A New Season

I know that it's Fall now and the leaves will soon change, but what I am so excited about is a new season of shows. I am most excited tonight for my favorite, The Bachelor! Honestly, I don't know why but it is my favorite show on TV :) Pathetic, I know! I am starting a poll on the side (below), vote for who you think will win! I listed my favorites, if your choice is not included, leave a comment and I can add them. Have fun!

Our New Digs

Sorry it has taken me so long to post some pictures of our place. We still aren't completely moved in (as you can see in the pictures we haven't put everything on the walls yet). However, I figured if it was good enough to have people over to watch the football game, it's good enough to post pictures on the blog. Especially because people have been asking for them. Hope you enjoy pictures of yet another temporary place with our cheap furniture :) Someday we'll settle down...I HOPE!

Incredible

Normally, I don't like posting until I have a picture, but I had such an incredible experience this weekend. Our stake conference was this weekend and we had the rare opportunity to hear from Elder David A. Bednar. He was the presiding authority at our meetings. We had some smaller meetings with a small and more close and intimate group and therefore had the chance to shake his hand. It was such an amazing opportunity to shake the hand and look into the eyes of an apostle of the Lord. I was so touched by the things that he said and I really recognized how rare an experience that was. I took a lot of notes. If you are interested let me know and I can email you a copy. To learn more about Elder Bednar visit: http://lds.org/portal/site/LDSOrg

"We are - Penn State"

Attendance: 107,678 at PSU v. FIU

We lucked out cause our seats were in the shade

Mark and I got to go to our second Penn State football game on Saturday. It is such a cool experience. The stadium holds over 107,000 people. It's in the middle of this little farm town in nowhere-Pennsylvania and the whole town shuts down for this huge football game. The entire city has tailgate parties in the cow fields and parking lots. In the stadium one side cheers "WE ARE" and the other yells "PENN STATE" and it goes on forever til the first side says "THANK YOU" and the other says "YOU'RE WELCOME". Thanks to Ethan and Heather for the tickets, we had so much fun!!

THE littlest THINGS

So I just have to say that I am SO excited over something SO silly :) Thanks to a little help from Lyndsie I was able to custom design my blog. I don't know much about computers but ever since I started this blogging thing, not only have I kept in touch with my friends better and started taking more pictures, but I am actually becoming more computer literate! Yeah for me :)

Pictures from the LONG drive

The Journey Out East

Wow!! We made it...only a 45 hour drive, but we're here!! We stopped along the way to visit friends so we took a few extra hours to get to PA. We made sure to see my Grandparents in CA and also see Mark's mission companions new baby, Mackena. Not sure about the spelling but Mark calls her MaRkena anyway. Then we stopped in Vegas to see some old friends from law school and couldn't believe how big their kids got and how cute their house is :) Then we made it to Utah where we saw my long time friend Nicole's 12 day old baby, Brynlee. I feel like an auntie but not quite yet. Then we saw Mark's cousins, with a baby on the way. And last of all we saw Mark's old roommate in Morgan Utah. He let us stay at their family's mountain cabin which is absolutely amazing. We got the whole place to ourselves. It's like a luxury resort, we loved it. It was also the first time all summer we were actually cold. Unfortunately we were on such a tight schedule we didn't get to enjoy it as much as we could have. Then it was through Wyoming and Nebraska (the flat states), Illinois and Indiana. We had to make a stop in Indiana to see Notre Dame stadium and get Mark's picture taken with touchdown Jesus. Then off to Ohio and eventually PA. We had a heck of a time finding a place to live. Thanks to our friends for letting us crash with them and their 4 boys (one brand new) for a couple days. We've finally moved in, Mark's started school and I am on the job hunt again. I'll post more when I get a chance but for now here's some pictures of our treck.

Back to PA

We had a blast of a summer but today we start our 40 hour treck back to the East coast. I wish we could stay here but its only 1 more year!! Who knew we would make it this far?!? We'll miss our West coast friends and family (and weather and beach and pool and...everything else!), but we are excited to see our law school friends. See ya soon!

A day at the Lake

At least in my book, wakeboarding is my favorite sport. Even when its not your turn, its just fun to be on the boat. My sister and her friend took us to Lake Elsinore at 5 o'clock in the morning to get the good water. We were tired but that didn't stop us from having a blast. Here are some fun pictures.


Thumbs up...

A sweet wipe out...

Dinner?...
(only at a lake dirty as Elsinore)

Aubrey's big air...

Jacki's little air...
Thanks for the super fun trip!! We'll have to do it again soon. You can only wake board so much in one day. I am completely sore from head to toe...TOTALLY WORTH IT!!!

Old Friends & New Memories

Mark and I always take every opportunity to see as many friends as we can when we are in town. We made the 2 hour trip (only cause of traffic) up to see Mark's old mission companion, Steve and his wife Brittany. We went to a really fun and very delicious, hole-in-the-wall Japanese restaurant. In case you were wondering, Brittany was originally due a few days before this picture was taken. Little McKenna (not sure about the spelling) could come any day now...Congrats Steve and Brittany!!! We love you!

Goodbye AZ- Hello CA

After a super fun and super hot summer in Arizona, we decided to spend our last few weeks before school at home near the beach. We will miss everyone we had so much fun with this summer in AZ but we are looking forward to what the future holds. For those in CA we'll be here probably until the 19th or so. Give us a call if you want to play!!

Happy Anniversary

730 days of wedded bliss!!!

It still feels like we just got married yesterday, but according to the calendar, we've made it 2 years. We've lived on both sides of the country (back and forth) and seen many new things together. Thanks for the good times and the great memories! I love you babe :)

Maui 2007

ALOHA!!

What's a vacation with the Messick women without a little drama? Leave it to me to make for a little excitement on a Hawaiin vacation. I waited all summer to go to Maui with my little sister and the day we are supposed to leave, I can't stop vomitting. We're still not sure if it was the flu or it could possibly be that I had another ovarian cyst, and this time it burst. Whatever it was, its delayed our much awaited trip another day. It also ruined my appetite for the rest of the trip, but it didn't prevent us from going to the nice restaurants. At the end of the trip my phone decided to completely malfuction and break! So...I had to send my mom to get me a new phone to be waiting for me when I got home. Needless to say, I lost all the pictures I took on my phone and for some reason a bunch of random numbers. So I apologize if you don't hear from me for a while or if I ask, "Who is this?" when you call. That little drama is still slowly being solved!

While we were in Hawaii we tried to forget all that and spent most of our trip laying in the sun on the beach and playing in the ocean. We got to go jet skiing one day and went shopping almost every night. We watched a lot of movies, played a lot of cards and had a lot of fun! It's good to be home though. I sure missed my husband. He's so good to let me go!! I love him :) Enjoy our photos!!!

Cousins

Tyler's Mission Homecoming at the Klepinger's. Welcome Home!!

L-R: Whitney, Bennet, Tyler, Ashley, Mark, Me, Lyndsie, Brian, Matt (July 15th, 2007)

Happy Birthday Scooter!

We got to see so many new, old and pregnant cousins at Scott's birthday dinner at BJ's. I'm not sure if getting to see the babies or eating a pazookie was better? We had a lot of fun, hope you had a good birthday Scott!!

Happy 4th of July!

My favorite Messick family tradition is spending the week of Independence Day at a beach house on Beach Road in Capistrano Beach, CA. Its so close to home but seems so far away. Its always fun to escape the world for a week, enjoy the company, breathe in the tremendous view and play some games. Don't worry Christy, someday you'll beat me at "take two" Scrabble, just keep practicing :) At least you can know that a LerVold will ALWAYS win the poker games! posted by: GG (game girl)

Our new cousin

Madison Alaine White. About 3 months old now and we just love when we get to visit. Isn't she adorable? Full head of hair on that little girl :)

Proud Sister

Congratulations Graduate!! YEAH Kellie for graduating from High School. Thanks for letting me be a part of your big day. You are so beautiful, I love you!

Welcome Back Matt!!

Mark and I just got back from a visit to El Paso. We saw his little brother Matt for the first time in 2 years. He has been in Nuku'alofa Tonga serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It was not your typical mission, he spent most of his days searching for food. He had so many amazing stories about eating bugs, fishing, boat rides, climbing palm trees for coconuts and of course sharing the gospel of Christ. We are glad to have him home!!

Our New Place

Check it out!! This place is so fun. Its newly renovated condos that used to be apartments. We like it. We get 2 pools and work out room. I guess we'll have to start exercising :)

Mark's Job

Mark has been working for a law firm in Phoenix for the past week. He was hired as a summer associate until August. Hence, the move to Arizona. He is so excited to be one of three new associates for the summer. He gets his own schedule, office and even an assigned secretary. I think we are starting to feel like this law school thing is really worth it.

Welcome to Arizona!!

It seems as though AZ has given us a big fat welcome with 100 degree weather to slap us in the face. It's hard to imagine that a month ago we were shoveling our way through the snow to get to our cars. CRAZY!! It is definitely hot here, but we are blessed with air conditioning and a pool :) This place is going to take some getting used to and its only gonna get hotter from here.