Hi World,  It is Emily.

I just thought I would let you know that I am still alive.

I am at BYUI, apartment number 314 or 3.14 if you like pie.  My roommates are awesome, and my classes are not half bad either.

Idaho is pretty different then Virginia.
I looks very different:

Virginia trees!

Idaho Landscape

It feels different:  The change in elevation and distance from the ocean not only causes the land to be dryer, but there to be no humidity, thus super dry air.  These changes have messed with my nose and gums, my nose is always stuffed and my gums are sore.  My skin is also dryer.

The people are different:  As with anytime someone moves you get to see a different aspect of life.  There are people from all over; Africa, California, Alaska, Germany, Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, and Virginia! (Plus so many more!!)  These people all come with so many different backgrounds, experiences, and personalities, all with one thing in common we all believe in the same Gospel and the same Christ.  Now we are all  where each of our lives will turn a different direction.  There are so many different possibilities in life and I cannot wait to see what happens.

There are lots of boys: (And cute ones at that)  This campus is full of Men.  Tall, short, fit, funny, handsome, married, unmarried, we got them all.  We even witnessed someone get proposed to on the Saturday before classes started, and heard about another one.  I have also seen a ton of Return Missionaries, which by the way as furthered my desire to only marry an RM.  It also has made me REALLY want to serve a mission.  Especially a Spanish Mission!

The church is different: SIKE!!!!!!! The church is the same everywhere!!!  I go to church at 1 and have Relief Society first, then Sunday School, and then Sacrament meeting.  Our ward seems pretty awesome! We are one of the few Wards that has more boys then girls. YAY!  Our Family home evening group has 9 boys and 6 girls!  The FHE group is pretty fun.  Two of the guys came over and visited us one day and they were a lot of fun to hang out with.  I saw them while I was ushering for Devotional and they recognized me, but I don't think remembered my name. (Which is understandable because I stink at remembering names)  I saw one of them in the hallway and he punched me and said hi, so I guess he knows me. :)

There are a lot of things different about Idaho, but it is not bad.  However I still think that Virginia is the best!
Well I have to head to church! Ill write more later and put some more pictures up.

Spanish!

Hola familia y amigos,

Yo quiero escribir en espanol hoy.  Yo no pienso que me Espanol es perfecto, pero you quiero tratar.

Esto semana es la primera semana de escuela a La Universidad de Brigham Young en Idaho.  Esto lugar es lleno de possibilidades.  Yo empiezo mis clases in la manana.  Yo pienso que yo voy a tener un tiempo dificil a ir a mi clases porque yo no se donde esta los clases. Todo esta bien. :)

Family Vacation!

This year for our family vacation we decided to take some day trips.

This is how the events of the week took place.

 On our first day together we took a trip to the zoo:

We drove to the metro station, then took the metro into DC

Check out those two bear sloths

Didn't take a ton of pictures, but here is one of my favorites!

On our second day together Lydia wanted to go to splashdown, however the cost of splashdown for seven people seemed unaccomplish-able. So...

We built our own:

 Homemade slip and slide

complete with a pool...

and water guns!!!

We also took turns sitting on our homemade tree swing and throwing water at each other! It was fun!!









Our next adventure was rafting!!!

We took a trip down to the Shenandoah river in Front Royal and rented two rafts.

Between racing the other raft, getting stuck on shallow rocks, and losing paddles, half of the family ended up in the water. Some jumped in and swam, others fell in, and some were even pulled in. It was one of the most adventurist things that our family has done.

 This is the beautiful river we rafted down!










The office and paddle return

Life vests!!!!!!!

Our next part of the week we spent at home spending time with family and participating in events.

The girls went to a bridal shower one of the days, we went on a hike one of the days too, and we camped out in the back yard for three nights.  :) It was a lot of fun!!!!

Hike:
Those that wanted to, went on a hike to a water fall.  We never found the water fall...
We got lost, and taking direction from a hiker we decided to follow this road back to our car. just fyi, there was no sidewalks, we walked super close to the cars and thought we were going to die...

Camping:  looks totally like camping huh?  We have always like watching movies in the tent.
Can you guess what movie this is?
AGENT CODY BANKS!!