September(ish) Wrap-Up

The past couple of months have been busy, busy, busy! I have had more work this school year than ever before but so far, school has been going well. I have a student teacher until the end of October and although it is awesome not having to teach all of the time, it is a challenge and a little stressful making sure she gets a good experience and knows everything she needs to. She is doing really well though and has great ideas to help me become a better teacher as well. I don't have any super exciting teaching stories yet except that my Ipod touch got stolen at one of my schools. It happened on my Birthday of all days as well. I'm pretty sure some students know exactly what happened to it but won't confess. I've just considered it a loss by now. Fortunately I was able to get a project funded through Donors Choose where I received an Ipad mini the very next day but I'm still disappointed that a student would take it.

Work has kept me extremely busy but I have been able to squeeze in a few fun things over the past month or so.

 I went to the State Fair with a few friends,

 squeezed in one more delicious shaved ice before the end of summer,

enjoyed a good birthday,

went to a Luke Bryan concert where Georgia Florida Line and Thompson Square opened,

and went up to snowbird to ride the tram and walk around Oktoberfest.

Now I am enjoying the glorious fall weather, watching General Conference, and getting ready for a week with my parents here. Should be fun!

Home

About a week ago I came back from a much needed trip home. I spent an entire two weeks there which I haven't been able to do for nearly five or six years. It was a wonderful trip. I got to play, work, eat, and spend time with my family. It also was a time for me to completely put my life in Utah on hold and enjoy being home. 

The first week was spent with just my parents and it was quite productive. I worked on a few projects that you can see on my previous post, rebuilt a fence in our pasture with my dad, visited with my grandma, did some yard work, and had plenty of time to enjoy being with my mom and dad. Sometimes I get frustrated with the fact that I am not yet married or have kids but I probably wouldn't get to enjoy times like this with just my parents if I was. I truly treasure these times and am thankful to have a wonderful home and family that I love and can always go back to.

The second week was a lot busier. It was our Pioneer Day celebration and we also threw a couple of family reunions into the mix. We had 11 people staying at our house which is always fun, adventurous, and a little challenging. I loved it!

Here are some things we did:

We went to the mountains a couple of times.

This is up at Terrace Resevoir

 And this is near Trujillo Meadows

(Notice all of the poor dead trees because of the beetle kill this year-Sad!)

We participated in the Pioneer Celebration by watching the parades and going to the demolition derby.

We had a dinner picnic thing with the Miller family but I don't have any pictures that are worth posting.

We also had a little Frederiksen reunion which I do have pictures of. 

 

All of the Frederiksens that came:

 My Grandma's family:

 7 of the 20 Miller grandchildren:

I did enjoy a couple of days home after everyone had left which was also nice. Now I'm back in Utah and relishing my days of relaxation before going back to work in two weeks!

Feeling Crafty

One of my goals for the summer was to do some DIY projects. I love working with tools and building things so I picked three projects that allowed me to do just that. It was also nice to express my crafty side for once. 

All of the ideas came from Pinterest but I didn't follow any instructions. I saw what something was supposed to look like or had the basic understanding and then just went for it. I think I did quite well and can't wait to get my hands dirty with another one!

Project #1-Simple Yarn July Wreath

This took about an hour and was super simple. You wrap yarn around a foam wreath and add stars. That's it! I found some foam glow-in-the-dark stars that worked perfectly.

These next two projects were done in Colorado at my parents house. They had the tools and the space. I also had about 4 days of down time before lots of family came in for the Pioneer Day celebrations so it was perfect.

 

Project #2-Barn Wood Flag

We knocked down an old shed a few years ago and the leftover wood was perfect for this project.

I found the pieces I wanted,

 cut the boards,

 spray painted,

 then connected the wood with wire and added the stars.

 I did one for myself and one for my mom.

 

Project #3-Card Table Redo

My parents have a couple of card tables and chairs that have been used and abused so with some spray paint, new vinyl tablecloths (so you can easily wipe them clean), and a staple gun, they went from this...

 to this...

This one is my favorite. I was proud of my color/pattern choice. I may just take it home for myself.

I think I have accomplished my goal. I even enjoyed it so much that I will start my search for another. 

Any ideas? Let me know!

Washington DC Trip

For those that know me well know I have a bit of an obsession with history. I LOVE IT! I minored in it in college and that fueled my passion. I also have huge crushes on George Washington and Abe Lincoln. When I die, they are two of the first people I want to meet! With this said, what better place to go on vacation then Washington DC?! I have wanted to go there for a very long time and this year I finally made it happen.
I went with my sister Sarah and friend Sara. We were able to stay with my cousin and his family which was great. It was fun getting to see them. We got around the city with a rental car and bikes rented from Capitol Bikeshare. For anyone going to DC, I would highly recommend these bikes! They saved our feet and were so much faster. There are several docks around the National Mall and surrounding area. You can hop on and off whenever you want, they were wonderful.

And they look cool too :)

I won't bore you with too many details (well, maybe a little) so here is what we did:

Day 1:

Our flight was at 7:40 in the morning and with the time change we arrived around 3. There wasn't time to do much that day. Plus, it was lightly raining which we hoped would stop. We got some fast food in a sketchy part of Maryland and started our trip off right with a session at the Washington DC temple. The temple was beautiful!

 After the temple we happened to pass the Washington Cathedral so we stopped by and looked at it. Unfortunately it was closed so we couldn't look inside but it was still cool. 

We then headed over to my cousins house, ate, and had a good time visiting and catching up with him and his family.

Day 2: We started off the day by visiting all of the monuments on the National Mall. 

FDR

 Martin Luther King Jr.

 WWII

 Lincoln

 Korean

 Vietnam

 Washington (scaffolding is because of the earthquake a couple of years ago)

 Jefferson

The Lincoln monument was of course my favorite! We also stopped by the White House, rode around on the bikes, and visited a few of the Smithsonians - American History and Natural History. My favorite exhibit was the Star Spangled Banner in the American History. It has the actual flag from the War of 1812 that inspired our National Anthem. I may have cried even :)

 We ate at Good Stuff Eatery and ended the day in the hot tub to rest our tired legs and feet.

Day 3: The day started out a little rough. I may or may not have had trouble backing out of the driveway and hurt the rental car and my cousins lawn :) It continued to get depressing as we spent almost 2 hours in the Holocaust Museum. It was very cool though and definitely makes you think about life. Things quickly picked up as we had a tour of the Capitol.

Next was the gorgeous Library of Congress, National Archives, Air and Space Museum, and dinner at Nando's Peri-Peri. 

By the end of the day our feet were even more tired so it was another night in the hot tub.

Day 4: We got to spend the first official day of summer in DC, doesn't get much better. We first went to Ford's theater (one of my highlights) and the house where Lincoln died. 

 We then spent 3 1/2 hours at Arlington Cemetery which was amazing. 

Next we met up with Sara's friend who lives in Arlington and got too see the Rockies play the Nationals! They lost but at least I got to see my Rocks play this year.

Day 5: This day was probably my favorite because we got to see Mount Vernon. Like I said, I love George Washington so seeing his estate was fabulous. 

After that, we headed into Alexandria to catch up with a friend then went into Old Town for dinner and ice cream. Our waiter gave us his phone number and my ice cream fell off of my cone onto the sidewalk (just like you see happen to little kids). It didn't stop me from eating it though! We headed back to the National Mall to take a nighttime ride to see our favorite monuments at night then called it a day.

 Day 6: We woke up to rain which means we timed everything perfectly. We arrived in the rain and left in the rain but the weather was nice in between. We couldn't have asked for anything better. We were absolutely exhausted by Sunday so we slept in and took our sweet time getting ready and packing up. We found a YSA sacrament meeting then headed to the airport. There, they found damage on the rental car that we didn't notice before but hopefully insurance will cover it. Our then 5 hour flight turned into nearly 9 when we were delayed for 4 hours on the ground for mechanical issues then bad weather. Note to self: Never take United out of Dulles again! We are talking sitting on the plane for 4 hours before ever taking off. Luckily they let us out for about 20 minutes to get food. We arrived back in Salt Lake at 12:40 am. We were supposed to be there at 8:40 :( We were tired but had an absolutely amazing time! It was a perfect trip and I would definitely go back.

As with any trip, not everything goes smoothly. This is what makes a trip memorable though and creates an adventure. Here are my not-so-good moments that I will always remember:

1. I realized while we were in the airport getting ready to leave on day 1 that I wasn't wearing a bra!

2. The incident with the rental car and the lawn

3. Getting an infamous "Miller Stomach Ache" in the middle of the National Mall when EVERYTHING was closed and barely making it to a restroom on time.

4. Rushing to get to the Capitol in time for our tour even though we ended up being perfectly on time.

5. Being disappointed with the size of the White House and the scaffolding on the Washington Monument.

6. The stupid plane on the way home.

Other than that, perfect trip!