The Drive Back

Sorry this post is a little late in coming, but when I got back to my apartment, my Internet wasn't working.

Alright, the drive back went much smoother than the drive down. I think several things aided in that. One, I wasn't in a rush to get back to Utah (like I was in a rush to get to California). Two, Dana made me some good CDs to listen to on the way back. Three, I got to drive for half of it.

Speaking of driving for half of it.... terrible story to share. After stopping for dinner in Saint George, we only had 40 miles before we were back in Cedar City. Grandma had just got done telling me what a great driver I was and how I could drive her car any time I wanted because she feels safe and comfortable with me. Ah, thanks Grams. But, not more than 15 minutes after she was praising me, I got freaking pulled over! Eew! I only got a warning, so it's not like I had to fork out any money or anything, but the whole thing was ridiculous because I hadn't done anything wrong. We had just left a construction zone and so I had gotten back up to speed, but when he pulled me over I started worrying that maybe it really hadn't been the end of the construction or something. So when he came up to the window I asked, "Isn't the speed limit 75?" He told me that he wasn't pulling me over for speeding. He said that I didn't use my turn signal when changing lanes and that I had cut in front of the van too soon and the van was forced to slam on its brakes. Pull crud! I ALWAYS use my blinker. Even when no one is around me, I still use it. So I know that was crap. And, about me pulling in front of the van too soon... I pulled over into the other lane because I saw the cop behind me and I wanted to get into the other lane so he would pass me. As soon as I got into the right lane the cop got into the right lane. Um... If he had room to make it over right behind me then I'm going to say that I did not cut the van off. And Grandma pointed out that the van probably looked up, saw the cop, and decided they should slow down. That would mean that the van breaking was really the cops fault, not mine. Urrg. At first I was just scared when the cop told me what I did wrong. Right away I didn't believe him, but it's not like I could tell him that. But after driving away, when Grandma and I started talking about it, I got really mad because it was a waste of time. I honestly hadn't done anything wrong and there are far worse drivers than me out there who never get pulled over. Luckily I've calmed down since Thursday, so this blog isn't as ranting-y as it could have been.

Funniest part about all of this is that on the ride home Grandma said, "Don't worry Brooke, I won't tell anyone about this." And I responded with, "What are you talking about? I'm totally going to blog about it. I'm not really ashamed that I got pulled over because I didn't do anything wrong!"

Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention that when we got pulled over, Grandma couldn't find her registration. She had at least 5 years worth of expired registrations in her glove box so the cop is watching her pull them out and saying, "nope, not that one... no, that's from California...." Eventually I found it in the side door, but we cleaned out her glove box and shredded the old ones so that next time she gets pulled over, she won't have to sift through old ones.

My drive back on Friday was way less eventful- thank goodness, and now I'm back in Provo. But that won't last very long :o)

Disney Summer

First Disneyworld, and then today I went to Disneyland. Man, I hope I don't get Disney-ed out. HA! That could never happen :o)

It's Kim's birthday today, so she got in free, Dad has a pass so he got in, and then-lame- I had to pay for my own, but it's been a couple years since I've been. And that's a change seeing as for a couple years I had a pass and would go all the time, hence the reason that not going for a year or two is so weird to me.

We drove Dad's new car up there (he drove, he still won't let anyone else in the driver's seat of his new baby), spent forever at the ticket booth, and then headed in. The ticket booth situation was weird. I went up to one window with Kim and Dad went to a separate one. Kim got her free ticket and when she was done I told the lady what I needed. She asked if I was paying with cash or credit card and when I said credit card, she said that because of some privacy thing, I had to go to a different cashier. What?! So because I witnessed Kim tell the lady when her birthday is (which I already know, and anyone who say her wearing her birthday pin would know), I had to wait for another cashier? That stupidest part though was that she sent me to the tell next to her, and had me wait right behind the guy. I heard more information about his transaction than I did with Kim's and he's a stranger, so it's more dangerous that I heard his credit card number. Weirdos! But even with my hold up I still beat Dad. I have no idea what he was doing that took so long. Actually, I do, he was upgrading his pass since today was a black-out day, and he was getting his parking reimbursed because he was not supposed to have to pay for that.

We did everything we really wanted to do fairly quickly and it threw me off when we were ready to leave by 5pm. The only things we didn't hit were the kid rides in Fantasy Land and the Nemo submarine ride. But, we weren't willing to wait so long for those. Plus, Kim really wanted to get back to Aaron. She's never left the baby for more than like 2 hours before.

On the drive home we stopped at In-and-Out. I'm not one of those people who is crazy obsessed with it, but it does seem like something that needs to be done on a trip to California. Plus, stopping for a quick bite to eat helped us get out of the traffic a little bit (the carpool lane also helped us avoid a lot of traffic :o)

Not long after I got home, Dana came over and I helped her move a dresser from our house to her new place, and then we went for a run. Runs go by a lot faster and are a lot less painful when you've got someone to go with and you've got good stories to keep you going. Unfortunately for Dana, I did have a lot of stories to share. I'm sure that I was oober annoying, but in my defense, I was tired and needed the run to go by quickly. And speaking of tired, the reason this entry is so piddly is because it's midnight now, I've been working on this and past blogs for a while, I have to get up early-ish tomorrow to get a run in before we leave, and I'm tired and really want to go to bed. Hopefully I'll come back and fill in more details, but for now, I'm peacing out!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Tuesday morning I woke up and headed out to Poway to visit Grandma and Granddad Kerby. I got to see them a little bit on Saturday, but it wasn't very long, so it was really nice to go up and spend some more time with them. As always, Granddad was watering and had his timer on him so that he could remember when to switch the systems. He's so adorable, I love Granddad so much. Grandma and I talked about my classroom, and her old classrooms. We talked about the family and how lucky we are to have such great relatives. Before we knew it, our hour was up and Grandma had to run off to do her visiting teaching. Before I left though, she gave me three jars of boysen berry jam. She told me how she's getting older and she's not sure how many more years she'll be able to pick the berries, but this year she did and she made the jam, so I got some. Yes!! We said our good-byes and our see-ya laters and I headed back home while Grandma headed out to be the fantastic woman that she is. Honestly, she's amazing.

I went home just long enough for Grandma Petronaci to point out that I haven't sat still this whole trip. I've always got plans and I'm always running around. I told her that that's what has made this trip so great. I love being busy, having things to do, and running at a fast pace. This summer, however, I've already explained that I have not been moving at that fast pace. So coming here and being able to go out and do so much is absolutely wonderful!

After that little chat with Grandma P I went up to Penesquitos to visit Kim and the boys. Except, the boys had friends over so they weren't too interested in me :o) That's fine, Kimi and I got to chat it up a little bit, and I did play with the boys.

I wasn't there too long because Mom and I had an appointment in Fashion Valley at noon and since she was already in San Diego, I just had to meet her there. Yeah, the appointment went okay, although it's not my typical cup of tea, I didn't feel as awkward as I thought I would have. I didn't have a whole lot of bonding time with Mom because she had to go do a signing, and I had stuff to run back to, so we said good-bye and parted ways.

My cousin Jon recently got back from his mission, and so on Monday I called him up and asked if he had time to hang out with me and if he wanted to go to the beach. Yep, he had time and he wanted to go. So at 2pm I picked up Jon, Ryan, and Kristen and we all went to Moonlight (yep, same beach I was just at the night before). It was super crowded, but apparently someone had just left because we found a perfect spot without even looking very hard. The three of them started walking into the water all slowly like they were cold or something. Crazies! I ran straight in. Yeah, it was a little cold, but that's how you've got to do cold water. You've just got to go in and get used to the temperature. The longer it takes to get in, the longer you're cold. Eventually they got in :oP The water was full of seaweed, but not like a normal amount. It was disgusting and everywhere. And not in clumps either, but individual leaves were floating everywhere. Sick! Jon kept on picking them up and tossing them. One- like that was really going to help the situation 2- he kept on throwing them on Ryan and Kristen who happened to be right behind him. Jon is the same old same old. I don't know that the mission changed him much. Seaweed is not the easiest thing to throw because it's light weight and it sticks to you from time to time when you try to let go. So we were all making fun of each other when we would have a particularly bad throw. Well, one time I picked one up and just tossed it behind me. Well, let me tell you, I had a really nice throw. I got some distance on that one. The only problem... it landed on some girl in an inner tube. Ooops. I say sorry (not really loud enough for anyone to hear though) and turn around because I can't help but laugh at how perfect my non-aim was. While I'm turned away from the girl, Jon's staring right at her and he's telling me, "She's giving you the evil eye right now. Nope, she really didn't like that." Thanks Jon :o)

Eventually we couldn't handle the crowd or the seaweed and we decided that Ryan really needed the sun because he is WHITE. So we went up and laid on the beach. My eyes were closed when I hear something you don't usually hear at the beach. "Who in the heck is playing a banjo?" Yeah, right as I say that, I open my eyes and sit up to find that the people right in front of us are the ones playing, and yes, it really was a banjo. Oops, I've got to learn to question quieter- luckily they didn't hear me. But yeah, how insanely random is that? Not only was the lady playing a banjo on the beach, but at one point in time she was playing Asian melodies- on a banjo- weird! No one really wanted to brave the seaweed again after we'd been sitting out, and the wind had started to pick up and we were getting a little cold so we headed back home.

When I dropped them off, my Aunt and Uncle came out, so we talked for a while. Aunt Amy suggested that I take Kristen running some time. I guess she didn't realize that I was leaving so soon, so I told her that I was leaving Thursday but that Kristen should go change now and we'd head out. A little reluctantly, Kristen agreed. Ryan backed out of the run, but Jon came along. Kristen's knee is bothering her, so I figured it'd be best if we ran on trails rather than cement so we went to Kit Carson Park. Oh man. It's been quite some time since I went running over there. I loved it! It was so much fun for me to go back and run along the trails there and see what's changed and what never will. It's really fun being back home. Plus, the other reason the run was fun was because it gave me some extra time to chat it up with my cousins, which I don't do nearly enough. We turned back around when Kristen's knee started hurting her, but I'd say we got at least 3 1/2 if not 4 miles in, so that's not too bad.

So it was a busy busy day where I kept hoping from plan to plan, but I absolutely LOVED it! Not only that I staid so busy, but because it was a day absolutely filled with family.

Coronado

This summer, I have been seriously lazy. I used to be such a morning person. 9:00am used to be sleeping in for me, there was no way I would be able to stay in bed longer than that without discomfort. Then I started college and especially student teaching where I had to stay up way late getting lessons planned and then wake up early to go to class to teach all day, just to stay up late again (see the cycle?) and then it didn't matter what time I woke up, I was still tired. I was no longer a morning person. So this summer, without anything I HAVE to get up for, I usually don't. Yikes, it a little bit worries me that my body now knows the 10:00am hour really well. Without an alarm, that seems to be the time that I naturally get up these days.


So today when I woke up at 5:00am to go walking with Mom, I was pleasantly surprised at how awake I was :o) Alright, at first I was not way awake and I even laid back down on the couch when I realized Mom wasn't ready to go yet. And even as we started our walk I was yawning and slouching. But I picked up before we even hit the end of the street. It turned out to be a pretty nice walk. I got to retrace my old stomping (running) grounds a little bit and Mom and I had some good conversation- except when she started singing primary songs, I could have done without that :o) We walked for about an hour and a half and then I had to jump in the shower to get ready for my day with Dana.

Dana took off work today so that she could show me a good time! I did get a little worried, however, in the beginning when it looked like Dana took the day off to run errands. We went to Wal-mart to try to find some fabric that I needed so that she could make me some pillow cases for my classroom, but we didn't find any right away so we went to Kohls. I wasn't in a shopping mood and there weren't good enough sales for Dana so we didn't last very long there either. Next stop was Target so Dana could fill her prescription. The only problem was, we showed up to Target 45 minutes before the pharmacy opened so we had to dilly-dally around the store until she could fill her prescription. So we looked at clothes, make-up, and I learned some juicy secrets about Dana. Finally the pharmacy window opened, we got Dana's pills and then we got some jamba juice and headed out to Coronado.

Oh my gracious, Coronado is so beautiful!!! Once we got there, Dana and I had no idea what we actually wanted to do there, we just knew that it was a good idea to be there. We parked down R.H. Dana Avenue (stood for Real Haught Dana) which is the road by the Hotel Del. We looked around the hotel for a little bit, sad to see that we weren't allowed to go up the stairs, but it was pretty enough in the lobby and garden areas. After walking through the hotel we walked along the beach. We went over by the tide pool area (crapy tide pools, the only things there were crabs and flies) and the sand had lots of gold flakes in it. I commented about how you know you're at a nice beach when they can afford to just go out and sprinkle gold on the ground. That's what I call high class!


After the let down of the tide pools we decided to just walk along the beach. Ah, it's so pretty! At noon-ish we went back to the car to pick up our lunch and headed back down to the beach. After lunch we decided to just walk around. Dana initiated the slug bug game, but no worries, I finished it :o) It was funny because for the most part I wasn't really trying, but since she pointed them out, I started noticing them more. The best was when we were back in the car and I was looking down at the directions and right as I looked up a slug bug passed us and I called it. I'm not quite sure what was so funny, but we both were laughing pretty hard about it.

I'm in the car shopping market, but have pretty much no idea how to car shop or what to look for, so I've been keeping my eyes open to cars on the road and I've been talking to everybody about what to get. Dana and I were talking about cars on the drive home and I asked if they just let you test drive whatever you want. She said yes and then asked if I wanted to go try it out. Yes please! We went to the Auto circle and checked out the Honda Fit- eew, not my choice, but Josh is border line obsessed with it. It's a pretty hideous car and we found out that it's made pretty cheaply too. We looked at the Civic a little too. The guy wasn't super helpful though so we didn't get to test drive anything and we headed out of the Honda place. Onto Mazda it was then. Oh my gosh I got to test drive the Mazda Miada MX-5 and I pretty much am a fan of that car! I also test drove the Mazda 3 and I like that one too. I've got to do a little more research, but according to the Mazda guy, the Mazda is as durable as the Honda Civic (what my Dad wants me to get).

After car shopping Dana dropped me off and I got some stuff done at the house before we went out to dinner as a family. Dana has newly become a fan of sushi and so I promised that I'd go with her when I came down. Kim, Ben, the boys, Mom, Josh, Dana, and I tried to go to a place in Poway, but their stuff is half off on Monday nights and it's supposed to be a good place, which means there were a lot of people and we didn't have reservations or time to wait that long. We drove to a different one in Rancho Bernardo instead. We called to see if they could hold our group of 9, and for sure they could. When we showed up, it was empty. We ordered several different rolls of sushi and just shared them around. It was all pretty good stuff. But, the most impressive part of the whole thing was that Roman ate sushi. What a little stud. He said he wanted to try fish so Josh passes him over a raw chunk of fish and little mister studly stuck it in his mouth and ate it. And he didn't just eat the one piece, he tried at least one of the sushi rolls. It was a nice dinner. Good food, and good company.

Apparently it's grunion mating season. Dana told me that Monday and Tuesday, from 10pm-midnight, would be a good time to go to the beach if I wanted to see the grunion run. So, we piled up some wood in the blazer, grabbed s'mores stuff from the store, and went down to Moonlight. Unfortunately no one remembered that at Moonlight bonfires have to be put out at 10pm. So when we showed up at 9:30, right in time for the cop to announce that rule, we were a little disappointed. We made do though. We hurried and lit the fire, toasted our marshmallows over the open flame (as compared to toasting them over the coals like you're supposed to), and then at 10pm, Josh threw the rest of the wood on the pile and we walked away- Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's not what you're supposed to do, I'm pretty sure you're supposed to be in charge of putting out your own fire. Whatever, we headed down the beach to wait for the grunion.

We waited an hour, but the grunion still hadn't come. I was enjoying it because it was so beautiful on the beach. The stars were out and bright, the waves were soothing, and the sand was soft. But, Kim isn't used to staying up that late any more and so she really was not feeling waiting another hour to maybe see the fishies. We headed back home without having a chance to see the grunion run. I guess that's okay, because if you remember, I woke up at 5am and when we left the beach it was 11pm, and I was the one driving.

A long day, but it was so great!

Happy Father's Day

Dad had a great start to his morning today. He woke up bright and early and made pancakes for everyone! Hey, in our defense, we would have made him breakfast but he likes his pancakes better than Mom's waffles. After breakfast we headed off to church. It was a little hard to concentrate though since Kim, Ben, and the boys came. Isaac is a real irreverent child, and Aaron, although he was a happy happy baby, was not quiet.

Yesterday all the girls came together to make a birthday dinner for Mom, and today we all worked together to make a Father's Day dinner for Dad. Kim made a jello salad, joy and made a corn souffle and a dessert, and Dana made the salad and meat pie. We needed to be eating by 1:00pm so that Joy would have enough time to make it to the airport. Well that didn't happen. We decided to take some family pictures while the pies baked. Man, next time I come home, I've got to bring some cuter clothes, I didn't know we'd have to be posing so much. Doesn't everyone know how much I hate being in pictures? Oh well, let's hope that at least one of the 20 shots Amanda took is worth putting up on the wall :o) So we took the everybody in it pictures, and then the four girls got together and took jumping pictures (Kim's idea that we could not shake her from), recreations of poses we've done in the past, and some random a-- pictures. The dog pile one was my favorite because we did it in reverse age order so I didn't have to be on the bottom this time! That was fun. I'm really nervous to get a picture CD when I leave, of all the pictures we've been taking and will be taking this week. There's going to be some crazy stuff on that camera, that's for sure.

By time we were done messing around with random poses, dinner was ready. Dinner was good, but I don't know how the company was because Joy and I were at the kids' table trying to get all four of the youngin's to eat their food. Eventually all the kids cleaned their plates and they got their cupcake for dessert. Apparently they looked better to the kids than they tasted because they acted as a good bribe during dinner, but none of the kids actually finished theirs off.

After dinner it was time for Joy to run upstairs and pack her stuff up. It's sad that she could only stay for the weekend, but it super rocks that she was able to come at all. I'm not even kidding you when I say that we said good-bye to Joy and the girls for over half an hour. Well, it's in part because Joy wasn't fully packed when she needed to be going, so we were saying good-bye, but she wasn't ready to go. The cutest was when the cousins were saying good-bye. They gave each other the biggest hugs and kisses. Oh, kids are so cute! Eventually everyone was done hugging Joy, Daisy, and Lilly good-bye and it was time to pack them up and let Mom take them to the airport. Once Joy was gone the house cleared out. Kim, Ben, Roman, Isaac, and Aaron took off in their van, and Josh and Dana left in their car. I was left to clean the place up :o( I'm just teasing. Joy did a lot of the cleaning right after dinner and Grandma offered to help clean, but I was almost done with it when she offered so I just let her sit on down.

Without all the little ones screaming and running around, the house sure is quiet. Tear. I hope the girls make it back to Texas safely.

WAP

Today we decided to go to the Wild Animal Park. Kim and I got up and got the boys ready to go so that we could be there at 9:00am (right when it opens). I guess that Ben hurt his foot real bad playing kickball with some teenage boys. Someone stomped down hard on his foot at the game and then not too long after that, someone threw a rock on his foot at a service project. And yet he still serves. Go Ben :o)

We met Dad, Mom, Joy, and the girls at the park. This trip was more of a workout and less of a trip to see animals. I feel like the whole time we were pushing large two kid strollers up hills, and when we stopped, it wasn't to see animals. We got some good pictures in though. Oh, Isaac and Daisy were especially cute. Isaac really wanted to hold hands with Daisy and so they were linked together the rest of the day. But Lilly felt left out so she marched up to Isaac and demanded that he hold her hand too. We pulled Roman back to join the ranks for a picture, but then we let him run back up with grandma. It wasn't an all day park visit like normal, but it was fun. We ended it with a ride on the carousel where I stood next to Daisy while she rode the panda.

After the Wild Animal Park we came home and tried to take naps. Some people were successful. I was in and out of a nap, Dad for sure got a nap in, and Joy got a nap after she gave up on trying to lay her girls down and gave them to Grandma.

The reason that we didn't spend all day at the park though was because we had to get back to make Mom's birthday dinner. Mmmm.... Josh made some super yummy steak, Dana made a great spinach and berry salad, I was in charge of the rolls and I felt bad that I copped out and had store bought ones, and Kim made mashed cauliflower (which everyone gave her a hard time about- I thought it was fine). The dinner was super tasty, but it was better because we were all there. Grandma and Granddad Kerby came down from Poway to join us for dinner. After dinner Kim had great plans for pictures. She really wanted two pictures. One was of the four girls laying in a circle and someone getting a picture from above. Yeah, we did that one, but it was hard to get because Dad is a little special sometimes and we're all hilarious all the time and no one could stop laughing. Then Kim started doing cartwheels and jumps, trying to get some really good pictures. She's SO weird when it comes to cameras. The second picture she wanted was to put all the kids in their pajamas. That didn't work out because the girls' pajamas were dirty and Joy didn't think they'd make for a super cute picture.

Oh, I love family, and I love family time. What a good day <3

Beach Day

Some time after I had told Dad I could come out, he decided that it'd be a super good idea to fly Joy and the girls out the same weekend as an early surprise present for Mom's birthday. Joy flew in early Friday morning and we had planned to go to Mission Bay to spend the day on the Seados. Dana was going to sneak off to the airport to pick up Joy and meet us at the beach. Well, Mom was obviously unaware of all of the plans and so she had a signing to do at 8:30am (the time Joy landed). Easy enough, the plan changed so that we'd be all set up at the beach and have Joy waiting by time Mom came.

Oh my goodness. We distracted Mom with baby Aaron while Joy and the girls slipped around to the side. Mom looked up and didn't take it in at first, but as soon as she realized it... oh golly. She screamed so much. (A firetruck pulled up not more than 5 minutes later and I'm convinced they heard her and were wondering what emergency took place.)

We had a great time. The boys (meaning Ben and Josh) spent most of the time building in the sand. Josh apparently started making this amazing dragon that unfortunately collapsed before anyone could see how awesome it was. After that collapse, they turned the dragon into a big ramp for the little boys to drive their car on. This thing was pretty cool. There were tunnels, ramps, and even a truck jump. At the very end of the day, Josh spent his time on a giant truck ramp/jump. But try as he might, Roman's dinky little dump truck couldn't clear the jump. Sad day, but Josh did have fun doing it.

The kids had a great time filling up buckets with water and dumping the buckets on what Ben and Josh were working on. The poor babies were so cold, but hated being taken up to get wrapped up in a towel and warmed up. As soon as they stopped shaking, they'd beg to go back down and play. And of course they were let go so that they could join the rest of the little squirts.

We were a little more adventurous on the seados this time, and I think we have Josh to thank for that. I went out on one while Dana and Josh went out on the other. Dana was driving it and she doing stupid stuff on it that she doesn't usually do. In fact, she was jerking so much that TWICE she threw Josh off the back. HA! It was pretty much hilarious. But after watching Dana doing more zig-zags and donuts and stuff, I decided I could be more adventurous. I did more zig-zags, and donuts, and 360s. Okay, I didn't purposely do more 360s, those kind of just happened. And, unfortunately, one of the times that my seado did a 360, it threw me off and Josh was right there to see it. That was funny. I tried to hide what had just happen by popping right back on as soon as my head was back above the water, but also as soon as my head was back above water I heard Josh roaring with laughter. Even though it didn't hurt when I got thrown, I still wasn't in a hurry to have it happen again, so I was a little more careful. Granted, I was on my way back in when it happen, so it's not like I had too much time to be timid.

When it was time to go, Josh and I volunteered to take the seados back to help Dad load them on the trailer. Josh took his seado over and stopped. I was worried that it had run out of gas or stalled or broke in some other sort of way (it wouldn't be a day out on Mission Bay without something going wrong). I took my seado over and saw Josh picking up the hugest piece of seaweed I have ever seen. It was awesome. I really really wish I had somehow gotten a picture of it. You know that round ball part of a seaweed that you pop? The part that's attached to the leafy part? Yeah, that part that is usually no bigger than the size of a nickel was the size of Josh's head (and we all know that Josh has quite a large head :o)

After the trip to Mission Bay we were pretty lazy. Joy and the girls actually fell asleep on the couch and stayed asleep the rest of the night. But that's not a huge surprise because to get here, they had to be up at 3:00am and they are two hours ahead of us. So even though they fell asleep at 5:00, it felt like 7:00 to them, and they had been up forever without a nap.

Since Joy and the girls were asleep at Mom's house, I decided to go home with Kim and Ben. Roman and Isaac proposed that I come and have a sleepover with them. I went home and gave the boys a bath and helped get them ready for bed and then went out and watched a movie with Kim and Ben. Isaac is such a pillious. He came out of his room three times. The first time he walked out and said "I want to rub Mommy's back." But Kim and Ben sent him back right away. I guess it's not as cute after the fifth straight month of it. The second time he claimed he had to go to the bathroom. And the third time he didn't make it very far :o)

It was a very very good day, and the only other thing I have to say. It's in terms of advice. Don't watch movies with Kim! She talks the whole time and whines about parts that she doesn't get :o)

I'm Going Home!

Over a month ago I was talking to my dad on the phone and he mentioned that it would be planned perfectly if I came out for Father's Day and Kim's Birthday. He was thinking that I'd drive to Cedar City around June 17th, spend a couple of days with Grandma Petronaci, then drive out. That way I could spend Father's Day at home, and then on the 24th I could go to Disneyland with Dad and Kim for her birthday. Alright, sounded great, as long as I didn't have meetings that week.

Well... it worked out that I did not have meetings then so I headed home. On Wednesday I drove to Cedar City. I had a good little visit with my grandma. We went through her things and I found out about the history about what she's got lying around the house. While going through her stuff, I also pulled out some stuff I can use in my classroom :o) and my kitchen. We went out to dinner and got our nails done. Yep, it was a pretty nice visit. Now, initially I had planned to stay two days with Grandma, but then the plans changed so that Grandma would just come down with me. So, as long as she was coming with me, I asked if she'd be okay with leaving a day early because I was excited to get home. She agreed and so Thursday morning we headed out.

Oh, I'm not going to lie. A nine hour ride is long! It was a good ride for the most part, but I started getting antsy toward the end. By time we got home, I was ready to stand up and be moving around. The most important part is that we were home and we made it safely and sanely :o)

Battle of the Bands

This summer I wanted to be super social and even though I wasn't stoked to stay in Utah all summer long, I was looking forward to all the activities that are supposed to take place. All I heard when I got back last summer was how much fun everyone had when they stayed. Hmmm.... so far this summer the apartment complex I live in hasn't been as happening and social as I was promised it would be. Well, part of that is that I've been slightly anti-social. But, when I try to shake myself out of it, and I go out and do things, I usually have a pretty good time. So, when I found out last Sunday that a guy in our ward was in a band and playing at battle of the bands on Monday, I thought it'd be fun to go with a group of people to support him.

Monday night I went to FHE, but before we got very far I got a text from Nick saying that they were ready to go. Earlier that day I was talking to Zac at the pool and he had mentioned that it'd be fun to go to Mike's concert, and it just so happen that Zac was sitting next to me at FHE so when I got the text I invited him to come on too. We went and got Alysha and met up with Nick, Meghan, Mike, and Valerie. The doors were supposed to open at 8:00pm, so when we showed up at 7:50pm, we figured we'd be okay and not have to wait too long. When the doors didn't open at 8:00, our group started to get a little restless. Valerie was ready to go barge through the door (especially once she realized that the doors weren't locked). And Nick is always ready to make a show out of himself. Luckily Alysha and I were able to keep everyone in check until they finally did open the doors.

Mike's band was the first one up. They were super good. Their band was called "Behind Smoke and Mirrors" and just had the three guys in it. A lead singer (who had an English accent), the drummer (Mike), and a bass guitarist. It was sad though- because they were the first band up, the crowd wasn't super enthused so even though they were good, the best I could do was bob my head and bend my knees a little bit.

Oh gracious! The second band- I don't know what Velor (the club) was thinking when they invited them to participate. The band was good and all, but it was not the typical band. It was regay style-ish. There was a guitarist, a girl who did back-ups, and a guy who was all over everything. The third guy rocked: he played the bongos (technically they have a different name, but I don't now it), had some type of shaky shaky instrument tied to his leg, he pulled out finger cymbals, and wood blocks, and more throughout the different songs. Like I said, the band was good and all, but it was good background music, it's not something you could really get into. Of course there were less people paying attention to this band and people were talking. It wasn't like anyone was being super distracting or anything, but this crazy lady kept walking through the crowd yelling about how we all needed to be quiet and listen to their music. She was annoying and made everyone want to talk even more.

The third band was interesting- they ended up winning :o( They were back to being a rock band, so it was more typical and the crowd was pumped by then so the crowd's reaction to the third band was more enthused. At first I told Zac that it didn't matter what the band sounded like because I was going to enjoy watching the lead singer... but then he opened his mouth. Okay, well, when he first opened his mouth and started singing, I swooned at his voice... but THEN he started making the funniest faces when he sang and I stopped being such a big fan of the band.

It was getting late by the time the third band ended and my ride wanted to head back. We agreed that we would listen to the first song of the last band and then head out. We didn't even make it all the way through the first song. The fourth band was more intense than the others and as soon as the guitarist started doing the hard-core screaming, my car was ready to head out.

There were ups and downs to the concert, but overall, it was a super fun night!

Fireworks

I called up Emily on Saturday because earlier in the week we had planned to hangout when finals were over for her. She was trying to decided if she should take her one final (I know, hard, right?) on Wednesday or Thursday of next week. It wasn't until after I had hung up the phone with her that I realized that I leave Wednesday morning, so that regardless of when she was done, I'd already be gone. So, like I said, I called her up on Saturday morning to tell her that we should hang out that day. I had perfect timing. At that moment, she was making plans with some of her friends to go see fireworks that night and she asked if I wanted to come. Fireworks? Was she kidding? Of course I wanted to go!

She had to hang up on me because she had to finish making the plans, but she called me back and it was decided that the two of us would go out to dinner around 6 and then meet up with her friends at 7:30 to drive to Springville.

Around 6 I went to pick up Emily, and it wasn't until I pulled into the driveway of her apartment complex that I realized that she had moved. Luckily her new place wasn't too far from her old place and I was able to correct my mistake in a matter of two minutes or less. She chose to go to Zupa's, which is a really good soup, salad, and sandwich place, but it's one that I've done a lot recently. Let's see, in the last month, I've gone with Anna, Amanda, Ramone, and now Emily. And yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm not lying when I say that they were all in the last 30 days. Good thing there's so much variety because I did enjoy it every time I've gone. Em and I caught up over dinner, but it didn't take nearly as long as I had allotted time for- see, I was thinking that we would go to a more sit-down-ish place and since it was Saturday night, I figured there'd be a long line. No big though, since we were close to my place, we stopped by so she could look at my extra digital camera, seeing if she was interested in buying it. I don't know that she is, but either way- it's either going to make me a little bit of money, or it's going to be my school camera.

She got a text from a boy not too long after showing up at my place, so we had to go back to her apartment so that I could meet him and she could talk to him before we left. He looked like a nice guy, and if he's interested, I give her my go ahead.

I finally found out why there were fireworks on some random day in June once we were headed off. We rode with Matt (there are three Matt's in one apartment, apparently we road with "Cute Matt"), who is from Springville. He explained that every year they have Art City Days which is a week long celebration of Springville. I guess they've got a lot of city pride or something. Anyway, they have parades and dances and city classes and all this stuff all week and then Saturday there's a fair and fireworks show. Thank you Matt for being from Springville and knowing what's what.

It's been raining almost everyday for the past week. It fools me every time though because it will be nice and sunny in the morning, but then it gets cloudy in the afternoon, lightens up again, and then rains in the evening. Tricky tricky. Saturday was no exception. By time we got to the park and set up our tarp, it had started to sprinkle. No big deal, we just folded our stuff up into our tarp while we went a little ways over to play frisbee. It started to rain harder, but we kept on keeping on with our frisbee game. It was so much fun. The two Matts that were there are pretty decent at frisbee so they were doing so cool throws and catches and stuff, and we were just laughing and having a good time.

On the way in, Cute Matt was explaining that it's a tradition to get a scone at the fair, and how he was so excited for them. While we were playing frisbee, he kept on suggesting that we go walk around the fair and get a scone, but no one would take him up on it. We eventually did go though. The scones were big, but they weren't actually that fabulous. So, that's kind of a lame tradition, but I guess not if the people of Springville don't know what they're missing by having tasty scones. Emily, David, Kerri, and I decided to go check out the rest of the place. Emily kept on commenting on how it was like a mini Del Mar Fair. Um, no. Not at all. It was just like four food booths, three game booths, and maybe like six rides. Not at all comparable to the Del Mar Fair. Sometimes Emily is just straight up crazy :o) With such a small array, it didn't take us very long to get all the way around and head back to the group.

Everyone else was set up on the tarp getting ready to play Uno. We helped ourselves into the game and played a few rounds of uno, talked, watched the two Matts wrestle, and basically just screwed around until the fireworks started. They were supposed to go off at dusk, but because of the rain, it got delayed. At 9:30-ish we finally asked some people if the fireworks were even going to still happen, and they said that they should go off at 10, or they'd make an announcement saying they weren't going off. It didn't happen right at 10, but the fireworks did indeed go off. Rowena, Kerri, and I were on the same end of the blankets and we were singing and dancing along to the music that was timed to the fireworks, and we all had glow sticks, and it was a blast. I'm with "Good eyes Matt" though, I more enjoy the boom sound of the fireworks over the music playing. It wasn't until the very end when the music cut out that we got to hear the fireworks shoot off. Yeah, I like that sound.

After the fireworks we packed up and headed back. I had a super fun time and am sad that I'm pretty much never going to hang out with that group of people again. So, as is typical of me this summer, I had a blast doing something completely random and spur of the moment. And, as is typical of me all the time, I brought my camera but failed to take any pictures- yep, sounds like me :o)

My Classroom

Okay, so I'm super excited that I've got a teaching job and I'm oober excited that I'll be teaching at Geneva and I'm beyond stoked that my teacher retired and left me EVERYTHING. Okay, people who aren't teachers don't realize what I mean when I say everything. Most people ask, "Like what? She left you crayons?" Well, as a matter of fact, crayons are about the only thing that she didn't leave me. Oh my gosh, it takes so much money to get everything you need for a classroom. I can't even explain everything she left me, but I'll try.

First of all, she saved her legislative money (you get a piddly amount of money every year from the government) for years to work up to buy a t.v. with DVD and VCR in it. Yeah, she left that for me. She left a bunch of bulletin board borders and posters and a word wall (sight words that the kids are supposed to work on). The bulletin board borders I'm not going to use this year, but they'll come in handy down the road, I know they will. BOOKS!!!!! Oh, do you have any idea how long it takes to build up your own class library? Years. But no, I've got so many books, it's delicious. Not only books for the kids to read, but books for them to listen to (meaning books on tape), and resource books that I can go to for ideas, and resource books as in old text books that the school doesn't use any more but that still have excellent stories in them. She's worked on making poem posters that the kids can read as a center activity and she left me all of those on hangers and a hanger rack. There is so much paper in the closet (ooh, speaking of which, I haven't even had a chance to look in the closet much, gotta put that on my list of things to do soon), and pencil boxes for all the kids, and I really do have to look at what else because that closet is loaded to the max. There's art supplies in the back cabinet with paint and glitter and cotton balls, q-tips, pipe cleaners, etc. Shells, fossils, and rocks under the sink. Plastic and ziploc and paper bags in the draw. So many dry erase markers and erasers that I won't have to buy any of those for a while, even though teachers go through them like no other. A big comfy teacher chair, post-it notes, note cards, paper clips, rubber bands, staples, oooh, three electric pencil sharpeners that would have cost me at least $55 each. Oh, it's so much stuff. There's games that she's made over the years, and pattern blocks and math manipulatives (anything hands on that help the kids do math) and card games and flash cards.

I've been in my classroom now twice (since it became my actual classroom, not Mrs. Browne's). The first time I went and I spent about 3 1/2 hours there and only managed to go through about a third of the classroom. The second time I went it was just a short 1 1/2 trip and all I managed to do was organize the back closet area that contains books and videos (oh, those are something I forgot to mention) and then I went through one cabinet that had literacy stuff in it. I'm waiting now for them to clean the classroom so that I can work on the other half of the room, and I just reminded myself that I still have the closet to attack. And then I'll have to go through the filing cabinets. She has two large filing cabinets FULL of lesson ideas and art projects and I don't know what else. Do you see now that when I say EVERYTHING, I mean so much more than crayons? Oh, and there's also a couple of personal CD players and Walkmans for the kids so that they can listen to the books on tape and on CD. And personal white boards, and aaaahhhhh so much! Can you tell I'm ecstatic?

Yeah, and so the part that I have to cover is the classroom theme and decorations. I could go with a theme that she already had stuff for, but I'm choosing other wise. I want it to feel like my classroom, and not like I stole everything. So, my theme is the rain forest. I'm still working on exactly how my classroom will look, and once I get that figured out and fall into a little bit of money, I'll start shopping for the stuff and putting up the decorations.

This is what I'm thinking so far with the decorations and themes. The word wall is going to be a word waterfall. So the bulletin board is going to look like a waterfall and then after I introduce the words and have the students work with them, we'll put them up there (on raindrops?). Outside of the classroom where student work is displayed, the sign will say "high flying work" and will have a toucan. Inside the classroom, exemplary work will go on a bulletin that says "I spotted good work" and will have a jaguar. The book area will have a snake saying "sssssslip into a good book." The student jobs will have poison dart frogs that say "hopping into help." I think that's all I've got so far. I'm debating if I should do some vines hanging from the ceiling, but my initial thought was to hang some shimmery blue streamer stuff so it looks like it's actually raining in the classroom (thanks to Disneyland's It's a Small World for that idea), and I'm pretty sure I'm leaning more toward that idea than the branches. Oh, and I want to get an orchid to put on my desk.

Shoot, I've got to start putting as much time and energy into my curriculum planning as I am into my decorating. That's already on my list of things to do, so I'll get on it.

If you've got ideas for me about the rain forest, feel free to comment, I would love input :o)

Oh What Flirting Will Get You

Kristi's flirting of course, not mine :o)

Kristi had class again Thursday morning, but this time she really was back by 11:30 like she was supposed to be the day before. Again, we couldn't go to the ice caves because she had a study group at 3:00, and we wouldn't make it back in time. I knew Kristi didn't want to go, but she had suggested it, and I really did want to go, so I kept bringing it up every day. But it still never happened. When all is said and done, there were a bunch of things she promised me we'd do but we never did. It was still a good trip though, still a good trip.

Most of what we did before I left was talk. Well, I also figured out why she couldn't get music to play on her phone, but we talked while I worked on that too. But other than just chilling around the house, working on our tans again, the other thing we did was go to John Deere. On Monday when we were taking pictures, it was closed (duh, or else I wouldn't have been there acting like an idiot). Kristi always goes in there trying to get free stuff, and last time I went, we both got free hats. We walked in and Kristi's friend Brett (maybe that's his name?) was there. We looked around the store while he took care of some costumers and then Kristi and I went over and started talking to him. An hour later, we walked out with free hats. They're pretty cute too. The one I got last time I don't really like, but this one is for sure cute.

By time 3:00 rolled around, it was time for Kristi to go to her study group and time for me to head home. There were no storms to slow me down this time, but there were a couple spots of traffic and even more spots of construction that for sure slowed me down. The whole trip is supposed to take 3 1/2 hours, but it took me that long to get to Sandy, which is still 30 minutes from Provo. It was a good thing I had plans to stop off at Sandy though because driving was driving me crazy. Amanda helped my sanity by taking me to a really good pizzeria and then lending me the 5th and last book in a series I've been reading. After a little refresher stop in Sandy I headed back and I want to say that I crashed when I got home, but I bet that Alysha kept me up :o)

Quick, spur of the moment trip, at an end.

Dancin'

Wednesday Kristi had class at 9am until noon-ish. I decided that I'd get up and get ready right along with her, and then on her way to class she could drop me off at the temple where I could do some baptisms and then walk down the hill to Kristi's house and then chill there until she was done. The Rexburg temple is not as busy as the Provo temple, so I was in and out with no waiting and no problem. It was funny though. We had called the temple to make sure that I could come during open time, but Kristi's mom was worried that I was supposed to bring my own priesthood brethren so when I got there I double checked that I wasn't supposed to bring anyone. The one guy told me no and the other guy said, "well, you've been here before haven't you?" No, actually, that was my first time. So that guy shows me where to go and when I go to the counter to get my clothes he tells the lady that this is my first time because I'm too young to have done this before. Hmmmm? That's not what I meant when I said I'd never been here, I just meant not at that temple. And I'm pretty sure that 12 is old enough to be going there, so I definitely look older than 12.

Yeah, but having no wait and no problem was actually kind of a problem. I was out of the temple by 9:30, no joke. So I still had a lot of time to kill before Kristi was done with classes. I walked around the temple grounds but that only took like 2 minutes, so instead of walking down the hill to Kristi's house, I walked up the hill to see what I could see (oh, yeah, that's a mountain not a hill, and a bear not me). It was a gorgeous day outside, all bright and sunny, and I had put flip flops in my bag so I didn't have to wear church shoes on my walk (because that would have hurt). But I was still in a skirt and so wasn't in an as adventurous mood and so my detour walk didn't even take up as much time as maybe I would have liked.

I got back to Kristi's around 10:30 probably and read scriptures (a good activity to do after going to the temple). I did something else until it was time for Kristi to be done with classes, but she called and told me that she still had to study for and then take a test. Dang shoot. I grabbed a movie and headed downstairs. Luckily Kristi owned a couple movies I hadn't seen because when she had school work to do, that's what I resorted to. While she was studying and taking her test I watched "No Reservations" which is a super cute chick flick. And then on Thursday when she had a study group or something I watched one of the Fast and Furious movies that I hadn't seen, I think it was the second one.

By the time Kristi got done, it was like 4:00. So there was no time to go to the ice caves because we wouldn't be able to make it back in time for country dancing. I'm not quite sure what we did, probably a whole lot of nothing until it was time to go country dancing.

I had mixed feelings about it. At first I was super excited to go, but then at the bonfire, Kate was talking about how it's not great because the stupid boys only ask the obnoxious girls to dance, and she went on and on. That for sure made me less excited to go and hold up the wall. I was able to get myself excited again as the day rolled on, but then when it was time to get ready, I put some rap music on, and then by time I was ready, I wanted to go clubbing, not country dancing :o) And then I was not excited again once I found out that Kristi had made us miss the beginning where they teach you how to do everything. The dance goes from 7 to 10 with the first hour being an hour of instruction. We didn't show up until 8. Poody.

It ended up being total fun though. Kristi struck up a conversation with a boy and he asked her to dance. She told him that it was my first time here and he was about to ask me to dance, when he found out I was from California and got scared. I'm not even kidding you. When I said I was from San Diego, he took a step back. Ouch! He said that his old roommates were from California, and I guess they didn't really get along or something, because he was just about to ask me to dance until that. Whatev' his loss :o) I did get asked to dance, plenty, so it was a lot of fun. Although, I felt guilty every time a guy asked me to dance because I know it's more fun to dance with someone who knows what they're doing. Whenever a guy would ask me if I wanted to dance, I'd say "I'd love to, but I've got to warn you that I have no idea what I'm doing." They all said it was fine, led me out onto the floor, and then they all ended up complimenting me on how well I was doing for my first time- well, except for Ian. Ian made fun of me because I was concentrating so hard on my feet. He told me that he wasn't that scary and that I didn't have to be worried about screwing up because he wasn't going to get mad. He was the first boy I danced with and actually looked at, because I had to stop looking at my feet after he called me out on it.

People always ask me what type of boy I go for, and I usually tell them that I'm not too picky and I'll usually go with whoever asks. I thought I was telling the truth, but that night I figured out my real type. It's sick, but I'm attracted to scrawny little boys from Houston Texas. Kristi tried to keep pointing out cute boys to me while we were at the dance, but I just didn't see what she was talking about, we obviously have different tastes. The only boy that I was attracted to there was Ian (the smart alec who called me out), and he just so happened to be a scrawny little boy from Houston.

After the dance, it's tradition for the gang (Kristi's gang, obviously not mine) to go to Dairy Queen. So that was our next stop. Apparently they always stay until close (11) and then once they get kicked out, they head over to Broc's to play pool. Well, Broc was busy that night (we're all guessing he was out getting cosy with a girl) and so after Dairy Queen we headed home to get some rest.

Long Over Due

Kristi's friend failed again because one of her horses was sick and the other one had been sent off to go breed. Kristi has another friend who has horses so I had her call that girl to see if we could go Wednesday or Thursday afternoon. That girl wasn't able to go either so it turns out that I didn't get to go riding this trip. Such the disappointment :o(

Again, because the horse back riding fell through, we had to come up with some other plans for Tuesday. The plans for the bonfire had changed. We were no longer having by the river or at the caves, we were going to have it at some one's grandpa's land. Well, because we weren't having it at the ice caves, I really wanted to go check them out. Kristi said that we needed a truck because the roads were going to be like the ones down by the river. Well luckily Kristi's brother Steven showed up that day for a visit. Steven has a truck. Kristi didn't want to ask him, so I did. He said we could take it, but Kristi didn't want to go. WHAT?! Laaaame.

Instead of doing something fun and adventurous like exploring ice caves, we helped her mom clean out her cake mix cabinet. That was entertaining however, and a little on the gross side. Apparently her mom had recently gotten an e-mail that warned her that cake batter has yeast in it and so when it passes the expiration date, it starts growing mold. Well, she had a lot of cake mix in her cabinets and she decided to see how old it was to see if she needed to throw it out. Um... yeah... I think out of at least 30 boxes, she was able to keep 2. And it's not like they had just expired, oh no. Most of the cake mix boxes were from 2006, and I think the oldest one we found had expired in 2004. That's 5 years old. First of all, who keeps cake mix for 5 years, and who keeps buying more when there are already enough in the cabinet? The best part was that as Kristi was trying to throw them all away, her mom was trying to keep them, saying that it was too much to throw away, it was a waste to throw all of them away. Kristi reminded her about the e-mail and then took the kitchen trash out to the outside garbage just to make sure that her mom didn't try to remove them from the trash and put them back up in the cabinet.

Although that was the biggest paragraph of my blog, the event didn't take all that long, and we still had nothing to do. I had brought my new bathing suit because Kristi told me that we would go hot tubbing. I'm not quite sure why she told me we would go hot tubbing though because as soon as I got there she informed me that there were no hot tubs in Idaho. WHAT?! But, I still put my bathing suit to use that trip because I suggested that we go sun bathing out on the trampoline. My new suit is lower than my old one, and so I needed to try to even out the colors on my chest and get rid of that harsh line of contrasting exotic tan and bright white. We took music and books out to the trampoline and I was able to finish the book I had brought up with me. (Again, I do NOT recommend that anyone read I am Morgan le Fay) It's sad, I keep on reading books that people suggest to me, and they turn out to be not so hot.

And since we were on a trampoline, it's not like I could just not jump on it. I had even warned Kristi on the way out that there was no way that I could not jump on the trampoline once we were out there. That was super fun. Although I did have to be a little careful while jumping seeing as my suit is pretty low. But no worries, I did not flash a soul. Go me :o)

We did a whole lot of nothing after that before it was time for the bonfire. The girl's grandpa's house (where we had the bonfire) was really nice. His house is right on the river and there's a fire pit down the hill and, I don't know, it was just really pretty. We made tin foil dinners first thing and just sat around and talked. Of course, I'm not the most social one in group settings and so I sat there and listened while everyone else talked, but it was good conversation, so I had fun. After dinner we started roasting star bursts. I'd never heard of it before, but it turns out that they are really good. Kristi's friend Brandon fixed me one and that was the only one I got because then people started playing with the fire and contaminating it. For example, throwing Styrofoam into it, but it was especially the hairspray that made people stop roasting things.

Someone ran up and grabbed a can of hairspray out of the house and one of the little "look at me" girls (you know the type, they laugh too high and too loud, their hair is also too high, and they wear too much makeup) took a hold of it and was squealing every time she sprayed it. One of the boys suggested throwing the whole can into the fire and we were all on board. We all ran up the hill and left the can of hair spray with the giggly girl who promised that she'd be able to throw it in and run away in time. She did not throw it very well because we were all standing up top and nothing was happening. Brave old, stupid old Drew decided that he was going to go down there and see what was going wrong. He picked up the shovel and knocked the can. He then realized that it was still full of spray and so his next ingenious idea was to throw the shovel like a javelin at the can. That made it go off alright. But poor Drew didn't get to see the pyrotechnics because he had to dive, duck, and cover on the ground. It was pretty sweet. Sparks flew everywhere. When we went back down to the fire pit, we had to stamp out some live sparks and we found that plenty of things had gotten little holes burned into them. The starburst bag, the newspaper that was sitting on the bench, some grocery bags, and oh, don't forget that Drew had a small hole burned into his shirt! Oh, good times, good times.

Kristi and I had carpooled with Brandon, and he had brought his gun with him, but we didn't get around to shooting it for some reason. I suggested that we pull off somewhere and shoot for a little bit, but apparently it was too dark. I don't really know what difference that makes because even if I could see a target, it's not like I'd hit it or anything. But whatev'. So he dropped us off, and then it was time for beddy-by. Especially since Kristi had class early the next morning and I was going to get up right along with her.

Muddin' It, Redneck Style

When I promised Kristi that I would visit her over the summer, there were a couple of things that she promised me we would do. We would go horse back riding, country dancing, and drive tractors. When I called her to tell her I was coming she told me that she already had plans to go horse back riding on Monday and that she would also get a group together to have a bonfire.

We woke up Monday morning and called the friend that we were supposed to go horse back riding with, but something came up and she wasn't going to be able to take us that day. That's okay, we would just see if she could do it tomorrow. The only problem was that now we had to figure out something else to do. Kristi told me that she had already called up some friends to have a bonfire on Tuesday, but she hadn't figured out where we should have it yet. We were either going to do it out by the river or go to the ice caves. My vote was for the ice caves, that sounded pretty sweet.

Kristi told me that she wanted to go check out the river to see what the roads looked like. The reason she's most often out by the river is because she goes driving through the mud with her friends with trucks. So we had to check the roads to see if someone who was in a little ole car could make it out there okay. But she borrowed her brother's jeep, so I know that she really hoped that the roads would NOT be just fine for a car.

We drove out toward the river and turned off onto some dirt road. There were ruts and rocks and bumps everywhere. It was so much fun. We kept going farther and we hit a couple of small puddles (which were enough to get the jeep dirty), and then bigger puddles came later down the road. We made it to the river and Kristi was so shocked at how high it was. We didn't stay very long to check it out, because Kristi was antsy to find some more puddles. Oh, no worries, we succeeded in that quest :o) On the drive back to the main road, Kristi decided that this would be a not so great place to have the bonfire because not everyone owns a truck or a jeep (which surprises me, because we were in Idaho :o) Once we hit the main road, Kristi decided to drive to the other side to see if there was a better way to get to the river from the other direction. Well, that road definitely was better, as in more fun for us in a jeep, but definitely not better for people in tiny little cars. The first puddle we came to on the new dirt road we decided to explore was deeper than Kristi had thought it would be and so she lost a little bit of control- nothing big, it just surprised her a little. That's what I had pictured going through the puddles would be like every time so I loved it! Yeah, definitely that trail was fun.

There was one more stop we made on the way back into town. Kristi had one other spot down by the river in mind. We weren't able to get to it though because the road had been flooded. We made it past one part of the flooded road just fine, but then we turned a corner an Kristi stopped. She judged for a moment or two if it was worth trying to go through and then decided that the water was too deep. The good part about going through that part of the road was that it splashed up clean water at us. So we drove through that a couple of times to clean out the under carriage of the car.

Once we got back in town we knew we'd have to take the jeep to a car wash. The lame automatic car wash didn't do a thing to clean it. It was ridiculous. It's not like we got it all that dirty, and we had already rinsed it off by driving through the puddle of clean water. Immediately after getting out of the car wash, we had to drive across the street to the gas station so that we could wash the windows. Lame.

We got back to Kristi's house and bummed around for a little bit before deciding to watch the James Bond movie that I had never gone and seen for whatever reason, Quantum of Solace. When we were half way through the movie, Kristi got a call from a friend inviting us to go watch the newest Fast and the Furious movie. I was all over that suggestion! So we stopped Quantum of Solace, got ready, and her friends came and picked us up. These girls were hilarious. They did not hold anything back, and they just ripped into anyone, it was great. The movie of course was good, eew, except for the girls making out with each other. We had a little discussion about that on the drive home. We do not get at all why guys find that attractive or why girls would do it. Sick!

Anyway, when Kristi and I got back we went back down to the theater room to resume our initial movie. It took me a minute to remember the plot line of this movie when we started it, but I got back into the flow of this movie pretty easily. I'm pretty sure that by the time we finished that movie it was pretty late and we just headed to bed.

It was a pretty good memorial day, all except for the fact that we didn't have a bar-be-que :o(

Dang shoot, I forgot one other thing that we did on Monday. Okay, you know how Kristi promised we'd drive tractors? Well that was a lie because all of her dad's tractors are an hour and a half away on the farm. But, last time I went to her house (for Thanksgiving) I drove a tractor but didn't get pictures in it. So on Monday we drove down the road to John Deere and took pictures with a bunch of their tractors. All of them were unlocked, so it wasn't hard to make it look like we were legitimately driving them. And I guess if we had wanted to, we could have taken one for a spin because the key was in it and there was definitely gass in it. Yeah, so we got in some good pictures at that place before we moved onto our next activity.

The Potato State (because if I put "Idaho" I'm sure I'd get some giggly comments)

Ran-dom! I'm not usually the type of person who does things on the spur of the moment, but this summer has been way more sporadic and random for me. One Sunday I was thinking about the fact that I had promised Kristi (my old roommate) that I would come up and visit her in Idaho sometime during the summer. I got to thinking about it and how I actually had things coming up in the next couple months (meetings and other trips, etc.). When I thought about it, the best time to go would be right then. I had to be back in Provo that Friday to go to the last day of school at Geneva, but if I left Monday and came back Thursday, that would be a sufficient length. That's what went through my head before I called up Kristi.

I called her up and told her that it wasn't for sure, that I had honestly thought about it 10 minutes before calling her, but how would she feel if I came up Monday through Thursday? She said that would be perfect because Monday was Memorial Day so they didn't have school and Tuesday they didn't have school because it was a testing day (whatever that means) and then Wednesday and Thursday she's done with class by 12:30pm. Rock-it! I decided that this really was the perfect time to go so I double checked to make sure she wanted me and it was okay if I left in the morning and she said, "Why don't you leave tonight?" Why didn't I leave that night? I thought about it and decided that I had to stick around for a little while because my friend was coming over after he got off of work to visit for a while, but then as soon as he left, I decided I would scoot.

Like I said, ran-dom. I left for Idaho within 8 hours of thinking about the trip. Definitely NOT like me, but it worked.

On the drive up I saw the most awesome lightning storm. It was different though. I didn't see lightening bolts so much as I just saw the whole sky turn purple from time to time. Occasionally I would actually see a white and purple bolt, but mostly I just saw purple clouds. I turned off my music and rolled the window down a little to see if I heard any thunder. Nope, not a noise. At first I thought that the storm was farther away than I thought because I didn't hear the thunder. But I soon found out that my initial thought was correct, that I was driving straight into it. I quickly called my dad to make sure that I wasn't going to die if I got hit by lightening in my car. He assured me that I would be fine "some people die, but you'll be alright." Okay, thanks Dad. As soon as I drove into the storm, I couldn't enjoy the sky any more because I had to watch the road. It was dark by now and the rain was coming down pretty thick, so it was more difficult to see the road. I was so mad when I had to slow down, but I knew it was safest, so I slowed down and made it out, eventually.

Instead of taking 3 and a little extra hours to get to Rexburg from Provo, it took me four hours. Kristi and I talked for a little bit once I got there, but it was already 11pm and so I went to bed not too long after arriving.

It was the beginning of trip II.

Eh, Sometimes Not Having a Job Comes in Handy

I have too much time on my hands, it's true. And I have enough stuff to do that it should keep me busy, but I usually fill my days with a lot of not much. It's sad, I know, and I'm working on it. But sometimes not having a job comes in handy. Like the night that Amanda and I were talking and she complained about being so bored up in Sandy. I didn't have any prior commitments, so I told her I'd be up soon.

Amanda used to live in my apartment complex, but she recently moved to Sandy to get away from Provo (good move :o) Sometimes she get lonely though, because the social scene isn't as vibrant up there, especially when you don't know anyone. I'd already been to her place once when I went and spent a weekend with her while her roommate was gone and she was going to be super sad and lonely. That was a fun weekend filled with movies (the 3rd X-Men, whatever that's called, and the 2nd and 3rd High School Musicals), laughing, baking, dining, singing, and more. When I went up that time, she informed me that there was a version of "Oklahoma" that stared Hugh Jackman. SAY WHAT??? (Jaw drop here) I told her that next time I came up we would have to find that and watch it for sure.

So when I told Amanda I was coming up, I told her that I was going to leave right away and so she had 30 minutes to find that movie. She decided to take a shower instead, not realizing that finding that movie was not going to be all that easy. I made it back to her apartment before she did, and when she got there I hopped into her car because she had come back empty handed. We drove to a Borders in the neighboring city. She was really hoping that they would have it because she was only willing to go to 3 more places (including that one) before she gave up and initiated plan B. We walked into Borders, went to the movie section and hesitated just a moment trying to figure out where to start looking. This incredibly well dressed (apparently he was highly attractive as well, but I was stuck on the outfit) guy walks up and asks if he can help. I'm a little hesitant to ask because I'm not sure how popular this request is and I'm sure he's not going to have any idea what I'm talking about- but he can always go to his computer and look it up. I asked, "Do you guys happen to have Oklahoma staring Hugh Jackman?" He responds that he things they do, and then proceeds to walk straight to it. Rock-it! I became the hugest fan of that guy. One, his outfit was highly attractive (and according to Amanda, so was he) and two, he was all over helping us with our unique movie request. I would say that I fell in love with him, but he's way to pretty for me. Sad day :o(

Oh, we were hyped on our drive home, but we had to stop at the grocery store to pick up ingredients to make ice cream. Amanda has an ice cream maker and that was another one of the things we had planned to do on my return visit. Amanda remembered all the ingredients that we needed, but when we got home, she couldn't find the recipe. We found some others, but they called for different ingredients. We finally found a suitable recipe online, and tested our math skills as we cut the recipe into 2/3 of a recipe. We did a fantastic job with those calculations, if I do say so myself 8o)

While the ice cream mixture sat in the fridge (for some reason you have to boil it, cool it, then stir it- I don't know), we went and grabbed a bite to eat. We came back and put the concoction into the mixer, dumped the ice in, and got it going. It soon turned messy! Well, not so much messy as wet. I guess that the last time she had used the ice cream maker, she hadn't cleaned all the salt out enough and the salt had eaten away at and corroded the seal, and so when the ice melted, the water went all over the counter and all over the floor. Our solution... just put a towel under it and worry about it later.

While the mixer was going we started the movie... Good movie :o) It was a little long and I started to get a little restless toward the end, but I highly enjoyed listening to and watching Hugh Jackman. And the others weren't half bad either ;o) I really don't know what else to say about the movie- I mean it's obvious that if an attractive man can sing, he instantly becomes like 20 times more attractive- so I guess the only other thing to say about the movie is that everyone should see it, and many people should own it.

By time the movie was over, I was pretty tired, and Amanda and I both have the early meeting time for church, so I ske-daddled out of there. So although I wish that I had a job so that I one, had an income and two, had something worth while to fill my time, it sure was nice to be able to just pick up and help out a friend in need of some entertainment.

Florida- Day 6

Last day in Florida, and we made the most we could out of it. Well, we at least hit up the beach one last time :o) We drove to the beach that we went to on the first day (second technical day in Florida, but first active day), the one right across from the base. There was a warning on the pier that said it was dangerous to swim there because there was a current, and rocks, and a drop off. Yeah, no wonder that beach is deserted. You really couldn't swim there. The waves crash big and hard right where the rocks are, but it's too shallow to just try to dive into them. So you just end up getting beat up by strong waves while stepping and bumping into big pointy rocks.

After a few (okay, maybe a little more than a few) minutes of getting knocked around I suggested that we drive a little ways away and see if another beach was a little more calm. So we got out and packed up and drove to a beach a couple minutes down the road. The signs were the same on this pier and the water looked pretty much the same, but when I tried to get past the rough waves, I was able to do it. Score! Alysha started off collecting sea shells and joined me in the water later. By now I was aware of her hydrophobia and so I tried to be very patient and helpful. I helped her time when to get past the waves, when they were at a lull, and I taught her how to just ride over the top of the smooth waves by just treading water. And I kept asking if she needed to go back in. I think she honestly had fun, but I know she was still honestly a little scared. But go Alysha, way to try it out :o)

After the beach we went back to her grandpa's to change and pack the last things up. Before we got to Florida Alysha told me how her grandpa always takes her to Checker's to get burgers even though it's not all that great of a place. I told her that we had to go check it out once before we left. That was the day we decided to go (because it was now or never). We had driven by a couple of Checker's restaurants on our way to other things and I told Alysha that I bet that it's just like Rally's. Well, once we got our food, I looked at the bag, and sure enough, the bag was a Checker's/Rally's bag- it had both names on it.

Okay, back up just a little bit. When we were at the beach we saw some clouds coming in. It didn't really phase me at first but then I thought. Storm clouds = storm = lightning. Ocean WATER + lightening = no bueno. It started raining right as we got back to Alysha's grandpa's house. By time we went to grab lunch, it was raining a little harder, but it wasn't too bad. As soon as we got back to her grandpa's house no more than 7 minutes later, it was down pouring. So much so that in the 10 seconds it took us to get from the car to the house, we were both DRENCHED and the food back was totalled, it fell apart when Alysha set it down on the table. I can't lie, I thought it was pretty awesome. I'd never experienced rain like that before. It was intense, but it was fun.

Alysha's grandpa was a little worried about the rain delaying our flight or something, but as we headed out, the rain slowed down and stopped, and our flight left on schedule. Eew... I could not fall asleep on the plane. I was so tired, and I would try to fall asleep- I'd lay down and close my eyes, put my ipod in, but nothin', I just couldn't do it. But what was even worse was that Alysha could fall asleep, without a problem. So not only was I jealous that I couldn't fall asleep, but I also had no one to talk to no the trip home. And I was so tired that reading or doing the mind games I had brought didn't sound too appealing (although I did end up reading and finished the book I had brought- I do not recommend anyone to read The Mysterious Benedict Society it's not good).

We landed in Salt Lake, wonderful Amanda came and picked us up and took her to her place, and I drove Alysha and I back to Provo. Thus ended our fun filled trip to Florida.

Florida- Day 5

Sunday was a chill day. We woke up and went to church. The church building wasn't too far away from Alysha's grandparents' house, but the one road we needed to turn onto didn't have a sign on it. So luckily I had the navigator on my phone. Man that thing came in handy on that trip- real handy. We sat in the back to make sure that we weren't sitting in any one's "usual" spot. Alysha was surprised how many people came up and introduced themselves to us asking if we were new. It was so funny. I didn't know where to tell people where I'm from. Technically, I'm from San Diego area, but I had just come from Provo. So I usually said, we're from Provo, but originally I'm from San Diego. One person told me San Diego is a nice place to be from. I agreed, and then pointed out that Florida is also a nice place to be from. That made them smile.

We only stayed for sacrament meeting, and it was pretty good, but it is loud in the back of the chapel and the microphone was not turned on very loud, so I missed some of what the first speaker said. The second one spoke up a little better. Alysha hated the first talk because she said the lady read straight from the Ensign for most of it. Oops, I guess if I read the Ensign more, I would have recognized that too. Busted.

After church Alysha left to visit more of her family. She's got a lot of family down in that area. I guess it'd be like if Grandma Petronaci still lived in Escondido, and I went home to visit. Nope, I'd still be a little behind her numbers... off by one set of grandparents... but she doesn't have sisters and nephews, so I guess we're even. I decided that it wasn't necessary for me to go with her and be a tag along while she tried to get in some quality family time so I stayed home to catch up on my journal. Well, that didn't exactly happen. I started writing in my my journal, but then I stopped and did some scripture study, and then I took a nice long nap.

Once Alysha came back we decided to swim in her grandpa's pool. I'd spent the time I was home in the house and hadn't even realized what a great day it was outside. I quick changed into my suit and got into the pool. Mmmm... it was nice and warm. It's a tiny little round, above the ground pool, but her grandpa still has lots of toys for it. He was sitting in a floating chair when I got in, and then he brought in a raft for me to sit in. By time Alysha got changed, I didn't think there'd be room for her to get in, but her grandpa pulled out an intertube for her to play with :o) He's such a nice guy. We eventually got the stuff out when her grandpa went inside, and we had a good relaxing two hours in that pool before it was time to shower and get ready for dinner at Alysha's grandma's. Freaking gracious!!!! All day at Disneyworld, no sun. Half a day at Kennedy Space Center and half a day at the beach, hardly any sun. Two hours in her grandpa's pool, and I got so red. It was embarrassing and sad.

Dinner at Alysha's grandma's was super good. I got to meet one more member of the family there too. Her uncle who lives in Georgia was down and staying with her grandma. We had a fabulous home cooked meal of pork chops, twice baked potatoes, vegetables, and homemade cake for dessert. After dinner, Alysha's uncle set up the wii and we went into the grandparents' room to play wii. I rocked at bowling, which is funny for two reasons: one, I suck at bowling in real life and two, the remote I was using was messed up and would send the ball in a different direction then you actually threw it. I was a pretty tricky pitcher when it came to baseball, but only made it as far as second base when it was my turn to be up to bat. Tennis was a half and half kind of thing. I won half the time, the other half I obviously didn't win. But boxing was fun. That was the last one we did. Alysha's a dirty fighter. She was throwing bunches below the belt the entire time it was her turn.

We said our goodbyes after playing and headed back to her grandpa's house and went to bed. A very simple, family filled Sunday. In other words, a perfect Sunday.