Married Life

Hey Everyone,

Since Lyndon and I have been married all we have been doing is traveling. Our first excursion was from Utah all the way to East Tennessee. It was a fun trip. We kept entertained by listening to Dracula on tape. We started on Monday and made it to my parents house by 4am Wednesday morning. We were exhausted but happy to be out of the car. Our first few days in Oak Ridge were busy helping my parents get the twins and Ellen ready for college, the house ready for our reception, and entertaining Eston's Japaneses exchange student. Thursday evening Lyndon and I went with my family to pick up my brother Eston's Japanese exchange student. It was a fun evening meeting all of the rest of the host families and Japanese students. Eston's student name was Kenta. He is from Nakamachi Japan, one of five kids, likes frogs, and Abercrombie and Fitch. An hour after that my sister Bethany left for Pennsylvania for her first semester at Bucknell University. Her twin, Leslie, and my dad went with her.

Saturday was our Tennessee reception. The Plothows made it safely to Oak Ridge from Utah. My Mom's friends and family all pitched in to help make the house look beautiful. Many people showed up that night. It was fun to introduce Lyndon to some of my Dad's family and my friends from home.


The following Monday Lyndon and I took my sister, Ellen, back to school in North Carolina where she attends Salem College. Her school is very unique. It was settled by the Moravian and is the oldest women's college in the United States. Leslie came along with us. We had a good time singing Disney songs. Leslie drove all the way back from Salem to Oak Ridge (it was her first time driving that far. She did great!). We listened to the Graveyard Book on CD. It is not scary like it sounds.

The following week we left for Chesapeake, Virginia. On our way there we made a stop in Washington D.C. We were able to go to the temple in the morning and spent the rest of the day seeing all the sights at the mall. I enjoyed the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History and Lyndon's favorite was the Jefferson Memorial. We stayed with my Aunt Sabrina and her family. Uncle Gaston took us down to Norfolk and showed us around the naval base. The naval base there is the biggest in the United States. We saw an aircraft carrier, a couple of submarines, two helicopter carriers, and several destroyers. Plus in the water we saw jelly fish, crabs, and a sting ray swimming around. We were able to go to the beach one day. We saw lots of fish and possibly a baby shark. We are not sure if it was. All we saw is a long fish that was carnivorous. Our last day we spent at Historic Williamsburg. William and Mary College is located right next to Williamsburg. We took a look around and toured the Wren building. Lyndon especially enjoyed going to the Cheese Shop. He says they had some really good sharp cheddar. We took Grandma Barron back with us to Tennessee. We really enjoyed the drive back listening to the fourth Harry Potter book on CD and talking with Grandma.


Leslie left the day after we got back from Virginia for school. That night we stayed up and watched Legally Blonde. We had some good laughs. We helped her get packed for school. She is attending Tennessee Tech in Cookeville, TN. My Dad is from Cookeville and much of his family still lives there.

Labor Day weekend we were able to go to the University of Tennessee's first football game of the season. My Uncle Danny had a few extra tickets so my Dad, Lyndon, and I went. Grandma Barron got us all Tennessee Vols shirts and hats. Lyndon looks good in orange :-) The UT game was awesome! I have never been to Neyland Stadium before. It was great to see the whole stadium fill up with orange.

Go Vols! Good ole rocky top, rocky top Tennessee, rocky top Tennessee.

Before we went to the game we went to the Knoxville Zoo. My family likes to go the zoo a lot. There is a bronze tortoise that we always take pictures on. It is tradition! Every time we go we take a picture on it. Lyndon was able to get a picture for himself on the tortoise.

Tradition!

Labor Day we hiked Mount LeConte in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. The hike is ten miles round trip. The five miles up to the summit is up hill the whole way. Thanks to Leslie we hiked up to the top in 2 hours and 15 minutes. I now call  her Leslie Trail Blazer Dunn. She walked the whole way up the mountain like it was nothing. I work out and I thought the hike was a 8 out of 10. Lyndon liked hiking by Alum Cave and walking up these steep stairs through a mini cave. I enjoyed my 11 year old brother, David, challenging Lyndon to a arm wrestling match. We did not see any bears. There were signs everywhere saying that bears live in the area. Mom was happy about that we did not see any bears.


My brother David, Lyndon, me, and Leslie "Trail Blazer Dunn" at the summit of Mount LeConte.

Lyndon was able to experience a Oak Ridge High School football game. I was so happy to go. It has been so long since I have actually spent time in Tennessee. I used to go with my friends most Friday nights to the football games. They lost but Lyndon caught a awesome Oak Ridge High School football t-shirt.

I was able to get back in to swimming a little bit. There is a group that meets three times a week called Swimming Women. Mom has started doing it so I went with her. It was so good to swim again. I have missed swimming so much.

Our last week in Tennessee Lyndon and I did some more hiking. We went back up to the Smokies to Cades Cove where we hike to Abram Falls. It was not a hard hike compared to LeConte. The trail was right along the river the whole way. Driving through Cades Cove we saw lots of deer, some wild turkeys, and a red crested wood pecker. No bears though. I really wanted to see a bear. Our last hike we did on the Appalachian Trail (also known as the AT) to Charlie's Bunion. David said that was his favorite hike. The drive up to the trail head was beautiful. We did not hike all the way to Charlie's Bunion but we still hike six miles. At the trail head is where President Roosevelt dedicated the national park. The platform is still there and it is the North Carolina Tennessee border. The view was beautiful. Trees for miles and miles.

Us on the AT (Appalachain Trail)!



Getting our visas took longer than we expected so we did not get to go to Egypt for our honeymoon. We ended up leaving a week later than planned. Our visas ended up getting mailed to the Plothows in Utah. We did not get them till the day we left. Instead of Egypt we went to Greece.

We both really enjoyed getting to spend time in Tennessee but we were ready to move on to our next adventure.

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