The Darrah's: 2017

Sunday, October 1, 2017

Summer 2017

This summer, Isaac and I were pretty lazy! It was so great! He only had to work on the weekends, and I didn't work at all, so we were able to relax and enjoy being out of school for 2 months before it started back up again.

At the very beginning of the summer I went on my first solo road trip to Nevada for my cousin Kara's wedding. 5 hours is a long time to be in the car by yourself! I'm glad I went though, as I got to spend time with my family and enjoy Kara's beautiful wedding, which I for some reason didn't take any pictures of haha.

Isaac and I also went on a few hikes this summer! Once to Mesa Falls, which is north of Rexburg, and is so beautiful! Everyone we have met here in Rexburg that is from Oregon says that Mesa Falls is the most Oregonian place in Idaho. And I would have to agree! (With the small portion of Idaho that I have seen anyways.) It was beautiful, not quite enough to trick me into thinking it was Oregon, but darn close!

After a short little walk we got to the (lower? or upper? haha I don't know) Mesa Falls!
I was a little disappointed at first that we were so high up, but we found a
way down, which was very steep, and kinda scary! But so worth it.

We were like 2 feet away! It was very misty and beautiful, and made me happy
I risked falling down the steep decline we made to see it :)

We also hiked up "R" Mountain, or the Menan Butte as it's formally called. I am so out of shape apparently, because I was huffing and puffing up this sandy mountain trail haha!

We found the R!

It's a little too faded to see with clarity in the picture, but this is the
long straight part of the R.

Such a great view! Nice and cloudy, just the way I like it. It rained on us a little
on the way down.

Perhaps the coolest thing that happened this summer was the Great American Eclipse! And Rexburg was luckily right in the path of totality, so we got to see the whole thing!

So hard to take a selfie when you can't see squat haha!

My cousin Zane even came up from Logan to watch it with us which was fun! I hadn't seen him for way too long!

Getting pretty excited!

My sisters and mom and a group text going on during the eclipse which was fun because the eclipse happened at different times for each of us. I think it happened at 11:33 and lasted for 2 minutes! I can't believe how cold it got, and the "sunset" we got was so beautiful!

Isaac and I also made a trip down to Utah at the beginning of September for Isaac's grandpa's funeral. He had been diagnosed with leukemia back in December right before we had gotten married, so we were expecting it to happen, and are glad he is in a better place now. We went down to Utah on Wednesday and spent the night at my sister Jackie's house, and then Thursday evening went to Isaac's grandpa's house and spent the night there.

Isaac's grandpa has the most interesting house built right into the side of the mountain in Provo.

Huge pumpkin growing!

Beautiful view from the house!

The funeral was on Friday, and I met so many of Isaac's family, I think I was a little overwhelmed haha! But it was so great to see so many of them and for Isaac to be able to say goodbye to his grandpa. Isaac had work that night, so after the funeral we left back home for Rexburg and got back just in time for him to go to work.

School has started back up again and we are crazy busy all the time!

This week on Thursday, my mom and brother, Tayler, came and spent the night on their way to Tayler's mission reunion. It was so fun to spend a little bit of time with them! We went for a walk, and went to this HUGE craft store in Rexburg so I could make my Christmas ornaments for this year's family exchange, and just enjoyed each others company.

I'm so grateful I've been able to spend so much time with family this year, it has definitely made this first year away from them all a little easier!

Monday, July 24, 2017

Bear Lake and the Fourth of July

The Kinsman Family Reunion is always something that I look forward to every summer. This year, I wasn't sure if Isaac and I would be able to make it because we would still be in school when it was going on (June 22-29) but since we live only 3 hours away from Bear Lake we made the trip down for the weekend. I didn't get many pictures, but I know my mom did. I might have to steal some from her later haha.

Isaac and I drove the scenic route to Bear Lake through Wyoming. It was beautiful!

We had a great time on the drive- singing and admiring the scenery the whole way there :)

We got to Bear Lake at about 9:20 p.m. Isaac had to take a test before we left and it was a doosey, but once we got to the resort we went swimming in the pool with the family, forgetting all about school ;)

View of the Lake from our room on Saturday morning

I got to play with this cutie all weekend! His brother too, but I suck at taking pictures
and didn't get any of him

Loving those squirt guns!

On Saturday, we took about a million family pictures, and then headed out to the lake to play all day long! The family rented jet ski's, a boat and some tubes and everyone seemed to have fun :) Isaac and I rode on the jet ski's for a little bit but didn't go too crazy since Isaac forgot to bring contacts, so we didn't want to lose his glasses. The water was freezing, but I thought it felt great, just like the Oregon Coast ;)

That night we played a game where there is a big ball of saran wrap, and in between the layers are different prizes. Everyone takes turns rolling the dice and whenever you get doubles you get your turn at unwrapping it all. It was super fun! Isaac was a lot luckier than I was. I think I rolled doubles like maybe 3 times haha!

On Sunday we went to church and boy was it crowded in there! The whole chapel, gym and stage was full of people! Tayler ran into a sister missionary from his mission, which was so crazy but fun! We had a big family potluck afterwards and then Isaac and I had to leave :( It's always so sad to leave family and drive back up to isolated Rexburg, but I'm glad we made the trek down :)

Bull riding at the rodeo!

The next weekend (July 1st), Isaac's niece Chloe got baptized, so his whole family was in town. It was a busy day! Chloe got baptized at 10, then we (Isaac, his sister and mom) just spent some time at his parent's hotel while Phil (Isaac's dad got some R&R). Then we went to an art museum in Idaho Falls and met up with his brother Sterlings family. It happened to be Isaac's best friends birthday that day as well, so we met up with them in Idaho Falls hoping to do some rock climbing and laser tag, but it was closed early due to it being the 4th of July weekend.

So we just headed back to Rexburg to go eat some yummy dinner and Casa de Ochoa (which is right across the street from our new apartment!) and made plans to go to the rodeo that night instead. It was a pretty good rodeo! Isaac had never been to one, and I think it was pretty obvious to everyone around us from the comments he was making hahaha! Oh, and Isaac's whole family decided they wanted to come to! So we partied it up :)

Isaac and I at the parade!

Rexburg does a 4th of July parade every year, and since Isaac and I didn't really have any other plans that day, except for relaxing from our day off school, we decided to go! It was a pretty good parade, I enjoyed it :)

Thought this float was pretty cool!

So the one flaw about Rexburg is that they don't do fireworks :( So everyone and their dog heads out to Idaho Falls for their HUGE show, but Isaac and I didn't want to have to deal with traffic. I did some digging and found a show that they were doing in a smaller town, only about 10 minutes from us in Menan. It was a good show! I love fireworks :) Also, I don't know what the deal is with Rexburg, but Menan was like 20x's prettier, and it's only 10 minutes away! I almost felt like I was in Oregon! (It was kind of dark, so I don't know what I would think if we went back during the daytime lol.)

After that show, Isaac and I went back to our apartment and threw around some pop-its, and lit up some flowers :) Overall, we had a great family and fun filled couple of weeks :)

P.S. School finally got out this last week on the 18th!

P.P.S. Oh and Isaac got a job and just started this last weekend! We were both

so excited, and so far he really likes it :)

Monday, July 17, 2017

Let's Play Catch Up, Shall We?

After getting married, Isaac and I spent a week in Lake Havasu Arizona on our honeymoon! We went to Arizona in hopes of escaping the cold, but sadly, it was pretty chilly and stormy the whole week we were there haha! We spent a lot of time just relaxing at the resort :) We did venture out one day when the weather was pretty good to go see the famous London Bridge though and that was really cool! We had a good time.

View from the London Bridge!

After the honeymoon, we came back to Oregon and were there for about a week packing, going to waterpolo games and hanging out with family before the big move to Rexburg! My family was so good and pretty much packed all my stuff up while I was gone. Or maybe Tayler just REALLY wanted my bedroom haha ;) Either way it was super nice! We planned on moving into our apartment on the 1st of January, so we left on the 30th with Isaac's parents who were helping us to bring over all our stuff.

Went on a hike with the family in Macleay Park :)

Our first apartment in Rexburg was great! It was really nice, and the ward we were in was great. We were apartment #24 at University Gateway II. It was a furnished apartment, so we didn't have to worry about buying a couch or bed yet which was so great!

Isaac and I moved again a little less than a month ago to save money, so we are currently living above Christensen Auto Body shop. There are two apartments, and our neighbors are super nice! We love it so far :) Jackie used to live in the apartment next to us, and luckily she still had the number of the landlord, so she helped hook us up :) She and Tyler also gave us their old bed and frame since this new apartment was not furnished! My family is so great! Here are some pictures of when we were cleaning, before we moved in.

The Kitchen

Kitchen and Living Room - Door to the bathroom is on the far right

Bathroom - Isaac loves the standing shower haha!

Bedroom!We love the beautiful teal carpet ;)

Saturday, January 14, 2017

Isaac & Emma Darrah

Isaac and I got married on December 17th, 2016 in the Portland Oregon Temple. It was so magical! I am so grateful to be married, and to have such an amazing family that made all my wedding dreams come true! Everything was perfect.
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Back in November, Isaac and I got some wedding pictures taken because you just never know what the weather is going to be like in December in Oregon. Rain? Snow? All is possible haha. Plus, we wanted pictures in front of the temple without the nativity in the reflection pool.