I got a feeling

With the first semester of school almost in the books I am rapidly approaching my last final. For the past few weeks many people have referenced the feeling that you get as you walk out of your last final. It has been described as magical, relieving, the best, and incredible. Even after a final that people don't say they did particularly well in, they can say at least it's over. I am getting my first taste of being done with classes, that I don't really have much interest in pursuing, forever. So as I rap up this semester I say so long, and farewell, to those classes I hope to never have to worry about again.

Just fish......

As I looked out my window, first thing this morning to check the weather report that Dallin gave to me yesterday, I had one thought come across my mind as I saw the snow.....it's probably sunny in Mexico. From that moment on the only thing I wanted was to go to Mexico and be a beach bum. Just sit on the beach and have no where to go, and no where to be. It didn't help as I got in my car and put on Kenny Chesney, and drove to school. It didn't help as I walked to my english class in the snow, and while in class drew pictures of me playing frisbee and sitting on a beach somewhere where it was sunny. Someday's I just really want to be a beach bum. I think I would make a good beach bum. Lest you confuse me with someone who hates the cold and the snow, the other half of my dream is to be a ski bum.

My bracket is totally toast. Now i'm just hoping not to take last

Well another March has come and almost gone. As always it has been madness in more than one way. Before I get to the basketball tournament, let's talk Spring Break. For Spring break this year I decided that it would be an opprotune time to go out and visit my beautiful sister Staci and her Husband in North Carolina! First off I had never been to North Carolina (NC), so encompassed in that is I had never been out to visit them at their place. They moved out there about a year and half ago while I was on my mission while he goes to NC state for School. So I went out there and had a total blast! It was so much fun to just be able to hang out with them for a while. There were so many adventures, and trips that made it even better, but even if we did nothing but just hang out with each other all day it still would have been a blast.

Here is a picture of us in our box seat that we got for free, at the performing arts center in Raleigh. This was a St. Pats day showing of the Irish Tenors. We had the best seats in the house, and we weren't even dressed for it! We literally showed up at the building to take a look around, a very nice gentlemen asked us if we would like to see a show? We said, yes he took us in, asked Staci if she would like to sit in the box seats, and she immediatly said YES! (Good Job Stac) And there we were sitting right above the Irish tenors.

Here is a picture of Cameron Indoor Stadium (Where Duke plays) What shocked me about this stadium was just how small it was! It is tiny compared to most stadiums, and they definitely make it an atmosphere. It was fun to see the championship banners hanging from the rafters, and just feel of the tradition that there is there.

This is in the Tobacco District. Lucky strike was a huge Tobacco company, and all that water you see behind me flowing is all water they would use to put out fires that would happen when they were drying the Tobacco leaves.

Part of our travels took us to Washington DC, Annapolis and Salisbury Maryland, (Annapolis is where the Naval acadamy is), and to Delaware! Yes I have been to Delaware, and i'm glad we went 10 minutes out of our way to get there. So here is some pics from that,

The New WW2 memorial. So cool!

(Love the Washington monument.)

This is in front of a statue of Brigham Young. Each state is allowed to put 2 statues in the capitol and we chose Brigham Young. This is also the location we lost our tour guide and started to wander around aimlessly by ourselves until we found another tour guide.
The changing of the guard. This is a super special ceremony and tradition of our country. The inscription might be too small to read but it reads: Here rests in honored glory, An American Soldier, known but to God.
This is a Toll Bridge-Tunnel-Bridge-Tunnel-Bridge. It was 21 miles long and the name really implies what it does. It also was a $12 toll Bridge! The toll booth attendant didn't like Ryans questions nearly as much as I did. He asked if there was refreshments half way across? I am still cracking up about that even now as I type this.
Last but not least, a picture in front of the goat, or possibly ram, I can't remember of the midshipmen. There we are the intrepid crew. Thanks for the fun trip Ryan and Staci! I loved it, and it was awesome. Even despite spending my night in New York, still totally worth it. :) Love you guys.

vision without work is dreaming,
work without vision is drudgery,
work with vision is destiny.

--Elder Bruce Hafen

That's what he said when he came to my mission about a year and a half ago. Little did I know then that not only would it apply in my every day missionary work, but it would apply so much in life. So now it's time to go to work, I just hope I have a vision.

7 more days

Hello Bloggers,

So for the past week I have been completely immersed in the Olympics. I have pretty much spent far too much time watching, talking, and thinking about the Olympics. I have enjoyed them throughly, and they haven't let me down. I even have watched curling, sadly I have watched quite a bit of curling. I love it though, it's like bowling. Maybe i'll do a post about curling soon, just because I feel it doesn't get enough love. But tonight I just thought I would comment about how much I love the olympics.

One of the reasons I love the Olympics is because for these 17 days I have the ability to watch a sporting event as often as I want. It's 3:00 A.M. (if i'm awake) what's on? The Olympics. It's 7:00 at night what's on? The Olympics! It's 3:00 in the afternoon on a Monday!?!?! What's on? The Olympics! Glorious! I love sports, and I love the Olympics. It's awesome.

Another reason? I love to watch as these athletes who have competed for this one thing their whole life, and it all comes together in a matter for seconds, or minutes depending on your event. All the training, all the sweat, blood, tears, late nights, early mornings, sacrifices that these people make put into a one event. All for a symbol. A medal, this medal if they win it, will symbolize their dedication to one thing for probably the better part of their life. Therefore the passion that you see from these Men and Women is incredible. The precision with how they perform, and the intensity with which they play is almost unmatchable. I love it.

I love the Olympics because of the underdogs! Remember 4 years ago when Bode Miller was suppose to win 5 medals and he didn't win any? Remember how he came to the Olympics this year and everyone juts said well, we will just have to see what happens because you never know! That's right you never know. And for the record Bode Miller has skied incredibly! But still, whether it's some guy coming from New Zealand, to lead a cross country ski race for minutes, or your the biggest name guy like Shaun White, you still never know! Probably, referring back to last paragraph, because like I said it all comes down to one event. One time, you screw up it's over. This is no 82 game season. It's minutes, minutes to perfection. It's go big or go home, literally.

Lastly of the many, many, more reasons I love the Olympics I will just mention one more. I love the Olympics because for these 17 days I think the world just feels a little closer together. Whether your from Japan, Australia, Poland, Brazil, or America, we all can be bonded a little closer together in support of our Olympians. Sure we compete against each other, but I can't say I honestly route against any of them. I am just in awe of their dedication, and i'm happy when they do good, and i'm sad when any athlete does bad. Also I could probably go anywhere in the world tonight, and see almost any person and we'd have something to talk about. Who knows though, it might just be me, but it might not. Maybe we all feel the same way, but all I can say is this, we have 7 more days of the Olympics.

1 year ago today

So Valentines day has been a mixed emotion holiday for me for the past little while. For the most part it seems to me it's just more February 14, than it is Valentines day. However, lot's of good things have come out of the past couple Valentines day and I just wanted to write really quickly about exactly one year ago today, how awesome that February 14, was.

So a year ago today I was on my mission, and I was companions with Elder Hilton. It seemed like it would be just like any other day doing missoinary work, until we realized, that tonight like a few other nights that we didn't even have a dinner appointment. So we thought, what to do on a Valentines day for dinner? We can't just do the usual, it has to be special. Then the one place that popped into both our minds almost instantly was the local Dennys! That's right nothing beats a grand slam on a special day. It's almost just American. Well we went, and enjoyed every minute. We were even served by a waitress that had little heart antennas, and long red and pink socks. She kept hitting on Elder Hilton, she thought he was pretty cute. All in a Valentines day in Sacramento. That's one holiday i'll never forget.

Oh the places you go.....

So while on my mission I missed a lot of things. There would be far too many to mention here and just now. However I will mention one because that is what this blog post is about. There is a place very near and dear to my heart which I have been thinking about lately. The place is Southwood park. In fact, pretty much every time I drive by there I find myself looking out at the soccer field where I have played many beautiful games of frisbee. You will also find me looking at the tennis courts where Dodge and I had many a heated match, and many a heated discussion whether the ball was in or not. It's also the place where traditions have been started. Well mostly just the tradition of decorating the Southwood tree at Christmas time. It's our park, and I love it.

I have been thinking lately as to why I love this park so much. I have come to the conclusion it is because I associate the things that I love so much with this park. That place where I play my favorite sport, the place where I hang out with my favorite people, and the place where I go when everything else is gone. Every weekend throughout all of junior high and high school you would find me there. It was one of the last places I visited before I left on my mission and my very first night home, I actually went there. In my last area of Vacaville we had a park named Southwood, and I would pass by there every chance I could just because it reminded me of the park here in Murray. Probably ridiculous I know, but it's me. And I am very happy about that.

I recently was reunited with my park in a game of ultimate frisbee. This post is probably a little late, but last Saturday I got to play once again ultimate at Southwood. It felt just like coming home again. The people were different, the weather was cold, and I was quite out of practice. However it all came back fairly quickly, I made new friends, and it doesn't matter if the weather was cold because we've been there before. Moral of the story, I missed a lot of things while being gone. I am glad to be united with at least one of them for the moment.


(This is a picture of the park in Vacaville, yes I threw the frisbee around while I was there. It had to be done.)