A New Chapter in Our Lives

There's been a lot of changes. We are happily moved in to our new home in White Sulphur Springs , Montana. Jared starts hissweet nursing job in one week. We are so excited to be back in Big Sky Country and be near our families. I have a lot of unpacking to do but am so thankful for all of the help we received. This winter wonderland has me excited for Christmas and skiing. More later

Continue in Patience

This is my favorite talk from President Uchtdorf. It is so applicable to my life. "The work of patience boils down to this: keep the commandments; trust in God our Heavenly Father; serve Him with meekness and Christlike love. Exercise faith and hope in the Savior, and never give up."

A Visit to Jare's Mission

About a month ago we took a trip down to Jared's old stomping grounds. He served in the San Antonio mission from August 2002-August 2004. This was his first time back to visit. He had a great time reminiscing and showing me around. It was so fun picturing Jared walking the dusty country roads with a backpack full of Book of Mormons. I dug up a few pictures from his mission below. He looks like he is 14 years old in the first picture!!

The picture above is with his mom and grandpa when he returned home.
Jared mostly served outside of the city of San Antonio but we did do quite a bit of sightseeing in the city. We went to the Alamo of course and where I learned a lot and have a new respect for the men that gave their lives there. The picture below is a plaque that talks about Lt. Col. William Barret Travis drawing a line in the dirt with his sword and stated to his men, "Those prepared to give their lives in freedom's cause, come over to me!" Jared's first day in the mission his mission president took him to the Alamo and said something like this: "Whoever is willing to commit to serving the Lord for 24 months, cross the line." Jared crossed that line and I am so grateful that he worked with all his might to share the gospel with the people of San Antonio, and that he continues to be a missionary today.



After visiting the Alamo, we went to the Riverwalk. The river runs through the downtown area and there are shops and restaurants lining the water's edge. We also took the boat tour.


You might recognize the stage below from Miss Congeniality :)
We also went to the Schlitterbaun for some water fun. It is the largest water park in the world. I didn't take any pictures but we had a blast. They have water slides there that actually go uphill like a roller coaster because of water jets. It was really fun but we didn't realize how powerful they were until the end of the ride when we came up short a credit card and driver's license. Jared had kept them in a zip up pocket on his shorts. Whoops! Thankfully they were found in the filters and returned to us a week later.
We ate a ton of great food while we were there. We recommend Bill Miller's BBQ, the Longhorn Cafe, and Chuy's. I had the best mushroom swiss burger I've ever ate at the Longhorn Cafe (I've been craving mushrooms ever since) and Chuy's is Jared's favorite Tex Mex joint. All of my insides were on fire after eating there.
This is the Compeano's family Jared baptized on his mission. It was so fun meeting them, they simply adore Jared. It is so wonderful how much the gospel can change lives for the better.

Meet "Flat Maddi"

We had a visitor last week! A life-sized Flat Maddi! Maddi is our niece and her 2nd grade class read the story of Flat Stanley. If you've never heard of him he is super flat and his mom mails him to visit different places in the US to learn new things. We were pretty tickled to have "Flat Maddi" come learn about Fort Worth. As you can see we took her to the Fort Worth Stockyards where she got to ride a horse and watch a cattle drive. (The cowboy pictured above shocked us when we asked if he would take his picture with her. He was really excited because he knew exactly what it was and had taken lots of pictures with Flat Stanleys. It was so sweet of him to humor us.) We hope she had a good time, we sent her back to Boise yesterday.
The historic stockyards was a place where cattle were gathered and then driven up the "Old Chisolm Trail" to the railroads. Its a really fun place to visit as they do a mock cattle drive twice a day and they also have a rodeo and wild west show every weekend.

This is Big Jake. Yes, he is saddled. And yes, Jared decided he wanted to ride him. I couldn't stop laughing. Definitely the highlight of the trip.






Oh, and we finally did get to try those fried pickles. I wasn't a fan...too salty.

the coolest thing i've ever done

Have you ever pet a zebra? Or had a giraffe's long, black tongue lick your hand? We have :)
We went to the Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Glenrose, TX. It's a wildlife preserve with thousands of acres and lots of exotic animals. It really was the coolest thing I've ever done. You drive around in your car and the animals come up to your window for food.
They also had cheetahs and rhinos in pens.


A giraffe's nose is sooo soft!




This zebra was my buddy and followed the car for quite a ways.


I was a little worried the deer antlers were going to scratch the car.
Wildebeast. Ugly creatures. The one video of the ostrich is pretty funny. He was not shy at all and he would get right in my face. I was scared he was going to peck my eyes out!

Brother Salesmen

Who wouldn't want to buy an alarm from these two guys??
Good luck Deege! Glad you are finally here!

What? Its August?? -now with pics

I can't believe how fast this summer is going! Maybe that's cuz I'm working full time. Or maybe its cuz we are having so much fun! I apologize for being a slacker on blogging. But here's some happenings from the past month... or two? :)

First off a night at the theatre in Dallas. We went and watched Wicked with Connor, Daniel and Christal Bridge. It was my first time watching Wicked. What a cute and funny play! Although, Phantom of the Opera is still my fav. Daniel and Christal have since moved to Hawaii. We miss you guys!

Next up a visit from Jared's parents and Ariel for the 4th!! We had so much fun while they were here. I really didn't manage too take many pictures. We went to Six Flags twice. Actually, once was enough for me and Sherry...we went shopping instead. I don't like roller coasters but I was forced to go on 2 scary ones. I did ok, but the first ride we went on poor Sherry got sick. After that we stuck to gentler rides.

We also went to the Texas Rangers baseball game. They were playing the White Sox. If you know Jared's family you would know that they are baseball fanatics and die hard Yankees fans. We all got free Rangers caps but Wayne wouldn't even wear his for fear of becoming a traitor to his beloved team:)

For the 4th of July we went to church where I taught my first lesson as the sunday school teacher for the 17 year olds. I'm actually enjoying it quite a bit. Anyways, after church we went to Grapevine Lake and watched some splendid fireworks.

The next day we went to the JFK museum at Daeley Plaza. Wayne is a history buff and loved every minute there. I got quite an eerie feeling as I stood in the spot where stood when he shot JFK. If you are ever in the DFW area I highly recommend checking this place out.

The other days we chilled at the pool and did a little shopping and eating out. If you have a SAM MOON store near you, grab your purse and head on over there! Wow...it's like an accessory warehouse. I walked in and was quite overwhelmed. There are mounds and mounds of super cute purses and the walls are lined with jewelry from the ceiling to the floor. And everything is dirt cheap. And I also recommend eating at CHEDDARS. Its a casual cafe with a delicious variety of food. My favorite is the Monte Cristo. Its a ham, turkey and cheese sandwich deep fried and dusted with powdered sugar and you dip it in raspberry jam. Sounds strange I know but its delish!

I actually wrote all of the above paragraphs a couple of weeks ago but never got around to posting. Ha. So since then we've been enjoying a little more of the Texas flavor. I have recently eaten these southern delicacies (none of which have been very good for my health):

• Fried okra
• Boiled peanuts
• Cornbread dressing
• Candied yams (why not just call them sweet potatoes??)
• Beef brisket tacos YUM
• Blue Bell ice cream (the milk fat in this ice cream is in the 20 something %)
• Pork chops at Cooper's BBQ. This was a really fun place to eat. You order your meat by the pound and they pull it right off the grill and slap it onto some butcher paper and that is all you get for a plate. Need I say this was right up Jare's alley.
• And next I wanna try a fried pickle.

And tonight we are going to Saltgrass Steakhouse for a big juicy Filet Mignon. I'll fill you on this later. :)