Monday, July 07, 2008

From the Mountains, To the Valleys


4th of July 2008

This year I celebrated the fourth of July with some of my favorite people in the great outdoors!


Payson lakes has always been a favorite, close, camping spot for our family and that's where we headed. We escaped the heat of the valley and enjoyed 3 days of fun in the beautiful mountain air!


Mom and Dad headed up Thursday morning. The rest of us trickled up and by dark everyone was set up and settled around the fire!



We roasted marshmallows,



and after two attempts.....


Steve finally got the perfect s'more made!


And what's a family gathering without Grammy offering chocolate and other goodies?
We talked and sang songs around the fire until a fellow camper reminded us that it was after 10:00, quiet hour. After a few snide remarks from our party ( I won't mention any names!), he threatened to get the camp ranger to come calm us down! This gave us a good laugh.
I can only imagine what that man did when, during the middle of the night, some druggies had a full out, R rated, screaming fight that lasted a couple hours!



The next day was spent at the Lake!


The boys headed out on the canoe...


While the girls sun-bathed.


Mom couldn't resist the water or Jade's float toys...


She tried out the dolphin followed by the water dragon.


Jourdan, Shirley, and I headed out in the canoe determined to catch a fish. While we were out we were told by a kayaker that fishing wasn't allowed! Before we could get too angry, the kayaker revealed herself as Marg's best friend Char! So we sat in the middle of the lake and had a good chat with Char!


A few of us forgot to put sunblock on and got scorched by the sun. I had to sleep with a cold water bottle between my legs because they got so burnt while I was fishing in the canoe!

We were concerned that rain would ruin our dinner as dark clouds set in. After a short sprinkling, it stopped and we enjoyed dutch oven sloppy joes, corn, fruit, and a delicious dutch oven peach cobler.
We went to bed tired and woke up for another day of swimming!


I got to spend Saturday night with some of my other favorite people! After a quick scrub in the shower, Jack and Kyle picked me up to go to the Salt Lake Bee's baseball game. I invited my good friend Dave to come and we met up with Jenn and Eric at the field (thanks for the tickets guys and the pic Jack!). There was a firework show after the game which we all loved! Especially when Neil Diamond's "We're coming to America!" came on!


A little camping, a little baseball, fire, and fireworks. It doesn't get more American than that!

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Enjoying.........

my favorite bands new release


on my new...




Thursday, May 08, 2008

Caught...

IN THE RAIN!

On my mission I learned to love to ride bikes everywhere!
(even if we did look like freaks in helmets and skirts)
I've been so happy to ride my bike to and from school these past few weeks!

Yesterday, even though rain had been forecast, I took the bike.....



and said....BRING IT ON!



Having finished school and work I headed home, and as I was pedaling up the diagonal, mother nature laughed and BROUGHT IT ON big time!



I smiled and pedaled through the puddles as everyone sat comfortably in their cars.
But I knew who was having the most fun.....




Needless to say, I came home COMPLETELY drenched!

Friday, April 25, 2008

Katy took this picture during our trip to Verona, summer 2004
We got a good kick out of it!


A Tribute to Italian Graffiti
...dedicated to cousin Katy :)



("Il punk non e musica." Punk isn't music)
Prato

Agreed. Not a huge fan of punk myself.





("Se domani Gesu tornasse sulla terra Ratzinger lo farebbe crocifiggere! No papa. No problema!")
This one is better left untranslated!
Livorno


Obviously there's someone in Livorno who is anti-pope.





("Il papa fuma i joint." The pope smokes joint)
Livorno

One of my personal favorites!





(Where is the happiness?)
Lucca

Yeah, where IS the happiness?





(love is the law)
Oristano

I guess...


Thursday, April 24, 2008

Alla Prossima, Italia!

One chapter ends and another one begins. Here's the last tribute to bella Italia and the people, places, and adventures of my mission.

MTC - where it all began



PRATO







LIVORNO



ORISTANO




ROMA






ARRIVEDERCI