Spring Break 2009!

We went on a long road trip for spring break this year. We started off for Utah on Friday afternoon only to get stopped just outside of Evanston, WY in a crazy snowstorm. All the cars were stopped on Interstate 80 waiting for the snowplows to get there. We waited for about 40 minutes and then when the snow plows came through we tried to start our car and our battery had died! So that was really unfortunate did I mention that it was 11:30 at night? So we asked this lady in front of us if she could jumpstart our car and she very kindly agreed. The only problem was that we had never actually used jumper cables before and we did not feel like blowing up our car or the very nice lady's so Mark went and asked the people in the car behind us if they could help us with the cables and a very nice man came out into the freezing snowstorm and helped us. So we finally get going and we get to my sister's temporary home in Ogden at 2:30 in the morning. Ogden is supposed to be about 55 minutes from Evanston and we didn't get there until much later! So we got off to a rough start but the rest of our trip was great!
We spent Saturday and Sunday in Utah with Mark's family in Orem and got to go to the Sunday afternoon session of conference. While there we saw Mark's nephew who is serving his mission in the Salt Lake Mission and his niece Kierstin. We also saw some good friends from my hometown and some friends from our BYU-Idaho days. I love conference weekend and am so glad that we got to go to Conference. We also had a really nice time visiting with Mark's brother Steve and his wife Molly. They are really great people!

After the Sunday afternoon session with the conference center behind us.

Salt Lake Temple

Kierstin, Elder Clayton (Mark's niece and nephew) Aprillee and Mark. Do you notice the height difference here? Yes I am still the shortest and am standing on like a 8 inch ledge!

Monday we left Utah and headed over to Boise, Idaho. Mark had two job interviews there and we wanted to sort of check out the area and see what it was like. The interviews went pretty well and he will now be entered into the list of applicants if jobs come up in the area. He interviewed with the Boise and Meridian School districts. The Boise interview was just really strange and Mark is not so sure if he would even like working for them but the interview with the Meridian school district went really well and Mark seemed to like their district policies more. We actually really liked the Boise area and wouldn't mind moving there at all. Mark was super excited because there is a Tucano's there which is his all time favorite restaurant. It is Brazilian and really good. So we went and ate a ton! I was really excited because it rained while we there!

After boise we took off for good old Rexburg. We got there Wednesday afternoon and had fun visting with Susanna and Ryan. We always enjoy visiting Rexburg. It seems that BYU Idaho is changing so much! Each time we go there something has changed on campus. While there we hoped to meet with the Idaho Falls School Districts and then go to my brother in law Ryan's graduation. We got there and it turned out that BYU-Idaho was having a job fair so Mark and Ryan went together and Mark got to interview with the Idaho Falls districts, lots of school districts in Utah and Evanston Wyoming. We were so lucky that the job fair was while we were there so Mark got to meet with lots of schools. We really hope that some good comes from it. The most interesting interview was with Evanston, WY. I have never once thought in my life that I would want to live in Wyoming but am not so against the idea now. A teachers starting salary is $41,500! That is at least $10,000 more than Idaho and Colorado. We were aware that Wyoming paid its teachers more (they pretty much have to to get people to come there) and at this point that is really appealing to us. If Mark got a job there (there is a Middle School and High School Social Studies opening) we could save a lot of money and get some good experience in a strong school district. Evanston is not at all pretty, we took a quick tour of the town on our drive back to Colorado but after checking it out we could totally live there for awhile and who knows maybe we would end up really liking it. We ended up just fine in Egypt so we are totally open to new places. It is just an hour away from bigger cities like Salt Lake and Ogden Utah, 4 hours from Yellowstone and right outside a canyon so you know I can get my fall fix there! I am not saying we are moving there but it is totally in the running and we would seriously consider it should they offer Mark a job. The 2 men interviewing showed some interest in Mark so we will see.
Going to Ryan's graduation brought back a lot of good memories. I loved loved loved my time at BYU Idaho! It will always be a special place to me. This April was the 5 year mark of my graduation and it was fun to go and see teachers and the campus. We are really excited for Sus and Ryan and hope that they get a teaching job near us!

I asked Ryan if he was excited about graduating and he said he was more excited about getting his diploma in 6 weeks when they mail them out so I made him take a picture looking sad holding the empty diploma cover they give out. He was a good sport.



April 2009! This April was the 5 year mark of when I graduated from BYU-Idaho and 4 years for Mark. This is not the same sign we took our graduation picture at but we wanted the Rexburg Temple so we opted for this sign.
As a side note I wore that same skirt when I graduated 5 years ago! I was looking at pictures before we left and decided I would wear it this past weekend. Yes, I am that silly as if you didn't already know that though.



Here we are in April 2005 when Mark graduated.



April 2005, The Spencer's and the Terry's. Mark and Susanna graduated the same day.



April 2004! April's graduation! We just love this sign! Mark proposed to me like 3 days later. It was like the best April ever! I am sure I will post that story soon like around the 26th of this month.