ROAD TRIP!!

I was pleasantly surprised to wake up the day before finals ended to a phone call from my dear friend and former roommate Sara Fisher. She called to invited me to come along on a road trip through Washington and Oregon starting the next day. It worked out perfectly for me and I was more than happy to come along. The trip consisted of favorite former roommates Sara, and Jenny, Sara's cousin Monica, and Me. I am the only one of the four who doesn't have a mission call. It was a last big hoorah before they all leave. The original plan was to go to Spokane, Colville (Sara's hometown), then head to Seattle for a day, and Portland for a couple of days. We decided to forgo our day in Seattle because we wouldn't have had time to really enjoy it. (I guess I'll have to take another trip to see it, darn)


SPOKANE
Our first stop. The original plan was to drive to Colville the first night, but we got off a little later than we anticipated. We would have had to back track to Spokane early in the morning anyway, because we were going to Sara's little stud of a brothers track meet. Sara's Mom came up with the idea of meeting us in Spokane and getting a hotel room (her treat) and having a little sleep over. We made it to the hotel room at about midnight, and we did what any logical person would do...we got in the hot tub.
We woke up early the next morning, went to Jared's track meet. Then we explored Spokane.

At the track meet waiting for Jared to run.


RIVERFRONT PARK

This little goat was pretty cool. You feed it your trash and it just sucks it right up.



Just catching a piggy back ride or two.


MANITO PARK






COLVILLE
We hiked to the Colville C.
Sara and I at the top.
Sara thought that it was important that we saw this house. Besides hiking the C this was about all the site seeing that we did.






Driving to Portland



This is actually a motorcycle. We just happened to see it when me made a stop in the Tri-Cities area. The owner came out just as we were taking the picture.
Multnomah Falls

PORTLAND



We stayed with Sara's old high school friends in downtown Portland. One of them had this ugly cat. I'm not a huge fan of cats only because I hate cat hair, and this little kitty had really long hair that found it's way into all of my stuff. I was sleeping on the futon in the living room with Jenny on the first night. I sleeping so well until I felt this vibrating on my stomach. I woke up with that cat only a few inches from my face, and it was just laying on my stomach purring. It startled me, I just started laughing. I was out of it and I didn't know what else to do so I woke Jenny up and her first reaction was to get the cat off. It's not as funny when I tell people about it, but I still laugh out loud every time I think about it.

ASTORIA/CANNON BEACH

After spending the whole day in Portland we strategically left at about 5 with enough day light to make it to Astoria and see The Goonies sites. It took us about 2 hours to get there, I thought it worked out rather nicely.
The house from The Goonies





We knew that we only had about 30 min. of daylight left, and it was about a 30 min. drive to Cannon Beach where they filmed the last part of the Goonies. We had nothing to lose so we went for it. We did indeed make it right before sunset. I am so glad we did because it was probably my favorite part of the day. It was so beautiful. We tried to take pictures of it, but none of the pictures did it justice. I just soaked it all in.


After the sunset on the coast we were all ready for dinner. The only place opened was this delicious little Mexican place. Jenny was just so ravenous.
Driving Home

Our last stop in Portland was VooDoo Donuts for the second time in 2 days.

The box says "Good things come in pink boxes"
Our source of entertainment for a little while on the way home. We just played around with our hair doing stupid things with it.
We broke down in Burley Idaho. We were so blessed though. Our alternator went out, and we were able to make it to a Checkers before it got dark. The people at Checkers told us it would be expensive to fix and that it would take a long time to fix it. Lucky for us the exact same thing happened to Sara in Burley about a year before and she got help from these wonderful people who are friends of her cousins (or something like that). We were able to get a hold of the same guy again, and he got there so fast, and completely replaced the alternator free of charge. It was definitely a tender mercy. Even before we thought to call that guy we were all super calm, we all knew things would work out. The entire stop only delayed us 2 hours.
I am so grateful that I got to go on this trip with these awesome girls. I am so grateful to have friends like them. There are so many fun stories from the trip. I can't even begin to get them all on here. I know that we were being watched over. Everything that could have gone so wrong went so smooth. We had/have so many reasons to be grateful. Count your blessings.

Babbling

It has been too long since I have done a blog post. Let me just start by saying that life is beautiful. Winter semester ended a week ago Friday. The day before that good friends Sara Fisher invited me to go on a road trip up through Washington and Oregon. I was more than willing to accept and I am so glad I did. The group consisted of 2 of favorite former roommates Jenny, and Sara. Sara's cousin Monica also came along. All three of them have mission calls, so it was one last big thing before they leave. Unfortunately I don't have any of the pictures. It turns out that my cameras battery was dead from the start of the trip(I don't know how because I charged it before we left). I did have my battery charger packed but I switch bags at the last second and it stayed in the first bag. I am waiting for a CD of pictures and then I will do an entire blog post just on the trip.
Prior to the trip I had never been to Washington or Oregon. It is such a BEAUTIFUL area. I used to think that nothing could hold a candle to the beautiful green Tennessee that I am so accustomed too, but Washington and Oregon will give Tennessee a run for it's money. They are different so it's hard to compare. Tennessee is still my favorite, but I don't think the 2 days I spent in each state was enough so I'm just going to have to go back for another visit.

There is so much I want to write about the trip that I don't even know where to start, so I won't. You will just have to wait patiently until I get all of the pictures.

I have been thinking about a lot of things lately. I am going to share a few thoughts.

Tender mercies of the Lord are real. I have been thinking about how blessed I am. I know I do not understand how much I am really blessed or why, but I can see the Lord's hand in my life. I am so grateful for the many opportunities I have been given. And I mean given because so many of the opportunities and achievements that I have had I could not have gotten on my own. I am so grateful for all that I have been given. I know that where much is given much is required, and I want to be as helpful to others as others have been to me.

An attitude of gratitude is so important. One thing that I have learned is that when you are grateful for all that you have then the things that you don't have don't matter. When you have a grateful heart you will recognize tender mercies in you life.

The grass is not greener on the other side. If you are always looking for the next best thing to come along you are going to miss the great things that are already available to you. This is how I see it... The grass is green where I am and it will get greener with every place to I choose to go.

These are just some of the things that have been on my mind lately along with other things.

I am excited for the summer semester. It is always my favorite. I somehow manage to work harder and play harder at the same time. It it great. I have some pretty challenging classes this semester and it is just a preview for what is to come as I get further into my course work. I am excited and nervous for the challenge ahead. Sometimes I have no idea why I would want to be a Math Education major. I could easily switch to something much easier, but when I stop to think about it I realize that it is going to be so worth it. I know that if I chose the easy route I would be disappointed with myself in the long run. In the mean time I'm going to have times that are beyond frustrating. I say bring it on :)

Life

I received this in an e-mail from my Grandpa and I thought it was too good not to share.

A Birth Certificate shows that we were born
A Death Certificate shows that we died
Pictures show that we lived!

I Believe... That just because two people argue, It doesn't mean they don't love each other. And just because they don't argue, It doesn't mean they do love each other.

I Believe...That we don't have to change friends if We understand that friends change.

I Believe....That no matter how good a friend is, they're going to hurt you every once in a while and you must forgive them for that.

I Believe...That true friendship continues to grow, even over the longest distance. Same goes for true love.

I Believe... That you can do something in an instant That will give you heartache for life.

I Believe....That it's taking me a long time To become the person I want to be.

I Believe...That you should always leave loved ones with Loving words. It may be the last time you see them.

I Believe.... That you can keep going long after you think you can't.

I Believe....That we are responsible for what We do, no matter how we feel.

I Believe...That either you control your attitude or it controls you.

I Believe...That heroes are the people who do what has to be done when it needs to be done, regardless of the consequences.

I Believe.....That my best friend and I can do anything or nothing and have the best time.

I Believe....That sometimes the people you expect to kick you when you're down will be the ones
to help you get back up.

I Believe...That sometimes when I'm angry I have the right to be angry, But that doesn't give me the right to be cruel.

I Believe....That maturity has more to do with what types of experiences you've had And what you've learned from them and less to do with how many birthdays you've celebrated.

I Believe....That it isn't always enough, to be forgiven by others. Sometimes, you have to learn to forgive yourself..

I Believe...That no matter how bad your heart is broken the world doesn't stop for your grief.

I Believe....That our background and circumstances may have influenced who we are, But, we are responsible for who we become.

I Believe...That you shouldn't be so eager to find Out a secret. It could change your life Forever.

I Believe....Two people can look at the exact same Thing and see something totally different.

I Believe....That your life can be changed in a matter of Hours by people who don't even know you.

I Believe...That even when you think you have no more to give, When a friend cries out to you - you will find the strength to help.

I Believe...That credentials on the wall do not make you a decent human being.

I Believe...That the people you care about most in life are taken from you too soon.

'The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; They just make the most of everything they have.

Valentine's in Vegas

My friend Bekah got married in th Las Vegas Temple on Saturday, February 13. So David and I made the trip down along with David's roommate Wes, There FHE (family home evening) sister Michelle, and Wes's friend Troy. It was a really fun and cheap trip. We stayed with Michelle's parents in Henderson and they bought a ton of food for us. So the only thing I had to spend money on was gas.
I will be honest. Before going to the Las Vegas Temple I didn't think it was the prettiest temple, but I actually love it. It was hard to get a picture of the whole temple with the way it is set up though.

David is always a monkey especailly when he gets around T.J. the one on the right.

I have two friends serving in the Las Vegas Mission right now, My sister-in-law Haley's brother Russell, and my friend Nathan Johnson who I met at BYU-Idaho my first year of college. We sent a copy of the picture below to Russell and David and I both sent him a note along with it.
We were invited to the luncheon between the wedding and the reception. The luncheon was held at the same building as the reception. We left after the luncheon and came back for the reception. During the reception I saw some missionaries so I asked if they knew either of my friends. They told me that Elder Johnson had actually had a baptism in that building earlier that day, and was at the building filling up the font during the luncheon. So we were in the same building at the same time, but we didn't see each other. SMALL WORLD. Isn't that crazy?

The new Mr. and Mrs. Adam Homer
We were singing to them as they had their first dance. They loved it.
Notice the bouquet of flowers flying through the air heading straight into my hands... This is the 2nd bouquet I've caught, so if the tale is true I would be married by now right. haha. I think I'm going to see how many I can catch before I actually end up getting married.
So I caught the bouquet and David caught the garter. It was really funny. One of the people there thought we were a couple they said "Oh that is so wonderful." When I told her that we were siblings she looked a little embarassed and said "OOH MY, That is HILARIOUS!!!"
Michelle, Wes, and Me
CHEESE!
We all thought it would be funny if we got fake tattoos. I got a CTR on my foot, David obviously got a superman symbol on his back, Michelle also got one on her shoulder, and Wes got one that says Heidi. The name Heidi really has no meaning. The funniest part is that we live in Rexburg so its not like we are going ot go swimming and show them off. I think it was more just for memories sake.