Sanctuary

Stephen: We delayed our first anniversary celebration to last weekend so we could stay at a Bed and Breakfast by Zion Canyon. I don’t regret that choice. The room was very nice (completely adorable, he means) and the breakfast was delicious (and beautiful) – there was even a jacuzzi tub to relax in after a strenuous day of hiking. The beauty of the canyon made the trip perfect. We covered quite a bit of ground: Angel’s Landing, Hidden Canyon, the river walk, Weeping Rock, Emerald Pools, and even a long hike in the Kolob Canyons section of the park.

Alisha: Our favorite hike was definitely Angels Landing. It began with a turkey sighting. Poor guy – he was all puffed up trying to catch the attention of a nearby female and she completely ignored him, didn’t even acknowledge his existence. We were expecting the hike to be rigorous so, in the end it wasn’t that bad. We were pretty surprised when we got to the top and we were already there.  The views were amazingly fantastic – the pictures don’t even begin to catch the majesty of it all. We didn’t even die or anything although the chipmunks did try to rid us of our food supplies. It started to rain while we were at the top. That made me a little freaked out; a five foot wide trail of slippery, wet sandstone and cliffs on either side is no joke.

Stephen: After hiking and attempting some artsy photos, only one or two of which turned out decently, we tried to find a picnic area to eat at. For a little bit we were scared we’d have to set up in the backyard of the bed and breakfast. Fortunately, we found a picnic table and enjoyed our camp food: sloppy joes, carrots, and ginger beer. The whole time we watched dark clouds mass on the horizon and prayed it didn’t rain on us again. Luckily, it didn’t. It felt a little funny, eating camp food then going and sleeping in a super soft pink bed, but I’ll admit I didn’t mind it all that much.

Wildlife sightings: 3 turkeys, 2 deer, millions of chipmunks and squirrels, lots of lizards and a clan of mating water bugs

Our First Year: Fall

My parents came up for some reason - I don't remember why. We went to a football game. BYU lost but it was still fun.

I don't think I'd ever carved a pumpkin this elaborate: a Welsh dragon. We decided afterwards that it was in honor of Stephen's Welsh heritage. There's also the Chinese character for dragon carved into the other side of the pumpkin.

Thanksgiving in California. I would have liked to post a picture that involved other people and us doing something cool. Apparently Stephen and I were too involved doing cool things to take pictures while doing them.

 Mary's birthday! Glad we could be there to celebrate!

 Our apartment decorated for Christmas. We were quite excited :)

Merry Christmas! Sporting really cute pajamas courtesy of Peggy.



Happy Mothers Day (Alisha's bit)

I ran into some old conference notes the other day and noticed some stars calling attention to a message from April 2010:

"Please look to your faithful mothers for a pattern to follow. Model yourselves after them, not after celebrities whose standards are not the Lord’s standards and whose values may not reflect an eternal perspective. Look to your mother. Learn from her strengths, her courage, and her faithfulness. Listen to her. She may not be a whiz at texting; she may not even have a Facebook page. But when it comes to matters of the heart and the things of the Lord, she has a wealth of knowledge. As you approach the time for marriage and young motherhood, she will be your greatest source of wisdom. No other person on earth loves you in the same way or is willing to sacrifice as much to encourage you and help you find happiness—in this life and forever."                     Elder Russell M Ballard

The other day, I made the mistake of telling my mom she was the 'coolest mom ever.' Based on the opinions of my younger siblings, 'coolest' is apparently not the correct word. That's ok. Cool is too general anyway. I love Elder Ballard's description of mothers because I think it fits mine so perfectly: my mom is truly courageous, faithful, sacrificing, and wise. She is the one I want to talk to when I'm troubled or excited because I know she will have wisdom and understanding to offer. Especially as I've been married and become that much closer to having children (still not too close -- don't get excited) I know I will be desperately in need of her guidance and I'm so grateful that it will be there!

Happy Mothers Day Mom! I love you so much!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to our mom's! We hope you have a wonderful Mother's Day, even though we're not there to help celebrate. Today in Sacrament, since our ward has a Primary that consists of 2, the men sang "I often go walking"

I often go walking in meadows of clover,
And I gather armfuls of blossoms of blue.
I gather the blossoms the whole meadow over;
Dear mother, all flowers remind me of you.

O mother, I give you my love with each flower
To give forth sweet fragrance a whole lifetime through;
For if I love blossoms and meadows and walking,
I learn how to love them, dear mother, from you.

When I think of the things I love - learning, reading, swimming and more - I know I learned to love them from my mother. Thanks Mom for teaching me how and what to love!

Graduation





After four years of fun and frolic and slaving away for hours in the Clyde building, graduating felt a little strange, a little unreal. It's fun to tell yourself there will never be another finals week but its much harder to believe it.

 Finals Week (notice the crazed look in our eyes)



   
     Of course, for me the unreal feeling may stem from the fact that I'm not officially done. I have to take a class this Spring so that I can keep my on-campus job. I walked on Friday and was back in class on Tuesday morning at 8am learning Chinese. (I couldn't possible have just taken racquetball or something)
    For Stephen, the anticlimatic-ness of it all probably comes from the fact that his education is not over. Still many more finals weeks to come.
    Still, it was so nice to have parents and family and friends gathered around us for a few days. Thanks to everyone who supported us!

    We're excited to move on with our lives come August. We're sad to leave the things that we love about Provo: the mountains, BYU, good rock climbing, friends. We're saddest to leave the family that is near by. But we've still got the whole summer ahead of us and, by golly, we plan to enjoy it.

Our First Year: Summer

Stephen posted a little about our first year together and I just wanted to add some pictures to his post. Here's somewhat of a representation of our first summer. Hopefully, the rest of the seasons with follow :)

Our wedding, obviously

Honeymoon in Yosemite

Disneyland with Mom and Dad Pulsipher

Trip to San Diego

First camping trip as a married couple

Visit with Dan, Genni, and kids

Richland, WA

About Time...

I think it's about time Alisha and I make this blog live. So welcome to the blog of Stalisha! It's been a long time coming. I know what you're thinking. Stalisha? Not as cute and nice as the names of the blogs most of you have, but it means a lot to Alisha and me. It unites us, you know? And it sounds cool. It also helps remind me of my roommates, who granted us the name. Whatever the reason, that's the name. Until we change it.

We've been married a year and no blog. Shame on us. Since I'll be decidedly less busy than Alisha, I'll probably take charge of this for the summer. We'll see how consistent we actually are.

Perhaps I should begin with a summary of our first year of marriage.

It all began on May 8 of last year in Houston, Texas. A few years before, after driving Dave and his family there, I felt a strange beckoning from the state. I felt that I would end up there. I had no idea it would actually happen. But happen it did. I found myself standing on the steps of the Houston Temple with my wife, Alisha, standing at my side. I couldn't have stopped smiling if I wanted to. There was so much to smile for!

I mean, for a little more than a year I had been trying not to kiss Alisha too much and now everyone was asking us to kiss. More than that, for a little bit longer I had been doing my best to spend every possible moment with Alisha. Now we would be together forever. The night before had been my last night going to a separate home (or hotel) than Alisha, the last day when ties to others were stronger than ties to her.

And now we're sealed. We started out our marriage in Houston, then went to Yosemite and Monterrey. Beautiful places that we would love to return to and spend more time in. Then a few months in LA, and back to Provo, our meeting place. A couple last semesters of college, and then graduation. It's all gone by fast. In a few more months we're going back to Texas.

During this semester, as I contemplated which law school to attend, BYU tempted me. It was very possible I could get through all 3 years with no debt. Not bad at a school that's ranked pretty high. At one point I made up my mind to go to BYU. I spent those couple of days confused, saddened, worried; a whole slew of emotions boggled my mind. But that beckoning from Texas returned. So I settled again on UT. Peace. That's all there was. A little sadness. BYU is a great school with a lot of good people, but it's not for me. The peace convinced me.

And so, we're off to Austin in August. But for the next few months, we'll share our adventures here in Utah.