Adventures in Rexburg

So Justin and I have kept quite busy with school (for Justin only of course!) and fun outings. We've really tried to immerse ourselves with everything that happens out here and be really involved. I don't have a job yet but I'm still trying of course and we have faith despite the wait that things will work out for us. I've kept myself busy during this wait though and am just trying to enjoy my freedom. For starters I've been doing a ton of cooking. Rachel (my sister who lives out here with me) and I decided to make up a menu together last week to pre plan our meals for the week. Ironically this is something I always dreaded when my Mother wanted me to help her do this at home. But now I definitely see the value in it. We were able to go over recipes and find fun new things to try and then we did our grocery shopping so we could make sure we had everything for the week. I used my crock pot for the first time which was so easy and delicious! I've had so much fun working in the kitchen and spoiling my husband. Cooking is quite fulfilling, you work on something and then you get to eat it, it's perfect!

Anyway, enough with the culinary side of my life! So the first week of school before classes started there was a "Get Connected" event with activities and orientation type stuff for incoming students. Everyone is assigned to a group to be with through the three day event. It's kind of organized as a meat market so Justin didn't particularly want to go but then we found out that we would be in a group for married students so we thought it might be fun. We actually ended up having a blast and we made some really good friends that we've been able to do a lot with. Class started on Thursday, it was so fun getting Justin all ready and going school shopping! I made Justin pose for a picture when he was headed out the door! Class has been going really well for Justin. He's very busy with everything but he's working so hard, I'm so proud of him!

With our group from the "Get Connected" event, we

were able to go to a beautiful place called Mesa Falls together for a Saturday outing. Like it's name implies it's a waterfall! We were able to

go on a nice little hike, nice and little enough that we ended up playing Catch Phrase with our group the entire time. Very interesting trying to pass the thing up and down a line while hiking! It was nice to see some more of Idaho. Justin and I are excited to explore the Northwest so that trip was a nice start for us. The falls were about an hour from Rexburg, not too bad!

Another fun adventure that I was able to go on was a Relief Society Retreat this last weekend. We went up to Island Park, also

about an hour away. It's an area kind of more in the woods and there's a big river that goes in and out creating all of these islands, the cabin we stayed in was on Bill's Island. It was so beautiful there, I loved it! We had a nice evening hang out on a deck next to the river, had a fabulous dinner and then a Fireside. We ended up staying up until almost 3:00am playing games and talking. Normally I'm not that much of a night owl but I was going to sleep on the couch in the living room where everyone was up talking so I had no choice! Saturday I was able to go on a beautiful nature hike! It's starting to look a little like fall up here and it was so pretty seeing bright orange shrubbery mixed with Pine. It was so nice seeing the beautiful parts of Idaho and it's making me more and more excited to be living here and to be able to explore more beautiful areas that Idaho and the surrounding states has to offer.

View of the Sunset from the cabin

Scenic Hike

Moose we saw on the path

Pine and fall all in one, beautiful!

The water in the river is so clear, it was so fun watching the fish and enjoying the beauty!

This is a picture just looking down into the river, I thought it looked like a Picaso painting or something!