Letter to Grethe #1 - Trip to the states

Howdy Grethe!!

I got your letter!! Thanks Grethe. It totally made me smile. I have been really busy over here, but I now have a Saturday morning to just sit and write (well type) but you know what I mean. :P Simon says hi. He's working right now but he still says hi. :D

My trip to the states was AWESOME!! We were soooo busy. We did so much while we were there. In the first weekend alone we went paintballing, swimming and ate pizza!! The next week we stayed at my sister's house all week. The only problem was that she didn't have airconditioning. It was so HOT! She did have a little window unit that worked to cool the living room down so we stayed in the living room (where the TV and computer) was. During that week, my sister Becky and I went to Six Flags Amusement Park. It was a total blast!! We went early enough so that we didn't have to wait too long in all the lines. I was (by this point) already burned sadly but luckily it was too much to slow me down. Later in the week we went swimming again and played cards with the family. I went shopping a lot too but that was mostly in the second week.

The weekend of the first week Simon, Melanie, my mom and dad, and I drove up to Arkansas. It was like a 5 hour drive. We were going up to see some hot springs. We checked into our hotel (Mom had gotten Simon and I our OWN ROOM!! - this was the first one we had ever been in alone) and then afterwards go ready to go to some hotsprings. It ended up that we just went shopping and looking around. We didn't see anything that we wanted to pay for so we ended up just going back to the hotel at swimming at the pool they had there. Earlier in the week Simon had bought an underwater videocamera. It is soo cool! It has sound and everything. We played with that until it had no battery left. lol. That night mel hung out in our room until it was time to go to bed.

Oh and I forgot. Earlier on Saturday mel, dad and I did a treetop zipline adventure (which basically had a lot of ziplines to slide down). It was really fun!! Simon and my mom didn't dare try it. I thought it was fun! I'll have to send in some pictures too.

Well, Sunday morning we drove back into Texas and later had our big family game night. It was great to see everyone and we did our Sunday golf ball hunt... except it got dark so early that we couldn't really see any golf balls to pick up. It was still fun playing catch with becky, her husband ariel, melanie, and becky's two boys.

The next tuesday my sister Jenni, her husband Eric, and their 3 kids drove Simon and me out to their timeshare resort. It was AWESOME!! They own a presidential room right on the lake. They even gave us the lake room so that everytime we looked out our window we saw that lake. It was gorgeous. We went swimming a twice and watched some cartoons with the kids. It was a very relaxing trip.

We drove home (only 2 hours) Thursday around noon so that I could get to my brother's apartment (John) to do his fiance's hair (Lexie). She was getting married Thursday night and I had agreed to do her hair in an updo. They lived so far away!! I drove for like an hour before I got to their house. I will never complain about how far away you live again. :P I did her hair and made her a little late since I was done only 5 minutes before they needed to go (and she still needed to get dressed and put her make-up on... whoops). It was a private wedding (so only her parents and my parents) but they had a reception on Saturday that everyone was invited to. I did her hair again Saturday before the reception and i even put on some clear nail polish! I barely had time for that though since she needed to get out to greet the guests. :P The reception looked great! I'll have to send some pics of that as well. :D The food/snacks tasted great and I had fun seeing some of my aunts, my great uncle mike, and my Grandma. I also got to dance with Simon, my dad, and great uncle Mike. It enjoyed myself a lot! :) Funny story - Some of our clothes were at my moms place and some at beckys so that morning I went and picked up Simon's clothes and church shoes and took them to beckys before I headed up to Lexie's apartment to do her hair. Later at the reception Simon shows up in tennis shoes because he said that he didn't have church shoes (which I had put in a bag on the bed next to his suit) but he didn't see it. So he ended up walking around in black socks without any shoes on! he he. You could hardly tell though - luckily.

Oh that the night before the reception every on Ariels side of the family (Becky's husband) went camping so that gave Simon and I the house to ourselves. That night we drove our to Becky's parents-in-laws house and swam in their pool without all the little kids. It was very relaxing not having all the kids around. We got home afterwards (oh and we saw 4 cars parked under the freeway that looked way toooooo suspicious - so we called the police) and fell asleep (actually instead of sleeping in the hot room in the back we pulled their 2 couches together and slept right under the window airconditioning unit. he he. Well around 3 in the morning becky and ariel come home. They said that some ants found a dirty diaper in their tent and swarmed the tent. Luckily enough they weren't the kind of ants that bite. It was awful anyway. But they still had a good time.

We had some good talks on Sunday in sacrament but since we were so worn out from being so tired and busy we went home after sacrament. Later we had a family dinner and games. That sunday night we didn't go golf ball hunting but we did have fun throwing a HUGE frisbee and TINY football around. It was hilarious. Me and becky would run towards every ball trying to get to it first. We laughed so hard. Sadly enough monday came and it was time to start getting ready to go home. Luckily I packed most of monday so that we wouldn't have to do so much monday.... that didn't happen. We were SOOO busy. We had several stores to go to, we took my great uncle mike out, and met some of my family at the mall for some chinese. In the end I had forgotten to pack the last check-on luggage that all the food that I was bringing home but luckily enough mom had a box from the wedding in her trunk. I brought home Macoroni and cheese, some poptarts (the real kind :P), some sour patch kids candy, and some cream of mushroom soup. (oh and like 5 boxes of good ol' breakfast cereal and 2 HUGE jars of cruncy peanut butter) ha ha.

Overall it was a REALLY busy vacation. There were only 2 days were Simon and I were alone. :P I loved it. I'm so happy Simon got to go with me this time. Oh and the flights were ok. Sleeping in the airport was ok (not the funnest) and on the way home we slept the ENTIRE way. lol. It's crazy that we were still tired when we came home.

So I finished half of my Danish test. I got a 10 in the essay part and a 12 in the læseforståelse!! I'm soooooo happy!!! Yay!! I have my last mundtlige exam on monday. I'm a little nervous but not too much (yet :P). I had a practice test yesterday with the two girls that are going into the exam room with me. It went well and I have high hopes for monday. I'm praying that Heavenly Father will continue to help me. :D

Well, I know this letter is getting pretty long but i didn't want to leave anything out. :P I miss you and I hope you are having a total blast!!

I know that this church is true and I love how one could travel all the way across the world and the church would still teach the same principles and ordinances. I love my family and my Heavenly Father. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

I'll write again when I figure out what grade I get for my mundtlige exam! Have a great week!!

Med venlig hilsen
Rachel

PS This letter is so long that I haven't gone through to correct it. I hope you can understand it all. :P
PSS Say hi to Sister Brown for me!! :D :D