All I have to say is that Bronco Mendenhall better not sleep tonight.

You thought going for the 2 pt conversion was a good idea?

Seriously?

We could have tied the game.

Oh, and Bronco, get a new quarterback.

This is real life...

So I'm sitting in the MC peacefully eating my sandwich, when I decide to walk into the bathroom to get a few paper towels for napkins.

I walk over to the bathroom door and start to open it, when thankfully I realized it was the men's bathroom.

I tried to be discrete so I turned to walk the direction I thought the bathroom was, but I was headed the wrong way. So I turned around and walked the other way towards the real women's bathroom.

Looking back to where my stuff was sitting, there were about five people watching me in amazement and chuckling to themselves.

But wait, it gets better...

Not even an hour later this poor girl who was sitting near Esther and I walked IN to the men's bathroom. Seconds later the turned around and came out, looked at Esther and they both busted out laughing. She went and sat down by her husband and we were all just laughing for a good five minutes.

Moral of the story, my embarrassing moments could always be much worse.

Also, we don't know this poor girl's name, but we'll forever remember her as the girl that walked into the men's bathroom.

"They need to put a sign or something... oh wait, they did."

-Esther

Today We Remember

September 11th, 2001

We all have our story about where we were on that tragic day eleven years ago. Today as I was sitting in class, listening to the many different places people were from, I realized that each and every one of us were affected in a different way. Maybe your the girl in my Adolescent Development class who lost her brother in the World Trade Center. Maybe you're the father who lost his son in the Pentagon. Maybe you're like me and you were old enough to understand something tragic had happened, but too young to grasp the concept of terrorism.
No matter your story, we all have one.
Eleven years ago, today, our country changed.

Today our school put on a memorial service. They did the colors, a choir sang a few patriotic songs, and there was a moment of silence.
Seeing all of those students stop their busy schedules to stand and listen and remember during a moment of silence was so incredibly humbling and moving.
It brought tears to my eyes.

For the first time I finally understood true patriotism.
May we never forget.

Daddy-Daughter Vacation, Day Five

Today was the day we decided to head home so we could make it to the BYU kick-off game Thursday night.

It felt like we'd already been gone for a week and a half.

We'd done so much and seen so many things, and I think we were both rather content to get home and sleep in our own beds.

But first, we had a lot to see in Zion National Park.

We began the morning with a hike to the Emerald Pools.

I didn't even take any pictures of the pools.

I'm not sure I even really looked at them because I was mesmerized by the waterfalls.

I was also busy cooling off underneath them :)

After that we did the Temple of Sinawa which leads to The Narrows.

I spy, with my little eye, a mountain goat!

I spy, with my little eye, a hummingbird!

My dad and I finally decided to just do it, the Narrows hike, which is the one where you hike through the Virgin River.

We only had our hiking boots, but neither of us really cared. I really wanted to do it even though we'd have to walk two miles back on a path and take a forty minute shuttle ride back to the truck.

I'm so glad we did it.

It was so much fun!

I already want to go back and hike even further in.

Maybe when there are less people :)

So overall, I had the time of my life, saw things I'll never forget, and created memories that will last forever.

Everything aligned perfectly for our unplanned trip and we had so much fun.

I'm very glad I took the time off of work and the time away from Rexburg just to spend time with my dad doing some of our favorite things and seeing some more National Park and National Monuments.

There's not much I love more than exploring and learning more about the world.

What a beautiful place we live in.

 

Daddy-Daughter Vacation, Day Four

The morning of day four, we woke up and took our time getting packed up and ready to go.

It was a chilly morning so by the time I woke up my dad had a fire going and water hot to make hot chocolate. Every time I've ever gone camping my parents have done that each morning before I woke up, so now I truly felt like I was camping.

We headed out to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and this is what we saw as we walked a couple little rim trails:

We walked up to the lodge and were surprised that we could snag a comfy couch in a bay window overlooking the Grand Canyon.

The Lodge. We sat in the bay window overlooking the Canyon.

I'm not going to lie, I wasn't blown away by the Grand Canyon.

Sure, it's cool, and pretty vast, but after all we'd already seen on our trip, I just wasn't impressed.

I was ready to go just a couple hours after we'd gotten there.

But, I saw the Grand Canyon, which everyone should see at least once in their lives.

Next we headed on our journey to Zion National Park

Before we got there for the night we ended up at Pipe Springs National Monument, which has quite a bit of church history, so we spent an hour or so looking around outside and in the visitors center.

Once we got to Zion and got a campground the trip turned bad for the first time yet.

We had a storm coming - fast. We needed to get the tent and alcove set up before the rain so we could cook our dinner and feed our starving bellies.

We got it all set up just in time and it only rained a little bit.

I started cooking our dinner, and then the bees attacked.

I kid you not - at LEAST thirty bees were swarming our campground.

To top that off we had ants on literally every square inch of the campground as well.

The bees were relentless and I have this incredibly irrational fear of them, so my dad took over the cooking while I sat on the tailgate of the truck trying to avoid them and the ants.

To make a long story short, my dad got stung bad, I got bit by an ant twice and had an allergic reaction.

Who knew that could even happen?!

So after dinner we were short on patience and decided to get out of there and go for a walk to the visitors center and to one of the Ranger Programs.

Thank goodness we got packed up in the morning before the bees came back.

Let me tell you, it was awful.