What to do in Twin Falls, ID

This past weekend we took a trip to the world famous Twin Falls Idaho (OK it isn't that famous). The Wilkins, our good friends from my mission, met us half way between Salt Lake and Boise and that just happens to be Twin Falls (not exactly halfway but the only civilization in between). We had a hard time coming up with things to do there but we had a good time just visiting and being our crazy selves. The whole Wilkin family came up, all 9 of them, it was a blast. Who knew it was so hot in Twin? We all stayed in two hotel rooms, had a hot picnic, and viewed the sites. The sites consisted of the Shoshone Falls, some public swimming hole made on the banks of the river, and a big bridge. The swimming hole ended up being fairly entertaining not because of the good swimming but because of the Twin Falls locals. This place looked more like a Kentucky backwoods family reunion-in other words for lack of a better phrase total white trash chaos (I don't want that to sound mean because I'm a little white trash myself at times and proud of it). Anyways, if you didn't have at least 6 tattoos on your chest (male or female) and at least one dangling earring somewhere on your bare overweight body you did not fit in there. It was a people watchers heaven if you could stand to watch. Man I sound mean but it was pure entertainment. The next day we spent a lot of time at the I.B. Perrine Memorial Bridge (longest span bridge in the west at 1500 feet long-that was for you Susan.) and we found some entertainment here also. It is 486 feet above the Snake River and I guess a great bridge to jump off of with a parachute (base jumping). It was pretty cool to walk with the random people out on the bridge and stand right next to them as they jumped. Their adrenalin was shared with the spectators as it seemed at least on one jumper (a girl going for the first time) that her chute was not going to open, that made all of our hearts skip a few beats. Overall Twin Falls turned out to be fairly entertaining, but if any of you know the Wilkins these events above don't hold a candle to how entertaining the Wilkin family is...they're are all extremely fun to be with and make everything you do exciting! Thanks Wilkins for the good time we had a blast!!!


Evan didn't like the cold water but sure liked the mud!

The bridge

You could feel the bridge flex when a semi drove over

The girls enjoying a blistering hot day under the bridge


Jordyn's new friend Aubrey


One of those crazy adrenalin junkies

Ketchup taco's and sweet cottage cheese!??

Tonight as we were making our taco's there was only enough sour cream for one taco, so I let Emily have it. I rummaged through the fridge looking for some other condiment I could liven up my taco with... hmmm pickles... no, cottage cheese...possibly, mustard...no, I usually do put ketchup on my taco's and so do a lot of my family, but there was no ketchup. Well I came across the cream cheese spread and thought, "what the heck it's kinda like sour cream it couldn't be too bad", and well it was quite good if I do say so myself. I got to thinking while eating it the strange things that I put on food that doesn't seem "normal." One of those like I said is ketchup on my taco's that is a norm on my Mom's side of the family and I grew up thinking it was normal but then once I got out of the house everyone thought it was wierd. Other things that seem different are sour cream on my scrambled eggs and ham, milk poured over cake- as long as it's chocolate cake with chocolate frosting I heat it up in the microwave till it's piping hot and then pour cold milk over and eat it like cereal...mmmmm good! One other thing I enjoy is bannana's on my peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwich that is a new one for me that I tried and really liked it. I come from a family that puts wierd things on other things my mom with the ketchup but that doesn't compare to my dad who puts sugar on his cottage cheese, salt on his catalope and eats saltine crackers crushed up with milk over them...all things I never adopted. So what strange things do you do to your food I'm curious and need some more ideas to try.

First Official Business Trip

Well all you may be tired of me only posting about my job all the time, but this is what takes up most of my time and I haven't come up with anything else to blog about, so more about the job.
My first travels for my job send me to Tamarack, CA where I will be giving (mostly learning how to give) technical assistance on how to stack one of our log houses.

I don't know California very well and didn't have any idea where Tamarack was and I basically had only had one place to compare it to that I've been to; Tuolomne, CA. Well it just happens that it is only about 60 miles away (I'll be darn!).


I'm excited to learn the process although it's going to be hard work in hot weather but it should be fun. Something funny happened when my boss told me I was going he said "I've booked your plane tickets" and told me what day I would be leaving and what day I would return (for example "you'll be leaving Wednesday and returning on Friday") I thought OK I'll be gone for 3 days, but then when I looked at my flight schedule it was 9 days. So I went home and told Emily that I was going to be gone to California for 9 days, she was freaking out not knowing what she was going to do for 9 days in a town where she doesn't know anyone. The next day I was telling my boss about how I thought it was 3 days but was actually 9 and he was all confused saying "WHAT?! It is only 3 days!" he had actually scheduled my flight to return 9 days later instead of 3, but luckily it was a refundable ticket and he fixed it. He said "Thanks for catching that; I don't know what you guys would have done down there for an extra 6 days." Anyways I'm excited and enjoying the job more each day as I meet more and more clients and help them achieve their dream of a log home.