Christmas Time is the Best Time

It is 75 degrees in Texas! Can it really be considered winter? I walked around wearing shorts and sandals. Chris and I attempted to go swimming just to say we did. The pool was freezing and the hot tub wasn't heated, yet we still got in. 

Since I am leaving for Utah this next week, Shaun my manager decided that he was going to lower my hours so I really haven't worked a ton this week. I kept myself entertained with making Christmas presents, practicing piano, personal training, free samples at Costco, and running. I did get inventive and tried to make more money while I wan't doing much. I got called to do a Focus Group for AT&T where they had me in a room and watched me complete tasks on the android phone and rate how easy or hard it was to complete it. It was interesting and it took an hour and a half to make $130. I wish you could do that all the time. 

Chris and I lit our first fire for the Christmas season. We read our books and finished my Life of Pi book. Love the ending to the book, I think it makes the book even better. 

Saturday, I went with a bunch of girls to what was similar to Provo's Festival of Colors is called the Color Run. It is actually led by a group from Orem Utah. So it was just like I was in Provo all over again. I ran with some woman in my ward while we got to throw chalk all over us. You have to wear the retro sunglasses while you run. I ended up getting a bunch of chalk in my nose as I inhaled while the girl threw it at us like she enjoyed her job a little too much. It was more like a fun walk than a competitive run, considering they didn't even time our run. 

Later that night I went out with some of the couples to get frozen yogurt and enjoy the nice Texas warm air. That is one bonus to living in Texas, the weather is mighty fine during the winter. Although, I do miss the change of seasons. 

Chris was in San Antonio and North Carolina this week. I missed him very much! But it's fun to be able to hear about all the details of the interview and how the area was. Unfortunately, he didn't take many pictures, so I have to take is word on how pretty it is. Guess that's what they call faith....? 

Can't wait to be back in Utah! Love this Christmas time!

Cameryn 

Here are some pictures of the trip to Portland for Chris's Interview. I was able to have a daddy daughter date and spend some time with him. Loved seeing him! Didn't love the weather...Enjoy!

                              Taking the Tram up to the hospital probably the coolest part of the program

The Street Car we took to the airport...and then I realized I forgot my wallet...

Love the Portland Temple! 

                                               Voodoo doughnuts I like the man with the pretzel stuck in him

mmm...bacon...

Turkey Day

Since Chris and I have been traveling to different places to interview we decided we would save some money and spend Thanksgiving in Austin. We made it a fun time with a turkey trot in the morning, football/crafts in the afternoon, a great home cooked Thanksgiving meal, and a trip to the movie theaters. We know there won't be too many other Thanksgiving's like this one. Our Turkey trot was around 9:30 am. We left forty minuets before the race started thinking we would have plenty of time to get there before the race. The race was downtown, and I guess everyone made it a tradition to do a turkey trot. There were around 23,000 people. We waited in traffic for at least 20 min. trying to find a parking spot. We ended up parking a mile away and ran a pre-warm up mile before the race started. We hadn't picked up our packets but were able to pick up our number and our free turkey shirt. We hurdled across people to the starting line barely making it for the gun shot. Flustered and already fatigued, the race hadn't even started yet. My iPod was dead so I ended up listening to other people's breathing including my own. Usually, I hate listening to other people breath. It messes with my mind, and since I am super competitive I have to be in front, this only makes me compete harder, especially when I can hear someone next to me. Instead of a normal 5k run it was a 5 mile. I guess they thought more people would go for seconds in their much awaited turkey meal this year. Runners were wearing turkey costumes and turkey hats. I enjoyed watching the people run with strollers and their dogs. There were so many people I felt like I was dodging in and out trying not to knock into someone. It reminded me of the Livestrong Marathon where Chris and I were cutting it close to the starting time. We had to run a mile before the race started because we forgot to drop off our bags, so we ended up running all the way to our cars. I guess that's just how we roll. 

We cooked a fast but delicious thanksgiving meal. We did the essentials, turkey (crock pot was not bad I might say) canned cranberries, gravy, mash potatoes, green beans, and yams. Yams were essential, those are my favorite. Neither of us like stuffing so we bagged it. Chris did want a pumpkin pie. Unfortunately, I am not a huge pie eater so Chris has this big pie to himself. It takes up much of the room in our fridge. 

Later that night we went to a movie, Silverlining Playbook. We thought hey, why not, we are here with no kids, let's go to a movie. Not many people in the theatre, but it was a good movie and we were happy to top off Thanksgiving Day with a good movie. 

I had to teach Relief Society today. Since most of the teachers would be out of town, I thought that not many people would show up. I was wrong! Try double what we normally have. I planned this whole lesson and only got about a quarter through. It was a good experience, but I am not sure why I was chosen to speak. I thought maybe someone who was a little bit older would have been a better choice. My lesson was on Consider The Blessings By President Monson, so I guess I had to consider this a blessing! 

I am almost done getting the Smith's their holiday presents this year at Texas Running Company! My manager really doesn't mind what I get for the family. He just wants me to hold off on buying it until it gets closer to when I leave. So funny story of the week, a guy wanted to try on the new Newton's we have in the store. He was an 8.5 and not too many men have that size of feet, so I went in the back and found one pair. I opened it up as I was trying to find him. Guess what was inside...CRICKETS! There were about 10 of them dead in the shoes and next to them. I made David my coworker clean them out because I hate crickets. 

Chris and I visited Charlottesville and DC last week. It was good to see my cousin Erin and her boys. We played and had dinner with them. They were kind enough to have us for two nights. We explored Charlottesville and I have to admit it is beautiful there! I have never seen trees like that. They glow with all the colors. We were in DC with all the historical monuments, and instead of saying Chris take a picture with me and Lincoln, I would say Chris take a picture of me with all these trees in the background. So sorry there is a lot of pictures of trees and of monuments with the trees. Chris and I went to Monticello where Jefferson lived. We took a tour around, and then we made our way up to the orchard. We had the sweetest apples we have ever tasted. We bought at least 5 and that was our breakfast for the next couple of days. The next day we rented a car and drove to DC which is about a 2 hour drive. I was exhausted from the day before (we had to get up at 4am to make our flight) and I cannot sleep on planes, so Chris drove. We made it to DC where we spent most of the day exploring walking around and seeing the monuments. We were only able to go to the American Revolution Museum for about an hour we didn't know they closed at 5! That is definitely a couple of days kind of trip. 

Chris had his interview at UVA, unfortunately the location is better than the residency program. Although I loved the small home town feel of Charlottesville we may still keep them on our list. We have a lot of thinking to do of where we should rank all of these places.

This next week I get to go with Chris to Oregon. He goes to St Louis and is meeting me in Oregon. I get to have a daddy daughter date with my dad, so I'm excited to see him. 

Love you all, have a great week!

Cameryn

(pictures are below)

"Monticello" Thomas Jefferson's Estate

Chris with a big leaf?

The best apples in the world! Pink Lady Apples straight from Virginia

The Orchards

Treasury Building, "Cam, this is where all our money goes to!"

Loved the colors of these trees!

So beautiful!

The tiny white house or our hispanic friends would call it Casa Blanca.

Attempting to take a picture by ourselves

The flaming sword or cherubim in DC?

Washington Monument

Go Longhorns!

Taking a pic next to this old vet

I made someone take a picture with all the trees in the background...

USA...USA...USA!

Dear Lincoln, why are you so tall?

It's my church it's my church!

Georgetown

DC!

University of Virginia...we're taking you to the 1700's

Inside UVA!

Some Austin Time

Okay is it me or does everyone feel the need to talk about politics like the world is going to end. That is what everyone talks about at work. I am pretty much the only "conservative" of the whole group and they all make jokes of me being Mormon. Not bad jokes, they just know I am naive, which I really don't mind, because I know I am! I am like their little sister that they tease. They all call me CamCam. Since the election was this week the guys had a lot of questions about church and of course Romney being Mormon. I tell them as much as I can but honestly, I haven't been a missionary and this is a complete and new experience to me. The other day I was challenged with the topic of the Word of Wisdom. They all were so surprised I don't drink coffee or drink in general. We got on the subject of drinking and drugs and pretty much they are all in favor of it. They said well, Christ drank wine so how can that be bad? Oh the questions, and I do not know all the answers. I do know my testimony is strong and no matter what I will not argue I will just tell them what I believe. 

We made some tasty caramel not the apples for FHE. I told Chris to get red apples because supposedly they taste better with caramel. I ended up choosing these gross ones that were red, but I think they are supposed to be used for baking. Oh well, the caramel is delicious and I eat it with ice-cream instead ;). 

Chris and I went on a picnic earlier this week. It was a beautiful day in Austin, probably one of the prettiest days I have seen here so far here. I was at the library gathering a bunch of books for our Europe research. He had lunch all ready when I got home and we headed to a nearby park I hadn't been to. We did some crosswords and threw nerds in the water for the fish. More like targeting the fish with nerds...it was a fun day date.

Feeding the fish nerds

At the park in Austin

We also had the missionaries over this week. Oh those poor missionaries and their skin. I can't talk because I still break out like a teenage girl. I felt their pain. All the missionaries in our ward are awesome and we are glad to have them over for dinner. We always get called up for lessons or to pick up an investigator. I don't mind but I just don't want to miss sacrament every single sunday! 

On our date last night we went to Chupacabra some mexican restaurant downtown. I am not sure if that  is a bad word in Spanish but if it is don't look it up. Chris and I split fajitas and we played games with these huge Connect Four and Jenga pieces. We then walked around sixth street and saw a music group playing on the roof of the Blind Pig (some bar). There were a lot of drunk people, lots of ambulances, and some arrests. What happens on sixth street...stays on sixth street? We discovered the groups name was Ben Cine. Check him out he will blow your mind, and sing you some Justin Timberlake like you have never heard!

Sincerely,

Cameryn

Smith's Come to Austin!

Wow what a week! It has been filled to the minute with fun and work! Chris came back from Chicago and Kansas. He liked both of them but thought Kansas was more family friendly. Knowing me I would probably like Chicago better just because I like big cities. I worked this last week. It has been fun at the Texas Running Company, I love to learn about running and talk to people about it. They think of you as if you were their running doctor going to you with all their problems. Honestly, the people there are probably better than a doctor because they have gone through it themselves and have seen so many people with their symptoms of knee pain, plantar fascia, shin splints etc. I work with all testosterone, Brock a kid who just graduated from UT we just hired, is trying to become a professional runner. He runs 100+ miles a week. I don't know how he does it. We were talking about running with music and he said that he can't because then he will run super fast and get burned out. Instead he listens to his own breathing and he can tell how fast he is going by his own breathing! Isn't that pretty amazing? He said he can tell if he is at a 6:20 pace compared to a 6:30 pace. I guess if you are going to be a professional runner you got to be that in tune with your body. 

I received an email on Monday to give a talk on the Grace of God. Oh what a topic, it is hard, serious, and pretty important subject. There are a lot of converts in our church and investigators that have been affiliated with the Baptists and they are known for 'being saved by grace'. I looked up the definition of grace until Saturday night. It is a word where you can't exactly define every bit of it. I put in a joke (as jokingly you can with grace) and a few analogies, general conference quotes etc. It turned out to be a good talk at least that's what people were telling me, unless they were just trying to be nice ;). If anyone wants a copy let me know.

Karen and Brian came to visit! We went to San Antonio where we showed them the temple we go to. We then went to see the famous 'Remember the Alamo' and is that pretty exciting...they asked me what my favorite part there was and I said the tree! They have this amazing oak tree that covers you like a dome. The Alamo is pretty small but a good scene for the tourists. We even sat for a 15 min video explaining The Alamo, I may have fallen asleep I'm not going to confirm or deny that. We ate dinner on the Riverwalk and talked about Chris's residency interviews. He claimed in one question where the Chairman asked, "Where do you see yourself in 10 years?" Chris says, "In a Rockband". When he said this I started having seizures. 

Day 2 of the Smith adventure I had to work. The Smith's came and visited me and stayed two hours trying on different shoes. I got to analyze their running on our Get Fit monitor and measure their feet. They bought shoes for the family and got my sweet deal of 50% off. Chris was excited about his cute new outfit :) and loves the shoes that I picked out for him. After we went to Costco where the Smith's were generous enough to buy us a load of snacks that will last us about a year. Chris says I was in Heaven. I love Costco, whoever invented Costco is a genius. Karen got me the book called Pillars of the Earth, I will have to start reading it and we can compare thoughts!

Day 3 I had to work...but I got to go to a social media marketing meeting downtown that switched up the scenery a bit. Sean did not get the point why he was there. Neither did I. He kept complaining and making it awkward not engaging in the discussion. I am in charge of the stores social media and marketing events. He let me leave a bit early, and I made it to the soccer game with the TCats! We won 3-2, Chris scored a goal, I didn't get to see it, but he is a pretty good soccer player! We went to Trunk or Treat after for our ward. We were in charge of pinning the hat on the witch. I drew a big witch on a broom. Chris and I dressed up...in our soccer uniform, we were soccer players since we didn't have costumes this year. We didn't bother since Chris will be gone for Halloween in Arkansas. It was cute to see the kids in their costumes and a couple of them loved our game so much they just kept rotating through it. It could of been because we had good candy as well, or maybe they just loved my drawing so much. Either way we had a good time. After Trunk or Treat we went to The County Line. A BBQ joint that felt like you were in the Home of Texas. Stuffed ducks hung around the fire place mantel and the wooden cabin felt cozy from the cold front we had this week. 

San Antonio Temple

Riverwalk San Antonio

Davie Crocket

                                                                            The Largest Man in the world

We had such a good time with the Smith's and hope more family will come down in the future:)....

Well see you on the flip side!

Cameryn Smith