Sedgwick County Zoo

So we went to the zoo a little while ago, and it was a lot of fun. We got to see some really cool animals, some of which I had never seen or heard of before. I thought I would put up some pictures.These spider monkeys were pretty sweet. I caught video of them chasing each other a bit, but they went even more crazy after I stopped recording.


The gorilla habitat was probably my favorite. We were able to get right next to them (of course there was extremely thick glass between us), but it was awesome. Here's a short video.

Oklahoma City Temple trip

We were able to go to the Oklahoma City temple on Saturday with our ward. It's about 2 and a half hours away. We're not used to traveling that far to go. The temple is small, but beautiful, as you can see. The flowers were beautiful and the sky was clear... a very nice day.
On the way down, we drove past some bikers and saw this...we just had to take a picture.
Notice the dog's goggles!

The Ever-Changing Background

So yes, I know that my blog background changes possibly every time some of you look at it. The best explanation I have is that I get bored with the look and like to change things up. I played around with a bunch of different backgrounds today, and ultimately decided on this one, whether out of impatience or fondness I'm not quite sure. Time will tell...

For those of you who are wondering how things are going here in Wichita, things are fine. Not a whole lot special to write about (which is why I haven't written lately). We've gone to the pool at our apartment a few times, and I am starting to get a minor tan, thank heavens! The other day, a lady in our ward called me pasty. Yuck. Maybe I'll go out and work some more on my skin coloring today, if I don't get blown away by the crazy high-speed winds we have to endure almost constantly in Kansas. On another note, I have had our apartment all decorated for a while, about as much as I can do to it. That was fun. It's always exciting decorating a new space. Sometimes I wish I could try out several looks before I decide on one (as demonstrated with my blog), but when painting walls are involved and buying all new decorations is out of the question, it really doesn't take very long once you get started. So now I must find a new hobby. I will keep you updated.

More Crazy Weather

I woke up last night at about 4:45 AM (I guess I could say this morning. I heard lots of thumps on the roof, and looked out side to see what it was. Much to my surprise there were quarter-sized balls of hail falling from the sky. It was pretty light to begin with, so I decided I was going to move our car in to a covered parking spot hoping to prevent damage. As soon as I got dressed and found my shoes, the hail was coming down in buckets, and I decided not to go out for fear of my life. It lasted for about 10 minutes, and then it turned to pouring rain, which once again flooded a good portion of our "yard" within 5 minutes. Once the hail stopped, I decided to see if there was any damage to the car, which there wasn't thankfully. The weather here is crazy, which makes life a bit more interesting. The lighting last night was going crazy as well. There were lightning strikes literally every couple of seconds. I've never seen such sustained lighting.

In other news, NASA announced that my rocket team won the USLI competition that I was in Alabama for. That means that I get an invitation to the next shuttle launch, which will probably be in October. My first week of work was a bit boring, I just had to go through a lot of orientation and company policies and getting to know people and places, but I think I am really going to enjoy working there. My boss seems pretty cool. Talk to you all later.

So I cut my hair again yesterday. I was getting bored with it. I went to a local hair college, which is supposedly very good. The girl who cut it did a good job. I brought a picture of what I wanted and she listened to me and didn't stop until I liked it. The haircut took forever! It's pretty short, even for me, but I'll get used to it. I thought you all might like to see it:


Also, the weather here has not been great the past week or so. If it's not rainy, it's muggy, although still warm. We've had more severe weather warnings since we've been here than I've probably ever seen, but don't worry. We're safe. Mostly, we've just had a lot of thunderstorms. For instance, this is some of the flooding our apartment complex encountered after one day.

I have also been doing some job searching. I've applied at a few places, but we'll see. I am keeping myself busy running errands, decorating the apartment, doing homework, and filling out applications. Oh, it is so much fun! But I really do home to get a job soon, or I'll start getting bored.

Our New Home

Okay, I've been working on getting this video slideshow put together for a few days. It's finally done. This is our new home, Wichita, Kansas. I probably did not do the city justice with my pictures, but it is a beautiful place. Most of the city pictures are of the downtown area. I should have taken more pics of all of the shopping places to show that Wichita really is a pretty big place...housing just under 500,000 people. Well, I hope you enjoy.

Just click on this link and be patient if it's slow...it's the only way I could get it to work:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4441813440322812747&hl=en

I should mention that Mike graduated from Utah State University on May 3rd, with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. Doesn't he look cute! Sorry that the picture is blurry. He was so excited to be finished with school. It kept him EXTREMELY busy, and he deserved the break, and now the job and accompanying salary that he has earned. The first picture is us after Mike's graduation with all of his siblings (except Ben and his wife Wendy, who live in Alaska).
Hooray for Mike for graduating!!