THIS JUST MIGHT BE THE COOLEST TRIP EVER!

Ok, so here is the deal. Today I was kinda not paying much attention in math class because this kid that sits next to me told me about this place that he and his wife are going to this weekend called Cascade Canyon. He was showing me pictures and I am sold! Today I started planning the trip for June 6th...so I really need to get training. It starts with a beautiful drive to Wyoming that gives you incredible views of both sides of the Tetons. We go past Jackson Hole, past Teton Village, and up to Jenny Lake. That is where we start the hike. So we park the truck near Jenny Lake and start the 9 mile hike through Cascade Canyon and up to Solitude Lake. Cascade Canyon is self-describing because the whole way you are hiking next to a stream and you pass all kinds of waterfalls and all of the beautiful stuff that water does.

Once we get up to Solitude lake, we will make camp and stay the night. You cannot have camp fires so we will have to pack some camping stoves. The next day there are a few other places that we can hike to during the day. I am sure that the water is much too cold to swim in considering that the lake is at 10,000 ft. So I guess that we will just enjoy the scenery and have an awesome day up there. The lake is very close to the Teton peaks. So needless to say the sights will be AWESOME! So be ready for some sweet pics on the blog! Here are some that I found on Google Earth:

So does't this seem like an awesome trip??? I am so excited! I even went out and bought my hiking boots today to start breaking them in. So this is pretty much set in stone that we are going to do it. If weather doesnt permit on our planned date, we will do it the 13th and the 14th. My roommates are all stoked so we are going to start training now for it. I am actually training for the Teton Dam 10k right now too! I am way excited for it. It is going to be June 14th so hmmm....I guess if the 6th doesnt work out we will have to go 2 weeks later. Anyway, let me know how it sounds to you guys! I am totally stoked!!!!!

The Best FHE Ever!

Tonight I must say that we had an awesome FHE! After eating some amazing truffles (thank you Boston!) we jumped into mine and Dev's trucks and headed about 10 miles outside of Rexburg to a shooting range. WE HAD A BLAST! Might I mention that we have the best FHE group in the world too! We stayed out there for a couple of hours shooting the shotgun, 9mm handgun, 22 250 big 'ol rifle, a 22 handgun and a little 22 rifle. Fun stuff! We stayed out there as long as we could until the sun went down and headed back to Rexburg harassing people on the PA along the way (mostly Dev and everyone in the back of his truck!). What a great way to start the week!

OUR TREK TO "R" MOUNTAIN

This past weekend we decided to hike up to the top of what's called around here "R Mountain." It is actually an old inactive volcano so when y0u get to the top, it is just a big crater. It is pretty sweet. There were 4 of us who went and it was a blast! It was a short but intense hike and a lot of fun!

CRAB

If you know me well, you probably know that I am an anti-fish person. I refuse to eat the stuff because it just grosses me out for some reason! I have tried it a few times and it really isn't too bad, but I would definitely not order it from a restaurant or anything like that. Well, tonight my roommate cooked some crab legs and when I walked in the door he pulled out a plate and slapped a leg on my plate with two forks. I guess one is to crack open the leg and the other is to eat with (I am sure that all you fish eaters already know that....but I being an inexperienced fish eater did not know that). Anyway, after cracking open the leg and pulling the meat out, I actually tried it and......drum roll........it was actually pretty good! I thought that it would be a lot worse! But will I ever eat it again? Probably not. Why? I am not down with cracking open a leg to eat my food. Kinda nasty!

The Bottom Lands

Our friends Collin and Hilary invited us to go to a cool spot tonight up here in Idaho called the bottom lands. It is down by the river out in the middle of nowhere. It was pretty sweet! After hiking for about 15 minutes through "horse fertile" fields, we arrived to our destination, made a campfire, roasted marshmellows and told scary stories. It was pretty fun! Dev was pretty scared though! Afterwards we went to some guys field and lit a whole bunch of fireworks off and woke up all of the neighbors. I love Idaho!

Nuestro Gran Asado

Me and my roommate, having both served our missions in Buenos Aires, Argentina, have had the craving for the most amazing bbq ever, the Argentine Asado. So with some help from my roommate's parents (they brought the "carbón"), with the help of of Dev with the meat, and with the help of my eating skills, we had one of the best bbqs ever. Slow cooking over carbón for hours on end makes for one amazing taste! We invited a bunch of people over, ate some great food with some home-made rootbeer, turned the projecter on and watched a great movie! It made for a great night! We sort of cooked way too much meat and had to give a lot of it away afterwards which made for some really happy poor college students!!!! Hey, that would make my day if someone gave me a few pounds of incredible steak for free!

Mesa Falls, Idaho

So last weekend we were trying to figure out something that we could go and do and we remembered a place up here called Mesa Falls. It was a warm sunny day here in Rexburg, but little did we know what we would find up at the falls. The drive was beautiful and the roads were completely clear up until we got within 3 miles of the falls. BOOM! 3 feet of snow covering the highway. So we really had no choice but to park and hike the rest of the way. The hike was awesome but our feet got a little cold but what can you expect when you are hiking in the snow? So we spent a few hours up there, had lunch, and made the treck back to the car before the sun started going down.

The Trip Back to Argentina: The Most Amazing Trip Ever

A few weeks after returning home from my mission to Argentina, I had the awesome opportunity to go back to Argentina with my parents so they could see where I served, meet my friends, and so forth. Let me tell you, what an amazing trip. It started off at 12:00am at LAX for the 5 hour check-in process with TACA airlines (later named by us “Take a Chance Airlines”) and we wont even get into the horrible organization of that company. At least the plane was nice! After 12 hours of airtime, we finally landed in Buenos Aires in a huge storm and that is where our adventure started! We were able to drive around my mission, see my areas, visit people, eat some awesome food, and go shopping in the capital. It was so much fun!

After a few days in the city, we drove 7 hours to the other end of the province of Buenos Aires to a little town where my companion and me were called to start the church. What an amazing experience that was. It was so awesome to see how fast the church is growing out there in such a short time. When I was there we had church in our tiny little living room and now they have a brand-new facility with 2 classrooms, a bigger room for sacrament meeting, and a kitchen and bathroom in the back. It was so neat to be able to attend church there with my parents. And now it is an official branch of the church! We stayed for a few days, got caught in a tornado-like storm that was knocking over trees, demolishing buildings, and almost blowing us over, and finally headed out.

After making the long trek back to the city, we hopped onto a plane and headed up to the very northern tip of Argentina right next to Brazil to a place called Iguazú, home to the most beautiful waterfalls in the world. In fact, you will be seeing them in the new Indiana Jones movie. The flight was a short hour and a half or so. We got off of the plane and the Guns and Roses song “Welcome to the Jungle” popped into my head. We were literally in the jungle! We went to our awesome bungalow situated out of the city in the jungle where were we were greeted by our two pet geckos that lived in our room! We spent the whole next day at the falls going on a 4x4 rides through the jungle, in a boat up the river to the base of the falls where they literally jetted us into the falls, and hiking around on the catwalks across the rivers, and finally back to point A on a raft. What an awesome day and what amazingly beautiful waterfalls. Like I said, you will all see them in the Indiana Jones movie.

Unfortunately, the trip had to come to an end and we are glad that it came to a safe end. We were a little worried after our plane had to make an emergency landing back in Buenos Aires for a serious problem that it was having. Despite the fear, I was really looking forward to jumping down those slides out of the side of the plane. The flight attendants were at the emergency doors with the keys in ready to activate them and then they got the word that they would be sending those big trucks with the stairs over. We landed, came to a halt on the tarmac, and were taken back to the terminal on busses where we waited for hours for the plane to get fixed. Unfortunately, we had to get back on the same plane! That was a little scary! Since that happened, we missed our connecting flights and had to stay the night in El Salvador. I don’t recommend vacationing there! What a scary place! But now we are back safe and sound with some awesome memories!

Here are some more pictures and videos