Christmas Time

Oh I just love christmas time!!! It is one of my favorite times of the year!

It sure has been a while since i have written on here. My life just isn't that quite exciting. But I'm excited for the new year...for it will bring lots and lots of changes!! I have two more weeks left working at Alpine Credit Union. Then I will be going to school full time at a school in Provo called AmeriTech College. I will be there for 10 months getting a Healthcare Office Specialist degree. After i'm finished there they will place me at a job somewhere. So while i'm at school i will be working part time. It will be weird to be back in school full time and only working part time. All i've been doing for the past 3 years is just working. But i'm very excited to have all these new changes in my life and to start something new!

My favorite Christmas memory would be a four or so years ago, my parents, me and my brother all went down to St. George to spend Christmas with my Grandma and Grandpa. My brother Josh was on a mission, so it was just the four of us. My Grandpa Marcus had just had surgery on his leg and so he was in a hospital. So we brought Christmas to them. They didn't know we were coming so it was all a surprise! Which made it so much better!! When we got to the hall that they were on we starting singing Christmas carols all the way to the room they were in! It was so much fun! We had Christmas Eve dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Josh called us while we were there so we got to talk to him. Christmas morning we went back to the hospital to share our presents we had boughten. It was so much fun to be serviceable to my Grammy and Grandpa! We didn't get home till the day after Christmas, so we opened our presents that Santa had brought us while we were away. It was such an awesome Christmas! Thanks mom and dad for doing that for us! We loved it!!

I hope you all have a great Christmas!! MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!! AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Martin's Cove

This past weekend was simply awesome!!! I loved every minute of it...well maybe not the 6 hour bus rides(on a school bus)! But everything thing else was so much fun! I have been to Martin's Cove 3 times now. Though I have only walked the trails twice, once when I was in Young Womens, and then this weekend. I learned and felt so much more this weekend!

So we each got to pick a character of one of the pioneers in the companies. Then we researched them and presented them at a certain time. My girl was Zilpah Loader Jaques. She was born and raised in England. She grew up pretty well, living on an estate, while her Dad worked for the Sir and Lady that lived there. Was baptized in a river that had to have the ice broken to go into. Got married to John Jaques. They had a little girl before they came over to America. Her name was Flora. By the time they came over to America on the Horizon, Flora was 2 years old, and Zilpah was 8 months pregnant. Zilpah and John met Zilpah's family in Iowa City and joined the Martins Company with them. They all were so strong in the gospel and had so much faith that they would all reach Zion. Zilpah had her baby boy in Florence, Nebraska. His name was Alpha. Along the way Zilpah's Dad got very sick and ended up dying. So John was there to help with his in-laws, and still pulled his handcart too. It was very exhausting for him. There came a time when John's legs started to swell and it became harder and harder for him to pull the handcart. So Zilpah got out of the cart(she was still recovering from giving birth), leaving her 2 year-old and her newborn in the cart and got in the tongue of the cart and helped her husband push the cart so that they could keep going. Flora got sick later on and died at Fort Bridger, 6 days from the Salt Lake Valley. But they made it to Zion and buried Flora there in the Valley. Alpha was the oldest living member of that company.

Hearing all the stories about the different members of the company was such an amazing experience. I became so much more in tuned with where i was and what they went through at that point in time. We crossed the Sweetwater River; it wasn't as cold as i thought it was going to be for November. It was more refreshing to the 70 degree weather we were in. I was able to go through the river a few times. :) We had the BYU studios camera crew with us the whole time filming us, so the handcart that i helped pull through the river had a camera on it. We went through the first time, but they said the camera wasn't low enough to go all the way in the water how they wanted it, so we pushed the handcart back to the other side and tried it again. I got pretty wet, but it was such a great experience to be able to do that. As i went through I kept thinking how it would be to have chunks of ice flowing down the river and cut at your legs. Those pioneers were amazing to suffer through so much and still have faith that they would make it to Zion. I am truly blessed to be able to experience this last weekend with my ward! I have so much respect for the Pioneers and all they went through. If you want to learn more about their experiences, read The Fire and The Covenant. It is written by Gerald Lund and it's fictional characters in real events with the real pioneers. SO GOOD!! I loved it! I hope you all realize what our ancestors did to come to America, and what the rescuers went through to save those pioneers! I hope we never forget and never take it lightly. I'm so grateful for them and for them to listen to the Prophet's calling.

Halloween

Oh my goodness, it has surely been FOREVER since I last posted anything. My life really has been quite boring--work, school, work school, work, school.......same old thing! haha :)

My Halloween was quite relaxing actually! Didn't really do a whole lot for the weekend. Friday I went to Wingers, Comedy Sports, and hung out with my girls! Saturday I mostly hung out around the house, babysat my nephew, Caleb, for a couple hours, and watched Robin Hood with my Dad. It was a good weekend.

This is me with a my co-workers that dressed up on Friday.

This coming weekend, my ward has the opportunity to go to Martins Cove! I'm so so so excited!! We are going to be reenacting the crossing of the Sweetwater River. It's the anniversary when the Martins Company went through. November 4th is the actual date, but we will be going on the 6th! It will be a lot of fun! I will post next week on my experience! :)

B-Day and Labor Day

Well here I am....23! Ha! Don't really feel any different, but now I just get to say that I'm 23! I had a great birthday. I didn't really do anything on my birthday, but the holiday weekend after was great. My co-workers did throw me a little party making me some creamy broccoli soup and a birthday cake. Then Friday I hung out with some of my girlfriends and we went out to dinner and shopping. Saturday I headed up the canyon to meet my parents and my aunt and uncle and their family for some good camping! :) It was a bit windy up there, but it sure was pretty! My Dad, my cousin Andrew, and I hiked up a big hill to a rock formation that looked cool from the campsite..not so cool up close...

It's blurry cause my camera is zoomed in on it, but the little rock looked like a whole so we climbed up...

The view from up top!

So I guess you can't really tell how high we were with my camera zoomed in and all (it has a REALLY GOOD zoom!!). But it was a good workout for the three of us! Andrew just went up and down no problem..me and Dad on the other hand were pooped when we got back down! :) And of course we went out on the lake and did some fishing.

Dad had out like 5 poles at a time so it got kind of crazy at times, but it was fun!

My tiny little fishy that i caught...i thought i would give it a kiss to welcome it into the boat. Don't worry, I'm not squeezing it that hard...it just would stop moving long enough for me to kiss it. ;) It sure did taste good though...the meat not the kiss..GROSS! And yes it was very cold out there..I had a few layers on!

The 3 rascals! Andrew, Jacob, and Trenton...my cousins that came with us! They loved the boat and knowing what everything was and fishing. They were hilarious! I had lots of fun with them!

WE MADE IT! I was getting a photo shoot while the boys were cleaning the fish...little did i know that soon after this picture, when we got back to the trailers and started packing everything up..I found out my car wouldn't start. So we had to jump it quite a few times for it to start going again. Then down the road my car decided to stop working and turn off completely! So I had to think fast and coast to a stop at the side of the road without getting in the way of the traffic behind me. When the trucks pulling the trailers and boat, caught up with me they jumped me again. They had to jump my car about 4 or 5 times to get it home all the way back to Alpine. To make a long story short...after a new battery and an alternator my car is mostly back to normal! :) Thanks Dad and Kris for taking care of me!! What a weekend!

School....

So here I am at work completely bored, wondering what I should do and can't stop thinking about what tomorrow brings me. I START SCHOOL!! I haven't been to school in about 4 years! It's so weird! I'm quite excited, but it's going to be crazy! I am still going to be working full time, so I just have to hustle down to Orem to be to my class by 6....work ends at 5:30! :/ So I'm just going to hope that they will let me go early so I can make it on time. My classes are Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday's. I actually think I might be having to go on Thursday's too...don't really know quite yet. I won't mind that, it's just more crazy. So it would be that I have Math on Mon and Wed and English on Tue and Thur. I hope it will all go well and I can get back in the mode of doing school again. So wish me luck!

Also, I was looking through all my post last year, and realized that I never put something up. I remember putting it up on Facebook, but I will tell you all again because I never stop being proud of myself. Some of you might think it's tedious or dumb, but I love knowing that I can accomplish this......

THAT'S RIGHT!!! I have mastered the Rubiks Cube! I have always always wanted to be able to solve it and know what I'm doing! I have one here in my desk, and I pull it out and do it every so often. It's quite entertaining to me. I just though I would share that with you all!

FALL IS ALMOST HERE! YAY!!!!!

Tim McGraw & Lady Antebellum

So to finish off my eventful July, I attended the Tim McGraw and Lady Antebellum concert! Oh my goodness it was so so so much fun! I went with a girl I work with, Shelly and her sister Brooke. Tim and Lady A were amazing! I loved them both! This will be my second concert and counting! It was very eventful! haha One big thing i like to do when i go to places with lots of people is people watch. And when you go to a concert that is the best place to do that!! Because there are a lot of drunk people every where!! It was hilarious! There were two guys dancing there hearts out in the isle...doubt they will remember what they did! We saw a guy who couldn't choose what girl he wanted to be with...weird! Of course you always have to have those fight...so we saw a few punches and those good samaritans trying to stop it, but got in the fight as well. We saw a girl who couldn't even stand up by herself, so she just fell to the ground and puked...gross! We saw a dad who had to be led to the car by the wife and daughter(now that one was just sad...I'm glad i never have to do that with my dad!) I think that was pretty much it! It was very entertaining! I loved every bit of it! And hopefully will go again when Lady A comes this fall! Here are some pics from the night!

Tim McGraw doing his thing! :)

Lady Antebellum...MY FAVORITE BAND EVER!!

Shelly and I trying not to sweat to death! Man was it HOT!!

The three of us having so much fun at the concert!!!

So that was my July! Here we come August....which means SCHOOL! I've had a great summer and I bet it will keep being tons of fun till school starts! But that will be fun too! ;)

Pioneer Day

I absolutely love having two holidays in July! It is so much fun and we get twice as many fireworks! Especially this year, with a three day holiday for the 4th, and yesterday the 24th. It was a lot of fun, and I got to go to my Grandma's for her usual breakfast and water party! ;)

In the backyard starting of breakfast!

It started off that all the little kids were against Brandon and I. But they kept running away and making their "base" in the front of the house. So we got a bit bored just going after them, and decided to turn on each other. It was a lot of fun! Our goal was to keep everyone wet, and not dry, but we had to make a few exceptions with our Aunts and our Grandma (she stayed out of the game due to recent incidences. Love ya Gram!) But all in all i would have to say it was a success!!

And then there is Ping Pong.............

We get pretty serious when we play! Dad had fun taking pictures of us! It was a whole lot of fun, and I didn't want it to stop! Thanks to my family for an awesome weekend!

Starting off the holiday....

So starting off the holiday, Courtney, Kirsten, and I went on a little hike to a pretty little waterfall. We had tons of fun!!! It was a short hike, only .5 miles. We went up to Payson and it was called Grotto Falls. If you ever get a chance, its very pretty in there!!

This is the waterfall that we hiked to. So pretty!!!

The creek/river we had to cross a couple of times to get to the waterfall.

My crazy Cousins!

We had a little to much fun! :)

More to come for the Pioneer Holiday! Hope everyone stays cool and enjoys the weekend!!

The weekends...

So far my weekends in July have been pretty exciting! The first weekend I was able to go to the Stadium of Fire with my cousin Kirsten.

Carrie Underwood sang, and there was also the Osmond brothers(second generation), the 5 Browns, and two more, but i can't remember their name. But they were all so good, and I loved every minute of it!!! The fire works were amazing as well!! Of course they would be! It was a good 4th of July for me!

Just this last weekend, I went on a trip down to Las Vegas with some of my friends! It was so much fun! There were 6 of us, 4 girls and 2 guys, all in one van! We had lots of fun! Us girls stayed in the Las Vegas Hilton, and the boys stayed in the Best Western! haha

We did most of our walking up and down the strip at night, even though the temperature is the same all day long, it's cooler to go at night instead of having the sun beat down on us. So we saw the "Pirate Show", if you want to call it that. It's no longer a family show, just a bunch of girls dancing for the pirates, wearing a whole lot of nothin!! That was actually really cheesy, but it was fun for me to watch all the people around us! I'm a big people watcher, and Vegas is one fun place to watch people! Because most of them are high or drunk! haha

Anyway, so we also saw Phantom of The Opera! I thought it was really good. The sets and everything were well put together, the only thing I wish was different was to have a different guy play the Phantom. He was way to nasally!! At first i thought it was the mask, but then he took it off and still sang the same way.

(This is where we saw The Phantom of the Opera)

The rest of the time, we hung out at our hotel, at the pool, or just checking the sights on the strip like Caesars Palace, The Cheesecake Factory, The M&M store, The Billagio, The MGM Grand...you know just the cool stuff! haha All of it was a lot of fun! I'm so glad i was able to get away from work and have somewhat of a social life back!

Finally....

Finally something to blog about! My brother, Brandon, kept getting after me about not updating my blog more, blah blah blah, but i just don't really put anything up unless there is really something to say or post about. haha So here i am, summer time......and what does summertime bring? RODEO SEASON!!! I LOVE going to rodeos! Even though i lost my rodeo partner, due to a marriage, they did happen to come with me to at least one that we usually go to.

Katie and her new husband, Adam, came with me to the Strawberry Days rodeo! It was a lot of fun. Even though i forgot to take my allergy medicine before i went and was coughing and sneezing the whole time, I really enjoyed myself. It was Adam's first time to a rodeo, so we got to share our knowledge of all the rodeos we have been to! ;) My favorite event is the bull riding, and i think it will always be.

They had a presentation i guess you could call it during the night. I don't know if you have heard of her, but it was called Amanda Payne with The One Arm Bandit and Co. She did a little show for us, with her and her horse, and two buffalo. It was pretty cool.

I don't know if you can see it very well, but she is standing on top of the horse on top of the trailer.

And she got the two buffalo to go up on top of the trailer, and she eventually went up there to, but i wasn't fast enough to get a picture. It was pretty cool.

Then Saturday, me and my cousin Kirsten went to Lagoon and spent the day there! We had a lot of fun, and hope to go again this summer, to go on some rides we didn't go on. There were so many people there! The line for Wicked was 30 min. The line for Rattlesnake Rapids was an hour long. Can't really blame the people though, it was one hot day. It's kind of lame how you wait in line for so long, and the ride, is only last seconds. :( Not very well put together! haha But we had fun none the less!

These two rides are my most favorite rides at Lagoon. The top one is called the Samuri. It takes you up in the air and spins you around all crazy. Each section of seating moves in a different direction flipping you back and forth, upside down and such! SO MUCH FUN! The bottom one is called Wicked! You sit in a tunnel, waiting to be launched out, and then all of a sudden off you go, straight up, then straight down, then does a few twist and turns and such to flip you upside down and all. Love them both, but LONG lines for both as well!

Sorry i know it's a lots of slide shows, but these are my pictures! Enjoy!!