Carving Punkins

Better late than never is my motto, so here are Halloween pictures. I love Halloween! For FHE the Monday before Halloween we carved pumpkins because it's fun and I needed a pumpkin for our work Halloween party. I took 3 times as long as Casey, but art takes time : ) It was fun and we were happy with our finished products.

Casey hard at work. I thought he was cute with his tongue out and everthing.

Taking out the gooey seedsThe back/side of my pumpkin. It took a lot of work, but it was worth it.
Our finished pumpkinsUs with our pumpkins. Notice the strategically placed BYU blanket next to Casey's pumpkin : )

BYU v. UNLV

The second away game we went to was the game against UNLV. We went down with our friends Spencer and Carly on Saturday morning, went to the ESPN Zone, had lunch at Casey's Uncle Mont's house, went to the game (which we of course won), In-N-Out, drove to Mesquite, stayed there Saturday night, then drove home on Sunday. It was a quick trip, but we had a lot of fun and it was definately worth is to see BYU beat UNLV.

Casey dominated the football game and got 94 points

Carly and Spencer playing ice hockey Carly and me playing the shooting game. Carly won :( Casey rowing down the river. I just thought he looked so cute in this picture.

Chris Weston came up for the game and Jay was working in Las Vegas, so we met up with them at Casey's uncle's and later that night. I'll explain Casey's black eye later.The four of us cheering on our cougars.

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.