Better late than never.

I decided to do an update since we have been in New Mexico (sorry its been forever please forgive me) 

So we got to NM in January 2015. What a wild ride it has been moving and being part of the military. It is definitely a change from what I am use to. We have made some great friends here and are making tons of memories. We added a little fur baby to our family in April 2015. His name is Hoss and he is a pure bred German Shepherd and boy is he a handful! (Probably worse than a 2 yr old lol)  

(The day we brought him home. 9 weeks old) 

He is growing so fast and is now 5 months old.

We enrolled him in an obedience class and it helped him a TON! Anyway enough about the dog lets get back to what we've been up to. We went on a backpacking trip in the Sante Fe mountains on Memorial Day weekend. It was a blast! We hiked up to 12,000 ft. And 6 ft. of snow lol. (Bad idea)

 We camped out for the weekend and we enjoy every minute if being in the mountains because here in Clovis we don't get to see much. 😉 Although the sunsets here are GORGEOUS.

The next weekend our friends came to visit from UT. with their new baby. He is a doll! 

We have really missed our family and friends and we hope to go home around Christmas time. 

In the meantime we are purchasing our first Home and get to move in next week. YAY. This house we are in now is spider/beetle/fly/cricket infested. There are so MANY bugs 😖 

After we get settled in our house I plan on getting enrolled in school here at the community college or the University. I currently work at the daycare on base and I love it!! I want to go to school for pediatrics or something to do with children. But I still have a while to decide.😊

Well I will try to update more than every six months lol. Hope you enjoy our adventures as much as we do 😊

AZ Trip

Well I needed a little vacation and of course it was spring break. So the girls (my mom & lil sister) and I took a weekend trip to Mesa Arizona to see my older sister. We had so much fun eating yummy mexican food, laying by the pool, shopping, and just having some much needed girl time. 

We drove from St. George UT to Mesa AZ. It's about a 7 hour drive and wow did it feel like it lol. The view was plain desert although seeing the all the cactus was pretty cool. They were huge (like 10-12 ft tall) and there were millions. After we passes most of the cactus and started getting into the towns it went pretty fast from there. (There were tons of lil towns. I wouldn't mind living there one day). And thank goodness we missed the phoenix traffic.

We finally got there and checked into our motel room and decided we needed a pedicure. (I hate pedicures because my feet are so tickleish) It felt nice to sit in the massage chair after the long drive. Then we just went back to the motel and hung out in the hot tub and went to sleep. The next day we went shopping and my sister talked me into buying some high rise shorts.. I wasnt a big fan til i tried them on then I decided that I kinda like em ;) and I was in serious need of some new summer clothes and best of all my hubby wasnt there to tell me not to spend too much. ;) 

We had such a fun time visiting my sister and just enjoying the nice sunny weather (80-85 degrees). The last day we just layed by the pool and got a nice sun burn. Then before we left we went and had some starbucks and headed back to St. George. All in all I enjoyed every second of the lil vacation:) 

Oh and we stopped by the Hoover Dam. It is awesome! 

And I definately missed my hubby ;)

❤️ Aspen ❤️

Skyler's BMT Graduation!

Skyler left for Basic training on July 8, 2014. Wow was that a hard day for me! I took him to the Vegas airport and stayed with him until his flight departured.

I was extremely nervous because he wouldnt have his phone for 8 1/2 weeks so we didn't really know what to expect but we were hoping that he would get to call home soon after he arrived at Lackland AFB, TX. Well he got to the Dallas airport and let me know he made it. 3-4 days went by and still no call. I was getting really nervous that something was wrong but he finally called and gave me his mailing address. It was a long 8 1/2 weeks without him but we kept in touch with letters and he got to call home the 4th and 7th week! So that was something that we both looked forward to! Finally his graduation date was set for Sep. 5th! I was so excited to watch him graduate! It was such an amazing experience to see all of the new airmen graduate (There were like 500). It was hard to pick Skyler out from the croud because they are all in the same clothes and their heads are all shaved!

After I found him I couldn't believe I missed him lol! He got honor graduation which only the top 10% get so I was really proud of him.

I can't believe how much this experience has changed us and made us better people. 

After graduation he left for Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. He still doesnt have a set graduation date but is looking close to the end of December. Bleh right around Christmas! But the sooner the better. ☺️ Right now we are going to be stationed in New Mexico at Cannon AFB! We are super excited and relieved it isn't that far away from home! 

As of right now thats our crazy life! We are always waiting for whats going to happen next ☺️

Update as a newly married couple

We sealed the deal on November 16, 2013 & no were not pregnant lol. :)  It was the greatest day of our lives.  Everything was perfect, the weather was fantastic, the decorations turned out perfect, everything was just how we expected.  We were surrounded by friends & family in St. George, UT & sealed the deal.  We flew out that night for an amazing honeymoon in Hawaii, & are now Mr. & Mrs. Shotwell.  I am so excited to be married to the man of my dreams, & we cannot wait to see where life is taking us.  Read below for some detailed information of what we have been up to the last couple of months.

We traveled to Hawaii for our honeymoon & spent seven long days in the gorgeous island of Maui.  We went bottom fishing on a charter boat, S got a few fish, but I didn't catch a thing... It was still a fun experience.  We went sport fishing to & caught a Mahi Mahi, it was so huge & not too cute!!  We stayed in a beach house & spent many nights watching the sun go down on the amazing beaches there.  It was kind of hard to travel because you have to be 21 to rent a car, and neither of us were so we were stuck riding the bus everywhere... which was a pain in the butt!  We didn't really know where to go & where all the stops went to, so we kinda just played the guessing game  the whole time.  It was actually really fun trying to find our way around & getting lost here & there.  We decided to go snorkling & snuba diving.  *Snuba Diving: your actually not SCUBA diving & carrying the tank on your back, the tank is on a raft up above & the breathing tube is like 15 feet long.*
It was our favorite thing that we did.  We rented the underwater camera & took a ton of pictures!  It was extremely fun & unique.  We went to the Molokini Crater on the island & that is where we did those activities.  On the way back, they showed us all the green sea turtles that were like 150 lbs.
They were pretty big, no huge.  We went to this seafood restaurant but everything was Japanese, so we ended up ordering lobster.  Another day, we went Canoeing with the local canoeing club.  We traveled half a mile out to the coral reef, where there were a few people hunting octopus.  It was such a fun trip, & it was nice to enjoy some time as the new Mr. & Mrs. Shotwell.  The ride home was the longest day of my life, because I was ready to be back home.

We returned home, & got settled into being married & changing my last name was a pain in the butt.. of course.  We were trying to decide what to do with the rest of our lives & it was a challenge.  Oh & we also needed a new vehicle.  His 1998 Ford Ranger single cab... just wasn't cutting it for the two of us.  So we decided to the Toyota dealership and purchased our very own, 2011 silver Toyota Tacoma sport!!  We are so excited to have a new vehicle that can actually fit more then two people!

S has always had a dream of joining the air force ever since he was in high school.  He decided to look into it more & after several hours of discussing our futures, we decided it was the best choice for him to enlist.  He joined in December 2013 & will leave for basic training July 8, 2014.  He will be gone 8 1/2 weeks for basic training & then for his further training, we will find out then.  After all the training is finished, we will find out where we will be stationed & we will be moved.  We are excited to see what the Air Force has to offer us, S is so excited to finally be a US soldier.  We are excited to be moving & starting a life together.  

I am planning on keeping all the family updated on here on where we end up & what we are doing in our everyday life.  It is going to be hard to keep up with us when we are always on the go, but I hope this blog will help make it easier.  

-Aspen