My gift!

So I finally did it. I'm tired of wanting one and talking about it so today I went to the Nissan dealership and bought myself a truck. A Nissan Frontier to be exact. Even in the color I wanted! And no, its not black, but close. Here it is! Say goodbye to the family car and awesome gas mileage!

Still Remembering

Toward the end of July, I was talked into bumming a ride back to Montana with 3 little kids and a newborn. A few hours into the ride I was able to take a nap, but a few hours later, I vowed to never again bum a ride from a growing little family! It wasn't all bad, and it was nice not having to drive by myself, plus sometimes the kids would say some pretty funny things.

When we got home, I requested to sleep in the suburban instead of the couch or on the floor in the basement. At first I think mom and dad were a little worried about me not wanting to sleep around the family, but after the first couple of nights in the suburban, family members were begging to trade me spots so they could get a good nights rest. Lucky me! It was also refreshing to be able to wake up in the middle of the night and see the big starry Montana sky. You know you're in Montana when you can see the shape of the Milky Way.

My best memory of being at home for the family reunion was either playing with matches and lighting off all the illegal Wyoming fireworks and scaring the kids to death, or fishing with grandpa Heagy on the Diversion Dam Reservoir. Being able to be in grandpas canoe, trolling with the little electric motor and catching little trout him was one I'll always remember and want more of. The water was so calm. The fish were jumping everywhere. A few drops of rain would hit the calm water. It was so quiet you could hear the canoe cutting through the water. I always started smiling when grandpa would hook a little trout and then started to do his excited laugh and giggle. I hope we get to do that again sometime soon!

About a week later, I hopped on a red-eye flight to New York City. I wasn't feeling well when I left and I probably felt worse when I arrived. I may have had the swine flu, and then added on air sickness when Brooke and Jared picked me up. They were living on Long Island, so I thought it would be a quick ten minute drive to their apartment. After 15 minutes I asked how much longer it would be. To my suprise, Jared responded with, "a good 40 minutes!" Little did I know that Long Island was so BIG. I thought it was only about 7 or 8 miles long and a few miles wide. Nope! Near 118 miles long and almost 23 miles wide.

After I recooperated a while, Brooke and I hit the Yankee game and enjoyed the professional baseball atmosphere. However, we didn't want to miss the train and have to deal with the thousands of fans so we left a little early. I think that's what the Yankees wanted, because as soon as we left they hit a huge homer and also scored a few more runs.

Brooke and I hung out for a few days on Long Island, and even went to the beach on a cold day! It was cold almost the whole week but I thought it was a good time to be in a city of solid asphalt. A couple days later we made it back to the city and took a tour bus to see all the popular sites, even the "Soup Nazi" restaurant from Seinfeld. There is so much to see, but so many people, its claustrophia city! An artist in the park offered to draw Brooke and I in a cartoon picture so here it is. Look at those pointy ears!

The final day I was in New York, the weather finally turned warm and Brooke and I went to the beach. I had never been to an ocean beach where the water was actually warm enough to actually jump in. Yes, the water was borderline filthy and you came out with a sticky, smelly, coating on, but it was fun playing in the waves and trying to pick up sea shells with your toes. Plus, the thousands of people on the beach was interesting!

Re-Cap

This last summer was an awesome one! During my 4th quarter health class last year, I was having the students decide on goals they wanted to work on and eventually accomplish during the 9 week quarter. After all the students had decided on a goal, they also encouraged me to make a goal as well. I couldn't come up with one that I could accomplish during the quarter but I told the students I would travel to the 4 corners of the United States; Washington, California, New York, Florida.


My Journey started as I left Montana and headed to the old mission stomping grounds. I spent a few days there seeing a few favorite sites as well as a few families I've kept in contact with. From there I went south to Darcy and Perry's. This was a new experience for me as I had never been to Oregon before. Darcy enjoyed showing me all the fun things to do and see in Newport including a few coveted beaches, a shopping mall, and her massive back yard and shelter.
It was fun to see her little ones running around, playing outside and begging to be fed all the time! lol

I think my favorite parts of Oregon were the cold misty nights out on the trampoline and crabbing ith Perry. It was a litte creepy at times on the trampoline with so many trees and the fog but I kept reminding myself that all the wolves were back in Montana and Wyoming! My other favorite part was crabbing on the 4th of July with the whole family. Perry and I got started with baiting the nets up with turkey and chicken legs. I have to say that we were the only ones who were pulling up tons and tons of crab. Lots of keepers too. Turkey legs are the key to a successful day of crabbing!

After we lit off fireworks and scared all the kids to death, I headed south on the west coast highway. Highway 1! Just a little ways south of Newport is the Sea Lion Cave. There were quite a few sea lions but what amazed me was how rough the water was and how big the waves were crashing on the surrounding cliffs. During the drive the only thing I remember was how curvy and slow going the road was! It took me almost all day to go a couple hundred miles south to the Giant Redwood forest in California. All I have to say about that is.... the trees are GINORMOUS!! So there I was in the northern part of California. Two locations done on my goal sheet, two to go.

I spent the night in Susanville, CA about 80 miles west of Reno in some crappy hotel for a ridiculous price. When I left in the morning and reached Reno, I saw signs boasting cheap hotel rooms at a fancy resort, so I decided to stay. It was well worth it!

As soon as I unpacked my things I came down to the casino and put $100 on black! Winner! So I decided to walk away and down to the pool area. It was an amazing pool with lots of great scenery just like the Giant Redwoods, GINORMOUS! haha because I had won a little money that day, I got a big discount on the Prime Rib Buffet, $7.49. After I pigged out I didn't have a whole lot to do, so I walked around the casino and found an open Texas Hold em tournament with a 50 dollar entry fee. I thought it would be a good way to spend a couple hours having fun and not losing a whole bunch of money. Little did I know, that my table nickname was going to be the eliminator! At the first table of ten I eliminated all 5 of the 10. At the second table I eliminated 4 more. At the final table, I eliminated 2 others and took 5th place out of 40 contestants. Too bad it didn't pay, but that's pretty good for a first timer! The bad thing was everyone at the tables could tell it was my first time! Thanks grandma and grandpa for teaching me to play cards at such a young age!

Nose and throat reconstruction

I've been having so many problems the last few years with having tonsilitis and sinus infections that I decided it was time to get things straightened out! And that's exactly what will happen Oct. 16th Happy Birthday Duke! lol

I will be having a tonsilectomy because my tonsils are full of holes, are always swollen and producing puss. I will also be having septoplasty surgery on my nose. Ever since Jake purposely smashed my nose with a hammer, I've had bad nasal problems. Today I found out why. I had a CT scan done on my face to check out what damage has been done to my septum. The septum is a thin bone that runs down the middle of your nose separating the nostrils. An unharmed persons septum is suppose to be straight, mine is so crooked it is touching the outside of my nostril almost completely blocking it off in one place. I included some of the X-rays for you to look at. the septum is always in the middle of the picture. If your having trouble finding the septum, its the object that goes somewhat straight almost until the end and then has a big sideways ">" shape.

There are also two balloon looking things on each side of the septum, (turbinates) which control airflow through the nostrils, they are suppose to be equal in size, but because my septum has been bent out of shape for so long, one has decreased in size and the other has increased to an enormous size making it even more difficult to breathe out of one nostril.

Also at the top of one of the pictures is a big black hole or open space. That is one of my frontal sinuses. There should be 2 "two" of them!!! My right side has one but my left frontal sinus never developed and is missing. No big deal, some people have none at all, and that is why I rarely get sinus headaches like Darcy had.

I hope you enjoy the X-rays and learn something new about your own nose.

Key West

On the ocean

Tuesday morning I headed up to Whidbey Island, my first area during my mission. I started out on top of Erie Mountain where you could see all of Whidbey Island, some of the sound and the other side of the sound. During my mission we used to meet the other missionaries on top and we would play capture the flag. Some missionaries would take it to the extreme and wear camoflauge. If they were still enough you could walk right past them and not even know they were standing there. Camoflauge really works!!
The last time I was on Whidbey Island there was an earthquake that hit Seattle. Wouldn't you know it, there was an earthquake yesterday. It was only a 3.0 but still!!! I'm staying off that Island!

It was an extremely nice day so I decided to stop off at Deception Pass Park and walk around on the beaches for a little while and then go over Deception Pass Bridge. The walkway on the bridge was scary because on one side was over a hundred feet down with turbulent water. The other side of the walkway was the highway, which only gave you a few feet to walk. When passing people on the walkway it was hard to decide which side to pass them on....the water side?...or the car side...where you could get hit.

After grabbing some lunch I drove to the south part of the island and took the ferry across the sound back to Everett. It was a very scenic day and once again saw lots of green. I guess I shouldn't have wore green!
When I met up with my friend back in Seattle we headed to the beach in Kirkland and walked around checking out the girl scenery. I have to admit, the beach scenery was a lot better than Whidbey Island. After we had our eye candy for the day we headed to downtown Redmond and played some poker with his friends and then sang some Karaoke. Save a Horse Ride a Cowboy was the favorite! Fun day! Great night!

My little journey

Its been quite a while since I've been back to visit my mission. Many things have changed, kids have grown up, houses have been developed, but the traffic is still the same! Terrible!! Coming to a dead stop three times on I-90 between Quincy and Seattle, for over a half hour each time is very frustrating! Especially when you need to use the bathroom and there are no exits to be found!

The first traffic jam was caused by a small hay trailor which had caught on fire. How it happened? Who knows, but I've never seen the traffic backed up in the middle of the desert for over 4 miles.

The second was a boat that had become detached from its trailor and was sitting in the road. And I still don't know what the third one was caused by. So frustrating! However I made it safe and sound and ready to see some old friends. I headed up to Lake Stevens first thing in the morning and stopped off at the Christensens house. Karen didn't know I was coming but it was a nice suprise for her to see me and catch up on what has been going on in our lives.

The next stop was Big Four Mountain. The big four has a large glacier which produces ice caves during the summer from melting snow underneath the surface. I was a little disappointed because it was a late season and the caves hadn't started forming yet. But it was a nice hike to the glacier and a good change to see SO MUCH green!! After living in the red desert of Wyoming for several months you begin to appreciate plant life more and more.

I came back to Lake Stevens and visited a few more families and also got to see the little man who was named after me! Davon Duke Elliott. During my mission, a recent baptized family was going to have a baby and couldn't decide on baby names. I suggested mine! I never thought they would actually go for it, but it sounds pretty good.

This morning I'm off to Whidbey Island, my first area and also the largest island in the lower 48 states. See you tomorrow!

When the kids are away

Thought I better say hello since I have no students in my last hour class today. That is correct, they are all absent. It was a good hour to clean things, get organized and plan for next week. I couldn't ask for a better end to a Friday!


This was a recovery week for me. Last weekend in Utah I decided I wanted to get really sick and miss Little Mac's baby blessing. So I slept most of the day Sunday trying to feel better, no luck. On my drive home, just after Park City, I decided that I'd had enough. I pulled over, went to the other side of the car and gave the cars passing by the best show of a sick man ever! I even got a few honks as I was bent over on hands and knees.

I felt much better Monday and Tuesday but we had a new teacher dinner on Tuesday night at the China Garden. Lets just say I was really hungry and ate way too much and got sick again. So now I've repeated the cycle, I feel great, and its Friday. I'M OUTTA HERE!!!!!!

Almost Over

The school year has been speeding by and its been quite a while since I've updated this thing, so lets get caught up!


The first couple weeks of teaching in Green River was great! The weather was perfect for teaching outside, no rain, no wind, just perfect! I was even able to play with the students the whole day, which keeps me in great shape. I only have two classes at Green River High School this year but I have 3 classes at Expedition Academy, the alternative high school. I love my schedule and I like that I get to teach a variety of subjects, from strength training, health, team games and lifetime activities.

In addition to teaching, this fall I was asked to be the SECRET school mascot. Every home football game I would sneak into my own special locker room and change into the extremely hot wolf. The suit got even warmer when I did push ups for every point we scored. This was a bad idea because we had a championship team and averaged almost forty points a game. The best part about the mascot suit was bringing it back to Utah to show little Boston and Cooper. Boston was unsure of the outfit and what was going on, but Cooper loved it so much he fainted and then started crying! Ha I'm glad I'm still his favorite Uncle Gook.