Christmas in Virginia

Not long after Paul and I decided that we would be staying in Virginia for Christmas, my parents called to say they wanted to come for a visit. We were thrilled at the idea of having family with us during the holiday season! In preparation for their arrival I cleaned, decorated, and furnished our extra bedroom (huge thanks to Victoria Blanchard). Friday December 21st had finally come. I paced by the window as I waited in anticipation for my family to arrive. I had so many things I wanted to do during our one week together.

Local Places

Of course we had to check out Virginia Tech's campus.
Burruss Hall

 

We stopped by the duck pond & quickly made new friends. 

Dad & Paul managed to improvise in the rain without umbrellas.

Back at the house we made gingerbread houses & cut out snowflakes.

 

Mom & I had a blast cooking up delicious meals! I think the men enjoyed eating all our creations.

My first attempt at making an ice cream cake roll, turned out pretty well.

Christmas Day

We spent the afternoon on a hike to Cascade Falls.

Following the leader.

Paul caught a brook trout on Christmas Day.

Cascade Falls

Washington D.C.

We drove to Washington D.C. the day after Christmas. It was quite the journey as we finally made it through the snow storm, the first of the year for us. We had a wonderful time visiting the Air and Space Smithsonian as well as several other historical monuments.

 The D.C. Temple had a great holiday light display.

A quick ride on the Metro to the Smithsonian.

Arlington National Cemetery 

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Lincoln Memorial

And this is what we all felt like doing by the end of our fun filled week.

Thanks for the good time Dad, Mom, & Tyler!

Thanksgiving Weekend

Paul and I gladly made the three hour drive to spend time with family in North Carolina this Thanksgiving. We are so grateful for Scott and Chelsea's hospitality each time we have visited them. We are thankful to have family close by, especially during the holidays. We love and miss everyone in Utah.

Our original plans were to go camping and create a Dutch Oven Thanksgiving Dinner. Due to several coughs, sore throats, and lost voices we decided that it would be best to stay indoors. However, because we had already planned some of our dutch oven dishes, we decided to go ahead and cook part of our Thanksgiving dinner in the dutch ovens at the house. This lead to a friendly competition between Scott and Chelsea who decided to have a turkey cook off. Chelsea cooked her turkey in a conventional oven and Scott used a dutch oven over coals. I thought both were great, along with all the other wonderful things we ate!

Happy Hokie Day!
(It's complicated but a Hokie is a turkey)

 Our lovely table setting for our Thanksgiving feast.

The men hard at work to prepare the dutch oven dishes.

The goodness cooking.

Scott is ready to carve the turkey.

We went for an afternoon hike at Occoneechee Mountain. The weather was perfect. 

Our view from the top.

We took a small break & the girls decided to play Down By The Banks. 

Following the Leader. 

Paul made an attempt to fish the Eno River with no luck.

Chelsea's and I spent some craft time making origami star ornaments. 

The instructions claim this to be "an excellent folded star which can be made by children of great aptitude as well as the bedridden invalid of full mind". In other words this is really hard and takes a lot of patience. 

After some serious thinking and a few wrong folds we were successful. 

We had a wonderful weekend with the Scott Dyreng family. We always enjoy our time with them.

And we are looking forward to spending Christmas in Virginia with my parents and little brother Tyler!

Happy Holidays!

Pumpkin Carving

On Monday, while I was at the grocery store (getting a few emergency items in case we lost power because of hurricane Sandy, which thankfully did not happen) I noticed that the pumpkins had been marked down super cheap. I only bought one pumpkin thinking we could carve it together. Besides, I didn't think Paul was real big on carving pumpkins (note from Paul: I'm not) and I was in a hurry to get home. The temperature outside had dropped below freezing and the howling wind was sending the snow flurries sideways. When I got home Paul saw the pumpkin and excitedly told me about a fly fishing pumpkin carving contest he wanted to enter. Perfect, just what I wanted to carve into our pumpkin, a fish.

Before we started carving the next night, I asked Paul if he was serious about this contest. If so I'd probably prefer to have my own pumpkin. He was serious. If he won he would get a free Redington rod and reel of his choice valued at $200! Nothing like free fly fishing gear to get him motivated. So we headed back to the grocery store to get another pumpkin. They were completely sold out! I could not believe my eyes. The cute stacks of hay that had barely been noticeable under all the pumpkins yesterday now lay bare. I guess I'm not the only one who acts when they see a good deal. We went to two other places close by. The first one was closed and the other didn't have any pumpkins. Paul said I could help him out with his, so generous.

Paul makes the first cut.
He just killed the pumpkin. 

The fish picture on the table is what we were going for.

I must admit I was very impressed with the end result.
I had no idea he was so artistic. 

I put on the finishing touches by poking a hole for the eye.

Here are pictures of few other things we did during this Halloween/Fall season. I absolutely love making these cupcakes for Halloween. I got the recipe in a magazine from my Grandma Anderson a few years ago and I have made them every year since. We took them to our ward Trunk-Or-Treat.

  

Spider Web Cupcakes

Topped with spider rings.

I made this at our ward Super Saturday a few weeks ago.

It is nice to have at least one decoration in our home :)

P.S. Paul did not win his fly fishing pumpkin carving contest. Although we thought he should have.

    * Paul would also like me to note that there are no pumpkin carving fish patterns on the internet. 

       He put a lot of hard work into his pumpkin & is very proud of how it turned out.

 

Fall Break

To enjoy Paul's fall break we decided to take a drive to Shenandoah National Park and view the fall colors. Our original plan was to camp in the park but we were easily persuaded against that when we saw the evening temperature dropping into the low 30's. Plus, we just went camping a few weeks ago and were able to enjoy great weather, dutch oven dinner, and we even saw a black bear! However, we were not quick enough to snap a photo, maybe next time.

There are tons of hiking trails within the 105 mile long park. I left it up to Paul to find us a trail that he would like to hike because of his keen interest in fly fishing. He found us a "4 mile" round trip hike that would meet up with a small stream he could fish in. Our hike also took us to Rapidan Camp which was a summer retreat for President Hoover while he was in office. We went on a quick tour of the summer cabin and enjoyed our lunch on the deck. 

We continued our hike following our blaze marked trail. At the crossroads there was a post that said what the trials were and how many miles until then next post. When we arrived at our second post, we read it carefully. From Rapidan Camp plus how many more miles we had to go until the next post, which wasn't the end, did not add up to 4 miles.  When we finally made it back to our car and got a good look at the map, it turns out we went for a 9 mile hike instead of the expected 4. All said and done we had a good time and next time we'll be sure to read the fine print. 

Welcome to the Shenandoah National Park.

Can you hear the leaves under our feet? Crunch! Munch! Crunch! Munch!

Paul crossing the small stream. 

Beautiful waterfall & a pool for fishing. 

I'm guessing this is where "sounds of nature" records their waterfall track. 

Little Brook Trout

President Hoover's Summer Retreat. Nice place.

Bridge crossing the river next to Hoover's cabin.

We were told  that he fly fished in this stream regularly.

The white blaze marking our trail.

Glad we didn't get lost even though we had no idea how far we were hiking.

We Call It Home

Before moving to Virginia Paul and I searched vigorously on the internet for a place to live. Like most young and married college students we wanted a decent place for a reasonable price. I checked craigslist everyday along with a few other housing sites. I did not want to miss out on a good deal and even more so I wanted the comfort of knowing we would have a roof over our heads when we got there. We toyed with the idea of flying out for a weekend trip to check out a few places in person. After receiving advice from our friends and family, and sky-rocketing airline tickets, we decided against the trip. I continued my search on the internet, made phones calls, sent e-mails, and even contacted local church members.

Next thing I know we packed our boxes and were ready to go, with no house lined up. However, we were happy and looking forward to our adventure. 1 1/2 days after arriving in Virginia and 13 housing appointments later, we were exhausted and indecisive. Some places were an absolute NO, others had something to offer, and of course there was the one we never should have looked at. It was out of our price range and I wanted it... After much thought, talking, prayer, and little sleep we narrowed it down to two town homes. Upon making a decision we called the agent who told us someone else had already put money down on the property that morning. First we were astonished at how fast it had gone and then sad that we did not get it. However, with a new sense of urgency we quickly made a move on our second option. We had just barely seen the place that morning, but thought it suitable for our needs. We filled out papers, gave money, waited for approval, then more papers, and more money. Now we call it home.

Our lovely home.

The rather plain & simple living room. 

The kitchen.

Where I enjoy spending time creating meals & baked goods.  

You may or may not know that Virginia Tech's school colors are maroon and orange.

Our counter tops just happen to have a little school spirit in them.

Go Hokies!

This is where we sit & bask in the morning sunlight appreciating each ray of light.

Our last apartment was in a basement with no windows.

 Our bedroom with the east facing windows & on the second floor.

The study & second bedroom.

Visitors welcome.

 We are so happy that we found this wonderful place to live. 

We have more than enough space and we enjoy all the natural light. 

                

Exploring Virginia

You may or may not know that Paul's favorite hobby is fly fishing. He loves it! For the past two years we lived 5 minutes away from the Provo River, a dream come true for him. Since he enjoyed spending his time there so much, he thoughtfully acquired all the gear that I would need to go fishing with him. This way we could spend time together. And we did spend many afternoons and evenings fishing on the Provo River. 

Understanding this, it is only natural that one of Paul's major concerns about moving to Virginia was that he would not know where to fish or how to catch them. I was much less concerned about the matter. However, I decided to help him look for places to fish. I found a place called Cascade Falls not too far away from the area where we would be living. The description said that there is a hiking path that follows a fishable stream, and ends with a beautiful waterfall. Great! I can hike and Paul can fish. So on our first Saturday here we arose early and drove the 30 minutes to the falls.

The beginning of our hike....

Paul trying out his fishing skills and luck. Mostly skills though.

He catches his first fish in the State of Virginia! 

  

That little guy is the one of the biggest fish we saw in this small stream. 

Paul was pleasantly surprised to catch a trout. Trout are less common here in Virginia because they need cooler freshwater to survive and most of the water here is too warm. 

We followed the stream the entire time, it was beautiful.

Can you see the path we walked on?

We found a few other exciting things along the way.

I Love Raspberries!

We made it to the beautiful Cascade Falls.

We are so happy to live in such a beautiful place!