Utah

I live in one of the greatest states ever.

Today, for work, I had to drive up to the U (not the campus, the letter). I had to go up there to take some pictures of a lot that someone wants to build a house on. Someone wealthy, obviously because the view is incredible up there. I could check how much taxes would be just on the lot, but I won't.

Last night, I went up to my Stake President's house for a Bishopric date night. When I say "up", I mean it. His house is the highest up the mountain just East of the I-215 3900 S exit. He has a pool that overlooks the whole valley, and we had a steak dinner out there, and then swam in the pool after watching the beautiful sunset. If I get the chance, I'll hook up my phone and post the picture of the sunset from it right here. It was amazing.

Also, tonight I'm headed up to the Uintah's for a campout with my friends from high school. It's an annual thing we do, and it's tons of fun!

So, with all this mountain stuff, I got to thinking about how many awesome things we have in this great state! Mountains, for hiking, camping, mountain biking, with rivers for floating, lakes for water skiing. Also, we have desert and hot dry air, which is my favorite. Lake Powell, which trumps anything you could argue for any other state. Plus, my family (including most of my extended family) lives here. Pretty much, I've got a great life, and a great location for my personality. I get to do all the awesome things that I love to do, all within an hour of my house.

Sweet.

On Blogs

So, after doing some minor research into the world of blogging (as this is still fairly new to me), I've discovered that a couple of things help make blogs more interesting:

1. Pictures. Even kids understand this concept. If you're going to read a book to them, there'd better be some illustrations in there, to help their imaginations to soar. It's the same on blogs. Unfortunately for me, my camera got soaked at Lake Powell and doesn't work anymore.

2. Using either eloquent or dramatic speech. This one's harder to explain. For some reason, when things are typed on a page, and you can't hear the person's voice, it can get really monotone in your head. So when people embellish their words and throw out some crazy awesome analogies, it sounds more fun and energetic, and easier to read. I think font type and using some bold or italic fonts would help too. This would have to be something for me to work on, because I just say things the way they are, and I don't like to sound exaggerated. The sad thing is, in a blog post, non-exaggerated sounds bland.

If you have any other observations on what makes a blog a fun blog, let me know!

Sports

I love playing. This week I've played a sport every night. Monday was volleyball and Tuesday and yesterday were both ultimate.

Volleyball - This was a stake FHE, and anyone could put together a team. I was lucky to be picked on the best one. We went undefeated.

Tues. Ultimate - BYU Coed Intramurals. We aren't undefeated this time. But, we won! We were playing a very good team, that had 3-5 subs, while we were down a player the whole game, and we won 12-5! That was a good feeling. We just beat them with our hustle.

Wed. Ultimate - This was just for fun, with friends from our ward and high school and everything. I love playing, and I can't stop until everyone's gone. Even then, I love to throw the disc around with a couple of people.

So anyways, last night, after all this ultimate and volleyball (both sports in which jumping is required), I felt the effects of not stretching. I was watching psych with my sister and her friend Jill, and I just stretched, and I got the WORST cramp/charlie horse in my calf! I couldn't relax my leg, and it killed and lasted around 5 minutes. I know I'm not old, but I guess I am getting older. Maybe I should stretch before and after I play...

Ahhhhh...

Saturday night we got home from Powell. Late. I went to my room, laid down on my bed and exhaled. I love that place. It is without question my favorite. Not to mention that I went with my awesomest family and the Shoells, which just made it that much more enjoyable. I could live there.

Of course, it wasn't all just smiles. I did get my camera wet, and it won't turn on anymore, and my sky ski isn't working quite as well as it should. For some reason it keeps just randomly turning on you and stuff - kind of frustrating. I got some scrapes, but overall, we had an awesome, enjoyable trip, and had a lot of fun and time to relax! It was great!

So now I'm back to working and schooling! Hopefully I can catch up on all the stuff I've missed this week in my organic chemistry class and in lab. Because...

I'm going camping this weekend too! Vacation time all over the place. This is the annual guys camping trip with friends from high school. It's going to be sweet. Sadly, I can only go friday night to saturday morning, but it'll be fun anyways. We're headed up to the Uintahs!

The Temple

So I went to the temple last night, and it was just a nice peaceful experience. There have been a lot of talks in General Conference and other reminders in Church about how we need to visit the temple more often. I was chatting with a member from my mission, where they have to travel close to 1,000 miles to get to the temple in Frankfurt, and how exciting it is that the temple is being built in Kiev. It made me think of how blessed I am to have 4 temples in the Salt Lake Valley, plus 3 others just 20-40 minutes away. So I figured I should go.

While I was there, I read Moroni 7, which is my favorite chapter in the Book of Mormon. I've been thinking a lot lately about faith and how I can strengthen my faith, so it was good to read that and be reminded of how I could. I'm glad I was able to go.

Powell

Next week we are headed to the BEST PLACE ON EARTH!!! For any of you who don't know where this is, it's in Southeastern Utah/Arizona, and it's called Lake Powell. We are lucky enough to get to go there about twice a year, and every time, I get so excited! This year we're going with the Shoells, a family friend that we've known for a very long time, and we get to go for the whole week! It's gonna be great! Here are a couple of pictures of what we do there:

The Begog

This is something new for me. I don’t know if my life is interesting enough for other people to read about, but it’s something to do in the very little spare time that I have, and it’s a good way for me to remember my life. I’m pretty bad at keeping a journal, so I thought maybe I’d try this whole blogging thing. My sisters really enjoy blogs, and have their own. You can check their blogs out too - cxclax.blogspot.com and c-bop.blogspot.com. You’ll soon find out that they are the coolest sisters ever (including Chelsey, even though she doesn’t have a blog “BLOG!” yet).

My parents are amazing as well, so put us all together, and you have the coolest family ever made!

Seriously though, we are the best.

Anyways… to start this thing off, I figure I’d better tell you how I got to be where I am now. I’ll keep it brief:

I was born in Ogden, Utah on January 28, 1986. I grew up in Murray, Utah all my life. I went to Murray High School, and then went to the University of Utah for a semester. I then served a 2-year mission in Donets’k, Ukraine. Now I’m back at the U, studying BioMedical Engineering. It’s such an exciting major. I love all of the classes that I’ve taken, and I’m excited for all the others I have to take!

I love waterskiing. It is my favorite hobby ever. I’ll probably put a few pictures on this of us at Lake Powell and elsewhere, enjoying glassy water. It’s ok to be jealous, just try to do your part to keep the water that way. I also love playing Ultimate Frisbee, and most other sports, including running, mountain biking, hiking, soccer, football, etc... Music is a big part of my life, and of course, the Church plays an important role in defining who I am.

So that’s me!