Aug-Nov 2012

So we had a great summer, even though it ended like 6 months ago...yes I'm a little behind!  But really we learned a lot, it was really good for us to be off on our own and and get to know each other better and work really hard to gear up for the upcoming school year.  Weston was fantastic, such a trooper! We both got sick of working Monday through Saturday from 10-10...but it was worth it in the end!

This is what Weston's shoes looked like by the end of the summer:

And these were brand new in May!!

We left Chicago on August 9th, literally 12 hours after we thought maybe it might be fun to leave now so we can meet everyone in Island Park. So we packed everything up in one morning, probably about 4 hours, actually (yes, we have nothing- We're newlyweds! What do you expect!? :) ), and then decided to just start the journey ASAP because both of us were ready to go.  So we left Chicago, our first home together, around 4 PM. There's a video of us leaving somewhere. Maybe I'll try to find it.  Here it is!

So, Yes it was very sad to leave our first home, but exciting to be starting a new chapter and going home to see the rest of our family. So once we got going, we decided to try to avoid another trip like the one over to Chicago (remember lightning storm in a tent in a cornfield, camping without an air mattress, etc) and just drove through the night. He drove til 11 PM, and then I took the 11-3:30 AM shift, barely made that. Then he drove through to Wyoming and we quit for breakfast at 7 AM. Both just exhausted. McDonald's was a nice break for us for a little while :) Brush the teeth, fix hair, eat, wash the face...and then we left again! I took over so he could sleep some more.  What I really enjoyed was taking a different route home than the one we took to get out to Chicago. Now that is wasn't dark I could look at scenery, etc and that made the drive go by faster. The back roads leading to Island Park are windy, and very pretty! We stopped to take this picture about an hour outside Ashton, ID I believe.

We arrived in Island Park surprising Grandma and Grandpa Viehweg, and Nikki and Josh Viehweg around 5 PM on the 10th.  They, thankfully, let us eat dinner with them, we set up camp in the tent slot on G&G's campsite, and then chilled around the fire that night just for a little while until neither of us could stand it anymore. We were tired! Slept well that night, and then in the morning we were taken to Mesa Falls by Grandpa- It was fun to take Weston to all the places he had never seen before but I knew so well.  Grandpa sure loved telling Weston all his stories, too. 

The Mark Viehweg family joined us later Saturday afternoon and we began playing with them, riding bikes, etc, and decided to go in to West Yellowstone the next day, which was a lot of fun! Since my siblings were coming up that night, and wanted to go in to the park together we just did some window shopping, but it was still pretty cool. There's so many interesting trinkets and souvenirs people buy. Weston almost got this holster and gun..... I think it's super hot :)  Aunt Daneen treated us to some delicious Huckleberry ice cream. YUM

In our free time during the four days we were there, we worked on This fun Fire pit! We found an area in the water where we could move rocks around to create a "tub" area and block the water from getting out too fast. It became our new bathing area for everyone :) And THEN we stacked a big pile of rocks in the center of it, placing three big flat stones on that top so that we could build a fire on the top of it to see if it could create a "hot tub" effect. And ya know, it KINDA worked! Very fun. Loved having a project, and it kept my active husband entertained. 

That night we welcomed in Macsen, Kristin, John, and Jessica. I was sad not to see more people in the family cause I thought Dad was coming also with the younger kids, but we still had a great time together :) Yellowstone was Yellowstone- saw some elk, dear, buffalo, got stopped in huge amounts of traffic with crazy Asian tourists taking ridiculous pictures, stopped in a few shops and watched Old Faithful, and drove lots and lots. It's still so cool to me. I love the waterfalls, open space, etc. It was nice to get back home again, though. Sit by the fire, hike around the campsite, finish our fire pit :)  As you can see, everyone loved it. I just hope it's still there!

Tuesday we went for a nice Canoe ride after (maybe before...) heading to Big Springs to see the river and feed fish, etc. The canoe ride was fun! almost tipped over a couple times, rammed each other, got super hot, found a rope swing...Loved it. 

I had to take this picture as we were driving home to Boise, Wednesday. He had an ipad in one hand, a phone in the other, and some snack in his lap, I'm pretty sure. Now I was driving at this time as he was checking on something, but the look on people's faces as they passed us was priceless.  **Don't ever do this for real. haaaa

We stayed with Carson and Calli Zickgraf, his brother, for the two weeks we had to spare before heading off to school and were very grateful for their hospitality. They also introduced us to The Wave, Boise's new water park along the Boise River. With our Bonuses from working, we got a couple wet suits, a boogie board to share, and we went at least 5 times as we were there. It's an "artificial wave" created by panels which are raised and lowered to give a different shape/depth to a wave to appeal to kayakers, boarders, surfers, etc. It's AWESOME. A great end to our workaholic summer. 

We moved in to 111 W 7th S Apt 407 in University Village in Rexburg, ID on September 6th, thanks to Carson for driving out there in Adam's truck pulling our stuff in Adam's trailer (brothers rock) and helping Weston move all our stuff in before driving back home the same day. I feverishly searched for a job as he prepared our home and got ready for school and luckily I found one. I started working at Progrexion (a credit repair sales company) on September 17th because it was THE ONLY job available, and I hated it! However, it was a source of income, I had a lot of really good hours, and so i grinned and pushed through it as long as I could. After all if Weston could do sales all summer I could do it for 6 months, right?  Ya well....not really. When an orthodontic assisting position opened up in November and I got the call, I pretty much jumped on the opportunity despite the cut in hours and thus a cut in pay. It was worth it to me to not dread going to work everyday and come home in tears due to lack of success....the life of a salesman sucks.  It made me respect my husband and all his hard work over the summer so much more. He is such a hard worker and a great guy. You rock, Babe!

Anyway, before he could go back to school he had to cut his hair so he wouldn't get "Honor Coded" as he went to class, took tests, etc. We tried to grow it out all year so when we went to Hawaii for Christmas it would be crazy fro awesome- because his hair curls as it gets longer- but rules wouldn't let us. So we documented the change!

I forgot to take pictures of our new apartment, but it's pretty cute. 2 bedrooms, so we have our bed in one, and a card table with our computer in the other. Same bathroom stuff as in Chicago, no couch, no kitchen table (another card table ish with two folding chairs), put our TV on our dresser in the bedroom, and our front "living room" is empty besides a chest. And, sadly, our nice bed set started to unravel after a month of use so we took that back and the one we got instead I actually don't really like...so that's been a bummer but oh well. It'll do the trick and maybe someday we can get a new one. 

For my birthday we just hung out, I had to work all day so after work we went to Costa Vida. Since I had more time off for Weston's birthday due to it being a Sunday we had a nice breakfast, I got him jars for his candies in the office, a new sweatshirt cause his old on is starting to fray....it was a good day for both of us :) Made him an apple pie and roast for his birthday dinner. Yay! Happy 23rd!

Next comes Halloween!  One of our pumpkins rotted, so Weston just told me to do our pumpkin. turned out pretty cute, I think! I got to dress up for work, too, which was fun. Since we didn't have a ton I just decided to be a dead rock climber- had a mark around my neck and told people "I got caught in my rope." Fun stuff. There were lots of great costumes as work due to the competition, which, since I was on the phones, I didn't get to participate in and I could have won $100....bummer. But that's okay! Still had a fun Halloween. Unfortunately, it was in my costume that I met our home teachers. Embarrassing! 

During the semester Weston was invited to play on an advanced volleyball intramural team, which he LOVED. He was in a volleyball class and had learned how to play really really well, so I had the pleasure of watching him wail on people as he developed his hitting, blocking, etc. He's so fast half the balls he gets under I'm just in awe of. I love watching this boy. He's just physically amazing. And he's a good teacher, too. I've learned a lot as he's gone to class. We made friends with people on the team, also, and this upcoming semester we're doing another team which I'll be able to play on :)

We made a couple trips- well a lot, actually due to the Holidays. We went to Soda Springs to visit his grandparents and go to a reception for his cousin. I actually really like Soda. So layed back, very nice people, LOVE the ranch. I can't wait to someday be there during the summer because it's already so pretty in the winter both times I've been there. It's also really fun to hear Weston's memories of working there since he was 12 during the summers. Such a great experience for young boys. I hope we'll be able to send our boys there someday. Lots of fun

this is his old fort....

Driving around in their little ranger- freezing, but fun.

We also went home to my parents' for Thanksgiving. Due to lack of space we stayed at a family in the wards' house, but it was still fun. Thanksgiving day we played tennis, and that was a fun experience. All different skill levels are very entertaining.  Bryson brought home his roommate from school, too, a swimmer named Shuhan...don't remember his last name but he was really cool! Fun to get to know him.  Deborah delivered another delicious meal, as always, and we had a great time at the Shaw's for dessert, like usual, with all our friends. Jameson was home, too which was really great. I had been lonely at these family get-togethers without some cousins my age :) We also went to a parade over the weekend, played some awesome volleyball, Weston and I put up Dad and Deb's Christmas lights, watched some movies, etc. It was an awesome, fun weekend!