Dallas Texas

A few weeks ago I decided to drive down to Dallas, Texas. It's about 4 hours south of me. Here is what downtown Dallas looks like. It's really a pretty city. It was VERY hot though (about 105 degrees).

I went to the Sixth Floor museum downtown. It's the building that Lee Harvey Oswald was in when he shot John F. Kennedy. They've converted the sixth floor (where he was at when he shot him) into a museum. They had tons of pictures, stories and video's about the life of JFK and the events leading up to and after the assassination. It was really a neat museum!

 The arrow above is pointing to the spot Lee Harvey Oswald was at when he shot JFK. The arrow below is the spot on the street JFK was at when he was shot. There is an actual X on the street to mark the spot!

This was a really cool looking building across the street!

I spent the night in a hotel and the next day I went to the Dallas Temple. It was a beautiful Temple (then again, what Temple isn't absolutely gorgeous). It was such a wonderful opportunity to spend the morning in the Temple.

I can't leave Dallas without stopping here! It's the closest one!

I really enjoyed the drive. Southern Oklahoma was actually pretty green and had lots of hills. I tried to get some decent shots out my window while I was driving!

The picture below is of a large hill, it's the closest thing to a mountain I have seen since I came out here!

It was a lot of fun to spend a quick overnight trip to Dallas. I loved it and I'm planning on going back to see more!

Kansas City Temple Open House

A few weeks ago I had the wonderful opportunity to go to the Kansas City Temple Open House. It was such a wonderful experience!

Kansas City is about 4 hours north of me. I left early tuesday morning armed with some snacks and my ipod and enjoyed the drive up there. I arrived around 11:30am and was amazed at how many people there were. We first went into the church building and watched a short video about the temple, and then they took us to go walk through the temple.

The Oklahoma City temple is a mini temple, this one is a full sized temple and it was wonderful to see the different rooms that you don't get to see in a mini temple. After we toured the temple we went back to the church for refreshments. I sat and talked with a sister missionary from Sandy, UT. I was impressed with how many people there were on a tuesday morning (there were easily 200-300 people during the two hours I was there). She told me that there seemed to be an overall positive attitude from the community.

Unfortunately not everyone is adept at taking pictures and this one the top of the temple was cut off :(
After I left the temple I had to make a stop at a very important store :)

This is the nearest Costco to me so I had to take the opportunity to stock up on supplies!

This is the alcohol section! It was HUGE! There was also an entire isle behind me that was full of alcohol. Lets just say I'm definitely not in Utah anymore!

On the way home I attempted to get a picture of this! It's a McDonalds and the arch covers the entire freeway! So you can get off on either side and the restaurant is over the freeway! I thought it was pretty cool, next time I'll stop to get better pictures!

After I got home I had the task of attempting to fit all the food in the freezer. I was a little nervous at first but I eventually made it all fit! It was such a wonderful experience to go see a temple open house, and feel the wonderful spirit that resides there!

Relief Society Birthday

A few weeks ago, we celebrated the 170th anniversary of the formation of the Relief Society. Our branch had a dinner and a short lesson. It was a lot of fun, good food and we had a pretty good turn out!

 We prepared the food at the Layton's house. Brother Layton is in our Branch Presidency and he lives just a few minutes from the church. His wife was kind enough to let us use her kitchen!

The theme was Bows. We had everyone wear a bow and decorated the room with bows. We made bow-tie pasta and chicken, with a salad and cupcakes for dessert. It was really yummy! Our Activities Specialist Nikki P. was baptized a few months ago and is really a sweet girl. She's Greek and has great recipes for food.

 Nikki P. and I made the cupcakes the night before, we had a lot of fun making them, they were very good too!

 Noemi and Me

 Nikki R. and Me

 Nikki P. and Me

(yes there are two Nikki's, it gets confusing)

Happy Birthday Relief Society!!!

It's Doug's Fault

Thanks a lot, it's all your fault Doug!

About two years ago, I sold my DSLR in hopes of buying a new one. Well you know how it goes, you save up some money and then something more important comes along. Since then, all I've had is an inexpensive point and shoot camera. Lately I've been very unhappy with my pictures. They haven't looked good at all. When I saw Doug over the Holidays he showed me his new toy. I LOVED it! It's the perfect camera for me. It still is a point and shoot, but it has controls that are similar to a DSLR. Since I won't be able to get a new DSLR for a little while longer, I decided to buy this camera so I can take pictures and actually be happy with them. I've only had it for a few days but I am incredibly pleased with it.

Thanks Doug :)

Craft Time!!!

Last week I had a few days off and decided to make some crafts!

I still have my Christmas Tree up and I just can't bear to take it down. I like to turn all the lights off except from the tree, it makes my small apartment feel nice and cozy! So my friend suggested I leave it up and make decorations for each holiday to decorate the tree with. So I made some Valentine and St. Patricks "ornaments".

I also had some wood blocks and painted and modge podge'd paper on them. I think they turned out pretty cute!

I think it was a very successful craft day, and I'm sure I'll make some more very soon!

The First Snowfall

The other night I had some friends over for a movie night. We had pizza, treats and watched She's The Man, it was a lot of fun! As my friends were getting ready to go, they mentioned that it was supposed to snow that night. I glanced outside and sure enough, while we were nice and cozy inside it had snowed outside. It wasn't very much, and it didn't look like it was going to stick, but it was my first snow here in Oklahoma. I took a few pictures through my windows (it was too cold to go outside), so they aren't great. But it finally felt like winter!