2009... in a nut shell

What a year this has been... here is my 2009 in a nut shell

* Got Married
* Took a sewing class
* Mike got hired at Edward Jones
* Said goodbye to Rexburg
* Said hello to St. Louis and became a gangsta
* Went up in the St. Louis Arch
* Went to Coldplay, No Doubt, Dave Matthews Band (saw a guy whip it out and pee...ew), Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, John Cougar Mellencamp, and Aerosmith
* Went to numerous professional Hockey games (go oshie)
* Went to numerous professional Baseball games
* Went to a professional Football game (go vikings)
* Went to a college basketball game
* Ate at Michael Shannon's (the cheapest thing on the menu was like 25 bucks...kinda a once in a life time thing there)
* Went to the Melting Pot
* Went to lots of Museums in St. Louis (science center, art, history, city, botanical gardens)
* Saw Phantom of the Opera in the Fox Theater
* Went to Itasca State Park
* Went to the Headwaters of the Mississippi
* Went to Chicago (saw the Harry Potter exhibit AWESOME and lots of other things)
* Saw a baseball game at Wrigley Field
* Went to Nauvoo

And to end the year we moved to Spokane! It is great to be back in Washington! I love being close to family and friends. Even though I had a great year and had lots of fun and did a lot of "first", it was hard to move so far away from everyone and everything I have ever known. It was hard moving to a new place where the only person I knew was Mike. I missed my family and friends a lot and am glad to finally be lots closer!

Ketchup

I have come to realize that I am awful at blogging, maybe when I have kids and they do cool things ill be better (but that wont be for a long time!). Anyways, me and mike have been busy entertaining family. Mikes sister, her husband and his younger brother came and visited us at the beginning of October. It was a sports filled weekend
We went to a

NHL St. Louis Blues hockey game. It was my first NHL game and we had a really fun time! (Me and Mike have now gone to a few more) Mike and Travis (mikes brother in-law) got our tickets for the scalpers on the street... I stayed in the care.
Then the next day we went to

a NFL game. The Rams were playing the Minnesota Vikings so it was really cool to see Brett Favre (he was really the only player I knew). We won (we meaning the vikings).

Then my parents came down for a visit!! I was so excited for them to come and so sad when it was time for them to leave. We did a lot of fun things and saw a lot of neat St Louis "things". We ate at two places that have been featured on the Travel Channel so that was pretty neat. I have come to find out that that is one of the nice thing about living in a big city, there are lots of "famous" places. Both places were amazing (Pointers Pizza which is know for there 32" pizza, and the other is Crowns Kitchens which had amazing milk shakes and sandwich).

Then this last week, me and mike have been from one side of Washington to the other and back. LOTS OF DRIVING! Mike got a couple jobs offers so we went to scout the places out. We are having a lot of trouble deciding where we want to settle down and live. It is such a big decision! We are really thinking about Monroe, Wa.
We both really want the Spokane area but nothing has opened up there, we are a little disappointed about that. I think we keep hoping that something will open up soon but it doesnt look very good ( but im still keeping my fingers crossed).

Nauvoo!

Last weekend me and Mike went up to Nauvoo!

It was my first time and Mikes second time. It is such a beautiful place! We camped out while we were there. Which was actually really nice, not only did we save on money but the weather was great and there were very few bugs!
We started the day out by doing a session in the temple, our trip wouldnt have been the same if we hadnt made time for a session. I was blown away at how big the temple was. It was absolutely gorgeous! Then we walked down to Old Nauvoo and took a carriage ride which took us up to Inspiration Point.

The whole way up to Inspiration Point one of the Senior Missionaries told stories, ones I had never heard before and a few even made me tear up a little. Then we hopped on a wagon ride which took us around Old Nauvoo.

It was a neat way to see the whole town and scope out things that we wanted to come back to and visit. After we walked around Old Nauvoo and hit all the "must sees" we drove down to Carthage.


That is the actually bullet hole that killed Hyrum Smith. It was unbelievable to be in the same room that both Hyrum and Joseph Smith were martyr in. When you go into the bedroom where it took place you can instantly feel the Spirit. I couldnt help getting all weepy when I entered the room.
I am so glad that me and Mike were able to go and visit Nauvoo, and see how the Saints had lived and to learn/better understand the things that they went through. It really does have a special Spirit there, one of sacrifice and true faith.

Lake Lazy

Me and Mike headed back to North Dakota to spend sometime with his family this summer, and what summer would be complete without a little lake time. Mike's parents own a lake in Minnesota (called Strawberry lake...how cute is that?!) Anyways... while we were there we up to Itasca and did a little...

We worked up quite the appetite so on the way back to their lake place we stopped at this little bar and grill that has kinda become a tradition to eat at every time the family comes up, and it was just as good as I remembered! The boys decided to play a little...

while the girls chatted.
The next day it was freezing! It was defiantly pants and sweatshirt weather, but the boys decided to jump on in and wash up anyways!! What "tough" men!

Even though it was kinda a drizzly cold day the sunset was absolutely beautiful!

The next day we kept noticing all these wasps so we started looking around for the hive and we were shocked when we found it! You may not be able to tell by the picture but it was about the size of a soccer ball no joke!!

On our last day there I decided that I need to join the club (seein how everyone else had) and bathe in the lake... so I braved the freezing water and did it! And to my surprise I really enjoyed it!

Art and the Wondeful Andy Warhol!

Mike and me spent last Saturday in Forest Park and we went the Art Museum there. I have been a big fan of Andy Warhol since pretty much the beginning of time, so to my pleasant surprise they not only had one of his original paintings(screen printing)

but they had a gift shop full of Andy Warhol stuff! I was in heaven! I just wish I had the money to buy it, but oh well that will come. I am oddly obsessed with him (I get all exciting inside just thinking about him and the impact he has had on art)
Here are some fun Andy facts:
* He worked as an illustrator for Vogue (along with other magazines)
* His last name is really Warhola
* Valerie Solanis, founder and sole member of SCUM (Society for Cutting Up Men) walked into Warhol's studio, known as the Factory, and shot the artist. The attack was nearly fatal.
* Warhol also published The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (from A to B and Back Again)
* He also created two cable television shows, "Andy Warhol's TV" in 1982 and "Andy Warhol's Fifteen Minutes" for MTV in 1986
* Following routine gall bladder surgery, Andy Warhol died February 22, 1987
* He is the King of Pop Art!!
Needless to say Andy Warhol is awesome and I love him!

Here are a couple of other neat things we saw...
if you look close this paining is made up of house hold items
and this was a replica of a big pink balloon bunny

Mom

Yesterday was my moms birthday, so I thought I would write a little blog all about her! I could go on forever about how great my mom is, she is by far the best mom ever! She is not only my mom but one of my very best friends. Ever since I was little I have always love to spend time with my mom, we would go out almost every Saturday morning and go shopping and just dink around town. Now that I am in St Louis and too far away from my mom, I call her at least once a day if not twice. My mom is the cutest most thoughtful women I know, she is always thinking of cute little things to send me and always has the cutest holiday decorations! I love my mom lots, she is the best mom and friend a girl could ask for!!!

Title Change

So Mike just informed me that he really didn't like the title of our blog so we tried (tried being the key word) to brainstorm some other ideas... but we came up dry. I thought it would be cute to name it "Ta-Da.... Its the Thompson's" but Mike thought that was stupid and I didnt want to have a stupid blog title, but I may change it to that any ways because I think its cute and it made me laugh when I thought of it.
I have a really hard time even having the word Thompson in there... for some reason I'm not too fond of my new last name quite yet and it is still weird to think that that is my new name. It so weird to get letters and packages in the mail and for them to say Danie Thompson!! I freak out a little inside every time I see it!