Travel: Yellowstone

Travel: Houston, Texas

Pictures from the trip out to Houston to visit Zoie and Aaron. 

I've been working on this over the Summer- to achieve my goal of overcoming my fear of rock-climbing. The first time I got on a wall I couldn't stand the idea of letting one hand go to reach for the next hold when I was like 3 feet off the ground. I was finally able to climb up a (25 or 30 foot) wall all the way- well several times actually- without feeling fear. It was great. 

Houston temple

OF course...I had to take lots of pictures of plants. I think I have a problem...but I'll only put up a few. 

Crapemyrtle

Topiary boxwood

Bottlebrush

Lots of good cooking at Zoie's house :)

 Awesome interiorscaping--very peaceful feeling place. (there was a little fountain on the other side)

 The Rothko Chapel- a peaceful quiet place for meditating- and other museums around it (contemporary art) were very cool, although we were not supposed to take pictures.

Strange swing in a park...

Hindu temple called BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir and the little restaurant outside it. 

mmmmm, orange mango slushi

Very peaceful and beautiful inside. I loved this place.

traffic in the city

Galveston Beach-- with warm water and waves that don't try to kill you.

Crepes and Coffee shop in Spring that was the best Crepe I ever had. S'mores crepe. mmmm

 And the car show.

Thanks Zoie and Aaron for letting me come hang out :)

North Carolina round 2

So glad I got to go spend a week hanging out with my brother and his family before I go. What's not to love about spending time with people who cook fantastic meals for you, have the cutest baby ever, and love to have you. Mostly we just hung out around the house and talked and played with the baby- which was fine by me. I got to read through most of my brother's missionary journals, which really helps me, as I'm preparing to go to go and seem to have all these weird little fears creeping up when they can, to see the fun and spiritual moments that someone else has gone through and to know it'll all work out. We also went to the state park (Raven Rock) and hiked around there, and went to some museums, walks through the neighborhood, replacing the lyrics to every song in the world with Miranda's nick names, walks through campus, made a birdfeeder, and stayed up watching tv and youtubes and eating way too many toaster strudels in one night.

Some pictures and videos from the week. 

The robot in the new library- it gets your books for you. And my brother the goof. 

Oldies movies- now I know where they got it.

Mohawk baby!

Miranda always knows when there's a camera and she stops whatever she's doing to look at it (and then try to grab it of course).

 My favorite moment was in Sarah's primary class when she asked "What did you do this week to choose the right?" And one kid answered back "well...I didn't steal." :)