Yellowstone Day 1

Karl and I were able to go to Yellowstone as another escape between semesters. I absolutely loved it. The weather was great, there was tons to see, and I got to be alone with Karl on a vacation. It doesn't get much better than that. The first day we got there we hit Old Faithful and all the geyser basins around there. (My suggestion: If you go to Yellowstone hit this on your last day. Those are by far the prettiest pools. The others are great too, but you'll be more impressed if you see everything else first.) I discovered that Karl has no love for Old Faithful. He thinks its a bit over rated and just doesn't like waiting for it. I have to admit I was a little bored too, we only waited like ten minutes, but I thought it was really cool to see. It's amazing that it is so predictable and that the water can shoot up so high.

We also saw a lot of beautiful pools.Spouting WaterWildlifeSteaming Hills And Italians. I swear we ran into about 10 different groups a day. I could always tell when we were close to some because Karl would linger. Usually we would walk around pretty quick to try and see everything. But when Karl started taking his time looking at a pool or started fidgeting with the camera you could bet there were Italians near by. He was in heaven when he got to talk to them. So it was a win-win situation. I got to look for all the geysers and Karl got to look for all the Italians. I swear the whole country came over the few days we were there because we ran into them wherever we went.

Then we just got to enjoy being at our campsite, eating tin foil dinners and having a huge tent that we could actually stand up in; a big step up from our usual two man pup tent. All in all, it was a great first day.

Our Car Got Crunched

On Wednesday Karl has work down in Provo. I decided that I really wanted to play racquetball with him when he was done so I went down too. I was going to go visit a friend while he was working and then we would play. So we get to Provo and Karl tells me to wait five minutes before I left, apparently this was in case I needed to take him to the baseball field. I thought he was for sure going to come back. So I just sat in the car reading my book while I waited for him. After about 10 minutes I decide he's not coming back so I start getting ready to leave. I had my door open because it was pretty hot in the car. It was then that I noticed a car was approaching and had started to turn towards the empty spot next to me. I went to close the door so she could get in when ... CRUNCH. She completely ran into my door, making the bottom buckled in like it was play dough. Upon further inspection the door would not close, you had to lift it up and push really hard to make it stay partly shut. The girl apparently thought she had enough room and was in a hurry to get to her education week classes. So Karl and I are now in a rental car, ours has been towed away, and we are awaiting the final verdict on what they are going to do. The girls insurance will either pay for the repairs or just give us some money. So that was my first real car accident. And I was just sitting in a parking lot.

Final Days at BYU

Reading Days have always been a bit difficult for me. I know they are designed to give you a whole day to study, but to me they end up being a whole day to put off studying and have fun. I've gotten a bit better at fighting this temptation in my old(er) age but I still have a ways to go. I remember freshman year I spent my reading days laser tagging with Karl and some friends, hanging out, playing card games, and, in general, not picking up a book.

(Here's another semester's reading day. We were gathering supplies to pack up all our stuff. And yes, we are in a dumpster. I would just like to clarify it was cardboard only.)

Yesterday was a bit better. I studied off and on (between napping and reading for fun), and Karl and I spent some time at the pool. It was amazing.

So now finals are done! At least mine are. They were all in one day. I was finished with mine before Karl even got to take one. So I am unofficially done at BYU. I pretty much have my bachelors degree in Human Development (as long as I passed my classes). It's a little sad. I know I complain about school, and honestly it really does stress me out, but I have loved being a student at Brigham Young University.


There is just a different feel to campus. I know some people hate the Y and call Provo a bubble and "Happy Valley" but I love it. BYU really does have a special spirit that you don't get anywhere else. I didn't think the UVU was that bad, and it's not, but when I got to go back to BYU for the summer I realized just how much I missed it, how relieved and at peace I felt (which is saying something because usually being at school makes me stressed).
So BYU, we've had our good time (like meeting the love of my life) and our bad times (like being egged my freshman year on the worst night of my life) but all in all it's been amazing. I'll miss ya.

Jordanelle

Last Tuesday we went out to Jordanelle with Karl's family. Everyone was able to make it except for Kirsten who couldn't get work off (we missed you Kirsten). It was so much fun. Tony rented a wave runner for the day and we all took turns going out. I got to be the test dummy for the tube. Karl informed me that we wouldn't be able to go very fast with two people on the wave runner and someone on the tube so I should just go out there and relax. So I trusted him. It was a little chilly and I didn't want to get in the water but I've always like tubing so I thought it would be nice. He starts pulling me and it's great, I'm able to just enjoy the view and the occasional spray of the wake. Suddenly it's getting harder and harder to hold on and yep, you guessed it, I got flipped in. Apparently it was possible to go fast with two people and a tube and Karl couldn't resist. So we went a few more times but after I flew about 5 feet in the air off of one jump I was done for awhile.

It was really fun being able to just hang out with everyone and play with the kids. Karl, James, McKenzie and I went out for a ride so James and Kenzie could go tubing. We discovered that Kenzie really doesn't like to go fast and doesn't really like going all the way under the water. We were trying to make James ride interesting so we were going pretty fast (despite Kenzie constantly telling us to slow down. Sorry Kenzie) and we were approaching some big waves. Karl tried to slow down so it wouldn't be so bumpy and the next thing we knew we were underwater. The wave had gone over the top of all three of us. Kenzie did NOT like that. I was scared she was going to cry but she just said she didn't want to do that again.

All in all it was a great day in the sun. Karl and I both got sunburned (I was a lot worse than him obviously. I really hope our kids get his complexion). I couldn't really walk for the next few day, but it was worth it. Now if the peeling would just stop...

Thanks for such a great day Jepsons!

Quilting Distress

I have been wanting to make a quilt for awhile. When Cami told me about a fabric sale online I couldn't help myself. I picked out some fabric and I got it. The problem with online means I don't actually get to see the fabric before I get it. I ordered 6 different fabrics so I could do squares of blue and brown. Half of my fabrics were different than I was planning. One looked about the same, the print was just a lot bigger than I was expecting. Another I thought was blue with thin light purple stripes for more color, but alas no. It was just light blue stripes, but I still like it so that was fine. The other fabric however, I'm not even sure if I can use. I thought it was a dark brown with cream flowers. Instead it is a red, chestnut brown with a weird green. The brown doesn't match anything and I have no other green in the quilt. So I'm a little stumped as to what to do with that one.
Anyways, now is the dilemma of how to design the quilt. Here are a few of my ideas. Tell me what you think. I'm horrible at making decisions.

Karl said he liked bigger squares than the small ones so here's one with big squares only. But he said he didn't really care as long as the back was just one color. The backing is going to be the darker blue and I was planning on using it for the binding as well. So here are two other options that have more varied sized squares.

One that's random. (By the way, the square on this one have the fabric designs more in proportion. See how the tan one with cat-tailish flowers has such a big print)And one with more of a patternIf you have an opinion of which one you think is better or if none of them are very good please let me know. I've never been very good at designing or making things look cute. Please help!