pictures are worth 1000 words

Well my fellow bloggers… life with school hasn’t gotten TOO crazy yet so I thought I would take a chance to update you all. Here goes.

Two weeks ago we took a fun and much needed “vacation” to Washington to visit my family and tour some graduate programs for Joe. After going to school all summer, and Joe working his tail off with two jobs, we both definitely needed a little trip to get away. But although our trip was really fun, it wasn’t exactly relaxing. We crammed so much into our 10 day trip that by the end we felt like we needed a vacation! A vacation from our vacation. It was good, though. And it really gave us a chance to see what we were getting ourselves into as far as graduate school goes.

I’ve found that pictures tell a much better story than I ever could. And much more fun to look at than a bunch of writing ( : So here are a few of the highlights…

We started off the week going to Silverwood Theme park in Idaho for a day jam packed full of rollercoasters, wave pools and fun with my family.  This is the award-winning shot of the day... just look at Kolby's face!

Next we headed to Spokane to take a tour of Eastern Washington University's Health Sciences building and explore the city a little bit.  Here were some crazy statues that were all over the park downtown.

Of course no visit to Spokane is complete without visiting the giant Radio Flyer!  I felt just like a little kid again climbing in and sliding down the handle ( :

We had to squeeze in our one boating trip for the summer!  So much fun!

Yay for the river!  This is me pre-knee-boarding.  I was a little nervous to get into the freezing cold water, so it took me a few minutes to psych myself up ( :

This is "determined Joe" prior to trying out the knee-board for the first time.  He was hoping it wouldn't be quite the demoralizing experience that wakeboarding was:  several tries, one sore body and no success. 

Success!!!  Joe got up pretty easily on the knee-board and absolutely loved it... as you can see by the look on his face!

I just had to add this picture in here too.  Just look at that angle.  Nearing 50 and still an incredible slalom skiier! 

This is the humongous pond in the middle of UW's campus.  We had a great time in Seattle, and were definitely intimidated by the humongousness of EVERYTHING at UW.  We had to find elevator BB for heavens' sakes.  Beautiful campus and a beautiful view though! 

Next was Pike Place Market in Seattle.  We heard such great things about it, we managed to find a few hours to check it out. 

Here's Pike Place Fish Market, where the workers throw 20 pound fish all over the place!  It was a blast to just stand and watch them sing and throw fish.

And of course, the famous GUM WALL.  It was HUGE.  This picture doesn't even do it justice.  Add on to this another 30 feet of wall with several layers of gum.  Disgusting.  And yet, I kinda wished I had a piece of ABC gum to contribute.

After Seattle we met my family to go camping.  Our directions happened to be the scenic route, which meant we got to drive through Mount Rainier National Park!  So here it is, the beautiful Mount Rainier.  We drove right past this and said, whoa!  That was amazing--we've gotta stop.  Again, the picture doesn't do it justice.

We went canoeing a few times at Clear Lake in Camp Zarahemla.  The concensus was that the Lake did NOT deserve its name. 

Gotta love the good ol' outdoors.  It was so beautiful.

And that concludes our trip!  If you’re still reading, there are a few other things going on at the Hill house these days.

First, making big decisions… my mind is pretty much fully occupied every waking hour with trying to figure out what I want to do in the next few years. I will finish my bachelor’s degree in December in Communication Disorders, but really I need a Masters degree in order to work in my field. Since Joe will be going off to get his doctorate, that causes a couple major problems. First, $$$$$$$$. Putting two of us through grad school would be quite expensive, to say the least.  Second, time. As much as I would love to get my masters degree, I also really want to start our family, and getting my masters would be a time committment of at least 2 years, 3 if you include the fellowship year. But then again, maybe I should take advantage of the time that he is still in school and do it too. Its always easier if we BOTH have to study. I could go on, but I will save you from the third through one billionth complications to this dilemma.  I keep telling myself "We'll figure it out...it's okay..."  But then I realize that grad school application deadlines are looming, and there kinda is a time limit on this.  But we'll figure it out.

Another major event at the Hill house is that Joe was recently called to be the 1st counselor in the bishopbric of our ward.  The call was extended only 15 minutes before the meeting where they sustained him, so it was kind of a whirlwind of a morning.  This isn't something I was really expecting to experience until we were at least 40... but we will go and do!  Both counselors were replaced at the same time, so luckily Joe isn't the only one learning.  It will be hard I'm sure, but we just love our ward and I know we will both grow so much from this opportunity to serve.

Well that's all folks.  Thanks for reading!