Cody & Julianna

Thursday, December 20, 2007

White House Christmas Party 2007

We were invited to the White House Christmas Party. Being rookies at this, we showed up "fashionably late" to find out that we've almost missed our chance to have a picture taken with President and Mrs. Bush. We were the LAST couple in line. Who knew? Again, I admit it...total rookies! The Marine Band played Christmas music while we mingled with Cody's friends. It was so cool to walk through the Green Room, Red Room and Blue Room and note the historic photographs hanging on the walls and old furniture. The buffet was great but truly the desserts had my attention! Every chocolate, cream and ganache was used in delicious desserts. The detail of the White House Gingerbread House was my favorite. What an amazing opportunity we almost missed!

Saturday, December 1, 2007

Hunter Family Reunion, Thanksgiving 2007

When the "Hunter Clan" gets together, we love to talk, share stories, eat, go to movies, enjoy the outdoors and play games. We especially love new games! Guitar Hero was a hit! Becky bought it for Jeff's kids--the aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews couldn't get enough. However, I have to say, it was harder than I expected. The nieces and nephews made it look so easy. I loved that all the music was from my high shcool days and even back to Steve's high school days. Jordan, Becky and I taught our family how to play Settlers. Now this game has been around awhile--yet, still addicting! We played a few rounds of that too. Adorable Ethan was showing us all how to master the game of Kerplunk. It was a quick Thanksgiving weekend which left us with fond memories and looking forward to our next reunion.

Friday, August 24, 2007

Here Goes Another Remodel

2005 Remodel

2007 Re-

remodel

Re-Remodel
I have always liked old houses, but am not a fan of all the old stuff in old houses. In 2000, I bought the house we are currently in, remodeled it and lived there with roommates. Later in the Summer of 2005, I bought the house across the street, completely gutted it and remodeled it and moved in while I was dating Julianna. This became our first home after we were married. See pictures above of the kitchen remodel. We sold this our "first home" to re-remodel my first bachelor's pad/house bought in 2000. After the renters moved out, we moved in to start what was supposed to be a simple carpet, paint and tile project... Yah right... not the case with us. After removing weight bearing walls and tying in supports in the ceiling, we opened up walls around the kitchen to add natural light. See photo above with the wall partially taken down. Sad, but true, I am re-remodeling the same kitchen from the 2000 remodel and unfortunately don't have a better picture of the finished kitchen, so a photo of Murphy by the Christmas tree will have to suffice. It exhausts me to think of the work involved but have found the process a good diversion from the pressures of life. We love it! This house has given us an extra room for a "new addition" and is the perfect space for us. Well, for now, until I get the bug again and see another project out there.

Posted by Cody

Thursday, November 30, 2006

On the Hunt for a Christmas Tree

Paris Canyon --
Thanksgiving Weekend 2006
Murphy was about 5 months old in this photo and wants nothing to do with it. This was his first snow and didn't want to waste time in a photoshoot. We searched the mountain high and low and finally found our first Christmas tree; circa Charlie Brown style!

Posted by Julianna

Wednesday, November 1, 2006

Mele Kalikimaka

October 2006--Kauai
Napali Hike - Napali Coastline on the North Shore

Shaved Ice with Mac-Nut Ice Cream and Coconut Milk - You've got to try it!

Poli Hale - Most Western Sunsets of the U.S. & most beautiful

Before marrying Julianna, I had never been to Hawaii. I had walked the slums of India, climbed the highest mountain in Africa, rode camels in Mongolia, but had not been on a simple non-stop to Hawaii --to what I presumed was the worlds most over visited tourist attraction. Well...now I know. Kauai, in particular, is spectacular. As much as I love the mountains (coming from a land locked state) the ocean is always mesmerizing. On Kauai, you have both. Add an average temperature of 70 degrees all year long to create paradise. Julianna had it all planned out. In our rental Jeep, she took me all over the island. I still haven’t tried to surf but did body surf with a bunch of guys while several large sea turtles swam nearby. Julianna swam in between her "power reading" sessions. Who knows how many books she plowed through? Just waiting to go back!

Posted by Cody

Tuesday, September 5, 2006

Girlfriends' Annual Beach Trip

Duck Beach, North Carolina -- August 2006

Yes, w

e are standing in the last remnants of a hurricane! What a wild experience. We felt a little like Noah's Ark. We watched endless rain for two days. Once the rain quit, we decided to explore the small strip of sand of what was left of the beach. Even after the sun returned, the streets and our driveway were still flooded a couple feet deep. We had to hire a tow truck to pull us and our cars to dry land. A beach trip we will never forget!

***Me, Amber, Caroline, Jill and Jill***

Posted by Julianna

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Meyer Family Reunion, Bear Lake, UT-July 2006

As long as I can remember, my family has spent the week of the 24th of July in Bear Lake, UT for a Meyer Family Reunion. In fact, during my mother's childhood, Grandpa Meyer dragged their silver bullet trailer over to Bear Lake and "parked" it to spend the summers there. So, it has become a tradition we count on every year. Great food, water skiing, family time, sun and the beach. What can be better? Just prior to our 2007 reunion, Grandma's health was declining quickly. She was determined to attend and even bought some new outfits for the reunion. Grandma's will power got her to the reunion but her health couldn't keep up. After spending a few days at the lake with her family, the 5 daughters took her home. The sisters needed to have a family meeting with Grandpa to discuss full-time care for Grandma in a rest home. In reluctant agreement, they packed up her belongings and put Grandma in the car to drive her to a care center. In the driveway, she passed right then and there in the passenger seat of the car. Apparently she was weighing in her opinion and didn't want to go. Of course, she is greatly missed. What better way to go? She was able to spend her last few days on Earth with her husband, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren in a place she had loved all her life. She quietly slipped away at the young age of 83.
***1st picture of family games***
***2nd picture is Grandma, sister Tiff and 4 of the 5 Meyer sisters***

Posted by Cody

Friday, August 11, 2006

Murphy's Puppy Days

July 2006
Murphy has been personality plus from day one. Clearly from the photo, this dog is never late for feeding time. His energy goes beyond food -- he loves to wrestle with Cody, chase his tennis ball at the park, and as a morning ritual petitions us to scratch his belly.

We love our "Murpy."

Posted by Julianna

Monday, July 3, 2006

Our First Road Trip - Escalante, UT

Escalante, Utah --June 2006

Wow! Cody can really put the "road" in Road Trip!!! Now most of my friends and family will tell you it is unusual to see me in a desert like environment for a vacation. I am a beach girl -- that is my mecca. A place where I can fully relax with a good book, Diet Coke and the warming sun. However, in Escalante I did appreciate the contrasting beauty of the red rocks to the green trees. This was my first "all day" road trip. We 4-wheeled over these beautiful desert boulders for hours to see the "Hole in the Rock" and Lake Powell. I do love the outdoors but I don't necessarily need to sleep in it.

Friday, May 5, 2006

Wedding Festivities

What an amazing wedding weekend! On Friday, Cody's parents hosted a wonderful garden party to welcome family and guests. Many of our friends came from the East Coast, family from Texas and some of my second grade students. Marcy out did herself in preparing a delicious menu of salmon, fillets, variety of salads and her rum cake. The weather cooperated and many enjoyed the new deck built during the snowy months by Cody's family and friends--it was worth it!
On Saturday, we were married in the Salt Lake Temple. It was the highlight of our weekend. Afterwards, my parents hosted a ring ceremony and wedding dinner. My dad's toast captured the day for me, "The ceremony today not only sealed Cody to our family, but it sealed the Hunter family to the Johnson family."

Posted by Julianna

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Shower to Shower

April 2006

Let the parties begin...

Family Bridal Shower: Cody's sister, Tiffiny, hosted a couple's bridal shower for us. Cody wasn't quite sure about attending a girlie party but actually enjoyed every attention. Tiff was very creative in capturing our dating time line in a game called Catch Phrase. It was darling! What a great party surrounded by family and friends.

DC Friends Bridal Shower: The girls out did themselves! With a travel theme, passport poetic invitation, past traveling photos decorating the room, I was overwhelmed! Not one detail was missed. It was a great reunion with DC friends and a little lingerie to go. See picture above.

Friends Reunion/Bridal Shower: What a blast to the past! My best friend Sara found our group of friends from 15 years ago. Forget the marriage advice, we just loved catching up on where the last 15 years had taken us.

Posted by Julianna

Sunday, October 2, 2005

Bear Lake Beginnings

September 2005
Cody thought he would "woo" me with the warm September weather, changing fall leaves, and raspberries at Bear Lake. We had a great time riding a 4-wheeler through the mountains, loving the leaves and taking a zillion photos! Here is where I learned that Cody was a photo fanatic with me as his focus. Fortunately, we did get one with the two of us and the changing fall foilage.

Posted by Julianna

Welcome to our blog! What a change...we went from blogging about our travels to blogging about teething, taking first steps and talking about Elmo. Such a 180 degree turn and we love it! Louie and Blake are such a joy to us and can't imagine life without them.

Truly, we are thankful for adoption--for this is the way we will add to our family a third time. We are open to different nationalities, either gender and hope for an open adoption. We are comfortable going through a private attorney or an agency.

Please feel free to share our blog. Thank you in advance for mentioning our quest for adoption to your family and friends!

With Love,
Cody, Julianna, Louie, Blake and our dog, Murphy

About Me: Julianna

I was born in a small town in Tennessee. We lived there until I was in the fifth grade -- what a great place to grow up! In the nearby woods, we would play "house" by designing floor plans with sticks as our walls and a piles of leaves for furniture. As a child, I loved to play games, ride bikes and play barbies. With a family of six kids, often my dad would engage us in a game of hide and go seek to wear us out for bedtime. Or, my dad would play "wild music" on the piano and let us dance around to get our wiggles out for bed. Looking back, I think we must have been a high energy group of kids. This might be why we only could have "sweet cereal" on Saturdays. However, on Christmas morning, each child got their own box; which would be gone by the next day. My poor parents... 6 kids hopped up on sugar plus the Christmas chaos! Our family of 8 then moved to Ft. Worth, Texas. We happily adjusted to Texas BBQ Brisket and Blue Bell Ice Cream. We took advantage of our location and would visit my dad's parents in El Paso for vacations. My grandma made us feel like her greatest treasure. During high school I couldn't wait to DRIVE! After parallel parking an enormous green station wagon, I passed the driving test and had my license in hand. I was very social. My brother Jeff and I were very active in our church youth program. I participated in plays, church volleyball and basketball. I loved going to youth conferences and would sew new outfits. My sewing career was short lived...I'm too much of a perfectionist and would spend more time pulling out stitches rather than sewing them in. I left this talent to my mother and sisters. In high school, I helped to make homecoming floats, joined the pep squad and the German Club; which really was a party with the cutest guys at school. Ummm yeah, I think I have been boy crazy since I was 12. My crushes' names would end up in the doodling of my school notes. At age 12 I may have seen one too many soap operas when I stayed one summer in El Paso with my Aunt Barbara! College was creeping up and I needed money. Therefore, I've had a job ever since I was 15 working for a sandwich store, gelato ice cream store, Dunkin' Donuts (gained 10 pounds in my first month and saw the necessity to quit!) and as a receptionist my senior year for an attorney (work release program). After high school, I went to BYU and LOVED my independence. At age 21, I took an 18 month break from college to serve a mission in the Arizona Temple Visitor Center. By far, this experience was one of the highlights of my life--serving and loving the people of Mesa. Before graduating with my Bachelors in Education, I went to study abroad to Israel for four months. I learned about the Jewish and Muslim cultures, religions and histories... fascinating! I will always have a sincere respect for the rich history taken place on that soil. During my first three years of teaching first and second grade, I earned and graduated with a Masters in Education. I continued to teach in Utah for a few more years. I loved teaching but wanted to find new opportunities to stretch myself in the field. I moved to Washington, D.C. and began to work as a literacy trainer (of teachers) for a non-profit in Baltimore, Maryland. For four years, I had the wonderful opportunity to help improve children's education in inner city schools. My favorite memories were those of helping young children find and cultivate the love of reading. The success of learning to read increased their self worth and opened doors of opportunities in their future. I continued a similar position with George Washington University working with the DC public schools, teachers and students. I loved my time of living in D.C. Many opportunities helped me to appreciate and learn of our nation's history. I'm such a "hands-on learner." Knowing this about myself, I took advantage of my location and traveled to a few countries across the Atlantic Ocean to learn of their cultures and histories. D.C. will always be an important chapter of my life filled with wonderful friends --and of course, where I originally met Cody. In 2005, I returned to Utah and began teaching second grade. This is when I became reacquainted with Cody and our life together started its course.

About Me: Cody

I was born and spent the majority of my childhood in Bountiful, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City. I was a fairly social kid and spent more time than a normal 5 year old visiting all the senior citizens in my neighborhood who had nicknamed me “Windy”. Apparently, I talked a lot. I was just there for the Iced Oatmeal Cookies sitting on their kitchen counter. So I would talk and talk until I could close the deal and walk away with my Iced Oatmeal cookies. I think they knew what my intentions were and would milk me in their boredom. Just give me the cookie! The steep hills of Bountiful provided the perfect childhood existence. Steep hills for sledding and skiing in the winter and the twisty streets made great neighborhood night games and Olympics in the summer. Life really is simple as a kid and maybe it is best to enjoy the first portion of your life in a relative blissful ignorance. Mom and I followed Dad to Juneau, Alaska for my 9th grade year, as part of Dad's work in developing mining operations. After a year of playing football on a rocky dirt field with a team of female line(wo)men, I was glad to move home and be a part of Bountiful High School's first back to back high school football championship. I really had great friends and was active in choir, madrigals, student government and sports. I bought my first car when I was 15 ½ (it supposedly sat in the garage for the next few months while I waited to turn 16) with my own money. I worked at Farmers Insurance at nights and mowed lawns in the summers. This was my first experience in just how expensive life was going to be. Either that, or I had high expectations of myself and what I wanted to accomplish, but I did learn early on that you'll get out what you put into something. My parents, to their credit, really stressed work work work. This undoubtedly helped me day in and day out when serving an LDS Church mission to Alabama. It drove me nuts to see the lack of work ethic some of the other missionaries had. Spending two years performing community service and other church activities was probably the most difficult but most worthwhile challenge in my life to that point. But, the best part is that none of it is for yourself. Service is a great thing to learn at 19 years of age. Following my mission I attended the University of Utah and received a degree in Business Management (Finance) while working full time and was active in student government, Sigma Chi Fraternity and participated as a moderator for a weekly radio and TV show called Coffee and Politics. During my senior year, I received an internship in Washington DC, which completely changed the direction I thought I was headed. I loved the energy and great minds I met and worked with in Washington. Following graduation I worked in New York City for an internet start up that eventually closed its doors following the events of Sept. 11. I jumped at the chance to move to Washington DC and began working for U.S. Senator John Ensign shortly after. I spent four years working on healthcare and financial industry policy before heading to Las Vegas to do some campaign work. In August of 2005, Mom and I took my Grandma and Grandpa Meyer to visit the sites of Washington DC. The whole time I lived there, I really hoped it would work out that they could come and visit and could show them around. We had a great time and on our last day I took them to a favorite Saturday morning market and breakfast joint called Eastern Market. As fate now has it, I ran into a mutual good friend, Jill Chappell, who told me Julianna was moving to Salt Lake. I am getting ahead of myself. Let me start at the beginning...

OUR STORY
A couple of years ago in D.C., I had taken Julianna out a few times. We got to know each other over Mexican food at three different locations. However, at the end of our third date, instead of inviting me in, she gave me a luke warm side hug at the door. I understand girls have this need to be pursued but an awkward hug doesn't really lend itself to an “oh baby baby” hot pursuit! Please. So, three years later, our story picks up again when I ran into Jill at Eastern Market. She wasting no time reacquainting us, called Julianna and handed me the phone. Julianna asked me if I could take a precious duffle bag of shoes she didn't have room for on the plane. These were essential items needed for her first week of work in Utah. With lack of time in heading to the airport, she met me in front of the Smithsonian on the Washington Mall for the handoff. The day she arrived in Salt Lake, she called to get her shoes. I was in Houston at the time and promised her bag of shoes at the end of the week in exchange for a dinner of steak fajitas. I think in her mind this meant two things: the comforts of Mexican food and a reason to buy new shoes until her own arrived safely. After our date of steak fajitas, it all went quickly from there.