Camping

Just a few fun pics of a couple different times we have spent in the mountains recently...

I rode with Kelsi on the back of her motorbike and this is what happened.

We went on a little hike.

And we made it to the top!

Our campsite

These two are best buds. They have so much fun together.

Ian LOVED the four wheeler!

Apparently I wore this outfit when I was little.

Halli was having lots of fun!

Next week we (my siblings, mom, and I) are going to Island Park for a few days while Brock is here. I am really excited to all be together. Stay tuned for pics. :)

Woo Hoo!!!!!!!!

I passed my test!! I am now a Registered Dietitian. Now all I need is a job. :) Today was THE day I have been working towards for 5 years...and quite honestly, I'm so glad it's over. haha. But I just have to say that I am so thankful for everything I have in my life right now. For my Heavenly Father, without whom I am quite certain I would not have been able to do all this. I know He knows me and my concerns, worries, stresses, and trials. But He also knows my joys and strengths, talents and achievements, and I know I have all of these things because of Him. For my wonderful mother and all her support and everything she does for me. For my teachers and fellow interns and friends in the program who helped along the way. For my family, many friends, roommates, and relatives. I love you all. Thanks for encouraging me along the way. Now I feel like I can relax. I feel GOOD. :)

TWO more days...

until the PSYCH Season 5 Premiere! I couldn't choose which video I liked best so I just posted all of them. They're only 30 seconds long. Check it out...

Too much fun!

Well, we have had quite a busy month! Here is just some of the fun we have been having...my cousin Lindsay came to visit from Chicago and was here for about a month, so we spent a lot of nights playing games and just hanging out.

Here we are the first time we saw her, eating at Guadalahara of course. :)


A couple of weeks ago we went to Orem for my cousin Braden's homecoming and my cousin Katie's baby shower. We had lots of fun! We went down Friday afternoon and got together with all my relatives down there...there were LOTS of us! Saturday some of us went to Seven Peaks Water Park which I always enjoy (somehow it seemed cooler when I was little though.) :) That night was Katie's shower with us girls. Katie and I are very close, so I was glad we got to be there. I didn't get a pic with just the two of us though. :(

Here's just a cute pic of my niece Hallie the first night there...I love this girl more and more everytime I see her!

This is all (or most) of the cousins that were there at Braden's homecoming...and just so you know there are a lot more of us!

We had to take a pic of the cousins close to Braden's age...Sam, Shayne, Katie, Braden, Brandon, Me, Zach, and Ben...we're missing a few that should probably be in the picture but oh well. Braden gave a wonderful talk and I know he was a great missionary. It was really good to see him!

Just another one of smiley Halli!

The next week my mom had a reunion at Island Park with just her siblings and their spouses, no kids allowed. :( She was there from Wednesday to Saturday. Friday I went to St. Anthony to visit my brother Kelby and his little family. Friday night we went and swam in some nearby hotsprings. We had a lot of fun and Ian and Taylor were both so cute and fun to swim and play with. Saturday my Aunt Beverly dropped my mom off at Kelby's. Saturday night we made dutch oven in their back yard and played some catch and some ladder ball (or whatever you want to call it.) I beat Kelby. :) Ian was really cute trying to throw the baseball into the air and catch it like me. We went to church with them on Sunday and then went home.

One little bonus is that on Saturday afternoon I went to Wal-Mart in Rexburg with my mom and Kelby and while we were there I heard someone say "Jill Olson!" I turned around and there was my good friend Erin Jensen who I havn't seen in 2 years. We met in Kindergarten waiting for the bus, and we had the same jumper. :) We have been friends ever since. She moved to Sugar City after our junior year and went to college at BYU-I. She transferred to ISU the year I left. Consequently, we don't see each other often. Just that morning I was telling my mom how I wished I had time to call her and have lunch or something. We keep in touch but it was still really good to see her in person, even if it was only for a few minutes. Anyway, sorry I got off on that little tangent...

My Uncle Lester also stopped in St. Anthony and we took his little dune buggy to the Sand Dunes there. Taylor and Ian loved it...until they wrecked. But no worries, everyone was fine.

Over the 4th of July weekend we had a reunion with my mom's cousins. I don't really know any of them, but a lot of my aunts and uncles and cousins came down for it, so we had a good weekend. Friday night we went to my mom's Uncle George's house and roasted hot dogs and such. Then Uncle George (who is the only living sibling in my Grandpa's family and is 92 years old) told some stories. It was kind of fun hearing about some of my family members. I was a little embarrassed when I got a story told on me, though. My Uncle George likes to tell kids that if they learn their ABC's backwards he will give them a dollar. Consequently most us can. Aunt Charlotte loves to tell everyone that up until about a year ago, I was the youngest to learn them (she said I was 3, but I'm pretty sure I was at least 5, because I remember getting our Dr. Seuss's ABC's and learning them backwards.) Last year my cousin Jenny's daughter said them to Uncle George and she was 2!...Anyway, Aunt Charlotte told everyone how when I was 3 we were at a church for some gathering or another and I went up to Uncle George and tugged on his pants (which I remember). I waited patiently for him to acknowledge me and then followed him to the other end of the gym where I told him my ABC's backwards and he gave me a dollar. Afterwards he went to Aunt Charlotte and said, "Who the hell was that one?" Everyone laughed. Another story told was when Uncle George was caught saying "Yeah." You see, Uncle George was an English teacher and when having a conversation with him, if you say "yeah," he says, "What?!" until you say, "Yes." But one time Uncle George and Aunt Charlotte took me, my cousin Danielle, and their grandaughter Britney to the City of Rocks for the day and we were in the car and Uncle George said "yeah," and I was there to witness it. :)

Anyway, sorry for my rambling, but here we are listening to his stories...

Here's Uncle George and Aunt Charlotte.

Saturday we had a picnic at the Heyburn Park, heard more stories (mostly about my mom's cousins and all their wacky times growing up) and played some volleyball. That night just our family (my aunts and uncles and cousins that is) went to my Aunt Lora and Uncle Blaine's for some dutch oven. They flooded their lawn so the kids could play and then later a bunch of people played volleyball in the water. During this time I made everyone write letters to Kyler. I now have about 35 letters to send him. It's kind of a tradition we have, to write the missionaries who are out when we all get together. We just pass around a couple notebooks and people can write a paragraph or a page, it doesn't matter. He'll be excited.

The next day we all had dinner together at my Aunt Bev's, played games, and watched the fireworks at the river. Lindsay left to go back to Chicago and there were a lot of goodbye's. It was fun to have her here. Also while she was here we went to Twin one day when our mom's were at their reunion to my sister's so she could teach Tysi how to make bows and Tysi could teach her how to make bracelets. That night we went to Toy Story 3. It was so cute! I loved it just as much as the others. The only criticism I have is that the 3D effects weren't way cool, but that's ok. Then on Thursday the 1st (the day before the reunion) a bunch of us saw Eclipse!! It was so cool! I loved it! Anyway, the bottom line is I love my family. I am lucky to be so close to my cousins and that we have so much fun together.

Another little tidbit is that I found out that I have (or had) C. diff...sort of. I hadn't been feeling great, and it kept getting worse even though I was taking an antibiotic. I thought it was just my usual pouchitis. But for 2-3 weeks I was waking up every morning with bad stomach aches, and would have a stomach ache for the rest of the day. When we were in Utah my uncle Parley gave me a blessing, which was amazing. I went to my doctor the day after we got back and because my pain was higher (location wise) than usual, he said I could have gotten C. diff from taking antibiotics all the time and killing the good bacteria in my gut. So I got tested for it a couple days later and it came back positive and negative. So I'm not sure if I had it or not, but he gave me a different antibiotic that C. diff. is not resistant to and I feel tons better. It's amazing. :)

During this time I've also been trying to study for my test. I havn't studied as much as I would like, but I hope to take it in 2-3 weeks because I just want it over with! So now it's hard core study time. Wish me luck!

Well, that's what's been going on. Sorry for the long post. Next time I will try to break things up more!

Summertime...

Wow, I can't believe it's been a month since I graduated, moved home, and last updated! I really havn't been up to a whole lot since I've been home, but here's a little bit of what I've been doing.

First of all, I am trying to sell these tutus. They are adorble. I'm selling them for $12 if anyone is interested in one. I gave this one to my niece Taylee for her birthday and she loved it.



I can make them in all kinds of colors. Let me know if you or anyone you know is interested.

Not long after I moved home, my cousin Jamie graduated from High School. She was Salutatorian of her class and she gave a really good speech. I love this girl to death! She likes Psych just as much as I do. :)

Here's the cousins that were there.


Afterwards we went to JB's and had pie, like always.

The next day I took Jamie to Pocatello with me and we went and saw RYANHOOD!! They were fantastic, as always. They are just so fun to see live. Jamie really liked them too and we had a lot of fun. In this picture with us are my old roommates Amy, McKenzie and Kris, and Ryan Green and Cameron Hood of course. We're like their groupies.

I kicked everyone else out of the picture so I could have one with just me. :) As Ryanhood pointed out, our jeans are of the same hue. :) The concert was free because it was the first of ISU's summer concert series. They usually have a concert every Thursday on the quad, but it was raining so we had to have it inside. It was still fun though. This time they brought a full band with them (every other time I've seen them it's just been the two with their guitars, and occasionally a mandolin. ) I came away with a yoyo and a T-shirt that says, "ISU You Rock My Socks." All in all it was a productive trip and I had fun seeing my roommates and tons of other good ol' Poky friends.

On Memorial Day we went to the Heyburn Cemetary as usual, but we had an unusually small crowd there this year. There were only four cousins there, including me. Lots of times I have a sibling or two there with their kids, and some older cousins there with their kids, and sometimes some aunts and uncles from out of town. But this year it was just me, Jamie, Sydney, and Zach, plus my mom, Aunt Bev, and Aunt Lora. Uncle Blaine and Brian had to work. But we still had a good time like always decorating my grandparents' graves, my mom's three sisters', my Uncle Kelly's, and seeing lots of other graves of my mom's family (aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.) That night we had a little get together (this time with Blaine and Brian) and played games and stuff. It was a fun time.

Last weekend we went to Boise for my nephew Tanner's baptism. I can't believe he is eight years old! Here are my nieces and nephews and a couple cousins who were there. We had lots of fun!

Here are my nieces Jenna and Kelsi, my sister-in-law Fran and I after church.

On Sunday my sister and her husband flew to San Diego for a little vacay, so my mom dropped her kids and I in Twin at their house so that I could stay with them for the week. I must admit I was a little nervous, but we had fun and everything went well. They had a lot of activities going on (cheer practice, baseball games, and Day Camp) so that's why I had to stay there instead of them coming to Burley. We had fun playing a lot of card games and watching Psych. I came home last night (Thursday).

After hearing Kelsi and Jenna talk about cheerleading, today I got out a video that my mom put together when I was in high school with a bunch of my cheering over a couple years. It brought back a lot of memories of the good ol' days of cheering at Disneyland, halftimes, band dances, mini-cheer camp, the fight song, stunting, and so forth. I could still remember a lot of the dances too, which is sad. Haha. Anyway, it was fun taking a trip down memory lane.

Next weekend we are going to Utah for my cousin Braden's missionary homecoming. I am so excited to see him! (and all my family there.) It seems like it's been forevor since we've taken a trip to Utah, so I'm pretty excited.

Well, I hope this post wasn't too random. Until next time...

I did it!

I graduated! I can't believe the day finally came...I never have to do homework again! It's a very exciting and weird feeling all at the same time. I have to thank everyone who helped me get through this...My mom-who listened to my endless phone calls about how stressed or tired or frustrated I was (some of which involved tears), my family-who have supported me from the very beginning, my fellow interns-you guys are so great, and especially my brother Chad and his wife Fran who squished their 3 little boys into one bedroom so I could live with them for free! I truly appreciate it and hope that I can someday repay the favor.

I packed up my little car on Saturday with as much stuff as I could fit, and came home to Burley. I'm going back this weekend to finish getting everything else. My plan now is to live at home with my mom while I study for my RD exam, and until I find a job. I can take the test whenever I want, I just have to wait 3-4 weeks until all the paperwork goes through saying I passed the internship. I really like Boise and don't really want to leave, so it would be pretty awesome if I found a job there, but I'll apply anywhere close that there's a job. I just hope it's soon, because I am flat broke. It costs $200 to take the exam, donations are now being accepted. :) It's been nice being home with my mom, and having nothing to do. I have slept in, read, watched TV, done a couple puzzles, cleaned the house, done laundry, unpacked, taken a nap, and just relaxed. I'm enjoying it while it lasts...next week I plan on buckling down and studying. blah. I'm so nervous about it I avoid even thinking about it, so wish me luck.

Here's what else has been going on...
Just a couple cute pics of Halli I had to throw in here...doesn't she just make you smile?

My last weekend in Boise my branch hiked Tablerock in Boise. It's a big mountain (or hill, I'm really not sure) that has a big "B" on it. It's pretty cool to look out and see everything. I learned I'm really not in shape. :) I invited my friend Katie, one of the interns, who came with us.

So now that I am officially bored, feel free to drop in and say hi if you would like. Anyone in Burley, I need some entertainment. If you're here, call me...

TWO WEEKS LEFT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Crazy right? Here's everything I need to do in that time:

• Give a presentation on Conflict Management
• Complete a Fruit Plate Waste Study
• Finish a comparison of how many kids are served lunch in how long
• Do a catering project for 400 people
• Test out a chocolate chip cookie recipe on kids that I altered to make whole wheat
• Get nutritional information ready for elementary breakfast and lunch to put on the Boise School District's website
• Look for more jobs
• Apply for jobs
• Pack to move home (sad)
• And a million other little things like run errands, hang out with friends (have to do that), and finish up some other little assignments.

And I just finished an 11 page paper, so I've been a little stressed, but I'll get it all done. Basically all I do all day at work is work on my projects...

My plan right now is to move home until I find a job. Hopefully I can find one in Boise and move back, because I really really like it here and don't want to leave my branch and all my friends I've made.

So...wish me luck!