah, there is an impressive amount of reading.  I sought after my professor for the class and asked him for some direction and he gave me some.  So I went back to the library (I know, I'm still cheating,) and took his directions and I found my groove when it comes to reading 40+ pages...it is a nightmare, but I am learning a lot.  

     Food Glorious food!  While I was on campus, Leslie ventured to the grocery store and had to do some serious shopping.  We did some serious waiting for my student refund, (cough cough..loans,) and just went hecka crazy with the groceries, I mean, after 2 1/2 weeks of not having shopped, we were in a serious famine; okay, not that bad, but we were down to a half a gallon of milk, half a dozen of eggs, measly portions of cereal and that was it.  We love food, and even though she went ballistic with shopping, we needed some delicious stuff.  Thanks honey for showing the grocery store what's up!

     Last weekend, it was Summerfest and we were so bummed that we missed it, but luckily, some of our friends that are still in Logan graciously went in our behalf and enjoyed it for us; you know who you are...bless your hearts for doing that for us.   Also, this passed week, there have been some crazy storms that were brewing over us, and I mean some crazy storms; not the wimpy Utah kind.  Colorado has some serious hail storms, and we love every minute of them.  I mean that it does rain for like 5 minutes, but then the hail comes upon us and it is intense (in tents, like camping.)   Before this one hail storm, I was on campus waiting to go back to my car and I was waiting for the UCCS shuttle.  Well, just to give you a back story of how different it is here from USU.  At USU, if you are waiting for the bus, it is kinda like first come-first serve with the idea of being courteous to people by letting the go before you.  Well, I was walking to the shuttle stop and I saw a line of people, I bypassed them just to wait on the other side of the little sitting area and some guy loudly said that the end of the line was where I came from.  He wasn't rude about it, but just the way he presented himself was rather annoying.  Yeah, he was being helpful, but I didn't know, I'm from out of town, ( I am going to claim that the whole time we are here.)  I walked passed that same group of people, and I felt super awkward, (Kylie, I know how you feel :S)  

Wow, that was a lot, but I still have some more.

     My classes for the summer go Monday through Thursday and then off Friday and I took that day to be super lazy...I know, not a habit to get into, but I just had to...I spent the whole day, while Leslie was at a second job interview binge watching Netflix...huge disease.  I watched two episodes of Prison Break, great show and three episodes of Doctor Who....where have you been my whole life?  I know, it took me forever and a day to start that series, BIG SHOCK!!! even for me.  That was also the day of the full moon...the Honeymoon, because when it came up, it had the most beautiful honey color...what an amazing creation for us to enjoy on this planet.

     Saturday was such a great day, too.  We got up that morning and went to Centennial, CO. to join our new ward family for a Temple day.  We were so spoiled while living in Logan, because the Temple was a 5 minute drive from where we live and now the Denver, CO. Temple is almost an hour; not super far, but it was a sacrifice that we have to make, at least each month to go, but it is such a blessing to go.  That same day, a guy that lives in the same apartment complex is a maintenance guy; great guy.  He came by a couple of weeks ago to check out a wet spot that was showing on our wall.  Well, he cut a hole, because we thought that there was mold and luckily, there wasn't, but there was a hole.  So, he patched it up, did some work and come to find out, they do not carry the same color white that is currently on our wall, but they have a different color of white...weird.  But, we got to pick out a color and he painted our wall...it was way cool of him to do that for us, off the clock, too.  


     We have some news!  Like I mentioned earlier, Leslie had a second job interview at a place called Peaks Physical Therapy on Friday; her initial interview was about two weeks ago.  She was told that they would let her know in a couple of weeks...they called her on the 16th and gave her a job...WOOT AND HOLLA!!!  She is thrilled and I am very ecstatic for her, she starts tomorrow, 6/18/2014.

Well, that is all folks.  I do apologize for not posting sooner, but I hope that you enjoy it.



Here are some pictures that we have to share:

   Just to give you somewhat of an idea of the size of hail; this is a picture of some hail that had melted a little.

                                  Here is Percy in a few of his favorite spots in the new place; little sunbather.

Not super great quality of the 'Honeymoon'.

Temple day on 6/14/14.  This was a great day!

New wall color.  Not our choice of color, but it was by far the best out of five choices.  Sorry for all of you that still live in Aggie Village and have to deal with the white walls, but this makes this place more homey.

I forgot to add some pictures of us using our hammock.  We bought it like two years ago and never had the chance of enjoying it; Percy enjoyed the hammock as well.