Our blog is long overdue for an update, so much has happened in the last couple of months. The Biggie: Steve got a job for next summer, a good one! Forty five interviews later, and a lot of stress, he ended up taking the job from the very last interview, which he questioned even going to. We'll see how it goes when he starts working, but it sounds great and seems right! He'll be working at a firm in Salt Lake called Snell and Wilmer. The nice thing about this...we know where we'll be for the next few years. More than likely, this is where he'll start his career. And, in December, we're half way done w/ school! Hmm...maybe we can finally start looking at getting out of this never-ending apartment situation! I also got a job, a new one, and started last week. It's for a company called 3point5.com. They do provide online training for big manufacturers to their retailers. It's good, I still managed to stay in the outdoor industry, which I didn't want to leave, but it's in Salt Lake (no more driving up the canyon if it's not to go skiing!), and I'll hopefully have more opportunity there. Our home teacher just brought over to us a copy of the Chicago Tribune w/ Barak Obama's election results. He was in chicago the day of/after the election. Pretty sweet. What a moment in history! These papers are selling on ebay for $40 each! Steve had to look...!

ESCALANTE

Well, our long-anticipated backpacking trip to southern Utah has come and gone, not w/o some excitement and worry! Upon arriving to the Escalante area, we learn that the weather report has gone from a 40% change of "some" precipitation, to a 90% chance. And there we were. We ended up bagging our original plans to go to Coyote Gulch upon some advice from a Park Ranger saying "you can go down there if you want, you just may not be able to get out for a week or so..." So, finally, we decided that getting stuck anywhere for that period of time didn't sound great, and who knows, the river could've risen high enough that we wouldn't be safe either. We ended up hiking the Upper Escalante River Gorge. This is a trail that crosses the river many, many times. Only 2 miles in, we had crossed 7 times. In an effort to have our tents set up before it started pouring, we stopped there after we found a nice place to camp, somewhat sheltered by a big rock wall, but more importantly, it was high ground, high enough we hoped that if the river flooded, we would be safe. Later in the evening, we scrambled up to the middle of this rock wall, that's where the above photo is from, and enjoyed the view. We hiked down as dusk began to set in, and upon returning to camp, we were all sitting around, and all of a sudden heard this loud rush of something...the sound of some serious rapids. We rushed over the edge of the river only to find that it had risen 7-8 feet and was rushing at an amazing speed, carrying all sorts of sludge like trees, and who know what else. It smelled awful! Long story short, lucky for us, by the next morning, the river had gone down and we took the opportunity high tail out of there before the next round came; it had been raining non-stop all night, and had not stopped. Advice to anyone thinking about doing some exploring in southern utah...with flash floods, there is NO warning! It can be clear as day where you are, and a flood will come your way from rain miles away. Probably NOT a good idea to get yourself involved! So, other than rain, flood, and coming home a day early, our trip was great! Exciting to say the least!

Wow another update!

First of all it must be noted, for the sake of sanity in our home, that there's still some debate about who took the beautiful picture at the top of our page. If, as Steve argues, the picture was taken off of a sailboat during our "sunset cruise," then he took it. However, if as Amy argues, it was taken at sun-rise off of our balcony on the cruise ship, then she took it. Regardless it's a sweet picture and one of the Joffee's took it!

Unfortunately summer has come and gone, and we've now returned to real life. Steve is back at school full-time and Amy is still working for Rosignol and is thinking about becoming a part-time personal trainer. As always, we anticipate Steve being VERY busy this year. Much to our delight he made it onto the Utah Law Review this year, it's an academic journal that is really important to have on your resume. Like everything in law school it will take a lot of time, but it will definitely be worth it. He's also working as a research fellow for a former federal judge and he's really enjoying it so far, plus he gets a 1/2 tuition scholarship and a cash stipend! As if that and his regular classes weren't enough, he's also diving head first into this years on campus recruiting process. Basically law firms from all over the country come to the school to interview students for summer positions, and generally wherever you work your first summer is where you end up beginning your career. So far he's been invited to interview with 29 different firms. We just really hope that he gets a good job and the we end up in the right place. we're considering living in New York, Chicago, Dallas, Phoenix, or Salt Lake City, much to Amy's delight Idaho is not an option at this point.

Other than the law school rush things aren't too exciting at this point. As some of you may have noticed we tend to live vacation to vacation (especially Steve), hence the sporadic updates on our blog. Amy is heading to southern Utah this weekend, for a long anticipated backpacking trip with some friends from work, we'll be sure to post pictures and adventure stories when she returns! We've got a ten-day trip to Florida planned for Christmas break! We'll go spend a few days at Steve's parent's home and then 6 days at Disney World. We're super excited, Steve hasn't been to Disney since he was a kid and Amy has never been, plus Steve's sister and parents are coming for three days of it, and we're staying all 6 nights in a Disney Resort right in the park! In May we're heading to Mexico again, probably somewhere in the Cancun/Playa Del Carmen area. We really love it there, and we'll post the details whenever we figure them out. Anyone want to come?

Another update!

Man we're getting much better about keeping this thing up to date! We'll see what happens when Steve goes back to school in a few weeks. Things are good, we both just started a new diet, or better yet a new eating style. . . 0 sugar. That might not sound that difficult to those of you who haven't tried it, but it's pretty tough, at least for one of us:) So far Steve is feeling fantastic, he's noticed big difference in his energy levels, his hunger cravings, and his attention span. Amy on the other hand is struggling as she spends her days dreaming of chocolate fountains and sugary cereal. We've quickly discovered how literally EVERYTHING has sugar in it, literally! Things we'd never imagined would have sugar sure do, things like cheese, seasoning salt, and every freaking salad dressing on the shelf except for literally one. So pretty much our diet consists of raw and cooked vegetables, fruits, lean proteins, and brown rice, beans, and potatoes. We're sure it doesn't sound like much, but it's surprisingly satisfying especially since we have no sugar in our systems messing with our insuling levels and causing hunger cravings. Anyways, other than "the diet" things are going well, we can't believe that the summer has gone by SO quickly, Steve isn't at all excited about going back to school, but we're sure he'll cheer up once he gets going. It's going to be an extremely busy year for him, as the saying goes "the first year of school they scare you to death, the second year they work you to death, and the third they bore you to death." Not only is he on the Law Review, a really important academic journal, but he's spending 12 hours a week researching for a professor! Hopefully he comes home once in a while. Amy is still waiting to start her new job as a personal trainer, she was hired three weeks ago, but still hasn't gotten to start, we'll see if it ever happens!

So in case anyone is wondering Steve took that incredible picture under our "Joffee Journey" heading! In a few days, when life slows down (as if that will EVER happen) Steve will be posting some pictures from the Joffee Concert Season, so check back soon!

My Dream

Don't get too excited...two posts within a week of each other! So, maybe I should clarify this post as Amy's Dream, because I don't think Steve would actually be too excited about it. I was shown this amazing photo of Denali by a co-worker. Her parents are touring Alaska for a month. Isn't this mountain stunning and amazing?! Someday, I would love to climb it. What an incredible experience that would be! I can only imagine how the exposure, the weather, the utter aloneness, and the vastness of this experience would make you feel. It would definately be one of those memories forever etched in your mind, your person. I got excited just thinking about it!

Summer Fun . . .

Hey People! We realize that we are the crappiest bloggers in the world, but at least we're giving it a try. So this summer we've had a lot of fun. As always Steve is busy, busy, busy. He's currently clerking in the Chambers of Judge Dale Kimball at the United States District Court, he's also working on a few pro-bono projects and really loving doing "real" lawyer work! Amy is still a slave to the outdoor industry, she loves it but making a little $$$ would sure be nice. She's actually trying to become a personal trainer right now, we'll see how that goes. We started off the summer fun with a 8 day vacation to Mexico, where we visited Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta, and Mazatlan. We both fell in love with Mazatlan, and we hope to get back there someday, but it's hard going to that side of Mexico knowing how fantastic Cancun is. We also recently spent a weekend away at Stein Eriksen lodge in Park City, Utah's only 5 star resort! Now that we've started August the Joffee concert series has officially begun We've already seen the Police and John Mayer, they were both fantastic shows. We're also going to see: Jack Johnson, James Taylor, Dave Matthews Band, Bob Dylan, and maybe a few others! Steve is eagerly awaiting more news on the supposed Phish reunion that will be coming up, hopefully he wont disapear for too long when it happens! Anyways, we'd love to hear from everyone if anyone still reads this thing!

Time Flies

Really, it's only been a couple of months since we started "blogging"....! Let's just say Steve gave the intro, and now we'll all be privileged not to hear more from him anytime soon! He's a busy boy for the next few years! Rather than catch up on everything since August, we'll start here. We made it to Logan this weekend for the first time since we moved to Salt Lake to hang out with our good friends, the Andersons and the Gleeds. Someday we will make it back there. Everytime I drive into Cache Valley, it just feels like home. I'm still working in Park City and have managed to not total our new (to us) car commuting through Parleys Canyon this winter, or maybe I shouldn't speak too soon! Steve is super busy...if you think the first semester of Law School is bad, there's always a more intense one that lies ahead. Fortunately, he likes it, and it will hopefully be a great profession for him. We're getting excited about a vacation this summer. We're not sure where we're going yet, but anything to get away will be nice. There's a half marathon in Salt Lake coming up in April that I'm training for...I've been in recovery for two weeks now after hurting my ankle. It's so frustrating! We'll see how it goes tonight, for my first time back on it. Wish me luck!