Another Solo Visit Home

After being in Seattle for a little over a week, I drove back to the Tri-Cities (by myself :(, Philip needed to stay and work) and hung out with my family for 12 days. While there I drove to Idaho with my dad, Opal, Drew, and Baylee (Cody had a basketball tournament, and Gene had drill) to go to a family reunion for my dad's side of the family. It was just a short weekend trip, but it was fun! We had a barbecue, went on some nice walks, and the rest of the fam fell in love with Arctic Circle (which I already love). 

At the barbecue, yes we all do have some awesome facial expressions 

The Wednesday after we got back from the reunion was Independence Day! I absolutely love Independence Day! It is so wonderful to celebrate our country because I feel like in doing so we are celebrating the life of every American and the sacrifices given in behalf of our country. I really do feel blessed to be an American and know that I have been given and blessed with so much because I was born in this country. On Independence Day we did typical 4th of July stuff... barbecue... water fun... and fireworks of course! 

My family has a tradition to buy the tank fireworks that shoot out stuff and drive forward before burning up and setting up a little war with the army men, I highly recommend trying this next year, its really fun and funny to watch! [But I should warn you, there will be casualties among the plastic men]

Doing some sparklers before setting off bigger fireworks 

This is not really a part of the 4th of July, but I found this Jolly Rancher with an ant that wasn't just stuck on it, but it had kind of melted into the Jolly Rancher, it was sooo very weird.

After the 4th of July I stayed in Tri-Cities for the next weekend because my lovely friend Allison Mills was giving her mission farewell that Sunday. She was called to serve in the San Bernardino California Mission and reported to the MTC on July 11. She gave a beautiful farewell talk and was full of smiles the whole time - I loved getting to share some of that special day with her.

Allison and I

The Mills family is famous for the card game shanghai and I LOVE to play it with them. When we played it the Sunday before Allison left, Jason (Allison's little brother) drew these fun caricatures of each of us above where we were keeping track of the score. You have Kim Possible, Jasmyn, Belle, Sleeping Beauty, and Harry Potter. So fun!

For all you Shanghai players out there, my total end score was 20 one night. Best game ever. But I probably just got lucky cuz there were probably too many cards for the number of players, but oh well, I'll take it!

It was a good trip home, but I was happy to return to family in Seattle and to my Philip!

Father's Day Surprise!

Philip is doing a sort of internship with our brother-in-law Rob up in Seattle this summer. We are living in Rob and Susan's (Philip's sister) basement (which is super nice) while Philip works for them and I do the occasional babysitting. Well, we drove up from Utah to the Tri-Cities on Father's Day with a plan to continue up to Seattle on Monday afternoon. Well, the best part is that I didn't tell my dad that we were driving up on Sunday, so I was able to surprise my dad for Father's Day! It was great! When we got there at about 5:30 and surprised my dad he said, "I was wondering why you hadn't called me yet." Lol. He was surprised, and it was great =)

My dad, Gene, and me like 15 years ago (at least)

My dad and I on Father's day 2012 (I look terrible, but give me a break, I slept 4 hours the night before and had just driven 10 hours, well half of 10 hours......) 

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!

I have some great friends from high school, and two of the best are Danielle (Amparan) Anderson and Allison Mills. I just love these girls! We had some good times in high school and then we all were at BYU Provo together for a little bit too! I have been lucky enough to be in Provo with Allison for nearly the whole time she was at BYU, but up until this spring it has been nearly 2 years since I had been able to see Dani. But she came to Utah to visit her parents, so we all got to hang out! We went to City Creek, looked around, laughed, talked, and ate cheesecake! Yum!!!!!

 Allison and Dani

 Me and Dani... her face says it all

 Me and Allison

We acted like tweens and bought matching necklaces at Forever 21... lol... but they are each a different color....lol.... so nerdy and so us 

 Us three

 Allison is just so surprised that the cheesecake tastes so amazing!

Yummy rasberry lemon cheesecake! You just know we are meant to be friends cuz we all wanted the same kind!

It was a lot of fun to be able to hang out together again. I am convinced that we will remain friends our entire lives, but I know its likely that we won't be able to see each other super often either, so I will take any chance I have! Love you girls!

Birthday Date

This year my birthday fell on a Thursday..... and as Philip and I were pretty busy with school we didn't do much actually on my birthday besides use our seven peaks passes to go to seven peaks for like an hour and a half (I just made that sound lame..... but it was fun!). But Philip wanted to do a birthday date for me because it has been a LONG time since he has actually planned a date for me.... especially one where I didn't know what we were going to do. And I don't like doing birthday party's for myself... the last one I had like 2 years ago went terribly.... people forgot about it and then other people who came left way early to go do other stuff.... oh pity me.... so I don't do birthday party's anymore - if other people don't want to be there themselves then I wont make them feel obligated. So birthday dates are the best =) because I know my hubby does want to be with me and celebrate =)
Philip was going to try to fit my birthday date into one day on the Saturday after my birthday, but because of being busy with school, projects, and church stuff we did the date in two parts. Over the past year I have casually, well maybe not so casually, mentioned different things that I have been wanting to do around Provo..... ride a tandem bike.... eat at the creamery (which is like a special event for us)...... do something crafty..... etc..... So based on these small big hints, Philip planned a date for riding a tandem, eating at the creamery, and going to Color Me Mine (ceramics studio)!!!!! Here are some pictures of our fun!

 The two I painted!

 The two Philip painted!

 Philip also did that!

 Our cute BYU coasters!!! I don't have a picture of them after they were glazed and fired, but they look even more awesome now ;)

It was a lot more difficult to ride a tandem bike than I thought it would be...... but we got used to it.... I couldn't be in the back though or I would make us crash.... I just need to be in control and the person in the back isn't! Glad Philip could ride back there and not make us crash!!!!

Memorial Day Weekend

This  Memorial Day weekend I hitched a ride home to the Tri-Cities and got to spend some fun time with part of my family and one of my best friends Amanda. Philip had too much work and school to do to come with so he just stayed home..... I was lonely without him, but still had a good time!
The date of my birth happens to be a very lucky one because it always falls around Memorial day..... so it means that Memorial day is birthday celebration time! The sad part was that Drew, Cody, and Baylee were gone all weekend, so I didn't get to see them =(

22 years old!!!!

 We went on a boat ride.... and it was a little chilly and the only jacket in the car was Cody's... so I wore it!

 Amanda and I got pedicures.... always nice! This was my once a year pedicure!

 My brother and I

 My cousins Myah and Max!

 My daddy and I!

 Opal, me, and dad!

 Opal and me

 Brother, me, dad

Aunt Kylee, Uncle Vincent, Grandma Sandy

Pictures of me and Amanda!!!

Amanda is one of the friends that I have had the longest. She and I have been friends since 7th grade.... so for at least 10 years now! She is one of the few really good friends I have who I still stay in good contact with who knew my mom... which brings me to the next picture....

It was Memorial day weekend, so of course my dad, brother, and I visited my mom's graveside. Kylee and Vincent were kind enough to let us come by their yard and take our pick of their roses to bring.

Annular Eclipse

On May 20 of this year there was an annular eclipse-this is when the moon moves in front of the sun and leaves a ring of sun shining around the moon. One of the best spots for viewing this eclipse was in southern Utah-3 hours south of Provo. Philip and I had not been planning on going down there to see it, we just figured we would see if anything was visible from Provo. But we have some awesome spontaneous friends (Tyler and Maddie) who called us the day before and asked if we wanted to drive down there with them to see the eclipse, we said yes, and it turned out to be a lot of fun! And we weren't the only ones there.... There were THOUSANDS of people who were pulled off on the same highway we were to see the eclipse! The couple who parked next to us drove to Utah from Wisconsin to have a prime view of the eclipse! Crazy!

Us at the eclipse location.... parked right off a highway. 

Tyler and Maddie using a fishing pole to fly a kite - its actually a pretty good idea! 

Philip just chilling waiting for dinner to cook and the eclipse to start. 

It was really hot and sunny that day.... and there was no shade to be found where we were..... so this was our way of trying to escape the sun. 

 Philip doing some cookin!

 There was a pretty desert view

 My most wonderful hubby =)

 Cooking dinner!

 Okay... so it was really weird, but we got our camera to take a picture of the eclipse like what you see above.... the eclipse was actually happening where the huge shiny sun is, but the actual eclipse (what you would see when looking through the special eclipse glasses) shows up really small to the left of the huge sun.

 That is an annular eclipse! When it was like this for a couple minutes Philip goes, "Look! I'ts the ring to rule them all." Lol. 

 The eclipse between our heads!

These are the cool glasses things that you would look through to be able to look at the sun and see the eclipse! Nifty!

Overall it was a really neat experience to drive down to Cedar City and watch the eclipse with the thousands of other people who came to see it. It was lucky that it was so easy for us to be in pretty much the prime viewing spot in the WORLD to see this eclipse. This life is a place for experiences and you have to take the ones that come because you never know if there will be one like it again!