So I'm finally getting around to writing about the pictures that Steve posted from Yellowstone. Wehad lots of fun but it's still pretty cold there, I would say it was in the high 30's and low 40's for most of the day. And parts of the park still under snow. But we were licky to go this early because the bears are coming out of hibernation and are hungry and probably a little disoriented as well. We were driving along when we got up to a line of cars and we were like, oh great! another bison in the road. but little did we know that it was actually a grizzly bear strolling down the road. And I mean he didn't look like he had a care in the world! It was so cool, but of course he was on steve's side of the car so I rolled down my window and contorted my body as much as a i could to get a picture. Then a ranger came through and scared the bear off the road and sent us all on our ways. It was probably a good thing since that bear could have done some serious damage! Anyway, I got to get to class so I'll write more later!

new semester

So steve and I started our new semester this week and we're both pretty excited about it. I'm in two practicum courses one where I teach 5th graders twice a week and another where I will be teaching one-on-one high school students who are below the reading level for their grade. Steve's in a bunch of psych classes and anatomy and physiology so it should be interesting. i'm also working as an enumberator for the U.S. Census and it's pretty fun but tiring at the end of the day. Most of the people I talk to are very friendly, one women even invited me into her home t osee it because she was getting a divorce and was sad to leve the home because she said she was the one who decorated it. She talked to me for about 20 minutes about her life and the divorce, I'm devinitely learning lots about life with this job. Anyway, the weather is much better but it can get pretty windy which is kind of annoying but at least there is no snow. I still haven't found out about student teaching but they are currently working on putting me at Snake Rivere which is about 45 minutes away so hopefully i can do that instead of Salt Lake. That's about it for us.

Adventure of Epic Proportions

Heidi reverting to her animalistic ways to conquer a steep hill



Last Saturday afternoon (3/28/09), Heidi and I embarked on an epic adventure which tested both our strength and our character.  At 8:00 am we rented snow shoes from the BYU Idaho's Outdoor Center and we drove to Yellowstone's West Entrance.  As you can imagine, the park was completely blanketed in snow.  In fact, the West Entrance was closed for the winter.  We talked to a park ranger and a winter tour guide, who informed us of a snow trail that is groomed all winter long.  The Riverside trail follows the Madison River right into the park.  It was nice not sharing the park with the millions of visitors which flock there during the summer months.  The only somewhat pleasant event occurred when I needed to use the facilities.  Since this was not quite possible, I wandered off trail about 20 feet to a nearby tree.  We hadn't seen any hikers for over an hour by this point, and I felt confident I could relieve myself without any trouble. However just to be safe I posted Heidi about 30 feet down trail on lookout. Ironically, about 20 seconds later a cross country skier came by and waved to me with a smile on his face as I frantically tried to zip my jeans back up.  Heidi said that she had forgotten that she was running lookout, and was mezmorized, watching the guy ski down the trail.  We were out on the trail for just over 4 hours, and believe we travelled between 4 and 5 miles. Snowshoeing is difficult!  It was about 25 degrees F outside, and the snow was flurrying most of the time.