Vanuatu...The Happiest Place and one of the Happiest Times of my Life!

So today I went to school this morning, a tad tired and not too excited to be there. To be honest it was a pretty typical morning at school, but in my Doctrine and Covenants class we were talking about the time the blacks were given the opportunity to hold the priesthood. To someone like me, at least before my mission this didn't mean much to me or I guess I shouldn't say that but I should say I didn't think much about it! Every Worthy male in my lifetime had the priesthood so I didn't think too much about what race they were every man that was worthy to hold it I though deserved to hold it. But as I served my mission and as it was talked about today, the spirit was especially strong about the importance of blacks or every worthy male receiving the priesthood.

A branch president in front of the church building! This branch was in the absolute middle of no where, we were literally the only truck that traveled to this place! 

I served amongst some of the most faithful members of the church ever I will never them, they mean sooo much to me and the growth in my life! I can't imagine going there and them not be able to hold the priesthood. I can say that I had many opportunities in my mission to use my priesthood for blessings, baptisms, leading sacrament, etc...but I served with missionaries or people that were an example to me and how to use the priesthood. They walked a couple of hours to and from church, they asked me if they weren't worthy to bless the sacrament because someone got food poisoning from a fish they caught, they stopped priesthood to go and push someone's car for them, they had nothing yet they always gave, and they wanted to help or do whatever they could. I would give anything to go back and visit them and let them know I still think about and pray for them but more importantly I want to thank them for what they made me into.

Where Priesthood was held on Sunday's, fancy huh?

Two of my favorite people and two Great missionaries! Elder Sovuai and Elder Vano!

These are some of the greatest people out there, I don't care what other people have to say! They are happy with nothing and are nothing but happy! I love and miss them! 

For Brittany and mine update lately it goes as follows, Brittany is stressed with school, I am stressed trying to keep her happy, and we are both really looking forward to March Madness :)

Quote of the day: " Expect great things from God, attempt great things for Him."

Falling Behind...

I know falling behind in my blog isn't important so you can ignore that but here is some things that happened last month that I never posted about.

Valentines Day! so you might be asking yourself, wait I think Quinn did post about Valentines Day, before it happened, right? Wasn't that him? In all actuality all of you probably have no idea whether or not I posted on V-day but not big deal I am posting now haha. The saturday before Brittany and I went to Gnomeo and Juliet during the matinee so it wouldnt be too expensive but nice surprise, apparently its 3D...oops didn't know that! Great movie though, who doesn't like Gnomes? and in 3D? ok the 3D part only made us where the uncomfortable glasses but a good funny movie!! Then we went to dinner somewhere haha, I can't recall where we went its been so long but it was good and for sure romantic!

Then Monday the real Valentines day, yes, I did do a little something on V-day even after a failure before V-day and a successful little movie and dinner date before! I just got Brittany some flowers, that she already found out about, but no surprise really anyways, if you don't get flowers on V-day I apologize and I apologize in advance to Brittany in the years to come that she doesn't get flowers haha. But besides the flowers I got the classic heart shaped box of chocolates, a little decoration thing, a clock that said Families are Forever, and I wrote her something. To explain this something I need to go in reverse and explain where it originated from.

Sooo...We got married on December 18th, so to count down or up to 18 in the start of December for each day I gave Brittany a little present and note that said 18 reasons why I want to marry you...so on this V-day I got her 18 roses and wrote a little "something" that was the 18 reasons why I love being married to you! So I hope even after every little rude comment I say, little thing I forget, or whatever else us Husbands just do that is wrong, I hope she at least knows 36 things that made me want to marry her and why I love being married to her haha..that should help me out somewhere! haha I know you are thinking so did I do those things to help me, NO I just want Brittany to know that even if I am not always the best at showing it or telling her, I do absolutely love being married to her. and I did choose to marry her because I wanted to.

A completely different story...we had the opportunity to go to the Allisons cabin with Wes(Brittanys dad or my pops in law), Morgan her sister or my sister in law and one of Morgans friends...oh and Brittany would hate me for forever if I didn't mention Bella our fav. dog! We thought we would have a blast in the snow and hanging out with fam...and guess what we did, we had a blast!! Yes, wes forgot keys to snowmobiles so we didn't get out much but we got to stay in and play CLUE FX that I did not win ever.. we played in the snow or the girls did, including Bella, while Wes and I shoveled the driveway! Fun Times!

Last little adventure...Sacremento! First Timers...we went for Jesse and we took my car, bought cables(the crappy version of chains), and were ready for the snow storm over the pass! We made it after about 13 hours and went straight to bed. Saturday was filled with fun, The Jimmers beat SDSU, we went to Old Town, got chocolate, stale taffy, and just got to hang out with Family....nothing better! Then dinner at the Andres..a GREAT BBQ..not Brittany-Baker-Quinn but an actual bbq and hmm hmm Good... Sunday was my favorite part, Jesse's Baby blessing, what a special moment in my life to be a part of the blessing for my first nephew and what a little, not actually that little cutie! An amazing spirit, and beautiful blessing as we got to hold Jesse in our arms and just look at his baby eyes look up at us!! After church it was time to go and say goodbye to family again to go back to Provo where we only  have Amanda and Matt as the last bit of immediate family left and they are leaving us soon too...Hurry up Kenzie we need siblings around!

Little update....we seem to be falling behind in life and I thought we were so far ahead...Things just keep piling up on us but we love going through all of it together, even though we only get to really see each other on the weekends...Brittany is too busy with school and work to be around with me. I try to be the good stay at home husband that I am though haha wink wink! Cleaning, dishes, frozen dinners, I am the king at my job, and once a month a blog update haha..oh I lost city league championships recently in Overtime...but intramural play-offs are starting up so I have a chance to redeem myself..Also I recently stated Brittany is the Best Baker but guess what twice in the last four days I have proven that I am a pretty good baker myself, making chocolate chip cookies and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies!! Yummy.. want to see pics of V-day, cabin, or sac town just go to Facebook! Sorry!

I'm Married to the BEST BAKER!!

Yummy!!! So the other day we finally got Brittany's favorite wedding gift, our Yellow Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer...she absolutely loves it. Before we got it, it was talked about a lot, how much she desired to have it. I didn't realize it until we made the first batch of cookies with it but I desired it even more haha.. Wow she is the Best Baker EVER...I will let you try to figure out if I just mean Baker because she makes good cookies or I mean her new family name! I love her though...Once we load the pictures from V-day and Presidents Day weekend I will have a new post with some pics but this is it for now me claiming to be married to the Best Baker!

Blogging is an eye opener..

My eyes have been opened!

Wow...blogging is really hard. Or if it I put in better terms it really opens your eyes to how boring your life is.

This car accident reminds me of my blogging experience. So this was probably just a month or two before I left on my mission and the story goes as follows. A little background, Mitch and Riley Roylance were out working all night so Traes and I being the good friends that we are thought we would go  take them food along with our out of town friends lindsey and kim(they were in there own car). But it was about my curfew, so we got mcdonalds then on our way to Roylances I went home and checked in for the night, told my mom I was home and off to bed. Not true, I was going to take Mitch and Riley food then I was going to come back home...so we went out there met up with them in the fields off the gravel road by Mitch's house..then we were on our way back home. The girls took off ahead of us to go back to warden. As Traes and I got in the car something told me not to do anything stupid, especially speed. so guess what I did...I went about 85 to catch up to the girls and try to pass them to look like a cool guy. They wouldn't let me pass on the left so I tried the right side...REMEMBER we are on a gravel road and going a good 70 mph then the went back to the right so I tried off the road on the right, NOT smart..

Anyways one thing led to another and moments later Traes and I rolled probably 3 or 4 times, finishing on the top of the car, I surprisingly calm asked Traes, are you ok? He responded with a few choice words and Ya but I spilt my powerade. Haha after wrecking we were both extremely calm, it was weird. We then had to crawl out the driver's side window, started thinking of what to do, and what our story would be...but as this happened the girls came back scared out of their minds wondering what had happened...at this point I realized all our food went everywhere, found some chicken nuggets I ordered tried to eat them but nope it was too late they were all dirty since we ended up in the corn field. I called Riley to immediately apologize about ruining his dad's corn and explaining what had happened haha..he was like who cares about the corn are you ok? Yes, minus the few scrapes on my back and the glass in my hands(that one piece of glass stayed with me for  a few months and i finally pulled it out while sitting confused in Vanuatu listening what sounded to me as jibberish(just a side note)). Now was the revealing the secret to mom and dad, oh by this point I had already told Jordan haha..but I called my mom and told her what happened(kind of) I told her we almost hit a deer or coyote but dodged it causing us to wreck and she said no you didnt you are downstairs in bed..I said I wish I was but nope I got in a wreck.She said talk to your dad...so my dad thinking we just kind of turned the car slightly on its side in a ditch said roll it over and drive it home...haha I think he was a little sleepy!

Traes and I were very lucky neither of us were hurt!! We both have served faithful two year missions and now I am blogging..haha so how that all relates to my blogging experience...I think something told me not to blog or not do something stupid, but guess what? I didn't listen again, I am blogging...it all happened so fast. I thought I could pass the girls, my mom, danielle, amanda, and all the other blogging wives out there. I suddenly realized I couldn't and wrecked!! Blogging is difficult, you have to be a good writer, have to have an interesting life, take pictures, have to read other blogs, comment on them, blah blah blog!! it's not easy..Good job you consistent bloggers and even you not so consistent bloggers. My eyes are now open and my chicken nuggets are dirty and no longer edible and all I can do is make up some story like I tried to dodge a deer, right?

Now the latest in the life of the soon to be only Reid Baker...Bakers in Utah...Today I tried to surprise but trick Brittany at the same time. So I already ordered flowers to be delivered on Valentines day with other things I was going to do to surprise but today I called her and planned to take her out to dinner so we could celebrate V-day early, just to throw her off my trail really. I brought home a card and her favorite, chocolate covered cinnamon bears. She was not too excited and kept saying its not Valentines day and I said but we are celebrating it early don't worry. She wasn't too excited but this was just so my surprise on V-day would be that much better..but guess what she basically figured it out, at least she did something so I had to tell her about the Flowers so I only have one thing left to surprise her with, lets hope it is as good as I think it is. Haha The things we try to do for love. I am no romantic but I like to try to do weird stuff, to surprise with sweet stuff. It worked to propose and I thought it would work this time. We will keep you posted...hopefully I don't have to make up another deer story to my blogging friends because my surprise turns into another wreck, but we will let you know. Love ya'll.

Double Thumbs Up!

Isn't this picture just so awesome? haha This is picture is not related to what I want to say at all but I just love it, in Vanuatu on my mission I had the opportunity to drive a 15 passenger van which wasn't so good off-road, especially in mud. This is us outside our house after we spent a good half hour or so pushing our van out of the mud. but I needed things like this to learn lessons in life...or to grow closer to companions in the fun struggles of the days. I am all about the double thumbs up! and I am double thumbs up today!

Today I found out I received financial aid for last semester and this semester, so lots of money!! What a happy day it was with just that..we really needed that and we are so happy that we have been doing the right things like reading scriptures, praying, and just trying to live right to receive such blessings. but that was just one thumbs up, I gave the double thumbs up and high fived Brittany when we found out she got hired for a part time job, sweet huh? She only has one class so she has a few days free a week and now she will be working at a spider spray company monday, wednesday, and friday from 9 to 5..Life is being real nice to us right now. So we celebrated. Olive Garden(our favorite) but don't worry we used a gift card from my mom, so it was our V-day dinner early ;) then homemade oreos, probably not as good as Susan Pyle's but we got to make them together and enjoy the experience, right?? Two Thumbs up...we have been nothing but smiles and now we can give thumbs up...are you guys finding things to smile and give thumbs up about? I sure hope so...we can give a thumbs up to mother baker for blogging again, yay!

Nothin but SMILES!!

Today at school I got a text look at my facebook from my mom so I went to find to be part of our wedding video. Wow, Brittany and I never stop smiling and while watching it I probably looked like quite the weirdo as I looked at my phone and would just smile uncontrollably. Then I made sure Brittany watched it to and this is the text she sent me.."I just watched the video it's cute...I couldn't stop smiling, people in the hallway are probably laughing at me cause im smiling at my phone."so Kacey and John we approve so far..haha it's fun to watch something like that. I am glad we started our marriage with only smiles because that is everyday feels, when we are together at least, all we do is SMILE. We really are in love and it has been lots of fun figuring each other out and just getting weirder and happier together. Brittany always says to me your family is probably saying that I have made you so weird and I said no trust me my family knows I am weird but you have made me so happy and so much more enjoyable. Life is good, we have no money, we have very little to do outside of schoolwork, but all we can do is SMILE.

Funny Random story: so we had an intramural basketball game last night, our team is Mike Tucker, Chris King, Brad Earl, Jordan Baker, and Matt Ekman, all Moses Lake guys and Matt...but anyways we were without Jordan, our best defender and best offensive player so we struggled to score and defend for a bit but we ended up winning by 5. I got a technical because right before half mike drove and they called for a charge and the ref was explaining to me the call and I said oh thanks for explaining the bad call and he said what? so I just kindly repeated myself and got called for a tech. but the funny part was after the game this bigger(heavier) guy was wearing a mt. spokane jersey so we told him we were from Moses Lake and he talked to mike and was like were you number 32 and he was so like you are awesome. He was mentally challenged so we were being nice to him, saying nice to meet you then on the way out he was like 13(me) you are my man, you are the man...then he came high fived me, and jumped on my back haha...so I gave him a piggy back ride for about 10 steps...random but funny...readiny this it was probably a had to be there moment. As I said my life isn't so interesting but I find my things to Smile about..just my little reminder to you all, try to smile it really keeps you happy!

After Wedding/Honeymoon...

Our hotel room at Vegas at the Encore!(Thanks De La)..It was a beautiful and large room and that was our attempt to have a romantic dinner, we had subway..yummy! At least we had candles and heart cups right(Thanks Amanda and Matt). 

Hawaii-Oahu

First Stop-"Dole Plantation" 

What an adventure that was, apparently we came at a bad time though because most of the pineapples growing were very small so not super cool to look at. We did hop on the pineapple express for a lovely tour of the thousands of pineapples, but our favorite was the samples of pineapple and the ice cream! We only got one ice cream between the two of us and we might regret that for the rest of our lives, it was so amazingly delicious. 

 The beach behind our hotel in a little lagoon type of thing. It was beautiful hard to tell in this picture but to be honest I don't even remember getting a picture in the day because we were always out and about having too much fun.

Hanauma Bay-A little snorkeling! My first time ever so I had lots of fun. The first picture on the left was taken while waiting to watch the most awesome educational video ever, not really! The picture was taken by our newly found friends from Miami and so of course we talked a little bit about the Big Three...then us in our ever so cute snorkeling gear, we saw tons of fish and lots of big whales aka bigger people swimming! no offense to bigger people...We had fun, werent there too long because the water was freezing and Brittany scraped her knee on some coral...but we were there long enough to see tourists from Japan, a man in a big white speedo that looked like a diaper taking a video of his girlfriend in her swimsuit thong bikini thingy just walking down the beach and every person that saw them was just like us, asking to ourselves, "is this really happening?"

Matsumoto's at North Shore-The World's Best Shaved Ice!! Its in a ghetto grocery store so you know that is factual!

 The Polynesian Culture Center or as Brenda would say the The Polynesianal Center...It was a blast! This was my favorite thing in Hawaii..It was just like being back out on the mission with all the huts and half naked people. Oh I miss Vanuatu! No but we got to dance at the Fiji show because we were on our honeymoon and wow were we bad and embarrassed but ask Brittany next time you see her and she will gladly repeat her new fijian moves for you!

 Pearl Harbor was probably Brittany's favorite part of the trip! So if you ever look at all of our honeymoon pics, I just took pictures of her this day, because I was rather bored. There wasn't much to look at, though it is sad to think how many people died so quickly.

Christmas in Hawaii!!!!!!!!!!! We loved it, we woke up early Christmas morning and went whale watching with the Allisons, I apparently cursed us because Brittany mentioned I wanted to see a turtle and we saw a turtle so I was happy but then we didn't see any whales...OOPS! Not a good way to start out as a bro or son in law haha.. It was lots of fun though, we saw my turtle, we saw two different kinds of dolphins, and even got to snorkel with some of the dolphins. No touching though :( Then everyone took a nap but me because I enjoyed watching LeBron dominate the lakers, then we went and visited my good friends Mr. and Mrs. Clause, apparently Hawaii is where they go when they are done with all the present delivering on Christmas eve/morning of Christmas!

We loved our honeymoon and we did lots as you can tell and this isn't the half of it. We went to some fun restaurants to eat, we went shopping in malls that led to hours of walking around in search of who knows what, but we did leave with some see's candy.yummy it took us over an hour to find but it was worth it! Then we shopped in the outside markets, we missed our flight because we couldnt find the car rental place even though we knew exactly where it was. Let me explain...so our car rental place was right next to the freeway but away from the airport and all the other car rental places. so we put it in our iphone to find where it was and it said take the onramp to the freeway and it will  be on your right, so we did that and guess what? The onramp surprisingly took us ON the freeway and yes the car rental place was on our right but not on the freeway but on the road parallel to it. so we took the next exit, turned around, and tried again. This time we found another onramp thinking ok it must be on this one, but nope same song second verse. so Brittany said lets just call them and ask them and I being the MAN said no we have plenty of time and we will find it. Guess what as we went for our third attempt we saw the Thrifty shuttle so we thought we would just follow them back..one problem, they were empty so they weren't going back but in our attempt to follow them back we got lost and got lucky and found thrifty. so we returned our car hopped on the shuttle with about 45 minutes left before our flight. The next problem was the only other couple on the shuttle was going to the other side of the airport and the driver took them there first, took forever, and we missed check in by about 4 or 5 minutes. So we called to get a new flight because the lady at the airport was like I can't book a new flight for you but there is open seats on the next flight. so we called and the lady on the phone said there was no open seats and the lady was lying and I kept talking to the two ladies back and forth being the middle man but nope we didnt get a flight until the next day and then we had to stay a night in portland and then fly back to vegas. To make a long story short, the Allisons rescued us, we spent an extra day in Hawaii, the Ekmans rescued us in Portland, and then we finally got back to Vegas!!!! We had fun and weren't took excited about going back to school but eventually did...next post I will try to catch you up with more of moving in and how things are now and our open house in moses lake....but for now...I need to do homework and study for two tests!! Yay..