The picture to the far left is the sweet warm home that we came back to sunday night. It had snowed quite a bit and we had to break a path to get to our door. What a bite of reality! What should have been a 14 hour ride home turned out to take over 20 hours. Yuck! As if I wanted to come back anyway!

This next piccture was something Cody and I found rather funny. It's art don't you know. There was an outdoor sculpture exhibit outside of the Tar Pits and we thought this cement square collection was especially thought provoking. Fittingly it was named "Title Unknown". Oh artists! What will they think up next?

The last picture is what my wonderful husband got me for christmas. It's a potters wheel! And I love it! We just busted out the clay today and I even made a vase. Cody made something too though we're not sure what to call it. Thanks mom and Dad for putting us up at your house. We had a blast!

santa's little helpers

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

This is the promised video of the super bouncy horse ride that Cody and I went on. The horses haven't been riden in months and were anxious to remind us whose really in charge. We had a blast!

Here are some pictures of all of us in the woods getting christmas trees. Luck was with us and it acutally snowed a bit as we were going up so we could make some snow men and drink some hot chocolate. It took Cody and I an hour to find just the right tree and it was only $5 . What a steal huh? Colin and Alexis came along and kept us all entertained. Especially when I went to take a picture of Colin and I told him to look at me so instead of pulling up his hat he just raised his chin up as high as it would go.

This picture shows an all time tradition of the brower family of sledding behind the truck. It usually works better with more snow (or so I've been told). I'm looking forward to trying it again with less rocks next time. :) In the picture it's kaylee on the closer sled and Cody bringing up the rear. Up above is Landon and Alexis ploting the ambush of the unsuspecting colin. Poor little guy!

For thanksgiving Cody and I went to Bear Lake to be with family, ride some horses and cut down a tree to put in our house. All three of those events turned out great. Cody and I started things out right with an amazing thanksgiving dinner hosted by Grandma Brower (thanks everyone for putting that on!) and then Cody and I headed back to Bear Lake to go on a horse back ride the next day. I've got some pictures from it and a very bouncy video I took from horse back. All in all the horses were wild, too fast, to bull-headed, and too much fun. I'm still sore.

That cute white horse in the back next to cody in the picture with a bunch of other horses is our Bean. We actually got her to let us come up and pet her- showing that all of our summer work wasn't a complete loss. After the horse ride Cody and I went to play a relaxing game of hand and foot with the Brower Clan and it was the worst game ever. Out of all 5 rounds of the game I did not once get into my foot and as a result me and Codys team got slaughtered by Dad and Kaylee. Cody and I had to take a walk afterwards just to calm down. I hate fate!

These are a few pictures from a fun filled weekend we had. The one on the left is of me and my sister-in-law Kaylee who came up to visit (just days after a wonderful visit from Mom and Dad Brower- thanks for visiting!). It's was so fun having someone come up to visit us in Rexburg. Normally even those of us who live here are reluctant to come home after a trip. So for someone to volunteer to come up here was awesome.

The other pictures are from our last ditch effort to pretend that the winter isn't coming. It's wasn't a very good farce. It was super cold but we have lots of fun with Brian, Tamera and Creedance (next door neighbors). One of the highlights was when Cody shot a huge plastic die with a rifle and the thing shattered everywhere. The one piece that came right at us truned out to be where the bullet passed through so it was a bullet hole that looked awesome. Also pictured is the back of Creedance's truck with all the guns laid out. We all though that it made a really neat picture. We're such red necks! But it's lots of fun to set up targets and see how we'd do. I'm hoping to see some of you all next weekend in Logan. Exciting!

These pictures are from a few weeks ago but I thought I'd put them up anyway. And let me just say that I am so happy to have such awesome friends. Even when Cody and I proclaim that we do not have any money, they still persuade us to spend some money to do entertaining things. We all came down the day before to go to see a haunted house and stay the night in a condo. We woke up early (at 11 or so :) to head off to Lagoon for a day of fun. Even though it was no Six Flags we still had a blast till Cody threw out his back (see pictures below) and we had to abandon the day to get him back up to Rexburg. Poor baby! But he sure was a trooper- hanging around till I went on a couple more rides. He had actually already thrown out his back by the time we took our picture together.

Tonight we went to Applebee's for Veterans Day. Turns out that they give free dinners to anyone with a military ID. So they have made life time friends of us. Sometimes I take it for granted that Cody served over in Iraq, but really I am so proud for the service that he gave the country and for the dedication that he has. I'm excited to show our kids pictures of his service and tell them how brave their daddy is. I just hope that with everything political going- we won't forget what it took to get this country in the first place. May God Bless America.

The hospital again?

Well to first explain these hospital pictures- Cody yesterday suddenly had his back go out and after a horrible night we decided to take advantage of his recent medicad acceptance. So Cody and I found ourselves in the ER for the 4th time in the last 5 monts. My dad asked tonight if I had gotten a warrenty with him. Alas, no. But medicad is like a warrenty. Anyway, I thought those pictures were funny. He was just sent home with some wicked medication and that's about all.

Now for the best pictures of the year! This is Cody and I at the Brower family Halloween party. I'm a Druid (a nature loving spell caster) and Cody... well his goes withouth explination. He won the best Costume Contest thanks to his super high swiss lad shorts. He's so easy to love! We played games all night a went to a grave yard for an hour long search for someone who died on October 31st. We never found one :( Next pictures to be posted... Lagoon with all of our friends this weekend! Exciting!

Hooray for friends who won't let you miss out on a sleepover! So I thought my sleepover days were finished when I got married but I managed to break away from my sweet husband to go up to Island Park and stay the night with my dear friend carrie. We stayed up watching scary movies and she fortunatley agreed to share the bed (I don't like the idea of having a bed to myself now that I'm married). So all in all it was a lovely night followed by an awesome halloween party with the browers the following night. Cody won the best costume contest! I went as a druid and he went as a swiss alps lad of sorts. Pictures will be upcoming but I'm at work so I can't post any right now, just what I pull off of facebook. So I'll write a bunch more about the halloween party and Cody's birthday party a little later.

Mesa Falls!

Last Sat Cody and I were celebrating our reunion and decided to do a spur of the moment trip to mesa falls for a picnic and a nice drive. So we stopped at a gas station in Island Park and the people working there gave us a bunch more suggestions of places to go so we declared it a full out adventure and have some neat pictures that came from it. Three places were the coolest. First was this beeautiful spring that just rushed out of the mountain and had the clearest water ever! And a 25 pound rainbow trout. What a fat fish!

Then we went on to Mesa Falls which was beautiful as ever and they had a special education lodge with information on the area and animals. There were tons of animal hides that you could touch and identify. It made me want to have kids so I could take them there :(

Lastly we went way off the beaten road to a place called Cave Falls. It's a beautiful waterfall that has a big cave next to it that you could walk in and hear the pounding of the water against the ceiling. Very neat. So we had a wonderful lunch of bagal sandwiches and sparkling cider (which Cody used his can opening flip flop for- no joke). Overall a lovely day!

It's a little slow at work and I thought I'd jot down some stuff to kill time. So the last couple of days have been terrible. Stupid BYU-Idaho deemed it necessary to steal a group of husbands away from their wives just to run some group and team building for the buisness program. Dumb! So Wed morning Cody took off for Badger Creek (my old EFY job) and he won't be getting back till tonight. Yeah- three days! I know! It's a miracle I've made it this long. And if you think I'm pathetic remember when you all first got married and you couldn't stand to be away from your spouse? Well it sucks. I've managed to not be too scared of the dark and I even am able to carry on every day functions without him. So to celebrate when he comes back tonight we are going to have company chicken and figure out something to do since our TV is in the repair shop for a week. Who needs a TV anyway when you're newly weds! :)

our home!!!

We are all moved in and very happy with our new home. Cody's not so happy about having to go back to school and I'm not so happy about working but I guess it just makes you appreciate the good times all the more. So I got a job with a law firm working the front desk. It seems like my list of stuff that I have to do is never ending but the one that I'm really struggling with is to translate for spanish clients and give legal council to them. When really all I can do is teach the gospel in spanish. What drama!

Poor Cody has to spend the whole semester taking a ton of classes and doing a 3 month long group project of planning, funding and executing a money making project on Campus. He's pretty overwhelmed!

These pictures are of our living room and kitchen (the rest of the house isn't really that exciting. I'll have to take a picture of it out front in the morning when it's light. Nice huh? And we only had to buy a 75 dollar table and the rest was given to us. Nice huh?

nice pic huh?

well family and friends I am finally back in my favorite little college town... Rexburg! Except this time I have no rules and no cerfew and no dress regulations! And I have a lovely home that we just got done moving into! (pictures will follow in the next post). So now I've just begun the long and painful journey of finding a job. So put me in your prayers everyone!

This picture is of Cody racing down the freeway next to me- going like 80 mph. Oh I love his bike so much. We both got permits to drive and I take it out whenever possible. Such a thrill! And don't worry I'm being plenty safe. Well that's about it for us. I can't wait to get pictures I my new home up!

Still no fires

cody and I have been having a hard time sitting around just waiting for the fires to start up so we got lucky and went to a rodeo in preston, Idaho last Sat. It was pretty fun even though none of the bull riders could stay on for the 8 seconds. As for this week we've filled our days with awesome horse rides up in the mountains. What a girls dream! And today we went with Cody's family on a river tube float. It was tons of fun and even ended with a small water slide at the end. Luckly I didn't flip over cause I was carrying my 2 year old niece, Kaya (seen in the picture), and she was a little scared. She runs around everywhere calling out my name and looking for me. I think she found a new best friend in me. So Cody and I are hopefully moving some house stuff up to Rexburg this weekend so we can be ready to move in next fall. Rexburg here we come! Hope everyone had fun at the kelley sisters reunion. I want to see pictures!

horsey horsey on my way

Well for it only being (the white horse) Bean's second time out she did really well. We went out this morning for a fun ride in the hills and were suprised to find out that both the white and the bay horse did a great job. Bean's the little white one that I'm riding. The one Cody's on is named rouge for a strip of white hair in her mane. Other than a couple spookes at barbed wire and cow corpses, both horses did great and we're looking forward to taking them up in the mountains tomorrow. We've spent the last month or so just visiting bean every day, loungeing her and teaching her to behave as a horse should. We're hoping that she is pregnant and will have her foal may of next year. (don't worry that diagnosis doesn't apply to me :)

The waiting on a forest fire continues as we hope to make some money to carry us through the next semester of school. So if anyone has any "burning" pyotechnic desires to start a forest fire- well Cody and I would be indebted to you. :)

hello!

Cody and I enjoyed our 2 month anniversary by going up to a beautiful place called bloomington lake. Since we've been waiting for the last couple of months to be called out on a fire we finally decided to head out into nature. We spent a lovely afternoon sitting by the lake, eating a lunch and going for a dip in the water. And to top it all off we passed by a wild moose, wading through the water. Idaho is possibly one of the most beautiful places created by God.

We're hoping to be called out on a forest fire in the next several weeks before we have to head back up to school. So far working for the U.S. Forest Service has yielded little work this summer. Hopefully we'll be posting firefighter pictures in the next post!