Chicago!

For those of you who don't know, I am doing my Dietetic internship this school year through BYU. I am doing different rotations at different hospitals and clinics until May when I can take the Registered Dietitian exam and be a real Dietitian. So far I have really really enjoyed it. For the first couple of months I managed a little cafe on campus where I ordered all of the food and helped with developing recipes. For the past couple of weeks, I have started my clinical rotation at Utah Valley hospital. It has been really cool, and makes me excited to be able to work in a hospital when I am done with my internship. The most exciting thing of my internship was my trip to Chicago a couple of weeks ago with my Dietetics buddies. It was the American Dietetic Association's annual conference and expo. BYU paid for us to spend a few days in Chicago, and although I missed Dan a ton, I had lots of fun with my girlfriends. We went to the conference during the day where we learned lots in classes and got tons of free food and random junk from the expo! There were so many free granola bars and food samples, we fed some of the homeless people in Chicago with our samples while we walked down the streets! By the end of the conference, we knew what stands had the best samples, and who gave away the neatest pens, vitamins, and teaching tools! Needless to say, we only ate out for dinner, which included Chicago style pizza and hotdogs. We went on a boat tour through the city to see all of the neat architecture. We stayed right across the street from Grant Park (where Obama gave his acceptance speech) There is the really neat reflective bean as well as other kind of weird pieces of "art" in the park that we took pictures at. We also went to a Natural History museum and did some shopping on the magnificent mile. It was freezing cold in Chicago and super, super windy. I was glad to come home to 70 degree weather in Utah, and Dan of course!

Happy Halloween!!

So I have been a slacker at updating my blog because my camera is broken. However, we spent Halloween with Chelsea and Cody, so Chelsea took some cute pictures that she let me borrow. We went to our ward's Trunk or Treat. I have to say our trunk was the coolest! It was a monster mouth and we made the kids reach in his "mouth" to take a piece of candy. Cody has a sub woofer (spelling?) in his trunk and it was beating which made the monster even scarier. The night before halloween our home teacher told us that he had an alligator suit we could borrow. Of course we couldn't turn that down, so I was an alligator and Dan was Steve Irwin the crocodile hunter. After the trunk or treat we went to a party and carved pumpkins and ate treats! It was really fun. I made the witches brew which included a green ice cube hand!

Pictures!

I just found my cord in the back of my car. We sort of live out of our car, so it gets to be a little messy! Anyways, here are some pictures from DC. I think my favorite thing there was the library of congress. My pictures didn't turn out too well, but it was such a pretty building with statues and paintings all over. Our tour guide called it America's Roman temple. The museums were also amazing, but I didn't take too many pictures inside. The plane is Charles Lindbergh's plane that he flew over the Atlantic ocean with! That was in the Air and Space museum, which was Dan's favorite. In the capitol building there are 100 statues of people that were donated by each state. Do you recognize Brigham Young? We thought that was really cool. We saw so many famous things and the best part of all is that it was all free! You could spend a week there and not get bored. This is definitely my favorite place we have been all summer.

Washinton DC

So, I lost the cord that connects my camera to my computer! I took so many good pictures while we were in Washington DC, and I can't even post them! But we did go to DC last weekend, and it was really really neat. There are so many things to see there--tons of museums and building and monuments. We were only there for two days, but we got to tour the capitol, library of congress, to to three Smithsonian museums, the Holocaust museum, and saw the monuments. It is really nice because all these things are next to each other, but we did do alot of walking! I will have to post pictures if I ever find my cord.

Barbecue, Chocolate, and Philadelphia

Dan and I made it to our last stop this summer before we go back to school at the end of August. Philadelphia! We got here a week ago and have been able to see some of the sites so far. We drove to Alabama from Georgia so we could fly out of Birmingham. Before Alabama, we hadn't found any restaurant that we absolutely love. Usually we ask the hotel manager or the Daycare directors what the best place to eat is in each city. To be honest, I like my mom's home cooking way better than any place we have been. But, in Birmingham we went to the best barbecue! Barbecue is Dan's favorite, and he gobbled down like 6 ribs in 10 minutes. So if any of you are ever in Birmingham Alabama, you have to go to Dreamland's Barbecue. Their slogan is "There ain't nothin like em nowhere!"
So our first day in Philadelphia we went to see the famous liberty bell and independence hall. The Liberty Bell is a lot smaller than we imagined. We have yet to find the Rocky steps, but when we do, I will post some pictures. We spent quite a bit of our time this week lost in the ghetto of Philadelphia. And when I say ghetto, I mean the whole city! There is garbage, run down old apartments, and bums EVERYWHERE you go. After I got done with one review, the man in charge of the daycare came out side to watch me walk to my car at three in the afternoon! The streets are really confusing here as well. East coast drivers really are crazy. And you can't get out of the car and ask for directions, or you might get shot! At the end of this week, Dan and I convinced our boss to let us buy a GPS. It has been really nice!
Yesterday Dan and I drove to Hershey Pennsylvania to see the place where all of the chocolate is made! We took a tour to see how Hershey makes all of their chocolate, and went to the Hershey museum. It was a cute little town with street names like Cocoa and Chocolate Avenue.
Next weekend we are going to go to Washington D.C. and see the sites. It is crazy how fast this summer has gone by!

Georgia

So this week Dan and I are in Georgia. We really like it here. It is not as hot as Louisiana, and not quite so ghetto. These pictures are of some of the old plantation homes that we have seen while we've been in the south. The pictures don't do them justice. They are really pretty and big for being so old!
In Atlanta, we went on a tour of the CNN studio. We saw the newroom and watched them record the live news. We also walked around the Olympic park. Our favorite thing was visiting Stone mountain. It is just this huge stone mountain in the middle of this flat, green landscape. There are some civil war generals carved into the side of the mountain. Supposedly the same people who carved Mount Rushmore did this too. We didn't hike to the top because we were too lazy! When it got dark there was a really cool laser show and fireworks display. We also went to my really good friend Lissy Murphy's homecoming talk in Atlanta last Sunday. It was really fun to see her again. Dan even got to play some frisbee with her brother, so he was happy! We are headed to Philadelphia on Saturday. We'll be there for the rest of the summer until we head back to good old Provo!

Here are more pictures from New Orleans

New Orleans

So this week Dan and I traveled down to New Orleans to start reviews here next week. We stopped for one night in Baton Rouge and went to the temple. It was really pretty! I only got one blurry picture because it was raining pretty hard when we got there. It is a really small temple, but really nice. It was built the same time as the Billings temple, so a lot of the interior decorations were the same as the Billings temple.
On our way to New Orleans, the interstate we drove on was pretty much a bridge built over a swamp. I can't believe how much water is around here!
We spent the fourth of July wandering around the French quarter in New Orleans. It was quite interesting! All the streets are super narrow and the buildings are right next to each other. They are super old buildings built by the French, so they all have that kind of French look. It was really crowded--Dan said it really reminded him of Europe. There was all sorts of people selling paintings and doing magic tricks on the side of the road. We even saw some gangster teenagers doing tap dances using tennis shoes that had the metal taps attached to the bottom! There was a really pretty Catholic Cathedral that we got a few pictures of. We are hoping to go on a tour of it when it is open. We also walked down the famous Bourbon street. Let me just say that it reminded me of Sodom and Gomorrah! Everything on that street was just wicked! I would see something and say "Dan, don't look to the left!" We avoided that street after that! There was lots of weird stores that sold all types of Mardi Gras apparel. The picture of Dan with the alligator head is a real alligator head! We ate dinner at the famous Jimmy Buffets Margaritaville cafe. It was really good! We went back to the hotel before dark because we have heard that you don't want to be out at dark in New Orleans. Then we watched Harry Potter on TV and watched fireworks out of our window!

Dan and I have been in Alexandria Louisiana for the past week. It doesn't have yellow water like Monroe, so we can't complain! We have been working, relaxing, and playing plenty of Monopoly! It is our new favorite game. To be honest I don't think I ever really played the game before two months ago. We bought the game here for $10 dollars and we have probably played 20 to 30 times! Emily Elton, the other reviewer that was with us until this week, played too and she definitely saw the competitive/mean side of Dan and I! I won most of the time, so I really got into the game. We usually make up new rules every time we play, just to keep it exciting. We have now converted the Monopoly board into Sorry, which will work great because our friend Emily went to Texas to start her dietetic internship, so it is just Dan and I from now on!
Before we came to Alexandria we stayed in the little town of Natchitoches for a couple of days. It is the oldest permanent settlement in the whole Louisiana purchase. It had a really cute historic downtown with French style buildings and tons of old homes that have been turned into Bed and Breakfasts. My favorite one was the "Steel Magnolias" bed and breakfast. It is where the movie Steel Magnolias was filmed. I was so excited to see the house because that is one of my favorite movies! We also had some cajun fried meat pies while we were there.
We are excited to be heading to New Orleans next week for the fourth of July! It should be pretty interesting to see the city, even though I've heard it can be a scary place. We will stay in New Orleans for a week and then head to Atlanta Georgia for a week. After that, we will go to Philadelphia for the rest of the summer!

Road Trip!

Well, pretty much the whole summer Dan and I are on a road trip for our job traveling around to a bunch of po-dunk little towns in Louisiana. But, this past weekend we decided to take a little trip to Hot Springs Arkansas. There is an amusement park/waterpark there and one of my favorite country bands Lone Star was performing there on Saturday! And we got in free to the concert if we went to the amusement park during the day! Of course I couldn't pass up this deal, so we went to Arkansas for the weekend. It was really, really pretty. There are so many trees everywhere, you can't even see like 10 feet off the road. Arkansas also has some "mountains" that are actually small hills, but that is better than flat Louisiana! We stayed in this little tourist town that is actually the hometown of Bill Clinton. The park was super fun, the only problem was that we had to wait in line for about an hour for each ride! That stunk, but once we got on the rides, they were super fun. There were upside down, twisty roller coasters and the best water slides I have ever been on. The Lone Star concert was probably the best concert I have ever been to. We luckily got to sit in the sixth row and they played all of the songs that I like of theirs! Even though Dan was dreading the concert, he ended up liking it! I am slowly getting him to like country more and more. Unfortunately my camera was out of batteries, so we didn't get any pictures.
Besides that, we have been staying in the city of Monroe doing our food reviews. Although the people are nicer here than in Shreveport, the city smells like sewage! Not only that, but the water is yellow. There was a sign in the bathroom of our hotel that said "Monroe is known for it's yellow water, but don't worry, it is perfectly safe to drink." However, I found out that every year the people of Monroe get a warning on their door saying that drinking this water for a long time can cause liver disease. Needless to say we bought bottled water! We are traveling around to a bunch of little towns for the next week or so, and are excited to leave the stinky city!

So long Shreveport!

It has been three weeks since we came to Louisiana and so far we have spent the whole time in Shreveport. We are finally figuring out the city and can find our way almost anywhere . . . at least the important places like Walmart and Quiznoes. But this week we are moving east and will be staying in the towns of Ruston and Monroe Louisiana. I thought I should post some pictures of things we have done since we have been here in Shreveport.
Our fist adventure was to an alligator zoo. They had tons and tons of alligators that you could get really close to. They were kind of boring and just sat in the sun hardly moving. When the guy came to feed them it was really cool because they were jumping out of the water and climbing on top of each other just to get some food. There were also some other animals at the zoo that we saw.
Our favorite place here in Shreveport has been the Louisiana boardwalk. There is a huge river that runs right through the middle of downtown. On one side of the river is this really neat outside mall with tons of outlet stores (like Gap!) and restaurants and a movie theater. It was really pretty and just fun to walk around. We saw the movies Chronicles of Narnia two and the new Indiana Jones. I also got four sweaters at Gap for 25 dollars!
This past weekend we went to the "Mudbug Madness festival." It was just a bunch of people who get together and boil crawfish and drink. We only stayed for like 30 minutes because not only did the crawfish look disgusting, but it was soooo hot and humid out, we were all dripping sweat.
We had today off for Memorial Day, so we decided to go to this interactive science museum. It was actually pretty entertaining. Dan loved it and his favorite part was building this huge domino track.
Besides all that we have been getting the hang of our job, watching TV, and swimming in the pool. It has been a lot of fun and it seems like we have just been on vacation since school got out. I was really sad to miss Quincy's wedding and I wish I could have seen everyone that was there!

Our engagement story

So Emily tagged me to tell our engagement story. Since I said I was going to blog regularly, I better respond to "tagging". Dan and I had went and looked at rings, but I didn't know if he had the ring yet, or not. It was just a regular night during the summer in Billings, August 8th to be exact. We went to a surprise birthday party at Candace Jones' house. Then we came back to my house to watch a movie and cuddle (one of our favorite things to do back then) We went out on the trampoline to look at the stars and talk. Dan left to go home at about midnight. So I went upstairs and got ready for bed and laid down to fall asleep. About fifteen minutes later it sounded like someone was throwing rocks at my window. I ignored it because I didn't know what to think. So finally after about five minutes of rocks being thrown at my window, I look out and there is Dan! So I go downstairs in my pajamas and there is Dan with a bouquet of flowers. He told me he forgot to give me something and I gave him a hug and I really thought that was it. Then he said that he wanted me to pick out something. He pulled out three different little ring boxes. At that point I knew what was going on and got really excited. I realized that I still had my retainer in my mouth, and since I knew there would be some kissing going on later I said "wait just a second right there" Then I ran inside at took out my retainer then ran back out side. Dan opened up the three boxes. Inside one of them was a ringpop, and the other two had really bright, shiny rings! So I picked one and Dan got down on one knee and said some really sweet stuff and we were both a little teary eyed, and then he asked me to marry him! Of course I said yes! We just talked in my front yard until about three in the morning. It was really cute and definately a surprise! Okay so now I am going to tag Ashley, Chelsea, Andrea, and Lacee!

I'm back!

Hello everyone! So I know that most of you probably gave up on me and never check our blog anymore, but I have finally decided to start blogging on a regular basis now that school is over! A lot of exciting events have taken place lately. Dan and I finished this semester up just a couple of weeks ago. I am so excited for us to actually have free time to spend together. I graduated from BYU with my Dietetics degree! Although I do have to go back next year to complete an internship in order for me to be a dietitian. Since Dan has to go back to school in the fall it will work out just great. After graduation we went home to Billings for a week to visit our families. We slept in, ate home cooked meals, and bummed around. It was wonderful. We also stayed with my sister Ashley for a night and Dan's sister Katy for a couple of nights. It was really fun to spend that time with our families. Right now I am sitting in a hotel in Shreveport, Louisiana where we will be spending most of the summer! Dan and I are working for this company that audits government nutrition programs. I did this last summer in Texas, and this summer both Dan and I are working for this company all around Louisiana, Georgia, and maybe Virginia! We are really excited for this little adventure. We have been in Louisiana since Monday and have already adjusted to the humidity! Dan loves it. It is also really really green here. We have worked for three days doing these nutrition reviews at daycares. I am sure I will have plenty of interesting stories to blog about. We are definately the minority here and have visited daycares with names like Christ's Baptist Temple (Holiness) U.S.A. Let's just say we're not in Montana or Utah anymore!

So here are some more pictures from our wedding! It was freezing outside, so in some of them I look like I am in pain! I really was very happy though--and Dan was too.