Summertime, when the livings easy . . .

The summer for us has been good. Since being released from the jaws of homework and projects, Rob and I have spent a significant amount of time outside--hence no blogging. I'm only blogging now because a friend of ours is experiencing car troubles, and Rob left for Idaho Falls to the rescue, leaving me at home. He said he needed "guy time". It shows what a great friend Rob is, considering it's his birthday. He got a motherload of awesome gifts though, so I guess that will have to make up for me not making him a birthday breakfast (I was at work before he got out of bed) or dinner (because he's to the rescue--and I'll probably be in bed before he gets home). Not even cake (we don't like it).

We both ended out the semester well. Rob got another 4.0, and I got a 3.8.

My birthday was pretty uneventful, except that Rob got me a REALLY nice tripod and connect plate and a wireless remote for our DSLR camera. It made a few of my final photography projects a lot easier to complete.

We've gone on quite a few nice long bike rides. The longest being out to Egin Lake, a healthy 27 miles. We would like to do a bike tour in Yellowstone next month. The tour starts in West Yellowstone, MT, then goes to Old Faithful and back. It would be 60 miles round trip and a complete blast . . . The only catch is that it's a little expensive ($50 per person), so we're still trying to decide about whether or not we're going to do it.

We've also done some mountain/trail riding on our bikes, which has had its ups and downs. The longest ride was on an old railroad graded trail just outside of Ashton, ID into the Island Park area. We elevated over 600 feet in about eight miles, and then rode back down. That trail goes all the way to West Yellowstone--about 48 miles. Before we move out of Idaho a goal of ours is to ride the whole thing. Ideally we'd like to ride up it one day, stay in West Yellowstone, and ride back down the next day. The problem is that hotels in West Yellowstone are EXPENSIVE, and if we wanted to camp, we'd need to pack our tent and all our gear on our backs or in a trailer (which we don't have, but could rent) which would slow us down because of all the extra weight. We're still trying to figure out the logistics of the trip.

The downside of our mountain biking experience was trying to take on a trail that was SLIGHTLY above my mountain biking ability. To be completely honest, in the hour and twenty minutes that we were on the trail, I fell off my bike five times, almost rode off a bridge into a creek, and ran into a tree. After the tree incident I walked my bike the last half mile back to the car. I've got some spectacular bruises on my arms and legs though. Needless to say, Mountain-7, Kristin-0.

We've hiked a few times, the longest so far being to Salamander Lake in the Centennial Mountains. The hike included a part of the continental divide trail, which was pretty awesome. It was only 7.5 miles, but absolutely beautiful, and worth getting a slight sunburn on my shoulders. Next week we plan on climbing Oliver Peak, which is just over 9,000 feet high, and close to Jackson, WY. We're trying to get in shape so that we can climb the eight 12,000+ peaks before we leave Idaho.

As of last week, we've started running. We're trying out the "Couch to 5k" program, and some of my siblings are going to join us too. So far we're doing well, and I haven't died yet, although according to my heart-rate monitor, I peaked at 192 beats per minute yesterday during my run. If I keep that up, the running just might kill me.

Last big piece of news; I started my internship at the end of July. I'm doing it at The Floral Shoppe here in Rexburg, which is nice because I can ride my bike there, and I get to live here with my honey, Rob. As of today I've completed 59 of the 400 hours required for the program, so I'm about 15% done. Most of the orders I've done are small arrangements for birthdays or babies, but I have done a couple of wedding bouquets and some funeral work. I've never done funeral work previously, but a couple of weeks ago I did a few large funeral pieces and they turned out beautiful. The camera is in the car (with Rob), so I'll have to post pictures later.

Whoa. this turned out to be a lot longer than I expected. Sorry for the novel. Basically Rob and I are doing great, we spend as much time as possible outside, I'm enjoying my internship, and we are taking up running. Goodness, why didn't I just write that? Because it's not as interesting, that's why.