January-August 2016: America

This is the first post with 2016 material. Sorry about that. We spent Winter semester working hard at BYU, deciding in February that we were going to do a Study Abroad in Vienna for Fall semester. Well this year has been going by super fast, and this Fall semester is here! We are in Vienna, and classes are starting today, the 19th of September. I'll do a little recap of the last nine months! Today marks nine months since Carli and I got married. She is the best decision that I have ever made! People say that the first year of marriage is the hardest, so I kept waiting for it to be hard, and it never became difficult. It has never been a challenge, and to this point we have never had any problems beyond deciding what Carli should wear on Sundays. The last nine months have been filled with adventures, and lots and lots of work and studying.

During winter semester, I worked part time at BYU moving, and Carli left her job at Legend's Grill and worked at the BYU Broadcasting building. We made lots of Popcorn with our Whirly-Pop,
 
, went skiing with Lynsie and friends.
Worked some more. We drive a big box truck around campus trying not to hit the clueless students who cant hear us coming because of their headphones. Mid March, I was hired by the director of the Vienna study abroad to be the program facilitator, and was able to help her prepare, and organize a preparation course, and help things to run smoothly.
My sister Christy got her Mission call, and is now serving a Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Malaga, Spain.
 
We're getting better at home cooking.

Carli was on an intramural basketball team and though they didn't do so great, she had a lot of fun with it. Carli's siblings Stephen, and Lynsie, along with Stephen's wife Nichole are in dance, so we got to see them compete in BYU dance sport competitions.


Carli turned 22!
Lysnie got her mission call and is now happily serving a mission in the Oregon, Eugene mission. 
Carli Got a beautiful haircut!
We went to all of the BYU basketball games that we could make it to, and sent our team to the NIT tournament. Dad snapped this picture of us on TV.  We had a mission reunion and the Usanov family came from Tomsk, Russia. It was great to see them again.

Carli working on a project for one of her music education classes. She's so creative! 





After spring semester, Carli and I spent a week on Maui, Hawaii. It was a wedding present, so our own costs were minimal. Definitely a blessing. Black sand beaches, bamboo forests, waterfalls along the road to Hana, and volcanic mountains.

When summer came, we wanted to make the most of it, and amidst working 50 hours a week, were able to go camping with my brother James, and his wife Miranda a few times. We went to see the lava tubes near Fillmore, UT, Great Basin National Park with it's 3,000+ year old trees, and Capitol Reef. We also went camping at Bear Lake with Ryan Stucki, a mission companion of mine, and his wife Katelyn.

Mid August, my sister AnnaMarie, and her husband Tyler were going on an adults only vacation with Tyler's family, so they asked us to come out to Minneapolis and babysit their four kids for a week. Katie, Jane, and twins Jack and Aiden. Carli and I visited Ironwood where I grew up, and found the Weiner Mobile! We got stuck in Chicago for a little while. Our flight to Ironwood was canceled causing me to miss my half marathon which was the next morning. We flew instead to Minneapolis, and made our way to Ironwood.

































We Started off our babysitting by taking the kids camping along with some family. There were 19 of us in all, and it rained most of the time. Our 25 year old tent didn't hold up too well in the rain and some of us woke up in puddles.

I shared a birthday party with my niece Melanie. She sure thought that that was fun. Michael even made us a chocolate cake in the dutch oven over the fire.

Carli worked hard with my brother Michael in his garage, and made us a nice wooden spoon! She's so crafty. 

These are the four best friends that anyone could have. 

After babysitting, we came back to Provo and worked for a week before leaving our little home for Europe. On our way out, we got to attend the BYU football opener against Arizona down in Phoenix.