-- Pheasant Hunting --

Special thanks to Grant and Cody Fraughton for making this weekend happen. I have never been pheasant hunting, but it was a blast. It is definitely a hobby that I could see myself getting into and enjoying for a while. It was extremely interesting to see Millie, Cocoa, and Jake work their magic. Those dogs were so intelligent, and made the day enjoyable. They were so friendly, yet still could find a way to trap and find the pheasants. I also wish we had more pictures. As soon as we got up there we realized we had broken the Sorensen family code and didn't bring a single camera up with us. Whoops. Below are a few of the many birds we shot. I think in all we ended up with 13 dead birds (of the 50 or 60 that were out there). But I think we only shot 11. Hopefully we will be invited back this fall to enjoy the prime time of hunting.

The funniest and probably most memorable part of the hunt - on the way back up the trial seeing Grant jolt out in his socks and semi auto .12 guage laughing and giggling running after that pheasant. HAHA priceless!

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Spring Break

This past week Holly had spring break, and I had class cancelled on Thursday, so we decided to go away for the weekend and get away. On Thursday, once I got done with most of my homework done, we took of from Provo. We drove four hours south down to St. Geroge. We got to my Uncle Gary and Aunt Kathy's house at about 8:30, and went to bed shortly after. We were pretty beat from the week.

That next morning we got up pretty early, and drove to Zion National Park. We spent almost all morning and most of the afternoon hiking and taking in the wonderful weather. It was so much fun to be up in the mountains. Here are just a few of the many pictures we took in Zion!

On Saturday, we were able to sleep in a little - but once we woke up we took out Gary and Kathy's mountain bikes. We spent some time riding bikes through different neighborhoods and really enjoying ourselves. Later, we went and soaked up the sun watching softball. Kathy coaches the Pine View High School freshman team, so it was fun to cheer them on.

The whole week, Gary and Kathy were amazing. They opened out doors to us and were very hospitable. We want to thank them for helping us relax and have an amazing weekend.

Satuday night was also fun - well except for the BYU game. Holly and I met up with one of my best friends from high school who goes to school at Dixie State. We had dinner with him and his girlfriend Tierra at Applebee's while we watched the BYU game. It was pretty bittersweet. But it was definitely fun to catch up and enjoy ourselves with them. They are awesome! It was such a great weekend and Holly and I were so happy that we could get away and enjoy ourselves for a bit!

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A little about the NCAA's

Today, being "Selection Sunday" and all, we found out more about BYU's fate in the NCAA Basketball Tournament - AKA March Madness. As we were traveling down to Centerville for my brother and brother-in-law's birthday dinner, Adam called me with the results for BYU. He told me that BYU had been selected as a #7 seed playing in the Western bracket. I was pretty frustrated when he told me this.

Since most of my readers of this blog are female, I will try to explain to you why this is a bad thing, and why I was disappointed. I hope this helps.

Now I know most of you have seen a bracket like the one pictured below. The NCAA tournament is the national tournament for all of college basketball, that really gives all teams a chance to win outright. There are more than 60 teams selected to play in the tournament, and they are selected based on how they perform during the season. After selected to play, they are given a rank within the tournament (also known as a "seed"). Seeds are between #1-16 ... with a #1 seed the best seed you and can get and #16 being the worst. Each region (West, Midwest, East and South) has seeds #1-16, totaling 64 teams in total.

This year, BYU played pretty well, and that is an understatement. In fact, the last week of the season, BYU was ranked nationally #14. There were only 13 teams that were supposed to be better. And this is the part that makes me a little mad - of you take those 13 teams that are better than BYU, and divide them equally into all four regions, Thats about 3 or 4 teams in each bracket. That means that BYU should be ranked AT LEAST 4 ... 5 at the most. And this is a big deal, and has a huge impact on the tournament.

The way that the brackets are set up, the #1 seed plays the #16 seed, #2 seed plays the #15 seed, number #3 seed plays the #14 ... and so on. Teams are rewarded for better play in the regular season by having a higher seed. So the better teams play the teams that aren't as good, giving them a higher probability winning more games. Of course, each year there are upsets, but the higher seeded team, on average, wins more often then not. Because BYU got a #7 seed and not a #4 seed means that they will have to play a #10 seed instead of a #13 seeded team. This is huge, the probability of BYU winning just decreased by a substantial amount. It also means that if they win their first game, they will have to play the winner of the #2/#15 seed game instead of the #5/#12 seed. BYU really got a bad seed in the tournament.

One of the reasons that BYU probably got selected so low is because of our religious beliefs. This might sound silly, but its true. The NCAA tournament, because it lasts so long, has some games on Sunday. BYU states in advance that it will NOT play on Sunday. This means that it some years they can't be seeded what they originally would be seeded because there is a possibility that they would play on Sunday. The tournament officials will actually push them back a few seeds so they they don't have to play on the Sabbath. How ridiculous is that?

Really the only thing positive that came out of Selection Sunday is that BYU was placed in the Western bracket. That means for the first couple of games, they will be playing in the Western City selected. This year, the Western Bracket is being played in Salt Lake City in Energy Solutions Arena. At least they will have semi-home court advantage for the first couple of games.

I hope BYU does well, and can upset a few teams. Holly and I have had a really great time watching them this year. The team is very fun and has represented BYU very well. If any of you reading this blog have any spare money or time, we would love for you to purchase tickets for us to go see the games in Salt Lake. You could even go with us! Let us know!

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Bourne Movie Marathon!

The past couple of weekends both Holly and I have been really busy with homework, school, and work. Because of this we have not had too much time to watch any movies. We really wanted to be able to sit down and relax. We decided to watch a movie that Holly's mom and dad gave us for Christmas: the Bourne Trilogy. These movies are so intense and so go that this past weekend we actually watched all of them!

When we went home and were out to breakfast with the Sorensens on Saturday Holly's mom told me she thinks that I look like Matt Damon. Holly and I laughed about it but I am going to take it as a compliment!

You be the judge, what do you think?

Watching the movies makes me really want to go out to a driving range and go super fast in a car. Anyone want to come with us to FastTrak?? Holly particularly loves these movies because she always says that she loves movies where there is a character and he is so smart and can get out of any situation. This was a great gift for us we loved watching these movies!

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