Camping, Colors, and Kaladin

Jay and I celebrated our 3.5 year anniversary last month, and I must say it has been the most fun, crazy, amazing time of my life and I cannot wait to have endless adventures with this man. Jay and I are both loving school and all of the craziness that comes with it. It is almost the end of my first semester at BYU and classes have been really fun and challenging. Jay is kicking butt in Dental School and is preparing to take his boards in June and I just know he is going to nail them!! We went to the midnight book release of our favorite author Brandon Sanderson at BYU and got to meet him, get his autograph, and a signed book. It was amazingly fun and Jay and I BOTH won T-Shirts out of the thousand or so people that were there.

 We have had an amazing time exploring more of Utah. Two weeks ago we took off down the highway looking for adventure.  We considered going to Lake Powell until we realized it was 6.5 hours away, then we thought we’d check out Moab but the turnoff was an hour behind us, so we kept on driving and ended up going to our favorite National Park: Zions!! We found some amazing bright orange sand dunes and played in them and when we rolled into town to get a campsite, it just so happens they were having a St. Patrick’s Day parade in just 30 minutes. We claimed our spot and then headed back into town to have lunch and enjoy the festivities, we just so happen to find a cute pizza shop with a balcony overlooking the parade and there just so happened to be one open seat just for us. We had an amazing time relaxing and reading our new Brandon Sanderson books and just spending time with each other. This past weekend we went to the Festival of Colors in Spanish Fork with our good friends and had an awesome time throwing chalk at each other and random people all around us. 

This weekend we are doing our first 5k for the Oral Cancer Foundation that Roseman is hosting, and it should be a lot of fun. We are so excited for warmer weather and all of the summer fun that we are going to have.  

Christmas and more!!

We had an amazing Thanksgiving this year!! We had 17 people in our little apartment and it couldn't have been more fun. We had so much food, and of every variety possible, including homemade sushi, curry, noodle dishes and more!! We also had the most intense game of Jenga in the world, we only lost because we literally ran out of moves.
I decided to stay at Scheels since they were willing to work with my school schedule which is great because it gives us more cash for our Europe trip this summer (more to come on that later).
We were able to go home to WA for Christmas break and spent over two weeks there. We had a blast exploring Seattle, trestle bridges in the middle of the woods, and playing games with family and friends.
Jay and I love road trips and this was a really fun one especially with the help of some awesome audio books by Brandon Sanderson.
This past week I started up school again at BYU. I am going into Family and Consumer Science Education (Home Ec teacher) and I'm crazy busy already! I going to be cooking, sewing, and going out into classrooms observing and assisting. It is going to be an amazing and challenging first semester back. Go Cougars!!
Jay is doing great in school of course. He is going to be the best Dentist ever!! He is studying Biochem this block and it is definitely difficult. He has made some really amazing friends just in the first few months of Dental school. This weekend he was able to going skiing with a group and taught a lot of people who had barely ever seen snow, to ski and snowboard. He had a great time experiencing Utah snow!

We are sharing one car right now and I have a 40 minute commute everyday so things are pretty nuts. But with the help of awesome friends and working together with our schedules it is going great so far.
2014 is looking like it will be a crazy busy exciting fun filled year already. Bring it on!!

Dental School Starts!!

     Jay and I got to our new apartment on August 1st, and started settling in right away. We had help from the Elders Quorum unloading the U-Haul, which was much appreciated. I definitely prefer our apartment in Rexburg, but it is still really nice and I have a garbage disposal finally!!
    We had about two weeks in Utah before Jay started school, so we spent that time exploring our new home. We drove to park city and downtown SLC and everywhere in between. We really like the area and had an awesome time with each other, our favorite was probably going to park city when it was stormy and eating caramel apples!! Once Jay started school we were able to get to know a lot of his classmates and we made a lot of great friends right away. Jay and I could not be more happy with his classmates, everyone is warm and welcoming and ready to have fun together!!
    On my birthday we went to the SLC waterpark and then had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory downtown, so much fun. Then we went over to a friends house and hung out with some of Jay's class. Jay secretly had some of the guys go out and buy me a cake, and said it was a snack run, I had no idea!! It was a great birthday!! For our anniversary we went to this mexican dive downtown called the Red Iguana. It has been on Diners Driveins and Dives and it is so amazingly delicious. Chicken fajitas, steak burritos, and horchata make for one amazing meal together. Jay had his first test the next day so it was really nice to have a little break together and celebrate our marriage. 3 years down, forever to go!!
    We went to a RSL game in August and had an amazing time!! It was so much fun, the tickets were cheap, and the atmosphere was great!! We got a Pass of all Passes and went to the Provo waterpark with some classmates, the Pass of all Passes has a ton of other awesome benefits too!! We had a pool party with a ton of Jay's classmates and it was amazing to get to know everyone, we already felt like a family. We also got to go to our first BYU football game and it was amazing and we won!!!
     Jay has been loving school even though it is really challenging, but he is doing great and couldn't be happier. We love the way Roseman operates and that he is still able to have a life and we can still spend lots of time together.
    I decided to go back to school to finish my bachelors at BYU and I am starting in January!!! I will be studying Family and Consumer Science Education. In the mean time I got a parttime job as a cashier at Scheels, which is a huge sporting goods store. It has been going great and Jay and I are really excited to be starting our adventure in Utah together!!!!

Idaho Adventures

I have been meaning to write this for a while as a way to remember all of the awesome things we have done. This is a list of all of the amazing places we have been in Idaho, adventures and exciting things that we did together in the first 3 years of our marriage, living in Rexburg!!

If you live in Rexburg and need ideas for awesome things to do, this list is a great place to start!!

Monkey Rock
Beaverdick
The Roxy Theater
Ice Caves
Figure 8 Races
Civil Defense Caves
Jackson Hole
Lava Hot Springs
Green Canyon Hot Springs
Fire at the Sand Dunes
Sledding on the Sand Dunes
Float the Teton River
Farmers Market
Teton Dam
Swim in the Canal (Got Leeches)
Explore New Buildings at Night
Demolition Derby
Canoe the Snake River
Yellowstone
Driggs 4th of July Festival
Grand Teton Forest
Kelly Canyon
Rexburg Rapids
Fat Cats Date Night Special
Island Park
Tandem Bike Rides
Summerfest
Crash Lounges for Movies and Pool
Country Dancing
Planetarium
Opera
Eclipse Concert
Eagle Park Campfires
Big Juds
Sammy's Block Party
Sardines
Hemming Village Fall Festival
Mesa Falls
Geocaching
The Haunted Milll
Cave Falls
Twin Bridges
Red C Game Night
Tolfing
Idaho Falls Museum
Mountain Biking
Midnight Movie Releases
Splatter Paint
Teton Drive In
Haunted Swing
Menan 4th of July
Fugitive
Campus Dates
Shooting

California...Utah??

     As of May 2013 we had not heard from any dental schools, so things were not looking very promising. We decided it was time to consider other options. We started looking into chiropractic schools. Palmer chiropractic is THE chiropractic school of chiropractic schools. We randomly decided to go check out Palmer, the San Jose CA location. We took two days off of work and drove the 12 hours and arrived in sunny California. The school put us up in a really nice hotel and we explored the area. It was beautiful and the school was great. We really had a good feeling about the school and loved the feel of the town. We looked at apartments in the area and they were outrageously expensive, like $2500 for something similar to what we were paying $575 for in Rexburg. Still we decided that this could be a really great opportunity for us. It wasn't what Jay had been working so hard for, but it would work.We had an amazingly fun trip and when we got home we decided to apply to Palmer. We applied to school and a week later (Thursday) Jay was accepted for the summer track which started on July 8th, only 6 weeks away. We put our two weeks notice in at work and our 30 days notice in for our apartment. We had accepted this new path and were excited and hopeful!! That Sunday in church we bore our testimonies in church and told everyone that we would be leaving in a month for California!!
     That following Monday afternoon Jay got a call and I answered, it was Dr. Harmon from Roseman University of Health Science. Jay had been accepted to Dental School!!!! Days after we had decided to go to California our plans changed again. We considered for about 5 minutes on what to do and decided we were moving to Utah and going to Dental School in August. We were able to go home to Washington for 10 days and spend time with family and friends and have a great time. On the way back to Rexburg we stopped in Utah and went apartment searching and picked the place we were going to live for the next year. We also decided to stay in Rexburg for July and spend some time with our friends before we left. Lots of great times were had and I am so grateful for that extra month with our wonderful group of friends.
     On August 1st we had all of our worldly possessions packed into a U-haul and our car being pulled behind. Our first apartment that we had lived in for the last three years was empty. I love that apartment and have so many wonderful memories there, I will never forget it, or the friends that were made there. The last three years in Rexburg were some of the greatest and hardest times of my life and I could not be more grateful for them. I am so happy that Jay and I were able to start our lives together in Rexburg!!!

Shufflin off to Buffalo!

This past week Jay and I got to fly out to New York! We had a dental interview in Buffalo and we stayed and played for three days. We had an overnight flight, and did not sleep a minute so for the rest of the trip our sleep schedule was soo off. We got up in the middle of the night and went to a 24 hour greek diner and had delicious breakfast food, but it was actually our dinner.
The next day Jay had his interview which went great, we just found out we got wait listed and have very good odds of being accepted!
After the interview we decided to drive up to Toronto because it was only 1 1/2 hours away. Toronto is HUGE! I had no idea, it is probably 3 times the size of Seattle and there was a ton to do. We walked around the streets and saw all sorts of interesting people. We went to a giant mall and got Tim Hortons (Canadian Starbucks) white hot chocolate. Then we went to dinner at a fancy Chinese/Sushi restaurant called The Spring Roll.
We still had 12 dollars canadian when we were heading back so we stopped at a gas station and got 7 dollars worth of candy and 4.73 worth of gas, the people in line thought this was hilarious. Got to get the essentials. The border was also really interesting. When we came to Canada the guy was all "Welcome to Canada eh!" and was very nice and relaxed. Coming back to america we had about 10 cameras on us and the guy had his M-16 in his lap and was like "why were you in Canada? Where did you eat dinner? Why would you ever leave the great country of America?" Okay maybe not that last one, but you get the picture.
We got to see Niagra falls for about 5 minutes because it was freezing!
After we got back from Toronto we went to a bar called the Chocolate Bar. They have amazing desserts, very fancy and tons of fun.
Our flights were long and at the JFK we ate bad chinese food and got sick on the plane, no puking at least. We spent Sunday in Salt Lake with our cousin Liz Main which was very fun.
We're back in the burg now and theres still no snow! Back to normal life until our next big adventure!

Jay's 26 1/2 Birthday Party!

So for the past couple of weeks I have been trying to plan a surprise party for Jay on his half birthday. He hasn't had an actual birthday party in like 10 years!! So I decided we would finally have one for him with all of our friends. It was all planned perfectly until the day before and the day of. I was going to clean and bake the day before the party while Jay was up at Kelly canyon, but then he decided not to go. So I had to try and get everything done in the 2 hours before the party. Someone ended up somewhat blabbing and I was busted after that.
But everything went okay and we had a ton of fun playing minute to win it games and catch phrase. I'd say it was a success for sure!
I am taking a parenting class right now and it is amazing! Every class I walk away feeling like I actually learned something, which is sometimes rare in college lol. We're reading a book by Alfie Kohn called Unconditional Parenting, you should check it out.
Jay is doing great at his webdesign job and he got to bring left over cupcakes to work today so everyone loves him a little bit more.
My friend Heidi and I ding dong ditched people with cupcakes last night at 11 o'clock and had some hilarious responses while we tried not to fall on our butts in the ice. Overall a successful weekend!

Half sized bday cake for his half bday!