On Thursday of last week, I finally finished my last semester of classes on BYU-I campus! The light at the end of the tunnel has now appeared. Although, I am down with classes on campus, I am not done with my undergraduate degree. I still have to complete student teaching, which I will begin on January 5th. Once this has been completed, and my passing all the requirements, I will graduate and walk on April 9, 2010. I’m terribly excited. I started school in January of 2004, not including the summer semester I attended before serving a mission. It’s been a long road, but I’m glad to say that we are debt free! It took me a while because I opted to work in the summers in Alaska and pay for school instead of attending classes. I am on a Winter/Summer schedule instead of the sought after Fall/Winter schedule.

Another reason I am glad that I am finished with this semester is because I can now enjoy Christmas. Attending one’s last semester of classes is not usually an easy task. There are portfolio’s to assemble, paper’s to write, and certification exam’s to take. Attending to all of the assignments doesn’t lead for much time to enjoy the Christmas holiday. I never felt that I could give too much attention to celebrating Christmas without falling behind or forgetting something important for my classes. So, you could imagine my sigh of relief as those classes reached their end and I could shift my focus from not failing to enjoying the spirit of Christmas.

Proform Airborne Extreme Show

Last year the Proform Airborne Jump Rope Team that Kaitlyn and I coach restarted a show that we put on for the community. Our jumpers went door to door, contacted family and friends, and sold tickets to anybody to help send our team to the National Competition in Texas. Last year, after counting pre-sold tickets we were planning on about 300 people for our 45 minute show. When the doors opened we were surprised when there was a line at the door going down the street. When we started we were filled past fire code for the building and had nearly 1,000 people watch our show. It truly was a great thing for our team.

On November 14th, we will be hosting our big community show again, which we dubbed "The Extreme Show", here in Rexburg at the high school. We hope that once again we will be able to surprise ourselves and have even more than last year show up for the show. This show is a great opportunity for the jumpers on our team to make money for themselves that they can put forth towards paying their way to the new $1000 cost of jumping at the national competition in June. It is also a way for our team to give back to the community that has supported it for so many years. Rexburg loves the jump rope team and our jumpers love to perform, so it's a great combination.

Kaitlyn and I would love for any of you to come see our jumpers perform at our community show if you can make the trip to Rexburg. Tickets are $5 for Adult, $3 for kids, & $20 for families. We hope to see you there!

Proform Airborne Highlight Video

For those who don't already know. Kaitlyn and I coach a community jump rope team. The team is located in Rexburg, Idaho and includes jumpers from the surrounding communities and ranging in age from 8-20 years old. The team competes yearly at a regional competition and a national competition. They also perform at various school shows and half times around Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming. Check out this video of highlights from this past year compiled and edited by one of the team members parents (John Allred). I hope you enjoy discovering the competitive world of jump rope!

Wedding Pictures Proofs

I have received a few emails and blog comments wanting to see more wedding pictures that I shot. I didn't realize that my taking wedding pictures would be so popular among the family members. Thanks to all who have shown interest. I have attached a few photos to give you a glimpse. I have a long way to go before I reach Julie status, but I like them. Enjoy!

Wedding Pictures

I just finished shooting my first wedding for a friend. I was a bit worried, mostly because I like to take pictures of mountains, which don't typically move, and a wedding is full of variable situations. None the less, I made sure that I learned as much as I could and I did my best. I felt it went well. Kaitlyn thinks that the pictures I took are better than our own wedding pictures, which is a compliment. My final tally was 2300 pictures taken for that day which encompassed 18 Gigabytes of space on my computer. It was a good experience and I'm glad I had the opportunity and was trusted enough to take pictures of such an important event.

Welcome to the Nursery

Today, Kaitlyn and I got new callings. We were sustained as Nursery Leaders in our ward. Neither of us have been the Nursery since we were under the age of 3. So, you could imagine our excitement as we went to class today. As we went into class today we were informed that there are 6 nursery leaders. There are 6 leaders because we have 15-20 kids in nursery. Nursery was tons of fun! We played with toys, sang songs, had lunch. It was great. Granted, kids were screaming, kicking each one another, and tackling each other. Oh, well. To our surprise, the nursery is really organized. The kids don't do one thing for more than about 10 minutes before we switch to something else. We will be working out of the new "Behold Your Little Ones" Nursery Manual. We haven't receive ours just yet, but everyone else seems to like it quite a bit. Anyway, we look forward to our new calling.

Washington Vacation

As the bell rang on Friday afternoon Kaitlyn began her Potato Harvest Break; a two week break her school district gives to students and teachers. As soon as she got home we began our 9 1/2 hour drive to my parents house in Zillah, Washington. We finally arrived around 1:30 am MDT exhausted. My parents were so excited to see us that they got up and chatted with us until 3:00-3:30 am; I’m not sure how coherent any of us really were.

Saturday Morning we got up and ate a prepared pancake and eggs breakfast that my dad made for us. Our plans were to go to the Central Washington State Fair with my family and make it back in time for Kaitlyn, my mom, and my sister to watch the General Relief Society Broadcast on TV. Just as we were heading out the door an old family friend, Darrel & Linda White, knocked on the door. Darrel & Linda have been friends with my parents since before my parents were married. Darrel was also the first Zillah Ward, where we went to church, and was my wrestling coach in high school. They just returned from a mission in Seoul, Korea. We visited for about 1 1/2 hours and then headed for the Fair.

At the Fair we spent a long time looking at exhibits and trying out the good fair food. One exhibit Kaitlyn and I were somewhat excited about was a model of a “double” wide manufactured home! We walked in and toured the home and couldn’t help but gawking at how big it felt. I guess that’s what happens when one lives in relatively small mobile home. :) Hillary, my younger sister, and Kaitlyn and I took the last hour of our time there to ride some of the rides. We went on a hang glider style ride where we flew through the air on our bellies. It was fun, but about as much as I ever want to do for rides. I’m not much for rides. That being said, I agreed to go on a ride called the “Ring of Fire” where you ride a roller coaster in a circle upside down. I have to say that it wasn’t my favorite ride of the day. I think I’m done with rides for a while.

Sunday we went to church with my family. It was fun reuniting with friends of my old ward.

Monday morning we went to my dad’s school and visited his classroom. It was a lot messier than I remember it. I think Kaitlyn felt a little better about her room being somewhat messy or disorganized after seeing my dad’s room all a mess.

Monday afternoon we left my parents house and went and stayed the night with some friends of ours, Isaac and Breta Johnson, in Spokane. Breta just had a baby, so it was fun to see her new son and play with him a bit. We went to dinner, played some games, and explored Isaac’s parents 10,000 foot mansion, where they are currently living (we had the option of sleeping in the “secret room,” where we had to enter through a book case, or in the theater). We enjoyed our time visiting them.

We spent most of Tuesday driving back to Rexburg and are very glad that we are back in our own home again!