Getting Ready for Christmas





Every year we cut down a Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. It used to be that we could find good trees in Malad, but now we head to Soda Springs until we travel far and deep into the mountains. I'm not to keen of this long drive just for a Christmas tree, but we always have a good time.



When we find the perfect spot everyone heads out on foot with saws and lots of warm clothes. We all spread out looking for our perfect tree. When everyone has found their tree we now have to drag them down the mountain to where the truck is. Our truck does a pretty good job getting us as far up the mountain as it can, but we always run into a tree blocking the road.

Our New Beginning in Salt Lake

It’s almost our one year anniversary and a full year of living in Salt Lake City. While thinking about these two things and looking back on our first year of marriage all I can say is Wow I can’t believe how much stuff has been stolen from us in a year span. Since friends have been telling me to update my blog and I can’t because our new camera has been stolen, I decided to blog all the items that have been stolen from us in the last year. That way when you come to a time in your life when you have the choice to move to Salt Lake or some where else you will now make the right decision.



A wool coat.


Not just two poles, but three or four.



Rusty's tennis shoes....which he probably needed new ones anyway.


A new camera I bought for Rusty's birthday so he would have a nice camera when he went to Alaska...10x optical zoom so he could zoom up on the polar bears. We also bought a camera a couple of weeks ago and it said it was dilivered three days ago and we have yet to see it.


A new laptop I had just bought. Similiar to this one but with a different design. I was still making payments when stolen.


Rusty's laptop. It was older, but hey it still worked great and it's always nice to have an extra laptop when both your professions require a computer.


A fly tying box that Rusty's dad gave him.


And all the fly tying material that was inside the fly tying box. I seperated them because they each are expensive. I wish I could say this stopped Rusty from fly fishing, but he had 10 or 15 flies that weren't stolen so every free chance he had he was still out fishing.


A dress that my mom bought me to wear to the temple on my wedding day. Which I loved and the material was amazing. We looked everywhere to find another one, but couldn't. It looked nothing like this dress, but the model looks cute in it. :)


My makeup bag. Full of all my makeup and perfume because I couldn't decide what I wanted for the wedding.






Tiffany was kind enough to remind me that I forgot to add her curling iron I borrowed on my wedding day and a mixing board from the sound equipment we used for our reception. Although the owner was nice enough to not charge us. Took pitty on us I guess. :)



Last of all was a clay pot. A mom gave me a potted plant at the end of the last year. The people who stole the pot from our front door step decided they wanted the pot but not the plant. They were kind enough to leave the plant. Needless did they know the plant was probably worth more then a $.99 clay pot.

Welcome to Salt Lake. Some of this stuff we have no idea how it got stolen. We don't know if it was out of our car or from our apartment. We are paranoid about leaving anything in our car so it's hard to imagine it was stolen from there, but if they stole it from our apartment, why didn't they take anything else? Who knows. All I know is I sleep with a loaded gun on one side and bear spray on the other to make myself feel safe.

Camping

Rusty and I went on a camping trip with my old roommate and her husband. We camped by Masa Falls where it is so green and beautiful!




We found a beautiful place where a river ran through the canyon and of course Rusty convinced us to hike down this very steep canyon to try out the fishing. It was a tough climb down and up! The pictures do not do it justice on how steep it was. We thought it would be easier to climb down the rocks, which actually turned out to be hard because there was nothing for you to grab on unless you went down on your butt. So on the way up we decided to go a different path with less rocks. It looks easier then it looked. It was actually a dirt pile that had no plants to help you pull yourself up. I had to get a running start and when I would stop I would slide right down. So you had to get a good start until you found a rock or plant to brase you, catch your breath and then do it again. I actually would have preferred climbing back up the rocks if I ever had to do it again. Even though I saw the UGLIEST spider on one of them!







Once we got down we let the boys do a little fishing. Rusty caught one by fly fishing, but it was Jasons first time so we will cut him a break. He was also regular fishing which really didn't help I don't think. It's too bad he didn't catch a fish though. It is fun to see people catch a fish for the first time. It's exciting when you get one!









Rusty Cooking!



So on the 4th of July we had to help my mom sell strawberries. (or should I say we got to). We left at 6:30 a.m. and sold berries in Idaho Falls. While convincing other people to buy strawberries, Rusty convinced himself in the meantime. He decided we should make jam which really means in a guys world is I'll buy it and you make it. Well I am in the middle of classes and so I said no way. He didn't bllink an eye before he said, "That's fine. Give me the recipe and I'll make it." So sure enough I came home one day and he was cutting up the strawberries starting to make jam. I let him go about it himself...it's good for him. I eventually decided to check up on him and as I walked into the kitchen there Rusty was taking the bowl of strawberries and weighing them on our scale. Yes he was weighing the strawberries on the scale. So this is our conversation....

"Rusty what are you doing?"
"Well I was thinking. If I weigh the berries I can calculate how to make more jam than the recipe said."
"Ha ha ha oh......Have you ever heard of the term "double the recipe?""
"Oh..oh ya"



You better believe I still make fun of him. His mind is just too smart, he can't think simply. Always believes something has to be solved more complicated than it really is. But I do like his brains even though it makes me very jealous and sometimes angry. He is the one that decides to go fishing the day of the test, reviews the material right before, and gets the highest in the class. Ok I change my mind. Actually it makes me mad because I study for hours and hours and just do average on a test so he knows not to say to much when he comes home from acing a test!

California



Rusty and my brothers weren't up for anything crazy after their day of fishing so we went went to Pier 39 and just had fun in the stores. The next day Rusty and I went beach hoping and found some beautiful and white trash beaches.

Deep Sea Fishing




Now that it is summer Rusty and I planned a trip to San Francisco to meet up with my brothers who are there selling. Of course Rusty wanted to go deep sea fishing while we were there. And for some reason my brothers thought it would be a fun experience to go. So Rusty and my brothers left at 5:00A.M to get to the dock and their equipment together before they left port at 7:00A.M. I would like to say that Tiffany and I thought better of the situation and would rather spend the money on shopping then to take the chance of getting sick on the boat and coming back and smelling like fish.



These are some of the pictures from the boys deep sea fishing. Of course they took some dramamine before the trip, but it didn't stop Jason and Rusty from getting sick. They said they threw it up before it even got a chance to work! Mike and Josh never got sick. Felt find the whole time. Lucky for Rusty he was doing something he loved so he could bare the sickness better then Jason. Mike said when we was fishing next to Rusty, Rusty started to feel like he was going to throw up but then he caught a fish so he got all excited and started reeling in the fish. He reeled it in, threw up, and then just continued getting the fishing into the boat, not missing a beat.



If you look close you can see Jason throwing up over the side in the picture above. They also are the wierdest looking fish!




Fly Fishing

Rusty asked me if I wanted to go for a drive and then have a picnic, but in reality he wanted to go fishing and didn't want to leave me at the house. It was a beautiful drive I will give him that and I got some good sun, but this video is to show you how boring fly fishing is to watch. For three hours I sat and watched the line go back and forth.

Last day of school







Some of the students wanted to get their picture with me, but they didn't realize that it was the last day and I had no way to give them the picture.

2nd grade



I was so sad the school year was over. I felt that I finally got the hang of things and the school year was over! I had such a great class! They were full of so much personality I was sad to let them go. I wish I could move up to third and teach them again. One boy said that he thought he was going to try just thinking about leaving. :) This is a picture of the last day of school.

Dance Festival



We had a dance festival at school and since the other 2nd grade teachers and I lack the ability to dance, Rusty agreed to come and teach the whole 2nd grade a line dance. It took awhile to catch on but they practiced all the time. Even during recess they would practice. And they performed so well! I was so glad I didn't have to get up and help them!

Vacation


Rusty finally came home! PBI (Polar Bears International) is who Rusty was working with while he was in Alaska. Two weeks after getting home he had to go to California to meet with PBI, Sea world, along with his professor for next years project. PBI took pitty on me and felt bad that they took Rusty away from me for so long, so they bought me a round trip ticket to California so I could be with Rusty. They were also nice enough to pay for our hotel and got us tickets into San Diego Zoo and many of our meals!

This is proof that I am married to a redneck. This is what we did the first time I met his family. (It's called redneck golf) And yes that is Rusty laughing in the background.

Alaska





Rusty is on the north slope of Alaka studying polar bears for his masters degree. He is constantly busy tracking and filming the polar bears. Even though he likes it, I'm not too excited because he left me in the ghetto of Salt Lake by myself. They have three stages of storms where he is at. The first is just a caution or warning. The second level you have to travel in convoys. The third level is they have to find a shelter area near by and stay there until it passes. He has been stuck in level three already. This is the suit he has to wear for the 60 below temperatures.