Nothing Quite Like It!

I finished one more semester. There is nothing quite like the feeling of knowing that you are done, and for at least a short period of time you can live your life free of academic stress! It is weird to think that I have spent my last summer in Rexburg. It will be bitter sweet when I leave at the end of the Fall semester never to return to Rexburg.

In my humble opinion the moving part is the worst part of finishing a semester. I'm not sure why I have chosen to move into a new apartment each semester, but I would do it again given the opportunity. However, I feel good about the fact that the next apartment I move into will be the last of my Rexburg apartments (I hope I'm not jinxing myself to marry a freshmen right when I graduate. That would be my luck! 4 more Rexburg winters....YIKES)

I was helping some of my roommates for next semester move their stuff using my truck. This was actually the only fun part of moving. I got to ride in the bed of the truck on a love sac while Megan drove :).....See how happy and exhausted I look? That's the look of a freshly finished semester at it's finest. It's a beautiful thing. The next 7 weeks will be full of fun, work, rest, and relaxation.

Indepence Day at Bear Lake

We went to my roommates house at Bear Lake for the holiday weekend. We started the weekend with a stop at Lava Hot Springs. This is the tower at Lava. Stephen, Taylor, Derek, and I are on the top level, and Paige and Aleena are on the second level.

We spent all day Saturday on the beach. Everyone except for me got burned to a crisp. Whats my secret? Sunscreen. Imagine that. It was a nice relaxing day on the beach. Just the right amount of swimming, sleeping, and reading. For the rest of the weekend if I so much as bumped into anyone they would cringe because of their severe sunburns.

We went to the local ward in Bear Lake on Sunday morning and it was PACKED!! They estimated there were about 1,500 people there for sacrament meeting. It was insane.

Sunday afternoon we just relaxed at Paige's house. This is a group picture from Sunday afternoon.

We did a lot of napping, reading, boondoggling, and playing games.

Just a deer that passed through Paige's back yard.
Paige's house is at the top of a mountain over looking all of Bear Lake and the entire valley. It is beautiful!! This picture really does it no justice, but it's really the only one I have of the view. Just imagine you can see a huge lake and the entire valley.

Campfire and roasting marshmallows.

Note: The giant marshmallows look like they will be super fun, but they are too big! They will most likely make you feel sick from a sugar rush.
We spent Monday on the beach again. We brought a tent this time for everyone who couldn't handle being in the sun.
I was all for soaking up more sun! I was re-reading the Hunger Games. I love those books!!!

We finished the trip with a giant pizza from some famous place in Bear Lake (so famous I can't remember the name). Before heading to Idaho Falls for fireworks.

This has nothing to do Bear Lake. I went to Big 5 sporting goods on Tuesday, and found this.

Summer Time!!!

So it's safe to say that this is officially the least documented summer of my college career. However, this might be one of my most fun summer's I've had in a long time. I am always doing exciting things, but I never bring my camera along because it is a hassle. No pictures=nothing worth blogging about.

Yesterday I had a perfectly productive summer day. It started out with pizza at Craigo's

Swimming at Monkey Rock, followed by bridge jumping.
Me and Danielle after one of our jumps!
Brooke White concert...SO GOOD!!!

Some other exciting things that have happened lately...

- I have registered for my last semester on campus, and applied for student teaching. The light at the end of my college tunnel is getting big and bright fast! Almost too fast actually. I'm super excited and terrified at the same time. Mostly I'm ready to be done with school for a while, but I'm not quite ready to leave the college stage of life. It's just a great stage of life to be in. I always knew I would go to college, but I never actually thought about myself being done with college. I never planned that far.

-Most of my evenings are spent at the park playing frisbee, slacklining, playing grounders, going on bike rides, and just enjoying the warm weather

-Schools fine. I'm just a little burned out because I have been in school for 5 consecutive semesters without a break. It is a huge blessing that I have had the opportunity to do that, but it has also been somewhat of a burden. Mostly a blessing. I know it will all be worth it in the end. I will have so many great opportunities when I finish college. :)

May (so far)

Last weekend I got to go to my close friend, Annie McMurray (Briney)'s wedding. This is Me, Annie, and Melinda. We all worked at Jacob Lake together.

Sunday was Mother's Day and we got to go to church with my Grandma and Grandpa Jones.

David, Grandpa, Grandma, Kristine(cousin), and Me.

I got bored one day and decided to try braiding Katie's hair into a single braid that wraps around. It was just an experiment but I thought it looked pretty cool.
A bunch of us went to the drive in. We had a pretty sweet set up.

We just played around while we were waiting for the movie to start.

Tennessee

I got to take a quick trip to Tennessee between semesters. Janel came down from Michigan and Aaron and his family came up from Georgia. We celebrated Easter while all of us were together by having an Easter egg hunt for the kiddos and an Easter dinner.

Brooklynn, William, and Jonathan hiding in the shower while we hid the eggs in the back yard.

Aaron's family and Derek had to leave on Sunday to get back to real life but Janel and her girls stayed the whole week with me. It was so good to spend time with them.

Little Katers is so stinking adorable!!

Brooklynn could not get enough of the trampoline. She did not waste an opportunity to jump. She would wake me up in the morning and ask me to jump with her. One morning I told her that we couldn't yet because we were not dressed. She proceeded to have me pick out her clothes and help her get dressed. Once she was dressed she informed me that it was my turn to get dressed. How can you say no to that?

Brooklynn is like unto a fish. She LOVES water in any form. When I told her we were going to go swimming in the big bath tub with bubbles she was so excited. She made sure we did this more than once.

Me, Janel, and David after going to lunch with Dad.

At the end of the week I drove back to Michigan with Janel and then flew back to Utah the next day. I actually went to 10 states during this week long break, due to traveling and a few adventures we took while we were in Tennessee. We went down to Scottsboro Alabama to the Unclaimed Baggage Store. It is definitely my favorite place to shop. I got 5 new shirts, and 3 pairs of shoes. Most of them still had tags on them and I don't think I spent more than $8 on one item.

It was a great break! I got some much needed time with Janel and her beautiful girls, and it was good to be in Tennessee for a bit. I hadn't been to Tennessee in the spring for 4 years, and it was so BEAUTIFUL!!

Back to School

Another semester at BYU-I. It is so crazy how different each semester turns out. We are only about 2 weeks in, but this has already proved to be an exciting semester.

WEEK ONE!

-I had a full blown mono relapse. Talk about rough timing!!

-We moved into a BRAND NEW apartment only to have at least one flood a day.

- Easter dinner complete with easter egg hut.

We celebrated two of my roommates birthdays Katie, and Aleena.

WEEK TWO!

- Flooding continues, they discover there is a broken pipe under one of the bedroom floors. We are put into a hotel room for two night while they fix the problem.

- Pool party at the hotel two nights in a row :)

- Friday night dance party

- The Neighbors Concert

We also have our weekly Sunday dinner with the Burt's aka Megan Crawford my childhood best friend.

Honestly this blog post does not even begin to tell how crazy and fun this semester has already been. I just haven't thought to take pictures. As it gets warmer outside I will have more things to blog about. Tis the season to get outside and have lots of fun :)

R.A.D.

I took a self defense class with my friend Tina. This was right before the final simulation. I'll spare you the details, but it was definitely a fun class and a great experience. Who knew it could be so fun to beat people up? (only when necessary of course)