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The Young Marrieds in our church do a variety of different activities, and this month, the social team decided that it would be a fun idea to have a fall festival which consisted of going to a pumpkin farm and taking pictures, picking out pumpkins, going to our house/Rivas’s house, having a pot luck, and carving the pumpkins. Grant and I were planning on doing all of those activities, but as the time got closer with everyone coming to our house, I realized that we were still too far behind on cleaning so we didn’t go to the farm.
Grant was so excited that we weren’t going since it was farther away from our house than we had anticipated in the first place, but once everything was clean and my portion of the food cooked (Chili and Spiced Cider) everything was a lot better. Everyone came over and we had a better turn out than I was expecting consider we only had 2 couples say they were actually coming. I think that we had about 11 couples show up which was awesome. All of the food was great, and I even got a few compliments on my Mother-in-Law’s cider recipe which made me happy because that means I didn’t mess it up.

Here you can see some of the ladies in the dining room carving some pumpkins.

Some more people carving pumpkins, I am glad that the Rivas house was as large as it was, otherwise it would have been very crowded.

Here is a cool picture that Grant took so you can see a few more people.

Some more pictures of the great pumpkins.

I am not completely sure whose pumpkins this was, but I think it was Andy Luksys’, and it was the biggest pumpkin I think out of all of them.

Here you can see the two lit up, they definitely look awesome!

Here is my pumpkin … I decided to go with something different than the usual face, I got my inspiration from a magazine, and I would say once Grant gave me a power drill to make the circles everything was smooth sailing from there.

Here you can see it lit up which is pretty cool. I was kind of sad that we missed out on the farm thing because I would have loved to have some of those cheesy photos because Grant and I hardly EVER take pictures since it is just the two of us. But I will just have to force him to take more pictures of us because I feel like we haven’t been documenting our time very much.

So, I don’t know if many of you have watched the movie Blood Diamond that came out in 2006. It is a great, but gorey movie. In this movie, they show truths about the diamond market, and all about blood diamonds which basically means that in some places in Africa, there are still slaves working in diamond mines. In these mines, they mine diamond which are then smuggled into the system.

One of the great lines that Leonardo Decarpio says in this movie is that the only reason that these people are dying is because of the demand for these stones. The demands that mainly Americans make. Most people in other countries, are not expecting diamonds as our culture seems to.

So, don’t get me wrong… I wanted a diamond too!!! But I couldn’t live with the fact that someone might have died for a dumb rock… so, i decided to do some research. Now, there is no way that every diamond is a blood diamond, but I wanted to be sure that mine was not one. I found a few online websites that sold different diamonds, but a lot of them looked really shady.

Finally, I stumbled upon engineered diamonds. Most people don’t know about them yet, but they are grown in a lab, meaning that they are perfect and don’t have the flaws that all natural diamonds have. They are not quiet as strong as natural diamonds but there is a .9 difference in strength. The nice thing about them, is making them in a lab is a lot cheaper, so that made me feel a lot better knowing that my engagement ring with wedding band that is over 1 carat was under $1000.00. I have had my ring for over a year and am very satisfied, and the best thing is that you don’t need ring insurance!! They will replace your diamond if it falls out, is messed up, etc.
So, here is one of my favorite eternity bands that they sell, now I won’t get it for years most likely,but I can dream! ;p

But their website has some beautiful jewelry on it, they do any custom stuff as long as you can draw or explain what you want. Now, obviously that makes it more expensive, but in jewelry terms, I would see them as pretty inexpensive. Also, their diamonds are considered green, and that is why this company made this years Miss Universe 2009 Crown.

So here is their website if you are interested!!!

http://www.diamondnexuslabs.com/

This was the name of the Restaurant that we ate at with the whole group. It was built on the side of a hill that over looked two of the different rivers that you could choose to float down. It supposedly is one of the most famous areas to eat in this town. It had multiple different buildings like a barn, and other pieces that had been added on. It had a very fun vibe, and our server was great!

We happen to come when there was a festival going on, so there were lots of people in this little town. Grant and I arrived earlier than most of the other people so we looked at the flea market stuff and the antique stores. As you can see, this is a historic village, so it was fun see the dance hall, the old grocery store, etc.

After this we went to the Gruene River Co. Where we rented Tubes, lotioned up, some more than others, and were driven to the drop off point where we as a group went into the water and slowly floated down the river. We decided to go on the Comal River since it was a shorter ride than the Guadalupe River. We hit two water chutes that made us go to parts of the river that had more currents. We had a lot of fun relaxing, talking, and getting to know people better.

Grant and I were surprised how clean this river was due to the fact that this is college activity sometimes where drinking is allowed on the river. (which seems dumb because of how fast you could drowned, but oh well.) There were actually police men in small boats that handed out tickets to people who littered. One of the guys in the group Paul, found a turtle and carried it for part of the trip which was also fun.

Here is one of the water chutes that I mentioned above.

Our Ride was 2 hours long, where we were picked up and driven back to the place we rent the tubes and our cars where parked. We were all pooped and drove back to Austin which is about an hour away from Gruene, Tx. It was an awesome event, but afterwards we were all soooo tired.

Grant hadn’t put on any sunblock for this adventure and ended up looking like a lobster. I tried to put sunblock on, but used this mist sunblock and failed miserably. So, I am not nearly as burnt as Grant, but have a few streaks where I didn’t rub the sunblock in. So, I have a permanently burnt bikini on at the moment. It was defintiely a fun experience and meeting more people was great too!

So, Grant and I went on the Young Married’s Camping Trip last weekend. We had a BLAST! The day before it had been raining(the first time since we had been in Austin), and so the forecast said it was supposed to be rainy and cold. So, I packed warmer things with me. By the time we get to the camp grounds which are an hour and a half away from downtown Austin, it is hot and muggy filled with lots of sunshine. I think I wasn’t in the best mood cause I never get hot, and I was hot. Then there were all these Gnats, and it was a little overwhelming with all of these people that we had met once and lots of new people. Well, I mainly helped Tanya out at the beginning socializing with some people,but not with all of them. Then toward dinner time it got cooler, the gnats disappeared, and everyone seemed to warm up to each other more. Then we all started having fun! the dinner was great, and through out most of the day I had talked to everyone I am pretty sure. Everyone was so nice, and it was really funny to see that almost all of the young marrieds had either their children with them or their makeshift children… their dogs. so that was a lot of fun.

Here is Grant and I being silly… On our way into the Camp Grounds which were pretty huge, there was this allotted area where you could pull off the road and take pictures. Well, I am not the touristy kind, but it really was a beautiful view, so, I asked him to stop. So, we took this picture… which he did not want because he said that someone from the young marrieds will probably see us and he would feel dumb. I assured him no one would and right as we were taking the picture the Georges (who are Tanya and Wilson’s Neighbors) drove by… he was not to happy with me lol! The funny thing is, is that I look like a goof since I saw the Georges driving by and Grant looks great in the picture.. oh well!

Me standing by the pretty view.

Grant being goofy and bearing with me while I want him in pictures too!

The view!

I have to say I like this picture, and it is my background on my computer! Woot for amateur photographers.

There were people canoeing, but I missed them in the pictures!

And the last nature photo!

Here you can see the bigger tent that Anthony, Shea, Grant, and I shared, and then you can see the smaller two person tent that Mia and Wilson Shared. Tanya and Ally where there during the first day, and then met us for Lunch on Sunday at Dan’s after the church service she went to. We had service at the camp grounds.

Here you can see part of the group of people at the young marrieds. There was a group photo taken, so I hope that I can get a copy, but we will see. On the left is the picnic table that was used to display all the food for an assembly line approach, and on the right you can see part of the main circle of people with the camp fire and everything.

So, as it lot later on the first day, it got darker and cooler which gave it a nicer atmosphere in general. A few guys(Paul, and Ryan) who had their dogs asked Grant and I if we wanted to go on a walk. They took us to this really cool inlet of the lake where you could go cliff diving and just a fun place to swim. Now it was almost dark, and we were there only for the dogs, so they threw the ball into the water and let the dogs go and fetch. When we were almost ready to leave, Paul threw the ball one last time and the dog missed where he had thrown it and didn’t know where to swim to retrieve it, so Paul mentioned the we should find a stick to throw in the same area so that his dog(Dixie) would get the ball. So all the guys but me start going around in the dark searching the brush and area of the trail for sticks. So, I guess Paul lifted a rock, and literally picked up a baby rattle snake without it biting him, dropped it, and then told us all about it. Well, after Dixie got the ball, Paul ended up bringing the snake back to camp where it was gutted, and the skin was cured. My first rattle snake experience.
Then we played a new game called knock which was a lot of fun, and then went to bed later that night.

The next morning there were some crazy tools that they used for cooking. You can see the huge iron skillet on the fire which was used to make bacon, and eggs. Then you can see the dutch ovens(had never seen them before either) where they were cooking the biscuits, and later gravy was made too! It was a great breakfast!

Here you can see Mia, who was still sleeping after everyone else was already awake,but she slept in a Tent with no problem so that was good.

Wilson ended up waking her up due to the fact that he wanted her to see what the whole camping experience was about with the whole camp fire cooking etc.

It took Mia a while to wake up,but Maizie was right there ready to welcome her since she had been up for hours already!

Just a fun shot of Mia while she was waking up. It was acutally kind of chilly, but that is how camping is supposed to be, so it was nice after all that I had brought warm things!

Here is Mia after breakfast and after our church service all happy and awake in Anthony and Shea’s tent while we were all trying to clean it up since it was time to start heading out.

It was definitley a fun filled weekend, it was a little overwhelming at first, but a great experience nonetheless!