Notre Dame VS BYU

Notre Dame VS BYU.
The coldest game in TWENTY years.
100 bucks a ticket.
BYU played horribly.
And did I mention THE COLDEST GAME IN TWENTY YEARS?
It was really cool to be there...in the begninning. But then it just got FREEZING. and with the cold, my attitude just couldn't keep up. By half-time, I stopped trying. It. was. not. fun. Slowly, as the temperature dropped, the wind picked up, and the snow/ice blew in my face- I just realized how much I hated life at that moment.
To sum it up this is how I felt...

Anyway- Glad I had the opportunity to go to a Notre Dame game- but next year,

 we will definitely be choosing to go to a warmer game.

Ryan's Parents were planning on coming out to the game but last minute decided not to. BEST decision EVER. I'm so glad they didn't have to fly all that way to suffer.
But we did miss them nonetheless.

Here are some pictures from when I was still in a good mood... 

We met up with Ryan's best buddy's family- Kurtis and Devin Dayley. 

Getting our tickets and hanging out at ND before the game.
The campus is always PACKED on game day

Freezing.

The best part of the game was actually the day before. The BYU football team does a big fireside for our stake and we got to hear Bronco Mendenhall and Taysum Hill give some great talks as well as hear some musical numbers. That was a really neat experience. 

Grandpa Harvey

Ryan's sweet Grandpa Harvey has been really struggling with his health this year. I remember this spring/summer when he just wanted so badly to hold on until Danny got home- but we knew there was just no way he would make it until then. Well, he sure surprised all of us as he hung on not just until Danny got home but through another few months afterwards. It was an amazing experience just before he passed. We called Ryan's mom and she happened to be over at Grandpa Harvey's. All of Grandpa's kids were surrounding his bedside in a very reverent atmosphere. We turned the call into a facetime and were able to "say our goodbyes" in a way. We were able to spend a few minutes at his bedside even though we were clear across the country. It was really special, especially for Ryan to be able to see his Grandpa one more time. Apparently there were another couple grandkids who also lived across the country who were facetiming at that moment as well. We, (the grandkids facetiming) were the only ones who hadn't had a chance to say goodbye. When our call ended we got a text-minutes later- telling us that Grandpa had just passed. We feel that Grandpa Harvey was so selfless that he even held on until all the grandkids had their chance to say goodbye. We feel so blessed to have had that experience. Here are Ryan's thoughts soon after his grandpa died:

"My grandpa Gene Harvey just passed away peacefully at home at age 93. He was one of the most charitable and selfless individuals I have ever known, and he blessed the lives of an incredible number of people. I hope I can someday be more like him. Thanks Grandpa. I'll miss you."

We were fortunate enough to be flown across the country to attend Grandpa Harvey's funeral. Thanks to Mom and Dad Van Wagoner. It was wonderful to be able to be with the family and remember Grandpa Harvey. I got a crazy, bad vertigo spell and was so dizzy I could not even move without throwing up or dry heaving. I was devastated that I was not able to go to the funeral. I went to the Dr. and got some medicine/exercises to make it better and was able to be with the family immediately after the funeral and go to the burial and other events of the day. I'm so glad Ryan could be there though. We really are so grateful we had that opportunity to remember his wonderful life and to be with the family and Grandma Harvey.

Grandpa Harvey was buried in the AF cemetery right by the Harvey's old house
where Ryan's mom grew up.  I thought that was so neat!

Ry with his sweet Grandma Harvey. She is in our prayers. 

Halloween

For our ward party Ryan and I decided to just go as ourselves.

Our friend Jen was a nerd too :) 

Happy Halloween

Ryan's Birthday

I decided one of my favorite days is October 23rd- Ryan's birthday. It's so fun to spoil my boy and celebrate him. Plus we get to eat really YUMMY food :)

A few days before Ryan's birthday we had the missionaries over and had a mini pre-birthday celebration.
It's neat being out in Indiana where we get the chance to have the missionaries over often. 

For Ryan's birthday he wanted to try a new restaurant.  It has got to be the BEST restaurant in south bend. WOW.  We were really impressed. It's called Corndance.

BEST spinach artichoke dip we have EVER had. That on the right is pear ravioli. Amazing food.
 We also shared some bison meatloaf- also really good but no picture. 

Love this boy

Our first dessert of the night- molten lava cake from Corndance

Birthday boy and his 28 candles and 2nd dessert of the night :) 

Ryan's dessert of choice. Asphalt/grasshopper pie. Mmmmm

A few months ago our friends Anna and Wes introduced us to the T.V. series "Sherlock." We love it. love love love it. It's so good.

Ryan's enjoyed it so much that he has been wanting to read the books so i got him this special book set (also inspired by Wes and Anna's sherlock collection).

My Happy Anniversary Present- from the bestest husband!

Ryan gave me the greatest first year anniversary! A fun, day at Silver Lake Beach,  a super yummy dinner at a fancy restaurant- Cafe Navarre, a surprise stay at a hotel AND to top it off... he surprised me with a plane ticket to go see my family and go to my cousin's wedding. I cried. SO surprised and so happy!  It meant so much to me.  Here are some pictures from my trip! :)

Thanks Ryan!

We got to go to Disneyland to celebrate Emma's birthday.  So fun! Happy 12th Emmy!

Disneyland was all decked out for Halloween

Look at all of our faces- then my Dad's haha :) 

Whit got hit on by a storm trooper :)

Outside the temple at Kelly's wedding. My first sealing (besides my own) so neat to be there.

Congratulations Kelly and Brad Cahoon :) 

Their reception was so pretty!

Meanwhile in Indiana... Ryan is studying hard and... 

Enjoying his first Notre Dame game :) 

ND stadium- Pretty cool huh? FULL house! 

Back in Utah I got to see LUCYA! One of my favorite people in Ukraine and in ALL of the world!
We hiked the Y together and she brought me Ukrainian earrings, chocolate and my favoritest ever- super kontik! 

I also got to visit with Ryan's Grandma and Grandpa Harvey

AND got to meet my new nephew!!! plus see my Mother-in law, Brendi, Carson and Adalyn too

Very Fun Trip! It was nice to be reunited with Ryan though- 5 days was the longest we had ever been apart and I missed my boy.  We can't wait to see our family at Christmas time!

Happy Things

Lookie what we found for a super duper awesome deal on craigslist this weekend? 

We are so excited to hopefully not get extremely fat during the snowy months.  And we are keeping our fingers crossed that it won't bug our downstairs neighbor...


Speaking of exercise... I made these delectable little darlings yesterday and they turned out marvelously.

In case you can't tell... they are eclairs and they are very yummy. I thought of my Brookie Lou (who is pro at these) the whole time and wished we were making them together. It was my first time making them. PLUS, I have the world's most ghetto oven which loves to hurt my feelings by burning EVERYTHING I bake. I have to bake everything at least 200 degrees lower and it never tastes right. So we prayed that it'd work for the first time ever and thanks to Heavenly Father, they turned out so good and I was dancing around singing opera about how happy I was that my treats turned out so deliciously! 

PS the maintenence man called today :) He is bringing our new oven tomorrow


Also, as a side note- the lady we bought the treadmill from was going through a divorce. I just felt so bad for her.  You could tell she was really having a tough time. She had sad eyes.  As we drove away I just kept thinking about her and really wanted to turn around and talk to her. So we did. I wrote Mormon.org on a piece of paper and told her we were Mormons.  I said we knew she must be going through a really rough time and that our religion has brought us so much happiness.  We gave her the site address and I just told her that I knew that God loves her and we hoped everything would work out for her. As we drove away I started to cry.  When I told her that I knew that God loved her- I could really feel that He did. The spirit totally bore witness to me that God really does love ALL of his children.  I just know that.  

Playing Catch Up

I won't go back too far, but I do want to catch up on the last month of living here in Indiana.  I'm so proud of Ryan!  He works really hard and is a great example to me.  It was hard to move away from Utah and we miss everyone so much. But so far we are really enjoying it here in our new home.

That being said... Dear Ry-cheek, I SO would not mind moving back to Utah as soon as business school is over. K? :) love you

Here we are after 5 million hours of driving. Needless to say, we were so happy to arrive at our new home and see it for the first time. Did I mention happy to not be driving anymore?

Definitely need to give a humongous THANKS to Roah for driving my car out here!
 It was fun having him on the trip with us! We explored Chicago the first weekend out here as well as Notre Dame's pretty, pretty campus. 

This piece of beautifulness in front of Roah is Chicago Deep Dish Pizza... mmmmm. Yes. It is THAT good.  Thanks to Matt for the recommendation on Giordanos.

Touch Down Jesus! :) 

The Golden Dome (Why ND helmets are gold)

Here is some GREAT news- We have a BEACH just 45 minutes from our house :) and it's such a pretty drive too! Ryan and I have already gone to the beach at least 5 times so far... gotta go as much as we can before the snow...

This was on our one year anniversary! Can't believe it's been a year! by far- best year of my life :) Ryan, you have surpassed ALL of my hopes and dreams of my husband and marriage. I love you so much. 

The Van Wagoners came through South Bend on their way back to Utah to take Danny home. It was so fun having them and fun to officially meet my brother in law! 

Brothers reunited

First American meal

And how could Ryan live anywhere without a bike path? We have a pretty neat-o one.

This is the view from the bike path. Pretty huh? 

My biker man husband love.