i could get used to this.

The 24th of July is big stuff here in Ogden. We went to the final night of the rodeo with Dave and Melissa, and it was AWESOME. My days of going to the Flake Rodeos didn't prepare me for this. My idea of a rodeo was my uncles racing on horses to pick up watermelons and eggs from opposite sides of the arena. Not that that isn't fun, it's just a different kind of rodeo. This was the real thing, buckin' bulls and buckin' stallions all night long. And motocross kids doing backflips off 30 foot jumps to finish the night off. And fireworks when it got dark. And the announcer making fun of Obama throughout the night. And plenty of very, very patritoic people. It was refreshing. It made me realize that Utah is a pretty great place. I miss my family and I hate the cold, but I love so many things about this place. Like how it is full of so many, many good people. And summers are amazing. And the grocery stores have people playing organs at accordians for you while you shop. I don't know where we'll be after Sam graduates, but if it is here in Utah I am ok with that.

God Bless America.

We spent our 4th of July camping with Sam's dad (Tim), sister (Emily), and Emily's friend, Alli. We got the perfect spot right next to the Causey reservoir. It was so pretty. We had fun just swimming and cliff jumping during the day and just hanging out and setting off fireworks at night.

ward campout. soooo much fun.

Last weekend was our ward camp out, and it was a blast. We got in late Thursday, and all ate dinner and headed to the natural hot springs. Friday we spent the day tubing down the river. It was a perfect river to tube down - not to freaky, but crazy enough to keep it exciting. It was hot and sunny and the water felt so good. Friday night we had a huge dinner and a lip sync contest where Sam and his friends had quite the performance. Saturday we spent the whole day the at pool. The pool was AWESOME. It had great slides and huge platforms to dive off of. The highest one was 32 feet high. It was fun to watch all the crazy guys. Sam was loving it.

A bunch of us linked tubes the whole way down the river, it was so much fun. We couldn't stop laughing. Poor Rachael got flipped, but other than that we made it out injury free.

All the girls, watching our husbands try to make it off a waterfall.

All the guys. Sam way in heaven- people to do crazy stuff with all weekend long.

Sam and the Elder's quorum presidency performing to Milli Vanilli. Hello 80's.

Early morning hike - we took the wrong trail and ended up going straight up the mountain. It was so hard and we were all sun burnt and sore by the time we finished.

Sam and I are in a married student ward for Weber State and it is a blast. We have met so many close friends that I'm sure are some of the nicest people we will ever meet. It is great to be surrounded by so many genuinely good people. Ogden has become one of our favorite places, and I know that it's because of all the great friends that we've made.

early mornings

There was no sleeping in during our vacation. Since it was summer, the waves were in Waikiki. And since Sam's surfing partner worked at 8am, it meant that we left to go surfing around 4am, almost every morning. I would usually run on the beach while Sam and J.J. surfed, then we would make our way back to North Shore forthe rest of the day. In Utah it would kill us to wake up at 4am, but we both loved driving on the coastline while the sun came up. It was a great way to start the day.

fun in waikiki

One of my favorite evenings was spent out on a sailboat off of the Waikiki coast. My grandparents have friends that own the boat so we usually take a ride. We got on right at sunset, and it was beautiful. It was just nice being out on the water with the sun going down.

good friends.

Lots of our time is always spent with our good friends, J.J. and Ahu, and their 4 kiddos. They are tons of fun and their kids keep us laughing. They were so nice and had us over for dinner tons, saving us from our sandwiches and cereal. J.J. is Sam's best surfing partner and his kids LOVE Sam because he throws them into the waves over and over again.

merman

Can you believe he lets me do stuff like this to him? What a nice guy.

stairway to heaven

This hike is amazing. Thousands of stairs take you up to the top of the Pali Mountains, where you can see practically the whole island. It was very, very windy when we hiked it, making the parts where you are literally hiking straight up very freaky. It was well worth it though. The view was unreal.

kawika and pua

Sam first moved over to Hawaii with Kawika, his best friend from high school. Kawika married Pua, who is from Kaaawa. So the two of them are living in Kaaawa with two cute boys, and we love spending lots of time with them when we visit. Pua's comes from a HUGE Hawaiian/Samoan family who hold weekly dinners big enough to be called a luau. They always invite us in, and we love it. There are always little brown babies running around everywhere and more food than you can handle.

a month in paradise.

One month with nothing to do except go to the beach. It was amazing. At first it was weird to have nothing that we HAD to do, and nowhere that we HAD to be. But we got used to it pretty quickly. It was great being able to hang out with my best friend all day, every day.

pounders beach. ouch.

Plenty of our afternoons were spent at Pounder's Beach, one of the only places with waves on the North Shore during the summer. The beach was well named. The waves literally pounded you into the sand. Well more like pounded me into the sand. Sam seemed to do just fine. He had fun body surfing while I just tried to stay alive. think it is one of the most beautiful spots on the island. It's the kind of view that takes your breath away.

i love snorkeling.

Snorkeling was definitely the neatest part of the trip for me. We went to different beaches to snorkel almost everyday, but spent most of the time at Three Tables and Shark's Cove. I love to swim around aimlessly looking at all the cool fish and turtles, while Sam loves going through caves and making the turtles mad by trying to get free rides.

fun with brooke and cody!

My sister, Brooke, and her husband Cody were there for the first couple of days. It was a blast getting to hang out with them, and sad to see them go.

We had fun swimming in the waves at Sunset Beach, where Brooke and I got hammered over and over again. Brooke a little more than me :) Thanks to that day I had sand in my hair for the whole trip.

Brooke and I managed to talk the husbands into eating at our favorite restaurant, The Cheesecake Factory, TWICE. We are so alike in a lot of ways, one of them being that we always order the exact same meal, chicken stuffed tacos and white chocolate raspberry cheesecake.

Brooke's plane had problems so she got to stay an extra day. We tried to hike Stairway to heaven, where we had to sneak through and over a few fences.

Unfortunately, about 100 feet up the trail we got caught. We knew there was a security guard, and when we heard him coming on his 4 wheeler Brooke and I quickly hit the ground, where he wouldn't be able to see us. The boys stayed standing, leaving Brooke and I to awkwardly have to get out of the bushes when the guard pulled up. This picture is with the crazy guard, who was 65 years old, had purple and black hair, and was doing donuts on his four wheeler after he caught us.

coach k and sister k. genuinely good people.

I spent four years running for Coach K. Things I love about him: -He spoke to us in Hawaiian even though none of us understood it. -He started each practice with prayer. -He always made sure we noticed the rainbows. -He loved Denny's, and he loved buffets. On our trips we ate almost every meal at one or the other. -He dressed up for practice on Halloween as a thug. Imagine a 70 year old, dressed like a thug. -He cared more about he we were doing spiritually than how fast we ran. Every time I go back to Hawaii, I visit Coach K and Sister K. I don't think I have ever left their house without an armful of goods.