Rooftops, pirates and parties.

Well these first couple weeks of school have been great! I can't believe it's only September 15th! Feels like we've been here forever! School is going really well! I'm taking some pretty interesting classes and I feel like I'll do alright! Along with school I've been able to do some fun things! This past weekend was a busy one...

The roommies and I went to a free rooftop concert right off of center street in Provo. Nik Day and Benton Paul were playing that night. It was fun to do something different and the fact that it was free only made it better! I guess they've been doing this free rooftop concert series all summer and I've heard they are planning on doing it next as well! Pretty cool!

Barely squeezed all four of us in.

We also had a great view of my old place of employment Sammy's!

After the concert we went to a pirate party our friends were throwing. Our 7 guy friends recently moved out of our complex and into a house. Some of the houses here in Provo have names so they decided to name their's "The Pirate Ship." Don't ask why.. they are boys. Anyway, it made for a fun house warming party! We all dressed like pirates!

Right before the christening of the ship!

My friend Matt with my parrot Polly.

Anne and Seth make great pirates!

That plastic knife sure looks frightening!

Well, today is my nephew Josh's birthday so on Sunday we all got together to have a family dinner. Before dinner my nephews were goofing off with this huge magnifying screen that we got out of our old T.V.

They are funny kids.

They also found a praying mantis... These kids can find entertainment anywhere!

The birthday boy!

Callie is such a pretty girl!! I still can't believe she's in Jr. High!

Funny Jake. Always the goof!

Cool dude Adam!

Will knows what he wants!

I'm so glad we have these birthdays to get together! It's so nice of Jenny to put them together!!

rocks, waterfalls, and goodbyes

The other day my friend Nickole took some of us rock climbing. I have never been before and let me tell you.. it's tough!! Nickole got into rock climbing before her mission and has all the equipment and everything so we were able to just go up by ourselves. It turned out that it was just four of us girls. We ran into a few boys who asked how a bunch of girls get into rock climbing.. anyway, it was a lot of fun but really tough!

My friends Nickole, Anne, Emily and myself.

There I am, making my way to the top!

We were just up in Rock Canyon in Provo. I had never really noticed how beautiful it is up there!

For Labor Day some of us organized a hike up Battle Creek Canyon in Pleasant Grove. We got a good group of people to come! It was a very simple, short hike. It was more like a nature stroll... But it was a beautiful day so it was nice to be out!

We packed lunches and found a spot to have a little picnic.

Roommies plus Kate.

All our freshman guy friends are back from their missions!! Here we are with Tommy, 3 years after we all became friends.

Group shot!

Our friend Kate went into the MTC today to start her mission in France! We said our goodbyes last night... we are sure going to miss her!!!

She'll be such an amazing missionary!! Good luck Kate!

Lost in translation...

I can't believe how quickly time is flying by! This will probably be one of my last posts from Paraguay! It has been such an amazing trip!! I still can't believe that I've been in Paraguay for a month now!

This week was busy with zone conferences. We started with one in Asuncion on Monday. That night we had an asado with the counselor's of the mission presidency and their families. They had some kids who spoke english so it was fun to be able to communicate for once. The culture here is so different when it comes to parties. It was supposed to start at 8 but we didn't end up sitting down for dinner until 10:30! Crazy crazy.. Anyway, the next morning we were up bright and early to head off to Encarnacion for more zone conferences. We were able to stop by some ruins just past Encarnacion before we stopped for the day.

These ruins were started back in the 1600's. A group of Christians hired the Indians to build their church/community for them. When they pushed the indians to finish it quicker, the Indians left it unfinished. It has sat there like this for 100's of years!

Standing at the pulpit in the large chapel area.

Even old Jesuit ruins have cool places to take wedding pictures! Just like the Salt Lake temple.

(Running joke that Laura and I are a couple continues..)

This was right behind the ruins. They were just out in the middle of no where!

Another Mom picture.

I love seeing citrus fruit trees growing where ever. So different from Utah.

These ruins were the Trinidad ruins just a mile or so away from the other ones.

We started getting a little more creative.

There are these ant hills everywhere. They are as hard as rock!

Had to stop for a glamor shot...

I loved this corner with the old doors and the mold.. it felt like I could have been in England.

So beautiful!

A lot of Germans have come to live in Paraguay so you'll see their influences here and there. In some towns more than others. In this town there was a good little German Bakery we went into. It was delicious. We seriously need to stop eating so much good food..

We went back to Iguazu for Jenny to be able to see it all!

I think somethings get a little lost in translation..

It was a lot colder this day than the last time we went!

Pretty bird. Pretty bird.

Typical truck with tons of little kids in the back.. I think it was a soccer team.

Well depending and what happens the next few days this may be my last post from Paraguay! I can't believe time has flown by so fast! It has seriously been such an adventure! I'm so grateful that I had this chance to visit my parents! But I am definitely excited to get back to the states! There are some things like clean tap water, carpet, and understanding people that you sure start to miss!