It's good to be back...

Sorry it has taken me so long to write about the end of our summer and our journey home to Utah. I am so proud of Jared for having such a good summer. He finished with 195 sales, which is a lot more than the summer before! Way to go Jared! The drive back wasn't too bad. I enjoyed the scenery of New Mexico, Colorado, and Southern Utah. We ended up having plenty of room in our car since Jorden did not ride back with us. We left a space for a cardboard box with Lenny's litter box and food inside it. It worked out quite well and Lenny slept most of the ways on my lap. As we got closer to Springville, we finally got to see the mountains. They looked unreal! We really like living in Springville, especially because there are mountains in all four directions. We like riding our bikes around town together as you can see from the picture.

School has been fine so far...we lucked out somehow and both of us only have classes on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. So we decided we would definitely take advantage of this and do fun things on the weekends. Our first weekend bakc we went to Park City. We went up their Friday and shopped the tourist shops on main street and also the outlet mall. Then on Saturday we went to the Olympic Park. We got the chance to watch the athletes in training. They were practicing ski jumps. The jumps had some kind of special brushes on them and they were constantly misted with water. They would ski down the jumps, do their twists and flips, and then land in a swimming pool. It was really cool to watch and I attatched a video of it below (sorry if it's sideways).

Then we went down two zipline rides. One of them is supposedly the steepest one in the world. We rode the ski lift to the top of the peak and then they harnessed us up and let us fly! We also rode the Apline slide which is like a boblsed ride only your on a tobaggon like contraption. For 50 dollars more, Jared could have gone down the real bobsled run at 65 mph! Thankfully he decided it was too much money for a minute long ride. It was a fun weekend!

Last week we went to church and discovered that our ward has tripled in size since we left, and it had just barely split before we left too. Springville is really growing!

This weekend we are going to Jared's uncle's cabin near Yellowstone. We are excited for the adventure. Only thing is I sprained my ankle really bad last night playing volleyball so I'll be hobbling around on crutches.

I got "tagged" by Elly

As soon as I download some pics from my camera i'll do another post. But i'll just do this right now as I'm waiting for my next class. So this is my first time of being "tagged". Here it is:
A. ATTACHED OR SINGLE? married
B. BEST FRIEND? Jared my wonderful hubbie
C. CAKE OR PIE? I'd have to say cake. As long as it comes with ice cream
D. DAY OF THE WEEK? i love Sundays
E. ESSENTIAL ITEMS? contact lenses
F. FAVORITE COLOR? I'm liking blue and turquoise more and more every day. Even though I think I always have quite a bit
G. GUMMY BEARS OR WORMS? worms
H. HOMETOWN? Fairfield, Montana
I. INDULGENCE? peanut m&m's. Very addictive
J. JANUARY OR JULY? July as long as we're not somewhere where the humidity is like 100%
K. LIFE ISN'T COMPLETE WITHOUT? The obvious answer is family, but I would have to chocolate milk.
M. MARRIAGE DATE? May 4th 2007
N. NUMBER OF BROTHERS AND SISTERS? 2 brothers and 2 sisters.
O. ORANGES OR APPLES? definitely apples
P. PHOBIAS OR FEARS? Falling. I really hate the 'free fall" feeling on amusement park rides. We got a season pass to Six Flags last summer when we were in DC. Jared thought it was really funny how scared I'd get on the rides. At least I didn't pass out like Jake has done. Not too crazy about spiders or dirty rats either. The rat thing is from one of my elementary teachers reading "The Jungle" to us. What on earth was she thinking?
Q. QUOTE? can't think of one at the moment
R. REASONS TO SMILE? We are back in Springville in our cute little house and surrounded by mountains. As Grandma Heagy put it yesterday..."You are back in the West...God's country." I couldn't agree more.
S. SUPERMAN OR WONDER WOMAN? Ah neither. would be cool to fly though. Then I wouldn't have to waste time trying to find a parking spot on campus.
T. TAG 6 PEOPLE? I'll just do two. Jackie and Duke
U. UNKNOWN FACT ABOUT ME? I hate shaving my legs. It takes too long. I like having smooth legs though so I still shave. Maybe not so much in the winter though:)
V. VEGETABLES? I love broccoli and spinach.
WORST HABIT? Eating till my stomach hurts.
X. X-RAY OR ULTRASOUND? I suppose ultrasound someday
Y. YOUR FAVORITE FOOD? Can't beat pizza or a steak once in awhile.
Z. ZODIAC SIGN? Scorpio.

Fixin on leavin

We be fixin on leavin Texas real soon y'all! Can you tell we have been here long enough?:) I am more ready to go back than Jared. I think he could sell year round and would be perfectly happy. He gets into the "salesman" mode and it's hard to get him to snap out of it. I am glad he enjoys his job so much. He is at 185 sales and is pushing hard for 200. Go Jared! We are driving back to Utah on August 31 and school starts September 2nd. That first week back will be a rush for sure. I just keep thinking of all the things we need to do when we get back. Yikes!

I am officially the office assistant for our office now and have been for a week. This is because the original OA flew the coop early. Basically I am the litte secretary that does the paperwork and answers the phone. I am also the link between the sales guys and the technitions. It is an important job but I hate being stuck in the office all day. The bad news is that I am not totally done with 2 of my online classes and I find it really hard to do any homework while I am working. I really thought I would be further along in these last two classes. I guess I just gotta buckle down and finish them. I have a whole year to complete them but I thought I could do it all this summer. I have finished two classes, Epidemiology and Consumer Health. I loved both of these classes. Maybe I haven't finished the other two because I don't like them very much. One is a Public Speaking class where I record my speeches on a tape and then send them into my professor, and the other is an advanced writing class.

Lenny went to the vet the other day. He did not enjoy his visit and I have bite marks to prove it (and so does the vet.) He got his rabies shot and some others. He now weighs 4.6 lbs and almost looks like a full grown cat. He loves playing outside and thinks he has to climb every tree in sight. We got him a collar with a bell on it so we can hear him if we need to find him. He stays close by and comes when we call him. Too bad there aren't any full grown trees by our house in Springville.

LUbbock! Not Looobock

We have been in Lubbock for over a month and I have not written much about it. Maybe this is because there really isn't much here. The city thrives on Texas Tech University and being the home of Buddy Holly the rock and roller. Downtown Lubbock has a life size statue of him playing his guitar. The one song that I know he is famous for is "Peggy Sue." His career only lasted a year and a half before he died in a plane crash. Supposedly his works influenced the Beatles and The Rolling Stones.

Texas Tech University is home to 29,000 students-almost as large as BYU. Jared and I walked around campus one night after he got home from work. So of course nothing was open and nobody was around but it was still cool to look around. In the pictures below Jared is standing at the entrance and I am leading the Red Raider's horse (their mascot).

Jared now has 162 sales and is still going strong! I am so proud of him for working so hard. He has improved every summer. He wants to do it again next summer. I told him I want to go somewhere where it not so hot. I'm thinkin Calgary or Vancouver. Wherever we go I'll make sure his feet see a little more sun than they have here. It looks like he's wearing socks!! :)

Yesterday we got to do a session in the Lubbock temple. I'd say this is by far the coolest thing Lubbock has to offer. We did some family names that Jackie had prepared and mailed to us. It was very nice being there in the House of the Lord. Maybe next time I will post a picture of us standing outside the temple.

"La Cucaracha"

This is why I can't figure out why Texans think they're state is by far the best. Everything is big in Texas...including the bugs! Ha

Montana Fun

I had a blast visiting family last week. I kept plenty busy all week. On Wednesday Jake and I chased down a bunch of antelope with him on a motorbike and me on the 4-wheeler. I looked down once at my speedometer and I was going 44 mph and Jake was way ahead of me so he was really cruisin. We were fast but the antelope were even faster.

Action Jaxon was fun to be around. He runs all over the place with his bow-legged legs. I was amazed at how much he talks for being 13 months old. Here we are on the 4-wheeler... what a wild man!

On Friday a group of us went on a hike. Our goal was to get to the Northern most peak of Sawtooth. It was a hike with great views but it's just too bad we took the wrong trail. We were supposed to go up the backside of the peak, but the trail we took just led us to the front of the peak. It made for a really long, steep hike. Oh, and did I mention that there were no actual trails? Ha. We ended up crawling on all fours up a shale slide. I wish now I would have taken a picture of this but I think at the time I was too concerned about sliding down the mountainside to take a picture. Anyways, after awhile we came out on this ledge where we thought we would be at the top. We were wrong. We still had a ways to go. It would have taken another hour to get to the top and we could have done it except that we ran out of time. We decided not to go back the same way we came up thank goodness. Instead we followed a little ravine down to the bottom and met up with the nice flat trail we were supposed to take. Here are the mountain goats: Aunt Kelly, Mom, cousin Alissa, Uncle George, Uncle Scott, me, Duke, and Aunt Jackie was taking the picture. We were so high up that we could see Gibson Resevoir. On our way back we saw where the trail split and how we ended up going the wrong way. This hike really reminded me of President Uchtdorf's last conference talk during Preisthood session. It was called something like "An Error of a Few Degrees". If anyone has heard or read that talk you'll know what this hike was like. I'm not much of a hiker so I think next year I'll let someone else try and find the right trail and maybe after someone actually gets to the top, then I'll go.

It was also the big Ely family reunion this last weekend. It was a big turnout with I'm sure hundred people. It was held where "it all started" at Rolland and LaRue Ely's plot of land in Fairfield Montana. It was great to see how big families can be and how much love can exist in the family. We had a big square dance one night and the family even participated in Fairfield's Swim Day Parade. Our float was by far the largest, taking up one whole block. I watched from the sidelines and took pictures.

Another highlight of the weeks was skiing in the big canal. Rachel took pictures and videos of us so i'll post those later. We also went boating on Monday. Dad drove the new boat that I hadn't got to use yet. It's big enough that all six of us could sit in the boat and watch someone being pulled behind the boat. The best ride prize goes to Mom because she really had a good time out there on the tube trying to balance the tube to get it going where she wanted to. I think at one point she was curled up so tight on one side that her bum was sticking 3 feet up in the air:) Dad had a good time driving the boat in circles making large waves to bounce us off the tube or wreck on the skiis.

All in all it was a fun filled week. I really missed Jared though so it feels good to be back in Lubbock!

Funny Photos of Lenny

I've come to realize we adopted a kitten with a ton of personality...

He loves playing in the bath tub even when there is water in it...

And I figure that's ok cuz he gets a bath and then I can dry him off in the dryer.

He enjoyed the move to Lubbock...

And even helped me pack:)