....Busy Summer Days....

When I was younger I wanted to be a camp counselor, and thanks to my fantastic brother-in-law I got that opportunity.

For the past 3 Summers I have been a Resident Assistant for a summer camp known as "Summer Enrichment Program", S.E.P. for short. It's a science based camp to boost teens' self esteem and to help them realize their potential, and that they can do anything, even something big in life.

The kids have classes everyday, learning new things. It's pretty cool! I love every minute of my time there; its a great opportunity to do something great for kids, and to help them change their lives!

It's SUPER exhausting; especially waking up at 5:30 every morning. Then going to bed at 12 o'clock midnight, not fun, but worth it!

I help plan fun activities for them to do and especially ice breakers to help them meet new people and kinda get out of their comfort zone.

I miss it already. However, sadly they say that this was the last year. So I won't be able to do it again, unless they get the funds to do it.

Photo: There are the other RA's that I worked with. I know, we all look like our eyes are on fire, but what can you do when you take the picture with your phone!? I miss them all....well most of them... One of the RA's I couldn't stand, but it's over with and I don't have to see him again!

.....Memories.....

Lately I've been wanting to blog about something, but I didn't know what about. Last night I decided the subject would be my mom.

I've been missing her more than usual lately and I'm not sure why. So maybe it will help me feel better to tell you stories that I remember about her.




One thing a remember most about her is she loved to dance.

She went to BYU in the 70s, and was a ballroom dancer there. She even performed in some competitions, I don't know if she won anything, but she was surely good at it.

It's where us girls got it from. It's a shame not all of us are the best at it (**cough** Mariah, hehe) like she was.

She would dance around the house to her favorite CD's: Yanni, The Carpenters, and Scottish Moores.

• Yanni was this guy that played the piano really well, and had long hair. She thought he was so dreamy. Dad took her to one of his concerts and I remember her being SO excited for it!




• The Carpenters, were her all time favorite. They were a band in the 70s who were a big hit, and if you don't know who they are, climb out from under that rock you are hiding under and Google'em! ALL of us kids pretty much know every one of their songs. My sister Shiloh is even teaching her kids one of their songs! It's cute!




• Now Scottish Moores wasn't one she would dance to, it was her relaxing CD to listen to. It's one of those soundscape CD's. We listened to it a lot when she was sick.

Mom was a perfectionist cleaner.

She loved to clean; she cleaned houses for awhile, so she had a system for everything.

She cleaned this Semi truck loading dock's office and we would all go with her sometimes. I was young and thought it was cool to go with mom to help.

(Oh my goodness I can remember this sooo well!!!!)

When cousins would come from out of town to visit we would have to clean the enitre week before, making sure the house was perfect when they walked through the front door. Now that was not fun.

It's kinda crappy because I think I'm the only kid out of us 4 who got her perfectionist cleaning ways. That trait was not a trait I wanted. Devin hates it because sometimes I watch him clean something and the whole time I'm thinking "You're doing it wrong...you're doing it wrong!" and usually I can't handle it so I stop him and show him the "right" way. He gets upset and decides he just isn't gonna clean anything anymore.


Mom LOVED Snoopy!!!

Well I guess it wasn't just Snoopy it was the whole Charlie Brown gang. She collected trinkets, cups and things of all the characters, not just Snoopy.

When we moved into my grandma's house in 1995, Shiloh and I slept in my mom's old room, there were Charlie Brown things all over! Cups, pillows, little statues of Snoopy and Woodstock in his dog house, and little things like that. It was cute!


Mom was NOT a morning person.

Not at all! Mom never got up to wake us kids get up for school or church in the mornings. It was always Dad! She would wait 'till the exact moment she had to wake, not any earlier than she had to, or any later. She would let the alarm go off a few times, but lots of people do that!

I have a few things of hers that shows she wasn't a morning person. One is a shirt with a duck that looks awful, has curlers in its "hair" and a mug of coffee in her hand. The caption says "I don't do mornings."

I also have a coffee mug with snoopy laying of top of his dog house that says "I think I'm allergic to mornings".

Mom just hated mornings. I remember that she would help herself wake up by sitting on the tub to put on her make-up and drink a glass of chocolate milk every morning. I would go in sometimes to take a few sips and she would snap at me sometimes and say "that's mine get your own!" So you can see that she didn't do mornings very well!

None of us kids do mornings well either. We are all awful in the morning (some more than others......like Me), but still....awful!


I miss her a lot.

I'm sad she's not around for the important things in my life, but I'm lucky enough to know that I will be with her again.

I am sealed to her forever, knowing that makes her passing much easier!

I know my mother is near me at times, I always take a minute to talk to her and tell her what's going on in my life. Even though she already know I just like to tell her!

Forever Love!

1 YEAR

Devin and I have been married for 1 year!

Crazy huh? It's so weird to think I have been married for a year. I know that's not very long in the eternal spectrum of things, however it's weird because it doesn't feel like a year has passed, it seems we were married only a few months ago.

I swear, It feels like just last month I was freaking out about wedding plans; like what was going wrong and what if people didn't like something... but it was ONE YEAR ago.

I am sure my mom had a hand in us meeting. :) I might be the only one that thinks so but I know she did. Even though we had a rough patch when Devin first came home from his mission, all worked out perfeactly in the end. It has been a wonderful year. We've been through alot and have done so many things. It's just crazy!

I love my husband Devin oh so much. I don't know what I would do if something happened to him. He's my world. :) I love him with all my heart....and them some!

All moved in.

So if you haven't seen on my Facebook profile; we are all moved in to our little apartment! It fits us perfectly!

We love it....We have our freedom back!! YAYAY!

We have our own place.

We COULD add to our family in this little apartment, but NO I'm not pregnant but I'm just saying it could happen. We are so happy here, and so lucky that we have the means to get this little space. We were scared for a bit that we wouldn't be able to move out of his parents for awhile, but Devin got a BIG raise so we were able to move!

YAY!

The complex we moved into allows alot of freedom for decoration, so we can do what ever we want to it. We decided that we wanted to paint a few walls just to make it more of our own! After one bold Green wall, and a future blue wall, it is just that much more ours! We love it and we are happy!

Cabo San Lucas....

Oh cruises....How we love you! :)

Our first cruise was AMAZING!

We had so much fun! We did all sorts of things. So I'll walk you through each day.


SATURDAY, March 5th

Right after Cindy's wedding, we left to Mission Viejo to stay the night at a good friend of ours, Jimbo Hill, house for the night.


SUNDAY, March 6th

We woke on Sunday to be met by our cruise-mates, our dear friends, The Weeks.

We killed a little bit of time by doin' a quick run to Krispy Kreme and eating lunch with the Hills' when they got home from church.

We took off to San Diego in the early afternoon to get to the ship. So Jimbo dropped us off at the port, and Mallory and I were jumping up and down screaming! We were so excited...I was doing my excited screeching that everybody hates, but I just couldn't help it...it needed to come out!

After we got on the boat and got settled in, we walked around inside figuring out where everything was and then walked around the outside of the boat. So cool! Just to think we were going to be on the big blue for 5 days.... Crazy. We stayed outside 'till we left the dock and headed out of the harbor.

That night we went to dinner, which was delicious, we opted for the "Empire Room" dinner every night, where 3 course meals were ALWAYS on the menu and we ordered what we wanted, and as much we wanted. Endless food....never a bad thing.


After we ate, we went to a game show show, where they had 3 contestants answer some random questions to win either a medal or a little trophy they called the 24 karat plastic ship on a stick. Devin was 'chosen' so he competed and answered most of the questions right, and he won the ship on a stick. I was so proud! He was famous for the rest of the cruise, not for winning, but for the way he was 'chosen'. The host didn't actually 'choose' Devin; The host would face the stage, and then turn around and choose the 3 craziest people he saw. So, Sean gave Devin the idea of just running up on stage Price is Right style instead of waiting to be chosen. So Devin did, got chosen to compete and then he won the prize. I was a proud wife either way.

Then right after that we went to welcome to the boat show to tell us what was going on the boat and met the cruise director, she was funny, British and always had something sticking out of her head like a huge bow or something of that nature. She was just a funny little red headed lady who was just a little crazy! :)

MONDAY, March 7th

Monday we woke up early...ish to eat breakfast.

After breakfast, Mal and I sat out on the deck to tan and read while the boys played life size chess and some shuffle board. The water was SO blue it was crazy.

That day was a relaxing day that was very much needed.

Then that night they had a elegant dinner. We dressed up in our finest and had a fantastic dinner.

Then we changed and went outside to listen the ocean to see if we could see some whales, dolphins or something. We walked around for a bit and went to the top and the tip of the ship and we heard/saw some dolphins. Honestly, we aren't really sure if they were dolphins, it was very dark out, and they seemed to be dolphins, so we decided they were just because we all wanted them to be.

TUESDAY, March 8th

Tuesday was our first day in Cabo. It was a very exciting day.

The first day we went parasailing and whale watching.

The parasailing was so awesome! When you were up there it was like you were flying. So crazy. At first Devin was scared to go but he warmed up to the idea and was so glad he went.

After that we walked around Cabo to look at some stores and get some food. The boys tried to find some fancy tacos they had on their missions but they failed.

After we ate we went whale watching. We saw a few whales, but that was enough for me! I loved it. It was one of my favorite things on the cruise.

After that we went back to the ship and had dinner. Then Mal and I had FANTASTIC hot stone massages! Oh my lanta...It was amazing. When I went back to the room I was a complete zombie. I was so relaxed...I hadn't had a massage in a long time! Mmm...So nice! :)

WEDNESDAY, March 9th

Wednesday, Cabo, day 2.

The 2nd day we went Zip lining. I wasn't too excited to do it, but everybody else wanted to so I was kinda forced into it. Well, not really but you know what I mean. It was an adventure I will never forget that's for sure! The longest zip line was over half a mile long and 400 feet high! Check out the zip lining we did here. Part of the zip lining was repelling, oh my lanta....I was really scared to do it but I get over it and did it. It actually was the only part I liked. It was scary but fun. I like how I can now say....Ya...I've gone repelling! :) Anyways....It was a fun thing to do for everyone else so it was worth it in the end.

Upon arriving back to Cabo from the repelling, we went snorkeling at Pelican rock. That was way cool! Seeing all the different kinds of fishes under the sea. Parts were kind of scary only because it was hard to not breathe through my nose, and I thought I was going to run into a rock or something else. Either way it was way cool! Sean and Mallory bought an underwater camera so we got some pretty fancy shots of the fishies!

I don't remember that night back on the ship except that we were super tired and covered in sand. Oh and we went to our delicious fancy dinners.

(Note: Devin just reminded me that night we went to see the Comedy show of Stephen Thomas, one of the two comedians on board, he was hilarious, although we were tired he had us laughing really hard.)

THURSDAY, March 10th

Thursday was another day at sea.

Devin and I wanted to sleep in, so we did, and we woke up at 11am. It was super nice to wake from a night of much needed sleep from our fun day the day before.

Mallory and Sean got up early and did some things on their own while we slept. After Devin and I woke up and got ready for the day, I think we met up with the weeks to have lunch.

After lunch we went to a bunch of different shows one being a couples game show like in the 70's where they saw if they knew each other or not. They picked couple for each stage of marriage newlyweds, middle wedded, and married for years and years. Needless to say it was HILARIOUS!! Most of the answers didn't match so it was really funny! The answers of the couples that were married for years and years were the best. There 10 questions and they got 2 out of 10 right, but they were really funny answers.

After that we went to round two of the comedy show with Stephen Thomas, he joked about life and made fun of some facts that he had found. It was funny because most of the things he said were true!

FRIDAY, March 11th

Earthquake day:

Friday we were supposed to get off the boat at 7am but we didn't until almost noon. We didn't get off because of the earthquake in Japan. The San Diego coast guard close the harbor due to tsunami warnings, so best to keep us out at sea where less harm could be done. We waited for 4 hours 'till we could finally dock. Then it took us another hour or so for us to finally get off the ship for US customs issues when we finally got off the boat we went to Jimbo's house and relaxed for a bit.

We decided to go shopping and went to the store H&M to get Sean some clothes and me a new sweater that I love oh so much. We walked around Target for a bit and headed back to the Hill's and got in his fancy hot tub. It was nice and relaxing.

SATURDAY, March 11th

Saturday we woke up early...ish again and ate some breakfast then went to this flip flop store called Rainbow Sandals. I guess they are the best made flip flops in the world, and they last forever or something, I don't know. Sean wanted to go there because he has turned into a granola of sorts, or in others words....a hippie. haha I'm only half kidding! :)

We then went to the beach, and played in the water for a bit.

After enjoying the Cali weather and afternoon, Devin and I took Sean and Mallory to the airport so they could fly back to Logan. Devin and I returned to Jimbo's to stay the night and get good rest before heading back to Phoenix.

SUNDAY, March 12th

Sunday we woke up and drove home, nothing exciting really, just lots of desert and lots of asphalt!

We had such an AMAZING time!

We are so grateful that we had the means to go on the cruise, and so happy that we were able to go with our best friends, The Weeks!

I want to go back.

The thing i miss the most about the cruise is leaving our room in the morning then coming back later in the day and our room would be clean, our bed would be made, our messes cleaned up, and it would look like we were never there everyday. If we left it messy and we left to do something else like for dinner or something and we'd come back it would be perfect again.....I miss that oh so much. Especially now with moving into our apartment! I am now the one cleaning up the messes, hah.

We can't wait to cruise again, we are definitely sold on the idea and hope to share more cruise adventures with you all!

Note: I have posted all of the pictures of our cruise on Facebook, so please check them out there!

Exciting things going on...

The next 3 weeks are EXTREMELY exciting!

Well this next week not so much....until Saturday.
Saturday Cindy is getting married! I love weddings! They make me happy! :)
I tell Cindy I'm so excited for her, and she laughs at me. I think, she thinks I'm kidding, but I'm serious! I am SO excited for her!

Then RIGHT after her reception Devin and I are driving to Mission Viejo, CA to Devin's Uncle Jimbo's, house to stay for the night to drive the next day to San Diego for our CRUISE!!!!! We are excited beyond belief!

Then 3 days after we get home from our cruise we move into our apartment!

Crazy huh? So much happening in so little time! It's hard to believe.....I know. So much going on.

OH MY LANTA!!

This month of love has been the longest month of my life.

We have eighteen days till our cruise, and it's driving me crazy!

EIGHTEEN DAYS!!!!

Why hasn't March come yet?!?!