Sunday, February 21, 2016

Guy's 26th Birthday

February 13th we celebrated Guy's 26th birthday. He woke up saying that he felt old, I think it had more to do with the fact that he was fighting some kind of bug all week. Guy chose what he wanted for breakfast so after sleeping in, we went to Target and picked up Toaster Strudels and Chocolate Milk. He was glad he was able to try them.  After breakfast he wanted to open his presents. For his birthday he got: money, a knife sharpener and a new concealed carry holster. His holster was delayed coming due to the Valentine's rush so he wasn't able to open my gift until Wednesday when it came.  It was pretty cold on Guy's birthday so we weren't able to go outside and go shooting like he wanted too. So, after opening presents we went to Salvation Army, and then Goodwill. Guy tried on a few different things, but he didn't find anything for himself. He did however find me a sweet Iowa State zip up hoodie and a new Marmot jacket! We spent a grand total of $6! Ha! We also stopped by the library to pick up a movie to watch and to look around and see if we wanted to pick anything else out. After the grand shopping adventure and outing we came back and ate some lunch and I finished making Guy's
birthday cake.  For his birthday cake he wanted to have the same cake he's had for the past 2 years. It's a peanut butter/german chocolate cake made with a cream cheese frosting. In the 3 years I've made it, I learned it tastes the best when you use all name brand ingredients and not just the Aldi generic brands. Guy said the cake will be his new birthday tradition. 




Kirsten Radke came over that night to help us celebrate. For dinner Guy wanted: Aldi brats, Aldi 'cardboard' sausage pizza, Sun Chips (Garden Salsa variety) and French Onion dip. He said it all tasted great! I added a salad to the mix for a vegetable.  We also watched the Martian that night since Kirsten hadn't seen it. Loved the movie even after a second time! Kirsten's husband Scott had to work that night so we sent a piece of cake home to him. 


On Sunday (the 14th) we somewhat celebrated Valentine's Day. I made banana muffins for breakfast while Guy went to his early church meeting. We ate breakfast together once he got home. We also made chocolate dipped strawberries. I learned to store them on the counter when you are done making them, and to not dip the strawberries if they are still wet. After church we went to the Taylor's for Sunday dinner. For dinner we had roast beef, potatoes, corn and bread. They made Guy a snowman birthday cake! 



Mother nature gave Guy warmer weather the weekend after his birthday, so we were able to go out and go shooting like he wanted to do this year to celebrate. He had a great birthday and is looking forward to all of the new adventures in 2016!

Sunday, February 7, 2016

Our First Iowa Caucus

This year Guy and I figured that we needed to participate in the Iowa Caucus. Neither of us had ever participated and we decided that with our last election year for a while in Iowa we needed to participate. We found our caucus location and it wasn't too far away. The traffic wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. We had some bad weather coming in but I don't think there was more than 100 people at our caucus. I thought the whole process was pretty boring. We showed up and signed in. Then we sat down. They did some part business like voting for the secretary then the chair person. After that  3 minutes were devoted for a representative from each candidate to speak. Some of the candidates didn't have someone and in that case we just skipped them. We then voted on who we wanted as a candidate. While they were counting the ballots representatitve Stephen King showed up and talked about the candidates and he endorsed Ted Cruz. They returned and told us who won our precinct which was Rubio, followed by Cruz, in third was Trump, and Carson was 4th. Guy and I left shortly after that as there wasn't too much left other than city business.




They counted ballots behind us

Representatitve Stephen King
We're glad we participated in the caucus and now we can say that we are true Iowan's and have done our civic duty. Plus that way when we get to Texas we can say we have participated!

Date Night

Guy and I went bowling a few weeks ago for our weekly date. It's hard sometimes to find things to do in the Winter. There hasn't been enough snow to spend time doing the snow activities but it's been to cold to get outside and just do the warmer weather things. This time we went bowling. The last time we went bowling I beat Guy. This time he beat me in both of the games we played. We mostly had the bowling area all to our selves. Later a few other guys came to bowl and as we were finishing up another family came out to play. It's nice having the university close by so that we can do things for a relatively low cost.
Guy bowling his spare

Walt Disney World Race Weekend

My parents arriving for the flight to Orlando
January was kind of a whirlwind. 3 days after getting back from the holiday travel I flew down to Florida to participate in the Walt Disney World Race Weekend 2016. My parents and Rachel also went and participated. Rachel and my dad were doing the dopey challenge while my mom and I participated in the half marathon. The Dopey challenge involves running the 5k, 10k, half marathon and marathon for a grand total of 48 miles that weekend. My parents and I were on the same flight from Chicago to Orlando which ended up being pretty fun. We needed to be there Wednesday so that Rachel and my dad could check in for their first race the next day. The set up was pretty cool. They had us all check in at the ESPN sports complex. Each race had it's own area where you checked in to pick up your race number, your bag and shirts. They also had a bunch of different venders where you could buy Disney  race gear as well as stuff from Garmin, Nike, Asics and others.  After getting our stuff we went and checked into our hotel (Shades of Green), eat dinner and picked up our park tickets, and set our fast passes. We spent the rest of the night prepping our stuff and laying things out. We went to bed early that night since Rachel and Dad had to be on the bus by 4 to get to the start of the race. 
Mom and I picking up our race gear

Designing our Car
Thursday- Rachel and Dad woke up early and got on the bus for the 5k. The race started at 5, but they didn't start running until almost 6. They took it a little slower since they had so many races but they were done in about 30 minutes. The 5k was around and in Epcot. Mom and I decided to wait for them to get back before we went to any parks. Once they got back we let them get cleaned up, and Rachel took a nap and then we went to Epcot. Epcot was super fun! I hadn't been to the redone test track so it was fun to see how Chevy revamped it. The new ride showcases some of the new things Chevy is working on as well as engineers in the company and how they design the cars. Right before you go on a ride you get to design what your car will actually look like. The car then shows up on your ride and you can see what your car's responsiveness, efficiency, capability and power all are and how they rank next to other people on the ride. Another ride that we went on was a design your own roller coaster ride. Rachel and I decided to design a bobsled ride instead. It was pretty fun. We had lots of turns and twists in the ride and it was only about 30 seconds long. We walked around the World Showcase as well. We got to see some sweet Chinese Acrobats in China, and the drummers in Japan. We spent a couple more hours walking around the park and riding a few rides/looking around and then we headed back to the hotel.

Peter Pan ride
Friday- It was pretty rainy all day Friday. Rachel and dad got up early to go run the 10k. The 10k was all around Epcot as well. Mom and I decided to head straight to the Magic Kingdom without waiting because we wanted to get on one of the brand new rides. Rachel needed a longer nap (she has mono) to recover after the race this time. So mom and I went and started in the park first thing. We rode the new Snow White and the Seven Dwarves ride. The ride has each individual car move around. Because of the rain the park stayed pretty empty for the morning. It was nice because we got to go on a lot of rides without any lines but it wasn't as nice because we were pretty wet. Disney re did one of the areas in the park and so now there is also the Beast's castle from Beauty and the Beast. It was fun to see there area. One of my favorite rides is Space Mountain. We've noticed in the last few years it's not as nice as the other rides because it's old and it shakes a lot. Your head really rattles while you're on the ride. Mom really enjoyed riding the redone Peter Pan ride. Now as you wait in the line you get to walk through the family's house and be in the kids room. There's also pictures depicting the story of Peter Pan told along the way. It was pretty neat to see. Mom and I also went on the Buzz Lightyear ride. I totally smoked her in blowing up Zerg. We also went and visited Tom Sawyer Island. The island is great! It's basically an enclosed playground that kids can run through on. We had run running in the fort and going through the tunnels. Even my claustrophobic mother went through them. One of the nice things about the race weekend is that they leave the Christmas decorations up until the very end of the race weekend so we got to see that castle lit up. We stayed in Magic Kingdom for pretty much the whole day. We went back later that evening and ate the pasta bar at the buffet that night.

Dancing!
Mom and I getting ready to run
Saturday- Saturday we had to wake up at 2:30 to get on the bus by 3 to be at the race start. There were some rather enthusiastic runners that early in the morning. Most of us weren't that energetic. The most disconcerting part of the race is watching the starting ceremony multiple times before you actually start. The run itself wasn't too bad. I stuck with my mom for all of it, while dad and Rachel started earlier then we did. Mom was nervous about the race but she did great! We ran through Epcot to the Magic Kingdom and then finished back up in Epcot. At each mile marker there was a different disney character. They also had water and power aid every mile so we stayed pretty well hydrated. My only complaint was that when we got to mile 8 all they had left was coffee flavored gu energy gel. So mom and I finished the race without anything. All though, they gave us a snack pack when we got to the end of the race. The staff was also really nice and I was able to get 2 bananas. The race requires that you maintain a 16 minute mile pace while racing, in order to be done on time. They do open the park at the regular time so depending on how long you take, you potentially are running with visitors around. After we finished the race we went back and got caught cleaned up at the hotel. Later that evening we went to Disney Hollywood Studios. It's in the process of being redone so there wasn't much to do in the park. We rode the Rock-n-roller coaster and the Tower of Terror. The park is being transitioned to incorporate a new Star Wars park, so most of it is closed. We did go see a film about the Star Wars movie and all of the actors and directors making the movie. None of us brought rain coats with us to the park and we regretted it when the clouds opened up and we got soaked waiting for the bus back to the hotel. We were glad when we got to the hotel and we're slightly sore from all the walking. 
Running through Cinderella's castle
Finishing in Epcot
Race finisher!
Families that run together stay together!
Sunday- Dad and Rachel got up and got ready for the marathon. The marathon goes through all 4 disney parks as well as the ESPN sports complex. They start in Epcot then go to the Magic Kingdom, then Animal Kingdom, then the ESPN sports complex, Hollywood Studios and then back to end in Epcot. Mom and I got up early and met dad and Rachel as they came running past the hotel we were staying in. We tried to catch them in Animal Kingdom, but due to the road traffic we didn't make it to them. They did say that in Animal Kingdom they brought the animals out so that you could see the animals during your run. Mom and I spent some time in the Animal Kingdom. We tried to do the Animal Safari and a few other rides before the pack got too crowded. We went back to Epcot to try and catch them as they finished the race. We were able to see them as they got close to the finish, which was really nice. They said they enjoyed seeing us as well. A nice boost towards the end. Once they finished the race we all met up at the hotel and went back to Animal Kingdom. There we rode the Kilimanjaro Safari. We saw a few different animals then we had seen during the day. Afterwards we saw the Lion King stage show. It was well done and they had a lot of audience participation. We ended the day by riding the Expedition Everest. It's a really neat ride. The roller coaster goes backwards and has a lot of loops. There's also a yeti on the ride! This was the first time we got to see the Yeti. Right now Animal Kingdom is under construction as they get ready to build Avatar land inside the Animal Kingdom as well. We were all pretty tired and we went back to the hotel. Really good friends of the family (the Sandstroms) came and met up with us and brought dinner. It was nice to visit with them and catch up. We were all ready for bed that night. It was a whirlwind of a weekend. 
In front of the Christmas tree at Animal Kingdom

Monday we all left to go our respective ways. Rachel, Dad and Mom all had an earlier flight then I did. They were all just about home before I had even left Orlando! By the time I left Orlando I got stuck in Chicago with a snow storm. I ended up being delayed over an hour before we left. We then sat on the plane for an hour before we finally left. By the time we got to Iowa it was late enough that they were working with a skeleton crew. We ended up having to wait longer since there were several planes that arrived at the same time we did. Poor Guy stayed up so that he could come and pick me up from the airport. I got home late enough that I missed lunch and dinner so I was kinda grouchy when I got home. 







The race was so much fun though! I'm looking forward to trying the Dopey Challenge next year. Even Guy said he was interested in participating as well. 

New Year's

We went to South Eastern Iowa for New Year's Eve/ New Year 2016.

For New Year's Eve we spent time with the Fenton's at their annual party. They had the 2 exchange students back and visiting for the holidays. Guy really enjoyed being able to see people that he had gone to school with as well as his friends. It was fun visiting and chatting. We enjoyed watching the bowl games and ringing in the New Year.

We spent the night in Chillicothe and then spent most of New Year's Day with the Lasley's. Everyone close was able to come back and visit. Guy really wanted to go shoot the new gun so that day the boys went out and went shooting. They had a good time and the weather was nice.  I spent part of the day reading and then went out and helped with watching the kids sledding in town. Neither Guy or I had brought heavy duty winter stuff so we didn't spend too much time actually playing in the snow.

The white elephant gift exchange had been postponed until New Year's so we were able to participate. I can't remember what Guy walked away with. I think it was a toy, that may have ended up staying behind. I walked away with a giraffe calculator and a movie. We stayed through lunch and part of the afternoon and then left later that day so that we could get back and prepare our lessons for church the next day.

It was fun being able to celebrate with everyone. We're sad that we are winding down on the amount of festivities with family. However,  we're looking forward to all of the new adventures we will face in the coming year.

Christmas in Colorado Springs

Guy with Pax
For Christmas we went to Colorado Springs and spent time with my family. We were down there for about a week (the 23-30). It was nice to have almost everyone there for the holidays. Katie and her husband Brian decided to go spend time with Brian's family in Montana.

Zeus with his head on Pax
The original plan was for all of us to arrive around 6 pm or so. Guy and I arrived a little after that. My mom had made a beef stew for dinner, so we were able to eat a warm meal after driving all day. My sister Rachel's boyfriend was also coming for the holidays. Poor Keith was coming through a winter storm so he ended up having to sit in traffic for a while. While we waited for Keith the show up we chatted with the family and got to meet the new golden retriever puppies my parents got. The male's name is Zeus and the female is Pax. It's fun watching there different personalities. Pax is just a feisty little thing, while Zeus is a big dude who isn't quite coordinated. Pax will run across the back of the couch while Zeus just runs into the wall. They're both 5 months and super cute!  One of the things my mom said that they love to do is to take what the other one has or lay on each other. If you gave them both a chew stick they would fight and take the other's chew stick. Or, Zeus would take both and lay on one while Pax just stood by and barked at him. They sure keep my parents busy.


Keith McAndrews and Rachel
The gang at NORAD Track Santa
On Christmas Eve we were able to help with NORAD track Santa. This year they had more people in the room that we were assigned to be in and it was a little more chaotic. We ended up not all sitting together (as originally planned) due to the volume of traffic in the area. Since Guy and Keith both speak a foreign language we thought we would have them try answering the phones in their respective languages. I think Keith said he had one call in Spanish, while Guy had no calls in Portuguese. My dad was the designated person for media interviews so he ended up being interviewed while we answered the phones. The kids who call in sometimes ask really fun and random questions. This year Guy had a kid ask, what size Santa's pants are. I had someone ask if there will be more reindeer or reindeer we don't know about. We had a few parents ask what NORAD does and why we track Santa. We also had a few people who thought Google was more accurate for Santa tracking, to which we assured them that Santa tells NORAD directly where he is going. My dad had someone ask all about the technology used to track Santa. The kid seemed pretty skeptical about if Santa was real, but by the end of the phone call he believed in Santa again.

We came home and ended the night with the scripture account of the Savior's birth and some of the prophecies about his coming. We also watched a Hallmark Christmas movie. I was pretty sick while we were in Colorado so after answering the phone for 2 hours I didn't have a voice the rest of the evening or most of the next day.

Christmas was really nice. We had a laid back start to the day and leisurely woke up. My mom made this big breakfast with several different cinnamon roll casserole type dishes that she found on Pinterest. They were pretty good, a little too much egg for me. This year the most common gift was Darn Tough Socks. Between my parents giving them to all Keith, Karl and Guy and us giving everyone a pair there were plenty around. Karl gave me an original set of Lincoln logs which was pretty sweet. I also got a kindle paperwhite from my parents. The kindle has been really nice to travel with since I don't have to worry about bringing multiple books. My parents also gave Guy books all about hiking in the North Eastern Texas area. We both are excited about those, it'll be nice to be able to get outside and do more things once we move to Texas. Guy's work schedule is a 9-9-8-0 which means that he will have 5 days of 9 hours the first week, then 3 days of 9 hours and then a day with 4 hours and then the following day off. This basically means that every other Friday Guy is off of work. We're looking forward of taking advantage of that and going hiking on the weekends.  The rest of Christmas was pretty laid back. We took the puppies out for a walk and had Christmas dinner with everyone. It was nice to be able to be laid back and just relax with family.

The day after Christmas we proceeded with the Taylor Family annual Temple trip. It was also Stake Temple Day for my parents. It had snowed the night before so we left a little early just in case the roads were bad. It ended up being a good thing we did since it took longer to get there. Rachel and Keith held in the baptistry. Mom, Dad, Guy and I helped with Sealings. Rachel said that the youth group that was there ended up not coming and they were the only ones in the baptistry. We had one other family in our sealing session.

During our time in the temple I had a small nosebleed. Luckily I had grabbed several tissues (still had a cold) so I had enough to keep it from dripping everywhere. It was also small enough it didn't cause any problems. After changing we were waiting for everyone to gather and Guy was missing. We waited for a good 7 minutes before I sent dad to see what had happened. He didn't come back right away and when he finally did he just said that Guy had a nosebleed and would be out soon. Guy came and said it was the most epic nosebleed he had ever had. It started as soon as he got into the locker room and all he could do was stand with his head over the sink as it dripped. He said he was also trying to get undressed/dressed one handed so that he didn't get blood all over the white clothes. His nose bleed for a good 15 minutes. I asked him how he was feeling afterwards and he said he had the taste of blood in his mouth and he had a slight headache from the blood loss.

On Sunday we went to church in my parents ward. We've been enough times that the people are familiar and I didn't really feel like a visitor. Guy's favorite part of the day was at the end of church we were gathered getting ready to leave and this 4 year old came running out of the Relief Society room yelling, "WENDY!" My mom, instantly responded with a short "What?!" to which he showed my mom the picture he had drawn. Guy and Keith both thought it was hilarious and spent the rest of the day mimicking the kid and yelling "Wendy."

Olympic Globe
On Monday we got to go tour the US Olympic Training Center. I've been dying to visit/tour it since my parents have moved there. Since this is potentially there last year in the springs and potentially our last visit we went. It was a lot of fun. They started the tour by showing a video about the previous Winter and Summer olympics, and then looking ahead to the olympics this year. After that we went into the Olympian Hall of fame where they had all kinds of pictures of Olympians that have been inducted recently. They also had an old bobsled from team USA as well as one of the balance beams that was used. In the hallway of the visitor center they had the USA flame petals from the Opening Ceremony from the London games for both the parolympic team and the national team.

The training facility has pictures about all of the different sports in the olympics. At the Colorado Springs location most of the athletes come to condition. There are only a few sports that currently stay and train at that location. Most of the other sports are between the other two training centers  (New York and California). The Colorado Springs location is home to the swimming team, wrestling, some gymnastics, indoor volleyball and shooting. We got to see the entirely indoor shooting range they actually have two indoor shooting ranges. Guy really liked seeing that. The wrestling center was pretty cool because they have pictures on the walls of all of the athletes that have won a medal at either the Olympics or the World Championship. It was fun to see how many of those were Iowa State Athletes. Our tour guide made a joke about that all of these great athletes were from Iowa and he had no idea what they were doing but they should keep doing it. There were a few people in our group from Iowa so we all kind of cheered.  We also saw the weight training room. It looks out at Pikes Peak. There is a 100m track to sprint on, and if you train on it you literally are running straight towards the mountain. Guy said the facility was nice but that the Jacobson building at Iowa State is even nicer.

We saw the indoor volleyball team training but didn't get to tour one of the building. After that they took us to one of the gymnastics buildings. On one half of the gym they had the volleyball team training so we got to hear them. We also got to see some of the equipment that the gymnastic team trains with. The swimming team was training but we didn't see anyone we knew. It was interesting though. I learned that they train with cameras above, beside and underneath the athletes. That way coaches can go back and analyze the data on how to make the swimmers better. The last thing they showed us was the olympic torch. At each of the centers there is it's own torch (kind of a giant bowl thing) that is lit and stays lit for the entire Olympic games as well as the Parolympic games. You can see the torch from anywhere within the center.

We left the next morning to come back to Ames. It was a good trip and we enjoyed being able to spend time with family and getting to know Keith better.  We did New Years in South Eastern Iowa.