A Tale of Two Brothers

This last weekend was bittersweet. Ashton and I went down to Twin Falls to bid farewell to our brothers. They are both entering the MTC on July 30th. It was wonderful to get to hangout with them for one last time before life as we now know it, changed. Brett is going to the Quezon, Philippines Mission and Devon is going to the Bangalore, India Mission (excuse my spelling). How wonderful and exciting for both of them. It will be an amazing experience and blessing for them as it is for all missionaries. We love you boys and see ya in 2 years.

It's Here!!!

Remember that day in June, when Ashton was MIA from the Cheney family reunion? Well I am here to tell you that his absence paid off. Ashton got his PCAT score and it is: (drum roll please)
...........................97th Percentile!!! This means that he scored better than 97% of the people that took it. That's right folks, I married a genius. With a score like that, his chances of getting into pharmacy school should rise drastically. We are so excited. Congratulations Ash!!!

The Wheels on the Bus Go Round

So for the last couple of days, I have had to ride the city buses after work. It has been very tough for me to come to terms with this, because I have been very spoiled. We only have one car, and I take it to work everyday. Ashton, being the good sport that he is, takes the bus and has since we moved here. Therefore, there is no sympathy comming from him. For the last couple of days, Ashton has worked at 2 different BSU campuses tutoring during summer school. So he thought he needed the car ;). He got out the bus schedule, mapped out my route, prepped me for this for about a week and repeatedly told me, "it will be just fine. It is just a bus." Easy for him to say! So finely the day came. I had to take the bus out to BSU West campus to meet him. Most of that morning's conversation went something like this:

Me: So I have to take the bus today?

Ashton: Yup.

Me: Today really is the day?

Ashton: Yup.

Me: Which one do I catch?

Ashton: The only one that goes by your work, the 51.

Me: Oh.

Pause

Me: So there is only one that comes by my work? I won't get on the wrong bus?

Ashton: Nope.

Me: Okay.

Pause

Me: What about the transfer. I have to walk a block to the next bus stop right? What if I get on the wrong bus again?

Ashton: You won't. It's the only one at that time.
Me: Oh.

Pause

Me: So I won't get on the wrong bus?

Ashton: Shouldn't.

Me: Oh.

I think that conversation lasted about 2 hours. I was terrified!

So finally it was the end of the day. I got on the bus, showed them my badge (St. Luke's employees get a free bus ride) and then sat down. First thing the driver says, "I don't think that badge works on this bus, just the one headed to Boise," (I work in Nampa). I was panicked! I didn't have any cash! I replied, "I was told that this should work on all the buses." Driver, "You were told?" Me, "Yup" Driver, "Okay, works for me". First panic over. Driver,"So where'er you headed?" Me, "BSU West" Driver " OH! You're on the wrong bus!" Second panic. "Uh, I think I have to transfer to the one that takes me there." Driver, "Oh, guess that works" Second panic over.

Then the transfer. Driver "head on over to that Wells Fargo bank. It is a closer bus stop then the one you're supposed to be at. The same bus will pick you up". Me thinking "I'm going to get on the wrong bus, this isn't what Ashton told me to do..." but saying "Oh, thanks! I'll head on over there". So I did. I went to the Wells Fargo like the driver told me. My transfer bus was about 15 minutes late, so I was worried I had missed it and would be catching the wrong bus. When he finally got there, I walked on the bus, and as soon as I sat down, he said "there you are! You weren't where she said she dropped you off at! Glad I found ya! She told me I was picking up a blonde St.Luke's girl and here you are." He was looking for me! How wonderful somebody was, because I was sure this was the wrong bus and I had really messed up.

So needless to say, after a few brief panics, I actually survived the Valley Ride bus system and ended up where I needed to be. It just took twice as long as normal and gave me quite the headache, but I lived, and learned to appreciate what Ashton's done for the last year on a whole new level. Thanks Ash!

Saturday fun in Boise

During the summer months, all of the towns in the Treasure Valley have a farmer's market. It is a lot of fun. They all shut down a section of town and allow the vendors to set up start selling. We like to go to Boise's. It is right downtown on 8th and Idaho. You can buy anything from fruits and veggies, meats and breads, flowers and honey, dog treats and jams, delicious foods, to pottery and paintings, and anything in between. There is a band playing, fountains going, and lots of activities for little kids. It is pretty cool. If you do go, bring some cash and an empty stomach. We finally brought cash with us and Ashton bought a round of sourdough bread and I bought a bouquet of flowers. It was fun!!!

Historic Downtown Boise

This semester, Ashton took a workshop on the history of Boise, from what he has told me, and shown me, it was pretty cool. Today, he took me for a "tour" of historic Boise. There are a lot of really cool buildings. So since I know a few history buffs, I thought I would post this. Here is a tour of Historic Boise. I thought this would be fun since it isn't the usual stuff people come to Boise for.

Welcome to the Historic Downtown tour. Please keep your arms and hands in the vehicle at all times. Let us begin:

(This was just in the cement somewhere. I thought it was appropiate.)

Boise has a huge Basque history, so downtown there is a little strip dedicated to it. There is the Basque Center (pictured left). Right after the Basque Center is C. Jacobs home,the first brick home in Boise (pictured right)

As you walk along this little strip, in the sidewalk there are some songs, poems, and pictures (possibly coat of arms) engraved. The looked pretty cool.

As you keep walking down the strip, at the corner of the street is a pub called Bar Gernika. It actually has a pretty cool history. As Ashton was told, Gernika, Spain was destroyed by Hitler. Bombed, and completely demolished except for the meeting house of the princes and 1 oak tree. Boise has become kind of a "sister" city to Gernika. Due to the Basque heritage here, we have a Bar Gernika and if you were to go to Gernika today, they have a Bar Boise. It gets even cooler. There is an oak tree in front of C. Jacobs' house. It was started from a seed of the surviving tree in Gernika. If I remember from what I looked up online, the tree in Gernika is about 300 years old. Pretty cool.

Just around the corner from the Basque Center, is the only remaining building from Boise's China Town. There isn't a China Town anywhere today. Now it is a tattoo parlor.

Next, there is the Fire Station, which is now restaurants. Ashton said as his instructor was talking to them about it, she was saying that they used to hang thier hoses from the bell tower to dry. A man walked up, obviously hearing her statement, and proceeded to tell her she was wrong and that they hung them up from inside. Come to find out, the man was the owner of the building and took Ashton's class inside. He had preserved little nooks here and there that had cool historical value. Sure enough, he took them to a room with large hooks and high ceilings where they hung the fire hoses to dry.

Then we have the building cemetary, if you will. Each building had a giant stone stating what its name was. The stones of the buildings that have been torn down, are now part of a stone wall in this park. There is also an arch preserved and a turret as you can see.

Here we have the Belgravia, almost done, I promise. This is a beautiful building! It was the first town homes in Boise. The front of the building is pictured left. It was hard to see because all the trees are in full follage, but it is still beautiful. The little stair cases are curved (it's kind of hard to tell from the picture). The back of the Belgravia was very cool. When they were designing it, they were having a hard time getting light into all of the apartments (no electricity) so they came up with idea of having a "key hole". It was a little dead end alley, if you would, that they created so that windows could be there, and allow light in. Very creative. Now, they've created an additional front that covers the "key hole" (darn modernization). You can kind of see it in the picture on the right.

There is also a building that is rounded. You wouldn't even know it though if you just glanced at it. The railroad used to come by this building and turned, so when the building was built, it was built with a curve to match the railroad tracks. Now they've put in a parking garage next to it, so you can't really see it unless you look through the front windows. If you look at the picture on the left you'll see the red brick building and if you look at the top of the buildings, you'll see how the parking garage is curved around red building.

I forgot to put this with the building cemetery. They also have a water wheel and a canal. This canal used to go up and down Grove St. and watered all of downtown. Now it is underground. This park, has the only spot that it is still above ground. These water wheels used to push the water. They ran up and down present day Grove St. about every 50-100 feet. The picture on the left is of the water wheel and the picture on the right is where the canal goes underground.

For the last stop on the tour, I wanted to show you a fountain at City Hall. It is the last remaining one of its kind. In the 1890's or early 1900's, it was put in by the women's suffrage movement because their motto was drink water instead (instead of alcohol). They wanted water to be available for everyone, so they put them up all over town. During the war effort, the fountains were melted down except this one because it was painted green and they didn't realize it was made out of brass. So this is the only one we have left and it is still in use.

Thanks for comming on the Downtown Boise tour with me. Please tune in again when we go to Julia Davis Park and the Boise Depot.

Tough Enough to Wear Pink

So yesterday at work, we had a pink wearing contest. We were celebrating breast cancer awareness (the Tough Enough to Wear Pink Campaign) and the Boot to Buckles Stampede Rodeo, fundraising event. They said who ever wore the most pink, won two free movie tickets. Guess what, I WON!!! Kind of hard to believe this was coming from a girl who used to hate pink. I guess I've kind of out-grown it.



As you can see, I have two pink shirts, pink pants, a pink cowgirl hat, and I also wore my pink bracelet, necklace and earings that DeeAnn made me. I didn't realize how much pink I actually owned. It was awesome!

Happy 4th of July!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

This 4th of July Celebration was a lot of fun. We invited the Castillo family over for shish-kabobs. There was a lot of good food (thanks Ashton)! After which, the guys played a game of Master Mind and then we moseyed over to the future home of ISU's College of Pharmacy in Meridian to watch the fireworks. Ashton and Leigh went for a "campus tour" and are now creating plans for a basketball court in the parking lot for when they both are accepted next year into ISU's Meridian Campus Pharmacy program (fingers crossed).

We watched the Meridian fireworks (yes, even Meridian has fireworks hee, hee ;) ). They were shot off from the Meridian Speedway. It was actually a pretty good show. Ayla was kind of scared but eventually learned to like all of the colors. It was a lot of fun!