Thanksgiving in December!

Going back...way back to Thanksgiving. I have pictures from Thanksgiving and so I should probably get them on here, huh? It was a ton of fun. Tad's family had a family reunion in Brianhead, Utah. I had been there once before after our wedding on the way back to Rexburg. I remember it being a long drive up the mountain, but it was beautiful. It is still the same, except this time we had snow. Tad's sister-in-law's family owns a condo (or two) up there and that's where we all stayed. It was so amazingly beautiful, with all the wood, the fireplace, all the family, and snow outside. I felt like I was on some Hallmark Hall of Fame movie. We stayed there for about 5 days. We all played games, sat around and talked and there was a lot of snowboarding/skiing. I went snowboarding for the first time and almost was responsible for the unfortunate deaths of my brother-in-law and three other strangers. Some think that snowboarding is the hard part, little do they know. That part was hard to get a hold of, but it didn't take very long. The hard part is the lift. The lift? Yes, the lift. I had a hard time not falling and my second try up was almost deathly. I prepare myself to get off the lift. I am in the middle between Tad and Russell. Well, unfortunately Russ is goofy footed and was unaware of my stumbling, so I crashed into him. Before I could get up and regain my pride the three guys behind us, pro's by the look of them, crashed right into me and Russell. One guy apparently toppled over me, according to Tad. (He stood by watching the whole thing.) Poor guy hurt his wrist but I was okay, physically. My third run up, the lift operators learned to watch for me. She signaled me a thumbs up and said, "I gotcha!" Thankfully, everyone knew to watch out for me after that. It was quite the experience, but I loved it. It was fun to have Tad there teaching me and encouraging me. He was so good to me and good to watch! ;) What a Thanksgiving!Afton loving the peas!

This was the crazy hat contest!

This is Afton's favorite cousin, or Micah's favorite is Afton, either way!

Graduation! Woop Yeah!!

Well, here we are! Finally, posting something new now that I have all the time in the world. You'd think I would have gotten it done sooner, but no.

So here's the skinny.

First thing of graduation day was to go sign my student teaching papers. That is a story in and of itself that if you want to know details you can ask me personally, otherwise you get the short story. My cooperating teachers ganged up and wrote pretty much the same evaluations. So my university supervisor wrote up her own letter of recommendation basically counteracting what they said. She said, "I wrote 'Ph.D' by my name hoping it would give me a little more authority." I was so grateful to her and her advice to me throughout the semester. It definately would not have been something I would have wanted to stick with if it hadn't have been for Sister Hawkes. However, it's done and hopefully when I want to go back into the teaching profession, I'll get a job!

Also, I graduated and Tad walked. (He has one more class to take in the winter.) We had family come in Thursday before graduation. Then Friday, the big day, we all ate pizza over at Tad's aunt's house. It was quite the crowd, because Tad and I were graduating, Dallin and Katie (Tad's cousins), and Joe (another cousin). Their families came too, so you can imagine. But it was so much fun to have our families together like that. Anyway, after eating we all headed to get ready and line up. Tad and I sang in the graduation choir and it was amazing. The spirit was so strong with the songs we sang and I loved it. I'm not much of a singer but who can pass up an opportunity for special seating?! As the graduates all walked into the Hart building the faculty and staff were lined up against the side of the walls, clapping. At the end of the faculty line, President Uchtdorf was there complimenting everyone. He told Meagan and I that we looked magnificent! One word, Wow! So he and President Clark both gave amazing talks and helped inspire us to be better and share the Spirit of Ricks with everyone we come in contact with. Hopefully their talks will be posted soon. After commencement, we headed to the Kirkham building where we all would be walking. We all sat together and after a long song and some talks we did it! We walked, recieved our diploma covers and sat. It actually went by pretty fast after that, and we ended up taking pictures and talking for a while after. Everyone then came to our apartment, excluding Katie and Dallin and his family, and we all sat and laughed. What fun! I can't believe it actually happened. It was such a crazy day, but we did it. We graduated!!

Oh, and here's pictures!