To The End of The World

Mary and I were the tallest couple in Idaho for a few minutes, as we gazed off Borah Peak. Second time is a charm, last time we chickened out at Chicken Out Ridge. The weather was perfect, and we enjoyed the company of Nolan Bybee, who had run it once in 3.5 hours, and Jonathan Bybee. Zack and Ashley Webb also joined our hiking crew. It took us 8 hours, and we loved it! The following week, we hiked Table Rock in the Grande Tetons. It was just over a 15 mile hike, but not as steep as Borah. After I made it to Table Rock, I walked another 200 yards to the edge of the world. The clouds had settled in around me, and I through a rock off the edge of the cliff. I couldn't hear it land, nor see anything below. So I propose that the world is flat. During the hike we ran into some friends, Grayson then Hannah. Hannah was my dance partner over a decade ago on the BYUI folk dancers, and was looking very healthy... must be all that dancing over the years.

Mary and I have also have become a little obsessive compulsive about genealogy. While talking with an older lady a couple days agon that I work with at Madison Memorial Hospital, Shareen Parkinson. She reminded me that she was from Burley. As we talked, we found that we were related through Julina Smith. She figured she is Grandpa Ken's 2nd cousin. However, Julina had 12 kids, which makes a lot of cousins, and Julina is Ken's grandpa, which would make them either cousins or first cousins once removed. I would have never known that we were related at all, unless I had been studying that line the day before. We have found dozens of indexed records with birth certificates, marriage licenses, census results, and drafts to wars that we have tagged our ancestors to. We have also been trying to get electronic versions of any family history books with stories, photos, and etc. So if you have any, upload them today!

Mary and I will have been together for nine months this week. It is an exciting time! She started back to school today. It made me sad. She is more fun when she has less responsibility. -Lucas

School started again today! I have bittersweet feelings. This summer was my first summer break since the summer between 8th and 9th grade. I've really enjoyed the simple things: having the time to cook a nice dinner, make my bed in the mornings ,and doing few arts and crafts here and there, but I've been spending the bulk of my time studying for the GRE. Studying for the GRE is really dry and overwhelming. I finally took it and did not perform as well as I had hoped. Regardless, luck is in my favor. Lucas and I just broke a chicken wish bone and I won. I wished for straight A's this semester!

It is so much fun to have our entire ward living within 3 blocks in the small city of Rexburg! It seems our ward is taking us in like we're here to stay. I think they have a hard time letting their hearts go out to the young couples, because they usually move. I ran into a lady in our ward while returning from the store a couple of blocks from our home. She had mentioned an afterschool program before and she asked if I was still interested. She's the coordinator for the elementary school.

Thus I have been hired by Madison School District to work with the after school program. We do everything from homework, playing sports, providing crafts, and teaching life skills like cooking. It's K-4 and they're separated into groups for their activities and given a daily snack. At 5 pm, they're transported home. It's a pretty sweet program they have going on and I get paid to play with and teach kids! It's a lot of fun and I'm excited that they were willing to work with my schedule.

Our sunday school class consists of 4 really great kids. The boys and the girls interact and they're all friends and they're even comfortable to interact with us. The new youth program is difficult to teach because it forces the teachers and the youth to really understand the principles, which is priceless. I think I'll cry when they release us from this calling...Unless they put me in young women's. I have come to love the youth we teach so much.


 Lucas planted the garden and I've been harvesting it. I picked lots of radishes. Sadly enough, neither of us are big fans of radishes so one full grocery bags full of radishes dried out in our fridge...that's without the stalks on them. We gave the other bag away to someone who liked them more. I'm still confused why Lucas planted so many radishes. He planted the perfect amount of peas. I like peas best when they're fresh. I could do without cooked peas. We're loaded with beans too! Talking around, everyone's beans did awesome this year. I'm a green bean lover, so I'm definitely not complaining about picking and freezing them. They don't last very long in our house anyway. Our corn came up really late, so I think we might get one ear. Yes, only one ear is even developing at this point. Most of our squash died, but we have one plant that is looking healthy and starting to grow a couple squash. I think we would have squash if it didn't frost until December.

Our landlords are awesome. They come periodically to fix this or that and make it a priority to check up on us. I don't know why, but God has blessed us to be surrounded by so many kind and wonderful people.

Lucas loves his job! His job encompasses so much. He's involved in every event with making it go through and I often come to them to help set up and take down. He's also in charge of the website and all the social media. I study in the office at the hospital sometimes and Lucas is always in meetings or working with someone from one of the departments to get some more information for the website. It is no wonder he comes home and keeps thinking about work.

We usually go on a bike ride after work so Lucas can clear his mind, but his bike is now broken. On our last bike ride, Lucas and I were going really fast across the street and his bike seat broke underneath him. I turned around to see where he was and I saw him laying on the sidewalk with his bike at least 20 feet away from him. At first, I thought he had done something to his back. I came closer and saw that he was holding his foot. I asked him what had happened and he had brought his foot down really fast when his seat snapped to catch himself. Then claimed it hurt worse than hitting your funny bone really hard. Despite his pain, I laughed out of relief that it was not his back. A couple in our ward was on a walk through town and had seen the incident. They were really sweet to come over and see if he was ok. Luckily, we were close to home and we were able to elevate and ice Lucas' foot before bed. He still had a little limp the next morning and some swelling, but that was all gone by the following day. - Mary