Independence Day

Monday was our 10 month anniversary. I decided I wanted to go to dinner for this "special occasion" so after Justin and I had Ultimate practice we drove to Idaho Falls for dinner. Before that, however, we decided to go to Best Buy to get the upgrade I had on my phone. I was so ready to be rid of my Thunderbolt! Turns out Samsung was doing a promotion because they opened up a new section within the Best Buy store, so we got a $50 giftcard from Samsung which paid for the $50 Samsung Galaxy SIII!! This phone just went on sale, originally $150. Booya. Then because we are part of the buy-back program, they bought my crappy Thunderbolt phone back for $140! And then they put $35 on Dad's credit card because we were part of the protection program...yes! It was a total score. I don't know how we walked in with a crappy phone and walked out with a better phone and tons of in-store credit. Woot! We ate at Olive Garden and had delicious dinner. I could live off their soup and salad.

Wednesday Justin and I made cookies and took them to the Steenson family. They just moved in and based on Facebook, I could tell Tara was having a hard time! So we sought out to find them not knowing exactly where they live. Mom said they moved into a neighborhood "behind walmart" so with that knowledge we set out to find them! Turns out it wasn't very hard, and it was good to visit with them for a while. Justin has started playing floor hockey with a pick up group and he's really enjoying it.

For Independence Day we drove to I.F. and used some of our in-store credit to buy arm bands for our phones to exercise with. We ate lunch at Gator Jacks in Rigby, then headed to Trisha's house for festivities! Chase and Rachel joined us and we played at Rigby Lake for a few hours. From there we had burgers and hot dogs in Trisha's backyard with baked beans, watermelon, chips and pop! Yum! We made a sign for Keaton at the airport tomorrow, but I couldn't get a good picture of it so I'll have to  take a picture tomorrow when he actually flies in! So exciting! Justin and I left early before fireworks because I was sick and had a big hike the next day.

Friday I got to school at 6 to head to Yellowstone for our big hike to the Fossil Forest. There are other fossil forests on earth, but this is the only one where the trees are still standing upright. I was totally prepared for the heat and didn't even think about rain...and guess what it did all day? Thunder and rain ALL DAY! At the trailhead there was a sign about bears, and then we started seeing signs of bears like bear scat and bear claws on trees...I have never seen such things before in real life and it was kind of freaky being in the backcountry of Yellowstone in bear territory! We hiked two miles up a canyon on a well developed trail, and then we took a sharp left into the wilderness. We blazed our own trail through fallen trees and lush for about a mile, then headed straight up. The rain started while we were still hiking at the bottom, and I could hear thunder from the west coming our way. Great! By the time we got to the uphill part I was soaked. The rain lightened up as we continued to about 8,500 feet where we stopped for lunch and instruction. 

Bear claws!

Beautiful country!

Our "Trail"

Volcanic Breccia

Pretty view

Petrified wood forest

After that the plan was to finish the hike (get to 9,000 feet) and come down a different route through an area called "Specimen Ridge" where there are really well-preserved plant fossils, but the weather disagreed with us. We were climbing on the ridge of the mountain, and I kept looking to the west at the thunderstorm. While my teachers discussed what we should do (go down now or keep going up) I was DYING inside...really? This should be a no-brainer. We should hike down now, obviously, before we get struck by lightning! We were exposed on an 8,500 foot ridge thank you very much! My teachers finally decided we should hike down but everyone was taking forever to eat. I wanted to be like, "Move now and eat your lunch at the bottom!" But I wasn't in charge so I kept acting like it was time to go so people would get the hint. Meanwhile thunder was cracking right above us and we were standing under a very large tree that one of my teachers pointed out had been struck with lightning because half of the base was gone. How very comforting to know as we wasted time eating while the storm got worse! I swear...the rain and hail began and we finally set off down the mountain. On the last steep part, one of the ladies there slipped and dislocated her shoulder. Luckily, her husband is a nurse so he made a make-shift sling and we hiked the remaining three miles in more rain and continuous thunder. At least we were off the ridge now! The lady who dislocated her arm was super tough. When we got to the bottom we headed straight to the "hospital" in West Yellowstone which was a community health center that gave her some pain medication. My teacher got us to Rexburg in record time where we dropped the couple off at the emergency room. What a crazy day, but I felt healthy the whole time and we didn't get attacked by any lightning or wildlife. Yeah!

Quartz growing on petrified wood. So sweet.

My teacher let me use his jacket eventually

Rachel and I

Our Thunderstorm

Saturday Justin and I biked 10 miles and ran 2 miles right after that. It's part of my training for my triathlon and Justin is a good sport so he did it with me. The rest of the day we just relaxed, and then spent the evening with Trisha again playing games. There was a huge lightning and thunder storm to the north and we watched some sweet lightning all the way home.

That is it for this week. Next week is the tournament for Ultimate. I'm hoping my team can pull out another championship! We hike in the Tetons next weekend for my class so that will be an adventure. Now it's time for Justin and I to do a few last minute things for Keaton's homecoming at the airport tomorrow. We are making picture signs of the Boise families to hold on popsicle sticks (Trisha's idea!) since they can't be there. Just one more day!

No such thing as a lazy river

Fun week this week. We've been experiencing the heat that makes Justin and I wonder if we can handle Las Vegas next year...On Friday, Vegas had record highs of 120 degrees! No thank you!!!!! 

For family home evening last Monday Justin and I planned our 7 week break. We've filled it with things to do on the weekends to enjoy the beautiful much-too-short summer here. I'll be working full-time for the summer and Justin is hoping to pick something up, so those are our summer plans in just a few weeks!

Tuesday my rec team had a game but I didn't know, so Justin and I went to the movies instead with the Miskins (married couple we're friends with) and a few others. We watched World War Z. I thought it was so good. Keep in mind, I didn't LOVE it because I don't like zombies. They scare me to death. In fact, the entire movie I had Justin's arm in a death grip. BUT I thought the movie was done very well and I liked it...sort of? I don't know how to say that I liked something that I don't like. It is a strange feeling for sure. 

I've been working like crazy. That is all I do all day along with write my final paper for my geowriting class. That has been the biggest drama of my life. Expectations are SO not clear, and the teacher schedules quizzes on the days he knows I'm going to be gone because of GEOL 380. So right now I have a D+ and that doesn't include two zeroes that need to be put in the grade book because I missed the quizzes because of my other class. Grrrrr. The good news is my forever21 ring came so my left ring finger isn't naked anymore...which Justin is happy about. =] I signed up to do a triathlon in August. I'll swim 800 meters, bike 14 miles, and run 3.1 miles. I'm excited! We had a RS activity for the first time in months. It's nice to have proactive people in callings like activities. We made headbands and ate delicious fruit and just visited which was fun. =]

Thursday I did my visiting teaching. One of the girls I visit teach works for Mary Kay. It has taken her just over a year to become a director where they actually make decent salary (anywhere from $4,000 to $10,000 a month!) and she's working toward earning a mustang...what? I'm interested. You can work as much or as little as you want...I definitely need to do more research. and Justin and I got a Dominoes pizza. I've had six girls interested in renting my wedding dress since we put it on the bulletin board. Two are coming to try it on and two have already agreed to rent it! I've written a contract they have to sign and agree to before using it. The first girl takes it this week, so we'll see how it goes! As long as girls want to use it on different weeks, I could be renting this thing out all summer! Woot! 

Friday my geology class went to Heise and Kelly Canyon to study rhyolitic eruptions. I woke up Friday morning with a sore throat and stuffy nose but decided to go anyway. We did a hike at Cress Creek for a few hours and then hiked in Kelly Canyon determining rock types and measuring dip and strike. I loved it. I love figuring out what the rock type is and how it most likely formed. My teacher is great too. He asked how we would go about finding if layers of rock were right side up or upside down and I said you could date them and if you had old rock on top of new rock you would know it was upside down and he said, "Yeah but Kelsey since you're already married you probably don't want to date these rocks." Ha. =] Here are some pictures from last week at Big Springs.

The rock has high permeability (rock's ability for liquid to move through it) and porosity (the rock's open space divided by it's total volume) until this layer of black rhyolite so the water has been seeping through  all the rock above this spot, and here since this rhyolite is low permeability/porosity, the water can't move down anymore so it moves out...that's why the water looks like it's rushing out of the rock in this spot. Rocks can have high permeability but low porosity (if it has cracks) or it can have high porosity but low permeability (there are many holes but they aren't connected so water doesn't move through it). 

57 degree water...brrr!

Pictures from Heise and Kelly 

Turbidites (sedimentary rock with trace fossils) found near igneous rock formation. There was a fault here that exposed sedimentary rock so we saw igneous, then sedimentary, then perhaps there would have been more igneous rock but the Snake River plain was the next thing over so we think the Yellowstone hotspot obliterated any of the other rock as the North American plate has moved over it toward the south west.

Obsidian weathering out of the rhyolite 

Rhyolite at Kelly Canyon

I felt okay all day and even felt better around 4 o'clock, but when we pulled into Rexburg at 7 I felt so so sick. I went home and changed my clothes for my ultimate game thinking, "I just won't play today...I'll just coach from the sideline." Well when I got there I just couldn't not play, so I ate a few saltines and played. Our team won 10-8 in a very close game. Our team is seeded first for tournament, and this team is seeded second. At the end of time the score was 8-8. We agreed that the winning team needed to win by 2 or get to 13 first. My team scored the next point making it 9-8 to us and my team was tired. We were playing the whole game with no subs while the other team had three. I gathered my team and told them we needed to end our own misery by scoring the next point!!! Low and behold we scored the next point and solidified our 1st seed placement in the tournament. Justin's team is also seeded first. Woot! Now in two weeks we play the 4th seeded team and if we win we play in the championship. =] Hooray!

After our hard fought game I hobbled over to the ground and tore my shoe off....to see a HUGE blister on my toe!! It hurt so bad. I couldn't even walk right which sounds so lame (c'mon it's just a blister) but it was a deep blister and it burned and stung like mad. We headed to Rigby to partake in Trisha's neighborhood 15 minute fire work show and to pick up Shae to spend the night with us. Justin and I waited at Trisha's door step for them to come home and a little dog came running up to us. He was shaking so bad and it reminded me of Duke and how scared he gets when we used to do fireworks. I tried to hold him and pet him but he couldn't be contained and ran away. Hopefully his owners find him! We picked up Shae and went to Burger King because I was ravenous. We let Shae get anything she wanted and then played Clue at our apartment. We stayed up until 1 AM playing Clue! Shae won =] She has a newer version of the game which gives each character a special ability and special cards which make the game more interesting. 

The next morning the three of us did a few things to help Justin with setting up our tournament, and then Shae and I came back to the apartment and made crepes for breakfast and cupcakes for a baby shower later that day. Shae made the cupcake batter and helped me put them in the cupcake wrappers. Shae liked the strawberry and nutella and the ham and cheese crepes.

From there we got McDonald's for lunch and went to the tournament to watch Justin play while we waited for Rexburg Rapids to open. He reserved the fields by Rexburg Rapids long ago and invited several teams to come play. BYU, ISU, and IF brought teams up and we had enough players to split our club team into a few teams so it was a decent turn out. I'm proud of Justin...he organized the whole thing with little to no help from anyone else. Good work sweetie!

Justin vs. James! I sense a foot block coming...

Shae and I played at the water park the rest of the day. We had the most fun playing tag in the lazy river. After one of us would tag the other, we had to wait five seconds before we tried to tag the other back. Shae was hard to catch! And she was crafty...she hid from me several times and I had a hard time running away from her. Fun times! The place was totally packed. We enjoyed the slides and Shae almost climbed to the top of the rock wall! We got Snoasis snow cones and Trisha picked her up. It was a fun day hanging out with her. I was grateful to be in the water all day, and Mom you'll be proud to hear I wore a hat the whole time. Minimizing wrinkles over here!

Justin's team went 4-0 in their tournament and we had a raffle at the end. He said it was a lot of fun. That night we went to a baby shower I "threw" for my friend. She wasn't going to have one but I told her she should and I'd throw her one if she wanted. Well turns out all I did was bring cupcakes because she did the rest. It was a good turn out and I'm glad she had friends come support her. 

Everything is going very well. I'm excited to see Keaton in eight days! Only three weeks of school left! Then Justin will be graduated and I'll be in my last semester! I still can't believe that. I feel like we're going to be here forever. It will be interesting to see how life turns out in the next few years.

Craters of the Moon and other things

 Hello family and friends. Sorry I haven't updated in a while. Last Friday my geology 380 class started, which is a class just for earth science education majors. It is composed of three students. We go on field trips every Friday all day long and take pictures and collect samples for our future teaching. Our first field trip was technically the Grand Canyon with the 111 class, but last Friday we went to Craters of the Moon. They have this weird policy now that if you've been in a cave since 2005, you can't go in their caves if you were wearing the same shoes or the same clothes...weird. We didn't go through the lava tube caves though, so we didn't have to deal with that. I learned a lot about Craters and had a really great afternoon there. Our teacher bought us milkshakes in Arco on the way home. Score!

That night my team had a frisbee game. We won 11-8 but did not play well. It was just an off night so I'm glad to have that out of our systems. 

This last Friday we went to Big Springs near Island Park and canoed the river to study meandering streams and river systems. My friend Rachel is in that class with me, so we canoed together while the other student canoed with the teacher. The water is a consistent 57 degrees year round, and it was breezy that day. BRRR! It was chilly. I wore my under armor and a jacket and I felt perfect...the other students were freezing! It was fun to spend the afternoon canoeing...and even better to earn 4 credits doing so! 

That night we had a game and had a rough start. They were leading 6-3 at half time, but then my team woke up and they didn't score another point the rest of the game. We had them 11-6 by the end, and then they scored to end the game so it was awesome. I'm confident we can take another championship this season, but you never know if another team is going to click at the last minute and win so we stay on our toes. Saturday morning I had my team over for team breakfast. I made crepes and did the strawberry-nutella-powerdered sugar and ham & cheese crepes Jory made at Trisha's baby shower. I'm addicted and can never go back! Those crepes are the best and my team loved them. 

Justin was gone this weekend at Cedar City playing with the club team. They came in 4th out of 12 teams. I know my family thinks we are kind of weird for loving ultimate so much, but we are really gaining respect from other teams that are regular tournament goers. We host a tournament next weekend so we hope to have a good turn out for that. Justin has done a ton of work making the team more official trying to get sponsors and holding regular practices. We hope T-Rexburg continues after we leave. It's been so fun to play. I'm going to miss it when we leave, but we'll find another club team when we move to Vegas for sure. 

Since Justin was gone Thursday through Saturday, I spent the majority of my time cleaning. And I LOVED IT. We had so much crap in our closet and our bookshelves that we never use. When sorting through our "things" I thought to myself, "Have I ever used this since we've been married?" and if the answer was no, it went to the garbage or DI. It was a wonderful feeling, and I really went over the top. Thursday night was bookshelves and closet, and Friday night after our game I cleaned the apartment (not kidding) from 10 PM to 2 AM. I did everything except vacuum (because I don't think my neighbors would have appreciated that) including washing all the bedding, couch cover, sweeping, mopping, dusting, EVERYTHING. I found it an excellent activity to keep my mind off being alone and vulnerable. Saturday morning before my team came over I finished vacuuming everything including the cracks of every nook and cranny. Our house is immaculate and I love it.

I lost my wedding ring last week. So sad. I put it in my zip up pocket while we played ultimate. I put my keys in that pocket too and when we were done I pulled out my keys but forgot about my ring. I remembered the next morning and searched everywhere for it. We were on our hands and knees in the park all morning, then rented a metal detector for four hours after that. We made signs, put them up, and reported it to the police department. Two days later they mowed the grass....so so so sad! Justin has continually reassured me, "It's just a thing," but...it's a pretty big-deal thing. I've had people reassure me with their miracle stories of finding lost wedding rings, so who knows. The best one was from my supervisor at work whose daughter lost hers while running errands and her husband found it A YEAR LATER in one of the parking lots they were doing errands at...keep in mind this was in Rexburg...where snow is plowed regularly! Miracle.

Saturday Mom and Dad came into town to watch "Ephraim's Rescue" with Chase & Rachel, Trisha and her kids, and me. I could tell the movie was low-budget, but there were fleeting moments that I really liked. I read The Work and the Glory and Fire of the Covenant by Gerald Lund which are novels all about the early saints. I loved those books; they really helped me gain a testimony of the restoration of the gospel during my teenage years. The early saints had conviction like you can't believe, and this movie added to my understanding of just how committed these people were to the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's a good reminder for me as Justin and I think about our future family and raising them in a wicked world where everything is changing and government can hardly decide which way is up. We have to be absolutely valiant in the gospel if our kids are to gain testimonies and hold fast to what is true.

I have my dress up for rent on the bulletin board and it is getting a lot of attention. So far I've had three girls ask about it. One of them wants to rent it, and another one is coming over to try it on this week to see if she wants to rent it, too. I've written a contract and everything that we'll both sign so if anything happens I'm protected. It's very exciting and if enough people rent it I could make a profit! 

We were invited to my visiting teacher's house to do some family history work for FHE last week. I thought there was no way we'd find a name on my side of the family because it's all practically done, but we found a "maybe match" so we printed it off and we're going to do the work for them. That's exciting!

Tuesday we helped clean the I-Center and I had a rec frisbee game. We won that and hopefully our team will win that championship.

Wednesday we threw Rachel a surprise birthday party. Justin and I brought burgers for everyone and we had a good time. The weather was bad all day, but right when the party started it was fine so we lucked out. Good work Chase for a successful birthday surprise. =]

Finally, I thought the world wide training on missionary work was so great. I just love this gospel! I'm grateful to be relief society president where I am in a perfect position to help the missionaries find people to teach. We have plenty of inactive young couples, and I have a direct part in seeking them out and using missionaries to reactivate them. I loved what the brethren had to say, and I especially loved the little videos they showed, especially the one where each family member had a missionary moment through service and fellowship. I love that the church is allowing missionaries to use more technology to help further the work with sites like Mormon.org. Really what it all comes down to is the temple. We want all to partake of the wonderful blessing of the gospel of Christ, and also to take part in the eternal saving ordinances of the temple. I want to be with my family forever, and it's through temple covenants that we qualify for such a blessing. I have felt the spirit so strongly. I'm grateful for the life I've been given and the people I have in my life whom I have the opportunity to be an influence on. Truly the best way to do missionary work is through the members "catching the wave" of the ward mission plan and helping missionaries in their full-time service. The gospel is true and I love it. 

Pahoehoe AKA ropy basalt flows

      

Cinder Cone

Big Southern Butte

Cinder Cone

Windy day at Craters of the Moon...standing on the fissure zone

Here are some pictures from the Grand Canyon I haven't put up yet

Coal

Canyonlands......we called it Candyland

Arches National Park

I'm the one with my hands up

The Mexican Hat with the Monolith behind it

Goosenecks

Monument Valley

The first few minutes into the hike I did not complete...such a beautiful sight!

Here we switch to my friend's camera because I dropped  mine in sand...which is a shame because the quality is not very good. Oh well.

It takes 4 Empire State Buildings to go from the bottom of the canyon to the top. That middle cliff alone is 1000 ft.

My favorite

Elk are the only animals in the park that are not native...Teddy Roosevelt thought it would be a good idea to introduce them and they've been here since. There were signs for mountain lions, but it's a good thing they're not a real threat because the TAs were so stupid with the food at night. Strangely, the most dangerous animal there is the squirrel...they carry the plague and you're dead without medical attention if they scratch or bite you.