August 30, 2011

BYU Tribute

Since Justin and I recently (4 months ago... relatively recent) graduated from BYU I thought I would take a few minutes to write about some of my most memorable classes and college experiences.

Entomology
In entomology i learned how to catch/identify/preserve bugs. Before this class I did not care for bugs at all! However, entomology gave me a greater understanding and knowledge of bugs and I now consider them to be pretty amazing/fascinating organisms!
Here is my prized Jerusalem Cricket

Here is my bug collection!
I got all these bugs with a lot of help from family and friends!
(300 bugs total, 18 Orders, and 100 Species! I think... )

Plant Identification
In this class I had to learn and identify 200 different species of plants in the provo area. Although I can't remember most of the plants and names now, it was a cool feeling to be able to identify any plant I saw for a good couple months!
I don't have a picture of anything from this class... but one day when I was out looking at plants in order to study for a test I took this little beauty below! Y-mountain after a summer shower!


Canyoneering
Canyoneering was not a required class, just one of those crazy classes you take for fun! For this class we took a trip to the San Rafael Swell and canyoneered down Eardlly Canyon. 3 repels, and ice cold pools to swim through!

The water was so cold we had to wear 5mm wetsuits and dive gloves. At one point when I was doing the last and tallest rappel I lost my footing on some slick rocks and I flipped upside down! I thought this experience was awesome, but I think I almost gave my professor a heart attack haha!

Evolution
This was probably my favorite class at BYU for many different reasons. First of all, my professor Byron Adams was HILARIOUS! My favorite of his quotes "I want to teach this class like Jesus would teach the class. He wouldn't be all up tight about stuff, it would all be like Love and Hot-tubs" haha maybe you had to be there.. but he was pretty hilarious! My second reason for loving this class is because Evolution was taught at BYU and I was able to see how Evolution and the gospel work with each other and not against each other! If you are ever interested in discussing this topic just give me a call!

There are so many other classes that I took... these were just the most interesting and best that I can remember! I figure I should write about them now before I forget about them completely!

August 11, 2011

If at first you don't succeed, try try again!

Anyone who knows Justin knows that he has some mad wakeboarding skills! He is pretty impressive, and that might be the reason why I married him... just kidding... but it was definitely a perk!
He can do all sorts of tricks and is far more impressive than me... One of his most impressive tricks is his backflip which he lands pretty consistently!
A month or so back we got to go with some family to Lake Powell and Justin was again very impressive! This year Justin's goal was to land a 360 which he has not done since before his mission. This trick is not the hardest to do, however when you crash you pretty much die! So I was way impressed with his determination and perseverance throughout the week! He did end up landing the 360, which was awesome to see and he was WAY stoked!

Now as far as I am concerned Justin has just always been a great wakeboarder! However as some of the following pictures show, hundreds of crashes and pain go into perfecting every trick on the wakeboard!

This summer my Uncle Terry came out the lake with us and taught Justin how to Barefoot, which is basically where you crawl out on a bar hanging over the water while the boat is going 34+ mph and then you ski on your bare feet... CRAZY! But it is awesome to watch Terry do it, he is way good! So here for you enjoyment are some picture of Justin learning to Barefoot!
Justin excited for his first try!
After he crawled out onto the pole...

And he's down! First try is a no go...

After only a few more tries and Uncle Terry getting out to show us how it was done Justin was able to successfully barefoot!
Justin had just enough time to yell out, and I quote, "I'M DOING IT!! IT'S WORKING!!" before he caught a toe and crashed big time!

Haha this crash was the best... the funniest... and I think it's the one that hurt the most! Needless to say, he was done after this one!

Justin celebrating his success!

So after seeing these pics you might ask yourself "Why put yourself through all that pain?!" In the end I think he would agree that all your crashes and hard falls are worth it once you land the trick! All in all, it was a successful week for Justin at Lake Powell, and I am still always so impressed when I watch him do his thing out on the water!

Living on the Edge of Glory!

This summer at our Lake Powell trip my wonderful and talented Stone cousins decided to make a music video documenting our week! They worked really hard and I think they did an amazing job!
My favorite part is when Justin falls off of the boat when all the cousins are jumping off the back! haha if you havn't seen it, look for it! It's good stuff!