Rightwater

The next week was also pretty great. Besides taking the GRE and breaking some ribs, we were able to go white water rafting with our church group. There were about 150 of us who traveled to Thane, Wyoming, camped out, ate great food, enjoyed each others company, got eaten by mosquitos, slept in a hay field, killed spiders, roasted marshmallows, had some workshops, shared our testimonies, and rode the Snake River. It was awesome. Here are the 2 pictures I have...

I wasn't lying about the hay!

New Friends

July: Kenny Chesney Concert

A few weeks ago, a group of us went to the Kenny Chesney, Uncle Cracker and Billy Currington concert. It was SOOO much fun and I realized that I like country concerts infinitely better than other concerts. Everyone is happy, swaying with their beer (or Diet Dokes in our case), singing, dancing, and just enjoying the night. It was so much fun and I'm lucky to have so many great friends to share the night with.Ryan, Amber (eating again, not suprised), and Tavin
Christy and Sam (we teach together. They're engaged :))
Sarah and I--we love each other
Kenny

Sarah, me, and Amy--We all coordinated EFY last summer and here we are together still!
Amy, Sarah, me, and Christy

It was such a fun night!

A few memorable experiences:

-The drunk woman picking me up and putting me on other peoples shoulders to "plank"

-Another drunk woman going to the bathroom behind two blankets in front of her kids. Embarrassing

-Ryan promising he would take me to the bathroom and LYING.

Morale of the story. People do dumb things when they are drunk (but they are slightly entertaining for those who watch...)

Just a perfect night.

June: Week 5

The last week of June, a few friends and I traveled to St. George. Ryan and his family were so generous and allowed us to stay in their home while they are mission presidents. Here are some pictures from the trip!!We hiked through this river in Zion's National Park. It's called the Narrows and it was AWESOME!!
Hiking the river
The girls: Amy, me, and Marge
We also went to the Grand Canyon. It was a pretty amazing hole in the ground. I think I've been before but couldn't remember it. The best part was throwing rocks off of it. :) Haha otherwise, it's seriously just a big hole... (Marge, Tavin, Amy, me, and Ryan)
The GC
Amy and Ryan. If they are ever in love, they'll appreciate this picture.
HUGE!!
Amy and I

June: Week 4

This week was awesome. It was super busy with some type of sporting event every night and this conference I signed up for during the day. I signed up for the Huntsman Conference at the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the U. It was seriously one of the greatest conferences I've been to. I loved it. I am such a political nerd. They had the greatest speakers set up. Senator Bennett, Congressman Bishop, Dan Jones, Kirk Jowers, many state representatives and senators, Mayor Winder and Mayor Love, the list continues. Oh, and did I mention, Kirk had an in that allowed us to go to the Mitt Romney Fundraiser at no charge. It was awesome. Also, I think I loved it so much because I met three of the most adorable girls. We were the only young ones of the group and instantly all gravitated to one another. You'll see them in plenty of pictures below.

Jordan, Amber, Kirk, Amber, and Amber (no joke...)
The "Mean Girls" and John. We nominated him to be our "class representative" at our graduation at the Huntsman Center. He didn't campaign for it and there were plenty of very "outspoken" people who wanted to do it. Let's be honest, we were a little tired of hearing said "outspoken" people and just LOVED him. In his speech, he dubbed us the "Mean Girls."
The Utah State Capitol Building
The Utah House (we sat in the Senate all day... but for some reason, I took a picture of this instead).
You might recognize this person--Mitt Romney. I'm fortunate enough to have met him and his family a few times. Quality people. Quality.

The mean girls with Jayne.
The Speech.
After the fundraiser, I really needed to high tail it to Orem for Erin's wedding reception, but I got out too late, so I headed over to the ward softball team. Afterwards, I took a picture with Matt because we played in our "work" clothes. This picture would be really adorable if we were in love...

Note to self (or anyone for that matter): Never play softball in a pencil skirt. It's way too hard to run and even if you hit the ball to the outfield, they can throw you out because there's not to much room for big strides thanks to the skirt...
Now for such a happy moment. I LOVE Erin. She is one of my best friends. We worked on the same team 2 years ago in Rexburg. I feel like it was my "girl" summer. Me, Erin, and Jan would stay up 'til the wee hours of the morning discussing (actually, I'll leave that up to your imagination) stuff. They have been the greatest friends in life. I always know I can count on those two girls. Anyways, last summer, we also worked together at EFY and were roommates for 11 weeks. We got to our last week and had the option to be in single rooms (actually, we were forced to be in single rooms and I remember being SO lonely because, though our rooms bordered, I was so used to having her with me). She is one of the sweetest, spiritual, driven girls I know. I'm so happy for her and Kimball!
Adrian (Erin's sister) and I
Oh, Jan...
Erin and her brothers
The ladies
To close a wonderful week, we headed to the driving range. Our ward has had a lot of turnover and it's been fun getting to know everyone.

I sent this picture to his mom. Haha--I sent some others to other random parents of other people but can't seem to find them.
Happily Ever After. :) Well, with her husband of course!

June: Week 3--Seattle

Two weeks ago, my roommate and I drove to Seattle to help clean out my grandparents house. If you know my grandma, you know that she had a TON of hobbies and she went all out when she selected one. She had a room full of scrapbook stuff, an attic full of ceramics, a place full of woodwork, dishes galore, etc. We went to help my mom and uncle undergo this huge task now that they've decided to rent out the house. It was an interesting week full of memories!

The dried out paint we hauled out of the attic. Yes, those are FULL trash cans that contain nothing but paint.

We went to Spud Fish and Chips. Apparently this is a tradition in my home (from living in Seattle/visiting Seattle). What I actually learned is that my parents made it a tradition to go there whenever I was not invited because I had never been in my life. Thanks, parents ;)

The giant totem pole. Taking Marge was kind of cool because she has a weird sense of taste (haha jk). I would've taken a sight seer to the Science Museum, Space needle, Mariners game, etc. Instead she wanted to see poles, bridges, trolls, and parks. I guess it was great for both of us because I saw things I had never heard about before...

Why my mom and Meggie are together in this picture and I am not invited is beyond me... ;)

Mama and I

Tree Hugger (haha get it? PS--I'm hoping these sweatered trees aren't supposed to symbolize something else...)

Pikes Place

Yes, we painted lines under our eyes with candle ash. However, please note this room. The two of us tore out the wall paper and painted it :) See below a few pictures.
We almost bought this for our engaged roommate Juls. However, after cleaning out so much crap, we vowed to never buy anything in our lives that wasn't either edible or clothing. I don't think I've broken that promise yet. Sadly, we made Juls a wedding count down chain with grandma's scrapbook paper instead of buying her random souvenir crap.

The Sound

Pretending to be an artist...

And then...DUH, DUH, DUH... My poor Charlie. We were going to see some random drawbridge and I was stopped at the light in the center lane. The left turn arrow flashed on and this car-carrying-semi side swiped me, cut through my car, and pulled us into the intersection. We followed him waiting for him to pull over, and it appeared that he would, but he didn't. He reversed and turned around (which is a little hard to do in a semi). This random man walked by our car, looked at the damage, made awkward eye contact, and ran up and hopped into the cab of the semi and DROVE OFF. At that time, we realized that they were not trying to find a large space to pull over, instead, they were ditching us. We called 911, who prompted us to pull over. Within 2 minutes, a cop found us and found the truck. The nice gentleman had me follow him to the other cop car where we identified the semi and filled out the police report. Wow. What a day! At this point, I have had my little rental car for 2 weeks and REALLY can't wait until my car is fixed.

Fremont troll. I had no clue this existed.

The finished room :) (Yes, you may now scroll up and compare it to the original room. Great progress, I know).

We stopped by the Boise, Idaho temple on the way home, snapped a quick picture, and were on our way. To make the trip just fitting, it rained the whole way home for us.

I learned a few things:

1. I'm allergic to Seattle

2. I love my family (already knew that)

3. NEVER put things in the attic

4. Garage sells don't work--just DI everything

5. Well...I'm sure they'll come to me :)