America the Beautiful!!!

I had so much fun this 4th of July! Last year's was pretty fun too, but I was starting to stress out about going back home to Japan in a few days.

(above: Tashi, Eden, Gina, and Jessica M.)

But this year, I might have had a little bit too much fun! The night before we stayed up playing night games. I love hanging out with my friends. My mom's baby sister Micaela and her husband and 2 daughters came to stay over because Mic had her 5th year high school reunion down here.

(above: clock wise from Tashi: Jessica M., Sam, Noah, Gina, me, and Eden)

So me and Tashi woke up early and saved our seats for the parade. The rest of our family got here including Mic, and we all watched the parade. It wasn't as good as last year. We got to sit with the Kershisniks for part of it, inside the dance studio with air conditioning! Ahhhhhh...(sigh on contentment)

(above: the jugglers and their screaming fans: me, Noah, Gina, and Sam)

After the parade, we all went to the booths in the park. I didn't play any games, but I bought a lot of Foooooood! Navajo tacos, Texas Twisters, and Funnel Cakes. I get them every year. It's not the 4th of July without a Texas Twister!!! So we just laid around on the grass eating and talking.

(above: everybody in the hotub: Kelton, me, Jessica W., Eden, Tashi, Cortney, Sam, Noah)

Then they were going to make a rounders team (pioneer baseball). But I had to go to work for 3 hours. So I didn't get to be part of the Cheeky Monkeys team! But it did get me out of the sun. After work, we had a special 4th of July dinner with just our family (Mic went back up north for the party at my mom's younger brother's house).

But after dinner we were invited over to Kelton's house to swim in his pool. That was fun because everybody was there, and lots of people had their cousins. My cousins ditched me and didn't come down this year haha. They funny thing is, we mostly just hung out in the hot tub. We got 11 people in there! I think we broke the world record!!! No, JK. But I wanted to, though. Cortney drove me and Tash home, but we didn't have time for a shower before the fireworks. Cortney came and picked me up. Because my parents HAD to give the cellphone to Tashi, (she ended up not using it), but because I didn't have it, I wasn't able to watch the fireworks with Sam, Noah, and Eden. But I got to watch them with Cortney, Cody, Josh, Liza, and Kelsey. I was a little bit onry at the fireworks because it had been nonstop since the morning, I hadn't taken a shower so I felt gross, and the chlorine made my bady all itchy. The itchy grass that I was laying on didn't really help much either.

Late Night Party and Air Hockey Tournament

The first half of my week was hard because I had to work on Sunday (luckily it was the shift after church). This happened because I had taken so much time off of work for Girl's Camp and Youth Court Conference. And I hadn't recovered from my sleep deprivation from staying up late every night at YCC. I worked Monday and Tuesday too. I went to the pool after work on Tuesday with Eden and Tashi. we made up a marvelous plan. Afterwards, we had to make some changes to the plan, but it still ended up really fun. I will tell you about those plans later. On Wednesday, all the kids got back from JYC, which I really wanted to go to. But anyways, we had a simple, spiritual Mutual on Wednesday. After Mutual, me and Tashi went to sleepover at Sherokee and Kaytlyn's house. We all just slept out on the trampoline. But I still hadn't recovered from sleep deprivation, so I ended up going to sleep really early.


Thursday morning, I got a call from Sam. He asked me to be in the music video he and Noah were making for the 4-H contest. Guess what song it was? If you guessed Lollipop by Mika, I give a round of applause. I would have guessed that too. But no, it was Grace Kelly by Mika. Tashi ended up being in it too. It's really funny, and they did a good job. I hope they win. When they send it to me, I'll post it.

We all went to Teen Council together, but Noah hit the curb really hard with his car, and all of his oil leaked. So we had to clean up the oil and tow his car away. When that was done we went to Sam's house and finished filming the music video. The guys paid for the pizza we ordered for dinner to say thanks. Sam was supposed to be babysitting his nephew and niece, so we helped him with that. After Sam was done babysitting, Kember, Gina, Jessica, and Sam came over to watch Pride and Prejudice at our house. We weren't able to finish it though. Eden would have slept over, but she hadn't mowed the lawn, and Noah had to edit the music video. The next morning Sam, Noah, Eden, and Gina came over again for a hockey tournamentin our barn!!! The late night party and the air hockey tournament were my plans! And they actually worked out! I had so much fun! Thanks for coming over you guys!

Tournament winners:
1st place - Gina
2nd place: Sam
3rd place - Alexa

At the air hockey tournament:

(above: little Noah and big Noah)

(above: Gina and Eden)

(above: Sam and Noah competing)

(above: Gina and Eden again)


Quote of the Day
I am what I am
I know what I'm not
I'm not the type of girl who will settle for less when I deserve more
This is how it is and this is how it's going to stay
Right up until my dying day
I am not a coloring book, people can't color me just how they want to
I'm not going to rush my life, I've got a whole lifetime
I don't have to live forever, I just have to live
But bad decisions lead to tragic endings
So I know what I am, what I have been, and what I will be = me

Cousins

I've been meaning to post tjhis for almost a month now. My dad's little sister's family moved, so they came to stay at our house at the beginning of June. Ally and Cassie are the oldest, and they are identical twins. Out of my cousins on my dad's side of the fmaily, they are closest in age to me. They will be 12 in August. Skye will be 10 in August too. Megan is 5. They came and stayed over for 2 nights. We took them on a cultural tour of Fillmore. It just happened to be really cold those 3 days that they were here. But we went swimming and stuff anyways.

(above: Ally, Megan, Skye, and Cassie in our backyard)

(above: Ally forgot her swim suit, so we're all glaring at her in disgust)

(above: me and Skye)

(above: my hot stud muffin, Noah)

(above: I got a glamour shot for 75% off. Haha JK. I took this of myself)

(above: Do you think they got a little too hyper?)


Quote of the Day
I'm the type of girl who wishes on 11:11, am or pm.
I always wished for the same thing.
"All I need is him, just him; always, forever & ever."
Is there a certain rule that you can't have the same wish more then once?
Or that the wish can't last a minute long
Or that you can't repeat it several times?
Or maybe I just always miss the actual 11:11 time
because my clock isn't perfectly set, because if so,
that's my reasoning for why he isn't with me anymore, & I'm sticking to it.

My Life Right Now

Whew! I took me a while to recover from my sleep deprivation from YCC. We talked about so much to our parents that they wanted to send us back just to get rid of us haha. Well, I finally cleaned my room and put in my bed. Now I just have to put in the finishing touches. Even though only me and Tashi sleep in that room, we have room for 3-4 more people to sleep on beds! It's perfect for sleepovers. Well, here are some random pictures of my life right now:

(above:) F 3rd Ward YW!!! Sorry that people were squished in the back!

(above:) Yes, I took this darling picture of my cousin, Eliza. She's my mom's younger sister Micaela's 2nd daughter.

(above:) This is my cousin, Emily. She's my mom's younger brother Paul's oldest.

And when we were down in St. George, we went to the mall. That's when Sam and Noah bought matching shirts.
I bought these things at American Eagle:

And I bought a pair of shorts, but I couldn't find the picture. They are like grey sweat pants, but they only come to the knee, and the hems are ribbed. There's a tiny back pocket. I like them. They're comfy!!!

I still ahve to post pictures of when the Cowdell's came to visit!