Jake’s First Day

So yesterday was Jake’s first day at his new job. He got an MA job at the ENT clinic. The ENT clinic is Ears, Nose and Throat which I think is funny because Michaelene’s major is the E part of that. Yesterday was just orientation, but still I’m way excited.

Well yesterday I had an appointment in Salt Lake at 5:00 and so I thought it would be best for us to save money if we car pooled. I dropped Jake off at the U and we made plans that he would take tracks down to where my appointment is since it’s just down town. At work I was looking into something Mom and said earlier about the new condo’s at City Creek being in $100,000 range which is what me and Jake are looking for. So I looked at the floor plans and thought they would be nice to live in. So I left work early to go to the sales office and get information. Well it turns out mom was wrong, the lowest priced condo was $273,000 and that was for a 1 bedroom. So yeah I didn’t stay long. I ended up getting to my appointment early and they were able to get me in early so I finished my appointment at 5 which I thought would be good since I didn’t think Jake would be able to take Trax. I thought that Trax would cost coming from the U and I knew Jake didn’t have any money on him. I also figured that he would call me on his way down because he didn’t know exactly where he was going. Well when I finished my appointment I sent a text telling Jake that I was on my way up to get him hoping he wouldn’t take the Trax. Then when I got up to U I called him and it went straight to voicemail, his phone was dead. I started looking all over the hospital for him and couldn’t find him anywhere. I asked where orientation might be held and was told where ever they felt that day. So I started freaking out. How would I find him? He was in a city with a million different places he could be. So I started driving up and down the streets trying to find him until I finally got a call from him. He was about three blocks from where we were originally going to meet, but he couldn’t remember exactly where so he was off a bit. Well when he’d realized he wouldn’t be able to find where I was he went into a Cricket store and charged his phone just enough to where he could call me. Phew, I was worried it would take all night to find him, but it only ended up taking about an hour.

South Dakota Road Trip

So Jake wanted to take those the three dogs that he was training home. The guy he was working with seemed to be shady and so we didn’t want to deal with him anymore. So being a three day weekend we decided to take the 15 hour drive to Wessington South Dakota. We left early Saturday morning, 5:00 in the morning early. We got going and got into Parley’s cannon when one of the dogs decided he needed to go to the bathroom and did not want to wait for an outside. Our car stunk terribly. We pulled of on the side of the freeway and started cleaning it up. Luckily we had put down a tarp and old blanket of Jakes. We also brought some disinfecting wipes so we were able to really get it clean. We unfortunately had to throw away the blanket. There was no saving it and to put it back in the car would only cause the stench we’d spent the last hour cleaning up. After that accident we were good and did not have another one.

Since we were taking three dogs in my tiny Toyota we were in a hurry to get up there and drop the dogs off. We only stopped for gas, to eat and use the bathroom. We ended up meeting one of the Lodge employees about 20 miles from our destination, but we didn’t mind because it was six miles from a little town called Fort Thompson. The town had a little lake and a small hotel. You could tell most the people who stayed there were fisherman because every single automobile (except ours) was attached to a boat. We had dinner at the casino because it was the only restaurant still open. Then we decided we just wanted to get home so we got up the next day and drove home. Since most of the time we spent in the car I didn’t get many pictures and the few we did get are while we’re driving

Here’s a picture of the lake.

There were huge sunflower fields, most had lost the yellow petals, but they were still pretty cool.

Around Rapid City there were many hills

Me and Jake would see so many of these little ponds and would think it would be nice to have a house right on the pond. This picture is not one of the better ponds, but still there were so many.

Engagement Pictures

So last week Jake and I got our engagement pictures done. His sister Nikki took them for us and did a fantastic job! I had so much fun taking the pictures are there are so many good pictures. I spent like 5 hours going through and I’ve only gotten it down to 100 pictures. Here are some that we actually are not going to use on announcements or the pictures around the receptions, but I still like them.

 

I like this one mainly because the beautiful mountains behind us, but sadly that’s the best thing about this picture.

 

Then I love this one because it’s just me and Jake playing around. This was taken right after we butt our heads.

Bear Lake

So Jake’s Grandparents own a cabin right on the lake at Bear Lake. Well for Jake’s family Sunday they decided to go up there. We ended up going up on Saturday and leaving Sunday. It was fun. When we got up there we decided to take Joe and Maggie out to the lake. Well since the lake is a lot lower we ended up having to walk a ways and through weeds. It wouldn’t have been too bad if it wasn’t for the fact that there were ton of bugs that kept biting us. A week later and I still have bug bites all over me. Aside from the bugs it was fun and once we got in the water it wasn’t bad. The dogs were funny, Maggie can’t swim and when you watch her swim you can’t help but crack up. She thinks she needs to lift her paws above the water. It’s hard to explain but it’s funny. Jake enjoyed taking them on the lake because it helps them train to be better retrievers. I can’t find my camera so we don’t have any pictures.

Family Camping

So my dad wanted to do a camping trip, that was not necessarily a family trip, but of course the entire family was invited. Whoever wanted to come could come but no one was forced to go. Not that anyone in our family would be forced to go on a family trip, our family loves outings. However, it did turn into a farewell for Chris and Alicia before they go up to North Dakota. We stayed in Spruces and everyone that could be there was there (missed you Andrea). Friday night was the only night that everyone was there. We had hobo dinners and roasted marshmallows. I love camping!

 

Here are some of my favorite pictures. Everyone says me and Jake need more pictures and I agree. This is only like our third pictures. Although our engagement pictures are going to be taken in about a week or so.

The little girls are so freaking cute! Seriously I love all my nieces!

 

Here are many of the other pictures of the family while we were roasting marshmallows

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Towel Jungle

One of my favorite things about travelling is maid service. I leave for work and when I come back everything is nice and neat my bed is made and everything is restocked. Being in Manila for so long the staff really got to know me. One of the people who cleaned my room was really nice one day and left me towel bunny and a note saying hi. So I responded saying thanks for cleaning my room and that I really enjoyed the animal and he left me another animal, this time a gorilla. Although the following night I left but I wonder if I’d stayed if they would have made me more animals.

Corregidor Island Part II

I’m so bad at keeping my blog up to date so I have to play catch up and the problem is that I don’t have enough time to catch up. Anyway here is the second part to Michaelene, Dad and I’s trip to Corregidor Island.

After we went to the Malinta tunnel we went had lunch at the hotel on the island. It was Filipino food which was good, but I don’t have any pictures of us eating.

 

Next we went and saw some of the big guns on the island. Dad really enjoyed looking at these and of course we had to get pictures of our big guns next to the big gun. Haha, but those are on Michaelene’s or Dad’s camera so here are my pictures with the big guns.

 

Next we saw the old barracks on the island. There were actually a lot of barracks, the mile long barracks, top side barracks, middle side barracks. All of which actually look the same, like ruins. Still pretty cool to see. I’m sure during the glory days these were some pretty nice buildings. The mile long barracks had an indoor swimming pool and you could tell the architecture was beautiful. Although I should mention the mile long barracks are only 1/3 mile long, but the soldiers had to run the length of the barracks and while running they seemed forever long and that’s how it got it’s nickname.

Next we saw the U.S. memorial and the eternal flame, but by this time I was exhausted and since I had seen all this before I let Michaelene and Dad go on while I waited on the tour bus. After which we went to the light house on the island. It’s not a big light house, but it’s fun to walk up and look around.

   

Finally we’d seen it all so we went back to the beach and found out that the Ferry wasn’t going to be there for another 2 hours. Me and Michaelene hung out at this really nice little “shack” that had a dance floor, place to get drinks and nice chairs to sit in. They had Karaoke going on and yes me and Michaelene went up there and sang. Dad said we had a lot nerve to get up and sing in front of people hahaha it was funny. Dad went on an additional tour of the Malinta tunnel. It took people through the side tunnels.