Update

I know that all of you have been dying from anxiety to find out if I was actually the winner of the Long Tail Feather Contest in Newton, Utah. Well, worry no longer....

I WON THE LONG TAIL FEATHER CONTEST!

That means that I get a German Short-haired puppy. We talked to the person who was giving away the dog and said that it wasn't really feasible for us to have a puppy right now. He kindly told us that we could have the pick of the litter when we decide that we would like a puppy. As soon as we move out to Newton, which will probably be in about May, we will be anxiously awaiting the arrival of those puppies!
Oh and I guess I should comment on what great Thanksgiving Holiday we had. Brett was a little bit of a scrooge. He wasn't the biggest fan of putting up lights or decorating for the Christmas season. But he was a trooper and made it through. I love the holidays!We had such a great time with the family and really enjoyed the time we were able to spend with them.
Now we're back to school and I'm wishing there would not have been a break. My brain has been turned off for almost a week and I can't focus anymore. Fortunately, I only have a few more things to finish up until I can relax for about a month. Sadly, Brett will be pretty dang busy for the next week and a half. Then we can take much needed, nearly one whole month off from school. Lucky for me, I will be doing lots of reading during that time but I luckily it will be reading that interests me and that I don't absolutely HAVE to do....
YAHOO! The holiday season has arrived and I could NOT be HAPPIER! :)

One more thing: USU plays BYU on Wednesday at the spectrum -

GO AGGIES! GO AGGIES! HEY! HEY! HEY!

Fantastic Fall

Let me just say that Fall is my favorite time of the year! It's filled with lots of great holidays and fun times to be had by all. We had a "terror"-ific halloween. We didn't do anything too exciting for the big day but we got to spend some time with Brett's family, which is always a blast. Last minute before we headed to Brett's cousin Kami's house, we decided to throw on some stuff to make a costume. We're not really sure what we were going for but oh well. Hey, at least we had fun. Brett's was supposed to be a miner and I ended up being some type of beach bum or something. My sister-in-law, Natalie, said we could be Alaska and Hawaii and I think that's a great idea. So we'll stick with that.

Today was the opening day of the pheasant hunt. Last year we went to Benson and went hunting with my dad. This year we decided to try Newton with our brother-in-law. We saw tons of roosters this year, about 15 or 20 but only a got a few shots off at a couple of different birds. I ended up shooting a rooster with 24 inch tail feathers! YEE - HAW! That's a dang good bird! I was pretty stoked. Brett wasn't able to get a shot off at all but is planning on going out during the week so he'll get one before all is said and done. Newton is also having a "Longest Tail Feather" competition this year. 1st prize for the adults is a German Short-hair puppy and 1st prize for the youth is a shotgun. So far it looks like I'm in the lead but I don't know - we'll keep you posted. By the way... any one want a puppy? We aren't really in a position to have a puppy right now so I'm really not sure what we'll do with it if I end up winning the puppy. At this point, I'd rather have a shotgun... Here's my bird:

After the hunt, Natalie, my sister-in-law, had to run to the store so I ended up watching her son, Garrett, for a little while. After she finds out what we've been up to I'm not sure she'll ever want to leave her child with me again but he sure did have fun.

I taught him to "pet" the bird and soon after he was doing this...

He drug that bird literally all over for about 20 mintues until we had to go back to the house

This kid is 100% boy

We headed back to Spark's and Suz's house and Garrett pretended to drive the lawnmower and was very helpful in helping Spark's rake the leaves. And now I'm blogging when I really should be studying..... Gotta love Saturdays!

Bitter Sweet

The third week in October is always kind of crazy at our house. I guess technically, the second and third week are... You may ask why, but if you know Brett or the Petersen family, you know it's gotta be because of the deer hunt. The Petersen family has a tradition of camping up Franklin Basin for the entire week of deer camp. They don't do the camp trailers (well most of them don't) they have two big wall tents that get set up, the sleeping tent and the cook tent. The sleeping tent does have a furnace inside so it stays very warm all night. Along with these two tents they have a poop tent for the bathroom, and a regular camping tent hosting the shower. They have it made. I'd say that it's a more luxurious way of camping but it's dang fun to be up there. Every meal is cooked to perfection, but dinners are always a special occasion. Most nights there are few of the woman and children that head up to deer camp for a night out in the woods and some great dinner. This year was no exception. There were lots of people up there every day and as always a great time was had by all.
Brett was able to get far enough ahead on his homework that he was able to take almost the entire week off. He headed up Tuesday and didn't come home until Saturday. Unfortunately, I had to stay home and go to school but I did manage to make it up there for Tuesday night, stayed until late morning on Wednesday and then headed up again Thursday night and stayed until Friday night. I told Brett this year that I would shoot a deer if we saw one so we headed out Friday morning to find me one to shoot. We saw about 10 deer but all of them were either does or fawns. Dang it! There's always next year, right?!?
Natalie brought Garrett up on Thursday night and the boy was in heaven the entire night! He got to ride the horse with Brett (notice in the picture he's got the reins in his hands and is ready to be top by himself) and he was enthralled with the fire. He came running over to the fire and then just stood there and stared, didn't move, I'm not sure the kid even blinked for about 5 minutes. He was even drooling quite a bit because he was forgetting to swallow. He loved the fire and found sticks on the ground to throw into it. He also loved poking the fire with a stick. I'm afraid we have a future pyro on our hands. The Maynards weren't able to make it up this year and they were really missed. It's now a bitter sweet time because the hunt is over and we can get back to normal life but the fact that we have to get back to normal life is kind of depressing at times and the deer hunt is a whole year away! Here's a few pictures of the hunt:

Garrett and Brett
Ride Cowboy, Ride!

Jan on her very first horse ride ever! This was also her first time at camp in about 30 years! Her presence will have to become more regular at deer camp.

Notice the stick in Garrett's hand and where he is headed...

Watching the stick burn

Garrett, his poking stick, and the fire

Las Vegas Ragnar 2009

This past weekend I ran a Ragnar relay race in Nevada. I was on a team that consisted of 12 people and between us all we ran 171 miles in about 27 hours. The 171 miles is split between the 12 of us, so the run is comprised of 36 legs all together. The race started in Logandale, a town just outside the Valley of Fire State Park and ended just outside of Las Vegas at the Red Cliffs Casino and Hotel. The entire team was in 2 seperate vans (6 people in each). I was in Van 1 so the people in my van would all run their legs and then the next van would run their 6 legs while we tried to rest and then we'd start the process all over. The Ragnar Relay moto is Run. Drive. Sleep? Repeat. Quite fitting for exactly what we did. This Ragnar Relay is just like the Wasatch Back that goes from Logan to Park City that is 187.9 miles. My team was my sister-in-law Emily, a lady from Emily's ward (Lori), Emily's friend (Kara), Karli Anderson, and my brother-in-laws little sister Mallory. The other van was full of Mallory's friends, unfortanatley from BYU but they were awesome so I guess I was ok with them being on our team... We had a blast staying up, cheering each other on, and just being silly. A few highlights from the trip:
-Mallory "thrusting" her way to Vegas - Mallory would get out of the car and say while thrusting her hips "Don't think of the pain. Just think of this...!"
- Mallory also drank an energy drink that didn't sit well with her stomach so a few of the stops consisted of Mallory trying to find cover behind the tiny sagebrush with a pack a wipes trying not to "explode" all over. - Kara was dicussing the type of underwear she wears when she runs and said, "I have plenty of regular undies. Scott likes me to put it on before we, ya know..."
- Back in St. George after the race, Emily was driving to Target and was delirious and made about 5 wrong turns just trying to get into the parking lot of Target. Then once we got in the store we walked around trying to find the customer service desk, which we passed just as we came through the first door.
- It was Lori's birthday on Saturday so while she was in the shower we thought we'd run to the store and buy some cupcakes to surprise her with. We didn't want to make it obvious that we had gone to the store just for that so we left them in the car until we went to pick up our take out order from the Pizza Factory. When we got back from picking up the pizzas our hands were full and couldn't take the cupcakes in. After we finished eating we got busy getting ready for bed and completely forgot about the cupcakes! So the big surprise was pointless and she didn't even get the cupcakes until the next morning.
-Saturday night, with all of us in our delirious states we were looking at pictures from the race and everyone's faces in the pictures. We were dying with laughter, especially thanks to Kara for all of the goofy faces she was pulling. :) Emily was laughing so hard she went to get off of the bed and fell off. Wow.... I don't think I can even explain our delirium....
- And probably the ultimate memory from the trip was getting not one but TWO flat tires! We got a flat tire on the second leg of the run while Karli was running. Luckily, another team (hell on heels) stopped to help us out. It was going to take a while so they helped to shuffle our runners back and forth until the tire was fixed. We couldn't find all the tools that we needed so we had to ask the neighbors for tools. They provided us with a floor jack, a sleg hammer, and crowbar. Once we got the car jacked up and the lug nuts off the tire was rusted to the axle and we could not get the tire off. The neighbors were so nice to help us out. We just so grateful it happened when it did or things would have been a lot worse! Then just as the second van was finishing their first legs they got a flat tire. We had to help shuffle a their last runner back to their car and then get to the finish line before Mallory did so our runner would be there. I think we were the only team to get a flat tire and BOTH of our vehicles got one.
***The sadest part about the entire race was at about 4:35 am Saturday morning. A 35 year old father of two from one of the teams was standing on the side of the road waiting for the runner from his team to met him so that he could cheer him on and give him water. While he was standing on side of the road a drunk driver lost control of his car and hit him. The car continued to skid, going over the center median, and overturning in the desert. The driver managed to get out of his car and run about a half of a mile before the police caught him. The father, who was running the race with his wife was killed on impact. A few of the teams tried to revive him before the ambulance got there but they were never able to. Luckily, we did not see the event take place but we heard about it. My heart breaks for this young family. I can't even imagine how hard things must be for them right now. You can click here to read more about the accident. On a much happier note, here are some of the pictures from the race:

Runner 1: Mallory Phillips

Runner 2: Karli Anderson

Runner 3: Emily Maynard

Runner 4: me

Runner 5: Kara Jorgensen

Runner 6: Lori Meeker

Cooling Lori off... It was HOT!

Flat Tire #1

Mallory's Hip thrust position

I'm not sure what i'm doing in this picture but the runners that ran by me an Mallory making fools of ourselves in the middle of the night seemed to enjoy our stupidity...

Van 1 Photos

The whole gang at the finish line

What we've been up to...

So it's been about a month since there was any sort of update from us. We've been super busy with school and haven't had much time for anything else. So here's a brief overview of the our lives for the past month.
Brian (brett's brother) rode the LOTOJA for the sixth year in a row! Go B! So we made the trip to Jackson with Brett's family on Sept 12 - 13. Here's a few pictures of our great adventure...

The next weekend (Sept 19) we went to the Brad Paisley and Dierks Bentley concert. It was so much fun! We went with some great friends. We had a really good time but unfortunately I don't have any pictures to document the event because I forgot to get some batteries for my small camera. So you'll just have to trust me that Dierks was looking as cute as ever and that it was an amazing show. It was also kinda crazy because it was at the USANA so it was outdoors and a storm kind of rolled in and it rained off and on throughout Brad's preformance and the lightning was going nuts. It was getting so close but luckily didn't strike anyone or anything at the concert. But it was awesome to have the lightning in the background.
This past week/weekend was Homecoming at USU and Kami's (Brett's cousin's) wedding. USU was successful at winning their homecoming this year. They beat SUU by about 20 points. We're so proud of our Aggies. We sure hope they can have more success this year! Kami's wedding was a smashing success. She looked gorgeous and it was a lot of fun to be together as a family to share in her special day with her. Here's some pictures of the weekend.

My dad is also building a barn and so in our spare time we're trying to help him as much as possible. Here's the latest in the barn building....

And that's what we've been up to for the last month... It's been school every single day with a few chances to play with family and friends every now and again. We sure are thankful for such great people in our lives!

Getting settled

We have now been in class for a week and what can I say...
I'm feeling quite overwhelmed so far. Brett seems to do keeping up and doing fine so far. Meanwhile, I'm quickly realizing that grad school is going to kick my butt for the next 2 years. Once again, my life is owned by something much bigger than myself. So if I avoid anyone in the next two years just know that I still love you very much - I'm just so busy that I'm probably curled up on my couch hiding under a blanket, bald because I pulled my hair out already and bawling my eyes out.
I've already told Brett that I love him very much and I enjoy spending time with him just don't plan on seeing very much of me for the next 2 years.
Despite all of the negative things I have just said - I absolutely LOVE my program. The classes are far better than any of my undergraduate classes were. I am thoroughly enjoying learning and feel like I'm being challenged and actually learning - it's quite a different feeling than that of my undergrad.
Just an update for those of you who do not live by us or see us often: Brett shaved his beard! Yeah! I was quite surprised when we walked out of the bathroom and asked me if he should leave "it" like this for school. I about died when I turned around - what a dork! I didn't really mind the beard too much but I will say that I like him much much much better without the beard.
Don't worry he shaved all the way after he let me take a picture so he no longer has that mustache but he'll probably be start growing out the beard again soon for "the hunt".
So, don't worry if I don't post anything for awhile, we're still alive. I'm just super busy and don't have time for anything but school.

Journey to Zion

It's official. We are back in Utah (or Zion as Brett likes to call it). We said a tearful goodbye last Tuesday afternoon, Aug 11 to the Jones family and started to float down the Alaska Marine Highway on the Taku vessel.We stopped at a few ports on our way down the channel but totaled 36 hours aboard the Taku. We arrived in Prince Rupert at 3:30 am to begin our drive home. We drove from Prince Rupert to Hope on Thursday, Aug 13, for a total of 16 hours of driving - that's straight driving, only stopped for gas. We also decided that on our journey home we would be camping instead of staying in hotels to cut down on the travel expenses. We purchased a 5'X6' kid tent while we were in Juneau so that we could save money and because we already have 2 nice tents at home in Utah and we didn't want to spend the money on yet another tent. So this is what we stayed in our journey home:

Needless to say: we were a little cramped on room/space for a few days.

The next day we drove across the boarder, down to Seattle, stopped in Seattle to check out Pike Market for about 2 hours and then made our way down the coast on the historic Pacific Coast Highway. We first saw the coast in Astoria but didn't get to physically touch the beach or the water until the next morning in Pacific City at Cape Kiwanda. This was the first time Brett had ever been/seen the open ocean. He was quite content watching the waves and the surfers - I think he would've stayed there all day had we had the time. We had fun playing in the water and the sand but continued our journey down the coast. We stopped in Newport at the aquarium and again just outside of Florence to see the light house. That night we stayed at a beautiful secluded lake outside of Sisters called Suttle Lake. Unfortunately, we got there after the sun had gone down and I forgot to take pictures the next morning. You'll just have to trust me that it was beautiful.

And the 5th day of our journey consisted of us drive 10 hours through the desert. This was by far the WORST part of the entire journey. There is absolutely nothing to look at or see and it's hot and miserable. From Brothers, Oregon to Tremonton, Utah there is nothing. Brett told me to stop acting like a kid because on this last leg of the trip I was asking if we were there yet about every 5 minutes and complaining because I was hot, tired, and my butt hurt so bad that I couldn't get comfortable enough to sleep. Some how we survived - barely.

We arrived home at about 8 pm on Sunday, Aug 16. We were greeted by most of Brett's family and my parents.

It was so fun to see our nieces and nephew all growing up so fast. It was great to be able to smell the fresh cut hay, the smell of the water sprinkling out of the pipe lines, see the farmer's kids in their mud boots out moving pipe, and a million other things that we were so excited to see/smell again. The smell of home will probably always call us back to the place that we love.

This trip was so much fun. We enjoyed our trip up to Alaska, definitely loved our time in Alaska, and thoroughly enjoyed our trek home. We were so thankful to be able to make the drive there and back with no problems and be able to enjoy a long road trip together. One thing is for sure - you sure do learn a lot about your spouse on a long road trip, good and bad. Luckily, ours was definitely for the better.

As always, here are some pictures from our journey:Ketchikan's Downtown District - a lot of the town is build on boardwalks

Brett enjoyed a Rueben while at Pike's Market

Famous Pike's Fish Market - a halibut flying through the air

The Lewis and Clark Bridge - Washington is in the distance and we're in Oregon

Brett's first reaction to seeing the open ocean for the very first time

Brett enthralled with the surf

If you ever have the opportunity to go on a road trip, we highly recommend making a giant loop, going up the Oregon Coast, up through BC, Bamff area, and down either through Montana, Nebraska, or Yellowstone. Every place we went was absolutely gorgeous. The most beautiful country that we had ever seen. We absolutely loved every minute of our trek and recommend it to anyone. As much as we loved being away from home, it is good to be back. We have started school and are slowly adjusting to the student lifestyle once again.