Winter Wonderland

Jason and I arrived in Davenport for Christmas break Thursday at about 4:30... in da morning! :) It was a long drive, but we did it without running into bad weather for once! They had a heat spell today, about 30 degrees or so. The snow looks so beautiful in the trees and on the rooftops. Here is a view of the Mississippi River from my house.

Snow on the steps and roof of the house, it looks like Christmas!

Jason had a lot of fun (as those of you who know him will believe) working the snow blower to clear off the sidewalks from the snow that fell last night.

Men and their machines :)

Aren't they so cute!?

I was just doing some things and looking through some great pictures of my parents and I thought I'd show them off a bit. I love them; they are so great!

Here they are at our family reunion in Yellowstone before we went down the snake river. Aren't those hats great!?

Here are the lovebirds at Coney Island. My dad REALLY wanted to ride on the Cyclone (he loves rollercoaster rides) and eat a Nathan's hot dog, those were pretty high on his list of things to do when they visited us.

Here we are on our way to the 7 Vernon Jackson stop. Just a stroll down the street, always holding hands.

New York's best burger? Burger Joint on 57th St. It's kinda hiden from the tourists, but if you look hard you'll find it. They are delicious!!!

A walk down The Mall, again, too cute! I love them! They've been married for almost 35 years and still going strong.

Gettysburg, PA and Harper's Ferry

Jason and I went with the other student teachers to see Harper's Ferry and Gettysburg, PA. It was an incredible experience. It was a beautiful time of year to go also. We went back in early November and the trees were just finishing changing, some were bare already, but it was awesome to see all the colors as we drove through Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, and West Virginia to get everywhere. If you don't know about Harper's Ferry (we didn't know until we called mom) check out the link, it is a really neat place also. John Brown is the man, he took the slavery conflict from a war of words to something he was willing to die for.

Here we are on Little Round Top mountain where one of the battles of the Civil War was fought in Gettysburg. It was the place of a key victory for the Union, and a place where many lives were lost. The men who were assigned to protect this place were told to do so "at all risks" which is different than "all costs" because it means that you better not come back alive if you loose.

This is the armory at Harper's Ferry where John Brown organized and attacked just before the Civil War broke out.

A main street down Harper's Ferry, aren't the colors beautiful!!!???

Sisters....

No, we did not drop off of the face of the earth. We were just lazy November bloggers, sorry! So here it goes. This is the last post we have wanted to do but haven't really gotten around to. My sister came to visit us for Halloween weekend. It was a lot of fun, she was only here for a few days but we were able to see almost all of the monuments. We also got some free burritos at Chipotle! Yeeeah! Gotta love the free food when you are in college.

This is one of our favorite views, Jason and I discovered it one day when we were out on a morning jog by the monuments. You can see the Washington and Jefferson from the bridge and the little bay is very pretty.

Here Katie is in front of the Hope Diamond

Jefferson Monument

The Battle of Cedar Creek

Jason and I went with a few of the girls from my student teaching group to see a reenactment of the Battle of Cedar Creek, fought during the Civil War. Apparently it is the only Civil War reenactment that takes place on the exact same ground that the actual battle was fought at. It was pretty cool. Maybe I say that because I grew up visiting every historical site and fort on I-80 since my mom is a History Teacher (and special ed) and my brother is now too. There were a lot of volunteers there; we were amazed by the number of people that were there to watch and participate. We found a bunch of missionary couples, about 14 of them, or more maybe. We walked through a “shopping” area and saw some fun old games and clothes and our favorites, hats. We tried some apple butter and warmed up with hot coco. It’s been really warm here in DC, about 80 the past week, but this weekend it got really chilly. It was a perfect October day in the Appellation Mountains. The trees are starting to change colors and the sky looked beautiful! Also, has anyone every wondered why we don’t have an Emancipation Day as a national holiday? Just a thought… it is a holiday in the West Indies when slavery was abolished there, but we don’t really do anything here. I guess DC celebrates April 16th as Emancipation Day, but I think it should be national.

The Union Calvary!

Doesn't Jason look like a sly stagecoach robber or something?

Lincoln Memorial

So we had great ambitions of going somewhere every saturday while we are here in DC. It hasn't turned out that well. Satrudays end up being catch up day since neither of us have work. 2 weeks ago though we did finally get to go to a monument. It was cool to stand in the place where Martin Luther King gave his famous I have a dream speech and take pictures of where Forrest Gump ran across the reflecting pool during a anti-war rally, and of course where Abraham Lincold sits in his seat immortalized by the penny. Anyway here are some pictures of the trip. Enjoy.

Small space creativity

I'm sure those of you who know him are aware that Jason has quite the creative mind. His inventive thinking has made life just a little easier and convenient. On Labor Day we moved to the basement of a house NW Washington DC. The moment we walked into it we both were really excited about it and felt great about it. Our landlords are extremely nice and the apartment, especially for being a basement has tall ceilings (big plus for tall people) and a lot of light. After we moved in however we realized that a few things were missing, an oven and minimal storage space including no bedroom closet. The shower is also a pretty tight squeeze. We were tired of the awkward bending and twisting to grab things on the shower floor and one day while I was working on some school work I heard Jason fiddling around in the bathroom. After I was done I found him finishing up an awesome hanging mechanism to put all our shower stuff! Then yesterday he asked if we could stop at Home Depot and get a 6 foot rod to put in our bedroom for a closet. I wasn't exactly sure what he had in mind or how he planned on hanging it. Here are the pictures of his fun inventions that he has done since we moved here. What a guy!

Philly!

This weekend we went to Philadelphia with the other student teachers that are here. We were able to go to Independence Hall, we saw the Liberty Bell and we went to Christ’s Church and the other buildings in the old town square like Congressional Hall which was also very neat. It was awesome to walk into Independence Hall and be in the very same room where the founders of our nation met and signed the Declaration of Independence and see where they signed the Constitution also. I really can’t describe how amazing it was but I would compare the experience to those at the Church history sites as well. It was really really neat.

There she is, Liberty Bell. The Centennial Bell is also pretty neat, (the bell that's actually in the tower on independence hall) it is made from two cannons from the civil war and two from the revolutionary war.

This is the room where a lot of it happened. That chair is original!

Our awesome group!

We couldn't leave Philly without visiting the famous steps Rocky climbed! :)

Student Teaching

I am really enjoying student teaching so far. I am teaching at Duke Ellington High School for the Arts here in DC. The students are so full of energy and personality, which I’m seeing can be good and bad. :) They are really great kids though. I’m enjoying getting to know a lot of them already. Friday after school I went to see my theater majors perform their short skits that they have been working on for the past week. One of the skits they did was a story from Spain and four of my students were in that one! It was so fun to see them in their element and see how much fun they were having. I also got a couple of ideas to help them enjoy Spanish class a little more.

The students in the white pants and the yellow shirt are in my Spanish 1 class, they are so funny! They did a skit from Greek mythology. The boy in the white shirt and the girl reaching out are both in my classes. This skit was from Spain! Viva Espana! It was so fun to here them speaking so much Spanish... for fun!!!
The two girls in this picture are in my classes. The one on the floor is quite... extroverted; they are really fun to have in class.

NYC 2 DC

Jason and I were really sad to leave New York, we felt like it went by way too fast and we really enjoyed our time there. It is a special place, that is for sure. We are happy to be here in DC now though also and are finding that Washington DC and the areas around here are also awesome. We were able to go to Mt. Vernon one of our first weekends here. It was raining a lot because of the Hurricane, but it was a lot of fun. I wore flip flops and shorts and just walked right through the huge puddles like I was 5 again! It was great. The other nice thing was there weren’t too many other tourists there; we didn’t have to wait in any lines or anything.
I have so much appreciation for George Washington now more then I ever have before. He really was an amazing leader. We watched a great video presentation about him and walked through a museum dedicated to him. He was the only man for the job and he did a great job at that!

The markings on the brick wall of Washingtons "new tomb" were made around the time of the Civil War when soldiers came to visit the General's resting spot. The tomb was built 30 or so years after Washington died and it was built to the specifications descibed in Washington's will.

Shannon in NYC

Jason and I were really excited to have Shannon come visit us our last week in New York City. It was a LOT of fun!!! Shannon and I were able to see a few Broadway shows; “In the Heights” was by far the best one I’ve seen all summer. We won really cheap tickets to that one too so it was even better! :) We went to a few places around the city, did some shopping (Shannon found some awesome deals), and chilled a little too and were able to catch up on our busy lives. Shannon is living in Illinois and I’m excited that we’ll be closer to her in just a few months now. Here are a few pictures from her trip that I wanted to share.

At the Guggenheim Museum. The main exhibit was a little strange, but the regulars were really cool. We saw lots of famous paintings while we were in NYC.

The famous Times Square picture at 7th and Broadway.

In the Heights!!!! If you haven't seen it and you have the opportunity to see it... SEE IT!!! It's awesome! The music and the story line are incredible .

Here are the men after they ordained Brian, L-R: Dave Hooste (cousin), Dave, Brian, Dad, and James. Brian is so totally on this tip toes, he's only about 6'2". It's a tradition in our family to stand on tip toes in pictures, not that we need too...

Brian and me after his ordination. We realized the backdrop was much better if you turned a little bit from where we took all the other pictures of the boys.
I got to read bedtime stories a few nights I was there. My flight was canceled going home so I was able to stay one more day, good (spend more time with family) and bad (I already missed Jason like crazy!!!) It was so cool to read to the four older nieces and nephews that night though. I love them all soooooo much! I miss seeing them more and always can't wait to see them again.

While we were at the Old Faithful lodge we found Dave's twin! Crazy huh? It's a random t-shirt from Hawaii that Dave got from his brother-in-law... who would have thought?

Audrey and me in a beautiful valley in Yellowstone. I loved all of the wild flowers everywhere. It was so cold though. I didn't realize it was still cold in places in mid-July! I guess at 7,000 ft. That's what you can expect. Luckily my mom packed some extra BYU sweatshirts! At the Lower Falls
Mom Brian and me at Yellowstone Lake
Watching Chicken Little, did I mention I love being an Aunt???
Sweet hats guys!
Jack loves his food
Allie and me at Old Faithful

This past weekend I went to Island Park, ID (near Yellowstone) for a family reunion and mostly to be there when Brian was ordained an Elder. It was awesome, the only bad thing was that I wasn't able to be there with Jason, he had to work. :( It was really sad to be away from him for a whole week and I missed him terribly!!! Here are some of my favorite pictures from the trip.

Mom, Dave, and baby Austin (James' and Megan's)

James and Dad
Brian n' me

Baby Jack, he sure loved those hoses.

We went white water rafting on the Snake the second day. It was a LOT of fun!

Dad has always been good at helping kids be happy

Andrew feeding the fish