2012 Family Pictures

 

 

Thanks Natalie for taking our pictures! www.excursionphotography.com

Malone

             Malone started back up in school the second week of September. Since school has started, Malone has had to once again balance his time more with schoolwork, his job, and spending time with me and our little pups. With careful consideration and countless hours of frustration,  we've figured out a Grad Plan and we're hoping to get him graduated by July 2013. He'll have to go year round to finally get done, which will require him getting on Fast Grad. Fast Grad allows students to take classes full time all year around as opposed to just 2 semesters a year. Recently, Malone has struggled trying to get the school to accept his Grad Plan and let him be on fast track because he's over on his credits. At BYU-I they're all about squeezing as many students in as possible and then pushing them out as soon as possible. They are very strict about how many credits you accumulate and once you get to a certain amount, (which is 120 I think) they practically force you to graduate. They'll give you about 20 more credits leniency, but Malone will be 6 credits over that when he graduates. So the school was having a cow about it of course. Sometimes the way BYU-I handles things frustrates us both, but we manage. Even though it was a pain figuring all that out, Malone was accepted for Fast Grad!! Yay!! The only problem now is trying to help Malone figure out a schedule with his classes he needs to graduate. Next semester is going to be a problem because many of the classes he needs gets in the way of his work schedule. Right now we're not sure how he's going to be able to do both. The whole reason Malone has been working 30 hours a week is because we get our health insurance through his job, which has been a huge blessing since Malone has met our deductible with his knee surgery this year. We'll be losing part of our income and our health insurance if he doesn't work. Not to mention, the grant Malone got this year was tiny (it didn't even cover tuition), we aren't sure how we're going to pay for Malone's last two semesters of school.
      Then, just a week ago, I was asked to work more hours for my Broulims job. I was able to stop working at Mobley's on Wednesdays and work at the accounting office instead (which is good because Broulim's pays more and they give raises!). I was excited because not only does that help a little with our income, but it's one step closer to me being eligable for benefits, which would allow Malone to either work less hours or quit completely. I have to have an average of 30 hours for 12 weeks in order to qualify and I'll be about 24 with just the accounting and  about 3.5 hours average doing posters. Not quite enough right now, but there's potential. I just need one more day during the week doing accounting and that'll be enough. We'll just have to see how things pan out and hope for the best.

Birthday, Anniversary, Reunion week!

The weekend of my birthday Malone and I planned a little camping trip just the two of us! Friday night (Aug. 17th ) we borrowed my parent's trailer and drove up to Island Park. We pulled into a spot with lots of trees and it was very private! We realized after we got settled in that when we came into the camp site we had bumped the bottom of the trailor on a little hill coming in. There was a little damage, and we both felt so bad! We didn't realize that the trailor tilted that low with the hitch on our truck. The hitch is usually fitted for my parents suburban, which sits lower than our truck. Anyway, the next day we headed out to see Yellowstone Park. I have only been to Old Faithful and have never seen the rest of the park. We spent the day visiting Yellowtone Grand Canyon and Mammoth Hot Springs. After visiting the park, we hurried over to Playmill to see "The Drowsy Chaperone". I love visiting the playmill. The play was hilarious and Malone and I both had a great time! Sunday Malone and I watched a movie and hung out most of the morning. Then we went and spent the day with Malone's parents at the range in West Yellowstone. We had dinner, visited, played games, and had birthday brownies and ice cream. I asked Malone's stepdad Eric if he'd let me shoot one of the guns at te range. So, I ended up shooting an uzzi machine gun! It was a little scary at first, but I was surprised how easily managable it was! I had a blast! Malone got to shoot too. Eventually Malone and I left so we could pack up camp. We had planned on meeting my family at Broulim's cabin in Island Park for a little "family reunion".  Unfortunately we were unable to pull the trailer out of the campsite due to the hill we hit on the way in.  So my dad had to come up with the suburban to pull it out.

    That night we made it to the cabin around 9 or 10. Everyone sang happy birthday and we had birthday cinnamon rolls. Yummy! Everyone in my family was able to come and we had such fun together. The Broulim's cabin was huge and beautiful! There's 11 bedrooms and 7 bathrooms and a theater room! We had lots of stuff to do like ping pong, canoing, 4wheeling, riding in the razors, and air hockey. At night a bunch of us would play Sardines (hide and seek). It was so much fun and we were all up so late every night. Chris and I brought our guitars and he showed me a few chords and we played alot. I've had a guitar forever, but never really learned how to play. I only know a few chords. It's on my bucket list to learn. Malone and I canoed and rode the razors during the few days we were there. One day AJ had put together a big "Minute to Win It" game. We all split into teams and played games for a couple hours. The kids had a good time, and we all had a good laugh. I'm pretty sure mom and dad got plenty of videos.  It was a fun three days. By day three Malone and I had been gone about 5 days and were ready to go home. I missed our dogs! We had left them at a friends house while we were off on our little vacation. They had a good time running around the yard while we were gone.

The next day was our 4 year anniversary. Since we had taken all that time off for the reunion, we didn't get to go anywhere like we had originally planned. So that night after work we just went to dinner at Olive Garden. Hopefully we can get some time off for our 5 year anniversary next year; that is if no one schedules a reunion that week (which has happened for the last like 3 years in a row).

Obsessed!

My family will confirm the fact that I am obsessed with animals... especially dogs. It's true. And looking back, I can honestly say that I have always been this way. Since I was a kid, I would draw pictures of dogs all the time. I remember filling the entire wall of my room with pictures I drew of dogs. I use to pause "101 Dalmations" on the TV, and try and draw the dog characters. I checked out books at the library that taught me to draw dogs and other animals. I even read books about dogs, like "Hank the Cowdog".  Growing up we had an encyclopedia program on our old computer that I'd get onto and look at pictures of all kinds of dog breeds and basically memorize it. I still remember many breeds because of it. I collected small glass figurines of dogs that I kept in a case and hung on my wall. I use to write/ illustrate homemade books, one of which I do recall including two dogs who solved the mystery of the missing crown. We had a few dogs growing up; Barney, Expo, Missy, and Bart. They were all outside dogs, all of which had either died, ran away, or were given away. Then came Riley.

In 1996 on my 10th birthday I got my first very own puppy, a black cockapoo. I cried when I saw him. I was sooooo happy! I named him Riley, after a dog I saw in a movie (I think it was Homeward Bound, Lost in San Fransisco ). I loved my dog. He use to sleep in my room with me. He was my buddy. I'm pretty sure my mom trained him and took care of him more than I did, but no one loved him more than I did. Fast forward about 13 years. In 2009 Riley got really sick and I had to make the decision to put him down. Most painful choice I've ever had to make. I can't think about that dog now without tearing up. It probably seems silly that a person can get so attached to an animal that way. I don't think anyone in my family feels like that about animals like I do, except maybe my little brother Parker. It's always been such a soft spot for me. Anyway, I vowed I'd never get another dog because I just didn't think I could go through the pain of losing one again.

Tulio and Tivo, the first day we got them.

In 2010, Malone and I adopted 2 Miniature Pinscher puppies, Tulio and Altivo. We named our dogs after characters in the dreamworks movie "El Dorado". I must have been crazy to adopt not just one, but two puppies, all at once. It only took 4 weeks of that and I decided to sell one of them to a nice family because two puppies at once is really hard. I still feel bad about giving Tulio up, because he was such a good dog, and beautiful too!  We kept Altivo and still have him now.  Altivo is two and half years old now. Three words to describe Altivo: shy, fast, and sweet. He is very loyal to me and Malone, and doesn't really warm up to strangers easily. He's always suspicious of them. He loves to run... run really fast. He's run away from me several times, and he is gone in a flash. I hate it when he does that. His next favorite thing to do is sleep in our bed. He burrows deep under the covers clear to the bottom of the bed. Tivo is by far the sweetest little dog ever. Only those who have earned Tivo's approval know that he loves to snuggle. He just wants to be with you wherever you are. He is very affectionate, and sensitive. Even raising your voice a little bit affects him. He thinks he's one of the big dogs. He likes to play with our neighbor's Great Dane, Diesel. (hilarious!) He loves going for walks and rides in the car too. One time Malone and I took him on a trip to Utah with us. We stayed at a dog-friendly hotel and everything. He traveled so well with us!

Altivo about 5 months old

Tivo finds warm places to sleep, including between my legs.

Tivo's lips got stuck over his teeth. Perfect picture moment.

Tivo sleeps in funny positions sometimes.

What a sweetie! I love him!



Kayto is about 7 or 8 weeks here

Malone had been begging for a Doberman for I don't know how long, and I just couldn't imagine trying to take care of 2 dogs with the crazy schedule we have right now. But, I saw this little face and I couldn't say no! We picked up Kayto this May (2012) from a breeder in Idaho Falls. Kayto is a red purebred Doberman. We got his name from a character in the Hunger Games. We left his ears uncropped so he'd look less intimidating, plus I think he looks so cute with floppy ears. He's barely 5 months old now, and weighs about 50lbs. We expect him to grow to about 80 lbs as an adult. Yes, he'll be big. Three words to describe Kayto: smart, good tempered, and playful.  I always knew that Dobermans were smart, but I was pleasantly surprised how fast he learns! I can teach him simple tricks in a day. Others take a little longer, but he's picking them up.  For example, he learned to sit/ lay down in a day. Going for a walk without dragging me along behind him, has taken much longer. He's getting better all the time though. House training has gone pretty well too. It didn't take more than a couple weeks for him to learn to whine at the door when he needed to go out. Not bad considering we adopted him at 6 weeks! He's only had maybe one or two accidents in the last couple weeks; he's still learning to hold it. He is very curious and will watch you when you do things. When you look at him you can see the wheels turning in his head, almost like you can tell what he's thinking. Even though Kayto is young, I can already tell he'll be a really good tempered dog. Puppies are naturally very energetic and playful ( or what I like to call ADHD), and even vocal sometimes. But Kayto, he's different. He's pretty quiet and calm most of the time, especially when he's had plenty of exercise.  Him and Tivo will play it up and rough house a bit, but I think it's because he's still a puppy. Kayto warms up to strangers really well, when introduced properly. He does have guarding instincts and will bark at people who are walking around our house, naturally. But once he's met you, he likes you. It's nice to have a dog who likes people, and kids! All our friends love him, and they will bring people over to meet him sometimes. And of course, Kayto is playful! Sometimes he'll just stand there and bark at Tivo to play with him... Tivo is just annoyed with him most of the time. Can't blame him really, Kayto has alot of energy. Kayto loves to run with you outside. I can see him being a good running buddy whenever I decide to start running. He's learning to fetch (he has a short attention span so it's usually a short game), and absolutely loves playing in water. Sometimes when I take Kayto for a walk, we'll run through sprinklers. 

Kayto 5 months



Look at that face! And his nose looks huge!

I love our dogs. I love all dogs just about. And our neighborhood is FULL of them. All sorts of breeds, shapes, and sizes. It's so fun to see when we're out walking.  Over the years I've spent hours watching programs about dogs or reading about them. I'm sure I've bored many people to death just talking about them. I forget that not everyone is passionate about dogs like I am, haha. So if you're still reading this, bravo! I'm shocked! So as you can see, I am obsessed with dogs. I will always love them. I'll probably always be willing to talk about them. The best thing about being a dog owner is that it becomes a natural ice breaker with people. I can be walking my dog, and someone will stop us and want to meet me and my dog and strike up a conversation. Or a customer/patient where I work mentions their dog it's an instant connection, something we can chat about. This love that I have for dogs might be an obsession, or maybe a gift of some sort. But it's been a big part of my life, and I love it.



So, I'd just like to say Hi, my name is Danielle, and I'm an obsessed dog lover.

I love you Independence Day!

Fourth of July is by far my absolute favorite holiday. The weather is beautiful and warm, you spend time with your friends, family, neighbors, you go to parades, community events,  fireworks, bbqs, eat fresh summer fruit, you can go spend all day out in the sunshine... it just doesn't get any better than that!

This year I volunteered to reserve a spot at the parade in Rexburg for my family. Unfortunately, Malone couldn't come because he had to work, so I went to reserve a spot alone. I got to Porter Park at 9 (an hour before the parade) and there was no curb that wasn't reserved on the whole route! Unbelievable! So I snagged a shady spot at Porter Park and waited until everyone got there. Mom and Parker showed up at about 10, and then Chris and Natalie and their family, and Tiffany and the boys, and Ashley and AJ all trickled in throughout the parade. I had fun playing with my 5 month old nephew Sam, whom I adore! I think I missed half the parade because I was mezemerized by those baby blues! And I took about a dozen pictures of him too. Anyway, lucky for us our shady spot was shady almost the entire duration of the parade, which is a first. I think we usually end up sitting in the sun at parades. After the parade, I went and picked up Malone from work and we went to lunch at Costa Vida. After lunch, I went home and spent some time with the dogs until Malone got home. We hung out for a couple hours and then went with our friends Jared and Kami Clark to a BBQ at their parents house in Rigby. The Clarks had a fenced in backyard, and were nice enough to let us bring our dogs to play. So Kami and Jared brought their black lab, Tab, and our neighbor's Great Dane, Diesel, and we took our Doberman, Kayto and Min Pin, Altivo. The dogs had a blast running around the yard, especially Altivo. Jared's family seemed to enjoy having all the dogs there, and we had a blast playing with them all. We hung out, ate, talked, laughed, and just relaxed till about 9:30. We drove over to Jared's Grandma's house in Menan to watch the fireworks from her backyard. It was a great view, and we had lots of space to ourselves! Even though we had good seats, good company, and we avoided most of the traffic... I was still slightly bummed about missing the IF fireworks. They're the BOMB. Last year I said I had hoped we'd go to those this year, but it didn't happen haha. So I'll say it again, maybe next year!

Work work work....

It's hard to believe that half the year is gone already. It feels like it has just flown by! Malone and I work a ton and don't get to see each other as much as we'd like. He's been doing his internship for about 2 months now, and it is going really well. He's meeting a lot of people and making contacts which will hopefully come in handy once he graduates. Malone is starting to feel worn out with this crazy schedule he's had all year. He works at Broulims from 6-8 am, goes to his internship from 8-5, and then back to Broulim's from 6-8:30 Monday through Friday. And then he works at Broulim's from 6am-3pm on Saturdays. And his schedule will stay this way till September. That's 9 months of working 6 days a week doing 12 hours a day. That's alot of work! The crappy part about this schedule is it doesn't leave much time for Malone to do anything he needs to do. And between the two of us working, it doesn't leave time for us to do anything we want to do. And since we adopted Kayto, it restricts us from being gone from home very long since he needs to go outside every few hours. It's been a tough schedule for us both lately, and I can tell it's starting to wear on Malone. Every once in a while we'll have a date night or just stay home together and hang out, which is nice. I wish that he could have just one day a week when he can go out and do something just for himself. Oh well. One of these days he'll get some well needed vacation.

New truck!

For the past few months Malone has been looking for a new truck, which he's always wanted. I always said that now wasn't the time...but last weekend Malone found a truck at Erickson's Pontiac in Rexburg that he really liked. I went with him to just look at it and went for a test drive. I fell in love with it! It's an 09 Dodge Ram.So we decided to revisit the idea of getting a new truck. In the past I had felt like it wasn't a good time for us financially to get another new vehicle, especially since it has only been 9 months since we bought our pontiac. Making another payment on another vehicle made me nervous. But we configured our finances and found we could afford a certain amount for a payment. And we decided that if we could get the payment on this truck down to that much we'd do it. Turns out they were willing to work with us! We traded in our Trailblazer with an additional $3500 downpayment. Malone is beyond excited about it. I love the truck, I just hope that it'll still all be okay later on when I start having kids and wanna stay home. In the meantime, we're excited to take it out and go to drive in movies and camping and stuff.

Making some Blog Changes

So I have decided to make this blog private, so for those of you that want to continue reading my blog will have to email me so I can put you on the list. Also I am changing the blog address to dmbullock.blogspot.com. Just wanted to give you all a heads up. I'll probably change it this week sometime. Thanks!

New Puppy!

I finally gave in! I couldn't say no to this face.

This is Kayto. He's a 6 week old red Doberman Pinscher. Malone has been begging for a doberman for months. We found this little guy and I just couldn't say no. The idea of going through the whole "puppy" stage probably scared me off the most about adopting him. But, eventually it'll be worth it when he's grown. He'll be about 60-70lbs full grown. We're adopting him a little young, but it'll be worth it when he's really socialized with people and pets. With our other dog, Altivo, we missed that "social" window because we adopted him at about 16 weeks. That's why he's so shy around people. Hopefully we'll do better with this one. So far his favorite things to do are pee, poop, cry, sleep, and chew on things. But him and Altivo get along pretty well. They're actually about the same size right now, which is funny. They wear each other out alot, which is good. We're working on house training, which is hard when Malone and I work all day. But we're happy with him and we're excited to see him grow.

ACL Surgery

These last few weeks have proved to be quite exhausting! Malone finally had his surgery on his knee May 3. Back in December Malone tore his ACL snowmobiling. This surgery was an ACL reconstruction surgery. The surgery was done at an outpatient surgical center in Rexburg and took about 2 hours. The surgeon used two tendons from his hamstring to reconstruct his ACL. Turns out, once the Dr. got in there, he found a tear in Malone's lateral miniscus too. So he patched that up and is confident it will heal well on its own. The first few days after the surgery were the worst. It took a couple days to get the anesthetic out of Malone's system. We kept him on some good pain medication, so he wasn't in much pain. For the first 24 hours, Malone had a drainage pouch connected to his knee to help remove excess fluid from the surgery. We had to manually empty the blood/fluid out of it every few hours. It was pretty gross. The Dr. took that out at his appointment the next day. Once the drain was out, Malone really bruised up in his calf. The ace wrap around his knee squeezed alot of that fluid down into his calf/ankle making it swell and bruise. Monday after the surgery, Malone was back to work at his internship with his crutches. There's no slowing that boy down! We managed to get him time off from Broulims for about 2 weeks, which helps. Malone has started Physical Therapy on the 9th at Mobley Physical Therapy in Rigby (which is where I work!). It was pretty obvious that his motion in his knee has decreased as well as the muscle tone in his hamstring/quad. He's about 15 degrees off from getting it straight, but can only get his knee to about 90 degrees bent. So far therapy has helped with the inflammation and his motion. He's still got a long way to go though. They've started him riding a stationary bike, trying to get that motion/strength back. It's been about 2 weeks now since surgery and his knee is finally starting to look normal. He got his stitches out on Monday May 14th, which was nice since by then the wounds were starting to heal over the stitches and was becoming really irritating. Malone hasn't slowed down much since surgery, so by the end of the week he gets pretty exhausted. He plans to start back at broulims next Monda (21st). He'll be going back to working really long hours. I just pray that he will be okay and that he'll have the energy to do what he needs to do.

Weekend Getaway

 The semester is over and Malone is done with his internship! So now his schedule is back to normal, 6-3 instead of 6-8. It'll be nice to have him home when I get home again. Since it was between semesters, we decided to take a little weekend getaway. We drove down to Salt Lake City Thursday (april 5) and stayed till Sunday (8th). It was so nice to just be together without any distractions. We ended up having to take Altivo with us because we didn't have anyone to watch him while we were gone. It was kind of fun having him with us. He had to stay in his kennel alot though, but nothing he's not use to already. We stayed in a pet friendly hotel so he was able to run around our hotel room while we were there. Malone and I spent most of our time shopping at the malls there in the SLC area. We set aside some shopping $  and splurged on a few things. We both bought a few things including this new purse I got that I absolutely love! Malone got some Oakley sunglasses that he also loves. He has a hard time finding sunglasses he likes. We also got to spend some time at the new City Creek mall there. It had a lot of high end stuff there, waaay too expensive for us. But the new building is very nice! Malone and I also got to eat at some fun restaurants we hadn't eaten at before. One was Tapanyaki, a Japanese steakhouse. You sit at the grill and have a chef cook and do tricks for you. The chef flipped shrimp into our mouths! I think i can speak for us both when I say it was a blast! Then the next night we went to Tocanos, a Brazilian restaurant. It's basically a buffet and waiters will stop by your table and bring you fresh meat off the grill. There were tons of choices, everything from chicken to pork, to fillet mignon wrapped in bacon. My favorite thing they brought was a brown sugar glazed pineapple. Sooo good! We also sampled a few different Brazilian lemonades. I tried the pineapple lemonade and Malone tried the mango lemonade and passion fruit lemonade. So good! We also had lunch at a pizza place with a friend of mine from High School who I haven't seen in forever. It was a good trip! I felt bad we didn't visit family while we were there, but it was sort of a trip we wanted to spend just the two of us. With schedules as busy as ours this past semester, it was nice spending that quality unterrupted time together.

Boring blog!!

Sometimes I feel like my blog is totally boring. We don't have kids, or do anything fun really. So all I ever write about is work, and that's so boring. I love reading my friends or sister-in-laws blogs and it's always so fun to see their kids grow, the funny things they do, and seeing them be moms. Lately I've been feeling a void in my life, wishing I had a real family. I have Malone and the dog I guess... but it's not the same as kids. I love kids. I love the way they think, their sweetness, and their complete honesty and innocence... well, sometimes I like their honesty. haha. But really though, I feel like I'm missing out because we haven't started our family yet. Malone thinks I just want a change, which is probably partially true. But I do look forward to the time when we do decide to start a family. It scares me to death because it's such a huge change. But it'd be worth it in the end to have a little baby. Anyway, so sorry to those of you that read this and are just completely bored. We're boring right now, what can I say?

Update!

Well, we took Malone in to our orthopedist, Dr. Lee. Dr. Lee is sure that Malone tore his ACL and that he'll need surgery to repair it. All we need to do now is schedule the surgery, which has yet to be done. Malone is doing well though. He is working alot and doing his internship, which he's enjoying alot. We'll probably schedule the surgery for the end of the semester after his internship.

Recently we tried snowmobiling again, just the two of us. We borrowed my parents snowmobiles and their trailor and went up to Green Canyon. There were alot of people up there and tons of snow! We unloaded the snomobiles and went for a ride. It wasn't 15 minutes however, when Malone's machine (the one I had issues with LAST time we went snowmobiling) became sluggish and quit. We used the other machine to tow it back. We couldn't get the snowmobile started, so with the help of some guys nearby, we loaded the snowmobile onto the trailor. We left the ramp out and went for a quick ride. When we came back, the ramp was gone. It had only been about 30-40 minutes. Someone had stolen it! Luckily we had a spare ramp and used it to load the other snomobile. Afterwards we went to the Hot Springs there and soaked in the hot tub! Felt sooo good! Despite the issues, we had a good time! Turns out the engine in that snowmobile is pretty much burned up because of several contributing factors. I felt bad about it. Sucks for Dad.

Anyway, that's about it for now. Until next time!

Christmas and the New Year Craziness!

Since I last posted, we have made it through the holidays! Christmas was amazing! Malone and I celebrated Christmas Eve Eve (the 23rd) at my parents house. We played games, opened some white elephant gifts, and just had a blast! Malone got a plastic fly swatter from my parents. We gave Ashley our goldfish. I wish I could say it was sad to see them go...but it was starting to become a pain having to find someone to watch our fish whenever we were away. Not sure if Ashley appreciated them either since they are still at my parents house. We handed out real Christmas gifts. We bought Ash and AJ a Yahtzee game! We got a Wii game and a Wii remote charger from Marshall and Tiffany. I think the big hit of the night were the marshmallow guns Marshall and Tiff got from Natalie and Chris. Genius! Everybody loved it, and there were marhmallows flying EVERYWHERE! We also played our traditional chimes (which gives us a headache by the end, but still fun), and games. The next day Malone got off work around 3, and we made it to his sister's house by about 5 for Christmas Eve. We always enjoy spending time with his family, and Christmas Eve is especially fun because Holly and her family always put on a Christmas Program. Her kids are so talented! Malone and I brought the chimes from my family  (since we used them the night before) and everyone got to play. I think Malone's Dad actually enjoyed it the most, haha. It was a hit!

Malone and I spent Christmas Eve night at our own house this year and had our own Christmas morning. It was really nice getting to sleep in a while and just taking it slow. Malone completely spoiled me, and I messed up on his gifts. Got him the wrong game, the wrong socks, and he spent more money than I did so I had more gifts than he did. I felt dumb, but he seemed happy anyway.I did get him a videogame he did like as well as a nice jacket.  He got me some jeans, a couple pairs of shoes, and a really nice winter coat that I LOVE. It's green and soo warm! Later that day we stopped by my parents for dinner and gifts. We gave them a big clock to go on the wall downstairs, and they got us a food storage rack, and some money. We had so much fun!  Later we went to Malone's parents where we had MORE food and played some games. It was a blast!!

Tuesday after Christmas Malone and I went with my parents, Parker, Tiff and Marsh and their kids to go snowmobile in Moody. We just messed around and pulled the kids on sleds behind the snowmobiles. It was so windy and cold, so we didn't stay too long. Malone took me for a ride and it was so SCARY!! He drove really fast and I thought we'd wreck. Luckly we didn't. But next time I decided I'd for sure wear a helmet.

Wednesday (28th) was Malone's birthday! We both had to work that day, but were able to celebrate and go to dinner at Texas Roadhouse that night. Afterwards we went to my parents for homemade banana cake and presents. Malone got a couple shirts, a hoodie, and a couple movies from me. My parents gave him a vacuum to clean the car out with. It looks pretty handy!

To also celebrate Malone's birthday and New Years, we went snomobiling in West Yellowstone with our friends Larin and Brian Christensen. We left late Friday afternoon just in time to hit the snowstorm on the way up. We checked into a hotel there and went over to visit Malone's parents. They have been working on remodeling a building for their new business there for the past few months. We had dinner and took a little tour around the place. Later we all went out for a walk around town to look around and get some hot chocolate. That night all four of us went for a swim in the hotel pool and hot tub and relaxed in the sauna. Sooo cozy! The next morning the four or us got up around 8 and were ready to snowmobile by about 10:30. I know, it took a while because when we were unloading the snowmobiles they had been completely frozen from the wet snow the night before. It took a while for them to warm up, and for Malone and I to get the tiedowns untied since they were frozen too. Larin and Brian had borrowed snowmobiles from their parents so we each had our own snowmobile to ride. We jumped on and went for breakfast at McDonalds... unfortunately we had missed breakfast by about 5 minutes, so we had lunch for breakfast. Once again, we bundled up and went to find the Madison Trail. Malone was in the lead, followed by me, Lerin, and Brian. The weather was perfect! A beautiful day for a snowmobile ride! The trail we picked was just north of town and was about 16 miles long. I haven't snowmobiled trails before so this was completely new to me. There was one point during our drive about 20 minutes in where I noticed my machine made a funny sound in the engine, like it was struggling a little. I waited a minute to see if it'd stop and it did. So I didn't make a big deal about it. I mentioned it to Malone when we stopped for a little break. He said not to worry about it, unless it happens again. We got going again, and about 10 minutes later, my machine completely stalled! Malone continued on without me not knowing I had stopped, and Lerin and Brian stopped with me. I told them my machine just stopped, and Brian sped ahead to catch up with Malone. Lerin and I just laughed about the situation and enjoyed the beautiful view where we were at. About 10 minutes later, Malone and Brian came back. Malone stopped by me and I could tell something was wrong. He told me he thought he just broke his leg. What?! How could that have happened? He was only gone a few minutes! Malone later explained that when Brian caught up with him, Brian called out to him that something happened to my machine. But over the sound of the engines and with helmets on, Malone heard "something happened to Danielle". I think he must have thought I was hurt and it was an emergency, so he tried to stop quickly but his sled hit an edge and started to tip. Malone stuck his leg out to stop it from flipping and was able to stabilize it just before he had to bail off. He wasn't sure if it was when he bailed off or when he stuck his leg out, but he injured his leg badly. After examining his leg, I could tell it wasn't broken and that it was probably a tendon. But we all decided the trip was over and we needed to get Malone to the ER. We all started up our machines to go. Lerin was standing next to her machine and had started it, turned to us, and suddenly her machine just took off without her!! It sped away over the bank and into some trees. It all happened so fast, we weren't sure how it happened?! The snowmobile suffered a crack in the plastic hood.. but was able to work fine. We all got on our snowmobiles and took off. About 5 minutes later my machine stopped again. Brian started it up for me and we left again. But my machine kept stopping, which prolonged us from getting back and Malone was in pain. Finally Brain switched machines with me and was able to keep starting it to get it back to Malone's parent's place. We got Malone inside and I put some ice on his knee, which was completely swollen by this point.  His Dad took a look at his knee and said he thought Malone tore his ACL. Meanwhile Lerin and Brian had loaded all the snowmobiles, which was so nice of them! We loaded Malone in our Trailblazer with Brian driving, and I got in the truck with Lerin. The boys led the way home. The roads were extremely slick from the wet snow the night before. Lerin and I were driving along and suddenly the truck began to fishtale out of control! After trying to correct it, the truck finally slid into oncoming traffic and off the road. Lucky for us there were no cars, and we had 4 wheel drive. Lerin pulled right out and was able to straighten out and get back onto the road. Luckily no damage, except for a little nick in the bumper from the handle on the trialer. The boys didn't even notice we had slid off, but called a few minutes later when they noticed we weren't behind them anymore. The slide off made me and Lerin so scared to continue driving, but we had to get home! After a really LONG drive, we made it home safe. I got Malone in our other car and I drove him to the ER.

Once we arrived at the ER, it took some time to get X-rays and have the doc look at him. The doctor concluded that it wasn't broken (just as I thought), but he may have torn his ACL (which is what we had already speculated ). He referred us to a specialist in Rexburg and gave Malone a prescription for some mild pain meds. The first night was really rough on Malone. The next couple days weren't that great either. I had to help him with alot of things, which he's not use to people doing everything for him. That was the hardest part for him I think. I borrowed some crutches from work so Malone could move around on his own easier. But we were finally able to get in to see the Orthopedist, Dr. Lee, later in the week. Dr. Lee said he was about 90% sure Malone has torn his ACL, but wanted to wait to look at it again when the swelling went down. We scheduled to go back 2 weeks later (the 19th). Today is the 19th and since we've been to Dr. Lee, the swelling has gone down alot, and it's not as painful. Malone is able to walk without crutches and rarely needs a brace. There is still a little bit of pain, but nothing much. And Malone is able to straighten his knee and bend it pretty well. He's been into the PT office I work at and has had the therapists stretch his knee a few times. Bending it more than 90 degrees has been challenging, but he has pretty good motion. We are hoping that when we go in today the dr. will find out for sure what is going on. I pray everyday that the tendons are intact and that Malone will get through this.

Two days after Malone hurt his knee, he got a call from BYU-I saying he was accepted for an internship on campus for the winter semester. He'll be managing a project there expanding the data center. We were both so excited for him! But the knee complicates things a little. And as I said before, he's been doing pretty well with it. Since starting his internship he's been able to walk around on campus okay and has been able to do the internship as well as go to work.

Even though everything that has happened this year has been completely crazy and has not turned out the way we had expected, on the bright side, everything has worked out considerably well. I thank Heavenly Father everyday for watching over us that day. Me and Lerin were able to get back on the road without any problems. Malone did get hurt, but he is okay and it could have been alot worse.  And even though his knee has hindered him somewhat, he has still been able to do his intership and go to work. And when we were afraid his internship would interfere with his work schedule, that worked out too. Malone has been going to work early at 5AM till about 8AM, heads to his internship from 8-5, and then goes back to work from 6-9PM. He is working enough hours for us to keep our insurance (which we're gonna need if Malone ends up needing surgery on his knee!). I cannot believe how much we have been blessed. I knew the day that everything happened, that if Malone and I have faith, Heavenly Father would take care of us, and he really has. He is so aware of us and I know that He loves us. This experience has taught me a few things and has brought Malone and I closer together, as well as closer to our Heavenly Father. I am grateful to have Malone in my life, and for the wonderful person that he is. I truly appreciate him and admire the man that he has become. I am so grateful for the gospel in my life and for the peace and comfort it brings me to know that someone is looking out for us at all times.