Let them eat cake

Being the perfect mom that Cara is and always tries to be, she took it upon herself to make 5 different cakes for her son, Tucker, who wanted an 'Avatar' themed birthday party. Not from the new Avatar movie, but from the Television show. Cara wanted a cake for each major 'bending' power (for anyone familiar with the show...) with the different symbols from the show including: Wind, Earth, Fire, and Water. Then she wanted just the face of the famous Avatar character- Aang (the 'air-bender'). She was really stressed out about having to do all of this, so I offered my help (don't know how much help I ended up being). So Cara was in charge of making and frosting the cakes, and I was in charge of decorating the tops of the cakes with the different symbols and characters from the show. It took quite a while, but I think the end results were worth the work.

Here we are being official with Cara sportin the apron and me with the "hair net" (close enough, and yes that is an old school bandana...don't worry- I'm bringin' it back:) )


One cake down, 4 to go....

The Final Five!

A little up close shot of each, you can click on this collage to enlarge. These cakes were seriously cooler in person! Pictures don't do it justice

They were a big hit at his "Karate" party

Cuttin' the cake


This made me want to start baking and decorating more, in some weird way it was a nice stress relief for me. But I guess that is the case for me if I'm drawing or doodling on anything!

I have a family tree

About a month ago, my Grandma Allen's brother, Lon, passed away. There were 11 children in my grandma's family, now there are only 3 still alive. The pictures below are the three remaining. Lucille (left), Molly (middle), and Lauraine (Right- my grandma! I'll talk about her more after all the pictures). These three are SO entertaining to be around. You get them together and they act like they are 12 year old school girls. These pictures weren't from the funeral. Our family had a devotional-type deal during the conference weekend. They had Larry Corbridge from the Quorum of the Seventy come speak to us unbetween sessions (Larry spoke in conference a few conferences ago if you thought his name sounded familiar. He is my mom's cousin). They also had his wife speak about all of the stuff going on in Chile (because that is where they live and experienced the earth quake).
Anyway, after the devotional was over they wanted the three sisters to get up and say a few words. They are a crack up! The first picture with Molly's expression says it all.

People always tell my sisters and me that we are going to be like them when we are older. I could only hope!

We decided to get a picture of "Oldest to youngest" from left to right (I've always wanted to be like my grandma...yeah for being the middle sister!)

When we were told to wear dress pants and a nice top, Kristin and I walked out wearing almost the exact same outfit. We had no shame so we went "twinner" style.

These pictures of the Salt Lake temple were taken by Stacy while they went to conference. I thought they were pretty cool so I thought I would share them.

So I said I was going to talk more about my grandma after the pictures. This is for my own journaling purposes. When people tell me to think of a hero in my life, my grandma comes to mind quite often. I look up to her in so many ways. She has had many trials and experiences in her life that could have hardened her, but it only made her more faithful and strong. She told me once that she prays daily specifically for help to not lose herself and to be able to stay positive. She is a testimony that prayer works, because she is the most upbeat, positive person I know, and it is so contagious to be around her (including her contagious laugh...one of my favorite sounds!). She is the type of woman who becomes your best friend right after meeting her. Recently my grandpa (her husband) had to stay in Avalon (a therapy/rehab center for older or sickly people) for six weeks after a bad fall. My grandma faithfully stayed by his side and helped nurture him back to health. She left for a week of that time to go play with her sisters, and all of the workers asked about her while she was gone and remembered her by name. You can't help but feel better in her presence. She is an example of service. She doesn't use her age as an excuse not to help others. She still goes to the elementary school to help all the little children read. My grandma is aware of the "no touching/hugging" rules, but it is the little children who run to her and initiate hugs with her before she can ever turn them down. She has the best sense of humor and is hilarious (she struggles telling jokes because she is always laughing halfway through before she can get to the punch line). She is spunky too! She may only be 5 feet tall, but she can hold her own! (She even chased and tackled down two men in her younger years after they scared her with a mouse- something she HATES) I honestly can't think of a single flaw that she has. I feel sorry for every other child out there that doesn't have her for a grandma. I look up to her so much and hope that some day I can be at least remotely close to the kind of woman she is. I love my grandma Allen!

Roomy Reunion

This past week I was able to go out to dinner in Salt Lake (like the classy "tagged" background we found? Pretty artistic:) ) with my good old room mates, Brandice (in the middle) and Carly (right). I hadn't seen Brandice since before she left on her mission- now she is married! Carly's fiance, Tanner, came as well but he isn't in the picture cause he was too busy taking one for us :). It was really nice to catch up and see what everyone was up to. All that was missing was DaNae! (DaNae, if you read this I've got a bone to pick with you!) It is crazy to think that just a few years ago we were all freshmen together trying to figure out what we wanted to do with our lives, now they are all growing up on me and getting married and becoming "ultimate" adults. I am now offiically the only one left who is single, including all of my old high school and college friends...makes for some awesome reunions/get-togethers with the friends and all their spouses (i'll stick to playing with their children while the real adults talk, ha ha). Their husbands are great, but it doesn't mean the awkwardness isn't there when everyone is cuddling up with their "babe, honey, sweety, etc." while we all sit around and talk. I guess there are worse things in life than being single though, plus it also has its advantages so I'll try and enjoy this phase of life while I have it.

Arizona Trip

It was SO wonderful to go from this...

To this.....

Within 24 hours! Yep, that's right...I went to Arizona this last week and loved every minute of it! It was so nice to relax and enjoy some sunshine and friends (most of which I just call family). I left for the airport right after work on Wednesday and got in around 5:30 Arizona time.

I didn't have the camera with me the whole time I was down there like I wish I had, but I got a few pictures to give you an idea of some of the things that I was able to do while I was there.

When I flew in Patrick picked me up from the airport. Since traffic was bad he drove me to a HUGE house that he has been working on for work. He took me exploring inside the house as well. It is going to be beautiful when it is done. I wish I would have snapped some pictures. But alas, I didn't. I also wish I would have snapped a picture of Patrick when he picked me up for all you ladies out there, because he was lookin' mighty cute in his pin-striped hat (then again, I'm a sucker for pin stripes). Then we went to Target to get a few items I hadn't brought with me because I didn't want to deal with going through security at the airport. Afterwards, we went to Chilis for dinner- apparently we were both starving because we downed the chips and salsa like it was running out of style. We then headed to Mandy's where the rest of the gang was. We all sat in the living room chatting until we were all tired and went to bed.

The next morning we all got up and got ready to hike CAMELBACK. There are apparently 2 different hikes to go about getting to the top. Mandy had already tried one path and said there were some intense moments of cliff where you had to go on all fours to make sure you didn't fall to your doom, and she wanted to try the other one. So that's what we did. We were all expecting a fun, light hike where we could just enjoy the scenery and "frolic" our way to the top...NOT!!! It was about 1.25 miles of straight up boulder-climbing. So yeah, by the time we got to the top my thighs were feelin' the burn. Looks like I should move to AZ and hike that everyday, my saddle bags would disappear in no time :) jk.

Here are a few pics to show you what I'm talking about, none of which do it justice- it was way steeper in person!

Here are some pictures of us before the hike...obviously not knowing what we were getting ourselves in to:

Below Kevin and I being dorks, we call it the "Engagement" pose :)

Below: with Lauren and Cara. We stuck together all the way till the top.

(ABOVE: Top left corner- Me & Meg, bottom left- Me & Cara, Middle- Anissa & Robyn, Right- Jon and Robyn)

(LEFT- Me & Drew, MIDDLE- Cara, TOP RIGHT- Me & Kylee, BOTTOM RIGHT- Me & Robyn...she was my running buddy down the hike)

(TOP LEFT- Kylee, Josh, & Anissa, TOP RIGHT- Kevin, BOTTOM LEFT- Meg & Kevin, BOTTOM MIDDLE- Cara & Drew, BOTTOM RIGHT- Cara, Lauren, me, & Kevin...yes that foot did end up hitting my head)

(TOP: The whole hiking crew)

After the hike we were all so hot and sweaty, all we wanted to do was jump in the pool. We got to relax and cool down. This pool got plenty of attention this trip!

After we were all refreshed from swimming, we all got ready to go to Anissa's for her "Mexican Fiesta" she was putting on for us. She made some flippin' tasty Mexican food! It was fun to sit and relax and eat our faces off after a tiring day. Below are some pictures of me and Hannah waiting for everyone else to get ready so we could go. She has such a fun personality, we are best buds.

Friday Spike and Patrick took some of us out on their boat so we could enjoy some boat riding and wake boarding- one of my FAVORITE things to do! The water was BUTT-NIBBLIN' COLD! When I first jumped in I inhaled a huge breath, but couldn't let it out and kept breathing more in. I swear I was about to hyperventilate. Of course it was so worth it though. It took me a while to find my camera hidden under all the towels so I wasn't able to get everyone boarding, but got Jake, Josh, me, and Sterling (Spike).

(ABOVE: Calvin's first lesson on wake boarding from Uncle Pete...aka Patrick for those who don't know the family lingo yet. He did really well for his first try! He was almost all the way up on the very first, but struggled a bit after that, but we will blame it on the cold water:) )

(ABOVE: Spike and his friend, Nate, have been trying to do a back flip. Spike attempted the back flip and landed it! Congrats to him on being the first one. I caught 2 pics of him mid-air and then the last one he was so excited he landed he let go of the rope to pump his fists in victory)

(ABOVE: Sage, Cara, & me chillin' in the AC getting ready to head to the movie 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid'. The kids enjoyed it. Me? Cute, but a one-time view)

(ABOVE: BFF's/Sisters) :)

After the movie we came back to Mandy's and kind of relaxed for a bit watching a cake competition on TV where they were doing a Spongebob Square Pants theme.

Then later that evening, Spike was being set up with Mandy's friend, Mindy. So to make it less awkward for them, Patrick and I went with them. We started by going to the Cheesecake Factory. Then we came back to Mandy's and talked out on the trampoline (sounds kind of boring/weird, but it was actually really fun to sit and talk). We talked about personal things and it was quite refreshing to be able to be comfortable about being open. Mindy was quite bold in some of her questions, but it gave Patrick and me a chance to express some of our perspectives and actually shed some light on questions I've had myself. Sterling was also open, which I haven't really seen before. So all around it was fun to have a "bonding" moment with the three of them.

After being out on the trampoline for a while, the rest of the crowd had come back from going to a movie. So we went in and we made home made doughnuts. Talk about yummy! They used biscuit dough and then glazed them after they were fried. I'm craving them now just explaining them. Afterwards, we got in the hot tub along with 10 others from the bunch and enjoyed the nice warm water in the cool night air (ha ha, I kind of sound like a poet there, eh?).

The trip went by SO fast and I wasn't able to do all the things I had wanted to...looks like another trip is needed:). Below is a collage of our car group. You can see Kevin doesn't fool around when he wants to take a nap without sunlight in his eyes, ha ha. In the top right corner you can see Hannah. She called my name to look back at her a few times and every time I did, she would proceed to smack herself while saying, "Stop hittin' yourself, stop hittin' yourself...." I don't know where she comes up with this stuff. The garbage can is shameful and came from ME! That was only halfway through the trip, I easily doubled the amount of candy bar wrappers in there. Cara had a good laugh at me and my sweet tooth.

BELOW, Hannah is doing a good job at expressing how everyone felt after the eventful trip and drive home. I feel like I need a vacation from my vacation to detox and in order to get back into my routine again. Her face is so dang cute though! All in all this was a successful, and much needed vacation for me. Thanks to all of those who invited me and made it as fun as it was!