Anniversary Trip to Branson!

Last Thursday (9-16), Brent and I celebrated our 4th anniversary. I have been so blessed to have him in my life. We wanted to get away for the weekend and were so blessed with the opportunity to go to Branson and stay in an amazing condo at Branson Landing. We had such a great time. We decided that we could take our time and do whatever we wanted on the way down so we started the trip with a stop at Osceola Cheese!



When we arrived at the condo, we were amazed. The condo is in the middle of a shopping center with several fountains and people ever where! It was so fun to sit on the balcony and watch all the people! That is what I did most of the time! Friday night, there was a concert featuring Chain Reaction-A Tribute To Journey. It was amazing. There were incredible water and fire shows throughout the concert. We had front row seats from the condo. Here are a few views from the balcony and of the concert.








We ate dinner Friday night at Shorty Smalls on the lake. It is the best BBQ hands down and the sun setting over the water never gets old!!






Of course we had to watch the Michigan game on Saturday. We found a fun little bar and grill that was playing the game and had lunch there. Brent got a little chilly!

This is in front of the fountain in the middle of the shopping center.

After taking a few pictures, we went to a dueling piano bar for dinner on Saturday night. It was fun to hear some great music. After dinner, we went and got an carmel apple covered with snickers. It was so delicious. We took it to the fountain and watched one of the water and fire shows and of course, took more pictures!





On Sunday, there was an Ironman Triathlon taking place in Branson. It was just a half Ironman which is a total of 70.3 miles of swimming, biking and running. The running portion of the race went through the middle of Branson Landing with the finish line was in front of the fountains. It was fun to watch and cheer on the participants and be apart of the first Ironman 70.3 in Branson.

Year 2

The school year has started which starts our second year at MNU. This year has been easier for Brent since he has a year under his belt. He had some new responsibilities this year. He was in charge of the RA training week. He spent a lot of time getting ready for the week, putting events together and finding places for the RA's to eat. He did a great job. There are 2 new RA's to Uphaus and 1 returning for a total of 3. It is so fun to get to know a few of the guys well. Brent has built great relationships with the 3 RA. Its awesome to see him in relationship with not only them but with others in the dorm. Uphaus is full this year. Last year we had between 50-60 guys and this year we have 87. Needless to say, the dorm is really full! Marley has enjoyed welcoming each of them to Uphaus. Now that school is underway, things have slowed down. It's nice to have Brent back in my life after not seeing him for a week and a half. We are excited for this year and what God will do through our guys in our dorm and across the campus.

Brent and his RA's. From left to right: Josh, Ashford, Brent & Jordan

Some of the guys that live in Uphaus holding up the U!

Changes!

Not working has allowed me to sit back and take a look around my house and think "this place needs a little pick-me-up!" We decided that a wall in the kitchen needs to be painted. We both decided that we didn't want a real deep red color like we had in our kitchen in Oskaloosa so we choose a lighter red with a hint of coral pink. We are very happy with the results. It gives color to the room and makes the whole place look better. My mom also gave me her bakers rack which makes a huge difference. Now, I'm just trying to figure out how to decorate it!!

Before, with the old baker's rack.

Working on it!

After, with the new baker's rack!

Brent in training!

I am training for my very first half marathon. I am going to be running with my sister Cherie and my brother-in-law Filipe on October 3rd in St. Charles so the training is on! I will train for 8 weeks and then see if I can handle the 13.1 miles that awaits. It has been fun to train and challenge myself to run further than I ever have. I have run several 4 mile races and I have conquered 7 miles twice. I actually averaged just over 8 minute miles when I ran 7 miles on Sunday. It has been fun to get in better shape and not breathe like I'm going to die anymore, and learn how to run long distances. Yep, there actually is a technique. This is one more new adventure for me. I'll keep you updated.

Good Times at the Lake

The Uphaus boys (Grant, Cole, and Reece) came for their annual lake house visit to Lake Winnebago. They flew back from Phoenix with Chuck and Kathy and are here for the whole week. It has been a lot of fun watching them jump off the dock hundreds of times a day and try their hand at wakeboarding. Reece loves tubing the most! Here are some pictures that show how much fun we have all had with them. They are some great dudes.

Flexing our guns

Cole and I wearing our board shorts as they were intended to be worn

Cole's sweet sumo wrestler hair

Amy and Cole

Check out Amy's floating head

Amy Tan Sandy Hands and I

One of Reece's creative jumps

Grant learned to jump and dive off the top of the dock

I finally mustered up enough courage to backflip off the top of the dock...so Chuck and I jumped off together

Grant and Reece + jumping off the top of the dock like this = crazy

Seeing how far we can launch a racquet ball with the water loon balancher. (yes, i meant to do that)

Marley figured there was no way he would drown as long as he was resting his head on top of mine. He's not a big fan of the water, yet.

The boys, and a good lookin' dude in the background

I'm trying to get used to clearing the wake again.

The boys and I have gotten a lot of pool in. It gets pretty intense.

Laurie and Grant

Cole catching some wicked air

Cole loves to wakeboard and he has incredible balance

Grant and Reece love to tube together and challenge "Little Mary" to try to knock them off

Traveling

We arrived at the airport on Friday morning at 5:45 am to find that the plane we were supposed to fly out on had a crack in the windshield. We waited an hour to find out we were being moved to another airline and had to wait another 2 hours to fly out. The only good thing about it was that we had a direct flight instead of flying through Denver, and only arrived an hour late to KC. Needless to say, none of us were too happy about the change and the wait. Here are a few pictures to show our thoughts and feelings! Adam had a hard time but we tried to make the best of it!!




If you look closely, you can see all the people waiting in line behind us!