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!

Graduation

So its been a really, really long time since I've posted. So here is an update of graduation, our Europe trip and life in Lake Jackson, TX is to come.

Dan and I graduated together in April. It was great to be able to walk together. My parents came to see us graduate. Kala and Hunter were also able to come visit. It was great to have my family there.

The last day of finals I had a beaver tail party which I invited all my friends. It was a great way to say goodbye to lots of my friends I had during my 5 years at BYU. It was sad to say goodbye but hopefully our paths will cross again. The next day was commencement with Elder Christofferson as the keynote speaker. The marriott center was packed with graduates, they actually ran out of space for the graduates and had to move the families back many rows. Dan and I sat beside Jeremy at commencement. I was able to see my best friend Janie one more time before we both took off to the real world!
I also wanted to thank my parents for all their support they gave me during my college years. They have always been there over the past 5 years. Thank you Mum and Dad! As a thank you I gave them a stole of gratitude.
We went to went to dinner at the alumni center afterward.

The next day was convocation. Since we are both engineers we had the same convocation. I still sat with my chemical engineering friends and Dan was with his friends. But we saw each other walk. I walked with Elizabeth Call my best friend in ChemE. It was fun to graduate with her. We went to Europe together, then we were room mates the hard core junior year of engineering and we really helped each other out. Junior year we both dated guys and got engaged. After convocation the Engineering department had a lunch for all the graduates and their families. It was also a good time to say thanks to all my teachers and goodbye to fellow classmates.

We had to take a picture in front of the Clyde. It was our second home for the last 3 + years. We have spent many hours and late, late nights at the Clyde.

That evening we had a wonderful graduation dinner. My mum has always wanted to have dinner at the roof restaurant. So we enjoyed a wonderful dinner and a beautiful sunset behind the temple.

I love skiing with my dad because he taught me so well. But I have now surpassed the teacher! We go skiing every time my dad comes to visit. This time we went to Snowbird and Dan came too.
Family picture with beautiful spring blossoms. Hunter was not too happy with the sun in his eyes.

Well I had 5 great years at BYU and learned a lot. Now I am an engineer and I guess its time to move on and new experiences and new goals to accomplish.

History of Creativity Project

Currently, I am in History of Creativity II. We are covering history from Renaissance to present day. The class requires a very large final project that makes up a 1/3 of your grade. So I chose to creatively invent new recipes for desserts that relate to people and persons in history.

Everyone should check it out

LENSWEETS.BLOGSPOT.COM

It will now be my dessert/food blog. So you should keep checking it out. I'll update it with great recipes I have found or invented so everyone can try them. Thanks to everyone who helped me with my project. I will start updating more often now that school is almost over!
Here is a little preview:

Delicious Surprise CookiesRich Raspberry Truffles

Fall Recap

Well, I hope you have enjoyed the recap of our last fall semester. The beginning of Winter semester is to come shortly. But just so everyone knows, I have accepted my job with Dow Chemical as an analyzer engineer and will start mid June. We will be moving to the Houston, Texas area. I am so excited and can't wait. Dan did get accepted to some great DO schools, but deferred his enrollment until next year. He let me live my dream job for a little while. He really is the greatest husband. He is also taking mcat prep classes and retaking the mcat to achieve a higher score in hopes of getting into schools in Houston next year.

Right now, I am enjoying a relaxed final semester and watching all the Olympics I can and sporting my Canadian mittens which I love. They are really hard to get but my mum is the best and gave them to Kala and I for Christmas. GO CANADA GO!

December 09

With December came the end of our fall semester. It was nice to be finished. I actually learned a lot in my graduate classes. I did learn a lot of useful ChemE related material. But if nothing else I did gain a lot more confidence in myself in becoming a great chemical engineer. I was slightly afraid of grad school and thought I would not be good enough but after these classes I did very well in, I realized I can really do anything and I will be a great Engineer. I heard back from my supervisor at Dow when I was working there that they filed the patent I was working on. So in the near future I can have a patent with my name on it. Pretty cool eh!
In December I worked with the College of Engineering and Technology and but together many school outreaches. We went to five different schools and had 8 visits to different elementary and high school classes. I love teaching people about how great engineering is especially chemical engineering and plastics!

December was also a difficult month on decisions to be made. I received my job offer from Dow to work as an analyzer engineer. I was really excited because as most of you know I have wanted to work for Dow for the past 3 years and now it is finally coming true. Although, we still wanted Dan to be able to go to Med school. And Dan heard good news as well, he scheduled three school visits to DO (doctor of osteopath) schools. I postponed my acceptance to Dow until Jan 4th in order to give us time to think over the decision. After finals we drove to Seattle for Christmas break although now we did not have our Subaru. Fortunately enough Tiffany had the Honda Civic which we drove. It was good weather driving there. We enjoyed a great couple weeks with Dan's mum and dad. We did a bunch of Christmas shopping as well as bowling with both families.


We enjoyed dinner and a play (White Christmas) with Dan's dad's side of the family. I enjoyed going downtown Seattle with the beautiful Christmas lights.




Dan's sister Katrina was married in the Seattle temple to Mark on Dec 29. It was a beautiful wedding. They looked so happy.

Although some would have said it was a cold day. Katrina did a great job sticking through the cold with short sleeves.


Can you see the cold air?


The Morgan's


Dan's second family the Riley's. Pat is his best friend.

We had a great Christmas and wedding. It actually was very nice weather. Every time I go to Seattle it has only rained one day out of my entire holiday. I guess I bring the sun! A little ray of sunshine. Even though the weather was nice, I really missed the snow. So we drove to Rexburg to get our fix. Well, my parents were visiting Kala for Christmas and helping her with the baby. We drove to Rexburg spend a couple days with my parents. We surprised them on New Year's Eve.