Finally some pictures!!

Here are some pictures of my adventurous summer at the National Ability Center. This is Kristen, the other intern. She came from the University of New Hampshire. This is at a free concert at Deer Valley Resort. Local bands and stuff.


Here's me working on the ropes course with a girl who is blind. This cool contraption is called the 4 to 1. It allows someone to pull themselves up to the top without using much effort. If you weight 100 pounds, it feels like you are only lifting 25 pounds (hence the name 4 to 1).

Yeah!!! Little E!!!! One of the coolest kids I got to hang out with. Tons of fun!

This is at the 4th of July parade. The young boy is on a hand cycle. I'm walking with a guy on a recumbent bike...all adaptive equipment.

This is Kristen and Tracy, our intern supervisor. I took them rappelling in Pleasant Grove on our last day. Good fun!!!

More 4th of July pics. These are a few of our COOL horses that we use in our Equine program. The big one with the mohawk mane is called a Norwegian Fjord. Beautiful, powerful horses. This ones name is Ayla. The mini horse is Hercules. :-)


After spending the whole summer at the NAC, I'm kind of sad to be done. I won't miss the drive to Park City every day. But I will miss all the cool people I worked with. I guess it won't be too bad, though. They hired me to teach horseback riding lessons in the barn. Sweet!!! I'll get to spend the whole day with the horses. I even have some advanced riders. They make my job easier. I have a good life.

The other days of the week I spend working on my thesis. Trying to get it finished so that I can graduate in December. I'm still planning on IU in January. I'm not overly excited about it yet because I have lots of things to get done in order to go (THESIS). But I'm guessing some time around Thanksgiving it'll hit me.

BYU football rocks!!! I'm going to the game this weekend against UCLA. Go Cougs!

Good to be back...but so close to leaving!

School started at BYU yesterday! I'm done with all the required classes for my masters degree, so this semester is going to be pretty chill. I am hoping to defend my thesis sometime in October. With that, I will be completely finished with my masters degree. It's a bittersweet feeling, being thisclose to the end of my time here. I've really come to LOVE BYU and have thoroughly enjoyed my experiences. I have had (still have, will always have) the best professors, colleagues, and mentors any graduate student could ask for. So here's my shout out to the RMYL department at BYU....a little early since I'm here till Decemeber, but very much overdue.

Endless thanks go to Ramon Zabriskie, my committee chair, mentor, boss, chocolate provider, life saver, friend, and many other things. Thanks for always have more energy than is humanly possible at all hours of the day....it's contagious. Thanks for keeping me on track with the thesis, helping me just enough so that I don't drown, but not so much that I don't know how to do it for myself. Thanks for making me say NO when all I really want to do is say YES anytime someone asks me to TA yet another class or work on this study or that project. I know that I can not do everything I want to. That was a hard lesson learned the very hardest way. Thanks for going on sabbatical and letting me pretend I was a real professor for 6 months. I love your office and got quite comfortable in there. Thanks for all the opportunities to work on studies and get published at such an early point in my academic career. Thanks for inspiring me to achieve great things and preparing me for my doctoral program by using and abusing me (as Casey puts it). Indiana University has it coming!

Thanks go to Neil Lundberg for being a great mentor. Thanks for introducing me to the world of adaptive sports/recreation research. It all started with wheelchair rugby and it has changed my perspective on what I thought I wanted to do. Again, presenting at conferences and getting published this early was a huge reason I got into IU. I've learned so much from these experiences!!!! Thanks for letting me first author these studies when you need the publications more than I do. Your endless knowledge and humility are inspiring.

Thanks go to Brian Hill for being a great mentor and friend. Thank you for accepting me to this program. It has absolutely changed my life in ways I never saw coming. Thanks for being such an adventurous professor and taking me along on those adventures every summer. They became mental health months that I wouldn't have survived without. Lake Powell has quickly moved to the top of my list of favorite places to go. I've come to love Southern and Southeastern Utah in new ways. I'm hooked! Thanks for bringing important insights to my thesis, ensuring that I do quality work. I am truly grateful that the Lord blessed you this summer and kept you in our lives. The world would be a boring place without Bri-Ahnnnn!

Thanks go to Mark Widmer and Stacy Taniguichi for being great mentors. I will always appreciate the opportunity to be the director at Camp WILD. I learned more about myself, program developent, implementation, and administratively duties in 4 short months than I thought possible. Thanks for asking me the tough questions and trying to poke holes in my research. It keeps me on my toes and makes me work harder.

Thanks go to Paula Curtis, the greatest office manager and friend the RMYL department has and will ever have. Thanks for dealing with my paycheck issues from the first day I walked into your office. BYU payroll hates me and I hope that they get my first paycheck as a professor right. If not, I'm calling you first. :-) Thanks for being a great workout buddy and inspiring me to do pilates. I wish you all the best in your new life with Kevin. Glad I was witness to the love story. :-)

Last but not least, much thanks go to Casey and Beate Schenk (and Lukas too!). Casey: Thanks for being such a great partner in crime for the last 2 years. Thanks for throwing me into the deep end with camp and then leaving to go to Norway. I learned it all the hard way and that was probably for the best. Thanks for the great conversations about research. I hope that I provided as much insight into your research as you provided for mine. Thanks for all the advice on life in general. I feel like I've inherited another brother, one who stinks up the office just as much as my real one stunk up my car in high school. :-) Beate: Thanks for being so cool with me spending so much time with your husband. You are awesome and I wish that I could have spent as much time getting to know you as I was able to with Casey. But I feel like I got to know you through Casey, and I think you are amazing!!!! Your family is beautiful and I wish you guys the best in all that you do. Thanks.

Wow....my eyes are little moistened right now. Be strong!!! I still have 4 months till I move to Indiana. I'm sure that I will have just as many adventures there and make just as many great friends as I did here. And it may be equally as hard to leave. I'm going to make the next 4 months the greatest that I've had since I've been in Provo. That way I will always remember what I'm striving to come back to. Who would've thought? 10 years ago we moved from Southern California to Spanish Fork and I hated it!!! These past few years, I've realized that Utah has really grown on me. Maybe not so much Logan (who loves a high of 8 degrees in the winter?), but definitely BYU and Southern Utah. Ahh....good times, good times! Too many great things to write about right now.

Next post I'll upload pictures from my fantastic summer.