Halloween and Kansas

Halloween this year was so fun, and so busy. I am on the activities committee at church so I helped plan the Halloween party for the ward. I also had my party in my classroom, which was so fun! Those parties were both on Friday. Then Melanie and I planned a party at her house on Saturday. Dave and I dressed up like mummies. We had so much fun getting ready. We got lots of trick-or-treaters while we were getting ready. We scared a lot of little kids with our costumes! We were pretty frightening.

Kansas City Marathon Weekend

Dave and I went to Kansas City with Marissa and Brad Schenk, Melanie and Matt Jacobsen, and Heather and Dave Yates. Melanie and Heather ran the ½ marathon and the rest of us just hung out. :) We got there on Friday night. We went to dinner and hung out at the pool and hot tub that night.
The next day we went to the Farmer’s market, which was so fun! I love farmer’s markets. Then we all went to the big outdoor mall and shopped for a bit there. Afterwards we went to lunch at Oklahoma Joe’s. My favorite BBQ restaurant ever, it is delicious! That night we hung out at the hotel watching football and sitting in the hot tub.
Sunday we went to visit Independence with Marissa and Brad. There is an LDS visitor’s center there that we went through. It was pretty cool. They taught us about the early church members who lived there. They went through so many struggles, and worked so hard. We also went through the Community of Christ’s Temple. It is very unique. It is shaped like a seashell. It was interesting to see it. They have a museum in the temple that had tons of old paintings of Joseph Smith and his family. They also had old journals and manuscripts from the early church. They even had the original door off of the Liberty Jail.

Nauvoo and Kansas City

Last weekend, the 8-9^th of October, I got to go to Nauvoo. It was so cool! I went with some girls who live by me, Melanie Jacobsen, Tosha Williams, Marissa Schenk, and Cathrine Grandy. We drove down Friday evening and then spent the day Saturday and drove home that night. It was such a quick trip but it was really fun. We had such a fun group of girls! I had never been to Nauvoo so I loved seeing all the sites. I felt like I learned so much and just got such a good feel for how living there would have been for the early Latter Day Saint people. There was such a spirit of joy there. It was a beautiful city right next to the Mississippi River. I can’t imagine how sad it would have been when they had to leave their beautiful homes and temple, but the years they had there where happy.

We did so much in our day there, but I would love to go back. There is so much to see! We walked through several restored houses. We learned about gun making in the Browning house, Jonathan Browning invented the repeating rifle and the 6 shot. Pretty cool stuff. Dave would love to see that house. I can’t wait to go with him.

At the brick shop they told us how bricks where made there in Nauvoo. It was a long process it would take weeks for the bricks to be ready to use. We also got to learn about bread making, rope making (we actually made a rope), rug making, and candle making. I am glad I live today! Ha ha!

We learned more about the founding of the Relief Society too. What a wonderful organization. I am so happy to be a part of it. It is amazing how much good it has done and still does for people all over the world.

Well Dave and I are in Kansas City this weekend. We are down here for the marathon and for the amazing BBQ! I will have to post some pictures later about our trip here.

I can't believe it is almost October!

This year is going by way too fast. I do love October though. I am loving the Autumn weather and I can't wait for Halloween. I guess it is more of a kid holiday, but I still get that excited feeling when I think about Halloween! My mom always made Halloween so much fun. I always think about our witches cauldrons of dry ice and root beer. You never knew what creepy crawly creature would come out in your glass! LOL. I loved it. I loved trick-or-treating and did it until I absolutely couldn't pass as a kid anymore, and then I would take my younger siblings and cousins. We always went with the McMillan family to the Haunted Forest or a haunted house. We would have donuts and apple cider after. I can't wait to have my own kids so Dave and I can do fun Halloween activities at our house.

Some of my friends and I here at Village Green are planning a Halloween party. Everyone is invited, so if you are reading this and you live in Omaha you should come! :) If you don't live here, you are more than welcome to come out and attend as well. I was called to help with activities in my ward lately so I will be helping to plan our ward party. And of course I will be having a party in my 2nd grade class. So I am sure I will get my fill of Halloween fun!

Well I have been really bad at keeping my blog going lately. I have been so busy, I feel like I haven't had a spare moment. This week I had a Young Women's activity that took about 3 and a half hours on wednesday night. Thursday night I hosted a Married to Medicine girl's night at my house. Friday was my ward Chili and Pie cook-off, which I helped plan. Saturday was the Relief Society Broadcast. Which was wonderful. I am so glad I was able to go and here the talks. I always want to try harder to be a good person after listening to the leaders of the church give advise and council.

The Prophet, gave some really good council and was very blunt. He said that we should not judge others. We should not worry so much about what a person looks like or how they dress. What a person should be measured by is how they act. I know we all know this, but it is always a good reminder. We live in a world that is completely focused on the outward appearance. If you aren't skinny, to the extreme, dressed to the max and beautiful you are overlooked and counted as naught. It is sad. Those are not the things that make us special. I hope that I can always remember not to judge others on appearance. I really try not too. I know that if I do judge that I will miss out on having uplifting, meaningful friendships.

Well that was last week... I can't remember everything we have done since we've been back in Omaha, but I will write about a few fun things.

Labor Day weekend Dave and I drove down to Kansas City with our friends Matt and Melanie Jacobsen. We just went for the day on Saturday. We got there around noon and grabbed some lunch then we headed to Ocean's of Fun. It is a water park. It was so fun! They had some great rides. So we spent the day hanging out in the wave pool and splashing down the water slides. I actually ran into a girl from my homeward there. Natalie Anderson. I can't remember her married name... Her husband is in medical school as well. She is a few hours from Kansas City just like we are. How random that we would both be in Ocean's of Fun when neither of us live there! So after the water park we headed to dinner. Kansas City has the most amazing BBQ ever. Last year when we were there for the marathon we ate at a place called Oklahoma Joe's. This time we tried Jack Stacks. It was so good. When we were waiting for a table Natalie came walking up to us, they ended up at the same restaurant too!

We had so much fun with Matt and Melanie. We love hanging out with them. Matt is in his 3rd year of Dental school at Creighton and Melanie is an Accountant. They are always planning fun activities, we love it. Dave and I have talked a lot about doing service missions after he is done with school. When we where in Dominican Republic last summer we talked about it a lot. And we ran into a group doing a service mission at the end of our trip. Matt and Mel want to do the same thing. He went on his mission to Brazil so we already have a couple places on our list. :) Hopefully we can make it work out.

A girl in my ward here, Nikki Anderson and I started a work out group a month or so ago. That has been really fun. We all take turns teaching or bringing workout videos. Tomorrow I am teaching yoga. Yay! I love yoga. I was super sick yesterday so hopefully I won't be a lame teacher tomorrow. It should be ok. I am feeling much better today. I actually went to the zoo this afternoon and walked all over. I had a no student work day and we had a team building/ wellness activity. It was a scavenger hunt. It was fun to get out with the other teachers and staff and enjoy the nice weather.

Dave and I walked around the Botanical Gardens Saturday afternoon. That was so beautiful. The rose garden smelled like heaven. It was amazing. We saw tons of frogs in the ponds and even spotted a turtle in one of the ponds. It was so cute! ~Oh, I can't wait for Hawaii this winter break. Hopefully we see a lot of big turtles!

What else have I done? hmm... Well there are lots of new medical student's who are married. So that is fun. One couple, Marissa and Brad Schenk moved in right across the street from us. They are so much fun. We have become really great friends with them. Marissa is such a sweet, fun girl and Brad and Dave are a lot alike. So it's perfect. Marissa and I actually entered a craft fair a couple weeks ago and we have another one in a month. That has been fun. I love doing crafts so this gives us some extra drive to do something we both really enjoy.

Well other than that we have had some really fun BBQ's and date nights with friends. We have hung out with Teissa and Casey. They had a BBQ at there house and we have done dinner nights. They have been out to her parent's in Iowa a lot so we haven't seen them as much as usual though. There kids are so cute and fun!

There is a new couple in our ward, Lisa and Matt McCoy. I went to high school with him. He was in my class. And they bought Lisa and Adam Stanely's townhouse. I went to High school with both of them too! I thought that was an interesting coincidence. They are a really nice couple. We feel so blessed to have so many great friends and neighbors here in Omaha. We miss our families but we feel at home here. We are so glad to have this great community of people who are all in similar positions as us. It really makes this busy crazy time more enjoyable. Especially for me, when Dave is studying a lot.

Brad and Marissa Schenk Matt and Melanie Jacobsen
BBQ at Teissa and Casey's house for the Married to Medicine Group

Zach, Casey Ryan, Dan, and I can't remember his name, he is new.
Erica, Hilary, Tiffany, Marissa, Chelsea, Teissa and Dahlia :)

Summer Lovin'

The summer was so fun. We were able to stay with Dave’s parents. Which is only about 10 minutes from my parent’s house. So we hung out with both of our families and our friends in Utah a ton. We went on so many fun trips too.

Starting out the summer right...

Dave and I are having such a great summer. It is Dave’s last real “student summer” so we are trying to take advantage of the time off.

Dave finished his first year of medical school at Creighton University; he has really enjoyed his classes. I finished my 1^st year of teaching 2^nd grade at Bancroft Elementary.

We have both loved what we have been doing, and we have made some great friends along the way! Overall we love our life in Omaha.

The summer began with a trip to Florida and then on an Eastern Caribbean Cruise with our friends Greg and Kami Hall. We spent two days at South Beach, which we discovered was a topless beach. Yikes! We had no idea.

Then we set off on the Carnival Liberty.

Our first stop was in Half Moon Cay Bahamas. This is a private island owned by one of the other cruise lines. It was beautiful. There was a long perfect white sand beach with crystal clear amazingly blue water. We saw a bunch of Sting Rays while we were exploring the island.

Next was a day at sea as we traveled to our next destination. We spent the day playing games and exploring our huge ship. Dave and Greg entered a free throw tournament… Which neither won, although they came closeJ They had fun. We went mini golfing on the top of the ship, it was really windy so our balls were rolling all over before we could hit them a lot of the time. It made for a very interesting game of mini golf. :) We laughed pretty hard. There were great shows every night. There was dancing, singing, a hypnotist, and magicians. It was really fun.

It was our first formal dinner night. We got all dressed up and beautiful and took tons of pictures. We felt so fancy. It is fun to get dressed up. Dinner was so fun every night. We all ordered a lot of food, but none of us could surpass Greg. He would order 7 appetizers 2 entrees and dessert, pretty much every night. He almost always ate it all too! Haha, we got some funny looks from our waitress. Dinner was always a huge event.

After sailing all day and night we made it to beautiful St. Thomas. This was, hands down, my favorite stop, and I think everyone else’s too. We decided to rent mopeds and explore the island with the wind in our hair. It was so fun! We stopped at Koki beach first. It was amazing. There was a small reef area right off the shore. We saw so many awesome fish there. We bought dog bones (which they sold on the beach) and fed the fish. They would eat right out of our hands! We met a man who had a delicious smoothie shop there. He was from California originally, but lives there now. How lucky! The next beach we stopped at we met another guy who was playing with his son, he told us that his wife is a doctor and she works on St. Thomas a couple months every year. Oh my, another lucky fellow! :) I tried to talk Dave into doing that someday, but I am sure it won’t happen. Too bad.

Our next destination was Puerto Rico. On Puerto Rico we took a tour to the only tropical rainforest in the United States territory. It is called El Yunque Rainforest. We took a big bus to get there. We then got to take a hike through the forest. There is a river all along the trail and at one point there is a pretty waterfall with a small pool area beneath it. We all got in and swam in the pool. We go there before very many others from the tour did so the four of us had it all to ourselves at first. When we were leaving tons more people had come and it was crowded. So we got lucky. On our way down the canyon we stopped at a little local food stand. We had some chicken empanadas and tostones, which we love. Dave ate them a lot on his mission in the Dominican Republic, and I had them last year when we visited his mission. I love tostones. They are like banana fries made from plantains.

The next day was another sea day. We played ping-pong, Dave and Greg entered the tournament for that and did free throw shooting again as well. Kami and I learned a hip-hop dance. We also learned the dance to Thriller one day. They had lots of little dance classes. There was always something fun to do on the ship.

Our last stop before going back to Florida was Grand Turk. Sadly it was the least beautiful of all our stops. But we still had fun. We actually rented a golf cart and cruised, or I should say putted, around the island. Dave found some huge sand dollars in the ocean there. We drove out to see the lighthouse, which was super old. There were signs there that told how the island people used to turn the light off so people would crash their cargo ships. Then the people would plunder the cargo. Crazy.

We stayed in Florida the night after the cruise, we didn't get a rental car so we walked to dinner. While we were eating it started pouring rain. We hung out at Wendy's for almost and hour waiting for a break.... but it never came. So we got creative!

Well the trip was so much fun, and now we are in Utah visiting our families and friends. We have had family parties, spent a weekend at the cabin in Heber, and went to the Manti pageant.

Oh we are also on a softball team with Dave’s friends. We are just about the worst team in the league. It is so terrible, but we are having fun playing.