Homecoming Weekend - Timpanogos Caves

Casey's mom always comes to visit for Homecoming weekend. It's always a good time when she comes. My favorite part is Homecoming Spectacular, which we went to on Friday night. It was fantastic this year! Even Casey was entertained and has a new found respect for the BYU Ballroom Dancers. My favorite was when they danced to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir humming "If I Could Hie to Kolob." It was beautiful. On Saturday, we woke up early to hike to the Timpanogos Caves. Casey's mom and I had heard about them, but never been, so we figured this was a good time. It was a beautful morning and we had a nice (slightly tiring) hike to the top. Then we hurried home to get ready for the Homecoming game against Air Force, which we won. Homecoming weekend has become sort of a tradition and it's one that I hope lasts.

A view of Alpine from the mountain

I was standing in the striped area. The funny part was that it was only a 3 foot long stripe. Casey's mom had a hard time with the hike. She had just had her appendix out 4 weeks earlier. I had a cold and wasn't feeling my best either, so we were glad to get to the top.The heart of the cave

Popcorn rock

Caramel topping rocks
Tight squeeze

We saw these steps on the way down and thought they were pretty
At the top of the world These ledges had sharp rocks sticking out. I guess they didn't want anyone lingering.
Casey's mom was always ready with her camera.

BYU v. UCLA

Being our last year at BYU, we've tried to go to as many games as possible. We have all-sport passes so that takes care of the home games, but we have since been to two of the away games, and one of them was the UCLA game. We stayed with our good friend Chris Weston and his family and had a great time! Casey even met Pete Carroll (USC's head coach), and of course, a visit to California wouldn't have been complete without a run (or two) to In-N-Out.

Rodeo Drive. Just like the sign says : )

It was fun to see, but it was definately a one-time thing. Even if I was rich I wouldn't shop here. The prices were outrageous.We passed by this building and it had a beautiful roof, so I had to take a picture.

Santa Monica Beach. They had all these cool toys so that Casey could show us how tough is : )
He reached the top in like 10 sec.

Playing a little chicken with Kevin.
The Rose Bowl. We can now add this to our list of stadiums we have been to to see the Cougars.
Our Kicker practicing before the game.
Note Casey's new haircut. I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. It was definately time.

BYU v. AU

First game of the season and it was a good one. A little hot for me, but the win definately made up for it. Here are some of my favorite pictures!

The Haka. This is one of my favorite things to watch.

Max Hall's first throw
Harvey Unga. "Straight Disgusting" as Casey would say : )
Some girl got quite the surprise!
They retired Ty Detmer's and Gifford Nielsen's number (they were both number 14).
FULLY INVESTED (even though you can't see mine).

Last one!

And....we're back! This is the last Washington D.C. entry. We walked around A LOT again and saw a whole lot of memorials. The first thing we did was tour the White House at 7:30am. It took us a whole 15 minutes. You stand in line forever, have to go through tons of security, then you go through a self guided tour which consists of 2 floors and 6 rooms (that are roped off). There is really nothing that interesting so you find yourself asking the secret service things like, "Are the flowers all real?" and "When was the last time the President ate in this room?" The funniest part was when Casey tried to sit in a chair next to one of the rooms (They were all roped off except for this one), and the secret service guy said, "Don't sit there!" before Casey's butt even touched the cushion. It was kind of funny. Then when we got outside the gate, Josh went up to another secret service guy to ask where the closest place for breakfast was and he looked like he was about to drop kick Josh : ) It was fun, but they next day Casey and I decided to sleep in since we were on vacation and decided that we had seen enough of Washington D.C. The trip was definately worth it and a HUGE thanks to Josh for letting us stay with him, providing some food, and driving us to the metro.

The Sightseeing that Never Ends

When I said more walking was to come, I wasn't joking. We first had our tour of the Capitol Building, which was amazing. After our tour, we went to some of the museums that we had heard about. Then the next day we saw some more. The best part is that they are all free. Here are a few of our favorite pictures, well my favorite pictures : )

The Botanical Gardens. They had this cool exhibit where you could smell different spices, etc. from these huge metal flowers.

National Museum of the American Indians. It was a really unique building.

National Gallery of Art. We were speechless too..

What can I say...they were good chips. Actually, Casey got a hold of the camera : )

Casey's favorite picture. It was definately the most interesting one there.

National Air & Space Museum

Missles

A chess board used in space.

Meeting the Fam in Pennsylvania

During our trip to D.C., we went up to Pennsylvania for a few days to see Casey's family. It was fun for Casey to see his cousins that he hasn't seen in 10 years and to see and stay with his Uncle Gary and Aunt Venus (we haven't seen them since our wedding). They are such wonderful, generous people. We also saw a little bit of his Uncle Dwayne, Aunt Amy, their kids, and Amy's bookstore. Amy was was really nice and even gave Casey the book he needed for his book club: The Alchemist. It was fun to meet some of family for the first time and see what life on the farm is like. They definately live a different life than what Casey and I were used to.

In case you were wondering what Pennsylvania looks like...

Casey and Garrison riding on the dirt bike

Playing on the tight rope in the barn. The boys made this one afternoon when they were bored.
Me
Bryce
It rained quite a bit while we were there. Candice convinced Casey to play football in the rain with her, and this is Casey taking cover.

Candice giving Casey that, "You're such a dork" look : )

Casey and his Grandpa Plessinger

Casey and his Great Grandpa Crawford

Washington DC

We're still alive! I know a lot of you were wondering since I haven't updated in a while. Anyways, for our anniversary, Casey and I went to Washington D.C. to see the sights and visit Josh. The first day there we went to the Holocaust Museum (very eye-opening and Casey's favorite). They had excellent exhibits and there was so much that we learned about the Holocaust that we never knew. We also went to a Nationals v. Mets game. It was a lot of walking, but little did we know how much more we would do...

The Holocaust Museum. The architecture was really cool. It was all very plain and almost cold with a lot of steel, brick, and unfinished wood. It definately set a mood for the museum.

The Room of Remembrance. Above these candles they had the names of different concentration camps and you could light the candles underneath them.
One of the windows that I liked.
Throughout the museum, they had informational videos with modern day interviews with survivors, troops, trials, etc.One of my favorite pictures that we saw.

Children's Tile Wall. Children from around the United States made tiles themed around the Holocaust.

This museum definately made you think...

A flag outside the museum. Just made you glad for the country we live in and for our freedom.

The Nationals Game. We all got free Lincoln bobbleheads. This is Casey and Josh mimicking Honest Abe's stern expression.
Casey and I after the game.