Estes Park Getaway

A couple of months ago my Dad called me (Melissa) up asking if he and my step-mom could come up for the kid's fall break in October and watch our kids for the weekend so we could have a few days away.  Uh...yeah!  So we scheduled leave along with a couple of our friends, rented a cabin in Estes Park, Colorado, and we were off!

Of course we had to visit Rocky Mountain National Park.  First of all, military members get in for free.  Second, we love the outdoors!  

There were elk everywhere.

We ended up hiking the Cub Lake trail, and it was gorgeous!

The beginning of our hike:

The really cool split rock that Joseph had a little too much fun climbing:

The men:

This was probably the highlight of our whole trip.  We come around a bend in the path to a giant bull moose!  It was literally on our trail.  We ended up taking the very long off-the-beaten path around it in order to avoid scaring it, but we were almost close enough to pet it!  It was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us.  This Arizona girl who's never seen an elk up close, let alone a moose, really enjoyed it.

Cub lake was quite beautiful.  You can see the fire damage from a few years ago:

Our buddy, Micah..."in the wild"  His wife, Denise, was feeling pretty sick (yay pregnancy), so she didn't come along on the hike.

The rest of the time we ate good food, played lots of games, went shopping, and just had fun together.  But of course we didn't get any pictures of it!  Just believe us when we say it was great!  I can't wait until next year!  Who want to babysit our kids next?

Our Adoption Home Study

We were understandably anxious to get our adoption application finished, so when Emily (our caseworker) called and said she wanted to come the next day, we were so excited!  Then we hung up the phone and started to panic.  We had heard many horror stories about caseworkers coming in with white gloves, checking the house outlet by outlet, making sure everything was perfect.  We weren't quite sure what to expect, so we spent that night organizing, cleaning, baby-proofing (despite already having two babies--we thought they would be a bit stricter than we were), and making sure all the safety features in our house worked.  (Special thanks to Denise for coming over last minute and watching the kids.  You rock!).

Emily came the next morning, and sat down on the couch.  She proceeded to then ask us a few dozen questions as follow ups to our application.  What we didn't realize is that the home study is actually more psychological than physical.  She asked us about our relationships with our family, with each other, with our children, parenting philosophies, religious and political beliefs, fears, coping mechanisms, etc..  It was actually quite in-depth, and definitely more personal than I was planning on getting that day, haha.  We then had individual interviews of about 1.5 hours each where they asked us more questions one on one.  My whole day was made when at the end of our home study Emily said "You know, I really might have you guys come to the agency and teach a class.  You're really good."  Yeah, our marriage rocks.  If you want to know why, just ask :)

The funny part was after all those interviews and questions, Emily literally walked around the house once, and then left.  She later told us that she puts very little emphasis on cleanliness and safety in the home when it comes to the adoption home study.  She can walk into a home and tell by the state it's in, and by the spirit of the home whether or not it is safe for a child.  We did all that organizing, and she didn't even care, haha.  At least it got me to unpack the last few boxes!

We also found out that our home study was much more complete than we had originally realized. We are now not only approved for infant adoption, but also for fostering children, and adopting foster children.  We've seriously considered adopting a sibling group out of foster care.  We'll see what comes of it.

In the meantime, thank you all for sharing our profile (nearyperfect.weebly.com)!  We've had 1000+ hits on our website.  It's been great!  Now comes the most difficult part for us--the waiting.

A Week Together in Paradise

After saving up for a couple of years, the stars aligned with babysitters and time off, and we decided to take a second honeymoon to the Western Caribbean! It was an incredible experience, and very much needed.  We loved having alone time for an entire week! We didn't actually take a ton of pictures (having too much fun I guess).  This is what we did actually get:

Our first day aboard the ship.  Loved the towel guy!

 Our first stop was in Cozumel, Mexico.  We went to Chankanab, a national park, where we went snorkeling and hiking.  We don't actually have any pictures of the park, but it was a great experience!  We highly suggest it.

This picture is before our hike in Belize.  We hiked about 1.5 miles up through the jungle, then tubed down a river inside a cave on the way down.  It was a ton of fun!

Formal Night!

This is where Joseph won a game show on board the ship.  It was Hasbro live, and he competed in "Simon Flash".  He ended up getting a Cranium and Yahtzee game out of it!

 This is Costa Maya, our last stop.  It was mostly shopping, but luckily I speak Spanish and really like to shop, so it worked out.

Our last night aboard the ship, the crew made about 500 animal towels and put them all over the ship.  It was really cool!

We ended up getting really close to these two couples who we had dinner with each night.  It's crazy how you can become good friends over just a few days!

Overall it was a fantastic experience, and one we would repeat in an instant.  

Why I love Joseph...

So I know I may get mocked as this post being too cheesy, but I really miss and love Joseph, so I've decided to dedicate an entire post to how amazing he is.

- He's just about the hottest man on the planet (I mean have you seen his muscles? He needs permits to carry those guns around school.)

- No one is better with chilren. Our kids will have the best father. He can play, rough around, and somehow has this gift that gets the kids to do whatever he wants without him having to get mad or tell them twice. I have lots to learn from him. Maybe it's just because Joseph is a little boy at heart (and I hope that never changes!)

- He's very good at sports: swimming, basketball, golf (well, mini-golf), ultimate frisbee, hiking (I count it as a sport), running, biking, just about anything.

- He loves music just as much as I do! I'm glad I found someone who will sit at the piano with me and sing at the top of our lungs no matter how silly or off-tune we are.

- His testimony constantly lifts my own. Joseph has a consistent communication with the Lord and is very close to the spirit. His contagious love for the gospel lifts me each day.

- He's clean. I know it may be silly, but I like a clean house. Joseph's clean. It all works out well.

- He pushes me to be my best. In the mornings when I don't want to get up and exercise or when I don't have the motivation to do things i really need to do, Joseph persuades and motivates me to do so.

- He speaks Arabic. How cool is that? I want to learn some day. He sounds so intelligent with his pghlemy words and vowel-less sounds.

- He is a very hard worker. Somehow he manages to put 48 hours worth of stuff in 24 days (though sometimes his sleep is sacrificed) He somehow seems to be able to do it all.

- He cares so much about family. He is willing to make any sacrifice or do anything for his family, Neary or Crandall.

- He has high standards. I love that Joseph has the same standards as me regarding movies, church, friends, raising children, everything. It just makes life so much easier.

- He isn't scared of anything. Whether is be a ninja assasin or stampeding elephant, he will face it head on.

- He is quite the gentleman. I haven't had to open my own door or pull out my chair in a while.

- He's cheesy, and I love it! I love all the "I love you's", the "You are the best thing that ever happened to me's", and the always wonderful "you are so hott's". The notes, facebook posts, texts, and super-cute phone messages never get old.

- He's logical. I've never been one to be emotional, but compared to Joseph, I'm pretty much a nut-case. If I ever get stressed, he shows me how to step back and look at the big picture. Problems don't seem to big after that.

- We have the same sense of humor: super-awesome puns, movie quoting, and obscure allusions are our thing. Awesome!

- Service is his thing. No friend, family member, or ward member can be in need without Joseph going to help them. He also serves me all the time. Random acts of service are his speciality (notes, cleaning, cookings, flowers, etc...) It makes life much easier and brighter.

Sorry this has turned in to a long post. I'll stop here (though I could go on longer, believe me). I love you honey and can't wait to see you in a month!

The Engagement

Yes, yes I know this happened a long time ago, but once again, it's for history's sake.

Sadly, there are not many pictures to accompany this post. We just didn't take any. But I wanted to tell the story in my own words (then maybe convince Joseph to get on here and tell his side).

Setting the Scene: We were spending Christmas in Paradise, Utah (Joseph's house). The date: Christmas Eve

I had woken up that morning to two or three dozen love dotes written around my bedroom. They were really sweet (and personal, so you just have to take my word that they were cute notes). Right in the middle was a large jar of tostitos nacho dip, a huge favorite of Joseph and me, but especially me. I didn't know it, but Joseph was determined to make this the best day ever. Whatever I wanted to do, he was game: whichever movie, whichever game. It was a Melissa day! (everyone needs one of those now and again).

That night: Joseph had told me that going snowshoeing was a tradition of his on Christmas Eve (and what was I to do but believe him?). Secretly in my head I was hoping we weren't going showshoeing. It doesn't entirely seem like my type of fun, but I can't knock what I haven't tried. We get all our gear and head out to the mountains. I come out from behind a hill and see a long path lined with white and purple lights leading to a beautiful fire. That's when I knew we weren't showshoeing. Joseph gets out some steaming cups of hot cocoa and the biggest bouquet of flowers I have ever seen! Then Joseph, who happens to be a fabulous poet and writer, recites a very cute and romantic poem he had written where in the end he asks me to marry him. I was crying to hard, I almost couldn't say yes (it took a few tries).

Here is the beautiful bouquet of flowers taken by my not-so-professional camera phone. I'm not sure how to rotate the image, so you'll just have to rotate your head.

And to top it off, here are some of our engagment pictures taken by our good neighbor, Stacey Heymeyer!

The only pictures we took of our honeymoon...

We both are very forgetful people and only documented one small part of the few days after our wedding. We stayed in the most AMAZING hotel in phoenix, with a kitchen, dining room, huge bedroom, a bathroom with the biggest tub I've ever seen in my life, and lots and lots of free food. We did lots like laser tag, went out to eat, swimming, movies, etc.. but the only pictures we took were of Golfland.


I know this picture is really funny of me, but it was the only one of us together.


Now we played a little game there...

Tools: a bag of skittles

Rules: assign a different rule to each color. At the beginning of each turn, have the player choose a color. He or she then has to put in the given position (on one leg, backwards, with their eyes closed, etc...) It ended up making for a rather high-scoring golf game, but it was fun!

Our Wedding!

I figured I would record this for generation's sake and for any curious friends who wanted to know what our wedding was like! Prepare to be barraged by pictures (thanks to Stacey Kay Photography).

Here's my family looking ever cute as always. Joseph's been readily except by my siblings, and my parents adore him (wahoo!)

And here is Joseph's family. I'm so excited to be a Neary, too!

The fabulous bridesmaids and groomsmen. They were so helpful during the reception and saved our behinds a few times (thank you!). I guess I can forgive them for the mess they made out of our car.

Grandma Webb is incredibly talented! She made this beautiful quilt for us. It has 2400 pieces, used 1800 yards of thread, and took threeish weeks working all day for her to finish it. It's AMAZING!

This is kind of a rough picture since it's a picture of us getting our picture taken, but my Grandma and Grandpa Crandall were able to fly in from their mission in England for the wedding! They got special permission from the area president to see their oldest grandchild marry the the most amazing man in the world.

I just really, really like this picture. Brianne was determined to get that bonquet, and as you can see, she's got skill.

Here's the rest of the reception: the cake ( thank you Melody Larsen!), the decorations (once again, Melody), the rings, the bouquet, and of course, my family (being crazy and awesome!)

And so the pictures aren't unbalanced by lots of Crandall's, here are the fabulous Neary's having fun and being goofy. I love it!

Once I get more pictures, I'll have to update this post, but this is what I have for now!

If you're really into all these pictures go here to see a slideshow of our wedding.