A Day of Thanksgiving

Although it has been a few days after Thanksgiving, I still want to express my gratitude for all the blessings I have in my life. The other day as I was saying my night prayers, it dawned on me of all the small and simple things that I am thankful for. You know how it stinks to not have the use of your hand or foot when you sprain it, when you have a cold and your nose is constantly runny/stuffy, when you have to use your opposite hand to write or brush your teeth because you jammed a finger, or that you can finally use both your feet to play in the championship soccer game . . . ? I am amazed by the human body - it is absolutely perfect in all the ways it functions. Maybe this is why I enjoy learning about anatomy and physiology (even though when I took classes I didn't do my best), but now extending my knowledge in my content area of Health, I have come to appreciate the creation of mankind. I've learned a plethora of new things with the way the human body works. I've seen how the body works to heal simple wounds within the skin/bones, the process of aging, and the technology that's constantly advancing in order to help keep our bodies strong and healthy. I am so grateful for my body and knowing what I can do to help prevent it from diseases and major illnesses. I have come to appreciate the little things that we take for granted every day of our lives this Thanksgiving. Hopefully I will remember those things not just around this season but throughout the year. Clay and I got called to speak in Sacrament at church last Sunday and the funny thing is is that I haven't spoken since High School! Anyway, I am grateful that we were able to do so and we both spoke on Thanksgiving. I focused on having an attitude of gratitude and Clay spoke mainly of giving thanks for what we already have. He gave a story that really had an impact on me. I will post it when I find it because the lecture wasn't listed online (it was given at a Religious lecture at BYU-Idaho this October). It was given by Art Rascon who is a news anchor for ABC news I believe. So hold tight until I find it . . . Anyway, hope everyone's Thanksgiving was great and that you could spend it with family! Clay and I are going to Salt Lake this week to look for housing for the winter semester for my student teaching and his internship. He's going for an interview but hopefully he'll hear back from another company this week that he's wanting to work for. I pray that everything will work out because nothing is right now but I know it will. Until we find out . . . we'll catch you later!

Playin' Catch-Up

I have been such a slacker! Things have just been absolutely crazy with school coming to an end - thank goodness!!! So I will just have to fill you in on the fun things that mostly I have been up to - Clay has just been swamped with school and work - thanks to having paid time off hours at work so this could end up being a long post. At the end of October, one of my very best friends got married! Daisy Heiner married Dave Hegstrom from Twin Falls. I was so happy to see them get married! I was there when they first met and saw them through their dating lives until they both left on their missions and then they were both in Rexburg going to school after so Clay and I got to take them 4-wheeling once so I've seen a lot of the times they've been together! We had a little Bachelorette party the night before and just had a great time at Johnny Carino's eating and catching up with old friends!

It was great seeing a lot of friends there and hearing about their lives. It feels kind of weird having been out of High School for almost 5 years :S haha Anyway, we had a big slumber party at Daisy's pad filling her in on important info ;) It was a much needed girls' night out!

They got married in the Twin Falls Temple which was just amazing! It was only the 2nd sealing that I have been to after our wedding and it was great to have the same emotions and seeing the happiness of Temple weddings. I know that it is the only way back to our Father in Heaven by having a Celestial marriage and gaining Celestial exaltation - being able to live with my husband for eternity and having children grow with us is the most joyous blessing in my life! The Temple is sacred and a place to feel peace and the Holy Ghost which I am grateful for.

I am so blessed of being able to be sealed to Clay in the Temple as we have also celebrated our 1st year anniversary! I don't know if people say it's the first year that's hard or a breeze and we've had our ups and downs but I can say that we've never gotten in a fight or a bad argument. It's pointless - it's helped me grow as a person in getting rid of pride and selfishness and it makes our marriage run much smoother. I look forward to our future while raising our kids and growing together as a happy family!

Free Fallin'

A while back ago Clay had gone to one of the Dealerships here in town when there was a radio station airing from there. They had balloons to pop and Clay had actually won 2 tickets to Lagoon! So he came home on lunch break and told his mom and me to go do it as well and what do ya know . . . his mom got 2 more tickets to Lagoon and I got a gift certificate. So we decided to go down to Utah with his parents this last weekend. All us kids got his mom Reba concert tickets at the Delta Center (ok, so Energy Solutions Arena) so they went there while we went to Frightmares with his brother Tyler and his date. Well, since we figured that we'd probably never go on the Sky Coaster after paying for the park tickets, we were going to go on it now while we had the free tickets so we only paid for the sky coaster ones. I can't believe I would ever go on this! So here's a short video of us being pulled up to 160 feet and free falling for 60 feet. The batteries on our camera died (just perfect timing) so we weren't able to get the whole thing.



It was hilarious when we got to the top. The lady told Clay that once she counted to 3 then he should pull the rip cord. Well she counted down over the intercom or whatever and then he was like am I supposed to pull it now? I freaked and said YES, pull the rip cord now! It was amazing flying through the air! I thought that the Rocket was freaky, but on here you didn't get the feeling like your guts were just left up in the air - it was really cool actually!!! I would definitely go on it again, even though I wouldn't want to pay for the park ticket and the ride ticket so probably won't happen again but I would encourage everyone to do it!!!

I was freaking myself out while they were putting the vests on us. I was making sure that they were getting everything clicked and hooked together. Probably the scariest thing about this ride was when we got on the platform, we stood on these bars to keep our legs hooked and straight and then they highered us about 5 feet off the ground and dropped the platform back down to the ground making us fall parallel to the ground and looking like we were going to fall flat on our faces!!!

Another part of our trip before we went to Lagoon was our great trip to Cabella's! It was Clay's dad's birthday and Carol, his mom, blind folded Dave and we drove to Cabella's and took the blind fold off once we got inside and she told him his $$$ limit and told him to run free like a little child basically :) I wasn't totally fond of the store, but I'll admit that I liked looking at the fish aquarium and the mountain full of the animals! haha Clay could have spent all day in the gun corner, ok so the whole store! I did find a coat I absolutely loved but it was uh, definitely over my limit. So enjoy these pictures of our adventure!

New Addition to the Fam

Now that school is off in full force we probably won't have too many exciting stories, ok so we probably will because we can't kill ourselves with only school. One of my good friends, Mindy Burch-Hill got married before school started! She looked absolutely gorgeous and I'm so happy for her!

The day before school started Clay and I drove to Boise for our new niece's baby blessing! Clay wasn't able to go there when she was born so this was just exciting for both of us. It was a most wonderful experience! I was so incredibly happy to see one of my brothers there with his girls and girlfriend and my sister-in-law Brooke whose husband, my brother, is currently in Iraq, all in Sacrament. It's been quite a roller coaster with some of my brothers and the topic of religion/church. My sister in law isn't a member so just seeing her in Sacrament made me feel so peaceful and seeing my brother slowly coming back to the church is all a miracle! This was a special baby blessing because it's been the only one in our family that has happened in the gospel. I can see the blessings being poured upon all my other family members because of Temple marriages and this baby blessing. I know that Families are Eternal and that it is possible for us to all return to our Father in Heaven again and live together! It makes me so excited for that day that I can proudly show myself unto Him and continue living with my family! It was so great to have just about my whole family there, other than Jeremy who is in Iraq and Jordan who just got back from there as well. Family is absolutely huge and I love all of them with my heart! It was a fantastic weekend and started out the semester great!

This is my whole family except Brooke who hadn't gotten there yet, and Jeremy and Jordan!

Sadie and Sydney had way too much fun together running down this little hill!

My two favorite men! Clay and papanawa!

Shay in Grandma Byington's arms. Janelle made her beautiful dress too!

Viva Las Vegas

Wow, I'm pretty slow at updating our blog so bear with me and all our somewhat exciting events! We decided to get a vacation set right before school to relax a little before our hectic semester so we got tickets to fly to Vegas! Clay's mom flies there a lot to visit her only grandchild (and it will be like that for a while - haha) while getting a free place to stay!

This is the one and only Leland! They have too much fun together!

So she got us some sweet priced tickets and we were off for the Labor Day weekend. We got there Friday afternoon and went to one of the casinos right down the block and ate at a Guadalajara Grill Buffet that had all these different types of Salsas which were to die for! Later that night I dragged them across town to this new mall that's set up to look like little New York City and went shopping! How can you go to Vegas and not go shopping?! haha There was this little shop called Yogurtland that they had all these different types and it was all $0.33 an ounce so it was amazing! Saturday we woke up somewhat early and went for a 10 mile bike ride on this beautiful path over kinda in Henderson. It all was a gradual hill for most of the path so you couldn't tell you were getting a workout until the next day. That afternoon we went to this place called SkyMania that was an indoor trampoline. There was this huge section that was just filled with trampolines connected to each other and on the wall so you could do flips and everything! It was awesome so we're considering of opening our own up in Rexburg. Ha ha maybe someday. We went shopping more that night at another outlet mall which there were fabulous sales :) Sunday we just went to church and hung around the house and had a huge dinner. We flew out early Monday morning and got back into the COLD Rexburg - blah. It was a much needed vacation though!

Clay grew hair pretty fast and some good lookin dreads man!

This was our lovely flight home! We got stuck in the back both ways right by the engine/propellers so it was really loud.

Leland is the life of the party - he never seems to be tired! This picture is absolutely adorable!

James Bond's First Boat

So here's the scoop . . . Clay's dad got a boat from his dad a long time ago. Clay used to go kneeboarding with this boat all the time before his mission. So we decided to try and take it out during Memorial Day fishing so we got it fixed up then but we got rained out. SO, we decided to take it out for a spin and see if it still had the same juice as when Clay rode behind it. Our friends Nicole and Nathan took the challenge to come with us and well, let's just say we all somehow survived!

Don't you just see those lovely horns on the front? They work :) We got this boat to top off at probably 15 mph or so and we took that tube in the background for a ride. Obviously we weren't going fast enough for a scare so we stood up on it and played monkey basically while we rode! It was quite entertaining riding it I'd have to say! One thing I do have to mention is that Nathan lost the tube while we were trying to find a dock so he jumped out on it and we left him all by his lonesome self. Well we found a dock and Clay dropped Nicole and I off and we just lolly gagged around waiting for Clay to rescue Nathan. Well, hours later (ok not that long) Clay was pulling Nathan on the kneeboard. All you could see was the front of the board and part of Nathan's head. The boat obviously wasn't pulling fast enough and Nathan was riding with all his life! Oh man if you could have seen his face and this whole scene you would have busted out laughing like Nicole and I did when they came around the corner!

The guys passed some time by trying to fish while us ladies laid out in the sun.

This is me being retarded by laying out in the sun with no sunscreen on my legs. I really don't burn or tan on my legs so I figured I wouldn't get anything. Well I was stupid for even thinking that. My legs got fried! I feel kind of stupid too for not doing that because I know better. After taking some of my health classes and learning so much more of diseases and cancers, it scares me to go tanning anymore because you're so much more at risk for skin cancer. My grandma got skin cancer on her face. She simply would walk around a lake every morning with a hat on and would even wear sunscreen so it can happen to anyone even when you're being safe.

(Pictures courtesy of Nicole!)

Gone Campin' and Fishin'

We finally got to go camping this summer for Clay's mom's birthday - we call her Mamasita :) We weren't able to get our regular spot out on the dry farms, but we made a big ring like the Pioneers with all our campers and tents. It was quite the long week but we took Friday day to go 4-wheeling wherever it was that we went and then Clay and I tried to go fishing that night at this new spot but it didn't work out anyway because it was getting dark. It was Mamasita's birthday that day, so we had brought up a couple of ice cream cakes and our silly string and sang happy birthday! Tyler came up late that night so we all went fishing down at Webster's Dam that morning. There was this Eastern Idaho Hound Association sign-up thing going on right by our campsite that they brought all these dogs for the whole day so it was loud and annoying so we got out of there quick.

This was us after the ride down to Webster's Dam where it was completely dirt all the way there (I guess that's why they're called the dry farms). My face looks pretty disgusting. I'm holding Clay's homemade fishing pole after he broke his a couple years ago. Needless to say, he's caught more fish with that one than any other one :) haha

It seemed like we were hiking forever! We were stupid too and forgot to bring water so we were pretty tired after we got there.

After *patiently* waiting forever to try and catch a fish that kept biting, I was giving up when finally the fish bit and I caught my first fish! I was only like a 6 inch one but I was pretty excited! Here I am gutting it and saw all the crapload of eggs that were in it - gross. Clay, Tyler and I all caught one so it wasn't a worthless trip.

Clay was so kind to make our own little dam for us to walk over so we didn't have to hike back in soggy shoes :)

So this was freakin' funny! Brody (our cousin) had bought this "outfit" from Cabella's or something which is supposed to be for hunting and that sort of stuff. Well, he was pretending to be Sasquatch and while the parents were out on their ride and the all the girls were around the campfire, Clay and the guys were out in the trees because Alecia said she heard something out there (we had seen 4 moose that day so maybe it was more). So the guys went out looking for it and Clay was the only one who knew what was going on. Tyler saw Brody and freaked and they all came running out. Well they went back in and during that time, Brody came walking along the treeline away from the campfire and by now all us girls, along with Brody's wife, knew what was going on so we all screamed! Well now everyone was back at the campfire and Mamasita was sitting next to me. After a while, I looked behind me and Brody was hiding by the camper. One of the dogs went back there and started growling which everyone soon looked back and I faked a violent scream and ran across the campsite! Some of the adults freaked but it was pretty hilarious seeing their faces! Mamasita thought I was really scared but I knew what was going on so hopefully my scream helped :) haha Overall, it was pretty funny! He really looked like Sasquatch too! He had a wig or whatever too going over his head so he really did look like it! It was a fun weekend just relaxing and having a crapload of junk food too! They sure know how to go camping. Clay and I finally got to use all our new camping gear that we got from our wedding which was nice. We got these mummy sleeping bags too that kept me so warm during the night - hot to the point that I was opening it half way through the night because I was sweating! It was absolutely nice! I will say though for all you that know Quinn, that it quite wasn't the same without him there camping with us all - he's quite the party maker but he's doing great on his mission! Welp, see ya'll later!