Ultimate Vacation Part 1

After months of planning, saving, and almost canceling the whole thing once or twice, we finally went on our "Ultimate Vacation!" It was a 2 week trip starting in Idaho and ending in Philadelphia. We spent a lot of time in the car but it was fun because we listened to some books on tape—like the Hunger Games series and Harry Potter. Our friend, Kaity, was nice enough to let us drive her car to Philadelphia for her. It was so much fun and I wasn't ready to come home, but you have to face reality sometime or other. And we're already planning where we want to go on our next vacation!

Days 1 and 2 were driving days. We drove from Pocatello to Kansas City.

Liberty Jail

Adam Ondi Ahmen

Day 3 we went to Liberty Jail, Independence Jail, the Far West Temple site, and Adam Ondi Ahmen.

Nauvoo Temple

Day 4 we went to Nauvoo and saw the sites there. We also saw Carthage Jail. We wish we could have spent more than a day there because there's so much to do and see, but we just didn't have enough time. We did do a session in the temple. It's so beautiful.

The Buckwalter Family at Isaac's baptism

Days 5 through 6 we visited the Buckwalters. We planned it just right so we'd hit Isaac's baptism. We were so grateful to get to be there for Isaac's big day. He's such a great kid. We really enjoyed our time with the Buckwalters and were sad to have to say goodbye.

Kirtland Temple

Day 7 we went to Kirtland to see the church history sites there. We planned this trip at a perfect time, right after the busy season, so we were often the only ones on the tours. That made us feel special. And we were able to relax and feel the spirit while we were in these wonderful places.

Cedar Point

And what would the "Ultimate Vacation" be without the thrilling amusement park? We went to Cedar point on Day 8. It was a blast. We went on some scary rides. One shot us 400 feet in the air at 120 mph! I had my eyes closed the whole time. But it was a lot of fun and we went on the rides till we felt sick.

Sacred Grove

Whitmore Home

Day 9 we went to Palmyra, New York and saw the Sacred Grove, Hill Cumorah, and the printing press. I enjoyed revisiting the Hill Cumorah Pageant. I kinda wish we'd been there during the pageant so I could show it to David but I'm glad we came when it wasn't so crowded. We also visited the Peter Whitmore home.

Harmony/Susquehanna River

That same day we went to Harmony, PA to see the birthplace of Joseph Smith. There was only a sign there that said he'd grown up there. No home. No tours. But it was still cool. And then we went to the Susquehanna River. It was a beautiful evening and we skipped rocks for a while. It was such a peaceful place.

Ultimate Vacation Part 2

We spent the last few days in Philadelphia and New York City. While we were in Philadelphia we met up with some of our friends/roommates Kaity, Caitlyn and Emilee. It was so fun to see them all and catch up.


We went with Caitlyn and Emilee to Chocolate World in Hershey, PA while Kaity was in school. It was really fun.
Another day we went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Does this scene look familiar to you??? (It's from Rocky) David was so excited to run up these steps.

He almost didn't make it though...
But he succeeded in the end! Way to go, David! :-) (This scene is also from the movie)
Of course we couldn't go to Philadelphia without eating a Philly Cheese Steak. We went to one of the original places—or so it claimed. It was really good.Then we went to New York City. We were a bit exhausted from all the travel and site seeing by this time but New York has so much energy and excitement. We really loved touring the city. We road the subway and took the ferry to the Statue of Liberty. We visited Ground Zero and the Empire State Building. We saw the New York Temple and went to China Town. We even went for a walk in Central Park where we watched a baseball game and took a nap. We tried to cram in as much as we could in the short two days we were there.


We even went to 2 Broadway plays!! We went to Phantom of the Opera and Wicked. You can kind of see the signs for them in the picture below, though the glare is in the way. I enjoyed Phantom of the Opera but the highlight was getting to see Wicked. I've listened to the music for years and know many of the songs by heart. David had already seen the play but was willing to see it with me again because I really wanted to. And it was amazing!!! It lived up to all of my expectations. The music is incredible and the plot is very family friendly. I definitely recommend this play.

We walked up and down Broadway many times, just in awe of the tall buildings and bustle of people. But it was so fun and we wish we could have seen more and done more. Oh well, we'll just have to save that for our next ultimate vacation. Till then, we're still in awe of the wonderful sites we saw and the amazing opportunity we had of touring the church history sites, visiting family and friends and soaking up the culture of the many places in the United States.
Above is Broadway during the day. Below is a picture of Broaday at night. It was so incredible!

David's Grand Adventures

David has gone on some pretty amazing adventures in the past couple of weeks. Here are a few pictures to show you what he's been up to:


David took a rock climbing class and they went on a trip to City of Rocks. Needless to say, he loved it!

We went to the Lowder water slide party and had a blast! David went down the slide like 60-70 times (nonstop from 10:30 to 5:30) Aunt Janice said David was like the energizer bunny because he just kept going and going. It was so much fun!



And, finally, David got an internship with the Mormon Messages (the LDS YouTube channel). He'll start his internship in the Fall. I'm so excited for him. He's really going to enjoy this experience.

Life is wonderful

My life has been so blessed the past few weeks – which has been so wonderful since it's been really stressful being unemployed and having to worry about finances for the past few months. But I was able to do some great freelance work for a local business and the Mormon Times.
I know this picture is blurry, but we're just the cutest couple ever!
David and I volunteered as I-team leaders this semester - we helped new married students get acquainted with school and participated in fun activities. It was a lot of work but really fun. It's funny that I never participated in any of this I-team stuff till I graduated.

And the big news is....

I got a job!!

I am now a writer for the Leadership in Action magazine at Melaleuca. I started on Monday and it's been great. It's so nice to be able to be able to put my degree to good use.

I actually got two amazing job offers the same week and had to decide between the two. I guess when it rains, it pours - but I don't care for the dry season.

This position also means that David and I can afford to take a trip back east this summer. David has never seen any of the church history sites back east and it will be fun to go on our first road trip together. We'll also be able to visit family and friends who live back east - not to mention see our nephew get baptized. We've never done a road trip back east so if anyone has some great ideas of places to visit while we're there or great ways to make this trip less expensive, that would be wonderful!

And that's what is going on at the Landeen house.

Don't count your chickens before they hatch...

Choosing furniture for our apartment is an adventure no matter what. Seeing as we live down some steep stairs and in this corner apartment with low ceilings and a door at the most awkward angle imaginable to man. We discovered how hard it really is to find something to fit our apartment this past week. ( not just fit in our apartment but fit our apartment as well)

The above picture is our old set-up. We had a love seat and a nest chair thing. They were nice but were a little uncomfortable to sit on all day. Chanae found a full size couch online for $15 and we decided to go look at it. I measured the doorways, the floor to the ceiling and the distance across where we would put the couch. Everything fit the couch. So we bought it. We had to sell our other two couches to make room so Chanae put them up for sale and they went quick. Next we got our new couch and started the project of moving it into our apartment. We found out quickly that this would not be an easy task, but for some reason it took us a long time to figure out that it was impossible. The problem that we were dealing with was that I had measured the couch from end to end and knew that it was shorter than the ceiling. However to get the couch into that position you must tip it and the couch was too long to rotate upright. We tried everything and at one point considered breaking a board in the couch to give it a bit more flexibility. We didn't. In the end the couch defeated us and is now sitting at the top of the stairs. Chanae put it up for sail for $25 – if anyone is interested in a new couch ;-). We figured for all the work that we did trying to get it into our apartment we should at least make a profit.
So above is where our couch now sits until someone with a higher ceiling decides to buy it and below is where Chanae and I sit. We have never seen our apartment look roomier but we are hoping to fill this space with something more comfortable than the carpet. We have all heard the old saying don't count your chickens before they hatch. Well we might start saying don't sell your couches until you know if the new one will fit into your apartment. Who knows, it might catch on.


*This post was written by David Landeen... if you didn't notice.

The Daily Herald

David and I are so excited it's spring. We have a lot of fun plans for this summer, including David's awesome class schedule of rock climbing, fly tying, soccer, D&C, Methods for Seminary Teachers, and Comm 100. We're also planning on doing a bunch of activities with the school, fishing, and camping a lot in the mountains where David's parents just bought a few acres of land. Not to mention the family reunion and the Lowder water slide parties. This summer promises to be full of lots of fun... however, the one thing I am dreading about summer is our buddy, the Daily Herald...

We live in the basement of a house and, because of this, we get a lot of pesky friends that stop by. Last summer, I would hate to get out of bed first because I knew there was a spider waiting for us. We'd kill it and find another one the next day. So we named each spider Herald and each day we complain about the return of the Daily Herald in our apartment.

And today, I found our first Herald...

It's already begun and it's not even officially the first day of Spring!!

So my question today is, how do I officially get rid of our pesky friends? I tried a few bug repellents last year but to no avail. Does anybody have a great solution for this?

Plumber Bummer/Valentine's fun

The date: Last Saturday, roughly 11 p.m.
The place: Our apartment in Rexburg, ID
The problem: Bathroom Plumbing

It was quite a shock when I went to use one of our two sinks in the bathroom and both sinks started filling up with water and leaving these nasty black specks all over. I called my handy dandy fix-it man, David, to fix it and ended up spending all evening trying to figure what was wrong. After staying up till 1 a.m. on Valentine's Day, we decided to call it quits and talk to our managers before church. Either it was the drain-o stuff we put down the drain or the stuff in the pipes, but our bathroom stunk like sulfur all night. I'm starting to wonder if Valentine's Day is more of a cursed day for us, since last year we almost got in a wreck.

Fortunately, the manager came and fixed the pipes in time for us to enjoy our dinner with the windows open to air out the stink. I made David's favorite dinner: marinated pork, stir fry rice and homemade bread. David gave me the roses on the table for Valentine's Day.

I also followed my friend, Leadawn's example and made heart shaped pancakes that morning. I didn't have red food coloring so I tried a raspberry jello mix. It kind of left a weird taste in our mouths afterwords so I don't recommend it.
And, finally, David made me the most amazing Valentine's Day gift ever! He had learned how to sew from watching his sisters do it all the time and, together, we decided to embark on this immense journey of making a red and white polka dot dress. I found a vintage 1940's pattern (that is almost falling apart because it was so old) online and we went to work. When David gets started on a project, he hardly even rests till it's done. So we got this project done really fast, though it was the biggest sewing project either of us had done. Afterwords, we had some extra fabric so we decided to make a tie to match for Valentine's Day. It is cotton fabric so it's not as nice as a regular tie but it was fun to make. And so we had an amazing outfit for church on Valentine's Day -- cheesy, I know, but we're newlyweds! We get to be cheesy for a while. :-)