7 Week Break

Lauren was gracious enough to drive home with me, she also brought snacks, texted for me, and stayed awake pretty much the whole time and talked to me.   I love driving during the night, it feels like the road is all mine and there is no one and nothing to interfere with the path that I choose to take.  It's empowering really.  My summer was awesome.  I am blessed to have an awesome job at a Public Utility that has not been affected by the recession (everyone needs power).  Because of this they were able to let me work all summer which was awesome!

Blake and Kaylie Watson were married on August 22, 2009!  What an incredible event that was!  Dave, Spencer, Andy, and I were all able to meet up in California and go to the wedding.  I flew down Thursday morning and Spencer picked Dave and I up from LAX.   LAX is HUGE mind you, I tried to walk from my terminal to Dave's terminal which just happened to be on the complete opposite side of the airport and I was walking for 25 minutes before Spencer came, I didn't even reach my destination.  Crazy.  They were filming a movie there though, that was kind of cool to see the set and movie maker people all over.  I can't remember the name of the movie though.  After Spencer picked up Dave and I we headed to Hollywood and hit up In-N-Out Burger which was awesome!

The joint was packed full of people.  After In-N-Out we did the Hollywood Walk of Fame deal and saw the Chinese Theater where they have all of the movie premieres and then we drove up to the Hollywood sign and took pictures of us and the sign.  It was fun because we had to run out in the middle of the road, take the picture and then run back before cars came, it was like a little game.  After Hollywood we headed to Newport beach and went boogie boarding, skim boarding, buried Dave in the sand, and just played around in the Ocean.  The California Ocean is not as warm as one would think.  The temperature wasn't extremely cold but it wasn't the warmest place ever, that's for sure.  After the beach we headed back to our hotel and checked in.  The guy behind the desk asked what my name was and I told him Zach Cooper, then he was like Zach Harry Cooper? I busted up laughing but managed to correct him and say it's Zachary.

That night we went to this pizza place that was right next to our hotel.  Spencer, Dave, and I got our food and sat down at a table and then the waitress came over and asked us if we needed anything.  Dave, being Canadian, asked for cutlery...the poor waitress had no idea what he was talking about so she replied, "ketchup?" and we all laughed at her! That night Spencer left Dave and I and went and stayed his buddy's house.  Andy arrived at about 1 or 2 in the morning and called Dave to let him in, Dave's phone woke me up so I looked over at him and watched him ignore the call and go back to bed. Then I heard the knocking on the door, started laughing as I realized that he had just ignored Andy, and I went and let Andy in.  The next day we went to Disneyland! It wasn't as fun as I remembered it being as a child, which was too bad but we still had a good time. My favorite ride was the California Screamer roller coaster that they have at the California Adventure park, it was quite the thrill.

That night we drove down to Blake's house in San Diego and met some of his family and friends. Saturday was the day of the wedding, we woke up, got ready, and drove to the temple downtown.  I waited outside for a couple hours but it was a beautiful day.  When Blake and Kaylie came out of the temple it made the whole wait completely worth it just to see them smiling, knowing their marriage was eternal.  They were SO happy! They took a whole bunch of pictures at the temple and then we went to the beach and they took a whole bunch more pictures. After the beach pictures we drove straight to the reception.  The reception was fun, they had mini glass coke bottles!  Not gonna lie, the mini cokes and
dancing with everyone at the end of the reception were my favorite parts. We left the reception right as it was starting to get fun and went to a girl's house who served with Dave, Andy, and Spencer in Thailand.  We hit up In-N-Out one more time that night...mmmm!  Her house had cat hair all over the place, kind of gross.  Also, I wasn't feeling well and had a hard time sleeping.  The next day we went to sacrament meeting with her and then she took Dave and I to the airport where we checked in and said goodbye.  The flight home was pretty non-eventful but the extended weekend was superb!

(Sorry about the picture placement, I can't ever seem to get this thing to put the pictures where I want them)

Spring semester is OVER! almost.

As the semester comes to a close (2 more days for me!!!) I thought I would write a 'semester end post' of some sort. Recently I have been going bridge jumping at monkey rock. It has been an absolute blast, the thrill of jumping off of bridges is quite amazing and I wish I would have done it earlier! I also feel like now that the semester is pretty much over I am finally starting to make friends, what is up with that?! Better late than never I guess.

My sister Cassie decided to surprise me and show up at my apartment last Monday. I had

absolutely no clue she was coming. It was quite fun to hang out with her and Gummel for the

amount of time I was able to free up for them. For future reference - the week before finals is not the best time to visit any friend in college. Anyway we went to the dunes, got some ice cream, and went to Monkey Rock for a swim. Also Tanya had the privilege of almost getting towed. That most definitely sucked, tow truck driver guys are jerks and there is no doubt about that!

I have had immense amounts of fun with my FHE family this semester. We were definitely blessed to get some really fun girls in our family. Coincidentally, one of them served with Will in Chicago on her mission!

Welp I don't really know what else to say in this

here post, I guess I just wanted to write something before I went to bed and lost my 'umphh' to blog. I shall close with a quick semester testimony - I am thankful for my awesome roommates, I'm pretty darn sure that Jesus loves me or else I don't know how I got such good ones. I am looking forward to rooming with them again this coming semester, we have too much fun together. I am grateful for the opportunity that I have to attend the Lord's university and gain not only a secular but spiritual education at the same time. I'm grateful for my loving family and my awesome parents. And umm I'm extremely glad that I was born into the church and brought up the way I was so that I.....crap my brain totally died. Hopefully this blog makes some sort of sense, I really need to go to bed I am already sleep deprived and I have two finals tomorrow. GOOD NIGHT AMERICA!

zbert out.

The Amazing Change....and Hawaii!

When I was probably 15 or so I remember it was my week to do the dishes. This particular

night there were a lot! I loaded the dishwasher until it was completely full but a bunch of pots and pans remained that needed to be washed by hand. I hated washing dishes by hand, it was defined as extreme torture in my vocabulary. Luckily I came up with a great idea, I took all the dishes and stuffed them into a garbage bag, took the bag to my room and put it in my closet. The next week, when it wasn't my turn to do dishes anymore, I took them out of my closet and put them in the sink. Crisis averted! It is interesting to see the changes in attitude that we experience towards situations as we age. I was talking with Kalob's sister in law Jessica last night about vacations and how as children we were dragged to all of these historical sights and museums. Now that we are older we want to go to them and we enjoy learning the history of historical sights and the like. This same attitude can be applied towards church activities and involvement. Church was torture as a child and I would try and do everything in my power to not attend. Now I love it, I enjoy Sacrament Meeting, I enjoy Sunday School and Priesthood and I look forward to the lessons that are taught. To an extent - haha one Sunday we had church, went home teaching, had a ward social, fireside, and priesthood meeting. That was too much but normally its great. :) I am thankful for the Gospel and the influence it has had and continues to have in my life. I know I would not be the person I am today without it.

Yesterday (when I started this blog) I returned from Hawaii after a few flight delays and a couple hours of sleeping on the floor in the airport. It was an awesome time! My first impression driving around on Oahu was that it was ugly, it reminded me of Idaho. I was disappointed, haha! It was incredibly fun though, we went to the beach every day. There were four lagoons right outside of our resort. On Monday we did absolutely nothing, we stayed at the resort all day and swam in the ocean and the many pools. It was fun but I was looking to actually see the island. When Tuesday came around I was asked what I was going to do that day and because I assumed that it would be like the last I moaned...."probably nothing!" Kalob's dad took offered to take us to Waikiki and I graciously accepted the offer. Kalob and I walked around the 'Waikiki Strip' as I am going to call it and laughed at all the rediculously priced clothing

and other items we found. One place had an 11,000 dollar watch! HOLY WOW. Waikiki beach is way sweet, it is so pretty and perfect for surfing...something I didn't get to try, sadly. Wednesday all the boys went to Pearl Harbor. It was incredibly neat, I thoroughly enjoyed learning about that piece of America's history. We went to the USS Arizona Memorial, checked out a submarine, and toured the USS Missouri Battleship (aka Mighty Mo). 50 years later, there is STILL oil coming out of the USS Arizona, they guesstimate it will continue to come out for another 100 years. I think that is absolutely crazy! On Thursday Kalob and I went to the Polynesian Cultural Center with Grandma, Grandpa, Jess, and Lance. The PCC teaches you all about Polynesia and each island is represented by a fake island/town thing.

It was pretty fun. In New Zealand they had us play this stick throwing game that was created to increase hand-eye coordination in children to prepare them to be future warriors. Smart cookies back then, who would've thought about doing that today? Most of the jobs there are extremely embarrassing and I could never do them. I now feel bad for Martha! (Even though hers wasn't that bad) My favorite part was the night show, it is like a musical. And I just love Musicals. FALSE! I do not love musicals (or miss Jim Halpert)...Martha wrote that part. :) My real favorite part was actually the shows on the islands themselves, especially the cocunut show in Samoa. The guy was crazy and showed us how to open a coconut and how to juice it and what not. After he was done another guy climbed a coconut tree, that was neat! I wish I had his mad skills. The night show was okay but like Martha said it is pretty much a musical and that made it kind of boring.

Friday morning we all went snorkeling at Paradise Cove and swam with sea turtles! There were a lot of different kinds and colors of fish swimming around. This is the day that Kalob and I became horribly sun burned. I thought I was going to make it through the week but alas I was stung by those nasty little rays of the sun. Oh well. We all hit up Outback for a nice little family dinner and Kalob and I created a pretty sweet tip castle for our waitress. Saturday we lounged around the resort in the pools all day and then had a family dinner with the Grandparents and Jess and Lance. Brogan, Blake, and I went and watched all the firework shows that were happening on the island from the resort window. There were 3 different shows going on at the same time, it was pretty cool. I soon learned that my flight had been delayed to 3:15AM and that sucked! I packed all my junk and when I woke up at 1 to head home I learned it was delayed again until 4:15AM. I was taken to the airport early and I just slept on the floor of the airport and waited for my plane to arrive. The flight home was great. Hawaii was sweet but it is nice to be back with my roommates in Rexburg.

Holy Crap.

This past weekend my parents flew me home for my sister's graduation and to visit with my sister in law and nephew that were in town. Boy did things hit me. I can't believe that it has been 2 years since I graduated from the glorious Kelso High School. I can't believe that my sister is now graduated and is going off to college this fall. I can't believe that my older brother and his wife are going to have their second boy in about 4 months. I cannot believe that my older sister is married and her and her husband just bought a house. I cannot believe that my youngest sister is going to be in 8th grade (or grade 8 as Dave would say it) this coming school year! I still remember when I was in kindergarten and the bus dropped me off at the end of our gravel road and my parents forgot about me. I waited at the end of the road crying for at least an hour before I walked three quarters of a mile up the road to my house, still bawling my eyes out. I remember my dad's face when he saw me coming down the driveway and realized that he had forgotten to pick me up from the bus. There is no way that 15 years have passed since that day! But alas, it has.... I am grateful for my family and my parents. I consider myself very lucky to have grown up in the family that I did and with the parents that I have. I appreciate all that they did for me as I was growing up and all that they continue to do for me now, they have truly shaped the person that I have become for the better.

Contemplation

Some people are avid bloggers, I have learned that I am not. When I created this thing I was determined to post my crazy deep thoughts on things of the world and the gospel, I have since learned that I don't have as many as I thought I did.

I woke up today at 11am to Dave blaring AC/DC extremely loudly. I love music. I love the good moods it can put you in and the bad moods it can take you out of. Without music I feel that life would be very dull and boring. I think of how often I listen to music (in the car, walking to school, just chilling, doing homework) and I am glad that I have music to help me out through the adventures of life.

I was asked to say the closing prayer in sacrament meeting this last Sunday and ever since then I have been pondering prayers. I remember back when I was a child and I only prayed for one or two things that mom or dad whispered into my ear and then studdered as I tried to close with "In the name of Jesus Christ, amen." I relate those prayers to the ones I say now and there is a drastic difference. Instead of 10 seconds my prayers now last minutes upon minutes and the content is far meaningful. While contemplating I have determined to make my prayers more meaningful and to try to eliminate any unneccesary repetition to truly create a conversation, not just a line like I said in preschool, "God is good, God is great....blah blah blah" I am truly carrying on a conversation with my Heavenly Father. I am so grateful for prayer!

Recently I have also realized how awesome my roommates are. I am truly grateful for their positive influence on my life. They are amazing examples and I aspire to be like them. They encourage me to continually strive to be a better person. We also have a lot of fun together, our latest fad has been repeating Hot Rod quotes religiously and playing kickball. I had forgotten how much fun kickball was in elementary school, it was all we ever played on recess (besides lava monster) and it is so incredibly fun!

I will strive to become a better blogger, thanks for reading!

Welcome to Rexburg!

Welp, I have successfully moved in to my apartment and have been attending classes for two weeks now. All is going well, I love my apartment, campus is awesome, my roommates are extremely fun and uplifting and I am having a great time! I am currently taking American Foundations, Math 108, Humanities, Church History, and a Cisco Networking class which is a total of 14 credits. My favorite class is American Foundations. I made chicken enchiladas last week and they were amazing, it was my first time ever making them. I also made ginger snaps, they turned out well too. Life is good!

Here are pictures of our living room, kitchen, and my bedroom: