bridal veil with the boys

I went hiking with the boys the other day. 

When I say "the boys" it usually means the boys in my life that are family and live nearby.

This includes my husband, my brothers Ryan and Daniel, and Ammon's twin Nephi.

For our hike, we decided to hike up Bridal Veil falls. It was a really hot day, so something easy and refreshing was a good choice. We played the guessing game all the way up and then all the way back down. The guessing game is great way to kill time in lines or to make hikes more fun. To play the game, someone in the group picks a person or a fictional character. Then everyone else aks yes or no questions to try and figure out who they are thinking of. The only rules are that you can only pick a person or character that everyone in the group would know. So you could pick a family member, Donald duck, Barack Obama, the Brave Little Toaster, or anything else you can think of! I've been playing this game with my co-workers at Brick Oven when it's slow and they love it! 

Okay, back to the hike.

After the hike, we went to Sonic during happy hour and got ourselves some slushes. Yum!

anniversary photo shoot

I just received my anniversary pictures from one of the most talented photographers I know.
Bre'an. Creator of the blog, ST8 OF MIND
The pictures turned out absolutely beautiful.

summer goals

Summer feels like it's already almost over and I've hardly accomplished anything! 

As a newly hired teacher, most of my summer will be spent getting my classroom together.

HOWEVER, there are still a bunch of things I want to start/do/finish. When it comes to goals, I'm much better at reaching them if I write them down. So here I go.

Here are the things that I am hoping to accomplish before August rolls around:

• Paint my classroom (pictures soon to come)
• Start writing the story of my Grandma and have at least most of it written down
• Run Ragnar
• Finish Scrapbooking 2012
• Finish the t-shirt quilt that I started back in 2011 (I will pay someone if I have to!)
• Find a 2-bedroom apartment in Orem
• Move into a 2-bedroom apartment in Orem
• Write a blog post consisting my testimony 
• Start & finish scrapbooking 2013
• Read Man's Search for Meaning
• Do a sprint triathlon
• Finish putting my classroom together and have the first week planned. 
• Buy a new car?

July is going to be a busy month but it's okay because I've learned that I prefer my life when it's busy. :)

day six and more. susanville with ammon's family.

Friday morning we woke up early, packed our bags and left for Susanville, California. 

After 30 minutes of driving, Ammon realized that he didn't have his phone!

So we turned around and went back to the hotel, waited in line to get our room keys, then searched the room high and low. After calling his phone with my phone, we finally found it hiding under the bed covers. 

Whew! We were so glad that turning around was worth it.

After checking one last time to make sure we had all the essentials, we left for Susanville one more time. Ammon drove the first 5 hours and I drove the last 5 hours. We only stopped for gas in between.

To kill time we listened to music, recorded ourselves singing along with 80s music, and played the alphabet game twice.

Only 7 more hours!

After what seemed like forever, we finally arrived in Susanville. 

Spending time with Ammon's family for a week was the highlight of our trip! I always love spending time with them. We played lots of games, watched home videos, ate really good food, and enjoyed the outdoors.

This is Ninja Evelyn. The whole week I was there, she loved being a ninja!

This trip was especially memorable because I finally went backpacking for the first time! 

Ammon loading up his pack

Emmalee with her slingshot.

All ready to go.

Scooby!!

The group minus dad (who took the picture)

Resting for a little

Setting up camp

Our little tent.

A lake and a campfire! My two favorite camping amenities.

Ammon trying to catch a fish.

Mom and Emmalee

I thoroughly enjoyed my first backpacking trip. It was rewarding and fun. It was really hard leaving Susanville-it always is. We left Thursday morning and then Ammon drove home the whole day. The only stops we made were to get gas.

To kill time we listened to Tennis shoes Among the Nephites-The feathered Serpent on CD.

Nephi was zonked out in the back of the car most of the way home.

We're back! 

The Salt Flats

Our disgusting bug collection!

Our trip ended with a beautiful sunset. 

The next day Ammon and I both worked which was probably good because it made adjusting to real life a lot easier. I substitute taught at Reagan Academy which is the school I will be teaching at come August. It was the last day of school so the kids were a little crazy-but nothing I couldn't handle. :)