"Beach. Yep, beach."

Aloha from the aina!! Tyler and I have had a crazy couple of weeks. I spent a couple of days in L.A. switching out some of our summer clothes for winter clothes so we won't freeze to death during our last month's stay in Chicago, and then I headed out to Hawaii. I first went to Maui for the Maui Invitational, finally visiting another island after having lived in Hawaii for over 10 years. I loved Maui and I loved seeing Lanai and Molokai as we flew over them as well. The tournament was a lot of fun too, even though my team didn't win.

Tyler made his way to the islands a few days after me and was able to spend sometime with Andrew, his cousin, who just returned home from his mission in Texas. We met up Thanksgiving morning and spent the holiday weekend with my family eating lots of good food, playing at the beach, picking out a Christmas tree and playing lots of Pirate's Life!!

Unfortunately, Tyler had to fly back to NYC for a week to take his Series 7 test for JP Morgan Saturday nite. I, however, am still enjoying a little Hawaiian vacation.

I have had my camera next to me throughout the last couple of weeks, but didn't take a single picture until I had a few moments to myself at the beach this morning. I promise to get a few more good photos before I leave though.

Thoughts on Photography

I stopped by the Chicago temple last week to snap a few photos on a very rainy, cold day. I’ve never seen a temple quite like this one and I appreciated its uniqueness.

As I was hurriedly snapping photos (mostly because it was freezing) I realized that in my haste to get a good photo for the purpose of remembering the temple in the future, I wasn’t even really seeing the temple. I think since being in London earlier this year I’ve had this realization at least a dozen times- that sometimes the beauty and grandeur of a building, a flower, or a smile is lost in the rush to capture it on film. Luckily, I have had this realization and am getting better at taking a moment to see what I am looking at.

In reality I often get frustrated with the inability of my camera to capture exactly what I do see in real life. For example, the Washington D.C. temple looked a million times better in person than it did in any of my photos. And the grandeur of the Lincoln Memorial is so impossible to capture that I didn’t even share my paltry photos with anyone.

Still, I love photography for what it does capture. In fact, sometimes a photo can make a thing seem more beautiful or powerful than it may have been in real life. I love keeping up with news from all over the world and have found that in many instances a news story doesn’t resonate with me while the corresponding photo really affects me.

For example, I have felt a genuine concern for the people in Haiti who have suffered in the wake of an earthquake, cholera outbreak and now a hurricane, but the photo below affected me more than any news report, so much so that since first seeing it I have pictured it in my mind and thought about this little boy countless times wishing I could do more to help.

(Photo courtesy of The Big Picture)

The same goes for photos I’ve seen of the recent quake, tsunami and volcano eruption in Indonesia, the riots in France, and the rescue of the Chilean minors. In these instances the emotions frozen on film proves the old phrase “a picture is worth a thousand words.”

However, there is still something to be said about just being there in the moment and actually seeing what you’re looking at without the barrier of a camera lens.

(If you like to view the news in photo format as well, I highly recommend The Big Picture or This Week in Pictures)

The Petts @ Purdue

Two of my good friends from BYU, Brent & Aubrey Pett, are currently living in Lafayette, IN while Brent completes his master’s at Purdue. Lafayette is only a short 2 hour drive from us so Tyler and I headed down for the weekend to visit and play with their cute, baby boy, Colton.

Tyler and Brent went out for some famous burgers Saturday nite while Aubrey and I chatted. The boys joined us later and we stayed up till nearly one in the morning (very late for us old, married folk) talking about everything from parenting styles to sports. It is so nice to have good friends that you can just sit and talk with for hours. I loved it!!

Sunday we slept in (we love daylight savings) and then woke up to some yummy chocolate chip pancakes. After church we headed over to Purdue and took a nice walk around campus. Of course, we also smiled and made plenty of funny “goo-goo-ga-ga” sounds at Colton. Unfortunately, I didn’t snap any photos of the adults, but I did get these cute ones of Colton.

Before we headed down to Purdue on Saturday, Tyler and I visited the Shedd Aquarium here in Chicago. I loved the beluga whales and sharks, but my favorites were the tiny little seahorses. I want one!!

Washington DC - Take One

Vietnam Memorial

Tyler and I have been wanting and planning to visit Washington DC for over a year, and we finally found a way to get there (thank you JP Morgan) this past weekend. Unfortunately, our DC trip went nothing like we planned. To start things off Tyler booked the wrong weekend for both our hotel stay and rental car. Luckily we hadn't paid for the car yet and we have accumulated plenty of Marriott points (again, thank you JP Morgan) to not make us freak out too much about wasting a few on an empty hotel room for a weekend.

Then, Friday nite our flight out of Chicago was over-booked and Tyler volunteered our seats. At first I was a little stressed because I had spent quite a bit of time creating an extensive itinerary for the trip, seeing as DC has sooo many things to see and quite a few excellent museums to boot. However, as you will come to see, us giving up our seats was definitely a blessing.

I made the mistake of planning our DC excursion for Halloween weekend, the same weekend on which the John Stewart "Rally to Restore Sanity" was being held- creating anything but sanity in the DC area. Over 200,000 people were swarming the National Mall and DC area for the greater part of the day making traveling, whether in car, on foot, or on Segway, incredibly difficult.

Because we caught a flight out Saturday morning our entire morning was shot and we didn't even make it into DC until around 2pm, due to traffic and parking issues. Fortunately, our Segway tour reservations were for 2pm and we made it in the nick of time. We did love the Segways, however, because of the rallying masses we were only able to see about half the things the tour was supposed to include in the three hours. We did see the White House, WWII Memorial, Lincoln Memorial (impressive), Vietnam and Korean War Memorials, and the Washington Monument. My photos aren't that great because we were a bit rushed and there were a zillion people though :(

After our Segway tour we hightailed it out of DC and headed up to Maryland where we had a nice, calm evening at the DC temple- aka the most gorgeous building I have ever seen in my life. These photos did turn out and are solid proof of the fact :)

Sunday morning we went to church near our hotel, approx. 30 min. from the National Mall. We had scheduled out every hour, and since church is always on time (yeah?!), planned to have enough time to visit the top three museums on our list, and possibly the 9/11 Pentagon Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery. Well naturally, that didn't happen. Instead of taking 30 min. to get to DC it took us 2 1/2 hours due to all the roads around the Pentagon and up to the National Mall being closed off for the annual Marine Corp. marathon in which over 20,000 people were running. Boo, Halloween weekend in DC is the worst!

So we only had time for two of the museums, the American History and Air & Space Smithsonians, but I will admit that they were AWESOME!! Lincoln's top hat, Dorothy's ruby slippers, Kermit, C-3PO, Abigail Adams' (my fav) pearls, inaguration dresses, the Spirit of St. Louis, awesome 60's flight attendant ensembles, other cool airplanes and space crafts only Tyler can name, and moon rocks were a some of the highlights.

So, our DC weekend wasn't a complete bust (let's just call it a trial run), though we are already dying to go back and see the rest. Getting bumped from our first flight was a blessing in the end because we wouldn't have been able to see everything we had planned anyway because of the aforementioned events, and Southwest both reimbursed us for our original flight and compensated us for our kindness, making it possible for us to fly back without spending a dime on airfare. We are now planning a second take in DC in early December hoping for some snow white monuments and a chance to see "A Christmas Carol" at Ford's Theater- cross your fingers :)

P.S. Did I mention that in our rush to make our Segway tour I spilled honey in my lap and didn't realize it until a nice pool had formed between my legs? And, of course, I only brought one pair of jeans and so enjoyed the remainder of the trip walking around in sticky-crotch pants?! Yeah, that happened.

Goebbert's Pumpkin Patch

Saturday Tyler and I decided to brave the windy, rainy weather and get one last day of autumn in before the cold winter really sets in. We spent the afternoon wandering around Goebbert's Pumpkin Patch looking at a variety of animals; they had everything from chickens and ponies to ligers, kangaroo and giraffe. The farm also had a corn maze, a small haunted house, camel and hay rides, a huge farmer's market, some tasty treats, and much, much more!

One of our favorite activities was the Swine Sweepstakes. As you can see from the photo below those little piggies were flying around the track- the winner got a double-stuffed Oreo, so you can understand why. I wanted Arnold Schwatzen-hogger to win, but he had a sore hammy.... hehe!

I had to stop and take a picture with Buzz cause he's my favorite and lately I keep telling Tyler how much I want the real (from the movie) Buzz Lightyear action figure. He's just soooo cool!!

The farmer's market had a bunch of fun autumn/Halloween decorations as well as lots of yummy food like apple cider donuts, homemade fudge and roasted corn on the cob. They also had every single type of pumpkin/squash/gourd for sale. I wish I had a place I could bring some pretty pumpkins home to, but I don't so photos will have to do this year. Enjoy!

Nauvoo: A Beautiful Place

Continuing on our church history tour, Tyler and I spent a weekend in Nauvoo, IL. This is the first church history site that Tyler and I have done together that I have actually been to before. Of course, it was nearly 15 years and I don't remember a lot, but it was fun to see things that I did remember and to re-live old, happy memories. I remembered the Nauvoo bricks, the blacksmith, the temple foundations (which are now gone due to the beautiful temple in its place), and the Relief Society garden.

We also made sure to take a tour of the Heber C. Kimball house, which was VERY nice, and to stop by Alpheus Gifford's (my only pioneer ancestor) plot of land right on the Mississippi. It was Tyler's first time seeing the Mississippi and he made sure to walk down the bank and touch it. [Luckily, there was no railroad running through Nauvoo and he didn't get stuck on a moving train car in his attempt :D]

Tyler and I both agreed that our favorite part of the trip was attending the temple- it was sooooo beautiful inside! However, I also really liked the oxen ride. (FYI: Though oxen like Duke & Don pictured above are extremely rare in the U.S., they are the most widely used work animal worldwide.)

Tyler & I also found the Trail of Hope quite moving- it's hard to explain the feeling of looking back at that gorgeous temple on the hill and wondering how the pioneers must have felt as they left Nauvoo forever.

If you ask nicely I might tell you how I got the amazing reflection in this photo when there is no reflection pool at the temple.

For some reason I just love the entrance to this temple.

My favorite photo of the trip. The statues represent Joseph & Hyrum Smith.

On our drive back to Chicago we also stopped in at Carthage Jail. I remembered the bedroom door vividly, but some of the stories of what happened there leading up to the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum I had no recollection of. Overall, we loved hearing new stories and seeing the sites together.

Please note: I couldn't decide which photos to post from out trip because I loved them all, so sorry for the slight visual overload in this post. Also, our camera was nearly dead by the time we arrived in Carthage and I wasn't really able to see what I was capturing when I turned the camera on, clicked, and turned it off as fast as I could so I'm pretty happy with the way this last one turned out!

“Where do you learn stuff?!”

Over the past year Kate and I have been fortunate enough to do an inordinate amount of traveling and sightseeing. A by product of this has been Kate and I spending a lot of one on one time together in the car. Though we have been married for over two years, this has provided us with extra opportunities to get to know one another even better. Our car trip to Kirtland was no different.

While driving we passed over the Chagrin River. As we passed Kate read the sign on the side of the road but mispronounced “Chagrin”. I kindly corrected her. She was unfamiliar with the word and asked what it meant. I did my best (not that great) at an off-the-cuff definition (for me it is one of those words that I understand when I read or heard it and even use it in common phrases—“… much to my chagrin…”, but when asked to define it on the spot my tongue gets tied).

There was an unusual silence after my definition, so I looked over at Kate. She had this incredulous look on her face and responded with the quote of the trip: “Where do you learn stuff?!” Our back and forth continued something like this:

Me: (confused) “What do you mean?”
Kate: “You don’t read, you don’t study or at least hate doing it… like, how do you know anything?"
Me: (slightly taken aback/dumbfounded) “I don’t know… the Discovery Channel?”

Thanks for the vote of confidence , sweetie!
-Tyler

Kirtland, OH

Tyler and I are really having a lot of fun visiting Church history sites together this summer. Last August during our visit to Boston, Tyler and I drove up to Vermont to the Joseph Smith birthplace. Since then we have gone in order along the saints' path from New England to Salt Lake City (with the exception of their final destination, of course), making our third destination Kirtland, Ohio.

In Kirtland we visited the Newel K. Whitney store and home (note the famed sign :), the Isaac Morley farm (where none other than Alpheus Gifford himself attended the 4th General Conference of the Church), the Johnson farm and home, and, of course, the Kirtland Temple.

Because the Kirtland Temple is not owned by the LDS church the tour inside was very interesting, and only inspiring so far as the architecture and workmanship of the building itself. I was able to finally learn what all those letters on the pulpits meant though, so I'm happy.

The Johnson farm and home were my favorites of the trip. I had never heard of the Johnsons nor their home located in Hiram, OH (about 45 min. south of Kirtland), until the sister missionaries at the Kirtland visitor center suggested we visit the farm if we had time. I liked the Johnsons' home best because the farm was gorgeous, Sister Johnson loved color and decorating so the house was very interesting and fun, the senior missionary couple who gave us the tour were the BEST tour guides ever, and the "Room of Revelation" (where Joseph Smith recieved the 76th section of the Doctrine & Covenants) was very powerful. The sun was setting outside the window as we sat inside the room and listened to the elderly sister missionary bear her testimony- everything was so cozy and made me feel like I was home.

On our way back to Chicago, Tyler and I also drove up to Michigan for a little bit which means we can now cross off Indiana, Ohio and Michigan from our 'Tour of the 50 States' list. Hooray. We also stopped and walked around the Notre Dame campus- soooo pretty! We decided this was the perfect weekend to take the trip because autumn is in full swing and we couldn't have had a more beautiful drive :)



P.S. On Saturday nite Tyler and I went to see Secretariat at the local cinema. It was AWESOME! I already knew the incredible story, but I still got nervous during every race and wanted to yell out "Go Red, go!" Alas, the only reason I didn't was because Tyler might have gone to sit by someone else. Go see it!