Cami Bringhurst

My Love/Hate Relationship With Pinterest

2012-02-08T09:15:00.000-08:00

I LOVE Pinterest because it inspires me, and gives me the ideas and instructions to create all of these:

Cute popcorn bowls made with paper mache'

cards..Cards...CARDS!!!

Bleach pen shirts

Wash Rags

Hats!

HATS!!!!

Flower Pillow

Thanksgiving Wreath

Christmas Wreath

Valentine Wreath

and coming soon... an Easter Wreath.

I HATE Pinterest because it inspires me, and gives me the ideas and instructions to create ALL of those......

Going SOUTH!

2012-01-02T23:11:00.000-08:00

Well this year I got to experience something that I have never experienced before. I got to be someone's Christmas Surprise! So my Dear Little Cousin Tierney wanted to see Me for Christmas/New Years and had been giving her Father some trouble about it. We have spent the last 3 New Years together so she didn't want to ruin the tradition. Well her Parents haven't been able to see her as much as they would have liked cause she is now off to college. So they wanted her to stick around, so they asked if I wanted to head out to their neck of the woods. To which I responded, "YES PLEASE!!!"

So the plan was concocted. She was told that my Uncle Ron's friend York was going to come for a visit there the day after Christmas and she was suppose to go get him at the Airport, instead of York I would be standing there with that lovely sign!

She started getting suspicious though and he had to trick her into thinking she was coming to Utah a couple of days after Christmas. It worked though, cause she was SURPRISED!!! Uncle Ron tried to point out a lot a "York's". Tierney said 'That's not York, but that girl over there looks a lot like Cami". At that point she saw my sign, the screaming commenced, and everyone in the near vicinity was throughly confused. It was great fun! That night we went out to dinner and game back home to some serious Game-age!!! Which was a reoccurring theme the whole trip! I LOVED IT!!!

On Tuesday we hung around in the morning. I got to go out and get a Grapefruit right off the tree for Breakfast, which was AMAZING!

We went out to Lunch with one of Tierney's buddies from school and then went to the dollar store, we got some great entertainment there. Not only did we get some supplies for New Year's, we got some grab bags full of some....uh....interesting things, and some Mustaches. See Below....

We spent the rest of the day playing games, we even had a Puzzle War, which I won, because of my Amazing Skill!

Uncle Ron also put on a fire for us, so we wouldn't get to cold in the 60 degree weather.....

On Wednesday, Tiern and I went out in the morning and got Pedicures!

It was my first ever, and I am a fan. It does tickle, and I was a little embarrassed cause the lady went to town on my heels and there was skin flying everywhere! But it felt good and my heels are now silky smooth! After another stop off at the Dollar store for some more grab bags we headed out to Tempe to visit Lauren! She had to work a lot, and she is all grown up and living away from home, so I didn't get to see her as much as I would have liked, but I still got to see her quite a bit!

We went out to dinner at this great place and they had a good time teasing me about my Sweet Potato Fries. I thought they were spicy and they thought they were sweet and that I was CRAZY! Afterwards we went back to Lauren's place and played a very INTENSE game of Farkle, in which Lauren and I almost gave Tierney a run for her money, but ended up losing horribly. Then we headed off to a movie!

On Thursday, we took a scenic drive out and checked out 'Out of Africa'. It is new and it was a first time for them too. Let me just say, IT WAS STELLAR!!!

You get to go on this Safari out with all these animals from Africa and you get to feed and touch the giraffe's!

Tierney went for a kiss at the urging of our guide, and she was all for it!

It was SO funny to watch! I LOVE this picture too, cause they both looked grossed out by the kiss. Something, I totally get!

Then there were the Zebra's that tried to get a ride. It was cool that we sat upfront, they were right there!

Then there is the little baby.

The guide showing us the ostrich hug, which was very precious!

Here is the cute little armadillo that I got to pet....

..and the cu.....the anaconda I got to hold!

Tierney held him too, but she was NOT a fan!

We wandered our way on up to where they have some programs and looked at the animals along the way. There were a lot and they were all over the place. It was so cool.

They had this show called 'Tiger Splash', where they do things to instigate the Tiger's natural hunting instincts so you get an idea of how they do it. It was pretty cool to see.

This is the beautiful one that did the demonstration.

Then they showed us a real big Python. We volunteered Tierney to go in there and she was not very happy with us!

After the crowd left and things died down, Aunt Patty and I went in and hung out with the snake. He was Harmless....

They also had a thing about Hyena's and they are quite funny. I learned that the Hyena laughs when he is angry. SO, if you are ever confronted by a Hyena in the wild and he starts laughing, then you should just get out a there. If it starts mooing though, your ok, he is just saying 'hi'. Just a useful tip that you will probably need to know....cause you never know.

The beautiful little bear. I think they may have taken a little liberty with this one, since I am fairly sure they don't have Grizzley's in Africa.

Then some Kitty's. This was actually one of the highlights. There were quite a few Lion cages scattered throughout the park and at sundown the most incredible thing happened, and we were literally standing right in the middle of it all. One started roaring, and then another, and they another, til we were completely surrounded by roaring Lion's!!! I got a little Video but it doesn't do it justice you just had to be there, cause you could feel the vibrations through you. It was just INCREDIBLE!

So I am a big fan. If you are near Flagstaff, that is the place to visit!

On the way home we went to the Outlet Mall in Anthem and it has a ridiculously huge tree. It is REAL, and Tall! So we got some Pics, also I nabbed a real cute sweater (that I am currently wearing) from the Banana. We also had to check out the bathrooms cause they advertise on their huge sign that they are sparkling. Welp, I didn't see any sparkles, but I did see some toilet paper on the floors and something on the seat. I think they need to rethink the advertising strategy. It was a cool place regardless.

Here is one from right below that monster, so impressed!

That night after our Dinner at Johny Rockets, we went home and watched Hatari. I have always loved that movie cause I have fond memories of watching it with my Grandpa, also who doesn't like the Duke, but this time was pretty cool cause it was right after our own little Safari experience. There wasn't a better time to watch it.

We took a moment during the flick to take a picture of me and Sammy! He was my little buddy the whole trip. So cute! Tierney said that everybody likes their other dog Mocha better, but not me, he was too much of a licker. Tierney also said that he doesn't like too many people, and then was nice enough to figure out that he tends to like older people better, like her Grandpa, so kind.

I have no pictures from Friday, but we went and met Lauren at this real fancy mall, and did some shopping, and some lunch eating. It was very fun. We also found this GREAT Russian Market that had everything! I was literally like a kid in a candy store, giggling and everything. They had so many things I remembered. I went a little overboard and bought a ton of goodies. Then later we went with Aunt Patty out to see a flick.

On Saturday we headed into Old Town Scottsdale

As you can see. It was pretty darn cool. They had all these little shops all over. I really like it. I was able to get some souveniry stuff, and Uncle Ron was able to get some uncomfortable boots, that he really wanted!

Tiern and I had some fun in all the stores.

and some fun with the camera!

We went to the Sugar Bowl, which is a pretty big deal in this area. And I had a HUGE Ice Cream!

There was a cardboard cutout of Mike Rowe in the Dirt Shirt Store. I love him, to bad it wasn't really him.

Weird moment in the car. Oh I forgot Uncle Ron also took us on Roller coaster road and we got to see the praying monk.

THEN, we headed back home. We built a fire and read for a while. It was the calm before the storm. Since it was New Year's Eve and all. We did get yelled at by a neighbor during the calm. Apparently it was a no burn day and there wasn't suppose to be fires, so we told her we would let it burn out, but Uncle Ron kept sneaking logs on it. It was a holiday! A perfect day for a rebel fire!

Tierney and I made some Jumbala and then a couple of her friends came over to party. We had party Crackers that had surprises in them, that we played with. Also the glow sticks, and mustaches. So we had a lot of good stuff for the photos!!!

We also had some Apple Cider, and goodies. Uncle Ron entertained us with a tear jerking musical number. He loves his Apologize song!

Tierney and I are prepping for New Year. We had our Confetti Guns at the ready!!!!

Then New Year's hit and we made a really big confetti/silly string mess and screamed and danced around and it was a great party!!! So excited for the NEW YEAR!!!

On Sunday all of us, including Lauren went out to Breakfast and came back and played some games.

I told you it was a recurring theme. I have to admit that it was one of my favorite parts. I just love Games. Luckily my family does too, cause we played a whole lot of them.

I even managed to pull out a Nerts win. I didn't think that would happen those ladies are just too good. Then it was time to leave, and as you all know parting is such sweet sorrow..... I really didn't want to leave, I had a very had time with it, cause I had such an AMAZING TIME!!!! They spoiled me to the core, and I am going to have to work very hard to ever be able to repay the favor!!! THANK YOU UNCLE RON, AUNT PATTY, LAUREN, and TIERNEY FOR THE AMAZING VACATION!!!! I LOVED IT SO MUCH!!!!

The Sweater Vest of ALLLLLL Sweater Vests!!!!

2011-12-21T18:40:00.001-08:00

Do you SEE that Sweater Vest?!?!?!? Isn't it just about the most beautiful thing?!? Fully Loaded with Christmas Cheer!?! I found that beauty online and added those lights, which really make it pop. The best thing about them which is hard to see here is that they blink!

It made its first debut (a soft opening, if you will) at work for the Christmas Party. But it made it big 'OFFICIAL' Debut at my Gram-Gram's Christmas Party! It was so awesome. My cousins wore their sweaters also so we had some classy family photo op's by the Christmas tree.

Aren't they just precious? Here are some other fun/funny photos from the wild and crazy party.

Last but not least.

I sit down for a nice photo op with the boys....and do you see this? The sad thing is that we have a very similar picture like this from a few years ago, but it was Nate with his finger up my nose and my Mom sent it out with our Christmas cards. Brothers........and people wonder why I have issues with boogers!

The BURGH!

2011-11-29T18:30:00.000-08:00

Well it has happened. My Brother has moved his family to Pittsburgh. I am VERY bummed about the fact that I do not get to see them whenever I want. Right now all I want to do is just pick those darn kids up and hug them to pieces! BUT.... I am not going to let you be privy to any more of my pitty party. I WILL say that I am very excited for them and their new adventure. I know that they are excited too! I have seen the place and so far I like what I see. It will be a great place to go visit. AND so far things have been really working out for them, and they are feeling good about it. SO I am going to have to get used to it. I really am happy for them.....deep down.

My Parents, Brother, and I decided to help out with the move by going out there with them and helping them get set up. Sarah and Ammon were going to fly in when we got there. Which I think was a pretty good idea since Ammon would have not done well on the road trip. The girls WERE ANGELS!!!! They did SO GOOD!!

We had a Moving Truck which Nate was in, with either Ryan or my Dad. Then the ladies were in control of the SUV. We had a lot of fun. Thanks to the their Mother, the Grandma's, and Aunt Cami they had plenty to do, and at every pit stop we made sure we did a couple of laps around the building to get some of our wiggles out.

We got to make a pit stop at the Winter Quarters Temple and that was a pretty cool stop. It kinda put the Pioneers trek in perspective for me driving all that way. I was going backwards, but that trip took us 3 days by car and it was a long 3 days. Those Pioneers are hardcore, it is hard to imagine being strong enough to endure what they had to. It was a pretty cool little spot.

The girls were in the fairy dresses for the day so it made for some great pictures. Plus they are all girl and serious posers!

There are names of all the people who died there, and there was a Bringhurst there.

I loved these windows on the temple they looked really cool.

So to set up the next picture. I got pulled over in Nebraska the first day for speeding. I only got a warning, so no harm no foul. The next day in Ohio my Dad got pulled over. He was also speeding. His was a little more innocent, because the speed changed like 4 times within a mile. But it was WEIRD. The cop had my Dad get out of the car and go back and sit in the passenger seat of the police car, and while he was sitting there. 3 other cop cars pulled up, got out of the car and surrounded the first one. We had NO IDEA what was going on.

I tried to get a picture so you could see my Dad in the car but the window was too dirty. Anyway quite the show for one little warning. Then my dad got pulled over again, I think in Illinois. He got a ticket that time, but only because when the cop looked at the registration he noticed it had been expired (whoops! My brother was waiting for the new state). The other 2 cops didn't notice that. I joked that we should have tried to shoot the moon and get pulled over in every state we went into, but we didn't make it. We did get pulled over once a day though still pretty good.

Here is another one from the road. It was cool because we drove through 5 states that I have never been too before. I like that I can mark those off my list. We arrived Monday night and like I said it took 3 days. When we got there we started unloading and thanks to a tip from Ryan and Liz (the very helpful, amazing, awesome friends that have been helping them a ton) there were some helpers from the ward there to help us unload. SIDE-NOTE: The first one who came over to help, was a friend from High School, that I did not know lived in Pittsburgh. WEIRD!

We managed to get everything in that night. Here are the ladies hanging out at an unearthed table for some food. They were great when we got there too, they were so happy and they stayed out of the way for the most part. The next day we got everything cleaned and the boxed moved into the correct rooms, then awaited Sarah and her marching orders.

This is not a good picture of me, but Brenna is PRECIOUS!!!!

There was one day in there that we went and checked out ''Frick Park''. It is HUGE!!! Nate said that it looked way cooler a couple of weeks ago, but we still liked it.

We found some Tarzan vines and had some fun with those. Ryan was not so successful on his first run. Nate had a better go with it.

Kaylee and Sarah had a turn too. It was fun.

Here is Kaylee and I (inevitably laughing at some witty thing I said).

GREAT PICTURE!!! A Girl and Her Dad. I don't know why, but I just LOVE IT!

We got the opportunity to check out the nearby food establishments. The Eat and Park, or Park and Eat, or something was Park in it. Was really good, cause the people were so DANG nice. We told them we were in the middle of moving, and they gave us an entire box of cookies on the house, just for all the movers. We also tried some pizza, there were 3 different places with almost the same name and Ryan and I had some trouble finding the one we ordered from, but made it just in time. We also tried Steak and Shake and you can see above and below. It was pretty good. AND Curry Away, I had Pumpkin Curry and it was AMAZING!

We went up this incline thing and road the track up for a view of the city and where the rivers merge and it was VERY COOL....figuratively and literally...and by cool I mean FREEZING!! But it was quite pretty.

I think this one is adorable. I LOVE Ammon's cheesy grin!

Friday we took a day to go hang out at the Carniege Natural History Museum. It was quite fun. We saw some cool stuff, and may I say that it was a very kid friendly museum. They had stuff for them to do everywhere. We could have stayed there a couple of days and not been bored.

The Posers are at it again. They are SO cute!

They were all suppose to pretend that the dinosaurs were getting them, but only Sarah and Kaylee got the idea.

Kaylee and Brenna unearthing some Dinosaurs. I asked Kaylee if she dug up anything and she told me she didn't but the boys next to her did.

This is a interactive learning place for the kids. They got to look at X-Rays, they could collect things, look in microscopes, draw, anything really. It was pretty sweet.

Brenna did a drawing of a beetle and put it on the wall. She was pretty proud of that.

Here we are right before we were kicked out for closing. It was pretty fun. When we got home we watched Night at the Museum. It felt appropriate.

This was our last day. We all went out and played in their backyard. Ryan cleaned it up quite a bit. There were lots of squirrels back there, and since we left, I have heard there have been a couple of deer.

He was making all the manly car noises but he I think his 'Cool-Guy-Look' was hindered because of the bike color.

Silly Girls!

Lunch break. At this point Brenna was making plans for after lunch, and I told her that I was real sorry but I had to go to the airport. At which point with teary eyes she said "But I want you". At which point my heart was ripped out of my chest!

We took some farewell shots in front of the house.

That was not a fun Goodbye, so I will not go into details. But I was not a big fan of that. Luckily there is such thing as Skype. I love Technology! I still struggle cause I want to reach through the screen and scoop them up and never let go, but I still get to see their sweet faces and here all their wonderful stories. So I can't complain.

Anywho! That was a fun trip. I am excited to go back and see all the great things there are to see, and more importantly scoop those kids up and never let them go!

Fun In The Leaves!

2011-11-27T14:21:00.000-08:00

Here are some good times in the leaves before these kids left to the 'steel city'. So I thought I would share cause they are so cute!!!

There were a couple different days and the pile got pretty big as you can see below!

SO FUN! I miss those guys! I have a bunch of pictures to come from the moving trip to Pittsburgh!

WHERE'S WALDO?

2011-11-03T20:40:00.000-07:00

It all began on a night like any other. The sun was setting on the horizon; the birds were nestling in for the night, chicks under wing, and the smell of home-baked bread was in the air. I was sitting in a dimly lit room, lazily scrolling through old photos on the computer. The picture seemed like any other. My brothers were standing in the forefront, covered in mud and smiling like children. But what I saw next has changed my life forever. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him. I instantly focused in on him and moved closer. There he was standing in the background: horizontal stripes, hat, covered in mud, and desperately searching for the place he was suppose to be. It was in the moment that I knew exactly what I needed to do. Somehow, I had to find myself a shirt with those unmistakable red and white stripes, and fashion myself a hat of that same red and white. I could not rest until I had all the pieces that would make me a mirror image of him....of Waldo. It was harder than I could have ever imagined, but I mustered up the courage that I did not know I had, and found all the pieces that I needed to begin my quest. Now all I had to do was wait for the perfect moment when I could do what I knew I was destined to do.........and that was first to cut the melodramatics, and second go to places where lots of people were taking pictures and pop up randomly in the background looking confused or lost. I haven't done it yet, but someday! I mean how funny would that be? Just picture someone sitting there looking through their pictures and all the sudden "Waldo?" I seriously think that would be SO AMAZING!!! Since, I have been able to do that yet, I decided to convince everyone at work to dress up like Waldo for Halloween, and convince I did!

Do you SEE THIS?!?!? There 23 of us. 23! There were only 5 party poopers at my office that didn't. It was SO MUCH FUN!!!!!

Dr Sorensen even came in on her day off to participate in the magic that was Halloween, and she brought her grandson that was already planning on being Waldo.

This is every single Doctor. That I right! I got every single one in on this.

Also I made all those DARN HATS!!! I think that was my biggest selling point. I told them I would build them a hat so they didn't have to find one on their own. All they had to do was find the shirt. And even that was done by me and my cohort Becca. We managed to track them down on line and order them for most of them.

I SERIOUSLY WORK WITH THE BEST PEOPLE EVER!!!!

We had fun all day. It was all around good fun. Plus I had a cane that I could take around and whack people with.

Here are some fun little group shots.

I was going to try and get a picture that looked like a picture out of a Where's Waldo book, but no one else seemed to grasp my vision so that didn't work out so well.

Also if you notice I am a little more orange that the rest of the Waldo's I was more of an 'Earthy Waldo', I was the self proclaimed 'Granola Waldo'.

That day at work was SO FUN!!!!

Later we had some real cute trick-or-treaters show up, we had some food out of a pumpkin and watched some football. It was great fun.

Here is Waldo and a very non-scary, and very pretty witch.

Brenna doing her best cheer, and Kaylee doing her best Jesse pose.

Here are some one on one with all the cuties!!!

Then a big group photo. That is my Dad there in his classic Army Man uniform, and Nate in the classic football helmet.

And one last adorable one of the DUCK!!! He loved that costume. He is such a funny kid!!!

ALL in ALL......it was AWESOME!!!!!

PUMPKINS!!!!

2011-11-01T08:34:00.000-07:00

Here are my pumpkins for this year!

Albert Einstein

Alan Alda

and Edgar Allan Poe

FUN SURPRISE!!!

2011-10-10T09:26:00.000-07:00

So there on was on a Monday night (last Monday to be exact), and my Parents told me there was a voicemail on the machine from my Dentist's Office (Stephen Christensen DDS). The lady was VERY excited and asked me to call them back because they had a 'Fun Surprise' for me. Well I had no idea what kind of fun surprise you can get from the Dentist, but after thinking about it I vaguely remember my co-worker Bobbi telling me that she told them that I had referred her, and they had made a note of it, so I wondered if it had something to do with that. Anyway I called the next afternoon and told them I am calling back regarding a 'Fun Surprise'. The lady told me the person who had to talk to me about it was not in the office, she would have to call back Wednesday. I told her that was fine, and didn't think too much about it.

On Wednesday morning though my curiosity was piqued. I texted the referred Bobbi and asked her if she knew what it might be about. She wrote me back: "maybe you won the TV?" To which I replied: "WHAT?!?!?" To which she...never replied back. So by this time I was thinking there was no way I won a TV, I don't feel like I have much luck in the raffle department, but maybe I won one of the lesser prizes like a big pencil or a years supply of toothpaste.

So after lunch I was talking with the Drug Reps that had brought us lunch that day and my cell rang with an unknown #. I answered it and the lady kindly asked me how my day was, and I told her it was real good, at which point she said she was about to make it better, because she had a 'Fun Surprise' for me. Then she said "YOU WON THE TV!" I didn't know what the TV was, I was picturing a smaller one in my mind, but I was SO EXCITED that I won something!!!! My voice got all high and squeaky!! The Drug Reps were looking at me like I was mental, probably cause I started jumping around! Anyway she told me Thank you for referring such great patients and told me I could come pick it up anytime. Then as a parting shot she said make sure you bring a big enough car. At which point I said 'WHAT?' ( in my very high, surprised voice). She said, "Well it is 51 inches". At which point I almost passed out. I said Thank you about a million times and hung up.

The Drug Reps asked me what that was all about and I started jumping around saying "I have the BEST DENTIST EVER!!!!" Then I ran down the hall and told anyone with an ear to hear!!!! I enlisted the help of my Father and his truck and we picked it up the next day!!! I even got a picture my taken with the Dr Christensen handing over the remote! I told them I already think they are Awesome they didn't need to give me a TV! But I am not complaining!

SO here is what my 'FUN SURPRISE' looks like! It was EVEN BIGGER THAN I IMAGINED!!!! I am SO SO LUCKY!!!! AND I have the Best DENTIST EVER!!!

Wasatch Park

2011-10-09T16:10:00.000-07:00

For Conference Weekend I tagged along with my parents up to Wasatch Park for a little camp-out. On the way up we stopped at Taggart's for dinner. Were I ran into my friend Heidi that I haven't seen in FOREVER! It was good to see her. After dinner we headed up to the campground and it was so BEAUTIFUL!!!

We had a STELLAR camp site. This was the view from the picnic table, and it was secluded and surrounded by trees.

On Friday, I got up early for a morning bike ride with my Dad. It was freezing, HARD, but surprisingly a FUN RIDE! We went for a specific trail but when we checked it out it looked a little harder than my Mom's road bike (which I was riding) could handle. So we went up a dirt road for a while and the sights were quite lovely.

After that little tour, my Dad went to check out more of the trail we had intended on earlier and discovered that it was only hairy at the begining, So I walked the bike through that part and made it to a real Sa-weet path.

It was a winding trail through the sage bush. We took this picture using the timer and this post that had no signs on it. Wish there would have been cause we would have known not to keep going. We found ourselves on the expert level trail instead of the easy trail that I needed. We both managed to turf it once and decided that it was time to turn back, Still fun though, and pretty!

Later in the afternoon we went golfing at the Wasatch course (sounds like roughing it right?) It was SO PRETTY! There were leaves changing left and right, and I didn't have a horrible game, then again it was great either, but it was still FUN!

Here we are waiting to Tee-Off. We had to do this quite often, but it was all good, the better to enjoy the sights.

Here is my Mom showing off her good form.

Here is my Dad showing off his form. I realized that my Dad reminds me of my Grandpa when he golfs. It is quite cute....

We had a fun surprise in the form of my Aunt Kay and Uncle Bill at the same campground as us. So we invited them over for the ever famous (or infamous to some) "Mulligan Stew". It's a family tradition! I am pretty sure that every family has some form of this. Our includes 'cheeseburgers' and 'hot dogs' floating in soup. hehehe. I made that sound so bad! I have heard some refer to it like this, and I am pretty sure what you are picturing would seem really soggy. Let me clarify. It is sliced potato's, onions, and carrots in soup like form, and topped with beef patties and vienna sausages, covered with cheese. It is quite good actually. Anyway it was really fun to have them there!

Ryan joined us on Saturday morning and stayed with us until Sunday night to listen to conference. It is so much better to listen to it out there in nature. For example while laying in a hammock this was my view while I listened to a couple of talks. Pretty sweet right? Also, it was funny to notice the campground was pretty quite while the session was going but right after the prayer there was a bushel of activity everywhere! Anyway was so nice and rejuvenating, I loved it! Here are a couple more pictures.

I asked my Dad to strike a camping pose and this is what I got......

Here is the cozy hammock I was talking about. It was so very nice!

Here are my precious parents.

Here is me and my precious brother. awe....
Anyway, it is always rejuvenating to be out in nature, but mix it with some uplifting and much needed conference talks, I am fully recharged!

A Bushel of Activity

2011-09-22T23:57:00.000-07:00

Well as you can see I haven't posted in a while so I am going to lump a bunch of 'Awesome-ness' into one post.

BUT FIRST,

Before I get to the Awesome-ness (that is surely to follow) I have to report some bad news..... important news, but a not so fun for me bit of news. So I will make it short and to the point, to get it right out of the way, and then try to forget about it til' I am forced to face reality. My favorite little family in the whole wide world. The one filled with the 2 cutest and most precious girls, and the studliest little guy I have even known is moving away. FAR AWAY! To Pittsburg! I know that they are excited, and I know that it is going to be a great experience for them, but it breaks my heart to pieces none-the-less.

ALRIGHT! Moving on to brighter things!

SECOND, I was a first timer at the Swiss Days Festivities! I have heard so many great things about them, but I have never managed to get myself there. We took a girls days and spent the whole afternoon. It was VERY crowded, but worth it because of all the great stuff.

Kaylee and Brenna's high moment of the afternoon.

I don't know what I was thinking, choosing the time when Sarah was on the phone for my photo op moment, but here it is. Whoops!

My Grandmother went over to grab some Greg Olson photos just before we left and got there just in time to catch the artist himself. So she got all of them signed. She was pretty excited (although she doesn't look so excited in the picture (I don't believe she knew I was taking one)).

I just about stole these bad boys, but I settled for a picture. I think they are ADORABLE!!!

Brenna, Kaylee, and Grandma goofing around on the way back to the car.

It was a really good time! AND I made a haul, I love every single thing I got. ALSO I have a million new ideas for projects! Not Like I needed anymore Thanks to Pinterest!

On the way home we sang a bunch of kid songs and it was so much fun, the girls loved it. We sang a couple rounds, we san about some ducks, and there were quite a few monkey's snapped out of trees. It was all great fun....

THIRD, here are Ammon and Brenna being cute.

Grandma pushed them in the hammock-swing-thing for quite a while.

They were so cute the whole time, just giggling away.

FOURTH, the ladies had a fun sleepover at the house. They stayed up and watched movies with Grandma, and in the morning we got to have some serious craft time. We made Cute Book-Worms (bookmarks), and Yarn Dolls, Homemade Ice Cream....

...and the Sweet Rockin' Popcorn Bowls!!! I thought we should make a pinata, and then it evolved into something that they could use more than once. They helped make the pinata, then they painted them all by themselves. They decided to deck them out with handprints which I thought was genius! Then I threw some sealer (in the form of modge podge) onto those suckers and we had some genuine popcorn bowls.

Here they are showing you how to properly use them! They were pretty excited about those things.

FIFTH, we had a fun party for Grandma's Birthday!

I got to hang out with Tanner, Emily, Cassie, and Jordan. Of whom, I haven't seen nearly enough of this summer. Also Grandma made a haul too! A bona-fide WIN/WIN scenario!

SIXTH (and final), I spent last weekend in Provo with my buddy Stef! Sorry no pictures of this Adventure, you will just have to use your imagination. I know her from my Russian Adventure and she just got back a month ago from her second Russian Adventure. So I went down to see pictures and hear all about it. Needless to say I want to go back there right NOW! Alas, I shall have to wait for an unknown time. It is always good to see her though.

Anyway there is a recap of all my recent activities!

One Year Older and Wiser Too....

2011-08-29T10:37:00.000-07:00

I felt like it was only appropriate to start off with this picture...

...after the title of this post (hehe). Well it has been about 2 weeks since my Birthday, and I am just now getting around to posting about it, but it was AWESOME!

It started the Saturday before and my friend Melissa took me to lunch. We went to Salt Lake and had some real good Tai Food, the picture above is from that event.

Then we went next-door and had the 2nd best Waffle I have ever had in my life! Look at that beauty (the waffle, not Melissa (well you can look at her too, but I am talking about the waffle)). It was at Bruges Waffles & Frites, and they specialize in Belgium cooking, and it was AMAZING! The only reason I said 2nd best is because I had a Waffle in Belgium, that was a little more AMAZING! Just a little...

After that we went to the Gateway for some window shopping. It was SO much fun!!!

The next evening we had a FAMILY PARTY, my Parents were headed down to education week so they were going to be gone on my actual birthday. But we partied in style, we had Grandma, Nate and Sarah, and Ryan. Sadly I have no pictures of that portion, but It was a lot of fun! The food was to die for! AND there was Carrot Cake, which is my favorite! It was a VERY STELLAR Party!

On Wednesday the 17th, which is my actual Birthday, I came into work to find this! Any excuse for my co-workers to trash my office! It was SO cool. They had the shredded paper EVERYWHERE! There were lots of Balloons on the floor and ceiling. Also, you can't tell from this picture but all my office supplies, including my computer and printer, were wrapped in wrapping paper. There were also a bunch of Happy Birthday Signs and Cards all over my desk. It was so Fun!

Then halfway through the day Sarah and Brenna brought these BEAUTIFUL Flowers in! That was so so nice!

This is me attempting to leave work with all my stuff. Lucky it was just a bunch of air that I was carrying. That I can handle. One the way home I was attacked by the Balloons though.... luckily I live close.

That night Sarah, Kaylee, and Brenna took me out to Dinner. It was VERY Fun, and VERY Good!

Then the girls got some pies and they were nice enough to share! They were sure good, and big! After Dinner we went to Michael's for some supplies and then we went back to my house for a craft night and movie (a Chick Flick of course). It turned out to be mostly movie though, we were a little distracted. It was SO MUCH FUN to hang with my girls though!

I had a AMAZING BIRTHDAY!!!

THANK YOU ALL!

Visited By A Couple Phoenicians

2011-08-12T19:36:00.000-07:00

That is my Uncle Ron and Cousin Tierney from Phoenix, not to be confused with the enterprising maritime trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean from 1550 BC to 300 BC (yup that is straight from Wikipedia). You see my Uncle Ron comes up every August for a Golf Tournament and for the last few years Tierney has tagged along and hung out with us. It is always good times! So I thought I would share some of our adventures for this trip....or rather misadventures.

We had to pack in all the fun possible, and think we got in a TON! I know I was way tired so we must have. They arrived late Monday night, and since I had to work Tuesday not much happened then. Tuesday morning Ryan came down to hang out with Tiern while I was at work, and later that evening we hung out with Ammon, and played some Frisbee.

This is me being weird while Ryan was jumping over fences retrieving on of Tierney's many misthrows.

Then starting Wednesday things really picked up, I had the rest of the week off so it was time to really party!

First off we headed to LAGOON! Always a good time. Let me tell you, it was perfect! The Weather was lovely, there were few crowds, and the lines were short what more could you ask for!

Here is Tee and I on the swings

We got to ride all our favorite a few times each. Which doesn't happen very much.

Ryan and Tiern LOVED the water rides. So we made sure to hit all those. Here they are playing with the children in the water. We came back here quite a bit.

Here they are on the "DRENCH ME" ride.

Then as you can see we headed over to the CATAPULT!!!!!!! This was my first experience with that thing. I have done the Sky Coaster quite a few times, but this one has always terrified me. Luckily, I was in brave, lets try it mode so Tiern and I got strapped in first. Let me tell you, IT! WAS! AMAZING!!!! They tilt you back so you are starring up into the endless sky. Then they told us they would count us down so we were waiting patiently for the count down when all the sudden...I was shot 270 straight up into the air!!! I don't think I have ever screamed so loud in my life!!!! It was so fun though. So much so that I went again. There were 3 of us so we all had to go twice so you could all go with each other...right?

Anyway here is Ryan and I right before lift-off. On this run when we got to the top we turned upside down and came down on our heads. That was a fun new twist.

After this adrenaline rush, they went off to more rides and I went out to wait curbside with the teenie boppers for my brother to drive-by and throw keys at me. You see I didn't want to carry a whole lot so I only brought 1 car key. The problem with that (which I found out after I locked my car and realized I forgot to put something back in it) is that the key to the ignition is not the same key as any of the locks on the doors. Whoops! Luckily we found that out right away, instead of when we were tired and wanted to be home right away. We just called Nate and asked him to drop off the key on his way to school in Salt Lake. So convenient that was....well for me....not so much for Nate. Anyway he saved the day.

I met up with them again and went around and hit all our favorites one more time. Here is Tiern and Ryan in the tandem swing. I really don't know why that is the only place we thought to take pictures. Anyway then we went home and chilled.

The next day Tierney and I slept in a little and then went and got some arts and craft supplies (pictures of that to follow in another post) and we picked up some Cafe Rio (something that I got Tierney hooked on and we have to go to while here, cause she doesn't have one back home). After chilling, building things, and watching a movie, we headed off to Lagoon again (Bounceback Baby!).

It was a little more crowded but still WAY fun.

After that we ran home and cleaned up and got the car ready and headed off to the DRIVE-IN! We saw Captain America and Super 8 both great flicks I highly recommend them.

Friday we headed off the Logan in the morning. On the way I managed to get pulled over and freak Tierney out cause she has never been present for something like that. I actually didn't know the speed limit there and was just following the car in front of me. The tool must have seen the cop cause he got over into the other lane and slowed WAY down. So I ended up getting a ticket!

After that mishap, we met up with Tierney's buddy from Phoenix (recently moved to Logan), and Ryan and went to lunch. After that Ryan took us rock climbing. That was also a first timer for me. I have never, ever done this, not a climbing wall, nothing. Ryan had to go up first to get it all ready for us beginners, so he had me belay him. That was interesting, he strapped me in and then was going to start climbing, until I asked if he was going to tell me how to do it. He taught me as he went up, luckily for him, it went smoothly.

Since Tiern was being a chicken I told her I would do it first. That was quite fun, I will definitely do it again when I have more time. Good thing I have a rock climbing enthusiast for a brother.

According to Ryan I wasn't too bad either, apparently I went up fast. Coming down not so much. The repelling part was a little hard for me, it just seemed didn't seem right to just sit back, put all the weight on the rope and walk backwards down a cliff face. Call me crazy, but it just was weird to me.

Tierney went up next and she did swimmingly. She even had a little audience for pressure.

After that we headed home cause Nate and Sarah were coming over for a visit. We busted out the Slip-n-Slide and kiddie pool.

Here is Tierney getting ready for our elaborately planned ambush, which didn't work out because of our impatience to test out the Slip-n-Slide.

Here are a couple of the shots we got while sliding, they are kinda small. I don't know why I don't have any pictures of anyone else but Tierney and I (+2 of Ryan). We spent a lot of time with other people, but I never had my camera then. Weird.

Anyway Uncle Ron come over that night, he had been staying with a friend during the golfing, and came to hang with us for the weekend. I went and picked up my parents from the airport cause they had been gone on a 2 week adventure in and around Florida. Also my cousin Jordan came up from Provo to hang.

Early Saturday My Dad, Uncle Ron, Jordan, Tierney, and I went to Lost Creek Dam for some fishing. It wasn't very eventful, I only had 2 nibbles, and that was only cause I was sitting on a tube in the middle of the Dam. I got nothing from the bank, and neither did anyone else. We totally crapped out. It was still beautiful though, and we had a nice day, and I got TOO much sun.

My Dad told Uncle Ron and I to pose like we are holding some fish and he would photoshop some in so we could tell some fish stories. So we posed, and then my Dad posted this picture on FB. That Trickster....It is pretty funny though.

We went home in time to met up with Aunt Kay and Uncle Bill, along with Ryan, and Nate for a nice BBQ. It was a nice night and we played a mean game of Nerts! and I WON! Aunt Kay even. She is quite the legend in my family, she is a Speed Demon.

Then Sunday afternoon Ryan and I took Tierney and Uncle Ron to Bountiful so they could met up with Ron's friend and then head off to the Airport. Parting is such sweet sorrow! But I had an AWESOME week! Thanks for the visit!

My Damn Weekend

2011-07-17T18:01:00.000-07:00

OR perhaps it is more kosher to say 'My Reservoir Weekend'.

That is not all I did this weekend (it just took up most of it), I actually had a fun-filled action packed weekend. I kicked it off with the Harry Potter Finale! It was AMAZING, as always, but even better cause the put in all the stops for the last one. I LOVED IT!

On Friday morning I left with my parents to go on a little camp-out. They haven't used their trailer yet this year and wanted to take it nearby for a little test run to make sure everything is working alright. I had Friday off work so I decided to tag along. Our intention was to go to Wasatch, up in Heber Valley, but they were all booked up, we checked out a ton more camp-sights and they were all booked up too, so we ended up at a place in Coalville. Which was nice, a little flooded, but nice and quite. We spent most of Friday driving around checking out campgrounds and different Damn's.

I was pretty tired from my late night before so I missed out on a couple of the first Damn's like East Canyon and Pine View. But I when I woke up we went to Jordanelle, Echo, and Lost Creek (which is the photo above and below). I like the Lost Creek one very much! It was so peaceful there and very off the beaten path.(Sidenote: Tierney if you are reading this, we are going fishing here)

We didn't have a fire pit at the campground, cause it was flooded so we went to Taggart's for dinner (always great food) and then drove around some more. After we went back to our trailer, we played some game-age and then went to bed. I really wanted to sleep outside, but the ground was too wet for a tent so I slept in the bed of my Dad's truck. When I woke I up I was sitting there talking to my Dad about fishing when I heard a big splash! I thought fish first since that is what we were talking about.....

but I was way off!!! It was a MOOSE, actually is was 2 of them! (if you are Brian Regan fans, it was a flock of Moosen (hehe)). It was SO COOL! They were SO CLOSE!!! I took the picture with my phone cause that is all I had with me. Luckily they were close that I still got some good pictures.

I am telling you right now, that if I could wake up every morning to something like that... I would! It was just SO NEAT!

We packed up and left the trailer parked somewhere while we drove around again. We went to Strawberry and checked out the campgrounds and the beautiful sights there.

This place has always had a negative aura for me, for reasons that I will not get into now, but I thought it was a very beautiful place. It was huge, for one thing, for another I loved the color of the water.

Another one of Strawberry.

I realized at this point that I didn't have any pictures with people in them, and my Mom always says tells my dad that there should be more people in his pictures, so I thought I should take one of people. Welp, this is all you get. Weird, I know.

Then last of all we went to Current Creek, which was also a pretty calm cool place. With lots of beautiful wildflowers.Welp, I think we have scouted out some pretty cool places to go. I really enjoyed this little mini trip. I saw some STELLAR VIEWS! AND I liked just driving and chilling.
When I got home I got all cleaned up and picked up my nieces, and we went to a fundraiser at the park. My friend Erika's little brother has recently been diagnosed with Cancer and they had a Fundraiser for him. It was very fun, very inspiring, and I think very successful. It is awesome to see so many people wanting to help, and show their support and love. Although I know it is a hard thing to go through, I have learned a lot from watching this family deal with this. They have been so positive, so grateful, and so giving. It is a pretty cool thing to see. They have a blog if you want to check it out, click HERE.
SO there is my CRAM-PACKED weekend. And tonight is the Weber State Fireworks. So PARTY ON!

COLORADO!!!!!

2011-07-11T08:47:00.000-07:00

I just got back this week from a delightful vacation, which to the chagrin of my blogging buddies, means HUGE amounts of pictures. I have said it before and I will say it again. This is my form of journaling, so I need to put them all in....right?

Well it was our annual summer vacation with Uncle Ron and Co. I always love these vacations they are always a good time, with LOTS of fun adventures. This time we headed down to Southeastern COLORADO!!! We stayed at a condo in between Durango and Silverton, and let me tell you it was Beautiful!!!!

We caravanned with Nate's family, and met up with Uncle Ron's there, since they were coming from Arizona. Surprisingly we arrived within 10 minutes of each other. Talk about timing! The first night we found a nice little restaurant and just chilled in the condo.

The next morning we stole Tierney, and headed to Mesa Verde, while Uncle Ron and Aunt Patty checked out the nearby sights. You know how in elementary school and we had to do those city, county, state reports each year. Well if we picked a closer place we would visit there during the summer. I had Colorado as my state report so we went to this part of Colorado for our Summer Trip. I remember Mesa Verde being one of the highlights so I was VERY excited to visit it again.

We did the first little hike by ourselves. There were a lot of going down mountains and then coming back up them this day. Which is hard for anyone, but my nieces were troopers, they are seriously tough.

This was our first Indian Ruin encounter. The Spruce Tree House. It was pretty darn cool.

You got to go down a ladder into a Kiva, they were the ceremonial rooms, Kaylee however thought it would make a better kitchen.

A group shot....of a bunch of crazy people....for proof see Tierney (on the left).

After that we ditched the kids and grandma and headed over to the guided Balcony House tour. Which was definitely my favorite!

It had a bunch of ladders and, steps carved in the rock, and tunnels. It was quite fun, a quite beautiful.

We were at the rear of the group with a french family and Tierney and my Dad both managed to be a little retarded in front of them. My Dad was talking to this 10 year old kid, while the kid just stared at him. After a min he walked away saying something french to his dad. Then Tiern called me stupid in french, but the dad turned around and looked at her like she called him stupid. Those guys!

a bunch of werdos's

a couple of views were I was trying to show the side of the cliff. Those places are just tucked into the side of a cliff face, and they had their crops on top. It is crazy how they got up and down, cause like us, they did not have ladders!

Ryan and Tierney and what we all looked like during the long-winded, hard to understand guides long talks.

A prime piece of real estate. This would have been my chosen 5x5x5 apt. It had a killer view and it was by the kitchen.

This is the reason my Mom didn't go on this hike. She is not a big fan of the tight spaces, and this one was TIGHT, but we all made it through

The way out was pretty sweet too. I am sure glad there were no kids on this one.

After this one we went and found the kids and headed over to the Cliff Palace guided tour this one was WAY more kid friendly.

Here are a few pictures of us hanging out before our tour.

There is a precious one of Uncle Ryan and his Adorable Nieces. Then Ammon who is quite the little man.

LOVE this one!!!

Here we are at the beginning looking down at the Cliff Palace, I thought it was fitting to have a princess in the shot.

Ammon had a good time getting carried around by his pops.

This is what we did during this tours long winded tour guide

Here is a picture of the place. I just love the look on Brenna's face. I had to make it bigger so you can see it better. That girl is funny!

I also LOVE this picture my Dad took of Nate and the sleeping Ammon. I think it is just about the cutest thing ever. A Father and his Son.

Here we are making our way out of that place, more ladders, more rock stairs.

Ever wonder where Brenna and Kaylee get their cheesy faces from?

Here is our group shot!

The next day we decided to go on a beautiful hike along the river. We had to drive through it a couple of times to get to the start of the hike, then at the beginning of the hike we had to walk through it to get to the trail.

Ryan had his bike so he escorted some of the ladies over. While Nate and I escorted the girls!

It was a very pretty hike. The weather was beautiful and so was the scenery.

Ryan, as usual, taking the path less traveled.

Such a poser!

On the way back I had a turn on the bike and then handed it off to Uncle Ron. I saw him drive off and was preparing myself to come around a corner and see him laid out after a nasty fall, but I am happy to report that he made it through unscathed! I did however come around a corner and was face to face with a wolf! Then saw behind him his owner. It wasn't a wolf, but it gave me a good scare all the same. Since I was way ahead of the rest of my group and by myself.

Good thing we had Ryan there to keep up with Kaylee, I think she ran the entire hike!

Here we are going through the river again to get out of there. That one is Uncle Ron....

..and this one is my Dad.

After this we did some swimming, we went a couple of times this vacation and these girls are huge wimps!

We talked Kaylee into trying to go under water and she came out of the water and said "It went in my nose, AND my eyes!!!" Then she cried for a while. She was happy as long as she could swim around like a mermaid (above the water).

Brenna clung to anyone and everyone. She did jump into our arms from the side of the pool though, which is more than Kaylee did.

Her angry face.

Ammon the Destroyer made some major strides in his efforts to start walking (get it? strides...)

At one point we went and checked out Scout Lake, which was a beautiful little lake filled with lily pads! So naturally we took a million pictures.

Kaylee saving Tee from falling in.

On the way up and down Tee and I sat in the back on the bumpy dirt road, and we had LOTS of fun with the unexpected bump that sent us flying!

The ole' fishbowl effect.

Some hanging out in the Condo. It was very fun!

This is us getting ready for our RIVER TRIP! We love going on these trips with Uncle Ron, it is probably cause I was too young to remember the river trip experience with Uncle Ron that my cousins Hannah and Juliet remember all too well. I won't go into that, because I think Uncle Ron is tormented enough by the rest of the family that have heard the stories! Anyway, moving on, this trip was down the lower Anamas River.

This part of the river is a little calmer than we are used to, so we got the high adventure boats. Which means 4 people to a boat and we took the harder parts of the river. This is a picture of the 'Couple Boat'.

And here is the 'Leftover Boat'.

This is the only pic we got on the river. However Ryan got some video's with his go-pro camera that were pretty sweet. In this pic I like how everyone is serious except for Sarah who has a huge smile. I don't know why either, she was quite scared to go on this adventure as she has never gone down a river before, and this is right after she fell into the river. The only one of our whole group to do so. I guess she survived so that is a reason to be happy! We all think the guide did it on purpose.

We had a pretty good time, we hit some pretty good spots, and had some good water fights. We took our PVC pipe guns. At the beginning my Dad shot at the Couple's Boat's guide and then kept shooting other people the next thing we know he was in the water and the guide was swimming very quickly back to their boat. It was quite funny. Also our guide almost pulled Tiern in to freak her out, and it worked, cause the look on her face was priceless. Also our guide had us go through this spot with a lot of rocks and a lot of paddling and when we came out of it into calmer waters he said "hum, I didn't think that would work. I've never tried that before." That was a nice to know after the fact!

Here we are on the bus heading back. Look at Ryan, he is all tuckered out.

Sarah after her sweet adventure with the angry river.

A very Sunburned me, and my Dad.

The Ron and Patty

Tierney, Kaylee, Brenna, and I had our sleeping quarters in the loft area. The small loft area, it was actually quite fun being crammed in there like sardines. One night I woke up to find Brenna asleep underneath this little table curled in a ball. One night we were all in bed except Brenna and I was wondering where the heck she was so I headed downstairs to find her and found this!

For the 4th of July, Uncle Ron, Aunt Patty, Tierney, and I left early and headed for the train that went from Durango to Silverton. In the meantime, everyone else got ready and headed to Silverton by car so that they could watch the parade.

Anyway back to the Train! It was VERY cool! First of all I loved all the workers uniforms, and I was literally jumping up and down when I realized that they punched your ticket. I had Tiern take a picture of the man punching mine.

The scenery was beautiful, and almost the whole trip went along the Anamas River. We also had an open car so the views were even better I thought.

Uncle Ron and Aunt Patty

The whole trip Uncle Ron and I were rating the rapids of this part of the river. Most of them were rated deadly by our callculation, and we weren't suprised that most of the trip we didn't see any rafters until close to the end we saw these 3 crazy people. According to my uncle they started with 12 people.

We made it into Silverton around noon, and met up with the rest of the family, the second we got off the train. That was a very cool ride and I would definitly recomend it if you are ever in the area. Anyway after that we hung out in Silverton and had some lunch and checked out the town

I think this is so cute, and so patriotic!

The little family. Another classic Brenna face.

For the return train trip we gave up our tickets to My Parents, Nate, Sarah, Brenna, and Ammon (the kids rode for free). Tierney, Ryan, Kaylee, and I hung out around town and then went and found a sweet parking spot for the fireworks. Then snuck in a little nap. Around dinner time Uncle Ron and Aunt Patty picked us up from our prime spot and we all went to dinner, at which Kaylee is the only one that cleaned off her plate. That girl must be growing!

Here is a in the meantime picture my Dad took. I thought it was just TOO CUTE!!!!

After Dinner we checked out some shops and Aunt patty bought these cute little stuffed animals with carriers for the girls. Kaylee named her cat Kelly, and Brenna named her dog Todo. They were a BIG hit they have been playing with them non-stop since they got them. We also got some ice cream, Kaylee went with her favorite which is pistachio (?). Then we headed back to our prime spot to wait for the fireworks, we played a lot of games, and the train people were able to drive back in time for the fireworks as well.

We had heard from MANY people that the Silverton fireworks were the 3rd best in the nation after the Disney's so we had to check them out. I was inclined to believe it is true since that TINY town was packed. Also we searched license plates all day and 37 states were represented in that town in one day. I will tell you that they did not disappoint!!! THEY WERE AMAZING!!!!! They went on for almost an hour. There was at least 3 things exploding in the sky at once, and there were AWESOME fireworks I have never seen before. The very best part though was that the tiny town of Silverton is surrounded by mountain, which means there was the coolest echo. Those things were bouncing all over the place. They were SO COOL!

The next day after some deep cleaning and a little lunch break at the nearby ski resort. We headed home. Our caravan went a little different way home and the scenes were beautiful even though it was raining.

Here is a shot of Silverton, from the racing car.

There was a billion waterfalls, and they were all very pretty. I just love that whole area. I want to live there.

We stopped in Grand Junction for dinner and this was near our resturant and the girls love apples so they thought it was hilarious and they both wanted their picture by it.

This was by the apple so they wanted their picture by this one as well.

All in All it was an AWESOME trip. Thanks to all those who made it happen. I had a TON of fun. For all those who made it to the end of this EXTRA LONG post. I am very sorry for the length.

Parade, Carnival, and other things

2011-06-25T17:31:00.000-07:00

It is Syracuse Heritage Days!

I know I don't live in Syracuse, but since Tanner Clinic is in the parade every year I always look forward to this day. Sadly, I missed last years, but I am back baby.

It is just an all around good time. As I have mentioned many times before I work with some really AWESOME people, so I don't really need to say anymore on why this is so fun....

....but I will cause we also get to throw Frisbee's! Which I think is SO cool (the parade patrons seem to like it too, since many yelled at us to 'frisbee them' (?)). I however am not great in the art of the Frisbee throw, well I can when I think about it, but I just get so excited in the parade and throw it a little haphazardly. This year I threw one into a ditch, and only hit the truck pulling our trailer, and the truck for the float in front of us. It could have been worse, I could have hit a small child like Alex.

Anyway this year did not disappoint. It was so much fun! Also we didn't have to come up with the float or anything this year, we now have people for that! It was so nice to take the stress out of it and just show up and throw stuff at people.

One of the best parts of the parade was the very beginning. Alex (see above) wasn't going to go but Becca and I talked her into it. Well we got to the first parade patrons, and she threw out her first handful of candy and the kids all ran to it and she exclaimed: "I LOVE PARADES! I LIKE THROWING CANDY!". I used the word exclaimed because she was SO excited!!!!! I laughed SO hard. I think it was a you had to be there situation, but I was there and I am telling you it was funny!

After the parade, I went over and picked up these two rug-rats, and took them over to the park for some fun and games.

They were SO excited about all the rides! It took a little while to walk to them and the whole way they just couldn't stop talking about how excited they were. The first ride they wanted to go on was the roller coster. Which they LOVED!

Then we went to the potty and on the way back to the rides we stopped for some face painting. B got butterflies around her wrist (not pictured).

Then it was right back to the Merry-Go-Round.

They yodeled like their favorite disney character Jessie.

The Motorcycles. They told me they were driving to California.

The Spaceships. Where they were flying to Mars.

And the Cars. Where they drove to Nevada.

They were so much fun! I am glad I got to take them. After we went and had some corn dogs, cotton candy, and about 3 bottles of water each! It was a very hot, fun, awesome day!

Summer Soltice Show

2011-06-19T20:19:00.000-07:00

I went to a STELLAR concert last night. It featured one of, if not my favorite Brandi Carlile, and another real good one, Ray Lamontagne. It was SO AMAZING!

Melissa, Me, and Bobbi. We had to squeeze into this little tiny spot cause we got there a little later and that place was packed!

Melissa and I getting pumped waiting for Brandi, we have seen her before and we just keep going back again, and again, and again.

Bobbi and I. My buddy from work who has the same taste in music as me.

The Wonderful, and AMAZING Brandi Carlile! I told you I have gone a few times, well this was my 3rd time, and let me tell you she did not disappoint. I am telling you this woman knows how to put on a concert. I love her albums, but she is just way better live.

After the Brandi Carlile part and waiting for Ray.

This sign is funny, in no way was this crowd silent. I myself was standing right next to the sign and screaming my head off.

Then there was Ray. He also put on a great show, I learned that I need more of his songs!

Anyway it was SO GOOD! If you have not yet listened to these 2 people you totally should cause they ROCK! Thanks for going with me Melissa, Bobbi, and Dewayne!

Going Hog Wild!

2011-06-10T22:36:00.000-07:00

Welp! I did it! I ran in the Dirty Dash this year.

I did the 5K last Saturday, and it was a blast!

Here we are before all white and pure.

Nate told me that he was chalking up in this picture. I think it is an interesting picture though. The boys all have smiles on their faces and look at Sarah and I there in the middle. We don't look too excited. We totally were though!

Here is Nate right after his superman drive right at the beginning!

It started with some hay bails and some tubes to crawl through. The water that they sprayed at you was FREEZING!

When Sarah and I got to the walls the boys were way up ahead, and the wall was as tall as we were so we didn't get over all of them. I managed to get over one myself and I tried this one cause I was stepping on something kinda solid, but a little unsteady and couldn't get over. I did boost Sarah over this one so we both went over one.

Here we stopped for a photo op, my Father was out at random points on the course taking pictures! That is how we got all these AWESOME ones!

At this point we went off into the wild blue yonder. It included a stretch of tires to run through, and the bog. The bog was interesting.... and smelly, and had a huge (at least 12 lbs), dead fish laying there in the mud at the turning point!

Sarah and I running.....alright I have to admit this is a sham....we saw the camera so we started running we stopped right after he took the picture. We did run at some points of the course though.

At this point we had met back up with the boys who waited for us. We found out that Nate had lost his shoe at the same wooden fence that I was standing on that hard, unstable, shoe size thing in the mud. He also lost a contact. So he ran most of the thing crooked, but he still manages to have a smile every picture!

Here is an example. Nate getting trampled, with a smile on his face, at the end of the slip-in-slide!

More slip-in-slide action. I think that Jordan looks buff and a little like a gladiator or something in this pic.

Ryan running down. I am on the slide behind the photographer on the ground. I had been running until Ryan body checked me and I summer-salted down a ways while he popped back into his lane like nothing happened.

Ok I am back up.

LOVE Ryan's face in this one!!!!

Sarah and I prepping for the jump into the final mud pit.

I thought Sarah was going all in, but that little stinker kept her head above water....well the more appropriate term would be MUD. I however fully submerged into whatever it was.

Then I army crawled through the rest of the thing. Not so much cause I wanted as much mud as I could handle. Mostly cause my legs stopped working. Ryan and Sarah had to pull me out of that thing. A bunch of people at worked asked me what I was doing for the weekend, and I told them that I was going to die in a pit of mud. Turns out I almost did!

Now it is time for some showing off from the boys! They all did flips into the water.

Nate smiling again. He is like a little kid in a candy shop.

THE FINISH LINE!!!! You know I started running in Feb so I could do this race. They had done it last year and it looked like SO much fun, and I didn't want to miss it again. It seems like a crazy thing to start running for (I mean look at us) but I really needed a kick in the butt, and whatever gets you motivated...right? Anyway this walk over the finish line was pretty cool for me because my goal was accomplished!

Nate, Ryan, and Jordan all rolled over the finish line. Very cool! I wish I had gone behind them cause I would have joined in.

Kaylee and Brenna would not give any of us a hug. They hid behind Grandma's legs! That is as close as Kaylee would get.

The AFTER picture. Nate looks like he has make-up on, Sarah looks like a slightly muddy princess with her bright shiny apple, Ryan looks like Ryan, I have a sweet 'soul patch', and Jordan has a smashing unibrow.

After that we headed off to our well deserved, and worth every penny, $3 hot showers. BONUS! Then we took Jordan home and my Aunt Christy, the amazing person she is, had this AWESOME spread waiting for us. BONUS!

As for another, more different kind of BONUS! I said earlier, I started running so that I could run this race. Welp for a goal that started out as me not wanting to embarrass myself. So far not only have improved my health, and started better habits with all this running. I have lost, as of today, 23 lbs!!! Thanks to the motivation of the Dirty Dash (this includes my brothers, cause they made it look like so much fun), and more especially, Thanks to Sarah! Who is my own personal motivator. I couldn't have done it without her.

Well there is about as much MUD as anyone can handle, so I won't show you anymore....until next year.

Newton...how right you are

2011-05-31T21:32:00.000-07:00

There I am running merrily on the treadmill in the basement (not recommended, if you are looking for enjoyment in the activity). I have been going for a while, you know I have a rhythm going, really hitting my stride. Then.......BAM! My finger ever so lightly bumps the magnetic safety key, signally the instantaneous stop of the machine.

Let me stop here to remind you of Newton and his 3 laws of motion:

#1 Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless external force is applied to it.

#2 The relationship between an object's mass (m), it's acceleration (a), and the applied force (F) is F=ma.

#3 For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

So picture these in the context of a person running (an object in motion) on a treadmill, when the floor stops moving (unexpected external force). Do you know what happens? An equal and opposite reaction. In my particular case..... my feet flying back and my face flying into the mile/time counter. Which brings me to the F=ma equation. If my mass, plus my acceleration equals the applied force, I think you will believe me when I say I was seeing stars.

This brings me to my inquiry, and I really need some feedback so I can measure my aptitude to that of a normal person. To be quite honest, I hit that darn safety/death key at least once a run, and it usually ends in pain (and maybe (quite possibly) a few choice words). Does this happen to you or am I just really special?

3 Reasons Why I Love Being An Aunt:

2011-05-25T20:30:00.000-07:00

I will throw in a couple more for good measure. I have been playing around with different camera apps on my phone so I got a lot of them.

They are just the CUTEST!!!!

a threat followed by compliance....

2011-05-07T00:16:00.000-07:00

This is Tierney. She is my dear, dear cousin. This post is going to be all about her.

It all started with a text exchange:

Tierney: I'm about to take your blog off my bookmarks if you don't put any new ones up now!

Cami: Ahh! I will update soon.

Tierney: Yippie!! I literally check it everyday!

You see the problem with this is..... I don't really have anything to blog about. I mean I was thinking about

doing something about Mother's Day or something, but I wanted to wait for that day to be over before I wrote it for the sake of the pictures and such. AND I would probably lose the few (amazing, awesome, stellar, wonderful, best) readers I have if I wrote about nothing, or something really boring. SO if Tierney wants a new post I will give her a new post, and it will be far from boring.....for her anyway.

So like I mentioned before this is Tierney, or as she is affectionately known: Tee-Dough. She is just a young squirt, almost 18, which means that I am just under 10 years older than her, but we get along quite well. It is either because she is mature beyond her years, or that my maturity level is less than par (I have been told that it is the later). Whatever the case may be, I think she is pretty cool.

She lives with her AWESOME family in Arizona and I with my AWESOME family in Utah. We used to meet up all the time in St George, but when G-ma and G-Pa moved to Northern Utah, we started this AMAZING tradition of going on a summer vacation each year together. They have all been VERY cool, and full of GREAT ADVENTURES! Last year it was our big ALASKA trip. That included ALL of our huge family. With just our families we have done many others like: Yellowstone, Jackson Hole, Breckenridge, Vail, Zions, St George, Phoenix, various camping spots in Utah, and coming soon, Durango!

These are just a couple of pictures of said Adventures. I tried to put pictures on here that I haven't posted before. There are a couple of repeat offenders, cause they are classic, and need to be posted twice.

Like I said before many of our meet and greets happened in St George. We would play at the dunes, play some football, or frisbee, and lots of different things. One thing that is always a part of the trip is the friendly cousin pile (see example above). They are never planned they always just happen....or form. I don't know how they started or why they happen, but it does......all the time.

This pile is in front of Chunk-O-Rama. We were standing there for a photo op and like domino's, we all just went down into the muddy bushes. Instant PILE!

I mentioned before we like to play football, or ultimate frisbee. This is a staple to ALL Bringhurst Reunion's. These are a couple of photo's of the Athlete's. We all like to pretend that it is all fun in games, but we tend to be a little on the competitive side. I guess it is just in the blood, but we always have fun.

I know this is all about Tierney cause she wrote me the update blog request text, but I have to mention that I think her sister Lauren (Zoom) is also VERY COOL! This is simply a pick on Tierney blog, and to finish it off I will put my favorite picture of both of them. I love it SO MUCH!

Anyway there is my portrait of Tierney, every cool, darling, klutzy, adventurous, funny, awesome part of her. I think I will dedicate it to her Birthday on May 21st for good measure.

And Tierney, I hope that you learned your lesson
......if you didn't get it on your own.......

"Be Careful What You Wish For!"

a Day Trip to Denver

2011-04-06T18:05:00.000-07:00

Yes, you read correctly, a DAY trip to Denver! My dear little friend Melissa and I went to Denver for the day. This is how it all went down. Melissa had these flight credits that she needed to use up, and there is this restaurant that she loves so much in Denver. So why not use the credits to go to the restaurant and then bribe a friend to go along. Luckily, I was that friend. So we decided on Tuesday, April 5th.

Here we are at the beginning of our adventure riding the shuttle to the airport. Right after this picture is when we realized our flight left in 10 mins. Whoops. We ran to the Southwest counter and got our tickets and the lady said 'Run, just run'. So run we did....to the opposite side of the airport....gate B22 right at the end. We butted in front of everyone in the security line. Then ran some more. We were suppose to check in again at the gate, but luckily the first lady called ahead. They had them ready for us, so we snagged them as we ran by. Then we ran right onto the plane. It was like a scene from a movie.

We made it to Denver. This is us in the airport (we took the photo in front of a plane so you can tell).

We headed off to get our rental car, and since we only had our dinner planned, we asked them what to do. They told us we had to go to Snooze for some brunch.

Turns out that was a great suggestion.

It was a fun little place, with really cool booths.

This is what happened when we asked this gentleman to take a picture of us.

Then he took this one for us. Seriously it was just a really cool place, I loved the atmosphere.

Also they had the best pancakes I have ever had in my entire life. I had a sampler; Sweet Potato, Peanut Butter/Banana, and Pineapple. They were Delightful!

After brunch we went over to 16th street for some shopping. This is us on the bus looking for some good stores.

We found a few to check out. We didn't get anything, but it was a fun little place to hangout.

Melissa found a bridal dress shop that she was fawning over, so we took a picture by the stores bag.

After a little shopping we went out exploring and found a huge park. Melissa was really tired so we parked and she took a nap.

While she was sleeping I went and hung out here. It was so pretty, and the weather was so nice. I was loving the warmth, sun, and the light breeze.

They had paddle boats and I wanted to go on them SO bad, but sadly it wasn't open for the season yet.

Oh well, I just got to enjoy the view and I wasn't complaining. I totally dug the railing, especially the color of said railing.

Melissa woke up and came and found me so here is us walking around.

We decided to go for a swing before we left the park. We were trying to take pictures while swinging. There was a lot of trial and error with that picture taking technic.

Those are the best 2 out of the 50 I took.

Here is Melissa with the rental car. She was going to take it earlier, but I told her we had to wait for a scenic backdrop and this suited my fancy so here is the rental car.

After the park we headed over to Gaylord Street, which I loved simply for the name. We did a little shopping there.

Then we found an ice cream shop in a little area where everything was named after some Bonnie Brae lady; a couple restaurants, an ice cream place, a fix-it place, the church, pretty much all the places on the block. If someone from Denver reads this please explain why to me cause I am still baffled. Who the crap is Bonnie Brae!?!

Maybe I will never know who this Bonnie Brae is, I do know that the Bonnie Brae special is pretty good.

Now to the reason that we went to Denver in the first place....Bella Bistro.

Here is the cute little place, and I mean little, there is room for not so many. There menu is always changing with whatever is in season and you order and then watch them cook it up.

The food was wonderful..... and pretty. I didn't want to eat it, because I didn't want to ruin the art of it. I figured if we took a picture then it wouldn't be lost forever so I was able to eat it, and it was worth it, cause it was pretty darn good.

After dinner we drove around for a little and I snapped a quick picture of the sunset on the way back to the airport. We thought it would be a good idea to get there a little earlier because of our experience in the morning. We got to our gate only to find out that our plane was delayed for 2 hours, so we got to hang out in the airport for 3 hours. Talk about one extreme to the other. Oh well, I got a lot of reading done.

That was our successful day trip to Denver. It was so much fun. I mostly liked telling people that we were only there for the day. I loved their surprised reactions. It was also really nice to just have a purse. That is a very light way to travel. None of that luggage nonsense. I decided that I want to just go random places all the time. It would be so much fun. I guess I will have to keep my eyes open for some sweet airfare deals. I think next time I will try for California...near a beach....

The Fooling of April

2011-04-01T19:12:00.000-07:00

It happened again! You see last year for the first time ever, I went completely nuts and pulled April Fool Tricks all over the place. This year, if possible, I went nuttier! Why, oh why, has it taken me so long to fully appreciate this holiday? I have had so much fun! I JUST LOVED TODAY!!!

SO I will lay it all out for you here. Starting with the prep the night before.

With the help of my buddy Lori, we put some stuff in jello. Like our fellow co-worker, Clint's nameplate. I guess you can't see it in there really well, but there is a name plate in there.

Since we had all the Jello supplies out, I decided to put a bunch of Dr Barker's office supplies in Jello (I had conveniently slipped them in my purse earlier in the day). He got it a bit worse I am afraid: One Stapler, One pair of Scissors, Two Pens, One cup of Paper Clips, One Cup of Rubber Bands, and One Fake Spider.

With the help of my co-conspirators, Sara and Jan, we managed to get every Doctor's Office with something. We got Dr Butler and Dr Foote with a Post-it note attack. We put them everywhere and labeled everything. I didn't get great pictures of those ones, but here is the idea.

Dr Bishop got Saran Wrapped. All the stuff on his desk, his chairs, his fan...well you get the idea.

Dr Stewart's office got Newspapered, and we wrapped everything (Thank you Liz for this idea). Becca's phone for example. I had the pleasure of walking by the office when the phone was ringing and she reached for it before realizing that she couldn't get it. I thought that was pretty funny.

We even got Dr Stewart's chair.

We also got Dr Nye and Dr Owen's office with the ole' Air Freshener's. I bought many car freshener's, all different flavors of course, and we hid them all over the office's. Right after Dr Owen found a bunch, he brought them back to my office and set them on my desk. Well I just went right back and redistributed when they left the office. So they had to find them again. This time they added them to Dr Nye's collection in this plastic bag that they were stowing to use against me later. Unluckily for them, I stumbled across that bag and stole it back for my own uses (more on that to follow).

In the early afternoon I had to run to the Layton Clinic to talk to my Supervisor. I tried to sneak out without anyone noticing, but I was caught, and while I was gone they had time to retaliate. They did manage to put soap all over my windshield before I left. Luckily for me I am out of washer fluid so I didn't try to clean off my window, cause that would have been a mess. Instead I just drove around like this:

Well I was only gone for about 30 minutes and when I came back I found this:

They did everything back to me. I got Saraned, Post-it Labeled, Newspapered, Air-Freshened, and Vasolined! There had to be a lot of them helping, cause this was done fast! Becca said that Dr Bishop was in there giggling like a school girl (I am not going to lie I can kinda picture it). Sara, my partner in crime, was in on this one too! And my other cohort Jan, she was sitting in the office next door laughing! I guess all is fair in love and war.

I had a patient come in to talk to me with my desk like this. It was actually pretty interesting. I had to type and see through the saran wrap on my computer. I had to unwrap the credit card machine to take a payment.

I also had to unwrap a pen for them, only to find that they had removed all the ink from my pens and wrapped those separately. You gotta respect their attention to detail.

Since Sara broke our partner's in crime code, I was able to get her back. This is where that bag of air fresheners came into play. Becca and I went out to her Jeep and where able to unzip a little of that canvas top and toss in about 20 air fresheners. Then we wrapped that thing up good with saran wrap.

So I didn't get a picture of some other things throughout the day, but let me tell you about them.

I went crazy again with the Ultrasound Gel. I put it on the door handles all afternoon, and got quite a few people. We put some on our courier George's bucket, he retaliated with the vasoline on my door handles.

We put clear nail polish on the end of pens to make the user think that they were dried up.

Sara and I got some old nail polish and poured them out on wax paper to dried (thanks again Liz for the idea). Then we put those on everyone's paperwork, to make it look like the nail polish spilled. We got quite a few with that one.

We tapped the bottom of their mouses, and their phones.

This last one is my favorite, mostly because I didn't think it would work at all, and it was AWESOME!!! I made 20 copies of a single paperclip. Then I put those copied papers back into the paper tray. Then when someone would make a copy there would be a paperclip on it. Well I did it and forgot about it, until I came walking around the corner to 2 ladies looking everywhere on that copier. They were saying: "it has got to be in there somewhere" and "we need to get a screwdriver and open this part up I bet it is in there". I had to run around the corner cause I almost lost it. I walked by a little later and one of the ladies asked me to call maintenance because the copier just kept printing a paperclip that they could not find anywhere. I said that I would and ran off again to laugh. Then I came back a little while later and asked them if I could show them something and pulled open the drawer and pulled out the rest of the paperclip paper one by one. They looked like they wanted to kill me, but I thought it was HILARIOUS!!! Apparently there had been more than a few people asked or told about the broken copier. A couple had been trying to fix it all morning.

SUCH A STELLAR DAY!!!!

Happy April Fools Day Everyone!!!

Photos

2011-03-29T21:05:00.000-07:00

So I have this cousin, her name is Kelly, and she has this AMAZING gift! Well, technically, she has many AMAZING gifts. She is the most talented person I know. I always hoped that one day I would suddenly discover that I have the skills in my blood, and I would be able to whip out things that would match the calibre of her genius....alas...I am still hoping....with fingers crossed.

If you don't believe me I will tell/show you. For one thing she is a stellar cook, she always puts awesome recipes on her blog. For another she makes the coolest/prettiest jewelry. You should see her Etsy Shop, here is the link:

For another she is an Amazing Photographer! Along with Her Husband Kelly, they started up this Photography business, and they are just Incredible! Great pictures, and every time they have done photos for me or my family it has been so much fun. They have a way of putting you at ease. SO if you are in the market for any kind of photo I highly recommend them.

Here is that link:

Well Kelly has been on a sabbatical for the past few years, to raise three cute boys, and she is starting to take more photos. She asked if she could take some of me, SO if you want to look at her favorites click HERE and you can check them out. Then you could grab a couple of recipes while you are there. Anyway check them out, check it all out!

There's Good New and Bad News

2011-03-24T17:22:00.000-07:00

If you read my frantic Cha-cha-cha-changes post a couple of weeks ago (there is no need to go and read it if you didn't) you would know that I am having some change in my life. Mostly to do with work and some of it is good and some of it is bad. You will be happy to know that I am dealing way better than I had been at the last mention of these changes. It turned out to be not as bad as I thought it would be. There is just one thing, that I can not get a handle on. SO, as not to dwell on only the negative, I am going to tell you about this good news/bad news style.

The BAD:

I have one more week and then I switch from Scrubs to Business Casual. I have been in Scrubs for 5 years. 5! So you can imagine that I have accumulated quite an extensive collection. So many colors! So many coordinated jackets! So many undershirts! So many shoes! I HAVE 35 PAIRS OF SCRUBS! Also I had a small uniform allowance to help with the purchase of said Scrubs (not nearly enough to cover all expenses (but it helped)). SO I had to go buy a whole new wardrobe. I had no slacks. I had no shoes. I had no nice shirts. I had no uniform allowance! The people I work with all seem to think that this is no big deal (especially the ones who made the decision), but it's a big deal to me. I am going from comfort to pain induced, uncomfortable, annoying clothes. BLAH!

...deep breath...moving on...

The GOOD:

I have a brand new office. My old office was taken by the new Site Manager, and so they needed to move me next door to the old Supervisors office. I am not going to lie I was not happy about this move at first. BUT things turned out WAY better than planned. Not only did they build me a door for more privacy. They repainted both offices, with a color of my choosing. Also I got to go out and get some nice new decorations to spice things up. Tell me what you think...

I still have a couple of things to add/take away, but I think it is coming along nicely. It is kinda fun to have all new decor.

There are more changes, that I won't detail here, that are for the better. I am doing much better at dealing. A couple weeks ago it was all thrown at me at once, and I was on overload. BUT, I have been able to take them one thing at a time, and so far the results are inspiring. Who knows maybe the business casual thing won't be so bad (said through gritted teeth), I guess I will tackle that one next week. So we shall see.

No Help At ALL!

2011-03-21T18:54:00.001-07:00

You guys have nothing?!?!

Not even one little April Fools Prank?

I promise if you give me the idea I will not use it against you.

Come On!

Just so I am prepared.....

2011-03-16T21:30:00.000-07:00

Alright I need a little audience participation.

We are drawing nearer and nearer to the beginning of April.

Which means April Fools Day.

Which means I need some awesome trick ideas.

If you remember last year, I went completely nuts (see HERE if you do not), AND I am gonna need some fresh ideas for all the unsuspecting victims waiting innocently at my workplace.

So if there was a post that needed comments this one is that post.

ugh....

2011-03-09T14:25:00.000-08:00

I have thrown up a million times today. (here is where you say what the ...., this a throw-up post, I'm out (and I say I know this might be too much information, but I just want to share a thought and why not share the story that brought up the thought (plus there are some funny parts))).

Anyway I didn't think that it was possible that you could hurl cause you were in so much pain! I am here to tell you that it is.

Have you ever watched the Brian Regan video about going to the emergency room (click here if you haven't). I have been thinking about it all day and how I would rate my pain.

So here is my story I had major cramps yesterday, I left work early and cuddled up with a hot pad. Then I drugged up, and tied on a mobile hot pad and went about my business, still very cramped.

THEN this morning I woke up and I was DYING!!! I tell you dying!!! I was in so much pain that I threw up. I am pretty sure I gave my dad a good scare cause I was in the kitchen trying to choke something down (so I could take some pain meds) and burst into tears. Mainly cause I didn't know what else to do, and I was frustrated. Thankfully I didn't scare him off. He stayed a little while and helped me out a ton.

Anyway back to me imploding, I couldn't keep anything down to take the pain meds, so since I have good connections at a Dr's office I decided to go in. Not so cool cause I work there so everyone saw me at my absolute worst! But I was SO grateful cause they got me right in and they all really helped me out a lot. Thank You Dr Sorensen's Office! Also Thank You MOM! I am also SO grateful that my Mom was there to take me in and be with me for all of this. I was out of it! So she was a big help to me today too! (my parents are great).

Well I saw the Doc(threw-up there) and they took a bunch of tests and then gave me a shot in my bum (threw-up again), and they sent me to do more tests, an ultrasound (threw-up again), a CT, and another shot in the bum (threw-up again). They thought that maybe it was a ruptured cyst or appendicitis. So after all this testing, and me still dying, they come back with my results and.......NOTHING! It is just cramps. Can you believe it?

So here is the thought that my Mom brought to my attention, and I think is so weird and true. I go into the Doc cause I know there is something wrong, it is in no way normal. The whole time I am praying that it is nothing serious, but when they tell me it's nothing. Instead of relief, I think are you kidding?!?! There has to be something wrong. So now I am feeling like an idiot, cause after all that there is nothing wrong. BUT I am here to tell you that the pain I felt today was at least a firm 8, maybe even a 9. So here I sit hopped up on pain meds and still hurting a little, with nothing more than some cramps.

On a funnier note. I had to take off my bra for the CT, and I put it in this nice little locker and did the test. I said goodbye to everyone there and went on my way to do another test on the other side of the clinic (already embarrassing mind you cause I was wearing non-matching sweats, looked like death itself, and ran into just about every single person I know). Then I started walking out to the car when I realized that I didn't have as much support as I am used to. So I walked back in to the imaging front desk and said:''I left my bra back there'. You should have seen the look on her face. She had to walk me all the way back to retrieve it.

Anyway there is my day. Sorry if it is TMI.

Some Valentines

2011-02-15T12:21:00.000-08:00

So Valentine's Day always comes and goes without much ado on my part. I did however have a real good one this year, and it is not because I had a Valentine either.

It's because of these:

A gift from 3 of the cutest girls I know. They surprised me at work with these balloons. I so wish I would have thought about taking a picture of them when they came in, cause they were cuter holding those balloons, but instead you just get one of me holding the balloons. Thank you Kaylee, Brenna, and Sarah!

Then when I came home and found this:

A gift from the 2 cutest parents I know. Thanks Mom and Dad!

Who needs a boyfriend with family like this. I feel so loved.

Happy late Valentines to all those I love!

Cha-Cha-Cha-Changes

2011-02-11T16:00:00.000-08:00

I don't do well with change. Well I don't do BIG change well, I mean I can handle the little changes day to day. I can baby step my way on up, but the big huge transformation.... not my forte.

You see I get comfortable in one place and I nestle right in and hang out for a while. Even if it is not a perfect situation, I work around stuff until it is acceptable for me and get into a routine. Then I am totally solid. Probably not the healthiest thing to do...

... I mean I know that we are always suppose to be in a constant state of change. To grow, and becoming better people and all that Jazz....but...

...here is my question: 'Why, Oh Why, does everything have to change all at once?' I need to be eased into these things. My personal life, my work life. I am having a change overload!

It's times like these that I wish I was a poet, or a songwriter, so I can express myself in a sonet, or a verse. I hear that is very therapeutic. Alas......I am just a novice blogger. Vaguely venting out my problems to the poor people who read my blog. In hopes that it will make me feel better, while they sit there thinking"what the ....."

SO...

2011-01-16T20:20:00.001-08:00

If you saw my Blog or Face Book recently you would have heard that I lost my camera on New Years. I am telling you, it was tragic! Well I did all my holiday posts with other people pictures, you have probably looked at all of those already.

Good news for me! I FOUND MY CAMERA!!! Bad news for you, cause I am going to be a very annoying blogger. Not only did I do 4 LONG posts all in one day. I am now telling you that I just added a bunch more pictures on those last 4 posts and re-vamped them. Whoops! So, you really don't need to go back and look at them. Like I have said before this blog is more for me than anyone else. BUT I thought I would inform you that they are changed and there are a lot more pictures on them if you want to go and look.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

2011-01-04T23:00:00.000-08:00

So we had quite the party! We had some fun guests: the ever fun Nate and Co, the wild and crazy Tierney, and Ryan's new lady friend Amy. It was quite a fun party.

Tierney and I did a reconnaissance mission and got some sweet hats and some explosives. It caused a little confusion at the store. We were buying these toy poppers and sparkling cider and they asked for my ID. At first I thought she was making fun of me cause I was buying toys, then I thought it was for the cider (so did the gentleman behind us), BUT apparently the poppers were considered fireworks so I had to show my ID. Interesting...

This is an example of one of the party hats.

Here is Tierney and I in both of our party hats.

Then we started being weird.

LOVE the look on Tierney's face on it.

Tierney and Ammon.

Tierney and I with our crowns (they came out of the poppers).

Brenna, Tierney, and Kaylee with their crowns.

We got these sweet party glasses that Sarah are modeling.

Here is Kaylee with the party glasses.

Tierney and I with the glasses.

Little Ammon.

This is Dad while playing Mafia, in his party hat.

Waiting for the countdown, with confetti cannons in hand.

Tierney, Ryan, and Amy preparing for the countdown.

We had some sparklers.

Kaylee and Tierney frolicked in the snow and then made snow angels.

On New Years day we hung out and went and saw the new Narnia movie. I love this picture of Tiern and Ryan hanging out after the show. Later Tierney and I went to Tangled too. Had to see it again.

On Sunday we went to church and Tierney was attacked by the Sunbeams. It was quite funny. Then we came home to a Great Turkey Dinner!

This is my Dad waiting for Dinner. So Cute!

Being weird

This was a cool picture. Look at the placement of that paper right between the eyes. That was accidental.

Then it was time to take Tierney to the airport. She had to go to school monday. It was a told bummer cause I didn't want the party to end.

I had a great start to the year. I hope that this year is better than the last.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!!

Warm me up St George

2011-01-04T22:43:00.000-08:00

SO the day after Christmas we decided to head down to the BEAUTIFUL St George. We were meeting up with Uncle Ron and Co, and we wanted some warmth.

This is us getting started. We picked up Kaylee shortly after this picture. Good thing she separated us. Kaylee was really excited and just talked and talked. She was being very cute. Then I got a turn to drive and right before we got to St George I managed to get pulled over. Whoops! I got a ticket for going too fast. I will say this, it is a good thing he didn't catch me a couple of miles before that.

We met up with some family from Arizona. It was really good to see everyone, it has been a while. Thanks Uncle Ron and Aunt Patty for letting us crash your party.

The first thing we did, like always, is headed off to Snow Canyon.

Kaylee was really loving the sand. I told her that the rule there is that you have to get as dirty as possible. So she took that to heart.

She was so cute. She was loving it so much.

We rolled down the hills a couple of times. We did a race with Lauren, Tierney, Kaylee, and I. I went the straightest, but I think Tierney went the fastest. Hard to say, when we got to the bottom we were all quite dizzy.

Then we started digging holes to China.

Then we all jumped into the holes for a photo op.

Finish off the fun day with a Dog Pile!

After leaving a pile of sand on the seats of the restaurant we went to, we went for a swim. There was and indoor pool and it was so nice and relaxing. Then we decided to see how cold the pools outside were. I mean how bad can it be its St George. So Ryan ran right out and jumped it, and he popped right up, with REALLY big eyes, and got out REAL quick. Tierney and I should have been smart like Lauren, but we went and jumped in too. It was SO COLD!!!!!!

The next morning the boys went bike riding and got very muddy! Even thoughtI wasn't there I wanted to share the picture, cause I thought it was cute.

Then we went to Zion's!

Brenna and her cute mug on the way there.

Me and Ammon in Zion's.

Here is Ron and Patty

My Dad, Lauren, and Kaylee

Me, Brenna, and Tierney

Brenna, Nate, and Sarah

And a REALLY cool waterfall. That is ice on the tree. It looked SO cool!

Then we went and split up and these boys went on a really cool hike. We went on a cool drive.

I was in Uncle Ron's car with Patty, Brenna and these cute girls. Then Sarah, My Mom, and Ammon were in my Dad's truck behind us. Well we went through a very long and very curvy tunnel.

This was taken through one of the windows in the windows.

The first time through my car was in front and we were so confused cause we thought my mom was right behind us, and we thought we lost her. Until we came through and a large dark truck emerged behind us. My mom went through the entire tunnel with her light off. She didn't know how to turn them on!

So we went back through it and Uncle Ron wanted to try it so we tried it a couple of times. This time he turned the lights off and I took the picture. Then my mom turned off her lights behind us and we were all started screaming like crazy! It was SO scary!

After the terrifying ride!

So anyway, the rest of the week was great! We went shopping at the outlets. The kids went and saw 'Tangled' and the adults went and saw 'True Grit'. There were good reviews for both. Then we went to 'Chunk O Rama', it is tradition. My Grandparents would always take us there, so we made sure we went.

This is us hanging out on the couch after our big feast.

Nate brought his Nerf gun and Tierney brought her marshmallow launcher (both recently acquired at Christmas). Then they had a all out war.

Kaylee and Brenna followed them around and picked up all Tierney's Ammo. She got some of them back, mostly they just ate them. Those little vacuum cleaners.

It a really great relaxing trip. I am so glad that we did it. Thanks again Uncle Ron and Aunt Patty.

CHRISTMAS!!!!

2011-01-04T22:32:00.000-08:00

So Christmas was SO AMAZING!

The Parents hanging out after dinner.

Me and My Gram-Gram

Here are a couple shots of my adorable Nieces in the Christmas dresses that I bought them. They came over on Christmas Eve all decked out. How cute are they!?! Those bows were made by Sarah and they are adorable also. When these 2 girls are in the mood they sure do know how to pose.

Ammon was a little stud. He is wearing a Santa outfit (given to him by his Grandma Julie). He fit in so well with the girls.

Kay-Bop

Brenna

Ammon. He was loving the paparazzi.

I am the luckiest Aunt in the world. They are so ADORABLE!

So for Christmas Eve we played our standard Hearts Game (our tradition). Then who ever won that game got to pick a present (another new game). Then we played that one and whoever won that one got to pick a present. It was so fun. There were actually 8 new games. We didn't mamke it through all of them, but we got some good new ones. The favorites were 'Smart Ass' and 'Likewise'. We played those the most. Ammon was right in on the action the whole time. He was really moving all over that table.

Then it was time for bed, and Nate and Sarah decided to sleep over, which we were all very stoked about. It was like a huge sleepover party. We had The Parents, Ryan, Grandma Lois, Nate, Sarah, Kaylee, Brenna, Ammon, and I! I had my nieces with me in my room. We watched polar express and talked about having Christmas dreams. Kaylee said that she heard Santa on the roof (I am not sure how she managed that since we were in the basement), but she was very excited about that.

In the morning they were SO excited. We went upstairs and they covered their eyes as we ran to the room their parents were in. Where they attacked them. Then all the adults went into the family room and watched the girls come in. They were SO fun!

The Girls got a kitchen table with lots of serving stuff. To go along with all their other kitchen stuff.

Brenna got Woody (she calls him Boody). She was very excited. Kaylee got Jesse for her birthday. They have quite the Toy Story set. They also got a lot more stuff, too much to even mention. They got very spoiled, and so did everyone else.

Ammon got this new hat (i made it).

The girls got these princess jammies from Grandma Cindy (she made them). They know how to act like a princess that is for sure.

She is such a poser!

Ammon with his new toy train

I got a new beautiful guitar (Nate broke it in for me). My other one is broken and I haven't been able to fix it. So I am very excited that I got this new pretty one. I got this awesome jewelry organizer from Nate and Sarah. They definitely understand my need to organize everything. I also got the Wise man addition to my Willow Tree Nativity. Very Cool!

I also got these awesome headphones from Ryan. I made a killing.

So to sum it all up, I had a DELIGHTFUL Christmas.

I LOVE my Family, and I LOVE Christmas!

G-Ma's Christmas Party

2011-01-04T22:24:00.000-08:00

Grandma Maxwell's Christmas Party is one of the highlights of my Christmas celebrating every year. I love catching up with all my Maxwell relatives, and we have some awesome grub, PLUS we play BINGO!!! I love this party!

Tyler, Tucker, Colton, Ryan

Shyanne and I

We got a hold of my Grandma's camera and thought we would leave her a couple of surprises. This is one of those little gems.

Dave, Christy, and Emily

Tanner

Shyanne

Ryan and Jordan in their recently acquired shirts

Carter and Emily

Aunt Christy, Jeff, Colton, Tucker, and Jason.

Ryan playing with a toy shot gun that is probably 40 years old (according to my mother).

Me being weird.

Shyanne and I being weird

Tyler and Colton being weird.

Andrew and Alex giving gram gram thank you hugs.

It is so fun to catch up on the comings and goings of all these characters. We don't get to see a lot of each other cause we are all so busy. So to take a day and reconnect is really fun. Thanks for the party Grandma Lois you out did yourself again this year.

I'm a Geezer!

2010-12-17T22:35:00.000-08:00

I am having what I like to call an 'OLD DAY'. Now I have had older type moments (see Senior Moments), but that is not what I am talking about. I am talking about feeling way older than my years. You would think that I would have more of these moments, I mean I do drive a Buick, and I and am getting up there, but it doesn't happen that often.

So this morning I was talking with Sara (a younger co-worker), and I mentioned something about TLC (you remember the don't go chasin' waterfall girls). I seem to remember them mostly in Jr High, I believe I even sang one of their songs for a choir term project. Anyway, she was talking about how she thought they said they were chasin' some dude's instead of a waterfall. I thought it was funny and she said something like, I was really young and didn't really understand the lyrics. For whatever reason, it actually seems kinda silly writing it out now, I felt really old when she said that.

Then I was sitting at my desk for a while, and I got up and must have been sitting weird and jacked up my knee, cause I couldn't walk normal for a while. I see my grandma do that little trick all the time.

Then I was talking to my friend Lori and we were talking about gray hair, comparing stories. I don't want to admit it, but I have had a few. Well she has had a lot fewer..... and she is older than me! Not quite far I think.

Then she asked me what I was going to do this weekend and I told her that I was going to crochet tonight and then play bingo tomorrow. It seemed like a perfectly normal thing to do, until she started laughing at me, and I realized what I said.

Then after work I went to Hobby Lobby to get yarn for the afore mentioned crocheting project.

SO! On this Friday night, what did this single, 20 something woman do(I would put a question mark here if my keyboard would let me)......well..... she sat around wrapped presents, got caught up on her programs, and crocheted.

Yup, that is right. So if you started this post as a doubter to the oldness of my day. What do you think now(question mark).

Also another example of the old-ish-ness of the day. I cannot figure out how to type a question mark((I know it sounds suspect) but in my defense, I think the keyboard is broken. I had to push a totally different button for my apostrophe's)

A Potter Filled Night

2010-11-19T11:24:00.000-08:00

Well it is that time again. You guessed it. The time for all the nerdy/fanatic Potter fans to line up at their local theater to watch (at the very earliest moment possible) the new installment of the mega being that is the 'Potter' franchise.

I, Cami Bringhurst, being of sound mind, must attend to witness the phenomena. In stating the previous: I in no way pronounce guilt in being of this nerdy/fanatic horde, but in being an observer of 'the crazies', and not a willing participant in the said fanatic craziness.

With that Disclaimer out of the way. I had a lot of fun. I met up with my Buddies Lori and Erika and we went to Texas Roadhouse for a late dinner, and then we headed to the theater. We had some 2 1/2 hours to kill so we decided to go bowling at Fat Cats.

Erika showing off her 'lucky leg warmers'. She won 2 of the 3 games. I on the other had lost every single one.

Here is Lori showing off her, 1 game winning, bowling form.

I tried on Erika's sweet glasses, and tried for my best thinking pose.

Me and Loricus

Erika and I

That bowling thing was actually quite awesome we paid 7 bucks and we got to play until closing, which was the equivalent of 3 games, that was a sweet deal!

When we were done bowling we headed over to the theater and got our tickets. Can I just say whoever came up with assigned seating at the movie theater is a freaking genius! I love it so much. We got our treats and found our seats, with little to none line waiting.

Lori feeding Erika popcorn, I though it was a little strange, but I didn't ask questions.

Here we are waiting for the show to start.

This one is my favorite (you know I just realized I always put my favorite picture last. Maybe it is my subconscious telling me that we all need a grand finale (who knows)).

Anyway!

The movie was AWESOME!!!

I loved it all, especially Ron, but I loved it all. I can't wait until the last one, cause if this one was a precursor for the last one of all, it is gonna be a good un! (a prime example of the grand finale theory)

Anyway it was a really fun night, and totally worth only getting 3-ish hours of sleep, and my zombie/delirious work day I had today.

I 'heart' my job

2010-11-13T17:13:00.000-08:00

You may think that doing pt accounts doesn't sound like the greatest job in the world, but what a difference some awesome people make. If you saw my previous post you would know that I have a pretty awesome group of people at the Syracuse Clinic. Well I also work with some pretty awesome people in pt accounts at all 3 clinics. We had an early Christmas party today and it was so much fun. We went to Fat Cats in Ogden.

We even had this sweet sign. So I am sorry that the pictures are not great quality they were taken with my phone.

Here are some of the ladies. Sharen, Kylie, Linda, Danti, and Holly.

We split up in teams and competed in all the different activities. We bowled, and may I say my team started off awesome. We all got a strike in our first frames. We also got to do miniature golf, bumper cars, and arcade games.

Me taking a victory sip out of my trophy!

Here is most of my team: Lori, Alicia, and I (Cory was also on our team, but left before I pulled out the camera phone).

It was SO fun!

Mass Breakout!

2010-11-07T15:54:00.000-08:00

So this is how it all started. There I was perusing costumes at Walmart, looking for the ultimate Halloween costume with my Buddy Becca. I had it narrowed down to a Nun (funny cause I am a reverend) and a Convict (funny cause you could wear tattoo's and such). If haven't seen my pictures on facebook, or caught on from the title of this post yet, I went with the Convict, or Cell Block Psycho to be more specific.

Well I realized I got the wrong size, and I had thrown away the packaging. So my next move was to convince someone at work to be a Convict too, so they could buy that one from me and I could go get the correct size. Well it just ballooned from there and suddenly EVERYONE was going to be a convict. A little peer pressure on a Dr and we had our Warden. It was awesome!

There were 12 convicts total, and Dr Butler was our friendly Warden. It was so fun all day at work. It was even better that most of us tried to act the part all day. I myself had a pretty sweet gangster walk, if I do say so myself.

I took a lot more pictures of the fun, but I didn't put them all on here cause I have them all on facebook, and I didn't want to overkill. We even got mug shots of everyone. They were GREAT! These are the best ones of the Cell Block.

Here is Becca and I stealing medical supplies.

Me and Bobbi. Peace!

Amanda, Me, Jetta, and Jamie. Gangsta's, or whatever.

So I think that everyone would agree that the thing that helped pull off the whole costume was the corn-rows. Thank You Sarah! My Sister-In-Law really stepped up there. I think they were awesome. It took a while too, so it was so nice of her.

Here is a picture of her work.

Here is an after picture of her work. That is HUGE!

Anyway there is a little back story. Nate was suppose to be a Convict as well, Sarah had his costume way before I even had mine. Once we found out this info, I just had to tell Ryan where they were and he went and got one too. He needed something for a party anyway, so he was game. We had a family party on Halloween, so we dressed up and had a photo op.

First I think that Ammon could be included into the Convict group with this little number. Plus he is cute, and I had to share.

Here is Mom driving the get-away car. I love her face it is AWESOME! I think this one should go on the Christmas card.

Then the shameful, handcuffed-on-the-sidewalk shot. This one is my personal favorite of the whole. I just think it is so funny. If you can't tell my knuckles say 'Your Mom!'.

All and all...that was one KILLER Halloween!

This Year's Pumpkins

2010-10-19T20:20:00.000-07:00

Well here are the pumpkins I carved for this year Pumpkin Walk.

I thought that I would share them here just in case you can't make it to the

FREE Pumpkin Walk, on Oct 21-23, in Syracuse, from 7-10 PM.

Just FYI there are some WAY better Pumpkins there.

How is that for a Plug?

Things That Are Cute....

2010-09-28T07:11:00.000-07:00

The Fort

2010-09-14T21:02:00.000-07:00

I should have taken a picture, alas I did not... BUT, I will tell you that Kaylee, Brenna and I built a REAL cool fort last night. There was a hole right in front of the TV just to watch 'The Princess and the Frog', ample space to color, lots of comfy blankets and pillows, plenty of popcorn and fun drink cups full of.....water, and a star disco ball. Luckily, Kaylee was already scheduled for a sleep-over so we got to camp-out IN the Fort! It was even a school night (I know this cause Kaylee would remind me every 10 minutes starting at 6:00 AM).

It has been a while since I built a fort. It seemed like it was harder than I remember, might of been cause Brenna kept trying to jump on it instead of go under it, but it was EXTREMELY FUN!!!! I am talking Serious Amounts of Fun!!!! Does that mean I have the same maturity level as the under 5 crowd? Maybe. It could just me that forts are fun for children of all ages (which is what I prefer to believe). Whatever the case may be, ask yourself this question. When was the last time you did something completely childish, and had the time of your life? If it has been a while, build yourself a fort!

I didn't get a picture of the fort, but I did get this picture of Kaylee.

A Camp Out

2010-09-05T14:56:00.000-07:00

So for the Maxwell Family Reunion this year we headed up to Hobble Creek Canyon. I am not in an articulate mode. So I think on this post I will let my pictures do the talking. I will add little tibbits, but that is all you get. SO! My Parents went up on Thursday night with Kaylee and Grandma Lois. To get as much out of the weekend as possible. Kaylee was totally stoked!

This picture of Kaylee at the fire was just to cute not to share. I went up with Nate, Sarah, Brenna, and Ammon on Friday. Most of the pictures I have are by the river, we spent a lot of time down by the river.

Emily and Tanner acclimating to the water.

Kaylee was hard core with the water guns. There were some little islands that Kaylee named. There was Colorado, Nevada, Utah, and the biggest one was Lagoon.

Emily, in on the water gun action.

It took a little bit but Brenna warmed right up to the water. Nate would throw rocks and splash us (boys and their rock throwing).

Then we headed over to Dinner, and everyone started showing up then and the real party started.

This is a great picture of my Dad. I love the look on his face!

I got to sleep in Cassie, Emily, and Tanner's tent. It was fun! The next morning after breakfast it was right back out to the river.

So cute of Brenna!

We all kept trying to figure out how to make a whistle out of the snake grass. My Grandpa Bringhurst used to do it all the time, but we never learned how to do it. We finally figured it out, you have to blow over the top of it (kinda like a flute(and different sizes make different sounds)). After some playing around Cassie and I found enough notes to play 'Mary had a little Lamb'!

After we cleaned up camp we went out to a large grassy area and hung out for the rest of the day. It was a very relaxing, fun, awesome, successful trip!

Awesome Technology

2010-08-25T21:09:00.000-07:00

So the title of this post might be a little bit of a Jab at Sarah (she said this about the button that you push so the lid pops up on the baby wipes (Sarah I jab out of love(a love tap, if you will))). BUT it is mostly to explain my new toy.

Do you see this:

It is a Nook (MY Nook), or an E-Reader if you haven't heard of a Nook before.

It is AWESOME!!!

I got it for my birthday. I asked for it not thinking I would actually get it, so naturally I freaked when I opened it. I am a HUGE reader so this is a Treasure!

Well that was the main point of this post, I just wanted to brag about my new toy.

Here are a few more reasons why it is awesome. It holds 1500 books (with the option to add a memory card and add even more), you download them from the device in seconds, it is book size (with no backlight so it doesn't hurt your eyes), you can change text size and font, you can put audio books on it, you can get textbooks, you can get newspapers, you can play Suduko, you can check Facebook, you can pre-order 'Mockingjay' and download it right at midnight the day it comes out.......

Alright! You got me the other reason for this post is I wanted to brag about the fact that I got that book at midnight! I didn't have to wait in line at the store. All I did was lay in bed and push one simple button and I had it! Now that is Awesome Technology!

The Concert of Danny

2010-08-03T20:49:00.000-07:00

Someone I know, she shall be referred to as 'IT' (this is how most people know her), gave me some tickets she won to a Danny Gokey concert. I took along some friends:

Becca, Danie, and Sydney.

I was having an AWFUL day, and I really did NOT want to go. I did end up going anyway after a guilt trip from Becca and It. I will tell you, like I told them, it turned my frown upside down. It was a really fun concert. I liked it even though I am indubitably against country music (apparently he is just shooting up those country music charts (or so I have been told by the country loving ninny's (ie: Sydney, Danie, and Becca))). It is really GOOD!

Here are my 'Tiny Dancers'.

Becca and I

The best picture we got of Danny Gokey. He was just movin' too much!

This was taken while Becca was in the bathroom. Sorry dude! Anyway fun concert and I am sure glad I went. Thanks to IT for the tickets!

Going South

2010-07-28T22:00:00.000-07:00

I went down to St George this weekend. This could remain unsaid, and still be understood by everyone, but I am saying it anyway, IT WAS HOT!!! Luckily all we did is hang out at the pool and then hang out in the condo. It was a nice relaxing/fun weekend.

Those in attendance: Syd, Danie, Erika and her son Caleb, and ME.

Here we are hanging out at Syd's Grandparents Condo.

A little nail painting and Tarot card reading (don't ask about that 2nd thing, it is weird).

What is always found at a girls weekend? Ice Cream!

Danie is shocked because babies don't usually like her, but Caleb is a fan.

Here are MANY pool pictures, like I mentioned before we spent a lot of time there.

Creepy?

Your eyes are not deceiving you. We are in fact reading in the pool. We managed to ruin 3 books, and it was not in the way you might think (although Syd dipped hers in a couple times). It was actually the sun, it is not kind to the binding. Our books were in pieces!

Danie's favorite hat. Syd and I hate it. Your opinion?

Alright so one night we went even further South to Mesquite. We were totally bummed that Erika couldn't come, but we still managed to have some fun. We all won some stuff and the promptly lost it. We didn't really leave with anything, but it was still fun to play, and annoy the cocktail waitress with Diet Coke refills.

For some reason Mesquite and I don't get along. Syd and Danie told me that I am not aloud to go anymore. For some reason every time I leave I am a little sick, some cynics may ask well if you were drinking then that would be the problem, but I don't drink anything by Diet Coke. Also I lose my voice. I don't know what it is, it just happens, I should probably go one more time just to make sure that is what it is.

After much discussion we headed home on Sunday night, but we had to take a picture of this restaurant for the Twi-Lovers.

It was VERY fun! Thanks to Syd's Grandparents for the use of the condo, Thanks to Danie and Keera for the rides, and Thanks to Syd for putting it together.

ALASKA!!!!

2010-07-14T08:33:00.001-07:00

Here is my explanation and/or disclaimer, you can take it any way you like it.

As you may know, or have surmised from the title of this post, I recently went to Alaska. I will say it was right up there with the best trips I have ever taken. The thing/problem is I took SO many pictures! Plus I stole quite a few from relatives that were so awesome and of things I did not get. While I do not want to bore anyone, or over share, I need to post them for myself and for journal like purposes. So like it or hate it, here is a full recount of all my Alaska experiences broken up into a few posts. Take them one day at a time if you need, or don't read them at all. Just know as a warning before hand. There is a lot!!! And this is even the condensed version.

There are 8 posts besides this one, and because I didn't think it through the 1st post after this is the end of the trip. If you want to go in chronological order click on this:

'Let's Begin in Juneau'

and it will take you to the first one. Then there will be a link at the bottom of each post that will take you to the next page in the order.

Juneau on the way out

2010-07-14T08:29:00.001-07:00

Most of us went out on the same plane on Monday morning from Petersburg to Juneau. Most of them were in a little section together. For some reason me and my parents were all split up in a completely different part of the plane. Aunt Patty was VERY kind to take my seat so I could go back and sit with Lauren and Tierney, right before the big split.

Josh, Aunt Kay, and Uncle Bill.

Ken, Jenny, and Uncle Ron

Tierney, Me, and Lauren. We look happy but this was actually quite sad. The Juneau Airport is where we all parted ways. I totally did not want this party to end. It was just the BEST family reunion ever!!!! We watched them all fly away. My Parents and I stayed in Juneau for a couple more days.

We went to this place called Glacier Gardens. It was pretty cool.

Here is a cool flower.

The Parents by the heart flower thing. Isn't it just precious?

This was their specialty, the upside-down tree. They replanted it upside-down and then planted flowers on the top. They were pretty cool looking.

After that we went into Downtown Juneau and hung out for a little while and ate dinner.

The next day we had to get ready and eat and be down at the docks by 7:00. So my Dad was suppose to wake me up at 5:30 and my Mom up at 5:45. Well he woke me up and I got into the shower, then my Mom did and we were all almost ready and I was telling my Dad to leave for a minute so I could put on my levi's, and he said 'wait!', and I said 'why?', and he said 'cause it is not 5 it is 3'. It was really funny. I was calling him names, but I thought it was hilarious. So we went back to bed and re-woke-up 2 hours later.

So when we woke up at the right time we headed out on a boat ride to see some Glacier action.

The day was overcast, which worked out perfectly because the icebergs were a brighter blue, and I got cool cloud pictures. This was on the way to the Glacier.

This is a Glacial Valley. You can tell cause it is 'U' shaped.

Some sweet Waterfalls on the way there and on the way back.

A extremely blue Iceberg.

This is the South Sawyer Glacier. We got there just in time to see a HUGE chunk fall off into the water. It was pretty cool to see. Even the crew of the ship thought so. I also thought this was as close as we were going to get, but I will show you more in a minute.

More Icebergs.

Notice how behind my Parents the Glacier is closer, then look down at the water and notice how much ice is in it.

We were going right through a sea of Ice. This is how close we were. They just pushed it all aside with the boat. I got some dirty looks when I asked all the people around me if they had seen 'Titianic'. It was Awesome though.

That is behind us. That is our path out.

Some cute little Harbor Seals floating by on Icebergs.

This one is from the way back. It was a Beautiful boat ride.

When it was time to leave Juneau I just wanted to fly back to Petersburg and do it all over again. It was just THE BEST FAMILY REUNION EVER!!!!

The BIGGEST THANKS goes out to all the Planners. An even BIGGER THANKS goes out to Uncle John and Aunt Jeannie for the AWESOME time I had. I know they put a lot into it. So Thanks SO Much!!

Well I have reached the Conclusion of the EXTREMELY LONG STORY of my Alaskan Journey. I am sorry it is so long. I just really had to put it all in there. So there it is.