Oahu!

Chinaman's Hat. We actually were able to walk the entire way out there! And the hike to the top had such an incredible view!

My very first rope swing. And this little secluded paradise is better than anywhere to do it!

At the top of the volcano looking out at Waikiki


At Pearl Harbor

My favorite beach of all time! (Waimae Bay) North Shore

Shooting from the hip

So while Breanne was visiting me for her Spring Break I had one of my friends and his brother take us out shooting. Neither Breanne nor I had ever shot a gun before, so it was really fun! Breanne is a natural. She was hitting almost all of the clay pigeons they put in front of her... I, on the other hand needed a little more practice. Breanne was able to hit a flying clay pigeon on almost her first try.... I, on the other hand failed miserably. So although it was a little chilly out and I basically wasn't very good at it, we still had a ton of fun and can't wait to go again!

Anyone with a gun who's willing to take me, let me know ;)

Fantastic Four

Jensa and Ryan came down to Salt Lake to go to an Elite Eight game of the NCAA tournament. Since they came down- Breanne and Nathan and I made a trip up. We had the usual meeting place of grandma and grandpa's aka Hotel Raiser. It was so great to be with them- even if it was only for a day.
I started messing around with Jensa's camera and began having Chase do action shots jumping off the step. That quickly evolved into a full blown photo shoot where over 70 pictures were taken of these three doing various jumping poses off of the steps. It was quite a fun 30 minutes =)
And finally, a fort was built. Forts have become a regular occurrence when the four of us (Nathan, Me, Chase and Ava) get together. I have to say this is one of the better forts I've constructed. It had plenty of room for kids and aunts and uncles! We just HAD to take a picture in front of it.

Although it was a short visit on my end, it was so much fun! I love family!!!!!

Texas

I went out to visit Elise in Texas for part of my spring break a few weeks ago. She lives in Buda which is just outside of Austin. I got to do a lot of sight seeing along with getting in a lot of quality time with Elise, Lane, and Danelle. We went to San Antonio and walk along the River Walk.
We also got to see the Alamo... and remember it =)
We went to the zoo where Danelle had a great time watching all the people and pointing to the animals. Most of the ones she recognized she knew from the Disney movie Madagascar.
And what's a trip to Texas without have some BBQ? We went to a place called Salt Lick which has some of the best meat I've ever eaten.... Danelle enjoyed licking off the tasty sauce.

All in all it was a fun and relaxing trip! The weather was perfect... I couldn't spend enough time out in the sun. It almost made me forget that I had to wait 9 hours in the Denver airport on standby on my way back home. But it was all worth it to get to see family and visit all of those great places!

College Math?

This semester I am in a math for elementary educators class. It is meant to break down math to its simplest form so that we understand it at a deeper level in order to better teach the kids. Yes, this is what we did one class...
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And can I tell you that there are people failing?????

Quick Sand

So this picture is from a few months ago but I figured I should let everyone have a laugh with me. A few friends of mine came down to visit from up north and brought down a boat. We were gonna go wake boarding/ tubing down in St. George at Sand Hallow. Well I had work in the morning so my roommate Marli and I left late to meet them down there. Well, I didn't know where they had parked, so I accidentally passed the lot where they had parked and had to make a U turn... So since the road was so narrow I figured rather than make a three point turn I'd take in wide and go a little bit onto the sand...How was I to know that if you try to drive on sand, well, you can't drive??

So naturally my car gets stuck. And I have no idea what to do. A bunch of people who were quadding stopped to help us damsel's in distress. Well pushing didn't work. And neither did trying to tow it out with the quads. I was in pretty deep! So finally my friends saw where I was and they went to get their truck... they hitched my up to their truck and towed me out no problem.

I couldn't help but laugh! I mean, who thinks they can drive on the sand??

Lesson learned! =)

Busted

So as you can see my phone split in half... It had come apart a few weeks ago and I used my professional super gluing skills to put it back together. On top of that it wouldn't charge on its own- I would have to force the cord in and wrap it around twice counterclockwise and keep it tilted at in angle in order to give it any power (so naturally for the last few weeks that battery hasn't been charged past half power!) It held for quite a while, but it finally came completely apart to the point of no repair. And I don't think it could have happened at a more convenient time! I had ordered a free upgrade phone online 2 days before and it got delivered while I was in class, so I only had to go a few hours without a phone! =)

My new phone is a Rival. I don't love it as much as my last phone, but it's in one piece and makes calls- so I'm not complaining!

Fire Alarm!

So this is my most recent culinary masterpiece. I decided one night to make a quesadilla for dinner. The way I usually do it is to put my oven on broil and then it only takes about a minute and a half to get all melty and toasty- instead of having it kind of soggy from the microwave. Well time saver that I am, I decided I would attempt to make nachos the same way at the same time. Not even 30 seconds goes by after putting the pan in the oven and smoke is billowing out of the door! I ran over to turn off the oven and pull out the pan and my nachos are literally on fire! Then the fire alarm starts blaring and is making it so I can't even think straight (whose idea was it to make them so piercingly loud??) So I'm sitting there holding the flaming food and stupidly blowing at the fire like its a birthday cake or something while simultaneously yelling "Oh Crap! Oh Crap!" ... my roommates came out just in time to watch me panicking and blowing out the fire. Then after the fire is blown out for some reason I took the pan outside to let it cool...? Don't ask. I wasn't in my right mind. I was able to salvage my quesadilla, but as you can see the nachos were lost in this tragic incident.
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I promise I'm a better cook than this photo indicates (1-my ability to misjudge necessary temperature and 2) my choice in food) How was I to know that processed cheese was so flamable???

Yet another injury on my right leg...

So I have decided that my right leg is cursed. After having an ACL surgery on this leg over a year ago I have yet another injury. Although this one is NO WHERE near as bad as that. When my volleyball team was in the weight room one morning at 7am we were jumping over hurdles and I landed wrong. My ankle immediately swelled up! (as seen in the last picture) It turned out to only be a sprain but it sure looks worse than that! I went to practice later that day and played on it (I don't wanna be a baby... and when you've experienced that pain of a torn ACL and everything that entails a sprained ankle doesn't seem bad at all) I've been keeping it wrapped with this special thing called a horseshoe that pushes the swelling away from the ankle- but what happens because of that is that bruising gets pushed to weird spots too, hence the weird shapes of bruises.

I'm fine. Currently slightly hobbling like an idiot yet again. I've been getting treatment, icing my ankle, and keeping it elevated as often as possible- even as I write this... So I'll just have to get it taped for extra support during practice on top of wearing my normal ankle braces for a while.

Mustaches

So when I was out with a couple of my roommates we found these really random gumball type vending machines that had stick on mustaches. Naturally we each bought one and put them on for fun... Here are a couple of the ridiculous pictures. I for one am sure glad I don't hav a real one! ;)

The Last Three Months

I've done a lot these last few months. So much in fact that I haven't really had time to blog about it. I had my volleyball banquet, went to a couple of parties, made cookies for all of our neighbors, went home for Christmas and spent time with the family, went Bungee jumping with friends while home, played in the snow with roommates, went 4 wheeling on one of my dates, went on a game show, and went hiking in Saint George.

It has definately been an eventful three months! Some of the stuff I did was life changing... some of it fun... and some of it just adding more stress (like getting a second job at Hertz car rental)

Hopefully the next 3 months will bring just as much excitement!

Masquerade

One of the girls on the softball team threw a themed masquerade party for all of the athletes a little bit ago. It was so much fun! Getting ready was probably my favorite part. I loved decorating my mask, doing my hair, putting on huge amounts of make up, and dressing up! I feel like I never get to do that these days. The party was tons of fun- until it was later broken up by the police because it was too loud... but until that point, it was so much fun! =)

At Least One Of My Teams Can Win...

Last weekend we had a co-ed stake volleyball tournament. Now, SUU's team hasn't done so hot this season and I haven't really gotten to play much. So it was nice to play a little volleyball on a saturday, have no pressure, no yelling coach, and just enjoy the game. I'll admit- there were some pretty ugly plays. But our ward took first place and we got a cool plaque that will have 11th Ward engraved on it! =)

Costume Time

So when you're a "starving college student" you don't really feel like going out and buying a whole new costume for Halloween... but at the same time you don't want to wear what you wore last year. This year I decided to break out a costume I hadn't worn since 7th grade. So for my ward party I decided to wear my referee shirt and put on some sunglasses with a cane and be a blind referee. Now there were people there with some pretty intricate costumes, but surprisingly enough I won the individual costume contest! This picture is with the boys from the apartment below me who decided to be "The Price Is Right" and won the group contest. Much more creative than mine I thought!

And then there was The Howl- our school Halloween dance. I didn't want to be carrying a cane around all night so figured I would need to come up with something else... and then? Voila! The Office came on, and Jim was "Facebook". So I decided to use this idea of just wearing regular clothes and writing on my face so that I wouldn't have to worry about getting a whole different costume together... I loved it, and so did a lot of other random people who I've never met (There are a LOT of Office fans down here at SUU) Other than some parties and games my Halloween was pretty low key- but hey! It's Cedar City!

Repelling

So last weekend was a weekend for firsts. We had Monday Off for the hunting holiday (only in Utah!!! lol) and so a bunch of us decided it'd be fun to go down to St. George and go repelling. Now I had never been of course- and I had no idea what I was getting myself into (but some of my neighbors were pro and had equipment)! You have to strap yourself into a harness and basically attach yourself to a rope that is at the top of a cliff. Then you pretty much just walk off the cliff and support yourself the whole way down! Now mind you we only went on a 90 foot cliff this time (which is still huge- think 9 story building) but I was basically in tears as I did this. I knew I'd be fine but for some reason the thought of walking backwards off a cliff while i only had a rope I held onto to save my life freaked me out (I know, I know... I was over reacting... not! It was so scary!) But once I made it down the first time and got over my fear it became an adrenaline rush and I went down again and again!!! Then I started doing tricks, like 360 on my way down. And then I advanced to going down Aussie- which means walking down face first- much scarier and a little more complex. All in all I left feeling super accomplished... and you guessed it! I can't wait to go again!!!! =)