What We'll Miss...

It's official. Luke and I no longer live in the Midwest. During this transitional (homeless) stage in our lives it's easy to remember all the wonderful things about Champaign, Illinois.

Here are some of the things we will miss the most about Central Illinois...

The color green...

Double Down Dares...

Basketball with these guys...

Fall...

The Beautiful Young Women of the Champaign Ward and their amazing leaders...

Watching a little puppy...

grow into a big puppy...

Living near Chicago...

Doggy playdates with Gus and Colby...

Cornfields as far as the eye can see...

The little lake outside our door (at our first apartment)...



The beautiful temples in the area (Chicago, Nauvoo, and St. Louis)...

Of course, we'll miss our friends the most...

You guys made us happy to be there! Thanks for all the memories, and making everything listed above even better!

Packing Day!

The moving company came to our apartment yesterday. They got here at 9:00am.

Luke and I didn't do ANYTHING. Well... I took a few pictures. Palin wandered around.

By 2:00 pm they were gone, and so was everything in our apartment.
I guess we're moving to Tucson (until then, we're camping out on the floor of our empty apartment)!

Fall Feast

This is my favorite time of year.

When the leaves start to show a hint of yellow I get distracted.

By the time the trees are red, gold, and orange, I can't be counted on to hold a conversation.

I love that my dog chases blowing leaves and chews on them when she can catch them.

Isn't this the most beautiful tree you've ever seen?

I'm worried about Fall in Arizona.




So, I'm trying to soak up the feast... before the ( 3-5 year) famine.

Happy Autumn! For me, it really is happy!

Arizona Moon Keep Shining

The Air Force is moving us to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in December. Luke is going to start working nine to five. We are in the Air Force for real now (I say 'we' because Luke did the whole Air Force Academy thing).

Oh, and see this cute house....

Yup. That's right. We bought it! With a lot of borrowed money from the bank.

We went down to Tucson to look at houses a few weeks ago. Along with seeing some darling houses, we saw some of the sights too.

The is the chapel for Mission in the Sun, located next to the DeGrazia Art Gallery. It was built in 1952 and had the most beautiful murals all over the inside walls.

We also visited the San Xavier Del Bac Mission. It was completed in 1797 and is very impressive.

The chapel inside looked like this...

Very impressive.

We had a great time in Tucson! It will be fun to call Tucson home for a few years.

Corn

Corn...

Out here, it's everywhere.

The best part about living next to cornfields....

Last weekend, Luke and I went to the Sweet Corn Festival. It was worth it for the fresh, buttery corn (on the cob of course). If you're ever in the midwest and can stop in at a corn festival, do it.

Another great thing about living in the middle of cornfields...

the friends that live here too. Bumping into them made the corn even sweeter.

Farmer's Market!

One great thing about summer, here in Illinois, is the Saturday morning Farmer's Market! Every Saturday local farmers, bakers, and crafty people of all kinds gather to sell what they've grown or created. The result is a really fun Saturday morning where you can buy fresh fruits and vegetables and all manner of trinkets while listening to live blue grass music.

It's fun to support the local community and the veggies are always really good.

It's just one more thing that makes summer time Saturday mornings great!

Table for Two

Luke and I got a kitchen table last week and, as silly as it sounds, we are really excited about it.

Here's your picture Mom...

We celebrated finally having a kitchen table by gathering friends around it for pizza and games. It's funny how such a little table can help a house feel like a home.

~Moving Sales are awesome!~

Girl's Camp!

I LOVED Girl's Camp, back when I was a girl. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints sends its Young Women (girls between the ages of 12 and 18) out into the wilderness for a week to help them: bond, admire God's beautiful creations, and giggle all night for an entire week. Well, the level of wilderness camp seems to vary a little from place to place (back when I was a girl we camped the "hard" way... uphill both ways, in the snow. But honestly, we didn't have a fancy dining hall or showers.).

The week presented its own interesting challenges, like extreme heat, but we kept going and had a great time!

Who wouldn't have a great time with these girls...

Danalou....

Katelynn...

Jessica...

and Kalina...

We got to do some pretty neat things while we were there, too.

We went on some gorgeous hikes.



We got to try archery. This is me... doing my best impression of Katniss Everdeen.

There were fire starting competitions, skits, and canoeing. We made pizzas and s'mores in the fire. We studied the scriptures and strengthened our testimonies.

Luke came up for the last two days to help out. He stayed up with the Stake Leaders so I didn't see him much, but it was really fun to have him up there.

I am so glad I was able to go to Girl's Camp! The girls in our ward are amazing! It was great to spend a week with them!

Death of a Sock Monkey

A little while ago, my sweet sister sent Palin a present. A sock monkey toy with a squeaker in it. It looked a lot like this...

Immediately, it became her favorite toy. She played with it.

And played with it.

And played with it. Until it didn't look much like a sock monkey.

Then, one day (about a week after she got it) it was just a pile of fluff.

Thanks sister! Palin loved it!