Family Pictures

We decided to do family pictures on Sunday up in the canyon with all the leaves that have changed colors. I think the turned out great!! I absolutely love my family and I am grateful for every one of them!! I can't believe how quickly everyone grows up!!

Going to Virginia

Well ever since I got back to Utah my back has not bothered me alot and my doctors don't want to do surgery again; I am so happy about this! It is a herniated disc but we have other things we will do it if bothers me again. I can't help but think God had to throw that bump in my road to open so many new doors I wouldn't have been facing if it weren't for this. I have been offered a job in Virginia and I head out there tomorrow. I am so excited as I think it will be great for me and there is a huge university in the city that I am really hoping I can get into so I can do school for nursing.. I am excited for this new path life is taking me and I hope I can enjoy the ride!

Back in Texas

For the past 2 months I was down in Texas helping one friend with her kids while her husband was out of town, one friend with wedding stuff and just hanging out and seeing everyone. It has been a fun 2 months! We went to the lake, spent many weekends in the pool, many playdates at the park or chick fil a, getting pedicures and manicures, lunch with friends, babysitting, seeing loved ones and hanging out! It was fun to spend so much time with my dear friend D I am sure her kids got sick of me being there 24/7 but I loved getting to spend so much time with them! I don't think I took many pictures but I had so much fun getting to see so many old friends and meet so many new ones!!

Katy Perry

For my birthday my parents gave me tickets to go see Katy Perry my sister and sister in law went with me to the concert. It was so much fun! She put on an amazing show! She knows how to perform and it was so great to spend time with a couple of my sisters!

Chicago!!

I had the great opportunity to attend the S.O.F.T conference this year in Chicago. I absolutely love going to the conferences! It is so much fun to see everyone, catch up on things, hang out, play with all the angels, and feel at home in our big family! I got to attend the welcome dinner which is always a hit, then of course the picnic, balloon release and auction like every year. A few friends and I went down the the pier where we walked around and just had lots of fun! There were so many new families and it was great to meet them and their angels! I absolutely love S.O.F.T and being a part of it! My brother changed my life so much in his short 52 hours here on earth! Before we left we were able to meet up with the C family in downtown Chicago for some real Chicago Deep Dish Pizza!! YUMMY!!! I had such a great time and can't wait til the next conference!!

White Water Rafting

My sister in law and her family have a big camping trip every year where they go white water rafting down the snake river, this year they invited me to join them and I was so excited to go! I LOVE CAMPING!! After getting up there and getting set up my friend and I got to join on the adult run down the river ( we had never been before so we were seated in the inside of the boat while everyone on the sides did the rafting). The water level was so high this year due to all the rain so I guess it added some new things to the trail, it was so much fun to go down in and we made it with out a problem!! We then did a kiddie run which is just a smooth ride down that all the little ones get to go on, it was fun to see all of them enjoy the river as much as the adults. We got back to camp and had dinner and smores while we all talked around the camp fire the next day my sister in laws dad took my friend and I, my brothers friend, my SIL's sister and her husband for a run.. Well there is a place that they call lunch counter and this year it has 4 waves 14+feet each right in a row that you go down.. Right before we get to this point her dad is sitting there yelling we're not gonna make it, we're not gonna make it so of course it puts the negative vibe in the boat and we have 2 newbies who have never done it before so we hit the first wave and I know I am going out so I plug my nose and hold on to my ore and go in, me going in set the balance of the boat off which shot my friend off the side on the other side. I continue to hold my ore and fight off the next 3 giant waves and like 5 smaller waves when I look up the boat is still behind me so I start trying to swim to it but get caught in a little cove type thing and I am swimming as hard as I can and I'm not going anywhere, next thing I know they are now down river from me and I am still fighting my hardest to get to them.. Her dad stands up on the back of the boat and throws the rope to me well there was a knot in the rope so it pulled the bag out of his hand so I am now in the water with my ore, the entire rope which is not in the bag anymore so I am getting tied up in the rope trying to swim to my raft that is trying to get to the rocks to come help me. Luckily a raft was coming in behind me so I decided to swim to them and their rope was in the water so I grabbed that and got pulled to the side of the raft mind you I am still wrapped up in my rope, and holding my ore and now tangled in their rope as well.. My raft got stopped at the rocks where her dad hiked over to get me and the rope then we hiked back over to our raft to finish our ride. We had another moment where her sister almost fell in but was grabbed by her dad and had her foot hooked down well enough it didn't pull her all the way in. It was such an adventure! It was a rush, so exciting, so fun and the best experience!! My SIL had brought the kids down to see us go over the lunch counter part and the kids were convienced that Ki-Ki drowned! That afternoon my friend and I went on one last run with my bro and sis in law, her dad, cousin, my bro's friend and her two brother in laws, we made it down the river with no problems and it was so much fun!! Thanks C family for letting us join!!

Here is the run on the first day


Here is the first wave


I have fallen in you can see me in the bottom left corner


You can see the handle of my ore


There is a tiny piece of the handle of my ore, look hard


And I am gone!!

Road Trip With G'ma and G'pa

*Warning this post is going to be long and have half a billion pictures on it!

Months ago I had made arrangements to join my sister, my cousin and my grandparents on a road trip. The first day my sister, grandparents and I flew out to Orlando where we would wait for my cousin to fly in. While waiting for her we got a call from my aunt saying that H's plane was delayed and wouldn't be there for a couple more hours so we decided to go to the hotel check in, drop all our stuff off and then go back and pick her up, while we were at the hotel we got another call from my aunt saying that her plane was not leaving til very early the next day so she wouldn't be in til the morning. The next morning we woke up really early to get to the airport to pick up H and then we headed off to Disney World!!! H has never been! We were meeting up with my bro and sister in law (they are doing the 6 month Disney intership thing). We only have 2 days and 4 parks to hit! So it'll be a busy few days!

We decided to do the Animal Park first none of us have to that park and we were all so excited! It is the biggest of all the parks and it was so amazing to see all the animals! They have a saffari ride that is like 20 minutes long and you see all sorts of animals, elephants, lions, giraffes, hippos, alligators, rinos, soooo many that I can't even name! We then walked around and saw so many more animals they have like these walkway things were there are tons of different birds flying around. It was really cool! In like the middle of the park is a big thing where the big monkey's can swing from tower to tower. It was such a fun park and so fun to go there!!

We then headed over to the Magic Kingdom, the lines really weren't to long and it was so fun especially to be with H and see her experience it all for the first time! We of course made sure to hit all the Disney classics to make sure H got to do all of those. K and K know alot of background stuff and some random little facts about Disney so it was fun to hear about all those things. We got some VIP sitting for the castle and firework show! (My favorite part!) They have a big projection show that they do on the castle it was so amazing that they can do something like that and it was so cool to watch!! Then there was the firework show!! AMAZING!!!! I freaking love fireworks! (I've told my mom I want to be cremated and turned into fireworks:)..) We also watched the famous eletrical light parade, so fascinating!! It was such a perfect ending to a WONDERFUL day!!!

The following day we went over to Disney Studios because there were a few rides we wanted to go on before we headed over to the other park. We did the big rides and saw a fee of the characters then ate lunch at Pizza Planet from Toy Story, we didn't spend much of our time at this park because we wanted to spend most the time at Epcot so we got on the tram and headed over there. Epcot is such a cool park!! We started by going on a few of the rides ( the lines were long so we didn't go on all of them). We then played at the cool water spot (the water jumps from place to place or jumps up in little drops) so entertaining for all ages! We then decided to head towards the countries and walk around we knew we wouldn't make it all the way around since there are so many and the day was quickly coming to an end but it was fun to see what we were able to. We then found some good seating for the awesome firework show! SO AWESOME! We ended the night by stopping and buying some ornaments and stuff. It was so great to spend time with everyone and be in Disney where it is so magical!! Thanks K and K for showing us around and being our own personal tour guides!

Next day wake up and drive to Florida city where we planned to stop at the Everglades and drive over to key west. We did the Everglades but I think we were all a little disappointed on what it was, we thought it would be different (more marshy) then it was but it was still cool to see, we got dinner and stayed at our hotel that night where us girls went swimming. The next day it was time to drive to the Florida keys but we had to stop by the hospital for grandma to get some blood drawn needles to say 8 hours later we finished up with all the "medical" drama but were to behind on our day so we got dinner and went back to the hotel. The next day we drove to the keys ( we didn't go to key west cuz it was a little to far) but we drove on the keys and over a few bridges. There were some places where we stopped and us girls got in the water so H could swim in the ocean unfortuantely it wasn't like the ocean ocean where you can swim in the waves and stuff but it was beautiful white sand and warm water where you could swim. We then headed up to Tampa ( H had to leave the next day:(..) We drove by a cool light house and some more fun sites on our way. The whole trip G'ma has been saying that all she wants to see is an alligator. On one of our bathroom breaks there was a little ramp thing that went up next to a river(?) where we walked to to see if we could by chance see a gator and praise our lucky stars we did!! We saw a HUGE alligator and a giant sea turtle. We fed him some marshmallows that we had and a smaller gator came over as well. It was so cool to see and G'ma was so excited!! That night we ate at a restuarant in our hotel I thought it was so good and they have air hockey tables and dart boards and stuff to play with.

The morning came to soon when we had to drop H off at the airport :( We headed out towards New Orleans we stopped somewhere in Florida along the skinny little part of the state ( I of course don't remember the name of the city tho.) It was super tiny but still nice we got there early enough that we were able to do some laundry and just relax a little bit. The following day we continued our road trip we drove to Mississippi where we stayed in Pascagoula and the next day where we were in Biloxi. The day were were going into New Orleans we decided to go on a boat swamp tour it was soooo cool! They have a few huge alligators that would come right up to the boat and then little ones that would swim by, the marsh land is actually very beautiful and it was cool to see all the trees and plants and how they have to grow to survive. We then went down a part of the canal where people actually live! It was so interesting to see thier houses are literally right on the water and the look of them and stuff was something you'd see out of the movies. It was such a cool experience and I was glad we were able to see more Gators for G'ma! That night when we got into New Orleans there was a freak rain storm, it was pouring so hard and bad that we literally drove around the city and went back to our hotel.

The next morning we drove around New Orleans again so we could see the city and then we made our way back towards Florida. I don't remember all the places we stayed our stopped but it was fun, the last night there we stayed in St. Augustine, what a cool little city! there is so much history there and I wish we were able to spend a little more time there to see everything! It was really neat! The next day we drove back to Orlando where we got on our plane to go home. It was such a great trip and so much fun to spend time with my grandparents and cousin!!

2 weeks 5 states Many state/national parks and 100's of memories later!!