Goodbye My Lover

Goodbye My Lover. Can anyone name who sings that song? For those of you who can't, it's James Blunt.  Remember: You're beautiful, you're beautiful, you're beautiful to me... That guy. Sadly, I'm a fan of his.  I'm not sure what I like about him or his songs, but I'll admit I'm listening to him on YouTube as I write this little blog post.  (Disclaimer, I have never actually watched the music videos so if they are inappropriate I'm sorry...and if the lyrics are inappropriate, I'm sorry again...maybe I should listen to something else...)  I was trying to think about what to title this blog post and was thinking about saying goodbye to our wonderful friends in Iowa as we get ready to move this week. Then I thought of this song.  Poor Ben has to put up with my ramblings, which have increased recently, along with my poor memory. OKAY, on to the post.  I'll post a few things from each month in hopes of making up for not blogging since May.


JUNE

Ben golfed a lot this summer.  I'm not a huge fan of golfing, but I enjoy being outside and watching him have fun.

We also spent time exploring the area and went to the John Deere Pavilion where you can learn about the history of John Deere.  

We went to eat at a place called The Machine Shed, pretty good, but mostly I loved the atmosphere. Very farm-esque.

We also checked out the local farmers market, which I absolutely loved.  There were even samples of fruit with chili powder and salt, it took me back to spending time at our neighbors house when I was in elementary school and junior high. 

JULY

We spent the 4th of July at Ben's parents' house and it was so much fun.  We spent our days outside, doing yard work and enjoying the weather, we made s'mores, caught lightening bugs, and enjoyed spending time together. (We also played croquet, which we loved! I didn't get any pictures though, maybe this next week we will play again)

We also decided to buy a mattress! We currently don't own one, so we were excited to start looking for one.  We slept on a full sized bed for the first 8 months of our marriage and a queen sized bed for the past 4 months.  After testing tons of beds, we finally decided on a super comfy king sized bed.  We are thrilled to be sleeping with more room and hopefully we will both sleep a little better.

At the end of July, we decided to go to Nauvoo, IL, to see the Nauvoo temple and pageant.  We drove down on a Friday and stayed the night so we could walk around on Saturday.  It was lots of fun to go away for a day and learn more about the history of the early Latter Day Saints.  We stopped at a yummy fudge shop and a nice man in the pageant gave us 2nd row seats for the pageant! One of the souvenirs we brought home from Nauvoo was The Family A Proclamation To The World, carved on a huge piece of wood!

Click here to read the Proclamation

AUGUST

We are moving this Friday and can't believe how quickly the summer has gone by.  Ben will finish his internship on Friday and we will leave that same day to spend a few days with his parents before we go visit my parents and then head back to BYU.  Ben has one more semester until he graduates and we are hopeful that he will get a full time job with John Deere, in which case we will be headed back to Iowa in January.  Lots of moving for this family.  I have decided to not unpack when we get back to Provo in order to make the moving process in January a little easier.  Who needs decorations on their Wymount Terrace cinder block walls anyway? We have really loved Iowa and it has been so fun for us to grow closer in a new place.  A little less than 2 weeks until we celebrate being marred for a year and we are so excited for what the future has in store.  

Until next time!

Kristen