Birthday Week and Shannon Visiting

The beach we camped by drown in fog.. The dark line in the middle that extends to both sides of the picture is the jetty that had the stupid foghorn.. and lots of fun tidepools with crabs and starfish
The infamous Golden Gate Bridge..

This was Shannon's idea but I put it up here because it grosses out Bryce when I do something flexy:-)
This is my 'I'm trying to gracefully kick the water and don't ask what my arms are doing' kind of picture
We got fresh California strawberries from a stand down the road and I accidentally overcooked the chocolate, so I was just getting it with my fingers, eating a strawberry and licking my fingers. Shannon came over and tapped me on the shoulder and I turned around like this. I couldn't get away with siphoning all the chocolate for very long..
This is my entire group I went camping with (besides me, but ya know what I look like) from left to right: Patrick, Colton, Rachel, Peter (punk covered his face), Phil, Emily, and Shannon

Blue Angels' famous pyramid formation.. Yikes that's close
"You have good lines" ~Shannon
Who would that be?? None other than Lord of the Dance!! AKA Shannon
Yes, a true treehugger
And KICK!

A heart drawn in the sky by two planes flying side by side, then when they split let out the streamline and do a side flip to get the two sides of th heart, then the third plane (stil in the picture) that comes through for the arrow
Fighter jets that have pretty colored streamlines:)
HUGE FREAKING PLANE. I cannot even describe it.. I'm not close to the Golden Gate Bridge and this is how huge it is in my picture..
If you look really close you see the two planes about the center of the picture that are so close to each other as they cross paths!!
THE BLUE ANGELS!!! HERE AT LAST!!

Well, I haven't written in quite a while, so I'll just summarize the last week because that is realy the only exciting part of October. October 10 to October 19 Shannon came to visit me for my birthday. While she was here we did lots of shopping, visited San Francisco, went to the river, camped on the beach, swam, tanned, and she even came to school with me! I got some extra money for my birthday so I went shopping and got a Roxy jacket, 2 pairs of Hurley shorts and a new pair of shoes:) Shannon also picked up some things because it can't be a vacation without shopping.

Last Sunday we went to San Francisco and Laura and Shane came with us. We left about nine or so and the trip went smooth until just over the bay bridge, then we hit traffic. It was very slow and went across some of the bridge until the toll boothes. We could not figure out why there was so much traffic because usually Sunday is the off day, but not this one. After some thought we realized there wasa 49ers game (after seeing hoards of people driving with 49er memorabilia all over their car or on their person). Though not only that, but there was a parade and it was also the conclusion of fleet week so there was an airshow all afternon featuring the Blue Angels. After driving all over the stupid island because roads kept closing right in front of us, we paid a ridiculous $30 to park and headed to Fisherman's Warf. It was wicked watching the stunt planes out over the bay. I had Shannon's picture and the screen is broken, so I took a ton of pictures of sky because I would guess where the planes were. I need to work on my guessing skills quite a bit. The Blue Angels had an hour of the total show and did some amazing thigns. They made a heart with the smoke, flew straight up then would fall back, fly amazingly close to each otehr, and of course the infamous pyramid of all six planes. I got a few good pictures, but it was dang hard to get because they would be in and out of the shot before I could snap it.

I didn't know much about teh airshow, so I researched it when I got home and found out that the Blue Angels are F-18 Hornets and the whole thing started in 1943 to keep the civilians interested in the airplane programs of the military. over 500 million people have seen the shows and that number is constantly increasing. They have a practice area in Nebraska over lots of deserts so that the sound from the planes doesn't bother the neighborhoods. They got low quite a few times and it was like an earthquake, it was so loud! I was fascinated by it all, so I didn't shop much because I was out on the pier craning my neck skyward to see any sign of a plane. We were going to drive over teh Golden Gate Bridge, but by the time we were leaving we were very ready to go home. Too many people to want to stay in teh city any longer.

Little did I know but Sacramento is also known as the city of rivers. True, we only have two, but they sure are big and have a lot of parks to explore and visit. I am only a few miles from the junction where teh Sacramento and the American river connect. Shannon and I went to Discovery Park which is set on the river and has a couple boat docks, a beach, and a big open park with huge trees. We went picture happy and had lots of fun on the trees and wading in the water. The water was quite comfortable and it was nice to wade, so nice in fact that it was all we could to do resist jumping in fully clothed.

My ward planned on going camping in Bodega Bay on the 17th and 18th, but a few days before it the trip was canceled. We were really mad because that is what I had planned for two whole days! Plus, not camping on the beach really put a damper on our spirits. Luckily, there was a group still going and I knew about it! So we still went. We left Friday afternoon and crammed into Phil's car and Peter's truck. There were a total of eight people going: me, Shannon, Emily, Rachel, Phil, Peter, Patrick and Colton. Five of us were crammed into Phil's car and I got very sick from his driving. After driving all over creation to take teh round about way to the camping site, we finally spilled out of the car and set up camp. For there only being eight of us, there was a huge camp site so we had plenty of room. We started setting up camp and after getting all of the tents laid out Phil realized taht he didn't have the poles for his tent. So, we improvised and put his tent under a tree. He tied the middle of it to the tree and I went up to help him and noticed small gold hooks. So I grabbed the hooks and started hooking them up to the tree. Soon enough, Voila! a tent appeared. I figured out how to move the tree jsut right to not pull the tent too mcuh. We were a hop, skip and a jump away from teh beach so I went down to explore. I loved it. A smal cove, small waves, ripples in the sand, and quiet(except the stupid horn that went off every 8 seconds to warn boats that there was a jetty and to not run into it. the lights on the end must not have been enough..) One by one everyone else came down to join me. We watched teh sunset and played int he waves. I got a little excited and got in up to my knees and turned my back to the waves. I had one hit my knees and go all the way up to my waist.. so I was a bit wet. Peter surprised me when he came up behind me and picked me up around my waist, holding me precariously high over the waves and threatening to throw me in. Luckily he didn't, but teasing continued and the punk stole my phone and I had to chase him all over the beach to get my phone, hoodie and shoes back. I sure got my work out becasue he has long legs and catching up to him, no matter how fast I am, is quite dificult. Colton came late because he had to work, and once he got there we set up a fire and it blazed quite big. It was very warm though! We roasted marshmallows and made s'mores. I probably had about ten marshmallows,but only two s'mores. They got addicting real quick. About eleven Patrick, Emily and Rachel all headed to bed, but the rest of us stayed around the fire to talk. After a battle over the closest chair, Peter ended up sitting on me, but to make things more comfortable I ended up sitting sideways over his lap as an agreement so that we could both sit in the chair. After about twenty minutes of sitting like that Phil caught on and forced himself into Shannon's chair. Poor girl.. It was everything she could do to get out of his lap and get out of his reach. He was really rude and really annoying the whole trip. By the end of Saturday everyone was against him. He really got on all of our nerves and we were al ready to leave him behind. That's all I'm going to say on the matter becasue i could write an entire entry about why we all hate him.. We finally went to bed about 1:30( after I had fallen asleep curled into one of the camp chairs already)

The next morning we all woke up to French toast, a warm fire, and hot chocolate. We just sat around the fire and chatted for a few hours to wake up and to get warm. A thick fog set in overnight, so in the morning everything was wet. It was interesting to step into shoes taht had puddles in them.. It made it really pretty, and finally started to lift right as we left. After much pushing from Phil we packedup camp and were going to head to a beach. We figured one clsoe, but when Phil told us he said it was an hour and half away. We're on the beach and we're traveling how far to go to the stupid beach???!!! Thankfully, Shannon and I got to drive in Peter's truck (Dodge Ram 1500) instead of cramming into Phil's Toyota Corolla and listening to him talk and talk and talk... So we headed south and at least we finally did get to cross the Golden Gate Bridge, but we had to pay the stupid toll.. Then we drove through the heart of San Francisco which took forever because there's always traffic there. We get almost to the end and get a call from Colton that his truck broke down and he's about two miles behind us. So Phil asks us to go back and get him while he makes his merry way down to the beach. Cursing all the way, we flip around and head back through the traffic, and over the median to get to our friends, and of course, right when we get there the truck starts working again. Gotta love irony.. We were ready to just go home, but I honestly wanted to go to teh beach, so we headed down to Pacifica. I had said we could go to one that I knew, Rockaway beach, that I had been to before, but it wasn't a swimming beach. Little did I know that Pacifica is the next beach jsut south of Rockaway, around a giant outcropping of rock. So we went down and got some food, donned our wetsuits, and went running full till into the water. Ha well sorta.. It was nice with a wet suit, so after being swept off my feet in knee deep water I ran in to join in Patrick and Colton who were swimming without wetsuits (yes, they're crazy.. I know). At first I was just swimming, then I tried boogie boarding. I didnt' catch any waves, but it was fun to ride. Colton didn't last long cuz the water was way cold, so it was just Patrick and I and we decided to head closer to the group because we had been pushed very far down the caost by a riptide.. So as we were getting out I got pummeled by a wave as tall as I was and when I peeled my wetsuit off I had showers of rocks come out. Forget having sand everywhere.. I had rocks. I changed quickly otu of my swimming suit and into the only dry clothes I had.. Shorts. We got back to the car and Colton gave me his pajama pants and they were so nice! Such a relief from freezing in my shorts.. It was a fun drive home with Peter. shannon was out cold after the Bay Bridge and so I talked to him the whole way home... Mostly about how mad we were at Phil.

We got home and showered, then met up again (but just Colton, Patrick, Peter, me and Shannon) and watched Surf's Up at Colton's house.. By the end of it though only Shannon adn Patrick were conscious. We hadn't slept much the night before, so we were all exhausted, I curled up on the floor and was out cold, luckily I made it through most of the movie. After the movie Colton pulled me down toward where he was and started tickling me! Then Peter joind in and hit just the right spot that I couldn't even move I was laughing so hard. Luckily I had Shannon there so she gangedup on Colton, but it was a lost cause for me because Peter isn't ticklish. We talked a bit more and then headed home to our nice warm beds. It was a very fun weekend and I was hit on by every guy I went camping with :) Made it very fun though, and now I have a lot more friends than I had before.. I'm happy to have had the chance to get to nkow more people.

Throughout the week we went to the pool by my house and laid out to tan. The first day we jumped in the water, I had stuck my foot int he water and I knew it was cold so I told Shannon not to. We got to the side and jumped in together. We were both hyperventilating by the time we reached the side and frantically climbed otu. The water was ice cold!!! With the last few days of wind we've had it made the water super cold.. We didn't get in again the whole week haha

Sunday Shannon took me shopping so that we could get something for me for my birthday. I got some very cute plaid Hurley shorts from Macy's on sale, and some cute heels from Payless. Taking Shannon to the airport was bittersweet, and I can't wati for Christmas when I get to go home and see all my family. I miss everyone so much!! Sunday night I frantically did homework because I was very behind.. I had a Psychology test on Monday (I think I did well), a Sociology test today (no comment) and a Nutrution test tomorow (Yikes). So now I am back in swing to get a job and to focus on school. There's tons of pictures, because I did a lot and haven't written for a long time. Enjoy!!

Boring Week, But A Thrilling Weekend

Really small because they are from my phone, but this is me in the hospital bed

This is the IV in my arm
How swollen my knee was
Another one of my knees
This was Laura playing with the teal rubber band they used as the tourniquet when giving me the IV. She wanted to keep it as a souvineer so they let us take it home:)

Well, this week hasn't been too horribly exciting. I had a lot of tests and I know that I did well on my Psychology one, but Sociology is another story. I also got some really good compliments from my English teacher on an essay that I wrote. I thought that I had a really good chance at getting a job at Barnes and Noble, but they haven't called me back yet, so I'm giving up on that plan. I have been here for a month and a half and still don't have a job. It's driving me crazy and I won't be able to do it much longer.

Friday night I went to the end of a dance with a guy from my ward named Phil. I was sick of being home and so I texted him and he said he could come get me after work and we'll head up. Well, he didn't get off work until about 11:20, so we missed most of the dance because it ended at midnight and he still had to come get me. After the dance we hung around the church for a while and I met a bunch of people from my ward. They were really cool and fun to talk to. I got the nicknames Roxy Girl (because I was wearing a Roxy shirt) and Miss Utah (because most the people I talked to knew I was from Utah). We found a group that was going over to Matt's house for rootbeer floats, so Phil and I headed that direction. After getting lost, we finally found the house. It was an older house that was rather small, but as you walk in the first thing you see is a grand piano in the kitchen. It was a gorgeous piano and after the invitation to 'go to town' I hit it up. The keys were harder to play, but I loved it. I have a keyboard, but it's nothing like a real piano, especially a grand piano. Phil has played the piano for twenty years, so he showed me up but he knew some really pretty songs. We had rootbeer floats, played the piano, played on a rope swing outside, and finally at about 2:30 am I decided I needed to go home because we were taking Shane to the airport at 4:20. I finally staggered into the house around 3:00 and crashed.

Saturday was Laura's birthday, so after taking Shane to the airport, we came home and went back to bed. I was going to be all sly and make her breakfast in bed but she was up before I was! So I offered to make her breakfast and she was very excited about that. I made her French Toast and then we got ready to go out and run some errands. Shane's birthday is tomorrow so we had to go and get his presents. Saturday night we went to dinner at Olive Garden and because of an enormous wait we just chilled on the front stairs and chatted for about an hour. Towards the end of our wait, we were suddenly surrounded by 20 guys in green polos. And guess who was on this soccer team! Our friend Jake Hustedt that we went to high school with. We were both really surprised to see him and he had the same reaction for us. It was really funny to talk to him. He was with the school Cal Poly from San Luis Obispo and they were up here to play Sac State on Sunday. Our waitress was really nice and funny, and I asked her if they were hiring and she said yes. She gave me some good tips to get the job and even gave me her name and her brother's name to put on my resume.

Well, Sunday was a very thrilling day. Saturday mornign when I woke up my left knee was really hurting me. Throughout the day it started getting really swollen and red. I was able to ignore it Saturday, but when I got up Sunday I could hardly walk. I couldn't put much weight on it and I couldn' bend it. I called the ask a nurse hotline to see waht I should do. She asked me if it was red, which I now noticed it had a circle around it about the size of a baseball or a softball. She then asked me if it was warm. Talk about a weird question, but to my surprise, it was. She said that it was probably an infection and that I should go to the ER to have it checked out. After calling my parents to tell them what was going on, I told Laura and she offered to come with me. I drove us there and we got in and checked in. I had a fever of 99.2 and could hardly walk. I couldn't bend my knee so I was walking really funny too. They took me into a room and I got into one of those fun hospital gowns and waited for the doctor. He came in and pushed every part on my knee that just screamed in pain and I almost wacked his hand out of the way because it hurt, but I managed to stop myself. He tested my lungs and heart to see if there were any other causes and then said that I would need and IV to get some antibiotice because I did, indeed have an infection in my knee. I was really nervous and happy that Laura was with me to hold my hand. They tried in my right arm and missed twice, so another nurse came in and tried in my left arm where after some prodding around he finally got it. It was very painful and I cried more than I expected to. It was interesting to have the IV because once the plastic tube was in my vein I couldn't really feel it. They drew some blood to do tests and then hooked me up to an antibiotic called Vicromiacin, or something close to that. It started making me itch, so I got some Benedryl straight into my bloodstream and was tired within minutes. Luckily I had Laura to drive me home. It took an hour for the entire 250 mL of the antibiotic to go in, but it was worth the wait and the blood test results were back by then. My white blood cell count was high, which usually means your body is fighting something off.

After being at the hospital for nearly six hours we finally headed home. We went to Target to get my prescription and then stayed home. I had so many painkillers and antibiotics in my blood stream taht I could not stay conscious. I was asleep by 8:30 and dont recall much of what happened besides my dad calling me about 9:30 and textign Bryce a bit. I slept on the couch because I couldn't wake up enough to get into my bed. I slept for thirteen hours and today my knee looks a lot better. A lot less redness and reduced swelling. I can bend it more now, but it still is very tender and very sore.

Not a Very Thrilling Week..

I updated this mid-week so now it's weird to be doing it so soon, but I made a goal to update it every Sunday. Yes, I know I've said this before so hopefully this time I can stick with it.
Well, I found out that I got a 92% on my very first college test! It was nutrition and not hard because I studied like mad! But I was very happy to do well. This week has been a continuation of job searching and trying to find some place that will hire me. I have been here for over a month and I am still finding myself unemployed. Laura and Shane got a job today at Sears Auto Center. They are very excited and should start at the end of this week.
I am hoping that I get the job at Barnes and Noble because it just fits so well with who I am and the fact that I LOVE to read. I've applied to a lot of restaurants too and those would be ideal jobs as well because servers here in California get minimum wage of $8.00 per hour plus tips instead of like $2.13 per hour like they do in Utah.
Well, I have made lots of friends here. I am trying to make friends in every class and it's hardest in Nutrition because everyone is so quiet, but I've managed to at least get some that I can talk to in class. Psychology I have a few friends and the teacher is really awesome.. Plus there's this really cute boy but I haven't really talked to him much :) In Sociology I have three friends who I met the first day. Tehy are very funny and one of them is in my ward! Plus I talk to my teacher a lot. She signs with me because her daughter is Deaf, so she knows some ASL. In English I think I am friends with my entire class. The class being focused around argument we always talk and before class too. It's been a lot of fun and that is by far my favorite class.
Well, this week I'm hitting job searching straight on and hard. I need a job, I cannot wait around anymore and I'm going crazy just sitting around at home!
No pictures this week because nothing exciting happened, unless you want a picture of my test haha :)

New House

This is my cute house:) We're in a weird T Court thing. So it's our house facing south, two facing east and one opposite ours facing north. Very strange, and we passed it trying to find it haha
Cool, random cabinets. the door on the left is where my room is, but I conveniently forgot to take a picture of my room :)

We have a really cool entry way, it's round! Ha, and the only tile in our house.
This is Laura standing in Shane's room.
Our magic never ending pantry!!!! It has the shelves you can see, then it extends down and around under the stairs. Awesome hide and seek place!!
Our awesome kitchen!
Opposite the kitchen is the living room where we now have a couch and a tv and such. Where most of our lives are spent.

Well, part of moving out is moving in. So after a bunch of trips down here we found the perfect house. It's four bedroom three full bath. About 1200 sq. feet and in a gorgeous neighborhood. We have access to three parks and an olympic size pool. It's just off the freeway and very close to a bunch of new shopping centers so it's awesome to be close to everything we need!

Well, September wasn't very exciting either. I at least have school to keep me busy and I am still trying to find some employment. Laura and Shane started school at the Universal Technical Institute (UTI) on Monday. It's fun to hear everything they are learning. Shane goes in the morning and Laura in the afternoon so we finally aren't all home at the same time.

August, Yes I know it's September, but this entry is just for August

This is our entire group for backpacking. Except Bryce who was taking the picture. From left to right it's Mimi, Jackie, Chris, Zack and me.

Our first fish! This one we cut up and cooked for dinner. I'm not a fan of fish, but I figured I'd try this one and it wasn't too bad. It was a trout. Bryce is very proud of it :)

Yes, Marz using her amazing fishing skills. Ha whatever, I totally faked what I was doing!

This is Jackie and Mimi watching Bryce and I attempt to fish. They were fun to talk to. :)

Ha, this is Bryce, that is my sweater. We were fishing and he was cold and I was hot, so I took off my sweater but it was a lot smaller than I thought it would be. Ha but it was so funny I just had to take a picture of it.

This is Bryce trying to throw me in the lake. You can see my leg lifted because I was getting out of is arms. Also notice how tight my hand is around his neck. This means that if he dares to throw me in, he is coming in there with me.

The hand you see in the picture belongs to Bryce, the wet spot on my butt is where Bryce was holding me because the punk picked me up and he was wet!

This is me and Mimi in the water. It felt so good after we got used to it!

Well, as I was getting out Bryce thought it'd be funny to jump over me. Unfortunately, he slipped on the rock as he ws jumping and nearly hit me in the head. I realized he was going over me and it's a good thing I just stayed where I was because he barely missed my head. But now we were both in the water, so I got back at him for pushing me in :)

Ha, this is me and Chris pushing Bryce in. It's hard to see, but I had grabbed his wrists and tried to pull him in. Though at the time I didn't nkow that Chris was pushing from behind.

See, after I was so used to the water I didn't want to get out. So I jsut sat down. Ha jk. AFter walkign back to camp my pants were all dirty and gross so I brought down a change of clothes and was washing off my pants. It just happened to be easiest if I just sat down. Ha little did I nkow Jackie was behind me with my camera.

Lucky me, I was shivering so much but Bryce had a blanket right there and ready for me:)

Well, in case you didn't know I am very behind. So I will do what I did last time I was behind and organize it by the month. The end of July was uneventful as far as I remember, besides of course Logan, Rachel, and little Eva coming to visit! Well, I officially moved to Sacramento California on August 14. So the two weeks before that spent a lot of time with the kids and with friends too. I went country dancing twice, once with Bryce, Jaymz, Shanda and Heather, then the second time it was just me and Jaymz and we did hip hop too which was so much fun! I learned a bunch of cool new tricks and also had someone there helping me with tumbling. Little did I know that he taught!

I also had the chance to go backpacking up Little Cottonwood Canyon with Bryce and a whole group of friends. That was probably the funnest overnight trip I have been on in a while. While hiking three miles and gaining approximately 3000 feet in elevation, we finally got to the gorgeous lake and camped out. I got to go fishing for the very first time and Bryce and I even caught two fish! But one little rascal decided to spite us and jumped off the line jsut out of our grasp. After three miles I had the biggest blisters on my feet I've ever had to endure. We were going to do a big hike the next day, but Bryce twisted his ankle pretty bad and my feet hurt so bad I didn't even want to wear my shoes.

So the second day was full of more fishing, napping and just all around relaxing time. About the hottest time of the day we all decided to jump in the lake. I really wanted to go swimming so I was ecstatic. Zack was the first one to get in and he just ran in but was out of there so fast he didn't even get his shoulders wet! It was shockingly cold :) Bryce was next but more brave, so he ran and jumped as far as he could off the edge of the rock. He came back about as fast as Zack did. Well, lucky me I was next in line but had to really talk myself into jumping into freezing water, so Bryce tried to persuade me by picking me up and trying to throw me in, but I got out of his grasp and told him to let me jump in myself. Well, he did put me down but thought I needed more persuasion so he so nicely shoved me in. Man it's a good think I like him. Mimi jumped in too, and we finally got Chris in. Well, Bryce had pushed me and Chris in and he was trying to push me in again, so I jsut sat down on the rock, well, Bryce leaned over to push me in and I grabbed his shoulders and pulled him over my head at the same time that Chris pushed from behind. It was great revenge:) Except that he almost hit a rock.. Mimi and I were in the longest because after I got used to it I didn't want to get out so i was just swimming and chilling and nsinking because I was in my jeans. Well we all got out and decided to change and pack up to head home. I was colder than I thought though so when I got out of the water I was shivering a lot. I had Bryce to keep me warm and after I changed out of my wet clothes it wasn't so bad. Well, we bandaged my ankles and headed down the mountain. It was a long, painful trip down but I have never been so happy to see my car.

Sunday me, Brandon, Skyler, and Laura all went for a motorcycle ride. We went up to Wasatch and over South Mountain. It was a very pretty ride and we all had a lot of fun. I saw Skyler a lot the next three days. He had nothing to do so he kept coming over to my house.

Bryce decided to give me a going away date and we went up to our spot on south mountain and looked over old journal entries and old texts that we had kept. We played a lot of songs that had sentimental value and it made for a very good memory of the last days before I moved so far away.

I drove my car down with my mom and Dee because we had to be tehre a day early to pick up our key for the house. Bryce came over to see me right before I left and my dad came down from teh cabin so he could see me. I didn't nkow he was going to, but I was so happy to see him. I can't imagine having left without getting a hug for so long. It was so hard to say goodbye, but I managed to hold back the tears. So we cleaned it and went shopping for furniture and got a bunch of stuff done. Saying goodbye to my mom when she left California was not as easy as it had been in Utah. This was my last lifeline that I had and it was leaving me too. We cried a lot, as did Laura and Dee. After lots of hugs our parents left and we were officially college studnts living on our own. The next two weeks was filled with lots of movies and not much excitement. We didn'th ave school or work so there realy wasn't anything we had to do. We have over 150 movies and I think we watched most of them.

School started on August 25 and I love it. I have Psychology, Sociology, Nutrition and English. it is very interesting and I have learned a lot!

Lots of Vacationing

Our infamous tree. We have a picture in this tree when I was about... 8? And I'm in the same position as I was when I was younger. Only this time I climbed there myself instead of my dad just putting me up there..
Our whole family with the cute bride and groom.. Joe and Heidi
Bam! The one in the middle is me. This is our China dance.. We're contortionists so every move is some flexy thing. It was great fun.
Our four girl stunt group mid hand spring. Mckelle is the little one in green, our flyer. I'm the one in orange shorts. Dani is the one in pink. And Caleigh is the one in green in the back.

My strange family playing with all the balloons after the show. We got some fun pictures!


My oh so concentrated look as I did the word search on the back of the Nerds box and wouldn't let my mother help me. She thought she could be sneaky and get a picture of me being mean, but I just stuck my tongue out at her.
This is how we slept in the car.. Stacked


This is Shannon and I right after we caught the flowers

This is us after we tried to decide who got to keep the flowers..

Me on graduation day.. I have a collar for NHS, a cord for honor roll, a cord for NHS, and then everyone got a medallion because we are the 100th graduating class from Jordan High.

At least one of us looks cute.. But mom is always cute :)
My entire family on graduation day. But my poor sister Rachel couldn't make it because she lives in Ohio, but I know she wanted to be there and I feel so bad about leaving her out of this picture! I still love ya Rachel:) They all came to support me. Bryce did too.


Little did you know but that is me on the back of the motorcycle.. In so much gear that I don't look at all like myself. It's my dad and Brandon's gear. The helmet is the only thing that fits..


Well, since July 4th I have played with many explosives and spent WAY too many hours cooped up in a car or on a motorcycle. On July 10th my family all piled into one car and drove down to LA for Joe's wedding. He was married on July 12th in the LA temple. It was very fun to go down and see the temple and such. We stayed in the temple apartments and it was awesome to be so close to the temple. We tinkered around LA on Friday night and were going to go to the beach but there were so many people that we just drove by it and then headed back. Saturday was a good lazy day. We went to a beach in Ventura and the water was perfect! We played in the sand with all the little sand crabs.
Then we headed up to Buellton for the reception that was at the church that night. While getting ready I found out that I got a four on each of the AP tests I took. I took Calculus and English. The most exciting part of that was that Shannon and I caught the boquette. Then Brandon caught the Garder. We got back to the hotel late and all fell asleep immediately. We were all toasted.
The next morning we stopped in at Paula's Pancake House in Solvang and had breakfast. It was very good! Then came the long trip home. After taking an hour detour to get three tires for the car and a trip to the beach we finally headed home. It was the longest trip ever! We left about 9:00 California time after our long detour and we didn't get home until 1:20 a.m. Utah time. We had to change drivers a lot and stopped in Hurricane to drop dad off for a few days. I read a lot, watched movies, slept and we played a guessing game. We had some very random things to guess. Caution cones, telephone pole, anteater, tractor, stuffed animal, etc. It was very fun to come up with things to guess.
Tuesday morning Rachel and Logan came into Utah. I didn't see them much because I was working, but on Wednesday and Thursday we all took a trip up to Steve's cabin. It was gorgeous weather and I got to ride the motorcycle all the way up there with Brandon. It was a very fun filled two days. We went four wheeling, I read a lot, played games, played on the kid killer (long story but it's basically a telephone pole swing thing that is near the edge of a cliff..) and had a lot of fun visiting together.
Friday was my last day as a nanny. It was bittersweet. We went to Olive Garden for lunch and then headed up to their house so that I could help them pack because they left for Europe on Saturday. I didn't ever want to leave their house. It meant that things were really ending. I finally managed to leave. Only a few tears were shed. I will miss them so much. After 2 1/2 years with them I have developed a great love for those kids. I have learned a lot and now know a lot of tips of what to do and what not to do when I become a parent.
I went on a beautiful hike up Little Cottonwood Canyon with Bryce on Saturday. It was sweltering heat in the valley, but up in the mountains it was perfect. Lots of wild flowers.
This week I am going to California to find a house and going to the cabin again this weekend with Bryce and my parents. (Yes, we're all very surprised and ecstatic that his parents said yes..) I found out today that I have enough money for school and found some prospective jobs. The whole California idea is finally coming together.