Winter Wonderland in Cheney

So winter has finally hit Cheney. We were hoping to avoid it until after Christmas, but no such luck. Everyone and their dog has told us about how awful winter is in Cheney, but we didn't believe them until we saw the craziness for ourselves.



We are trying to remain positive though; at least, we don't have to go to work since we cannot move our car. They have shut down the day care and the copy center until farther notice. But we have to call everyday to see if we will be needed. It's kind of fun to stay in our apartment sipping hot chocolate and eating whatever we can find in storage. And we have decorated a little bit. The garland wouldn't stay up with scotch tape, so much for those commercials that say scotch tape can handle anything. But at least you can see our cute little Christmas tree.

Oh What Do You Do In The Summer Time?

I think we should report a bit about what happened during our summer, since we weren’t the most faithful bloggers during that time. In April I graduated from BYU in Marriage, Family and Human Development and had to leave my early morning BYU campus job. I had already been rejected from one grad school at the time, and no word from the other, so we prepared to bunker down in Provo for the long haul. I found a new job supervising mentally handicapped teenage boys that included three graveyard shifts during the week, and Courtney continued to work making missionary nametags. I discovered several activities to help me stay awake during those night shifts that included watching many movies, playing video games, and reading Clive Cussler.

Then I received an acceptance letter from Eastern Washington University, and so we began to get things in order to arrive in Cheney Washington towards the end of September. The imminent move and high gas prices made us put all our grand vacation plans on the back burner, so we had a few picnics and watched 4^th of July fireworks from the grounds outside the Provo Temple.

Mid august arrived and Courtney and I left our jobs in time for the Andersons to come down, for the second time that summer, see Michel Anderson graduate and then caravan with us back to their house. We had everything packed into boxes and Mama Anderson meticulously packed our over-large truck. We then made the trek up to Pasco where Courtney and I were going to be in limbo for a few weeks until our new apartment was ready in Cheney.

We had a wonderful time with the Andersons. Conner and I played many games of guess who and worms, and we designed a few killer roller coasters. We tagged along on a trip to Silverwood amusement park and rode every ride in the park before it started to hail on us. We puttered around most of the rest of the time, we got to see the new house and read a few library books; I finished the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and started The Count of Monte Cristo. Courtney and I celebrated our first anniversary by going out for dinner, swinging on swings and eating blizzards and year old cake. It was pleasant not having to work and being able to spend time with family, and Courtney and I felt that that passed for a wonderful vacation.

But all good things must come to an end, we packed up all our belongings (again) and drove them all up to Cheney. Two new ward members arrived to help us move in, so we made them carry all the heavy stuff to our second floor apartment. After a day or two of steady unpacking we were pretty much settled in, and we spent our time orienting to the town, searching for a job for Courtney and watching movies and playing games.

Courtney celebrated her birthday last week and the Andersons came up to party with us. We played a rousing game of apples to apples and guillotine. But the summer that seemed so long was bound to end, classes started again, and Courtney found a job working at a local day-care center that she is trying to like. So in answer to inquiries, we had a wonderful summer and are looking forward to another great year.

Cheney WA

After a brief stop in Pasco, Courtney and I arrived in Cheney for school. The first week is sorta over and done. All my classes are Monday and Tuesday, so the rest of the week is for homework. Courtney has found a job and we are finally getting settled. We have no internet at our apartment, so that is a bummer, but besides that our place is pretty nice, I walked the camera through the place so you can see it in all it's glory.


Cheney is pretty nice, it is small, and we live on the far end of town from the university, a little more than a mile from classes, but people come in from Spokane, and even farther to take classes in the program, so 1 mile away is not so bad. the ward is nice, we don't have callings yet, but I'm sure we will soon.
So, things are coming along, we hope to hear from everyone soon

We are One!

As of august 25th we are oldy-weds. We went out to a fancy dinner, went swinging at a park then got Blizzards. We rounded out the evening by eating year old cake, that actually tasted quite good.

The Salt Lake Trip

Last Saturday, we went to Salt Lake to see all the sights before leaving Utah. We thought we needed a last hooray before moving to Washington for the next couple of years. We left early in the morning and only drove aimlessly around the city looking for a parking place for a little while. We eventually found a place several blocks from Temple Square, and finally made our way in and got to the temple.

We looked around the grounds for a little bit while waiting for the session to start. We look only a little tired in these pictures.



After our session, we ate on Temple Square at the Nauvoo Cafe and had some fresh, hot sandwiches. We then hiked back to our car and made our way across town to the Hogle Zoo. Some of our favorite sights included the baby giraffe, the Killer Cute House Cat, the tiny owl (right out of Harry Potter), several different monkeys, and a rare white skinned, blue eyed alligator (there are only 10 in the world). The Zoo is also equipped with large misting fans to cool people down in the hot dry weather, which were very refreshing, especially since the zoo seemed to suffer from a serious lack of working drinking fountains.

After our tour of the Zoo, we noticed that we were right across the street from the "This is the Place" Monument, and it has been a little while since either of us had been there, we stopped and snapped a few pictures. By that time we were tired, so we jumped back in the car and drove home as fast as we could.