May 3rd 2013, this day shall go down in history as the
happiest day of my entire life, well until September 14th, but we will get to
that later. I was a part of the very FIRST graduating class at Dixie
State University, I’m practically famous really. I graduated with my
Dental Hygiene Degree. Hallelujah! It truly was a Christmas Miracle! I've never
been more stressed out or so extremely thrilled the 2 years I spent in that
program. There are still days that I miss being in school, miss St. George,
miss all of the amazing lifelong friends I made while I was there, miss playing
pranks on my teachers and begging them to play Justin Bieber's Christmas album
during every clinic, miss hiding in random cupboards and fridges during clinic
rotation, miss crying my heart out and losing all composure cause I
was convinced that I was going to fail out of clinic. I made it through
the dental hygiene program alive, barely. Would I do it all over again? Ehh, maybe perhaps. But you would have to pay me a LOT, and I mean a LOT of money and throw in a weekly therapy sesh for free. I absolutely will for sure always cherish all the great and not so great
memories made there.
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Senior Pics by Sky Pie.
Very last day of clinic.
Finishing up my Boards Patient, Maritza
She really is the Bee's Knees
Pinning Ceremony w/ Grandpa + Grandma Harding
Best Friends
Pinned RDH!!
Most of our class
Kylie, me, Lloyd and Michelle
Some of my faves
Kam + Case
I owe all of my sanity to this girl
Best Moms Ever
Casey Wininger RDH
Before our McAuthur's Video
The weekend of graduation was bitter sweet. I
was beyond grateful and excited that I was graduated and moving on to bigger
and better things but I wasn't so excited that Kamaron was moving also....to
Colorado for the whole summer. Kam is one of those "Summer
Sales" guys. He sells security alarms in the summers so he doesn't
have to work during the school year. We had already been doing the long
distance thing for 8 months and now we were going to be really, really far
away. Too far to go visit on the weekends. It sucked, it sucked
real bad. It was a lonely summer and it couldn't go by fast enough. I finally
landed me a hygiene job at the end of May in Mapleton after handing out over 70+
resumes and moved in with Kam's family. Kam flew back for his brother's
high school graduation at the end of May and that's when we decided that we
couldn't live without each other anymore. Absence really does make the
heart grow fonder. After months of threatening to propose to Kam if he wouldn't he told me he was ready to go ring shopping. I was so stoked and nervous all at the same time, this was the closest to marriage I had ever been. I knew I wanted a ring that was unique and not like every
other girls' ring. We went to several ring shops, but none of them felt right
and I wasn't absolutely in love with anything they had to offer. Kam
suggested we go check out a ring shop across from the BYU creamery that quite a
few of his buddies had gone to. We hit the jackpot, big time. Rene
was amazing to work with and he is a Springville native, comes in handy when
you need the good ole' Springville discount. I told Rene what I wanted
and showed him some pictures and he worked his magic.
My Summer Salesman - CO
UVU for Karson's Graduation
Seminary Graduation w/ Bishop Olsen
The Kester Klan
Karson's Graduation
Playing at Grandma's in Mapleton
Morg + Clanc + Case + Kam
Wheelin' up Springville Canyon
Fast forward to the end of June, I flew out to New
Mexico to see Kam for the weekend. I was positive I would be coming back
with a ring on my left hand, errr wrong. Kam sure does like to keep me on my
toes. We had already set a date with our photographer to take our engagement
and bridal pictures a few weeks after I returned back to Utah. I kept
joking with Kam that we would have to wear his parent's rings for our pictures
because I still didn't have one. July 12th Kam flew to Utah for our
engagement/bridal session. I picked him up at the airport just hours
before we were to meet up with our photographer. The whole day was super
cloudy and rainy and just plain terrible. Kam was starving when he got off the
plane, SURPRISE! Not, he is always hungry. He told me he wanted to go to
this restaurant in SLC called Tucanos. I had heard about this place but
hadn’t ever been. Kam told me to drive and he would navigate us to it.
We drove for what felt like 2 hours. I swear we kept driving in
circles. After missing exit after exit and making several u-turns we were
finally there, supposedly. We approached a gate that read, "This Is
The Place Heritage Park." I had never heard of it. We walked
around and I felt like Kam had totally gotten us completely lost. We
walked over to "This Is The Place" monument and by now my stomach was
eating itself. I didn't care to look at statues and monuments, I just
wanted some grub. We turned around and a picnic magically appeared.
We walked over to it and there was a blanket with a basket and flowers.
Kam picked up the bouquet and got on one knee. I don't even
remember what he said but I bet it was pretty profound and sweet cause I just
remember saying, "YES!" and the rest is all a blur. My ring was
inside one of the flowers. It was the first time I had seen my ring in
real life since we had designed it. It was better than I could ever
imagine. The basket was filled with chocolate covered strawberries and
raspberries. There was fruit and lemonade too. It had been storming
the whole day up until the moment that Kam proposed and then the clouds parted
and the Heavens were opened and the sun came out and made everything all
better. Not coincidence I’m sure. I may or may not have been sweating it
was so hot. I thought for sure that we would have to reschedule our
session with our photographer because of the crappy weather but everything ended up turning out better than I
had hoped. We headed to Red Robin after for some food and then up to
Logan for our photo shoot.
"This Is The Place" we got engaged
Photo credit: Tami hiding behind a rock
Kamaron came back
from selling in August, right before school started. It was well over due. 11
days before he came home he was attacked by a dog while walking down the
street. My mama bear instincts kicked in when I got the phone call and I was
ready to go take care of that dog myself. September 7th I received
my endowments in the Manti Temple. I had to be to the temple an hour and a half
before our session so my mom and me drove together. When we made it to Nephi canyon the weather
took a turn for the worst. I have never
seen so much rain and flooding in my entire life. This must have been what Noah
felt like when he was instructed to build an arc. We needed one. I called Kam before I lost service in the
canyon and told him to leave Springville now cause the weather was out of
control. I ended up being almost 30
minutes late to the temple. I learned
something that day, Satan is real. I
knew Satan was doing everything in his power to ruin this day and get me to not
do what I know in my heart is so right.
I was upset and disappointed in myself that I was allowing him to
control my thoughts and feelings and ruin what should have been a perfect
day. Our session time came and went and
still no sign of Kamaron. 30 minutes
went by, 1 hour went by, 1 ½ hours went by and finally Kamaron and his dad
showed up. They had been redirected when
they got to Nephi canyon and had to go all the way around through Scipio. The temple workers were very helpful and
understanding and even though we were 2 hours past our session, they made
everything perfect again. I can’t
really remember much about anything that took place in the temple that
day. But I remember how I felt, it felt right and it felt good. And it made me emotional, but what’s
new? I remember how proud Kamaron was of
me and the unexplainable feeling of sitting in the Celestial room with my very best
friend and soon to be husband.
Everything was right again and no matter the difficulties we experienced
getting to the temple that day, we were there and we didn’t let anything get in
our way. We were one step closer to
being together for time and all eternity and that’s all that mattered at that
moment.
My two favorite people in the whole wide world
1 week away from becoming Mrs. Casey Kester
After my endowment session in Manti
7 days later we sealed the deal,
f-o-r-e-v-e-r. I woke up at 6:00 am so I
could shower and go get my hair styled.
I woke up with the sickest stomach and worst aches and pains, ever. I couldn’t even get out of bed, so I didn’t. An hour or so later I finally got the
strength to get out of bed and showered.
I was absolutely miserable. By
the time I made it upstairs Grandma was getting ready to head downstairs to
check on me cause she knew I was supposed to be at my hair appointment 20 minutes
ago. She gave me an anti-nausea pill and
off I went. My hair lady had her mom bring by some Doterra oils and before I
left the salon I was feeling like a million bucks. I rode with Uncle Bill and my mom to Manti,
at this point I still hadn’t seen Kamaron that morning. Before our session, one of the temple workers
pulled me, my mom and Morgan into a little room and talked to us about temple
marriage. It was really neat to be able
to share this day with 2 of my best friends.
Afterwards Kam and me were able to sit in the Celestial room together
alone and just talk. Ready or not we were doing this. I felt calm and at ease. I couldn’t imagine making this eternity commitment
with anyone else in the whole wide world.
We entered the sealing room and spoke with our sealer for few minutes
and then all of our closest friends and family entered. I have never been surrounded by so many beautiful
beings. I can’t help but tear up when I
reflect on that day and what took place in the temple. It truly felt like Heaven. Before we knew it we were married, and not
just forever, but for eternity. It
seemed surreal. We had been waiting and
preparing for this moment our whole lives. There wasn't a dry eye in the room, even Kam got a little teary eyed . . that confirmed to me that he wasn't in fact heartless, like I had been accusing him the past year, ha. I felt like a celebrity that day. So many people were cheering for us and I had
a permanent smile on my face. We got
about 10 good minutes in of picture taking and then the clouds parted and the
rains came down. But rain means good
luck, right? We were the definition of “wet rats.” But we were married “wet rats” and we didn’t
let a flood ruin our day. We had
our luncheon across the street at the Manti House; herb chicken, salad, mashed
potatoes, carrots, raspberry filled cake and raspberry lemonade, it was
perfect!! After lunch the skies had cleared up a little bit so we headed back
to the Temple to try and get a few more pictures, 5 minutes later it started
pouring again. We had been contemplating holding our reception at the church because the weather was not
cooperating with us at all. Last minute
we decided that we weren’t going to let the rainy weather ruin our reception
venue and we started setting up in Kam’s parents backyard, like we had planned, or should I say like I had planned since the first time I ever laid eyes on Kam's parents' backyard, its breathtaking! We couldn’t have asked for
better weather. We were truly
blessed. From the DJ, to our
photographer, our videographer, the decorations, our vintage decor from our parents and grandparents,
the catered food, our amazing friends and family and our most beautiful wedding cake . . . everything was
picture perfect and my absolute dream wedding. Looking
back that whole day is kind of a blur.
So many familiar and unfamiliar faces and non-stop smiling and laughing,
we were exhausted by the end of our sparkler grand exit. As we were making our getaway from the reception everyone started singing, "Na na na nah, na na na nah, hey, hey, heyyyy, good-bye! It was so great ha, it reminded me of one of my most favorite movies, "Remember The Titans." We came back after driving to the church and packed
our bags and left for SLC. We stayed at
The Anniversary Inn, #19 the Jungle Room.
It was the most amazing room I have ever seen. The next morning we drove up to Park City
were we stayed until Tuesday. Who knew
PC was so fun! Amy and Aly hooked us up
with a killer room, discounts and gift cards so our trip was virtually free! We
have yet to go on our real Honeymoon, but it was awesome to get away just the
two of us for a couple days.
MR. + MRS. KESTER
I have the most gorgeous BEST friends EVER
The Guys
My fam
Wedding Party
Love this one of all my girls
My Mom
Everyone at the temple
Kissing in the rain
Pouring rain
Kettle corn is my weakness
I'm a sucker for lemonade stands
Pulled Pork + Beef Sliders
Cupid Shuffle
Bouquet toss
First Dance
Thank you Brother Dan's Mom
He showed no mercy
But neither did I
Photo Booth
Sparkler Grand Exit
Anniversary Inn - #19 Jungle Room
First Night in Park City
PC lift
My first time on the Alpine Slide
Zip-lining
Free Stuff
I'm kind of obsessed with my ring
Since our wedding day we have
been living a relatively normal life.
Kam goes to UVU full time and is 2 semesters away from graduating with
his bachelors in International Business with a minor in Spanish and I am working as a dental hygienist in Orem. Kam was on 3
intramural flag football teams fall semester, which took up most of our nights
during the week. His team is the
reigning BYU champions, GO MIGHTY DUCKS!! In November we went to Hawaii with
Kam’s family. Randy has an annual lawyer
convention in Kona, Hawaii that is now the Kester Family Annual Hawaii Vacay,
no complaints here. Hawaii was a blast!! Snorkeling, 80 degree weather, Big
Island Grill all day, every day, 2 Step (sucks), shopping, macadamia nut
pancakes with coconut syrup for breakfast EVERY morning, getting guava juice wasted, swimming with the Manta Rays in the middle of the ocean at night, laying
out like its going out of style, and zip lining . . . it really doesn't get much better than that.
We spent Christmas day with Kam’s
parents this year seeing that it is probably one of Karson’s last holidays with us , he just got his mission call
in the mail January 2nd and is going to Queretaro, Mexico April 16th. Christmas was super laid back, we woke up
around 10:30am, ate breakfast by noon (krispy kreme doughnuts and hot
chocolate) and started opening presents around 12:30. Now that’s my kind of
Christmas! Instead of buying presents we
go to Hawaii every year as a family, and that was understood by all of us, or so we thought.
But somehow someone didn’t get the memo and Kam and me both got spoiled. We also went and saw Frozen Christmas day, so
CUTE!! I worked Friday and Saturday that
week so we headed down to St. George/Cedar Saturday afternoon after I got off
work. We again were spoiled by my
family. We must have been super good this
year or something.
Mary Poppins at Tuacahn
Sure do love this guy.
Creeps
St. G
Karson and Uncle Mark's B-day Party
Love my blue eyed boy
Lovin' Sunny St. G California
Happy 1 month Anniversary to us, spent it riding wheelers.
Imagine Dragons at Energy Solutions
Always such a good sport
Such a rad concert
Love these guys
Karissa + Me
Totally won this gem
Hawaii Bound
Church in Waimea
He hit almost every snorkeler in the bay
Fruit Loops
Pickin' Pearls
Getting our gear for 2 Step
Roaming the streets in downtown Kona
Kalapana Painted Church
Last Day in Paradise
Family Night at the Kona Temple
Snorkeling Fools
Zip-lining
Last Day in Hawaii
Carving pumpkins at the Laursen's
Pumpkin #1
Pumpkin #2
Murder Mystery Masquerade Dinner Party
The Gentlemen
Meet Fiona + Sam
Such a fun night!
Halloween Date Night
BYU Intramural Flag Football Championship Game
MIGHTY DUCKS, 2 years and running
The Leonardo, Dead Sea Scrolls
The Hobbit
Happy 3 Month Anniversary
Celebrating Dad's birthday at The Bees
Gingerbread house competition w/ the roommates
We rang in the New Year by
watching movies, playing games, setting off fireworks and eating lots of good
food with my family!! Success!! I can’t help but smile when I reflect and look
back on all of the exciting and memorable things that took place in 2013, what
a great year and one for the books!! Bring on 2014!! Can’t wait to see what
this year has in store for us.
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