Lake Powell Reunion

Brace yourself for kind of a long post. This one lasts for 3 posts because of the picture posting limitations. Every summer our family plans a reunion to Lake Powell- THE BEST PLACE ON EARTH, including Disney Land I might add. We left on a Tuesday and came back Saturday afternoon. This first 2 collages was our first day out (hence the dry hair).

This next collage is a combination of days just playin around. If you notice the top right corner, my sister, Kristin, and I are being pretty cheesy. Well if you look at the picture to the left of it you will notice who we are making fun of- our sister, Stacy, and her boyfriend being all lovey-dovey. Then theres one of us all "shampoo"ed up, it's tradition.

This next picture below was a highlight for sure. Me and my sisters all got to wakeboard together at the same time (the only way we could convince my dad to let us was so we could send a picture to my brother who is on a mission). He only gave us one chance to all get up so we all felt the pressure to get up on the first try. From left to right: Stacy, Kristin, Me

To be continued on the post below...

More Powell

This collage is just random fun ones. If you see my dad in the green, he was totally color-coordinated. It must be from having so many daughters :)

Prepare to get a little nauseated in this next one. So my sister used MY camera to take like 50 shots with her boyfriend, Steve, in front of the sunset. So once again, Kristin and I took the opportunity to mock them with our own precious picture (top right) the next sunset. My cousin, Isaac (the cute red-head) is such a crack up.

We did a little bit of cliff climbing, and I got to sport an orange flag on the back of my life jacket to teach my two cousins, Matt & Isaac, how to kneeboard (I was mainly there to keep them balanced until the boat gained enough speed, then I got to wade in the nice water and watch behind the scenes)

The feet picture are showing that we all had matching toenails. I didn't get a picture with all the extended family, but all my aunts and cousins that came on this trip all had the same color- yes it was planned. The bottom right is the result of Stacy's water-tubing crash. She ended up having to get surgery when we got home, including plates and screws in her finger. It was way random, it wasn't even a hard crash! We keep joking because she is just a "weak sauce"...but I guess not, she handled it well. Stacy broke her finger on Friday, so my dad took her up to the medical center which was freaking my mom out because she was terrified of having to drive the boat. So I became the designated driver for the afternoon- I loved it! So on the top right pic I'm showin off my skills :) I later even got to drive it onto the trailer when we were leaving, exciting eh? haha not really, but it is a little trickier than you would expect. How do you like my tan line? (more like sunburn...)

Lake Powell Continued

Here are the boyz boarding. The left side is the before picture, the right side the best pic of them out on the water (Top to bottom: Steve (Stacy's Steve), Quinn, Uncle Steve, Dad

The Boarding Gals (Debbie, Stacy, Kristin, Me)

Some tubing fun. Then the bottom picture, my aunt Vonnie got up on Skis after 30+ years of absence, not bad!

This last collage may look conceded, but I'm totally not trying to be. There was this one late afternoon/dusk where we were all in the canyons swimming around. We noticed how perfect the water was and realized we needed to take advantage. They all told me to use it since I'm more of the boarding freak than the rest- "It's my favorite thing to do....eeevery deh!" (Nacho Libre). I did say that someone else could use it, but they insisted. Anyway, so we took some pictures to show how cool the canyon looked as well as the sunset. The very bottom pic shows that we started at the dead end of the canyon- such glass, it was perfect! I loved every minute of it.

And that's the end of my post for the Lake Powell 2010 Reunion...Phew! Until next summer! (It can't come soon enough)

Carbomb's Wedding! (aka Carly)

Carbomb (aka Carly Mooy, now Christensen) up and got hitched on me. She has been one of my best friends from my early childhood. We even went to BYU together and lived together and had some many good times. I have some many many fond memories with this gal and am so happy she found someone. I actually know who she married and Tanner is the best! He is so hilarious and always makes us laugh. Here is a little collage of the wedding luncheon. (Brandice, in the bottom right corner, was one of our good friends who roomed with us throughout BYU)

After the Luncheon we took a look around the Red Butte Garden where it was held (up at the U of U). It was really pretty! My sister, Kristin, and I decided to get a little lame and take some total posed pictures. People were probably looking at us like we were a bunch of freaks, but we had fun. It got a little hot out there so I might be shining with sweat in a few.

We had such a fun time with the camera in the Garden that we decided to play around and be creative on the ride home.

Again I am so happy for Carbomb and Tanner- I wish you two the best life together ever!

4th of July Weekend- Cabin time!

I've been running a little slow on updating my blog, so I figured I better get on it before I get too far behind. A couple of weeks ago I had a week off of work and wanted to make use of the time off. Some friends of mine and a bunch their family were going to a cabin and I was invited to come along. It was really pretty there.

They even had this huge pond to let their dog, Harley, fetch a ball in to cool her off

Spike's nephew what cracking me up when we went biking. His goggles would block his view so he struggled seeing through his helmet, but he was the cutest boy ever!

Brody's girlfriend, Lexi, came up to the cabin and gave some of us a ride back. They are such a funny couple, oh young love! :)

West Farmington Rodeo

It was a few weeks ago and I'm just finally getting around to blogging, but I went to a rodeo in West Farmington for little kids. It was SO FLIPPIN CUTE!!! There were kids from really young ages- we're talking 5 yrs old, to a little older. My favorite was when they were riding the goats and their little bodies were flailing around. None of the pictures for that event turned out well because of the motion, but you get an idea with this one.

All of these kids were adorable. They were all decked out in cowboy gear- plaid shirts, spurs, vests, chaps, hats, the works! Then it was really amazing because these small little kids were barrel racing on full sized horses. It is amazing that such little humans can control such a huge animal! Some of the names are TOTAL cowboy names: Ruger- just like the gun (my favorite, and cutest boy ever), Brody, Brock, and Cooper. They were born to be rough manly men cowboys with names like that! It was very entertaining to say the least.

There was also some lassoing going down as well as an event where the kids had to grab a bow off of a goat's tail. I took pictures of my 3 favorite kids during these. It seriously made me want to have little cowboy and cowgirl kids. Aren't they the cutest things ever?!!

This last event was where they had to tackle down and tie down a goat. Some of these girls look so small and dainty, but they are NOT! They just went right on in there and went straight to business. It was funny to watch the goats closer to the end of the event after getting tackled so many times. When they would untie them they ended up just laying there, almost like they thought that's what they were supposed to do and why they kept getting tackled. Either that or they didn't want to get up cause they knew what happened when they stood. Poor goats:)

TWIGHLIGHT (Eclipse) ACTION!

That's right, you read it correctly- I went to the midnight showing of Twighlight. I'm sure you are in shock. I know I have NEVER been a fan of reading, but I acutally did read all the books (minus a bit of skimming on the second book- you can only read "I have a whole in my stomach from missing Edward" so many times) after my sister, Stacy, kept telling me I "had to." I've gone to the previous Twighlights with Cara so it is kind of tradition. Cara is a HUGE fan and so is her sister, Meg.

Meg was the first to go sit in line (she got there around 1:00 in the afternoon!) so we could get good seats together. Shortly after, Kevin went to keep her company- such a nice brother! He wasn't even there to see the movie, but stuck it out till they let us in the theater. Cara and I didn't get there till around 7:00, so it was still quite a while of sitting and waiting. The time actually went by really fast! It was fun to sit and visit, and we obviously played around with the camera a lot- simple entertainment.

(Cara, Meg, & I trying to show as much excitement as the "youngin's" around us)

(After a few hours we had to switch things up to keep us entertained and awake, not the most flattering faces...)

(These next ones below, Meg was trying to show us how to do "Vampire" faces. She apparently has been practicing a long time- She is the biggest fan that I now of)

My camera died before the rest of the clan came (guess we had a little too much fun and time on our hands) so nothing personal to those who aren't documented.

SO...funny story about this whole experience. When we were finally let into the theater we were looking for seats. They wanted the back row so we wouldn't have to deal with abnoxious people behind us (like what happened before). On the back row there were already about 7 girls that looked like they were around the age of 12. Kylee brought up small talk with them and jokingly asked them if they were going to talk during the whole movie, and basically left it at that. Well a few minutes later the mother comes over to me and Cara (we ended up sitting closest to these girls) and asked if we were the ones who asked her girls if they were going to talk the entire movie. Cara only caught the very end of her question and said, "What?" and before we could say anything else this mother started to rip on us saying, "that is so rude of you guys to ask that, how dare you?! These girls have been getting all sorts of crap all day about it being here and have been here since one o'clock. They are huge fans and are going to watch the movie just fine." At this point we were kind of in shock that this woman was going off like she was. So Cara tried to be as nice as possible back to her saying, "I know we are all a little strung up from waiting so long, and we were just asking because last time we had girls-OLDER than your girls, who were loud the whole time and if your girls would have said "Yes" we would have just chosen a different spot, but we were joking and not being serious. Sorry if we offended any of you." But this mother WOULD NOT drop it. She started going off again about how rude we were and told us her girls had read all of the books then asked if we had. When Cara said she had multiple times the woman said, "Even the small book that came out?"....OK Lady, if you are wanting the award for "biggest fan" you win! Then she went off about how she was positive that her daughters were way bigger fans than we were and started going on about how rude we were again until Cara piped up and said, "We're done." But that didn't stop her and she went off some more. So Cara said, "We're done!" again but still didn't stop her. So Cara said, "WE ARE DONE!!!..." for the 3rd time and we all stopped acknowledging her until she finally walked off in a huff. WOW- PEOPLE ARE CRAZY (and Twighlight freaks more so)!!! First of all it wasn't even us who talked to her daughters, and secondly- how did she think it was okay for her to ASSUME that her daughters were bigger fans than we were, but she thought it was so rude that we would ASSUME that her daughers would talk during the movie?! She's lucky she left when she did because if she wouldn't have stopped after that third time I was getting ready to to bring up that exact argument and maybe add that apparently it was past her daughters' bed time and she obviously couldn't handle it either. JEEZ PEOPLE, IT IS JUST A MOVIE!!!! (and dare I say a lame one at that. It's entertaining, but not life changing. Give me a break and get a life woman). We all had a good laugh about it, and enjoyed the rest of our evening none-the-less. This movie was the best one so far, so for anyone out there wondering if it is as lame as the first- it isn't and you just might like it! I'd see it again- just not at midnight :)

1 Year Anniversary!

I am pleased and beyond thrilled to announce that my brother, Steve, hit his one year mark on the 24th! I couldn't be more excited about it! A lot of people with experience of having brothers on missions say the second year goes by faster- all I can say is they better be right! This past year seemed to drag on for me. It's all downhill from here though- HOLLA!!! I love me some Steve! (Not in a creepy way:) )

Enough Cotton Already!

While going for a walk at Lagoon Trail this is what we discovered- a butt load of cotton! You may have thought this was in May with the "May Snow" we had, but unfortunately its the dreaded allergy fluff. Hence the rest of my walk I couldn't breathe, which also equals side-ache city! Oh how I loathe this stuff.

I couldn't resist putting this picture in. Kristin and I were walking up Farmington Pond and we always see this steep hill with logs kind of like steps. We decided to explore to see where it led. It was pretty anticlimactic when we got to the top. It was just a flat dirt area...boring! I guess I don't know what I should have expected in the first place. I made it down the mountain before she did and I turned around to see her on all fours. I was laughing pretty hard, she got up on her feet before I was able to get my phone out to take a picture of her full on down on the ground. But this still kind of captures the struggle she was having getting down the "slippery" hill.

Bong, anyone?...

Are you wondering what is in this polka-dotted bag like my mom did?

Well my mom was doing yardwork in our front yard and found this hidden in one of our bushes. So she asked me and my sisters to take a look. That's when we educated her a bit about Bongs. My mom called the cops and one came to check it out. He said the drugs that were stashed with it weren't anything too exciting, just a little Tobacco mixed with a little Black Mamba Spice. I asked the cop if he would either frisk me or my mom to give our nosy neighbor accross the street something to gossip about, but he didn't have much of a sense of humor. Anyway, who knew Farmington, UT could be that exciting?! :)

Serendipitous Concert

Last night I went to a local band concert where Bryson and Kylee were opening for a band. Their band's name is Serendipitous. When I first met Kylee she was still in Middle School, it's crazy she is graduated and all grown up (Kylee is Patrick and Cara's youngest sister). These two performed so well together and Bryson was fllippin amazing on the guitar, and he has an awesome voice. It was really entertaining to watch, too bad he leaves on his mission in a month because I would love to go to more!

(Click to make bigger)

(Me & Cara waiting for the show to start)

(basically my sisters Meg & Cara)

(Kevin, and Kylee in the background adjusting wardrobe:) )

Just when I thought I was too tired for more excitement, on my way home I ran into a HUGE traffic jam. It was stop and go traffic (mostly just stopped) basically from the beginning of when I got onto the freeway. I was so tired (I had almost fallen asleep on my way to the concert-but don't tell anyone), but I had my music to keep me awake as I sang along. Then all of the sudden my music started fuzzing out (and it was a CD) so I knew something wasn't right. Then the lights in my car that show the time, and my speedometer started dimming. It seemed to me my battery was going out, and fast. So I hurried and turned off my AC, rolled my windows down and started signaling to try and make it in the right lane. I also said a quick little prayer asking to just help me make it home before my car decided to die on me. I'm betting you are expecting me to say how miraculously my prayer was answered and I made it home. I hate to disappoint, but....NOPE!!! I guess the Lord was busy with something more important- or he was up for a bit of entertainment (I'm thinking it was the latter). Well, seeing how "Utah drivers" aren't the most polite it took me a while to get my way over, I was in the middle of getting to the very right lane when my car DIED! So my car was kind of angled in a way where I was in both lanes- awesome! Since my window was rolled down I was getting some choice names and words thrown in my direction. Then these two guys came running out to help me. I tried to get my car in "neutral" but it wouldn't go. Even the guys got in and tried, with no such luck. So they got some jumper cables and were able to get my car to start up long enough for me to get into the emergency lane.

Since I had just been with Kevin I tried getting a hold of him, but no answer (later to find out his phone died...great timing eh?). So I called my dad, which I didn't want to do (I was only by Cabella's at this point, which is a 45 min. drive from our house). He told me to sit tight and he would meet me with a new battery. I'm pretty sure I could obey that since I didn't have much option. I thought I could maybe get a nap in while I waited- that idea was QUICKLY shot down. Can I just tell you that it still gets a bit chilly at nights in June? My window was stuck down, but luckily I had a scrub shirt in my back seat (I had left it there because a few weeks before there was radioactivity on it that I was letting decay before I brought it in the house) so I put that over me. There are also a bunch of JERKS that would make comments to me as they drove by. It was also very loud with a ton of trucks that would drive by with their air breaks hissing at me constantly.

An hour went by and a cop pulled over a car behind me. Then he proceeded to frisk the guy! Wow, doesn't get much better than this folks. But a few minutes later my dad showed up to my rescue. While I held up the hood and shined the flashlight he scraped away at the "decroded piece of crap" and installed the new battery (I've had to go through new batteries so much I could be a pro). Then we were both lucky enough to get to sit through more traffic, to find out over an hour later it was because they had the freeway down to one lane- I HATE CONSTRUCTION!!! I was getting really tired and once I got through the construction I was struggling to keep my eyes open to get home. I honestly don't remember half of my drive home, but luckily I made it somehow. Just to recap, I left Cara's house at 9:45 and didn't get home until 2:30am (which usually only takes me 50 min. to get home from her place). It's a good thing I love Kylee and that their performance was so good, otherwise it wouldn't have been worth it!

(just to give you an idea of what I got to watch as I sat there waiting to be rescued)

79 and Counting

This sweet lady, my Grandma Allen, just celebrated her 79th birthday June 10th. I've blogged about her before because I look up to her and love her so much. How can you not with this contagious smile of hers?? The top picture I captured while my uncle Ken, me, Kristin, Stacy, Steve, and my dad came walking in with Spongebob Square Pants birthday hats on all our heads. She was a pleasantly surprised. I hope when I'm 79 I will have accomplished as much as she has in her life, man I love her. Happy Birthday Grandma!

Back to BYU days...

So I was cleaning out some of my old BYU college papers, books, etc and came across a sonnet I wrote for one of my Humanities classes. Here it is for your entertainment:

TONGUE-TIED

.

If love is sweet and easy, tell me why

that when the "right one" finally comes around

I try to speak, but can't utter a sound

My tongue is tied, and he just slips on by.

.

I see a girl whose confidence abounds;

She talks and flirts without a second thought

executing Love's ensnaring plot.

The man, he only hears the Siren's sounds.

.

Why do the men seem only tuned to hear

those fake and flirty, flighty empty words,

while here I am so full of words sincere

Because my tongue won't move, remain unheard

Whose job is it to change for love to bloom?

It must be both to have a bride and groom.

.

And there you have it. It had to be about love, and I know the last two lines are pretty cheesy- but I had to fulfill the correct format. Anyway, this actually applied to me back in the day when I wrote it. But as I was reading it again after several years I realize almost nothing has changed. I feel like I'm still that girl who truly cares for a guy genuinely, but they seem to overlook me for the fake girls. People always tell me not to care what people think and to be myself and let a guy know when you like him. However, I feel like more times than not it backfires on me. Plus, I am always terrified of their reaction or not even remotely feeling the same way. Wow, now that I shared way more than I had originally planned I will put this post to a close. Hope you enjoyed it! :)

Stacy's 23rd Birthday!

My sister, Stacy, turned the big 2-3. It was a pretty relaxed birthday celebration by going to Olive Garden, then coming back for some cake, followed by watching a movie of her choice, "Only You." It was crazy how young Robert Downey Jr. was in the movie! Time flies I guess.

Stacy and her main squeeze, Steve

Kristin and I decorated her bedroom door so she could wake up to a surprise. We got Spongebob party hads, then dangled Nutrolls and Reeses. We also put up a poster that came with the birthday card we got her. It is a Twighlight one (an inside joke). It was a two-sided poster, one side with Jacob, the other with Edward. We put up Jacob cause we tease her that she is on TEAM JACOB (she says he's way better looking than Edward- but who doesn't think that? Even though I don't think either of them are even cute). If you look closely you can tell that she has a Hannah Montana poster on her door as well. Steve (my brother) and I put that up on her door a long time ago as a joke and she still hasn't taken it down.

Kristin and I found this sweet shirt of Twighlight. On the front it says "I can't change how I feel, Please don't make me choose." We saw this and had to get it for her. Then on the back of the shirt we took it upon ourselves to do an iron on saying "Guilty Pleasure" You can't tell but they are sparkly letters :) The whole "guilty pleasure" thing is an inside joke as well. Stacy told us that she likes watching the movies and that it was her guilty pleasure...hence the shirt.

This is a collage of her opening up other gifts we got her. We got her 'The Hunger Game" book and another book series on tape (can you tell she likes to read?), her favorite chapsticks, and a PedEgg (those things that scrape off the nasty crustiness on your feet and heels- which she tried and says it actually works!)

Below are just some more pictures of us celebrating her big day. I can't believe she's 23, which means I can't believe my own age!