Viva Russia

after the storm there were trees uprooted everywhere. even a saguaro cactus was tipped over and broken.

we had the craziest lightning

we had the craziest lightning storm last night. the house shook from the thunder and car alarms went off all night. but this morning was calm.

imagine this... but happening 20 times a second, with a constant non-stopping roll of thunder, and you got the kind of storm we're having in Mesa right now. this is more intense than anything i've ever seen on the plains of Nebraska! obviously, if i can catch a bolt of lightning with my phone, there's a bunch of it.

we had the craziest lightning

we had the craziest lightning storm last night. the house shook from the thunder and car alarms went off all night. but this morning was calm.

I guess this is called 'urban camping'

the past two days here have been so busy that i don't have time to eat. let alone find a place to live. i'm using my phone to post this from the park. speaking of parking... a permit to park on campus is $250 a year. BYUI parking has nothing to complain about.

well despite being super busy with all the tasks of school i like it. a teacher told me i had a nice longboard. things are cool here (despite the heat). haha! well i think my food is done. later!

back to school

grape harvest

looks and tastes like the grapes are ready to go, so here we are putting them on the dehydrator to make some of the best raisins around!

Prom Kids

This is a wonderful picture of us and I don't know why we're all dressed up - it must be a Sunday. I knew that this was taken with my dad's old 35mm SLR from the 1970's.

All I can remember is that it was taken in Hemet at the "white house", and that dress my sister has on was the one she made for Prom.

Close Call

"This apparent disaster-waiting-to-happen is on the Island of St. Maarten. The airport has a particularly short runway that ends just 40 feet from beach, leaving large planes just barely enough room to land. So they have to come in low, directly over the beach, making it a prime destination for an afternoon of quiet, relaxing sunbathing."



(cracked.com)

Stay

I am still in Utah at my parents house. I've done a lot of things: replaced the bathroom sink, mapped the sprinkler system around the house and fixed/replaced many broken sprinklers, moved a lot of boxes, pulled a TON of weeds, shoveled the mud from the sidewalks, and stuff like that.

My social life has been with my cat, and my mom's new puppy. I mean, I guess I don't have very long conversations with my parents at all. I did spend some time with some really cool people here though.

Anyways, I was going to drive back to AZ today but seeing as how there's still more to do, I'm staying for a few more days. Perhaps I can time it so that I can go to John and Laura's reception in Las Vegas this Saturday.

I just signed up for my classes today. I am only taking two: Chemistry for Engineers and Calculus for Engineers. Both classes land me at 7 credits and many hours of homework. Bring it on.

Alpine Sunset

Kona - Princess Sun Puff

Climbing Dawgs!

Climbing Hoback Shield

me and kona

well here i am in jackson with kona lying on the grass and eating pears and zuccini bread for breakfast. i am also blogging from my phone (which is pretty nice). this is a perfect time so far. can't wait to go rafting this afternoon and then bike in the evening. sven says they're hiking the grand this weekend. tomorrow we're going to hike to some hot springs and camp... after we climb upon some rocks of course.

Visiting USU

Today is the 10,093rd day of my life. What did I do with it? I woke up early with my dad and we drove to Logan Utah (2 hrs) where we had breakfast at IHOP and then he dropped me off at USU. I had a scheduled tour and he had a business meeting. {The rest of the day I spent cleaning the house up}.

The tour was great. It was nice to see first hand what the campus was like. They got a few quirky-cool things like a hotel on campus (for visitors and parents), a library with a robotic arm to retrieve your books, and "aggie" ice cream. It definitely has an Agriculture Community feeling, or in other words, it feels like a "home-grown" University.

Overall the buildings felt a bit like Rexburg - with the red brick style. But then there were some cool modern looking buildings with lots of glass and metal, etc. They have an excellent track record for Engineering. Especially Aerospace Eng. They are the third largest funded University for Engineering research in the nation, the top University for Aerospace projects in the world, and they claim that 96% of their Engineering students pass the Engineer Exam on the first try.

The campus feels nice, like BYU-I does, plus it felt like a humble University in the mountains. Kind of cosy parked in a canyon with mountains all around. Totally cool spot for great outdoors and great Engineering !!!!! Overall my opinion of this school is that it's a good round fit for what I like. I still want to try ASU out because of the inner-city factor. But I really think I'd love USU for the Outdoors and quality Engineering courses.

some pics from my phone:

Basketball Arena

Engineering Building
In the Library

The Library's robotic arm

Housing Building - typical red brick style of Rexburg

Aggie Ice Cream (it's really good, despite the bad look I'm giving it).

p.s. i'm still attending ASU this Fall