Coffee Creek

We had a wonderful weekend listening to conference. We went up to Valparaiso to be with Nels' family. In between sessions we went to Coffee Creek Park and hiked around for about an hour. I took some "artsy" pictures. I really like taking pictures. Maybe I'll get a more expensive camera for Christmas (hint for Nels). :) Anyway, we ate a ton of great food and we just enjoyed talking and being together.

Finally Finished!!!

I finally completed this baby blanket. After working on it, on and off for two years, it's finally done! I think it turned out pretty cute. I like the ruffle around the edges and the ribbon.

Brian Regan

Last night our friends invited us to go to a comedy show by Brian Regan up in Lafayette. So we headed back up to Lafayette and laughed our heads off! It was hilarious. Our friends Clark and Linda were the first ones to introduce us to Brian Regan a few years ago, and we have loved his jokes. I don't know how many people know this about Nels, but he loves comedy. We have XM radio and one of the stations does 24/7 comedy. So on his way to work he'll listen to it and then calls me with the "morning jokes." So needless to say, Nels had a blast listening to Brian. I don't think I've seen him laugh so hard! If you've never heard him before, here's a small clip from YouTube.






There's a lot of funny ones on YouTube. We like this one though and ever since we heard it we always say "Take Luck!" when we say good bye to each other.

Anyway, take luck and have a good laugh on this happy Friday!

Anderson's Orchard

Nels' parents came down for a quick visit. It was so great to see them. We took them to a fun place called Anderson's Orchard. We picked our own apples and even climbed some of the apple trees to get the huge ones at the top. There was a storm that was coming and we thought we might be right in the middle of it. But luckily, we finished up and went to Outback Steakhouse before the rain came Pouring down. Now we have a whole peck of apples, so we're going to make yummy apple pie!

That's Nels in the tree.

Lately, I have been keeping myself busy with substitute teaching, helping a friend with her kids, reading lots, and trying to decorate our house. So I finished making the frames for the Living Christ and Family Prolamation. Here's what it looks like:You can't really see the pictures in this one. But for the Family I put pictures of me and Nels and for the Living Christ I used pictures of Greg Olsen's paintings of Christ.

I also made a collage of pictures of Purdue and put that in an 8 x 10 frame. Here's the jpg.

I had originally gotten the idea from one of the Purdue gift shops and decided to just make my own. It was a fun project.

Vacation to Idaho and Utah

I just got back from a wonderful vacation to Idaho and Utah. I was able to visit all of my family. I loved every minute of it! I went from house to house and became reacquainted with my nieces, nephews and siblings. One thing that I learned quickly is that they all have busy lives! I got to observe it firsthand. It was the first week of school. So I took some of them to school, attended 3 different soccer practices, and went to different activites throughout the week. I loved being a part of everything and seeing what they do.

In Idaho I was able to attend the Twin Falls Temple dedication and I went with my parents to the Rexburg temple. It was awesome. My younger sister Jenny, my mom, dad and I went on a drive to the Teton Dam or what's left of it anyway. My parents talked about how the dam broke and what they did. It was really neat to hear their story.

My trip was a blast as we played fun games, talked, laughed and ate delicious food the whole two weeks! Thanks everyone for making my trip fun and memorable!

Here's a few pictures.

Teton Dam

Rexburg Temple

Beautiful Idaho...you can see the Teton Peaks in this picture.

Crafts I did in Idaho:

Popsicle cards--I first saw these cards at my sister Melissa's house and loved them. So I was very happy when my mom had all of the stamps to make them. I think they are so fun, cheerful and cute!Journal--I also made this journal which is basically paper glued to a tablet, but doesn't it look so much cuter than a plain old tablet?!

Post-it note holder. This was fun and easy to make. The back is actually a coaster, then you put pretty paper on it.

That's all for now!

Great Weekend

Last Friday night we went on an awesome date. We went to downtown Indianapolis. There is about a 2 mile long canal that runs through the city. It's really pretty and there are a lot of people that go there to walk and hang out. Also, there's a store that rents kayaks and pedal boats. We rented the 2 person kayak and it was a blast. At first I was trying really hard not to get wet. So, I would very carefully put my paddle in the water. Nels made so much fun of me. Since Nels was doing all the work, he would run us into the sides and he almost paddled us into a fountain. We laughed our heads off. By the end, I was wet and gave up on staying dry. So I actually paddled. When we were sychronized we went pretty fast. We even got a compliment from some people in a pedal boat. :) On the canal there was also a gondola which was cool to see. We noticed as we were kayaking that they play old movies in the "park." So we'll have to try to do that sometime. It was a great way to see what there is to do in Indianapolis.

Here's a few pictures:

The batteries in my camera died so I barely got this picture taken. It's not very good, but if you look really, really close you can see the gondola. There were lots of pretty bridges that we went under too.

Here's us in our plastic kayak. :) Here's one of the fountains Nels tried to run me into.

Saturday we drove 2 hours to Louisville, Kentucky to go the temple. It's a beautiful drive. It's so lush and green with lots of trees. I enjoyed this drive so much more than Lafayette to Chicago. Especially since there was very little traffic. The temple is really small but very beautiful. When I was there I recognized a girl and she recognized me. We talked to each other for a while and then I remembered we were in a communications class at BYU-Idaho that was six years ago! It was fun though to see a somewhat familiar face. We had a lovely time in Kentucky and the temple.

See how the trees are surrounding the temple.

It's so green there! I loved it!

Dining Room Table

Nels and I bought this cute dining room set. It seats 8! The leaf is inside the table. The best part was that we didn't have to build it! We are really enjoying it. Now we need to invite six people over and see how it does!

Random News:

The past couple of days I have been reading Breaking Dawn and I finally finished it. Wow. I really liked it. I like how just when you thought things were going to be fine there was a plot twist. Of course, I loved that it was a happy ending. So, it's been a very relaxing couple of days.

My friend just had her baby this morning around 8:00 a.m. So she was born 08-08-08 at 8 a.m.! Congratulations Lorilee!

Also, it is my sweet niece Abby's Birthday. Happy Birthday Abby!! She is six years old!