Salt Lake with Lacey and Chandler

The day after Chase's birthday we were able to go to a motivational talk that Chase's cousin, Lacey, was giving at the U.


She and her husband just got married a few months ago so it was fun to hang out with them around Salt Lake for the day and get to know him a little better. Since they're from Arizona we don't get to see them a lot so it was fun to see them!

Sewing Project

My very fun, cute nephew just had a birthday.


He likes trucks and tractors, so I found this tutorial here and expounded on the idea a little. (Honestly, what three year old would be entertained with just one road to drive on?)

This is how it turned out! It was the funnest project I've worked on in a long time!

Bear Lake Birthday

This is what Chase decided to do for his 25th birthday; we drove up to Bear Lake to play around in the water and take some pictures! We stopped to eat at a burger place on the way home and got the most amazing blueberry cheesecake shake ever! We had a lot of fun not having to go to work and celebrating Chase getting "old." :)

Canoes and Gilderoy the Goose

This is what we did today. We went with these guys


took this monstrous thing


and canoed around the marshlands.



We made a friend


That followed us all the way up river


and back down


let us touch him


followed us up on land


stood by the cars while we loaded up and proceeded to try and follow us home.


It was great fun!

Fireworks

Here they are, as promised (Mom). :) This pretty much sums up our awesome 4th of July weekend here in Logan and Idaho Falls.

Work

So some people have been asking what I do for work. It's kind of hard to explain, but basically we make custom protein mixes and run tests that simulate the antibody response in the body, it's called an ELISA test. The really complicated picture below is supposed to explain what it is, but I can't even tell you why it all works! My boss just said to tell people I do cancer research. Which would be really nifty, but that's not quite it. Although I did get to run some tests on cancerous esophageal tissues today. Does that count? At least cancer isn't communicable/infectious like tuberculosis is. :)



One of my favorite things about this place are the people. A quote from the movie 'Sabrina' sums them up nicely I think: "They work just as hard an anybody but they know when to stop and have fun." Case in point: the girls from the office are going to see Eclipse tonight at 10. We play softball every Tuesday as a work team and that has been a blast! They also played a practical joke on me the other day which just about gave me a heart-attack, but now I've been initiated into the company officially. Who knew dry ice could make plastic test tubes blow apart? I didn't. You learn something new everyday.

People said that I would miss school when it was over, and although I am starting to miss certain things about it. I don't miss it as much as I thought I would. I feel like this job has given me the opportunity to learn at my own pace about things that really interest me. And it's even helping with my sadly lacking math skills!

This new opportunity in life has been a testament to me that we really are being watched out for. Heavenly Father knew exactly what He was doing when I got all those rejection letters. And thankfully my parents were there to tell me that "patience is power" because it did eventually all work out. :)

Quote For Today

"Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine."

-Anonymous