Hittin' the Slopes!

Winter is upon us and the snow is falling! I have been so blessed to be able to hit the slopes 5 times already this year! I started the season off by buying a season pass to Sundance Ski Resort. I bought one last year and ended up pretty much wasting it. I am determined to not make the same mistake this year. Because of my employer, I am able to get a special services pass for $150.00! It is good Monday through Friday and is a steal of a deal. Once the snow started to fall I began to get very excited about going snowboarding.

However, as I began to get things ready for an Epic season, I realized that my snowboard was getting old and worn out. The bindings were giving me great difficutly last year and needed to be replaced.

I decided to go out and do some looking and came home with a new snowboard and bindings! I highly recommend Milo Sports in Orem! They gave me an all girls snowboarding video and my first wax free of charge!

My 1st trip of the season was with my friend and co-worker, Coventry. We went to Sundance on a Monday Morning before going to work. It was really really cold, but super fun! I loved my new board and did not have any trouble riding it! We were pleasantly surprised with the amount of snow on the mountain. I didn't have to dodge rocks, or bushes, or thin patches at all! It was a great way to start out the season!

Wednesday, I took the day off work to go and use my free pass to The Canyons before it expired. Coventry, Ashley and I went to see the Warren Miller movie, Playground and got coupons for a free lift ticket! The three of us, along with Coventry's sister Brittany all went for my Trip #2!

These are our snowboards lined up with Brittany's skis!

We had a great time and the sunny blue skies made for a fabulous day for Riding!

While we were there we also scoped things out to make sure we would be ready to take 11 kids from work on the following Monday for a super activity. The only problem was the thin coverage on some of the runs they had open. I was super sad when on a particularly rocky run, my new board got broken in a little too quickly! It was bound to happen sooner or later though.

Ashely, Coventry and I were getting pretty tired towards the end of the day. We took our time on the last run and took some pics!

My legs were grateful for the opportunity to rest!

Trip #3 was another quick one Friday before work. This time I went with my friend and co-worker Nicholas. We went to Sundance. This was his second time ever snowboarding and first time of the season. On the first run of the day he lost his season pass on a really good wipe-out! We convinced the lifty to let him on the lift again so we could take the same run and look for it. We were lucky to find it and the rest of the morning was fun and uneventful... well, other than Nicholas taking lots of tumbles and getting right back up to do it again.

Trip #4 was back to The Canyons with 11 kids from work. Due to confidentiality, I can't post any pictures but we had a great day! 4 of the boys had been boarding and skiing before and I was assigned to take them with another staff member while the other 7 took lessons. We had a good time and the boys were very good. I had a hard time keeping up with one of them and we covered alot of the mountain very quickly. We hit up the terrain park, several lifts, and many many runs before lunch. At lunchtime we met up with the others and ate before hitting the slopes again. Needless to say, I was very tired and sore at the end of the day. I dont remember the last time I rode that many runs in the same day. We all had a really good time and the kids were GREAT! We had no problems and no injuries!

Trip #5 brought Manda and I together at Sundance. She was in town for Christmas and I had one day to meet up with her before I left for Boise. We enjoyed the fresh new snow and were quickly reminded that it is much harder work carving through tracked out powder! We had a great time though and tried to stay in the sunshine as much as possible to keep warm.

Thus far, it has been a great season, and I am looking forward to the rest of it! Due to blackout dates with my limited pass, I won't be able to use my pass until the New Year. I may have to hit up Brighton before then. We'll see how it goes! I Can't Wait!!!

Halloween

Halloween is fast approaching! I really have such a hard time coming up with costume ideas. I feel a lot of pressure to have a good costume. Not sure why I just do! So this year rather than going out to the stores and spending countless hours roaming isles and trying to decide- I went first to the internet! I simply typed in Halloween Costume Ideas. I found a website that had some very clever ideas. Most were fairly simple and did not require me to go out and buy all kinds of things. I decided to be a plastic surgeon. I already had a pair of scrubs and colleen is letting me borrow a face mask, her stethoscope, and gloves. We already had plastic wrap in the kitchen drawer. So I show up to work in some very comfortable scrubs and then when asked "What are you?" I simply pull out my plastic wrap and begin doing plastic surgery! I thought it was funny. We'll see how it goes at work tomorrow! Hopefully I don't run out of plastic wrap! Here is a picture of me in my costume.

I will post more pics after all the festivities!

Hawaiin Getaway Part 2

We flew into Honolulu from Maui. I was shocked to see how big Honolulu was compared to Maui. It was a huge city! The entire population of Maui could probably fit in Honolulu! We took this picture from the plane.

We picked up our rental car ( a nice new one this time) and drove straight to Laie. The drive was really pretty.

We found our vacation rental studio. It was called the Gecko Studio at Honu Hale (which means turtle house). It was across the street from the south entrance to the Polynesian Cultural Center.

This is a picture of our room. It was pretty small but had everything that we needed.

That first night we got settled in, went grocery shopping, and went to the Laie Temple to take some pictures. The temple is beautiful! It is a landmark in the town as well. One of the beaches is called Temple Beach because it is at the bottom of the road the temple is on. Manda's friend Lauren goes to BYU Hawaii and she invited us to meet her on the lawn in front of the library to play night games. We were pretty tired but decided to go anyways. We had so much fun! We played a tag game that involves jumping and tagging with your feet, Red Rover, and a game called Lap Tag. This last one was a blast! Everyone except one person has a partner. You sit on the ground spread out in a big circle. Partners sit one in front of the other. The person who does not have a partner is "IT" They call out 2 names of people sitting in front of their partner. Those two people then have to try to get away from their partner and be the first to touch the person that is it. So basically it turns into a wrestling, clinging, dragging, frenzy. We were laughing so hard! Here are just a few of the many many pictures we took of this game! I had a few bruises and both Manda and I were pretty sore afterwards!

Thursday morning we went to the beach and then picked Lauren up from school to go to the Temple. It is beautiful on the outside and the inside! That was the smallest group I have ever been a part of too! There were 5 women (so 2 besides the 3 of us) and 1 man.

After changing our clothes we headed to Sunset Beach to watch the sunset. I have to admit I was quite disappointed after the amazing sunset that last night on Maui but it was still pretty.

After the sun had set we headed to Ted's Bakery. This place is famous for it's cream pies! The pumpkin haupia was Divine! (haupia means coconut- Becky I'm telling you, you would have LOVED it!) They had new extended hours which meant they were still open after the sunset- thank goodness!

Friday morning we again went to the beach. The crabs had freaked us out a bit on Temple Beach the day before so we headed to Hukilau Beach instead. It was a nice beach. The beaches on Oahu are not nearly as clean and pretty as on Maui though! We met up with Lauren and her roommate at the Polynesian Cultural Center at noon. Lauren's roommate was able to get us in for $5 each! We were able to see the presentations we wanted to before the canoe parade. My favorite was this guy. He was funny- cracking jokes. He started fire by rubbing two sticks together and then put it out by stepping on it with his bare foot!

He shredded a coconut and then crushed it into coconut milk right in front of us! It was amazing! ( I have lots more pictures but I am a bit of an idiot because I deleted them off my camera before uploading them to my computer- Manda is going to send me some though!) After we left the PCC we drove to a town I can't remember the name of to browse the local surf shops. It was really fun and we found some cool stuff. We bought these shoes that are so comfortable! I have worn them almost every day since I bought them!
The owner of the surf shop we bought them from gave us 10% off! They were designed by sufers and are called sidewalk surfers. They have a sandal bottom and canvas tops. They are super lightweight and are designed to help you walk as if you had no shoes on so the way your feet were designed to move. That's what the tags said anyways! All I know is they are my new favorite pair of shoes! We headed back to Laie to see Lauren and some of her friends perform in students with guitars on campus. They did a great job! Lauren sang and played her tamborine while her friend Shem sang, played guitar, and played the Harmonica. They also had a drummer and this guy shooting noisy laser guns. Some of the other performances were pretty amazing too! We left the performance early to go to Lauren's ward activity. It was a Hukilau at Hukilau Beach! It was a really cool experience. They put a fishing net out into the ocean at night very slowly and quietly. Then on one man's signal a bunch of people who are lined up on the beach rush into the water screaming and splashing the water and run towards the net. The fish are then scared into the net and caught. The net is then gathered into an innertube and brought back to shore. The group caught about 19 fish of all different kinds and sizes. They then served chili and rice ( a cheap meal that is a student favorite) and grilled the fish. I did not eat the fish but was surprised at how much I liked the chili and rice! Lauren and Manda helped carry the fish in ( I didnt' even want to touch them!)

After the Hukilau we went to a friend of Lauren's birthday party which was a carnival. It was pretty much over by the time we got there but they had some fun toys to play with! Here is Lauren and I with silly glasses on.

Manda won a game of paddle ball!

Saturday morning we got up early to get packed and check out of Gecko Studio. We then picked Lauren up and went to a local favorite the Hukilau Cafe. They had some delicous coconut pancakes! I just wished they had added some chocolate chips too! After a delicous breakfast we headed to Honolulu to go to Pearl Harbor and then on to the swap meet at Aloha Stadium! Pearl Harbor was a very neat place. They have a beautiful museum and memorial built. I was surprised at how busy it was. We were given ticket for the ferry to take us out to the memorial about an hour and 45 minutes from the time we got there. We decided we didnt' have time to wait so we toured the museum and gift shop, took some pictures of the Harbor and were on our way to the swap meet. ( The pictures I took of this were also not uploaded to my computer before I deleted them so I will have to add them later!)

The swap meet was pretty cool. I was surprised at how repetetive it was with so many booths selling the same things but we did find some good deals! We left the swap meet and headed straight for the airport. We got the car turned in on time to not be charged another full day. After getting all checked out we were waiting for the shuttle when I remembered that I had not been to the gas station to top off the tank! I went inside to tell them I would prepay for them to fill it up for us and the man was very friendly and nice and told me that it was our lucky day! When I assured him that I could pay, he asked if I was leaving a happy customer and I said yes of course. Then he said, then don't worry about it, it's your lucky day! We made it to the airport 4 hours before our flight was scheduled to leave. We went to check in and asked if there was an earlier flight we could take. They said Yes and got us on the 4 o'clock flight instead of waiting for the 6 o'clock. This was a blessing as we were going to be cutting it close making our other flight in Maui. We had called Delta to see if we could change our flight and fly out of Oahu direct to Salt Lake instead. It would have cost us $800 to make that change! (we only paid $600 for the round trip). We decided it wasn't worth it! So we had plenty of time in Maui to get our baggage, go through the agricultural check station, recheck our baggage, and go through security. We spent the time at the airport exchaning pictures. I got the ones from Manda's camera and she got the ones from mine ( this is why she is going to be able to give me mine that I deleted without putting on my computer first-- thank you Manda!!)

We made it to Salt Lake where Colleen was waiting for us and had a delicious dinner at Grandma's house before taking Manda back to the airport to check in for her flight to Denver! That was a really long time to be in airports or in airplanes and with the time difference it made for 2 very long days!

Although, it was hard to go back to work- it's good to be home again. And just in time for snow to fall at our house!

Next adventure- snowboarding!!

Hawaiin Getaway Part 1

Aloha! The epic vacation has been just that, epic thus far! It all started Saturday morning when I got a phone call from a number I didn't realize and it was a recording tell me that my flight for that day had been cancelled. I was a bit confused and immediately called Manda who was in Heber City and getting ready to come to Provo to meet me before Colleen took us to the airport. She had heard nothing. I then encouraged her to come ASAP and called the airline. Our flight had indeed been cancelled from Salt Lake to LA due to the landing gear not working. The customer service agent immediately began looking into flights and options for us. She looked up Manda's information and she had not been rebooked like I had for the next morning. The flight was now full and she was too far down on the list. So Colleen and I packed my bags in a rush and raced to the airport. Colleen called Manda with her phone and asked her to go straight to the airport instead of coming to Provo first. I meanwhile was still on hold. The options were not looking too good. She was able to book Manda and I both on another flight the next day on a different airline so we could travel together. She was also looking for other options for us to get there that day. The problem was that they all left Salt Lake too late and we would not make our connecting flight. She was finally able to put us on a stand-by list for a 1pm flight. if we were able to get on we would make our connection if we were not able to get on then we would have to take the sunday flights. Manda and I got to the airport pretty close to the same time, checked our luggage and began to pray we would make this flight. We went to airport security, and Manda got right through, I was unable to pass through because my boarding pass had the wrong date on it... it was for the flight on sunday not on saturday. I had to turn around and go back downstairs to get the correct boarding pass. I was able to do so after waiting in a growing line for the Delta gates. I got through security and Manda and I checked in at the gate. We asked how the flight looked and if we would get on. He was not too confident and said there were others in line ahead of us..... so we waited, and waited. then he called us up and said he could get one of us on but not both. did we want to split up? We said no we had to go together to catch our connecting flight in LA. so he said he would see what he could do. They began boarding the plane and we were so worried. Finally, they called our names and handed us boarding passes and we got on! This is the Miracle flight that got us to LA in time for our connection.
So we arrived in Hawaii on time and on the schedule we had planned on. We got a taxi to take us to our Hostel and got checked in without further incident. As we settled into our room, I went to step on the bed to reach higher and almost fell as the bed sank to the floor. The mattress was sooooooo soft! The room was sooo hot and stuffy with no outside windows. We made do and settled in before walking to the grocery store to get some groceries.

Sunday morning we woke up early to get showered and ready for church. We had to wear shoes in the showers but enjoyed having 4 bathroom options for us to get ready in. We were pretty sure it was about 3 miles to church and the walk would take us about an hour. We left a little late than planned (church started at 8am). The walk was a long one! We both had dressier sandals on that were not made for walking- ouch. Can you say blisters? We were sweating and so hot and thirsty by the time we got there 15 minutes late. We walked in and sat in the back. Immediately after Sacrament Meeting, we were apporoached by a woman asking if we were visiting and our names and all that. We explained we were on vacation, had arrived last night, and had walked to church this morning. She immediately promised to give us a ride back to our hostel and expressed some concern at where we were staying. She was the sunday school teacher and had us introduce ourselves and say the opening and closing prayers. Several of the other members welcomed us and explained they had seen us walking down the street and wondered if we were members and where we were headed. They had wanted to stop but didn't. The lesson was great and then it was time for Relief Society. We again introduced ourselves as visitors and got a few more comments from ladies that had not been in sunday school about seeing us walking here and then feeling bad when they saw us walk in late that they had not stopped to offer us rides. We were promised that we would not be walking back and would have a ride.

Monique and her mother Monika gave us a ride back to the Banana Bungalow and invited us over Wednesday night to play a game called PIT. We exchanged phone numbers and said goodbye.

The Hostel ended up being really fun. We got used to the heat and slept well every night due to exhaustion of playing so hard every day. The free tours were amazing and we were able to see some things and do some things we never would have done on our own. We met people from England, France, Germany, and New Zealand. Two girls were also traveling together and they had been gone from home 11 months. They had gone to Austraila to work for 6 months and then had been traveling ever since. After Maui they were headed to Las Vegas, LA, San Francisco and then home one year after they left. We exchanged facebook info to keep in touch. We did a tour to Makena State Park and enjoyed this sunset at Big Beach. We also went to Iao Valley and saw the Iao Needle, drove the road to Hana which included a hike through a bamboo forest and rain forest to a waterfall that had 5 falls cascading down the cliffs due to the heavy rains. This was the main waterfall and the biggest of them all.We also were able to visit the famous Red Sands Beach! This is Manda and I at that beach. It is pretty speical to the Hawaiins and if you ask a local for directions they will not give you directions to this beach. The Banana Bungalow has been taking tours there for 10 years and the locals tend to stay away every Tuesday night so we had the place to ourselves.

On Wednesday we picked up our rental car from Maui Cruisers and thought we had entered a junkyard. Our rental car well.... has character! It runs and gets us where we need to go though. The locals would wave to us and let us into traffic. We were not your typical tourists in a fancy convertable!
We did some shopping and then went to a beach nearby. It was so windy, we couldn't stand to stay on the beach with all the sand blowing in our faces so we read our books in a sand volleyball pit that was sheltered from the wind by a bunch of trees.

Wednesday night we took Monique up on her offer and went to her sister's house for dinner and to play PIT. We met some great people and I was shocked to see one of my coworkers there. We laughed so hard my stomach was hurting! This is the PIT crew! I highly recommend this game for anyone looking to have a good time and a good laugh.

Manda and I were surprisingly sad to be leaving the Banana bungalow and the friends we had met.

But excited to go to a bit of luxury at the same time.

Friday we checked out and ate at a restaurant called the Tasty Crust that was famous for it's Banana Pancakes ( and boy were they Good!) Then on to Lahaina for some shopping and to Napili Kai to check in. We were very greatful to have nice solid beds to sleep in with a breeze coming off the ocean and beautiful clean bathrooms! We have enjoyed relaxing by the pool and staying out of the sand while soaking up the sun and reading books. This is me taking a break from a delicous book about vampires.

I read 5 and a half books and loved every minute of my vacation!

We rented snorkeling gear and did a lot of snorkeling in Napili Bay and in Kapalua Bay. We saw 5 sea turtles in one day! It was the coolest thing! Kapalua Bay was also the setting for 6 weddings that we saw on 2 different nights. We were the unidentified snorkelers in their wedding photos.

The last night we were there we saw the most amazing sunset!

The sky literally transformed so many times right before our eyes!

This one looks like it could be a postcard or a painting!

No, we are not standing in front of a painted backdrop- this is the real thing!

So we packed our bags again and things didn't seem to fit as well this time! I think I bought too many presents! I was so grateful I had bought new luggage for this trip though! At every airport, waiting at the baggage claim it was super easy to find. It is also very sturdy and well built luggage that let me cram everything in! The limit is 50 pounds and in my big suitcase, I fit everything except for the souveneirs and it weighed 49.6 lbs at check in. How's that for cutting it close?

We had a marvelous time in Maui and are looking forward to some new adventures in Oahu!

Vacation Time!

So, I am off to Hawaii for a 2 week vacation! It's been a busy week with parent week and the play at work. I got home at 11pm and can finally start focusing on packing and the fact that I am actually going. I am so grateful to be able to take the time off to go! My boss and coworkers are so wonderful for picking up extra work to make it so that I can go! Manda and I have some big plans to do a lot of really fun things! I'm sure there will be many many amazingly beautiful pictures to post as the weeks unfold!

America Got It Right!

I went to the Utah State Fair yesterday. My sister and I went to see a performance. We were a little bit confused when we pulled into a parking area and were asked to pay $10 when it had been advertised as $5. They parking attendant informed us it was $5 earlier but his boss just upped it to $10 and he only had 2 spots left. We were glad we parked there as it was very close and the walk back in the dark wasn't as bad... We entered by the county booths and saw this 270 pound pumpkin.... Now that will make some pumpkin pie!!! We wandered around and looked at all the booths and all the things people were selling. Anyways, we asked some questions and found the grandstand stage where the performance was going to be. We found out that it had been moved to a bigger stage because of the enormous turnout the night before. The kind state fair workers advised us to get there at least an hour and a half ealry in order to get good seats. So we continued to wander and saw the pigs and sheep. We saw a girl clutching a stuffed puppy and crying as she wandered around. We turned a corner and saw a frantic mother running around shouting a girls name. I approached her and asked if her daughter was carrying a stuffed animal ( I realized later that just about every kid there was carring around a stuffed animal of some sort). She said Yes! and I pointed her in the direction of the girl we had just seen. She quickly thanked me and ran in that direction. Now I have no idea if that was really her lost daughter or if she found her but I like to think that it was and that I helped in some way. So anyways, we found a food stand that sold fried desserts. They had fried twinkies, oreos, and snickers. My sister bought a friend snickers and it was actually quite tasty.They put a snickers candy bar on a stick, dip it in batter, and then fry it. I bet the fried oreos and twinkies were good too!

It was now time to head over to the Grandstand to get in line. We made our way over and were surprised at how long the line was already. We stood in line for about 2 minutes and then the line was moving! We were able to go in right away and got great seats! We sat off to one side about 8 rows back on the aisle. We were there an hour and a half before the show. As the time got closer, they began to do sound checks and then there he was.... Terry Fator! If you don't know who that is, he was the ventriliquist on America's Got Talent and ended up winning the million dollars. I will tell you right now that America got it right and voted for the right person. Terry Fator is truly talented! He is very entertaining, a phenomenal ventriliquist, and so fun to watch! For those of you who still do not know who he is-- go look him up! He can impersonate various celebrtities and artists. Now, if you are thinking, not another one of those- then serisously look him up because he is most definately NOT another one of those. He is phenomenal! His voice range is astounding. He can sing like Etta James, Michael Jackson, Maroon 5, Garth Brooks, Brooks and Dunn, Sonny and Cher, and Elvis! He has various personalitites for each of his puppets and they sing just like the original artist and yet still have their own personalitites. He is just amazing to watch and he can sing too! I took a few pictures and some video clips... At the end he had Paul come out of the audience and help him to do a Sonny and Cher song. It was so funny! He signed autographs at the end of the show but we decided not to stand in line and didn't have anything for him to sign anyways.

60 HouRS iN THe LiFe oF......

FRiDaY

10am wake up

laundry

pack bags

shower

12:30 meeting at work

130 meeting should be over ... still going

2:00 meeting finally over hurry home

2:30 leave town- Headed to Aspen, CO (one hour behind schedule)

ROAD TRIP!

5:00pm talk to Manda who cannot check into our hotel because we are not there... warn her about the bears in the news.

7:00pm Manda was able to check in and is now wandering around downtown Aspen and spots two bears! A baby cub digging in trash and a Mama cub in the tree above the trash can

She promises to send me a picture....

8:30pm arrive in Aspen (2 hours behind schedule)

8:40pm meet Manda at Belly Up (name of venue for concert)

8:45pm Sara Bareilles takes the stage---funny entertaining and great music.

9:50pm photograph taken with Sara! (again Manda promises to send me a copy)

10:00pm Jon McLaughlin takes the stage--- funny, amazing talent, entertaining, and superb music

11:00pm photo of Jon signing Manda's poster (Manda can I have a copy of this one too?)

11:15pm check in at quaint Aspen lodge (we need to fill out the paperwork although Manda already has the key)

11:20pm enjoy the spacious room although we wished it was cold and snowy outside so we could use the fireplace that was right in our room! We had 2 queen sized beds and a twin bed, a small kitchen area, tv, bookshelf with books on it, and old wooden skis on the walls. As we are getting ready for bed we listen to music from the concert and Dede uploads the cds we bought to her iTunes

11:45pm fall asleep on the comfy queen sized bed

SaTuRDaY

1:00am wake up and get ready for bed

8:00am wake up and enjoy laying in bed for an hour

9:00am get up and shower

10:00am Breakfast at an Austrian restaurant called the Weinerstube- quite tasty!

11:30am hit the road again

RoaD TRiP!!

3:00pm ooops going a bit too fast Dede-- very friendly state trooper gives a warning to slow down!

5:15pm Get home and unpack the car

5:30pm start laundry and make a shopping list

7:00pm head to WalMart-begin to fill the cart and then able to maneuver through walmart with a cart full of oversized tupperware containersbarely missing several small children and almost knocking items off the shelves. Thank goodness for the large mirror in the side of my cart to help see some of these things!

9:00pm- checkout--(thank goodness for that extra big paycheck yesterday!)

9:00pm unload the car- (had to put groceries inside the tupperwares for it all to fit in the car)Decide to just carry in the large tupperware full of groceries...too heavy to do alone. Colleen grabs a side-- we stumble through the forest called our front yard (Landlord seems to think a lawn only needs to be mowed twice all year) almost fall down the stairs in the entryway after barely making it through the doorway. Make it down the stairs and drop the tupperware with a loud bang.

9:30pm start deep cleaning, organizing, throwing away, and rearranging my messy room

SuNDaY

12:45am check cell phone- 5 new text messages waiting. 3 of which are from work wanting me to go in....

1:00am Begin to wonder if a national disaster should be declared and if rescue crews would respond to save me!....decide not to go to work.... keep cleaning

3:00 am getting tired but "in the zone" and determined to not stop until the entire room is clean

4:00am take the last load of clean laundry out of the dryer and put it away

4:10am Fall into bed gratefully....

7:58am wake up to text message asking me to go in to work. Decide to go for a few hours before church

8:00am shower and get dressed

8:45am show up at work

11:30am come back home to get ready for church

11:33am difficulties getting printer to print the sacrament program. Small surgery applied to printer and wireless router (thanks Dede) and we have success!

12:30pm head to church to copy and fold programs for sacrament meeting - copier in the library is SLOWER than a slug (slugs btw are so slow that algae is able to grow on their bellies and not come off because they move so slow)

1:00pm Church meetings begin

2:10m in charge of new member meeting- welcome new members - introduce everyone - get inofrmation sheets filled out to request records - take photos for the ward directory - pass out candy - make copies of new member info sheets and distribute... (We constantly have students moving in and out of the ward so this is a weekly process)

2:55pm join sunday school for the last 5 minutes

3:10pm Relief Society- announces Birthdays! Happy Birthday to me this last week. They do a spotlight and it's on ME! (Bishop questions whether I really waterskiied for the first time at age 3)

3:30pm get text message no longer needed at work after church--YES!! a nap may be possible after all

4:10pm decide to stay for choir practice and sing my little heart out

5:15pm get home, make dinner, eat dinner, clean up dinner, make brownies

5:50pm take short nap

6:10pm pull brownies out of the oven

NaP

7:00pm eat brownies and peppermint ice cream (delicious btw)

7:30pm check emails

8:30pm ward prayer

8:45pm call parents

10:00pm enjoy clean room and begin to respond to emails....

(This blogging thing takes a while- it's now 11:30pm....)

This is in no way typical of my everyday life. Oh wait, kind of it is. Busy Adventurous and Fun!

Next Stop-- Hawaii!! 20 days and counting!!

A New Year

I wanted my first "post" to be on my birthday, but I am a couple days too late for that. I celebrated my birthday with family and friends and was so appreciative of those that remembered me on that special day. I had several gifts, phone calls, emails, text messages, and personal happy birthday wishes.
As I start a new year of my life, I am glad to be able to count the numerous blessings i enjoy daily!
I love the plan of happiness and salvation!
I love my family. I had the opportunity to spend time with the majority of them over labor day weekend. It was such a nice break and so fun!! We had a BBQ, went boating and waterskiing at the lake, celebrated my birthday, and played with adorable nieces and nephews.
I love my job-I work as a recreation therapist at a residential treatment center. I have worked there for about 6 and 1/2 years. I truly love my job! For those that do not know, Recreation Therapy is a form of therapy that uses recreation to teach various social skills, leisure skills, and life skills. So, basically I get paid to play! Sounds fun right? Well, it is! However, there are some challenges that come with it as well. Getting paid to go snowboarding, camping, boating, and swimming sounds like a blast (which it is) but, also keep in mind that I am responsible for the safety, planning, feeding, paying, and constant supervision of the youth that I work with. Imagine trying to keep a group of 21 people together at an amusement park, not losing track of anyone, making sure the kids are not trying to get free food from cute teenagers working the food booths, keeping everyone happy and agreeable on which rides to ride when, what and when to eat, giving medications, and ensuring that the kids are drinking enough water, and putting on sunscreen! Or imagine being responsible for a youth that falls 30 feet off a cliff and needs emergency medical attention while camping.(he is okay by the way) Or imagine spending hours in the middle of the night looking for kid that has decided to run away. It's not all fun and games but, it is very rewarding when you are the one to teach someone how to make and eat a smore for the first time. When you can help someone overcome one of thier fears. When you see someone become confident in themselves and their abilties. When you teach kids how to have good clean fun (without using substances, illegal activities, or violence). When you can help someone learn a new coping skill, manage their anger, or improve their ability to express their feelings. These are the times that make the other things all worth it!
Enough about all of that! I think you get the picture!
I love to spend time with family, in the outdoors, and playing as much as possible.
I have recently been introduced to the world of music and concerts and have attended more concerts in the last six months than in the rest of my life thus far!
So, I am looking forward to another phenomenal year!