Love the Outdoors

We had such a fun weekend! The cool part was that the whole thing wasn't even planned, we were just being a young sporadic couple. We went motorbiking in Paradise Valley, camping in Challis, and fishing on the Salmon River. I don't know how we fit it all in, but we did and it was a blast! After several attempts, Jake finally conquered this beastly hill.

Neither of us had ever gone steelhead fishing before, but Jesse and Kyle did a great job coaching Jake through the whole process. This was Jake's first steelhead.

Night Skiing

We wanted to enjoy the last of the winter months before spring so we went night skiing at Pomerelle, a ski resort about one hour east of Twin. We got there around 4:00 PM so we were able to get 2 hours of daylight skiing/snowboarding in before they flipped on the huge lights that lit up the mountain. After watching the Winter Olympics for the past two weeks, I guess you could say that we were itching to test our own skills on the snow. It was kind of funny to see Jake immitate "Speedy" Peterson on every jump he hit. I gave him a perfect 10, for the Kunz family gold medal! The snow was great, which was really strange seems how 6 miles away there wasn't a snowflake on the ground! We had a good time and were able to get our moneys worth, that's for sure!

Shoshone Falls

Now that we're all settled in our new apartment here in Twin Falls, we decided that we should take a look at Shoshone Falls. Jake hadn't ever been there before so he was pretty excited. We walked around the trails and learned that it is referred to as the Niagra of the West. There's more water running over the falls right now because of the early spring run-off. Despite the blue skies and no snow, it was still pretty chilly outside yesterday afternoon. We both grew up in Teton Valley, one of the most beautiful places on the earth, yet we found it kind of interesting to think about how Shoshone Falls can be just as gorgeous, just a different kind of beautiful.

When we were up in Driggs visiting over the weekend, we decided to enjoy the snow a little. It was our Annual Husband/Wife Snowmobile Ride. We got together with our friends and cooked tin foil dinners up in the mountains. Normally Jake and I can put together a good tin foil dinner, but this time Sid and Tracy trumped us with their steak, potatoes, and carrots. To top it off, Tracy made some awesome cookies! Riding double on the snowmobile in the mountains is sometimes challenging when you have to side hill or go up a steep slope. In fact, I couldn't hang on tight enough to Jake in a couple of spots, so I got dumped off. He'd have to turn around, then come pick me up and hit it again. We look forward to this every year and lucky for us it was another perfect day in Teton Valley.

Stastna Cesta

I finally had a reason to get a passport! We took two weeks off from work and went on a vacation to Europe. We visited Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic. My favorite place was Prague; oh, I can't wait to go back one day! We saw the history of Berlin, went rock climbing in Germany, rode trains through the country, toured kings' and queens' castles, ate traditional Czech cuisine, explored secret caves in the mountains, went to the Scottish Games, experienced the busy life of Prague, walked across Charles Bridge, saw the presidents of both Germany and the Czech Republic, relaxed at the spa, cruised the cobblestone streets by tram, ate at least one Studenska chocolate bar a day, went to a karaoke bar, shopped :) and spent all of Jake's money, walked through more churches and cathedrals than I can even count, and enjoyed every minuted of it! Jake loves Europe and really wanted to take me there. Spending time away from our school, work, and cell phones gave us the opportunity to grow closer and fall in love all over again. It was such an enjoyable experience, but two weeks didn't give us enough time to see everything we wanted to see. Oh well, I guess that just means that we have to take another vacation to Europe some day.

Girls Camp

As you can see I haven't posted anything since April, well it was about that time that I became the Girls Camp Director for my ward. Our ward was in a bind because something came up and the original director was moving. So I had to hustle to get things all planned and in order before June. That's right we went during the first part of June when all the weather knew how to do was rain! Luckily we had a couple afternoons of sunshine and cabins. Sometimes it is nice to get done with girls camp week so that the rest of the summer is open for other fun things. We had dutch oven dinners and good traditional breakfasts, mmm...probably one of my favorite parts about camping. The girls were so awesome and I'm going to miss them! They really made me feel like a teenage girl again. We stayed up late playing games and snacked on food as if we were royalty. I don't think any of them ever complained about preparing meals, and they were always asking "What can I do to help?" Along with the girls, I had amazing leaders who would bend over backwards if I asked them to. All in all, the experience was so fun and I learned a couple things that would improve girls camp next year.

We painted little wooden cars one afternoon for hospitalized children for a craft/service activity. They turned out so dang cute!

I hope I never get too old for Girls Camp!

April Fun

With the little hints of the summer season here and there, it's probably time for us to get back into shape so that we can have those ideal swimsuit bodies that we've always dreamed of for water-skiing this year, yeah right! We had the perfect workout, the only problem is that we need to do it about 3 times a week! We went for a 17 mile bike ride around Jenny's Lake near Jackson Hole. Don't let me fool ya, most of the ride was downhill. But it was great scenery, and actually sometimes growing up in one of the most gorgeous places on earth can really be taken for granted. Even though there's still snow on the ground there, it was just great to be outside. We had such an awesome day that we're thinking we might want to do some mountain biking this summer. Despite any calories that may have been burned while exercising, we decided we earned a treat afterwards, so we stopped at Dairy Queen for a blizzard. Wade and Jake were excited to ride on this 3-wheeler bike. After the winter semester of school for Jake and tax season for me, we both agreed we were in need of a little vacation. A sunny day laying at the pool in Las Vegas sounded like the perfect ticket. So that's exactly what we did. We caught a couple of shows (free ones of course...we were on a tight budget), went to the M&M store because peanut butter M&M's are my favorite candy, and walked the old part of downtown Las Vegas for the first time (we had never seen Fremont Street before). Jake learned how to play Roulette on this trip and loved to watch the high rollers as we walked through the casinos. I could see him getting addicted to the game so I better keep my eye on him for now on.

One of our favorite things to do together is ride motorbikes. I love it! Normally it doesn't matter what trail we're on, just as long as I get to gear up too. Of course there's always a crash or two, but that's how ya learn I guess. It's one of those hobbies where we both are having a good time, and yet simultaneously we're able to spend some time together as well. Luckily we have some really good friends who share the same passion for motorbiking. They're both a little better than us, but they tolerate us none the less.

Happy Birthday Jake

Last weekend we celebrated Jake's 24th birthday. I can't believe he's 24 years old, that's just crazy! We had a great weekend and with our families. We celebrated both Hailey and Jake's birthdays by going out to eat with the Cooke's, and then the next night we had an awesome birthday dinner for Jake at the Kunz's. Here's Grandma Kunz watching Wade and Sayler help Jake blow-out his "trick" candles.
Saturday was sunny and warm so we tried to take advantage of the snow one last weekend before it turns into a wet and muddy spring in Teton Valley. Cole and Jake had a blast pulling each other behind the snowmachine on skis.

Gotta love the good ole caraharts over-top of the coat look!