Summer '11

So Dan was excited for the summer to come. Because with the summer came no school. No more teachers (students), no more books! But before he finished we had to go to Prom. You know get the whole high school experience. Well I actually never went to my prom. So if was fun to go. Our prom pictures!!
So he was excited to have a break. So in his spare time he did a lot of work on our Ford Focus which reached 100 thousand miles and he started helping people by changing their oil. Quite the handy man mechanic!


Well right when Dan was finishing school Dan's Dad came to visit. We showed him around town and did all the fun stuff to do in Houston. We went to NASA and Kemah board walk. Good thing we got year round passes to NASA because we sure used them well!

Dan had his birthday in June. So I threw him a great birthday party!

My good friend Yesenia Garcia got married at the end of June. She was such a good friend to me when I interned hear in Houston and was all alone. It was so great to be there when she went through for her endownment and for her sealing. It really reminds me what a great gift we have to know the gospel of Jesus Christ and be able to be sealed for time and all eternity.

Congrats Yesenia!!
We have good memories in Houston together. I'll miss seeing you.

My brother came home from his mission in London, England. So we had to go and see him!

It was really great to go home. My sister and Hunter also went home so we were almost all together missing Mike. We did a lot of fun stuff as a family. We went downtown Ottawa on Canada Day. We went hiking, and strawberry picking. And we went camping in upstate New York. We went to the Hill Cumorah Pageant. Unfortunatly, the week went by way to fast because we had to go back to Houston and work. It was so great to see Niall again!

I forgot my camera on the trip so I will have to get pictures from my parents. But I did find some pics on my Ipod touch!

Spring '11

So unfortunately because we went to Seattle for Christmas we missed out on the snow. It did snow 1-2" of snow a couple days before we left which was great. And with January and February brought nothing but very nice weather. No winter! Well I was a little sad but it was nice not to have to wear jackets.

March - My parents and Kala, Mike and Hunter came to visit us. They all had March break/ Spring break at the same time. So we had a whole week of fun. (Well I still had to work!). But we had fun we went to the beach (yep the beach is nice in March). And we went to a Dallas Stars hockey game.

Unfortunately, none of my pics are on this computer.


April- Mark and Katrina came to visit us. Katrina had just graduated from BYU and had some time off. It was really great to have them visit with us. By April we had really nice weather and we bought a boogy board and had lots of fun at Galveston beach. Mark served his mission in Galveston so he gave us a good tour. We went to NASA and a Houston Astros game.


NASA

Christmas '10

So for Christmas last year we went to Dan's home. It was really great because Heather came home too as well as her little boy Jackson. It was great to be able to see Heather and Jackson.

So for Dan's family we still have yet to be all together, because we were missing Andrew.

A great part about returning to Seattle was that my friend Janie moved to Seattle. So it was go great. I was able to hang out with Janie twice on our visit. Miss ya Janie.
Katrina and Mark

Heather and Jackson

We also had a great New Year's Eve with Dan's Mom. We went to the movies and had Chinese, a little tradition in my family!

October & November '10

So, we were still playing soccer all the time. But we found time to eat lots of the holidays. We had friends and the missionaries over for Canadian Thanksgiving.
We had a missionary from Canada. Elder Leishman. and it was a good reason for me to cook a nice Canadian Thanksgivin meal.



Than, came American Thanksgivin and I love to cook so I had our friends over and my sister Kala, Mike and Hunter came to visit.
It was great being able to see my sister again. It is nice how we are only 4 hour driving distance. Too bad now we will be pretty far distance from each other. Anyways, since Kala was there for Thanksgiving we celebrated an early Christmas because we weren't going home.

September '10

So by September we had good friends and had fun things to do. We also started coaching soccer teams. I coached 2 teams a boys U7 and a girls U9 team. Dan coached a boys U10 team. It was a lot of fun, it did take 4 days of the week and most of our weekends.

We also went to the Dynamo (professional) Houston soccer team with our friends. And high school football and soccer games.

We tried to go to the temple as often as we could. We have a great temple in Houston, and it is only 1 1/2 hours drive. Not too bad.

As well in September, we were able to go to Washington, D.C to see Dan's cousin Jessica get married. It was really great to be there for her.
And I loved being able to go and see the Washington, D.C. temple (is where my parents were married)

We stayed an extra day to be able to tour the sites. We got to see a lot but we will probably go back again someday to spend more time visiting all the museums.

August '10

After moving into Houston everyone said we moved at the wrong time of the year. Well, it was pretty crazy. The temperature in Houston is pretty ridiculous it is about 38C / 100F. And that is without the humidity of 90%. It is hot everywhere, the shade does not help. And at night it gets down to maybe 30C/85F if you're lucky!. Well we learned that most people just don't go outside. But not us no way.


We still tried to visit and do lots of things in Houston. My parents came to visit us in August. Which was really nice. We went to a Houston Astros game and the beach.



Dan got a job being a physics high school teacher in west Houston. So his commute was 1 1/2 hours each way. Pretty crazy.

Catch Up June '10

So in June'10 I started my job.

My title is an Analyzer Systems Engineer. And I was so excited to get business cards with my name on it that said Dow Chemical.

So my job has been really great. I really enjoy the work I do and I like my co-workers. It is crazy how much more I know now than I did when I started. It was a lot to learn at first but now I am plugging away, doing about 7-10 projects all at once with projects ranging from $ 30 thousand to $ 2 million. (small projects).

But actually before starting my job we went to Ottawa to visit my family (it had been a whole year and a half since i'd been home) and we went home for my cousin's wedding. it was also really nice because my sister went home to visit too.

Shona married Dan Kean. It was great to be able to be there for her wedding.

I also got to see Trafaun Tang. One of my best friends! we have so many great memories!

I showed Dan some of the cool things in Ottawa. Here are the Parliament Buildings.

We actually left our apartment in a mess before we left for Ottawa. So I came home to cleaning, unpacking and starting my new job!

Catch Up Cont. Europe

So Catch up continues. May 2010

After Graduation Dan and I took 3 weeks and went back packing across Europe. We literally just took a backpack each and we slept in hostels. We bought an Ipod touch right before we left which was so great because we found lots of WiFi spots and was able to get maps and book hostels. So Dan served his mission in Barcelona, Spain and always wanted to go back. And I did a study abroad in Europe and it was great to show Dan some of the places I had been. oh yeah and I speak French, so language wise we got along pretty well. We went to Spain, France and Italy and spent about a 1 week in each country. We had lots of fun and got lots more memories. So here is some highlights of our trip.

We started our trip in Malaga, Spain


Then Dan really wanted to see La Alhambra which is a Muslim palace built in the 14th century. It is really cool, because it is very different than European architecture.
An overview of the whole palace. The palace is in Granada. We also saw Flamanco dancing in Granada as well.

We then travelled to Madrid. We went to a bull fight during the big festival in Madrid. It was pretty cool to watch.

In Madrid we also saw the Royal Palace of Madrid where the King lives. And lots of other attractions. We went to the temple too.

We went to El Prado in Madrid as well. Which we really like going to great art galleries in the world. Dan always tells me he looks like Hadrian (the roman) which now I see it, he really does look like him.

After Madrid, we travelled to Zaragoza. One of Dan's mission areas. They had great castles there.

And beautiful basilica's. Zaragoza.

We then travelled to Barcelona. We had both seen a lot of the sights in Barcelona, so we saw new sites. Gaudi apartments.

We just walked around a lot of Barcelona, and in the parks. We also took a trip to Terragona, and visited an old friend from the mission.

After Spain, we took our touring to France. Where we it was really nice to be able to speak French again. I wasn't so rusty as I had thought it came back. So here we are in Avignon. Sur le pont d'Avignon. L'on y danse, l'on y danse. It's a famous song!

Avignon also has the Pope palace when they had 2 pope's they built this huge palace its pretty cool!

Then we went to one of my favorite cities. Marseille. We went to see the chateau d'If (from count of Monte Cristo)

We also just had a little more time than the last time I was there to walk around the city.

After Marseille, we kept to the south of France and visited the French Riviera. Which has beautiful blue water. Here we are in Nice.

We took a day trip to Cannes, because we happened to be there during the famous film festival. Didn't see anyone famous, but who would I know. I guess we say the red carpet of a film and saw famous directors!

So then we headed to Italy. I love visiting Italia. Too bad I don't speak Italian, I could fit right in! Well we went to Genova first and then went to Pisa. (Dan has all our cool pictures holding up the tour).

We then continued to Firenze. Which has so many wonderful things to see. We first went to the Uffizi. We saw David in the square and did lots of other sites.

We then shared a rental car and went to tour Tuscany. Tuscany is so pretty, we will have to come back and spend a whole week in Tuscany!

A view of Firenze.

Then we went to my favorite city. ROMA. I love everything about Rome. It is full of old roman architecture and lots of things to see. Here is the Trevi Fountain.

We also visited the Vatican and St Peter's Basilica. We actually even went to mass there with a Cardinal.

Dan loved seeing the Colosseum.

That conclude our trip. We flew out of Rome and we were sad to leave. We had tons of fun and hopefully will make it back again. But we will travel the rest of the world first. My next trip is to Asia, maybe China or Singapore.

Catch Up

So I have had this week off for vacation and Dan is starting med school so he is busy in orientation so my sister requested I catch up on my blog. So this post will be a long catch up for what has happened in our lives this past year. So since we graduated college.
Here is a basic overview:
After graduation we took some time off before starting jobs. So we visited Dan's family in Seattle and then took a nice long 3 week backpacking tour of Europe. We went back to Dan's mission and went through Spain, France and Italy. (Pictures to come).
Then I started my job at Dow Chemical as an engineer last June. Which so far my job is great, I love my job and the people I work with.
My parents came to visit us in August '10, and Dan got a job right before school started as a high school physics teacher. (He liked the teaching, but he commuted 1.5 hours everyday)
Then we started to get involved in the community, both Dan and I coached soccer so that left our weeknights busy with practice and weekends full with games. I was called to the Young women presidency and Dan was called to Elder's quorum presidency. Our callings, community involvement and jobs kept us really busy. We also had great friends here Willford's and Matthew's who are close in age to us and we would spend lots of time hanging out with them.

In September '10 Dan's cousin got married in Washington D.C., and we went to support her. So we took the weekend to enjoy her wedding and see some of the sights.

October and November we celebrated Thanksgiving (Canadian and US) with lots of friends. Kala, Mike and Hunter came to join us for U.S Thanksgiving. And we had an early Christmas with them!

December we were ready to take a break (since when you work full time there is a lot less vacation!!) We went to Seattle for Christmas and was able to spend 2 weeks with Dan's family. I was also lucky to spend time with one of my best friends Janie Sandberg. (college roommate) Janie now lives only a couple minutes from Dan's grandparents.

January and February we started our normal lives again. We started up a pick up soccer game on Saturdays. Our soccer games grew from 4 people to now we have 15-20 people come every Saturday! we love playing soccer. Unfortunately, we missed the snow and was not able to get time off or money to go on a ski trip up in Utah.

March - Came March break or sping break as you may call it. My Mum, Mike and Dan all had the same scheduled break. So my parents, my sister and her family all came to spend the week with me because I still had to work! Oh well. We enjoyed time at the beach, and went to Dallas for a hockey game.

April- We had a nice visit from Mark and Katrina. Katrina graduate BYU and they came for a week's visit. We went to NASA, galveston and had lots of fun together.

June- Dan's Dad came to visit, we took him to NASA and Kemah. Dan was glad to be finished school! We enjoyed the time off and fixed up our car. We had a party for Dan's birthday. My friend Yesenia was married at the Houston temple.

July - I got to go home to Ottawa!! Niall returned from his mission and we went to see the whole family. We spend lots of time together and enjoyed Canada Day, strawberry picking, hiking, and we went camping in upstate New York and went to the Hill Cumorah Pageant.
The month ended with us doing lots of stuff in Houston before we took off to Kirksville.

Aug- Which is almost all caught up. We packed up our apartment and drove to Kirksville, Missouri. Dan is starting MedSchool at A.T. Still University studying to be a Doctor of Osteopathy. I am so proud of him. And he is excited to get started on school and his career.

So actually, I will be keeping my Dow job in Houston until December and Dan will be doing school in Kirksville. So, yes we will be apart for a while. But I will visit Dan when I can and we always have Skype!

So, we had lots of fun in Houston, TX. And loved having visitors. So if you ever want to come by Kirksville, Missouri give us a call. But it is not so much in the middle of nowhere, yes it is a small town. We are only 2 hours from Nauvoo, IL and that is actually our stake and temple disctric! Sweet!