pioneer weekend

This was a fantastic weekend. It started off on Thursday night, Jake and I went up provo canyon and went star gazing. That was fun. Then Friday was awesome because I got to do some eyelashes, and then go sign papers to be completely done with hair school! Wahoo! Now that makes life sure good! Then, I went with my roommate Emily to the Urgent care to get her toe checked out, because...ended up...it was broken. It is really swollen and blackish tones of color. It really looks lovely. Then I went to Walmart to get these cute colored bins that I could put in my closet so I can organize all my fabrics and sewing knick nacks. It was really hard to push the shopping cart out of Walmart with all these bins. Comical. Then I picked up Jacob and we went down to the Provo Town Center to go see the movie "inception." We brought in J-dogs and some Great Harvest cookies! YES! The movie was good in that it made you think and ponder about the subject and what was happening, but it wasn't my favorite movie. I was glad we saw it, and enjoyed it, but not a movie I would pick out to watch often. Then Jake and I went to go meet up with my old roommate Sarah, and her friend Tradien. Our theme country folk night. Jake and I were on a time crunch so we ran into the D.I. and had ten minutes to come up with an outfit. That was really fun! Somehow we also ended up leaving with some beanie babies to....Then we met Sarah and Tradien at Wingers. They were putting on some fake tattoos. I was so excited. We all ended up with some awesome tattoos on. Many with flames. Our weightier at Wingers happened to be at the state board hair school test with me. He passed to! Random, and fun! After some yummy sticky fingers were eaten, we headed over to a fun place called Boondocks to go play some goofy golf! I love goofy golf! This place is really fun because it has laser tag, golf carts, bumper boats, arcade and fun things like that.

This was our group picture for the night. I think Jake looks really cute in overalls and should look into wearing them more. Really though. Here we are, ready for our night activity of golf.
This was a cool spider web I saw shinning from a light. Neat huh. It is very intricate. I want to look up how long it takes for a spider to make something of this sort.
This is cute Jake. He is more hard core in this picture than cute though....its because of the tattoos.
Miniature golf takes much skill and precision. I am glad we didn't play for points!


It was really fun to be able to play with Sarah and see her and her friend! We all had a great time playing together. I miss living with Sarah. She has always been a great friend since I have known her. Defiantly a keeper!
Remember how I ordered that rad water camera???!!!! Ok, I dont think I even mentioned it, but it came in the mail! Jake, Jeff, Brynt and I went to try out the camera in Deer Creek Revisor. We first started the day off at 6:00 am to go up to the Heber skate park. Jake loves loves loves loves loves loves loves loves loves loves loves that skate park, and the boys like to go up early so they can have the place to themselves. I was really tired and a bum so I slept in the car while the boys skated. Then we all went down to the Revisor to take a swim to the small island across the way. Here is Jake under water. The water was a bit murky so we could'nt have the camera farther away.

This was a fun swim. At first the water was a bit chilly, but then it felt perfect as you started your swim across the water.

We made it! Here is a cool plant! We even saw real wild life....a squirrel!
We are now on the island. Time to swim back to shore. This was a great first time to use the camera! I cant wait to take it to France!!!

Speaking of France, I realized I needed to get some clothes that I don't have to layer to wear on the trip. I feel like all my clothes need both leggings and a cardigan. I need to find clothes that don't need either! So after a fun water adventure and a great lunch at Bajios, Jake and I went out to Salt Lake to go shopping. We stopped at a cute store called "nothing bunt cakes" to get a little treat :) After a long day of shopping, and no success....except for 2 cups and a apron, Jake and I went to eat at the Cheesecake Factory. My dad gave me money for us to go out to dinner for finishing hair school, so I scored and got two awesome graduation dinners! Wahoo! After dinner at the Cheese Factory, Jake and I went to another movie! and saw Toy Story 3! We got free movie tickets for it from our disney blu rays Toy Story 1 &2. How cool is that?! It was a great movie! I laughed, I cried, I thought everyone was done for, and I ended with a smile on my face. Bullseye is my favorite character. I think he is so cute. If I were a horse, I would try to date him.

On Sunday, Jakes cousin Taylor was giving his farewell talk. He is going on a mission to Brazil. Exciting! This is his cute mother Christi. She seems like the funnest mom! And always has treats around. Taylor did a great job on his talk. He talked about the God head, and what it means to him. He will be a great missionary.

Nathan and Joanna are getting some yummy food! There was quite the food and dessert bar! I went back for 3rds! Yea, I ate way to much. Claire was so good for the farewell. She had the cutest little baby elmo she was playing with.

Jake and I are waiting with his cousin Devin and his friend to get some food!

Jake went to his mission in Brazil, so he was so excited to show Taylor pictures of what Brazil is like and talk to him all about it. I learned about worms.

utah in july

July has been awesome! Great adventures have happened. Every night Jake and I have been watching this amazing shark show on the national geographic channel called "great white expedition." I love it because it makes the sharks not look scary, and its just a neat show. Watch it. Shark week starts Aug. 2, and were getting pumped and ready for that! We also have been enjoying the movies alot lately. We have gone to the dollar movies a few times and even the real movies! We saw, how to train your dragon, and iron man 2. I enjoyed each of them.
Finally, Finally FINALLY~! I took the state board practical test for hair school. It was scary,but I felt truly so many prayers from people, and others cheering me on that I wasn't even nervous. OK, just a little bit nervous. But Looking at this picture made me so happy this phase of my life is over with :) I left at 6 am for my test and didnt get back till 4pm. That was a long day! But after, Jake came and picked me up and we went to "the bombay house" to get yummy Indian food! We good a chicken Marsala and a shrimp coconut curry. ooooh so good! and yes, after we went to cold stone to! What a great life!
Have you ever thought you saw something like a lawn mower with a couch on it driving down the road, and you happened to be right? How cool is this! We were so excited when we saw this! How neat to go take a date to get a snowcone, and you have a place to sit to enjoy your cone?! yea, awesome!
Well one night our house smelled of drugs and we got scared so all of us girls stayed up late and changed all the locks in our house, and did gymnastics in the hall way, and ate crap food till 4am. These are the great memories you remember in college. This is Emily about to preform an areal.
Boyfriends are the best. When I was out of town for awhile, Jake bought me lots of awesome surprises. I truly felt like it was Christmas. Pretty much because it was! Jake bought me and "twilight" movie tshirt...because he wanted everyone to know that "I love Jacob" haha, some Disney movies I had wanted, and the sherk ones to! and the cutest dress from J-Crew. I was so impressed, he did such a good job of picking out the cutest dress ever! So he got me a bar of soap, and I thought he was implying that I should shower more. Then I realized, the smell was such a great smell, and that's why Jake always smells so good, because of the soap he uses! Cute boy. Then there was a crab cup I loved, and my favorite candies.

Sometimes the trash gets forgotten all to often. Our garage was full with more than 2 full trash cans, and loads of boxes. It was intense. So we loaded up Sandys car with all the boxes, and and Megan and I rolled down the trash cans down a large hill and all of us lifted up the cans into a dumpster. Sandy drove us back in the back of her car. The speed bumps were scary. It was all worth it. After we all collected the trash from the house and within an hour, the cans were full again, and we toke them out to the street to be emptied by the nice mr. trash man. Now the boyfriends of the apartment take duty in taking the trash out each week.

Megan and I were running some errands and at Walgreens we saw some large sweat pants on sale for 2 dollars. Megan bought a pair. Neither of us realized how huge they were. Megan and Sandy are both hanging out in the pants.
At Walgreens, Megan and I also saw some "kabang" treats. I was apauled. haha
Jake has been quite creative lately when it has come to food. He put strawberries on the chicken to cook in the oven. He also tried blueberries. I guess you got to get all the food groups in some how :) Jake does a great job at making food.
Oh my all time favorite sub, the Senuous Sandwich Italian deal. Soooo yummy. Who would guess that cream cheese would make a sub sandwich.All my cousins are getting married! This was at my cousin Reed (Michael's) wedding. He married the cutest girl! They came to our house a for a bit over thanksgiving time and I got to meet his fiance Ashley and get to know her there. They make a great couple! Except for the fact that I dont have any pictuers of them, at their wedding. That makes sense? Well this was at the grooms lunchin at the Joseph Smith place. It was a yummy salad, chicken dinner and cheese cake. I dont even like cheesecake and I ate the whole thing! It was good! This is mom, Bick, Bick, Mitsy, Donna, Mitch, Lindsey. Mitch got married about a year ago and his twin sister Mandy is getting married end of July. So much family action!

This was the pretty view from lunchin.

This deer is in my front yard. My roomate sent this picture to me. So awesome!
Jake helped me complete one of my life long goals. I drove around BYU campus! It was such a great feeling. We had to drop off some stuff, a lot of stuff for a ward activity in one of the buildings, so we drove on campus to drop it off. I can cross that one off the bucket list now! Thanks Jake!

Duckies!

On Friday night, Jake and I went on a fun date to the Timpanogas temple, and got little ceasers pizza to eat. After we went to our weekly Walmart trip to go get some special ingredients to make some cup cakes I had been dying to make! A couple of weeks ago I bought 2 of the cutest cupcake books. Jake and I had a fun time attempting to make these duck cupcakes! The book taught us a couple of tricks how to make a batter really yummy and how to put the batter into the cupcake tins.

The oven at my place has been a little sketchy so we cooked cupcakes at Jakes,and then brought them over to my place to finish them off! Here we have frosted the cupcakes and have done the first step.
Next we added the donut heads, and marshmallow tail and put them in the freezer to harden and stick together.
Next is the dipping process. Lets just say...they make it look alot easier in the book than in real life. Jake was so excited because he made a duck with a square marshmallow head instead of the donut head. This was his favorite, and could not be eaten. I thought it turned out great! Jake is always creative when he cooks.
We made 2 kinds of ducks. Just regular frosted ducks, and coconut frosted ducks.
This was my favorite duck. I ate him and he was so yummy. I think it was the buttermilk we put in the cupcakes instead of the water, and the yummy coconut!
These were all our ducks. We had a hard time eating them because they turned out so cute! Maybe not book worthy cute, but for a first time cup cake decorating adventure, we had a great time!
Jake did a great job making the beaks and feet for the upside down ducks using starburst! Maybe he should go into starburst sculpturing for a job.

duck pond

By BYU campus they have a really fun duck pond. Ever since Jake and I discovered there were turtles in it!!!!!!!! we like to go visit often! Can you spot out some turtles in this picture? (its like the game..wheres waldo)

We are so happy to see some big turtles!
Ah!! Turtle on the shore! Jake caught this one for me to hold!
I wanted to see how heavy the turtle was, because someday our cute 4 baby turtles will be this big to! and maybe even bigger! I was shocked that the turtle was really light. I hope the turtles are that light, and that the turtle was not malnourished....
Jake and Tuna. Tuna is so much fun to have around. He loves to come and hang out. He is a great friend to bring along.

Grandparents 70th Wedding Anniversary

A trip back home to visit for Grandma and Grandpas 70th wedding anniversary ment...it started with a road trip!(and another marathon post....) Jacob was able to come with me, so on our way home we stopped at Vegas, for Jakes first time! It was so much fun! We spent about five hours there, walking around the shops, doing a little shopping, watching entertaining people on the strip, and eating at one of my favorite places from NY, and brought to Vegas.......

SERENDIPITY! For some reason I love this restaurant! Maybe its because of the movie, maybe its because I am obsessed with oversized yummy desserts? Well, I think I got Jake hooked on chicken wings, or chicken fingers in wing sauce. Its what he wants for every meal when we go out, at any place we go to. But hey..I'm not complaining. If I were stuck on a dessert island and could only eat 5 things chicken wings would be one of them. (gummy bears, pumpkin chocolate chip bread, neds crazy subs and steak would probably also make the list. oh and maybe exchange one of those for Hawaiian haystacks).
Have you ever tried a fried oreo? If not..its time to try one. It was not my favorite thing I have eaten, or one I would recommend to eat often, but its worth a try. The desert was good, but nothing beats their chocolate cake sundae.
Well, after arriving in Arizona early in the Morning, Jake and I were able to play and talk with grandma and grandpa for awhile. Next we got to play with the fam! Heres two of my cute sisters with little Alyssa!
My mom is always whipping up a meal, and everytime it is good! She is such a great cook!

Breann and Gavin. Such fun/cute kid! Look how cute little feet are!

Alyssa just cracks me up! Oh she is such a ham. I was dying laughing when she was up on this little window ledge. She was acting like she was trapped inside and it was the worst thing ever. Maybe as a child I would feel the same if I knew there was a magical land waiting outside for me to come play in to.
Morgan and dad.
Kelsey and Jacob. On our first couple of days in being in AZ, Jake got to experience "Sweet Cakes," "last chance," and meeting some of my childhood friends, Aimee Anderson Gurr and Scarlett Banks Bindixon. We all got to go out to dinner and have a fun time! We also got to see Aimee and her husband Brandons new house they just built. It was so cute! Aimee had done such a great job of decorating. I was so proud.
Breeann and mom. I think they look alike in this picture. Same noses?
With grandma and grandpa in town, we got to spend time with family we don't always get to see, which was awesome! This is my uncle Steve and aunt LeeAnn. Sometimes I am lucky and get to see and play with them back at school.

There are many reasons why I think Jake is the greatest, but here are two of them: Jake will help with anything. He was great at making cookies with, and helped them look so nicely displayed.
#2 Jake is not only great with kids, he LOOOVES to be playing with them. I think it is because he is a little boy at heart. (giant stuffed squids, dino toys...) But thats what makes him so fun! This is Jake playing with my cute nephew Shane.
Jake, Kelsey, Grandpa, Grandma
How cute is this?! So sweet. I have never seen a couple so in love. It has been so great being able to spend time with my grandparents. They are such great examples to me. Especially on how to show kindness and love to others.
Dad took us for a tour at his office to show grandma and grandpa the changes since they have last been back west. Uncle Steve and I had a little to much fun on these rocking animals. I think its because we were so amused that they made animal sounds when you rocked on them!
Playing on the display playgrounds.
Cute grandma getting wheeled around in a comfy chair! Great idea dad :) Grandma did love it!
This is a spinny thing. It was intense.
Getting some great one on one with grandma!
Aunt LeeAnn is defiantly the crafters, of alllll crafters! Oh she is good! Early in the morning her and I set out on some adventures to find some great fabrics for a craft night. We also got some cool vinyl fabrics to make some fun notebook covers. She's so creative. She taught my sisters, mom and I how to make 2 new kinds of flowers! It was a great time! Thanks LeeAnn!
Gavin and Bryce really bonded this trip! They played nitendo on this chair for hours.
More visitors arrived! This is Paul and Aunt Lee! The big day has come....ITS GRANDMA AND GRANDPAS 70TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY!!! WAHOO!

Mom always prepares a feast! She is so good! The relief society president in our ward is an amazing cook, and she was so sweet and knew that guests were coming over so she made several kinds of focasia bread for us to eat. Well I got to be honest, I have never eat such soft, luscious, tasty, unstoppable eating bread. I love bread and have eaten many great breads, but this is one of my top favorites! I must learn how to make these someday!

Mom always has such a variety of food for everyones tastes!

Sweet and Sour meat balls! What a great hit! Mom has such good friends with great recipes. Her friend Mindy got this recipe from the Lion House. They were soo delicious!
The famous cook herself!
Grandma and Grandpa welcoming all their guests that have come for the day!
Eating around the table, getting time to catch up and talk to eachother!
Uncle Mark, Aunt Lee, and Mike. Mike used to live by my grandparents and became a member of the LDS church in his teenage years. He has kept in contact with my grandparents, and they have been great friends since.
Grandpa and Jacob became great friends this trip. Grandpa loooves to learn new things and is working on his computer skills. He does a great job, but had a few questions. I think Jake is great #3 because he loves to help others. He sat down with my grandpa more than multiple times to talk, be on the computer and help him. Jake is such a great example of patience and service. Grandpa emailed Jake the cutest email after the trip. That sealed the deal on friends forever.
As Hayley would say (and sadly we all missed Hayley and her family on this trip) "this picture is frame worthy). I think this is such a cute picture! This is bree brees and Aunt LeeAnn.
Oh yes.........so the night before the party I got really sick so the party day was a pj day for me. Jake was so sweet and toke care of me, even though he knew he may get sick himself. (and sadly he did, and was still sick for 3 weeks after. poor jacob) *notice* great white socks....dads! oh, how I have such great memories of dads socks, and how I love to wear them. I was freezing so dad got me a pair of his fresh socks to wear! He's the best!
Uncle Vick came to say hello. He has the cutest smile of all time!
Mark, Lee, Dad, Mom, Mike, LeeAnn, Steve, Grandma, Grandpa, Vick
Alyssa is looking good in these sweet shades.
Amazing women.
Nothings a party without a pool party in Arizona! Here is Bryce jumping off the diving board. He is such a handsome boy.
Shane was great jumping off the diving board! He would go all by himself!
Jake was such a big boy to and ventured off the diving board by his self to. I think he would of felt better if someone was waiting at the bottom to catch him.
Paul is so sweet. He pushed Alyssa around the pool in her floaty and would occasionally lean her back and they would give eachother kisses.
This is the year for Gavin, to learn how to swim! He was doing so good, and his skills are looking good! Way to go Gavin!
Amber has always been a supurb diver!
Grandpa was so cute and wanted to watch all the pool adventures. He decided to wait behind the fence so he didn't get wet. Probably a good choice.
Jeff and baby Dean. Getting on some sun screen to have a little protection from the hot hot sun.
Bree and Amber had a great time together in the pool. Amber would lift Breeann higher and higher in the pool. They played for hours. She would keep coming back to Amber to tell her to keep jumping her. I love Brees lovely long hair, and Ambers cute smile. Cami and Dean were excited to watch.

Aubrey became the official child catcher at the end of the slide. She was perfect for this job. She really made every child feel special, and that they were in good hands. Gavin is happy that swimming is starting to click with him. He is going to be a great swimmer! He already is.
What is a trip, without a trip to the "Golden Corral Buffet?!" We got to eat at the Golden Corral and it was so yummy! I love it there! Really good food selection and fun easy going environment to be in! My grandma is a party animal. Every night we would stay up and watch fun old movies with her. I think thats where I get my late night gene from! After a great trip, relatives all left, Jake left, and we toke grandma and grandpa to the airport. I was sad to see them go, but so glad I got to spend some quality time with each of them!
During the days everyone had left, I got to make the 2 quilts. Amber and John and their family were with Johns family on a trip. They then came back to AZ before they headed back home. Here is mom and Amber at Pei Wei, as we all had dinner together.
Best dad in the world.
Cutest mom, and little Paul. Paul loves ears. He is great at doing ear tricks and massaging ears. He also has the cutest dimples around.
Amber's family loves the pool so we spent a few days at the pool with them. It was so much fun! Amber and I reminisced the past doing diving board competitions, treading water, underwater handstands, george washington hairdos, how many spins in the water can you do, the Arial the mermaid pose, water sit-ups, and more. So great! I love love being able to spend time with my sisters! Especially the one on one time! So special.
Paul is one to wear floatys well! Look at this great technique going off the diving board!
Amber and John. Two of my favorite people!
Well, sadly..fun trips come to an end. But the fun did still keep on coming. Jake flew down to Arizona to help me drive back up to Utah. Before we drove back we ate at out back with the fam, and then Jake, my mom and I drove up the cabin. There we saw the movie "despicable me." It is now officially one of my favorite movies. I lovvvved it! It was not at all what I expected! We got to look at the pretty view, take a sauna and eat yummy food at a fun down town place called "kendals" its a burger joint and very good! Sadly Jake felt very sick. On our drive back to Utah we decided to drive back threw the Grand Canyon. This was my first time seeing it! Someday I hope to hike it! During the drive it got a bit windy and rainy. You can see the rain showers coming down in this picture. Cool!
We passed by a place called Jacobs Lake! Ment to be.
Almost home!
This drive was absolutely beautiful! It was such an enjoyable ride with so much beauty all around. In a time span of 1o hours or driving, I felt I was in many different beautiful states because of the drastic scenery changes.
What a great trip! Thanks family for a wonderful time :)