And So It Begins....

Preseason starts....TOMORROW!!!! I can't believe it is here already! I finished off my summer with USU camps last week where our numbers tripled from the year before, and then went recruiting in San Diego. I am really excited to start season again...always an exciting, yet stressful time of year! GO AGGIES!!!!!

Reflections of Texas

Texas.....it was a blast. I was exhausted and tired....but I wouldn't trade this experience for anything. I love coaching and everyone told me that I would be so tired of camps by the time these six weeks were done, but I wasn't. I love being on the soccer field, I love helping kids learn new things to become better...I met some great people while I was there and had the opportunity to work with some wonderful coaches. I am so appreciative to the Texas Soccer staff who took a chance on me and as the 6 weeks went on, I was able to create a rapport with them...I was really impressed with how down to earth they all are, and you can tell that they love their jobs and do them well. I got some valuable feedback while I was there, and I feel like I grew in confidence as a coach, and I grew in confidence in coaching topics that I am not always asked to coach because my expertise is in goalkeeping. I remember in January that I was told that I am a very good coach but I need more practice coaching a variety of topics...and I feel like these camps and this time in Texas helped me in that sense. I am blessed to have this opportunity and was very much taken care of while I was there.

I was able to see two of my best friends, Sam Minty and Kassandra Schoaff-Eickstead. I appreciated even more their friendship, their support, and just how comfortable I am when I am around them. They are two people who have accepted me for all of my quirks and they are two people who have always believed in me.

While in Texas, I had another weekend off where I had the chance to come home for a family reunion and see my entire family! We took some family pictures, played on the beach...it was a lot of fun!


Now I'm back, getting back into the swing of things, excited to start another season of USU Soccer! Girls check in on August 2. Last week I worked camp at the UofU, and this coming week, USU has our camps. Our numbers have tripled since last year, and I am so excited for that. I am running camps this year at USU, and I have spent so much time over the last three months advertising, responding to phone calls and emails, and just getting things ready. My hard work is paying off...I wasn't so sure what the end result would be three months ago, but I am excited to see the growth in our camps and the support we are getting from our community!!!!

Dallas and Camps!

I am currently in the middle of my 3rd week of camp. I am actually really enjoying it and we aren't out on the fields ALL day. The way the schedule works, we get a little bit of a break each day. This week I am working the day camps and I am training the two groups of 13-17 year olds, and then I train the goalkeepers the last 45 minutes of the day. I have a 2.5 hour break inbetween the morning and afternoon session, which is enough time to rejuvenate, etc. Everyday, we have gotten new t-shirts to wear at camp...so technically I have enough shirts to last me for two weeks! Pretty sweet deal, for sure. It's also been good for me to be gaining experience coaching different topics each day and then being able to practice them or try new things each week.

This past weekend, I drove up to Dallas to see Kass and her husband, David. Kass and I met playing college soccer together and have been friends ever since. We had a blast. Kass and I went to the Stockyards in Ft. Worth and walked around, and even got to sit on a Longhorn steer! That was pretty cool. We also saw the movie Green Lantern and definitely had some downtime where we rented movies and just hung out. It was so good to see her and David. They have been such good friends over the years. I also had the opportunity to visit with my friends, David and Marie Hinckley, and their children. They just bought and moved into their first house this past Saturday! I went to church with them on Sunday then visited with them for a little bit after church. So good to see them. David was my home teacher when I lived in Provo and became a very good friend during that time. :)

This trip has definitely been a blessing in many ways...and I feel myself growing in ways I never expected to. Three and a half more weeks to go

Memorial Day and Austin, Texas

Over Memorial Day, I flew home to see my family. On Friday, I spent the afternoon with Tyler (I talked him into going to my favorite place to eat...BJs! And we shared three mini pizookies!!!). That night and Saturday morning, we spent some time with his kids. When we picked them up, Tyler told them that they were going to have some fun with Aunt Marla, and then Leah said, "Golden Spoon!" And Laura said, "Golden Spoon with marla" and all three started chanting at the same time, "Golden Spoon with Marla!" I know, I'm the cool aunt, what can I say? :) I had a blast with those three! On Saturday afternoon, Tyler and I headed to the condo where we spent the day with mom...and took naps, and enjoyed the warm weather outside, and Sunday, Mom and I just lounged around before heading home that night. Monday, Scott and Tyler BBQed steaks and I got to see my new niece, Madison Sophia!" She was born on April 27th! She is so cute!



A little over a week ago, I left for Austin, Texas...I have seen a little bit of it! I arrived here last Saturday night and stayed with my good friend, Sam Minty, his wife, Kim, and their 16 month old, Cameron...and Cameron is now my little buddy! Sam and Kim were great hosts! They made dinner and breakfast for me, we went to lunch on Sunday at a place called TacoDeli that has a huge list of tacos to choose from! Then on Monday, Sam and I went to explore a little bit of the city, including a park, a natural spring where the water is always 72 degrees, and the botanical gardens. and we went to this place in downtown called Hut's Hamburgers. THE BEST HAMBURGER I HAVE EVER EATEN!!!! After lunch we headed to Whole Foods, which had the BIGGEST dessert area I have ever seen!!! I had to take pictures! That night Sam BBQed steaks! SO GOOD! They totally spoiled me! On Tuesday, I packed up my stuff and Sam took me down to UT-Austin to check into soccer camp. I will be staying at UT for two weeks working the soccer camps. Sam made sure I was all settled, and then I was off to start work! My dorm room overlooks downtown which is pretty cool. I have really enjoyed the week. I had a great group of girls....SO coachable. My first night here, I had the opportunity to meet the head coach of Texas and his staff. Another staff coach and I were trying to find the coaches meeting and they all drove past on a golf cart and offered us a ride but they had to stop by their offices first. The head coach invited us up so we could see how they do things there....yeah...this is how they do things here...$$$$$$$$$!!! AMAZING facilities. WOW. And the football stadium....my mouth dropped open when I saw it. The Texas staff are very friendly, and so are the other coaches working the camps this week. Today, with my day off, Sam and Kim drove down from North Austin and they took me to lunch at BJs, then we went to a baby store so they could grab a few things for Cameron. When I got back, I did laundry, then I decided to go explore the UT campus a little and take a few pictures. I have five more weeks here!

Video of the Animals!

Here's a video of the animals I saw in Africa on the Game Drives! I hope I got all the names right! It was an amazing trip, I'm still trying to make sure it really happened! Getting back in the swing of normal life again!

Africa Animals

Johannesburg, Zambia, Botswana.....the last leg!

On Saturday, we drove from Kruger National Park to Johannesburg making some stops along the way to take pictures…and of course to go shopping!!! I got some good stuff….don’t ask me what I got now, I can’t remember..but at the time it was good! When we checked into the hotel, we went to dinner with Leon and Iris, and Anna and Marcia. Sadly, we had to say goodbye to them as they were not going on to Victoria Falls. It was a lot of fun to have formed this little group along the way. I am bummed with Anna gone, we became good buds on this trip and it was nice to have someone my age to chat with!

When we got to Zambia, it took us close to an hour just to get our visas and get through customs….well, the whole three counters they had in the airport for customs. Then we crammed ourselves into two little buses (25 on our bus) and drove to a village called Mukuni Village. I’m not gonna lie…it was pretty depressing. 7000 people living in thatched roof houses made of mud, stone and sticks. 3000 children are in the village….their clothes are torn, dirty, mismatched..they literally have hardly anything. We visited two families in the village, then went to a street market. Basically, there is no electricity and no running water here. The street market is made up of different vendors trying to earn money for their families. There is a king of this village, but I’m not quite sure what he does. As soon as the people selling stuff found out we were American, they wanted ridiculous prices. $25 for an elephant I could buy on the street for $5 (just an example). They would say things like, “if you don’t buy from me, my family will not eat for a week.” So I bought an elephant and a rhino made out of wood for an amount that I could’ve slashed in half….don’t worry, it was a lot less than $25…and then made sure my mom didn’t buy anything because it was all stuff that we could buy anywhere, even though we were told that the men in the village make everything that is sold there. I feel bad for the people, it was just a sad place to go. Very humbling...made my life seem like I am living the high life!

Today, we went into the country of Botswana to go to Chobe (choe-bee) National Park. After driving for 45 minutes, we went through the border (which took a good 30 minutes), then walked across the border and took small river boats over to the Botswana side. Then we went through border control there. These two countries are pretty much third world countries….I honestly don’t think I’ve ever been in a third world country before. It’s pretty sad. The people hardly have anything. We drove by a long row of trucks transporting goods across the border…the line went on for over three miles…and those drivers sit there and wait for anywhere from 2-4 weeks just to get across the border because there is one ferry that can take one truck across the river at a time. We saw tons of people wanting to cross the border for work, to buy things, or for whatever reason. They made the natives wait and had us cut in line to go through border control. We drove to Mufana Lodge, where we met up with the boat taking us on the river cruise. We saw Hippos, lizards, crocodiles, different kinds of birds, and then we went into the park and saw more giraffes, elephants (including two young elephants fighting), etc. The one highlight was seeing the little dung beetle pushing a ball of dung across the road…it may seem like that’s a very small thing but it was actually really interesting!

Tuesday morning my mom and I went on a Lion Encounter done by an organization that helps lion cubs prepare to be placed in the wild. We got to walk with four lions, pet them, watch them play, etc. It was actually a lot of fun…except the lady who took the picture of me and my mom cut off part of the lion, but you can at least see that we are petting something! Mom and I went back to the hotel, took a short nap, then we walked around the falls. We walked down to the Knife Edge Bridge….and got soaked. It was literally a downpour from the spray of the falls. It was actually a lot of fun. We walked around and enjoyed the scenery a little bit more, then went back to the hotel to get ready for our final excursion of the trip, a sunset cruise. We went up the river which splits the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia. We saw more birds, crocodiles and hippos. We ended the night with a beautiful African sunset followed by an amazing African moonrise. It was a perfect way to end the trip. Now after flying 2 hours from Victoria Falls to Johannesburg, a 5.5hr layover in Jo-Burg, a 16 hour flight from Jo-burg to Atlanta, and now heading to Salt Lake City (yes, I am posting this from the airplane), this amazing trip has come to an end. ☹

Drive from Kruger to Johannesburg along the Panoramic Route



Zambia, Botswana, Chobe National Park


Lion Encounter, the Falls, Sunset Cruise

Cheetah....Lion..The BIG FIVE

We started our drive from Hluelue Game Park to Kruger Park via Swaziland, where we stopped for lunch at a place that had a candle factory and a few other things for sale on the street. We stayed the night in Swaziland, then we crossed the border again back into South Africa and made our way to Kruger Park where we got in the jeeps and drove around for a few hours.

I can’t even begin to tell you about our time in Kruger national park. A “Game Drive” through the park is really luck of the draw. If you happen to come across an animal, that’s great, if not, you just don’t see anything. Some groups didn’t see anything the first day we were there. We were pretty lucky seeing some impalas, baboons, a rare bird called the King Fisher, and some elephants. The next day we spent 14 hours in the park…starting our drive at 6am, we saw a lion laying in the grass….all I could get on camera was his main (which you can see a blurry brown spot in the picture when you see it), then we were driving and seeing nothing, when all of a sudden, our guide floored it. We were all like, “what is going on?” And he finally told us that someone spotted a cheetah. We got there in time to see it and take pictures. He told us that to see a cheetah is very rare. Only 10% of all tourists who come to Kruger Park see a cheetah. Our guide hadn’t seen one for 8 months and had never been up as close as we were! The cat itself is beautiful. I can’t stop looking at it. The rest of the day was filled with the usual elephant, baboons, impalas, but we came across terrapins, a tortoise, an endangered bird called a red hornbill, a hawk (I can’t remember the name), and we had a surprise visitor to our jeep who tried to ride with us, but didn’t quite make it. A crested gambet flew right into a pole in our jeep and landed inside. We pulled over so we could get him out, but he was under the seat my mom and Marcia’s seat (Marcia and Anna have been in our group and we have become good friends with them. Anna is about my age, so it was nice to have her around!). Another member of our jeep took video of my mom and Marcia because their reactions were so funny. It was pretty funny, but very sad for the gambet. He was still alive when we picked him up, but he broke his wing when he collided with our jeep and our guide told us that he would not survive. ☹ We were sad about that. We ended that day drive with seeing some kudu…a type of deer that has some stripes on its back…we saw three males and one female. The males had extremely large horns….and the guys in our jeep were loving every minute.

The next part of our day was the night safari drive. We were told that it wasn’t worth our money because we wouldn’t see anything. On a night safari, there are two spotlights in the open safari van….I got to hold one of them with one hand, and take pictures and video with the other hand…so the videos may be a little bumpy. We saw a leopard…I don’t think anyone got a good picture of him….mine is a little blurry, but you can tell what it is. The leopard, named “pumba” in Afrikaans, was walking in the tall grass, then walked across the road, sat down to check us out, then kept on walking and was gone. We then came across hyenas, a spotted eagle owl….and as we were taking pictures of the owl, our guide says, “something is in the road up there. It looks like Lions!” And they were…three lionesses were just walking down the road. We drove up, turned off the engine, another jeep drove right behind us, turned off its engines, and those lionesses just walked right on by. I had the spotlight and was shining it on one, but when I started shining it on her as she walked by the van, she looked at me, and I decided it was probably best not to bring any extra attention to myself, so I chose to shine it on the other two following behind her. In the pictures and the video, you will see a collar on one of the lions. Kruger park rescues lions so they can be released back into the wild, that’s what they collar is from. We later came across a small bobcat like animal called a ganet, and then that ended our safari tour….not bad for going on something where you don’t see anything! Another special thing about the experience in Kruger....The Big Five. THe Big Five in Africa consists of the Lion, Leopard, Rhino, Elephant and Water Buffalo....we saw all five, which is rare. :)

Today we drove to Johannesburg and we start our next leg of the trip to Victoria Falls in Zambia tomorrow! This trip has flown by so fast!

Zulu Tribe, Hippos, Elephants, Zebras and Giraffes...OH MY!

The last few days have been amazing! We made a stop in Shakaland, which is like a cultural center for the Zulu tribe…yes, the people who have clicking sounds as part of their language! We just learned about how their villages were set up, King Shaka, how they cooked food….and they loved their beer…it was home brewed. Then we drove to the St. Lucia river where we saw hippos and alligators! From there, we drove over two hours to the Bayala Game Lodge in Hluelue (pronounced shoo-shoo-eeee). This morning we departed bright and early at 6am to go out on the game reserve. We saw warthogs (Pumba from Lion King), baboons, a small monkey that I can’t remember the name of, water bucks (like a deer), water buffalo, zebras, giraffes, rhinos and elephants….we saw HERDS of the zebras, giraffes and elephants. We were upclose to elephants playing in the waterhole and a couple different little herds came at the same time. The giraffes, zebras and rhinos were just hanging out by the road and we were able to pull up right next to them and take pictures. Giraffes and zebras generally travel together. Our guide, Sbu (pronounced “Boo”),told us that they are best friends. A giraffe can easily kill a lion with one kick. The water buffalo are dangerous animals because they can get up to a speed of 53km when they are charging. At first, I thought we were going to see things from a distance, then we drive up to zebras and giraffes and rhinos, and even the elephants right there by the roads! Its quite an amazing sight. Last night we enjoyed dinner out on the patio of the lodge as well as a dance show by zulu dancers….I took pictures, but due to the topless girls (which is totally normal in their culture. It lets the men in the tribe know that they are available), I chose not to use them. ☺

We have met some great people on this trip. Most everyone is from Utah, there are two couples from Arizona, two ladies from Colorado, a couple Californians (including my mom), and a couple from Idaho. On one of our long drives we got to go up and tell a little bit about ourselves. It’s amazing to hear about some of the hardships people have had, but at the same time to hear about the things they have done in their lives. Everyone is really down to earth and fun to talk to. Mom and I have made friends with a couple from Idaho, a mom and daughter from Salt Lake (the daughter is just a couple years younger than me), and a couple from Bountiful…but if you know my mom, you know she talks to everyone! All in all, its been a great experience so far.

We are now in the kingdom of Swaziland. We stopped at a place that had a candle factory, hand weaving place, etc….as well as a small street market. I bought two drums (one for me and one for my friend who teaches music) along with some tiny little things. We are now at our hotel with a free afternoon and evening…we are definitely resting. There’s not much to do around here, but it sure is pretty! ☺ Tomorrow we head to Kruger National Park, which is one of the largest national parks in Africa.

South Africa: Cape Town to Durban to Lesotho

We finished off our stay in Cape Town with a view of Table Mountain from across the bay (it is called Table Mountain because of its flat top), then drove to the college town of Schallensburg, where 6 of the 8 dictators Africa has had graduated. We explored the town for about an hour, then headed to the airport. If you look at the pics you’ll see two pictures of a group of shacks…those are called townships (or shanty towns) where the people who live there (mostly illegal immigrants or unemployed) build a home out of anything they can find. They are all over the countryside…no sanitation, no running water, their electric lines are a mess so they can tap into whatever source that works, and these towns are bringing back diseases such as cholera, and the HIV rate has gone up to 1 in every 3 adults are HIV positive in the country. If you look at some of the pictures of these more "stable" shacks in the country side, you'll see their roofs being held down by tires, cinder blocks or rocks. It’s kinda crazy and makes me grateful for what I do have. We got some good news when we got to the airport….bags were NOT overweight! We arrived in Durban just in time for dinner. Durban’s airport was built specifically for the world cup and has only been up and running since 2010. Durban is home to the Zulu tribe and is called Shakaland after King Shaka, the great warrior Zulu king of the 1800s. Mom and I headed to the mall just across the street, found a store that had world cup paraphernalia on sale, then had dinner. We hung out with our new friends Leon and Iris Hubsmith from Detrich, Idaho.

This morning we woke up at 5am for a 6am departure for the tiny kingdom of Lesotho (pronounced lay-soo-too). We drove for almost 3 hours, loaded up in 4wd jeeps and took the dirt road along the cliff, winding up and back the switchbacks for another three hours into the country of Lesotho. It is 9400ft above sea level where, on this east side, there are mainly small sheepherding villages. If you go about 100km west, you will find a small city which is the capitol of the country. We had lunch at the chalet on top, then visited a family in one of the villages, then we headed back down the mountain. The pictures just don’t do it justice. We head to see an African Cultural Center, a small island called St. Lucia, and the game reserve called Hluelue (pronounced shoo-shoo-eee) tomorrow. We finally get to see animals!

Just a heads up, Mom and I chose our excursions at Victoria Falls. We’ll be doing a day at Chobe National Park (which is supposed to be one of the best game reserves in this part of Africa), the Lion Encounter where we go see the Lions early in the morning, and a sunset cruise along the river near Victoria Falls…and of course we are going to take an afternoon to go see the falls! This trip seems to be flying by so fast!