About Luke

Where to start? My name is Luke, I am 6'2" 180lbs, light brown hair and blue eyes. I have a great family and have been very blessed. I don't know if words can express who I am and what type of life I live, so I decided to tell my story with pictures. I hope the writing doesn't bore you!

I can't tell my story without a bit about how great my parents are. They got married when they were 22 and 19 years old and had children soon after. Having young parents was great and let us be a very active family. We always wrestled with dad and played basketball or other sports with them both. We played in the snow, sledding and skiing, and in the water swimming and boating. We hiked mountains and took long bike rides. We always went to church and were taught to love God. I love my family very much.

My mom is Cindy and my dad is Philip. I am the second of four children: Jesse, me, Zach, Andrea. We are at the Oregon coast on the left, and at Crater Lake on the right.

I was born with a love for family, strawberry pies, and soccer! Among other things. There are few foods I don't like and even fewer sports. I would rather be playing a sport than watching it on television, but live events are fun.

 

I was lucky to have an older and younger brother to play sports with. My sister wasn't that into athletics but we also had fun with her.

I started playing the viola in 5th grade but we moved to a school that didn't have orchestra so I picked up the trombone. I continued to play the trombone through my first year of college. I still enjoy live band music and orchestras and we go to concerts whenever we can.

We have been really close to our extended family while growing up and I have maintained close relationships with many of my cousins. Here is one trip I took with my younger brother and two cousins, Chris and Calvin, to Yosemite and to Mexico. It was so much fun!

Two of us forgot sleeping bags so we tried to share but it got very cold camping in Yosemite. When we got to Mexico we had many fun outings including horseback riding.

My cousin Chris also came with Courntie and me to Alaska for a summer to work. We made some new friends (like Steve below) and had a lot of adventures. We hiked all over, kayaked, fished, went whale watching and chased bears away from the garbage cans. On the right we are in a small cave under a large glacier, the blue of the ice was incredible.

My cousin Nate is like a little brother and would follow me everywhere. Here we were boating with him, my dad, and my older brother (rest of family on shore or behind the camera).

This is a 4th of July vacation on the lake at McCall, Idaho. We are waiting for the firework show and watching my nieces and nephew play with sparklers.

Other times we get together for some hiking or boating...
This is my immediate family.

We have been on rafting trips with both Courtnie's and my families.

We like to paintball and go skeet shooting. From left to right you see me, Courtnie, Derek (brother-in-law), Zach, and Andrea.

When it snows we go sledding or skiing and snowboarding. Here we have my niece Kelsey on the sled.

Courtnie and I love playing games of all kinds. We frequently play card and board games with both our families. Below is pictured Courtnie's dad and sister playing dominoes with us.

When I was in under-grad I went to Hawaii for a year of school. It was a great experience and my family was happy to come visit. Even my grandparents got to come. Below are my parents with my grandparents having the best shave ice on Oahu, then eating at an authentic Luau (the purple stuff is poi and makes good rolls).

 

Here are my other grandparents on my mom's side. This is pictured near their home in St George, UT because we didn't get any pictures of both of them in Hawaii.

I didn't go to Hawaii until after I served a mission to Chile. The best two years of my life, until I got married to Courtnie! The work was hard but rewarding.

Elder Jeffery R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles came to a couple conferences in Chile. He taught us, shook our hands and gave us hugs. He is a great man!

After Hawaii I was accepted to pharmacy school and while there I met Courtnie. I was friends with her roommate and after a few group activities I realized Courtnie was really cool! I wanted to see more of her, so we started dating. We got married about a year after we started dating and it is the best thing that has happened to me since birth. Courtnie was being very social at the luncheon until I finally carried her out on my shoulder.

While we were in college we did lots of fun stuff. Mostly inexpensive things like laser tag and bowling. College offers a lot of opportunities, and while there we got Scuba Certified and I also got a Private Pilot's License.

 

I love putting my Pilot License to use. I rent a plane at the local airport and like to take friends up to experience the magic of flight.

I graduated with a Doctor of Pharmacy in May 2009.

My whole family came out to the graduation party. They got me a decorated cake and we had a BBQ. It was a great day!

Since then Courtnie and I have been on a lot of adventures. Here we were swimming in Lake Superior on a trip to Michigan.

The Statue of Liberty! Not the real one, this is a replica at Lake Coeur D'Alene.

The happiest place on earth... Disneyland. We got to ride Segways in the Epcot Cntr.

Winter fun snowboarding at Wolf Creek near Pagosa, CO.

 These are some silly photos we took while in New Mexico.

 We have been back to Hawaii several times and plan to take our kids there maybe every other year. We got close enough to a lava flow on the Big Island to throw rocks into the lava. It was a long hike to get there.

 

  At home we find entertainment with good movies, music, and art. We don't claim to be artists but got bored one day and tried to replicate Van Gogh's Wheat Field with Cypresses. 

I love my truck. I paid it off within a year as I don't like to be in debt. We also have an '09 Honda Civic Hybrid that is payed off. Now the only debt we have is the house and we're paying it off as fast as we can.

Here I'm skating with my good friend Kyle at his brother's birthday party. We're just rolling in for the cake and ice cream with their friends and family. On the right we are bowling with Courtnie's family, her dad is in the background.

We went to visit Martin's Cove along the Mormon Trail. This summer we will do a trek with the youth including crossing the Sweetwater and climbing Rocky Ridge with full hand-carts.

We went to one of the largets Balloon Festivals in the country and I milked the creamland cow. I did milk cows growing up, my family had about a dozen beef cows and a milk cow which gave us good milk. My brothers and I milked her every morning and evening.

I don't have many work pictures although I spend a lot of time there. I am a pharmacist and a Commissioned Officer of the Indian Health Service. As such I get full military benefits including health care for myself and my family. Although work is not really fun, I do enjoy my job. We are required to wear a uniform to work every day with few exceptions like Halloween.

If you saw "Batman: The Dark Knight" then you will remember the Joker going to the hospital in a nurse outfit like the one I'm wearing here. And of course you will recognize the Ninja Turtles.