This is a summary of our past two weeks:

My brother Mike has been staying with us for a couple weeks until BYU starts up again. It's been alot of man time for mike and jake and I have walked in on a few wrestling matches. My friend Shiloh came over the other day and made a remark about how when guys get together they tackle eachother and wrestle, whereas girls normally sit and talk about what's going on in their lives. How funny would it be if when girls got together they tackled eachother and wrestled? I would probably bust out laughing if I saw that. At the end of one wrestling match between Mike and Jake, this was pulled out:

Then mike tried it on and Jake felt a little left out so he made his own mask:

It's been alot of fun with Mike here - he has helped out alot with doing work around our house - cutting down a cherry tree in our backyard, texturing the basement ceiling, priming all the walls and ceiling in the basement and whatever we need help with. It's been great! Jake and mike took the cherry tree down in the backyard with a machete until our hometeacher came over and offered to cut the stump down with a chainsaw.


We went to Zion National Park this past weekend which was alot of fun. We hiked Angel's Landing, Weeping Rock, Emerald Pools, and did the Subway. The Subway is a hike they say is "technical", but you don't really need any extreme gear. We just needed a rope and we were all set! We had to swim in some parts, do some bouldering, and then repel down one part. Here are some pictures of our adventure!

Weeping Rock


This is part of the subway where we had to swim

I think mike looks like he was photo shopped in here

Climbing up Angel's Landing

Creepy Faces in the Subway

This Video is of Mike and Jake running up "Walter's Wiggles". These are switchbacks on the way up to Angel's Landing. I stayed at the bottom and then took my time going up. They are intense!

This video is in the Subway - there were quite a few of these types of "water slides" but this one was on you could actually slide on.

We've had a great past couple of weeks and have gotten alot of things done! We hope you are doing well and enjoying the end of summer! Fall is just around the corner and I am VERY excited :) It is my favorite time of year!

Oh the good old days...

This past week I went to lunch with my friend Dara who is moving this coming week to go back to VA. We met in our first semester of college at BYU. We always talk about how the first time she met me she had walked into our bedroom (we were roomates) and I was reading celebrity gossip magazines on my bed and crying because i missed home. We had alot of fun together and are still good friends! I can't believe it has been about six years since we met each other. I feel really old! So at lunch this week we ate at Pita Pit, which is by the old Baskin Robbins I used to work at during college. I got to talking about the great times at Baskin Robbins and for some reason it reminded me of all the funny dates I had been on in college. I had alot of interesting experiences. I thought I would throw a few out there for you guys to help you think of the crazy dates you have been on!

1. I went on a couple dates with a 17 year old high school graduate and on one of our dates we jumped into a swimming pool with all our clothes on and i walked into my apartment and my roomates looked at me like i was a complete idiot because i was soaking wet. I realized after that date I shouldn't go out with a 17 year old when I was 21.

2. When i was at BYU-I my friend knew a guy in our ward and one time he came over to visit when he got a new car. He asked if I wanted to go on a ride in the new car so i went along. The next night he asked me on a date - the "italian stallion" is what everyone called him. The first night I met him he looked completely normal, but then when he showed up for our date he had his shirt unbuttoned so you could see his chest hair, the hair on his head was slicked back (think the movie grease), and he had a massive chain wallet. He took me to dinner and told me that he thought it would be nice if I played the piano for him while he sang, then after dinner he took me for a ride in his car and told me about how when we got married i could stay home with the kids and I wouldn't have to finish school. I never went out with him again.

3. There was a guy in one of my wards who was an awesome soccer player - and asked me on a date. We played soccer together a few times and had fun so I thought it would be fun. We went on a date and then the next morning he left a rose and a poem written on paper (with burned edges) on my doorstep. My roomates asked him what he meant by that and he told them that he had a good time on our date, but didn't want to go on another one with me. I couldn't stop laughing that he tried to "let me down easy" by putting a hand written poem and a rose on my doorstep.

4. I dated a guy at BYU-I who my roomates and I nicknamed "superfly". After a couple weeks of dating I asked to borrow his truck to go to the grocery store. I got in his truck and discovered foundation (covergirl foundation) under his driver's seat. After I got back from the store I looked at his face and realized that he wore makeup! We didn't date much longer after that.

5. This last one didn't happen in college, but in High School. I went on a date with a guy who said we were going to go someplace "fancy" for dinner and a movie. When he came to pick me up, his friend was in the back seat and came on our date with us. He took me to a drive through place that serves soups and sandwiches. We were running late, so we grabbed our food and drove to the movies. I only got a muffin because i was NOT taking food into the movie. He got a tuna fish sandwich and hid it in his shirt so he could eat it in the movie theater. (if you know me, i HATE the smell of fish, especially tuna). So at the beginning of the movie he broke out his sandwich. A few minutes later the theater manager came in and told him he either needed to throw the sandwich away or finish it outside. ( i am guessing they could smell the tuna all the way out in the hall). So, he went out in the hall to finish his sandwich and then came back in and breathed his rotten fish breath in my face and said "what did i miss?". That was the last date we went on.

I am so grateful I met Jake. We didn't ever go on any awkward dates - it has always been so fun! It's fun to remember all the crazy people I went on dates with before I met Jake.