Map of Yellowstone, the Places we went.

These where the highlights of the one day we went to Yellowstone National Park.

Yellowstone

Last year is was my grandparent’s 50th wedding anniversary but they were serving a mission in Nauvoo and not everyone was able to go back there to celebrate, so we decided all of my mom’s family would go to Yellowstone this summer to celebrate!

We all stayed in a cabin in Aston, Idaho and drove to Yellowstone on Thursday. We saw Old Faithful, Artist’s Pointe, Painted Pots, Bison, and Elk. It was a lot of driving, but walkies talkies in each car made the car ride fun! Here are some of the pictures we took that day.

Entering Yellowstone!

We saw these bison from the side of the road.

Charlie and I in front of the painted pots.

This is one of the painted pots, I am not sure why they call them that, but they are geothermal ponds that are basically boiling water. It is amazing to see how blue they are and to see the steam rising up!

This was a really cool tree that had fallen over. What you see is the roots and we are standing on the trunk.

My little cousins were taking our picture and wanted us to kiss for one of the pictures! Of course we were more than happy to!

Charlie and I sat in the back of my parents car the whole time.

Charlie and I waiting for Old Faithful to erupt.

It was really cold, so there was a lot of steam that made it hard for us to see Old Faithful, but here it is! This was Charlie’s first time seeing it and he was disappointed, it wasn’t as cool as he thought it would be.

These were Elk that we saw from the side of the road.

All three of these pictures are at Artist’s Point. Here is where you can see the yellow stones and this amazing waterfall. It was so beautiful. Charlie and I both agree this was our favorite part about Yellowstone.

Logan Ut.

On Monday we went up to Logan Ut. and saw some friends from the mission. Craig and his wife and then Kyle and his wife as well. At about 7:30 that night we went to a family from the mission that i really loved. it was a total surprise to me. We had a really fun time there we played a game that i totally forgot about, it is called the thimble game. One person picks a topic such as colors and thinks of one in their head (blue). That person takes a thimble full of water and goes around the room to each person playing. Each person has to say a color and whoever says the color the person is thinking (blue) gets the thimble dumped on them. It was really fun playing the game again and we had the best homemade Cheesecake i have ever had.

Later that night we had the Rodemacks come over and hung out with them and we started to play Rock Band. so here are some pictures of our crazy time.

Kyle, Craig, Charlie

Christina and Charlie trying to look cool sticking out tounges out at eachother.

Melissa, Craig and Kyle’s leg

Kyle, Craig, Charlie at Craig’s house

Charlie singing Living on a Prayer.

Graduation!!!!

Well, I finally did it! Going to school full time and working part time for the last 5 years have finally paid off, I have graduated from Arizona State Unversity in Elementary Education!!! The question I have been asked the most was, "Did you see Obama?" Yes, my parents, Charlie, Charlie's mom and dad, and my grandpa came to my commencement where President Obama spoke. Regardless if whether you voted for him, he is our president and it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. On our back to our car, we saw his motorcade of 16+ motorcycle police, several SUV's, 2 limos with the flags on them, an ambulance, a firetruck, several vans etc. We left our house at 2 pm and did not get home until 10 pm. Although it was hot and there a ton of people, I am so glad I was able to share it with the people that I love.
Two days later was my convocation. This is were I got to walk across the stage! Charlie, my parents, my sisters, Charlie's parents, my sister and brother-in-law and their baby, Charlee, my aunt and uncle, and my grandparents were there to celebrate with me. It meant so much to me that my family was there to support me. That night I had a party at my parent's house with my friends and family.

Charlie and I on the way to my Commencement

My friends and I at our Convocation

I have other pictures that I will post later.

Family Pictures

Family Pictures are on Sunday the 10th at 5:30 or so. That is Mothers day so all you people who did not get something for your Wonderful Mother yet you better get on it. You have about 2 weeks (i still need to so yes i am kind of yelling at myself).

April 24, 2009

The past couple days and been a ton of fun.  on Thursday i found out that my friend Zack was in town and was getting married on Friday after talking to him for a bit he asked if i would come to the sealing.  it was a good one at that.  As we sat in the room David and Dan were there and we talked about what room people where sealed in.  Zack and his wife got sealed in the same room as Christina and I, David’s sister and i think Dan said that someone in his family was sealed in that room as well. i thought that was neat. After the Sealing we went over to the lunch in and had some good food there.

April 25, 2009

The next day David, Aaron, Dan, Jade, the Lakes, and me went to Canyon Lake for the day.  We got there about 9:30 am and left at about 3pm.  Everyone but me, are really good at wakeboarding (it could be that i don’t go all the time.)  We all had a lot of fun.  Of course i got burnt but not too bad (if you ask my wife she will say different), it is mostly my face and legs that got the bulk of it.  At 7pm that night we went to the wedding reception they had some awesome cupcakes the frosting on them were sooooo good.  didn’t stay long because we didn’t but we had a lot of fun.  By this time at night i had been up for 36 hours or so. Man i slept good that night

Graduation

I am so excited to graduate in 5 weeks! President Obama will be speaking at my commencement, the bad news is that I only get to invite 6 people. I believe both sets of grandparents will be in town too! I have been going to school at least full time and working part time for last 5 years and I am so ready to graduate! Too bad this is the worst year to be graduating in education. Almost all school districts in the valley are in a hiring freeze. We are hoping for the best.
Student teaching has been the best experience in education I have had so far. I am the happiest I have been in years and I love going to school every day! I will truely miss my students at the end of this school year.