Liebster Award

So today I did one of those random-facts-about-yourself blog posts. Click here to read it on my other blog, Viva la Vida.

Maple Mountain and Jackson

The summer continues... with more work, adventures, and vacations!

Hiking Maple Mountain with Scott and Lisa - 11 mile round trip hike, I wouldn't have made it without Ryan's help and support!

At the summit

We installed sprinklers for my mom, and then she got sod. Her yard has come a long way since two summers ago!

We spent a week with my mom visiting my grandparents in Idaho Falls and then camping in Jackson. We rafted the Snake River, ate at the Bar J Chuckwagon Dinner and Show, saw Cat Ballou, visited Old Faithful and spent a morning canoeing and an afternoon playing in the river.

Buffalooooooooo!

Jumping off rocks into Jenny Lake

Me and my mom and the Tetons

Jumping into the swimming hole in the Gros Ventre River

Trying to swim against the current - Ryan did better than I did :)

Mrs. Moose!

Gros Ventre River - I think this is one of the most beautiful places in the world.

We had fun! Upcoming adventures: selling furniture, shingling the shed, canning beans, camping with my dad, and watching lots of White Collar...

I'm in love with this guy

Waterton Lake in Canada

Helping me make a flag cake

With his mission president

On top of Maple Mountain

Putting sprinklers in my mom's yard

Loving the square ice cream

Bullseye #1 for Ryan :)

Jenny Lake - Grand Teton National Park

Building our fire

Gros Ventre River - Grand Teton National Park

Life is more adventurous, exciting, fun, and beautiful with him in it. I'm the luckiest girl in the whole world!

Summertime

I have always felt that summertime is more fun than any other time of year. Despite the joys of the Christmas season and snow, there's simply more to do in the summer. Not to mention, the days are warmer and longer, so outdoor activities are much more plausible than in the middle of the winter.

This summer has been trying hard to stifle our fun, but we're fighting back with determination.


June

For Christmas, Ryan and I got the "pass of all passes" [big deal here in Utah County] and so we can go to Seven Peaks for free. We learned that after 5pm we get free tubes, so we've been there twice so far and plan to go lots more. It's not as big and fun as we remembered it being when we were kids, but it's a refreshing way to cool down, especially when the tube spins around backward and dunks you in the pool at the end.

After my spring classes ended, we spent some time up at Bear Lake with Ryan's mom's family members. It was my first "family reunion." We watched Bruce and Rachel scuba dive, watched Hailey fall off the dock, visited with Michelle and Ben and other family members, snorkeled in the lake, went running, ate milkshakes... etc.

Bear Lake 2012

We got back from Bear Lake and jumped into softball season full swing. Our ward team has won two of our three games so far, and we've made lots of new friends.

Michelle and Ben visited for a few days - we enjoyed lunch at Tucano's and some exciting games of corn hole.

At the end of June, Ryan and I and Scott and Lisa headed up to Canada for a few days to visit Scott's family. We enjoyed the LONG drive (Ryan and I watched movies) and enjoyed spending time with Scott's parents. Especially fun was Waterton - where we hiked 30 minutes up a glacier creek and slid down a natural waterslide - twice. Ryan and I beat Scott and Lisa at horseshoes with a double ringer on the last throw and Grandpa Sommerfeldt taught Ryan and I both how to make wooden bowls. All in all it was a great trip and I enjoyed getting to know more of Ryan's family.

 

Scott, Lisa, Ryan, & Jen overlooking Waterton Lake

Ryan & Jen - Waterton Lake

Ryan & Grandpa Sommerfeldt - making the bowl

Partially completed bowl

At the Raymond Stampede (rodeo)

Once we got back from Canada, we started on a sprinkler system for my mom (credit to Ryan, Bruce, Rachel, and Scott - not me so much) and celebrated Independence Day and my mom's birthday. We also attended President and Sister Hinckley's mission homecoming and enjoyed visiting with so many missionaries from Ryan's mission. 

My mom's beach birthday cake - french vanilla cake, chocolate buttercream icing

Fourth of July cake - white cake, white icing

Flag on the inside - made with a large white cake, a large red cake, and a small blue cake, sliced and stacked.

Pre -sprinklers - working in the yard

"Supervising" :)

Sports Saga

So my first week in our ward, two different people make a joke about how I'm a Sommerfeldt - which means I love sports, right? Right... not. In reality, I'm terrible at sports. I even made a joke over the pulpit about it in my talk. People smiled and nodded and laughed and thought it was funny and then turned ward intramurals over to Ryan and I (probably thinking in their minds that I was being exceptionally modest...not suspecting that I was actually being truthful...)

Sports and I have a bit of a history together... and fortunately, Ryan's included - so it's blogworthy. Waaaaay back in the day when I used to go to high school, I had this friend named Jordan who invited me to go to play basketball on a Friday afternoon at a church with him and his friends. Long story short, it was NOT a good experience. I got the ball exactly once and panicked, forgot to dribble, and promptly passed the ball to the other team. I have this problem where my team and the other team all look alike whenever I'm in a pressured situation...

Anyway... we go off to summer break and then come back for senior year, and lo and behold, Ryan invites me to go play basketball. Same friends, same Friday games. I was scared spitless. However, I also really liked Ryan. Basketball = excuse to spend more time with him = higher chance that he might like me... (and we all know how that worked out :)

So I went to basketball, scared to death, but determined to a) not die, and b) not look like an idiot. Both of these were pretty lofty goals. However, basketball that day was a happy surprise. The game was less violent and stressful than I remembered, and afterward I spent an hour shooting with Ryan rebounding and talking to me. Just me. It was the best day ever of my short little seventeen-year old life.

The rest is history--history that includes watching Ryan's tennis matches, playing Spanish Club soccer, taking a BYU tennis class so that I could at least have a vague idea of how Ryan's serves should be returned (in theory, at least), playing golf for the first time, swimming, running, biking, rollerblading, volleyball... you get the picture. Ryan loves sports.

So it seems only natural that our first experience in a "real" married ward together (we sort of don't count the other one - we were there for such a short time...) includes playing ultimate frisbee--me for the first time--and organizing the ward coed softball team and playing on it--again, me for the first time.

Being married is all sorts of adventurous fun :)

Ultimate!

Ryan convinced me to sign up for the ward intramural Ultimate Frisbee team this term. It was my first time playing intramural sports - or any kind of sport as a part of a team. Needless to say, I was terrified. However, frisbee turned out to be a good choice because a) it's easier to catch and doesn't hurt as bad to get hit with and b) there's not very many rules. Basically you just run around and try to keep the other team from catching it, and if you catch it, you just can't move your feet while you throw.

*Note: You can develop a better strategy than this. That's probably why the teams we played generally tended to score so much...*

In any case I managed to break both those rules as well as fail to stop the opposing team from passing their game-winning point, but hey, it was a good season anyway. It was a fun way to get some exercise and make some friends in our new ward.

After the game, Ryan and I consoled ourselves (and cool off!) with slurpees from 7-eleven. New favorite summer treat! (Cherry-mango-pina colada is the best.)