Fun things to do in Rexburg

So, I've lived in Rexburg for over a year and at first I had a hard time finding things to do in this small town. Here is a list of some fun ideas of things to do in Rexburg for all the many students!






Summer Time:
-Go to Tautphaus Park Zoo in Idaho Falls
-Go the The Riot Zone in Rigby, tons of fun stuff to do!
-Walk around the green belt in Idaho Falls
-Rigby Lake, the splash park (for the kiddies), and Rexburg Rapids are always fun!
-Climb R mountain
-Go hiking/camping at Beaverdick Park, Sheffield RV Park, Desert Oasis RV Park, Rainbow Lake and Campground, Heise Hot Springs, Twin Bridges, Table rock campground (you might have to travel a little bit)
-Go fishing!
-Go star gazing on the back roads
-Go to the drive in St. Anthony
-Plant flowers or veggies. See how they grow, it's pretty dang cool
-Float down the river that runs through town.
-Go wade in the river
-Play night games at the park. Examples: Mafia, Fugitive, Kick the can, hide and go seek, ghost in the graveyard etc.
-Fly a kite. You can buy one or make one at home!

Winter Time:
-Get some hot chocolate and a cupcake at the Cocoa Bean. Delicious! For cheaper but still tasty hot cocoa you can go to Maverick or Chevron. They have hot cocoa and yummy things to put in it.
-Go Caroling! Get a group together sing some awesome Christmas songs
-Be someone's secret Santa. Bring them something nice once a week until Christmas, or for 12 days before Christmas. Examples would be little treats, ornaments, or pieces of a Nativity set.
-Make Holiday treats. Some ideas would be peppermint cookies, Christmas pinwheels, a Gingerbread house.
-Make an advent calendar for someone in your family or for your kids. You can make them out of cupcake pan. You just cover each hole with cute paper and a number on each one. Put some candy behind each one.
-Take a bubble bath! That is about the only thing that can warm me up in the winter. Go all out and put on a face mask, do your nails, and eat something delicious. Bubbles are a must though. :)
-Movie Marathon! Since it's cold and you don't want to go outside, do a movie marathon with the kids, the husband, or the friends!  Examples: Disney, Barbra Streisand, Back to the Future, Star Trek, Star Wars, Harry Potter, LOTR, Pirates, Toy Story, Santa Claus, Christmas in general.
-Play Christmas music and decorate your tree! Dig up all of those awesome ornaments and make a new one out of something around the house!
-Have a hot cocoa party! Have everyone bring their favorite kind of hot cocoa. You provide the marshmallows and additives (Vanilla, Cinnamon, Carmel, etc)
-Go on a walk/drive and see the Christmas lights! Some people go all out! Take pictures of the best one of that year, and the next year, compare.
-Make snow ice cream! I grew up with this tradition. You find some CLEAN snow, fill a bowl up with it. Put a little milk, a little sugar, and a drop of your favorite extract in it. I always did Root Beer, some of my siblings did Mint or Strawberry.
-Make a snow fort! When I was a kid, I loved to make forts and make the hills on them slippery so I could slide down.
-Make colored snow. Here's a How-To link    http://www.ehow.com/how_2068107_make-colored-snow-spray.html
-Go ice skating on the rink on campus
-Go ice blocking on a hill on campus

Autumn Time:

-Corn Mazes
-Go Hunting!
-Find a cute sweater at the D.I (it is possible) and take some fall pictures with your friends.
-Go to the football scrimmages at BYUI, or go to a high school football game. Sometimes it's fun to go and support the local team and paint your face
-Start a leaf collection, learn how to press leaves. Here's a how-to link.  http://www.wikihow.com/Press-Flowers-and-Leaves
-Do some service--it's always appreciated and feels pretty awesome too. Rake your neighbors yard. You
 can jump in it afterwards! (but then you've got to clean it up again)
-Make a killer halloween costume and take pictures or go to a Halloween party!
-Have an ugly sweater party. Pretty self explanatory.
-Go on a bike ride
-Carve pumpkins. You can also drill hry ice oles in the pumpkin, paint designs, put dry ice in it's mouth and carve a creepy face on it
-Paint or take pictures of the fall leaves, SO BEAUTIFUL.
-Make a pie
-Make apple cider


ANY TIME:

-Walk around and look at houses. My husband and I do this sometimes. It's fun and you can get ideas of what you want your future home to look like.
-Go on a date and try a new restaurant! There are so many delicious and interesting restaurants in Rexburg, Rigby, Idaho Falls!
-Explore your surroundings! I like to discover the places where I live. I drove to Sugar City and St. Anthony and looked around. Surprisingly there are a few cool things to see there.
-Go to the gym! It feels good to do something nice for your body! There are a ton of cool dance/exercise classes that are really fun. There are also free classes on campus. I went to Zumba, it was pretty much every night, and it was awesome!
 - Go to Heise Hot Springs in Ririe or if you're in the mood for a longer roadtrip, hit up Lava Hot Springs, Downata Hot Springs.
-Take some fun pictures around town. There are the train tracks, the old mill looking building by Broulims, the old tabernacle, and lots of beautiful farm land that make great backgrounds!
- Take advantage of the Madison County Library. There are a ton of books, music, and movies there! They also provide packets for book clubs, if you want to start your own!
-Go to the D.I (it's especially loaded of good stuff in between semesters) and find a project to work on. For girls, you can find ugly figurines and picture frames and spray paint them.   For guys, there are sports, computer, video game stuff and much more! You can get roller blades/skates and skate on the skaterink on campus. 

 
-Try one of the many ice cream places in Rexburg. Which one is the best? Millhollow, G's Dairy, Dairy Queen, Arctic Circle, Coldstone? There are also two Frozen Custard places in Rexburg. Try them out! BRC'S and Nielson's.
-Go to Broulims with some friends or with your spouse. Each of you find a food item that you normally wouldn't eat. Go home and make a meal with it somehow.
-Make ice cream in a bag. Yum!
-Make pizza at home with all your favorite toppings
-Try one of Rexburg's many pizza places. There is Dominoes, Pizza Hut, Little Caesars, Five Buck pizza, and others.
-Go to one of the Fong's Chinese Restaraunts. SO good.
-Explore all of the little shops in Rexburg you've never been to.
-Go to Great Harvest and get some bread.
-Go to Sammy's. They have great food and have live music most weekends
-Want some breakfast?  Try out Paradise Doughnuts
-Go to the cheap theater. They have great deals on certain days of the week
-Had a tough day or week? Go to Fat Cats and do some bowling or arcade games
-Take up a new hobby. Sewing, Crafting, Knitting, Sports, Mechanics, Painting, etc
-There are always events on campus such as concerts, art exhibits, and other performances.

Riding a bike!

So, recently, my neighbor wanted to give away her bike and I graciously volunteered to take if off her hands. I was so excited! Adam and I put air in it today and I went on a little ride. It's amazing how nice it feels to just enjoy the little things. Lately, I've been trying to stop waiting for my life to start, and realizing that I'm living my life. Adam, work, school, this town, it is my life and I need to make it as great as I can make it. I encourage you to enjoy the little things in life like a nice bike ride, a nice ice cream cone on a hot day, the little things that get you through the bad days.

How I love Board Games!

Since I got married, I've really enjoyed playing board games. Adam and I like strategic board games.  Some of our favorites are:

Bohnanza-A game where you trade beans and plant fields, but have to be smart in each move.  Pretty addictive.  

Carcassone- A game of building roads, churches and cities.  Another strategic game.

Citadels-A game where you earn money, have character cards with special abilities, and build districts.

If YOU have any fun board games you like to play, leave a comment. And you should all look into those games I mentioned :)

Fun Kids Things!

Fun Kid Ideas for the future:
<-- Crayon Box on the Go! (Soap box)
                                  By: http://www.simplyfrugalmom.com

<--Homemade glow in the dark slime for little boys!
                                  By: http://domesticcharm.blogspot.com

<--"Pumpkin Poop" Cute Idea for Halloween
                                  By: http://www.etsy.com

It'll be fun trying out all these ideas someday! There are so many cool ideas of fun things to do with your kid even on stormy and boring days!

Winger's Sticky Fingers!
My neighbor and I made these for our husbands and they were AMAZING.  They tasted exactly like the real thing. I Love love love yummy recipes :)

Here's the link to where I found the recipe!

http://www.favfamilyrecipes.com/2009/01/just-like-wingers-sticky-fingers-and-2.html

"Bonds That Make Us Free" Great Book!

"Bonds That Make Us Free" by C. Terry Warner is an excellent read.  This book helps you realize where you're going wrong with communicating with others.  It is a very humbling book and at times hard to read if you're stubborn like me and tend to think you're never wrong.  But it really did change my outlook and it showed me all of the times that I looked for things to be wrong with someone, making it impossible for them to meet or exceed my expectations.  Here's a great quote from the book so that you have an idea of what it's about...

“Except in a very few matches, usually with world-class performers, there is a point in every match (and in some cases it's right at the beginning) when the loser decides he's going to lose. And after that, everything he does will be aimed at providing an explanations of why he will have lost. He may throw himself at the ball (so he will be able to say he's done his best against a superior opponent). He may dispute calls (so he will be able to say he's been robbed). He may swear at himself and throw his racket (so he can say it was apparent all along he wasn't in top form). His energies go not into winning but into producing an explanation, an excuse, a justification for losing.”

It pointed out a lot of my flaws and weaknesses, in a way that wasn't discouraging but change-motivating.  If you're getting to the point that I reach every so often where you feel like you're missing something or need to change somehow,read this book. 

My Blog of Beautiful Things

The  meaning of Merle:
The reason I chose this name for my blog was because of an experience I had that really stuck with me.  I was living in a new town, trying to make it on my own.  I was desperately trying to make ends meet and the great life experience I was hoping for seemed to be a bust.  One night, a friend I had made played me the song "Blackbird" by The Beatles on his guitar.  The words rang true to me in this stage of my life.  I knew I needed to stay and try my hardest to keep afloat because there was something great that would come of it.  Well, I stayed for a while and learned some great lessons as well as grew up a little bit.  One of the things I learned was that we can all be free.  We can be free from our pain, free from our circumstance, and free from all of the bitterness in life, even if it's only in our minds. If we can find the little joys in life and cling to them, then the ugliness won't be so ugly.  So this is my blog of beautiful things.  I also chose the French word for Blackbird because I've always wanted to go to Paris. I am a photographer and that has always been on my bucket list.  To me, Paris represents a part of myself that throws caution into the wind and goes out and seeks adventure.   Please feel free to leave ideas and comments of what makes you happy and what gets you through the hard days. 

Thanks,

Emily