I Really Should Be Working On A Final Right Now....

I have been taking an online class all SUMMER and it is not fun at all. I am at my final week for the class and I have two papers I need to write. I have seriously been considering not even writing them because if I didn't I would still get an 84% in the class. Unfortunately I am the biggest nerd in the entire world and I can't handle the thought of getting a B. I have started one paper and I should probably still be working on that at the moment instead of blogging. Oh well!
On Thursday Eric and I went up to Star Valley. We stayed with my Grandma and Grandpa Izatt on Thursday night and we had a blast. Then on Friday we went up to Afton and we got to see my cousin! He was serving a mission in Jamaica for two years and it was so fun to see him. I love how awkward missionaries are when they first come home! Then on Saturday my cousin had her son's baby blessing and it was beautiful. Lane did such a good job!!! After the blessing we ate milk can dinner and it was D-LISH-US! Then on Sunday we went to Sacrament meeting and listened to Whitey give his mission report. He did a good job. He was such a good missionary. He has some pretty interesting stories too!!!!

While we were in Afton we stayed with my Grandpa Lamb and Grandma Kathy. My Grandpa was so excited to show Eric and I where we were sleeping. It turned out he set up his cot tent for us. It is basically a cot with a little cover over it. It was actually pretty neat! The first night Eric and I slept there the front of it collapsed so our heads shot towards the ground and our feet were pointing towards the sky! It was hilarious. We seriously thought my Grandpa set it up like that on purpose. He claims he didn't but I am not sure if I believe him or not. He is quite the prankster. Then the next night we slept there it started raining and at 3:30 in the morning we had to go into the house because we were getting wet. It was an experience that's for sure!

Needless to say we had a great weekend. I am glad that Eric got to know my grandparents a little better!!!!

Go Ahead And Call Me Camp Amazon Woman!

Well it has been a very busy two weeks! Eric and I spent four days in Yellowstone. It was awesome!!!!  It was so beautiful there. There were so many things to see and do. Eric and I spent every day hiking and walking around and taking pictures. I took 197 pictures while I was there. Luckily I didn't post all 197 of them on my blog! Eric and I were really hoping that we would get to see a Grizzly bear. I wanted to see it from a distance but Eric wanted to see one close up. Maybe it was a good thing we didn't see one! We probably would have been bear food. We did get to see 3 black bears though and that was pretty neat because I had never seen a bear in the wild before. The only bear I have ever seen is the one hanging up in our hallway! Along with the bears we saw some deer, elk, coyotes, cranes, antelope, ground squirrels, and a ton of buffalo. We were even driving along and there was a big traffic jam so we slowed down. When we rounded the corner we saw what was causing the jam. It was a buffalo walking down the middle of the road. He must of been really old because you could see his hip bones and his ribs and he could hardly walk. It was really sad :( I hope he didn't have to suffer much longer!!! Eric and I also got to experience the extremes of parenting. While we were getting ready to watch old faithful there was this little boy behind us. He was seriously the biggest brat I have ever met! He refused to do anything his mom and grandpa asked him to do. He would scream and cry and one time a man touched his shoulder to go around him and you would have thought the little boy's arm had just been chopped off. He screamed so loud and just started bawling and saying that the man had touched him and it shocked him and it hurt really bad. The kid was crazy! Then another little boy was standing in front of him and he said "Ugh how am I supposed to see now that he is standing in front of me?" He said it so loud. If I would have acted half as bad as this little boy my parents would have marched my butt back to the car, spanked me, then they would have made me sit in the car while they watched old faithful but this kids parents didn't make him do anything. IN FACT they would just give in to his screams and laugh at him and let him do whatever he wanted! After experiencing this little twerps behavior we got to experience another little boy's family. This family was in the camp ground across from ours. This little boy had to only be about 5 or 6 or so! Anyways his parents would call him stupid and dumb and they would tell him to shut up. One time his mom asked him to get some flossers out of the front seat of the car so he went and looked for them. He couldn't find them so he told his mom he couldn't find them. She FLIPPED out! She said "Oh my heck you can't do anything on your own. You will never be a man." Then he was brushing his teeth and he wasn't doing it to his mom's standards so she ripped the toothbrush out of his hands and started brushing his teeth for him. She was jerking his head around and the entire time she was saying really mean and hurtful things to her son in a high pitched really irritating voice. These parents were awful. Eric and I wanted to invite the poor little guy over to our camp. Anyways, despite the bad parenting we still had a really good time in Yellowstone! I am so glad we went.

So after I got home from Yellowstone I got to go to girls camp for 3 days. It was awesome! The theme this year was be your own kind of beautiful. I thought it was such a great theme especially for young women. This world is cruel and I feel like women especially try to fit a specific stereo type so that they will feel like they fit in. When they don't fit that stereo type they tend to be really hard on themselves. This was proven at girls camp. We had an awesome presentation by the sister in charge of the camp. Then the next night was testimony night. A lot of girls shared their testimonies and they admitted that they did not feel beautiful or important. This broke my heart. One girl got up and said that she knew she was not the skinniest girl in the world and that she often did not feel beautiful but when she was at camp she felt beautiful. This really tore at my heart. I couldn't help thinking that these poor girls already know that they do not fit the tall skinny stereo type and they are already hard enough on themselves. Then I started thinking about people who made fun of them or made them feel like they were not beautiful due to the fact that they do not fit that stereo type. Because of this these girls felt like they were not important or beautiful. I wish I could show them what I see. I wish I could show them how beautiful they really are. They have such sweet spirits and their testimonies are strong. I wish the rest of the world could see them the way I see them and the way God sees them. I hope that this camp helped the young women in our stake. I hope that they felt beautiful and important. I hope that they understand their self worth. I hope they know that God loves them.

I am so thankful for this girls camp. I developed a love for my young women that I have never felt before. They are such amazing young women!!! Not only did I get to know my young women better but I got to know my president, Liana, better. She is seriously such an amazing woman. She is so spiritual and HILARIOUS!!!! She made me laugh my butt off during camp. I am so thankful that we are in this calling together. I also got to know Hillary Sheets. She is a hoot. She too cracked me up. When all three of us were together we just laughed and laughed! We even got in trouble for bumper boating in the pond. Apparently when girls hit you with their boats the leaders get in trouble for it. Who knew! But we had a BLAST!!! I am thankful I have gotten to know them even better now.

Needless to say I am thankful for the camping trips I have gone on but to be honest I am a little camped out!!!! Here are a few of the 197 pictures I took while we were at Yellowstone!

                                             This was that little brat I talked about earlier

                                                            BEAR!

Family Time!!!!

I am back in Laramie after spending two weeks with my family. I suck however! I did not get a single picture but I did have a great time. My family and I did a lot of things together. My mom and I went on a run and took our dogs with us. I suck at running but it is a good work out and it was fun running with my mom. We also had slumber parties in the camper, went for motorcycle rides, planted some flowers, worked on my mom's garden, went to a bbq, had our own bbq, enjoyed time together on the 4th of July, and most importantly Eric learned how to do a real BACK FLIP. This may not be a huge accomplishment to some but for Eric it was. When Eric would do a back flip it was scary. He would bounce really high on the tramp and then totally kill his bounce when he decided to flip. This caused him to basically scalp himself. To add to this horrifying stunt he would also flip sideways. The only way I can describe this in a way that makes sense is to say that he would basically do a backwards cartwheel with no hands. It was SCARY! Seriously. But I decided that this summer would be the summer he learned how to do a proper back flip. Brandon (my brother) and I spotted Eric on the tramp. After a few spots Eric was able to do a back flip all by himself. It was a good back flip too. I was impressed with how fast he was able to learn how to do a proper back flip! Needless to say I was super proud of him and even more relieved that he would no longer be putting his life in danger every time he decided to do a back flip! My hubby is pretty much awesome!

This year while spending the 4th of July with my family it really hit me how lucky we are to be Americans. I always knew the 4th of July was an important holiday but this year it meant so much more to me. At the parade the only float that got loud cheers from the crowd was the one that had the soldiers on it. that brought tears to my eyes! Later that night my mom, my sister, my brother, and I went to the fireworks at the camplex. I was feeling pretty bad for myself because Eric had to leave earlier in the day to go back to work. I then felt so guilty for feeling bad for myself. At least my husband is alive and healthy. I thought of all the families who were celebrating the 4th of July without a loved one because they had been killed in a war or because they were currently fighting a war. These people have been killed fighting for me and the rest of our country. I thought a lot about my friend Jake Ross. He was killed just a few months ago on his last mission in Iraq. Because of him, six other people are still alive today. I thought about his wife and family as well as the families of the men he saved that day. The 4th of July is important to me but I can't imagine what it means to families who have loved ones or who have had loved ones serving in the armed forces. I am so thankful for the soldiers who fight for our freedoms. We are a very lucky nation and it bothers me that some people can't see that!

Well July is going to be a very busy month for us. We are going to Yellowstone next week, then I have girls camp, and then my cousins baby is getting blessed at the end of the month, and then my cousins homecoming is the last Sunday in July!!! I can't wait to see him! This month is going to be a fun one :) I will try harder to take more pictures!!!!!

Can You Feel The Love?!

Well June has been a pretty fun month for us! It has been a little sad too :( Jesika, Lane, and little Hayes moved away. It was bitter sweet. I was so happy that Lane was able to get a job but I was so sad that it was all the way in Idaho! It was fun living in the same town as them!

It was also our anniversary on the 10th! Yahooooo! We were pretty excited that we survived our first year of marriage. We had always heard that marriage was tough but we had no clue what people were talking about until we got hitched! But I am so happy I married the love of my life. And the lucky bugger gets to keep me FOREVER! Ha!!!!

So for our anniversary Eric gave me some beautiful orange flowers (orange is my fav color ever) and a journal. I am always saying that I need to journal more and so Eric listened and got me a journal. Now I have to use it! I got him a knife set with a pocket knife, skinning knife, and a sharpening stone. I also made him a little book of 101 reasons why I love him. Eric pointed out that I missed number 19 though. Sooo... I guess it is only 100 reasons why I love him! After we opened presents we went to Cheyenne. We ate at Olive Garden for lunch and then we walked around the mall for a while. We then went and played miniature golf. Eric won a game and I won a game. That means that we are pretty much awesome at miniature golf! After that we went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse. So yummy! We love steaks!!!!! It was a great day overall and I am very lucky to have him in my life.

Then a few days ago my family and I went to water world. It was a blast! My dad didn't even get motion sickness once and he went on all the rides! That surprised me seeming as how he is pretty scared of heights!!!! We all got sun burnt but we all had fun! I love it when my family come to visit us.

Well here are some pics to enjoy!!!

My Beautiful Flowers

Hayes!
Mom and Sister at Water World

Brandon and Kolter at Water World

Eric and I at Water World

This picture really has nothing to do with this post but I just had to put it on here! His hair seriously cracks me up! I am so sad he cut it!!!!

Oh Hello Blog!

Well a lot has happened since my last post! Life has just been a little crazy. A week before semester got out Eric and I went to Las Vegas. It was soooo much fun. I had never been to Vegas and it was an eye opening experience that is for sure. We saw a lot of interesting things. the outfits some of the girls wore were pretty nasty. Shoot some of the outfits the guys wore there were nasty! But despite all the interesting people there, there were a lot of cool things to see too! Eric and I literally walked the entire strip at least 4 times. Mainly because I did not want to have to pay for a stupid expensive taxi. The strip was insanely long! I did not realize how long it was until we started walking. But we did do a lot of neat things. We went to the Cocoa-Cola factory and tried 16 different flavors of Coke found around the world. There were some really yummy ones and some that were gross. There were 2 that we especially did not like. One tasted like mouth wash and the other one tasted like hair spray. SICK!!! We also went to the M&M factory, rode the roller coaster at one of the casinos that I can't remember, went to the shark aquarium, walked through a ton of casinos and hotels to see all the cool things in them, ate at the cheese cake factory, went to dueling pianos where they sang me a really embarrassing birhtday song when it wasn't even my birthday, rode 2 of the 3 rides that were open on the stratosphere (it was super windy up there. SCARY), ate at an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet, and played the slot machines at midnight for my 21st birthday! It was a pretty neat trip. We had a lot of fun.

When I got home from Vegas I still had a week left of school. Eric got to stay in Vegas and play Mr. Shooter Man at a gun range while I had to finish up my classes. No Fun. I was pretty stressed out seeming as how I had missed some days since we went to Vegas but it all worked out in the end because I finished this semester with a 4.0! Yahooo! It was nice finishing school because I finally had some time to deep clean my house. It wasn't messy but it wasn't spotless either. I drive Eric crazy because I am seriously a clean freak! I love having a really really clean house. I can't handle dust and dog hair very well. I love Roxy but she does cause me to have A LOT of stress because she sheds. I was raised in a house with dogs that did not shed and if they did you couldn't tell. I HATE dog hair more than anything else I think. I don't like sitting down on a couch and getting covered in dog hair. Gross. Because of that, I vacuum my floor and couches with the hand tools on the vacuum cleaner. I do this because then I know all the dog hair got sucked up. When I just vacuum normally not all the dog hair gets picked up and it seriously gets me so stressed and worked up about it that I get sick to my stomach! Eric thinks I am a weirdo but I can't help it!!!!

A few days after school got out one of my really good friends passed away. He was in the stadium and he fell through a little hole and it killed him. He fell from 4 stories so I hope he passed away quickly. They found him on the morning of the day he was supposed to graduate. His parents were on their way to Laramie when a cop had to pull them over to tell them that they had found their sons body. So sad! I had a really hard time dealing with his death but I am so thankful for my beliefs. I knew David because he was on the swim team with me. He was one of my very best friends my freshman year of college. A few people on the team do not believe in God. I don't know how they handle sad things like this. I can't imagine thinking that I would never get to see my friends and loved ones ever again when they passed away. I was comforted because I know where David is and who he is with. I wish all my friends could have the same comfort.

On a brighter note...my cousin had a perfect little baby boy 9 days ago! He is seriously one of the cutest babies I have ever seen in my entire life. I am so happy for Jesika and Lane! They make great parents and they make really really cute babies!!! I Just love the little guy so much!!! I am going to be soooo sad when they move :(

But here are some pictures from our Vegas trip!

Oooh I Love Him!

On Top of the Very Windy Stratosphere

Freemont Street Light Show

The Embarrassing Birthday Song

The Fountains

Yeah...

M&M Factory

The Shark Reef

16 Flavors of Coke

My Love

Batman!

Oh Eric!

Sweet Motorcycle

In Front of Our Hotel