North Park 1st Ward :)

Our first calling as a married couple is (drum roll).... youth sunday school teachers! It has been a great experience for us, especially with the new curriculum for youth classes. Instead of having a manual with set lessons every week, teachers are given a general topic for each month and then asked to prayerfully consider what direction to take the lesson each Sunday.

Our ward is unique in that there are only about 5-7 youth total (on a good day)... including boys and girls ages 12 to 17. There are a couple of foster families in the ward so kids come and go from the ward regularly. Sometimes we'll come prepared with a lesson and treats, and no one will be there. Other times there are as many as 7. We never know what to expect.

Sometimes we only have one kid in class (they're probably thinking, "well this is awkward...") haha. But I think these have been some of the most spiritual lessons we've had. This past week we just had one 15 year old boy that is a foster child staying with a family in our ward. He had been to church a couple of times, but was raised a Catholic. The lesson that day was suppose to be on the restoration, and it pretty much turned into the first lesson since the kid had never heard of Joseph Smith. It really was an amazing experience and he had great participation and some really cool comments. He promised to go home and pray about Joseph Smith, and I'm excited to hear his report next week :)

It is really special for me to be able to see Skyler teach this class. He usually is the main teacher and I pipe in here or there with my comments. Or we'll do the whole missionary thing where he will bear his testimony and then I will back him up with mine. Sky is such a good teacher and he is SO good with youth. He connects with them through sports, and gets their attention by using little analogies about things they can relate to. 

When we first started teaching, this one kid who often comes to our class would respond to any and every question we ask him as, "I dunno." We would even just ask him how his weekend was and he'd respond, "I dunno." But since then, we have learned that you can't just straight up ask him a question that requires any answer but yes or no. For example, we were learning about the apostasy a couple weeks ago and instead of asking him a question about the apostasy, Sky said, "Hugo, have you ever had a teacher leave the room at school and ask all you kids to be quiet and stay on task?" 

To this he replied, "Haha, ya."

"And what usually happens? Do you guys actually keep reading?"

"No! It gets crazy. Everybody starts throwing stuff and getting out of their seats and breaking the rules."

Then Sky would relate that to what happened on the Earth after Christ's crucifixion. 

It really has been a blessing for us to have this calling and I pray that we are blessing the lives of the kids we teach as well. This has been an awesome first ward as a married couple and we love the bishopric and have met some great new friends. We feel very blessed!

recent achievements

Sky and I have had some cool and exciting things happen these past few weeks. (No we are not pregnant for anyone who thought of that!)

Rather, I am officially done with my tax internship at Grant Thornton, and was offered a full-time job once I graduate next April with my masters. I was very excited, and pretty much knew right away that I would sign the offer letter. I gave it a few days and then turned in my signed commitment :)

Last week of my internship

I had a great internship experience and learned sooo much. It's one thing to learn about tax in school, but to actually prepare tax returns, see the issues, and follow the project the whole way through is so beneficial and eye-opening. I understand the processes much better and actually see the "why" behind what I am doing. It will be fun to go back to school having learned all that I have!

Now to Sky's good football news--which is probably more exciting for the general population. First, an item of "older" news that Sky earned a football scholarship! (I already posted about this on Instagram... you may remember it because of that crazy pic of me... haha). SO proud of him for this major accomplishment, and just in time because I am no longer eligible for my scholarship now that I'm a grad student :( but I do get "G-Lot" preferred parking, so that kind of makes up for it. Haha.

Now an item of "newer" news... Sky was nominated to be on the "leadership council" this football season. Every position group nominates a representative--someone who runs summer workouts, meets with the coaches, etc.--and the receivers voted Skyler to be the guy. Pretty exciting!

Also, we were pretty stoked about the spring depth chart release and Skyler being listed as a starter. It's only the end of spring ball so there is still a long road and a lot of work to be done before the actual season, but we were excited to see that Sky has made his way to the top and is being recognized for his hard work and talent.

When the spring depth chart was released, a lot of different news organizations wrote about Skyler making his way to the top. My favorite quote of all of them was from the Deseret News... 

"Ridley is a proven game performer and caught the very first touchdown pass of the 2012 season. He's not a flashy player, but someone who runs solid routes, has adequate size and speed, and, perhaps most importantly, has good hands." . . . I would agree ;)
http://byucougars.blogs.deseretnews.com/2013/04/11/thoughts-on-byus-depth-chart/

It's so fun to be in this stage of our lives together where we are still working hard to fulfill our dreams. Everything changes so quickly and our future is still up in the air! I have always been such a planner and have had my life mapped out ahead of me since I was a young teenager. Sky's plans, however, are not quite as set in stone. His plan to go to medical school could take us anywhere from Seattle to LA to Boston... and this drives my planning mind a little crazy! (But don't worry, there are Grant Thornton offices across the country! Whew.)

Despite this bit of uncertainty, I feel SO blessed to be going through this life with Skyler. He is my best friend and as long as we are together I know that we can do anything, be anywhere, and I would be happy and content. With all these little accomplishments and big happenings in our lives, it's fun to know that there is still so much ahead! And until then, I just need to toss the planner out the window and let life take its course. I have faith that as long as we stay true to our covenants, the Lord will guide us through this life together, and we will end up where we need to be. This all stems back to the theme of our life and title of this little blog... 

...enjoy the journey.

better late than never!

So I just realized that I never blogged about our Grand Targhee trip and trip up to Rexburg, Idaho. That may have been a few months ago, but hey... I figure when we look at this in 10 years, whats a few months right? So here goes...

We returned home from a wonderful Christmas in California late at night on the 27th. My family was already at the resort, so we just planned to sleep in Bountiful that night, wake up early, and meet them up there for a couple days of snowboarding.

When we got to Bountiful, we found that Santa had left us a couple of presents for the trip...

Sky got some sweet goggles, and me some new snowboarding pants :) Thanks mom and dad!

The next morning, we were off!!... Minutes after we arrived we were on the mountain heading up the lift....

That night we left the resort for dinner and went to a tiny Thai retauraunt in Driggs, Idaho. It was soooo good. I love unique cuisines and love introducing Sky to them! It is a big deal to me that Sky trys my food (weird, I know) but I love that he is always willing! And 9 times out of 10 he really likes it :)

The next day we woke up early to hike to the top of Mary's Nipple--the highest summit in the resort. I was pooped about half way up, so Sky carried my board the rest of the way (What a guy!) 

Once we FINALLY made it to the top, I was so glad I stuck it out! The view was beautiful, and the powder ride the whole way down was so worth it.

Dad and D.

Admiring the view.

It was a sweet two days of snowboarding with great powder and great food! Ha. We then left for home early on the 30th. The next night was New Year's and we just went to dinner and a movie and laid by the fire under the Christmas tree :)

My midnight kiss!

The next day we met up with Sky's family to head to Rexburg, Idaho to drop Cody and Shayna off at BYU-Idaho. The drive up was a blast, rappin' to thug music and singing along to some country tunes (my personal favorite types of music!) Once we got to Rexburg we unpacked Cody who was moving up there for the first time, took a little tour of the campus, and just hung out. It was really fun little weekend up in the freezing tundra.

Then on our way back to Provo, we stopped by Josie & Chloe's dance performance "Art With Heart" in Salt Lake, then ate at P.F. Changs after. Yum.

At PF Changs

And with that, our Christmas break was over and Sky was headed back to school and I was about to start my internship. (And now the semester is almost over and I'm finished with my internship! Ha... I'm just a little late). Well, thats a wrap!

spring has sprung!

First off... Tomorrow is April 15!! That means busy season is over and I am going back to school. Sky and I will both start another spring semester at the end of April. But until then, here are a few updates on our Spring thus far... 

Here we are at the BYU Spring game. My family stopped by on their way to California for spring-break, Sky's dad came up from Cali, and Cody and Shayna came down from BYU-I. Sky did a great job and I LOVED being outside in the warm weather.

Sky catchin' a pass.

After the game everyone gets to go down on the field with the players and take pics, get autographs, etc. So of course we had a little photoshoot...

Sky and his dad and little bro Cody

All the boys...

interview...

love my #17

signing some autographs...

The Ridleys...

Me & Shay Pay

Chlo bear and the Cougarettes

The kids with Sky and Cody Hoffman

The Hale Fam...

After the game we all headed to get some lunch, then my family was off to Cali. The rest of us then went bowling, out to dinner, and to a movie.

At the bowling alley.

The next day was Easter Sunday...

We had honey-baked ham, cheesy potatoes, green beans, and rolls for dinner... and it barely fit on our little table.

 A couple weeks later was another Saturday of sports--but baseball this time. Dallin had a high school double header, and Peyton had a tournament that weekend. All in all, we went to four games!

Well there is our spring so far in a quick recap!