Praise the Lord!

We are so blessed! Nathan has accepted a job offer for a design engineering position in Lexington, Nebraska. We will be moving to Kearney, Nebraska (about 45 minutes from where our parents live) as soon as we find a place to live! He will have about a 30 minute commute. We are VERY excited since we will be close to both of our parents. Since Cabelas has call center in Kearney, I will be able to transfer my job. I am planning on job searching once we get settled into social work or something in child development. There is a Christian crisis pregnancy center in Kearney so I will hopefully be volunteering there!

We are currently enjoying being home for Christmas! Holden and Rachel are home with us and Riah is adorable! I will be keeping you posted on all of our updates in the next few weeks!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Husker victory!

We were able to go to the Husker game against Kansas State this weekend! The student section was packed but we enjoyed the first half there before getting some seats with Jeremy (Nathan's brother) and his girlfriend Alana who were also at the game. It was a great victory as Nebraska took the title of Champions of the North!



We recently posted our wedding announcement in Grand Island Independent this weekend! Click HERE if you would like to read it.

Interestingly enough, we will not be spending our first Thanksgiving together this year....Nathan will going home on Wednesday to start packing for the annual hunting trip down in Auburn, Nebraska at Indian Cave Park. A bunch of guys go (most of them family) down and set up tree stands, hunt, camp, and hopefully bring home lots of deer! Since Eric will not be able to come home until Christmas, my parents and I will be driving down to Alabama on Wednesday to visit Rachel, Holden, and Azariah for the weekend! I am so excited to see Riah since he has grown up so much since I saw him at the wedding! Hopefully our next post will not only have lots of cute pictures of Riah but one of Nathan and a big buck too!

We hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Still busy

Nathan and I are still busy with our last semester of college. Nathan has been enjoying hunting with his brothers and dad at home this last weekend as well as this coming weekend. He loves bow hunting and hopefully we will be able to post a picture of his big buck he will get this year!

I am still REALLY enjoying my internship at the Lincoln Crisis Pregnancy Center. I am hoping that this will be an area that I can continue to work in wherever we end up moving! It is such an amazing ministry yet quite heart breaking at times. To see those girls who are faced with an unplanned pregnancy and praise God that they are came to us for counseling but also praying that God will work on their hearts as they face the decisions ahead of them. Many of psychology classes bring in speakers to talk about various subjects. This past week we had a woman come to my class and talk about her job helping women develop adoption plans. My heart was so touched! That is something that I can really see myself doing and I am excited to see how the Lord will lead Nathan and I in the near future.

Fall Break!

Nathan and I will be able to go home for Fall Break tomorrow and stay until Monday evening. We are looking forward to spending time with our families! Nathan's friend Zane came from Sidney to visit us this weekend and go to the Husker game with Nathan and his cousin Tristan. While they are enjoying the game, I am at home making chocolate chip cookies, watching the game on TV, working on our wedding pictures, and getting ready to make enchiladas for the guys when they come back after the game! I am very excited because I have not tried to make them before!

Nathan celebrated his 24th birthday last weekend! Unfortunately I had to work most of the day but he didn't complain much since he was able to relax at home and watch football while catching up on his homework! We did get a bit of a surprise though since we woke up with a few inches of SNOW outside....



It has been a chilly week in Nebraska! Thankfully, the sun came out today for game day and Nathan, Zane, and Tristan should have enjoyable weather for the game.

Rock Climbing

Nathan and I are keeping up with our busy schedule of school, work, and keeping up with friends and family. We are beginning to get to the time in the semester when we get flooded with tests and assignments. A big reason why we can keep up is the fact that this is our last semester of college! Nathan will be attending a Engineering Job Fair on campus this week! Please PRAY! He will be talking with possible job offers and we will be spending alot of time with the Lord about where He is leading.

Last semester we were able to register for the same UNL Outdoor Adventures Rock Climbing class. The class was only 2 weeks long and ended with a weekend trip for some outdoor rock climbing in south western Minnesota! It was a blast! There were only a dozen college students and four staff. We enjoyed some real rock climbing that was both challenging and fun!











Another exciting happening is that Eric graduated from Basic Training and moved on to his next phase of training in North Carolina! Dad and Mom were able to go down for the graduation and also visit Holden, Rachel, and Azariah as they lived only 4 hours from where Eric was for Basic. They had a great time visiting with Eric and attending his graduation ceremony! At his next phase of training he does more access to a computer so if you would like his military e-mail address just e-mail me at amanda.fries09@gmail.com.

Labor Day weekend!

Nathan and I enjoyed a fun weekend at home for Labor Day! Labor Day also is the day Nathan asked me to marry him last year! :) We traveled home so that we could go to the Bow Shoot at Nathan's uncle's house back in Dannebrog! This is an annual event in which almost all of the Fries men participate as well as family friends. The guys set up targets as well as a string of water balloons and have contests. It was a very relaxing day hanging out with family and friends.

The guys all lined up...

Jeremy Fries, Nathan, Bill Fries, Scott Fries, Jim Fries (Bill's brother), Luke Fries (Nathan's cousin)

Camping Weekend!

Last weekend we went camping at a Nebraska State Park south of Lincoln with two other couples! It was the first time using our tent and we had a so much fun! Nate goes hunting with his dad, uncles and cousins at this park in November so he had fun scouting out some good spots for treestands. We did a few hikes and the weather was beautiful! Here are a few pictures...

Nathan & I and Matt & Cami

Nathan and I by the Missouri River

The second week of classes are going well. We are headed to the State Fair tonight if the rain holds off to see Randy Travis and walk around the Fair! Until next time...

Wedding weekend!

Last weekend one of our best men Levi got married in Scottsbluff, NE. Levi and Nathan met while attending Western Nebraska Community College. We really enjoyed the weekend since we had a chance to visit with our other best man Zane and friends that we did not have time to visit with at our own wedding! Here are some pictures from the weekend!

Nathan, Levi, and Zane (Levi & Zane were our Best Men in our wedding)

Nathan and I before the wedding

A very good looking wedding party before the reception

You will notice that Levi literally has a ball and chain around his ankle...it is a Keener family tradition to actually chain a bowling ball around the leg of the groom at the reception. Nathan and Zane, being the best Best Men ever, thought ahead and purchased a saw to auction off. So after funds were attained...

Nathan worked so hard sawing that he actually cut his finger a little bit. It was intense but Levi was very relieved to have it off. His cousin, who was behind the plot, watched the whole saw process and after the chain was free, presented Levi with the key. It was pretty funny.

We had a wonderful time in western Nebraska. While driving home we were able to drive past Nebraska's most famous landmark: Chimney Rock! Here it is...

After returning from the wedding weekend, we both started classes at UNL! Nathan has classes primarily on Mon/Wed/Fri and I am soley on Tues/Thurs but we still get to spend most evenings together whenever I am not working a late shift. I have some very interesting Psychology classes and I am really enjoying my internship with the Lincoln Crisis Pregnancy Center! We are both looking forward to spending the weekend camping with two other couples at a state park south of Lincoln on Saturday and Sunday! I am sure that is what our next blog will be about! Hope everyone is doing well!

Last week of summer...

Well, this is our last week of summer before classes start at UNL! This weekend we will be traveling 5 hours out to western Nebraska for Nathan's best man's wedding! I am excited for the road trip and we will also get to visit with people that attended our wedding that we didn't get to talk to very much. I start my internship this week! Instead of participating in research on campus with a professor, I have decided to volunteer at the Lincoln Crisis Pregnancy Center. I am very excited because it is a Christian ministry that provides a safe environment for women seeking help and counsel about their pregnancies. I find out tomorrow what I will be doing for my internship! I am looking forward to seeing how God is going to use me and grow me throughout this experience.

We leave on Thursday for Scottsbluff, NE so our next post will probably have some fun pictures in it from the wedding festivities! Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Riah's Birthday!

Rachel & Holden with Riah and his CAKE!

Rachel said he had the cake downed in like a minute!

Mom said Riah's birthday was tons of fun and he loved eating his cake! We wish we could have been there! I called Mom the morning of his birthday to tell him over the phone and this is how the convo went:

Mom: He got a puppy for his birthday this morning!

Me: A PUPPY! What kind?!?

Mom: Oh, you know, a brown fluffy one.

Me: (light bulb) OH! It wasn't a REAL puppy.....

Yeah, it was funny. But anyways, he love animals and now he can do the perfect coyote howl! I can't wait to see it on video since all he could do was breath on the phone and try to eat it when I was talking to him. Mom and Holden's mom are babysitting Riah so that Holden and Rachel can have a little getaway to celebrate Holden's birthday which was August 13th (the day after Riah's).

Nate heads to his last baseball event of the summer this weekend. The town team he is playing for back at home made it to the state tournament! I unfortunately have to work all weekend so he will be going alone. He is excited although his shoulder has been bothering him a bit lately so hopefully it will hold up! Here is a picture of us with Nathan in his uniform for the Cairo Camels (clever, huh?) at a game a few weeks after the wedding!

Starting a new blog...

Well, some how our previous blog was deleted....it may have been due to the inactivity leading up to and after the wedding. So we decided to start a new one so we can keep our family and friends updated! We are happily married now and loving every minute of it! Classes start in a few weeks so we are trying to stretch out our last few weeks of summer as long as we can! Nathan's best man gets married in two weeks so we will be traveling out to western Nebraska for that! We recently purchased a TENT so we have a camping weekend planned with some friends on August 29-30th in Auburn, Nebraska at Indian Cave Park! We are mostly settled into the apartment and I will soon post some pictures so you can see it!

It is our nephew Azariah's FIRST birthday today! My mom is down in Alabama visiting this week! He is growing so fast! I will have pictures of his birthday party up as soon as I get some from my mom! I can't believe how fast time flies!