St. George

Over labor day weekend we went down to st. george with our friends Mallory and Ken. We had so much fun. Mal and me have been friends for years, we met at Nordstrom and now have dinner dates with Crystal all the time. Us girls have always talked about getting together as couples but never seem to do it. Well, Crystal got married Aug. 27th. Jordan met Ken that night and it was instant friendship. We started talking about going to st george and the next day it was a plan! We went friday night and left monday morning, we stayed in mals moms house, it was so nice! We swam and ate and ate on Saturday. I really think we ordered everything on the cafe rio menu and 2 hours later we went to players grill and ate some more while watching the BYU game. Mal and Ken also introduced us to a new iphone game, words with friends, we are now addicted! Sunday we had a blast. We rented a jet ski and Mal and Ken used her dads, packed a lunch and headed to sand hollow. We love that lake, it reminds me of a very mini lake powell. Its beautiful. There is also cliffs there you can jump off of, Jordan, Ken and Mal all jumped once or twice. I didn't jump at all, I am a big wuss! After the lake us girls were in charge of getting dinner while the boys loaded and un loaded.... lets just say we had the house key too. So we really wanted Mexican food but couldn't find any open when we happen to come across a new little place. As we are looking at the whole fish with its eyeballs still in, on the menu, we started to get a little concerned but Mal wouldn't leave. So we then proceeded to order one of everything on their menu. 1 hour and 15 mins later we get our food. Yeah it took forever. So while we were waiting, the boys had loaded and unloaded both jet skis meaning dropping one off driving back to the lake getting the other one and driving it back to the house. When we got home they had been sitting in the car for about 20 minutes because we still had the house key! Surprisingly they weren't that mad! The food was good, not really worth the wait, but good. The rest of sunday we laid around and played our new game! We cleaned up and left Monday morning. We really had so much fun. Thanks Ken and Mal!!

Me & J by the pool

This is Mal & Ken

Love him. He is a

crazy jet ski driver!

SHOWERS!

Wedding showers are so much fun! We have been so lucky to have 3 showers over the last few weeks. We have gotten so many great gifts and we are so grateful to our friends and family for all they have done for us!

Shower #1.... AMMIES HOUSE

Ammie (my grandma) was so nice to give us a shower. I think we invited 40 people and 39 came. How great! We were seriously spoiled. I wish I would have taken a picture of our kitchen after we loaded everything in, it was full! Jordan couldn't believe all the things we received. This shower was a "FIRSTS" shower.... meaning everyone had a first theme like first cleaning day, first baking day, first halloween..... loved it!

I didn't take one picture with Ammie at the shower

at her house so this will do! She really is the

best!! She is doing so much for my wedding and I really

really love her even more for it!

One of our many presents!

I loved this shower, we got such a variety of fun things!

Thanks to everyone that came.

Miss her. I am so glad she got to

come to at least one shower!

Jordan came towards the end

to help load all the stuff home.

Shower #2.... ELAINE'S House

Elaine (Jordan's Aunt) opened up her house to the Bowden/Russell side! First of all she made the BEST homemade cafe rio salads ever! mmm!! Thanks to Laurie for the yummy pork and Kay for the delicious black beans. And to Jennie who made super good cake! This shower didn't have a theme, however we still got loads of great things to feel our empty house.

my mom, me and ammie..

im so glad they came!

Cute Molly and Alex

Thanks to all the girls who came and for

the wonderful gifts.

Angie made this cute card, she is the

best "scrapbooker" I know!

Opening presents...

THANKS AGAIN!!

Shower #3..... AMY'S HOUSE

My BFF Amy hosted my friends shower. We first met up at Olive Garden for some dinner, so good. I loved that we met up here with some of the girls who could make it! After OG we went back to Amy's and had treats that were tasty and so so cute. Amy had her house all decorated, I loved it! Thanks to all the girls for coming. We won't talk about the presents we got... oh who I love my friends!!

Thanks Aim. I really appreiciate such a fun shower!

I am so glad that we have stayed friends for so long.

love you.

Girls at OG! So fun!

A few of us waiting for the rest to arrive.

A few of the cutest decorations... I took other pictures of

the decor but can't seem to find them. Wendy made really really cute

labels for the carmel corn (if you look close you can kinda see it

behind the cupcakes) Amy hung some lingerie from a sting with clothes

pins it was so cute, what a great idea!

Some pics of some of the girls. I am

so glad that I have such great friends. Thanks to

everyone for coming it really meant a lot! Thanks

again to Amy for such a cute, fun shower!

WOW! We got so many wonderful things. I am so lucky to have such a great family in-laws and friends! Thanks to everyone that came and supported us in this special time, it means the world to us.. love you all!

goodbyes & birthdays

This weekend both Markus and Mariah left for school. My parents took Mariah to Wyoming and Markus drove him and a friend to Cali. It was pretty hard for all of us to say goodbye. Not to mention Jordan had to go to St. George for work followed by a boys trip to Vegas, I was super lonely. My mom just got Hudsen (her new dog, that used to be a friends) I was in charge of watching him. Well, don't worry he got out twice... first time I found him on 7800 S. Running down the road. Poor thing was scared to death, and I was bawling my eyes out! I thought he was gone forever, all I could imagine was finding him in the road hit by a car. I am so glad my parents and Jordan are back, I miss Markus and Mariah. Its crazy to think that I am the only one still around. I can't wait to see them both at my wedding!

Also... Happy Birthday to this cute boy! Markus is 20 today.. I can't believe it! Love him.

Sisters

My little sister, Mariah leaves for school in a couple weeks. :( Last night at our basketball game we decided to take a picture. It got me thinking of how much I really am going to miss her. Mariah is the best sister! She is beautiful, smart and really funny! She can always make me laugh! She tells funny jokes, she makes crazy faces and she is not afraid of being nuts in front of a crowd. She is always coming up with new dance moves and new cheers... She is so much FUN! Mariah is such a great basketball player, I think she gets better every week. She is going to Western Wyoming to play ball and I am so proud of her. love her.

RAGING WATERS!

On Sunday a few of our friends got together at Raging Waters. It was a blast!

me and Jordan

The Group!

This guy, Tyler I think... he was so funny! He decided he was going to go down "the big slide" in his speedo... Jordan was at the bottom taking pictures. The best part was when he got to the bottom and everyone started clapping!!

We debated going and I am so glad we did... it was so much fun and we met some great new friends!

More birthday celebrations!

Tonight we went to dinner with my family for Jordan and my Grandpa's birthday.

(they have the same birthday!)

We were going to go to Pagoda, but they are closed on Mondays... we were

all a little bummed, we love Pagoda! We ended up at Morelias, it was yummy!

Here we all are! We missed Markus!

My cute Grandma & Grandpa

My Dad & Grandpa, I guess my dad wasn't ready!

Jordan blowing out his "candle"

Grandpa doing the same!

Mariah & my mom, apparently our family can't take pictures!

I love spending time with the fam, its always a good time.

Jordan and I also went to F21 tonight, to find some outfits for our engagements!

I found 3 of the cutest shirts, too bad Jordan found nothin!

Happy Birthday Jordan!

Jordan's b-day was the 19th, he turned the big 26!

We started the celebrations Sunday, we went to Benihana. We love it there!

us at benihana, best pic of both of us!

our yummy food, after we ate it all!

On Monday we all took the day off to go boating.. we love boating!

Bob was nice enough to take us. Kevin, Tasha, Mariah & Taylor joined the fun!

Kay & Alex couldn't make it, they had girls camp... next time!

M&J

Mariah, Me & Tasha hanging out on the boat.

Poor Taylor riped his arm off... not really just a scab.

We had no bandaids so we resorted to all we had, pads!!

Here, I don't really think he was to excited about rapping his arm in pads.

hooked them all together and worked great!!

Me wake boarding. I didn't take any pics of anyone else wake boarding.

Mariah is a wuss and wouldn't wake board.

Mariah & Taylor tubing

Me & Jordan tubing.

Funniest hat ever... Mariah borrowed it from Taylor's grandpa.

What a fun day! We ended by all going to Chilies for dinner. No pictures.

I love boating and getting to spend time with family.

Happy happy birthday to Jordan!

I love him.