It's just sad...

So, Marcus and I went tubing yesterday, in New Braunfels. It was really fun, and not very crowded since school has started already. There were like, ten other people there, which is not how it usually is! Anyway, we had a lot of fun, especially Marcus, who had never been tubing on the Comal before, poor guy. But, we did suffer a tragedy while there. Before we got in, I was debating whether I should go barefoot, and risk hurting my feet on the rocks, or if I should wear my BYU flip flops and risk losing them, or worse, in the river. I finally decided to wear my flip flops and just be really, really careful with them. They've been on their last legs all summer, and I knew they could only last so much longer...I got them the summer before my junior year in high school, when we took Gary up to BYU, and have thus been wearing them (weather permitting) for the past seven years! And then they broke when I was thrown from my tube going over one of the tube shoots on the river! It was very sad. But now maybe Marcus will let me buy some new ones ;)

(this isn't the best picture, I had to take it with my phone, since our battery charger is still missing)

College Graduates!!

So, Marcus and I FINALLY graduated from BYU. Yay! Graduation was awesome, which I didn't think it would be...Thursday was commencement, with an excellent talk by Elder Scott. Marcus and I chose not to wear our robes that day, because we wanted to sit with our families, and we didn't want to have to wait with all the other graduates in the August heat ;). We had to buy our graduation robes, they decided to not rent undergraduate robes anymore, so if any of you ever need a dark blue cap and gown and are either 5'7 or 5'9, let us know...

Friday was convocation, which was much more exciting than commencement. Before graduation, we were able to go to the meet the president thing to meet President Samuelson and his wife! It was super exciting, since I love President Samuelson, a lot. We were a little eager, and were the first ones there, ten minutes early, because I was afraid there would be a line...but there wasn't. But still, we were the FIRST ones to get to meet Cecil and his wife! We also got to take pictures with them. Marcus tried to stand by President Samuelson, but I made him move so I could ;). Sadly, I can't post any of those pictures yet, because the battery of our camera died before I could get that one on the computer! Lame, because I got the rest of our graduation pics (well, the ones on our camera) loaded up. Of course it would die right before the most important one! But don't worry, as soon as we find our battery charger (amidst all the packed boxes that are extremely well organized...) I will put it up!

We lined up for graduation semi-alphabetically. They split us into an A-L group and an M-Z group. Marcus and I were glad to be in the M-Z group, so we could watch half of the alphabet go before us, and know what to do. Except, for some reason they switched the lines up, and Marcus and I were the second and third undergrads to get our diplomas! We weren't especially happy about that...we thought it was going to be more difficult than it actually was because they had given us little instruction sheets that made it sound super complicated. They had step by step instructions like about how to walk up the stairs and across the stage, and exactly when we should pause and smile at the audience.

Anyway, it's all over and done with now, and we are sooooo relieved to be done with school! I really wasn't sure the day would ever come, but it did! Yay for us!

Below are some pictures...hopefully one of the three other cameras that were taking pictures of us that day captured some better ones, but this is it for now...

Marcus getting his diploma

Right after graduation

With the cougar!

Not our child, but still a cute picture

The Milligans

The Rickers

It's fun, but it's scary...

I'm pretty excited to write this as I know I will laugh as much reliving it as I did the first time.

Yesterday for Tara's birthday, I took her up to Sundance for a ride on the ski lift as I I'd heard it was picturesque and breathtaking- little did I know how true that would be. Unknown to me at the time, the last time Tara took the peaceful 45 minute journey through the most gorgeous country in Utah she nearly had a panic attack.

Ten seconds into the ride it all came back to her. :) We hadn't put the safety bar down until the first few minutes into the ride and I thought she would die before we got it down. The lift takes you up really high up the mountain which wasn't as much of a problem as the steepness of the lift (up and down the mountain, although going down was worse) and the relative height off the ground.

I've handled plenty of panic attacks before but I thought my best efforts would fail until I just started laughing at her. That did the trick. Below is a video during one of the steepest descents of the whole ride. It was a little unnerving but if you can get past my nerdiness, you'll hear Tara breathing really hard.

Pictured below was my prize for making fun of her (ok, so she was scared)

Below is a picture from one of the awesome shots we got. Enjoy.

We also went to the rodeo and saw some ridin' like this...

All in all we had an awesome time (yes, Tara was a trooper) and can't wait to go again!