"P.S. If this is Austin..."

The first weekend in May, Bret and I took our first ever trip to Austin, TX. It is the state's capitol and our new favorite place in this gigantic state. 

West Texas (where we live) is super duper dry and flat and blah. There just aren't a lot of trees (besides mesquite trees, which are... interesting) or greenery or mountains or really anything. East Texas is very humid and foresty. Austin is in the middle, in the heart of hill country, with lots of green but not much humidity. Maybe we just had a charmed weekend, but I fell in love with this city. It is about the size of Salt Lake... maybe a bit bigger, but it sort-ot spreads itself out into suburbs and is metropolitan but not intimidating. 

I don't want to give you a travel-log, but here are some of our favorite pics to highlight our short vacation.

Bob Bullock Museum of Texas History
(A really cool museum with that helped me understand why Texans are so darn cocky!)

University of Texas at Austin
Hook 'em Horns!

We spent a couple hours wandering around the beautiful campus.
This building was gorgeous, but the picture doesn't do it justice at all.

My favorite part of UT Campus... the orange parking meters.

Bret's favorite part of campus?
Duh... the stadium!

I don't know why they decided to put a charging horse on their campus,
but I thought it was pretty cool.
(I also recognize that I am a total geek for making Bret take this picture.)

The State Capitol of Texas
(this is the back side)

City skyline from the steps of the capitol building.

Bret and his role model George W. Bush.
Bret wants to be just like him when he grows up :)

My new favorite Mexican Restaurant every anywhere.
Our waiter was the nicest ever and the food was AWESOME!!!

View from Zilcher Park walk/bike trail
(How beautiful is that skyline?)

We saw all these kayaks and canoes out on the Ladybird Lake
and decided to rent a boat the next morning.
Best part of our trip! 

Perfect night. Perfect city.
Perfectly happy together.

View from Mt. Bonnell
(this is looking away from the city but you can see the skyline from the other side)

Picture taken at the Botanical Gardens.
I love this handsome man.

Japanese pond at the Botanical Gardens.

Almost 3 years married and still think we are the happiest,
luckiest couple in the world.  

 We spent Friday afternoon/evening and Saturday morning in Austin. We loved just exploring and walking around. Hands down our favorite activity (no pictures, sorry) was kayaking on Ladybird "Lake" which is really more like a big river that runs right around the metropolitan area of the city. We sat in the sunshine (getting totally sunburnt) for two hours enjoying our surroundings... big buildings, cars, people, tall trees, art festivals in parks, people on runs and bike rides... this place has an incredible blend of urban and nature. There is so much LIFE with all the people and music and art, and yet you feel surrounded by beauty and the outdoors. I hope we get to spend a lot more time in Austin!

We topped off our trip by driving a couple hours to San Antonio to see the Livesy family. We hung out at their house, went to dinner at an incredibly beautiful restaurant, played with the kids, and enjoyed going to church with them. We are lucky to have such great friends who are so generous to us!

Frisbee Golf and Flowers

A few weeks ago Bret and I decided to spend the afternoon on ASU campus playing frisbee golf. It is a really pretty campus and although it could never compare with the incredibly detailed landscaping of BYU, it was really fun to admire the big trees and the random patches of gorgeous flowers in one area.

The first flowers were next to a building, but further out there is a big patch of wildflowers that must be semi-maintained. They were beautiful and we wish we could have had our picture taken together. Instead we have the awkward solo pics. (And just for the record, I think Bret is so stinkin' handsome.)

After a while I tired out of frisbee golf but Bret was great and just let me walk around and watch him and didn't pressure me to throw (and then chase down and then throw and then chase down and then throw...) my frisbees unless I wanted to. I know frisbee golf is kind of a random thing to be "talented" at, but Bret really is! I had a lot of fun watching him... and snapping pictures of the master in motion!

Isn't this last picture the best? Yep, that's my best friend... the frisbee golf all-star and best husband ever.

Fredericksburg

Earlier in April Bret and I spend a Friday evening in Fredericksburg. We had two reasons: 1) see the wildflowers on our drive through the hill country and 2) use our tickets to the Rockbox. 

The wildflowers were incredible... I literally oohed and aahed the whole drive. But I was too chicken to actually have Bret pull over and then try to take good pictures. Sorry. 

But here are some pictures from the town...

Waiting for our pizza

Some museum that has to do with the Pacific War

The best entertainment in Texas (in our opinion)

Bret insisted that I try to be a rockstar... I'm not so good.

He did a little better with his impersonation.

Picture of what lots of the buildings on Main Street look like.

We had a great, fast, few hours in Fredericksburg. The music was great, the drive was great, the company was the greatest. 

Wishful Thinking

If only that sore throat had just been a fluke... how nice that would have been. It has now moved on to the coughing, sneezing, waking up all night, walking around with a roll of toilet paper to blow my nose on phase. I think I am usually a pretty good sport when it comes to being sick, but Bret has been the trooper this go around and I have been the big baby. I feel lucky that my schedule has been a little more free than usual this past week, but I don't want to rest anymore... I want to go outside and play and be fun and productive.  Hmmm... maybe I'll show this cold a thing or two and go walk around outside in this gorgeous 82* weather anyway... I'll just take my toilet paper roll and a trash bag with me so I can sneeze as I go.

Okay, my pity party is over. I hear the weather in Utah and Idaho is about the same as it is here in Texas. Hope everyone is enjoying it (sans the coughs!).

FIVE, four, three, two, one...

Bret just came down with a cold. Poor guy is coughing all the time. Unfortunately I woke up with a sore throat but I'm optimistic that it will just disappear... no coughing or runny noses (wishful thinking?). And speaking of noses, ours detect a nasty, weird smell when we wake up each morning but we can't seem to pinpoint it. Yuck. But other than those two little downers, life is oh so good at the Wardle apartment.

We officially have just 5 weeks left in San Angelo before moving home for the summer. I think this is the most home-sick I have felt the whole time we've lived here. I am so thrilled to see our families for more than a couple weeks. We get to spend the whole summer with them! We will be living with my grandparents, right around the corner from my Aunt Suz (who is more like a big sister or friend) and her two cute kids. We will be within walking distance (a longish walk, but not bad) from my dad's office so I imagine stopping by to say hi or grab lunch every now and then. I won't have a car while Bret is at work, but I'm sure I will get quite good at calling my mom for a ride so we can hang out together. We are planning to spend lots of weekends in Idaho with the Wardles, one of which will be Wardle Olympics, which I have somehow managed to miss for the past 4 years, and another of those will be Zenna's wedding. It just sounds so nice to spend time with our family.

So 5 weeks left in San Angelo means....
* 5 more weeks teaching dance at the studio
* 4 more weeks of teaching Seminary
* 3 more weeks of teaching outreach classes Fort Concho Elem.
* 2 more weeks of teaching outreach classes at Santa Rita Elem.
* 1 more week of... April? (ok, no one week mile-marker)

This semester has been the BEST. I love my job. I really don't know anyone else with a job as fun as mine, or as satisfying. We have done such fun things together as a couple and with our friends here in San Angelo. We have had lots of happy things happen within our personal lives and the lives of our families. And yet, it is always fun to feel like you are finishing something and moving on to the next page. I just hope summer in Utah is as fantastic as I have made it out to be in my mind.

Hope you all have fun countdowns to an exciting summer as well!

I Love my Seminary Peeps

On Wednesday we were celebrating the Fall of Israel and figuring out the Who's Who of 600 BC. I know the destruction of Jerusalem doesn't really seem like something to cheer about, but honestly, for the last month it seems like every chapter we've read in Isaiah and Jeremiah has talked about how Israel will be destroyed but will be gathered again in the last days... fun to talk about once or twice or maybe three times, but honestly I was READY for Jerusalem to finally hit the dust so that we could move on to repairing and rebuilding. So...

We took turns "bowling" over Jerusalem... of course we had to improvise with water bottles and a basketball, but it was fun. I don't think the kids were quite as excited about the destruction of Jerusalem as I was... maybe they are more righteous... but they (meaning mostly the boys) were excited to go bowling in the middle of class. (FYI, I did make them answer a scripture mastery question before taking their turn so there was at least some kind of learning associated with the activity, however minimal!)

Then we did a "Who's Who of 600 BC". If you have read the Old Testament lately you'll know that after 2 Kings, nothing goes in order. In fact, many of the prophets are contemporaries and preach in different areas during the same general time frame. (The Bible Dictionary "Chronology" page is really interesting and helpful for understanding this.) Each of the kids were paired up and given a person who lived during the 20 years leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem and were asked to share about their person via a mock "newscast" and with the help of some kind of visual...

Caleb and Nathan taught that the prophet Jeremiah was thrown in prison multiple times even though what he predicted was coming true. People though he was a traitor.

Playdough rendition of Jeremiah in prison.

Logan and Brittney newscasting about the prophet Ezekiel who taught refugees from an earlier invasion of Jerusalem living just outside of Babylon.

Brittney and the little, tiny, rather boring playdough man, Ezekiel.

Ty newscasting about Daniel and Shadrak, Meshak, and Abenego (sp?) who were taken as young boys to be trained in the court of Babylonian king Nebechanezzer (sp?). Cody is acting it out as Logan and Nathan hold "tele-prompters." :)

Cameron and Audrey teaching us about a wealthy and proud Jew named Laban (who we read about in the Book of Mormon, but totally helps us understand what people were like right before the fall of Jerusalem).

Laban (red) and Nephi (blue). This picture doesn't do it justice... they took Laban apart and then "redressed" Nephi!

Celsee and Sophia telling us about Lehi, who tried to prophecy to the Jews but was threatened and then commanded to flee Jerusalem before its destruction.

I think this is Lehi wandering in the wilderness. 

 We don't do crazy stuff like this every day, but we had a blast with it this time and I hope that even though it wasn't the deepest, most spiritual lesson, that it will help them understand the Old Testament (and Book of Mormon) a little better.

I can't believe I only have 5 weeks left with these kids. This is the hardest calling and hardest job I have ever had, but it has been so fun and rewarding. I think I will really miss doing this next year!

Biggest Loser

I know, it has been over a month since I have blogged, and honestly I'm not sure why. I check other people's blogs a couple times a week. I guess I just haven't felt compelled to write anything about our lives right now. We have been doing good though... just counting down the weeks until school, work, and seminary let out and we can cruise home to Utah for the summer.

Speaking of summer, it is 8:45 pm and 76 degrees outside. It has been getting up to the high 80s. I officially NEED to get out my shorts and flip flops because I was sweating wearing jeans today. Welcome to March in Texas. It is lovely though and not only does it feel great but the flowers are coming up and things are starting to look greener. I'm so glad we get to enjoy this great weather... and then ditch out when things get unbearably hot at the end of May.

You may wonder why this post is titled "biggest loser". Well, I am officially the ultimate loser of my family's March Madness bracket. I don't think there is any hope of me coming up from that position. I thought my picks (based on jerseys, team names, locations, and personal attachments) were pretty good, but apparently not. I am also losing (by a long ways) the Wardle family health contest. We get points each day for eating veggies, drinking lots of water, not indulging in treats, exercising, reading scriptures, getting 7 hours of sleep (is that a joke? who gets 7 hrs of sleep?!), etc. I admit that I haven't been putting in a very valient effort, but when we tallied up scores yesterday it became pretty apparent that I need to step things up... not to win, but just to prevent total humiliation. So here is to carrots, bathroom breaks, going to bed at 9:30 (maybe), smoothies, running, and more carrots. Wish me luck!

(Ps - for those of you who already read this post when it was titled "biggest looser," you now have one more thing to add to my loser list: I can't spell that word. It is on my personal list of frequently misspelled words, right up there with marriage, which I can't spell consistently to save my life. Oops.)