This week has been a busy one for sure. So much has happened I'm excited to write about it. Monday we anxiously waited for 7:30 to drive to the Idaho Falls airport to see Keaton come home. We made signs and posters for the big event. It didn't feel like he was coming home until I saw a big tall guy wearing a suit walking toward us. His flight was delayed to 9:40 so we were ready to eat right after our initial greetings. Thank you Pizza Hut for staying open for us! I cried, naturally. You all remember me when he left I'm sure. It will be fun to have him in Rexburg next semester.
Tuesday Justin and I went to the temple and did sealings. In my Doctrine and Covenants class we read the sections that talk about the highest degree of glory and how we are not eligible unless we are sealed to our spouse. It doesn't matter how righteous a person may be! He or she will not gain eternal glory without their spouse. I'm so grateful for the promise of this blessing in my life and it was nice to make that blessing a possibility for others who've been waiting a long time.
Wednesday our rec frisbee team had our championship game. We won 14-2. Our team was stacked and went undefeated all season. It was awesome! I invited my favorite geology teacher to be on our team since he plays a little bit and he had a lot of fun playing with us. Justin and I are good friends with another couple on the team. They graduate this semester so it was fun to play with them one last time. We will miss Todd and Christine Brooks!
(From top to bottom, left to right): Dallin Lind, Todd Brooks, Bryce Fairbourn, Joe Free, Forest Gahn, Aubrey Walton, Kelsey Rose, Christine Brooks.
Thursday we had a playoff game for Competitive Ultimate Championships. We were seeded first in the bracket, so we were set to play the 4th seeded team. Turns out this team is a lot better than the 3rd seeded team but, whatever. All day I was feeling nervous because I knew the game could go either way. Then Mom texted me about Dad's accident. He was rammed three times by a 1500 pound bull. The bull pulled away for a few moments giving my dad just enough time to scramble away. By some miracle he has no broken bones and had no internal bleeding. He is in a lot of pain, but he could have easily been killed. As you can imagine that wound me up a bit as well, so I was feeling stressed. Anyway, once we started playing the nerves left me and we pulled out the win 8-6. It was a close game for sure. They had a really awesome team. They zoned us the whole game which was rough on us, but we pulled through. I was proud of my girls! When the score was 7-6 us time had run out. We had to win by two. I didn't tell my team what the score was. We had just scored so it was our turn to pull (kick off). They were all asking me what was going on with the score and I said, "I'm not telling you what the score is. All I'm telling you is we need to score right now." Well we did score. It happened to be an assist from me to my assistant, Jess Hill and after she caught is one girl said, "Good game," and she was really confused. My team does a lot better when they don't know they score. ;) That way they aren't putting extra pressure on themselves. Good job team!
That night I had a hard time sleeping. I couldn't turn my brain off. I couldn't stop thinking about the game. Everything kept running through my mind and then I'd think about my dad being hurt and how I had a big hike the next day and I just couldn't sleep. I think I eventually clocked out around 2AM. Stupid insomnia.
Three hours later at 5:30 I got up to be at the school at 6 to leave for Hurricane Pass. This is a hike in the Tetons that is phenomenal. I can't wait to do it again. We hit the trail at 7:30 and hiked until 1:30. We started at 7,000 feet and ended at 10,400 feet. The hike was 8 miles round trip. There were four of us that day (two students, two teachers) and we stopped along the way to look at plants and geology. The hike we did was up a U-shaped valley carved by a glacier along its lateral moraine. The view was awesome all the way up. It was a pretty tough hike but not terribly hard.
7:30 AM view of hanging valleys
The Grand peaking out. You can see the pass just underneath it.
An erratic: acid rain-eroded limestone sitting on top of glacier-eroded sandstone.
This sandstone felt really smooth. Glaciers are one of my favorite things. They carved the Tetons to make them look the way they do. Their power is very impressive.
Elephant Head Flower
Different sandstone formations
This is called "Watermelon Snow." It smells like a Jolly Rancher and tastes like a snow cone! The flavor is caused by red algae that grows in it. Perfectly safe to eat! Yum!
At about 10,000 feet both my teachers pulled out their Mountain Dew and started chugging away. I was confused because I've heard about carbon dioxide in pop and how it cuts your wind, making it difficult to breathe. So I asked them why they were drinking pop and they said the caffeine brings blood to the brain faster, so when the air is low in oxygen as it is at 10,000, it's good to have that little bit of extra oxygen to your brain for every breath taken. Interesting!
For me I didn't experience any dizziness when we were at the top but the other guys did. For the first time, however, I did feel that breathing was more difficult. Not that it was hard to breathe but I felt it in my chest when I did breathe. It just felt more constrained. It was kind of cool! That was the highest I've ever been hiking.
The view at the top was spectacular. It was crazy to see the Tetons right in front of you! There was also a glacier to the right which they call the "classroom glacier" because it's really small, but it has everything a regular 50 mile long glacier has and behaves the same way. Pretty neat! We had lunch and Ed Williams (one of our teachers) read us this letter he named, "Getting High" that he only reads to students who hike to the top of mountains with him. It was presh. Justin and I were short on bread that morning, so my lunch was tortillas with peanut butter and jelly wrapped inside...don't judge! =]
The Grand Teton (left) The Middle Teton (right). You can see the trail at the bottom where you can go camp. I want to do that! I wish I had money to buy fancy camping gear!
Beautiful view 10,400 feet high!
My camera on my phone takes panorama...sweet!
Zone of Accumulation to Zone of Ablation
77 year old Ed Williams. He takes a vitamin/mineral routine every day and he has for years. That's probably why he's the healthiest 77 year old on the planet! His doctor says he should be able to do the things he does. I can't believe how good of shape he's in! He said over his lifetime he's hiked over 50,000 miles.
Once we were fed and rested we started our way down before the thunderstorms could catch us at the top (wise). We refilled our water at a spring that emerged because of the karst topography. It popped out of nowhere and then disappeared shortly after. The hike down was so nice. It is so much easier walking downhill! But it is so much harder on your feet. I put band-aids on all my toes because everything was rubbing. I had a blister a while back that was so bad I could hardly walk the next day. With championships the next day, I could not have that happen! We got to our van at 7:00 and we were back in Rexburg shortly after 8:00. It was an awesome day.
Filtering water
Spring water
Almost home!
Saturday morning our game was at 10:00. I got there at 9 and saw the opposing team going over the defense they were going to run on us. My stomach sank just a little bit...they were going to zone us! From our game on Thursday I think their coach saw how we struggled so she was teaching her team how to do it. My team got there at 9:30 and after warming up we started at 10:00 sharp.
The wind was blowing from the south, which is an advantage when playing zone defense if you do it right. The whole game each team took turns scoring into the north endzone with the wind. At the beginning of the game we decided we needed to win by two, but with nobody scoring into the wind, that wasn't happening. Time ran out in the second half and neither team had scored into the wind. Our coordinator gave us 15 more minutes for either team to win, and from there she was going to call it, whichever team was up by one. With three of those 5 minutes left the other team scored into the wind. Oh no! But, the very next play we stopped them from scoring with the wind (this was huge!) and we scored into the wind ourselves. Yes! We had the wind with us this time, and we were tied 7-7. We took the next point giving us 8-7. Our time was up and we needed to score to end the game, and we had to do it into the wind again! Just like our game on Thursday, I gave my team my regular motivational speech that we needed to score now. Well a few minutes later the wind calmed down just enough for me to zip it up the field to one of my best pistons who was just outside the endzone. She then had an open player right next to her and made the easy pass to finish the game 9-7. We did it!
A few things that were great about this game: I played the best game I've ever played! I guarded their main piston who usually gets most of their points and I stopped a lot of their points from happening by shutting her down. I'm not usually that good on getting D's in the endzone, but yesterday I was and it was crucial to our success. Also, they zoned us but I set our offense up differently and we were able to break their zone no problem. We broke it to the point that they had to go back to man. Also, either way I was happy with the outcome. I was proud my team made it to championships and I really like the Vikings. Their coach is one of my best friends and she is a phenomenal player. This game could have gone either way so easily. It was a great championship game for sure. The best of the best were there and everyone deserved it. Congratulations to both teams!
Kyndra Purcell: best handler in the league for sure. She's played with BYU's team.
Jessica Hill: my assistant coach. This girl is boss!
Sophi stepped up her game big time on Saturday. Atta girl Soph!
Good job Clarysa!
This point would have been a point into the wind for the other team. You can't really see me but I snuck up before she was able to grab the disc and knocked it down! Yes!
Same girl who I D'ed last picture: she's on D with me as I laid out for a point. It was a perfect layout. On my way down, however, I knocked my head pretty hard. I got the wind knocked out of me but I was fine to play the rest of the game. They asked me if I needed to take an injury time-out and I replied, "Ain't nobody got time for that!" I have a Harry Potter bruise from it, but no concussion. I had my visiting teacher check me who just got a job as a nurse.
Cheyenne Washburn did great as well! She's getting married July 31st (which is Harry Potter's birthday, since I'm talking about it anyway =])
Another endzone D. I was able to get in and snag it before she could catch it!
Nice point by Amanda.
Sophi again for a point into the wind.
Another D! Snatched it just in time.
Jess ended up catching this behind her back with three people trying to knock it down. Like I said! Boss!
Spartans two time champions! (left to right) Lindsay Heupel, Jessica Hill, Kelsey Rose, Jessica Hopkins, Rachel Horrocks, Cheyenne Washburn, Sophi Weston, Clarysa Skouson.
Champions Spring 2012
I coached with Jessica Hill again and I don't want to coach with anyone else! We have great chemistry and just work really well together. We are by far the best two man team. In both pictures she's the blonde on my right.
Also, the Steenson family came to watch my game which was awesome! It was fun to have friends come watch for sure.
One year ago on Saturday Justin asked me to marry him. We are coming up on one year!!! We celebrated by playing racquetball later that night when I was feeling better.
The random caution tape...who could forget?
Hooray for Justin's roommate who captured it with his camera.
That's all our news from this week! Like I said, really busy but so much fun. Tonight Justin and I got together and played games with Chase and Rachel. We will miss them when they move to Oklahoma!
But we're looking forward to hanging out with the whole family next weekend. I'm going to reschedule my praxis (again) so I can come home earlier. Atomic Days Fun Run anyone?
