Mother/Daughter Outing

 Every year or so all of my mother-in-law's sisters and their daughters go on an outing together. This year we went down to southern Utah to go white water rafting on the Colorado River near Moab!

On the bus heading to the drop off location for rafting

 Red rock of southern Utah

 The whole group!

 Aunt Denise wanted a picture too!

 My mother-in-law decided it would be funny to splash Janette. So naturally, with the help of myself, she was the first one to be tossed out of the raft :)

 At one point everyone had been pushed, pulled or thrown in the water except for Grandma Bird! Well we didn't think that would fly and next went Grandma into the water! We were very gentle about it, but thought it was only fair. She did great though! This is a picture of our Guide (can't remember his name) pulling her back into the raft.

 The water was very brown and dirty. You couldn't see your hand at all after it was 6 inches under the water.  but the water was also very warm, which made me happy.

 The whole gang after rafting. Our group all wore green M&M shirts and all the other rafters loved it! Everyone called us "The Green M&M's" which was pretty fitting :)

 I can't remember her name, or where she was from, but we saved this girl after she had floated quite a ways down stream from her own raft. She was foreign and was with a group of people that had come to the United States on a three week tour. She was really cute and nice.

The next day after rafting we all went to the Olympic Park in Park City, Utah to ride the Alpine slides and to go zip lining! It was great to be able to hang out with all the cousins and Aunt's for a few days!

Restoring Love

 This wins the award of most spontaneous trip of the summer for sure. About a week before the Restoring Love convention, which was located in Houston, Texas, Scott told me he felt like he should go. I was a little busy at work and didn't know if I'd be able to get it off. So the plans were made for Scott and Janette to go to Texas and I was going to be staying in Idaho. I made them stop by my work before they left so I could say good-bye to Scott and after they left I started feeling really left out. I mean, I've never been to Texas before, and Scott was going without me. So, I called them up, told them I was going, and and hour in a half later the three of us were headed to Texas. Talk about short notice.

For those of you who don't know what Restoring Love is you can check it out here. http://www.theblaze.com/news/restoring-love/  Yes it is a Glenn Beck thing. And typically I'm not a Glenn Beck fan but Scott is and that is why we went but I was very glad I was able to go to share in the experience because it was amazing. The first night of our journey was spent in the car at a gas station. Yes... All 3 of us slept in the sedan. We made it to Dallas, Texas and stayed with an old class mate of Scott's which was so nice because it was free and he lived 5 minutes away from all of the events. The first day that we made it to for the Restoring Love event was the day of service. Thousands of people from all over the United States came and did service in the Dallas, TX area. It was pretty amazing to see. Scott, Janette and I did our day of service at the Goodwill and even got to be on the Blaze! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOvOgsivWSg The Goodwill was huge and there was so much to do.

 Lisa Paige, Scott, me and Janette at Goodwill volunteering

That night we went to a religious leadership conference called Under God Indivisible where they had pastors, bishops and priests from different religions come together and speak to us about God and Patriotism. It was so awesome to just see the different religions come together and preach the same thing to everyone. It felt so united.

Saturday was the last day of the event. We went to a Preparedness Convention where they taught us all about food storage in the morning and then to the Restoring Love event where Glenn Beck would be speaking that night. All I can say is. Wow! It was so incredible and spiritual. I was not expecting to feel the spirit there but I did. I don't always agree with Glenn's tactics, but I do think that he is doing what God wants him to. He's trying to make a difference in the world and he is in a place that he can do it. I was glad to be apart of the whole event. 

 There were all sorts of people at the event...

 Abraham Lincoln's Desk

 A blood soaked beam that was under a hospital at Gettysburg, and a tree trunk that has a canon ball that was shot into it.

 One of the original bibles printed by the government in the new America's

 Janette and I from Scott's seat

 Glen Beck

 Scott and the Liberty Bell

We headed back to Idaho Sunday morning. Stopping in a small town in Oklahoma for church. It made the whole trip. I can now say I have gone to church in a legit double wide! It was just a small branch and this was their last week before moving into their new church building. (which was also pretty small) It was just so cool to experience church like that in middle of no where Oklahoma. We drove through the night and made it back to Idaho Falls in time for me to just be a couple hours late to work Monday morning. Well at least I would have only been a couple hours late if we hadn't discovered our dog was missing from the in-laws... Long story short, Cricket was lost for about 8 hours, but she was safe and sound at the dog pound. She had a little adventure of her own. We got her back shortly after discovering her location and now she is back with us.

On the Fourth Day of July...

 On the fourth day of July it was very warm.
But we went to the parade, which is the norm.

"Now to the greenbelt!" We yelled in high tones,
To wander through vendors while eating snow cones.

After our time at the greenbelt did dwindle,
We went to the home of the Well's to mingle.

It was at this time that we would celebrate,
The birth of Janette, who could hardly wait!

Off to the greenbelt again we would go,
But this time to watch the firework show.

Our bikes we did ride to avoid all the crowd,
To be under the fireworks where it would be really loud.

We sat by Clarissa next to all the commotion,
To celebrate the birth of our wonderful great nation.

I know, I know... everyone is super jealous of my awesome poem writing skills....

The 4th of July was great through! this pretty much sums up what we did the whole day. The only difference was that I was pretty sick the whole day. And It just continued to get worse and worse as the day went on. I tried to be a good sport though and go to all the activities of the day.

Scott and I decided it would be easier to get through the crowd at the greenbelt if we rode our bikes. So we borrowed Janette's bike trailer, threw all our stuff and Cricket inside and set off! It ended up working out really well! After the fireworks we rode our bikes on the rode to our car and were home no more then 20 minutes after the fireworks had ended.

Scott and I waiting for the fireworks to start with Cricket

 Venny and Scott-er :) Newly engaged!

 Clarissa and I watching the fireworks

Manti Temple Pageant

 Back in June Scott and I headed down to Ephraim, Utah with Scott's mom, Janette, Reily and Jersey to visit Aunt Denise and Uncle Lawrence's family! While we were down there Scott and I got to go to the Manti Temple for the first time. It was amazing! That temple just has such a strong spirit in it. Plus it's a live session and I LOVE live sessions.

Scott and I in front of the Manti Temple

 Janette and kids in front of the Manti Temple

Scott had a couple cousins in the Manti Temple Pageant which may or may not have been the main reason for the trip down to central Utah. Scott had been to the Pageant before when he was pretty young and I had never been before and had heard great things about it, so why not go when you have family in it! 

 Janette-n-kids with Jared. He was a Laminite for the pageant

 Gotta love Aunts....

 Scott's mom and Jared

Scott, myself and Jared

Myself, Jacob and Scott. Jacob played the young Joseph Smith

The boys did a great job and the Pageant was great! Thanks again to the Durtschi Family for letting us come visit! 

Tin Cup Challenge

Scott and I decided we wanted to get in shape this summer so we could do all the outdoor activities we wanted without feeling like we were going to die. So what better way to get in shape then to sign up for a big race we had to train for (The RRR)! At the beginning of my training I decided I wanted to run a 5K. I have never ran in a formal race before so I was pretty excited/nervous. Scott wanted to run as well but he has been suffering from shin splints and is taking it easy for awhile.

Aunt Beth was also running the 5K

 The beginning of the race

 The end of the race

 Mom is my inspiration to run. She ran the half marathon faster then she ran it 20 years ago when she was in high school! She did awesome!

 I ended up getting 3rd in my age group! Which I thought was pretty awesome....

One step closer to my big race!

Happy Anniversary to me!

 Well one year has passed since I married my man and we had the most amazing first anniversary! I feel like we probably set the bar pretty high for it being our first, but oh well :)

I can't believe it has already been a year. We've definitely played hard and had some pretty fun adventures, but back to our anniversary. I decided it would be cool on our first anniversary to have a day of firsts. So I spent 3 months prior to our actual anniversary planning this thing. And it's a good thing I did because May was one crazy month for me work wise. Pulling 12 hour days like every day... but anyways. So I used the gps to set up a little scavenger hunt that sent us all of eastern Idaho. And for each location I wrote a poem that told the special event that had taken place at that location and gave him a gift that was significant for the event that took place.

I started the hunt by giving Scott a poem with the coordinates on it to our first location.

 Here is Scott reading the first poem

Scott's parents house was our first stop: It was here that we had our first kiss, and I gave him a bag of kisses. (Scott absolutely loved the scavenger hunt! He had a huge grin on his face the whole day) :)

We then went to the Melaluca parking lot where he first told me he loved me. We had gone to the dirve-in earlier that night and so for his gift I gave him the two movies we had seen at the drive-in.

Here was a big truck we saw on fire during our scavenger hunt

Next we headed up to Rexburg to the Hart building at BYU-I where Scott had taken me on our first date. We went to guitars unplugged so I got him an inflatable guitar :) We then rein-acted our first date and went our to eat at Gator Jack's and got blizzards at Dairy Queen for lunch. 

From there we went to the the stadium field at BYU-I where we had first met taking a soccer class together. I got him a new soccer ball :)

We then went to his old apartment at Arborcove where we decided we would officially become a couple. I got him on of those willow tree figurines titled "together". (Ok... This present was really for me. He couldn't get everything!)

Driggs was our next stop at the good old Spud Drive-In where we first held hands. I got him a new pair of nice outdoor gloves. (You know, holding hands... gloves... )

Next we headed up to Targhee where I proceeded to make Scott hike up the hill because the ski lifts aren't running anymore. So we hiked until we hit snow. It was at Targhee where Scott proposed to me. So I got him a ring pop and a clip for his gps. (If you don't know why the gps thing was significant. See my photo album GPS Waypoint on facebook) :) Don't mind the funny face...

We made our way back to Idaho Falls from there to the Idaho Falls Temple where we were sealed for all eternity! I gave him a glass cube that has the Idaho Falls Temple in it with a stand that rotates and lights up.

Scott is loading the coordinates to our final destination

Here is a picture of all the balloons and gifts in the back after our day of scavenger hunting. :) All the balloons say Happy Anniversary on them.

Our last stop was at the Le Ritz Hotel in the same room we stayed in our wedding night. There I had the top tier of our wedding cake, some sparkling cider and some other fun things ;) We then ordered in Pizza Hut just like we did our wedding night for dinner.

Here's our cake! One year old. It wasn't that good... A little dry. But I'm glad we had it just so we could say we did it. Thanks Mom for keeping it in your freezer for us!

Everything turned out so perfectly! And I want to thank all my friends and family who helped out. It really couldn't have happened without the coordination of everyone. So thank you!

And I guess I shouldn't leave out Scott's gift for me :)
Scott got me a really amazing picture of the Idaho Falls Temple that I love so much! In the corner is says, The Bergendorf Family, Established 2011, Idaho Falls Temple. Thank you again Scott! I love love love it!

The picture doesn't do it justice... Its about 18" by 36" and beautiful!

Like I said, it was a pretty amazing anniversary. I couldn't think of anyone in the world I'd rather be married to. Thank you Scott for making life a fun adventure!