Dad Comes to Virginia!!

Dad had to go to D.C. to speak at a conference and so he drove down for the weekend. It was really great to see my dad and to spend Easter morning with him!

SVU put up a new 9 hole disc golf course on campus. So, we took my dad disc golfing Saturday morning.

We also took a little walk to Panther Falls and had a picnic.

Dad, Jessica and Tyler

Tyler and Jessica on the trail

We also went up to the Blue Ridge Parkway and took a little drive.

This is the view on the Parkway of the little town of Buena Vista below.

We had a pretty good weekend and it was great to be around family. Thanks for coming Dad!!

So, I updated the blog a bit, found a free background (unfortunately with that little 'cutestblogontheblock.com' thing to the left), and added some pictures from our wedding and honeymoon. I think it looks pretty good...

Anywho... Tyler and I have been doing really pretty good. We have a month left of school (3 papers to write, a few more tests and finals), we are leaving for Europe on May 5th (thanks to my wonderful mum), and we do have jobs. We are working at Tuscany Italian restaurant-which I actually really like, but our hours are not what we hoped and minimum wage in Virginia is pretty pathetic. They keep telling us that it will get busier soon. Hopefully!!

So, about Europe... I am so excited! We (my Mum, Erik, Jessica, Tyler and I) are going to England, France, Italy and Germany (in that order). I am really excited because I get to see my friend Laura, who is from Germany and I have not seen in 2 years.

London, England
Paris, France

Vernazza, Italy (we are also going to Venice) Luneburg, Germany (where Laura lives!)

I just thought I would let people know where we are going and I will of course blog about it when we get back. Until next time....

Another D.C Trip

We went up to Washington D.C. on Tuesday to go up to the temple. We were able to use one of SVU's huge vans to haul Candace, Cisco, Christian, Heidi, Tyler and I up to D.C. We left around 7 AM and got to the temple at about 10. After we did a session and ate lunch, we drove into downdown D.C. We parked along way away because we did not know we could park closer and the van is so huge and difficult to park. So, we had a nice long walk to the D.C. Mall (museum area between the Washington Monument and the Capitol Building) Along the walk we got some pictures of the Jefferson Memorial.

The Natural History Museum

Dinosaurs

Tyler was so excited to see real dinosaur bones. Here he is standing next to the T-Rex.

Another of the T-Rex

This is the triceratops and its head was huge! This picture does not really do it justice....

More dinosaurs...with Christian and Heidi in the background.

This is a baby duckbill dinosaur
Tyler thought this was the scariest dinosaur.

Pre-Historic Mammals
There used to be tiny little horses!

This is a giant sloth.... at least 15 ft high or taller!

Me standing next to a Wooly Mammoth

Ocean Animals

A dead giant squid---about 36 feet long (Tyler thought it was really cool)
There was also a really cool mammal exhibit, but we did not take any pictures.

The Butterfly Garden

The Butterfly Garden actually costs about $6, but it is free on Tuesdays, so we got lucky!

A huge butterfly!


The Hope Diamond
There was also a really cool rock and gem exhibit, but we only got a picture of the Hope Diamond.


Walking Back to the Van

We decided to stop at the Jefferson Memorial and we also had a really nice walk around the water.

Thomas Jefferson

It says, "I have sworn upon the alter of God."

We look tiny....

The view from the bridge.

After leaving D.C. we went to Ikea, had a great time and headed back to BV. It was a really fun trip!

I am sorry that it has been so long... I have taken a few pictures over the last few weeks. The first set of pictures were taken about 2 weeks ago when we had a very nice little bit of snow with sunshine to follow. The second group were taken last weekend when Cisco, Candace, Tyler and I all went up to the D.C. Temple. Unfortunately, I have not yet been able to snap any photos of Ricky and Jessica, but I shall try...

Our new Institute building on a beautiful day with just a dusting of snow.

Chandler Hall (brick) and Main Hall (red)

Durham Hall (where most of my classes are)

At the D.C. Temple

Beautiful Temple on a beautiful day

The spires looked amazing in the sunlight

Cisco, Candace, me, and Tyler

Tyler and I really enjoyed going up to the temple and we want to go back again, as our car permits, but hopefully we can carpool again!

Sorry again, about taking so long to put these pictures up. As I said, I will get some pics of Jess and Ricky up here soon!!--Or--I will take some and she can put them on her facebook... Whatever she wants...

I will blog again soon!

Our New Home

The Living Room

Another view, with a pyramid of books...

Our TV stand without a TV.

Another angle...

The Dining Room

The Dining Room...from another angle.

The Kitchen--the side with the sink, and more counter space!

Another angle of the same.

The other side of the kitchen, gas stove, refrigerator, ets.

A view of the whole kitchen!

The Hallway The Bathroom

The Spare Room, where Tyler set up his disc golf cage...

Our Bedroom, which does not have much in it yet, except our bed.

We have a really big walk in closet, which I really like!

So far, we really like this apartment. It is pretty spacious and fairly nice. The floors are sort of cold and make the rooms echo a little, but besides that I like it. We just need a book shelf, a desk, a T.V, and jobs.

Tyler and I are doing really well and are liking SVU so far. We really like being able to take some classes together. We have a pretty good ward and we are liking Virginia.

Thats all for now!