Boating

So today my family woke up at 5:30 am to hit the lake for some early morning skiing and wakeboarding!!! We get up so early because thats the only time you can find good water now that so many people in the world have boats :D its actually kind of funny because we usually leave the lake around 8 (since my dad has work and he is the only one who can back the trailer) and that is when the rest of the boats usually GET there! they all look at us like we're crazy as if to say " you're getting off already?" we are early birds i guess.. although we do wish we could stay longer some days which brings me to the point of my blog post. my parents have just decided that they should teach me how to back the trailer into the water so we can go without my dad :P Wow. last week on the 24th of july was my first experience backing the trailer down and it was hilarious to say the least haha my whole family got a kick out of it. And the worse part was that it was the 24th so a lot of boats were trying to get on the lake so there was a huge line watching me struggle and waiting so THEY could get on the lake! my family laughed pretty hard, looking back it was kinda funny but i was just stressed! (wes and family remember when my parents tried to teach me to drive the boat on the trailer and i pushed the gas too much and lifted the prop to fast which then caused a huge fountain spray of water to get everyone on the deck soaking wet? :P haha yeah. it was ALMOST as funny as that time) so anyways we decided to get a video of me backing it in this week. its not nearly as bad as last week. nearly. but its still pretty bad and i got a kick out of my family and josh's commentary throughout the whole video so tuh duh! my first video blog post. we'll see how it turns out.

*disclaimer*
Kristin was being the videographer, and lets just say she has no future as a professional... its a wee bit shaky. hang in there, its gonna be a bumpy ride.


well that was about the hi light of my day. the rest of the day was spent reading and reading and reading more american heritage stuff. (why do i never learn my lesson about procrastination?!) anyways, congratulations to those of you who have made it through the whole movie clip! i hope it brought as much amusement into your lives as the lives of my fam :D

Family Day :)

I love Sundays. There is nothing better then sunday naps and family time!!! Our newest sunday tradition is that after church the whole fam makes pancakes :D yum! my personal favorite is banana wheat pancakes (we have the best recipe so good! credit to aunt jennifer) we usually add blueberries/chocolate chips or put cut up strawberries and bananas on top its delish. Then everyone usually crashes into bed for an hour or two of nap time! then the rest of the day is spent playing games together or just whatever spontaneous thing we do :) last sunday shay nate and andrew built a fort. it was a pretty intense fort with cords and a balance beam holding it up and everything! wes would've been impressed haha i must admit it was probably better then any of the forts he built when i was around :D

me, kris, shay, andrew, and nate

Shay and Andrew even slept in the fort that night, pretty impressive! me and kristin tried to drop in on the party around 11 but we were much too late. Andrew and Shay were both sound asleep. Neither me nor Kristin dared to try and enter the fort in the dark to poke them awake. We figured it would be a security risk to the fort since my butt barely fit through the entrance under the yellow armchair foot stool :P haha

Then today my family went on a family bike ride :) in the rain! it was a blast. Andrew and Nate called it the tour de Lindon since the Tour de France is going on right now and we had a little family race at times. lol we're dorks but it was a lot of fun. Even shay is getting better at keeping up with us which is hard since her bike is smaller and doesn't have that great of gears. :) Then it was family home evening time (since our family is never home the same time on monday) and let me tell ya, our family home evening is probably different then most :D haha we start out singing songs which is normal enough... but ever since i was little and had lots of energy i made up moves to all the songs (being the dancer i am) such as Wise man built his house upon a rock, Im a VIP, Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam, and more so our songs get pretty wild... one of these days im going to have to video tape it or something :P haha im sure it'd be hilarious to watch in 20 yrs when im old and have wild kids and wish they'd sit still for 10 seconds then i'll remember what i put my parents through hehe.

the fam after the bike ride in the rain. you cant see very well but we were all pretty wet.

On another topic of interest, my grandparents arrive home from Thailand tomorrow (where they are on a mission) in order to be in attendance at my Uncle Lyle's wedding to Zaret this Friday :) They will be staying with us at my house for an entire week before they fly back to Thailand. My sister Shay is especially excited and since they will be staying in her room she has already put up this sign on her door:
My aunt and uncle, Roger and Marci, and their 4 kids will also be staying at my house this week but wont arrive until wednesday or thursday. Like usual, my mom had us frantically cleaning the house yesterday in preparation for all of our house guests. haha it should be an interesting and exciting week :P

4 wheelin baby!

So this week I was lucky enough to get to go four wheelin with heather dear! it was such a blast! we went at night with her parents, and it was gorgeous to be up in the mountains while the sun set. We saw a ton of deer and a couple squirrels. She also re-taught me how to drive the manual 4 wheeler haha and after awhile i got the hang of it and am now fearless!! ;) well mostly :D i came home without a scratch in sight! which is a rare occasion for someone of my accident prone nature lol. I always love spending time with heather she is a friend any girl would be lucky to have! thanks again heather for the awesome night!

the before shot :D haha dirt free so far!
heather showin off her sexy dragon helmet!
me ready to rumble!
the sunset from the squaw peak mtn. im hot really sure where we were :D oh and this photo doesn't do it justice.
i love the mountains!
heather and our sweet ride.
after our adventure had ended and nightfall had come! we didn't get nearly as dirty as the time we went 3 yrs ago at fish lake.. and just to prove it..
here is us 3 yrs. ago after four wheeling in fish lake! woot woot! so fun :) good times haha

new loves of my life!

While my mom and kristin were in Macey's looking for a tie for josh, i couldn't help but steal away to the shoe department where i found these beauties...

at 40% off they were irresistible! aren't they so cute! I wanted them in red, but they only had size 6 and 9 1/2 so i went with metallic gray! They are the first shopping purchase I have made since wes went on his mission. it is also the first time i've been shopping since wes left.. haha maybe thats a good thing. But of course when I got home I had to have a mini fashion show with my sis. she took pics of me in the last 2 outfits i tried on...

first, the shoes made me feel wild and mischievous! (skirt is an old dance costume.. not something i normally wear haha)
and sassy!
and very excited to go to church this week!

The Molly Experiment

So my little gerbil molly that i got just before wes left on his mission is nuts!! seriously! I swear she is controlled by an evil spirit or something! she is the HARDEST thing to catch ever and once you do catch her she'll either pee on you or try to escape as fast as she can :P sheesh. and the pet store guy said that gerbils were friendlier then hamsters... well let me tell yall that it isn't true! so dont believe it! I mean all i wanted was a little mans best friend (well ok... so the parentals dont allow dogs or cats which pretty much left hamster or gerbil) and i have had 2 hamsters before that i loved, but he convinced me that i would like the gerbil alot more, so i trusted him. Well have any of you had gerbils? were they nuts like molly or is molly just insane? haha cause seriously she trys to eat through her metal bars and dig through the plastic bottom of her cage. Nate and I decided we had to take matters into our own hands. We are so desperate that we now have molly listening to classical and piano music to try and tame her wild spirit :D so far it seems to be working? only who really knows? maybe the noise just scares her which is why she quietly sits inside her little wood house instead of eating the metal bars :P aw well better then the awful sound of gerbil teeth scraping metal bar!

Secondly, I will post a few of the pics that my sister Kristin took of the family in lake powell last week so that you can all better understand my pain and agony of having to stay behind.

while at home i missed...

the beautiful sunsets of lake powell!!!
(josh and christie)

crazy tubing
(josh, shay, and andrew)

naps up in the front of the boat :)
(josh and kristin, aww..)

6 am ski runs on the glass water while the sun rises!
(mom skiing)

watching my brothers and josh attempt tricks on the wakeboard.
(josh back flipping)

being goofy with the fam!
(shay and nate the super heros!)

man sometimes growing up and having responsibilities is no fun at all :D haha have a great day everyone!!!

A Proud Moment

I do not know what makes me prouder. the fact that my brother is growing up, or the fact that i get to inflict pain on him with his permission! (after all those scars he gave me when we were little i can say this without guilt ;) haha) Who did he turn to a few months ago when he found his uni-brow must go? none other then mewah! and now once a week, or every other week, he comes to me tweezers in hand ready for his next session with me as the pain inflicter :D all joking aside though its amazing to see him grow up :) I cant believe he is finally past the "cooties" phase. it seems like just yesterday that if we even brought up the subject of girls the discussion usually ended on his part in tears :P but none of that anymore! from what i can tell my brother is going to be even more popular then kris (which is saying something) and kris was already oodles more popular then me :D haha i was the nerd all growing up, kristin is the popular cheerleader with millions of friends, and according to a girl nate's age that i used to babysit, he is well liked by everyone, girls and boys alike... I am not sure how this trend happened (it must be the awkward first pancake in me haha for all those of you blogger friends who know what that is! go first pancake club!) and those of you who dont know i will post the definition right... about.. now...
*first pancake
[fûrst pān'kāk'] noun

The oldest child who usually lacks social skills that their younger siblings have. Taken from saying that the first pancake cooked generally doesn't turn out because the griddle is still heating up. A first pancake doesn't have an older sibling to watch go through the basic firsts of life and instead must figure them out for his or herself, leaving him or her in many awkward, scary situations.

props to katie for the definition of a first pancake, and now you have all been enlightened on its meaning :)

On another note, just a heads up to all of you single ladies out there that are still under the impression (like i was) that if you are sitting alone in the Cougareat, but are studying or reading out of a textbook, that you will be safe from being approached, it turns out we were wrong. Last week im eating before going to the library to study after class, reading and going over all my notes for my midterm when i hear, is it alright if i sit here? I look up with a VERY full mouth, at a guy, and cant help thinking to myself, are you serious? there are at least 40 empty tables and you have to sit here? when im studying? but what with the mouth full and all, i opted that it might probably just be easier to nod. So he sits down... way nice guy, down to earth, just got off his mission like 2 months ago, and as awkward as they come. ok maybe that isn't fair. I usually am not the easiest person to talk to when i dont know someone. so you can imagine my surprise when he asks me my last name as he is leaving and tells me he'll look me up... to which i was so shocked i dont think i even replied... i just watched as he walked away.... 5 hrs later when i get home and get on the computer, he has added me onto facebook. 4 days later i get on facebook to check the usual, when he messages me on facebook chat (don't even get me started on how much i HATE facebook chat) but for some reason still not known to me, i reply. he then asks me to lunch ON facebook chat! wow.. our stupid technical gadgetry world is ruining human communication skills. I mean what was i supposed to say? so today after class i went to lunch with a nearly complete stranger.. I recognized him when i saw him though, which was a WAY good thing since i wasn't quite sure whether or not i would. it actually went over pretty well, considering, he is way nice and all... it was still just a tad bit awkward. probably because im a first pancake. meh. long story short if you thought you were safe sitting alone in the cougareat as long as you were studying, think again.

:)

forgive me my ultra lame post from yesterday.. sometimes you just have bad days :D haha I feel much more like myself today and am in a much better mood! Maybe its cause yesterday i skipped running? guess i need my happy endorphins from exercising :P but yesterday i was too sore!!! im still sore from going to a ballet class with heather on tuesday night! I mean hello! whoever thinks dance isn't hard/a workout/ hard hasn't ever taken a real dance class! I mean i am not by any means "out of shape" ya know! i go running almost every day and swimming and occasionally biking and i was SORE!!! like cant sit on the toilet, almost fall down the stairs sore :P its been way too long since i've taken a dance class obviously. haha but anyways I promise i am not on the brink of depression or anything so no worries!! have a great day everyone!

:(

I have come to the conclusion that i am an extrovert! only I am not the most outgoing person so maybe I am not an extrovert, but im not an introvert either! because i HATE being all by myself and not having anyone to talk too!!! I miss my family like crazy. why oh why did they have to go to lake powell!?! and why oh why did i have a stupid American Heritage mid term this week so i couldn't go with? :( gr. I can hardly wait until saturday when they get home... dang that is still 3 days away :( lame. seriously I haven't had any human contact today.. well actually I went to school, but i didn't talk to anyone so that hardly counts. looking on the bright side i've gotten some quality study time in this week and I somehow pulled off a 79% on my midterm. shocked would not even begin to describe how i feel about my score.. i mean is this not the same class that everyone tells horror stories about? i remember all of my roommates and fellow DJ 3100 girls saying that they'd gotten in the 40's, 50's and 60's on those tests so im feelin pretty good about a 79 :) i guess thats an ok thing thats come out of this crappy week. But still I would rather have my noisy, loud, and rambunctious family back! I cant wait until tomorrow cause I atleast have work to look forward too. woot woot i get to see and talk to HUMAN BEINGS!! i cant wait. anyways sorry for the lame-o blog everyone... but its my journal too ya know and sheesh like i have anything better to do at the moment.

the 4th of July :)

Well the day started early with the whole family rollin out of bed and heading down to provo for the hot air balloons at 6 :) this is my family's little 4th of july tradition that i haven't been able to do for many years because of dance nationals so it was fun to be able to go again! We go to the hot air balloons because well. the parade is hot, and crowded, and none of us like it haha guess we inherited that from our parents :P after the hot air balloons we went to breakfast at kneaders for all you can eat french toast!!! mmm! so good! here are a few pics of the fam at the hot air balloons be kind I meant what i said about rolling out of bed :P no make up for ashley! haha

this picture is a classic :P haha our family in action. im just in my own little world, kris ... well i dunno what she is doing. shay is hiding from the camera, nate and andrew are obviously in a little conflict and my mom is laughing while trying to play the mediator in their fight :D yup classic

after we pulled it together :)

hot air balloon in the background

The rest of the day was kind of a disappointment seeing how i had to work a double so i was at wingers all day, but we tried to have our own little fun since it was SO SLOW! seriously i probably ate like 17 times that day just because we were so bored we had nothing else to do but take pictures and eat. :P we all got to dress up in red white and blue though! i guess that is a plus here are a few of the billions we took that night out of boredom :)

me, makenzie, and mercedes

kenz and me! haha and mitch in the background looking extremely bored

mercedes bein cool, kenz lookin adorable and me laughing hysterically

our sad faces cause nobody is coming to wingers :P haha so ugly. holding back laughter and frowning is not a good combination for my face :D

what mitch dubs my "natural environment" whatever thats supposed to mean. and kenz trying to get now and laters out of her teeth :P

manager Luis. he looks thrilled to be stuck there with us

kenz and cedes had too much sugar!!!

our freakin sweet candy machine. as if we hadn't already had enough sugar

once the sugar high wore off..

what an exciting day at wingers

now even though my 4th of july wasn't the greatest I am very grateful for this country and for the freedoms that we have!!! The events leading to the founding of this country were amazing and undoubtedly helped along by God's plan so that we would be able to have the restored gospel on this earth again! I am definitely not the most knowledgeable when it comes to politics and things of that nature but i do love this country. I am not a lover of war or conflict, but I am so grateful for all those who fight and work to keep our country free and who fight for those who cant fight for themselves. Happy be-lated independance day everyone! :)

triathlon = run, bike, (SWIM :S)

So today, me and kris went to the pool to swim laps.. yeah my favorite thing in the world, NOT! this has undoubtedly been the hardest part of trying to get ready to do a triathlon. I abhor swimming.. kinda sad since i was like a lifeguard for however many years and such but i really, really don't like swimming. I would so rather do a run bike run, then do a run bike swim :P haha even when me and kris were little though i didn't love swimming much. (i loved swimming at the pool tons! just not swim lessons) I remember we took swim lessons together ever since we were little and especially in our last year when we were in the top level we were the best in our class! the fastest and they told us we should do swim team the next year. well I will let you all in on a little secret. I wasn't the best because i was a good swimmer, i was one of the best because my sister was and since she was my "little" sister i was determined to not let her be better then me! :D haha. im serious! I worked so hard to try and keep up with her because I am competitive and was SO relieved when i couldn't do swim team the next summer with her because I had just moved onto Jr. Company at studio one which meant dance in the mornings during the summer! (not all the teams at the studio go during the summer only the jr. teen. and sr.) but now.. well let just say that i've given up on competing with her now. it is a known FACT that kris could out-swim me any day :P every time we go swim laps she totally kicks my butt haha although im getting better :) i just have like this underlying fear of drowning. I dont know why! i've been swimming like my whole life! swim lessons were a priority growing up so i shouldn't be afraid of drowning because i know how to swim but i still am. i think i overthink everything. meh oh well she'll just have to keep dragging me to the pool! maybe one day i'll be good at swimming again :D *for those of you who are now fearing for the lives of their children after reading this blog about how i hate swimming, know that they make sure lifeguards can swim well enough to save drowning children. but swimming well enough to do that and swimming well enough to continually swim lots and lots of laps consecutively is a lot different so fear not. the lives of your children are in good hands ;) *

i wish i had a picture of us swimming when we were little but all those pictures are on my dad's computer and im too lazy to try and locate them, so this is a pic of me and kris after swimming in cancun. basically the ocean destroyed our hair thats what MONSTER waves tend to do. but we love swimming and playing together! (as long as it doesn't involve laps)