Move to Lenexa, KS and Summer Highlight Reel!

Hello friends, family, and followers! It has been a while since I posted on my blog and since school hasn't started yet and I have the time right now to post, I figured I should update you all on my life and whereabouts. A lot has happened since I last posted. Garrett and I are now fiancéd, yes, but much more has developed in our lives.

For one, Garrett got into nursing school! He was accepted at University Missouri Kansas City into their accelerated bachelor’s program. As you can imagine, this was a development full of mixed emotions for us, since this now meant that we needed to make a decision about whether we would be apart for a year, with me finishing my Master’s in Oregon, or whether I would transfer to be closer to Garrett.

We had many, many conversations about this, weighing the pros and cons of both options, analyzing both scenarios into the ground, and after looking at all angles of both situations and getting into contact with KU, I decided to transfer to be nearer to Garrett. Yay!

Since we were still in Oregon for much of the summer and weren’t able to be physically present to look at apartments in Kansas, my mom generously went for us and gave us the scoop on all the places she visited.  Now I sit here writing to you in my adorable (and 200 sq ft bigger than our place in Portland!) apartment in Lenexa, KS, which is about 35 minutes from KU, where I’ll be doing most of my studies, and 20 minutes from UMKC, where Garrett will be doing his.

I will truly miss my cohort in Portland, some true blue professors I had, and the people I grew close to over the course of my time there. I got reacquainted with old college friends, one of whom (Miss Megan O'Connor) will do me the honor of standing by me on my wedding day as one of my bridesmaids.

I will miss not being able to take part in the requisite bitching and moaning about assignments and tests with peers whom I’ve grown to trust and love. But also, I am confident those bonds will stay strong over time, we will meet again, and also that I’ll find great people in my new program at KU to fill the shoes of my former cohort, big as they may be to fill.

Jeez, this got sappy, huh?! Sorry about that. That always seems to happen when I didn't mean for it to. To make it up to you for sitting through that, I will now present to you a highlight reel of my summer travels and escapades, complete with short, concise (hopefully) captions. Enjoy! Much love to you and yours and please keep in touch!

Garrett and I ran the Seattle Rock and Roll marathon with a good friend of mine, Courtney, whom I hadn't seen since right before both of us left for our Peace Corps services! Hers was in Senegal. Another good friend of our's and returned Peace Corps volunteer, BP, ran the half marathon. So in this picture we have three generations of Peace Corps volunteers and two countries represented. :)

Courtney's family came, too so we got to catch up with them, along with two other Peace Corps volunteers from Cambodia with whom we stayed while we were in Seattle!

Had to.

As you can see, Garrett and I are at our most photogenic after running 26.2 miles.

Smiling through our pain.

RPCVs are very serious about their s'more making.

Garrett and I got to spend some time with this adorable tot in AZ.

Concentration.

Not totally sure about Uncle Garrett

We went to Sedona for a wedding while we were there. The view of the red rocks is pretty incredible.

Lookin' sharp and wedding-ready, as you can see!

Annie- Garrett's (and my soon-to-be) sister-in-law made these incredible cupcake flower arrangements for the wedding. 

After we got back, I nannied for a few weeks for a family in Portland. This little one is named LaVie and has a natural talent for getting food in all kinds of places.

I call this one "Macaroni Nose."

Here we have her older brother Tor, in a rare moment of obedience and non-tantrum throwing. 

She has the best baby eyes. 

You find interesting ways to entertain yourself when you're with babies all day.

Her smile lit up the room, though.

As Garrett's and my days in Portland came to an end, we had many "last for now" experiences. Eating waffles at our favorite waffle window was one of them.

Garrett buried me in this pile of laundry. This felt like an important part of our summer to include.

Portland granted us this beautiful, unforgettable sunset on my last night there. If she was trying to make me homesick before I'd even left the city, she succeeded.

D'awww

And now we move on to KS and AR! My mom and I took a trip to AR shortly after I left Portland, driving the ten sometimes bearable, sometimes unbearable hours to get to Hot Springs where my grandparents live. We spent a fun day out on the lake.

And then took shots with my grandparents! (Love you, grandma) 

Here is a sweet picture of my grams and me.

Ok, here is what I've been leading up to, folks. My best friend and I went and saw JT (yes that's right- Justin Timberlake- only my one true love and soulmate) in concert. It was as amazing as you think it was (and more).

OF COURSE we took these pictures. How could we not?

AHH!!!!!! The stage moved across the floor so at one point we were about 25 ft away from him! EEK!!!!! I think my voice went hoarse from screaming so much at the experience.

After JT, Hannah and I drove back to Ft. Collins to meet Garrett, who had driven from Portland with his dad to Denver (who then flew back to AZ. Whew!). 

We got to spend a couple of days in Ft. Collins (FoCoCo) hanging out with Hannah and her boyfriend Joey, and getting acquainted with her lovely new home in CO.

... And finally, we moved to Lenexa, KS, where we are currently. In the interim we have been getting settled in our apartment and getting acquainted with our new surroundings, enjoying seeing the mourning dove on our balcony every day and her two new healthy squabs!

That's all for now! Gotta leave some things in suspense for next time, right? :)

One last thing I forgot to mention in the above post. Garrett and I now have a wedding date, venue, and band set for our big day! May 23rd is the day we will tie the proverbial knot. Oh yeah... And I found my wedding dress. :) Look out for more wedding (and life) updates in the months to come!

Trip to Vancouver, BC: Engagement, Japadogs, Liam Neeson, and Duck.

Well hellooooooo there! Betcha thought I'd disappeared forever, eh? (See what I did there with the "eh"). Well you were WRONG. I am still here, albeit sporadically and perpetually distracted by the needy baby that is grad school. At least for the next little while though I am all yours, and will give my full attention to jumping into the story of my recent stay in Canada, where Garrett and I went for four days over our spring break.

Our finals were over by Wednesday, so we left on Thursday morning. I don't know what your experiences of traveling are but for me, leaving/getting ready to leave is always the most stressful part. We were hungry and grumpy the morning of our departure, frantically getting all of our stuff together and snapping at each other over things we would typically discuss like calm adults. The scene as we drove out of Portland was pretty dire- both of us angrily eating our Einstein's bagels and barely speaking to one another. Luckily, we had five hours to sort out our family probz, so by the time we got to Vancouver, we were once again excited about our trip.

We got to Vancouver around 5 PM and met our host Fatima, who showed us where to park and how to come up to the apartment. We found this place through Airbnb, which I had never tried but was always intrigued by. For those of you who don't know about Airbnb, it is sort of like couch surfing but better quality; you get your own room and you pay (but much less than you would for a hotel). You also typically have access to a kitchen, and if you're lucky like we were, you also have access to people who are willing to talk to you about the area and give you tips on where to go.

The view from their place was amazing. It's on the 13th floor, so there is a pretty amazing view of all of the many skyscrapers in downtown Vancouver. I've heard Vancouver is comparable to Portland with regards to size, except that Portland is much more spread out geographically whereas Vancouver is more densely packed.

The view from their living room

After we'd settled in and hung out for a bit with Fatima and her boyfriend, Thierry, who came home from work while the three of us were chatting, we decided to head out to explore some and eventually wind up at the sushi place Fatima recommended (there are lots of sushi restaurants in Vancouver because of all the seafood that's there).

One of the first things we saw as we set out was the public library, which is architecturally crafted to look like something out of Rome.

Fun fact: there was a TV show being shot here while we were visiting!

We wandered inside, marveling at the columns around us and then ended up downstairs where we saw a sign advertising for a TED conference that was going on in Vancouver- the first time it's been held there. We were pretty bummed we hadn't known about it before and I actually cried out (no joke) when I saw the name "Susan Cain" on the roster for 1:00 PM earlier that day. For those of you who don't know or who haven't been tuned in to my blog for a while, Susan Cain is the author of Quiet: the Power of Introverts, which is one of my favorite books... It was disappointing.

We chugged on though and as we did our appetites got stronger, so we made our way to Umeda, this small sushi place that one would easily walk by if not on the lookout for it. Despite its unassuming air, it turned out to be delicious. Generous portions of sushi and deliciously fried spring rolls and fresh edamame. Also, very reasonably priced. I think we spent about 30 Canadian dollars on this meal- including beer, salad, and miso soup- which translates to about $27 in U.S. dollars.

Yum!

We headed back to the apartment relatively early, exhausted from the day as always happens from traveling even moderate distances. We headed to bed and prepped ourselves for day two in Vancouver. We dreamed of sun.

The next day we woke up at our leisure, had breakfast in the apartment (we'd bought cereal and milk so we'd be saving money by not going out for at least one meal of the day), figured out the confusing coffee machine, and slowly warmed up to the day. The day before, Fatima had told us that you could rent bikes and go ride around this island called Stanley Park, and since today was beautiful and sunny (and the predictions for the following day were not), we decided to take advantage of the weather and do exactly as she'd suggested.

We walked down one of the main streets that leads to the river and stopped at a bike rental shop we found along the way. Once we'd secured our bikes and helmets, we were on our way, riding around the biking/roller blading/cycling path that winds around the island.

Weee I love biking!

So does Garrett yayyy!

We rode at a leisurely pace, stopping to take pictures and breath in the crisp air and watch the people around us enjoying the day as we were. At one point we stopped to rest on a bench. (You see where this is going?)

We sat and watched the water and the birds that easily landed on the water and took off a few moments later. After a while it seemed like the time had come to continue on so I asked Garrett if he was ready to go. "We should stay here a little longer," he said, so I settled in for some more bird/water/people watching. After a few minutes, I noticed him looking around us at the people who were sitting on nearby benches. "You ok?" I asked and he said "Yeah!" in what seemed an overly enthusiastic way... I was getting suspicious. "What's going on?" I asked, although I think a part of me already knew. "Nothing!" he said, a false sense of calm now *definitely* perceivable in his voice.

I remember being acutely aware of these other people during these few moments, aware of everything going on around us and particularly what these people were doing- these people WHO NEEDED TO LEAVE RIGHT NOW SO WE COULD HAVE OUR MOMENT.

Finally, the guys who had been to the left of us taking pictures of everything in site, almost leaving but then oh! look at that bird! I have to take a picture of it and the family that had been to the right of us tending to what seemed to me an outrageously needy baby finally left and we were alone, sitting on this bench, looking out on the water, the sky as blue as seems naturally possible, the air crisp and the sun warm on our flushed faces. Garrett turned to me and unzipped his jacket. At this point, we both started crying. "Leah Marie Mortenson..." and it's here where I have no memory of what came after, just that we were both crying hard and that I must have said "yes" or "maybe" or "sure" or "duh" because I now have a ring on my finger... So yeah. :)

Proof

Beautiful day

The rest of this day was just a general blur of engagement-y things. We spent the better part of the afternoon telling everyone we care about- calling them, putting the news on social media, gushing to Fatima and Thierry. Yep, we were pretty obnoxious, but how could we not be?





Ok, but the thing that's REALLY worth talking about is just now coming into view. I've been leading up to it, you see. (The whole engagement thing was just to get your attention). The japadogs. So, I'd read on Yelp on the way up to Vancouver about this place that sells "japadogs," which are pretty much exactly what they sound like: Japanese hot dogs. They are hot dogs that are topped with weird things like mayonnaise and seaweed, pork shreds and fish sauce. They can be topped with miso or shredded cabbage or Kimchi or black sesame. They are nothing short of amazing. I was not sure how I felt about the idea of them at first, but after a morning full of bike riding and getting engaged and what-not, it was the most delicious thing and I'm fairly certain Garrett and I both devoured our japadogs, a bag of ketchup chips, fries, and diet cokes in about three minutes. Seriously: if you're ever in Vancouver, you just have to.

Mandatory "eating the japadog" picture

Beauty shot

That evening we went to a rotating restaurant at the top of a really tall building and got drinks just as the sun was setting and afterwards went to eat at a really yummy place called "Salmon and Bannock" which you should also look up if you're ever in the area. They serve traditional Canadian food and their blueberry bannock dessert is divine.

View from the rooftop restaurant

Fancy schmancy engagement dinner we bought ourselves for being engaged

Garrett hates dessert, as you can see 

The next day we had planned to go kayaking, but it was dreary and rainy so we canceled those plans in favor of a lazy morning spent perusing the internet after breakfast (if you guessed that I spent about two hours on Pinterest pinning wedding-related items, you were right) and then went to see "Non-Stop" with Liam Neeson at a nearby movie theater. This was by far the best decision we could have made. This movie is INTENSE and I'm pretty sure I spilled popcorn and dribbled diet coke all over myself multiple times due to the twists and turns the plot takes that are totally unexpected.

I think it is now time for me to give a shout out to our hosts. I can only assume that our hosts were not your typical hosts through Airbnb. They bent over backwards for us to recommend various places, give us directions, hang out with us, etc. After we got engaged, they actually *asked* if they could cook us dinner in celebration... Doi! Since Thierry is French, they cooked us a delicious feast of duck with french cheese and wine and even invited us out bowling with them and their friends afterwards! They were so sweet to include us on all of this, and definitely didn't have to. We loved staying with them and had a great time getting to know them over the course of our trip.

  Look at this! They asked if they could do this!

Delicious dinner. Notice the Kraft trying to sneak in there

Well, lookie there!

New friends

Our amazing hosts!

Wow, this has gotten so long! I will try to wrap up here, since I know you all have lives other than reading my blog update. But I will end with a few pictures that sum up our trip and describe them in as few words as possible!

Thanks for tuning in, and I hope that in the future I'll be able to write on this thingamabob more often than once every six or so months. :)

While in Canada, Garrett and I ran 14 miles like the couple of crazies we are

And then, of course, stuffed our faces to compensate for the marathon training

Tagine with sausage (Garrett got the paella)

GAH look at us being all in love

Canada is funny

On the way back we stopped in Seattle to see some Peace Corps friends!

And got to see the cherry blossoms while they were in bloom.

:) That's it! Hope you enjoyed. Until next time!