Snowbird

Last Saturday my dad and I hiked UP snowbird. I emphasize UP because for years we have ridden the tram to the top and hiked down, and this time we decided to hike UP and get a FREE tram ride down. Well....... all I have to say is we survived. It took us nearly four hours and one bad knee and two pulled muscles, but we did it. I left Gerriss at home to clean the house and do the laundry (you know, just the usual Saturday stuff) and we took on the task of this mountain. The pictures are of us about 20 minutes away from the top. It was freezing! The wind was blowing extremely hard and it was about 40 degrees. Next time I will know to bring a bigger jacket, and maybe something that is windproof. We had so much fun. Thanks for going with me and for all the encouragement Papa!

New Range

We got a new oven range today! It is so exciting. Alright, I know that we don't own our house or the new range for that matter, but we got a new one in our apartment to use as long as we live here! Our old one burned me every time I used it. The thing was so old that the entire outside of the oven heated to extremely hot when I would bake and the sides of it would get almost as hot as the burner when I would cook. So Gerriss complained to our landlord, and told him that I have gotten burned A LOT from our oven/stove. The landlord knew right away that it could be a big liability so he replaced it as soon as he could. I am so excited! Its one of the flat top ones so hopefully I don't ruin it, I have read all of the instructions so I should be ok. Now I just have to figure out what to make for dinner!

Long time, no post

Sorry I haven't posted anything in a while. We have been so busy. We haven't even been busy with things that are fun to read about, so I won't bore you with the details of our day to day....

But I want to mention how much I love family. Gerriss' aunt is doing something very incredible for us and I want to thank her for caring so much. I hope that she knows how much we love and care for her, and that we are so grateful for what she has done for us. Thanks also to her daughter... :) Whom without, I know the situation would not have been known, and we would not have this incredible opportunity. Thank you so much! Sorry to be so vague, but I don't want to blaaaab to much.

4 pizzas and a gallon of ice cream

Tonight we had a party for our Sunday School class. There were seven children in my little apartment. 2 girls and 5 boys. All between the ages of 12 and 14. Oh my goodness was it crazy! But we made a deal with them that if they brought their scriptures to class every Sunday, continued to participate, and either wrote down or shared their testimonies we would have a party for them. So we got together tonight at our house and had 4 pizzas, a watermelon, a gallon of ice cream, almost two gallons of water, and watched Back to the Future 1. The most amazing part of it all was that Gerriss and I survived! Just kidding, they were all pretty well mannered. We are planning on having another party at the end of the year and we need to come up with some better challenges that they have to do. But not anything to difficult. Any ideas?

Idaho

We went to Idaho this weekend to visit my grandparents and my sister and her family. On Saturday we went to the old Idaho Penitentiary. The buildings were so cool! We got to see some of the changes in the prison cells over the generations. They started out all tiny and gross, and now the cells are big and spacious and kind of comfortable, or at least they are compared to the old ones. There were so many things to see there. One of the buildings had the Gallows, it was kind of creepy to see the place where they were hung and then to go below and see the place where they landed. Eewww! All in all it was a very fun day. I think it was a bit too much walking around for my grandparents though, but they sure were troopers to take us there.

On Sunday we went to Brandi and Scott's out in Kuna, ID. It was a relaxing day full of cleaning out drawers and trying to convince a 16 year old to clean her bedroom. Ha ha! No really, I got there and noticed that one of the drawers in their kitchen didn't close all the way and Brandi says, "Oh that has been like that for 6 years, something fell behind and we just haven't gotten it out." Ok, so everyone knows that I am a bit OCD about cleanliness and this was just not going to fly, so I took the drawer out and began digging behind it to get whatever it was out. Little did I know that this would start a cleaning frenzy, because of the massiveness of the job that I just took on. But we did it! All four drawers were cleaned out and the bottom one will now shut completely. YAY! I tried to get Kierstan to clean her room as well since I couldn't even see the floor underneath about three feet of clothes, but she decided to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer instead. Can't say I blame her though, I LOVE THAT MOVIE! Anyways, while we were cleaning out the top drawer in the kitchen we found these googly eyes that you use for crafts. Kierstan decided that these would look cute as finger nail decorations instead. As you can see they turned out pretty cute!

After all the cleaning and making
dinner and baking cookies and working and playing volleyball and everything else we did, we all sat on the couch and played the Wii. We definitely aren't as good as the kids are, but we still had a lot of fun. Thanks again for letting us invade your house for a day!
Earlier in the evening we went to pick up Kierstan and her friend from Chevron. After we dropped her friend off we were turning out of his neighborhood and I saw a cop and I just knew I was going to get pulled over, the night before I had noticed that one of the headlights in my car was out. So just as I suspected, the cop immediately whipped around and pulled us over. He was really nice, I just let him know that I was planning on fixing it before we head home the next day. He checked my license and let us go. Later that evening when we had left the Hurless house and were on our way home, still in Kuna might I add, another cop saw our missing headlight and decided to pull us over. Oh yes that is twice in one night! I have come to the conclusion that there is nothing to do in Kuna, that is why we were pulled over twice, the cops had nothing better to do. That concludes our night in Kuna.

We had such a fun time in Idaho with all of our family. I love spending time with Mimi and Bop and hearing stories of their youth and of the war. They have so many great stories. Thank you so much for everything. We had a blast!

Sorry this is going to be a long one. We went to church today out here in Idaho at what would be my grandparents ward if they were members. The couple that spoke had such a wonderful message that I just had to take a minute to share a few things. First the wife spoke. She was a returned missionary who felt as if she was inadequate to be a missionary because she did not fit the "cookie-cutter" mold that everyone thinks missionaries have to be. Through her struggles and lessons she learned that everyone is different and that everyone has different lessons to be learned by all of the things life throws at us. She referenced a talk given by Joseph B Worthlin, it was called, "Concern for the one" ( I think....I will find out for sure once I am home and update this) But anyways, in this talk he said that everyone is different and everyone has talents that are picked by our Heavenly Father to be unique to each of us. This is so awesome! I feel so blessed to know that each of the talents I have been given was chosen specifically for me by my Father in Heaven and he knew what things I would need in order to return to live with Him. That is as long as I use those talents in a good way. That isn't everything she shared but it is all I have time to type. The husband spoke next. He said that he had only been a member for about three years, and in this time he has given eight talks, one at a Stake Conference as well. This sounds very familiar, being that I have only been a member for a little over 4 years and I have given my share of talks already. Anyways, he started talking about his life and some of the trials he faced being a non-member in an area full of members. (he lived in Idaho Falls) A lot of the things he talked about were similar to the many things that happened to me and my family growing up as non-members as well. To sum it all up he stated that the Gospel and the Church are perfect, but that can't change the fact that we are all human and we are all sinners. Just because we are members of this perfect church, doesn't change the fact that we are given our free agency to make our own choices, which often times we make the wrong ones, thus we may offend people along the way. But we also need to be quick to forgive and not hold anything against our friends and neighbors. Sorry to be so preachy, but these two people really did an awesome job and I wanted to recognize them for their efforts. It is so nice to come six hours away from our home and to know that the Church is the same everywhere we go. Also it was nice to hear the Testimonies of the Saints in Idaho, they are so strong out here as well. Thanks for letting me share!

Last Sunday we went to my parents house to celebrate my mom's 29th again birthday. (I wonder how many times that is now...) Anyways we had so much fun! I hope that my mom liked her gift as much she liked her new hair decoration. Doesn't she look fancy!


We are headed to Idaho in about 12 minutes to visit my grandparents and my sister and her little family. We will post some more pictures, when we get back, of the wonderful and exciting things we see in Idaho!!! (do I sense a bit of sarcasm?) No seriously though! I think we are for sure leaving now, so wish us luck on our journey this busy, crazy, traveling weekend.