Our last fall in Provo!!!

I love this time of year!!!

How can you not? :)

Here's how we've been making the best of this beautiful, gorgeous time...

School!

Our biggest focus is school, since we're BOTH in school full-time this semester (the one and only semseter like this - next term Matt has just a few classes to take and then he graduates and starts his career!) Provo has sprung back to life with students pouring back in from all over the world. It's pretty fun to have the energy and excitement back to our town!

BYU on the first day of classes this term

Image from BYU's Facebook page!

As I mentioned in another post, Matt is a TA this year and is taking on more leadership roles in ROTC. He OFFICIALLY submitted his accessions packet this week - that's the paperwork that lists his top 3 choices of careers within the Army. It's a really big deal and required a lot of thought, research, prayer, and discussion with his ROTC leaders. Now we wait! We'll find out what he is assigned before Thanksgiving (hopefully!) 

What he ends up doing will determine where we're stationed, so we'll find out our post way later - probably in March. Aah! We do get some say in that too and we're planning on putting Fort Lewis, Washington as our #1 choice. It would be AMAAZING to move back to the PNW!

In the mean time, I've been focusing on work and starting classes! My classmates and I were asked to make video introductions for each of them - being an online program it's probably the best way for us to get to know new classmates a little better! One of my favorite things about the program is that everyone is amazing - really! All of my classmates are young professionals, doing things they are really interested in, and AT THE SAME TIME they're going to graduate school full time though this truly amazing program. Here is my video intro - part of the assignment was to mention our 'signiture' which I talk about at the end! :)

If you can't see it, you can watch it HERE.

One of my classes is all classmates I know (and love), and the other is about half familiar faces, half new-to-me students - which I also love. :)

I really, truely have a feeling this semester will be smooth and enjoyable - even though it will be one of the most challenge period of months of our married life, I expect it to also be exciting and super rewarding!

GORGEOUS, BEAUTIFUL FALL EVERYTHING

How could you resist being outside when it looks like this?

Provo Canyon

Barkley and I are in the canyon almost every day!

So of course we took a pic with the first fall leaves...

We've been doing our 5-mile out-and-back regularly but also starting to incorporate more and more biking… this is definatley the best season to ride in Utah, and it's been really addicting. And I've started becoming more interested in swimming too so I'm planning on making it over to the Rec Center pool once a week or so, too. If I had a million dollars I'd put it all together and do a triathlon!

FOOTBALL

Our teams are doing well so far - OSU beat Portland State, and BYU beat U of Connecticut!

And…

Friday night Matt asked me what I wanted to do… 

And I decided to go for the 'what would I want to do - IF WE COULD DO ANYTHING' - answer…

…which was, go to a high school football game! Random, right? WELL he looked one up and there happened to be one, so… we went to a local HS football game!!!

IT WAS SO FUN!

AND it happened to be their homecoming night so there was some fun stuff at half time. I was mostly interested in the scene and the cheerleaders, even though it was a good game too - I left wishing I could do a stunt or a halfitme routine or something. Ha! I miss HS cheer. 

Right before the game was our ward's fall BBQ. Fun to chat with our ward memebrs / neighbors. :)

Fall cooking

The food this time of year is amazing. 

We've been to the farmers' market a couple times already - BYU has one RIGHT next to the football stadium ("The Stadium Farmers' Market") and we've run into several people we know every time we go. :) It's the place to be!

And Barkley always makes friends. :) He is a kid magnet!

"Can we pet your dog???"

"Barkleeeeeeey!" These kids already knew Barkley.

We used the stuff we bought there to make good stuff like white chicken chilli with sweet potato and roasted butternut squash…

Peach pie… (which blurred the line between summer and fall cooking)

Soup, pumpkin bread, (a couple batches of) pumpkin choco chip cookies… life is good in the Neuffer kitchen. :)

That's it for now, we'll see how much I can get back on here during the semester. I hope it's at least a couple times a month! :)