Slip n' Slide Birthday Party

In July we have quite a few birthdays, but we have three right in a row that we always try to celebrate together. It goes Aunt Suzy (18th), Grandpa (19th) and Uncle Steve (20th). This year my Aunt Suzy wanted to have the family up to her house for her birthday, so on her birthday we all made the drive up to Suzy's in Smithfield (this is about 10min north of Logan for those of you who don't know where it is) for a slip n' slide party!!!!! It was a blast, we all took our turn on the slide and were splashed. We tried to make sure all the little kids got their turn to go down the slide. Our family is getting so big, but it just keeps getting more fun at every family party as it grows. This was a couple weeks ago, but HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUZY, GRANDPA, and STEVE. We love you!

Here are some pictures for everyone to enjoy!

Can't decide

For the Utah Undergraduate Journal of Philosophy that I get the pleasure of helping get off the ground, I had to take picture of the Carolyn Tanner Irish Hummanities Building (I don't think that the name could be longer). It is the building that the philosophy department resides in on the U of U campus. It is a new building (as of last fall). It is beautiful... but treacherous for people who don't like to see what is below them when walking down stairs.

Anyway, I had to take a picture of the building for our journals website. And I cannot decide which one I like better. Being the Layout/Design editor of the journal, I want to pick the best one with little opinion from others on the editorial board. Because in some cases in the near future I am going to have to make the decision myself. We just got a GREAT logo from one of our associate editors wives. She did an amazing job and we love it. Luckily she is a recent graduate of the U of U, so we can use her artwork in our journal.

Anyway again, Here are the pictures I had to take... what do you think. I messed with the lighting on one and I think that it the issue, can you even tell I changed it? Does it look better light or darker? Let me know what you think.

Fairview for the 4th

For the first time in 3 years, Chelsea and I were able to go up to Wyoming for the Parker family, mini-reunion. My aunt and uncle live up in Fairview, Wyoming for the last 4 years my family has gone up there for the 4th of July. This year we didn't get to go down the river because it was too high, but we did get to go camping and horseback riding. It is absolutely beautiful up there and we had so much fun. Here are just a few pictures from our trip. It is so beautiful up there and the weather is AMAZING! If it was like that all year around it would be the perfect place for me to live. But unfortunately it snows 10 months out of the year! YUCK! Hope you enjoy the beautiful scenery!



Chelsea on the Beauty. The next is Chelsea, Jami on Jack and me on Sam. You can see my cousin Dallin and Jami's oldest Bridger in the background.

This is the view from the front yard and Soapie (her name is really Sophie, but Bridger calls her Soapie, so everyone else does too) on the back porch.

This is Bernie (the fetching King) and Gracie

And last, but not least is the view from the back yard... I got Sam, Flash and Beauty in this pic too!

Babysiting...

I don't babysit often, but when I do, I love it. For my friend Jenasie's birthday her husband gave her a spa day, so while he was working I watched their beautiful little girl Naomi. We had a blast. First she took a bath and then we played with her barbies while we watched one of the many Disney movies. Next I bribed her to eat mac n' cheese, I bribed her with a cup cake that her dad made for her mom's birthday. She is adorable! Then we played hit the balloon while she watched sponge bob (she gets the habit of liking sponge bob from her dad). Anyway, I had a blast and just wanted to share how much I love this little girl. Here is a pic from our morning together :)

Missing Cat

Many of you who know me, know how much I love my cat. Cat's have been a staple in our family since we were little. There wasn't very much time when we didn't have a cat... or many. We have had tiny baby kittens... many liters of them infact. Chelsea has been the designated cat selecter. She has picked out some of our favorite cats... Eddie (my baby), Buddy, Callie, Princess and her newest edition, Purple. They are all great, lovable cuddly and the best cats we have ever had. Our cat Kitty, was the perpetually pregnant one. I think she had three liters? I am not exactly sure, but we had many fun kitten to raise, from Einstien (my mom's fav), Brother, Semore (he was black and white... a PLAYFUL little guy) and so many others, I cannot remember all of their names. I love looking back on all of them, but it is out of saddness right now because my baby Eddie has been missing since 5/23/2009. I am going down to Las Vegas, where he was living with my mom; for a second time to help my mom pick out another companion, since Eddie is still missing. We are so worried because he always came home. And this one time he hasn't, it has been hard for both my mom and me.
I had a dream last night that I found him, it is what inspired this post about our past joys with cats. In-fact a lot of them have run away, but Eddie has been the hardest for me. He ran away once before when I was living in my apartment in the Avenues in downtown Salt Lake. But he came home the next morning... like clock work, Eddie has NEVER, not come home before. I miss him a lot and I really hope that he is ok, happy, wherever he is. I really hope we find him.
Anyway, animals can be lots of fun. And all of us know who have them know what lifetime companions they can be, like your own kids or your best friend.

MAUI!!!

Chelsea and I had a break from school and she has always wanted to go to Hawaii so, we decided to go. A friend of mine from work had a condo she had paid for to accommodate her whole family, then she found out that he family didn't want to stay with her... so she said we could stay with her. It was an opportunity that I could NOT pass up. So we flew to Maui on May 9th. We stayed until the 11th. It was a great trip. WE hung out at the beach, explored a little. Chelsea and I went on a snorkeling trip, but we don't have pictures from that yet... when I get them, I will post them :) We stayed in Kiehi, it was amazing! the view from our room was breathtaking. We went to Lahaina too, it was beautiful and fun to walk down the road along the ocean. Anyway, we had a great and relaxing trip! I can't wait to go again... this time we will go to Kauai! Here are some pictures from our trip, ENJOY!




Me on the beach in Keihi and the warf in Lahaina



Lynnsi on the beach and Lynnsi Chelsea and I sitting infront of the ABC store



The beach in Keihi... and the view from our room



This is the other beach we went too... Big beach. Then, there is Lynnsi and I in the airport in Seattle. :)

PS. I cannot figure out how to take the underlining away from the top portion of my post... dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb!

While I am sitting here taking a break from the grind of studying... I decided to see if my computer would upload pictures to this silly blog. And what do ya know... IT WORKED!!!! So I decided to put up some picture from March.. my birth month. It was a pretty exciting month! I went to Las Vegas to see my mother for spring break (which was much needed and welcomed relaxation!). A friend of mine, Lynnsi came with my sister and I. We flew down to St. George and hopped in the car for the hour and a half drive to Las Vegas. On the way home we almost missed the flight because we HAD to go to In-n-Out Burger. It was delicious... but it put new meaning to fast food.
For my birthday, which is always the week after spring break. I decided to celebrate with a friend of mine, because her birthday is the day after mine. But she is a year older then me. So that makes her 364 days older then I. Instead of celebrating on my birthday or hers, we decided to celebrate on the 27th. We went to the Bayou and had lunch with some great friends, then we went to this bar (I don't actually remember the name). It was a pretty nice place, we played pool, danced and hung out with some great friends!
On my actual birthday, I skipped school and spent most of the day with my sister. She gave me the rice cooker that i have been wanting for MONTHS and twilight the movie and the cd. I greatly appreciated her and loved that she was able to spend the day with me. We ate dinner and watched twilight. It was fun. After I got home some of my friends from work came over to play games. A friend of mine really wanted to play Clue, I searched my whole house and could not find it anywhere. So I called up to my aunt and they were willing to lend me their copy. Except their copy was from Australia, so it was called Cluedo. It was really fun. I have some great friends that were willing to drive all the way to Centerville to hang out with me. I really appreciated it.
April has been a month full of school and family matter. I have posted about the family happenings already. And I still just want them to know how much we love them and enjoy their company. I hope that they are doing ok.
On the school note. It is finals week and I have been studying for the majority of the day. I have 2 of my finals down and 3 to go. One more paper to write and 2 tests. Wish me luck. I am taking a fun trip next weekend, so I will post about that when I am done! I love you all and i hope that everything is going great! I have posted some pictures for you to see how much fun my birth month was!

This is a picture of all the girls from my work that are great friends! The next one is of Alex and myself (the birthday girls!)!

This is Dani and I at the bar. Then this is Leslie, me, Aaron and Cody! Some of my favorite people!

This is my two favorite girls and I!! (Lynnsi and Angelic). And of course the proof that my sister and I cannot take normal pictures!