Results at Nationals

Nate's team placed 23rd in the nation overall out of 200+ schools. They placed 13th in bridge strength! So proud of them!

The Engineer Going to Nationals!

Nate is finishing up his Junior year at Utah State, so he has started looking into getting an internship. One night he went to a dinner to meet employees from local engineering firms. When he came home it was so nice to see him all professional looking.

I had to smile when I saw his pocket full of pens. His excuse was that they were free from the dinner. My opinion is that he is starting to really play the part of an engineer.

It wasn't five minutes later and he was back to his usual attire, sitting at the table with his homework all spread out. If you ask what Nate has been doing over the last few months this picture basically sums it all up.

He also has been involved with the ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) Steel Bridge Competition. They had to design and build a 21 ft. long steel bridge that could hold 2,400 lbs. The bridge had to be disassembled to fit into a box. The competition included the amount of time it took to build, not stepping in the marshland, not dropping any piece of it, and not bending very much under the weight.
There are 8 people that get to build it. The first time they ever built it, it took them 5 hours, 2nd time 3 hours, at the competition . . . 15 minutes.

Needless to say they did absolutely awesome. There were also other Utah State teams competing at this competition doing other things like concrete canoe, etc. The best part about it all is that UTAH STATE took 1st place overall, resulting in a massive trophy to display at the engineering building. This is something that hasn't happened in 14 years. Looks like they are headed to Nationals in Texas, this May. Man! I am so proud of them.

On top of all this, Nate also has some very exciting things happening this summer. He is headed to Peru with his Engineers Without Borders team to check out and repair a water distribution system for a village. Nate was also referred by one of his professors to a man who wants Nate to design a water distribution and waste-water treatment system for a school in Tanzania, Africa. The possibility of Nate actually going to Africa this summer is very high. So, internship or not he is getting some amazing experiences in.

Extreme Haircuts

Before . . .


After!

Gus doesn't shed and we absolutely love that about him. But every few months we do have to give him a haircut. Bah, bah black sheep have you any wool. YES sir, YES sir THREE BAGS FULL!

I randomly decided to have a change and cut off twelve inches of hair. I have never had my hair this short and I like it, but I don't know which way I like better.

I am excited to donate it to Locks of Love.

Nick's Endowments

Nick went through the temple for the first time and it wasa so great to have so many of us there in the temple together. No greater feeling! We celebrated afterward at Sizzlers.



Nick just barely left on his mission last week. We are so excited for him and will definitely miss him. We are excited to receive more "Nick-isms" in his letters. He's a great kid and will be an awesome missionary!

Gus' First Halloween

Gus definitely loved the fall. We would throw his frisbee into a big pile of leaves and he would dive in head first and crawl through the leaves until he found it.

We started early in October trying to decide what he would be for Halloween. I tried my coat on Gus and come to find out him and I are actually the same size around the arms and shoulders.

On one trip to the DI we found this awesome hat and decided he could be snoopy when he is flying his airplane. So we found some goggles and a flowing white scarf. On Halloween night gus stood by the door to show off his costume to all these strange people that stopped by. Some of them he barked at and others he wanted to pet him.

I had bought 100 candies thinking that that would be sufficient. At 6:00 we had already ran out of candy. So, I ran to the store and bought 100 more. We then ran out again by 8:00 but that was ok because Nate and I had a murder mystery dinner to attend. I was a stuck up rich Asian model dressed as a Geisha. Nate was a loud boisterous Key Grip dressed up as a movie director. He made himself a megaphone out of a poster board and used it to announce his arrival at the party and to talk to people in the room. It was so very hilarious. Even though I was supposed to sit back and be the quiet one in the room, it was so very fun to be there with our friends. No... neither of us were the murderer.

If you look closely, during Halloween our house had a terrible spider problem. Our whole front porch was wrapped in spider webs. It was very funny to see the little kids be scared of our porch but attempt the trip up onto the porch for the candy anyway.

1 Year Anniversary

For our Anniversary, Nate told me to pack up and get in the car, that we were going somewhere but it was a surprise. We were more than half way there when I finally figured out where we were going.... Zions National Park. The hike to Angels Landing is a special one to us because we went there with his Dad for spring break just before Nate left on his mission. That was when Nate talked to me about being around after he got home from his mission. So for our anniversary we hiked Angels Landing again and it was a neat feeling to be there and know that Nate had served an honorable mission and that we had reached our goal of getting married in the temple.

Drinkin' from my saucer cuz' my cup is overflow'd.

It's been awhile since I have written in the blog. School started and things got hectic, but we have done so many fun things in the past 4 months, I felt like I needed to post them.

Sometime in September we went to Star Valley, Wyoming to stay in a cabin with our friends Clint and Cheryl and my parents. It was tons of fun and the Valley was so beautiful.

We stopped in Jackson Hole for a little while to get a picture with the famous antler arches.

The cabin is owned by Clint's brother. It was so very rustic and cozy and a fun alternative to camping. It has bright red carpet throughout which adds to its uniqueness.

Our main purpose in coming was to spend the evening with the Bar J Wranglers at their ranch. To enjoy a good meal and be there for the entertainment. They put on quite a show and it is so very fun to be there on their home turf.


Nate and I walked around and enjoyed the many fun decorations and cute little shops and really enjoyed the dutch oven rolls.

We got to the ranch early enough to be able to sit on the very front row. During the show one of the wranglers threw a dirty sock on me. It was so unexpected that I tossed it on Nate and Nate threw it back at them. Then they started teasing that I had taken off my sock and had thrown it at them. It was such a blast, I laughed until my sides hurt. I also teared up at the truthfulness of some of the songs. The cowboy poem that I posted at the bottom says that He is drinkin' from his saucer 'cuz his cup has overflowed. I too have been so very blessed, with a wonderful family, an amazing husband, the best in-laws in the world, a job, and the gospel in my life.