Branson 4th of July

I was able to go out and visit Jaren in Missouri over the 4th of July holiday. I was able to "pin" him with his new first lieutenant rank. He's no longer on the bottom of the officer chain, he's one step up. We went to Branson to spend the few days we had together.
While there we went on a river cruise on a paddlewheel boat. Along the river I found my dream home!
We found a cool train in town we wanted to ride but when we were there the tracks were being worked on so we just took a picture in front of it.
We did a bit of window shopping in the old down town Branson and found a leg lamp like the one on A Christmas Story ("You'll shoot your eye out"). What a nice picture of Jaren next to it! We watched the fireworks in a dinky country town that was shooting them off. Definitely not Fort Vancouver fireworks but it was still fun. The traffic in the whole area was awful so we took all kinds of detours to get around it. It was nice being able to see each other. Saying goodbye again was VERY hard! At least we made it through. -Emily

Jared & Jen

Jared (Jaren's best friend) and Jen tied the knot on May 30, 2008 in the Salt Lake temple. I flew down and stayed with the Armstrong's (Jared's family) for the few days of activities. The sealer said some awesome things and in general it was a beautiful sealing. It was fun to be with all of their family and I enjoyed being a part of it all. We all missed Jaren but he did get to call and give both Jared and Jen some last minute marital advice. I was a little emotional since Jaren had just left but I only really cried when they played the "couples" dance at the reception. I had to just stand on the side of the room without my husband. All in all it was great to be there and I think Jared and Jen are a cute couple. Jaren and I wish them the best! - Emily

(Ignore Joel's little comment on the back of the car)