Mesa Falls and Harriman Stake Park

During my second weekend in Rigby, our good friend Stephanie came up for a visit. She brought along her boyfriend Logan. It finally felt like I was on vacation! 

We started out the day by heading up to the lower Mesa Falls. 

Lower Falls

Once we got our fill of looking over this vast river canyon we drove a little further and then hiked down to the Upper Falls. The visitor center was also open and had a large collection of animal hides, claws, eggs, antlers, etc. It was pretty cool. 

Upper Falls

Randy was right in wanting to get there early. As we were leaving, it started getting busy. It was national Get-Outside-Day or something like that. 

Our next stop was Harriman State Park. This is an old family ranch that was donated to the state as a park. Its beautiful! We got rained on, hailed on, and sleeted on on our 9 mile hike. The park has all sorts of terrain- a large meadow, forest, a large lake, and mountains.

The huge meadow

We were on the lookout for wildlife but mostly all we saw were lots of birds- swans, pelicans, gulls, redwing blackbirds, magpies, little unidentified birds. We would often stop when we spotted a bird and Randy would whip out his bird book and look it up. We watched some redwing blackbirds chase off a large raven. We were coming near the end of the trail when Randy suddenly stopped in front of me. I looked up to see a female moose eating her lunch about 30 feet away. Stephanie, Logan, and I backed up quite a bit until we could still see the moose, but at a much safer distance. Randy got some pictures which I'm hoping he will put on here at some point. Our choices were either go back a longer way or walk past her and hope for the best. We decided to walk past her, she didn't seem to care at all that we existed and just kept munching on the branches of the surrounding trees. We saw her a few other times and we think we saw another moose as well. 

We had a peanut butter and honey sandwiches for lunch in the parking lot. We forgot a knife so Randy kindly used his large pocket knife to spread the peanut butter.

We went back to the clinic and Logan and I played pool. Neither of us are very good so we never did finish. That night we all went down to Idaho Falls for dinner at Red Robin with Sylvia and her husband Bryan. It was great to sit and catch up with Sylvia and get to know Bryan. Sylvia, Stephanie, Randy, and I all met at the Livestock Center while we attending BYU-I. I hope that one day we can live closer to our friends and going out to dinner will happen more often then every two years. 

Thanks Stephanie for making the drive up to Idaho for the weekend. 

Rigby Idaho

I am in Rigby Idaho for a three weeks at veterinary hospital for an externship and it has been a wonderful reminder of why I sit in the same seat for hours at a time in school. One of the doctors was a mentor and professor of mine while I attended BYU-I.  I realized I needed to write down the cool things I have done and learned before I forget!

• completed the skin closure step of surgery on multiple animals- hernia repair on a goat, C-section on a cow, bullet removal from a dog, clean up umbilical abscess, and a few others
• castrated a colt
• neutered a dog and a cat
• spayed a dog (she was in heat which made it more exciting) 
• learned how to place a catheter in a dog
• learned to run the fluid pumps 
• practice pregnancy diagnosis for about 35 cows 
• learned a nifty technique when placing skin sutures to not make them too tight
• learned how to complete a dental cleaning on a dog
• gave IV injections 
• gave physical exams 
• talking with clients 
• giving vaccinations 
• had some great ethical discussions with the doctors and technicians
• restraining animals for different procedures 
• learned a lot about tetanus
• put my parasitology knowledge to the test by reading some fecal slides
• learned that there are 4 types of hernias- incisional, traumatic, inguinal, and umbilical

This has been an awesome experience so far and I can't wait to see what the next 2 weeks have in store! Everyone has been kind to me and patiently taught me new skills and explained things to me. I appreciate the confidence the doctors have in me- allowing me to go into exams rooms to talk to clients and give vaccinations with a tech by myself. I really can do this! This is an incredibly busy practice and I so enjoy the variety of species and cases. We can go from neutering a dog, to looking at a lame cow, to a pre-purchase exam on a horse, to vaccinations on a cat within an hour! I love it!

An awesome bonus is Randy has been able to visit me on the weekends! He is so good, he jumps right in and willing to help where ever he can, weather its holding an adorable puppy or restraining a calf.

San Francisco

I flew into Salt Lake City Monday afternoon from Spokane. My family and I got up super early the next day to catch our flight going to San Francisco. We dropped our bags off at the hotel storage room as it was too early to check in. We later found out we were dropped off at the wrong hotel. Apparently there are two Holiday Inns right next to each other. We walked across the street to grab some lunch at cute little place called Joanie's. After we were stuffed we rented bikes to explore the city. Our first stop was to ride across the Golden Gate Bridge. It was about a 6 mile ride from were we were. I highly recommend the bike idea! It was fun being able to stop when ever we wanted and go off the beaten path.

We made it to the top of the first big hill! 

This kid is growing up so fast! At least I am still taller then him (for now) 

Made it to the top of the second big hill! What a pretty little sister I have 

On the Golden Gate Bridge! There were a ton of pedestrians and bikers. Some of the biker's were pretty serious. If I were them I would stay far away from this tourist attraction and all the huge number of people. 

After crossing the bridge we rode down to Fort Point. The architecture was pretty cool for an old fort! 

On our way back to the hotel Dad lead the way and took us the the Palace of Fine Arts. It was built for the 1914 World's Fair. This place was huge!!!! It was a little peace of heaven in the middle of the city. There was a lovely lady playing the harp. It was easy to be transported across the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean. 

Once we got back to down town, we parked the bikes and explored Pier 39. This place had a wide variety of cool little shops. The twisty turvy nature of the pier was reminiscent of Disney World. There was a magic shop, a crepe place, lots of ice cream shops, a stair case piano that played the notes as you walked up and down, a huge fruit stand, cookie stores, a store just for lefties.  

This place even had a sink to wash off your produce. They had the biggest strawberries and apricots I have ever seen! 

We had dinner from In-and-Out that night and I enjoyed my first burger from there. We didn't go back out that night. I ended up with a nasty cough that made it difficult to breath. That was fun. I'm much better now. I am grateful for cough drops and cough syrup. 

The next morning we biked up and down the Embacado, checking out all the piers and Fishermans Wharf. 

Next stop was Alcatraz Island. This national park was really cool. I learned that it wasn't just a maximum security prison, but also as a fort to protect the bay from invaders and the Native American's claimed as their own for a few years. 

These cells were 5x9x7 feet

This gull came over and begged for some of the granola bar my dad was eating. It even started to bark! 

Thanks Mom and Dad for taking us for a quick tour of San Francisco. All we were missing was Chantel and Randall. 

These are a Few of my Favorite Things

These Flowers

During one of Randy's visits he wanted to get me flowers, but didn't want to get cut flowers because somebody (Miss Winter) would probably try to eat them. Instead he got me petunias, pots, and potting soil. We acquired the basil plant at the farmers market during his next visit. I just love these flowers. They remind me of Randy every time I look at them.  

How much these two love each other

Mitch is Winter's favorite. She prefers to sleep with him, play with him, and eat his food. She cries when he goes outside and she doesn't get to go. 

This Face

This is usually the first thing I see every morning (unless Winter has decided to walk me up first by standing on my face) 

This Goofball

This kitten sure knows how to drive me crazy! This morning she ripped a hole in a brand new bag of cat food. But most of the time she brings me much laughter and sighs of adorableness. At this moment she is sleeping curled up next to me. 

This Incredibly Handsome Man 

I am the luckiest girl to be able to call this guy my very own! It makes me happy that he has a job that he enjoys and is in his chosen field. But I can't wait to have him home!