Catch Up! Family Reunion, Lake Powell, and Life:)

So I have been such a Slacker with my Blog! So now I am playing catch up! I will go in order of occurence!

I will start with My Family Reunion in August:
It was such a great time to be with my family. They are awesome and all have such amazing qualities that I learn from and just love being around. We are also just crazy fun and just love being together especially since we don't get to see eachother as much as we would like. So, Friday we kicked it off with Golfing in the morning and those who didn't golf just socialized! Then we had a big get together on Firday night with everyone with Ice Cream and Socializing and each family telling what they are up to. It was so fun to see everyone and catch up with some of my cousins I have not seen forever! Then, after that some of us cumulated at my house for an amazingly fun time of Karaoke (Sing Star) I have never seen people get into it so much. We all started dancing at one point and just had the greatest time of it It was so fun to see all my family together just laughing and having a good time. I just really love my family and am so blessed to have so many! So, Saturday we started it off with some of us competing in a Triathlon. My aunt Mary, My Cousin Kim and My cousin Scott and my brother Andy all participated. We did it in memory of my Uncle David who passed away about two years ago. He was a major athlete and competitor in things like that. It was cool and way fun. My cousin Scott is an athlete but hadn't even trained at all and did it and he actually did well. But, despite his desires to beat me, he didn't! Which I was glad;) Then, we had a huge lunch and picnic with everyone at Ross Park. It was really hot but good to just hang out and chat and play with all the great grandchildren. Then, Saturday night we had a big tribute to my awesome Grandma! She is such an incredible lady. Her and my grandpa have created an amazing legacy and some amazing people(I think they are all great) have come from them! Their Children are incredible! I love all my aunts and uncles. They are each so unique but so great and just good people. Then of course I love all my cousins and their spouses and children. My grandma has made each of her 36 grandchildren a beautiful quilt and so at this reunion she had quilts/afghans for her 50+ great grandchildren. It was so cute how excited they would all get! It was just such a good time and I loved being with them. On Sunday we went to church with my grandma and then everyone started heading back home! It went by so quick but it really was just such a good time! If any of my family members I love ya and wish we could see eachother more often!














Ok, So now on to Lake Powell which was in September:
I have a friend in Arizona named Robert Holgate and he loves Lake Powell and well I love Lake Powell since I worked there for a summer. There is truly something magical and beautiful there like no other lake I have ever been. It could just be the good memories associated with it. Anyway, we correlated a trip together at Lake Powell in Arizona. He invited a bunch of his friends and I invited Brittany and my two cousins. We actually invited a bunch of people but they all flaked on us! But it was so fun we met up with his friends before he got there and went out on the boat. We wakeboarded and it was beautiful. I was so exstatic I was really quite out of control but it was sooo fun! They had a whole camp set up and we had cots where we just slept under the stars! Oh...I'm so happy just thinking about it. So, we had a good Friday night and then Early Saturday we woke up to soak it all in. Some people went on the boat right at dawn. Me and Brittany went on a swim to try and find some cliffs to jump off. We found some very small ones! It was fun then we just played around hit the volleyball around as we dove into the water. Our spot was just awesome. Then, we went out on the boat for a few hours and everyone wakeboarded. It was fun to be with my cute cousins and go swimming and watch them wake board. So, at around 1 or 2 Robert and some of his crew had to head back. They only live 2 hours or so away. However, his friends with the boat stuck around so we hung out with them. It was great because we got to go wakeboarding again and I got to practice jumping the wake. I'm getting a little better, but quite obvioulsy have a ways to go! Then, we went and jumped off a cliff. It was so funny because Brittany had never done it so she was terrified! It took her about twenty minutes but she finally did it! It was classic and so fun to watch her I was proud that she did it! Then, we went out to eat and play some more! IT was so nice and relaxing just what I needed and wanted. It did my heart good! We left Sunday morning and headed to Provo where we hung out with my good friend Jordan and went to a fireside and FHE at BYU. Wow, what an experience! Lets just say a lot of people scare me! haha especially at BYU!








Then two weeks later we headed back to Utah for Conference. We went to my mission reunion and it was fun but I missed my peeps who werent there! Then, we went to conference. It was so great and I learned a lot from the apostles and Prophets. One funny thing is in order to get tickets we sang along the street in a choir to protest against the protestors. It was cool! Anyway, we also met up with Preston and Logan who were our new found friends from ARizona from our Lake Powell Trip. It was way fun and a very good weekend for the most part.






Me and Britt on our awesome and Beautiful Fall Four Wheel Ride!





Alright, since then I've just been living the life of school and work and social life. I stay very busy with all of that plus some other responsibilities I have right now. However, I am very happy and things are going well for me right now! I am so grateful to Heavenly Father who is so aware of me and really cares for me and my well being. I'm so blessed to have the knowledge, family, and friends that I do! Well that is the end of my catch up for now! I hope you are all doing well in your individual lives! Love ya All!!

You might also enjoy this video from our Karaoke Night at the Institute!

So Blessed!!

Well I started school last week and it has been ok. I just feel so blessed though because in the economy it would seem very tough to find a job. Well, my second day and pretty much my first job i dropped my resume at I got. I got the ideal campus job where I can work 18 hours a week but am done by 5 every day and they work with my school schedule! I also have another opportunity to watch this adorable little girl for like 5 hours on Mondays. So i feel very lucky and blessed. Also, the first week we had an open social for the Institute and I got talking to some cool guys from Ghana. So, that Sunday one of the guys named Kwami came to Sacrament with me and he really enjoyed it. Then I had the missionaries over for dinner with Kwami and they were able to share a message about the book of mormon and give him one. Also, I met this kid who served his mission in Ghana so he spoke their language and was able to come. It was so cool! I am so grateful to have missionary experiences!!!



On Saturday I was able to complete my second marathon. It was so crazy! I ran the Pocatello Marathon and it went pretty well, but I probably could have done better if I would have trained a little better! I am excited for running more in the future and hopefully getting faster! I am hoping to run a half marathon with my friend Brittany in November! I just can't believe how our bodies are engineered and how lucky i am to have health and the ability to do such a thing. Yes, I'm sore but there are so many people who are unable to participate or enjoy such activities.

Lastly, on Labor day i was able to go to Bear Lake with my dear friend Jordan Johnson and his sister Kim and her family. It was so nice to be able to hang out with my friends and enjoy the water. Jordan and Kim rented Wave Runners and we had a blast! I realized just how lucky i am to have such good people in my life. I mean I truly know and have the opportunity to hang out with some pretty amazing people and I'm so grateful for that!! All in all I would just say that I'm Blessed!!

My three Week amazing vacation!

So, I just returned from my three week vacation which was great! I loved it so much! For the first week we went to Park City and we got to run and ride bikes and be tourists. We went to the Olympic Park which was fun and we also went down to the provo Canyon which was beautiful. We floated the provo river with the Rowes it was sooo fun! But very Cold!!! One of my cousins Keri and her family came up and went to lunch with us and then over to the Alpine Slide and coaster. It was so cute her adorable little daughter Whitley rode with me and she was just so cute and being like whoo hoo this is so fun and it was! Then my family came up and went went shopping and did some other fun stuff! So, Park City was great! We started our Journey back to Virginia. On Sunday we drove to Colorado and visited one of my aunts friends whose second homes in located in the mountains next to this beautiful lake!! We had a little car trouble in Indiana so we ended up staying the night there. But we eventually made it back to Virginia and we got to play and relax and i also pressure washed and stains my aunts deck. We got to go the the beach for a few days and stay in this awesome home located right on the beach..you know the my aunt has a friend who knows a guy who knows the girl who owns the house type of deals. it was so nice and relaxing and just what i needed. I got to just sit and read and tan it was so wonderful! I was gonna try to surf but the waves were not big enough and i didn't get in the water to much because there were jelly fish that kept stinging everyone. So on my last day in Virginia Carson my little cousin convinced me to drop in on his half pipe on a Skateboard. It was a bad idea and i injured myself quite badly! But, it was entertaining for sure.