Britney

Miss Smith

2011-08-29T21:29:00.000-07:00

I have had a few job interviews and gotten turned down each time. Each time the principal would tell me that I was a great interview and one of the finalists but there were just soo many people applying for teaching positions. It was down to a week and a half before school started. I knew I wasn't getting a job this year. I had talked about the driving schedule for my nanny kids and had planned on staying with them through the year. I was sad but ok with it. Well on Wednesday August 10th I got a call from Davis school district asking if I had gotten a job yet. I said no. She told me that the district might be getting some last minute emergency funding and they were having an abnormal interview at the district office where I would be interviewing with at panel of principals. I told her I would be there early Friday morning. I told my friends that I would have to be late to Bear Lake and was sad because I was missing some of my vacation and didn't even know if it would be worth it. I went to the interview and it was very nerve wracking. There were 7 or 8 principals if I remember correctly and the guy that was running the interview. In a way it was less pressure than one on one because the principals are all friends and they talked and laughed amongst each other. The principals just took turns and each one asked me a question and they just went around the table. They told me that they would know if the funding went through on Tuesday evening and then the principals would start making calls. I didn't really know what to expect and went straight to Bear Lake and tried not to stress about it. That was basically impossible. On Monday morning I got a phone call from the principal of Sand Springs elementary asking if I could come and meet with her to get to know her better. She gave me a tour of the school and told me that if the money came through then she would offer me a job. I was freaking out! I went boating and prayed that the money came through. Tuesday was one of the longest days ever. I nannied and then went home and sat in the front room with my home phone and cell phone on my lap. The meeting was supposed to get over at 6. Hollie was with her mom, who is a principal, and called at like 6:10 telling me that the district got the money. At about 6:15 my phone rang and it was my principal telling me that it was a go and that I needed to be to faculty meeting the next morning at 9:00 am. I was the new 2nd grade teacher at Sand Springs Elementary. I started bawling and called my nanny family first to give them a 14 hour notice. I felt horrible that it was this late of notice for them but there was nothing I could do. Then I called both grandmas and text friends and put it one facebook. Ha. That made it official. I sat there for about 30 minutes and then my mom and I went shopping! It was 7:oo on Tuesday night and school started the next Monday and I had a whole entire classroom to furnish and lessons to prepare. We had to get going! We went wardrobe shopping first and to Zurcher's to pick a theme for my room. Priorities! Wednesday morning I went to my faculty meeting, it got over at 12 and I went and saw my completely empty classroom, then I went and picked up my mom who took the rest of the week off to help me, and we went shopping again. We were both feeling very overwhelmed. My mom called Letia and Ann for emergency help. Good thing we have connections with women who know their way around an elementary! Letia, Ann, Kallee, Whitney, Abbey, and Jordan came at the drop of a hat and helped get my room done. I literally could not have done it without them. They worked so hard. They spent hours in my room on Wednesday and Thursday. Alyssa, Holly, my sisters, my dad, and Jeff also came and helped me a ton as well. My coworkers were amazed at how many people came to help me. They were all jealous! :) I had a couple of breakdowns but did pretty well for the most part. It was probably the longest 5 days of my life. I spent $1,200 very quickly and worked really hard but we did it. I was (kinda) ready for school to start on Monday morning. The district hired 35 teachers with that last minute funding they received. Not the most ideal way to start out the year and I hope that I never have to have that last minute stress again but I am so thankful that I got a job!

Part of my crew. I was too stressed to think about taking many pictures.

These are just some of pictures of my classroom. I chose to go with a Hollywood/stars theme. It turned out really cute and my kids like it.

Annie made this really adorable cake for me the night before school started. I'm sure that I teared up. I loved it.

I am so happy to have a class that I love at an amazing school that is pretty close to my house. It is literally my dream job. I have always wanted to teach 2nd grade. I love my kids so much! They are adorable and funny and I have awesome parents in my class. My kids say the funnies things sometimes. I get asked at least weekly why I am 25 and not married. Ha. They keep me humble. This job is seriously a dream come true and such a blessing. Definitely worth the stress and wait. I am so grateful that to everyone that helped me with everything that week, especially my parents, and especially my mom. There is absolutely no way that I could ever have done it without her. I hope that I can stay a Sand Springs Stallion forever!

Boating!

2011-08-16T21:00:00.000-07:00

I love going boating with the Smiths. I can not go nearly as often as I want. The summer always just flies by. We went the very last week of the summer. Better late than never! It was the perfect day. Get home Sunday from Bear Lake and go boating the next day, perfect summer week. I wish life could always be like that!

Steph and I on the boat. We look lovely.

Steph is basically a professional wakeboarder. We didn't get any pictures of me wakeboarding because I couldn't get up. I was very frustrated.

Wind blown hair. Too bad that my hair couldn't stay like this the whole day! Ha.

Normally I don't love tubing. It totally freaks me out. But I actually had fun this time. Also, I could actually pull myself up on the tube. Normally it takes quite a few people to help me get up on there. I was so proud of myself for getting on it alone. I still got really scared but I enjoyed it. Our faces show it all.

Colton at the beginning of our boating day. His shirt describes him perfectly. He sure is a "Chick Magnet."

Colton loved when we would drive fast on the boat. He would yell, "wahoo!" the entire time that the boat would be going. It is pretty funny to watch him. He loves it. That is why the next picture is so funny...

He fell asleep on the last ride around the bay. I don't really know how that happened because it was fast and bumpy. It was hilarious. I loved our boating adventure and can't wait to be invited again next summer!

Bear Lake

2011-08-16T20:35:00.000-07:00

At the end of August I went with Hollie's family to a cabin in Bear Lake. I loved it! I couldn't leave when the rest of them left because I had a job interview early Friday morning. My dad offered to drive me all the way up there so that I didn't have to drive alone. :) It was really sweet of him.

Here are my dad and I sitting at the gas station in Bear Lake waiting for my friends to come pick me up. This picture was the last of about 10 tries to get him to look at the camera.

When I got to the cabin I was given my perfect adorable cup that Hollie and her sisters had made for everyone to use during the weekend. I couldn't have been more thrilled.

I love shakes!

We love Le Beaus. The raspberry shakes are divine! We went there a few times during the weekend.

I always love bon fires. This one was one of the best. We played iPod idol, I had an adorable baby to hold the entire time, and a 5 year old that loved me and wanted to sit right next to me. Also, we didn't wear makeup or get ready at all the entire time. I LOVED it.

These two pictures summed up our weekend. We played in the sun all day, came home and ate dinner, then retired to our bedroom that was basically an ice cube and we had to wear sweatshirts and cuddle in bed while we all read. It was absolute perfection. I love vacations where all I have to do is play in the sun and read. That is my kind of life! I love Bear Lake and decided that someday when I am rich I will have a cabin there. I hope that I get invited next year! Thanks Marshall's for letting me come!

Tim!

2011-08-07T14:58:00.000-07:00

Time for another concert! Tim McGraw! It is so hard for me to decide which concert I love the most. It is usually whatever concert that I am at right then. Because I sure love Tim McGraw!

The entire time leading up to the concert, Lynsie kept saying that she wished she could just go and watch The band Perry and Luke Bryan and then leave. She said that Tim McGraw was old news. She knows how bad that infuriates me. On the way to the concert we were listening to The Band Perry and Luke Bryan to get in the concert spirit and to learn the words. I already know every word to Tim so I didn't think it necessary to listen to him. I finally put Tim McGraw in so that Lynsie could get "familiar" with some of his songs. The very first song that played she said, "Oh my heck! I didn't know this was Time McGraw. This is my favorite song!" She preceded to know every single song that we played by Tim. While I was happy that she admitted to liking Tim, I was very frustrated that she is so stubborn that she wouldn't even listen to him until now.

Whitney and I waiting for Tim!

The band Perry was pretty much adorable and amazing. They did not disappoint.

I can't wait for Luke Bryan to come for his own concert! I love him! I really feel like he is the most entertaining singer I have ever watched. He dances the entire time that he is on the stage. I don't know how he can sing and dance like he does at the same time. He is so cute. And when he turns his hat backwards... Mmmm!

Look how adorable he is!

Justin, Chelsie, Whitney, and I

The concert up to this point was so amazing that we were so happy that we could have just went home right then and be totally happy. But then we remembered that we still had the main event! I could not have been happier.

OMG! I love this man so so much!

There are no words.

The girls.

The concert is over. We are on a concert high but also sad that it is over.
I can't even wait until next time Tim. Concerts make me broke but they bring me so much happiness. I hope that I can always go to every concert!

Lynsie, Kaylyn, and I continued the party after the concert. I was house sitting at Kiele's and they came with me. I am not going to post all of the pictures that they took. They were a little scandalous.

We love taking pictures of ourselves.

We finally ended the party at Jeremiah's the next morning. I can't wait until the next concert!

Happy Birthday Lucy!

2011-08-06T00:53:00.000-07:00

The greatest actress ever born was Lucille Ball. She was the best comedian and I don't think that anyone will ever top her. She was also a very successful business woman. She was so successful. Today would have been her 100th birthday. She was born August 6, 1911.

For some reason I fell in love with Lucy. Starting at a very young age I Love Lucy was my favorite show. I loved Nick at Night's Block Party Summer because Tuesday nights were I Love Lucy. I loved how the show was so innocent and funny and people of every age still love it. Every time that I had to do a report on a famous person or about a biography I would ALWAYS choose to do it about Lucy. I love how her and Ricky/Desi really loved each other. It wasn't just an onscreen romance. Even though they ended up with a very bitter divorce and both remarried, they still loved each other until the day that Desi died. When he was dying it was Lucy that he asked for and she was there. So so touching to me.

This is a picture of the second to last episode of the show. Lucy's face was painted completely white because she was obviously dressed as a geisha girl. This is when everything was happening for their divorce. They had to keep redoing her makeup because she just kept crying the whole entire time. It is a very sad episode to me now. Their lives were falling apart.

I love every single episode of I Love Lucy but my favorite is definitely the Ballet episode. I have probably seen it 1,000 times and I still laugh just as hard as I did the first time. She is so fetching funny. Watching try to dance has got to be the funniest clip of a show ever on T.V. Please go watch it if you've never seen it.

I'm not really sure when my obsession with Lucy first started. It was somewhere before 8th grade though. I know this because of a very traumatic thing that happened to me. I went to California on a family vacation. While we were there we went to Universal Studio. You may or may not know that there use to be an I Love Lucy museum at Universal. I knew. You could go and see some of her more popular dresses that she wore on the show and awards and pictures I'm sure. My mom told me that in the olden days you would be able to actually go into her dressing room. Well my family knew that I loved Lucy and this museum is somewhere that I needed to go to while we were there. Well of course there were lots of rides that we wanted to go on and I was the oldest child and then there were 6 younger kids than me on the vacation and the museum would be boring to them. So while the museum was still definitely a priority, we had other things to do first. It started getting later and we kept riding the Jurassic Park ride over and over. We loved it. Then we went to go to the museum and the Backdraft ride was right next to the museum. It was the last run of the ride before the park closed. So we decided to do that and then do the museum. Well I am very sad to say that when we came out of the ride... the museum was closed. I was very sad. I remember just staring through the glass with my dad trying to see everything. My obsession with Lucy grew from there. My mom said that she really regrets not taking me to that first. Stupid Backdraft.

Well I figured I'd get to the museum eventually. I go to California quite frequently but most Disneyland. One trip to California Alyssa, Bryson, and I decided that we'd go to Universal. Mostly for me to get to the museum but also to just go. We ended up not going. We wanted more time at Disneyland. I still thought I would be able to go.

A few months later I went to Universal with my family. The first stop was going to be the museum. My life long goal of going to this place was finally going to happen. I get to the building and it is closed.

For good. The day before I went there was the last day that it was open. Her family wanted all of the stuff back.

Don't really know what face I'm pulling but obviously I'm heartbroken here.

I still had to get some pictures in front of the museum.

The tire marks were still on the road from the moving trucks. I was literally one day late. I just looked through the window again at the empty building. I still can't believe that happened. I was so sad. I of all people should have went to that museum and it definitely wasn't from lack of trying. I will someday go to all of the museum that they have in Jamestown, New York, where she was born. I am going to somehow talk my husband into going there for our honeymoon.

Lucy has obviously touched a special place in my heart. I collect all of her paraphernalia. I have almost every Lucy doll, all of the 50th anniversary stuff they came out with, every book that I've seen, postcards, magnets, stamps, calendars, planners, etc. I had it all out in my room at one point and cried the day that I bundled it all up and put it in a bin. I still have my barbies and random stuff out but there is too much to have it all out. Tyler use to hate when I would get something Lucy for Christmas because it would take 10 minutes to look at it because I would cry over every gift.

A few examples of the many different Lucy Christmas presents that I have gotten.

Every Christmas I have gotten at least one Lucy item.

A couple of years ago I made my mom and Letia drive down to the Festival of Trees because I had heard there was and I Love Lucy tree.

It did not disappoint. If I was rich it would have been mine.

Some things that you might not know about I Love Lucy:

-Lucille Ball was the first woman ever pregnant on T.V.

-The T.V. station said that being pregnant was considered dirty and so this was a big deal. The episode was called "Enciente" which is pregnant in Spanish. They were not allowed to say the word pregnant. They were only allowed to say expecting.

-More people watched the episode of the birth of the baby than watched the presidential inauguration.

-Lucy and Desi were having marriage issues before I Love Lucy even started and Lucy said that she would only take the part as Lucy Ricardo if Desi could play her husband. It was her idea to save her marriage. It worked for a few years.

-I Love Lucy invented the concept of reruns. It was after Lucy had her baby on T.V. and in real life. She needed time off and so she came up with the idea of showing past episodes again. Everyone thought it was an awful idea. Obviously it wasn't. Imagine if there weren't reruns on T.V.

On a website they are trying to crown the "Lucy of our generation." Some women that they are considering are Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Kristen Wiig, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Debra Messing. While I do love Amy Poehler I do not think that it is ok for them to say that there could be a Lucy of our generation. Lucy was a once in a lifetime actress and person. I'm a little bit bitter about it.

Obviously I love Lucy. She was the greatest woman ever on television. She touched my life in so many ways. I wish more than anything that I could have met her in real life before she died. She will be one of the first people that I meet when I go to Heaven. I am going to give my first baby girl the middle name Lucy. Yes my husband will love that idea. I'm so glad that I fell in love with Lucy. I have watched every episode more times than I can count. It is always able to cheer me up whenever I have had a bad day. Every person that I have talked to about the show has a favorite episode and they usually say that they remember watching with a grandparent or something cute. It reminds people of better times when everything wasn't trash on television. I am so grateful for Lucy and hope that my children will like watching it with me.

I Love Mr. Chesney!

2011-07-10T23:40:00.000-07:00

I don't think it is a secret that I love concerts and I love Kenny Chesney.

This year was no exception. As I get older though, I seem to be losing my normal concert buddies. I have never been to Kenny without Steph and she couldn't come this year. I was almost in tears as I was leaving for the concert. I didn't want to go without her. I have started recruiting new concert friends but it is still a little sad. Anyway... we left early in the afternoon as usual. It was Whitney, Lynsie, and I. We had to get there early to save seats.

While we were waiting we saw some really classy people. Concerts are the best people watching places ever. These people waiting were prime examples of white trash country.

Covered in tattoos, no shirt, cowboy boots, and camo shorts. They were putting on a dance show for everyone.

Here they were grilling burgers. They offered them to everyone. So sweet.

Of course we had to get a picture with our new friend. He was at least respectful and asked if we wanted him to get the beer out of the picture. Ha.

It was the weirdest weather while we were waiting. It went from bloody hot to a complete downpour. It really sucked.

Everyone had to just huddle under their blankets. So much for getting ready!

I wish that this picture was real. I love him.

We Love Kenny!

Jordan and Crew came and kept us company. Jordan gets actual seats so he doesn't even need to come early but he still does. He is so great to walk all of our stuff back to our car for us and play games with us while we wait. So sweet. Ty got there with his date too.

Here we are in our new Kenny shirts just waiting for the concert to begin!

Then look who showed up! I was so happy! She couldn't handle not being at the concert either! She bought a ticket last minute and rode down with her sister-in-law. Yay! I didn't have to do to a Kenny concert without her! I think I may have shed a tear.

Here are all of us. We're pretty cool.

First up... Mr. Billy Currington!

I really love him and his curly hair. He was a good one to open.

Here are all the girls getting stoked for Kenny!

Steph and I

And finally, the man of the hour, Kenny Chesney!

Oh I love him so much!

And he is literally the best that I have ever seen at signing autographs after he is done singing. He's adorable. He really appreciates his fans. Especially me.

One thing that I can always count on at a concert is fighting. I wasn't disappointed this time. I love watching people get into fights. I especially love it when the cops are called over. This one was actually pretty entertaining. I was kind of worried that I would get in trouble for taking pictures but no one said anything.

The cops look so annoyed. I would be too. I loved it though.

So I realize that it takes a few hours to get out of the parking lot but seriously? Do you need to pee right in front of the thousands of people that are driving by? I guess that if I was a man I would maybe feel differently but I don't think so.

Kenny will always be my favorite concert. I love him so much and all of the memories that I have made while at his concert. See you next year!

Favorite Holiday... I think

2011-07-06T00:03:00.000-07:00

I LOVE the 4th of July. I am pretty sure that it is my favorite holiday ever. I love fireworks, I love concerts, I love being outside, and I love doing fun things with my family! All of those things equal the 4th of July. I have also loved that the 4th has been on or near the weekend the past couple of years so that there are extra days to celebrate.

Here are us girls on the way to Provo for the Stadium of Fire! Lynsie decided to ditch us and go to Vegas.

We stopped for lunch at my favorite restaurant ever basically. Smash Burger. Way better than In-n-Out. It is delicious. I wish that I could eat there everyday.

On the way to Provo we had to stop at Cabelas. I wasn't too happy about it. I even tried to get into all of the things that it has to offer and I was still bored within about 2 minutes. I hate that place. Here are Morgan and my dad at the shooting gallery. Pretty cute.

We are finally to the concert! Yay! I don't think that it is a secret that I LOVE concerts. I spend way too much money on them but I seriously can't help it. Brad Paisley puts on a very fun concert. He definitely didn't disappoint. I loved it!

I always feel so patriotic during the Stadium of Fire. I can't help but tear up every time that the flag is flown in and the jets fly over! It really is magical. Also before the Stadium of Fire starts they say a prayer. It is at BYU after all. I know that not everyone there is LDS but everyone is respectful during the prayer and it is very magical to watch however many thousand people take their hats off, bow their heads, and be silent during the prayer. I know I'm a dork.

David Archuleta was the opening performance. He really is so adorable and entertaining. It was so cute too because he performed at the Stadium of Fire when he was little and so they started out showing the recording of him as a little boy and morphed it into him singing in real life. I loved it!

My boyfriend Jimmer gave us a little hello message because he couldn't be there. I loved that so so much.

Here we all are enjoying the concert! We love the USA!

I basically loved this performance so much because I LOVE country music! I loved this song and how he paid tribute to the country singers. So cute. I am pretty sure that I was crying.

Mmmmm! I love this man so much. I get lost in his big brown eyes every time that I watch him sing. His songs are adorable. His voice is beautiful. He is perfect. I think that he may be the best performer that I have seen at Stadium of Fire.

People that can't take pictures piss me off. I guess that I should be grateful to strangers that take pictures for me but I just wish that they would center them. It's really annoying.

So one of the reasons that this was the best Stadium of Fire to date is because of the AWESOME dance party that was outside of the stadium after the fireworks were over. We met up with our friends that were also there and basically rocked the dance floor. We were all sweaty and disgusting but had a blast!

Tyler was the designated purse holder during the dance. It was pretty great so that we didn't have to worry about them.

Morgan and I in the truck waiting in traffic. Stadium of Fire is over but we are still in our after concert high. I love this picture FYI.

Here we are at the West Point fireworks. I am so sad that the 4th of July is over. I love it so much! I had a GREAT weekend. I loved every second of it. We went to the RAC during the day on the 4th again this year. Basically all of the pictures were disgusting so I opted not to post any. I am also sad that the 4th is over because the summer flies by after the holiday. I don't want it to end.

The Zoo!

2011-05-15T18:06:00.000-07:00

I really wanted to go to the zoo but I feel that it is one of those places that you look like a creeper if you are childless. So I planned a trip with my friend Mandi. It was so fun with her and her kids! I really do love the zoo but I think that it needs to get some more animals! It didn't have a lion, any bears, penguins, or zebras. Those are some pretty main animals to be missing. I am still kind of bitter about it.

Cute little Titus waiting to go into the zoo!

We all had to take our turns at the famous Lion water fountain!

Titus loved the monkeys! He would just stare at them like he is here.

People thought we were a family. Ha ha. I guess we'd be the two moms?

They have added quite a few things since I was a kid. I don't remember this elephant that you can sit on. Titus hated it.

I think that elephants are my favorite. I have loved them ever since I read the book Water for Elephants. So for about 2 months now. They are so cute! The baby in the back was adorable!

I don't exactly know why there were dinosaur statues all over the park. It was pretty funny though because the little kids had never been to the zoo before and they thought that this was how the whole thing was going to be. Ha ha.

We loved the giraffes!

Titus loved me!

I'm the size of an adult male gorilla. Yay.

Cute little family!

Titus would hold up his shirt and show the monkeys his belly. So adorable and funny!

So this was the cutest thing ever. Alex went and sat right in front of the window to watch the monkey play and all the sudden it walked right up to her and sat down. She was all alone at first. It was so cute!

On the way out we had to stop and play on the playground of course! The zoo made for a long but fun day. I can't wait until one day when I hopefully have my own kids to take! Until then I will just keep forcing others to bring their kids places and let me tag along!

Class of 2011!

2011-04-28T16:25:00.000-07:00

It is finally over! The day that I have been looking forward to for basically my whole life, but definitely the past 6 years, is finally here! I am a graduate of Weber State! I literally never thought I would live to see this day. I can't say yet whether the $30,000, countless nights of sleep lost, innumerable cold sores, miles put on my car, and bins of books that are stashed at the Gunter's is worth it or not but hopefully when I get a job I will be able to say that it was! I am just more happy than I could ever express that I will never have to go to Weber State again except for the Fireworks and I will never have to pay another dime to that hellacious place (once my parking tickets are paid)! I am ecstatic!

Graduation day was so fun! I didn't know if it would be boring or not but it was actually so so great!

The stage before the ceremony started.

Walking to our seats...

Receiving my empty diploma holder.

Braden also graduated the same day so we are both cute little 2011 graduating cousins!

Kallee and Whitney came to my graduation. It was so nice of them because graduations are pretty boring. I love them!

Grandma and Grandpa Smith came to support both Braden and I. They are so cute!

Grandpa and Grandma with both of their graduates.

Mackenzie graduated too!

My family. Except for Morgan. She is too good of a student to miss school.

Morgan and I when she got home from school.

We went to Mandarin for dinner that night with everyone to celebrate.

Me with the cake that Annie made us! It was so cute!

My Grandpa and Sandie were out of town during graduation so they took me to Maddox. It was really fun and nice of them. It is one of my favorite places to eat.

All three of us.

I loved graduation day and am so glad that I finished school! Now no matter what happens I'll always have my degree. I love everyone that supported me! I have gotten lots of cards, money, my favorite ring ever, a nook, and books from people. Graduating is the best!

Easter!

2011-04-26T16:16:00.000-07:00

There are some holidays, ok most, that are just more fun when you are kids. Easter is one of them. I am sure that it will hopefully be fun again once there are kids in our family. I still took pictures though because you are never too old to get Easter baskets and candy.

The Easter Bunny really knows what we all like! Love that little guy!

Let the Countdown Begin!

2011-03-20T23:49:00.000-07:00

Graduation could not come any faster! I am a little be exhausted. I am ready to be able to actually work again and make a little bit more money. I am hating being broke and I haven't even bought a new pair of jeans for literally almost a year. That is so not my style. I have only bought dress up school teacher clothes these last few months.

This is how I feel right now.

But good news... I graduate on April 22, 2011! That is only one month and one day away! It could literally not come any faster! I never thought that the day would come. I've been going to school for 5 and a half years but hopefully it'll be worth it soon!

Last week was my screening interviews with the districts and I think that they went really well. So hopefully I get a job!

I had to wear a suit and skirt to the interview and so this is what I came up with. (Thanks for letting me borrow your shirt and shoes Steph!) I posed with my resume before I left. Ha. I interviewed with 8 districts at the fair. Hopefully they are the first of many interviews that will get me a job!

Ke$ha!!!

2011-02-20T00:58:00.000-08:00

WARNING: I look hideous in all pictures in this post. You've been warned.
Ok so normally I go to wholesome, predictable, country concerts. Not this time. I went to Ke$ha. Very different from the concerts that I normally go to. I love Ke$ha but I think that this was a one time experience for me. I will only go to a venue like that for her. It was quite the experience.

I went with Lynsie, Annie, Jenilyn, their sister Maryn, and their sister-in-law Kyrie. It was a blast but also more than a little frightening.

My expression shows my fear.

It was crazy! There were people crowd surfing over the top of us. Some willingly, some not willingly because they were so out of it that the crowd was getting them out of the mass of people.

Right when I was starting to fear for our lives because of the people around us... Lynsie's friend Taylor showed up to save the concert for us. He is the one in the middle. He made the concert so much more fun! He is the biggest Ke$ha fan ever and was very entertaining to watch the concert with.

I also met this crazy guy James. He is very gay but very fun. He loved me. He was very tall and kept asking if I could see. I was fine and kept trying to tell him that. Well all of the sudden he picked me up under my butt and hoisted me on his shoulder. He was dancing with me on his shoulder and jumping up and down. I had zero warning before he picked me up. I didn't have time to fix my skirt. I'm sure that every single person behind me saw my underwear. I was laughing so hard but also very humiliated.

This is also James. He felt that Ke$ha needed all of his clothing. He took off his top shirt, then his under shirt. I was worried that he would take his pants off but he didn't. He was hilarious.

Ke$ha was more than a little bit slutty but 100% awesome! I loved every second of her.

Lynsie may kill me for posting this picture of her but this is what she looked like during the concert. She got very into it and sweaty. Her hair got very curly. Ha. After the concert Jenilyn asked if something got spilled on her head. Nope. Just a hard core concert goer.

Yes I am more than a little bit humiliated by this picture. I look awful. I'm fine with it. I have accepted it. I was covered in glitter for days. I couldn't get it off. I loved it. It was definitely a different experience than I am use to. I think I may have gotten contact high from all of the drugs in the air. Ha ha. Not really but it is probably possible. I am glad that I went and had a blast but I am a definitely a country girl. I was very scared during the concert. I would go again for Ke$ha but that is probably it. Bring on George and Reba!

Jazz Game with the Roadhouse!

2011-02-04T18:53:00.000-08:00

During Christmas the Roadhouse always has a gift card selling contest. Everyone is divided up into teams and then whoever sells the most gets some sort of prize. This year I was on the winning team. The prize was dinner and a Jazz game. I'm glad that I had friends on my team! It was so fun!

Here we are waiting to ride the Front Runner.

Me, Amy, Nicole

Jeremy

Kymeri and Ashley

Me and Amy again.

I'm sure that the regular Front Runner riders got highly annoyed of all of our picture taking.

I went and sat down with my boss and his wife and Jeremy. We were on the 9th or the 11th row. I can't remember. It was the closest that I've ever sat though. Sitting close always makes me pay better attention.

The highlight of the game for me though was seeing this guy. In case you can't tell who he is by the side/back view of his head... It's Jimmer! I really love him. I'm hoping that he comes to the Jazz so that I become interested again. I kept taking pictures of him. Ronda, my bosses wife, didn't exactly know who he was and I don't think she understood my obsession of taking pictures of him until he left. She did think it was funny when I called the blond girl that he was with a ho. I guess that wasn't very professional of me. Oops.

We were freezing, hyper, and I'm sure more than a little bit annoying as we waited for the Trax to come. This is what resulted.

Mandi and Lo

Me and Lo

Nicole and Lo

Jeremy, Amy, Ashley, and Lo

Mandi being a child with her bright blue cotton candy.

Finally we are warm again!

The whole group after the game! It sure was fun! Most of the time I really do love my job and the people that I work with. It was so nice of them to take us! I loved it! Thanks John and Ronda!

It's a New Year!

2011-01-02T10:32:00.000-08:00

I love Christmas Break and New Years means that it is almost over. I hate that feeling. Especially since when my break is over that means that it is time to do my student teaching! Ahhh! But I still love New Years and the tradition that my Grandpa and Grandma Smith have kept going for many years. The long awaited Shrimp Fry! Mmm! I know that a lot of work goes into preparing for this meal but I am so glad that they do it!

These pictures are from last year but they show what my grandparents do for a LONG time on New Years so that there is enough shrimp, carrots, onions, and everything fried that we can think of. My favoite things to eat are the shrimp, sweet and sour and rice, and the onion rings.

After we have eaten all of the food that we can handle then we play games. Jaron always brings his Wii or Playstation so that that we can dance and karaoke.

Just Dance! Apparently we all have the same dance skills in the Smith Family and they are not the greatest. Our singing skills are much better...

And we look good while we sing! We are a talented bunch! Of course Steph and I are just a little bit better than everyone else but that's ok. Everyone can't be the best.

Kate is so dang cute. And this little bench brings back so many memories. I loved sitting on this bench when I was little. Every little kid loves it. I will be buying my parents one when they have their first grandchild.

Grandpa and I with clams. Not my favorite. I love seafood and have liked lots of things that I thought looked and would be disgusting but oysters are not one of them. I can eat them but I would never eat them for a meal.

Lynsie was a little more dramatic than anyone else. Shocking. Ha.

Everything besides the clams were delicious and it was so much fun! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for putting in all the time and money to make it such a fun day for everyone!

It's the Greatest Time of Year!

2010-12-27T22:31:00.000-08:00

Christmas! I love Christmas and everything that comes with it! I love getting new pajamas, seeing family, opening presents, and just relaxing. I didn't take too many pictures unfortunately.

Shadie with the stocking filled with such fun things that Santa brought her. She loved it all!

Mylie with her stocking. She wanted to get down to eat her yummy treats! She loved them too!

Morgie with our massive pile of presents.

Lynie with the presents.

Tyler.

Me with the presents.

The puppies LOVE the candy canes that they always get in their stockings. It is a tradition that Santa always follows through with!

Mom getting all emotional about her new band that my dad got her for Christmas. It is really beautiful. Cute Dad!

My dad probably getting all emotional about his new gun that he put on hold for himself at Cal-Ranch. I don't get the obsession with guns. Isn't one gun the same as the next?

Our dressed up family at Grandpa and Grandma Smith's house on Christmas. Lynsie said that she just wanted to be able to relax on Christmas.

The whole family on Christmas. Todd is really good at setting the timer on his camera.
Merry Christmas everyone! Ours was really great!

Jaron is Home!

2010-12-14T23:35:00.000-08:00

These 2 years went by sooo fast! I seriously can't even believe how fast they went by. It seems like he just barely left. We all went to the airport to welcome him home!

Here is Colton waiting patiently and excitedly to see his favorite brother.

All of the girls waiting for J!

Colton and I getting so excited!

Here is the whole group with our Welcome Home posters. Mine says, "My iPod and I have missed you!" I thought that it was pretty clever.

Here he is! The person that we've all been waiting for!

First time that Jaron and Mary see each other. It was so cute!

The best brothers finally see each other! They were so happy! Colton sure loves him!

All of the cousins back together! Its been 3 years since Ty and Jaron have seen each other.

The family back together again.

Jaron and the Parentals.

The best part about airports are the automatic walkways. Imagine my disappointment when it was broken. I really think that Weber State should invest in these all over campus.

Jaron lost a lot of weight while on the mish. This picture shows it perfectly! So jealous!

Welcome home J! So glad that you are home and that we are Glee buddies now!

Mrs. Sant

2010-12-01T01:56:00.000-08:00

This is a little bit old but I just realized that I never posted it. Kiele got married! Kiele and Cameron got married in Jamaica! The pictures that I have seen are beautiful I wish that I could have gone.

The bride and groom at the alter.

When they came home they had a reception at Kiele sister Ashlie's house. It was so cute and fun. She wanted to serve cupcakes as the refreshments. So we spent Friday night decorating them.

We went through so much frosting!

Kati, me, Jules, and Key just finishing up. Jules and I were finished decorating and ready to just eat the frosting.

The cupcakes all turned out adorable! We made so many though. If I remember right we filled 10 boxes with about 70 cupcakes in them each and we only used 3 boxes. Ha. We all ended up supplying our work with plenty of cupcakes.

Tyler and I at the reception.

Jules and I hanging out.

Morgan and I after her and my parents went through the line.

The happy couple sharing their first dance at the reception. I love Kiele and Cameron and I'm so happy that they are married! It was such a fun reception!

Welcome to Jazz Town!

2010-11-20T23:18:00.000-08:00

I love Jazz games and go whenever I can! We were quite a bit late to the game. Tyler was pretty stressed out about it but come on we had to eat! He probably wished that it could have been just the boys so that they would have been on time. I thought that it was just fine. They were down by like 19 when we got there I think and then they ended up coming back and winning. I actually had a date to this game though! It was fun.

My handsome date Cody and I. We were even cute and matching.

Tyler and his date Jana.

Ty and Jana.

This might not be the most compassionate thing ever but this pretty big lady blacked out on like the second from the top row. The paramedics had to come up and carry her down. It was crazy. I couldn't take my eyes off of it. This will probably happen to me one day because I was rude and took a picture but I just had to.

I wish that someone would have warned me about the midget "Bear Cub" Jazz Bear. That is all that I will say about it.

This next section of pictures is going to be labeled "the many emotions that Tyler goes through during a 2 minute time period at a Jazz game"

I love this picture because Jana is wondering who she is really on a date with.

Of course we had to go and get a picture on the floor.

I love waiting for the players after the game. I was super sad to not be able to see Korver at the game. It basically broke my heart. But... the good news is that I have a new crush. Gordon Hayward! So adorable!

Mmmmmm!

I am a huge Jazz fan when I go to games! I love being at the Delta Center and can't wait to go to the next game! Thanks for being my date Cody.

Jason Derulo!

2010-10-15T00:08:00.000-07:00

It was definitely time for another concert! For some reason it felt like it took forever for this concert to come! I discovered Jason Derulo last year and when he appeared on American Idol as a guest performer I fell in love with him even more! I'm sure everyone can see why! Yummy!

I really do love him.

We of course had to decorate Tessa. This is the first time that Tessa has ever been decorated for a concert and it was pretty fun. We also made t-shirts. They turned out really cute!

We love Jason Derulo!

We are loving our shirts!

Our shirts close up! Cute!

We are finally on our way! Yay!

After stand-still traffic and being a half hour late we finally are here and ready to see Jason!

We are bored Jason! Please hurry!

So Jason asked for a volunteer to come up on stage with him so that he could sing it to her. OMG! So jealous! He literally sang right to her and it was sooo sexy! I would've done anything to have been that girl. She handled it really well though. I don't think I could have contained myself like she did.

Sitting there just singing to the audience. Love him!

Then he said that he needed to turn up the heat and sing a sexy song....

This is what we got! Mmmmmm! I could have listened to and watched him for hours!

After the concert we sat and waited outside in hopes that Jason came out and we could see him. This crazy guy was a drummer and he loved everyone that was there. He was going crazy and running through the crowd. Jason never came out but it was still pretty entertaining though!

We didn't just get the entertainment while we waited... Keeley caught these cool Skullcandy earphones from B.O.B.! She was totally stoked about it. It was a great end to the night! I loved the concert and love these girls! I do not have tickets to any concerts coming up and am pretty sure that I need to change that. And soon. I love concerts!

I Bleed Blue!

2010-10-04T23:46:00.000-07:00

My family has been BYU fans for as long as I can remember. My uncle Todd has had season tickets for I think he said 27 or 28 years so everyone else just kind of followed suit. We have all been able to go to some games over the years. I haven't really known how I felt about it. Games are pretty boring but I haven't been for a long time. Well Todd called and said that he had 3 extra tickets and I happened to have the night off so after debating about it for a while, Lyns, Alyssa, and I decided to take the tickets. I was the only one that had to debate about going or not. Lynsie and Alyssa were in from the first second.

Lyns and I sitting in the bleachers. The seats are awesome. They are underneath this sign thing so that they are protected when it rains or snows and it keeps the sun off of them too. The only problem is that they are on the very top row. I am a little out of shape and that trek up those stairs is pretty much horrible. When I carried Kate up I was literally seeing stars by the time I got up there. Sad I know. And one thing that Lyss and I couldn't figure out though was the cheer that they do when they yell: "First Down!" or something like that. We always kept doing it at the wrong time. I didn't ever get it.

This adorable little girl Kate is the funniest little girl ever. She was getting restless so I took her down with us to get a snowie and to take a break from the bleachers. I had bought a water and she had just gotten done taking a huge drink from the water bottle like she was dying of thirst and then all the sudden just closed her eyes. We looked at each other and were all, "did she seriously just fall asleep?" And she wasn't smiling or anything. It was hilarious. She did it for at least a full minute. We finally got the camera out and then she started smiling slyly and opened her eyes. The little stink. It was adorable. Then she knew that we thought it was funny and kept doing it.

The girls in our cool BYU attire. Notice how cute Kate looks. She had on a cute little jean skirt and blue ribbons in her pigtails. So sweet.

The cousins! We are a BYU family! But Colton is definitely the biggest Cougar fan of us all!

The Cougars themselves at halftime. Rise and shout!

Best BYU cousins ever!

I took this picture of Colton and Lynsie. Colty is so lucky because he has the best seats ever! Right above the field. I could actually pay attention to the game when I was down there with him.

After the game we went to the Olive Garden. So good and so fun!

I just had to post this picture of Kate after the game was over. It makes me laugh so hard. This is how I kind of felt too. And she is super adorable still even with her hair pulled out and a messy face! The game was super fun but a little long. I was happy that Kate was there to keep me entertained. I am so glad that we were able to go! And I am happy to say that even though the game was a little long I am definitely a BYU fan! I bleed blue! It was so fun and thanks so much for the tickets Mary and Todd! We'll take extra tickets off your hands anytime!

I'm a Gleek!

2010-10-03T14:30:00.000-07:00

It's true! I love it so so much! I have been looking forward to this since the finale of last season! It seriously makes me so happy! I'm lame I know but that's ok.

Doesn't this picture make you want to watch it? It makes me want to watch it.

We had another season premiere party. We are cool. We know. Nothing can top our party last year since Artie showed up but this year was still pretty great.

Of course Morgie and I had to wear our Glee shirts to school that day. So many people were jealous.

I changed into my matching Glee shirt for the party though. I had to match everyone! And of course Mylie and Shadie had to get into the action!

Here we are eating our dessert... Pazookies! Mmm! Thanks Mom!

Hollie made these adorable cupcakes! I loved them so so much and loved that she printed off all of their pictures! Definitely completed the party!

We are Gleeks!

Abby isn't a Glee fan. I feel bad for her. I really do.

Justin and I. He is one of Tyler's friends and he loves Glee. That makes me love him!

I am so glad that my friends and family are Gleeks. It is so fun to always watch it! I am so happy it is back on.

Tim McGraw!

2010-10-03T14:08:00.001-07:00

This is old but that's ok. I'm trying to get caught up! I went to another concert! Yay! I went to see this slightly handsome guy...

Mmmmm! Nothing more needs to be said.

It was at Usana so we got grass seats and had to go down early to save our place in line.

Here are Jamie and I waiting in line! So hot but still always so fun.

Yay! Everyone finally got there! Mardie, Jamie, Kristen, Me, and Ashton.

I love Lady Antebellum!

Jamie and I

Ashton and I

We love Concerts!

Love this man!

Mmmm!

I love concerts and can't wait for the next one that's coming up in a week!

Cabo Wabo!

2010-09-15T22:55:00.000-07:00

Have I ever said that I love to travel? Well I do. It is my number one favorite thing to do. It is going to be quite a while til my next vacation because of lack of funds but this was a great one to end on! My friends at work asked me to go to Cabo with them a couple of months ago and at first I said no. But then things changed and I thought, why not? Who knows how long I will be able to just up and go to Mexico when someone asks me too? My friend Whitny had a timeshare in Cabo so it was just the price of the plane ticket and food and spending money. I still ended up spending more money than I wanted to but I guess that it could have been worse. Ha.

We had to be to the airport by 7 a.m.! Way too early for me but I guess that if I have to get up that early, Cabo is a pretty good reason...

On the way to the airport! Yay! Apparently it was too early for Molly to take pictures.

Waiting to be able to board our plane...

Whit fell asleep...

Still too early for Molly to take a picture.

We made it! Yay!
As soon as we got to our resort we had to get in the pool. It was soo hot! Carissa and I sitting at the cool little bar hut in the pool!

This was our backyard. We were sitting on our chairs by the pool when we took this picture. Beautiful! I want to be back!

This was our swimming pool! So great!

I hate sand. It gets everywhere and is impossible to get out of your swimsuit and other annoying areas. So this was one of the only times I was on the beach. I opted to stay by the pool. But it was fun for a minute. Crazy Molly.

We went down to the city the next day after we slept for a good 12-13 hours.. These lizards are what I got handed the second that we stepped out of our cab. The other girls we too big of wusses to hold them but I thought they were pretty cute. Until the guy put the little one on my head. I didn't like it so much after that.

While we were eating lunch there was this mariachi band that was serenading us. It felt very culturish.

I took this picture because I thought that it was pretty funny. Notice the No Smoking sign above this guy's head. Also notice what the guy has in his mouth. Very Mexico.

One of my favorite parts of Mexico were the funny taxi drivers and boat drivers. This guy came up with Carissa's nickname... Terrible Teresa! (In a spanish accent of course)

This is one of 5,000 pictures that we have of the pelicans. At first it was amazing to see them so we all took a picture or two. But then it got old. Not to Carissa. She took a picture of everyone that she saw.

We were getting prepped to go parasailling! AHHHHH! This picture sums up perfectly how nervous I was.

Ha ha ha. So funny story about this picture. I asked the boat driver if he was going to drag them in the water and he said, "Only if they tell me to beforehand." I was disappointed because I wanted them to go in. Then he asked if I wanted to and I said I wasn't so sure about that. Then he asked if I thought they wanted to go in and I said heck yeah! So they had no idea they were going in and were panicking! Ha ha. It's still pretty funny to me.

They made it and said that it was awesome!

I guess that I can do this.

I was literally crapping my pants at this point. I was screaming my head off. I was so scared.

This is really me. And it was boring. It was cool for a minute then got kind of boring. I am glad that I did it but I doubt that I would ever pay to do it again.

I paid for telling the guy to dip their feet in the water. He literally drug me for a couple minutes. But it was really the funnest part.

It was really hard to walk in flippers so Carissa just got carried.

Yay! Getting ready to go snorkeling! We look so good!

We loved the Glass Bottom Boat tour around Lover's Beach. Until our driver told us that this is where he saw a tiburone while scuba diving! Hello! Who tells someone that when they're about to go snorkeling there! For you non-spanish speakers, tiburone means shark.

We have our scuba gear on! Should I be humiliated about this picture? Probably. But I love it way too much!

Carissa and I loved the bracelets that they made that said stuff. We spent all of our souvenir money on them. This is the cute little guy that made them for us!

Lover's Beach after snorkeling! Once again we look really good. Don't be jealous.

On our way back from Lover's Beach we spotted two little fins in the water. Our driver told us they were Manta Rays and so we looked at the glass bottom to see if we could maybe see one as we went over them...

We ended up going over a whole school of Manta Rays! It was so cool! They just kept coming and coming. You can see the outline of two rays here. The pictures weren't good because it was through the glass on the bottom of our boat.

There were tons of these seals but they were always in groups. This little guy was all by himself taking a nap. I thought he was adorable. Those crabs crawling all over him and the rock are not so adorable. Sick.

These are all of the bracelets that I bought. I got made fun of a lot but I thought they were a great investment. I have no idea why this is underlined and it's really pissing me off but I can't fix it.

More Pool Time!

We all read books while we were there. It was so great to read and lay by the pool and have nothing to do!

I was told I have sausage toes. Whatever.

I literally don't know. Molly looks semi evil though.

Carissa getting her SPF 100 on.

These adorable things would walk along the beach every single night. It was so cool. The brown ones are all on leads but the white pony was always by himself and always a bit behind. We didn't know if he was wild or not but I loved seeing them every night.

One thing that I loved and hated was our bed. Molly, Whit, and I slept on this king size cement slab. It affected Molly the most, or she was probably just the most dramatic about it. But at the same time it was one of my favorite times. Molly and I watched the notebook a couple of times on her iPod. She fell asleep and I of course watched the whole thing and bawled my eyes out. We made Whitny watch shows she hated like Girls Next Door and the Kardashians. They tried to kill me multiple times and we would laugh until we all cried and I wheezed. Some of my favorite memories of the trip.

On our last night we decided to have a french braiding lesson. Carly taught Carissa and I and then we practiced on her hair.

It looked really good.

Getting ready to leave our resort. So sad but so time to be home.

Literally one of my favorite parts of the trip were the taxi rides. I loved talking to the taxi drivers and always sat up front so that I could talk to them. I practiced my spanish skills and learned new words and phrases. Some phrases weren't so appropriate. Ha. Most of the drivers would have me translate when one of the other girls tried talking to them. I became very fluent. Too bad it was $70 round trip to go anywhere. I would have taken taxi rides a lot more if it would have been cheaper.

The girls in the back.

Molly and I waiting for our plane. We were pretty bored.

This was literally the best Dr. Pepper ever! They didn't have Dr. Pepper in Cabo and I was dying. All the sudden I saw a can and I had to have it. I only hesitated for one second when they told me it cost $3.50. I NEEDED it. I think the cost made it taste even better!

We had all been without our phones for WAY too long! The guy over the loud speaker kept yelling at everyone to not use their phone yet but what did he expect? We finally had service!

A rare moment that I was actually playing on the beach.

I love pictures of feet in the sand.

Cabo was so pretty! And... I guess so were we. Especially Whit in this picture!

Some things I never want to forget about the trip:
- Carissa suckling the bug.
- Getting sick in the middle of our first night and wanting to come home. I got made fun of for being so dramatic in the morning but they didn't feel how sick I was. I just wanted my mom.
- Josh. The gay guy that became our best friend on the Sunset Cruise.
- Sitting on our tiny back porch for hours at night. It was so squishy but the perfect temperature and the perfect thing to do.
- Carly was sad that the TV in the living room didn't work. Carissa was happy because she didn't want to watch TV while on vacation. At the end of the trip we found out that Carissa had really just unplugged it.
- When the Mexican Army was lined up with machine guns down the highway and stopped every vehicle to just look in. I was so glad that we hadn't rented a vehicle at this point.
- Sitting up front with the taxi drivers.
- The man that was sobbing and saying he didn't have any money to feed his family. It was heart breaking.
- All of the children selling stupid little toys. They don't have real childhoods. It was so sad.
- Our $1 hat that Molly is probably still crying over.
- The adorable little lizard that was on our porch with us.
- How I'm pretty sure we got ripped off everywhere that we went because the exchange rate was always different.
- Getting separated in the city and being scared crapless that Molly and Whitny had become victims of the a sex ring like on Taken.
- Carly getting charged $50 for phone connections for calling her boyfriend.

As I am doing this post it makes me so sad that this trip has come and gone. I loved this vacation so so so much! I needed it and it was good to relax and have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do for a whole week right before lame school started again. I don't think that I have ever been on a vacation where every second we weren't busy busy getting everything done and seeing everything. We did all of our activities the first part of the vacation and literally slept til noon and went out to the pool til the sun went down for the rest of the week. It was the best. I could live like that forever. There was honestly nothing to worry about there. The trip drained my funds but I am so glad that I was able to go. I love the girls I went with and got to know them so much better! I hope that we can do another one soon!

Vegas Baby!

2010-08-20T23:31:00.000-07:00

When Lyns graduated we decided to go on our own Senior Trip. We wanted somewhere cheap, close, but so so so fun. What place meets all of those requirements? Vegas! I love Vegas. It is so great! I love everything about it. I love the people. It is the best place to people watch. I wish I could just get a camp chair and sit out on the strip and watch people walk by. I love the food. I love the shows. I love literally everything.

Lynie was really tired on the way to Vegas apparently.

Once we got there we didn't waste anytime hitting the strip...

In front of New York New York.

In front of some weird statue thing.

This was my favorite restaurant ever! It was this delicious mexican restaurant in Planet Hollywood. Mmmm!

Of course Vegas wouldn't be Vegas without something naughty. This huge statue was right next to the yummy mexican restaurant. We definitely had to get pictures with it.

Lyn and I in front of some cool flowers.

Kiele, me, Jules, and Lyns in front of the flowers.

This is our favorite way to take pictures. It looks so cool.

Now at our favorite place in Las Vegas... SeReNdIpItY 3.

We really wanted to get a picture with the tree shaped like a sundae. We had multiple people try to take the picture and none of the stupid people could get the sundae in the picture for some reason. I think they were all retarded or something. This is the best they got.

Here we are waiting for a table. This was the second time we tried to go to the restaurant. The first time we waited for a table for a half an hour before someone had the courtesy of telling us they were closed. If the food wasn't so good then we would not have went back. The service is absolutely horrible. But the food is soooo worth it!

Deep-fried oreos! Need I say more? Serendipity is the best place ever. If you've never been there I definitely suggest trying it. And not only is the food the best... It is probably the cutest restaurant ever too. All pink and orange. Adorable.

These are our "WE LOVE VEGAS!!!'' poses and expressions. We went to Cirque Du Soleil's Ka this night and I am sad to say that it was lame, lame, lame. Mystere is totally where its at. We were pretty disappointed. Especially Julie and Lyns because we had built it up so much for them. Ha. Oops. I really do love Vegas so much and am so glad that it is within driving distance for us. I am ready for another trip there I think. I love that we literally slept til noon, layed out in the pool for a good 5-6 hours and then when it wasn't quite as unbareably hot at night, hit the strip and ate. My kind of vacation! Thanks girls for making it so much fun and thanks Lyns for letting us tag along on your senior trip.

Only 365 days to go...

2010-07-20T01:25:00.000-07:00

I would dare say that the Weber State fireworks are my favorite day of the whole summer. I have went every summer since I was born I think. My dad used to go put out blankets the night before and then we would skip church, get KFC, and go spend the entire day at Weber State. I have tried doing that since but I just can't. I guess I am not as hard core as my parents used to be because it is way too hot to sit there all day. But I still go put out blankets early and then we go later in the evening.

This year Alyssa made dinner for us before we left. She made delicious chicken enchiladas! Mmm! She was quite the homemaker this night. Then it was off to the fireworks!

We took games to play while waiting for the fireworks to start but I didn't even last one round. The fireworks are literally the best people watching event ever! And the reason that they are so good is because there are so many people that I know that walk by. I always put our blankets right in the middle of the grassy area so that we can see as many people as possible. People watching is one of my favorite things to do. Annie, Braden, and I were pretty good at it.

Kiele and Cameron ended up finding us right before the fireworks started! Cam was so into the fireworks that he couldn't even look away to take a picture.

The day turned out to be just as good as I was hoping and I can't even wait for them again next year! Only 365 days to go...

It's Where Fun Is!

2010-07-20T01:04:00.000-07:00

Raging Waters! I don't really know what I was expecting but I was not expecting to have as much fun as I did! We decided to go on the 5th since everyone had the day off. It was kinda pricy but oh so worth it.

We started off with breakfast supplied by Lynsie and her "dumpster diving" skills. She literally goes to Krispy Kreme and Hostess stores and goes through their dumpsters at the the end of the night. She brings home boxes of stuff. They are all still sealed and everything. Pretty amazing if you ask me.

BreAnn and I showed up in the same swimsuit! It was definitely a picture perfect opportunity.

Here are Steph and I with our "Brown Protection." It is a miracle tanning cream that Steph found and let me know about. It is pretty amazing and it made it even more amazing that the only place we could buy it was from the ABC store in Vegas. That somehow made it seem more legit. (Come to find out you can buy it lots of places but it still is amazing.) We used it periodically during the day and it literally protected us from getting burned and turned our skin to a beautiful brown color. Alyssa is convinced that it is cancer cream but we just turned darker brown after a day in the sun and Lyss turned lobster red from using supposed SPF 50 lotion every 5 seconds so I am even more convinced about our Brown Protection.

Here we all are after our fun day in the sun! We love Raging Waters!

We had to end the night with a treat so we stopped at our favorite place, Sub Zero. It was so delicious. If you've never been then you should go! They freeze the ice cream right in front of you! The day was so fun and I can't even wait to get a season pass next year! Thanks guys!

4th of July!

2010-07-20T00:24:00.000-07:00

I love, love, love the 4th of July! It really is one of my favorite holidays! I think it is one of my favorite holidays because there are always fun things to do but the day never seems rushed or stressful like other holidays do. And this year wasn't an exception. We obviously celebrated the 4th on the 3rd this year but that was just fine with me! It just made the weekend last longer!

The day started off super early for Alyssa and Hollie. They really are crazy fools that decided it is fun or something to run marathons.

This is them after they got done running. They actually look happy. I don't get it. But I am really impressed with them and their dedication to get in shape and ready to run them. They really are so amazing! Good job guys! They also decided to go to the parade after. Apparently that was fun too. I wouldn't know because after going to many parades in my lifetime I have officially decided that they are not worth waking up for. They are lame. My children will not know what parades are. They will still have a great time on the 4th meeting all of their cousins and friends later in the afternoon for the festivities. So someday when I have children please do not ever use the word "parade" in front of them. Thanks.

After they were done parading and running we all met up at the RAC a.k.a. the Roy Aquatic Center.

Apparently the spot we picked wasn't good enough so here we are dragging our chairs over to Alyssa and Hollie. But we sure do look really happy about it.

Steph and I are trying to get a tan here and I am sure that Lyss and Hol are applying more sunscreen.

Steph, Lyns, and I just hanging out.

After the RAC we decided to have a BBQ. We all contributed something and it was so yummy!

My dad cooked our turkey steaks for us. Thanks Dad! This is another picture for their 50th Anniversary video!

Then we went to the fireworks at the West Point park and they were pretty great. We even got dropped off and picked up by my parents. It felt like we were 14 again. It was so so nice! We then came back and had brownies and ice cream for dessert! So it was a really good 4th of July and I loved every second of it! Thanks everyone that played with me!

Cake Decorating 101

2010-07-08T00:18:00.000-07:00

The idea came to me one day to start learning some homemaking skills. Then right after that my cousin Annie asked me if I wanted to take a cake decorating class with her. I figured it was meant to be and said heck yes! I was a bit concerned because I had never baked a cake before. But it turned out ok and I only had a few minor mishaps and only wanted to throw my cake in the garbage a measly 4 out of the 5 times that I baked it. I just get stressed out about it being perfect. Here is the progress...

The first week we learned some frosting skills on these cupcakes.

This was the cake that I was the best at! Probably because it was the easiest. Ha. But that's ok. I still love my little turle cake. "I like tuddles."

This cake really had me frustrated. But that's ok. I think I will just be buying my children's Barbie cakes instead of making them. Ha.

I still get amazed when I look at these pictures. I can't believe I really made that cake! Ha. Funny story behind this one... When I was frosting this cake at home with just the yellow frosting, I was getting very frustrated because it wasn't going smooth like I wanted it to. Lynsie, aka Miss encourager, said it's ok Brit, not everyone can be as good as Annie. It made me so mad at the time but now I think it's funny.

Here are all of us cake decorators with our teacher Beth. She is so so so amazing at decorating cakes! She makes it look so easy and it really truly isn't. I am not going to say that I hope I get as good as her because that will literally never happen. But at least now thanks to her and her skills, I will be able to make my children's future birthday cakes. The class definitely made me feel way more comfortable about baking in general and I am so grateful that I have learned this skill! Thanks Beth and all of my fellow cake mates! It was really fun!

All Grown Up!

2010-06-05T00:46:00.000-07:00

It honestly feels like it was just yesterday that I graduated from high school. I remember every detail of my high school and all of the fun things that I did during graduation week. I can't believe that it has been 6 years and that now my little sister Lynsie is graduated! Crazy! I literally can't believe that she is old enough to be graduated!

Isn't she beautiful? She got her senior pictures done a few weeks ago and they turned out great. These are some of my favorites...

The first graduation that we went to for her was Seminary Graduation. Oh so boring but I guess worth going to?...

Here is everyone that came to support her.

Here is Lynsie with Grandma Moyes.

Here she is with Grandma and Grandpa Smith.

Then came the really boring part.... Syracuse High's graduation.

We started the night off by going to to my location of occupation for dinner. Mmmm!

Just enjoing "our" frozen lemonade that Lynsie ordered.

Here is a picture for their 50th Anniversary video. Cute.

Here are Grandma and I waiting for the graduation to start. I made sure that I got to sit next to her because I knew she would keep me entertained. And I was right. She can always keep me laughing.

I think she was a little bit embarrassed but we wouldn't quit yelling her name til she looked up at us to get a picture.

They are officially graduated! The tassle has changed sides! Yay!

Lynsie and her friend Danny. This is the only picture I have of her with friends and he didn't even graduate with her. Ha.

Here I am with the graduate! Yay! Congrats Lyns! I am proud of you and all of your hard last minute work that you did to graduate! Jk. I am glad that you are growing up and that we are becoming best friends! I love you and can't wait to see all of that great things that I am sure you will do!

Farewell Simon!

2010-06-04T23:33:00.000-07:00

I am finally ok enough to post about this. I love, love, love American Idol. I just started watching it last year but I instantly became hooked! My very favorite thing about the show was Simon.
I am completely and totally head over heels for him!

I think that he is so witty and charming and I love that he says exactly what he is thinking. Sure sometimes he says mean things but for the most part they are true.

Here are some of my favorite Simon quotes:

"Did you really believe you could become the American Idol? Well, then, you're deaf."

"My advice would be if you want to pursue a career in the music business, don't."

"If your lifeguard duties were as good as your singing, a lot of people would be drowning."

"There was one great part to your song - it was the end!"

"Oh, gosh, where do I start? I mean I'm not being rude but you look like the Incredible Hulk's wife."

"I actually wish you had forgotten the lyrics, because it was such a pointless performance."

“It was almost like you were giving birth up there at the end.”

“It’s like you want one scoop of ice cream and you got eleven. It was almost too much.”

“If you would be singing like this two thousand years ago, people would have stoned you.”

“What is a Free Willy?! What’s the film about? I’m confused because I can’t connect a whale called Willy and what you just did.”

"We've done three seasons of American Idol and by now it is safe to assume that most people know that you have to be able to sing. But people turn up who can`t sing a note and yet they believe they are the Second Coming."

"I never want to hear that song again. I cannot stand it. I'm allergic to it."

He just has a way of saying things in a way that no one else can or dares to.

And when he winks on the show I literally feel giddy. I get so excited when he comes out!

So obviously it was a very difficult thing for me to watch the finale this year. They did and said so many nice things for him and about him but it was still so sad to me. I literally missed him inbetween the seasons this year and now he will not be back on it at all. Everytime they would put the camera on him or start talking about him I would start crying. At times during the show I was literally sobbing. Probably the most touching is when they had all of the past winners come out and sing together. Talk about a tear jerker! Lynsie told me that I looked like someone had died by the time that the show was over. And the next day I had a headache and my eyes were a little swollen. I know that I probably take these sort of things too seriously but I can't help it. I love him and totally get into it. It was a very sad night. In my opinion American Idol is basically over. It will not last without him. He made American Idol what it is today.

I felt pretty bad that I was so distracted with Simon's farewell because I should have been and really am so happy that Lee won!

I know that they said this a lot on the show but he truly is what American Idol is all about. He was a worker at a paint store before he came on the show and now he is an amazing, famous singer who is making albums. He is absolutely adorable, humble, and so talented.

Everytime that he would get the "Lee DeWyze eyes" I would tear up too. I love him and can't wait for his cd's to come out! So overall, American Idol was another huge success in my opinion. I hope that it can stay as good as it always has been and that Ellen can keep it going but I am worried. But if not then I guess I will just be switching over to the X-Factor or whatever it is. Even if that isn't good it'll at lease have Simon to watch!

R.I.P. Pearl!

2010-06-04T22:54:00.000-07:00

So this happened months ago but I can't not document this important event of my life. It was a blizzard one morning. I was being a very diligent student and was still going to school. It was taking literally forever to get to school because I was driving so slow. Well... I was driving and I started to slide all over. I wasn't too concerned because I was the only one of the road. I was going pretty slow and really there wasn't anything that I could do about it so I was just letting it slide out. Well I started to come around this bend and there was a stupid car just sitting on the side of the road. Well Pearl was heading straight for the car and so I started to panic. So I jerked my wheel hard to the right to try and run into the curb. Phew! It worked. I hit the curb and was very glad that I didn't hit the car. As soon as I hit the curb the stupid parked car just drove away. Dumb car. Well I wasn't even a bit concerned about hitting the curb so I just pulled back out on the road and started driving to school again. As I was driving it seemed like I was swerving more than normal but it was super slick so I really didn't think too much of it. But then it kept getting worse and worse. Finally I pulled over and called my dad. He told me to just go to school still and take it to Sterling's (our mechanic) on my way home. So I started to head to school again but it kept getting worse and worse. I was getting extremely worried. By this time I had already missed my first class so I just turned around and headed to Sterling's. By the time I got there I was swerving all over the road trying to keep it straight. I dropped her off and waited for the diagnosis. It came a few hours later. I had done some significant damage and it was going to be $1700 to fix. My beloved Pearl wasn't even worth that much so she had to be retired. It was a sad day. I didn't even get to give her a proper farewell.

This was the tire that hit the curb. :( It is turned to the right when the other tires are all straight. It is a sad sight. Pearl has been such a good car. I got her when I was 16 and she lasted til I was 23. Sometimes I would get embarrassed that I still drove the same car from high school but I really did love her and all of her unique sounds and things that she did. I had some good times and made some good memories in her.

Pearl has been decorated for more concerts than I can even count. Those were some of the best times in her.

She was adorable and I loved her oh so much. I ran out of gas more times than I can remember in her, fit more people than was legal in her multiple times, spilled more Dr. Pepper in her than most people drink in a lifetime, didn't get her oil changed for probably a year or more on a few occasions in my younger dumber days, let boys max her out on the freeway in high school, and locked my keys in them more times than I can remember too. I grew up in Pearl and it is very hard to see her go. But... on the bright side...

I introduce Tessa!

I found her on KSL. (Don't mind the Volcom sticker. I still need to remove that.) I love Tessa. At first I thought she was a boy but she tricked me. She is just a little on the manly side so I gave her a name that is kinda manly in my opinion. Tessa. So far she has been great. We are really bonding. I would like to say that I have kept her as clean as I got her and changed my ways since Pearl, but that isn't true. She looks just as lived in as Pearl did and probably has a Sonic cup and wrappers in her right now. We still aren't as close as Pearl and I but I see great things in our future!

And That's What You Missed on Glee!

2010-05-17T23:01:00.000-07:00

So I discovered a life changing television show a few months ago thanks to my dear friend Holly. She kept telling me to watch it and that it had the best songs, blah blah blah. I thought it was some dumb church choir group or something like that. Then one day I gave in and watched it. I will never be the same. I am totally a GlEeK!

When the new season was coming out we decided that we had to do something for the premiere. We decided on a Glee themed party. We all contributed something. I supplied dinner, Alyssa had her boss make us our adorable Glee shirts, and someone else brought our grape slushies.

We got the best surprise ever when we opened the door for our friends! Artie made a guest appearance! It was so so great to have him at our party!

Here we are giving Artie aka Hollie a classic slushie facial! Close your eyes girl!

We were kind of on a high after Glee was over and Hollie started doing some random poses. This is the only one that I'll post and she just might kill me for it but I couldn't not post it.

After Hollie was done doing whatever she was doing we all tried to pose as the characters on Glee. I am pretty sure we did amazing but I can't remember who any of us were.

My favorite things about Glee...

Fin! I love, love, love him! He is absolutely adorable and has the best voice. He is sweet and a little dorky but totally cool at the same time. I'm a little bit in love with him.

Will Shuester. Aka Mr. Schue. Best teacher ever. I would totally have been in Glee and had a huge crush on him if he would've been a teacher at my school.

Rachel. Honestly one of the best characters in a series ever. I love her personality. And she has the best voice ever. On Oprah they said that she could be the next Barbara Streisand or the next Celine. I totally agree. And I'm pretty sure that I sound a lot like her.

Kurt. He totally adds to the show. It would not be the same without him. He has a very distinctive voice and is very flamboyant.

Noah. Need I say more? He is so dang hot. He doesn't sing too many solos but when he does I literally fall head over heels for him. He's rebellious and a jerk but I think that he is sweet at the same time. I do not know who I love more. Fin or Puck. It really is a dilemma.

But I think that my favorite person in the show is Sue. She is hilarious. She says things that shock me about every 10 minutes. She is so mean! I honestly don't know how she gets away with the things that she says. Things such as calling the Cheerios, "Sloppy freak show babies!" and saying to Will as he walks up, "I thought I smelled cookies wafting from the ovens of the little elves that live in your hair." Those are just a couple of my favorites.

We seriously love Glee! It is the best show ever! One show and I was hooked! I am forever and will always be a Gleek!

Family Pictures!

2010-04-04T02:08:00.000-07:00

For Christmas I decided to have our family pictures done as a gift to my parents. We usually get pictures of us kids every year for our Christmas cards but we don't get pictures of our whole family done too often. I think that they turned out great! It took two times since the first time it was a blizzard. The second time the sun was shining so bright that all of us had tears running down our faces at one point or another. But they still turned out great! Here are some of my favorites!

I felt really dumb doing this one but I ended up loving this picture! I think it's so cute and I love how she put this cute caption on it!

I love the berries or whatever it is on this one!

This one is pretty funny because Lynsie had this vision of this pose in her head and we all thought that it would be really lame. But then when it was printed it actually turned out really cute and my mom even wanted it printed for her room! I guess that Lynsie should go along and pose all of the families.

Apparently we thought this was a funny pose!

Dad and the girls.

The boys.

The girls.

I can't even choose which picture is my favorite! I love lots of them! But this one is up there! And I am so glad that my family really is "for time and all eternity!" I love them! Sometimes we fight but they really are all my best friends! Thanks for the pictures Ceryl! And thanks for her name and number Hays!

Jason!

2010-04-04T01:15:00.000-07:00

It was high time for another concert! I can't even believe how long it has been since I have been to a concert! Literally months! CrAzY! That is so unlike me. It was a good thing that Jason Aldean came last month. I was going into serious withdrawals.

Here are Krissy, Jenn, and I in the backseat on the way to the concert! We went to Kobe for dinner berfore and it was NASTY! Just FYI. I will never go there again. I am totally a Tepanyaki girl.

Here are Jamie and Mardie so excited on the way to the concert!

Here we are waiting for the concert to start!

Yay! We love Jason!

A guy named Ash Downer started the show off. I had never heard of him before but I loved him! He was a really fun way to start the night. And he was also very fine!

After Ash was Luke Bryan. I know and love him.

He is also so cute and was fun to watch. He put on a really fun show. He was so personable and I loved the baseball hat that he wore! Darling!

When I was out in the hall taking a potty break so that I didn't pee my pants when Jason came out... I saw Jordie! It was so fun! I guess that we both love Jason!

And finally the main event! Mr. Jason Aldean! Ahh!

Jason is so HOTT! I loved watching him perform! He was so great! I love all of his songs and knew every word! It was definitely one of my favorite concerts!

Here we are kinda sad that the show is over. We had been looking forward to this concert for a long time and it didn't disappoint. I love Jason Aldean more than I even did before! And I love concerts! I'm so glad that I can always find some friends to go to concerts with me! I can't wait for the summer and all of the concerts that are coming up!

We're Going to Hollywood!

2010-03-19T00:07:00.000-07:00

This is a little bit late but I had to still post about it. One Sunday night we were at my Grandma/pa Smith's house and someone casually asked me if I had decided to go to California with them. I thought it was a joke and said yeah! When we going? The answer was that we were leaving that Friday. So in five days! And they were being serious. My grandparents had a week at their time share in Escondido, California and wanted to know who could come. Pretty much none of the adults could come, they all had jobs or something dumb that kept them from being able to come. Well since my mom was currently unemployed and I didn't really have any obligations for the week, we talked to Braden and Annie and they decided that they didn't have any obligations either and we decided that we were all going to go to Cali! We had five days to get packed so we had to get going!

Grandpa and Grandma told us to pack lightly. We were so proud of how lightly we had packed. I was pretty much amazed at how much I didn't take that I wanted to...

Grandpa was not so impressed. He did not understand how we were going to get it all into the van.

Somehow they managed to fit everything in and got on the road! We had alot of fun on the way down. My favorite thing that we did was play school. We learned a lot about the desert while we played. It was so fun! We also stopped and stayed in a hotel about halfway there the first night. We got checked into our hotel and gambled the night away! It was great. I think if I remember right we only lost $9 total between the 6 of us for 4 hours of gambling. Pretty great entertainment! Grandpa forgot some of the rules that you have to follow while sitting at the table playing 21. We even got a song out of it... Hands off the table, hands off the table, looking like a fool with your hands on the table... We had more to it but I can't exactly remember it but it provided us with hours of laughter.

We finally made it to Lawrence Welk! Yay! There were times on the drive that I didn't know if we ever would. On Sunday night we went and walked around Old Town in San Diego. Speaking of San Diego, we got into a discussion about the true meaning of San Diego... Apparently the "older people" haven't seen Anchorman. Anyway...

Here we are at Old Town. It is pretty much just a bunch of shops filled with the same crap. But I have to admit that I totally get lost in the magic of shops filled with junk! I love them all!

The Mormon Battalion Center had just reopened after a huge remodeling. We went through the little tour. It was pretty great.

Brado and I panned for some gold. I had to teach him how to do it. Too bad it wasn't real because I was finding tons!

Grandpa "volunteered" to be the one to get dressed up as a soldier. He sure does look cute though!

We ended the night by driving to the San Diego temple. It is always such a beautiful one to see.

The next day we went to SeaWorld! I hadn't been there for years and it was great!

We had to have our usual churros! I do love them but Annie said that she wasn't too impressed.

I think that she liked it a lot better during this picture.

I think that I pretty much look exactly like a shark in this picture.

I loved these cute little penguins. They are Morgan's favorite animal and so I had to post a picture of them.

And Shamu! We watched the show Believe that starred Shamu and it really inspired me. If you just believe in your dreams, anything is possible!

And the next day was DiSnEyLaNd! I do love Disneyland! We only spent one day there, which I am NOT used to but it was so great because the place was virtually empty! I believe ther were only 2 or 3 rides that we even had to wait for!

Brado and my mom were too wimpie to go on Splash Mountain and so Annie and I went by ourselves. We wore our ponchos to "stay dry." That didn't quite happen though. We kind of got drenched!

Here are Brado and Annie eating our must have ice cream cookie sandwich! Mmm!

Here we all are waiting for some 3D ride, maybe Toy Story?

Apparently that is the end of my Disneyland photos but that was not the end of our day... So we were walking down Downtown Disney right out of Disneyland, just casually making our way to the shuttle to go back to our car when all the sudden we see this crowd of screaming girls. Since I usually love whatever 14-17 year old girls scream at I had to find out what was going on. I asked some lady coming from that direction if she knew what was happening and real casually and sarcastically she told me that Nick Jonas was up there and that I should start running. I thought she was probably lying but I decided to run just in case. Well at first when I got there this is all that I could see...

I couldn't exactly see what was going on from this point so I had to get up front! I don't exactly know how many children I stepped on or accidentally pushed out of the way.

Obviously I got right up to the front and obviously the lady was right! It was possibly one of the greatest events in my life thus far. He was giving a private concert to promote his new solo CD. It was so great! I really felt bad that Morgan was not there! She loves Nick so much!

The next day we went exploring the beach.

During our travels we found this new delicious restauant that is Baja Style Seafood. Mmm! I loved those greasy shrimp! They pretty much ruined my brand new sweats but the shrimp were pretty much worth it!

Annie and I had a photo shoot on the beach. We are pretty hot!

Braden and Annie having a special moment on the beach! Precious!

One disgusting thing that could make me cry if I look at this picture for too long is remembering these creepy huge rat/squirrel things. There were literally millions of them living on this hill. They were so gross and some of them almost tried to attack me when I tried to get closer. They were so gross!

One thing that was so great about Escondido was that there was a Chick-fil-a and an In-n-Out right next to each other. It was the best thing ever! So I got my Chick-fil-a and brought it over to In-n-Out. Everyone was happy!

They are really enjoying their animal style burgers!

The last day we went to some shops. They weren't the greatest but I did find this really great flower to take a picture with.

I loved California so much! It was such a fun trip and such a fun getaway! I am so glad that Grandpa and Grandma invited us to go with them! I can't wait to go again! One last thing that I found in our travels that pretty much sums up the way I feel about life...

Isn't that perfect? I am pretty sure that I need this sign so that everyone knows what mornings are for!

Game Night!

2010-02-16T23:34:00.000-08:00

For as long as I can remember, Christmas break has been all about playing with your new games and toys, staying up all night playing, sleeping all day, and hanging out with our family. This has changed a bit since we are now grown up, have jobs, and my cousins have gotten married, but I try to still hang onto the fun we have always had!

We started the night off with our own snuggie advertisement. For the record I hate snuggies but the commercial shooting was pretty fun. Lets see everything that you can do in a snuggie...

You can snuggle so much better in a snuggie since you have arm holes.

You can pose really great in front of fireplaces because you have access to your hands.

You can play the guitar.

You can do some sort of weird thing with your hands up in the air.

You can read a book together.

I guess the commercial looked way too fun. Alyssa, Steph, and I had to get in on the action.

Mary made us her famous carmel popcorn for our game night and we could eat it so much easier because we could have our hands out.

We did get around to playing games eventually.

These pictures were taken at 2 in the morning so don't judge too harshly. Ha.

I loved our game nights and am glad we still love to play! Dave and Ty were also at the game night but they chose to play the playstation instead of games with us. I'm glad they had each other to keep themselves entertained. I think they tried to ignore us and pretend that we weren't there but we made that pretty hard to do! It was so fun and I'm so grateful for everyone in these pictures! I love you guys so much and can't wait for our next game night!

We Wish You a Merry Christmas!

2010-02-16T22:44:00.000-08:00

Christmas this year was fun because it is the first one with Tyler home! Yay! It was so much better with the whole family together rather than being split up on two different continents. We did the normal stuff. Went to Grandpa Swayngim's on Christmas Eve, well I didn't because I had to work. Lame. But my family did. Then Christmas morning we woke up and went straight to my Grandma Moyes and Dean's house for breakfast and presents. I love the traditional breakfast at my Grandma's house. It is always the best way to start off Christmas day! I got some kid's chapter books for my future classroom. My grandma said she felt weird giving me Junie B. Jones books but I loved them! Then we went to my Grandma and Grandpa Smith's house for more presents!

They definitely spoil us! This is a picture of a portion of the presents they would be giving out this year. They gave all of the grandkids a down comforter for our beds. Shadie, Mylie, and I love our comforter so so much! I don't know how we ever slept before we got it! After the Smith house then it was time to drive home and see what Santa brought us! I love that we wait until the end of the day to open our presents! This was Tyler's first year of doing it this way and he said that he hated it... until we were driving home at 7:00 and still had all of our opening to do! Yay!

Shadie and Mylie get to open their stockings first so that they will have a treat to keep them occupied while we open our gifts. Santa always spoils them too!

Here are some random pictures of us opening presents...

Morgan with her guitar that she has wanted forever! She even shed a few tears when she realized that she got one!

Lynsie with her new dreadful snuggie that she had to put on the second that she opened it. And with her season 6 of One Tree Hill. Yay!

Ty with his new Jazz jersey.

Morgan with her new iTouch. She is on it all the time.

Me with my new Lucy Barbie. By the way this is my favorite episode.

Mom opening something. I don't exactly know what.

Dad with his favorite book by his favorite person in the whole world.

Lyns with her new laptop. Ty got one too but for some reason I can't find the picture.

We got a ton of other fun stuff too and we love it all! We are so blessed with everything that we have. When I think about how little other people get and have it makes me feel so grateful that we have what we do. It is very easy to take it for granted. I loved Christmas and I love my family! Only 365 days to go!

Festival of Trees

2010-02-16T22:17:00.000-08:00

I have always wanted to go down to the Festival of Trees but just never would go. Well I heard that there was a tree decorated in an I Love Lucy theme and so I knew that I HAD to go see it! I recruited my mom and Letia to go down there with me one day. Wow there were a ton of trees! I got a little overwhelmed. We skipped a few hundred rows and still ended up seeing about a billion. Some were really lame and some were really cool.

We each took a picture with our favorite tree.

My mom with her favorite. I wouldn't be surprised if we got another set of decorations next year and our tree looks just like this.

Letia's favorite tree. I just realized that she actually matches the tree. Maybe that is why she picked this one...?

And a big surprise... My personal favorite! I was really worried after seeing some of the other lame trees that the person that decorated this tree wouldn't do a very good job but they completely surpassed my expectations! I loved it more than I could even say! It was absolutely darling! So colorful and cute! I wish so bad that I could have bought it. But even if I could have afforded the thousands of dollars that it cost, it was already bought. And the thing that made it even cuter was that it was made in honor of a little girl named Lucy that is suffering from cancer or something. I can't remember exactly what it was that she had. I loved it!

Here are some more pictures of it so that you can really appreciate it.

I made us all get a picture in front of my Lucy tree. It was the whole reason that we came down after all. I loved looking at all of the trees and getting ideas for cute trees in the future. And I love the reason behind the Festival of Trees. On a sign I read it said that eventually we will all know someone who needs to be treated at Primary Children's. It is so true and I will definitely be back there next year to support it and look at all of the cute trees! Thanks mom and Letia for coming with me!

Joe Nichols in Wendover Here We Come!

2009-12-07T22:05:00.000-08:00

My great friend Krissy had tickets to Joe Nichols in wendover and asked me to go. I was excited for the concert because I kind of like concerts a little bit but I wasn't all that excited for the actual Wendover part because I'm not too big of a fan of gambling... Or so I thought.

We got a later start than we were planning on and I got us a litttle bit lost on the freeway so we got there just in time to make it to our seats. I have never been all that attracted to Mr. Nichols but seeing him perform made him so much hotter to me.

Just look at him singing on stage. Mmmm!

Here we are just loving the concert!

So after the concert we decided to go and try our hand at gambling. I was mostly just doing it to humor Kristen because I hate playing the machines. Well after I watched her play for a minute we decided to go learn how to play at the tables. Oh boy. We first learned how to play Rouelette. I was doing so good! I had doubled my money! But then I got cocky and lost it. So then we went and played Black Jack. Same thing happened at the Black Jack Table. Ha. So I guess I do like gambling now. The tables are way funner than the machines. I think I'll still stick to going down there about once a year though! One thing I did learn, all you have to do is put like a dollar into a machine and sit and use it slowly and they'll bring you as many fun drinks as you want! Cheapest daquiri ever! The man looked a little confused when we said non-alcoholic. I take it they don't sell too many non-alcoholic drinks in Wendover.

But... even more fun than my new found love of playing the tables... our huge jacuzzi that was in our hotel room! It was so so great! After we came back to the room we just hung out in the tub for like 4 hours! I could use a tub this size in my home someday. Thanks for inviting me Krissy! It was so fun!

I Love Jacob!

2009-12-06T22:19:00.000-08:00

I just feel that I need to clarify one little point. I have loved Jacob Black since I first started reading Twilight. Long before they ever thought of making a movie. I am not one of the shallow bandwagon Jacob lovers that suddenly love him now that he is so much hotter than Edward. Ok enough said.

I am totally Team Jacob and so New Moon was my favorite book in the whole Twilight series. Jake is such a great friend to Bella while Edward is gone and I loved reading about it. Many people that I have talked to said that New Moon was boring to them, but I loved it and couldn't wait to see it on the big screen. And it definitely didn't disappoint!

We bought our tickets a couple of months ago for the midnight premeire. We were going to the double feature. Twilight was played at 9:00 and New Moon at midnight. Well we wanted to make sure that we got good seats so my mom and I went and got in line at 12:30. There were already people in front of us that were going to need a total of 50 seats so it was a good thing that we got there so early. We just brought our books and treats and made friends with the other people in line with us. The time pretty much flew by!

Ty isn't into Twilight but he came to visit us and keep us company for a while. He thought we were a little bit crazy.

Letia and Morgan got there to keep us company once they were off of school and work. Yay!

These are all of the people behind us... Guess they should have gotten there earlier!

We had to have our New Moon shirts of course... And I bet you can't tell which team I am on...

Or Morgan...

But we decided that we can still be friends.

Once they finally let us into get our seats we were a little bored and trying to entertain ourselves. This is what we came up.

This is my best friend that I made while waiting in line all day. She is a fellow Jacob lover and so obviously we hit it off immediately. She sat right behind us. For about the whole first half of New Moon she would kick my chair or make some sort of noise whenever Jake would come on the screen. I loved her!

Apparently Lynsie got a little sleepy while waiting for the movie to start. Not exactly sure what Morg is doing. But Mom and Letia are wide awake and waiting for the movie!

Morgan looks a lot more happy in this one.

And here we are after being at the theater for about 14 hours. We look a little tired but not too bad. New Moon was amazing! I had a blast and am very grateful for best friends, sisters, and a mom that will do these fun and crazy things with me! I don't know what I would do without them. And I am so excited for June 30th so that we can do it all again for Eclipse!

Goodbye Schooner!

2009-10-13T18:26:00.000-07:00

Pretty much everyone that knows my family knows that we work at the Prairie Schooner. My mom has been there since Tyler was born and then I started working 2 months after I turned 15. It was sometimes embarrassing to see people from high school and tell them I still worked there.

The Schoon had its bad moments and could be very drama but for the most part it was a fun place to work. The bosses could be a pain but my mom would always say that if I could work for Jim then I could work for anyone. It is very true. But then I became one of his favorites and it wasn't too bad. Ha ha. In July Jim decided to retire and sold the restaurant with zero warning to anyone. We were told that we were all being let go from the old company and rehired at midnight with the new company. Since we were new employees we were being put on a 30 day probation. We were told this was just a "technicality" and not to worry. Christian, the new owner, didn't want to make any changes with the staff or managers, he said we had a good staff and a good thing going we just needed to tweek a few things and make it a little more modern so that more people would want to come in. Well apparently that changed. My mom and Jeff, who is Jim's son, both managers, were fired 3 weeks ago. I don't know what reason Jeff was fired but my mom's was not legit. 20 years of dedicated work, without any write ups or trouble and she was just fired one day after a lunch shift! Lynsie called and quit that day and never went back. I waited until I made sure I had another job and then gave my 2 weeks. I worked my last time at the Prairie Schooner today.

It is so weird to think that I will never work again at the Prairie Schooner. I worked there for 8 years! I have been thinking about all of my memories at the Prairie Schooner and realized that I did all of my growing up while working there. I had my real first kiss from one of the bussers that I worked with. I met some semi-famous people that would come in to eat.

These are 2 of BYU's football players that came in. Harvey Unga and Fui Vakapuna.

I was able to work with some of my best friends at the Schoon. I of course worked with my mom, and Lynsie worked there the last year and a half, and Tyler worked there through high school. It was fun working with my family. Lots of people say that they don't know how we did it but for the most part it was really good. Steph and Alyssa both worked there with me and those were the best days. We were the best hostesses together! And so many of my cousins, uncles, family friends, and neighbors worked there as well. We had some good times! And then I made so many friends. Way too many to mention. But many of the girls that I worked with will definitely be good friends forever. Some that have been gone from the Schoon for a while now and some that are still there. There is just something about spending countless hours standing in the kitchen that makes you bond. I am going to miss lots of people. I am also going to miss some of my regulars from lunch. I tend to talk a lot and so I got to know some of my customers pretty well.

But enough of the memories! I have a new job now and so far...

Thats right I work at Texas Roadhouse now! I know this is so dorky but the t-shirt is true! I really do LOVE it! I was so nervous because Prairie Schooner is all that I have ever known and I know how to do everything there and I pretty much just hate any kind of change. On the way to the Roadhouse my first day I was so nervous that I could have puked. I was sure I was going to pop out a cold sore. But so far it has been great. I really like all of the people that I have met so far. It is really different working with guys, at Schooner it is all girl servers. But it is good. I think I am taking a cut in pay but we'll see. Hopefully not too big of cut but either way it is totally worth it. It has definitely been an answer to my prayers. It is where I am supposed to be right now.

So for any of you that eat at Prairie Schooner, move your business on over to Texas Roadhouse where we have hand cut steaks and fall off the bone ribs! (That is part of my schpeil I have to say) Oh and my mom is still looking for a job. There aren't too many out there right now so if you hear of anything, let us know!

Brad Praisley!

2009-09-27T20:07:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that I have never seen Brad Paisley in concert until now! I have always loved him but things always kept happening to make me never able to see him. :( I was not going to miss him this year no matter what.

The concert was at Usana and so we had to go down early to get in line so that we would get a good spot on the grass. Steph took the day off so that she could come down with me and Hollie and BreAnn. We left way later than we had planned so I was pretty stressed.

This is what we saw when we got to Usana. What the? Usually when we go to wait in line for Kenny there are at least 100 people at around 12:30ish. We didn't even get there until 2:30 and there were only 2 girls there. At least we were first in line! I could not even believe that no one was there.

We still had fun waiting for the gate to open! We played some skipbo and just hung out for a few hours until the mad dash of running to the grass began!

After we got our seats we had another hour of waiting to do.

Hollie, BreAnn, and I had to buy our shirts with hot Brad Paisley on it.

Then the concert finally started! It started with Jimmy Wayne but I didn't get any good pictures of him. Then It was Dierks! I love him! I forget how much I love him! This was my second time to see him and he doesn't disappoint. He has so many good songs! Then the moment I've been waiting for... Mr. Brad Paisley!!!

Brad had so many guitars that he used. They were super sweet. I couldn't ever get a very good picture of it though.

Oh my gosh! He is so handsome!

For his song Celebrity he had it set up like guitar hero! It was so cute! I loved it! There was even a surprise guest to play guitar hero...

Taylor Swift! Wahoo! She was only on the screen but it was still pretty exciting!

During the middle of the concert it started to pour and there was tons of lightning. I was kind of scared that we were going to get struck! But I thought the rain actually made it really fun! Steph and I loved it!

Jenilyn doesn't look like she is too happy about the rain! Ha ha.

Alcohol is the song that Brad ended with and it was a pretty cool stage set up. I was sad that it had ended.

This is the whole crew! I am so grateful for all of my concert buddies! We always have so much fun at the concerts! Thanks for always coming with me guys! I hope we keep doing this forever. Thanks for the fun times!

Labor Day!

2009-09-25T15:02:00.000-07:00

I love that Labor Day is a week after school starts! I definitely need a break by then. I usually don't ever do anything fun but this year I went camping at Crystal Hot Springs. It was so much fun and very interesting!

We were pretty nervous that we wouldn't be able to set up the tent all by ourselves so Alyssa told Clark to be ready just in case we needed his help. But when we got up there... BreAnn and Hollie had it all done for us! We could not have been any happier! As the weekend went on we just got more and more adventurous and outdooorsy.

For example... the snake.

First it started off by Lynsie desperately wanting to catch this snake that she saw. She was too scared to ever grab it so we had some fellow campers that caught it for her. The boy had on a real life Davie Crockett hat and the mom, low pig tails. They were pretty much "mountain people" and Lynsie told them that. They didn't even take it as an insult at all. They let us get some pictures with it and then were going to take it home to add to their collection of other reptiles that they have as pets. These were the first of many interesting people that we met this weekend.

I was a little concerned that we would freeze to death because I didn't really know how to start a fire. Lynsie and Hollie figured it right out.

After they got the fire all the way going they decided to do some sort of fire dance in celebration.
On Sunday BreAnn had to wake up early and go home for church. The rest of us had a pretty lazy and random day.

We just sat and read our books or relaxed for as long as Lynsie would allow us.

When Lynsie could handle no more book time, we played a 2 hour game of ipod idol. I am pretty sure that all of our neighbors were really confused and probably wanted us to leave. People would just walk past us and stare. It was so funny!

Then Lynsie and Hollie needed to burn off some energy I guess and made up this game of turning in circles with their heads on wooden dowels and then try to make it down the mountain. It looked pretty interesting but I never joined in that game. I don't remember why. Probably because I thought it looked childish.

I guess that we were so over worked from our rough day that we needed to take a break for a snack. They were so delicious though! We just wrapped roll dough around a wooden dowel and made sure it was all sealed up and then cooked it. When it was done we poured honey butter into it. Oh my gosh... I'm getting hungry just remembering them!

Here is an up close picture of my perfectly cooked delicasy! Mmmm!

Alyssa really wanted to eat a flaming marshmallow! Ouch!

This was our last night camping and so we decided to burn stacks of wood and stay up all night and have a relaxing fire. Well we did for a while until... Lynsie and Lyss started doing this sort of samoan type chant. It was probably about 1 in the morning and the whole campground has been asleep for about 2 hours. And this chant required some yelling. All the sudden this couple came over and started talking to us and wanted us to do the chant for them. So of course we happily did. Then they tell us that we should come meet their friends. This is where we meet some more crazies.

These friends of theirs were pretty much hippies. They were all dancing and singing and so happy. But there were only a couple of them that liked us. They were so weird but a perfect way to end our camping trip.

Meet Embry. From Twilight. We are 99.9% sure that it is him. We went so far as to ask him to howl at the moon. He wouldn't.

This is Pete. He made up a song about us. They became our best friends and hung out with us at the pool the next day. The more I meet new people the more I realize that I am in a very small minority of normal people. Ha.

Some of the funnest times of the camping trip were at bed time. Telling scary stories. Ha ha. Hearing complaining about having to sleep on the end. And just bonding. This was such a fun camping trip! I love all you girls! It definitely needs to be a yearly tradition.

My New Favorite Place

2009-09-04T00:22:00.000-07:00

I love food. Pretty much anything. But I really love dessert. For the last little while I have been noticing the sign Farr's Fresh on a building in Clinton. But it was just under construction. I didn't really know what it would be. Well, I tried it and I probably shouldn't have. I loved it! It is so cute and so good! You build your own ice cream and they have every topping that anyone could ever want! It's kinda pricey buy totally worth it!

We were trying to show how cute the store is but didn't dare ask a worker for help because they were pretty much closed and probably hated us for being in there taking pictures.

Here are the final products. I was in a not so super mood that night but all of this chocolate/sugar/calories totally made me forget all about that and I couldn't have been happier! I will definitely be back! I better purchase a treadmill! Thanks for coming with me to try it Key!

It's The Dust and the Mud...

2009-09-03T23:43:00.000-07:00

I love Rodeos. I especially love rodeos when I know one of the cowboys in the rodeo! That makes it even more fun! And Jake didn't disappoint. But let me start at the beginning because the night was quite an adventure... Last week I went to the Tremonton rodeo with Haylee, Mekell, and Wendy to watch Jake steer wrestle. When we got in the car Haylee mentioned that she needed to get gas. Her gas light had come on the night before and so we needed to fill up before heading out to Tremonton, aka clear freakin out there. So we got in the car, headed to Layton to grab something, and got on the freeway without getting gas because we kept forgetting. We decided it wasn't a big deal and we could just pull off of an exit somewhere and fill up eventually. I told Hays that I could make it to work and back twice with my gas light on so we should be fine. We didn't think it was a big deal that the vehicle was telling us 0 miles until empty. Well we got pretty far but all the sudden we ran out of gas! What the...? We were shocked! We tried to coast off of the exit but it didn't really work so Haylee and I left Mekell and Wendy in the car and walked to the gas station. It was amazing how many people stopped to offer their help! Literally at least 15 people stopped. We told them all that it would be fine but thanks. We figured all we would have to do would be buy a gas can, put some gas in the Tahoe, drive it to the gas station and be on our way.. Not exactly.

The gas we bought wasn't enough.

More people offered their help but we are tough so Haylee, Mekell, and I got out and pushed until we could get the Tahoe going enough for it to start. So finally after I was a sweaty mess we got back on the freeway and headed out to the rodeo.

Jake took second place in the steer wrestling so he was way too fast for me to get a good picture.

Cowboys are always so cute from behind so I had to post this picture of Jake! Hope Haylee doesn't mind! Ha ha.

Here we are loving the rodeo!

Jake makes a pretty cute cowboy! I think he should maybe dress like this all the time. It was way fun going to the rodeo. Thanks for doing so good and making it so fun Jake. It wouldn't have been near as fun if you sucked at it. I'm glad that we went! We don't do near as much fun things together as we should! I can't wait for the next rodeo!

Tyler's Homecoming

2009-09-03T23:09:00.000-07:00

It felt like we had to wait forever for Tyler to be able to speak in our ward for his homecoming! He got home on the 17th of July and didn't get to speak until August 9th! He wasn't too happy about it and neither were we. But the wait was well worth it. It is crazy to me how much missionaries grow during their missions and Tyler was no exception. He did very well. He didn't even have to prepare very much for it and he gave an awesome talk! At home it was a different story! We had help from many people as we were getting ready for the homecoming dinner. We borrowed tables and chairs, shade tents, and had many people bring salads and desserts. It is a lot of work but always so much fun to be able to see everyone! And so many people came! During sacrament the poor boys had to do the blessing 3 times because they kept running out! And so many people had to sit out in the hall!

So many people came and supported Tyler on this special day for him. We are so blessed to have such great family and friends! Thanks everyone and good job Ty! I am so proud of you!

Kenny!

2009-08-08T00:41:00.000-07:00

Not only have I been waiting 2 whole years to see Tyler... I have also been waiting 2 whole years to see Kenny again. He usually comes every summer but he skipped last summer for who knows why. I knew that it was going to be a great night but I had no idea what was in store! We got a late start so we missed Lady Antebellum. I am pretty sad about that. I wish that Miranda Lambert would have went first because I actually thought that she sucked. And we definitely didn't miss Sugarland because they no showed us! I don't really get why singers/groups think that they can do that. It has now happened twice to us. Gay. Oh well. The first thing that we had to do when we got there was go and buy our Kenny shirts. I recently got this idea that I need a t-shirt from every concert that I go to. Kind of an expensive idea but the t-shirts are always super cool so I really do need one.

Here are Jamie and I posing in our new twinner Kenny shirts.

Here are the backs... Funny thing that we both realized while taking this picture is that we both were smiling as if it really mattered. Ha. We sure got a kick out of that.

Here we all are anxiously awaiting for Kenny to come out!

We were starting to get a little antsy waiting for Kenny when someone got this brilliant idea to throw a beachball out into the crowd. Everyone would hit it back and forth and while this may not sound like it would be that fun... for some reason it really was! We loved it. It was always the best when it would get hit really hard into some unexpecting person's face. We laughed everytime!

Then it started to go flat... So Dave grabbed it with his long arms so that I could blow it back up and the fun continued. It ended up turning into a game of "keep away" from the security because this one lady kept taking them and deflating them. But since the radio station was giving them away we had an endless supply.

One of my favorite things about going to concerts, especially outside, is that they seem to bring out all of the attractive available men in Northern Utah. Mr. Beer Gut was very entertaining. He walked around as if he were the sole reason that everyone was there that night. Then as soon as he walked away he got into a dead serious fight with some guy. The crowd was loving it. We were not bored at all waiting for the show to start. Alyssa mentioned that she was definitely in love with him.

And the moment we had been waiting two years for... Mr. Kenny Chesney!

I love him very much! I would have been perfectly content standing and singing along with Kenny for hours on end. Until....

Ahhhh!!!

We got our hands stamped! I never in a million years thought that I would be able to sneak up close to Kenny. But we did! Oh my gosh! I still can't believe it! We were actually trying get this security guard to call over this other guy giving out passes. The guy wouldn't come over but... the security guard just stamped our hands! I feel bad that everyone didn't follow us but it was a do or die situation!

As soon as we got down there we ran into Alyssa's love or AKA Mr. Beer Gut! I was so happy that we were able to get a picture with him!

I could not even believe how close that we were too him! We didn't exactly know what we were going to do because the security guards up at the front kept asking us to show them our tickets to be able to get closer. We kept getting in trouble for loitering and so I was about to suggest that we go sit back down. Well not Lynsie! She was going to get up to the front! She just snuck right past a security guard and got right up to the front. So once she did it we figured that we could do it too. So we hopped some chairs and got up there! We did get separated from Lyns though. Now we were front row of the whole concert but on the very far right. We were in 7th Heaven!

Of course we had to take a picture of ourselves being this close to Kenny because we thought that this was as close as we were going to get...

Until some guy just spread apart the gate and we took full advantage and slipped right through! Can you believe how close Kenny is? I didn't think it was possible but Kenny looks even better up close!

The stage is right behind us. We were literally feet away! Oh I wish I could go back! I had just accepted my life as being a back row concert goer. This was definitely a dream come true!

This is Jamie and I with the man who made it all possible. The security guard that stamped our hand. We definitely love him and are very thankful that we happened to talk to him.

I know that I always say this but this was the best concert ever! I loved seeing Kenny up close! It was a moment that I never thought would happen. I can't wait for next year when I can see him again. (I do have to say that I hope he decides to change it back to Usana though because just FYI, Rio Tinto sucks for a concert.) Only 365 days to go!

He's Home!

2009-07-20T22:46:00.000-07:00

Oh my gosh it has finally come! Tyler is home finally! We have been putting on a sticker a day for the past two years and it was so exciting to put on the last sticker! It looks so much better filled than empty! He came home on Friday night at 9:30. I was watching his flight and had planned on leaving Usana when there was a half an hour til his plane landed. It would be worth missing George to be able to see him step off the plane. Well... for some reason the stupid plane was early! So I got to the airport, parked at the wrong terminal and literally ran through the entire airport. This might come as a shock to some people but I am not really a runner. I kind of get a sort of asthma whenever I even jog. Well I was fullout sprinting! It wasn't really a pretty sight. People were telling me to slow down and yelling other random things. It was pretty embarrassing. And even after all that, I missed him by like a minute and a half! I was so ticked! I missed George and I missed Tyler. Oh well. It was still really fun at the airport!

There were so many people that came and supported him at the airport. It was so nice of everyone! Tyler said that one of the missionaries that he was traveling with asked who all of the people were. Then he turned to Ty and said, "are they all here for you?" Then some random person walking by asked the person that they were with if Tyler was some sort of celebrity because of all of the people around him. It was pretty funny.

I think that Tyler was a little overwhelmed. But he kept saying funny things. One of the best phrases was... Morgan is like a young woman now. And then Karen informed him that she is not like a young woman, she is a young woman! It was pretty funny. Everyone has grown up since he's been gone.

I thought that this was such a cute picture of our future missionary Jayden. Everytime that I looked over at him he was just holding his poster and staring at Tyler. It is pretty crazy because I will always remember when his dad, my cousin Korey, came home from his mission. It was so exciting to me and such a good example to me and all of my cousins. I hope that now Jayden will always remember Ty coming home and keep a mission as one of his goals.

This picture sums up how excited Colton seemed about Ty coming home! I hope that it was everything that he had been hoping it would be!

Kate was the only one that was not completely ecstatic about Ty coming home! But I thought her face was so cute while she was crying.

Here is Tyler with both of our grandpas.

Logan had been waiting all day to see Ty. He had text me about a billion times to see when we were going to be home. He must have been waiting on our corner or something because he showed up about 2 seconds after I told him to head on over. Here he is with his souvenir South African jersey.

We had a couple of birthday presents waiting for him on his bed. The first was the 7th Harry Potter book. The book came out about 2 weeks after he left and he was pretty bummed about it at the time. So my mom bought him one when it came out and kept it in mint condition until he got home to read it. And he also got an iPhone. I love mine so much that we decided Ty needed one.

One thing that Tyler requested for when he came home was cake batter with brownies ice cream from Frosted Rock. So Steph ordered it and Steph, Dave, Braden, Annie, Colton, Mary, and Todd came over to eat it with us. So it was a good time for Tyler to give Colton his souvenir soccer jersey and shorts. Colton says that he is not going to wait for a special occasion to wear them.

Here we all are eating our Frosted Rock. We're only missing Jaron, but soon enough we will all be together again! It was so fun to all be there hanging out.

The next night was the Weber State fireworks. I probably say this a lot too but I really think that it is my favorite night of the whole summer. We go every year and I love it. Alyssa and the Peterson boys came with us. I didn't remember to take pictures until we were on our way home. Oops. Our hair is kind of going crazy because the windows are down. Tyler made the comment that it was just like old times except that Josh was the one driving and we didn't have to hold Jaydn and Morgan's hand as we crossed the road! Crazy how time goes so fast!

I am so grateful that Tyler is home now! It has been a way fun weekend with so many fun memories. I know that there will be many more to come. I am so glad that he went and was such a good example to all of us. He has so many stories that he has started to tell us. I love hearing them all. And while I am so grateful that he went and was able to have that experience, I am even more grateful that he is home now. I love him and missed him so much! Welcome home Ty!