Finally...

...finally we have stopped traveling, finally we are moved and settled and FINALLY we have internet!!! :) I forgot how nice it is to sit in your own house doin what you need to do online! These last 2 months have been crazy to say the least but they have also been full of lots and family, friends and fun! Back in July we took a weekend and had 2 of my cute little nieces come and spend a few days with us, then we took a weekend to go camping with my bestest friend and her cute little family, then I took a day to hang out with and say goodbye to my buddies I made at Frontier Pies, we then took a weekend to celebrate our 2 year anniversary then we took a weekend to travel clear up to Northern Idaho to the BEAUTIFUL Priest Lake. Until this summer I never realized how many weekends July has!!! lol. August was slightly calmer but not by a whole lot. We spent a LOT of time in the car first coming home from Priest Lake, then makin countless trips back and forth between St Anthony, Star Valley, Shelley and Blackfoot for this or that. We are now, like i said, FINALLY moved and settled into our cute little place in Blackfoot! It is such a relief to be able to sleep in our own bed, sit on our own couch, watch our own TV, and look at all our own decorations! I didn't realize how bad i missed all of that over the past 8 months. Since we got moved in we've been spending our time finishin up odds and ends, canning lots and lots of apples/applesauce, and tryin to relax and enjoy the last of the summer. I can't believe that summer flew past as quick as it did. Seriously, where did it go? Wherever it went, it's gone and Dillon started school yesterday at ISU. Yesterday was orientation and today is the first day in classes. From the sounds of things it hasn't been too bad so far but he is very nervous since this year is supposed to be the hardest. He has one class that he has to get at least an 80% on e-v-e-r-y test or he fails and he can't get below a C- in any of his classes or he is KICKED OUT of the OT program. Cross your fingers for him although I think he will do great! :) As for me, today will mark my first day on payroll at the Blackfoot Community Center since I have to go in tonight for a staff meeting. I have met with the director of the center a few different times and we are working to get everything up and running for their new LEAPfrog preschool class that I will be teaching. I'm REALLY excited to get back into teaching preschool and hanging out with those funny little kids! The first day of preschool is not until the 14th of Sept but we have LOTS to get ready and figured out between now and then so I will be keeping busy. I could use a few more days to relax and just hang out but I'm sure I'll still get that in when I can :)

Here are just a few pictures to recap the last 2 months:

Camping

This last week we were able to take a few days off and go do some camping! The trip can be summed up in pretty well one word.....MOSQUITOES! I cannot even tell you how many mosquitoes were around. I have NEVER in my life, seen that many of those dirty little beggers in one place (this picture does not even do it justice by gives you a little bit of an idea). We headed up Thurs evening to find a place to set up camp and the original plan was to stay put until we had to come down for work Sat, but, because of those hungry little pests, we packed up camp a WEE bit early and came home. Though we didn't stay the whole time we still got plenty of fishing time in. Too bad we didn't get plenty of actual fish in. Dillon out-fished me by FAR with a 6:1 ratio. They were only tiny little brook trout but were plenty hard to catch. Skeeter LOVED being outside and being able to explore the world as he pleased. I'm not so sure he loved the night time seein as how every time one of us was awake during the night (which was quite often) he was awake and walkin around or growling at this or that. By the way he was acting Friday I'm pretty sure he didn't do a whole lot of sleeping during the night. I'm not sure if it was the 2 packs of wolves howling back and forth to one another from across the valley we were in or if it was all the new sights and sounds and movements that had him all riled up. Or maybe he just felt the need to protect us since as soon as we were awake and moving around for the day this is how he spent his time. Poor dog. Oh and how those mosquitoes LOVED his blood, even more than they liked ours. As we laid in the tent trying to fall asleep we could hear him snapping at all the little buggers buzzing around him. I really did feel bad for him but not quite enough to let him in to ruin our tent! :) So despite not being the most pleasant camping experience ever, we were in a beautiful location with amazing weather (not too hot or too cold) and I think we could say a good time was had by all! I dunno if we liked so much we can't stay home or we are just too stupid to stay home since we are gonna be camping every weekend the rest of July. Dillon is gonna go this weekend with a friend then next weekend we get to go up to Wyo and go camping with some friends, which I am VERY VERY excited about (Shay I cannot WAIT to see you guys!!), then we are gonna go again the next weekend for our Anniversary, then up to Priest Lake for the Merrill family reunion before coming home just in time to move! Oh yeah, and we finally decided on a place. We are going to be living in......Blackfoot. Well actually just outside of Blackfoot in a place called Riverton and frankly I am VERY excited. So that's about it for us. Lots of going on in the next little while before life slows down a little bit and we close this chapter of our lives and start a new one! YAY!
(By the way...ignore this underlining thing...it just randomly started and I can't make it go away! SORRY!)

Sweet Summertime!

I think that summer might finally be here...I think. Some days I wonder but lately it has been pretty nice! :) So far this summer we have spent our time working, hanging out, fishing, lookin for housing, working and fishing. We are sticking around here for another month then it is off to Pocatello. Although we haven't found a for sure place to live yet, we are looking closely at a place that is about 20 mins outside of Pocatello (closer to Blackfoot). It is a heck of a deal! Nice and big, we can have Skeeter, and out in the country. We're gonna look a little bit more a little closer to ISU so Dillon won't have to commute (especially in the Winter) but this place is gonna be pretty hard to pass up. We both have one more month of work...almost exactly and personally I cannot WAIT!! Although I have enjoyed my time at Frontier Pies, things there have changed dramatically in the last week or so and now I just want to be done....NOW! lol. After we get done with work, we're gonna take a week or so and go play for our Anniversary (2 years HOLY COW) and for a Merrill Family Reunion before we make the move and start our lives farther south. Well, that's about it for now. Here are a few pics from the last month or so, and really there are only a few because I just haven't taken any pictures this last month apparently!

My baby sister graduated from High School....oh my!
That means mom and dad are gettin old! LOL (Love you)
Congrats Em, love ya

Look at this cute little chunky monkey (and Heather, no that is not a fat joke...I'm takin about Miss Sofia! :) Both babes came to SV to watch Emily graduate and I wouldn't go as far as saying they loved it...well not Lukas so much but Sofia didn't mind. We loved spending time with them anyways!

So when I say we've been fishin, I mean mostly fishin in the freezin cold rain.
And yes...I do have my pole sticking out of my boot.
My hands were too cold to hold it so this was the solution I came up with! :)

Look at that concentration...too bad it didn't catch us anything

The one and only fish I have caught fishing together this summer

The one and only fish Dillon has caught fishing together this summer

SUMMER......

is almost here?? Well, the weather is s-l-o-w-l-y getting warmer and work is dwindling down. In 1 week I will be completely done with my employment with Madison County School District. And I must say, as much as I will miss the kids and the ladies I work with......I can't get out of here fast enough!!! :) Dillon has actually been working with me at the preschool but since we are finished with kids and using the next little while to clean, get ready for next yr, etc, he's been spending his days workin at the mini-mart and fishin every chance he gets. I'm still working away at Frontier Pies and will pick up more hours there in the next week or so once I'm done at the preschool. I don't know what I'm gonna do with all the extra time I'll have not havin to be at work ALL THE TIME! But, I think I can manage to fill it up with something! :) So this summer we'll just work and work then towards the end of the summer we'll pack up and head on over to Pocatello. Kinda lame, I know, but....ya gotta do what you gotta do. We're starting to look for somewhere to live in or around (preferably around) Pocatello. So, if anyone down close by that area knows of anything....feel free to let us know! :) We are really hoping to find a house with a nice fenced in backyard since we've got Skeeter. Guess we'll see. Well that's about all for us for now. Sorry we're so lame, I don't blame anyone fore giving up on us! :) Hopefully something exciting or fun will happen to us in the next little while so I can have something fun to tell you all!

NO MORE BYU-I

Well folks, it is true...we are done at BYU-Idaho!!!!

Dillon graduated on sat and I am so proud of him!

He even passed all his classes and passed his one class with a B so that he is for sure accepted into ISU. To celebrate we headed down to Pocatello to see the Dodge Finals Rodeo Friday night. The Rodeo was a lot of fun and he had some pretty good seats! Sat morning we did the graduation thing then headed to find some dinner with my parents and Dillon's parents. (Thanks everyone for coming to celebrate with us and for the yummy food!) After we stuffed ourselves and got the parents on their way we decided to pack up some marshmellows, some matches, a gun, and the dog and head out to the sand dunes. It was a fun way to celebrate considering it was FREE! While we were shooting I realized that we were shooting a free gun
(a gift from a guy Dillon knows from the gas station), with free shells (also from the guy), with a free scope (Dillon's bday present, so only free to him), with a free clip (Dillon's bday present from his bro), all at free targets! Check out the stack of clay pigeons we found laying around the place we were shooting!!!
Skeeter really didn't enjoy the noise too much and kept his ears perked while hidding under a patch of sage brush pretty well the whole time (silly dog) but it was fun and Skeeter LOVED being able to just run around and hang out with us.
OH, but I need to back up...before all of this we got to celebrate Easter in SV with ALL of my family! It was SO much fun, even having to wade through almost knee deep snow drifts and trying not to get blown over while looking for Easter eggs! But it was all worth it considering Dillon found THE BIG ONE!!! YAY!!! :) Good job honey! Dawson and I even tried making a little snow angel after finding Easter eggs. AND......we got to spend the whole weekend with the Bastow family! Those 2 little babies are so stinkin cute it is ridiculous! Having 2 of them made it a little easier to share, but there were still plenty of fights :) Check out these cuties..... Most of the fights included Payzli cuz Z LOVES her cousins Lukas and Sofia! And while we were in SV we even got to take a new family picture...
aren't we a good looking bunch???

April Fools!

Well, another April Fools is here which means that I am one year older! WOW, as Dillon's little brother Landon pointed out last night, 22 to 23 is kinda a big jump. I mean, 22 is still the early 20's but 23 is pushin mid 20's (Landon is only a few months younger than me). So man, I'm OLD now! :) But it was a good birthday. I got to work for the last time this week (YAY FOR SPRING BREAK...BOO FOR SNOW), Dillon gave me some really cute clothes (that didn't fit which was a good excuse to go shopping today), We went to dinner with Dillon's fam and they gave me a REALLY cute purse, and Dillon bought me some really REALLY yummy cheescake for desseret! So all in all it was a very good birthday. It was a little strange only blowing out my share of candles instead of triple my amount (I share a bday with my dad for those that didn't know, so I'm not used to blowing out candles by myself), but it was fun! Thanks again to everyone for all the birthday wishes, cards, and presents! :) Yesterday we also got the BIG NEWS from Eastern Washington. No Dillon did not get accepted and No Dillon did not get rejected. Although he didn't score high enough to be selected in the 30 students that got accepted he did score high enough to be put on the alternate list. They don't tell what your rank on the alternate list is so we aren't sure how many people would have to deny their acceptance for him to get a chance to accept. So....we have just under 2 weeks to decide if we want his name on the alternate list. So, I guess once we make a decision I will let you know where we'll be calling home for the next 3 years! :) Well, no more news to share, we are just REALLY excited for Easter this weekend and the chance we have to be going to STAR VALLEY to be with ALL of my family (minus Cody but yes....the twins!!!!!!)

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE
Build a snowman to celebrate! :)

WA or ID?

Well....another few weeks have passed so I decided I better come steal the internet at Dillon's work to update you all on our life. The big debate in our lives right now is WA or ID? Last weekend we made our mad dash up to Spokane for Dillon to interview with Eastern Washington's OT program. The drive was long, the scenery was GORGEOUS, the weather was beautiful and WARM, the campus was SO nice, and the interview wasn't too bad. At least not for me, I just got to sit in a room and talk to current students of the program and a few professors, just chit-chatting. Poor Dillon, obviously, had a little different experience. He said the interview was ok (it was a group interview), he had been sick all week, plus had a fat/purple lip from church ball and he said he felt a little inadequate. But other than that it was ok. We liked the area of Spokane, even though it was still a little bit bigger than either of us want to really live in, but the surrounding towns and area was really nice. So we will know by the end of the month whether he got in or not. BUT.........we found out today that.....................HE WAS ACCEPTED TO ISU! So if he gets into EWU the decision will be to live here......














or here.....













Guess we'll see. Even though the the trip was short and the drive was long, it was still a nice getaway and fun to see Spokane and even visit Gonzaga's campus (right across the river from Dillon's OT campus). Actually, in the picture above, of Spokane, you can see Gonzaga's campus...the building on the very bottom right with the two spire's poking through with crosses on top is Gonzaga so that means that behind it, across the river, is the OT campus. Make sense??? :)
Well, in other news, Skeeter is still Skeeter, causing us grief. When we got back from WA we discovered he was out and had been for about 2 days. He waited until we left, waited for Dillon's brother to leave after feedin him for us, then climbed up and out of his kennel. The poor pooch just got so bored he had to get out and drag all the neighbors junk into our yard, rip the neighbors window screen tryin to get into their house, and chase their cat resorting in a vet bill that is gonna be somewhere around $150. Oh yeah, and got TWO more pairs of sunglasses. Oh man.....if we survive his puppy days it'll be a miracle. In other news....we have a new claim to fame. Copy and paste this: http://www.rexburgstandardjournal.com/news/article_271f6bca-487f-5a3e-821f-9edb33750021.html
to go to the news story. Dillon's boss showed us the surveliance video of it the other night and it is the craziest thing I have ever seen. The little family was VERY lucky, well besides the dad getting deported back to Mexico.
But, other than all that, not a whole lot other is going on. Just the same old school and work everyday! :)