time flies

So I am a day late only because yesterday was a busy day, but what I wanted to post was how crazy it is that a year ago yesterday it was Arnold High Schools class of 2009 graduation! A year ago I graduated! Crazy how time flies! Sometimes I wish I were back in high school, but graduating was definitely a GREAT memory! I enjoyed looking back through these pictures and re-living the night!

California Trip: Day 1

If you are interested in seeing how fun our trip to California was then watch this. . . It is only video from the first day, but more will be coming soon! :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtBfGQfuMfQ

yay!!

I have been waiting for a night like tonight!
Being outside for soccer I could feel it getting hotter and the humidity rising as the clouds began to get thicker.
We got home and I took a nice cold shower and started to watch Lost.
As I layed in bed I started to get a craving for chocolate, but then thinking of choclate made me think of YoGurtys Yummy Yogurt!
We went there the other night after Emilee's soccer game and I got the most amazing combination of chocolate ice cream, brownie chunks, marshmellows and raspberries!
I went downstairs and my mom told me she was craving it as well!
It was 8:30 and it closes at 9.
Mom yelled upstairs to the everyone and told them we were going out.
With no time to waste we jumped in the car with out pajamas and whatever flip flops we saw first on.
As we drove, my brother and mom started talking about how they loved being spontaneous! and it made me realize that I do too! :D
The heat outside that I had felt earlier was causing heat lightning and it lite up the night sky! I forgot how much I love lightning!
We quickly went and got our yogurt and then headed home and it was fun seeing all of the tourists all dressed up having a night out on the town, as we walked around looking ready for bed!
To top off the night it started to storm! Pouring rain, thunder, lightning!
My first storm since I have been home! I love it! Love it! LOVE IT!

oh what a beautiful day

Yesterday I began my day with another run on the beach and my goodness I cannot even begin to describe how perfect it was! Cloudless sky, light wind, small waves, clear turquoise water and just absolutely BEAUTIFUL! I was so hot and the water looked to perfect to pass up, so after about 20 minutes of sitting on the sand and staring out into the open ocean I decided to take a spontaneous swim! Now if you know me then you know that I am a bit paranoid when it comes to swimming at the beach so this was also sort of a way for me to start getting over my fear. The water was so cool and refreshing! It felt so good, especially after running, to just float there in the water under the hot sun. I was in the water for about 10 minutes when I noticed three huge shadows swimming in a little school together. The main reason I don't like swimming in the ocean is because you never know what kind of sea creature will come around, and that is exactly the reason why after seeing those shadows I quickly ran out of the water. Normally it will just be some fish, but this time the culprit was sting rays! They were HUGE and only about 10 feet away from me! Luckily I noticed them before they got any closer or I may have run out crying and looking like a big baby! LOL.

As lovely as taking a swim felt, it probably wasn't that great of an idea. The problem was that my feet were all sandy and there was no way for me to dry them off, so I had to put my socks and shoes back on with sand still on my feet. Needless to say it wasn't that comfortable of a run home with shoes filled of sand, and dripping wet shorts!

The day continued to be GREAT with lunch out with my mom at Tropical Smoothie, then once school got out Kaity and Tori came over and we went swimming! It was SO much fun getting to hang out with both of them, finally!!! We just got to talk, swim, and lay out! Good times for sure! After a few hours of swimming we came back to my house ate some dinner and then headed over to Frank Brown to watch Emilee's soccer game! I love watching those little girls play soccer! They are all SO cute and you can just tell they are having so much fun! This is game was the first of the end of season tournament so all of the parents were pretty intense!!! It was so exciting though! Emilee played goalie and they were only up 1-0 by the end of the first half, so every time the ball even got close to her my heart would start racing! Tori and I definitely did our part in the cheering section, and Tori almost seemed to be getting into it more than me! I LOVE how excited she got everytime emilee would make a save, she is a GREAT friend! :) the whistle finally blew; they won and my heart started to settle down!

Tori had to go home, since it was a school night, so I said bye to her and then me and the family went to this new frozen yogurt place! I got chocolate yogurt with brownie pieces, mashmellows and raspberries on it! OH MY GOODNESS it was the best thing I have ever tasted! GOOD way to end an amazing day! Have I mentioned I LOVE being home?!?! :D because I really do!

a night full of music

Last night was quite a night! First we went to kyle's spring band concert. He looked so sharp in his all black suit with touquoise cumberbum and bowtie! :D He is in the advanced band, which meant he played last. So after sitting through the beginner, intermediate and jazz bands it was finally his turn. He is in the percussion section so he plays everything from the cymbals to the snare drum. I remember watching his Spring concert last year when he was in intermediate band and it just seemed so strange how in one year he seems to have grown up so much. I couldn't stop smiling as I watched him in the back and being able to hear so clearly which part he was playing! You could tell how much he loves having one of those parts where if he were to mess up it would be all him and everyone would notice, but he did an amazing job and it made me so happy!

After his concert we came home and watched Glee! Glee makes tuesdays the best day of the week for me! I just don't know what it is about that show but everything about it just makes me so happy! Every character is SO talented and listening to them sing is just an amazing feeling! What made the episode last night so great is that Idina Menzel finally sang, and the fact that her and Lea Michele sang together made it even better! They sang "I Dreamed A Dream" from Les Miserables! They both have amazing voices and hearing them sing such a powerful song like that just made me want to cry! It was SO good!

To watch the scene of them singing together click on the title of this blog! :D I have watched it about 10 times already! :D

a red flag morning

Woke up a bit late for a run on the beach. Usually around 8 it is already pretty hot out, but not today. It was however, VERY humid and VERY windy. I got to the beach and saw the red flag up already. I ran on the beach monday and the water was so calm, it was like a lake! Complete opposite today. The sky was dark, the ocean was rough and I could see the rain far off in the distance. I took dad's advice and ran with my shoes off. I loved feeling the sand between my toes as I ran right on the edge of the water, and loved when the waves crashed under my feet. The water was so warm and refreshing! And as strange as it sounds, the salty, humid, ocean air was also very refreshing as I ran! As I finished I sat down and just stared out into the never ending ocean, and down both sides of the beach and thought to myself, how amazing it is, for even when its not a beautiful sunny day, it still feels like paradise! This is my home, and I LOVE it!

Observations

Since being home I have noticed a lot of random but interesting things!

1. I forgot what it is like to sleep in the hottest room in the house with the air conditioning turned off at night! One fan is NOT enough! So thank you mom for the two extra! :D


2. Kyle (My brother who is 5 1/2 years younger than me)has turned into this man, who has a deep man voice and is more than an inch taller than me! When did that happen?!?! He hasn't like this 5 months ago during christmas break!


3. I knew Emilee was excited to meet Cappy, but I didn't think she would be SO obbsessed with him! He even gets his own bed in her room!


4. I noticed today how different sacrament meeting is in a famly ward compared to a singles ward where there are no crying children.

5. I realized how much I miss playing soccer after watching Emilee play with all her litte friends.

6. I forgot how excited I get when I hear Chelsea learning to play a new song!


That is all that I can think of at the moment, but I am sure I will think of more! It is definately good to be home! Some things to look forward to will include our Biggest Loser Challenge we are starting tomorrow! We bought an awesome scale and we are going to see who can lose the most weight this summer in our family! Im super excited! I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be a good day too, I have a plan that involves lots of exercise, and starting to eat healthy again! Another thing to look forward to is teaching the Sunbeams! I taught their class today (sort of a last minute thing) but it was fun! I am going to take a picture next week with them, because they are seriously 4 of the cutest girls EVER! It will definately be a challenge considering they don't listen and enjoy running around the tiny little classroom, but it is a challenge I am ready for! And I do get some entertainment out of their randomness! Some of my favorite quotes from them today were. . .

"Look at me, I can walk like a Penguin"
"My mom says not to play with knives or I could die"
"Why does Lily get to lay under the table?"
"Im princess our class because Im the prettiest"

Our lesson was on having a body. lol. I cannot wait to hear what else they can come up with! Lets see. . . . . . ??? This weekend was Prom! I got keep Ashley company while she was getting ready and Maggie and I took pictures with her; pictures that I hope I will one day be able to get, but Maggie only likes putting the ones up that she likes of herself. Since everyone was at prom I spent another night with Chelsea which was fun. We went mothers day shopping and walked around pier park, nothing to exciting, but fun nonetheless. I found out today that Morganne won Prom Queen, and that is awesome! I can't think of anyone else in that class that deserves it more! Anyway, if I want to get up early to run before it gets deathly hot outside I am going to need to get to sleep now! Hopefully this week has a lot of excitement! Tomorrow is the beginning of a summer full of exercise and time to go job hunting again! oh joy! wish me luck!

good to be home

Stepped off the plane into the warm humid Florida air. The smell of the air brought back so many memories, it was an amazingly feeling! I may not know exactly what this summer has in store, but I do know it will be filled with great memories!

The Last Hurrah

So a little over a month ago we decided that before I move back to Florida we should have one more fun adventure as cousins. Since our grandma lives about an hour from Los Angeles we decided it would be fun and do-able to hit up some of the tourist sites Cali has to offer.

Day 1: April 29

My last day in Utah. Stopped by some apartments and said my goodbyes. Not fun at all. After I spent a few hours doing last minute packing and running errands, and was set and ready to go for about 3 hours before we finally left. The drive to Vegas was strange weather wise. From Provo to Vegas we drove through, sun, wind, rain, snow and HEAVY snow! SO weird, but it kept it interesting. We also stayed entertained jamming out to some Glee and my "Back in the day" playlist which consisted of a mix of N'SYNC, Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, LFO, Simple Plan and much more! :D Cappy also did a good job at keeping me company in the back with all of my luggage that tried its best to take over! We got to Alicia's house in Vegas around 8 and spent the rest of the night wathing TV and just relaxing. Great way to just chill after driving!

Day 2: April 30

Another day of driving, only this time we were headed to our first tourist area. The beautiful Santa Barbara beach/pier! We started off the day with a heart pancake breakfast and then took off. We got to Santa Monica around 11:30 and it was SO nice to see the beach, although it was much different beach than back home. The water was darker and the sand was brown, but it was still nice to feel the sand between my toes. It was pretty windy but we decided we could handle riding bikes around, so we rented bikes for an hour. It was nice and relaxing riding down the bike trail and just enjoying the wonderful view. After riding for about 30 minutes we figured we should start back to where we came from, but we didn't realize is that we had been riding with the wind and the wind had picked up A LOT!!!! What began as a relaxing bike ride turned into a major work out! We probably looked pretty rediculous as we stuggled to get back to the pier in time, but it was definately as much fun as it was miserable! The wind continued to get worse and we sat shivering eating pizza, then we checked out a cool little aquarium! We also had lots of fun playing on one of the playgrounds on the beach! We left the beach and spent 2 hours in the famous LA traffic! We finally got to our grandparents house and ate lots of mexican food, including tamales, enchiladas and rice. A great meal to end the day!

Day 3: May 1

Six Flags Magic Mountain!! It has been so long since we have been there! At least 10 years!!! and what a fun day it was! It was also a beautiful day! Super sunny and warm! Highlights of the day: watching 12 year olds make out (ewwww!), about to get on the batman rollercoaster and them announcing they are having technical difficulties, got spit on while waiting in line for Goliath. Even though all of these unfortunate events occurred I love that they really just made it more memorbale of a day! We have to learn to laugh at moments like those, I mean if we start focusing on the negative we always will!We just walked around, drank frozen lemonade, ate normal amusement park food, soaked up the sun and I even got a little bit of a tan! YAY! I love rollercoasters and amusement parks, and thankfully we managed to fit in the best two rollercoasters for last! The second to last one we rode was Goliath! It dosen't go upside down, but it goes 85mph and has a SUPER steep drop! It went so fast that it made my eyes water and I was so in awww that I couldn't even scream, I just sat there with my mouth wide open the entire time! It blew my mind!!! But by far the best ride there we rode last was X2!!! It is so hard to describe, but basically it is a rollercoaster that does go upside down and at the same time your seat spins off the side of the track! It was such a thrill and while the coaster slowly took us backwards up the high high slope I really did get scared for my life. I have never been that nervous on a rollercaoster!!! Unlike Goliath, I could NOT stop screaming at the top of my lungs!!! What a thrill! Definately a moment and a feeling I won't forget! When we got home grandma made us toquitos (more mexican food)! And we went to bed pretty early! Being out in the sun can really exhaust you!

Day 4: May 2

Definately a more relaxed day! We drove to the Hollywood walk of fame and checked out the 17 blocks of stars! There were a bunch of people walking around dressed up as characters, which was pretty random and kind of weird, but definately interesting! We didn't spend a lot of time there, so when we got hungry we decided to head over to Olvera street to eat! Olvera street is this mexican street that has resturants, little shops and a ton of kiosks that has been around LA for 80 years! It is basically where a lot of the mexicans go to celebrate hispanic holidays and just go shop! We use to go all the time when we lived in California so it is always fun to go back! We ate carnitas con arroz y frijol at La Luz del Dia, and custard filled churros at Mr.Churro! SOOOO much good mexican food! Grandma bought me an awesome small backpack, which is awesome because I was in desperate need of a new purse. We headin back pretty early and just spent the rest of the night watching TV with our grandparents and eating delicious strawberry pie!

Day 5: May 3

The day started with a HUGE breakfast, and then the drive back to Vegas! Our last night together was spent at the Stratosphere on the Vegas strip. It is always fun just being in vegas! We went to the top and looked over all of Vegas! Such an amazing view!!! The best part of the night was definately riding the BIG SHOT!! I rode it twice, Jessie and Leesh rode it three times! It is like they make you just sit there in anticipation and then when you least expect it the shoot you up so stinkin fast, you can help but scream in fear! What an awesome feeling! Another huge thrill!!!!

A GREAT TRIP! We kept super busy and with all of the traveling I am now quite exhausting! As fun as it was, I am ready to be home with family! and enjoy what I hope will be an amazing summer!