Christmas in SoDak

It felt great to DRIVE home to our parents houses this year for Christmas. We spent a few days with Mom and Dad Meendering and a few days with Mom and Dad Gee. Here are a few pictures from our time at home visiting family and friends.

Moving.....

Here are some pictures of loading the moving truck...our drive....and unloading the moving truck. The drive was eventful to say the least. Our check engine light came on the moment we entered Idaho and stayed on until we were 4 miles outside of Omaha and our windshield washer fluid froze as we were going over the mountain pass and so we had to stop periodically on the snowy roads and clean our windows with swifers that we had in the car. We were happy to arrive in Omaha and were greated by Mom and Dad Meendering and our friends Rachel and Sam. Rachel and Sam drove all the way from Peoria Illinois to help us unload the truck before heading to Wisconsin for Christmas. They are the best! They stayed in Omaha for the night to help us celebrate being back in the Midwest...unfortunately, I got a horrible case of the stomach flu and they had to celebrate without me!

Our last few days.....

Our last few days in Eugene were a whirlwind. We both moved all of our things out of our offices and our moving truck left. We lived for the last week in our apartment with just the essentials and a blow up mattress on the floor. Grant and Nicole had a going away party for us on Friday. I can even describe how much fun we had. I will never forget it. It was bittersweet and a perfect way to enjoy one last night with all of our friends. On Saturday we went out to a late breakfast with friends, cleaned our apartment, packed our car, and went to dinner with friends. On Sunday morning we had breakfast at Grant and Nicoles, with them and Tom and Donna and left from their house to start our drive to Omaha. It was so hard to say goodbye to everyone and the life we have known and loved for the last 5 years! A special thanks to everyone for everything you did to help us move. The pictures will be out of order...but that reminds me that I should post some pictures of packing our moving truck.

Girls Night

A few years ago my department started the tradition of having "girls night" every term or so where all of the graduate students, faculty, and staff get together for a fun night of good food and good company. Sadly, this week was my very last girls night. Here are a few pictures with some of the great women I have had the chance to work with and become friends with.

Going Away......

Dr. Klug (the head of my department at Oregon) and his wife Marlyn were nice enough to have a going away dinner for us this week with some of our friends from work. We are starting to realize just how hard it is going to be for us to leave all of our friend in Oregon. Thanks Dr. Klug and Marlyn! We are really going to miss you.

Urgent Care

Yep....our first trip urgent care as a couple. Jon broke his clavicle in 2 places and separated his AC joint few days ago playing flag football with some friends. We went to urgent care and ended up waiting for 4 hours before we were seen! Jon is doing well and is on the mend. I keep questioning whether he did this on purpose so he wouldn't have to help with the move! I freaked out a little bit about how we are going to load our truck, drive across country, and unload our truck with jon not being able to move his right arm. Luckily we have great friends that have agreed to help us every step of the way. I will try and find a picture of jon in his sling to post...but I am not sure if we have one yet.

Jen and Kids Visit Eugene

Our last week in Eugene we were blessed with a visit from my sister, connor, julia, ali, and stephan. It was so great to have them come and see our place and see our lives in Eugene before we make the big move back to the midwest. We toured around campus, went to the beach for the day and flew kites and searched for shells, hiked up to a lighthouse on the coast, played glow in the dark mini golf, and had lots of video game tournaments on jon's childhood playstation.

They were troupers to stay at our place because most of it was already packed in boxes. They helped us pack at nights and connor even put the very first box in our moving truck. I will never forget their trip out to see us. We love you guys....thanks for coming!!

Illustration Author

Jon did some of the illustrations for a book his former Master's degree degree adviser at the UO published. The book turned out beautifully and I am so so proud of him. He worked very hard on these illustrations and he now has them published in a textbook!

Turkey Day with the Hofers in Eugene

Sam, Nick, and Ava made the trip to Eugene to visit Uncle Jon and Aunt Jessica.
It was great to finally meet Ava and to have some time to hang out with Sam and Nick.
We got a tour of the University of Oregon football stadium and locker room from one of our athletic training friends, which was really cool because Nick is UO football superfan. We also made a wonderful thanksgiving dinner, went to a UO football game, and took in the sites of the ocean for a day. It was great to have some time with our family.

Pumpkin Patch

Today we went to the pumpkin patch with Grant and Nicole to get a few pumpkins to carve for Halloween. The patch was pretty picked over, but after much searching and debate between couples we all found a few pumpkins to take home.

We had a blast feeding the cows, watching the pumpkin catapult, and pretending to drive the tractor. They even had a u-pick flower area so Nicole and I took advantage of it and bought some daliahs to take home.

Halloween

Jon and I both had Halloween parties at work this year. Jon was a good sport and dressed up as Luigi from Nintendo's Mario brothers video games. His good friend at PIVOT, Shelly, dressed up as Mario. Our friend Sean was hilarious in his cowboy costume.

I was a poor sport and didn't get a costume together in time for our department party. However, I had some friends that did it up right and dressed up as Ron Bergandy and in true science form as statistically significant!

26.2 Mile Survivor

It is official. I am a marathon finisher! Jon and I went to San Francisco this weekend with our friends Nicole & Grant, and Stephanie, David & Amber. Steph, Nicole, and I ran the San Francisco Nike Women's Marathon with 15,000 other women on Sunday. It was an amazing experience. The course was beautiful. We ran from Pier 1 to Pier 39, through the persidio, golden gate park, and ended by running the last 4 miles on the Great Highway right next to the Pacific Ocean. It was one of the hardest things I have ever done. The last few miles I was convinced I had made a poor choice by signing up to run 26.2 miles, but now I am entertaining the idea of running another in a few years. I couldn't have done it without my amazingly strong friends: Steph and Nicole and great cheerleaders: Jon, David, Amber, and Grant.

Human Physiology Party

We went to our friends, Tom & Dona's house for a going away party. We had a good time, but were sad to say goodbye to our friends Julie and Jason Manson, who are movig to Southern California.

Moran Family Visits Eugene

After a cross country drive from Shakopee, MN my sister Julie and her family arrived in Eugene. Harry told us all about their trip, the people they visited and all of the cool things they saw along the way. It was the first time Jon and I have gotten to have kids in our apartment! It was a lively place with four adults and three kids in our 500+ squre foot apartment! We all went camping on the Oregon Coast and had so much fun staying in a Yurt and watching the kids expore the coast. It meant so much to Jon and I that Julie and Joe extended their trip and drove all the way to Eugene to see us. It meant so much to us to have them here and to make all of special memories we made with the kids on the coast.