The Update of our Life

I wrote this post a long time ago but just didn't have any pictures to add to it yet.

It has been awhile since we have posted. A lot has happened since our last post. The semester ended, we had our first Christmas together, we journeyed to Mexico again, started a new semester and had to move.

Both of our families celebrate Christmas on different days than Christmas so that we aren't conflicting with the in-laws families and such, which makes it nice so that we don't have to compete for who's family we spend time with. Although at the same time we ended up not having any plans for Christmas. We ended up heading up to Bear Lake to spend Christmas with Chuck, Ginger, Zailey, and Zenick. It was a lot of fun watching the kiddos open their presents and to spend time with them. Because we are Newlyweds and the fact that we were going to Mexico, we decided to only have Stockings for each other and no big presents. We had fun trying to stuff each other's stockings without the other seeing. Joey being the "little boy" that he is, he had to pretend that he was going to peek into his stocking early.

The last three years Joey has been going to Tijuana, Mexico with Charity Anywhere Foundation to build houses and do service for the poor. I was able to go with him last year and we had an amazing time and are pretty much addicted to service in Mexico. This year Joey was in charge of the trip so we spent a lot of time working out the details and going through the drama of hoping my passport would come in time. It was a way fun trip. We will do another post with pictures and with all the details of our Mexico trip at a later date.

When we got home from Mexico, Kelly and Leah told us that they potentially sold the house so we would most likely be moving out before the end of the month. Well we waited to hear from the buyers but nothing until a week after we started school. We got the phone call on Thursday that we had to be out by the next Friday. Then on Friday they called and said they would like to do the final walk through on Wednesday. So we had less than a week to move out. Luckily it was Martin Luther King Day so we didn't have school Monday so we spent the weekend moving in my parent's basement.

It was nice to have a Christmas Break that we spent time with family and friends celebrating the birth of Christ.

John Jones

I wanted to write some things here before I forget them (because I am away from home and can not write them in my journal) and I want to share my thoughts.

I am almost 26 years old and up until today I have never grieved for anyone. I have been blessed to never have any relatives pass away unexpectedly or while I was old enough to understand. My father made me aware of this fact not too long ago. And so I knew there would be times ahead (sooner than later) where I would lose a loved one.

This morning I am grieving the loss of John Jones. Someone who I knew for only a couple of hours, but who is someone I feel very close to now. Even after his passing I have talked to him in case he can hear me.

I was part of 11 people who went to the Nutty Putty Cave on November 24th, 2009, just two days ago. I was invited by a great friend and old roommate, Josh Jones, to come along with he and a few family members. I have gone on several caving expeditions with Josh and thought it would be an enjoyable new cave to visit.

When we entered the cave Josh, John, Jessica (friend of Josh), and I went first, while two other adults and four teenagers followed behind. The cave is a geothermal hotspot and so it is very warm and moist in there. Because of this it was a little more difficult to breath, but also nice because it was around 30 degree Fahrenheit above ground.

The rest is hard to explain unless I can use my hands, but for simplicities sake: We had a map of the cave and got to a part where we couldn't find where it continued, so we each took a route that looked like it could be the right way. It is this part of the story that I keep recalling over and over in my head, because at this point I asked John if he wanted to explore the spot, which we later would learn is called the "Ed's Push" area. He went in to the spot face first because he was climbing up, but then it curved and started heading downwards, then it got too small for him to push himself backwards up against gravity, so he slid down further and became wedged. We didn't know he was stuck for several minutes. Jessica and I waited for Josh to get out of the hole he was exploring. When he did we told him (without much thought) to go in and see if John needed help, meanwhile Jessica and I explored two other spots where the cave could have continued. The rest of the group joined us at this point. We could not find where it continued, so sat waiting near the area. After about 15 minutes I hollered to Josh if things were okay. He came out in a mix of calm and panic and said he was going to go up and call for help and asked that I go in a comfort John and maybe try to help, because I was the only adult that would fit. So I crawled in above John (it was a very tight spot and I often would panic because it was difficult to move) and John and I tried several things to move him up. I did the best I could to keep him in good spirits by giving him little goals to reach. Mike, John's brother, was outside of the tight spot talking to me, which I much appreciated because it helped keep my spirits up. But after an hour I was becoming tired and scraped up and started to get psychologically messed up. I crawled out and Josh crawled in to see what he could do.
I crawled out of the cave and joined everyone else outside of the cave. They had all been gathered around the entrance praying and singing church hymns. The search and rescue vehicles started to show up and we decided we needed to get the teenagers home. And we felt there was nothing we could do but get in the way, so a group of us left, leaving Josh and Mike and another brother-in-law with John.

For the next 27 hours I followed the news closely and waited...

Then at 2:36 a.m. I received a text from my friend Josh with the unexpected news that John had passed away.

Since then my thoughts have not turned from his family and the way they must be feeling.

I know that God knows best. I know that his family will be reunited with John. The passing of loved ones is part of Gods plan.

Thank you to all those who have been praying for the Jones' and for me.

I want to say one more thank you to one of the teenagers that came on the trip (I don't know which one). As I was leaving the site Tuesday night, before we knew what would ultimately happen, one of the teenagers in the van remarked "Well, we will have something to talk about on fast & testimony Sunday."

My testimony is more real then ever before. God lives and loves us. Thank you.

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_13864973

Baby! And Bear Lake with the Jacobsens

We are enjoying having a baby........niece to hang out with. Tegan is one cool puppy. Who is having sleeping jerks right now.

Anywho, last weekend we got to enjoy a weekend in Bear Lake with Emily's family. Everybody was able to make it, which made it fun. We stayed at one of the cabins in Harbor Village. Joey was delighted that he got to go wakeboarding one more time before winter. We sat in the hot tub, hung out on the beach, played games, took out some seadoos and a boat, and filled out fun questionnaire that will be fun to read in a couple of years.

One night Emily and I were in the hot tub with our nephew, Dylon, and we were explaining to him the story of the Bear Lake Monster. He loved it, and immediately it became all he would talk about. The best part was the next morning when he said prayer on the food. He said his usual stuff and then said "and thanks for letting us have the Bear Lake Monster." It was hilarious. So after breakfast we took Dylon down to my cousins Boat rental (Ideal Beach RV) because he owns a big pontoon boat that is supposed to resemble the Bear Lake Monster. Dylon was kind of scared of it. He didn't want to "get nears its mouth."

New Bike, Raspberry Days, and Moab

We have been having a blast this summer. It seems like it has been one adventure after another...thanks to our adventuresome friends (Josh, Ryan, Mike, Cody, Brent). A lot of the fun has been mountain biking adventures because I got a beautiful new bike. She's beautiful.


but became a slight pain. We will get to that later.

Raspberry Days are quite a big deal here in Bear Lake. They have a small flea market with vendors and activities, they have a parade, and many other activities. We weren't able to make it to any of these because we worked during the day. We decided that we wanted to participate in some festivities so we went to the Rodeo in Laketown. You can't just go to a rodeo without getting into it. So we decided to dress up as Cowboy as we could. It was actually kind of disappointing but we still had fun. We were also able to take advantage of our porch swings for the Raspberry Day Fireworks.



Back to the story of Joey's bike being a pain. Joey had some time at work to clean his bike. So he took off the wheels, cleaned them, and then put them back on the bike....when he did so the disc brake was kinda rubbing so he unclamped the quick release to see if it still rubbed (it didn't), so he proceeded to clamp it back down while the tire and disc brake was spinning and he accidentally put his finger in the disc brake...this chopped the very top part of his finger off and cracked his fingernail in half. It started bleeding a lot and Joey started to feel like he was going to faint, the problem was he was working alone in the boat rental shack. So he grabbed his phone (squirting blood all over it and the floor) and called his boss to come take his place, then called Emily to come doctor him up. It would have been funny if he would have fainted and a customer came up to pay and he would have just been laying on the floor. His finger is doing better.



We were also able to take a vacation this summer with Joshua Jones. The boys were planning a big biking trip but everyone else bailed out on us. We got into Moab on Sunday night and were trying to find somewhere to camp for free. After traveling down a dirt road for quite some time we finally found the free camping. We set up and fell asleep. The next day was the start of our adventures, we started out by going to Arches National Park. We hiked up to Delicate Arch and on the hike Josh and Joey talked and debated about Obamacare. It was actually quite interesting.



Next we went onto Landscape Arch, this arch as you may be able to see in the picture broke due to weather erosion back in the 90's. This was a nice leisurely hike.



After our hiking adventures we needed to cool off from the desert heat. We found this swimming hole, which was nice because when we first got there no one else was there. There are three areas that you can cliff jump off of. It has a nice little waterfall going into the hole. After our first jump a couple more groups showed up so we decided that it was getting a little crowded and that Joey and Josh needed to start their bike trail ride.



The biking trail for the first night was Porcupine Rim. This is a shuttle trail (which means that the beginning trailhead and the end are at different locations). Emily dropped off the boys at the top of the trail. We double checked that they had enough water, snacks, and other supplies. Joey and Josh started the trail which was supposedly a 3 mile incline and then an 11 mile descent. About a mile and a half up the incline Josh's tire wore through to the point that the tube stuck out and popped and so he wasn't able to replace his tube. So Josh had to walk his bike back to the trailhead without any contact to Emily because she was at the bottom of the trail without any phone service. Joey decided to keep riding, he claims that the incline lasted 7 miles. Joey was trying to hurry to get to me so we could pick Josh up. About halfway down the trail Joey's tire popped (when Josh turned he took the bike patch kit and extra tube with him.) So Joey had no way of patching his tube so he decided to finish the trail by running it. Joey was able to run his 10K this summer that he had a goal to do, but he ended up doing it with a bike. After Joey got to the bottom we drove back up to the top to pick up Josh. Then we went on the hunt to see what time the bike shops opened in the morning so the boys could do SlickRock the next morning.


After we got done with the bike shops we headed out for SlickRock. This trail ended up treating the boys a lot better. They only had problems with Josh's bike chain on an incline but were lucky enough to find a random quicklink and fix the chain.





We had a lot of fun in Moab, it was nice to go on a trip and see and do all the things we did. We spent the next day visiting family and looking for a place to live for the school year. Ta da!

Summer Fun

We have been staying pretty busy with work. Joey works almost everyday all day long and Emily works most days in the morning until the afternoon. After work we try and find something other than movies to keep us entertained. Lately we have been doing a lot of fun activities with friends and family as they come and visit.

• Taking out the SeaDoos
• Wakeboarding and Tubing behind the Boats
• Fourwheeling on some pretty sweet trails
• Taking out the Paddleboats, Canoes, and Kayaks
• Making homemade ice cream
• Floating down the Canal
• Caving

On the Fourth of July we took out a Boat and watched the Fireworks from the Lake. That was a lot of fun especially watching our little niece Sophie. She made the best facial expressions when she saw the fireworks.

A couple days ago work was slow for Joey so he got off early and we went snorkeling in the Lake. Joey had gone a little before and had found some little treasures such as a quarter and a golf ball. When we went out we didn't find any treasures but we did stalk a fish for quite some time.

The other night our friend Mike Elliott invited us to sleep on his Sailboat with him. We got on the lake right at sunset, so while we waited for Mike to show up we rode on a SeaDoo in the lake watching the sunset. After the sun went down we laid on the Water Tramp watching the stars which were so bright that night. We saw over five shooting stars in a short amount of time. It was really cool to sleep on the lake.

Emily's brother and sister-in-law, Kelly and Leah, just had their little girl Tegan. She was born two months early and has been in the NICU and in an isolette. She is finally off of all her IV's and will hopefully be headed home soon. We won't be able to see her for awhile after she gets home because she is so pre-mature that she needs to build up her immune system before she has a lot of people around her. We can't wait to see her though, she is definitely a miracle.

Honeymoon and New Life Together

We haven't been very good at staying up to date on our blog but we are trying.

As many of you know we went to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico on our Honeymoon. We had quite the adventure. Friday night (the day before the wedding) we got a phone call from CheapTickets.com telling us that our flight got cancelled and they had to redo our flights. They first wanted us to leave Saturday night which would have been during our reception, then the next option was late Monday. Neither of which we were very pleased with. We ended up being able to get a flight Sunday night (which we will get back to in a minute).

So after the reception, we headed down to Salt Lake to stay in a hotel near the Airport. Due to lack of food, sleep, and just tons of emotions Emily got sick on the car ride to the hotel. This made for quite the long drive to Salt Lake. We finally made it to the hotel and started feeling better.

Sunday since we didn't have to be to the Airport as early as we had originally planned

we found a church near the airport to attend. This ended up being one of the friendliest wards we have ever been to. Everyone introduced themselves and asked if we were new. When we said no they said that if we ever move down that way to make sure that we move into that ward. After we found out about our flight changes we realized we needed to buy some food

before Sunday so we had some cereal and snacks but realized that we didn't have any bowls or silverware. We asked one of the Sisters in the ward if there were any at the church, she wasn't sure and invited us to go to her house and she would supply us with some.

After church we met up with her and followed her to her house. She was very generous and hospitable. She ended up making us an amazing lunch with chimichangas, nachos, salad, etc. A nice American warm-up to Mexican food. She mentioned that if she would have known us before, her musical trio would have played at our Wedding. We mentioned that we still had an Open House in Salt Lake when we got back from our Honeymoon and she excitedly offered to come play for us. (Which ended up being an amazing addition to the Open House.)

After a long Sunday of wondering what to do we finally ended up at the Airport getting ready to fly to Portland for the night. We went to check in and get our boarding passes when we are

informed that our tickets haven't been updated. We had to call CheapTickets.com and dispute with them for almost an hour until they finally decided to help us and get us new ticket numbers, which left us with two minutes to spare. The Delta worker was very kind and was getting very worried for us because she didn't want us to miss our flight but knew that she couldn't do anything for us other than sell us new tickets for a more expensive price. With two minutes to spare, our luggage was thrown onto the conveyor belt and we ran to the terminal right as the passengers were loading.

We spent the night in Portland and woke up early to return to the airport and get on our way to

Cabo. We finally made it to our hotel where we had the most amazing view of the ocean.

We spent the rest of the week just relaxing on the beach of the hotel, traveling into town, learning how to snorkel, and taking a "glass bottom" boat to Lover's Beach. We were able to see the Arch which is Cabo's big tourist attraction, Pirate's Cave, Divorce Beach, and tons of Seals and Sea Lions. Lover's Beach was really cool, one side had huge waves that we were told not to go into the water and the other side was filled with boats and sea-doos. While we were waiting for our boat to come pick us up from the beach we saw Manta Rays jumping out of the water. It was a really cool experience. We really enjoyed ourselves and wish that we could have spent a couple more days there. We had to get back for our Open House and also to get to Bear Lake to start work.

The beach at the hotel, it was filled with lawn chairs, hammocks, umbrellas and little huts.

The rocks filled with Seals and Sea Lions

The Glass Bottom Taxi Boats

You can't walk down the marina without almost every person asking, "Glass Bottom Boat? Taxi to Lover's Beach?" The Glass Bottom Boats were boats with a small piece of glass in the

middle of the boat that you couldn't even really see through.

Us on the Glass Bottom Boat in front of the Arch

Bear Lake has been keeping us busy. Joey has been working at the Rental Shack and also helping Brent with improvements on their house. Emily has been cleaning cabins and both of us have been helping babysit for our many relatives around us. It is nice to have family close by us and to give us jobs for the Summer. The weather hasn't really been good enough for us to do much fun outdoor activities yet but we are excited to have fun outdoors after a hard days work.

Marriage has been a great experience, everyday we grow closer together and stronger in our relationship with our Savior.

We are grateful for everyone's help and support in our Wedding and Marriage.

Wedding

We can't believe we are now wed. The sealing and reception and everything was so wonderful. It seemed like it all went by so fast. We are really grateful to all those who came...we loved see everybody. We wish we had more time that we could have talked more with everyone.



We don't have all our pictures yet, but our photographer put some on her blog of us (thanks Livia). Click here.