Looking at all my friends cute posts makes me feel like i need to be better! so i am writing now and hopefully going to post some pictures (thanks to megan for teaching me how!!). Things have been going well for ross and i. school is getting difficult as i am taking a few really important classes so i can graduate this spring. ross is enjoying his class, he says they are well behaved (thank goodness!) and he is trying to be as involved as he can. we are making plans for the future and trying to trust in the Lord to show us what to do. Ross is taking a masters class through utah state this semester and really enjoys it. we have some interesting discussions after he does his reading (even though i know very little about education its still good to learn from him). we are all moved in and set up in aggie village. we really enjoy our apartment and i am loving having a place of our own to settle and make the way we want. i am still working at the usu ticket office and it is going ok. now that the byu game is done its not half as stressful! speaking of that game..it was pretty great to see our ags win!!! we went with the menlove clan and sat really close to the south endzone (thanks to ronda and becca for saving seats!). it was such a great game!
so i figure i need to post some pictures and so they will probably be randoms from the summer but they are some of my faves. i find i need to be better at taking pictures since i never do! so here are some pics
Us on the rim of crater lake
Ross showing off the beautiful Oregon coast
we were pretty proud of our little camp site and therefore must document our achievements
this summer we went camping at beverly beach in Oregon. it was a beautiful spot with little privacy and loud neighbors (yipee for camping!). but we were excited to go and use are new camping stuff. (notice the tent in the background--thanks josh and jess!) we made our way to the spot by driving along the coast from florence to newport. it was a gorgeous drive!! plus i was just so excited to be able to see the oregon coast (and it totally lived up to the hype). we woke up and then went back to newport which was a cute little tourist trap fishing town. there was a lot to do and some awesome aquariums! my favorite part was seeing a pacific octopus up close! i wanted to stay there forever to watch him but there was loads to see. we had some awesome halibut at a little dive on the waterfront. we also spent some time on the beautiful sandy beach! it was chilly but the sun and sand were so great. we got a bit lost on the way back but we drove through some beautiful forests! we also went to crater lake this summer. that was so amazing! such a fun place to go!! we stayed there for two days and hiked around a bit. there is only one trail to get to the lake and it was extremely steep! by the time we got to the bottom we were really hot so after some convincing and promising we would both do it, we jumped in with our clothes on!! hahaha it was so much fun! there were some people there that took our picture but they never sent us the pictures (despite my contacting them). so sadly we dont have the pictures but the memories are great! the water was perfect and sooooo clear! we had such a great time at crater lake and in oregon.
a few weeks before school started for ross we went down to st george and took a day trip to vegas. we went there for h&m as well as to go see gold and silver pawn. ross and i are kinda in love with this show on the history channel called pawn stars and it is based out of this pawn shop in vegas. so we were totally nerdy fans when we went in. sadly none of the people were there! but if was full of all kinds of cool stuff and we really enjoyed looking around. its fun to watch the show now and know we have been there. h&m was also great (as usual) and my lovely husband followed me around and gave me his opinion! it was then that i really knew i had married the right man!!! :)
we also took a trip with my parents to the san juan islands off the coast of washington and british columbia. it was such a cool trip!! we saw so many new things and had so much fun! it was absolutely beautiful there! it was a neat thing to experience with ross and with my parents. here are a few of my favorite pics.
launching the boat san juan style. it was pretty crazy, mom was stressin.
the fearless bunch of travelers. it was really fun getting to know them. they enjoyed making fun of our newlywededness
trying to get ross to smile :)
man i should move to canada if they have tall-boy dr. pepper!!!
Ross looking cool! haha love the aviators! this fountain is called the ross fountain so of course we needed a picture.
I'm pretty much in love with the buchart gardens! it was my green-thumbed dream!!! haha i took all sorts of pictures of flowers and plants like an old woman :) i decided not to include those. we wandered around for the afternoon and then went to the best fireworks show any of us had ever seen!! it was so much fun!! we had gone when i was in high school and so it was nice that i had experienced the gardens but i had so much more appreciation for them since working at a greenhouse. it was certainly a highlight of the trip
ross was the designated dingy taxi driver so i had to document. of course mom has her life jacket and i love dad with his gray scruff!! it made for some pretty funny moments.
I went nuts at the rose garden! by the time we were there ross was done but i was so excited! all the roses were labled and i took so many pictures to remember it for the future when i get to that point. there were arches and arches of roses of different scents and as you walked through the smells changed. it was so amazing! and the roses were gorgeous! a nice indian couple took this picture for us because they saw us struggling to do it ourselves and then we took one for them. good times...
this is a japanese maple and i was shocked at its shape and size (helps that the gardens have been around for over 100 years. but i just had to post it!! we wouldnt see something like that here i bet. 
we had a picnic out on the grass before the fireworks! it was so good and so much fun. haha notice ross's shoe being used to take the picture.
Victoria! it was such a beautiful place and a beautiful day!
Mom and dad eating waffle things from a dutch guy. hans and dad were so excited...they were ok
i love this picture! dad was about to sneeze and mom's face is absolutely classic. i'm not sure if she is making the face at dad's beard or me taking that picture (she wasnt a fan of either)
rocking the big sunnies on the double decker bus! so fun!
mom found a cat on a boat and literally went crazy about it. hahaha it was so much fun to watch her play with a cat that wouldnt even respond to her. the cat was just chillin on the bow of the boat and mom stumbled upon it. i thought she was going to steal the cat and put it on our boat. she couldnt figure out how a cat would stay on a sail boat. but we have evidence that they do...now she just needs to figure out a way to train her cats to do the same.
self explanatory.
these are some pictures mom took on sucia island. this is what people look like after a while on a boat! haha
This is us while we waited in Snows. 
Going up one big hill, of course we were glad we were driving in the car as we saw the bikers struggle up the hill. 
Flying down Snows. I loved the background!!
He paused to wait for his fellow Utah Stater and so we gave him some cool water. 
haha I think Sam loves this picture cuz he looks so cool. And he does...
This is Sam being bugged that Mom wasnt faster at getting him going through the finish line (we had forgotten our fast camera and only had an old slow one). Ross told Sam to put his arms up like on the Mercedes commercial and he did but mom missed it. Surprisingly, (or not so much) he was unhappy at the prospect of more pictures. 
Reenacting the commercial with far less enthusiasm than the first time. 
Cool helmet lines! haha had to take a pic
this is a japanese maple and i was shocked at its shape and size (helps that the gardens have been around for over 100 years. but i just had to post it!! we wouldnt see something like that here i bet. 
