Summer is Finally Starting, But the Semester is Ending

I completely and utterly apologize for not doing my best in keeping this updated. I have no excuses and will not attempt at making a lame one.

Nothing in my life has been too exciting these past few months. There have been opportunities for me to go and enjoy the beautiful weather (ahem when it's not thunder and lightning) with friends. Mainly my life has consisted of work. I will let you all know that I highly enjoy my job and feel blessed to have had such a job that allowed me to stay in Rexburg for the summer.

These past few weeks have been somewhat exciting... Ok they've been really exciting. In some ways it feels as if summer has just begun, yet the semester is ending and everyone and their dog is leaving.

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My favorite outdoor activity in the whole world is White Water Rafting which is what we did last weekend. There was about 19 of us who went, with half the group going camping the night before and the rest of us meeting up with them the next day. I've been rafting for years and have been down the Snake River approximately six or seven times, and have a great time every single time. Since there was too many of us and we didn't have a permit, we had to split up into two groups and pretend we didn't know each other; not the easiest thing to do.

I apologize if the pictures are somewhat blurry. I blame it being on a water proof disposable camera.

This is my friend Tiffany and I. I met her this semester on our dodgeball team, and she comes in to donate plasma whenever her arm is not bruised to death from all the attempts. She's a really cool and fun girl.

As we were all standing there waiting for our other half to blow up their raft, a guy walks buy wearing a dark blue speedo. When he walked by I noticed this and smiled to him thinking what a dork he was and who in the world would be brave enough to pull it off. Little did I know that I knew exactly who this guy was. After taking a second glance I realized it was my friend Bradley King from Jackson Hole. We were in the same branch and was someone who I hung out with every once in awhile last summer when I lived there. I got a good laugh and gave him a hard time about the speedo. Brave man.

These two knuckleheads are Kendell (left) and Dustin (right). Kendell was our boats "guide" and Dustin was the one who voiced all the commands. Oh good times with those two.

Look at all of us hardcore people. We were most definitely ready to get on the river.

It was a beautiful day, the weather was perfect, and the river was at a good level. I was extremely nervous due to the fact that there was so many people in our group who had never been on a river before and only a couple of us who were experienced and knew the river for the most part. Luckily my nerves were shattered quickly.

I apologize again for the picture not being in that great of quality, but if you look closely you can kind of see the rapids in the center. This rapid is known as Lunch Counter and is classified as a Class three. I am proud to say that my crew hit that rapid perfectly, we hit it dead on and I even almost got air borne. It was amazing. Out of all the times I've been on this river I have never hit it so perfectly!

These guys were our other half. Ben who is in the front left was the only one who got hurt during a raft war, which ended in him getting kneed in the head and having a pretty good sized gash. Luckily he was OK and didn't have a concussion.

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Summer started to begin during the Fourth of July weekend, with Camping, Swimming, and of course Fireworks. A group of us traveled up to Island Park for the night. One of my long time friends Tyler has some property that his family owns. It was a fun getaway that involved card games, great dutch oven cooking, sitting around the campfire and floating down a freezing cold river. What more could you ask for? Then to make it more perfect the next day was the favorite American holiday. Parades, swimming, BBQ's and fireworks, with the people you enjoy being around. PERFECT in my book.

The Master Chef's of the camp out- Dustin, Reed and Kendell. (They weren't the only ones who cooked)

Me standing awkwardly not sure who photographer was taking a picture of.

I have to say being a tree hugger is becoming legit. Naw not really. The other girls thought it would be a cool picture until they realized there were ants crawling all over it.

Dusting cooked a piece of potato on the fire and even wrapped it in a leaf for Brittany. It was charcoal black, and didn't look very tasty. Brittany didn't go for it, but wanted a photo of it. I happened to be in the photo standing once again awkwardly. Technically I wasn't suppose to be in it, but I though it turned out cool looking.

Us girls.

Um... this is a very embarrassing picture of me, but I get a good laugh every time I see it, so I though everyone else would enjoy a good laugh too.

It was really nice a relaxing to just sit around the fire and talk. A lot of reminiscing was done by a few of us, about two years ago when a group of us came up to this same spot and camped. It was quite an eventful trip two years ago, but full of good memories.

We all had fun playing card games and just relaxing.

The next morning we got up and went up to some mountain. I don't remember the name of it, but it was extremely cool when we got up there because we were in the clouds, as you can see in the following pictures. At first you couldn't see anything, and then BAM the next thing you knew you could see all of Island Park. It was really breath taking.

A few of the boys standing over by the edge.

See you couldn't see anything. Pretty cool Huh?

Kristin, Me and Rachelle. These girls are in my Relief Society, in fact Rachelle is my Relief Society President. I saw a hole new side of Rachelle and Kristin. They are fun and unique girls to be around. They often made me laugh. This was our "Family" photo.

Yes its July and there's still snow. It's Idaho.

On July 3rd was Brice's birthday so when we got back from camping, a group of us went to my favorite place to eat, Red Robin.... Yum.

On the actual Fourth of July, Brittany, Kendell, Katie and I went to the Manen Parade. Manen is a small town about 20 minutes outside of Rexburgs. I went and ran a 5k race at seven with Cameron. Came home showered, went back for the Parade in which my friend Dan was in. In the Picture he is on the far right. He looks great in Uniform. If only he was a little taller. Later on that night after having fun at Kendell's house we came back to Manen for the fireworks.

Brittany and I getting ready for some fun.

All of us girls not really wanting to get wet just yet. We didn't really have a say in whether or not we would get soaked. The boys made that decision for us.

At Kendell's house he has a huge pond in the backyard that is deep enough to swim and dive into. The guys brought out the four wheeler and used it to pull them on the wake board. Below you can see that Brice was doing great on it.

After we were forced into the pond.

Once again it was nice to just relax and have fun.

That is until the guys started attacking us and tipping us over.

Cameron and I. He is somewhat of my running buddy.

I'm not looking forward to the seven week break when everyone will be gone, but so far I am keeping a positive attitude and am enjoying the time I have left with everyone until Fall semester comes.

Also I'm finally moving out of Tuscany, getting out of my bubble and moving into a house. More on that later though.