All things Thanksgiving... and BLACK FRIDAY!

Thanksgiving is one of my all time favorite holidays! Family and food! I don't think you can get better than that. This year was no disappointment.

Right beforehand we were on a Blizzard watch... well it was more just a Whiteout! I mean we got some snow, but I don't think it was Blizzard worthy. We got some snow and a lot of wind!

Lindsay was invited by Pono to go to Thanksgiving in Nampa... it was a hard choice as she usually just goes to her Grandparents in Layton. But as the time got closer and she didn't see Pono for almost two weeks when he took a trip to New York she decided that she would go to her Grandparents a day early to spend time with them, then she would go with Pono to spend Thanksgiving and the weekend with his family. And it became a good weekend for them!

For my family we went to Kaysville to Uncle Tom's and Aunt Sirena's house. I love this tradition because so many come and make it so great. The numbers have dwindled in past years as we have started getting married and people have in-laws to go to now, but the ones who do make it have a great time!

Long about 8 I got a text from Nate asking when I was going to get back in town. They were going to get together to play scatterball. Of course I was in, but we didn't get back into town till around 9:30ish. Well I still went over to the church and we had fun... I got the biggest bruise from that game! haha! Totally worth it. Afterwards Nate invited me to his apartment as they were going to put in a movie then go to Walmart at midnight when movies went on sale. Well we just kinda chilled for a bit then headed to Walmart. We went back to Nate's... Me and Sierra, and Nate watched Did You Hear About The Morgans... Sierra and I are always asleep when we go to Nate's for a movie. LOL. Nate stayed awake and even put in Horton Hears A Who, at some point.

Nate woke us up around 4 so he could go to Al's and I went home to get Lexie. Part way home I realized my wallet was still at Nate's. Oops. I had to call him, go get his keys, go back to the apartment... which took forever to unlock, take him back his keys, then I finally got home. Woke up Lexie and we headed to Shoe Carnival because I wanted some boots. Lucky me I paid $16! Then we went to the mall to find Lexie some pants, and even though we didn't find her a good deal she still got some American Eagle jeans.

Nate had mentioned having a breakfast party after shopping so I came home and turned on the TV. Well he ended up going home and went to bed! haha.

That evening we ended up at Clint's, we got dinner at Chick-fil-A then played games. I was so tired and slap happy that Nate and Ryan found joy in tickling me. Oh how I love my friends, they reminded me that I always need to buy waterproof mascara!

It was such a good weekend and Lindsay and Pono finally made it home on Monday as there was another storm that closed the freeway in Idaho. They made it in time to say Happy Birthday to Julie and throw her in the snow! Don't forget hearing Momma J's monkey noise!

Oh the good times that we have!

Stop Complaining!!! We went to Polar Bear!

My crazy friends! Oh how I love them!

The guys have all gone to or worked at a boy scout camp up in McCall, Idaho. Well in the fall they go back up to camp and do what they call the Polar Bear Strut. It makes for a great weekend!

This was back in November, 12-14. We left Friday afternoon and headed to Pono's parents house in Nampa. We got there and put in Back to the Future as it was that weekend in the movie. LOL. We had to get up early the next morning to travel up to McCall. Lindsay and I at one point didn't want to be in the car anymore and started to 'complain' (we were just kidding around) and Clark turned around and yelled at us... "Stop complaining! We're going to Polar Bear!" hahaha it was so funny!

We arrived in McCall and got breakfast at The Pancake House. There they have huge cinnamon rolls! And a Christmas Store! Great place to just chill.

We then went down to the water front to watch the boys get really cold while doing the hokey pokey in the lake. The guys started getting an audience while we waited for someone to show up with their camera. Jamis made a speech and pumped everyone up. Go to facebook and watch the video

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150151934123448

We jumped in the hot tub for a min to warm the guys up then headed back to Boise/Nampa. It was still pretty early and didn't want to just sit around doing nothing so Nate, Sierra, Pono, Lindsay, Spencer, and I went to see a movie. Unstoppable had just come out so we chose that one. Even though I was pretty tired it was way intense and I stayed awake. It was so good!

Pono's mom and dad made us dinner and afterwards we put in Back to the Future part 3, and I think most of us crashed... I know at least I did. After that was over we were really slap happy and laughed a lot till I decided to go to bed. Lindsay stayed up talking to Pono and when she came she apparently came in scared me and I 'inhaled' my nose. LOL.

Nate, Sierra, and Spencer all got up early to make it back to Logan so Sierra could talk in her ward. Lindsay, Pono, and I stayed to go to church with Pono's family and had Lunch at his brother and sister-in-laws. We left around 3 and Lindsay and I took a nap for a bit and made it back to Logan around 830ish.

It was such a fun weekend! We again learned that it was fun going on trips with Pono and those guys and couldn't wait for more to come!

Its Been Too Long!

Oh My!!!! I'm sorry, I've been so horrible! Life has been so amazingly rad that I forget to update all you who follow this! If you are ever missing me, send me an email, or a comment and I'll post. Although I am going to try and be better.

It is late though so I will catch you up this weekend. Some things to watch for..

• The weekend in Boise... Polar Bear
• Thanksgiving
• Temple Square
• I'm going to be an AUNT!
• Christmas
• New Years
• Weekend in Provo
• Andy took me on a date
• I took Andy on a date
• Lindsay got engaged!
• Weekend in St. George

Wow... that is a lot I haven't updated! K we'll do this one day at a time... LOL. Especially since here in 13 days I will have another rad adventure... Going to Moab for Spring Break. Right after that mom and I are going to the Green Pig Pub for St. Patrick's Day. Alright stay posted and if needed send me a message!

New Position!

So if you didn't know already...

I work at Cookie Cutters Salon. Its a hair salon for kids. They come in and pick out a movie or PlayStation game that they can watch/play while we do their hair. This works surprisingly well for 'distracting' them and helps them hold still for the most part (expect for those who are use to the Wii. LOL). They also get to sit in a car or airplane (little carnival ride 'toys') which also makes the experience more exciting to them.

Even though this helps a lot we still have screamers who just don't enjoy getting their hair cut, but its not as often like when I have been at other salons.

Anyway, our Assistant Manager and her husband have decided to take the opportunity to move down south where they will house sit her sisters house while they are out of the country. This made that management position open and Brenda (owner) opened it up to the stylists here. I let her know that I would be interested in that, and a week later she called me up to let me know that if I still wanted the position it was mine to have. I of course accepted. I'm so grateful for this because it guarantees my hours, and I should be getting a raise... if not I will mention to her that I feel for the extra responsibility I should get one. But just having the guaranteed hours is a great blessing in my life right now.

I love doing hair and it will always be more than just a job to me, its a hobby. I love the way it makes people feel after giving them a new look, or even just shaping up their old one. And here at this salon the little kids love getting it done as well.

Another Epic Weekend Ahead!

So not a whole lot has happened since the Cedar/Zions Fall Break trip. Just the occasional Scatterball night, or random late night movie at Nate's. Jared, my cousin, did end up coming up to hang with us at the Haunted Labs up on campus which was lame, but he did meet Julie again and they have really hit it off, so we'll see how that goes. Found out Nate thought I was trying to 'get away' from them cuddling when I used his shoulder as a pillow... wasn't trying to get away I was honestly sleeping and slept through most of The Dark Knight. 

Then last weekend we saw Megamind! It was the best movie I have yet to see in 3D! it was totally rad. Then we went back to Nate's and put in The Illusionist where I fell asleep on Brazilian Matt. Then the next night was way random and we ended up at Nate's again only Nate wasn't there and we hung out with Matt, and then the other Matt Baker came home and we put in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and I again fell asleep on Brazilian Matt. Oh my, maybe I shouldn't watch movies over there anymore... haha yeah right.

This weekend we are headed to Boise and McCall Idaho for what they call... The Polar Bear Strut. The boys are going to go do the Hokie Pokie in a freezing cold lake at the boy scout camp where they all use to work at. Lindsay and I  #1 don't want to join in since we've both been so sick recently, and #2 aren't allowed to get in by orders of Nate. But we will then go to an indoor hot tub and pool while they warm up and chill for awhile there. Its going to be another epic adventure in my book. I'll be sure to post pics after we get back!

Cedar City and Zions/Birch Hollow

My friend Ashley had been begging me to come down and visit her in Cedar City for month, but life is so crazy I couldn't just stop and head down there, but fall break was coming up and I decided I would just go then. The girls decided it'd be fun and we'd all go together. Plus Julie had a friend down there she wanted to see as well. It was planned and we left Friday morning. Julie had just got off her grave shift so we put her in the back of her own car and told her to sleep. We stopped in Provo for some lunch at In-N-Out, as usual the place was super packed. We then continued south with Julie in the back sleeping again, since she apparently didn't really sleep earlier. We made to Cedar and went over to Ashley's where we unloaded the car and decided what we were going to do for the evening. The plan was to go bowling where Julie's friend Julie met up with us, and we had a great game of Skittle bowling...

After bowling we decided to run to Walmart to grab some supplies/food for the next day, and we called Nate to figure out where we were meeting up. Nate had mentioned a month earlier that they were going on a man trip to Zions and we should meet up with them, at first we blew it off since it was a man trip and we didn't know what we would be doing. But he asked again the week before to meet up with them to go rappelling. So since we hadn't made any set plans we decided it would be fun. We would meet them at 8AM before the gate to the park and then we would travel to Birch Hollow to do a 5 hour hike/rappel. 

We then grabbed dinner and went back to Ashley's where we ate, and talked, and watched So I Married An Axe Murderer. Then realized it was close to 12 and we needed to be up by 5AM to leave and meet up with the guys. 5AM came way too soon, but we got up and we on our way by 7AM. We were determined not to keep the guys waiting thinking they were probably thinking we would be late. Instead, they didn't get there until 8:15... they were late. So they found us, we decided we couldn't all cram into one car and we would have to pay to get into the park, so we did then stopped at the visitors center so the guys could change...

They didn't have a place to stay so they had ended up sleeping in the parking lot of a church. They did sleep on the grass islands but were woke up by the sprinklers at 3AM. Haha. 

We were waiting on them, then were getting directions to make sure they knew where they were going. While we were waiting Pono decided to surprise Lindsay and me and showed up. He had been planning on coming on the trip then decided to tell her he couldn't as his family was going to be in town. Her reaction was priceless. So we met everyone, there was Me, Lindsay, Julie, and Ashley for the girls. Then Nate, Cullen, Austin, Matt, Spencer, Pono, A.J., Sebastian, and Mike for the guys. It made for great odds in our favor, lol, and just for a great day! Here are some pics of the hike...

Well it was a fun, and long day. We also only had one terrifying experience where I fell upside down on a 50 foot rappel and gave everyone a heart attack while I hung there laughing wondering what happened to put me there. Since there were so many of us, we figured the 5 hour hike would take longer... we didn't expect it to take 13 hours tho... long day. Then the car was parked 6 miles from where it should have been, and way past the marked that we had been told, we were cold and tired and just ready to be done. We got back to the cars, and decided we would meet in Hurricane for some dinner as we'd pretty much just had trail mix, granola bars, jerky and water all day. So we got ourselves some nice hot pizza from Little Caesar's. That pizza had never tasted so good!

Us girls then went back to Cedar while the guys all went their separate ways. We went to church with Julie and Ashley in the morning and then left to head home. We were almost to Nephi when the gas light came on... luckily we made it to a gas station. We then stopped in Provo to have dinner with Julie's family as they had been freaking out the day before when we never showed up in St. George at her sisters house when we said we would, but the hike took way longer than thought. But dinner and the company was great! 

Headed up from Provo both Lindsay and I got a text from Clint... he had found our cars in Logan and gave us a present when we got back... Deodorant covered my windshield, along with oreos, and saran wrap. Well Pono was up in Logan and him and Spencer were coming over to play games at Clints with us, they saw the cars and decided to help us clean them off. In the process us girls had the same idea to wrap the boys in the saran wrap. It backfired on us and they ended up wrapping up us girls, we then had to walk the block and a half, and up 3 flights of stairs, where Ryan greeted us with a glass of water, and I was smashed against the wall. Now that my friends is a good prank.

So we learned some lessons this weekend... don't trust the guys on distance, we need to go prepared ourselves, not leaving that up to the boy scouts, and us girls can handle each other through think and thin! Love you guys and can't wait for the next adventure!

Yellowstone & West Yellowstone for Labor Day Weekend!

So back in July Arek and Tami informed me that they were going to Yellowstone over Labor Day weekend to visit our friend Brynn. I met Brynn last summer when I was living in Kaysville at Uncle Tom and Aunt Sirena's house. Brynn was a good friend of Tami's through high school and we became good friends hanging out together. Well she went up to West Yellowstone to work for the summer at a hotel and bakery.

In August Arek called to let me know about when we'd leave and the cost and what not, well it was going to be more than I wanted to spend and Arek decided that they still wanted me to come and since they were planning on going themselves anyway they told me to still come with them. They were so sweet. So we left Friday night and stayed at Arek's uncles house in Idaho Falls had breakfast with his aunt in the morning and then headed out. We made it to West Yellowstone and saw Brynn! It was so great, she had to work that day, but we hung with her for a bit, at lunch at the bakery, then headed into the park to see some sites. Here are some sites we saw... 

When we got back Saturday night Brynn took us out to dinner to a pizza joint called The Gusher. Sunday we went to Sacrament meeting and then Brynn had the day off and wanted to drive us around both West Yellowstone and the park. Here are some more pics...

Monday we packed up and walked around town... I actually ran into Forrest Haderlie... a guy I grew up with and hadn't seen for 10 years. I wouldn't have even recognized him other than I saw his picture on facebook when he got engaged.

This was such a fun road trip, I love spending time with Arek and Tami they are so great. Now they are parents and have the cutest little girl Julie who I so need to go see. Anyway it was so good to get away.