No longer homeless, just jobless

We FINALLY found a place to live, hooray! That's why this blog has been suffering. Nate started school last monday and is already ridiculously busy. I have just been trying to put our house together and find all of our stuff! We are mostly there, so now the next task is job searching. I need one, bad! Nate is not working this semester because of his brutal schedule with all his masters stuff, so I m the breadwinner and currently jobless! :) I would take ANY help in this area, thanks.

We decided to share one last bit about our trip home from the east. Remember when I said how glad I was to see Wyoming? Well, I got over that real quick. If you have ever driven through that ridiculous state, you may have noticed some of the 34! Little America signs that cross the state (that's right I counted). Guess what? It really is not that great, at all. But atleast it was something to entertain us.

Wyoming was awesome and terrible all at the same time. It was awesome because we were SO close to being home, and terrible because it just seemed to take forever. But when we finally arrived in Utah I was ecstatic. I was SO happy to see my mountains, I was giddy. For all of my Virginia friends, this is a mountain.

Beautiful Mt.Ben Lomond almost brought tears to my eyes I was so happy. :) This is the big peak in the town where I am from. Isn't she somethin? It's sure funny what things you take for granted when you jsut get so used to seeing them all of the time. Driving up to CacheValley, I felt like I was looking at that road for the first time with new eyes. Willard Bay, the mountains, Sardine, wow it was wonderful.

We spent this last saturday with the Fuller's and went fishin'. Here we are off the bridge in beautiful Black Canyon. Nate is putting on my worm cause I definitely don't do that kind of stuff.

After not even a nibble, we headed down to Trout Creek where you are always gauranteed to catch something. Guess what? We didn't catch a thing. Here is Nate looking way too happy for having no success. He just loves to be out fishing.I, on the other hand, was not so optimistic about the whole situation.

That's more like it. We don't even eat the fish we catch, we just give it to people, so it's not like we were out a meal or anything. It's just the thrill and all the fun we missed. But nonetheless, still a wonderful way to spend a saturday morning.

When we got back to P-town, Nate got an unexpected call from his favorite mission companion. He lives in Las Vegas and was at Bear Lake for a family reunion. We thought we were still in VA, but called to tell us he was about to pass through Logan. So we immediately took off to head back to Utah and met up with him for a quick catch up and bite to eat. Nate and Green were just so happy and laughed all through dinner with memories. They absolutely love spending time together, and it just doesn't happen nearly enough; they are total goof balls. We were trying to think of a single girl we could have him meet and fall in love with so we could make hime stay in Logan. No such luck cause we unfortunately don't know any single women. Thanks for a good time, Green! Always a pleasure. :)
Our house is getting closer to being put together and actually feeling like a home. Which means major crackdown on the job hunt now, no excuses. Nate's car is currently broken so we are in a bit of crummy situation, but life could be worse. We spent Labor Day with the Fuller's and Co. at the Eastern Idaho State Fair (big tradition). It was very cold and wet, but always a good time. We don't have the internet, so my blogs may not be as often as they were, but hopefully that will change soon, if I have any say. Wish me luck in my job hunt!

On the road again

Tennessee was completely lined with fir trees basically the whole time. So this is pretty much the best view we got of the place; real cool. Nashville! That's as close as we got, we have major deadlines. But we were stilly happy we got to see it.
In Kentucky. this is the most exciting thing that we saw. Yay bridges! I don't even remember what river we were going over.
Here is us crossing the Missippi river! Wahoo!!!! It really is ginormous.
Metropolis, IL was our destination for the first day. For those of you that aren't aware, my husband likes to think he is Superman. He is a really big fan, and this was basically on our route, so we couldn't just drive by!

Nate was like a little kid here! He was giggling and just so excited. His smile the whole time in Metropolis was priceless. This Superman statue is actually bulletproof. Honestly, how cool is that?!
Nate had a blast here. I think we spent over an hour jsut looking at anything Superman you could ever imagine, all while listening to Superman music. It was pretty cool.
Supergirl is not really my thing, I'm more about Wonder Woman but they didn't have one of those to put my head in.

Wow, what a hunk!!! Metropolis was good to us, I'm really glad Nate got to go there. A note for anyone ever palnning to go there: Metropolis is indeed NOT a Metropolis. It's about the size of Preston, ID and just about as excting, except for there is a casino here. And Superman of course.

How could we NOT eat here? Thanks for a good time Missouri.So it's true what they say, Nebraska is really flat. There is so much sky! It's a whole nother world, and one that I would probably be ok with never seeing again.
We just so happened upon Cabela world headquarters.
It is literally in the middle of nowhere. We didn't stop and go in since we have our very own Cabela's in Utah. But it was still exciting to see because it's something other than corn to look at!
One thing I will give to Nebraska is that with all of the sky that there is to see, it makes for some pretty spectacular sunsets.

When we got to Wyoming I was shocked at how happy I was. There was more than just one dimension! I actually found myself in awe looking around and thinking it was pretty. Granted, I think western WY is the really yucky part, and that's what we will be doing tomorrow, but right now, I'm just ecstatic to be in Wyoming because that means we are only one state away!! I am SO excited to see my mountans! :) Ozzy puts it best, "Mama, I'm coming home!"

No Regrets

Well, after a summer full of surprises, our fun times have come to an end. We have to go back to reality now. What an incredible opportunity this summer has been for us; we couldn't have asked for more. We got to do every single thing on our "list", which I am so pleased with. I am so grateful for the chance I had to step out of my shell and experience so many new things. In honor of Wicked, I feel that I have changed for the better! We leave Virginia exhausted, but with absolutely no regrets. We are excited to get back to family, friends, and most of all Logan. THere are a lot of things we are going to really miss about being out here in the east, but everywhere has its pros and cons. We spent our last weekend with Sara's family and had a blast! Dance parties, delicious Sunday dinners, hide n seek, and late night talks with Sara are some of our very favorite memories.

This is a picture of my teeny tiny Curves, just to show my cache valley curves ladies how greatful they should be for their space.
Here is Hannah being a star right before her backflip off her mom's legs. It was awesome!
The girls watching a video of themselves on Nate's phone. They got a kick out of that!
Even baby Bella got her turn being a little trapeze artist. She just loved it!
Here's what the girls thought of us leaving. Bella just is always laughing, no matter what.
We have become so attatched to these girls this summer. I don't know what we, especially Nate, are gong to do without getting to see them all of the time. They own him. :)

Wow girls, where did you get your funny face pulling gene?Sadie, me, and Hannah after our very last dance party.

Here is Sara and all the girls waving to us as we left their house this morning. I cried for atleast an hour. Yes, we got to do and see a lot of way cool stuff this summer, but the absolute best part has been getting to spend time with Sara and her family. I feel so blessed. Thank you a million times over.

So day one of the long haul home is over, but it is too late and I am too tired to post all about our first day so tomorrow night will have to be a double hitter.

At dance party one night, Hannah created this totally sweet dance move and she calls it the hula. We make her do it ALL the time. Sadie then came up with her own version too. This is them doing their hula's at sunday's dance party.

Taking it easy

At the beginning of the summer, we found out about a cool concert going on in Baltimore at the beginning of August. There were two stages and there were going to be several bands we would like to see play. It was a bit pricey, but early on we decided it would be worth it and put it on our calendar. This last weekend is when that concert was here. Thursday night, we still didn't have tickets because we found out the two bands we wanted to see the most were playing at the exact same time and we were way bugged. All day Friday we were trying to decide what to do; neither of us had this pulling feeling that we just HAD to go to this concert. I think we were finally exhausted by our own summer. If we went, it would mean another saturday of waking up early, spending quite a bit of time in the car, and then being outside all day long and paying too much for crappy food, then getting home very late. This basically sums up what a lot of our saturdays have been like. Though we knew if we went we would have great time, after staying up so late watching the opening ceremonies on friday night, we just said forget the concert tomorrow, we're definitely sleeping in. It was so wonderful!!! It was like a normal saturday! After enjoying our sleep in and actually making breakfast, we took off to the Outlet mall that's about 15 minutes away in the next town. Nate said he didn't care what we did that day, he just wanted it to be low key. So we shopped and had a blast! I've never been shopping with Nate just for fun, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. These were premium outlets and it was pretty fun to go in the Barney's New York, Coach, etc. They did have some semi-normal stores and we thank the following participating stores for letting us go home happy with some good loot:

We found some stinkin' good deals, because it's considered "end of the season" right now. Nate was so funny, we found some things for him and there was nothing that I felt I just had to have or really wanted, but he said we weren't leaving until I got something too. He decided since we would have spent a lot more money going to the concert, we had to treat ourselves. After the shopping extravaganza, we ate at our favorite restaurant out here, Sweetwater Tavern. We are going there once more before we leave on Friday night, because we are going to seriously miss that place. We ended our evening watching the Olympics with Justin and Andrea, just as we have concluded every other night this week. Although they usually fall asleep and go to bed early, and Nate plays his Wii during the "boring" stuff, but I just can't turn away from it. Every event I am just loving, and it's making me more tired than I already am! Tomorrow is my last dy of work and I am definitely ready. Nate will finish on friday, and I will clean and pack while he is at work, pick him up, go to Sweetwater, then head to Warrenton to stay at his sisters' for the weekend. We plan on going to the Temple one last time on saturday, and just enjoying our last few days before we wake up early on monday morning and start our trek back home!!! I took a fe more pictures of the inside of our house, cause I told my mom I would. :)

I love this kitchen because the entire back wall by the sink is just window and it's beautiful, very happy.This is where we spend each night watching the Olympics. (I don't know why it's blurry, sorry.)Cory-I am really going to miss this dog. He thinks he is a lap dog, he doesn't know he is quite large. As soon as I sit down for Olymipcs he is in my lap. Nate gets jealous, because he can't sit by me in the chair when Cory is on my lap. I love feeling loved by this puppy! He is so great, we refer to him as a lazy old man. Nate's convinced he will find a way to clone Cory.

Start spreadin' the news...

So it was my birthday last week, and much to my surprise my fabulous husband gave me tickets to Broadway!!! I was utterly shocked, he is so dang good at surprises.

The musical of choice...I was SO excited! I have the soundtrack and just love it. I couldn't believe I was actually going to see a show on Broadway!
Along with letting me sleep in and not go to work, he gave me this giant bag of Costco trail mix I have really been wanting. :) I'm easily pleased.
Here is the yummy triple berry cheesecake he gave me. We still have some left...it was gigantic, but it's purple! He's so thoughtful.
PS here is our new house we are in. I said I would post one. Don't you love the porch? There is a swing there that I really enjoy. We really like it here.

Here is the first view we got as we stepped off of our bus. It is still so unreal to see such a huge building. But people in New York would probably say the same thing about my mountains. The typical tourist shot of Times Square. I was a bit overwhelmed at first with all of the people, but it got much better as the day went on.Nate was really excited to see "the garden"And I was totally stoked that I was on BROADWAY!!!!!Look who we found in the middle of Times Square! Singin' his pants off (ha ha ha)

Nate tried to make me go stand with him so Nate could take our picture, but I refused.

I found my favorite pal in Planet Hollywood.

Nate found his, too. We saw The Dark Knight and Nate is on a joker kick.

Here is where TRL is shot; this picture is for Stacey.

I really loved Central Park, even though it was raining.

As I'm sure most of you know, Central Park is HUGE. This picture is showing how it's just right in the middle of the city. Crazy!

This street was totally blocked off from traffic and it was just lined with vendors. We got some super sweet fancy $5 sunglasses.

We HAD to try a New York hot dog, for my dad, and they were disgusting. Most definitely the lamest $2 hot dog ever. Aren't these supposed to be famous or something? Mega gross. Nate says my dad's New York onion sauce is 90 times better than the actual New York onion sauce.

It's totally against the rules to take pictures inside the Theatre, but Nate snuck this one before the show started. Spectacular!! Center seats, too.

I couldn't belive that we were really here! I was loving every second, trying to soak it all in.

After we came out of the show, I just couldn't get enough. I was a bigger fan than ever, now having actually seen it, and was taking pictures of everything Wicked.

A bird's eye view of Ground Zero.

They are working on building The Freedom Tower in their place.

There is a flag that survived from the day the towers were hit and it is hanging right above where the new tower will be. The flag is dirty and ripped, and it's very humbling to see it.

Here is a giant billbooard showing what the freedom tower will look like in 2012.

It is so hard to imagine two gigantic buildings taking up this space, yet at the same time, it is so stange to see a giant hole and gap amongst all the other tightly wedged buildings.

This is the merchant marine memorial in the harbor. It kind of made me sick to my stomach.

There she is! Smaller than I expected...

Nate waiting to board our ferry, in his new sexy $5 aviators.

A breathtaking view from our ferry on the harbor looking to the south end of the city.The north end of Manhattan; can anyone find the Empire State Building?

Ellis Island...very cool

I have to constantly look at this picture because I still can't really believe that I was there!Nate was really happy to go to NY again, it's been since he was in high school.

As Nate told me as I was clicking away on my camera, you can never have too many pictures of Lady Liberty. And since it was such a perfect sunset night, I couldn't resist.New York Harbor. All ships have to enter in through the same route-past Ellis Island and in front of the Statue of Liberty before docking. Interesting...

The Statue is positioned directly east, toward Europe, so Nate is waving to our friends Chris and Brittany in France.One last take; sometimes I think I am a real photographic genius, until someone's head gets in the way.New York has manufactured everything, even waterfalls. I guess they felt left out or something, so they have several of these ugly waterfalls all over the harbor. They cost millions of dollars and are supposedly some art form. Whatever-weird.This is Brooklyn, with it's crazy waterfall-the tallest of them all.

The infamous Brooklyn Bridge
Random waterfall underneath the bridge; I thought it an odd place to put one, but the whole things is odd anyways.Trying to be picturesque again. The bridges, looking into NY.Nate's engineer brain was pondering about going under this gigantic bridge that was SO old, built by some measly engineers. This part of our ride made him very nervous.I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of our ferry ride. What an awesome hubby I have, and what an awesome birthday!Our fancy ferry-my first time riding a boat in the ocean!

It's been some time since I have seen such a spectacular sunset. Maybe it was all of the open sky, or being over the ocean...Or maybe it was just such a wonderful contrast from the nasty New York subway! Nonetheless, I absolutely loved it, and thought it was a perfect end to our day.

Monday night we had our good friends Ben and Kaylyn over for dinner and FHE. We have had so much fun spending time with them this summer and creating some really great memories. Kaylyn flew back to Utah tuesday and Ben will go Friday. Thenm, the day we leave here to start driving home, they start driving to Texas for Ben is going to get his PhD down there. We had a great time on Monday, and ended with, of course, Killer Uno. Those Uno cards have gone through a lot this summer. :) We will be waiting at Christmas time for a rematch, Cummings'!

Last night, the crew at Curves took me to The Melting Pot as a going away party. I'd never had fondue, but I'm pretty sure I ate enough last night to do me in for the rest of my life! Thanks girls!