.

pumpkin carving.

2011-10-24T17:48:00.000-07:00

Since Flounder is my disney character I decided to carve him on a pumpkin this year for fun. It turned out great. And prior to contrary belief (kim!), I really did carve this.

It turned out awesome.

this is a true story.

2011-10-12T12:21:00.001-07:00

The other day my mom noticed something different in the laundry room.

So she asked me what I had been using to wash my clothes with.

I told her the blue stuff sitting above the washer on the shelf.

Oops.

She told me that that stuff was the fabric softener...

and not the laundry detergent (which was sitting right next to it)!

Laughing ensued as we realized for the past year living at home and doing my own laundry that I hadn't once correctly cleaned my clothes.

Hence the often "you have stains on your shirt!" comments from the parentals.

But at least my clothes were always soft...

pictures.

2011-10-09T12:50:00.000-07:00

Jaina's 25th birthday party!

flashback friday: the tamagotchi.

2011-10-07T13:17:00.000-07:00

In 1997, and if you were a 7th grader, this little fella was all the hype.

The tamagotchi.

Yikes!

What were we thinking?

This thing/toy/creature/critter was an entire social life wrapped into a digital device originally designed for kids to adopt some sort of sense of responsibility. What they got instead was a pop culture phenomenon that came and went as quick as a Christmas day.

The idea was to not let your digital creature die. How this was accomplished with only three buttons is beyond me. I don't remember. But I do remember that the thing ate, danced, sang, played games, slept, and even pooped. And someone got very very rich off of this.

I remember school had to eventually ban them because everyone was feeding their tamagotchi during class and the teacher could hear the beeping. And once the school's started to ban them then the little tamagotchi fad began to fade into the 90's memories of the human pre-teen mind.

The point is I had one. And you had one. We all had one. And if you didn't, then you probably babysat someone's who did have one.

And if you really didn't then you can watch this super boring history of the tamagotchi to remind you of what you missed out on:

this is the perfect light.

2011-10-05T12:26:00.001-07:00

...for Halloween time.

My friend, Brooke, got me this crazy awesome light from IKEA for my birthday. Obviously because it's orange.

Before:

After:

No need to carve a pumpkin this year.

fall time.

2011-10-03T16:56:00.000-07:00

Also known as the post that will depress my sister who lives in Florida. Sorry sis.

Mom and I went to the pumpkin patch so mom could set the house up for the Fall time and for Halloween. It was threatening to rain the whole time but we got done just in time before it rained for the rest of the day. I'm personally not a sun/summer person/fan so this is definitely my favorite time of the year. I burn like no one's business in the sun so when it's in hiding then it's a lot safer for me, haha.

Plus this time of year everything is ORANGE.

And that's always ok with me.

flashback friday: the lion king.

2011-09-30T13:16:00.000-07:00

I remember going to see The Lion King in the theaters four times.

Yeah, I was one of those devoted childhood fans that made it the most successful animated movie of all time. I think if you ask anyone my age they would say that The Lion King is one of the eventful memories of their childhood.

I remember the first time I saw it was in Arizona. I was 9 years old and my brother Jamie, and 2nd cousin Josh VanVleet, took all of us younger siblings to see it. I even remember leaving the movie theater and having to squint my eyes shut because the Arizona sun was so bright and hot after being in the dark theater for 90 minutes. Yes, I remember weird things...but was on a cinematic high because I had just seen

THE.

LION.

KING.

and who doesn't love The Lion King?

The music!?

(Oscar winning, of course.)

The murder!?

(In a Disney flick? whoah!)

The meerkat!?

(Timon is a personal favorite Disney character of mine.)

The soundtrack is eternally frozen in everyone's minds so that if I were to say:

"I can see what's happenin..."

Someone would always reply in the "Pumbaa" voice:

"WHAT?"

You know you just did it...

In New York City when I went with my parents in summer 2001, my mom and I got to go see the broadway show. We only had to pay around $15 each for "standing only" tickets. So basically all we did was lean against the wall and sit on the floor at the back of the aisle with a perfect view. It was awesome!

And so recently they just re-released The Lion King in 3D for a special engagement. My friends and I had been talking about going to see it for months ever since we saw the posters all summer long.

26 year olds excited to see The Lion King again?? Don't judge.

So the way things turned out is this:

Last Friday afternoon I went to the Maya Theater to see it by myself...

only...

the theater was jam-packed with kids. Now I'm normally fine with this at a 2 pm showing of a kid movie. But these kids were annnnoooooying. Running, and screaming, and mom's yelling, "Lucy! LUCY! Get back here!" These kids weren't respecting my childhood! On top of that the screen was fuzzy and tinted dark and the music wasn't loud. I don't know how to explain it without sounding like a complete movie snob...but....the epic "circle of life" opening wasn't that epic. It just wasn't the same and you just don't mess with The Lion King.

But anyways..."HAKUNA MATATA" right? WRONG!

The theater experience was ruining my childhood memories!

So I got up ten minutes into the movie and got my money back.

The next day I got a friend to go with me to the other theater in town and it looked %100 better.

The music was loud.

"IT'S THE CIIIIIIRCLE OF LIIIIIFE"

The murder still happened.

sad.

The meerkat was still funny.

"Let me get this straight. You know her. She knows you. But she wants to eat him? Aaaand everybody's okay with this? DID I MISS SOMETHING?"

It was a complete flashback to when I saw it as a kid. On top of all that, there were ironically more adults in the theater than children. It's been #1 at the box office the last 2 weekends in a row and has banked another $70 million so far.

Odd, and kinda sad, that the best movie in theaters and only one worth seeing is the one that came out 17 years ago.

efy: year two. week eight.

2011-09-27T23:43:00.000-07:00

I forgot to post my last week of efy this summer.

Mainly because one of my boys dropped my camera after taking the last photo of efy of my with a group of kids. Literally on Friday night, end of the week, end of the summer, he drops it!

The entire internal structure was demolished. Luckily it was still under warranty so I took it back to Best Buy who had it for 4 weeks to fix it. So my camera's in Utah and I'm in California so I had some ppl email me pictures.

The above photo is what I would have looked like at 14 had I a different body shape. But I gave him my nametag, glasses, and sweat band to rock this photo.

I miss efy.

here it is.

2011-09-26T12:31:00.001-07:00

Here it is!

Thank you Scott & Kiana (and a few friends here and there) for helping me out.

www.craigtylershipley.webstarts.com

Click above.

mtc anniversary.

2011-09-22T15:26:00.000-07:00

MTC Anniversary #7

Yikes!

ten years ago.

2011-09-11T18:26:00.000-07:00

I will always be fascinated with 9/11.

There's just something so piercing about seeing those planes hit those buildings that will forever shake us all to the bitter core. So much death in just a few seconds and then the hour or so that followed. It still seems likes something out of a movie.

Ten years ago today I was 16 and in seminary at my dining room table with my church friends and my dad, who was the teacher. The phone rang at our house at 7 a.m. or so, during the lesson, and my dad told me to answer it quietly. It was my sister who was in Rexburg and she sounded really shaken and asked me, "What's going on in the world??" I told her, "As if i know!" So she told me to wake mom up. Five minutes later my mom yelled for my dad to come upstairs. I think he was bugged at first because of all the interruptions but came back five minutes later, looking sad, with the news of what was going on. He ended seminary early and we said one of billions of prayers that were said that day.

That day at school was chaos. I just remember watching tv all day long and not understanding at all what was going on. Watching the second plane hit the tower was out of this world. The news anchors all spoke about how this was an act of terrorism and that we were officially now at war. It was so surreal because war was something that never even crossed my mind before as a realistic option to witness for my life. We read in history books and hear the stories of our grandfathers who were in WW2 or Vietnam, but only as a thing of the past, never as a thing of the present.

It was the first time (and really the only time) I had witnessed for myself an act so purely evil that I will always be able to recall the feelings and sadness with just a thought or a picture from that day.

It was also the first time I had witnessed largely for myself actions so courageous and selfless that I hope only to emulate them as much as possible in my own life.

"One of the lessons of 9/11 is that evil is real,...and so is courage."

- President Bush

The one courageous story of 9/11 that will always be fascinating to me is that of United Flight 93; the victims who took over the plane and crashed it in a Pennsylvania field. I find it fascinating that these strangers saw themselves in an impossible situation and made the best of it by sacrificing themselves for the greater good. So many more lives would have been lost had they not taken charge. In college I took a Case Studies class and was assigned to study this story, the people on that flight, the phone messages they sent their loved one, and the possible theories and the facts of what happened on that plane. It makes me wonder as I read about these people if I could have done the same thing. Would I have been brave enough to do what they did? I don't know. But it is something that happened and will forever be remembered as an ultimate act of heroism, and an example of what it means to lay down your life for your friends.

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man layeth down his life for his friends." - John 15:13

I'm not comparing these brave people to the Savior. But a part of Him is within each of us, and we each show His love in different ways. So on that clear Tuesday morning all the brave men and women who gave their lives showed His love the only way they knew how to in that moment: sacrifice.

Even though we may not have a personal connection to anyone present at the World Trade Centers, the Pentagon, or on Flight 93, it is their experiences and acts of courage that have become personal to all of us. 9/11 will unwillingly be a constant memory for the duration of our lives. It is the ultimate grand reminder of how awesome life is, how quick it can be taken, how real the battle between good and evil remains, and how much we need to love and serve each other.

It is in this realization that the terrorists lose, and the sacrifices of the heroes of 9/11 prevails.

"If there is a spiritual lesson to be learned from our experience of that fateful day, it may be that we owe to God the same faithfulness that He gives us. We should strive for steadiness, and for a commitment to God that does not ebb and flow with the years or the crises of our lives. It should not require tragedy for us to remember Him, and we should not be compelled to humility before giving Him our faith and trust. We too should be with Him in every season.

It is constancy that God would have from us. Tragedies are not merely opportunities to give Him a fleeting thought, or for momentary insight to His plan for our happiness. Destruction allows us to rebuild our lives in the way He teaches us, and to become something different that we were. We can make Him the center of our thoughts and His Son, Jesus Christ, the pattern for our behavior. We may not only find faith in God in our sorrow. We may also become faithful to Him in times of calm."

- President Thomas S. Monson

stuff.

2011-08-29T15:11:00.001-07:00

Home sweet home.

The reason for the above picture is for two reasons:

1. For my niece Parker. My mom made her favorite meal for the first time that my sister Robin posted. So we tried it and it was delicious. Thanks for the recommendation Parker.

2. To show that one of my best friends, Matt, is now living IN Salinas. He got a teaching job at Everett Alvarez High School and now lives a half mile away from my house. WHAT?? It is suuuper weird but awesome that he lives here. He found a nice apartment near the red brick Presbyterian church in South Salinas. A funny quote is that he came by to pick me up and I said "It's so weird that you're picking me up in my home town..." and he responded, "This is MY home town now buddy!!..." It was funny.

Mom with Parker's meal.

The main reason I came home was for Jaina and Joey's wedding. They are two of my best friends from Salinas and I've known them forever, and never apart. They've been dating since the seventh grade! This wedding was a long time coming but it was a great event. I didn't have much time to take pictures; I was busy at the piano.

But I got a few during the wedding rehearsal.

And the above picture I stole off facebook after the wedding.

They had a photo booth at the wedding reception.

craghead photo shoot.

2011-08-21T19:27:00.000-07:00

My friends older brother, Jeff Craghead, asked me to do a photo shoot of him and his family (his expecting wife, Heather, and their two boys, Lance and Grant). I'm posting some pictures from it.

efy: year two. week seven.

2011-08-09T14:40:00.000-07:00

Week seven got me back in Provo where I started the summer.

And it was the week of the "warm fuzzies". The session directors handed all the counselors little fuzzies that we had to give the youth every time we saw an act of service. They wore a giant jar-like backpack (seen below) where the kids could put them in when the received one. The goal was to have it full by the end of the week. And it was.

Also it rained. all. week. long.

Which required lots of changes in schedule, locations, and activities.

My coco is a dance major at BYU so she taught our group a few cultural group dances. One was even called the Hungarian Suicide Dance. It was really fun (and funny) to see the kids learn them and perform them.

Gospel study time.

The snow-cone place just across the street from campus gives counselors free snow-cones if they bring their kids during free time! EFY allows it so we did it on Friday. The line was long and it started raining but it was so fun.

It's a party at efy.

efy: year two. week six.

2011-07-30T12:20:00.000-07:00

Ogden, Utah!

Week six of this summer was a stay-at-home session, which means the youth come from 9am to 9 pm. Normally this would be awesome but I loved the youth so much this week that I wish they stayed all week long overnight.

If there was a word to explain this week it would be unity.

I had 16-18 year olds and they were all obsessed with each other in completely platonic ways. (well, I'm positive there were a few crushes amongst them...). But they were all friends instantly and it was difficult to separate them at the end of each day and especially the end of the week.

Each week at efy we help the kids come up with company and individual goals. Well actually, we're not allowed to help, we just have to lead them in a discussion until they finally have an idea or ideas. This particular week was awesome because of the goals they made, which are goals I had never heard of in all my weeks/years(!!!) of efy.

Their company goals were:

1: To perform something in the Variety Show on Thursday as an entire company in front of everybody else at efy. This was accomplished. See the video farther below.

2. To read the entire Book of Mormon as a company in sections. I took charge of this just to help them organize it and did the math and it turned out being about 7 to 8 chapters a person. So for example, one person had 1 Nephi 1-7, and a different person had 1 Nephi 8-15, and so on. Then they were to email me by Thursday night a short summary of their sections, but then share individual thoughts, feelings, things learned, questions, and testimonies of their section and The Book of Mormon. Then I gathered these all together, put them in order of the book, and created and printed a pamphlet (with help from some non-efy friends!) for each of them to have. It was awesome. The blessings from doing this were measurable. Pictures of this farther below.

Here is their 1st Place award-winning skit (this is not the variety show performance) they created for games night. You will notice their inspiration came from the opening narration monologue of the movie Hercules:

And here they are rehearsing for their Variety Show performance during free time and lunch and dinner. They needed all that time to work on it to accomplish their goal. They decided to do a dance to the song "I'll Make A Man Out Of You" from the movie Mulan, sung by Donny Osmond. But they made a mix and inserted the "Dougie" into the song . The "Dougie" is some famous dance move/song that I had never heard of before. But it was a huge hit.

Showtime!

Here is their wildly successful performance. Watch it!:

I was super proud of them.

These two were dancing just a little bit too close for efy comfort so I had to come between them!

Here is the pamphlet we made.

A few excerpts/comments from various youth throughout the pages:

"When I started my reading for this challenge I had a question for Heavenly Father. Right away it was answered. In 2 Nephi 22:2 it says, "God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid." I live in fear a lot: fear of being wrong, not being accepted, fear of the future, etc...However, regardless of the past, I will now put my trust in God and not be afraid, because He is my salvation." - Hannah

"This challenge has helped my testimony so much. The message that stuck out to me the most was to have total faith in the Lord. he will always have your back and come through to His word, just like he did for the Nephites throughout these scriptures. The times that we have in our life will be so tough. But if we are relying on the Lord, choosing the right, and standing steadfast, then the righteous will always withstand the temptations of the devil. I know that each of us was placed on this earth at this time for a reason. I know that my Redeemer lives. I am so grateful for His hand in my life. I see it every day." - Katie

"In 3 Nephi 10:10, it says, "And their mourning was turned into joy and their lamentations into the praise and thanksgiving unto the Lord Jesus Christ, their Redeemer." This shows that sometimes you have to be at the lowest of the low in order to get back on track and become humble. But Jesus Christ knows each of us and knows how to get us back. The Savior will show us the way if we let Him." - Brad

They each got their own and were so proud of themselves for accomplishing this. They now have this amazing resource they can turn to to remind them of the things they learned individually and as a group. Their testimonies of Jesus Christ were fully strengthened from this project as was evident to me in so many different ways (verbally and visually) by the end of the week.

I am #1. Just kidding.

And p.s. the following video should be titled

"How To Become an Instant EFY Celebrity."

Ladies, back off! He's leaving on a mission in six months.

brotherly visit.

2011-07-23T11:27:00.000-07:00

On Sunday I got to see my oldest brother Jamie and Anita and my four nieces. They were in Utah for a family reunion on her side and we met up on Temple Square for about an hour! It was great even though it was so short. I probably won't see them for another year!

adventure is out there.

2011-07-16T09:27:00.001-07:00

I'm not quite sure what it is but the house from the movie "Up" has stuck with people.

So much so that some contractor in Herriman, Utah decided to build an exact replica of it in a still-being-built suburban area.

And you'll remember the mini-model I made for Mike & Annie's wedding bulletin board of the house.

So of course being the movie/Disney fan that I am, and staying with my friends Mike & Annie of whom love the movie as well (Mike's Disney character being Russell from the movie and all...), I had to go see it.

Apparently the builders had to get complete permission from Disney (of course) to build it. Once it sells in the next few months (starting at $400,000, then Disney will have the paperwork for it and it'll pretty much be owned by them (or however that all works). But normal people will be living in it whoever buys it. We couldn't go in but we learned the interior is exactly like the movie, except they had to create some rooms that weren't in the movie and go off imagination.

It was fun to go see it and imagine being rich and owning it...

along with the rest of Utah.

time capsule.

2011-07-13T12:04:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to do this post for a while.

Back in February I found a time capsule that I vaguely remember making in 1998. It was up above the closet in one of those forgotten-about storage cubbies in the house that only anyone thinks about when they want to find the old lego's or my brother Scott's baseball cards.

It was in a box that I had labeled very specifically.

Apparently I was supposed to open it on October 28, 2008 at noon sharp! Or else!

Why? I have no clue or remembrance of why October 28...

...especially since the top of the box says I made it on October 7 (my mom's birthday), followed by a large print message of

"DO NOT OPEN UNTIL..."

I had no memory of anything that I put in there.

So I opened it...three years late.

Once I opened it I remembered all of this stuff. I remembered those crazy designed journal that our parents got either just me or all of us kids one year for Christmas.

And the shark hat! Yikes!

Everything out of the box.

There were old receipts from 7/11. (what?)

Old movie tickets. (Toy Story, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Movie, Space Jam, Independence Day, Home Alone 3, 101 Dalmations, Selena, Jumanji, Jurassic Park: The Lost World, Batman & Robin...to name a few.)

Books I had read as a kid.

Elementary school yearbooks.

Pictures from Hawaii (of which every single snapshot was of a plant and I wasn't in one of them. I still remember my mom being semi angry about this...I wasn't in a single photo of my hawaiian trip for 7th grade choir! Just plants!)

Arts and crafts.

Etc...

Early creative thinking.

Knitting a...mini scarf? I dunno.

I remember making this dinosaur and mask of my face in sixth grade.

Some of my early art.

I remember this book where you can mix and match different parts of animals.

I found a bunch of Ariel Theatrical cast photos back from my thespian days!

I'm in these somewhere!

This is my favorite find:

A journal entry from November 29, 1992

These are the things I like about school. I like:

efy: year two. week five.

2011-07-12T13:10:00.000-07:00

Lots of pictures this week.

I looooove Santa Barbara! Why did I have to leave?

efy on the ocean all week long = heaven?

So I was there for two weeks. During the weekend in between efy sessions I just slept and relaxed. We all went to the beach and swam. I got splashed by a freezing wave thus capturing the following hilarious picture.

One of the counselors was a Santa Barbara local so he invited us all over for a bbq and then we went to a movie afterwards. But look at that view above. That's from the balcony of his house. Amazing.

Check-in!

Ok ok I know I say every week is amazing and incredible and awesome...but this week REALLY was! I promise. (ok I know I say that too...but really!..)

What made this week awesome was

1) the spirit.

2) the location.

3) my coco.

4) the kids, particularly the boys.

5) the three nephites

Ok not the reeeeal three nephites. But the 3 boys who I called the three nephites:

Blake, Jimmy, and Kyle (the non-member).

It's boys like this that make it fun for everyone else. They're not normal. They included everyone and made sure everyone was involved in everything. They were like efy celebrities this week. Picture taking on Friday was a nightmare as we had girls from other groups literally lining up to take pictures with them. We were an hour late to the dance because of this!

They had "theme" days for clothes throughout the whole week where they dressed similar.

Tuesday was "Plaid Tuesday" but I didn't get a picture of that.

Euro-Wednesday.

Dapper Thursday.

Polka-Dot Friday.

And somehow they got into the Variety Show with this funny random performance:

They even got the entire group to commit to being the last company to leave the cafeteria after every single meal so they could do a clean sweep of the building and clean it up. Again, these are teenagers. So sometimes they would be sitting there for 45 minutes after eating waiting for everyone to leave...which means I had to also. But I enjoyed it and they all ended up teaching me much about service.

But it wasn't just the three nephites who made it a great week. Every teenager was just involved and broke out of their comfort zones and got along with each other.

And our flag won first place.

In honor of the 4th of July I wore floaties and an intertube to games night. Hey anything goes!

I'm so proud of the above photo. I mean really? This kid is a monster! Too bad I had to tell him to stop doing this at efy...but of course not until I got this awesome photo.

The session director came to one of my nightly devotionals. It was awesome.

And the above picture is called: Let's Find The Counselor!

K people, check the ocean in the background above. That's how close we were all week long. The building to the left is the cafeteria.

That is a ton of yellow.

There were so many good experiences from this week that it would take forever to write them down. One girl came as an atheist and left with a testimony. One boy came having no friends at home and left with many. It was all awesome.

They begged and begged me to make a slideshow for this past week and so I did.

You don't have to watch it because it's 12 minutes long.

But I'm putting it here so I won't lose it or forget about it.

Here it is!:

efy: year two. week four.

2011-07-05T16:01:00.000-07:00

Santa Barbara!

Can I stay here forever? I mean, wow. This week efy was at UCSB and it is literally on the ocean. The ocean is in sight pretty much all day long.

This week I had babies again (14-15 year olds) and they were all fantastic. Again, there are too many stories to tell here (I've written them down for myself in my journal) but here are some (meaning a lot) of pictures from this week.

We were right in the heart of campus all week long.

Students would be stopping us all the time asking us what we were all doing there.

The last two pictures are from the dance. Crowded!

Also...the service project this year is to write "thank you" cards for the people that help us who aren't affiliated with efy. My company this week was assigned two girls who work the front desk of the dorms that we live in: Erika and Lily. We're supposed to make them a huge card and come up with a skit/song/rap to perform when we take the card to them. I went ahead of time and found out that Erika and Lily weren't on the shift at the moment when my kids were supposed to present the card to them...so I got their email address and decided to videotape their song and email it to the both of them.

They loved it!

I got emails back saying it completely made their days and that they've never had a YouTube video dedicated to them before.

Here it is (lyrics below...written entirely by the youth...and it's sung to the melody of Taylor Swifts "You Belong With Me.")

Lyrics:

You're at your desk

It's like ten thirty at night

Me and Carter walk up,

We're such a sight.

We just showered

And we lost our room keys.

You shake your head

and go to work, "NOT AGAIN!"

Just two more kids

Who can't get sense up in their head.

But we know just how much

We owe you!

We wear towel skirts.

You got staff shirts.

You do everything

And we don't give you a word.

If you could see how much you do for us

Sitting there at your desk being selfless.

Weee

Think you are

So neeeat.

Erika and Lily!!

efy: year two. week three.

2011-06-27T00:59:00.000-07:00

Too many good stories to tell...so little time.

The stories need to be verbal to give them any justice.

Remind me.

Here are just a few pictures from this week.

This last picture makes me feel old. I used to babysit her.

efy confessions.

2011-06-26T10:37:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite parts of the week is getting on facebook on Saturday afternoon and reading all my youth from the week's facebook statuses about efy.

A few examples:

Read this whole conversation (I think it's funny):

and this one from one of my boys, Walker:

I wish I had facebook when I went to efy.

efy: year two. week two.

2011-06-20T10:34:00.000-07:00

Flagstaff!

I know I get on here every new week expressing that THIS WAS THE BEST EFY WEEK EVER! I'm aware; my friend Kim never lets me forget it. Haha.

But..

THIS WAS THE BEST EFY WEEK EVER!

First off, miracles exist. I don't care what the critics or haters of efy have to say about it. The Lord is workin His miracles here. I've seen it. It exists.

Moroni says in The Book of Mormon in Mormon 9:15:

"And now, O all ye that have imagined up unto yourselves a god who can do no miracles, I would ask of you...Has the end come yet? Behold I say unto you, Nay; and God has not ceased to be a God of miracles."

I'm a believer.

A few miracles this week:

1. A paralyzed man from the waist down walked before our very eyes. More on that in the next post.

2. My girl co-counselor this week was a friend of mine from college! Really? Yes. What are the odds that we would end up in Flagstaff of all places as coco's (short for co-counselor). But this blessed our group so much because we already had the bond/friendship/chemistry to make it a fantastic week for our youth. Inspired.

3. I saw pretty much half of my mission on Monday, which is the day all the parents bring their kids up for check-in. I was working the first desk and it was like a mission reunion. One of the girls in my group, Kaylee, was from one of the wards I served in for 9 months, 6 years ago. She was 8. I knew her family well. Now she was in my efy group. Weird! but awesome.

4. One of my boys taught an entire morning devotional relating the concept/theories in the movie "Inception" to the law of chastity. It was fantastic. He's 14 years old! I told him he needs to teach a course at byu on this very topic. I was in awe. But the miracle was that the teenagers actually understood it completely.

5. The coordinators this week were huge on "nothing is a coincidence. There is a reason these exact teenagers were put in your exact group. There is a reason you and your coco are put together." And the miracle this week is that by the end of the week I knew why each and every one of my kids were in this group. I prayed for the inspiration to figure it out which added clarity as to why they needed me and I needed them. Not that I had never figured this out with other groups before but when you add prayer to anything it just makes it so much more clear and pristine.

Shout-out to Lindsey. She's awesome. My 13 boys this week were obsessed with her. We were friends in Rexburg. She was such a good example to our youth (especially the girls) because...

a) she's leaving for her mission this coming week (the week after efy) to Toronto, Canada.

b) she finished The Book of Mormon on Thursday during efy and bore powerful testimony of it.

c) efy ended Saturday morning and she went to the temple that evening after spending a whole week at efy. Best preparation week ever.

d) she almost dropped her efy contract for this week but felt powerful spiritual promptings to not drop it. By the end of the week she had discovered why she didn't drop it.

e) she'll be a great missionary.

Pictures from this week:

Teaching my kids how to waltz with no music = one of the funniest moments of my life.

Pizza night.

High School Musical!

It was a good week.

Now onto Tre's song. Tre was a goofy and totally animated kid. On the last day he wrote a song about efy and performed it for the guys. Hilarious. The chorus is our team cheer that he put to song. And you'll hear the boys' love for Lindsey in it. Our group name was The Righteous People.

(lyrics below)

Go With The Righteous People

by Tre Hibbert

lyrics:

e.f.y.

especially for youth

or should I say

especially for you and me?

i said we are family

we came to the campus

of n.a.u.

and now we all know

the gospel is true

yeah you said it too

i only got one thing to say

chorus:

don't mess

don't mess with the best

cuz the best don't mess

don't fool

don't fool with the cool

cuz the cool don't fool

don't jive

don't jive with the team

that stays alive

go with the righteous people

lindsey and craig

taught us well

because of that

we're not going to...

date before we're sixteen

the other groups?

there's no comparison

and i know i'm

no george harrison

but I sing...

because I love lindsey

(and so do all of us!)

i only got one thing to say

chorus

efy: year two. week one.

2011-06-15T15:34:00.000-07:00

But first!...

When I got to Utah almost 3 weeks ago I had a double ear infection going on inside my head.

Was.

Deaf.

I even started teaching myself sign language (jokingly) watching YouTube training videos. But I wasn't in any pain, which is why I didn't really think anything was wrong. I just thought I had lots of ear wax buildup and got some ear drops.

Then I had my friends look in my ears and their reactions were ones straight out of a horror movie. That's a result of the following pictures which I think are hilarious.

Dr. Mike

After a week and efy getting closer and closer I started to get a little worried; I wanted to be able to hear my kids! I didn't want them to confide something in me and to then say something extremely opposite back.

"Craig, my dad is really mean to me."

"BEST DAD EVER!"

That would be terrible.

Thanks to my friend Emily who took me to her neighbor doctor who checked my ears. He didn't have quite the same reaction as my friends (it was kinder...), and said I wasn't dying just had ear wax buildup and a double ear infection. He cleaned some out, gave me a two week prescription, gave me instructions on how to clean them up, and now I'm all perfectly better.

Regardless, I'll never be using a Q-Tip ever again.

And now I'm fully able to hear the efy youth.

Well the first week was awesome! I had a great group of guys and a great company of girls.

Here are some pictures.

(I don't know how to make it so that you can click on each picture to make it bigger. It seems to just pick and choose which ones. Does anyone know the secret?)

I have a few very funny stories from this week but one of my favorites was asking my kids if any of them have been out of the country before.

Two of them said Hawaii.

That was followed by a quick history lesson.

BYU has some construction so we had to take some roundabout ways to locations. Also there are 4 different sessions of efy going on at a time on campus so pretty much we were all over the place. My kids were troopers though.

They even had blisters on their feet by the end of the week. No joke.

Now THAT'S efy.

here we go again.

2011-06-04T17:52:00.000-07:00

EFY: Round 2.
Am I really up for doing all of this again?

A week ago I went to the huge EFY counselor training meeting at BYU. It was so much fun, but I was having a serious case of deja-vu. I did EFY last year and to be doing it again feels unreal. At the training it kept feeling like a dream. I loved EFY last year and never, ever, thought I would be doing it again. During the training I kept thinking over and over again the question:
Am I really up for doing all of this again?

Part of being human, I think, is when we look back on positive life experiences we only remember or recall the good parts, which is a good thing. Not that there was anything negative about EFY (except for the random teenage-boy-poop-in-pizza-box-prank...true story); but the fact is that EFY is exhausting in all forms: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. At the training I was thinking: I FORGOT HOW CRAZY EFY WAS! THIS REALLY WAS A TON OF WORK! Pretty much 24 hours/6 days a week:

walking, teaching, dancing, running, portraying a sense of spiritual goofiness
ALL.
THE.
TIME.
with no sleep and sneaking the occasional 5-minute power nap in the bathroom stall.
(I started that trend last summer among fellow counselors)...

After a few hours I got so overwhelmed with the thought that I was doing this all over again that I began to doubt my excitement for it.

But then during the training there was a lesson on teaching not by word only, but by example. This got me thinking about a girl named Annie (pictured below amongst a bunch of boys).

Annie was a girl who at first may appear to be a little different. She suffered from social anxiety and bipolar disorder, amongst other things. The first day of EFY that week my girl-co-counselor and I could tell she was having a hard time fitting in with the rest of the group. We were worried that she wasn't going to have a positive experience.

But then on day 2 something changed.
Without any invitation by me to do so (or knowledge of their intended actions), the boys in the group began to pay extra close attention to her.

When she was sitting alone at meals they would all stand up and move to sit next to her.
When she would sometimes talk out of turn during a lesson, and sometimes off topic, they would listen and not laugh, acknowledge her comment, and then add on top of it.
When she couldn't run as fast as others they would cheer for her instead of complaining that they lost. (Again, these are teenage boys).
When she couldn't find a scripture they would turn her pages for her.
When she was walking alone they would walk beside her.

During that short week we could tell that her experience was getting better and better.

Later that week we learned that the boys, independent from any influence by us counselors, had all decided after day one that they would include her and make sure she had a positive experience.

It was then we realized that we were seeing the example of the Savior through the lives of teenage boys:
When people were sitting alone, Christ would sit with them.
When people would talk, sometimes unwantingly, He would listen.
When people did their best, He would cheer them on.
When people didn't know the doctrine, He would teach them.
When people were walking alone, He would walk beside them.

After recalling this story and the example that these youth were to us that week, it was then I remembered why I love EFY so much:
It gives everyone involved the opportunity to discover what really matters in life.

And so with that my excitement was been rekindled.
I look forward to the walking, teaching, dancing, running, portraying a sense of spiritual goofiness
ALL.
THE.
TIME.
And the 5-minute power naps in the bathroom stall.
And hopefully I can somehow display the example I learned from these youth last summer.

So yes, I am up for doing all of this again.

The EFY theme this year is:
Believe. Hope. Endure.

The scripture is:
"We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul - We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things."
- The 13th Article of Faith

My schedule for the summer:
Week of June 6 - Provo
June 13 - Flagstaff
June 20 - Flagstaff
June 27 - Santa Barbara
July 4 - Santa Barbara
July 18 - Ogden
July 25 - Provo
August 1 - Provo

Let's get this party started.

team mannie.

2011-05-20T13:11:00.000-07:00

I'm just going to pretend like I haven't ignored updating since December. But I can no longer avoid the death threats my friends send me every other day about not updating anything on here. So here we go...

On May 7 my best friend, Mike, married some random girl he met on an airplane in 2008 named Annie. No really...take a look for yourself:

I mean really? This is straight up out of a Taylor Swift song, or a Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan movie. This is classic romantic comedy cliche material! This is good stuff here! I might attempt writing an Oscar-winning screenplay based on it.

I've known Mike since 2003 when we were in the same hallway in the Rigby Hall dorms. I often tell people who ask that I don't remember the transformation into us being friends. For some reason there isn't a recollection or a memory of the "OH!-*SNAP*-WE'RE-NOW-FRIENDS!" moment.

After our missions we were roommates every semester for the rest of our college careers; aka 4 years. That's a long time. So for all the parties, crushes, church meetings, trials, celebrations, art projects, fights, car malfunctions (something I'm notorious for), movies, pranks GALORE, class ditching (oops!), tv marathons, horklys and craigos visits, general conferences, halloween hilarities, road trips, exercising attempts, and pure randomness (ex. setting up a tent in the living room), etc...Mike was pretty much there.

The tent story really is one of my favorites. It has 2 parts: 1) Mikes twice ex-girfriend came over in a rampage and threw a picture frame at him and a copy of the Sleeping Beauty DVD that he gave her. I literally had to kick her out of our apartment!! Pure mayhem craziness!! and 2) After calming down we were on a weird kick and saw one of his tents that we had never used. So to clear our minds from all the drama and in a moment of clear randomocity (I know that's not a word but I like it) we thought: let's set it up in the living room and camp out. why not? Still a classic story (both parts).

Needless to say Mike has pretty much been there through all the ups and downs of during and post-college life. Thanks buddy!

Now onto

Year 2009. Month: May. Mike's birthday. One year after they met on the airplane. Mike had been talking about some girl named Annie in his class and that they met on a plane a year before and that he thought she was cute and blah blah blah I didn't really think anything of it.

We were throwing Mike a surprise party and it was my job to get him to go to the movies so that everyone could gather at our apartment while we were gone. Well during the movie and dinner after Mike kept talking about how he wanted to go hang out with this random Annie girl and take her some dinner at her work because she was working that night. LAME SAUCE!! I couldn't get him to shut up about it! I kept thinking WHO IS THIS GIRL AND WHY IS SHE RUINING MY PLANS ALREADY?? But I kept my cool and was FINALLY able to talk him out of it and get him to our apartment where everyone was waiting for the birthday surprise (thus the picture above).

Near the end of the party is when Annie was able to show up. There was so much hype around this random girl (because we have a pretty tight group of friends) that EVERYONE was talking about it/her at the party whenever she wasn't around them. Everyone loved her instantly (including me) but I seriously never thought anything of it really. I didn't really think this would one day be the girl marrying my best friend. But then for the following days, weeks, months, and years she was always...just...there. And then slowly it turned into ME being always...just...there. Haha!! And the rest is history that I was pretty much an eye-witness for the entire time.

Thus, MANNIE was born!

Mike + Annie = MANNIE

Week of May 7, 2011

Our small bachelor party event. And I finally got to meet Jon's baby Link.

They're married!

The whole Briney gang...including me!

All the friends of the bride and groom who were able to make it. Many from out of state!

View from the Joseph Smith Building where the amazing luncheon was held.

Mike and Annie asked me to make a bulletin board of "All Things MANNIE". Let's just say that it was quite an ordeal to make this, but way fun. Thanks to my friends April and Emily for helping me with this. They love the movie UP! so I made a replica of the house from the movie and attached it to the bottom left of the board. This was on display at both their Utah and California receptions.

Best friends picture.

I love this picture that I got on accident.

L.A. reception a week later:

Kim and Jessica were able to make it!

The Brineys hired an In-n-Out Burger truck to come cater the reception and it was AMAZING.

Me, Mike, and Matt.

Lots of friends showed up for the California reception too.

Me and Mike.

Me with MANNIE.

Now...

GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!

how to make a christmas tree in three days.

2010-12-08T19:03:00.000-08:00

We finally got our Christmas tree!

I was excited, as Mom and Dad have been teasing (I think) that it may not happen this year, being that none of my brothers or sister are able to make it here. But the Grinchness eventually faded and Christmas has finally taken over the house!

Christmas in storage (topped by the Christmas moose).

Christmas out of storage (also topped by the Christmas moose).

Getting the tree home and decorated can pretty much be broken into three different categories:

(Finding, Lights, and Ornaments),

on three different days: (Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday),

by three different people: (Dad, Mom, and Me).

Monday.

Finding.

Dad:

So we got our tree at some tree farm in the middle of the South Salinas fields.

Dad searching for the perfect one.

Getting the trunk of the tree trimmed so it will be able to fit in our tree stander.

Getting it into the car.

Ta-Da!! The tree is at home and standing on its own. Dad's task was now complete.

Tuesday.

Lights.

Mom:

Mom did her duty and put the lights up. The job that in our family can truthfully be said "Mom does it best, so why try?"

What else falls in this category?: Pancakes, driving, and interior decorating.

Wednesday.

Ornaments.

Me:

Mom called and said she'd be gone longer so to go ahead and get the tree decorated. Which I did. I haven't decorated a tree in so long because I've been in Idaho when she would do the tree.

But I think I did pretty good!

Merry Christmas!

black friday magic and miracles.

2010-12-03T13:38:00.000-08:00

(There are 2 separate Black Friday stories in this entry).

I love Black Friday and I'm not quite sure why. Maybe it's the thrill of it all. The sake of a story. Or maybe the comedy that comes from 90 year old women knocking over baby strollers in search of the discount toys for their grandchildren. But always, it's epic. And this year was the best.

I remember my first Black Friday that I went shopping on my own. It was 1999 and my friend, Annette's, mom drove a van full of a bunch of us high school freshman friends to the Northridge Mall and dropped us off for a good five or six hours. It was great. I remember buying each of my family members a gift that day, including some friends. And since then I haven't missed one (except for those two years in Arizona...but even then...jk).

This year I'm poor so I couldn't buy anything. But that didn't discourage me from missing out on all the fun. I have a tradition with some of my Salinasites (aka JJ, Jaina, and Diane...officially started in 2009...so its only the second annual one.), where we get in line at the Marina shopping center at around 2 am. Diane couldn't come this year because she's in Portugal.

This year we had one goal and one goal only: GET JAINA THE NICE CAMERA SHOWN ON THE TOP OF THE BEST BUY BLACK FRIDAY AD. It clearly stated that EACH BEST BUY in the country HAS ONLY SIX OF THESE CAMERAS. So WE. WERE. DETERMINED. We would get that camera.

So at 11:30 pm, we took two hour naps. This was a genius idea from JJ. Last year we didn't nap. It is now a must. At about 2 am we got in the car and headed for Marina to get in line at Best Buy.

Jaina pointing at the camera she wanted to get. Mission: Impossible in full force.

It was going to be freezing so we needed blankets.

JJ wasn't happy about coming at first, but he eventually got in the black friday spirit.

Hot chocolate. It was freeezing.

The arrival. We call the people at the front of the lines "The Crazies". That blue tarp thing is literally a tent. We found out they've been there since Wednesday morning.

Jaina knew someone near the front, but we didn't cut. I mainly took this picture to get a closer photo of The Crazies sleeping in bags and comforters.

It was sooo cold.

Jaina signing up for a Best Buy card to buy her camera with!

Holla!

SUCCESS! Her camera came with a camera bag, memory card, tri pod, instuctional video, etc...for super cheap.

Ka-CHING! In and out of Best Buy in 12 minutes...

...and on the way home before the sun even came up over the horizon.

BUT THAT'S NOT THE END!

After a nap til noon and a few other errands during the afternoon, I got home and my brother Scott said to me, something to the effect of: "Get back into the car. Dad's buying a new tv. Get back! This is not a drill. THIS IS NOT A DRILL!"

Ok so it wasn't quite that dramatic. Only in my mind. But this was HUGE because for years my brother and I (but mainly Scott, he deserves the credit for this) have been trying to talk my dad into getting a new TV. Our old one just wasn't cutting it anymore. It was 18 years old!

So back into the car we went and back to Best Buy for the second time in one day.

A true Black Friday miracle.

Dad and Scott working out the TV deals and sales.

Donovan came to join in on the celebration.

Getting the TV into the car. (We had to document every move for proof.)

Dad's face says it all.

Scott setting it all up. It was a wire disaster.

Still trying to figure out all the systems! Oh dad...

Putting it into place.

The finished product. Doesn't it look so nice there? And in all its full HD glory?

And of course, Dad loves it.

Can't wait to see what next year has in store!

donovan craziness.

2010-11-30T11:54:00.000-08:00

Warning: This post is ALL about my nephew Donovan and his visit here for Thanksgiving (with his parents of course.)

For Thanksgiving this year my brother and his family in Arizona got to come home to visit. Scott, Kiana, and my nephew Donovan got here late Wednesday night. It was a fun five days. Lots of relaxing, food (I am now a Super Taqueria convert...it's true Robin...), and obsessing over Donovan.

Donovan is 19 months old and hilarious. He points at everything and says what it is, including "Uncle"...and then after being prompted, "Craig." It's great. Also, everything is the color white. I tried to teach him different colors, but he just wouldn't budge.

"Donovan, what color is this apple?"

"White."

Me with Donovan.

Visiting Nana the first time this visit.

And visiting Papa as well.

Laughing at Papa.

Chillin with Nana. His hair is hilarious in this picture.

We went to the park Thanksgiving afternoon and he was so funny on this. He'd go from happy and laughing...

...to worried and concerned.

Kiana and Donovan.

Getting ready for a walk on the beach.

Scott and Donovan. It was freeezing. Donovan has three hoody's.

This picture wins "best supporting picture" of the trip (in my eyes...).

But the Oscar for "best picture" during their visit goes to the following picture:

I'm glad they got to come visit. It definitely made Thanksgiving more fun.

Now onto Christmas with just me and the folks!

What are we going to do??

florida.

2010-11-06T19:01:00.000-07:00

Florida has always been a state that I never had any interest going to.

It just always seems so hot and humid and far away and I just never thought I'd get the chance or desire to go there. But when four of my nieces and nephews (and their parents) move there they left us other family members with no choice. So thus, I had the opportunity to go to Florida to be my sister's manny for a week. It was so much fun.

My sister has even already blogged about me being her manny.

I got to spend a whole week with my nieces (Parker and Macy) and nephew's (Ollie and Sawyer). They are such good kids and often hilarious. I had so much fun babysitting and playing lots and lots and lots of hide-and-go-seek. Amazing how often you hide behind the shower curtain it seems new each time they find you there.

I was there during Halloween week. They all carved pumpkins but I stayed in and watched Sawyer because he wasn't feelin it.

They live in Boca Roton which is right on the beach. We went on a blustery day but I got to put my feet in the Atlantic ocean for the first time. It was warm, not even a hint of cold. I was shocked.

We had lunch at a park before we went to the nature reserve and on a cool nature walk. Macy was so funny about the crocodile's coming to find us and eat us up.

The kids petting a turtle.

We went on this really cool nature walk that was built above a Floridian swampland. It was so cool. We were looking everywhere for a wild crocodile but never saw one.

Halloween was a blast and glad I got to be with the kids during it. We had the church Halloween activity on Friday night and then went out on the 31st trick-or-treating. They got two full nights of Halloween bliss. Luckily Robin and Josh control their sugar intake or I'm sure Ollie would be in a sugar-coma! ("Skittle's more of them mommy!" he would say.)

Parker the Witch.

Macy the Angel.

Ollie the Skeleton (but closely resembling the Heath Ledger Joker).

Sawyer the Clown.

The kids together before trick-or-treating. Is this picture not classic of Macy? Hilarious.

I'm glad I had the chance to go. It's easy to travel when you don't have school or a job so I'm lucky to get the initial Florida trip out of the way! (there will be more I am sure.). I'm bummed whenever I have to leave any of my nieces or nephews cause they're all so awesome and so funny.

My favorite was when Robin was trying to teach 4-year-old Macy the night before how to sleep in in the morning time. "Ok Macy, in the morning, when you wake up, you can just lay in bed and think 'Wow, I have nothing to do today so I'm going to enjoy this bed' and you can sleep even longer." After a slight pause, Macy responds "....why would I want to do that?" It was hilarious.

And the Oscar for best picture of the trip is following one of Ollie.

Yup, life is good when it's Halloween and you're a kid.

I miss you Floridians!

van gogh.

2010-10-11T12:53:00.000-07:00

It's fall!

This weekend was my friend Jaina's birthday! I've known her family forever and grew up with her and her brother. They invited me to go to San Francisco to see the Van Gogh Museum exhibit. It was awesome. They had a bunch of his original paintings, including Starry Night, which is like his "Mona Lisa", so it was a struggle to get up close to that one. But it was cool. I'm glad I got to go. Unfortunately, and to our bitter dismay, you weren't allowed to take pictures in the actual museum.

Oh well.

This was the museum. Doesn't it look like something right out of Indiana Jones or something? The tall building on the right is the observation tower in the middle of the museum. You go to the top and can see a lot of the Bay.

There was the coolest fountain outside the museum that had a bunch of art displays and artists showing off their stuff. It was very unique.

As far as my camera was allowed in the museum.

The sight from the observation tower. You can see the top of the golden gate bridge way out there.

I just thought this looked cool.

They had face cut outs and we took a few. Here's Jaina.

And J.J.

And myself.

This tree trunk was so awesome.

The ride home was FULL of traffic. We were on the same street in San Francisco (six miles long) for 75 minutes. But it was a fun trip to be had and I'm thankful I got to Gogh.

dilemma.

2010-10-08T11:45:00.001-07:00

WHAT THEY SAY:

"Craig, where do you want to go to lunch today?"

WHAT THEY MEAN:

"Craig, choose one of these two places because that's where we're going to go anyways."

Tacos Choice on South Main Street

First, there's Tacos Choice (aka Freddy's. Yes, we are on first name basis with the manager), where when asked if there's any other customers as loyal as the Shipley's?, they replied No.

Habinero in Downtown Salinas

And then my personal favorite, Habinero, aka Habi's, because we're loyal enough to call it whatever we want to!

A common dilemma in our household.

lately.

2010-10-05T16:10:00.001-07:00

It's time to update. It's been a long time.

First off I made myself a slideshow of my EFY Pictures. I put it on YouTube if you want to see it:

CLICK HERE!!!!

After EFY was over I went on a weeklong road trip to L.A. I went with my friend Emily and we hit up Hollywood, the Beach, Los Angeles, and Disneyland! After that week I came home to Salinas and got SUPER SICK for about a week. I got the worst headache I've ever had and bronchitis and was just knocked out. I had to get a shot in my bum too, haha.

After feeling better I eventually completed my portfolio I finally finished it! The next step is just to get it online. That's my next goal. Then I'm going to make a physical portfolio that I can take into interviews and what not when it's time to start applying. My mom's going to help me with that because it's going to involve sewing. It'll be legit. Just wait for that update...

A few weeks after being home I decided to go back to L.A. to go to Disneyland again! (I still had two days left on my Disneyland Park Hopper and they had to be used by October 2nd). I met up with a bunch of friends we all went together. I was there for another week!

Here we are at some restaurant in Huntington Beach. That was a ton of fun.

Celebrating Halloween in mid-September!

Now I'm back in Salinas and just kind of waiting for things to happen. I'll be making things happen pretty soon. I'm going to FLORIDA on October 25th to visit my sister and her family and I'll be there over halloween. I'm excited for that.

Those of you who've been to our house know we have a mini-house behind our house. It's been home to many-a-family-member (including grandparents) so now it's my turn. I've made it into my own bachelor pad. It's still decorated like grandparents and painted pinkish. But it works. And it's nice.

My front door. Hence the orange "C".

My only friend is Wilson. Just kidding.

I'm so cool I have two t.v.'s. One for cable, the other for movies.

My very own art gallery!

It's a work in progress.

especially for youth: the final week seven.

2010-09-09T22:56:00.000-07:00

The final week!

I'm behind with bloggin' so I've gotta catch up with the final week of EFY. The final week was bittersweet because it was the end of the summer, but I was super tired from the entire summer so semi-excited for it to end. But I knew I would probably never get a chance to be a counselor again so I wanted to make it a great last week. Thus, the word of the week which I told the youth would be: Epic! Everything during the week was going to be EPIC. So whenever a kid was asked how their week was going, the proper response would be EPIC.

And it was.

It was the largest EFY session in all EFY's throughout the world. Some groups had up to six counselors!? That's crazy. My group only had three, two groups of boys and one of girls. So obviously the boys were bummed about that, but the girls were stoked. It was difficult at first to mold the entire group together, but in the end it was...epic.

It rained a ton this week. And game night was ruined and demolished to inside games and crowded rooms. But everyone still had fun and made the best of it.

These girls were never on time to anything.

Squeeze breeze!

My final group of ten boys were fantastic. They all became friends and by the end didn't want to leave the group, which is what always happens of course.

EFY was a great experience. Super exhausting but ultimately great. I learned a lot, made a ton of friends, and realized I am no longer in the rising generation of the church, but that that torch has been passed. And it was amazing to get to meet that rising generation firsthand and get to work with them and hopefully teach them something. Because they taught me a whole lot.

EFY was epic.

especially for youth: week six.

2010-08-13T22:06:00.000-07:00

A week of miracles. Literally.

Week six for me at EFY this summer came after a three week break away from EFY. It was nice get back to the swing of things and be busy again with the youth. We only had seven girls this week with ten boys. Needless to say the boys weren't too thrilled about that, and two of them were even brother and sister. But they got over it quickly and became great friends. Seriously, I could not get the boys to go to sleep at night. All summer this was the one group of guys who became instant friends from minute one. One of the many miracles of this week. It usually takes a day or two. Nope. I could not get them FOR THE LIFE OF ME to get them to go to sleep at night. I finally bargained and told them as long as they were in the rooms with the light off I didn't care...BUT...if they fell asleep during classes or anytime during the next day that I would personally sit next to them. Hey, it worked.

Making our banner for games night.

Oh and here's the link to a video of our cheer from this week, of which we took second place! Our team name was The Greatest Gift (my second time being that team name this summer!). Keep in mind that I'm a crazy EFY counselor so I'm a little loud in the background. As well, this is in front of 400 people, you just can't see them. Also, you may not understand the 7 Basketball Dribbles part...too long to explain, so just watch:

CLICK HERE!!!

Jake with the laaadies.

Courtney with the fellaaaa's.

My co-counselor Mary (of whom is engaged). Thus the funny picture. No touchy!

Mary and I.

Love this picture of all the youth in my group this week.

My awesome boys from this week. A few of them are turning 19 within the next few months, so you know what that means!

This week was amazing because it was a week of literal miracles. I'm going to blog about one soon but it involved the session director and his life story. But the youth this week, as mentioned before, became instant friends out of thin air. There was one girl in particular this week who struggled with a condition out of her control. The way that the other sixteen kids in the group, particularly the boys, kind of took her under their wing and made sure she felt included and made it a positive experience for her was an inspiring thing to witness. They taught me a great deal about compassion and ultimately renewed my faith in the rising generation of the world. One time she was sitting alone in the cafeteria and Mary and I were watching as when out of nowhere, one by one each and every boy in the group went and sat near her so she wouldn't be alone. In a way, Mary and I saw Christ sitting with her as if it had been Him because they were like Him in that moment. I love efy.

rexburg again.

2010-07-31T20:42:00.000-07:00

Last week I got to go back up to Rexburg/BYU-Idaho! Mainly for the graduation ceremony where I had a numerous amount of friends graduating. It was great to see Rexburg again, and mostly the last time for a very very long time. I miss it and I don't all at the same time. But it was great to catch up with old friends. President Hinckley's son spoke at the graduation and it made me miss President Hinckley a lot. He has all the same mannerisms as his dad. But anyway, Rexburg still exists and is pretty much the same place I left it four months ago...except now it has a streetlight right next to the temple (and only a few of you can appreciate how epic that is as you can only know if you've been there...).

Me, Mike, and Annie at Mike's graduation.

Katie and I.

Mike and I.

Annie and I.

April and I.

Also, the Briney clan wanted to go bridge jumping, and considering that I don't jump off of bridges (is that fun to people?), I thought it could be a fun photo opportunity.

Matt jumping.

Mike and Matt jumping.

Most. Legit. Splash. Ever.

I'm proud of this picture. It semi looks like Cate is running on water...ish.

family reunion: parks and aquarium

2010-07-14T15:45:00.000-07:00

During our family reunion we went to a few local parks and my nieces and nephew's had fun. We also went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium which is always a huge hit. They had a display of flamingoes which was really cool. I've obviously never seen a flamingo before so it was neat.

The entrance.

Awesome jellyfish display.

My brother Jamie with his daughter Gracie looking at the jellyfish.

Gracie and Abby.

Lori taking her sweeet time.

Abby dressed as an octopus.

We went to a park in Monterey and also one near home in Salinas with an epic slide.

My bro-in-law Josh chasing his son Oliver from running away. I love this picture. It's perfect.

Donovan at the park loving the swing.

Gracie at the park.

Macy.

Ollie, in a rare photographic moment!

Brook going down the epic slide.

Macy going down the slide.

Brooklyn really took a liking to her cousin Donovan and was always playing with him and tickling him and making him laugh.

I love the last three pictures I got of the two of them together.

Parker and I.

My parents finally got their picture with all of their grandkids! It is always a difficulty getting all 9 grandkids to cooperate at the same time and SMILE. This is one of the better ones we got!

family reunion: boardwalk trip.

2010-07-10T19:00:00.001-07:00

It's family reunion time and one day we spent it at

It was overcast the entire day and two of my niece's couldn't come because they got sick. But it was a fun day full of crazy rides, crazy kids, and crazy treats.

Lori.

Macy getting swabbed with sunscreen.

Our first stop was the Log Ride which was a huge hit with the kids.

My bro-in-law Josh with my nieces Macy and Parker.

Abby super excited going up to the top of the Log Ride.

Beware.

The view from the top.

Two of the funniest pictures I have ever seen. The faces of my nieces are priceless and hilarious.

Donovan in his new Boardwalk hat.

The grownups (aka me, robin, scott, and kiana) took a 4 minute break and went on the giant dipper (the oldest roller-coaster in California and the fifth oldest in the United States) . Its been years since any of us had been on it but just as much fun as remembered.

My sister and I got the last seat in the coaster, of course. A true sign of ride-a-holics.

Fast turn.

On the Boardwalk Cave Adventure.

Macy on the Merry-Go-Round.

Oliver happy as can be with his ice cream cone.

My nieces and nephew who were there.

Abby, Parker, Lori, Macy, and Oliver.

It was a fun day!

especially for youth: week five.

2010-07-03T14:54:00.000-07:00

Best week ever.

I'm back in Provo! And this past week I finally got to be a counselor over 16-17 year olds. And while there's nothing particularly better or worse about that, this group of youth was particularly incredible. I had 8 boys and 8 girls in my company. How perfect is that? I know they loved it...

Something about this group of kids was just inspiring. From the get-go they all got to know each other so well and bonded as a company. Our company name this week: The Greatest of All.

It was.

Our completed, and might I add AWARD WINNING, company flag/banner. (We added the word gifts to our company name just for the banner...shhhh...but it was legal. Its from Doctrine and Covenants 14:7).

This picture was taken just after they announced the winner for best banner. My kid Christian held it for everyone to see.

And not only did we win best banner, but we also had the AWARD WINNING cheer/skit. It was epic. My youth had no idea what they were going to do until twenty (emphasize on the 20) minutes before we had to perform it in front of the judges (and us counselors aren't allowed to help them). Then out of nowhere they got the inspiration, put it together, and dominated. My co-counselor and I were so proud. The above two pictures are them performing it in front of the entire EFY session (about 500 people).

Gathering before the musical program.

Service project. Proven so much easier with tables to work on. Much more efficient.

Nate and Carrie.

These were my 8 boys for the week.

Christian, David, Austin, Jared, Nate, Jeremy, Matthew, and Tyler.

Such awesome guys. And might I add tall? When I first walked in to meet them I had to ask if some of them were really sixteen years old! They're a hundred feet tall! Physically and spiritually. This really was an amazing group. I didn't have any issues. We had a ton of fun. And we respected each other. Not that other groups have not been this way, but something was just different. Not bad, not good, just different.

The lucky ladies. Such a good group of girls.

All the counselors from our session this week. That's a heck of a lot of orange! (which you know I love...). And if you look closely, those of you who know her, Jessica Locke is kneeling on the bottom left. We were in the same session this week.

I didn't want this week to end but it did. The boys all went home and I hope that something I did or said or didn't do or say made an impact in their lives. But I also know to not take any of the credit for anything. The miracles they each had in their lives this week comes from something else. Something Higher.

Farewell friends.

especially for youth: week four.

2010-07-03T12:59:00.001-07:00

The one word that best describes the youth of my 4th week is PERSONALITY.

Woof! I'd never had so much sass and craziness go down so much in a week before. And that includes Freshman year in college with the Chapman Hall girls. Yikes. But nevertheless, it was a great week full of surprises.

I love Flagstaff. You get the Arizona weather without the monstrous heat. It's like a

forest. NAU is beautiful and tucked away behind the trees. It was a great experience working in Flagstaff.

But first off I have to tell you about my new friend Nate.

Here's a picture of us getting crazy with the youth at the dance (probably to a miley cyrus song). But anyway, Nate and I were counselors in Snowflake (week 2) and then we both came to Flagstaff. We became really good friends and were talking one night about how he goes to school in Tucson and is getting his Master's in blah blah blah.

I mentioned "Oh, I have a good friend who just got her Master's from there. Do you know a Carrie Vallejo (maiden

name Lujan)?" When I said her last name he said it at the exact same time and we quickly jolted and looked at each other in shock. NO WAY! It was hilarious, only because then I was said, "Wait, are you the Mormon she's told me about in all of her ethics classes?" He said yes. Then he said, "Wait, are you the Mormon who grew up with her?" And I said yes. It is a small world after all. (and to Carrie who will be reading this post shortly I am sure: Hi!).

Now about the week.

On Monday (June 21) I got super sick. I mean puking, stomach issues, temperature of 102: the whole shebang. EFY doesn't start until 1:15 on Monday and aaall morning I felt disgusting. I met my boys quickly and told them I was feeling sick and spend the rest of the day in bed. I felt bad but I'm no good to anyone feeling like junk. The health counselors brought me med's and took care of me and by Tuesday I was better and ready for business. So I got a late start so had to catch up quickly. But I did. And everything turned out great and it turned into a totally fun week. As shown in the following pictures.

Wednesday night is Game Night. Also known as EPIC. Game Night is not just an event. It's a state of mind. It's a verb. "Hey, are we gonna Game Night it tonight or what?" I mean, is the sheer EPICness of Game Night not apparent in the faces seen above?

These were my boys this week. And I'm proud of this picture (it was a miracle it happened, just let me tell you that. P.S. the 4th kid in the leather jacket is from Prundale). Great kids. They just had a minor obsession with my name. Everywhere we went, or every time I'd walk in the door they would chant (extremely loudly): "CRAIG! CRAIG! CRAIG! CRAIG! CRAIG! CRAIG!" over and over and over again. And then they put it to music, most notably the 20th Century Fox theme. I eventually had to limit it to only once per hour they were allowed to do this. Fail.

Joyously on the way to a class.

My co-counselor (often referred to as co-co's) Pam and I.

The lucky ladies with Harrison.

I think I got a little more deaf from being an EFY Counselor this week. But it was great. There were many testimonies shared and spiritual events recorded.

especially for youth: week three.

2010-06-20T12:58:00.000-07:00

I know I say that every week is good but this past one was very good.

I don't have much time but I wanted to get some pictures up. Before I left Snowflake a week ago I wanted to take some pictures of the temple. Isn't it sweet?

So now I'm in Flagstaff. I never got to serve any of my mission here and I was always jealous of the missionaries who got to be there during the summer, because it isn't hot. NAU is gorgeous and embedded into the woods. Trees everywhere. Lots of shade. We stayed in McConnell Hall which is the most complex building I have ever been in. I've lived here for a week so far and still don't understand the building. The hallways are like a labyrinth.

My youth this week were incredible. Honestly, incredible. I didn't have a single issue with anyone. They were all there for the right reasons. We would ask a question and every hand went up. We had to often tell THEM to stop talking because we had to move on with the discussion. I loved it. Our team name this week was "The Chosen Few" and our goal was Unity. We achieved it. The youth became best friends by the end of the week. They loved each other and grew in the gospel together in just six days.

And might I add (to which I unfortunately have NO pictures for) that our team won BEST banner/flag and BEST team cheer/skit this week. I freaked out just a little bit when they announced the winner for each...just a little bit.....ok it was a lot...

I also had my birthday this week but it was a little more low key than usual, which I was fine with. It came and went and now I'm 25. But the kids made sure to sing to me and make it special so that was nice of them.

I had fun taking pictures this week. My favorite time of the day is from 8:15 to 9:15 in the morning every day when the youth spread out all throughout the courtyard and read their own scriptures. We teach them tips on learning and then they go to their own spot where they can ponder and pray. It's an amazing sight. People from the college walking by are all like "what's going on?"...it's pretty cool. And it's dead silent except for the wind and turning pages. Favorite part. So this week I kinda snuck around and took cool pictures during this time. Here are a few:

There were many awesome things to witness this week and I don't have time to describe any. But they were great. I really enjoyed getting to know this weeks youth and working with them.

Oh, and during the Tuesday night dance, I kind of got a little carried away stalking my boys during slow songs and making sure they were asking girls to dance. I never once had to tell them because I always found them dancing. They even told me later that they wanted to make sure to find some girls who may not get asked as often. I was so proud. Oh, and I may have found (stalked) them each and taken pictures of them dancing with a girl (and these boys were the type to let me do that...to which I went to Walmart later on in the week and developed the pictures of them to take home...) because I'm cool like that. And humble too...

Here's a few of those pictures:

T.J. with Eden

Morris with a girl I don't know.

Zach C. with Paige.

Joe with a girl I don't know.

And a few more for the week:

T.J. escorting the ladies.

On the way to the final dance. I'm somewhere there in the back left.

My whole group this week. I'm in the back right.

Crazy Counselor Picture!! (Many of these are taken by all counselors during the week...). This is one of many...

I love efy.

Also, the day after my birthday I treated myself to this great piece of work:

Toy Story 3 is by far my favorite movie of this year (and compared to the slim pickin's of this years cinema choices, I guess that's not saying too much). But anyway, it was a fantastic movie. Stands alone as a classic in comparison to the other two awesome films in the series. I remember each time I saw the first one in theaters (including at the now-abandoned Fox Theater in downtown Salinas), as well as part 2 (once with Jake Warwick and another with my family on Thanksgiving 1999). I saw part 3 by myself! In 3D! In IMAX! I figured, if it's your birthday you might as well go big or go home. I love all the characters in these movies and part 3 offers a few new hilarious ones. It was hysterical but also genuinely touching at the same time. Grown men/fathers/husbands were breaking down all around me and tearing up. I even choked up a little bit...truthfully. It was great!

Go see it.

especially for youth: week two.

2010-06-12T00:50:00.001-07:00

What a great week.

This past week at EFY was a little different than my first week. It was a Stay-at-Home session. So instead of the youth coming and staying in the dorms overnight at a college campus, they go home each night. And the entire week is held at a high school. Hundreds of youth came from within five hundred miles of Snowflake, Arizona. If youth weren't from here then the members in Snowflake had arranged to be host families for them. It was very well organized and very crisp. All planned to perfection. Counselors, as myself, got to stay with host families as well. Mine are so nice, the Pond family, and I am so grateful for their kindness and hospitality.

The youth this week were fantastic. I had so many great experiences teaching them and growing with them. I had 17 boys in my group, and 16 girls. My co-counselor, in charge of the girls, this week was Tori and she.was.awesome! I was a little nervous at the beginning because it was much larger than my first week, but it went great. These youth really got to know each other and became such good friends, just in five days. And of course, as is inevitable in all EFY sessions, they didn't want to leave each other at the end of the week.

Just a few things that impressed me this week:

There was a teenage girl at EFY this week who has to walk with a walker. She wasn't in my group but on Monday (the first day) you could tell she was struggling because she didn't want to hold up lines anymore because it took her a little longer to get places. On Tuesday someone asked her counselor if she was at EFY that day because they didn't see her. The counselor responded that she was there, but each boy in her group had made a goal for the rest of the week to carry her on his back from location to location.

On a similar note there was a boy in a wheelchair at EFY this week. I was told later that his group made a goal to never let him push himself so that he could keep up, and to include him in game night (which is epic), dances, and the group skit. I never saw him once without a smile on his face.

At the two dances, I saw countless boys ask the girl who was standing all alone on the edges. You can tell this made each girl's day.

At the testimony meeting every single youth mentioned Jesus Christ.

I'm so excited for this summer job! It's been an awesome experience so far and it's still just the beginning. I hope the kids are getting as much out of it as I am. The next two weeks I'll be in Flagstaff. But not until I head to Phoenix first to see my nephew Donovan (and Scott and Kiana!).

Our group flag designed by the youth. Our team name was Team E.T.T.E.: Endure to the End.

My youth practicing their skit. I'm still a little bitter that they didn't place top 3 because I personally thought it was hysterical. But the judges I guess just weren't ready for their vision...

Game night! (a personal favorite and voice killer!)

Ready Set Go...!

Service project.

Preston, Clayton, and Everett.

Bryce, Braccin, Doug, Brock, Alex (faceless...), Everett, Clayton, Ryan, Preston, Me, Brenneck, Kristopher, Illyas, Zach

Below: Cole

The whole group this week.

Our last night together after the final dance (it was a sock hop).

Oh,...and this little beauty:

Oops!...my bad.

June 6: Sited as going 40 in a 30.

Location: Blanding, Utah

Population: 6

Think Spreckels, California. Only smaller.

especially for youth: week one.

2010-06-05T15:58:00.000-07:00

Awesome week.

This summer I get to be an EFY Counselor which is church camp for the teenagers of the LDS church. It's an awesome opportunity to workwith the youth and help build their testimonies in Christ and witness their growth in the gospel. The theme for EFY this year is Courage To Stand Strong. The theme scripture is Joshua 1:9 -

Be strong and of a good courage. Be not afraid; neither be thou dismayed. For the Lord thy God is with thee withersoever thou goest.

On Monday, ten teenage boys showed up at BYU Campus and were put into my group. I grew to love and respect these young men in only five days as we spent time: praying, reading the scriptures, meeting girls, participating in service projects, attending classes, talking about missions, singing, playing frisbee, going to dances, playing many many many games, and much more (i.e. "the elf"...maybe someday I'll tell you...)

It was miraculous to witness the growth of these boys from Monday to Friday with their strength in gospel knowledge and their testimonies strengthened of the Savior and His role in their lives. I saw many miracles and small acts of service take place when they thought nobody was looking. The best was when they discovered answers for themselves laid out in the scriptures and receiving that "AHA!" moment of self discovery. It's triumphant alone that these teenagers who come to EFY are willing to give an entire week of their summer vacation to go to church camp. But at the end they're entirely thankful that they did.

I had a great co-counselor named Hayley and she was over the ten girls in our group. She has her mission call to the Philippines and she leaves in July. We became great friends and had a blast teaching these youth about the gospel and sharing our testimonies of the Savior with them. It was a fantastic time to be had. The girls in our group were amazing young women. I'm grateful to have gotten to know them well too.

And might I add that EFY is upliftingly exhausting. Every night it was an event to even take a shoe off. Haha. Ok slight exaggeration. But close. These are 18 hour days of pure walking and dancing and goofing around and teaching while standing moments that excitedly never end. It feels good to get into bed at night with your feet sore from doing good things all day.

I have seven more weeks of this during the summer but I've been told the first week of being an EFY Counselor is the one you'll always remember the most. I think that just might be true.

Brandon, Justan, Zach G., Gunnar, Dallen, Me, Marshall, Jake, Brian, and Henry (missing in this picture: Zach J.)

The boys escorting the lucky ladies to the dance.

Our whole group after scripture study.

Service project: making blankets for unfortunate children in shelters and hospitals.

Thumbs up before the final devotional on the theme: Courage to Stand Strong.

All the kids in our group.

They will all do amazing things in the future.

things i've never noticed at home.

2010-05-19T15:10:00.000-07:00

Now that I've been living at home for the past month I've had a lot of time to sit around and home and discover things I've never noticed or seen before. I'll have little epiphanies where I'll see something and questions "has that been there my whole life or for a long time?" Here are a few of those things:

This little extra indent of roof seen from our backyard.

This "love bird" fence hanging thing above the backyard bench.

Multiple rocks saying "REMEMBER" in my moms garden.

About once every 4 years I remember to notice this hole in our family room ceiling. When we remodeled the house my parents had every intention of getting a wood

burning stove. Fifteen years later and still no stove!...someday!

This light next to the front door.

Soda sharing shelf space with V8 Juice? That's a Shipley oxi-moron! This can be found not in the main house fridge, but the reject fridge in the garage.

How close the sprinkler controls are to the mailbox. Never noticed it there before.

"Oh yeah! We have a balcony!"

This mystery awkwardly placed "storage" door? Never been opened and too scared to.

This crocodile thing on the upper shelf of my dad's office.

That both my elementary school AND high school can be seen from the second floor of the house. How many people can say that??

My mom's quilting bible intermixed with a shelf full of quilts.

My mom's walk in closet. While of course I've known that its been there forever, I forget and then remember that I've honestly only been in there probably once in my life. Not that I have a need to...BUT...this is where we were threatened to never look because birthday/christmas presents were always crammed in there yearlong...or so we were told...

This rock that my brother drew a design on. Sitting on the shelf right next to the tv. Never noticed it. It says 1998 on the bottom.

EPIC! This is something I've ALWAYS known has been there. My brother Scott and I had an epic spit wad war circa 1995. This spit wad on the ceiling in the living room is the final evidence of that fight. Long may it live as a reminder of things kids get away with when their parents aren't home...

Home Sweet Home

the work continues.

2010-04-28T11:46:00.000-07:00

Even though I'm done with school doesn't mean I still don't have assignments to do. Haha. My friend from Arizona (and by friend, I mean the woman who taught me how to play tennis...) is in charge of some relief society event in her ward. She asked me to design a logo for it. Here it is.

top ten.

2010-04-08T00:39:00.000-07:00

(this is a little long so be cautious...)

Well it's here: the end of my college portion of life. Rexburg has been my home for 5 years (broken with a two year break), and it is time to say goodbye. I'll miss it. Everything except the weather. Its been full of adventures, happiness, frustration, stress, and spirituality. Its been full of memories, friends, studies, and dates. But most of all: fun.
I have created a countdown of my top ten events and memories of living here in Rexburg. But first, I think the one thing I'll miss the most is this:

A temple view from my bedroom window. It has been a blessing to be within walking distance of the Rexburg Temple and to have this view on a daily basis. For this, I am very grateful.

Now, the countdown:

Number 10:
OOPS! MY BAD...

So I was driving five of us home from the sand dunes, about fifteen miles left until Rexburg. We were on our way and there were two cars behind us that were super annoying and had their brights on. So on a quick WHIM of a thought, I decided to quickly pull off the road to let them pass, still going 35 mph. Well, I landed directly into a sand pasture and got my dear car stuck. My friends were cool about it, but a little freaked out. Haha. I have no idea what came over me, but I just did not want those cars following me anymore. It was a split second and all the sudden we were stuck! Fortunately enough a Jeep passed about ten minutes later and helped us out of the ditch. Thank you strangers! But unfortunately, this story is still the butt of many jokes on my part, haha. But it is stories like this that make it to top ten lists such as this one. See, it happened for a reason...

Number 9:
PAINT DATES

I got to go on not one, BUT TWO, paint dates during my college life. These were so so so much fun. The first time the girls got all the guys sweats and sweaters, blindfolded us, and took us out to the middle of nowhere and yelled "GO." They had set up twenty buckets of paint with sponges and we just went crazy! The second time they were more prepared so we wore paint body suits. Some of the most fun dates I've ever been on. I'll never forget trying to get all the paint our of my hair and off my skin. The the fun was definitely worth the effort though.

Number 8:
QUAILMAN

This was the best Halloween post-childhood for me. I still have people and friends commenting on this costume and the sheer awesomeness of it. I was Quailman from the cartoon Doug, and my friend Jon was Doug's best friend Skeeter. Classic. End of story.

Number 7:
CRAIGO'S

I love Craigo's Pizza. Whenever we go it's always the highlight of my day. It's delicious. They have the best ranch dressing in 3 counties (trust me, I've tested). But the great thing about Craigo's is that it's one of the greatest social gathering locations in Rexburg. I've had many a memory at this place and will miss it greatly.

Number 6:
PARTIES

I can't choose just one! There were so many eventful ones. Ones that I threw and ones that I attended. But in my social prime (circa Fall 2007 - Summer 2008) as a college student here at BYU-Idaho, parties were what it was all about. Whether it was my virgin-margarita birthday social, or Mike and Matt's twin bash (hosted by myself and none other than my dear friend Meghan), or an 80's techno party (myself as Billy Idol), or a pumpkin carving extravaganza, or an Office themed party, and even the ultimate trio bachelor party put on by yours truly, fun was to be had! These parties are a staple in the memories of my social Rexburg experience.

Number 5:
STRANDED IN POCATELLO

Oh Pocatello, how I loathe thee. Let me count the ways...Ok I won't count. But here's why:
March 2008 - Mike, Brooke, Katie, and I are super bored on a Saturday afternoon so we decide to randomly drive to Utah. Not the first time, wasn't the last. But in true Idaho fashion, the weather was horrendous. I started fishtailing an hour south of Rexburg in Pocatello. I quickly got off the exit and we ended having the most random adventures: Staying at Mike's brother's MTC companions house (we had no where else), staying at the mall for hours with Mike and Brooke fake-engagement-ring=shopping (super boring), texas roadhouse, and so on. Woke up the next day and drove back, carefully, the hour to Rexburg. I guess that Utah trip just wasn't mean to be...
A few hilarious pictures from this tragic but ultimately fun, funny and classic event:

Number 4:
VASHON ISLAND

During the Fall semester of 2003 I got to go live on Vashon Island in the pugit sound next to Seattle. It lasted for two months. This was one of the best times of my life. I met some of the best friends of my life during this experience. There were 8 boys and 13 girls. The purpose of this trip was to help faster with generals and get more things done earlier (and yet, still, here I am graduating in 2010...haha). We traveled, ate, studied(?), played games, hiked, adventured...and just did a bunch of crazy stuff that freshman do in their carelessness. The best part for me was taking the ferry across to Seattle or Tacoma and just walking around. This is where I fell in love with Seattle and the entire atmosphere there.

I don't have any digital pictures of this time there and it would take too long to scan them in. But I have kept in good contact with many of my friends from this and every so often we have Vashon Island reunions here in Rexburg. I will miss all my friends that I made during this experience, and its sad that with each Vashon reunion, one by one they start getting smaller and smaller. We had one about two weeks ago and only five people came because that's all that is left in Rexburg. But I loved this journey and will always treasure it as a stepping stone in growing up.

Here are a few pictures from our reunions over the years:

Number 3:
GETTING LOST IN THE REXBURG WOODS

Unfortunately, I have no pictures to accompany this. But this story is classic and I'll tell it quick. It all went down August 2003. One of my best friends here in Rexburg that I met the first day of classes back in June 2003, Cindy, and I went floating down the Snake River on intertubes. Another friend, Jenn, was with us. Long story short: we got lost. The person who dropped us off told us take a left at the fork in the river...well, there were two forks, and we completely missed the first one. We ended up being there long after dark. We prayed. We screamed "Help". We eventually got out of the water and started walking barefooted along rocky and weedy paths. I had to be the man even though I was just as freaked out inwardly as these two girls. It was crazy! (Cindy was hysterical in the fact that she kept thinking she was hearing animals come to the river for their midnight gulp). Ultimately, and hours later, we eventually found a house and yelled for help and he gave us a ride home. It was awful and straight out of the scary movie genre, but forever remains the classic Craig story when I think and tell all of my stories at this school.

Number 2:
OPENING THE MISSION CALL

Aw yes, the sweet anticipation of that one day that will forever change the Mormon 19 year old boy: the day he opens his mission call. For me it was August 5, 2004. I was living in Breckenridge Apartments #21. I remember leaving class early at 10 a.m. because I JUST COULDN'T WAIT ANYMORE. I had to check the mailbox, and there it was. Unfortunately, I had to wait 8 hours for my dad to get home from the golf course in Salinas and to gather all my friends and family by way of physical, cellular, and mobile devices. One of the greatest days of my life with the biggest adrenaline rush accompanied.

Result: Arizona: a bit of a let down at first (I mean, come on, I've been there every summer of my life really...), but in the end, the best experience of my life. I often pass that apartment driving and stare at the closed door of #21 and always recall what happened behind that door.

Number 1:
THE DORMS

No one event chosen from freshman year in the dorms would be able to really capture the "number one" spot. Thus, THE DORMS is the number one spot in and of itself. By dorms I ultimately mean the best friends that I met there and am still best friends with: Jon, Josh, Matt, Mike, Rory, Jim, David, and Monkey. I really can't express (in the fear of getting too cheesy here...) enough of what these guys have done for me and the memories we've made. We've been friends for over 7 years now and really grew up together if you think about it. We were all young and dumb dorm boys and each went on our missions within about 3 months of each other, and we returned as men...and then life got...all, like...serious. Haha. But freshman year was the ultimate. From Utah trips, to girls, to mission calls, to BBQ's, to galley meals, to snow and water fights, to Risk nights, to Mario Kart on gamecube (for which I still hold the record for balloon battle), to Horkley's trips, to group dates, to pranks, to capture the flag, to prayers and scriptures study, to Chapman hall, to How To Lose a Guy in Ten Days, to throwing water and flour on people while they sleep, those were the best of times and not the worst of times. No one event of freshman year in the dorms can surpass another because it would be a betrayal to another memory.

This past Sunday I had all these boys over (along with wives and children) one last time for dinner potluck style and it was great. Some of us are leaving Rexburg forever, some staying for a few more semesters, some possibly staying in Rexburg forever. But whatever goes on in the future it's great to know that these memories will continue because they helped shape who we are.

Everyone on April 4, 2010
And how obvious do I stand out as the only wifeless one? Well, Mike's not married yet. And if Matt were there he'd be right there with me. But I got to hold Belle!

Pre-Mission Pictures (I have millions of pictures but would have to scan them all in...yeah, that's how long ago we were freshman, digital camera's weren't even that wide-spread yet...)

Post-Mission Pictures

Farewell friends.

My time here in this little town has been an important chapter in my life. I'll miss it tremendously (except for the fact that it snows until June...really?). I poke fun just because it's a trendy thing to do...but in reality, if it weren't for this place who knows where or who'd I'd be.

So it's with great bittersweetness and anticipation that I enter the world of...dare I say, grownups...and make something of myself.

Rexburg, adieu...

seattle came and went.

2010-04-01T00:05:00.000-07:00

First of all, thank you all for voting for me. Whether or not I made it to the next round I still win because I have such great friends and family! Thanks again! I'll keep you posted.

A week ago I got to go on the Seattle Internship Expedition. It was awesome. It was a great opportunity to see advertising in the real world and helped me narrow it down further as to what it is exactly that I want to do. Basically on the trip we go-go-go to different advertising agencies and meet the creative and art directors and they talk to us about their jobs and internship opportunities. It was also a great networking tool.

One marketing director even said after his presentation, "Are you somehow related to Scott Shipley?" WHAT?? I'm in the heart of Seattle on a Wednesday afternoon and someone recognizes me because of my brother? He said they worked together when they were students here at BYU-Idaho. That was pretty neat. So I'll be following up there as well. Oh the possibilities...

Ironically enough, for my public relations class, I was assigned (in a group of 4 of us) to create a campaign specifically for the Seattle Internship Expedition for the school. So while I was there I took pictures and video and was able to make a video for our campaign to help promote the expedition. Which is cool because I'm able to share my experience with you in this video as well. We presented the campaign full of posters and books and blah blah blah today to the Internship Office and the following video (which I stayed up to 4 am creating) was a great capper at the end of the presentation. Jaws were dropped from competing groups. Sometimes the jealousy of others can feel so good.

Here is the link to the YouTube page with the video I made for our group. Make sure you volume is up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsanUGlPkNg

well hello.

2010-03-17T14:12:00.000-07:00

I never know what to write after I've been absent from the blogging world for a while. For some reason I seem to go in waves. I'll be strong at it for a few good months and then drop it like its hot for a month or two. But to my defense, I am getting ready to graduate and all (and love reminding anyone I can whenever I can.)

For a quick re-cap:

I made the finals for the "dating blog" on mormontimes.com. What goes down is that EVERY THREE DAYS starting March 1, they've taken TWO OF THE FINALISTS and put their blogs up for voting. I AM NOT VOTABLE UNTIL MARCH 29. Which means, I will be up against another blogger on March 29 for your voting pleasure. Don't worry, you will get reminders...

I go to Seattle next week in the pursuit of internship/experience. This economy is CUR-RAAAA-ZY.....so this is definitely a good step in helping me find one. Instead of finding one myself, the school is helping us to get in some doors that could be very difficult to otherwise. Wish me luck!

I went on a road trip last week to the fantastic state of Arizona. IT WAS EPIC. Here's why:

- Got to see my brother Scott and sister-in-law Kiana (despite the fact that they think all I do is find ways to NOT see them while I'm there...haha. Not true.)

- Got to see my nephew Donovan. The cutest kid on this earth (along with other nieces and nephs)

- Got to see my parents for two hours!

- Traded cars with my brother/parents and now have the Hyundai Sonata (thanks mom and dad!)

- Got to visit my mission land and peeps: Row, the Wright Family (and their burritos).

- Got to see my friend Carrie.

- Got to go to the Mesa Temple for Stevie's Wedding.

- Got to see one of my best friends Brooke.

- In'n'Out

- DRIVING THE ENTIRE TIME (both ways minus one hour somewhere in south utah where april took over until the snow came...then she freaked. it was hilarious. Also, annoying April was semi-entertaining too.)

I interviewed to be an EFY Counselor this summer. I applied for Utah, Idaho, Arizona, California, and Washington. So hopefully I'll get something.

Mainly I'm just wrapping things up in all my classes. I've decided (to much dismay from a few of my friends for some reason...) that I'm not going to walk at graduation. I have no interest in it, and in thirty years I can guarantee that I'm not going to say "I wish I had walked...". I'm not. I graduated, that's all that matters to me! 25 more days.

Sorry for no pictures in this entry.

a few happenings.

2010-02-16T11:33:00.000-08:00

What's going on with me? Sometimes I wonder this myself. Haha.

But currently:

SHIPWRECK SODA:

In my graphic design class we've been designing soda bottle labels and containers. Its a project that has been going on since the beginning of the semester. Finally, FINALLY, it is due tomorrow. We've been working on it forever. We have to design and use 4 bottles and the container they would come in. I'm doing "Shipwreck Soda". Yes, I know I've used Shipwreck many times in my projects, but teachers and fellow students always love it. It works. Sue me. Today I am just finishing up the final touches. Final photos will come later, but so far here is my logo (the edges of the bottle may look blurry or not smooth for some reason...but when printed it's fine):

DATING BLOG/INTERNSHIP:

MormonTimes.com is looking for a 20-something year old to write a weekly blog on dating and experiences and thoughts. I saw the invitation and though "This is my purpose in life..." Haha, well not completely; but I do think I would be pretty good at it. So I have to write 2 different blog entries and email it to the editor by Feb 24. I'm working on them right now. But how it works is that they will post the 16 nominees and voting will continue for two months until there is one final person left. The winner gets a weekly blog/column on the MormonTimes website as well as weekly "dating" pay. You don't have to live in Utah and it's great for a resume. I'll keep you posted on when to vote for me!

INDIANA INTERNSHIP:

I applied for an internship in Indiana at an energy company called Midwest ISO. My great

friend Brooke put in a good word for me because she did her internship there. If I get it, the experience will be amazing. I'd be doing their graphic design. I should be hearing back from them soon, whether good or bad.

EXERCISE:

I started running again. My first time back was obnoxiously painful. It was quite hysterical. The air up here in Rexburg is thin too so you have to work your body back up to being used to it when doing physical exercise. But it's worth it and it makes you feel better.

SENIORITAS:

ITS HIT ME BAD!

happy-tilted-head-people.

2010-02-03T12:54:00.000-08:00

If you go to the BYU-IDAHO website

www.byui.edu

you will find the happy-tilted-head-people!

The happy-tilted-head-people are the faces that show up when you're on the homepage of the BYU-Idaho website; with their welcoming smile, heads tilted slightly to the side. Over the years I've been staring at these people quite occasionally....quite a lot. I've kind of

grown to like them. They've followed me through my college years. A few of them saw me leave for my mission and are still around to see me graduate soon. A few others have come and gone over the years. But never-the-less, a new happy-tilted-head-person always shows up!

Here are a few of the happy-tilted-head-people, by the name I've named them over the years:

Michelle Baxter

Mary Mee Sandra

Cooper Lens

Busy Williams

Lana Lang
Tanner Bolt
Linda Neck Kramp
Howya Doin

one week. two apostles.

2010-02-01T12:54:00.000-08:00

Such a great past week. We had not only one, but two Apostles come to visit us here at BYU-Idaho:

Elder Russell M. Nelson (came on Tuesday)

and Elder M. Russell Ballard (came on Saturday).

It was legen-wait-for-it-dary!

Elder Russell first spoke about the relief efforts of the church in Haiti. He said that our church buildings there (the ones that were still standing anyway) were housing up to 5,000 people and that unfortunately they had to start turning people away because the building couldn't fit everyone. But what was amazing was that on Sunday everyone within the buildings moved out to the church grounds to let sunday worship for the LDS members there go on as normal. A lot of people stayed in the buildings though to show gratitude for God and the building.

Elder Ballard spoke about morality in this crazy world and that if we do what's right then nothing else matters. He talked a bit on Prop 8 and how interesting it is that only the Mormons are being attacked and blamed. He said to not worry about it and just to love and respect those attacking us.

It was a good week.

hello seattle.

2010-01-23T21:47:00.001-08:00

hello seattle.

how i love you.

I have the urge right now to use a lot of exclamation points, but for the sake of my sister's sanity, I'll only use one...! But I'm super-stoked because I just received the following email:

Sorry for the slow response but please see the message below.

Congratulations, you have been selected to attend the Seattle Expedition on March 24-26, 2010. There were 61 applicants and we were only allowed to select 40 due to available airline tickets, so consider yourself lucky.

-Justin Hodges

Exciting huh? I don't exactly know what we do on these things but I've heard they're a ton of fun and informational. Plus, I love Seattle. Ever since I lived there six years ago I fell in love with it and the weather (I know...I'm weird)....and hopefully it's where I end up someday.

Two month countdown begins!...

1991.

2010-01-21T14:34:00.000-08:00

Hi.

I'm 24.

I was sitting in my Public Relations class yesterday when I sparked a conversation with a cute girl sitting next to me. We got to talking about life, roller-coasters, and orange juice among other things. This sparked another conversation halfway through class when she had mentioned she had never seen Home Alone. Anyone who knows me knows I love finding people who've never seen a classic film in time: Gone With the Wind, E.T., The Sixth Sense, Home Alone, etc...for some reason this sparks an odd sense of excitement within me, I'm not sure why. Kind of like someone who loves books is always in awe that I've never read Huck Finn or The Count Of Monte Cristo.

So I asked how she has grown up without ever seeing the lingering holiday classic. And she mentioned that the reason why was probably because it came out before she was born...which in reality really makes no sense; but never-the-less gave me a moment of panic. This girl was born in 1991. She graduated high school in 2009. I had lived 1/4 of my life by the time she was born. A fourth.

So just as a re-cap, let us evaluate a few happenings of the world when this child was born:

The Michigan court bars Dr. Jack Kevokian from assisting in suicides.
The Gulf War ends.
Pee-Wee Herman was arrested for bad things.
Beauty and the Beast was first animated movie nominated for Best Picture.
Miles Davis died.
Wayne Gretzky scored his 700th goal.
The last episode of Dallas aired.
The Oakland Hills firestorm killed 25 and destroyed 3469 homes and apartments, causing more than $2 billion in damage.
Magic Johnson announced he tested positive for AIDS, and then retired.
Sonny Bono was elected for the U.S. Congress.
Sonic the Hedgehog was released for Sega Video Games in America.
I was in the first grade.

So I'm not writing this to say that I feel old; I'm only 24. Shoot, I still feel like I'm 16 sometimes (but that's another blog entry for another day). But I am writing this to say that I feel like an old college student. I started school here in June 2003; a week after graduating high school. And even though I did take a 2 year break/detour to serve a mission, sometimes I wonder HOW AM I STILL HERE? But I love it. It's college. It's home #1.5. And coming up in the next year I hope to find official home #2.

riddle-me-this wednesday.

2010-01-20T11:07:00.000-08:00

RIDDLE-ME-THIS WEDNESDAY: what's your favorite movie?

The answer to this is very difficult for me because anyone who knows me knows I love the art of film. I have since I was a kid. Sometimes I love a movie for how it's made and looks but I hate the story and plot itself: (i.e. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, complete wastes of anyones time, but visually dazzling.) Or sometimes love the story and plot of a movie but hate how it looks or was made (i.e. The Illusionist and Twilight).

But to answer the question, ultimately it would have to be Big Fish. I

love this movie; ever since the first time I saw it six years ago. I love it love it love it. I love the visual amazement of it all and I love the story. I love the way the popcorn freezes mid-air when Edward Bloom see's the woman he's going to marry someday.

I love the joined-at-the-hip Siamese Vietnamese twins. I love the city of Spectre and that in order to live their you have to be barefoot.

I love the story of the son who doesn't really know who his father is, but ultimately realizes he's known the entire time through his father's stories. I love how it's a movie where parents are actually in love and faithful to each other and don't talk about marriage as if it's a disease. I love the cinematography. I love the music (a regular on my iTunes when I'm doing homework...). I love the book on which it's based. And yes, I even love the Miley Cyrus 6-year-old cameo pre-Hannah Montana.

So yes, Big Fish would be it.

letters.

2010-01-11T11:37:00.000-08:00

For my graphic design class I had to create the alphabet out of something random, and take an individual picture of each letter. I was originally going to do this out of dixie cups (by using lots of glue and stacking cups to form each letter.) Thankfully, I have friends who frustratingly, but later thankfully, talked me out of this; a lesson which I always require repeat-learnings of: simpler sometimes is just better.

So in the midst of a brainstorming session, I looked in my living room and saw my faithful lamp that I've had for two years. This lamp has five different arms with a light at the end of each; and VOILA!...an idea was born. (Some other ideas of fellow classmates: banana peels, egg whites, ties, pepto bismol (yes, pepto bismol), jewelry, garnishes, spaghetti sauce, bike chains, horseshoes, etc. Oh, and I kid not, one girl had her boyfriend pee each letter in the snow.....truth.) Anyway, with help from Mike, April, and Annie (Katie was present...), we formed each letter out of the alphabet using the lamp arms! I loves it. Teacher loves it. We all loves it.

great start to a new year.

2010-01-09T23:17:00.001-08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Yeah it's a little late, but better than never.

Well I'm back in Rexburg for my last semester of college...ever! I must say it will be bittersweet as it gets closer and closer to the end of it. But we'll deal with that when and as it comes.

IT IS SOO COLD. I've never experienced it this cold here before, and I've been here for many-a-winter. I've dealt with more snow than we have here right now, but it's never been this cold. I mean frigid. I mean frost-bitingly-cold!! I sleep with layers; heater a'blazin. But I haven't slipped on the ice yet! How did the pioneers ever do it??

School is going great. My last first week of school ever?...completed. It should be a great semester! Classes:

*Advanced Graphic Design
*Public Speaking
*Public Relations
*Fine Arts 100 (a required class I've postponed for 5 years)
*I-comm Advertising
and
*Personal Finance (which I actually am enjoying! Thanks Dad!)

Now onto more important news. Tonight I got to meet one of my favorite artists, Brooke White! She got fifth place on American Idol two years ago (the year David Cook won) and I fell in love with her then. Her album High Hopes and Heartbreak is one of my favorite cd's ever. She came here to BYU-Idaho tonight for a really awesome concert! A few friends and I went to it and it was really fun. She's really funny and just doesn't take herself too seriously. It was awesome. Anyway, at the end she announced she was going to be in the lobby signing autographs and what not so we waited in the hour long line just to meet her. I gave her a hug and told her how sad I was that she didn't win and she said she was glad she didn't! And then, obviously, with a hundred people behind us in line, since I knew she was from Phoenix we got to talking about Arizona and locations and blah blah blah. It was awesome. She even signed her cd for me! Holla!! Great night.