Autumn Adventure

I love our friends. We have only been in Minnesota 3 months, but our friends already know how to win us over! I'm always busy with school (residency is more difficult and time consuming than anything else I have ever done in my life) so its sometimes hard to give up large amounts of time to spend with friends. But how can you say no when someone has printed out an agenda for you. Let me explain.....
We went to out to grab a quick bite to eat with the Castanedas Friday night. I thought that was our fun night for the weekend (Tyler gets one night a week, sad I know!) I went home to study and Tyler went over to their house to watch foot ball. When he came home he had this....

I couldn't say no and I've never known Tyler to say no to a round of golf. So Sat we spent the day out and about. First up, golf.

It was a terrible round of golf: Liz through her club, Jose hit a sign, and Tyler lost too many balls to count. They all blame my presence as reason for their poor preformance which is fine with me because it means i don't have to sit through golf again.

Next we were off to Stillwater (cute little town on the wisconson border). We stopped at Aamodt's Apple Farm. Delicious apples. We picked up some amazing apple butter (notice how it's already been opened before I could even get a picture)

Dinner and then a beautiful walk along the river. Ended the night back at the Castanedas for dessert and movies~

Minnesota State Fair

I am super late at posting this, but better late than never! One thing we have learned about Minnesotans is they LOVE their state fair. I have actually never been to a state fair before. Labor day weekend we spend a day at the fair with our friends Liz and Jose. They couldn't believe we had never been before. They had lots of cute farm animals. My favorite part were the baby pigs, Tylers was all the cute cowgirls...

Fair food is nothing like anything I have ever seen before. Any food you can think of they have it either fried, or on a stick, or both. We enjoyed fried pickles, mini doughnute, mini chocolate chip cookies and a host of other foods

Golf anyone?...no thank you

My residency is 26 months so this means that for 2 months there is an overlap of 3 classes (Classes of 2011, 2012,& 2013). This also means we get to attend the graduation of the class of 2011. The day consisted of a golf outing followed by lunch and a ceremony that night. It would have been a really fun time except for the fact that I have never been golfing in my entire life! But I wasn't the only one...none of my co-residents in my year had any clue how to golf. SO basically it was 18 holes of racing in the golf carts, putting, and trying to entertain ourselves for 4 hours.


Me and my fellow first year residents


Dave and his family. Dave might be the weirdest guy I've ever met. He has a child with his girlfriend and she is 8 months pregnant with their 2nd, but he refuses to get married. Yet he tells me all the time he's pretty much Mormon except for the fact that he drinks. Somehow I don't think he really understands the principles of the church at all. Looks like it'll be a good missionary opportunity....

Letting the kid crawl all over the golf course...who brings a kid to the golf course. Seriously!

Graduation dinner.

Can't wait til it's my turn in less than 2 years. Only 23 more months!

Goodbye Friends!

Just as we are getting to Minneapolis and getting settled in the ward and making friends we have to say goodbye to some great people. Our friends the Morses and the Fischers interned with Best Buy here for the summer and are now moving back to finish their MBAs. We sure enjoyed getting to know them and hope we'll get to see them next summer if they accept permanent positions here! But for now best of luck to finishing their MBAs!!

What do you do when you are at school for an average of 14 hours a day?.....Sleep when ever you can!!! (Don't worry this wasn't important...just OSHA training)

Minnesota

Well we made it safely to Minneapolis. Despite unpacking in the pouring rain, wet boxes, a broken mirror, 100 degree weather with crazy humidity, we seem to be hanging in there! Pictures to come soon....

Hello blog. oh how I've missed updating you. About a month ago Tyler and I went with some friends up to Ogden for a day of indoor skydiving and indoor surfing. We had a blast (except for a few wardrobe malfunctions by me). The videos speak for themselves.

Tyler missed the instructions that you are supposed to fall in..NOT jump ;)

Surprise!!

Today is Tyler's 30th birthday! That's right the big 3-0. To celebrate I threw him a surprise party 2 nights ago. I must say I was pretty proud of myself....it's extremely difficult to plan a party for someone who stays home during the day. To make the invitations I had to get up early in the morning before Tyler was awake and had to do most of the planning at work or after work when Tyler thought I was at the gym. It was a lot of work but totally worth every minute!

THE INVITATIONS:

THE BIG SURPRISE:

THE GAMES:

THE CAKE:

THE PRIZE:

THE CONTENTS:

Moving to Minnesota

That's right we're moving again! We've only been in Salt Lake City a few months but I just accepted a position at the University of Minnesota in their endodontic residency. I'll finish my residency here in UT mid-June and start in Minneapolis the 1st of July. For those of you who don't speak dental...this means I will be a specialist in root canals. That's right....root canals all day every day. Who wants to come see me in the office now ;)

I've already got plans to stock up on long johns, space heaters, and down comforters!

Donut Falls

The great thing about UT is the mountains are so close. You only have to drive 30 minutes and you're in the mountains. We took a great little hike up to Donut Falls last weekend. It's name is appropriate as the water falls through a hole in the mountain and down into a cave before it continues down the mountain. We highly recommend it if you've never done it. Just be careful climbing up all the wet boulders to the top!

4th of July

I found out last February that Carrie Underwood would be headlining the Stadium of Fire this year. Since we'd be in UT and I know how much my sweetie LOVES her, I just had to get us there. So I bought tickets for Tyler and kept them a secret for 4 months. He was super excited to see one of his favorite singers in person.

And she was worth every penny. She was absolutely fabulous in person. Not to mention the Stadium of Fire in general was awesome. From the jet flyover to the fireworks I don't think there is a more patriotic celebration. If you've never been it's worth spending the 4th in Provo for one year to see the Stadium of Fire.

I thought I was really patriotic, but I learned I'm in the minor leagues compared to Tyler. We are so grateful for the dedication and service of our troops. It has really been hitting home as I get to work with veterans everyday and hear their war stories. Our thoughts and prayers are always with those who have sacrificed so much so that we may enjoy the freedoms we have today.