Idaho? Udaho!

I'm so clever. Anyway, I got back to Rexburg a week ago and the weather was AMAZING! Unfortunately, that quickly changed when we went camping that weekend :( Fall is pretty much here. I even dreamed it snowed! I also dreamed Tyler wouldn't marry me and we were ghost hunters...weird. Tyler dreamed I had a baby when I was 16 and never told him about it.

OK, on with the blog update. When we left Texas it was over 100 degrees and Tyler's "Silver Bullet" over heated about 8 hours into the drive. We were literally in the middle of nowhere at a rest stop trying figure out the problem for several hours. There were three different truckers who stopped and helped us. At one point two trucker's and Tyler were looking down under the hood pouring their 2nd 64 oz. bottle of water into the radiator when I decided to look under the car to see where all the water was going. That's when I said, "Hey guys, all that water is just pouring onto the ground!" Three car savvy guys and none of them thought of it. Luckily I was there ;) They found the leak and Tyler fixed the problem. He had to blast his heat for a little while, but we made it!

So manly.


First time seeing 80 on a speed limit sign.


Cool rock on the drive home.


We saw one of Tyler's friends in San Antonio before we left. This little boy looves Tyler and when his Dad told him we were leaving this is the face he made. Notice the wet eyes. Poor boy.


He was happy when Tyler let him wear his hat, though.


I didn't get a lot of pictures of us camping. We spent most of the time in the tent playing card games instead of going off the rope swing into the lake :( We ended up taking off a day early and went to Green Canyon Hot Springs instead.

At Least We Aren't Being Hunted and Murdered

I'm a pretty positive/optimistic person most of the time, at least I try to be. I hate it when I get down and gloomy, grumpy, annoyed, mad, frustrated, and any other negative feeling. I love being happy. One of the reasons why I love the color yellow so much is because it reminds me of sunshine and happiness! Super cheesy, but it's true. I had to change my blog again because the black was just too bleak to look at. I needed something happier :)





I recently finished a book by Immaculee Ilibagiza called Left To Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwanda Holocaust. A friend recommended it to me forever ago and I finally found it available at the library here. I LOVED it. She said I would and was right. The book is about exactly what the title says. This young ladies entire family was killed during the Rwanda genocide of the early 90's. She hid in a tiny bathroom with seven other women for month's and lived to tell her story. It was so inspiring and made me incredibly grateful for so many things, too many to list.

One day while I was in the middle of this book Tyler and I were complaining about something and I said, "At least we aren't being hunted and murdered, right?" He kind of laughed and said, "What?!" I explained to him what was happening in the book I was reading and my comment made much more sense. Now, I think that phrase to myself when that guy won't call me back about a job when he said he would or when we have to buy new tires...again. I say it out loud to Tyler when he yells at the driver who cut him off or when he worries about not getting as many jobs as he wanted. I know it sounds kind of silly and it is, but it really helps us be more positive. Usually, we laugh about it because it sounds completely ridiculous, but in reality people around the world are being killed for no reason, and we are so grateful it's not us or our family and friends.

Get Me Outta Here!

It's been in the triple digits here for about a week now and doesn't look like things will cool off anytime soon. I wouldn't mind the heat so much if it wasn't so humid. I LOVE summer, the sun, the swimming, the outdoor activities, the greenness, I love it all. Now I just need to get somewhere to enjoy it. I hate when I have to go run a quick errand and I come home sticky, smelly, and greasy. I need to get out of this place stat!



This is Fall River, one of our favorite places in Rexburg...I'm day dreaming of the dry 80 degree weather and cool river water right now...

Gymnastics

(The photo above is Nastia Liukin, if you were wondering.)

As most of you already know, I did gymnastics for like eight years when I was younger. I'll admit it wasn't my favorite sport to participate in, but it is by far my favorite sport to watch. There is just something so amazing about the power and beauty of the sport. Ahh I just love gymnastics.

Anyway, we don't have cable here for the summer so I've been watching a lot of shows online. I search through Hulu regularly to find something worth watching when I get bored. I came across this show while browsing:



I remember seeing previews for it one time and thought I needed to watch it, but completely forgot about it soon after. Lucky for me the entire first season is on hulu.com. It's totally cheesy and I totally LOVE it! I was watching the first episode when Tyler came home from work. He watched it with me and got hooked as well! Ha, ha...don't tell him I told you. We're almost through the first season and it's only been a couple days. Sad, I know.

So, to my gymnastics loving family, watch it! You'll love it. And for the rest of you, here are some embarrassing photos of me:







(Sorry K for the half naked one of us, but these are the only scanned gymnastics photos I have. ;)

Austin Town

Finally something to blog about! It's been pretty dull around these parts. I hang out with the other wives out here on occasion, but they all have kids. It's hard for them to plan things that don't revolve around the little ones. I get asked this question a lot, "So, what do you do all day without a job or kids?" Well, I read, workout, go shopping, lay by the pool, talk on the phone, clean, cook (sometimes), oh and blog.

Anyway, we finally went to downtown Austin yesterday. I've been here almost two months and just made that trip. We went to the capital building and wandered inside and out. Then, we went on a trail the runs along the Colorado River, which goes through the middle of downtown. We only stayed down there for a couple of hours so we didn't accomplish much site seeing. We will go again I'm sure.

This is always how Tyler looks at me...


This fence was pretty cool.


State capitol building.




Looking up inside the state capitol building.


This is what you see...


Looking down.


Down by the river.


During our walk by the river we found a secret fort...and I love it.


This tree is growing horizontally out the side of the river bank. It makes for the perfect little nook.


Our friend in the fort.




Places like this make me happy. I think I might live in a tree one day...


We continued our walk over a nice pedestrian bridge at sunset. It made for a beautiful setting...unfortunately we didn't capture the sunset on camera, but we did get the buildings to the east of us.


It was a lovely Sunday evening.


On our drive home we drove over the Congress Street Bridge. It was dusk and the bridge was lined with people. This is why. We had heard about this event taking place, but didn't realize where it was until we drove right by. Next visit we will definitely stay to watch!

Bake Pretty Things

Check.

My younger, more baking/cooking talented sister showed me this. And some photos of the one she made. I LOVED it and made my own modified version.









I took it to our office 4th of July BBQ and it was fun to cut it open and show the surprise inside. I'm glad I got one thing checked off my list from last post ;)

Blog Stalk

Sometimes I blog stalk. That's a shocker, I know. It's usually about once a month, generally on a Saturday night alone during the premenstrual, which is probably the worst time for it. I browse friends, friends of friends, and friends of friends of friends blogs. The creativity is endless, their pictures superb, the writing witty, and their lives glorious...ahhh, wouldn't it be wonderful?!

That's when I start day dreaming about all the things I'm going to do:

- Make trendy crafts.
- Buy everything vintage.
- Decorate my apartment.
- Bake pretty things.
- Travel to exotic places.
- Move to NYC.
- Move to Hawaii.
- Learn to surf.
- Learn to dance.
- Do a triathlon. ;)
- Revamp my entire wardrobe.
- Have lots of babies.
- Buy a fancy camera, become a professional photographer, learn how to better edit photos, and document it ALL in creative ways on my newly redesigned BLOG!

Whew.

Then I wake up from my day dream, put on my bathing suit, grab my book, and head down to the pool. Life is good again.





Like my new suit?