Very Thankful: NC & VA Road Trip

Greetings! I can't believe that the Christmas season is already upon us! Here is a quick overview of what we have been up to since our last post!

November 6-7
-Trip to Vedauwoo, WY with some high schoolers and middle schoolers from our youth group! We were able to enjoy God's beautiful creation by exploring some boulder formations! It was awesome!



Do you see the whale?

November 13th-14th

One of my best friends, Dani, flew in from California for the Husker game! Although she is a USC fan at heart, I believe that the Huskers are a very close second!! :)


November 19th

Nathan and I left Grand Island, NE bright and early to begin the longest road trip we had ever attempted during our 1 1/2 years of marriage.... :) We made it all the way to Clarksville, TN in time to grab a hotel room so we could watch the Husker game! We got on our way the next morning and made it to Nathan's aunt and uncle's house in Huntersville, NC by 3:30PM! We were able to spend Sunday night, Monday and Tuesday afternoon with Brian, Jen, Dylan & Brooke! On Monday, Nathan and I went to the NASCAR Hall of Fame with Jen in Charlotte, NC! It was pretty cool!





Nathan's UNL internship was where the foam SAFER barriers for all NASCAR tracks originated! He was very excited to see the display!



After spending a few days with the Carey family, we drove just about 3 hours to Holden and Rachel's house in Radford, VA which is near Roanoke, VA! We spent Tuesday night, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday morning with them! We had not yet met little Cliff Hudson so it was so wonderful to finally hold and kiss him! Riah is now 2 years old, so he was talking a mile a minute! Dad and Mom drove in from Nebraska on Wednesday night and Eric and Carley came on Thursday afternoon! We enjoyed our first Thanksgiving ever OUTSIDE! Thanksgiving afternoon was sunny and gorgeous!









We had a VERY good time just hanging out as a family and look forward to Holden, Rachel, Riah & Cliff as well as Eric & Carley travelling home for Christmas in a few weeks! Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Two years ago...

Labor Day two years ago, Nathan picked me up at the Omaha, NE airport from a trip to see my friend Dani in California. On the way back to Lincoln, he suggested we take a walk through Mahoney State Park. I was all for it because we had driven by the park many times but never stopped. So we drove in and walked down on this deck by the water. It was about 9:30PM and the moonlight was reflecting off the water. :) We were talking about our weekend away from each other and then all of the sudden, Nathan takes both of my hands in his hands and starts saying my whole name, "Amanda Marie Patten..." As he is saying my name, he starts getting down on one knee and grabbing for something in his pocket. He proceeded to say something about how much he loved me and wanted to spend of the rest of his life with me (I would love to recall the direct quote but I was a bit overwhelmed at the time) and then asked me if I would marry him and become his wife!!!!!! Of course, I started squealing and smiling and jumped into his arms. He then showed me the beautiful ring he had chosen for me and I was floored! It was so beautiful and I was so excited to be marrying a man of God who loved & respected me!

Yes, two years ago on Labor Day, Nathan asked me to be his wife. I am so blessed to be married to such an amazing, humble, Godly man. I can't believe that we have already been married for over a year! It goes by so fast!

August has been a fun month! As you know from our previous post, we added a nephew to our family! Cliff Hudson Barry was born early on August 13th!



Riah is a very proud big brother and turned 2 a day before Cliff was born! Cliff was also born on Holden's birthday!



We attended our first Fries Family Reunion as a married couple so that was fun! It is a every 3-5 year reunion so alot of family travels to Nebraska for the weekend! Most of the guys went golfing while the girls hung out and went to the pool! It's nice because my best friend since sophomore year in high school Chelsea also happens to be Nathan's first cousin....so I got to hang out with Nathan's family and my best friend :)

Nathan & I really enjoying helping with our church's youth group each Wednesday night! To kick off the school year, we had a MINUTE TO WIN IT game night! Here is a picture of the kids trying to get Oreo cookies from their forehead to their mouth using only their facial muscles....no hands.



We are currently studying the book of Revelation with them and they are really stepping up and digging into the Word! We really need to be praying for all teenagers....they are facing so much every day in their schools. Many teens, even if they attend a youth group, may not have parents who challenge them spiritually. That is hard for me to believe since I had such encouraging parents...

Labor Day weekend, I was able to travel to Kansas City with Chelsea and pick up Dani from California on the airport on the way! We had an awesome girls weekend hanging out, shopping, and laying out by the pool! Nathan was able to go to the first Husker game in Lincoln with his best friend Zane. He also did some four-wheeling with his family in Halsey, NE.

I LOVE the changing of seasons! The days are getting cooler and I am so ready to pull my UGG boots out of the closet! :) Hope everyone is enjoying the change of season as well!

Estes Park Adventure

Nathan and I recently spent a weekend getaway in Estes Park, Colorado to celebrate our 1st year of marriage :) YAY! We made it! It was such a fun weekend! We stayed at a Bed & Breakfast called Dripping Springs when was perfect: we had two awesome homemade breakfasts, a sleep by number bed, and a HOT TUB (boy was that awesome after our 5 hour hike on Saturday)! We had never been to Estes before so it was fun to explore. We had Italian one night (Nathan's pick) and sushi the other (Amanda's pick)! We saw lots of wildlife......

This little guy was my favorite...just eatin his pine cone like a little corn cob! 

Nathan was very excited to see some very large Elk on the side of the road! 

This is a marmot and this picture was taken right before I (Amanda) ran away because it was definitely ready to attack (Nathan on the other hand was seeing how close he could get to the thing with the video camera) 

We had so much fun hiking and just walking around the different shops in Estes Park! If you would like to see all of our pictures from our weekend check out our Picasa Picture sight by clicking HERE! Hope everyone has an awesome, safe 4th of July weekend! We will be spending time with Nathan's family as my parents are spending the weekend with Eric and his fiance in St. Louis!

Watch for a post about our Estes Park Adventure...

Hello! Just wanted to let you know that I am working on a post about our recent anniversary trip to Estes Park, Colorado this weekend! It was so much fun!!! Post and pics should be up by the end of the week!

Nathan & Amanda Fries

Summer here we come...

Nathan....

• is really enjoying his job designing conveying systems! He has about a 40 minute drive to and from work each day but enjoys it!
• was able to spend a "man" weekend with his uncles & cousins over Memorial Day weekend fishing, turkey hunting, and golfing
• plays softball for our church’s men’s softball team on Tuesday nights this summer
• subs for the Dannebrog men’s town team softball with his dad, brother, cousins, and uncles (pretty much half the team has the last name Fries)

Amanda....

• is LOVING her job at Collage Center (this is the new name for the pregnancy center she is working for)
• ran the Lincoln, NE Half Marathon at the end of April in 2 hrs 30 minutes!!!

• just got back from a week at Royal Family Kids Camp last week! Her heart was touched to see the God move in the hearts of Nebraska foster children
• is trying to line up her final two college classes so that she can officially get her diploma
• flew out to California with bestie Chelsea to see bestie Dani 

Nathan & Amanda....

• took our nephews to see How to Train Your Dragon
• finally feel settled into our two bedroom apartment as we recently scored a couch & love seat combo for $100 :)
• are having interesting conversations about whether our next laptop should be APPLE (Amanda) or DELL (Nathan)
• LOVE THEIR NEW 2010 TOYOTA CAMRY!!!!!
• Sub for a coed softball team on Thursday nights every couple of weeks
• Enjoy pasta and fellowship with other couples from our church on Thursday nights for life group
• Both lead life groups for the high school guys & gals for the youth group at our church

We are really enjoying summer! We have some great travel opportunities coming up soon:

• June 25-27: Driving to a Bed & Breakfast in Estes Park, CO for our 1 YEAR!
• July 4th Weekend: Possbily heading down to Wichita, KS to visit family!
• July 10th Weekend: Heading to Michigan for Nathan’s Uncle Doug’s wedding!
• Another weekend in July: Driving up to Scottsbluff, NE to visit Levi (Nathan’s best man) and his wife as they recently had a beautiful baby girl named Jovee!
• July 30th Weekend: Youth Group Leadership weekend Retreat

We have a very busy summer coming up but we are so excited to see how God will continue to grow us closer together as we reach one year of marriage already! What a great year it has been! We are blessed to have our dream jobs at such a young age! I will try to stay more on top of our blog and update about our travels throughout this summer ☺

Here are some pictures from a wedding we recently went to at the end of May:

It was a beautiful outdoor wedding that happened to fall on the first day of 100% humidity in Nebraska...

This happened after I said, "Babe, let's take a picture..."

"Okay, a nice one this time...." haha

Finally!!!!

firsts and lasts

This was a week of firsts and lasts. Thursday was my first official day working at the Life Choices Pregnancy Center, my first visit to Kearney's airport (which consists of one biulding), and my first dinner meeting with the staff at Life Choices! Friday was my last day at Cabelas and Saturday I tweeted for the first time on Twitter! After my social media meeting on Friday, "Twitter Guru" was added to my job description....which means I'm on TWITTER now (@AmandaMFries)! Please let me know if you are a "tweeter" so that we can get connected! I have been a facebooker for years so I am enjoying learning the lingo and layout of Twitter!

Nathan and I had a blast hanging out with friends in Sidney, NE! It was quite relaxing which was something we needed after a busy couple of weeks! Monday and Tuesday of this week I will be at the Center and then Wednesday I head back to the GI area to hang out with some of my girlfriends. Thursday morning my best friend Chelsea and I....



....are flying to California to visit my best friend Dani...



...I have been to California to see Dani several times since we met back in 2006 but Chelsea has never been to California AND Chelsea and I have never gone a big trip together. SO, needless to say we are super psyched to see Dani, California, and WARM WEATHER! We will be there Thursday March, 11 through Tuesday, March 16th! I had already planned this trip prior to getting my job offer so I will start consistently working at the Center after I return from CA on March 17th!

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...