College Football 2008 is Here!

Hard to believe that it is time for college football already. Who would have thought that BYU would invite none other but the University of Northern Iowa to play for their season opener of 2008? Of course since UNI is my home town team, and my parents were still here on vacation (they are season ticket holders of UNI football back home) we had to go to the game to cheer on the Panthers---plus who wouldn't take an opportunity to cheer against the Cougars??

Yay snow cones!!...the hot weather made it worth every second of the 20 minutes we spent in line for the icy treat!

Mom and Dad were very impressed with the stadium...much more scenic than the UNI dome back home! However, later into football season when it's raining, snowing, etc outside, in the UNI dome it is always 75 degrees and dry!

Travis's family came to help us cheer on the Panthers...however, I caught Heidi and Keith (Trav's sister and her husband in the back row on the left) participating in the BYU fight song "ra ra ra" on more than one occasion...I know where their hearts truely are and I love them anyway ;)

Three more of our wonderful friends who added to the Panther cheering section... also caught singing along with the BYU fight song!...Next time we will have to choose our cheering section more carefully I suppose... ;)

I guess from the angle of this picture my Dad was trying to see the game through Cougar fan's eyes...I still don't get it!

Needless to say BYU came out on top at the end of the game, as they should have considering the size of their school compared to the size of UNI...Even though our team didn't win we still had a good time. Being in on the action makes us look forward to all the college football excitement still to come this season...especially after we found out that University of Utah beat Michigan on the road! GO UTES!! :)

Lagoon Day

We went to Lagoon yesterday for my work's summer party...the best part is we had a day full of fun for absolutely free! :) It was a beautiful day, a little on the hot side, but at least it wasn't raining. We got there mid-day and the park was packed! We ended up having to park in the overflow parking lot and walk about a half mile to the park's entrance. Once we got in, no surprise, there were people everywhere! Park-goers were waiting in long lines at nearly every ride. Since we knew that we wouldn't have time to do everything because of the crowds, we were sure to hit all the big rides first. Travis actually got a little whip lash on our first ride, the "Jet Star". That rollar coaster really jerks you around! For all those adventure seekers if you ever go on that ride, brace yourselves for the first tight turn! We were also sure to take our turn on "Wicked", which was the park's newest rollar coster attraction since we were last there. It started off shooting you straight up into the air and then straight back down the other side. We loved it! My mom and dad are here visiting and so we took them along with us. My dad loves to ride the rides, however my mom is not the biggest fan so she would find a nice shady spot to sit and wait for us each time we got to our next adventure. We ended with a picnic dinner put on by my company in one of the terrace areas and then headed for home. It turned out to be a great day!

High Places

Over the last few years I’ve climbed nearly 30 individual peaks, many of them multiple times. It doesn’t matter if it’s pushing 100 degrees in the middle of summer or 0 degrees at 2:00 in the morning in the middle of winter. I climb Mountains. It’s just what I do. Some people think it’s crazy other people think it’s a waste of time, but for me it’s become a very rewarding game.

When I was younger, I was horribly afraid of heights. I remember shopping at the Cottonwood Mall with my mom and plastering myself against the wall furthest from the railing of the second floor because I was scared of falling off. As an ironic choice of hobbies, I decided to pursue Mountaineering and Rock Climbing. It doesn’t really make sense as to why I did that, but I did and here I am. Overcoming my fear has become one of the primary motivators for me and so far, I’m winning my little game.

Last night was another chance to gain some elevation and take advantage of the local mountains. It was another chance to play my game with heights. I got off work a little after 5:00 and headed home to change, eat and grab my gear. The plan was to meet my friend Ammon at the Little Cottonwood Canyon Park and Ride and then drive up to Alta to climb the Devil’s Castle.

We met a few minutes before 7:00 and drove up LCC to Alta and the Cecret Lake Trailhead. The sun was already pretty low in the sky and I knew we’d be pushed for time. It took us about 15 minutes to hike to the lake. From there, it’s a steep climb up the lower slopes of Sugarloaf Peak to the ridgeline of the Devil’s Castle. When we made the ridge, the sun was setting and I knew we’d be hiking out in the dark.

We continued moving towards the summit knowing that the more technical stuff was still ahead of us. We made good time crossing the ridge to the Devils castle and began our picking our way up and down the steep points on the ridge towards the summit. We came to a point where the summit was visible and paused to determine if we had enough light to bag the peak and make it back through the technical and exposed sections of the ridge before the light ran out.

We decided that we would continue, but turn around in 8 minutes regardless of how close we were to the summit. We climbed the last few near vertical sections to the summit and signed the summit log. It was an exhilarating feeling to look around and see both sides of the summit drop off hundreds of feet to the valleys below. I thought to myself, “You won another round of the game”. Unfortunately, we couldn’t stay. Light was fading fast and I didn’t feel like crossing the narrow ridge in the dark.

We made it though the last few technical stretches as the last bit of twilight left the sky. We took out our headlamps, and started again down the lower slopes towards the lake in the dark.

Good-bye renting!...Hello mortgage!

Next year Travis and I are moving to Logan for him to finish up school at Utah State University. Since we have been renting for a few years now, and housing is much more affordable in Logan we decided to look into purchasing a home versus renting. We found a brand new townhome community being built by Garbett Homes and decided to take the plunge. Our place is scheduled to be finished in July next year and hopefully everything goes as planned so that we can move and be settled by the time he will start school in mid-late August. Here are some pictures/renderings to give you an idea of what our new place is going to look like!...click on any of the pictures to make them larger :)

Exterior:

Side view of front

Side view of back

We fell in love with the unique architecture of the place. Our home will be on the end which means a TON of windows and natural light coming in. These pictures are taken of a different Garbett Homes community, so our place may be a different combination of colors.

Community site plan:

This is what the neighborhood will look like once it is all built. It is going to have a park, walking paths throughout, a club house with state of the art workout facilities as well as a community pool. If you look at the top left hand side our unit is at the very top (closest to the park) in the second building from the left. It will be really nice to have an end unit with all that open space right outside.

Interior Renderings:

Point of view from dining area

Point of view from front door

These are just computer generated renderings rather than photos, but it gives you a really great idea of the open feeling on the main level. The ceilings are vaulted above the living room area all the way to the second floor and one wall will be almost completely windows! That vaulted ceiling really makes the area seem much larger.

Floor plan:

Basically we have 1530 total square feet...3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, lots of closet space (yay!), laundry room off of the kitchen, and a 2 car garage (which Trav is especially excited about since he has NEVER parked in a covered area since he started to drive almost 11 years ago!)

Having our new home makes us more excited about moving to Logan from Salt Lake City. We will probably live there for 2-3 years and then the plan as of now is to come back to Salt Lake once Trav finishes up school. I can hardly wait to start decorating and I am also really excited to have a spare GUEST bedroom for friends and family to come stay with us! :)

Dog Attack!

The weather tonight was beautiful so we decided to take our dogs to the park to run out some of their energy. Everything was fine and dandy until another guy showed up with his dog. Usually our dogs are very friendly and play well with other dogs. This dog was especially hyper and much larger then our dogs (we think it was a lab/chow mix) and she was freaking out because she wanted to come play and the owner wouldn't let her off of the leash. We told the owner it was okay to let his dog come play if she was friendly. He assured us that she was and as soon as she was let off of the leash she bounded towards our two dogs. The three of them then did what dogs always do, sniffing each other out. After a second though, and quicker than lightening this huge dog had poor Roxy pinned on her back and was biting into her neck! We had never heard Roxy yelp the way she was yelping and in order to get this dog to let go of Roxy Travis actually had to full on kick it in the side! Once Roxy was free, Noobie decided that she was going to be protective and fight the dog for Roxy..luckily we put a stop to that before she too ended up on her back! Supposedly, the owner was stunned and said that this was a first time for his dog showing any kind of aggression...but this first act of aggression took a quarter size chunk out of Roxy's neck! I'd say that guy should sign his dog up for some aggression management classes! Needless to say the trip to the park was cut short.. when we got home it took both of us holding her still in order to get the wound rinsed out well. It had to have hurt so bad, but after it was rinsed out she sat still and let us put on some antibiotic ointment and appropriate bandaging...Dang! We are going to be awesome parents someday :)

Roxy and Noobie

So I read other people's blogs and they all put up adorable pictures of their little babies...since we don't have kids yet, I thought I would put up a picture of the closest thing to kids that we have right now...Roxy and Noobie!...We swore before we had a dog that any pet of ours would never be treated like a person...in fact we made fun of the people that would talk to their pets like they actually understood what they were saying to them...needless to say I think we have become those people (but definately not to the extreme as some pet owners!) We definately love our dogs and they both are spoiled rotten!

Jumping on the bandwagon!

Hello all you blog fans!! Yes, it is true...we have jumped on the bandwagon of blogger world! If you know us, jumping on the bandwagon of anything isn't usually our style..but with family and friends all over the place we thought it would be an easy way to keep everyone posted on the latest happenings of our little family...
Currently we are living in Salt Lake City, UT ...Travis is busy with work at Bullfrog Spas where he is their in-house graphic designer. He is also going to school. Right now he is finishing up a few classes at SLCC and next fall he will transfer up to Utah State University where he will get his BFA in graphic design... when he isn't working and studying he loves to be up in the mountains "bagging peaks" Travis loves to climb up mountains and is very good at what he does. He even has climbed in the middle of winter and in the middle of the night...sometimes at the same time! I think he is crazy, mostly because I feel like night time is for sleeping...but I am happy that he is happy doing what he loves to do!
I am currently working as a Physical Therapist Assistant. I am working in a couple of different settings now, home health PT as well as out patient PT. I love what I do and I learn new things from the people that I interact with every day which I think is awesome! In my spare time I love to be active doing pretty much anything (I am a self proclaimed busy body!) my favorites though are working out at the gym or rock climbing at the indoor climbing gym that we belong to.
When we are not going our seperate ways of course we love the time that we spend with each other. We love to relax sometimes, but most of the time we are on the go. I think what is so great about us is that we have a great time together no matter what we are doing. Ever since we got married (and even when we were dating) we have been able to enjoy the simple things in life...like grocery shopping for example...why look at it as a boring chore when it could be an adventure?... Yes, we have been known to be "that" couple that is laughing hysterically in the cereal isle...

anyway...that is a little tidbit about us...stay tuned for updates, maybe we will even add some pictures! :)