New Colors

Walking home from class the other day I looked up and realized the leaves on the trees I was walking next to were turning red! This made me so excited. A new season! I'm already wearing jackets and cardigans, so of course its the change of a season!

Idaho has been having some wildfires so its been hazy lately with all the smoke. Last night as Lara left to teh library to study she called called me a little frantic to look at the sun. It was strawberry red from all the hazy and so pretty. Of course the image here is Photoshopped because my camera couldn't capture the color. Isn't it pretty?

Back in Rexburg

 So after surviving my first semester away from home I'm back again in Rexburg, 900 miles from home.  But here I am so I'll try and make the best of it. Last time I promised some pictures of my apartment. This semester I live right next to my last semester apartment so everything is the opposite of before. Overall its pretty nice place except the cable is whacky and the stairs and second floor squeak like crazy (but you get used to that).

Thankfully even with our whacky cable, Food Network still works. Last Friday morning, I was watching Paula Dean and she made what she called "A One-eyed Sailor" and it looked really good so I tired it, too. I was a little nervous because I've never had my eggs anything but scrambled. However there wasn't too much runniness and I liked it a lot, maybe I'll make it again sometime.

My roommate has a star cookie cutter~

We begin the tour in the kitchen. I used one of my Command Strip hooks to hang aprons. 

The living room from the door. It is very difficult getting such a long shot and still mange to make it wide enough to get everything. 

The Saturday after I got up, my roommate Stephanie and I went to DI because I wanted a cup to put spoons in for next to the stove. While there she found this ceramic owl. Now, of course, I freaked out, for 3 reasons: 1. ITS AN OWL! 2. It had completely no damage done to it like most ceramic pieces you find at DI and Goodwill. And 3. because in my 3D Design class at MCC this statue was sitting on a shelf in the classroom and I loved it (the only thing I liked about that class).  So it came home with me and its now our bar decoration.

The bathroom is right at the top of the stairs. 

On to my room. I chose the back bedroom that I share with my best friend Lara. She's kind enough to put up with all my owls.

This ribbon was wrapped on my apron so I had to find something to do with it.

Lara is a big cooker, and one of her favorite dishes to make is ratatouille. We bought most of the ingredients at the local Farmer's Market on Friday and made it Saturday for dinner. And I made cookies from one of the mixes Lara got from her grandma. The ratatouille was really good though it needed salt. Lara served it over wheat noodles to make it more filling and the next day we turned it into a sandwich. So good!

Leaving Home

Labor Day was spent cleaning followed by hanging out with my college art-mate, Priscilla. Then I rushed home where Ryan, Amy, and family were over for ribs. I'm glad I made it because I was able to play with my niece Evelyn a bit and hold my new nephew Ammon before I won't see them again for 3 months. Then Wednesday Mom, Dad, and I were able to take Grandma out for dinner. I love my family so much, its sad to leave them but I won't be gone long... Now to just keep repeating that too myself till the holidays.

Thursday was the day. I drove up with my best friend Lara, who, after some difficult contract tracking, was able to get a last minute contract for my complex and is now my roommate! Our first destination was Provo, UT where we stayed the night with my best friend and Lara's twin sister Haley. We arrived around 7pm and immediately headed out to the Brick Oven Pizzeria  right by her apartment for pizza and a Sasquatch (their Cookie Monster dessert with a brownie added to the middle).

Friday morning Lara and I went walking around campus to print off coupons for Einstein Bagels, and it made me both appreciate and regret going to BYU-I instead of Provo. It was so gorgeous, being under the mountain and seeing all their beautiful landscaping. Across the street from Haley's apartment was a duck pond which had a river and water fall overlooking it. What made me appreciate Rexburg though was (1) the amount of people we had to fight through and (2) stairs. Rexburg has hills, but the Y has stairs. No me gusta.

There are more stairs to this picture, you just can't see there through the trees.

Friday night was filled with unpacking the car, followed by filling it back up with things from my storage locker, followed by filling any and all extra empty spots with groceries (never shop at Albertsons for a major shopping trip). Then I sat down to a sad Chinese dinner (with my chopsticks) that looked better than it tasted and "Rosemerry and Thyme" on Netflix (thanks Mom for getting me hooked).

Lara and I are still unpacking, organizing, and decorating our room so I will have pictures to follow on that soon enough but for now this post will end with my wonderful mishap this morning as I was cutting an onion and my knife slipped and sliced off a hunk of my nail. My poor left hand has been a through a lot this week with scratches covering it already.

Yellowstone - Tuesday and Moving On South

Tuesday we left our campground south of the park and moved on through Wyoming and Idaho and on to Utah.

Just before or in the Grand Teton National Park we visited the National Wildlife Art Museum. Dad said we could only stay for 20 minutes, but the Museum wound under the mountain it was built on so it took several hours to look through. But even with its high price tag for entrance, I think seeing all that art was worth it (says the artist).

Awesome bike racks. A raven, bear, and fox.

Dad's favorite and one of mine, as well. An acrylic painting of a buffalo. It was HUGE!

Moose Fountain that was in the lobby.

Later that evening we drove through Paris, ID because Mom and Dad remembered that there had been a tabernacle built there and thought it would be nice to see it. It definitely was worth it. And even though we arrived late for the scheduled tour hours, the volunteers were still there waiting for more visitors. The building was beautiful and had many details that really impressed all 3 of us.

Dad, Mom, and our tour guide and some pretty stained glass.

Scary stairs to go down, but pretty nonetheless.

I saw this down the street from the tabernacle. You have to love old cars, they are very artistic.