Wedding Bells

Lauren and David were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple today. The morning started off a little bumpy, but by the time they "tied the knot" everything was great! We had a luncheon at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and ate the most delicious chicken. The reception at Mom and Dad's house was beautiful and thank goodness for loving neighbors and friends who are so willing to come over and take care of all the background stuff! They helped set up the decorations and stayed the whole night to serve the food.

We got to spend a lot of time talking with Bishop Klein. Every discussion with Bishop eventually finds its way around to a gospel topic: at lunch we had an interesting discussion on what it means to have a "broken heart." We are so grateful for all that we have learned from him.
We love David and are so excited to have him as part of our family. Ben likes to watch sports with him and play "Tanks" with him on the Wii. He has fulfilled the role of brother for me many times, especially bringing his muscle to help me move into our apartment while Ben was in Nauvoo.

Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. David and Lauren Januszewski!

"Rendezvous in Old Nauvoo"

Ben had a lot of great experiences in Nauvoo. I read through some of his journal entries and will try to summarize what he did for the last two weeks. Things that are italicized are Ben's words and thoughts.

For his third year, Ben traveled to Nauvoo, Illinois with Vocal Point. The group performs there next to the temple every night for two weeks, as well as making daily trips out to surrounding cities. It is almost a mini-mission for them because they get to share the message of the Gospel through music and through their examples.

Some of the fun highlights of the trip include:

-a tour of Carthage jail, where the Prophet Joseph Smith was martyred-A tour through the Abraham Lincoln Museum in Springfield, Illinois-a session through the Nauvoo temple-watching performances by the Young Performing Missionaries in Nauvoo-tours through museums about Mark Twain in Hannibal, Missouri and a walk through the actual cave he writes about in "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer"-playing Frisbee with kids in the area during the precious little down-time that they did have-a chance to learn from people in Bentonsport, Illinois who live off of the land and have a simple yet sweet outlook on life

The best part about Vocal Point taking this trip to Nauvoo is that every day and every activity is filled with spiritual experiences that help their testimonies grow. After almost every performance, someone would approach them and share an amazing conversion story or express gratitude for the wonderful feelings that they felt while listening to them sing. Ben feels so blessed to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord and to be a part of this missionary effort.
Ben's visit to Carthage was personally inspiring. Even though he had been there before, this trip was especially poignant. When we got to the room where he was martyred, the guide mentioned that Joseph put his arm out for a pillow for one of his companions and said that all he wanted to do was see his family one more time and preach one last time to the saints. He didn't have any guile towards those that held him, and he was always looking out for his friends. We sang "Lead Kindly Light" and a huge emotion just fell over me. I truly mourned the Prophet of the Restoration.

Perhaps the most memorable and inspiring moments were the spiritual and personal interactions that he had with the other members of the group. Because they all have a deep love for the Savior and understanding of the Gospel, Ben loves having conversations with them about Gospel principles. I love having a testimony meeting with Vocal Point. That is definitely the highlight of the Nauvoo trip. It is a time when all jokes are set aside and everyone is able to express their most personal feelings to the group. We become so close and our relationships so strong.

Ben's three years in Vocal Point have had their challenging times and fun times, but every bit of it has been wonderful. I feel the same way I did at the end of my mission. I have done my best and am satisfied with the work I've done in Vocal Point. I am excited to enter into a new phase of my life and am willing to do whatever the Lord has prepared for me.

Here and There and Everywhere!

Ben and I made it home safely from , with absolutely no exciting events. It was so nice: 10 hours each day, no rush. We were pretty entertained by the seventh installment of the Harry Potter series and Jim Dale's amazing vocal talents. "Harryyyyyyyyyy......"

Unfortunately, Ben had to turn around again the next morning and leave for . Vocal Point does a two-week tour there every August, and Ben was really looking forward to it. He has enjoyed his first week there and has already had so many amazing experiences! I'll leave it up to him to blog about it when he gets home. :)

My experience here in with the parentals has been not quite the same. Everyone here is frantically trying to get last minute things done for my sister's upcoming wedding. It is chaos! Decorating the house, bridesmaid dresses, sleeping arrangements for guests, and other things are causing the usual pre-wedding grief. :)

Aside from being involved in all of the wedding preparations, I have also been trying to move our things into our new apartment in . BY MYSELF. It is really not fun. I'm not very strong. The other day it took me 1 1/2 hours to carry stuff up from the basement and pack it into my car. Luckily, David was able to help me unload, and did it in about 10 minutes! It was very much appreciated. I've discovered that KSL classifieds can be a great resource to furnish an entire apartment. "Mommy WOW! I own furniture now!" However, there are still a few things that I want to get at (home furnishing heaven). And we're even considering getting a new TV because ours is broken.

This week: back to school to set up my classroom and finalize schedules and lesson plans. Oh ya, and faculty meetings... epitome of boredom!

Schlitterbahn!

USAA took all of their interns to Schlitterbahn for an activity and I got to go along!Schlitterbahn is said to be the largest waterpark in the world! In German, Schlitterbahn means "slippery road", and that is the perfect description for this place. They have water everywhere! Even standing in line for a slide, you may be in a pool of water up to your ankles, or have waterfalls cascading down on you. They have giant wave pools and even a lazy river that sends waves through it.

They also have watercoasters. Basically, it is a waterslide that is like a rollercoaster! They shoot you up a hill, and then you slide down it really fast! Very fun, but also very popular. We had to wait in line for 2 hours to go on one! We had more fun doing the smaller slides, with old fashioned black tubes that are so huge, you can fall out of the bottom of them. :)

Obviously it's hard to carry a camera around when you are constantly getting wet, so they have photographers that roam the park, take your picture, and then give you a number so you can buy them at a booth before you leave. That's how we got these fun pictures of us. It was a great day and we definitely want to go back again and try the many slides that we didn't have time to do in one day. Hey Mom, I've got an idea for a family vacation next summer!!

Riverwalk

Last Saturday we decided that we couldn't leave San Antonio without having a real Riverwalk experience. So we drove downtown and took a boat tour. We got a brief history of the downtown area and the Riverwalk and Ben took some pictures of the surrounding architecture for a presentation that he has at the end of his internship.
We decided that our downtown experience wouldn't be complete without eating lunch along the river, so we stopped at one of my favorite restaurants, Chili's. We got a table outside, next to the river and listened to a live Peruvian band play some awesome music! Here is a short sample of what we heard (note that the quality of the music is diminished when recorded on a point-and-shoot camera...it was much better in person!):

There were a couple of downsides to eating outside:
-Pidgeons everywhere! They were trying to get free hand-outs. A family got up to leave and before the bus boy could get there to clear it off, the pidgeons swarmed the table and started feasting on the leftovers!
-Smokers.

HOWEVER, there were also some great things about our lunch:
-It was nicer to eat outside on a shaded patio than inside with the A/C turned up way too high.
-The live band outside was way cooler than the radio inside.
-The food was awesome. What could be better than a large green salad on a hot day? Yum!
-The dessert made everything worth it! A chocolate chip cookie cake, chocolate fudge, and vanilla ice cream with a chocolately shell all on the same plate? HEAVEN!
I love this picture of us. And I love my husband! We have so much fun together. It is wonderful to be married to my best friend. Thanks for such a fun day, sweetheart!

Six Flags Fun

We decided to get season passes to Six Flags during our stay here. This was a great move, because we can show up at the park around 6 or 7 after Ben gets off work and miss all of the crowds. We can go on a few rides and then go home. I like it because it is usually very hot, and I don't want to be there for more than a couple of hours. We have been averaging trips about once a week, sometimes twice. We have our favorite ride, "The Roadrunner Express", and have a general idea of where all the rides are in the park.


We have also been to the water park for a day. The locker rentals are kind of expensive, but worth it. They put a bracelet on your wrist that has a scanner thingy in it. Anytime you want to open your locker, you put your bracelet in front of a scanner and your locker pops open! We thought it was pretty cool. Our favorite slides were the "Tornado", where you shoot out of a tube and then spin back and forth down a funnel, and the "Toilet Bowl" (as we affectionately called it), where you spin around and around until you come out of a drain at the bottom.


We decided to treat ourselves and get some antique photos. They dressed us up in these fun clothes and we got some cute pictures.

We also had to make sure to see the laser light and fireworks show. Unfortunately, the show was poor quality, but it was still fun. We got a little history of Texas ("Remember the Alamo!") and learned about some of the famous people (mostly country music singers) and sports teams (Cowboys, Spurs, Rockets, etc.) that have come from Texas.

Happy 4th of July!

Chris and Maria invited us to visit their family's lake house for the holiday. It was really fun to get to know their family better and spend some time on the boat.

Ben and I tried tubing our first day there, but after a few minutes I was done. Too much for me...
Chris convinced us to get up at 6am on the 4th to go out on the boat just as the sun was coming up. This was to ensure we could get really calm water and it would not be really crowded. It was so worth it! The lake was beautiful in the early morning and everyone was able to get some good wakeboarding in. Ben rocked it! (The video is a little bumpy... it was hard to hold the camera steady on a speeding boat!)

Ben even got to drive the boat for a little bit so that Maria could get pictures of Chris on the wakeboard.Ben also got to play a lot of tennis with Chris and worked up a sweat. Finally, a challenging opponent! I played games, went for a bike ride, and watched a sappy movie with Maria. :)

For lunch I made some "Fireworks" drinks that were a total hit! I made red and blue Kool-Aid and froze them to make ice cubes. Then we put Sprite in our glasses and watched the colored ice cubes make cool bubbles in our drinks! I also made these really yummy desserts.They are chocolate chip cookies with cream cheese frosting and strawberries and a blueberry: red, white, and blue! Maria made some delicious salmon-burgers. I am considering switching to those anytime I make burgers. They are so good, and so much better for you!

We had an awesome 4th of July and even got to see some fireworks on the lake. Thanks to the Payne family for such a fun time!