A Weekend in the Jello Belt

First off, what the heck is the "Jello Belt?" Well, it's pretty simple really. Take the area that consumes the most jello per capita  compared to any other area and that's the Jello Belt. So where the heck is the Jello Belt? Once again, pretty simple. Think of the denomination that consumes more jello than ought to be legal, bingo, the LDS Church. Now that we know who they are we can figure out pretty easily where this so called Jello Belt lays. Utah.

This past weekend I was able to escape the restraints that school has been putting on me and make a quick trip down to Utah. This ended up being a great trip with many different things happening.

Us in front of the Salt Lake City Temple.

Day 1, Friday: We left Rexburg around 5:30...not exactly when we planned on leaving but it still worked out. We made it to Salt Lake City around 10:00 and dropped off one of the people riding with us. After dropping him off a few people in my truck voiced that they had never been to Temple Square. I decided that wasn't right and that we needed to fix that since we were so close to it. We spent about an hour walking around Temple Square, always a good time. We also saw that new City Creek Center mall which was HUGE. They had a river running through the middle of it, excessive? Yes.We then proceeded to Provo. I stayed with Taylor, my little brother. He is quite the little host and was a lot of fun to stay with.

Day 2, Saturday: I hadn't had much sleep since Wednesday night because Thursday night I went to the midnight premiere of The Hunger Games. You can imagine that I was really enjoying sleep...until Taylor woke me up at 7:30 to go rock climbing. It was a brutal but pleasant wake up call since I had been looking forward to climbing with him for a while. He started getting into rock climbing while I was in Ukraine on my mission so I haven't had many chances to climb with him. We had a great time and even had some interesting situations that called for some interesting solutions. He has acquired some good climbing skills, but I still can keep up so don't worry. We spent the morning and early afternoon climbing and then met up with a few friends from back home to go to the Festival of Colors. I found this little bit about it online, "Originally, it was a festival that commemorated good harvests and the fertile land. In addition to celebrating the coming of spring, Holi has even greater purposes. Hindus believe it is a time of enjoying spring's abundant colors and saying farewell to winter. Furthermore, Holi celebrates many religious myths and legends." It is basically a giant chalk fight. I have never been so covered by any one substance in my whole life. When the chalk was all thrown at once the sky literally went dark and my lungs literally filled up with chalk residue. Not the most pleasant of feelings but definitely something you won't forget. I had a great time being tye-dyed. After the festival we spent the evening eating at Jdawgs. It is a delicious hotdog joint in Provo. Upon stuffing our faces full of food we went and watched a movie with our friends from back home. Taylor and I both didn't quite make it through the entire movie...

On the 1st pitch.

At the top of the 1st or 2nd pitch...I can't remember.

Up real high!

The mayhem.

Brother like Brother.

Inside the group during the throwing.

Nice.

I'm not sure if this was a good idea...

Right after some guy sprayed him with green chalk.

We attempted to clean it off but ended up looking like vampires.

Day 3, Sunday: We went to church and listened to one of the "best" musical numbers I've ever heard. That was probably a mean thing to say but sometimes I think people should hear themselves before they sing. That's all I'll say. After church I was able to meet up with my friend Katie who has been on a mission in Thailand until a few weeks ago. It was the first time that I have seen her in about three years. It was a great reunion and I had a blast catching up with her. We first met back in my second year of college and when we each had callings that caused us to see each other a lot. One of our friendship traditions was Sunday drives. Those were always a lot of fun and I still look back on those memories and smile. Friends and family are what create the memories worth remembering in my opinion. This weekend was proof of that on multiple levels. After Taylor and I ate dinner we both took a nap because we were so exhausted from our weekend warrior shinanigans. It was then time to head back to Rexburg. It was a weekend that will go down in the record books I'm sure.

A Day on the Butte

The view looking north off the butte.

A neat little "canyon" to hike up.

The other week I went for a Sunday hike on Menan Butte and I had a great time. I think that it helps from time to time to take a step back and just watch life for a minute. I find that this happens best for me when I'm outdoors and even more so when I'm by myself. I talked about my governing values a few weeks ago and one of them was having alone time and I have been trying to make that happen occasionally. It can be hard when you live in a small apartment with five other guys though. I suppose it doesn't ever get any easier to find the time or place to do it though. I think it is important to have alone time because you are able to gauge the things you have been working towards. For me, it was my recent decision to transfer schools to attend nursing school in Lewiston. It is what I need to do and I think that there are a lot of good things in store for me. It will be an interesting change to study in a place that is not a majority LDS population. Honestly though, I look forward to the change. I do not, however, look forward to leaving all of my good friends here in Rexburg. I have been very blessed to meet the many wonderful people that I have met while here. While I won't be able to keep in contact with all of them I think it's fair to say that I will remember them all, well, most of them anyways.

Gilbert

 

Gilbert in all his shining glory....which isn't much.

I recently was able to find a sweet deal on a commuter bicycle, free actually. It doesn't look like much but it runs well and is surprisingly fun to ride. I have been trying to avoid driving at all cost because gas is so expensive and cycling is just healthier. I have really enjoyed riding Gilbert everywhere I go, work, school, church, or anywhere really. Here's a quick shot of what the ol' guy looks like.

Take Me Where the Snow is!

 Haylee and I

 Haylee and Cory when we were digging Cory's sled out.

 Haylee and I skiing at Targhee. (This was taken at the same spot as the photo below)

Finally a clear day in the Tetons.

This winter has been a very dry winter as far as snow goes. We have hardly seen snow here in Rexburg which is very unusual. We had to cancel pond skimming two weeks ago which has never happened. It has it's upsides too though, it's a lot warmer and riding my bike everywhere isn't as scary because there isn't any ice. I just thought I would put up a few pictures of some more things that I have been doing lately. Obviously, skiing is one of them and I already have a ton of skiing pictures on here but these are clear days at Targhee so you need to see them. Last week we went snowmobiling with all my roommates up in Ashton, Idaho. It was a lot of fun and we had a great group of people that went. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Governing Values

I have been taking an English class this semester called Research Writing. I honestly have not found it to be a very useful class thus far and really haven't enjoyed it that much. Until recently that is. This week I was assigned to discover what my "governing values" are or my personal constitution. I think that I may have done this in the past a long time ago but I can't remember doing it nor do I still have them so it was great to do again. Basically, what it entails is that you pick around 20 values that you feel are your core values. Then you define those values, but not just from a dictionary. You define them by the meaning that they hold to you. I won't share all of my because this is a personal constitution after all, but I would like so share just a few of them.

 I love God: I pray to Him daily. I read His words daily. I strive to follow His commandments and find ways to express my love to Him.

  I love my neighbor: I will give people the benefit of the doubt. I will go out of my way to help someone in need. I will follow the Golden Rule. 

  My family is first: Work cannot take over my family life. I will spend quality time with my wife and children in an individual setting (whenever that time comes). I will always be there for my siblings and parents no matter what happens. I will tell my family I love them and appreciate them often. 

  Create thoughts: Don’t follow the crowd. Research current events and have an opinion of my own on each of them. Don’t simply believe someone. 

  Be happy: Don’t let anything take that smile off your face. Even if it’s been a rough day just smiling will help turn it around. Come what may and love it. Happiness is contagious.

Health: Always take care of my body. Follow doctor’s orders. Get adequate rest. Eat healthy food that promotes longevity. Never consume alcohol or tobacco or any other harmful substance.

     These are just a snapshot of what it is I came up with. I am still working on redefining a few of them to fit better what they really mean to me. I thought it was a great assignment that can help me for the rest of my life. Benjamin Franklin actually had something very similar to this and each week he would pick one of his values and focus on improving on it. I doubt that I'll ever accomplish all of these in my life perfectly but I think that as long as a person is striving to become better each day then they have done all they can. And in the end they will be a much better person because of the efforts they put forth to try and follow their values. If you have some time I would recommend doing this because it can really help you focus on what matters most in your life specifically. 

Mitt Romney

Last week Mitt Romney was in Idaho Falls campaigning and I was able to go see him. It was a neat experience for a few reasons. One, I had never been to a political rally like that before. And two, I had never met Mitt Romney. His speech was pretty short but somehow full of a lot of key points. I can't say that it really helped my view of politicians as a whole. I didn't realize how much work was put into a simple campaign rally like this one. There were a few thousand people crammed into a high school gym all waiting to hear from a man they thought could change our country for the better. When I think about one man changing a country I don't think that's really a reasonable thought. What's happened to our country in the last few years is a result of years of problems piling up. I still firmly believe that we as citizens are who has to really make the changes. That's why our country is so unique is because we are able to decide what's best for our country. I am so grateful to have been born in this country. I have been blessed with many opportunities that I know I couldn't have in other places around the world. For example, being involved in the election process. That is a pretty cool thing if you ask me. At the end of the campaign I was able to shake Mitt Romney's hand and I also looked him straight in the eye and said, "Hello." Okay, that's not all I said but I can't remember what exactly I said so that will have to suffice.

President's Day Weekend

 The dark area is 3,000 elk

 The Elk Reserve

 The summit of Mary's

President's Day weekend tends to always be a good one for me because I usually use it to celebrate my birthday. This year was especially fun because Dad and Taylor came from Moscow and Provo to go skiing at Grand Targhee for the weekend. It was a long drive for both of them but I'm glad that it worked out because it was a memorable weekend. The first day of skiing was a typical Targhee day, couldn't see a thing. Even without seeing where we were going we still had a good time being with each other. And at the end of the day we found a great Thai restaurant that I have since eaten at a few times. It boggles my mind as to how these Thai people even found their way to Driggs, Idaho, but I'm sure glad they did. Sunday we went to church and then headed over to Jackson, Wyoming to spend the day wandering the streets. Along with wandering the streets we took a tour of the elk reserve on a sled. Apparently, I don't remember this, we had been on a sleigh ride through the elk herd a long time ago with our whole family. Monday turned out to be a great skiing day with decent visibility. I even got Taylor and Dad to hike what is called Marry's Nipple. It is part of the ski resort but the only way to access it for skiing is to hike up about a 1/4 mile boot pack trail to the summit. It is one of my favorite things to do when skiing at Targhee. I typically ski three laps on Mary's each time I go. I forgot that neither of them were really in high altitude shape and by the time we got to the summit I was pretty sure I was going to be taking them down in a toboggan. Luckily, they made it down skiing with relative ease in the nice powder. It ended up being a great weekend.