Making up for lost time...

July 4^th, 2008

The Rest of July

Cruise, July 21^st - 25^th

August 2008

We've managed to successfully drown ourselves in a wealth of unique experiences this last month. Fortunately we have an equally large collection of pictures documenting each fiasco.

To quickly get everyone back up to speed, here are some of the highlights:

Jared, Mikail, and William were able to come up from Texas to spend some time with us around the Forth of July.

Shortly after that, Melody and I made a quick trip to Boise to throw away most of my old junk, play miniature golf, and drive go carts.

With Julie and Jason's wedding, we were able to spend lots and lots of time with Melody's family including several informal meals together, park outings, late nights with Neal and Katrina getting creamed at every game we played with them, a family home evening the night before the wedding, strenuous sod laying at Keith and Kim's house, and a quick trip to visit a Park City with Mark, Kristilyn, James and Grant, among other things. See the pictures for more details. Oh yeah, and the wedding was great as well.

Somewhere in the middle of all that excitement, Melody and I took off for a much needed vacation/cruise from Los Angeles to San Diego, Catalina Island, and Ensenada. If any of you haven't yet asked us why we decided to go on a cruise, let me give you the answer that we have given to everyone else: "We decided to spend our money before it was taken from us." There.

The day before we left for Missouri, we were able to spend an evening with Kelsey, Ben, Brittney, and Seth going skeet shooting. Excellent.

Half way along our trip cross country expedition, we stopped in Denver to visit Mike, Desi, Emily, and Mordecai. We went for a morning hike into the mountains, went swimming, and ate enough food to last us until we pay off our student loans.

This last week, after getting settled in our new apartment, Melody set out to rejoin the workforce. Hopefully she'll have a few introductory interviews this next week.

I began orientation for school last Monday. Monday and Tuesday were packed with boring, logistical speeches. Wednesday, after a few community service projects, the school threw all the students and families a picnic and then gave complementary tickets to the Kansas City Royals baseball game that evening. The Royals were creamed 8 to 2 by the Red Sox. Finally Thursday, after registration in the morning, the school held the annual white coating ceremony.

Finally, on Friday Melody and I took a day trip up to Omaha to attend a temple session at the Winter Quarters temple. With a little extra time on our hands, we were also able to take a quick look at the Visitor's Center just across the road.

Well, that's just about everything. Good night and good luck.

The Good News and Bad News of Kansas City

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The good news is that we made it to Missouri.
The bad news is that there is more construction here than there is in Utah (if you can believe that).

The good news is that it is possible to cool down indoors and in cars.
The bad news is that my glasses fog up when I step outside.

The good news is that our apartment doesn't smell bad.
The bad news is that it still smells.

The good news is that we have a bigger apartment.
The bad news is that we still have pipes.

The good news is that we no longer have whitewashed walls.
The bad news is that now have to deal with a mustard yellow bathroom, olive drab closets, and hot pink hallways.

The good news is that ceilings are now much higher than our old apartment's six foot ceilings.
The bad news is that we had to buy an expensive foot stool to reach the top cupboards.

The bad news is that our kitchen is half the size of our old one.
The good news is that the closet is as big as our old apartment. :)

The bad news is that we ended up moving all of our stuff five separate times.
The good news is that we have extra storage on our floor to put it all.

The good news is that we sweat off all the weight we gained on our cruise.
There is no bad news for this.

The bad news is that we are disabled after moving our things so many times.
The good news is that the toilet and bathroom are handicapped equipped.

The bad news is that there are no groceries stores within 10 miles.
The good news (for Brandon) is that there are three KFCs within 10 miles.

The bad news is that the milk is a dollar more expensive than in Utah.
The good news is that we filled up our gas tanks at $3.59 per gallon (In Kansas, but the price is still close to that here in the city).

The bad news is that our church meetings are translated into both Spanish and English.
The good news is that we understand the people that speak Spanish better than those who speak English.

The best news of all, five second year students helped unload our U-Haul and get our things up to our apartment.