Tweetsie Railroad

Well, this past week I kept hearing commercials on the radio about the Riders in the Sky performing at Tweetsie Railroad on Saturday and Sunday. I decided to look into it late Saturday morning and decided that it would be a great way to spend the rest of the birthday money my dad sent me. It was about 1.5 hours from here and the singing was great. There are some other attractions there like riding on the coal burning steam engine train. The train was cool but the acting at different stops was kind of lame. That's what you get at a place like that though. We took one of those antique photos which was pretty fun. While we were doing that it decided to rain. And rain it did for about 20 minutes. Then it cleared up and we tried to go on some of the rides but it looked like it would rain again and it was near closing time. It was a fun place and I'm glad we went. Now we know if anyone wants to come visit us, there is a little place that kids might enjoy not too far away.
Kris got put behind bars for talking back but he was able to get himself out with a wet shirt;)jk, that's what happens in Shanghi Noon.
I got to ride a real pony. It's back didn't even break.

We Made It

The rest of the trip went well, we moved our stuff in yesterday. It was like 95 degrees and 200% humidity. I was soaked. Our apartment is starting to feel like home. We have some pictures hung and the furniture in place. Winston-Salem has tons of trees, it is a very pretty area. Everyone I have met has been very pleasant. Orientation starts the 28th and classes a week later. Now that we have our stuff here are some pics of our roadtrip.

This is at Martins Cove, where my triple great grandfather died crossing the plains. His son kept a detailed journal and much of the information in the visitors center is from it.
Thanks Kim & Owen for letting us stay with you at your sweet place.
Kris, Garrett, and Jenny at a fountain in Kansas City (the city of fountains), Thanks Garrett

This is looking across the Mississippi, where the pioneers walked across on the ice in February 1846 as they were forced from their homes. Nauvoo was a neat experience.


Lastly, this is downtown Cincinnati from the Levee on a beautiful evening.

Road Trip

I wish we had one of those cool maps like in Indiana Jones that follows where you go with a red line on the map. We have been driving cross country to North Carolina. We have stopped at several pioneer sites and places where some of our ancestors walked across the plains as they moved west with the pioneers. Martin's Cove, Winter Quarters, and Liberty Jail were quick stops. We spent a day and a half in Nauvoo, IL. The pageant was really impressive and the historic homes and workshops were fun to see. There is a very special feeling there as you se how the pioneers lived and what they gave up for their beliefs. Now we are in Cincinnati with Jenny's cousin, then tomorrow it is on to NC. We have been fortunate to have friends to impose upon and crash with as we travel. Union Station was a neat place to visit in Kansas City as well as a neat sculpture of Winston Churchill, thanks to Garrett. I am excited to start getting settled in, and I'm both nervous and excited for all that is ahead. Sorry no pics on this one, we'll have some posted when we get to NC.

North Carolina here we come

We're gonna be Demon Deacons, Kris got accepted to medical school at Wake Forest and we start at the end of July. It is something we have been waiting on for a long time and finally we have good news. Lots to do before we leave, packing, paperwork, and finding an apartment without seeing it. Anyway, we are excited and grateful for the answer to many of our prayers.

Lake Powell 2008

We spent last week at Lake Powell. Need we say more....

It was a fun filled family week and although the water was chilly enough to surprise you every time, it was very nice weather. My parents also got a newer boat, so we tested it out...we were able to slalom ski for the first time in years.

Deseret Beauty

In May we went down to Zion National Park, we camped down on the creek outside the park because all the campgrounds were full. The weather was beautiful, we hiked Angel's Landing and several other shorter hikes. This is from the top of Angel's Landing.
Memorial weekend we headed down to Capitol Reef with the Sheltons. It was great to camp for more than one night. We did a few fun canyon hikes, and played some games in the evenings. There was also a lot of petroglyphs from the Freemont indians that lived here a long time ago.

April Showers Bring May Flowers

My mom was in town this past weekend, it was fun to have her here. We toured the LDS Humanitarian Services, where they prepare and organize all the food, clothing, medical supplies, and other items that are sent all over the world. It was pretty amazing to see how much assistance is given each year. We also went to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point. Surprisingly, there were some of the tulips that still had not bloomed yet, and it was the 26th of April. We have had a bit of cool weather this spring. We are still waiting to hear from Wake Forest. We also passed the one year mark as married folks yesterday. It seems to have flown by, it has been a great year. Fortunately, Jenny has decided to keep me around for another year. :)

Here are some of the tulips for the interested parties.



And here is us in the classic self portrait pose at the Thanksgiving Point waterfalls.

Buffalo Chips and Hot Pots

Well, since December I have been working with the 11-year-old Boy Scouts. It has been lots of fun and a learning experience. We have recently started going on campouts. Last month, we went to Antelope Island on the Great Salt Lake. It was quite windy (see the video), but we started a fire using buffalo dung and let me tell you, those boys thought that was something else. I'll bet we gathered all the dry buffalo poo within a quarter mile of our camp. This month we camped in Diamond Fork, down in Spanish Fork Canyon. The weather was much nicer and we hiked up to the hot springs. My favorite part is the camping and hiking and really getting to see the boys excited about camping and the outdoors.

Here is a couple of the boys and an old bull buffalo.


And here is the burning poo (don't put it out with your boots!)

March 2008

Well, here we are again for our monthly update. We finally heard back from Duke and it is a no go so we are just keeping our hopes up for Wake Forest. As for our adventures this month, we went pheasant hunting at a hunting club near Roosevelt Utah for the first time ever. I'm pretty sure that I need to practice shooting a shot gun. Not that I'm dangerous or anything like that but it is something you have to practice to just pull up the gun and shoot at something that is flying in the air. I may have gotten a few BB's in a bird but Dr. King who was with us shot at the same one and he claimed it. He probably was the one that got the kill shot, I just felt good that I made him think twice about if he got it or not;) Kris is pretty good with a shot gun and was able to practice the day before shooting clay pigeons with Jason. He got 2 birds for sure and had 2 others that were shot at by multiple people to make it difficult to say who really got it. We had 24 birds to get and after several hours of walking up and down the field we were able to come up with 22 pheasants. All in all it was a great day. Now we (or rather Kris) need to find a good recipe for pheasant. Yum.

February '08

Well this February has been a fun filled month for us. To start it off we went to the cabin and when we arrived there was a lot of snow again on the deck and the roof. Our purpose in going there was to find out why the water wasn't working in the basement of the cabin. My dad began digging a hole to the ground to check if the water was accidentally turned off when we winterized. By the time he reached the ground there was about 7 feet of snow. That is a really good year for snow. The last couple haven't been very great but we certainly can use the water. Anyway, Kris dug out around the shed to the generator and then we tried to get some of the snow off the roof. Then we took care of the snow on the deck...there was at least 4.5 feet of snow again on there. Then my dad and Kris climbed on the roof to make a trench in the middle in hopes that the snow would slide off (my dad went up again a week later and he said that nothing had budged). It has been pretty chilly down there. After all that work, we just hopped on the snowmobiles and went back to the truck. Not too much "fun" stuff happened on that trip but it was a help to my dad to have someone there with him to help shovel and such. For Valentines Day Kris and I went to Hoopes Vision Center and I got lasik on my eyes. It was fantastic. I can see so well that sometimes I forget that I'm not wearing contacts. It is an expensive deal but it is worth it. Then for President's day weekend we decided Friday afternoon that we would drive down to Mesa/Gilbert Arizona to visit our friend Janae and her family. It was a very long drive down there but we had a really good time. The way home wasn't as bad, probably because we did that during the day and weren't so sleepy. We stopped at the Glen Canyon Dam to take some pictures then we ate dinner at Ruby's Inn at Bryce Canyon. We did receive some bad news when we got home though, Kris was not accepted into the University of Utah for medical school. Kind of a bummer but he is still on the waiting list at Wake Forest and we should hear back from Duke about his status sometime in the middle of March. So, perhaps North Carolina will be our new home in a few months...hopefully.

Winter bliss

Well, we have been trying to enjoy our winter so far. For Christmas we went up to Washington to be with Kris' family. It was pretty fun and relaxing. We got to spend time with some of Kris' old pals from days past and then of course hanging with the family was nice. For New Years we wanted to go to our cabin and enjoy the snow. My dad was sick and everyone else decided that if there were no snowmobiles that they didn't want to come along so we snowshoed in and invited Josh and Kristin Sheldon to hang with us. It was pretty darn cold that night but we managed just fine. We played a great game of Phase 10 which I won (actually I don't really think we finished and I probably wasn't in the lead when we were done). We even stayed up until midnight. Last weekend we went up there again and this time we had the snowmobiles so the whole family came. It was awesome. There was lots of new snow and the weather was great. Kris also had his second interview for med school up at the U and he said that it went well. He has another interview at Duke on the 31st. We did find out that he is on the waiting list at Wake Forest so I guess we could either be in North Carolina or here when fall rolls around. Well, I guess that is about all for our lives. We'll try to keep you posted on what the outcome is.

Briefly

Well, Wake Forest was neat. The interview process there was pretty low stress. I was impressed with the people I met and the students all seem pretty happy to be there. North Carolina seems like a nice area, Winston-Salem apparently is a family friendly kind of place. One of the physicians I interviewed with said there were more youth soccer games than you can shake a stick at. I also recently scheduled interviews at Duke and Utah, so we are pretty happy about that. At least the want to talk to me. But who knows what could happen.

Also, we had a nice thanksgiving with Jenny's fam, most of them were out of town. So it was quiet but nice. We head out this week to go to Washington to stay with my parents for Christmas. Everyone is coming home so it should be quite a crowd. I guess that is all for now.

6.5 months later

Well, it's about time that we updated our blog. Married life is great! We are both working full time right now and Kris is done filling out his medical school applications. Now it is just a waiting game. He does have an interview at Wake Forrest December 3rd so that is exciting for us. These past 6 months have been fun filled with vacations, hunting, and helping out my Dad with his garden and the other wonderful things he has for us to do down in Moroni. I tried archery hunting for the first time this year and it was pretty fun. I did forget all of the things that I had learned the first time an elk came by but I got better as the days went on. I still missed the ones that I shot at but I remembered that I needed to pick a pin and go for it. So, basically we were unsuccessful in our hunting excursions but we had fun nonetheless. Well, hopefull now that I'm learning how to do this we will be a little bit better at keeping up on this.

First Blog Ever

We've never been married before, but thought it might be fun. It is on April 28th. We will be living in Salt Lake for a year, then med school somewhere. I am interviewing for some jobs and Jenny is working for her dad in Salt Lake.