Friendship Needs No Words

I have not been getting along with my parents lately. Trying to work on it though. I'm a very passionate person. My emotions are extreme. I want to hang out with my friends more, my parents think I'm being "no work, all play". Aha maybe I am. But I can't help it. I love being 15 almost 16!!!

Well, the night of the fire, we all got together to hang out. We all went to the North Park. Here I am at the beginning, hugging the magical lamp post.

Sam and Brendon standing on the rock monument at North Park

This is the "squeaky frog" we foung at the park. It was so cute! It was lost and all alone, so we kindly put it in the mud puddles under the swings. But he hopped out. We were very nice to it. But when it got scared, it would squeak. Very, Very cute.

What is this rock, anyway?

Brendon stole my camera and snapped this picture of Liza. She didn't want her picture taken. Great face!

Fun-ness on the jungle gym. Tashi, Brendon, Sam, Liza, Jessica, and me

My "batsu ge-mu" for "take-no-ko-nyokki-nyokki-ki". Well, we were playing the baby bamboo game. Me, Brendon, Tashi, and Sam were playing it. We got so into it, and it got so intense, we stayed even though everybody else left. Whoever lost 3 times had to do a dare. Before we played, I said that if I lost, I'd put my face in the water puddle under the swings. Sam and Brendon didn't believe me. But I lost, and I put my face in the puddle, as pictured above. The second I pull my face up, Brendon says, "Oh darn...a girl put her face in a puddle. Now I have to..."

Aly & AJ

Aly and Aj are coming out with their new CD - Insomniatic today, so I think I'll do a timeline of them. They kind of remind me of myself and Tashi - 2 sisters that aren't even 2 years apart. Do You Believe In Magic was their first song. Potential Breakup Song is brand new.

Do You Believe In Magic

Rush


Chemicals React


Greatest Time of Year

NEW

Potential Breakup Song

Surrounded By a Ring of FIRE

Here's the wilfire story from my point of view. Earlier in the morning, Eden called us saying we should get together. But she said that she had a few chores to finish up and her brother, Noah had to get his hair cut, so when they were done with those things, they would call us.

So I was on the computer for 3 hours, and when I looked at the clock on the computer, I started to wonder why it was taking Eden so long and why she hadn't called me back. And it was almost time for me to go to work. So I turn around and look out the big windows in the family room.

It was orange and black outside. It was so thick, it looked like it was raining. I got all excited because of the rain. But I went outside to see if it was really raining, and it wasn't. It was really dry and hot, and the air burned your lungs. I hurried and called Eden's cellphone asking her if she knew anything about the fire, where they were, what they were doing.

She replied in a voice like she was trying not to cry. She said that Cove Fort burned, and Kanosh (she lives in Kanosh) was evacuated. Then we all started to panic. Mia and Noah started screaming for mom. And of course mom and dad weren't answering their phones! I called the Mitchells, and the Holleys, and nobody knew what was going on, except Sam had to tell me the story of his friend Brendon working down at the Subway in Cove Fort and his escape story that didn't help me very much at that moment. (But I forgive you now, Sam!)

When I started to think about everything, it really started to scare me. You could smell the smoke inside of the house. I had 2 little kids, and I had a car, but I couldn't drive it (legally, anyway). Mom couldn't come back to get us because the freeway was closed. So I called the Walls, and Sister Wall told me everything I needed to pack up. They were so prepared. They filled all their cars with gas and replaced their tires. But through all of this they were very calm. They said we could stay at their house with our stuff in case we needed to evacuate. They lived across the street from a fire fighter so they were very updated on what was going on.

I'm so glad I went to their house because we ended up making pizza, and "playing" tv and such things that made me almost forget about the fire. Larry even told me he was planning on me coming into work, because the freeway was closed and it was really busy. But I told him I probably couldn't come in. And I was feeling all guilty because I supposed to be at work, but Jessica W. helped me put it into perspective that I was the oldest, and without my parents, it was responsibility to take care of my family.

After things started to clear up, and nothing had happened yet, me, Tashi, and Jessica W. went to Sam's house to juggle with him on his front lawn. While we were there, his friend Brendon showed up, and Sam got a text that there was a pioneer dance in the barn, and nobody was there so we should come. So we all went to that, and hung out at the north park until it was our curfews. We were all so tired from the stress, but it felt like the fire threat had been a different day. And it ended up that Larry's closed anyway. So it was a very adventurous day for me. Talk about a lucky day - 07/07/07! And this was so big, it was on CNN!

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.