Take me back to...

The past few weeks it has started to feel more and more like summer as the daylight has lasted longer and the nights have gotten warmer.  Summer time is by far one of my favourite times of year, not only because there seems to be more energy in the air, but also because of all the good memories I have from each summer since I have been home from my mission.  As I have reminisced recently on summers gone by, it has prompted me to write down a few memories to not only help capture what I can still remember, but also to help motivate me to make this summer live up to summers past.  With that being said, take me back to…

Summer 2005:  My first summer home from the mission.  This summer is kind of broken down into two parts for me.  The first part takes place in Fort Worth with all of my good friends from the Colleyville 2nd Ward.  I started going to the singles ward upon my arrival home with my good buddy Tyson, and we quickly got plugged into whatever social scene existed in the ward at the time.  We made friends pretty quickly, and began attending ward activities, etc. right away.  What I remember most from this first part of the summer was time spent catching up on movies post mission with Tyson, ward activities (FHE, Institute, basketball, bonfires, etc.) with the friends I made in the singles ward, and the first girl I dated post mission: Alison.  In retrospect I probably ended up spending too much time worrying about girls and dating considering the short amount of time I would be home before I went up to school, but I did end up having a lot of fun with the friends I made in the few short months I was at home.  During this time I also worked doing little construction projects for my Dad's company with Tyson while we both saved before heading up to BYU.  This included moving huge piles of concrete with Ed and Don, tearing down a brick wall in Carrollton with Glenn, James, and Matthew, as well as driving to Dallas to work as an office assistant at Mark's house.  Nothing too much else exciting comes from that part of the summer, but I do remember it being a good time.  

The second part of the summer starts when Tyson and I back up my little 1987 Toyota Celica with all of what we need for school, and begin the drive up to Provo to attend BYU.  The highlight of that trip includes running out of gas as we crossed into New Mexico, while the AAA guy that helped the people just ahead of us tried to charge me like $150 for 3 gallons of gas.  I told him to screw off and we ended up hitchhiking to the nearest town with a nice couple that stopped to help us out.  We eventually made it to Albuquerque and on to Provo to begin school.  My first summer at school was definitely one of the easiest times I had up at school.  I wanted to ease myself back into the swing of school, so I ended up taking Weightlifting, Spanish (to get the 15 foreign language credits) and Intro to Sociology.  I easily navigated the summer term with no real issues and began making friends in my ward and my classes.  We lived up in Provo with our other friend from Texas, J.R., and also with a friend of mine from my days of high school in Utah, Ben.  Memories of this summer include ping pong in the club house, playing sand volleyball, and a ton of inside jokes my friends and I have held onto ever since.  We learned that Ben was going to hand out pancakes at his wedding "here you go, here you go, here you go…", got ridiculed for watching an NBA Finals game on a Sunday courtesy of Zimbie's awesomely righteous roommates, and left Tyson to get his head scratched by a girl with SUPER nasty feet.  

Soundtrack for this summer includes: Jimmy Eat World "Futures"; Yellowcard "Ocean Avenue"; and anything Brand New.  

If you have any other memories / comments you remember from this summer with me, or you just want to share any awesome memories you have from the summer of 2005, please feel free to comment.