Before ending my college tennis career, Mike and I took a short getaway to St. George for the weekend. He was about to introduce me to one of his sports, kayaking. So we threw the Kayak in Lil’ Red and headed down south. It was warm enough in St. George that we could play in the pool again. It was a perfect opportunity to learn how to roll. Well, kind of. In kayaking, rolling is your ticket out of a sticky situation. When you roll over, you are laying face down in the water strapped into a boat. If you can’t roll it makes kayaking interesting. You have one of two options, either you drown or you pull the emergency strap, drag the kayak to shore, empty it out, and then start over again. You can see why it is one of the first things you would want to learn. Unfortunately, I found rolling is a little tricky to learn and I didn’t master the technique. No need to worry however for more kayaking opportunities would shortly present themselves. But until then we stuck to more traditional activities like climbing Angel’s landing in Zion’s Park with the family. Yes, we broke some rules. Mike didn’t use the chain, we fed squirrels, and Mike went after a water bottle that fell about 20 feet down. You can always count on our family bending the rules.
The next week, I would slowly be experiencing my last with college tennis. On the 25th of April, we had our last home match. Coach must have wanted us to end on a good note because we played Idaho State University, again. Well, it worked we won 6-1. I was able to win my last home match and celebrate with the ladies. Taylor and I were the lone seniors which explains the pretty flowers and the basket of candy. The following day, I attended my fourth and final Whiteside’s ceremony. It is a ceremony to award student athletes and teams for good grades. I was privileged to be named the “Whiteside’s Scholar Athlete of the Year”. It was quite an honor. I had to give a speech and everything. I was really nervous but it was kind of fun. I was in the newspapers and the radio even interviewed me. I felt like a celebrity!!
On the 27th we were in Boise for my last WAC tournament. We went in as the 9th seed, the worst our team had ever been seeded since I was there. Unfortunately, we lived up to the seed. We lost first round to San Jose, 3-4. We won the doubles point giving us the first point of the match. I rushed through my match hoping to beat my teammates of the court; I won my match 6-0, 6-0 in about an hour. To my disappointment, I raced off the court to find that three of my teammates were down in their matches. I couldn't believe my eyes, we ALWAYS beat San Jose. Though, I still thought my team was going to come through. Unfortunately, it came down to the final singles match and we lost 4-3. We went out first round. 
At the WAC banquet, I was going to receive an honor which I had been working towards ever since I found out it existed. I was put on the Second-Team for All-WAC Singles honors. Although, I must admit I was hoping to get on the First-Team. I still was extremely pumped. I had written for my goals every year to be a part of the All-WAC singles team and it had finally come true. I believe my win over Boise State earlier in the season had a lot to do with it. It was my best match of the year. I came back from being down 1-7 in a 10 point tiebreaker to win 11-9. I had a pretty lucky stab volley to stop her from match point. To top it off, Boise was a ranked team and they blew me off when I was looking for a college. It was a tennis moment worth celebrating. It was a big year for awards and recognition. I was a finalist at the Robins Awards for “Female Athlete of the Year” for my third year in a row. I was voted MVP all four years. I was also voted hardest worker for the second time. I was named to be on the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-District VIII first team. I was also nominated as Utah State’s “NCAA Woman of the Year”. Then to top it off, I learned with 25 single wins that I had set a single-season school record. It wasn’t a bad way to end my tennis college career.
After finishing up the WAC tournament in Boise, Mike and I decided to go on a little adventure on a little adventure of our own. We decided it would be fun to try a random place on the way back from Boise. We had never been to Twin Falls and we were about to make it happen. Mike saw a sign for Shoshone Falls on his drive up to Boise which had sparked his interest. We began first stopped at the Snake River Canyon. We snapped a few pictures and enjoyed the scenery. We thought about the first people that encountered the gorge. What a shock that would be, eh? After, we observed the magnificence we ventured onward to Shoshone Falls. It is definitely a sight worth seeing. It is huge! It's funny though because when you are driving there it is through random fields. Then you go down a driveway into this little place and BAM there it is. It is really pretty. They also have a little park and swimming hole by the falls. We had fun checking out random people. Some people are so interesting to say the least. We tried to sneak pictures of some of them but we were unable to catch them in time and then the camera died. Don’t worry we ate away our grief at Jack in the Box. Not really, but seriously.
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