Summer Vacation: Day 7

Grades Are In!!!! ... if it weren't for my organ lessons.

Summer Vacation: Day 5

I have been trying to actually make dinner the last little while because we've been eating too much Little Caesar's 5 dollar pizzas and Jack in the Box 2/$1 tacos.

So last night I tried to make a Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich Roll or something like that. It called for pre-made dough, but we couldn't find any at the store, so I had to make some.

After several calls to my mom and getting over my aversion to yeast (which I have never used before) I successfully made dough and this is what it turned into.



It was really good - but a TON of food. So we will have it for lunch for the next little while.

AND I made it ALL by myself!!! (again, with tech support)

A post about our house cupcake soon to follow - I'm off to the library since there are men working on the roof right outside my windows.

Pioneer Day

... Last week in Priesthood and Relief Society, we talked about trials or something. Apparently in Priesthood, they got into a conversation about what trials modern-day Saints have to endure. And apparently someone in the class said that "We have our own trials. They're different from the ones the pioneers endured, but they're more emotional" or some such nonsense.

No, no they're not.

I don't care who you are, walking until your feet literally fall off, burying your babies along the way, leaving your homes, watching your family members get beaten and tarred & feathered, having your stores and temples and homes destroyed... ?

That's a little more emotional than having protesters hold up signs and call you close-minded.

... Just sayin'.

FIRST DAY OF SUMMER

Yes, I may be behind the rest of you on this one, but today is officially my first day of summer!
SCHOOL IS OVER!!!! WAHOO!

Finals

I just have one thing to say about finals.

We had to turn in binders for our Jazz Methods class (see previous post). They were due on Tuesday, and as I was walking by my teacher's office with Brother Holman this afternoon, the teacher called me in to tell me the binder (and written final) were graded and I could pick mine up. He proceeded to tell me (and Brother Holman) that in all the time that he's taught this class and given this final, no one has been as thorough as I have been. He said that in the written directions, he always tells everyone to include as much information as you know about the subject of the question. It's open book and open note, so there is no excuse for incomplete answers. Mine was the first final he's ever gotten back that actually did that. He then says to Brother Holman "She is amazing" among other things.

Hey - I'm all for people thinking I'm amazing. But as I thought about it, they think I'm amazing because I actually did the assignment according to the directions, and no one has ever done that before. ... Shouldn't that be the standard, not the exception?
My teacher's think I'm such a good student because I actually do the assignments ....?

I think there's something wrong with that.

Daycation

Hello everyone!
As you know, Chad got Saturday off so we could go to Provo for Will & Sawyer's birthdays. However, after deciding that we didn't want to drive down, and then back up in less than 24 hours, we postponed our trip to later this summer and looked for something to do here instead.

We decided to go to Island Park and check out Johnny Sack's cabin, Big Springs, and Sawtelle. First, however, we remembered the WalMart ad that advertised $30 glasses. Since I haven't had new glasses in I don't know how long, we thought it might be a good chance to go get some cheap glasses. The closest WalMart with a Vision Center is in Idaho Falls, the opposite direction from Island Park. However, by the time we were headed out, I found out that my eye doctor was closed and I couldn't get my prescription anyway. I called WalMart to make sure they couldn't help me without my prescription and they said they couldn't. And then the guy so nicely tells me
"Well, that's for kid's 18 and under anyway."
"Oh, well it doesn't say that in the ad."
"Yeah...."
"Okay, bye."
Stupid WalMart. I sure am glad we didn't waste an hour driving to Idaho Falls to be told that their ad falsely advertised $30 glasses.

So we headed to Island Park instead. We made a stop at the Mack's Inn Dinner Theater so Chad could say hi to the people he used to work with up there. We ran into the manager who gave us free tickets for that night's show ($30 value).
After that, we drove up the road to Big Springs - you might think you would see water springing out of the ground, but you would be wrong. The water does, in fact, flow straight out of the mountainside, but it's overgrown with plants, so you can't actually see it. We stopped on the bridge to look at the fish and dip our feet in the water.








We walked up the trail to Johnny Sack's cabin. He was a 4'11" German immigrant who built his entire house by hand, and lived there for 25 years. He died in the 50's and the neighbors in the area saved his cabin from being destroyed, and in the 70's (I think) it was made into a national something-or-other. It was really interesting!



(Some cool steps along the side of the house up to the outhouse)



Dead mouse we saw on the steps.


View from across the river.


But they said the only place where he really built around his height was in his workshop in the basement, which of course, was closed to visitors. It would have been a fun place to visit. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't live there year round. They had pictures in a binder of the snow covering the front steps - probably 4 or 5 feet of snow.



After the cabin, we ate Subway, then drove over to Sawtelle, the big mountain in the area. We drove the dirt rode up to the top and took some pictures.

Sawtelle from the bottom.


Sawtelle from the top.


Weirdo soccer ball thing on the top of Sawtelle. Chad says it's a satellite that's built like that so it doesn't catch the show.








This one's for you mom. I could hear you in my head - Megan! Get away from there!



After Sawtelle, we stopped at the little restaurant where Chad, Christian, and John used to live/work. We bought a "kiddie" sized ice cream, and it was pretty good. But when we went to pay for it, the socially odd lady at the cash register said -
"Can I see how much they're putting in that? That's what I thought. That's way too much. We ran out of kiddie size cups, so they're putting way too much ice cream in those cups." Ohhkay. That's not awkward and tactless. Maybe we should give you some of it back? We went down to the river and put our feet in the water, and revisited the little place where we ate our fruit loops for breakfast the second day we were married.

Let's see, after that, Chad took us to the Island Park Reservoir, where we walked on the boat launch and hung our feet off the dock before it was time to get back to Mack's Inn for the show.










Our dog friend. He had a collar but no tag and he was running around in the parking lot/by the boat launch the whole time we were there. We hope he wasn't lost.



We saw [the] Less Miserables, a parody of Les Mis. The actors were good, but the show itself (written and produced in Utah) was not the best thing we'd ever seen. But it was free. We headed back to Rexburg after that, stopped at WalMart for I don't remember what, and then came home.

While we were sad to miss the birthday party, it was a fun day, and I think now we have officially done everything there is to do in Island Park.

America, America....

So - it's been a long time since I actually wrote a post. But - school is over tomorrow!!! I only have one class today and two tomorrow, one of which is bowling. Finally my summer can begin! I know, I know, it's almost August, but I'll take what I can get.

Mollie came up for the 4th of July. She got here Thursday night. On Friday, we did Mollie's laundry (we know how to party) and then went to Idaho Falls. We went to a kitchen supply store where I bought myself a music note cookie cutter, and then to the mall. When we got back to Rexburg, we went to the Farmer's Market they started in the Tabernacle parking lot. There were lots of vendors, and we bought some kettle corn. Yum! Then we went to a movie at the (comparatively) cheap theaters. We saw 17 Again which actually wasn't terrible. But it did start with a basketball/dance number with Zac Efron, and for a minute there we were afraid it was going to be another High School Musical. We cleaned out Mollie's purse which conveniently converted into a Kettle Corn carrying case. After the movie, we went to Craigo's and got the buffet. We didn't get a cookie monster because we were stuffed. At some point during the evening, we got sno-cones from the little shack on Main Street.

The next morning was the Fourth of July! I had to be up and at the local high school by 8:30 so I could march in the town parade with the "community marching band".

(Long story - I'm taking a class called "Band Practicum" this semester. The point of the class is to get experience teaching a band. That didn't happen, (since public school is not in session and there was no band to teach) so we got to participate in the community marching band instead. Oh, wasn't it a ball to feel like a 14 year old all over again? No, no it wasn't. I got put in the Color Guard since I have marched in the band before. Anyways, so the final event for this part of the class was to march in the 4th of July parade. An event which 1/2 of the class (there are only 4 of us, but still) didn't feel like doing, and as far as we know were never marked down for. So - I marched in the parade.)

We were fourth in line for the parade, so by the time we finished the parade, we were able to go back and watch most of it. And, I found out later, they held the "Madison High School Marching Band" banner for the parade, so everyone who saw me wondered since when I was in the high school marching band. Oh well. It's over and I never have to do it again.


As I said, when I got done marching, I walked back to our apartment and found Mollie and Chad and watched the rest of the parade with them. A Cream O'Weber truck came by and gave everyone a free pint of chocolate milk! It was sooooooooo good!



We had to go back to the park where the parade ended so I could hold the American flag while the band played some patriotic songs.

After the parade, we went to a hot dog place near our apartment. We had heard they were selling $1 hot dogs. When we got there, we got 3 hot dogs, and two sides of coleslaw for $1.25. We went over to the parking lot to get the Subaru to go back to the high school and get the van, which I had parked there that morning. We found a coupon on the Subaru for a 99 cent smoothie (of sorts). We went and took a couple coupons off the other cars, and then went to the bagel place near our apartment to get our 99 cent smoothies. They came with "tapioca pearls" in the bottom of the cup, that felt very much like eating fish eggs through a straw. We ate our smoothies on the drive to Idaho Falls to scope out a spot for the fireworks.

We parked in a park on the other side of the freeway from the riverfront where they set off the fireworks. We took a nice walk along the river walk and found a rock chair and a giant dandelion thing.





But once we got to the highway overpass, the trail (a floating bridge-ish thing across the river itself) was closed because the water level was too high to connect it to the sidewalk on the other side, leaving about a 3 foot gap which I was too chicken to try to jump over. So, we had to find a way across the highway. We were just going to run across when no one was coming, but we chickened out of that idea too, and walked down to the onramp and used the sidewalk under the overpass. We scoped out a spot on the Snake River so we could see the fireworks they shoot off from the other side of the river. We laid down our blanket and took turns saving our spot. We got there about 3:00 and the fireworks didn't start until almost 10:00. First Chad and I took a walk about a mile down the river to where all the food vendors and carnival-ish things were. We bought some food and then walked it back the mile to Mollie. After that, Mollie and I walked down to the vendors, and bought sno-cones on the way back. Chad bought some homemade rootbeer which ended up being disgusting.
At some point, I walked away, and Chad almost introduced Mollie to someone as his wife (she had her back to him and was wearing my jacket) She goes - No! No I'm not!

We conveniently picked a plot right next to somebody Chad was in band with a few years ago. Therefore, she felt like her children could be all over our space and we wouldn't care, even though Chad and her were apparently only acquaintances. Not to mention, they had spray painted out their square (the police went around and pulled up any stakes which is how people usually pick their spots the night before) and that still wasn't enough room, and they invaded our space. So we put up with her two kids all afternoon because we had such a good spot!
We played Phase 10 and as soon as we got out the cards, we hear the boy ask "Mom- can I play with them?"
We all just look at each other.
The mom says "well, you have to ask them".
NO! That is not the answer! The answer is no, let them play their own game! GRR!
The 5-6 year old boy came over and kept saying "Can I play now?" Can I play now?"
... No - it's a long game.
Apparently Chad pulled out the cards while Mollie and I were gone, and the boy came over and helped himself to the game. Anyways.
He started touching our cards and stuff while his mom paid no attention.
Finally she looks over and goes "Hey _____ come back here" as she laughs.
We all just sit there playing our game. She says "Hey guys, is he okay there?"
None of us says anything. You think that might be your cue.
"No really - is he okay there?"
Still nobody says anything. What do you want us to say? "No! Your kid's being a brat - it's not our job to babysit him".

We fended off Mexicans and children, and wind, and rain, other little children, teenagers, and later in the evening, cold, so we could have our perfect view of the fireworks. It was finally getting dark, and we were getting excited! They put on a concert across the river, outside at the hotel that hosted the fireworks. We kept watching to see when they would stop, turn out their lights, and start the fireworks.
The lights went out!
The fireworks were about to begin!
We heard the first sound of the fireworks and craned our necks to see where they were.

BEHIND A BIG BUSH!!!

Are you kidding me?!!! We sat here for 6+ hours only to find out that the fireworks are BEHIND A BIG BUSH?! We moved down right on the river bank to see if that improved our view, and then over a few feet, but no, we were not anywhere close to seeing the fireworks. We grabbed up our stuff, and ran down the street, closer to where they were setting off the fireworks. We ended up sitting in the middle of the street that they closed off around 6:00pm. But we had a good enough spot and we got to see most of the fireworks. It was fun. After that, we began the great exodus back to Rexburg. We got back around midnight (?). We went out on the sidewalks and lit some sparklers, and then went to bed. The next morning, we made breakfast, and then Mollie left for Provo.

At some point in our boredom during the 7 hours we spent on the riverbank, we took some pictures.









We also took these pictures trying to re-create a picture Mollie has from when we were babies. (She'll have to post the original)





We also took some pictures of the fireworks.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! CHA CHA CHA

Well, Chad and I were going to head to Provo this weekend for Will and Sawyer's Birthday Extravaganza. After debating over it all week, we decided we probably shouldn't go. We'd get to Provo really late, get to grandma's where Uncle Gary is staying, have to blow up an air mattress, and then be at Erin's for Saturday before leaving again Saturday evening to get back for Sunday. (lame) Plus Chad has been feeling under the weather lately, and was afraid he'd be too tired to drive. So we decided to postpone our trip until Mom is out here next month so we can spend more time there. Also, we want to be the center of attention. Just kidding.

So we'll be down to visit in a few more weeks. But we wanted to post this to our favorite nephews (since they don't read).