Shooting with the Shaw's

This last year for Christmas I gave Daren a membership to the Issaac Walton Legue. They have a place here in Ames that has shooting ranges, a lake, and a camping area. Its kind of become our home away from home. We spend a lot of time out there shooting and hiking. A few weekends ago we took our friends the Shaw's out there camping and then woke up and spent the morning shooting. It was so much fun. Looking forward to deer and duck season this year.

Daren's Fishing Trip

While we were home Daren went ice fishing with my brother Jacob and his brother Sean. They had a great trip. Daren caught a ~22 inch fish and Jacob caught ~20 inch one. Daren was really excited to spend part of our trip home ice fishing. He was really excited to find out that an out of state day fishing pass is only twelve dollars. So

He'll be able to go fishing whenever we go home. Not that he doesn't get enough of it here with the river just a half a mile down the road.

Visit to Cassidy and Chris's

These are some of the pictures we took while we were visiting Chris and Cassidy's. We went down and spent the day in Pocatello. We went to Lava, ate at Butterburr's, visited with friends, and played DDR. We were also messing around with the smile setting on my camera. Nobody believed me that it would automatically take a picture when they smiled so they all had to give it a try.

It was a lot of fun to visit with them. We sure do miss them and are keeping our fingers crossed that Cassidy gets in here at Iowa.

Christmas Morning

We've been together for 5 or 6 Christmas's but this is the first time we had Christmas morning just the two of us. We were a little homesick not being able to go home over the holidays, but spending the morning together made up for it. We enjoyed just laying around in our pj's and watching movies. Our friend Anne came over for dinner, but other than that we just hung out. I got Daren a membership to the local shooting range, so all the gifts I got him had something to do with that. I made him bean bags to help sight in his guns. This was the first gift I had him open and he had no idea why I gave him bean bags. After he opened a few of his other gifts he figured it out. He was really excited about his membership. His key wouldn't become activated until the first of the year so we still haven't went out there. We're hoping to spend part of the weekend out there. Daren got me a sheep skin to use in my office. Its so soft and fits over the top of the bookcase just perfectly. I love it. Our friends Chris and Cassidy sent us some gifts from Pocatello. They got Daren the hat he is wearing and the mouse Echo is playing with. The mouse makes noise when you hit it. At first she was scared of it, but then all the sudden it was her favorite toy. It was a great Christmas! And we got to go home shortly afterwards to see friends and family.

Putting up Christmas Decorations

Here are some of the pictures we took while we were putting up our Christmas decorations.

Daren's First Iowa Deer

Here are the famous pictures of Daren's deer. Its the first one he's ever got with a bow and arrow. The other pictures is one of Daren trying on his new insulated camo pants my mom got him for his birthday this last June. He was so excited to use them this winter. But it stayed so warm here through November that he only ended up needing them for his late shotgun hunt in December. The picture of the two of us was during the shotgun season. The weekend after finals I got up with him and sat in the snow with him all morning. It was really cold and he owes me a movie for going with him. We did decide that it would be fun to get snow shoes and go snow shoeing through some of the parks around here.

Covered Bridges of Madison County

On our way home from Winterset we stopped by a couple of the covered bridges from the movie Covered Bridges of Madison County. They were really popular and a ton of people were there taking pictures of them. We decided next summer we're going to have to go find all seven of them. Daren really likes this picture of his Mustang. His car is one of his pride and joys and he was really bummed that we didn't have time to take it up in the mountains near Pocatello and take pictures of it. But this kind of made up for it. I also put in the pictures of his pick-up we took in Pocatello so you'd know what I'm talking about. The day that we went and did all this was one of the best days ever. The weather was perfect for a November day. It was about sixty degrees and was a great way to end Thanksgiving Break.

Winterset

So even with school going we have managed to have some fun this semester. I just wanted to catch up our blog with some of the stuff we've done. These pictures are from Winterset, Iowa. Its the birth place of John Wayne. He only lived there for 3-4 years so I don't know how much claim they have to him, but lots of people were there to go through the house. Its mostly this little white house with some furniture, walls covered with pictures, and some of the clothes that he wore. It wasn't what we were expecting but it was still pretty cool and interesting. They have a little gift shop there and a giant fenced in yard. They also have this cute black and white cat there who was just about ready to have kittens. I tried really hard to get Daren to let me take her home, but he wouldn't give. She was so fun following us around the yard and sidewalk while we took pictures. I even tried to tell him we could sell the kittens on ebay as decendants of John Wayne's first pet, but he wouldn't go for it either. Maybe if we go back and she's still there....

White Coat Ceremony

Mom, Dad, and Grandma came over for the White Coat Ceremony Friday night. They've been here since Friday and should be home early in the week. These are the pictures Daren took of the ceremony. Afterwards we went to a dinner reception and took a few pictures in front of the replica of the Gentle Doctor. Then today we went over to the school to take more pictures in front of the Gentle Doctor Sculpture in the school's courtyard. It was nice to show them where the school was and where I'll be for the next four years. We've been taking them around town to the farmer's markets and fruit stands in the area. We also took them to the famous Hickory Park restaurant in town. We took Grandma to the Iowa State store so she could pick up some Iowa State clothes to take home. We've spent the weekend eating peaches, pickled onions, okra, and asparagus from the farmers market. Daren made a deal with Mom, if she'd cook one of her famous breakfasts then he'd barbecue for her. So we got Mom's great pancakes and sausage, and Daren's elk steaks and barbecued corn. It was lots of fun to have them, we're sad to see them go.

Orientation

So first year orientation has been going since Wednesday and I just wanted to tell everyone some of the things I've been doing. On the first morning for the introduction speech the Dean of the college stood up and talked about how we were "good enough." Basically just saying if we made it in it means we can make it through. This may sound really silly, but its been something that I've really been freaking out about, so it was nice to hear again and again that I'm "good enough." Most of orientation has just been getting to know you games and get in touch with the inner you exercises. Its been a little cheesy, but also great ice breakers. We've been broke into teams of 10-14 people to really try to get to know. Some of the girls in my group are really nice and I could see myself sitting with them in class. Everyone has been super nice. Today we had to get everyone in our group to stand on a little square of wood that was like 2 ft x 2 ft. It was a little awkward, but I was really surprised at how "okay" it was. It took us a long time to figure it out, but everyone was so willing to hold hands, sit on each other's shoulders, group hug. Just whatever anyone proposed to get it accomplished. We're assigned lockers and I can't wait to decorate the inside of it. Really high school of me I know, but I've been really homesick the last few days leading up to the start of orientation. I have some great pictures of friends and family that I can't wait to hang up to help with that. So if you're reading this (Aunts/Uncles/siblings) you should email pictures of the kids or their baby pictures are going up. Hope everyone's doing good. We really miss everyone. Yesterday was a little scary for me though. Not only did I have orientation, but I had to make a trip into the doctor's office. All day at orientation my throat felt really funny and it was awkward swollowing. It felt like my thyroid (go anatomy!!!) was swollen. At first I wasn't worried about it, but it just kept getting worse. By the time I got home my tongue was a little swollen too. Daren said I was just freaked about orientation and I was kind of thinking that too, other than I was not that nervous compared to my normal nerves. Well, surprise surprise, the doctor decided this is my new response for allergies. Usually in August in poky I have to take Claratin and use my inhaler alot cause my asthma kicks in, in response to something blooming. My doctor said I probably wouldn't have to worry about things over here for a year or so until my body build up an allergy, so I haven't been taking anything and really haven't had a problem until yesterday. Go figure though the first day of orientation would be when it presented. Just like in poky, the first time my asthma was really bad was also the first week of school. There was a little justice in being able to come home and tell Daren I had not freaked myself into it though.

Our New Pet

This little guy has decided that our tree has great shade. He's been sitting in the same spot every morning. He usually stays for part of the afternoon and then he leaves for the night. I've seen him the last three days. All I can say is I'm glad he's on the outside of the fence, away from my blueberry bush.

Iowa State Fair

These are the pictures from the Iowa State Fair. Its a really big fair and everyone we ran into just raved about it. So we packed a bunch of water and sunscreen last Friday and went to the fair. We printed off a map and directions. When we made it to Des Moines however we discovered the directions had a wrong turn listed. Where it said turn left we really wanted to go right. Luckily the fair grounds are huge and there was a lot of traffic headed that way so we were able to find it. Daren decided that he didn't want to pay for parking so we ended up walking about 15 blocks to get to the gate, only to find that parking inside the grounds was still open for only 7 dollars. By the end of the day he was wishing he would have parked closer and paid a little money. All in all the fair was a lot like Idaho's just lots!!! bigger. We were really impressed with the world's biggest bull. Although I felt sorry for him tied so tight not able to reach his water, not to mention the effort it took him to stand up and lay down. The biggest pig at the fair wasn't quite so impressive after seeing the bull. The pumkin/squash thing almost wieghted as much as the pig. In another building we found the worlds smallest cow and her calf. If you can't tell by the picture our old dog Bear was lots bigger than this cow. The sheep next to it were bigger than it. When we were walking through the buildings there was this huge crowd of people by one pen, and since we'd already seen the biggest pig and cow and the smallest cow we were excited to find out what this crowd was about. Only when we got up there it was just an elk!!! Domestic or ranch raised elk is really popular out here and you can find elk meat in the grocery stores in Des Moines. We also caught a grizzly bear show. It was an okay show. Daren was picking on me during it. I was a little annoyed the way the handlers kept saying the bears were just like pets at home, they enjoy getting love, attention, and treats. All I could think of are all the stupid people in Yellowstone who get out of their cars to get closer. I was glad at the end when they did a spill about wild bears and how not to feed them in the wild because then they become problem bears and are destroyed. After that I had a little more respect for the bear show. It was a pretty fun day. Everyone at work told Daren he had to try a deep fried snickers but by the time we found the booth we were to tired and to full to care. So next year we'll have to get that booth earlier. Oh, and the random old rotatillor was for Daren. There were lots of buildings with antiquets and pioneer stuff. When we came across the rotatillor Daren wanted to take a picture to send to my mom showing her how crapy gardening could have been. The only other really exciting thing that happened was that I found some old Louis LaMour books. I got 11 of them for 30 dollars. I was really excited about that and Daren was even more excited when I didn't make him carry them all day. The other picture is off the butter cow. In one of the buildings they had a case displaying ice sculptures and another one displaying butter sculptures. All of them were very cool...strange...I'm not sure, but they had the first moon walk, a tv, and this cow all made of butter. I thought it was weird and Daren wanted proof we'd seen it, so there you go.