Fort Dodge, Iowa

Our Summer Home!

This summer we are living in Fort Dodge, Iowa. Last fall, Dustan interviewed with Koch Industries and got an internship position for this summer and we took the offer! We were hoping to be placed in their headquarters in Wichita, Kansas--Fort Dodge was actually ranked third or fourth on where we wanted to be placed. And to be honest, we were a little trepidatious about moving to this small little town in the middle of nowhere. And after vacationing in Jamaica, we did not want to move out to the midwest and start real life again.

Fortunately, I got to postpone starting that real life a little longer than Dustan. We drove from Denver to Des Moines, Iowa on a Thursday so that I could catch a flight to Salt Lake City, Utah on Friday. I had a wedding to go to! One of my great friends, Kayla, was getting married in the Salt Lake Temple and I had the great privilege to attend her beautiful sealing to Thomas for time and all eternity. I loved seeing my Utah friends again (even if it had only been a few weeks), and even got to hang out with my dad who flew in to attend the sealing as well. I hadn't seen any of my family since Christmas, so this was a real treat!

Congratulations to Kayla and Thomas!

The original three roommates--Summer, Kayla, and I! Now we're all married :)

Daddio and I

Meanwhile, Dustan spent a couple days with his cousin and her family in Waterloo, Iowa. He had the chance to see his cousin Brianna's husband Josh get baptized and see some family as well!

I flew back to Iowa, Dustan picked me up from the airport, and we drove back to Fort Dodge (where my awesome husband had surprised me and already unpacked everything), and we officially began our summer in Fort Dodge!

View of Iowa near Des Moines

We are living on the Iowa Central Community College campus in the apartments. Dustan only has a 20 minute commute to work each day. Here's a quote from him about his job, previously written in an email:

"I’m actually enjoying my job. It’s not as technically challenging as I had hoped, but I’m learning project management skills. I’m working for Koch Fertilizer making Anhydrous Ammonia and Urea Ammonium Nitrate (two chemicals used to fertilize crops). My project involves improving 67 pumps. Basically, the pump reliability needs to improve, so I’m implementing a system that will keep the lubricating oil in the pumps pure and uncontaminated. I presented my design to the engineers last Friday the 19th and got it approved, I’ve found vendors to sell me all the parts I need, and now I just need to hire someone to come put all my improvements on--this involves scheduling when the pumps will be available, etc… So it’s really a project management type role. So that’s work."

Gotta love the onesie work uniform!

I have my advanced writing class to do online this summer, so I opted to just get a part time job to pass some of the time. I am working as a secretary for the Fort Dodge Community Foundation and United Way (a mouthful, I know). I spend my time filing, making labels, typing up papers and excel spreadsheets, answering the phone, and reading the newspaper. I can't complain. The only thing that is killer is having to drive Dustan to work everyday (we only have one car)--so I end up driving almost a total of 2 hours every week day.  

So a little bit about Fort Dodge: It is so much more green than we expected! And more trees---we thought there would just be corn fields as far as the eye can see. And there are a lot of corn fields, but intermixed with clumps of green trees, brown rivers, and small lakes. One thing that we have really liked so far is how much the community does around here. It seems there is some sort of festival going on within the county every weekend. Unfortunately, last week there was was a tractor festival. Getting around town was a chore, having to follow literally hundreds of tractors that were taking up the road. Welcome to the midwest ;)

A view I see on my way to work every day

View near Fort Dodge

A second thing we are a bit excited about is the work to be done in the church. The ward we are attending covers a lot of area, but is still quite small. A family invited us over for dinner a couple weeks ago, and they live on the outskirts of the ward boundaries--a 45 minute drive one way to church every week! There is a lot of sacrifice in this ward that we respect. Because the ward is so small, we got callings our second week there. I am the sunbeam teacher (meaning the Sunday school teacher for preschool age children) and Dustan is the Elders Quorum Secretary/2nd Councilor. We are excited to fulfill these callings and get to know the ward better! We are grateful for all the kindness they have shown us already--especially with all the meals!

Sunday best in our backyard at the community college

We are looking forward to the adventures we are going to have this summer in a new place together :) Along with these, we will be spending a lot of time thinking about our futures and what will be happening after we graduate from BYU in April. We have a few different options: scope out job offers this fall and take an offer for after graduation, Dustan could go to grad school, or Koch may even offer a position at the end of the summer (if they like Dustan). There are decisions to be made and many prayers to be said about them.

I was lucky enough to score two free tickets to an annual concert in Fort Dodge, called Shellebration. Who knew such a small town in the middle of Iowa could get the famous classic rock band BOSTON to come play?! Even though Dustan was a little sick, we had a great time at this chill, outdoor concert. I may not know Boston songs too well, but Dustan was loving it! And on this same day (June 26) we celebrated 10 MONTHS OF MARRIAGE. Yay!!

And I got to go to my first rodeo! I have decided that even though I will be crushing his dreams, Dustan is never allowed to bull ride. It looked terrifying. I thoroughly enjoyed tracking down a cowgirl hat and we had a great time stomping our feet and whistling :)

Here in Fort Dodge they have started a group for all the interns to get together, learn, and have some fun. So every couple weeks, we get to go out to lunch, attend seminars, and do some fun activities. The activities we have had to far are visiting a winery and paddling around the lake in a dragon boat.

Touring the winery but of course avoiding all the wine. 

And finally, here are a few pictures of other things we have done so far, including (but not limited to) camo, a short trip to Wichita, games at the park, Jamaican fruit, a farmers market, the Koch family picnic, game nights, and church talks. Coming up soon on the blog are Fourth of July festivities in St. Louis, camping, and the Nauvoo pageant!

Rockin' the camo

Dustan's favorite fruit of all time is Jack fruit, which we thought was only in Jamaica. But we found it an an Asian market in Wichita!

Grilling at the Koch family picnic at Kennedy Park in Fort Dodge

Market on Central (downtown Fort Dodge)