Snowboarding and Skiing!

Somehow Sam managed to turn our bike rack into a ski/snowboard rack!

Sam was not pleased that I asked the strange man walking by to snap our picture.

All our gear!

After last year's 8 month winter, Sam and I decided that this year we had better buy season passes to Wolf Mountain, the local place to ski/snowboard. So we bought skis for me, a board for him, and the season passes and what do you know, it is the first time in 8 years that the parks did not open before Thanksgiving! There is absolutely no snow and it has been around 50 degrees. So last Saturday Wolf Mountain blew fake snow down one run. It was about 40 feet wide and the snow was melting quickly because it was so warm, which meant skiing on ice! Beginner (me) skiing on ice = disaster! It was a lot of fun but I definitely embarrassed Sam. They had to stop the lift 4 times for me (yes, 4!), due to the fact that my skis kept getting tangled when I would try to get on the lift. And once they got stuck around a pole next to the chair lift, don't ask how!

Background on Sam: Last year he went boarding once and somehow ripped the hood off his new boarding jacket. Saturday he took his brand new board and and split open the front of it. Luckily we just got him insurance this month...... Anyways we had a blast. I flew down the hill hoping not to crash and Sam had fun doing jumps and pretending like he was going to crash into me.

Thanksgiving Break

Sam and I drove to California for Thanksgiving to his parents' house. We got in at 2am Thanksgiving morning and stayed for 3 days. The whole family was there! It was great. We spent our time eating, relaxing, shopping, dirt biking (the boys), bonfireing (is that a word?), and eating some more.

Happy Halloween!

Our Halloween was so much fun! As soon as I got off of work we went to Cafe Rio and then walked around the mall for a couple of minutes. Tons of people trick or treat at the mall here- kinda weird but it's fun to see so many costumes in one place. Then we went over to Lacey and Todd's to carve pumpkins and eat tons of junk food. We were supposed to watch a scary movie but we just talk to much and before we knew it it was late.

Saturday we had our Ward's Halloween Stomp- a costume dance. We had no idea what to be and Saver's was completely picked over but we managed to find Sam an old mechanic's shirt so he wore that, and covered himself in black paint to look like grease. I was a substitute teacher with a paper airplane stuck in my hair, a "kick me" sign on my bad, etc. Very homemade and very easy!

The best part of the dance was the DANCE OFF! I pushed Sam and and he ended up winning the thing with his killer break dance moves! I tried to get a picture but you can't tell that he's even dancing.

Goodbye, Dirt Bike!

Sam has always wanted a dirt bike, and last February I gave in and after looking for a couple of months he got one. We had no where to keep it, so it got put next to our kitchen table! We assumed there would be tons of places to ride around here but the are none for a couple of hours. So by the middle of the summers he had only gone a few times, and decided to sell it. It sold in 10 minutes! He was soooo sad the rest of the night, but I am not going to miss having our house smell like gasoline!

Mountain Biking

When we moved here a year ago Sam was so excited to have trails to mountain bike on. I have finally learned to really enjoy it and we spend a lot of Saturday mornings on the trails behind Weber State. I like it for the good workout and pretty scenery and Sam likes it for the jumps! A while ago we came across this snake and Sam chased it into the bushed and finally caught it.

Overnight Horseride

Some of our best friends, David and Melissa, invited us to go on an overnight horse ride/camping trip. It was so much fun! Todd and Lacey came also. We left around 7:30 so we only had about 1/2 an hour of daylight, so we spent 3 hours riding through spooky trails in complete darkness. It was kind of scary but the horses can see somehow and we made it to our camp spot around midnight. We had tons of treats, went to bed under the stars, and headed back early. Sam doesn't have experience with horses but LOVED riding. We made the 4 hour trip back in about 1 hour thanks to Sam who ran the whole way, of course making all of our horses run too. I can't believe no one got hurt. Every once in a while we would get a break when Sam would disappear off the trail on his horse. Who knew I married a cowboy :) We were all walking around weird at church the next day because we were so sore!

Summer Fun

Sam and I spent almost every weekend of the summer camping! By the end I was definitely over ti but I think Sam would still go into the winter if he could. We found this great spot right next to the Causey Reservoir. We had these cheap pool floaty mats that we would sleep on at night and then we would use them to go all over the reservoir in the morning. I know, we are cheap! But we had a blast. There was tons of cliff jumping and just beautiful scenery.

Spring Break in Hawaii!

Thanks to timeshare presentations are air vouchers we went back to Hawaii for Sprink Break! We spent all day surfing, snorkeling, swimming, and visiting our family and friends. We went over with our good friends, Wayne and Kenzie. Sam and Wayne were roommates when he lived in Hauula, and then we both got married and ended up in Utah. We drove to Vegas and flew over with them, but then kind of did our own thing the rest of the trip. Sam surfed with JJ tons, and me and Ashley got to do tons. A few highlights of the trip:

-The waves were pretty big, since it was March, but we snorkedled at Sharks anyways. It was freaky! You had to time when you went in and out right so you wouldn't get smashed into the reef. It was so much fun,

-We went surfing at Castles even though it was so windy and cold. Luckily we went with JJ's family, and they knew the family next door that was having a big luau lunch. They invited us so we got plate lunch. It was so good.

-We got to stay in a very ghetto hotel, but it was free (thank you, timeshare presentation). The bathtub and toilet were pretty nasty and our AC unit was held up by tuna cans! Ashley came and stayed one night and we walked the strip and went out to Cheesecake factory (our favorite!).

-Ashley and I went on one of our old favorite runs, up in the moutains behind BYU. The trail takes you to some guava fields where we stock up big time. The run takes at least an hour, but ours took quite a bit longer since we ran into several BULLS on the way. They were so freaky! It took us a while to find a way around them. And we got a little lost but we made it back safe.

Halloween!

Sam and I had a costume Halloween party to go to, no costumes, and about 30 minutes to get ready for it. So we decided to be beach bums since we had all the stuff. In Hawaii that would have been a pretty lame costume but here in Utah it worked! Sam had the idea to use some fingerpaint I had to paint ourselves sunburnt, and it made the costume. We actually got 3rd place in the costume contest, and won a book that I am pretty sure we'll never read. It was tons of fun.

On the way home (not so fun) our car sounded weird when we started it up and so we tried to turn it off, only it wouldn't turn off. We took the keys out and tried a number of things but it kept starting all by itself over and over again. By the time we got home it was smoking very bad, and there was a big bang and then that was it. Our car died.

Biking at Sundance

One of the first things we did when we moved here was go mountain biking at Sundance Ski Resort. You can buy a lift ticket and take you bike up on the lift, so you only have to ride down! The lazy man's dream. When we showed up I knew something was wrong... I was definitely the only beginner biker around. Everyone else had mountain bikes that looked more like dirt bikes, dirt bike helmets, arm and leg guards... the whole bit. Then there was me with my Target bike, that had a sticker onthe front reading, "Not intended for mountain use". One trip down and I almost caused many accidents, had several falls, many people cussing at me, and I was in tears and definietly done. Little did I know Sam had accidentally taken me on one of the balck diamond runs. I quickly got a raincheck and so the next weekend Sam went again, and took Wayne.

Hiking the Narrows

We took a trip up to St. George to visit some friends and family. We hiked "The Narrows", which was so pretty and of course included some drama! About a mile into the hike, Sam jumped off a rock, and just happened to jump where there was about 2 feet of water and a big sand bed. When he came up his arm arm looked pretty crazy- his shoulder was completely dislocated. Matt (his brother) walked right over, grabbed his arm, and with a big jerk popped it right back into place. So for the rest of the hike Sam had his arm strapped to his side by a belt. It was pretty painful for him, and he was bummed he couldn't do anymore jumps.

Hiking in AZ

I think this place is called "Natural Falls"... doesn't look like Arizona huh! Sam and I lived in Phoenix for about 3 months after we were married before moving up to Utah and I think it just about drove Sam crazy liging where it was so "brown". We found this place one weekend and it was so pretty and so green. If it looks like I am crying in some of my pictures it's because I was! I had just hit my head so hard on the rock above, and Sam was sure to photograph it, ha ha.

Honeymoon!

It is always easy for Sam and I to choose a vacation spot.... Hawaii! there is never a question. We spent the first part of our honeymoon in Maui and the second half in Oahu. We would wake up early to go surfing, body boarding, snorkeling, or just swimming and spend the whole day out in the water. On our way back it would just be getting dark and the hot sign would be on so we would go get Krispy Kremes, every night. We are big on traditions :) Our first day there we stopped at Costco and bought bulk steak, frozen pizza, and a HUGE apple pie. So every night when we got home we would have either steak or pizza and apple pie. That literally is all we ate for 10 days. We were so sick of steak by the end! We also picked up this book at Costco called "Maui Revealed" that was full of detailed explanations on how to get to all the coolest spots on the island. We went everywhere, down all these hidden dirt roads or blocked off roads, and found some awesome places. My favorite was called "Blue Pools". It was a big freshwater pond that was dark, dark blue with a big old water fall, and had about a 3 foot rock wall between it and the ocean. So here we were swimming in this pond with huge mountains on one side and waves crashing up against us on the other side. It was amazing. After 10 days on Maui we headed to Oahu to visit friends and family and go to all of our favorite spots. Sam surfed with JJ tons and me and Ashley went to our favorite beaches.

Graduating from BYU Hawaii

Graduating from BYU Hawaii was one of the happiest and saddest times in my life. Happiest, because Sam was coming home from his mission 2 weeks later. Oh and I was done with my student teaching! But saddest, because I had to leave Hawaii, which had become my bsolute favorite place in the world during the past 5 years -yes 5 years, I took my time :) AND I was having to leave one of my absolute favorite people in the world, my sister and roommate, Ashley. Ashley and I were roommates for a year and a half and spent just about every minute together. We bascally did no schoolwork and spent all our time at the beach. A few funny memories:

1. Ashley and I worked in the cafeteria at BYUH. We were in charge of "prepping" the meals, which basically meant cutting vegetables and occasionally huge portions of gross meat. Ashley hated when we had to chop onions, because we would have to do hundreds and so our hands would reak of onions for days. So when our boss, Leva, told us to do onions one afternoon, I went on about how Ashley would be so excited because onions were her favorite thing to do. So Leva saved the onions for us from then on, and we got to do them just about every shift. We smelt of onions from then on.

2. Another cafeteria story..... we had this HUGE disposal that was used for everything. It was about the size of one of those big trash bins at the park. It had a big, heavy duty, curtain over the front of it, so that food wouldn't splatter everywhere. I was dumping a lot of something one afternoon, and I accidentally knocked the curtain in the disposal. There was no way I was getting my hand chopped off and going after the thing, so I casually walked off like nothing had happened. A minute later the disopsal was making all sorts of very loud, horrible sounds and everyone was running over and yelling panicked, "The curtain's in the disposal!!!" Luckily everyone was around the disposal except me and Ashley so I could tell her I had done it, and no one was around to see us cracking up.

3. Last cafeteria story... there was a huge walk in refrigerater where they kept the prepped food for the next days meal, along with 2 days of dessert trays. At least twice during our shuft Ashley and I would sneak back and cram as many desserts as we oculd down our throats. Occasionally someoone would walk in while we were stuffing ourselves and we would throw our plate to the side, smile with our cheeks stuffed with desserts, and hope they didn't notice (yeah right). Our favorites: Rice krispie treats, chocolate mouse pie, choclate haupia pie,...the list is too long.

4. We didn't have a car, so we either took the bus everywhere with a bunch of crazies, walked, or orde our rusty bikes. We walked all the way to Castles, on the beach, with our huge longboards. Crazy to think about. We rode our bikes all the way to Haliewa to get shaved ice (over 25 miles each way!). Our first year we either walked or rode our bikes to Hukilau every single day.

5. Foodland had a rack that they would set out every night, that had reduced priced bakery items on it. This was the highlight of every night for us. We would head over at 7 and wait for that rack to come out, looking for a Ted's Chocolate Haupia Pie.

6. We only ate about 4 different thigns during the whole year and a half: cereal, bean burrtios, ravioli, and choclate cake mix cookies.

7. While I was student teaching at Waialua High School, I was the cross country coach. On my team was Jason Oga, a very nice but mentally slow kid. Ashley would go to the meets and help me, and Jason was soon in love with her. It was soon around the school that he was taking her to the prom. Jason loved telling us about his dates, in which he would pick up the girl wearing a white tux with a big heart stitched on the back... you can imagine the rest. On our last day of cross country he very tearfully got down on one knee and sang a Boys2Men song to me and Julia.