Washington

We spent a week back home in Washington. It was so wonderful! We drove through Craters of the Moon on the way there. Once in Washington we spent time with family, played a hilarious board game with Shawn, Kati & kids, relaxed, made empanadas for the fam, got our rings cleaned, jumped on the trampoline, went boating, moved Heidi & Michael, met Angelas horse, went to Indian Springs, slept in, went to the river, ate Heidis crepes at the hub, got an iMac, almost stepped on a bird...luckily Angela helped us out, and had a big BBQ before we all went different ways. Here's a bunch of pictures....

Sasquatch

Chez Papille Crêperie
 

$800 in Walla Walla!

Craters of the Moon

First sights in Richland

Would You Rather?

silly girls

we missed it. :(

Nathans ring is so shiny you can see his reflection!

Continue Reading

Graduation

Well, I have some catching up to do. Life has been pretty fast paced, so I'm catching up today. Anyways, I did it. And on top of just doing it, I also got an A in my hardest class that I honestly didn't think I was going to pass. Tuesday, July 17th may be classified as the second worse day of my life. Basically, for this class I had to create a website using php to talk to a database and retrieve information. This causes my website to be dynamic, meaning, I change something in the database, it automatically changes on the website. And vice versa. SO, a lot of things weren't working. Basically...most things. (This was honestly the hardest class I've ever taken. I talked with my professor every week, went to labs and had tutors. I was trying harder than I've ever tried and I still had a D. Not okay. And in order for a class to count for your major, you need to have at least a C. And that was my goal. haha) But I found out that if I did well on this website I could still pass the class. Because the points associated with the website were more than the entire class so far. So, Tuesday starting at 12:30pm I started working on my website. I got done around 4:30am. But not actually done. My brain was just not working. So I took a two hour nap, and was up again by 7am. This became the worst day of my life. July 18th. I had to finish one more thing on the website which was due at 12:45pm. I did something and uploaded it, and literally nothing worked. The pages didn't even show up. I went back into my code, and I couldn't figure out what I did. I started crying. I had just worked my tail off the entire semester, and stayed up all night, just to fail. Nathan heard me, (he was peacefully sleeping) and came out to see why the heck I was sobbing so loud. I tried to explain what was going on. He tried to help me, even though he knows nothing about this kind of stuff. Luckily, as I was walking him through the code, explaining what everything does, I found the error. Which was the word "error". It was supposed to say "message." I changed it to message and everything worked. I saved that sucker, uploaded it and walked away. I was not going to do anything else. Long story short, I got an A and it became the third best day of my life. (first being marrying Nathan, and second him coming home from his mission.) 

Anyways, the rest of my classes went great! My parents, brother Aaron and sister-in-law Angela drove down to Rexburg and made it in around noon on Friday. We went out to Pizza Pie Cafe for lunch, which is a pizza, pasta and salad buffet. And they have some of the best pizza in the world. 

behold. the oreo dessert pizza. 

After lunch, I took them all on a tour around campus. There have been quite a few GIANT changes. Including the total makeover of the Manwaring Center and the construction of the BYU-Idaho Center. Which is pretty much a mini conference center. (and not THAT mini...) I told my mom that, but she didn't realize how big it was until, she saw it. This place is huge and so beautiful. BYU-Idaho truly is a special place.

It seats 15,000 people.

Graduation was pretty cool. We had convocation in here. Then we broke into our colleges to walk. Before the graduates walked into the BYU-I Center, we lined up in the gyms. I got to hang out with some pretty cool people before. 

1st. Jessica Phillipy. We were roommates Summer 2011. I have had so much fun getting to know here and becoming such great friends. Sadly, Jessica and her husband will still be in Rexburg. Hopefully we all can convince Bo to come to school in Utah. :)

Jess and I

2nd My design professors. Randall, Memmott, and Franson. Thank you to each of them for the things that they taught me. Whether they know it or not. 

we look like we're at Hogwarts...

It was really cool. The professors all lined the hall, and as we walked into the auditorium, they were all clapping and cheering for us. It made me realize, yet again, how much these professors really do care about the success of their students. 

nothing inside....yet

anne, thanks for being so great!

probably the best picture of my dad and I together. ever.

my support group...minus Aaron, he was talking to the speaker inside.

ice cream cake to celebrate. don't we look smart? 

Continue Reading

Extreme 5k

Saturday morning was the Extreme 5k. We did it with Robbie and Sienna. Not going to lie, it was a little more intense than I was expecting. It was a lot of fun though! We ran through tires, jumped hay bales, through a couple streams, through mudpits, over obstacles and finally through the "car wash." It was a lot of fun, and we all had pretty good falls. Luckily not permanent damage, just a few blisters.

before the race.

and after the race. yes, that is pizza in nathans mouth and a popsicle in my hand. weirdest after race food ever...?

our dirty legs and shoes. clockwise starting at red laces. robbie, sienna, nathan, me.

Thanks Robbie and Sienna for the fun time! (and for the pictures.) Next year Tough Mudder?

Continue Reading

Good Eats

I've tried a few things this past week that have turned out amazing. First, broccoli quinoa casserole. It was super easy, and really tasty. 


One 10 oz can cream of mushroom soup
1/3 cup reduced-fat mayonnaise ( I used maybe a teaspoon)
2 tablespoons milk ( I used soy milk)
1 1/4 cups reduced fat shredded cheese ( I did less)
1/2 teaspoon sugar (didn't do this.) 
1/4 teaspoon black pepper (who measures this?)
Dash freshly grated nutmeg (or this. i don't currently have nutmeg.)
2 cups cooked broccoli
1 1/2 cup cooked quinoa 
Parmesan cheese
( I also added a little garlic and some chopped onion.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and coat a 8×8 casserole dish - or individual ramekins - with vegetable cooking spray.

In a large bowl combine the soup, mayonnaise, milk, shredded cheese, Splenda, pepper, and nutmeg until well mixed. Stir in the quinoa and broccoli.

Spoon mixture into prepared casserole.  Sprinkle on a couple tablespoons Parmesan and bake for 30-35 minutes or until bubbly on the edges and golden.  Makes 8 generous 1/2-cup servings.

recipe and photo from here.

It was pretty tasty I will admit, and Nathan thinks it's bomb. (bonus!) So I've been seeing peaches at the store and I always want to buy them all. I miss living next to the Walleys and getting to pick their peaches. I ended up buying a few, and when I cut it open, I almost past out from goodness to my nose senses. I love peaches! We also have mangos from bountiful basket. (I haven't had too much experience with mangos, so they are kind of like an adventure) So we chopped those buddies up and tossed them in the blended with a little soy milk, agave, and ice and had ourselves a yummy dessert. 

these fruits smell so good!

Also with some of the mangos, I made a mango crisp. Basically apple crisp..minus the apples, and add mango. It was pretty good, I think if I had some raspberries in it, it would have been even better. Maybe next time. 

And lastly...(yes..more mangos) we made a mango salsa after church. I've never made salsa before, even though I come from the salsa making king. I would say it was a success. It's not very pretty. In fact, may look familiar to when you're sick. But it tastes really good. I won't post a picture because...it literally looks like puke. Happy Sunday!

Continue Reading

Felines, Free Chairs and Frisbee

July 6th was Nikelles birthday. We went over to give her a gift I made her. I printed it off and put it in an 8x10 frame. There are a few details before you see...

1. Nikelle and Hunter met in Arizona at Jacob Lake. (where the heart is)
2. Hunter Green was Nikelles favorite color even before the real Hunter came along. But now it's extra her favorite color.
3. Their story is pretty amazing.
4. I love Nikelle.

  

While we were over there, we met her new kitty Shakleton. He's a dream...or is that a she? We don't really know. Only a couple months old and super playful. I want a kitty so bad! 

  

sleeping kittenpants

After we played with Shakleton for awhile, we decided to explore the used to be houses across the street. The school bought up a bunch of houses to tear down, and build apartment complexes. They looked like fun. And we ended up finding a treasure! 

There were two dirty chairs just sitting there, calling my name. So we picked them up, and put them in the car. We didn't realize how perfect they were until we got home. The wood matches our table so well! I'll eventually recover the cushions. But they're great for now! Yay for free chairs! 

Saturday morning Nathan had a frisbee game. This game determined if they were in the championship or not. Well they won. 15-7. It was fast game, for which I'm grateful because it was already getting hot. This means, that they played again that night at 8pm at the stadium. The game was so much fun to watch! It was a long, hard game. They came back from from 9-14, to 13-14. The first one to 15 wins. There were some set backs, the stadium lights went off, two people blackout, and the other team called a lot of silly things.(they don't have refs, they govern themselves) It was so much fun to watch, even though the other team won. I still think the Wolverines are undefeated....

Wolverines

Nathan & I after the game.

Oh. They played on turf. Nathan is a mess. 

Continue Reading

Independence Day

Rexburg is legit. Sometimes I don't realize this fact. Wednesday morning, we woke up and headed to main street. Jess and Bo had already staked out a spot, so we met up with them. The parade was so fun!   Some of our favorites were....a giant shopping cart, for our favorite grocery store Broulims. 

Broulims has the best made in store tortillas, salsa, bagels, and pizza

Barack Obama and Mitt Romney fighting in the street. I don't remember what it was for, but it was funny. 

they aren't actually fighting in this picture. oh well. 

After the parade we went to Porter Park, which is where the parade ended, and there were booths set up selling stuff. We wanted an American lunch (at least a hotdog), but the only food we found was Chinese Food! And kettle corn. Kind of funny. Then we went up to campus, they were having a party. It was free to get in. They had a dunk tank, rockwall, balloon volleyball etc. And they had hotdogs. So after I dunked Nathan in the tank, we ate hotdogs. We were getting pretty toasty, and decided to head home. We fell asleep, and napped for 2 hours! After we woke up, we picked up Anne and headed to Idaho Falls with some of Nathans frisbee friends. They had a secret spot, not along the greenbelt where everyone and their dog is. We set up our blankets, the boys played frisbee and the girls talked, and played uno. We ended up driving over to the greenbelt to get something to eat. It was packed over there. We got dinner and ate over by the river. Then we grabbed a funnel cake and headed back to our spot. 

Nathan with his mouth full of funnel cake. so good.

Later we played the funnest game! It's called Battle of the Sexes. Obviously the girls won, but more about the game. The guys are asked questions that would be more likely women would know the answer to. And the ladies are asked questions about guy stuff. It was a lot of fun, and we all got pretty competitive. When the sun went down, we got situated for the fireworks. We ate some kettle corn and just laid in the grass. The show was pretty awesome, and the people next to us had the radio station going that played the music that the show went to. When the finale started, we decided to get to our car and escape. (Last year, when Anne and I went, it took us almost 3 hours to get home. Normally the drive form Rexburg to Idaho Falls is about 30 minutes.) So we started on our way, and got stopped in traffic on the bridge, directly below the fireworks. It was amazing! We were lucky we left when we did. It was so fun to be so close to the fireworks. After the fireworks ended, traffic started moving again. We were home just after 11. Score! 

I'm grateful for this country that we have to live in, and for the freedom that we sometimes don't even realize that we have. Life is good, and giant part of that is the country that we live in. Add that to the gospel, and what more do you need?

Continue Reading

Hilarious Faces

I love our friends. We had a few of them over the other nights for games. We played would you rather and were laughing the whole time. Then while we were chatting, Bo pulls out his phone and says, "You guys gotta see this app." It's called Face Juggler. Oh. My. Goodness. It is hilarious. Basically, you take a picture with someone, and it swaps yours faces. See below.

No this is not Justin Beiber and a troll. This is Nathan and Alyson with their faces juggled.

Continue Reading