Cliff Jumping, boating, climbing, caving, oh and some shopping too

My weeks are just getting and staying busier and busier, this week I worked up in yellowstone monday through wednesday. had my stake president interview wednesday night for my temple recommend. Its going to be an awe inspiring thing, going through the temple next wednesday. something I knew I would always do, but something that I thought would always be in the future, and now its finally here. I guess I'm growing up, whether It feels like it or not.

Thursday I went shopping for some more stuff for my mission. I went and bought another pair of slacks, some white shirts, and a really cool tie. I also bought some sheets, and stuff for my first aid kit, and things like that. Then I went to mission prep that night, and then spent the night at Brents house.

My roommate Devin Burns came up this weekend, we were going to go camping and hike mount borah on Friday, but the weather over there was rain, and thunderstorms, not weather conducive to hiking to the top of a mountain at 12,600 feet. So instead, we mowed Brent's lawn, to help his mom out, and then we went rock climbing and cliff jumping at the Ririe reservoir. It was pretty fun, then when we were leaving there, my friend Breck Duffin called and invited us to go boating, so we ended up going boating for 4 hours at Gem lake. It was pretty fun, I tried wakeboarding, but couldn't get up, so I water skied instead. We also went tubing, which was a lot of fun. I got sunburned on my legs, and Brent put sunscreen on my back, and purposefully tried to leave a blank spot in the shape of a smiley face on my back, he didn't make a smiley, but I do have three fairly big red spots on my back! After we got back from boating, we ate dinner, showered, and then went to the drive in and watched Harry Potter 5. Quite a rough day, seeing as how we couldn't go and hike Borah like we wanted to!

Saturday, I wasn't feeling so good (I've had a cold all week) or we would have gone climbing again that morning. Instead, we went to a store called hidden treasures, here in shelley, and bought some ties for our missions. Then I gave Devin one of my suits that I bought at the thrift store, because he only needs a suit for while he's traveling to his mission. He's going to sierra leone Africa. He's going to the MTC in Ghana. Then after that, I told some friends that I'd take them to the ice caves up by rexburg, so I took them up there and showed them how cool they were, we also drove a little farther up the road and found some bigger ice caves, that had about one or two feet of water on top of the ice, so we had to be careful not to get soaked in the cave.
after we were done we went to wendy's and got frosty's and some food. it was pretty good. then I came home and read in harry potter 7 for the rest of the night. A very full weekend yet again.

Brent can walk on water!

Family Reunions and Rock climbing dates

Well, this week was yet again, another busy week in the life of Daniel. I worked up in yellowstone monday through thursday. Driving up early monday morning to yellowstone and then working all day up there, is not the funnest thing I discovered. It was worth it to spend more time with Susan and Paul while they were around.

Yellowstone is a pain right now, because the project is just about finished, but they still need us to come up and make sure everything runs smoothly. My uncle Allan used to say "its too bad the contractors aren't a bunch of pretty girls, because you have to hold their hands half the time."

We were able to leave thursday afternoon, at 12 to come home and go to the family reunion, it took us FOREVER to get out of the park, traffic was backed up for about 4 miles in one spot, I'm not sure why, but it took us half an hour to drive those 4 miles!! Then the rest of the drive was fairly uneventful.

The family reunion was fun, I got to see a lot of people I hadn't seen for a while. Friday, I went to the ice caves that are in paris canyon, and explored those, climbed in one way, and out and up through a narrow slot in the rock, it was pretty fun. then we went to bear lake, and I tried water skiing, it was really fun. Then after that I went to Minnetonka cave and took the tour through the caves there. It was pretty neat how big they were, and all of the stalactites, stalagmites, and such that are there in the cave. then I just spent the rest of friday around camp talking.

Saturday Dad, David, Leonora, Richard and I climbed to the top of Paris peak. it took about 3 hours longer than we thought it would take us, it was a pretty fun hike, on the way back, I took the keys and ran down the mountain to grab the car and take it farther up the road so we could hike out a lot shorter distance than we hiked in.

Saturday night, I had a date set up, Brent and I took dates rock climbing, and then had a campfire and made some smores. We had a fire at the bottom of the cliffs we were climbing, there is a pretty steep road down to them so we took the jeep down there and then had fun getting back up the hill. It helps if you put it back in gear after you shift into four low! It was a fun date though. We picked the girls up at 7, and I got home from the family reunion at 6:30, barely enough time to change, eat, and get evertyhing ready that I needed to. It was a fun night though. I took Kiya, and Brent took Mindy.

My Brown suit

Well, I finally got a picture of me in one of my new suits. so here it is! Theres also a picture of a mountain totally engulfed by a cloud on the way to work one morning, it was pretty crazy, it looked like we were going to have a pretty rough day at work, but it cleared up luckily. I'm glad that I'm almost done with the project in yellowstone, so I can have time to spend with people before I leave for my mission. I'm getting really excited to go and serve the Taiwanese people, and to learn mandarin, and to spread the gospel and serve the Lord for two years!

Well, last weekend I didn't do a whole lot because I was sick, not a whole lot of fun, but I'm feeling better now. So this week, I did a plethora of things, mostly driving. I went to Paris, Idaho for the morning of the fourth, and did the fun run that is there. I walked it with Leonora and David. Then went to the parade there, and then drove back home for the fireworks show in Idaho Falls. I went there with the family, and then walked over and watched the firework show with my fhe sister who was up from texas visiting. Then Thursday I helped Joseph move some of his stuff out of his apartment and load his uhaul, he had most of it done by the time I got there. So I helped with what I could. then I took Katelyn, David, and my fhe sister Lindsay to the Ice caves north of the sand dunes. Then I came home and went to mission prep at the seminary building. After that was over I went over to Kenny's and watched him open his mission call. He's going to the Brazil, Sao Paulo North mission. I also learned that my climbing buddy breck got his mission call to Korea Daejon Mission! Then thursday night I packed my stuff to go backpacking over in the stanley area with Dad, David, Richard, and Dad's friend Brent Palmer. That was pretty fun, minus all of the mosquitoes, I about got eaten alive. The lakes there were pretty inviting and it was a chance to get out of the bugs, so I went swimming in the lake, richard and I found some logs to throw in the lake to play on, and it was lots of fun. then the next day we hiked out, after going to several other lakes in the area, the fishing wasn't very good in any of the lakes, but we did manage to catch 6 fish between the 5 of us at one lake, david kept one of the ones he caught. Then we hiked out, on the way out, I saw two small black bears, that ran away as soon as they heard us coming. I opened the hood when I got back to my jeep, because the radiator had boiled over on the way in, and found about 5 mice that had crawled up under my hood. then we drove home. It was a fun filled week, that gave me greater appreciation of the beauty of the world that was created for us. The lord really loves us, and I'm looking forward to going and spreading the word about the gospel of happiness to the people of Taiwan.

Zai Jian!