samantha dawn

Old 2011 to the New 2012

2012-01-04T18:04:00.000-08:00

New Years: Hogs Heaven (check) Great Weather (check) Fun Friends (Check) Entertainment (Check) Shovels (Check) Red Solo Cups (check) Memories Made (Check) Memories Remembered (check)

We left Cedar late on Friday night for our first adventure of the weekend getting to Hogs Heaven. Because of road closures and weather, we took the long way in (or rather one of the long ways in), through Zions Park and up around the narrows (ish... I dont really know how we got there just know its up that way somewhere :) It was however a memorable drive with tail lights out, Caseys not so great driving over bumps, signing aloud and shirtless drivers!

Here is the girls New Years Eve. Tanya, Tawni, Lacie, Alyssa, Sam. This would be "look out point" well one of them on the property. This one however, is part of the narrows. Lacie wanted to take some photos and must have gotten a little excited as she sorta threw her camera over the edge of the cliff and practically went after it!!! Good thing she realized and we all just watched it fall to its resting spot. Thank goodness Tawni was also prepared with her camera!

Seth and I on look out point, I said it once I will say it again... We do look great together :) It could very well be just him, but I was lucky enough to be standing next to him.

Seth:Casey:Brett Pretty sure all of us girls were a little uneasy with their willingness to run up and down that little cliff (?) but an amazing view it was. Love these three handsome guys!

Here is the part of the trip Samantha was a party pooper and got sick... everyone had a great time sunday morning shooting clay pigeons and cleaning up the cabin to start our trek home while I just napped... yes napped... oopsie, hope they invite me back again! Thanks to Seth for taking such good care of me- your one in a million!

We took our other long way home and tried our luck on the snow covered roads. Turns out our band wagon of four Chevys couldn't quite handle the pressure. We all got stuck at least once... some of us more than others (zach....) :) I however, wish I was part of it a little more than throwing up at our pit stops. Poor Seth and Jake had the pleasure of dealing with me. Great men that are going to heaven for sure! I couldnt agree with Jake more when he looked at me and said "Sam, we are a rare breed of men" Yes, they are few and dying breed and its why I love them! I am so thankful to know this group of friends- hoping for more memories in the future and thankful for the ones I have with them!

Thanks for a memorable New Years!

Oh its Christmas time, Christmas time....

2012-01-02T18:52:00.000-08:00

Here is our traditional Sammi & nephews christmas photo! Cant help but love these three little boys.

Here is our traditional gingerbread house competition. To make it unbiased we posted the photos to facebook for our friends to judge. We are coincidentally standing L to R in order of winners. 1st Cassidy 2nd Josh (3rd Jer and Les) 4th Samantha (how embarrassing), and 5th KJ and Orrin. I still cannot believe no one liked my stable with a manger. Shows how many people really appreciate the real meaning of CHRISTmas :)

Traditional Sammi, boys & Duke photo! They tried so hard to get that santa hat on duke. I thought it was a great photo. Can you tell I am their favorite aunt ever! :)

And the traditional couple photos: Of course the last three years has been just me and duke. Yes, I love my dog.... but seriously, he is pretty handsome!

The traditional Pajama photo Christmas Eve: I think this is our best one yet! Going to be hard to top this in years to come. Pretty original and fitting for our family. This will make it to a frame for sure!

Best Gift EVER: I realize this might just look like the coolest remote control truck you have ever seen, but its much much more than that. This is a gift from a handsome, generous and VERY thoughtful man in my life. This gift tells me that he not only listens to me but knows me extremely well. I am a lucky girl, not only because I have this awesome truck to play with but I have a great friend who shows that he cares. Thank you again for the amazing gift, its not one that will be forgotten!

Christmas time has come and gone, although the decorations might have to start being boxed up just remember they get to come out again in 357 days !!!

Here we GO!!!!

2011-12-20T16:41:00.000-08:00

Lets just start with this photo :) (Kat you know you love it) This is Katherin in our kitchen after declaring everything is going wrong that could go wrong before she leaves on her mission. I found it quite ironic that when she went to get the tin foil out it completely unrolled!! I laughed its okay for you to laugh too, pretty sure Kat laughed shortly after shoving it back into the drawer :)

We can go here: To my IFA work christmas party. Yes, I took Kat. It was a free meal so neither of us had to put out. Bonus- we do look great together!

And then lets go here: Sam and Kat moving! Well, this is all Kat's belongings that we took home to Payson. 3 of us 4 roommates all moving out in December. Laura was the first one the first weekend of December, then Kat and I two weeks later.

Dont really wanna go here...... Kitty Kats Mission Farewell: Here we are best friends coming to a detour in our road. This is just the beginning of the fun we had at her Moms house after church.

Reunions!!! Laura Wilson, Samantha, Katherin Caldwell(Sister Caldwell) and Jennie Merback! Look at us go- we all managed to make it for a final hoorah! I love these girls so much and they each have a special place in my heart. I wont forget any of our cedar city memories we had together!

Jennie: OH my dear Jennie! How she can light up a room with her smile and quick witty comments! How I miss rooming with her and her drive to do EVERYTHING!

Seth and I continuing making memories at Kat's farewell. Haven't met a soul so generous as he. I even have proof, this photo... not many would smile for the camera standing next to me :) He was a wonderful friend for supporting Katherin in not only her mission decision but the last three years they have been friends. And bonus- We look great together too! :)

Ohhh how I will miss little big brothers! So glad I got the opportunity to become part of the Caldwell Family! They are the funnest people I have meet! I love being there with them even if it means dyeing by knife point and loosing at the Great Down Booty(sp?) :)

VICTORY: What a crew! Lovely people, lovely times! Yay Kat going on a mission, Yay all of us for supporting her, Yay for all the good times we have had together, Yay for continuing being great friends, Yay for this wonderful photo we will treasure forever!

Seth Julian, Samantha, Laura Wilson, Katherin Caldwell, Colby Irons, Amber Hone, Shelby Millet, Jennie Merback (Just in case one day when I am old and I forget everything I wont be able to forget you guys)

Snow can only mean one thing:

2011-12-09T22:22:00.000-08:00

CHRISTMAS!!! Oh, wait... its not christmas yet- so who is going to tell the snow its a bit early?

We (those who live in Cedar Town) have been lucky(?) to have snow make a visit... and over stayed visit if you ask me. Well, no I take it back. Snow is awfully pretty and I guess can be fun to play in if your neighbors would pick up their dog poop so you could make a snowman and if it stayed off the roads so we could drive without having a panic attack :)

But while all this snow is happening around me here are a few highlights of no snow moments:

Jubilee of Trees:

Of course the "western" themed tree. I loved the color scheme and most of all the awesome "Yippie ki yi yo yay" license plate sign in the back.

The Phantom of the opera organ. Its like identical to the one on the goonies! Funny how its suppose to be about the "trees" but I do not remember the tree on this theme :)

Bowling:

Yes, I only have ONE photo, no cool shoes, no lanes, no bowling balls, just us which I thought was enough....(apparently not) Me, Katherin, and Amanda. There was lots of us there this time around, just figured we were the only cool ones (apparently I am right). GOAL: next bowling adventure take more photos!

Wichita Scottish Rite:

The auditorium mimics the worlds finest opera houses and provides stage, scenery, and lighting opportunities since 1887!!!

The building is home of the Masons (http://www.wichitascottishrite.org/) and it is a beautiful building.

These are two photos I snapped before rehearsal of Celebrate! Love the carpet, balcony boxes, $300,000 or more dollar backdrops (which they have like 100 different ones!) and the shows they put on in the theater.

We had the opportunity to help down stairs with Deb, in costumes while we were their helping with Josh's show. Down on level 2 of the Scottish Rites are these storage cabinets on two walls. Each door opens up and a bar pulls out storing multiple costumes in each space. Some are a bit newer, but some were dated way, way back! I couldnt believe all the props and accessories they had from long ago!

CELEBRATE!! :

Here is the cast of Celebrate! 2011. We had loads of fun going to Kansas and trying to help Josh with his last touches. I always look forwards to visiting Josh and friends in Wichita. Cassidy always takes LOTS of photos and we video the performances and he makes a video that the cast members can buy. Its just overall a neat experience for the kids as well as families involved.

National Finals Rodeo:

Remember the whole bad photo taker... I only have ONE!!! And of course I look horrendous!

Katherin and I at the finals on tuesday night. There is this long story about how I lent my car to Kat so she could come get down to Vegas to pick me up and so we could spend a few days shopping and drooling over all the cowboy hats we saw walking around town but.... we know not to gamble in vegas cause our luck is shot! The clutch went out in the gorge with her after dark. Good thing she is amazing and handled it very well. Being in Kansas at the time, I didnt feel really helpful to her but we got a tow, got it fixed but not in time.. they gave us a free rental we cruised vegas with. I flew in Monday and was ever so lucky to have Seth pick me up! We had lots of fun in vegas and we wish we didnt have to come back to reality, like... ever. We stretched it out as long as we could trust me :) However, I need to learn to be quicker on my toes because Tyson and Seth together is double the trouble, never met any two people that feed off each other as much as they do! And boy, do they enjoy it! We made lots of memories, and had lots and lots of laughs. Only down fall is that I didnt get a souvenir cowboy to come home with me. Maybe next trip :)

Life story:

2011-12-08T21:39:00.000-08:00

I now know why I would NEVER have anyone write about my life with detail. One because its depressing, and not in the inspirational depressing way, just boring depressing. Two because no one should have to relive the things I do, or say for that matter and Three because once is totally enough for all us lucky enough to be involved :)

My 1st and Last......

2011-11-24T22:35:00.000-08:00

BLACK FRIDAY:

Watch this video that was actually videoed at the bloomington walmart but picture cardboard and wii games being thrown in the air to the people at the back....

Now, let me tell you my story :)

The other day Leslie called and was all you planning on doing any black friday shopping, I replied "eh, I don't really know... maybe I will look at the ads" So.... when I get home wednesday night I start looking through ALL the ads and decided there are some things I 'thought' I couldn't live without. So, we make our game plan.... scout the ads the times stores open and what we really wanted. First on the list is Walmart, they now have deals starting at 10 (woot woot, lucky us huh!) We get there 9:15 ish and have to park at Dickies BBQ and trek all the way in find the line for DVD's and change our mind on that... Go down to the seafood isle where all the nintendo games were (we had three mario ones the boys needed) and find a mob.. no line just a mob of people. We work our way up a little to find there are three cardboard displays one supposedly had Wii, one PS and on Xbox. By now its around 9:30 and we start thinking about this set up... there is no exit... how are people once they get their games going to leave this MOB of people already inching forward like there is some place to go. We sorta chit chat with the few people next to us, invading out personal bubbles. One guy asks hesitantly which game we are going for.. he lets out a breath of relief when its not the same one as him.. and the sweet lady behind us just keeps questioning why she was there and if its all going to be worth it and the two guys behind us joke about hoping the people up front just start throwing the games they don't want towards the back sense we will probably never make it up there. There is no space between the seafood freezers and the boxes and no space between the boxes and the people... 9:45....uh this is when I start to change my mind. Questioning if this is a good idea or not. Well by the time Leslie and I look at each other and agree this is going to be madness and debate whether or not to start slipping back its 9:53 and they start pulling the plastic covers off the displays. Its too late, people start shoving forward like its their last dying day! I am sure the look on my face was priceless, as it is many times in my life. I am now worried, not about the Wii games the boys wanted but about my life! Worried I am going to get tripped and trampled because heaven forbid someone misses out on the $20 Wii games. Then about this time I sort of laugh out loud because here they come nintendo games coming from the front.. being hoisted, being rejected by the few in front that can get their hands on some. Luckily for most of us our heads were saved because mister 6'6 with arms for days caught the majority of them and nicely handed them back. I am now weaseling my way back and try just standing out of the way for a moment but I get pushed that way, then ran into by someone else, then shoved another way and so forth. I look around and see card board on the floor, games flyin, people videoing and laughing, people seriously angry they cant get up to the front. I kinda make my way to the front, not sure it was really by choice or not and I see Walmart workers picking up stacks of games that are on the floor and handing them out to pass back to the people in front. Well, I guess I made the mistake of asking one ASSociate if she had mario, "like I know" in the most cattiest voice I have ever heard... "wanna pass some out so we can look" I asked her pretty innocently I thought, I just saw the other workers doing it.... "NO, DO YOU WANNA BACK UP SO WE CAN CLEAN THIS MESS YOU MADE UP" uh... biotch, you obviously cant handle retail or handle planning a safe way to do this so why the hell you here? Okay, I didn't say that to her face but I sorta wanted to, What is she going to do with that stack of games in her hands once she cleans up the broken cardboard display... stack them on the ground... no, so hand them out! And, like I could back up I only had 100 people behind me pushing me forward! Anyways... crowd sorta dies down once they know there aren't many games left, I find my way to leslie who has somehow gathered two games (not the original ones we wanted but they will do). When we start to turn to leave it was like a spot light shown the waves parted and we see this box on the other side of the sea of people and its practically untouched.... Low and behold, MARIO WII !!!! Just what we wanted... we go and grab out three games and bolt. Enough of the nintendo games in the seafood dept. We had other things on our list so we try to make out way to the toys.... finally finally, we make it and our things are gone. Leslie looks at a few more things when I go try to get in line to check out. Well........................... we waited and waited like 15 minuets in line and didn't move a inch. I am not lying I even asked the guy in front of me if we moved at all. He just laughed and said don't believe we have. Thats when we again look at each other (me and leslie) and think why are we here! Leslie says, lets just be done I replied "BUT WE GOT WHAT WE WANTED!" "I know but we will be standing in this line for EVER and I just don't think its worth it" So we decided to stash the games (clever, I know) and come back in a while and get them so out we go, empty handed and a hour later.

But... get this, as we trek the way to dickies parking lot to leave, the guy parked next to us was unloading his shopping cart of goodies when we asked if he got all he wanted. He sorta shrugged and was all sure. Well, as we get into are car and start to pull out he lifts the shopping cart and loads it into his car as well as the goodies inside it!!!! We sorta hesitate... like is he really stealing the shopping cart?! Yes, yes indeed he stole the cart as well.

I suppose the saying is very much true that ANYTHING can and will happen on Black Friday...

ps- I will never EVER do that again... I am not much of a shopper in the first place, don't know what possessed me to try it on the busiest day of the year.

Redneck has New Meaning...

2011-11-14T12:21:00.000-08:00

You might be a redneck if: It never occurred to you to be offended by the phrase, 'One nation, under God..'

You might be a redneck if: You've never protested about seeing the 10 Commandments posted in public places.

You might be a redneck if: You still say ' Christmas' instead of 'Winter Festival.'

You might be a redneck if: You bow your head when someone prays.

You might be a redneck if: You stand and place your hand over your heart when they play the National Anthem

You might be a redneck if: You treat our armed forces veterans with great respect, and always have.

You might be a redneck if: You've never burned an American flag, nor intend to.

You might be a redneck if: You know what you believe and you aren't afraid to say so, no matter who is listening.

You might be a redneck if: You respect your elders and raised your kids to do the same. Some of you are so old you don't have elders to respect.

You might be a redneck if: You'd give your last dollar to a friend.

IF YOU DON'T STAND BEHIND OUR TROOPS FEEL FREE TO STAND IN FRONT OF THEM.

Goodbye October

2011-11-12T13:49:00.000-08:00

I have only been saving this post for about a month now... I really really need to get internet!!!! Dont worry I am slow at work so I figured I would hurry very sneekily and at least get the photos up! October was a GREAT month, we had lots of fun for sure! November... I am not to sure what to say about November just yet.. we still have thanksgiving this week!

So here it is.... THRILLER at Tuachan with Laura Ameila Katherin and Bundy.. Cassidy was there too, he is the one who donated tickets to us poor college kids. (I will forever call my self a college kid, even though I have not been in school a year) But try ever getting him to cooperate to take a photo. It will just have to be enough to know he was there :)

I had the opportunity to work at the Las Vegas IFA store halloween/PBR weekend to help with their inventory! Lucky me I have a great friend that is living down there and happens to love the PBR and sharing it with ME!!! We went to the PBR saturday night and of course took the tour of Fremont street on halloween weekend! I was sure glad to have an arm to hold onto there!

More thriller......

and.. The westerner!!! Katherin Shae and I went while we were in the SLC area to the Club called the Westerner, the only response I have to that night was I dont think I have never trusted so many drunk people in my life... But drunk men means more DANCING! It was a balst for sure, and we will be doing it again! Plus it was an added bounus to have Shae with us, its always forever inbetween our hangouts, too long for sure!!!!!
Here is to October, not to much snow (which is a perk) more cold wind than I would hoped for but great friends, great times, and great laughs. Memories I will hopefully never forget!!!

October in Cedar City

2011-10-18T20:41:00.000-07:00

Drives up the mountain....

leads to many.. many.. many... self time photos!
A GREAT fireman to keep the cabin warm enough that I dont get cold! He succeeded even though it was a task to keep me warm in Cedar :)
A warm cabin leads to happy campers! Kat and I just loved our time camping and playing catch phrase!

While staying warm I noticed some visitors that wanted to stay warm in the cabin too.... Kat on the hunt

Seth on the hunt.....
Setting traps and bait to aid in the hunt......
Seth with a VICTORY!!!!!

Seth tryin to convince me to kill it.........
Me freaking out because I heard a crunch.... I really couldnt do it......

But dead mouse means happy campers!!!

Laura even survived driving her car in the mud! GO KIA!!!

Yay, for a camping trip to get us out of town for a couple days... Thanks to Kats determination to go camping before it was too late, and a BIG BIG BIG thanks to Seth for making it happen and taking care of us girls! Oh, thanks to the Hones for letting us use their cabin it was really nice of them (even if they didnt know till now) haha. So glad for the memories we made and the great time we could have with our good friends! Hope we can do it again soon! But maybe with out the mice friends this time :)

Kansas Comes to Utah!!!

2011-10-05T19:51:00.000-07:00

Where to start.... We have had so much fun the past few days while friends from Kansas (The Ottaways and Sarah Quinn and Joshie) came to potentially run the marathon, but we lucked out and got the whole weekend to show off wonders! We started well, I started Thursday night when I got to head down after work, Josh and Sarah didnt show up till noon Friday. But, that didnt stop Jan from showing the Ottaways a good time all day Thursday ie Brigham Young home, Temple Visitor Center. How about the Little Mermaid at Tuachan on Friday night!

We found our selves getting photos with some of the actors here be KING TRITON

One of our few hikes we did in ZIONS this Josh is explaining the route and as you can tell, we are intently listening :)

Another thing on our "to do" was family photos, we made it up Sunday to the mountain, Papas pride and Joy and had TOOO much fun. Ridding horse, shooting clay piegions, ridding fourwheelers, hiking to Navajo Rock (lovers rock) and Eating YUMMY dutch oven dinner!

Here is the Sam and Jan Larson family photo of 2011, on the porch of Sam's Cabin. We might not be the biggest family out there but we are competing for the best looking :)

Its only tradition the trio photo! -Sammi-Sarah- Joshie- I just love them even if they do challenge me to a Nertz game every time we are together :)

We took a day and toured Zions, we spent a lot of the time actually in rockville and Springdale, we watched a movie on the big Imax theater ate a yummy late lunch and finally made it into the park to hike a few hikes even while the sun was down!

The Ottaway family... Luther Emily and Abby! They are just about the nicest, smartest family I have met! Loved every minute they were here in Utah! Cant wait to see them in December!

Papa Sam showing Abby how to rope the dummy at the cabin Sunday, she went home with A LOT of new experiences for sure! So, glad Abby loved Utah!!!!

Abby Josh and I on one of our hikes in Snow Canyon on Saturday. It defiantly proved its desert heat with 90 degrees for a few days.

It was a great break from work for a few days, and it was a full schedule trying to fit everything we could into the time we had! Thank you friends for coming to UTAH, I cant wait for you to come back again to do all the things we didnt fit into our time! Cant believe how much fun we had running around southern utah!

Kats Mission Call!!!!

2011-09-29T21:48:00.000-07:00

Katherine held her excitement more than Laura and I did- I think we asked her 10 times a day if she got her mission call. Finally Wednesday she text us saying ITS HERE!!!! We had already had a plan to drive to Payson if it ever got here, so six o'clock I pulled up to the house with Laura and Kat sitting on the grass waiting for me to pick them up. Off we were to Payson to meet her family to open the letter! It was a long drive with three excited girls, we couldnt get there fast enough!!!

Leave it to us to document every step of the way... I didnt even upload the photos I had of Kat walking up to the house! :)
Part of the group gathered around while Kat opens her letter!!! There are three phones sitting on the edge of the couch with out of state listeners!!!

Here is the video of Katherine reading her letter from the prophet him self! Woot Woot to Kat for finally getting her call! and WOOT WOOT to me for learning how to upload a video to my blog!

ELDER JOHN K. CARMACK

2011-09-18T11:20:00.000-07:00

Sometimes people and relationships will disappoint you. When that happens, be resilient enough to remain open and trusting. It may be painful to overcome the hurt, and it surely can be frightening to risk having that kind of pain again. But shutting other people out—building barriers to prevent someone from crossing into the tender territory of your heart—means locking yourself inside a shell. Be realistic, be judicious, be prayerful, but be willing to trust the right someone.

If it begins to appear that you will not have the opportunity to marry, continue to be active in good causes, to develop your talents, to improve your mind, to love and serve your friends, and to stay strong and secure in your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Try not to beat yourself with undue concern for your own problems. Thoughtless people may make hurtful comments about you, give judgmental opinions about why you are single, or identify your supposed mistakes. If you take all of these comments to heart, you can become mentally and spiritually depressed.

Think of your blessings, your talents, and your strengths, rather than your problems. I used to teach missionaries serving under me to awaken a little early and thank the Lord for their wonderful blessings. It was a good start to what was often another day of pointed rejection. We have much for which we can be grateful. Let us focus upward and outward to blessings, contributions, and service.

College Rodeo!!

2011-09-11T10:46:00.000-07:00

Rodeo seams to be the topic of most of my post lately.. which I just so happen to be a-ok with! Kat and I are partners in crime when it comes to holding down a rodeo event. This weekend it was the Great American Stampede Rodeo- a college rodeo that is put on buy the SUU college team. We of course made appearances both Friday and Saturday nights

We even tapped our toes Friday night at the "dance" they held afterwards.... pretty sure if the 8 of us were not standing there and halfway into dancing the other 10 people would have left :) But it was a good time for all, a little line dancing, a little swing dancing, and even a little polka dancing! We headed to dennys to feed our bellies sense it is pretty much a tradition and the only place open that late in Cedar :)

Good food, good times, good memories, good lookin cowboys :) What more could a girl ask for!

Kitty Kats Birthday!!!!

2011-09-08T15:25:00.000-07:00

Kat is finally 21!!! woot woot! Unfortuantly it was a thursday and we both had to work all day but.. we tried to make the most of it. First by a surprise cake at work!

She did really good blowing out them candles. Note to self: Don't buy the cheep dollar candles, they burn out faster then we could light all of them!
Second by a present waiting at home! (ps: there is a map on the wall, Kat turned in her mission papers, gotta come make a guess!!)
She really did love it, her sweatshirt that says "I love my Kitty Kat"
We had weekend plans of a vegas trip to dance out little hearts out, but who knew that some clubs were iffy on taking temporary id's so we postponed and stayed and played in Cedar at the rodeos instead of chancing vegas clubs. Hope you had a good birthday Kitty Kat! I am so glad that you are my roommate and best friend! I think I am lost now, I dont know where I would be with out you! So glad your 21, so glad your my rommie, so glad we can finally go dancing!!! woot woot!

-Little Mermaid-

2011-09-07T14:58:00.000-07:00

With the history my family has with Tuacahn you can imagine my surprise when my roommate Katherine has told me she has never been there! She has lived in cedar for 3 years and never even ventured out to the free concerts they put on down there. So, with that said, I made a call to Cassidy to see what connections he had to get us some tickets so that we could get Kat to a show at Tuacahn. He worked his magic and got 5 tickets so that all four of us roommates could go to the show together and of course him too! We planned about a month in advance and it just so happened to be the day before Kats birthday (perfect timeing yes?!). We chose the show the Little Mermaid it had the best reviews and had been sold out practically every night.

We made it down to STG in time to go to dinner at the Olive Garden and then head out to the venue. We were right on time and had pretty awesome seats!

It was a great roommate experience, hopefully a great first time Tuacahn experience for Kat and a great reminder of the wonderful weather STG has!

ROdEos!!

2011-09-05T10:52:00.000-07:00

Saturday Kat and I drove out to Parowan to support the boys in their ranch rodeo! This whole day event consisted of team sorting, team branding, team roping, trailering, and a donkey watermelon race! It was a long warm day with the fair right there close. We cheered and visited and roped the dummy and even left with sunburns :)

Greg and Seth and Jake in the team branding event!

Seth and I at the Iron County Rodeo Saturday night

Latest Happenings

2011-08-31T09:24:00.000-07:00

I left out e-town rodeo on my last post... so there it is, the only photo we took because neither of us wanted to carry around the camera, but dang do we look good :) There was no time for photo op's anyways once we got in chatting with friends. Enterprise is always fun for me, although a bit slower rodeo and small town its great to cheer for people you know and run into long lost friends. Never a dull moment if your paying attention to the arena where a cowboy just got slammed in the fence or behind the parked trailers where a horse is loose or a fight is about to bust loose!

Happy birthday to me- happy birthday to me! Leslie had a great idea to go down to a concert in Vegas called country fest: Dierks Bentley Craig Campbell and Randy Houser!!! It just so happened that Seth and Jeremy were to get off working Friday, so Leslie and I took the shuttle down to vegas and Jeremy picked us up from the airport. I was super lucky and Seth got off work all day! So we made a few shopping trips ate lunch at the mall. We had really extra time so we found ourselves at the movie Cowboys and Aliens. The only problem with the whole day was that I of course got sick. I tried to be a good sport but lets be honest, I was no fun what-so-ever. Good thing Seth was a good sport and had a good time with Jer and Leslie. One of our shopping stops was the Boot Barn where Seth got us these matching t-shirts, we were high styling for sure :)

A blog post wouldn't be complete without a Kat and Sammi photo- this one is when we where on our way to the college dance :)

Kat and I got temporary tattoos at the Enterprise cornfest! Dont tell Jan, but I used the money she gave me for a lemonade, wont she be proud :) We had a great time, well at least I think Kat had a good time hanging out at Uncle Jacks house with my cousins and the crazies that come to buy corn and produce. We hit up the yard sales, cruised main street, got snow cones and ate some yummy corn on the cob!!

August was a great birthday month even as depressing as it is to turn 23!

Gum Grafting

2011-07-21T15:26:00.001-07:00

I know, I know, I am weird, but I like photos, so that all of you know what the crap I just went through! Just FYI- dont google gum grafting because it will make you sick, literally, some of the photos on there are uh, a little to drastic for my taste. ANYWAYS: Today I had a minor surgery called gum grafting. One of my front teeth looked kinda like that 'before' photo, and now after my surgery today it looks more like the 'after' photo' :)

The procedure sounds nastier than it really was, but I am still on drugs they gave me, so dont take my word for it :) They take a piece of gum from the roof of your mouth (the only place gum regenerates) and sew it on where you teeth/roots need protecting, where the gum had receded. Basic, easy, 45 minuets your finished and driving your self home from the periodontist (who is a gum specialist)..... Unless your Samantha Dawn.... then your are freaking out, shakin in your boots for two weeks, knowing that this dentist is going to be cutting the roof of your mouth and sewing on your gums that aren't really even there and they wont even put you out for the procedure because "there will be some bleeding so we like to have you coherent" yes, I did freak out a little, but dont worry I tried to not to let it show :) I just made my mother drive me there because I figured if I was alone, I just might keep drivin on pass and "accidentally" forget my appointment :) No worries, I am 22 and had my mom take me an wait for me, no one knew I was a bit worried! haha

Well, just add it to my list. There it is finished and completed! I survived to tell the tale!

Mountain Times

2011-07-20T15:06:00.000-07:00

We have had some fun times already on the mountain this year! Not quite as many as the rest of the family but, Kat and I and we even got Seth up there have enjoyed the cool mountain air a few times this summer. We have raced to Navajo rock, rode the wheelers, saw the Kolob arch after looking for a LONG time, some of us longer than others :) and even helped Jeremy roll up some old fence. Oh, cant forget about papa's birthday we spent up there, and all the yummy dutch oven food we have had while on the mountain as well.

There is nothing better than spending family time at the cabin, even if it does involve a little work! Cattle drive is next week so I am sure there will be at least ONE good story to share about getting the cows to the mountain!

- 4th of JULY weekend-

2011-07-05T17:00:00.000-07:00

The 4th weekend was PACKED full of fun things- who would have thunk it. We sit around Cedar draggin main or twiddling our thumbs just waiting for someone to come along to do something, ANYTHING with. Well, let me be the one to say, this was a successful weekend for sure. Kat and I were just pumped for the Gunlock rodeo Friday and Saturday night. Then we even got all day Saturday to spend in STG shopping and swimming. Well, not technically all day because we did kind of sleep in because we had a little bit of a late night at Gunlock the night before :) We met some new people had some good laughs with people we already new and enjoyed it all!

After yet another late night at Gunlock Saturday night we decided to drive back to Cedar, it was really hard for us pull out of Gunlock because we felt like we might just miss something with all the excitment of bucking the donkeys out. We had some great laughs at the few who dared round up the donkeys for another go around after hours. There arent many who know of the rodeo after the rodeo :) Sunday after sleeping in our good share brought a great treat. Seth and Colby invited us to Quail lake with them for a little fishing and swimming! We should have known better than to have gone on Sunday because we had a little boat trubble, but still a great time for sure! First time I have been on a boat on Quail lake and I am from STG (how embarassing!). We had good laughs, great talks, and a WONDERFUL time. The fun however did not stop there, Seth hosted a ropin and made cobbler at his house. We got a few more friends to head over to enjoy the great weather and we roped clear after dark. Its always a great time when you get to spend it with the ones you care about- these friends of mine here in Cedar are sure proving their greatness. I am thankful we could all have such a wonderful weekend and look back and enjoy the new memories together!

Thanks Gunlock for yet another year of laughs, embarassment, and cute cowboys!

Thanks STG for warm weather, my nephews/family, a cool swimming pool and good durangos food!

Thanks Seth and Colby for a great trip the lake, for jumping in with me, and for not drowning me! :)

Thanks Troops for fighting for my freedoom, for your scarafice of good times and family time so I can have many more laughs and embarassing ones of my own!

The JUNE bug

2011-07-02T08:49:00.000-07:00

June kicked off with a more sad but makes you want to stand a little prouder event. The 4th three of my new friends Casey, Brett and Cabe left with the 222 for a year deployment.

Kat was lucky enough to be working on the field helping load bags to get to take some great shots of them. It was a pretty rough day for some (not only because of the party the night before :) but because for once it finally hit home. These are young men we know and love that are going off to war not just strangers fighting for my freedom.

This photo is epic and just makes me smile. Makes me not only proud to know these men but grateful for their willingness and desire to fight for my freedom!

Sunday drives or just daily drives have become a little custom of my roommates and myself. The 5th we took one all the way up to the top of Kanarraville mtn.

This is look out point (yes, of course we self timed it!) it overlooks Kolob- prettiest place on earth. (not debatable)

On our drive up there we passed this big ol' rock in the road, its pretty steep and we already came close to dyeing once by pulling over so a car could pass us. Mean while not thinking of getting starting up this steep slippery road again we rolled back and spin out just a LITTLE. We let Laura try to move it out of the road on the way down... no such luck, it was bigger than she thought. But points for her effort and her bare feet! :)

-Not a complete blog post without a car photo shoot photo-

We were on our way to the Elks lodge for a benifit dinner for little girl with cancer. It ended up being a great turn out and people spent lots of money, probably because they were intoxicated, or cause it was a great cause :)

Kat and Seth during the drawing, Brady spent like $50 on tickets and won like $250 dollars worth of prizes, he had some good luck going on. Laura even won a bath set- everyone walked away winners! Mainly the community came together had a great time together raising money to help out the little angel.

Me-Kat-Hailey at the Lehi Rodeo 25th

Oh boy or should I say COWBOYS. Hailey didnt believe that their was going to be some cute cowboys at the rodeo. But did we make a believer out of her!

We had tons of fun, ran into a few people I knew, wish I got to know some of the others that were there :) Had fun cruising around town singing and trying to pick up on men. All we got were little boys, yes teenagers....we are still wondering where the 21+ men are all gone too! If there are even any left that are not married that is :)

Katie Duncans Farewell!!!

Jennie-Kat-Sam-Kaite

Our good friend Katie will serve her time (kidding) the Lord in Honduras!! How perfect for her- She will be the best missionary ever and love serving the people of Honduras. Best of luck to her and her new chapter in life!

Yay for mini reunions- yay for Jennie- Yay for a AWESOME weekend up in Utah County. Yay for rodeos- Yay for road trips- most importantly YAY FOR GOOD FRIENDS!!!

It seams as the weeks go by slow slow slow, but then next thing I know its already July. I am thankful summertime is FINALLY here so I can work on that suntan I so desperately need. I am thankful for the good times I have and the good friends I have here in Cedar. As I scratch at a bug bite on my leg, lets just remember one thing...... two more months of summer time!!!!

May Happenings :)

2011-06-01T20:27:00.000-07:00

I need to add a couple things to my list of first that are kind of a big deal I like to believe. We made the trip out to 2,000 flushes!! Many of you might not know what that even is, and to be honest I dont even know what that is and I have been there! All I know is that ever sense I have moved to the windy city of cedar all I have heard about is 2,000 flushes. Apparently your not cool until you been there but your not that cool once you've gone either :) and.... apparently your not really suppose to swim in it or would want to swim in it because rumor has it there are dead bodies at the bottom with many cars people have drunkenly drove into it and numerous amount of different things just sitting at the bottom. Well Check, been to 2,000 flushes. It was in the dark so I didnt "see" too well and got my legs wet so that counts as "swimming" right?

Then... I finally after 22 years can say I have actually been on a motorcycle. For some this might not be a big deal, but for me it is!!!! I was so so so nervous and I had to be talked into it a little bit :) But, I did it a couple times even and I survived to tell the tale.

Photo above: Sammi and her Rommies and Nephews!

We had roommate photos taken by my sister KJ out at the airport where Kat works the day after our girls night. We got all glamoured out with gel toes and waxed eye brows and other things..... :) There are lots of photos of us cruising around looking for things we just might never find in that great town. The bowling alley makes for lots of great self timer photo shoots. The best part of May was memorial day when Kat and I drove out to E-town for the traditional cleaning of the Holt cemetery with my family and the lunch at Marvs where we always run into fun friends. Kat had never really been to enterprise so I took full advantage of showing her around!! We cruised main a few times, went to the reservoir and even took the back road to veyo, yes... we are that cool! On our drive of course more self timer photos were a must! It was nice weather so we headed to STG to swim and hang out with my nephews for a while longer. Lots of memories were made and lots were remembered.

Cant wait to keep on keepin on - hopefully there will be more detailed blogging about it all :)

ps: I dont think I have mentioned that I have wonderful new-er roommates! Laura Wilson, Katherine Caldwell and Jackie Platt- they are the greatest- really, the best ever!!!

Lots of Firsts:

2011-04-25T12:40:00.000-07:00

While I have been here in Cedar I have done my share of firsts. Not only just first things here in cedar like laying out!! Yes! There was actually a day, well, more like a few hours that it felt WONDERFUL me and Laura took a blanket out and played hookie from work and laid out in our swimmers! A wonderful first for cedar!!

While playing hookie we experienced another first for the season, driving paisley (Lauras truck) with the windows down, down main street signing our hearts out! The warm weather was short lived but lived it was!

The next more embarrassing first is boiling eggs. Thats right, these girls, right here, never have boiled eggs before. We werent joking around either. We bought 2 1/2 dozen eggs to boil and decorate for this easter holiday. Kat and I are pretty ambitious. Turns out I ended up googling how long to boil eggs for. For how "easy" its suppose to be, there were a million and a half different ways.... a million different steps, but I passed no worries, some might have the grey yolk but for my first time I am sure we can let that slide.

Our wonderful eggs we colored. We had three different egg color packs we bought and I am sure that we will be pros for next year! We defiantly have it down to an art!

Other "first" I have experienced here in cedar is: Driving in the snow...... Western Wednesday.... Buying a bed frame.....apartment searching.... Four hour wal-mart runs..... Works Bombs.....Jessica.......Lund, NV.........Roberto's......Skype..... and one I never thought I would ever do is be annoyed when the dishes dont get done!

Because of my Roommate

2011-03-31T11:29:00.000-07:00

Living here is Cedar City has its ups and downs, but one of the ups is my roommate Jennie. She is just a rockstar. period. I am so thankful for her and her words of affirmation, her kindness and willingness to do whatever needs to be done. Because of Jennie and her amazingness, I was blessed this week to have my brakes changed on my car. How does this relate, because Jennie did not change those brakes, but it was her determination to get it done, that got it done! Let me tell a little story that happens to be TRUE. About two weeks ago we were at wal-mart doing our everyday (yes, everyday) shopping when we came across these two boys looking at movies. We thought they were pretty cute and Kamera dared her to go up to them. Who knew she would actually follow through... She approached the gentlemen and said "Do you know where I live?" Smiles on their faces they looked at her and said "No, sorry we dont...?" In all seriousness she replies "Well want my number so you can call and find out?" They took the bait! They took the number and called her before we even got a chance to leave wal-mart! Turns out these two guys have become really good friends of ours over the last few weeks. Just about the nicest people I have ever met, honestly! The time has come that we are house hunting for the summer months, Jennie happened to invite them to come along on the drive. Good thing she did because he noticed right off the bat that my brakes were in need of attention. Attention I obviously did not give them.. :) He volunteered his services which I declined graciously. The next day, Jennie called Garrison and made arrangements for me to drop my car off at their house so they could look at my brakes. She said there is nothing wrong with letting other people help you out now and then. The great people those boys are, told me what I needed sent me to get them and had my car fixed and ready to roll in less than 2 hours! Two good things came out of this story, 1- my roommate is amazing, and a awesome friend 2- I can drive to slc this weekend worry free. Thanks to all these people who have been so generous and nice to me while being new in the city of cedar. I just needed to let everyone know how great it is to have great friends, and its thanks to Jennie for making me realize the greatness.

1st Week Complete

2011-02-27T14:09:00.000-08:00

Dont they say if you can do some thing for a week you can do it forever and by "they" I have no idea who I mean. But, the point is, I survived my first week of cedar snow and all!! This is my recap most of it went by pretty fast but there are a few stories I would like to share :) (of course). So monday-thursday I drove back and forth. I didn't have to be up to cedar till nine so it all worked out great. Monday was the "rough" day, trying to meet everyone, trying to figure out what all I should be doing etc. But to be honest, it wasn't all that rough. Everyone at the Cedar IFA is SO nice my new boss is really nice but the pallet jack not so nice.... haha but, I am improving :) We have lots to get done in the new store before it will be ready to open, I was right in my element working with the few IFA guys and all the carpenter guys :) I was then assigned to Courtland as his assistant he is the receiving clerk and its his job to receive ALL that merchandise that is coming into both stores! So, because I have some knowledge thats what I have been doing all week. Kicker is, we dont have all the materials needed to get the job done so its proven to be a little stressful and time consuming. However, the job is getting done! I wont lie this week has been full of working hard and driving early and late to get home, and I have been tuckered out (I am an old maid dont forget!). I dont think I have made it past eight o'clock staying awake. Come in grab something to eat, feed duke, say hey to Jan and then goodnight. I did have friday off I got to stay in STG, I did take the liberty to sleep in till nine then went into work at IFA in St. George. I helped them for one last final day, Darlene took some vacation time so things were a little behind in their receiving department. Then back to Cedar I came saturday morning with my car packed with a few essentials ie bedding, towels, change of clothes, toothbrush. I was a little nervous for this drive because of the storm all night we had in stg. Roads were wet all the way to the black ridge where they instantly turned into snow, they were not THAT bad, but to a girl (me) who has only driving on snow covered roads one other time, it was nerve racking. But as soon as we pas Kanarraville we were home free, it was like there was no sign of a storm at all. I didnt notice how nervous I was until I parked at IFA and walked in, then all my nerves raced and I had a instant feeling I would collapse and/or vomit! Didnt do either and I made it through another day. BARLEY....... barley did I make it through the day... here is my story I obviously lived to tell the tale, but still intense nonetheless. So, there I was driving to IFA to clock out for lunch when some guy passed me on the road and stared me down, like obviously enough I noticed! Then once passed me proceeded to flip around to be driving behind me. I pulled into IFA and sat in my car a few minutes and noticed he was parked across the street just watching me. Getting a eery feeling I go inside the store. I try to sound calm but with no such luck tell them that the car parked across the street just followed me here and was just out there waiting. After five or so minutes of debating and watching him, we decided a call to police dispatch was in order. He left, or so we thought, came back for another look at the store and my car before finally leaving. Finally when a officer showed up I was telling him the story blah blah and he was like did the car look like that, I said no, that was to bright this car was more dull beater-ish, he said like that car! OH MY GOSH! He was back!!! I was like yes, I think that was it, proof be told he speed past IFA once seeing the cop, and the officer chased after him. I waited for him to come back still with that vomiting feeling I couldnt get rid of. When after a while he comes back, hands me a drives license and says, he says he knows you! I was like oh my goodness I totally do know him, why didnt he come say hi or anything. The cop was very correct and still wouldnt give out my name to him or anything, told me to still be very careful even though this one turned out okay. I said yes, thanks, welcome to cedar city right? My first night in town and I am being stalked and calling the cops, go me. I was to 'move' into my apartment saturday night and sunday but with the storm that seamed to settle about 4 o'clock that afternoon I decided to stay put and not drive home to gather the rest of my belongings. I made my bed brought in my pjs and my towels and that was it, that was all the supplies I had until I could make it home. I attended stake conference with two of my new neighbors they were nice enough to lend me some clothes, then of course like any college kids we headed to dennys! We had a riot jamming out to tunes drinking hot chocolate, eating fatty foods ya know the norm! Best of all, I love my roommates, I love my neighbors that are like my roommates. Its great to have insta friends! I love how I have lived off of nothing for four days. I truly feel 'on my own'. haha Good news Charlie Brown, I think I am lovin cedar city, dont get me wrong, the snow and cold, is not my thing for sure, BUT the new job, new people, awesome roommates, fun friends and all that comes with that sure are my new thing!

New Chapter

2011-02-16T19:38:00.000-08:00

The new news is.... I am MOVING TO CEDAR! Yes, I have "known" about this for a few weeks now, so its not "new" but, its finally real. I have a date, a time, a place to start working. ahh the bliss of knowing. So, whats all this hype you ask? Well, about a month ago there was word that IFA (the company I work for) was opening a new HUGE store in Cedar City. Well thats just news I suppose unless your me, who has been stuck in limbo land. Stuck in a big ol' rut wondering what to do with my life. Not quite ready to quit my good job that I love to venture off into the life of a full time student, but not quite complete just working my life away. I felt like this was my answer. Move to cedar sure its cold, but I wont have the stress of finding a job like I would if I moved somewhere else, I can go to school in the fields I like (family consumer science/Agriculture) and mostly a new social life or a life period :) Just throwing this out there but... with an agriculture community comes lots of cowboys :) (Or, thats what I am banking on) Just what the doctor order I do believe. Any who, getting off subject here but I still dont have all the answers and still not sure I am going to love it 100% but, its a change and a change I desperately need. I start on monday, I get to help set up the store which for a few reasons I am super excited about, one, its a good change of what I do now so its exciting, two, no customers, no phones :) and three, I will have a say in where things go and will know where things are. I will be driving back and forth for a week or so slowly moving into my apartment when I get a few seconds. I am so excited but at the same time starting to question my knowledge and hope I do not let anyone down. I am excited for the new challenge and the new opportunities I will have. And the best news, if its not all I have hyped it up to be, I have thirty days until my job here in STG is gone :) Its all a bit bitter sweet.

Christmas Peace

2010-12-29T20:14:00.001-08:00

Alright this is where we begin. GINGERBREAD HOUSES!!!! Or, I should say gram crackers (three packets each) and some hot glue. Mine: Holiday Square is nothing short with Christmas, Halloween, Valentines and Easter! Cassidy made something... like a spanish house or something. Joshua: A Scottish Castle. Leslies (not pictured) as embarrassing as it is to admit on my OWN blog, won, yes her creative North Pole Fire House was a better idea than ours. It took forever to get them finished and I have decided for everyone that next year will be one basic cottage and the competition will be on the decorating! Yes, everything must be a competition if any of us plan to participate!

Christmas morning was a SUCCESS!! Josh and I surprised papa with not only one, but TWO framed photos of his mountain property. Thanks to ALL the fireman who helped us with this project: Robert Hooper Photographer, Clint somebody Frames, and Kelly Larsen Glass.

Papa and I with our brand new chaps! Yay for us!! We are both pretty excited, cant wait to try them out and save my legs!
I accidentally talked Leslie into getting her boys (Jeremy, Treyden, Colten, Lincoln) a NEW PUPPY!!!! I mean it really was a good idea. Jer was surprised and the boys love her! I had so much fun helping Leslie get prepared for this little bundle now named Dixie. She is a heeler/aussie mix and so soo cute. Right Leslie?! Duke hopefully doesn't feel left out, he is getting more attention with her coming over to play or growl at him whichever. :)

We were all smiles all the while. Glad Josh got to come home and visit us for 9 days. Glad we had family here in town that came over for our annual christmas day brunch. Thankful for the gifts we received and were able to give! We have SO MANY christmas traditions (most including food) but my favorite is becoming Christmas Eve or Day GAMES at the FIRE STATION!!! Its not only because I have won the games played (see competition competition) but because it requires and effort, not only on us loading up in our new matching pajamas with games in hand, but on papa to put up with us and our craziness in front of his co-workers ( who usually join in anyways).

As we make our way into the new year lets just remember one thing..... only 361 days till christmas!!!!

National Finals Rodeo

2010-12-17T17:33:00.000-08:00

Yes, those are cute American and French Cowboys! No better way to start off a post than with that photo :)
Jer,Les, Me and Laura at the rodeo at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas. (dont forget that this venue is FULL of cowboys old and mostly young. Is there a better place to be?)
Laura and I eating some yummy yummy potato somethings or another.
The cutest, most unpractical spur straps I have ever seen! Oh, and probably the most expensive too $85 dollars for these beauties, unfortunately all I got of them was this picture :)

Where oh where to begin. Jeremy Leslie Laura and I went down to the NFR on monday the 6th. We went down early enough to spend the day shopping at two of the three cowboy christmas venues they have during the rodeo. Let me just say 7 hours was not enough time! We'll plan more time off work next year for sure. We drove down and ate lunch in north las vegas Robertos or some mexican place with yummy burritos. Dont worry it was safe, or at least the guy behind the bullet proof glass was safe. We literally shopped till we dropped, dropped into our seats at the rodeo that night that is! We had so much fun checking out cowboys, looking at the endless jewelry racks, and tryin on clothes. Lusting after things we couldn't afford was most of our time passer. Then we cheered on all the cowboys participating in the rodeo, but mostly the UTAH contestants. We decided to check out early so during the "last" bull rider we sneeked down the stairs, turns out there was a few more than "one" more. Which turned out to be a good thing, because standing right next to Jeremy was Tuf Cooper. I didnt believe it was him and I offered Laura five bucks to ask him she got star struck so I pocketed my five dollars and went and asked myself. Turns out it was him and I just made my best effort to flirt with this famous 20 year old calf roper. Got a fun picture and laughs to get us home! Laura was the best date a girl could ask for too! So thankful for good friendships and my fun brother and sister! And of course thankful for all them good lookin cowboys coming to vegas!

Thanks and Giving

2010-11-30T17:19:00.000-08:00

This year was the "on" year for us Holt descendants. This means that all the kids, grandkids and great grandkids of Howard and Verna Holt get together and feast! This years count was 136(ish)!!! Yes thats right, 136 of my closest relatives come from near and far to share talents make crafts and eat yummy food! We always have a good time visiting with cousins and spending the day, I believe this was the first year I have not participated in a volley ball match against cousins because I helped man the craft tables. It is a big event that we all obviously enjoy! See you in two cousins!

Colten making his edible christmas tree in the 5 and under craft room.
Lincoln Treyden Colten Singing their favorite songs during the talent show.
Trey and I waiting for our turn to get some food. Cant tell we are related huh?
Hear they all are.... all 136 of us! Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Cattle Drive

2010-10-24T20:26:00.000-07:00

October 15th 2010

Lets start out with Jeremys famous line "I wonder whats going to happen THIS year...?" The only way to find out is to continue to read my post, but first lets go back to years past so you can fully understand the previous statement :) Way up the mtn: Julies mustang breaks the tree its tied to and bolts with the whole thing.... Last year: Sammi gets a log to the face, and a ride to insta care in cedar city for stitches. Year before: The semi truck FULL of cattle halfway tips over on the off ramp of the free way. Thanks to Dad and Jeremys PROFESSIONAL trailer backing we save all but one calf. Some year: Horse Lucky gets drug behind the horse trailer. One year before that: We loose horse Lucky for three days on the mtn. One time or Two: Sammi gets kicked in the shin/thigh goes home with some nasty looking bruises. Once or Twice: I am sure we all have been bucked off trampled or something of the sort.... Well I could continue on about stories of the past, but lets get to the one of the most recent......

We started our day out as normal up at five thirty to be ready by six, to be waiting on the sunlight. I drive dad and the crew over to the horses to get saddled as the sun is just thinking about coming up over the ridge. I drive back to the cabin with my instructions which are to get on the wheeler and hold the cows at the gate. Check. I can do that, or so I think... I get up to the gate and am "holding" the cows there and there is no one in sight for what seams like forever. Then chandler comes up on another wheeler and tells me the story, or what we know of the story by then...."Dad (Mr. Harr) got off his horse to tighten the cinch when he bolted, saddle slid under his belly and he was GONE they are all looking for the horse now. (dont forget we are on 700 acres of land here, and the horse has never been there before). So everything stops for about and hour or more while everyone is looking for this runaway horse and saddle besides me, who is still trying to "hold" fifty head of cows at the gate.... Jeremy find the horse with his amazing/crazy animal whisper ways but no saddle. We have an extra saddle so they saddle up the horse again and meanwhile Liesels horse acts up with her and goes up and over backwards! She the clever/smart girl she is bails but is up before her horse has a chance to get out from under her. So.... finally almost two hours later we are now all settled we have found the original saddle with a few minor broken straps and are ready to proceed with the cattle drive. Although, while this commotion was going on over there over where I was at, the cows were escaping my "hold." I was FREAKING out on our handy dandy walky-talkies, but NOONE seemed to hear. So they spend another 20 minutes gathering up the cows that I had lost or that had ran away from my grasps :) Moral of the story is everything worked out just fine! We lost a couple hours day light, but still managed to get the cows to the bottom and in the trailers before pitch dark. Now thats what I call cowboys!

Not much commotion when on during the day other than Duke being charged by the cows, hence why he rode the wheeler with me parts of the way. The kiddos couldnt get enough of ridding Jers horse which in return couldnt make him any happier. Colten got sick and slept most of the way off, I jumped a lot of fences (like a pro) to run down misbehavin cows. Also, the weather was PERFECT! We could not have asked for a better sunnier day. Years past I remember being a popsicle all day, wearing layer after layer. But this year, ultimate bliss....

We may have came home with some dirt on our faces, a little mud on our boots, or a tear in our jeans but the best part of it all was the memories we will smile about for years to come :)

Captain Sir!

2010-10-24T15:21:00.001-07:00

I cant believe I never posted anything about my papa in the last month. September my daddio Sam took the Captain test here for St George Fire Captain. He has spent numerous hours studying and working towards this goal. He had Jeremy and Leslie help him write a resume and practice his interview questions. (Jeremy and Leslie just went through this whole interview process with Jer for the Life Flight that is coming to STG) I remember him coming home all annoyed after the test because he felt he did poorly. Apparently on the written exam there was a lot of grammar questions he didn't really prepare for and they had to write aletter response to a mock complaining citizen which he did not have enough time to finish completely. So, needless to say he was a little bugged that he spent all the time prepping to feel he fell short. A few weeks later however Jan and Sam went to go pick up his "declining" letter for captain as dad said. He left Jan in the truck while he was just running in to pick it up, he wanted to pout in private :) Little did papa know while he was in there Chief Stoker saw mom and hinted to her that Dad GOT CAPTAIN!!!! So Jan goes inside and makes him open it. I remember getting the call at IFA from Dad saying I got it, I am Captain! I could hear the smile in his voice! Even to top it all off that he made it he was the highest scorer on the written section! Way to go PAPA!!

I wanted to get something for him to say congrats, and of course the thing that came to mind was a pumpkin pie. Little did I know that they are hard to come by middle of september. I ran into wal-mart and they had NONE. So I drive back into town to albertsons, to find one that is like 5 inches big and disgusting looking. Soooo, I then drive to harmons and they have ONE left, but kicker is its like an 8 inch and it was priced liked a block of gold. But of course my daddy is worth it! Later I then learned that Costco is the place to go. For 6 bucks the have like a 10 inch pie and they always look perfect. So, you learned two things outta this post Costco is where you buy pies, and my awesome dad is CAPTAIN!!!!!

Shingles!!!

2010-10-06T14:41:00.000-07:00

Overview

Shingles (herpes zoster) is a painful, blistering skin rash due to the varicella-zoster virus, the virus that causes chickenpox.

Symptoms

The first symptom is usually one-sided pain, tingling, or burning. The pain and burning may be severe and is usually present before any rash appears.

Red patches on the skin, followed by small blisters, form in most people.

The blisters break, forming small ulcers that begin to dry and form crusts. The crusts fall off in 2 to 3 weeks. Scarring is rare.
The rash usually involves a narrow area from the spine around to the front of the belly area or chest.

Causes

After you get chickenpox, the virus remains inactive (becomes dormant) in certain nerves in the body. Shingles occurs after the virus becomes active again in these nerves years later.

The reason the virus suddenly become active again is not clear. Often only one attack occurs.

Shingles may develop in any age group, but you are more likely to develop the condition if:

You are older than 60
You had chickenpox before age 1
Your immune system is weakened by medications or disease

If an adult or child has direct contact with the shingles rash on someone and has not had chickenpox as a child or a chickenpox vaccine, they can develop chickenpox, rather than shingles.

Yikes!!!! Its not just an assumption now, its a fact that I am indeed an old lady. First we just thought sitting at home alone, watching sappy love movies was proof enough. Little did we know more proof was on its way. Last week I started having pains in my right chest/shoulder area. Thinking that I must have had pulled a muscle or something didnt think much of it until, it started aching in my back/shoulder area as well. A few days later I was mentioning it to my sister in law and she caught that it sounded a lot like what her sister recently had, shingles. Indeed, the next morning I broke out with the rash. I made a doctors appointment and when the nurse asked me why they were seeing me today, I said because I believe I have shingles. He looked at me like I was the dumbest person alive. He asked me why I believe that and I said because I have been having the pain and this morning I broke out with this, as I showed him my underarm. He looked at me again, saying yeah looks like you do. The doctor also agreed and gave me some super good pain meds and a antiviral. Every day it seams to get a bit worse, more rashes and bigger blisters. I hate waring my bra or a shirt that touches my underarm. I was told I would be lucky if this would all be over in a weeks time... so I am sayin my prayers it will be over super fast. The photos on google are so disgusting so I did not post one, mine is not THAT bad at least yet. Well next on my old lady check list is to get some cats!

Two Post in one day?!?

2010-09-21T20:38:00.000-07:00

IN THE MOMENT:

I cant decided to be annoyed right now or happy. Really?! I know, I have been asking myself that same question like a million times in the past FOREVER (or so it seams). Another question I am asking myself is.. is it real this time? But then I just shake my head and think "what the hell am I thinking?" You should all know the song by Brad Paisley "waiting on a woman"... well reverse it, and bingo, you guess it STORY OF MY LIFE. I made in a list (in my head) of all the men I have waited on, one time or another in my life. Trust me I have had more than my share (or so I think). Apparently you can guess I am thinking that waiting on men has defiantly NOT been worth it (so far anyways, I do have some kind of hope). I am putting it all on black, that one day it will ALL be worth it. All of this 'misery' (one day I will laugh I am sure, but today is not that day) I have been going through will be worth it. Worth it when I finally (I know my mere 22 years) FINALLY have 'that' someone. That someone that you can tease knowing your going to get teased right back. That someone you can flirt or argue with. That someone you can laugh with, or sit in complete silence with. That someone that will lift you up when down, comfort you when you feel alone. That someone that lets you cry on their shoulder with out getting mad you leave a wet spot from tears. That someone who completely understands you with out saying a single word. That someone who looks forward to the end of a work day so that they can see YOU. That someone you can complain about when everything is not going 'just right'. That someone that you can argue with about all those simple 'nothing' about life. That someone you can cuddle with any time you want. That someone that will tickle you till you cry or pee your pants :). That someone you can surprise with tickets to that special advent you can share together. That someone who will just drive across town to see your pretty face. That someone who knows what your about to say before you even speak it. That someone who looks at you and says "I will love you forever and always". That someone that looks past your faults and still chooses you to spend eternity with. That someone who can handle family dinners, parties and holidays, and makes you feel just as apart of his family. That someone who most importantly you chose to go to the celestial kingdom with and have your happily ever after.

Its pretty obvious how I am feeling "in this moment". But just so all you bloggers out there know, I am finally finding some comfort in this "tragedy" by turning to the Lord. Who actually knew if you pray you get some kind of answer. Not the preferred answer I really wanted, but an answer nonetheless. A real answer that has and will help me get over this "hump" in my life. I told my sister in law the other day (in a frustration with boys) that "its not like I feel old and need to be married, in fact it only bothers me because everything, I mean EVERYTHING we do is in couples or pairs. Hell, I cant even go to lagoon with out needing someone with me to ride the rides." As I tried to hold back my tears of overwhelming despair I actually thought about it (miracle, I know). I thought about taking just anyone to lagoon with me, but then it wouldnt necessary be better than going alone you see, because you have to have that "right" somebody with you to make the rides fun. (relating to life:) Being with someone just to have someone is not better than the (LONG, DREADFUL) wait for the "right" someone. (point:) Even though I feel desperate at the "moment", I have to wait for these men (waiting on a man) to figure their shiz out. I have to wait because I know that the joy of having that RIGHT somebody will utterly be worth it all. I can honestly say I know the "wait" will be worth it (I hope haha) because I have FAITH. And that is all you need.

wishin..and hopin..and thinking..and prayin

2010-09-21T18:07:00.000-07:00

I am wishing for:

A happy ending to my book

good dreams that make me never wanna wake up

warm weather to stick around a bit longer (I am still tryin to get a tan!)

summer rain showers to play in fully clothed

laundry to miraculously be cleaned and back in my closet

Boys to stop playin games with my head

someone else to wash my dog so he doesn't smell bad anymore!

my hair to grow back long over night!

I am hoping for:

good food in the pantry

a few certain "someones" to call me

a wonderful productive day/night of crafts

this smile on my face to never leave

courage to face all that is and will be thrown my way

FAITH

some miraculous miracle in my life

a plan

I am thinking:

I could sure loose a few pounds..

man, that boy is hott!

I need more hours in the day

that my "to do" list never seams to get any shorter even though I check things off constantly!

I need to get my act together

Christmas!!!!

Thanksgiving!!!!

I could sure loose a few more pounds ha

I am ready for that "change" in my life

I should really document my life more diligently

I need to be a better friend to others

I could do more service

and Praying for:

Safety for all of our loved ones

Blessings to make me understand how truly blessed I already am

Strength, courage and determination to do the things I know I need to do

help to stand strong in times of trial

the ability to be the bigger person at times

Faith in myself and others

A better outlook on all things

And I am praying for YOU! Yes you, even if we have been friends for only a little while, or only close while we were in school, or if your in my family by choice or birth. You, even if I dont "know" you, I am praying for you. For your health, safety and families, for your kindness you do to me and/or others. I cannot believe the impact we have on each others lives for the good or bad. Whether you have impacted me directly or indirectly it has indeed made and impact. Keep faith in all things and remember there is no deed too big or too small. Just turn that frown upside down and turn it into a SMILE!

Photos of Scotland

2010-09-10T21:12:00.000-07:00

I am not going to even write anything about these photos, and surprisingly enough thats not even all the good ones! Pictures are worth 1,000 words.

Saturday

2010-08-29T08:01:00.000-07:00

So here we are on our “final” day. We woke up and had breakfast at 8:00, were driving out of our parking lot at 8:30 turning back and waving at our hostess and her dog. We have about 6 more hours of driving to Glasgow to catch our flight to London, were we will spend the night and fly back to the states in the morning. We made a few stops at some more craft shows, none as good as the one we hit the other day, but still interesting. We made it to Fort Williams, this is a bigger city, with SHOPPING! I was worried the whole trip that I would not find any souvenirs or a bag to bring them all home in. But thankfully for Fort Williams. We spent a few hours here walking down the rows of shops, lots of shops! I think we have done well on our purchases. We all sort of went our own ways, taking our own time the stores we wanted. It was so nice not felling rushed by my brothers when I wanted to shop. Who knew I would love a shopping experience this much, not I that’s for sure. Then back in the car we went, we stopped and ate lunch right out of Fort Williams at a Bar & Restaurant. I should know by now with my travels not to order lasagna but I did anyways. It was not that great, it was however better then the one I had in Rome though. Lol well, windy wet roads and a few hours later we make it to our destination. The Paisley Glasgow Airport (Paisley can you believe it, I wanted to get out and take a picture, but I didn’t). We found where to return our rental car very easily thanks to Cassidy’s step by step directions on his I-phone. Then all three of us sitting in the parking lot, trying to get all of our newly purchased souvenirs into our bags. One good thing about these airports they have trolleys for FREE. So we snatched one up and pushed all our luggage into check in. We had to sit for a while because there was no one at the baggage counter. We could check in automatically then sat and waited to send our bags off. Once we came through to the gates, it was like a whole mall there. There was all kind of stores to wander and look, too bad I am out of money there was some cute things. I never did find my postcards that I wanted though, I saw them once in Edinburgh then never again. I am so sad, they were handsome young men wearing only kilts, some even the wind had came and blew part of the them up! They were the best, that will teach me to not buy something when I see it right! We eventually made it to our gate to wait a few hours ( who knew we had gotten here so early!). Our flight was about 1 hour to London, then catch a bus to our hotel, were we camped out for our final night abroad. (I am not as sad as I should be, I am ready to come home, but as soon as I get back to work and life, I will be ready for another adventure soon enough) I am out of money, clothes, socks, patients, and strength to carry my luggage any further! I am stick of food I don’t like, and am ready for a really good meal when I get home. Like a nice twice baked potato, a pepperoni and pineapple pizza from Pizza Factory, or even a bowl of Fruit Loops would do the trick! I am also sick of these crazy windy roads, and Cassidys driving, I don’t prefer the one lane roads, or the cold weather. However, I will miss all the Scottish accents, and eating all our meals in a bar. I will miss asking for tap water with ice and drinking loads of hot chocolate! I will miss all the green scenery and all the waterfalls flowing off the cliffs. I will also miss the plaid, its everywhere. (I think I need to find plaid paper to wrap my Christmas gifts in this year) Also, cant forget about all the fields and fields of sheep and cows, but mostly I will miss the hairy highland cows. I only got to see a few, but one day, I will take one home with me! The bus dropped us off right in front of our hotel! Makes it easier on us with all of our heavy luggage. They have free wi-fi on the main floor but you need a password to use it on your own computer for free for one hour. I asked twice how to log on but it was useless. So, I just logged onto theirs so there for no blog update until I get internet next. Wish us luck sleeping in the same room one last night, did I mention there is a huge bed in this room and is super comfy!!

Friday

2010-08-28T07:58:00.000-07:00

Well this will be and easy update. I got a headache at around lunch time and I was down ever since. I would poke my head up every now and then to see the wonderful scenery but that is about all I could take. We did manage to make a few stops before lunch time and saw the kilt cliffs. They were absolutely beautiful, black cliffs on the coast that look like the pleats in a kilt. Very windy and cold but we managed to look over the edge and take it all in before we hurried back to the shelter of the car. We took a couple little detours through some small towns to find a place for me to go potty (surprise right?), some cute little villages you could call them. We happened to stumble onto a local craft show. You walk into this big room and there are many booths set up with each person selling their own special talent. Wood working, wool spinning, pastries, paintings, hand sewn projects, crochet, and other things. Cassidy bought a few things from the wood working man, they were wonderful pieces. We then headed off to the castle of Eilean Donan. It was really quite amazing. My favorite part and my brothers laugh was in the kitchen. They had fake food on the tables and fake people posed doing different jobs. They had some recipe books that you could flip through and see what type of meals they cooked. They had a pantry that had some chickens hanging along with some jack rabbits and fish laying out on the counter. They had different little postings that told you when things were in season, and that some of the maids in the kitchen would be up at six to prepare food, and would be up till midnight washing all the dishes. We drove to a town called Portee and that’s were we found our restaurant for lunch. I even ordered a hamburger this time, and ate half of it till Josh asked me how my highland cow tasted. I really wanna get one, I am sure Dad would be okay with just one hairy cow right?! Well this is when I feel asleep with no return. I know they stopped and walked up to the light house at Ness point, I peeked at it is all. Then Feire Glenn a pretty area, they got out and took photos again, I just peeked up out of the window then right back down I went. We then started towards our B&B but it seamed like it took forever. Once we got there around 7 ish I went right to sleep. It was the nicest B&B we have been to all trip. The hostess, Jan was super nice and she had a cute little dog that loved to play with all of us. We had out our little suite with own bathroom and two beds, one twin, and one full size. It was the softest bed yet, too bad we didnt get much sleep once Cassidy came to bed. Nice accommodations and very nice people, I was surprised when she said they were going to take their holiday in September. She said they would spend a few weeks down with family, the a few weeks to Crete, then back to a few weeks with their family before coming home. Cant you imagine, I think us Americans need to pick up that tradition. I was always wondering why everyone who asked how long we were gone on holiday were surprised we only said 9 days. That’s not nearly enough they would all say in shock. I was thinking it was plenty long enough :)

Thursday*

2010-08-26T13:51:00.000-07:00

(I am on track, no more tryin to remember past days, yippie!)

Thursday:

Again and early morning for me. Six-thirty I was awake and getting ready to leave. I didn’t take any hot breakfast from Antoinette in hopes not to offend her today… We had a long day of driving ahead of us like 7 hours or so. We started our journey and made many stops along the way. We did a lot of turn abouts too, just so we didn’t feel bad for not taking the same route five times. We stopped and walked down to a cave, all we could really see was some waterfall inside but it will still really cool. They had stories of when the Vikings would use this cave back in the day. We pulled into a craft village. It had like 6 stores that were all really cool painting or pottery and the CoCo mountain! Antoinette told us we should stop there that they have the best cup of coco ever. I knew it was going to be to rich for me so I got the kids cup it was more milky and even had marshmallows! It was pretty good, pretty chocolaty, and I don’t know if it was the BEST cup I have ever had, that mix from the cannery is pretty dang good haha. They had treats for sale there too, josh bought all kinds of truffles, and I got some different kinds of fudge to give some friends. We got back into the car to further our adventures. This is when josh and I took a nap, sorry but it’s the only way I could make it seven+ hours with Cassidy’s driving. The scenery was beautiful ocean coast most of the way. Then we got to the highlands. Finally some trees. On Orkney there is no trees its too windy for them to grow, actually not many trees in Scotland period, until we reached the highlands. This is were I saw my first hairy cow (a highland cow). I made Cassidy stop (it was a miracle I saw it with his speed in the first place). I got out and took my photos, I hope I get to see some more. I cannot believe they are so rare, aren’t they like what Scotland is known for?! Anyways, made it to Ullerpool and did a little bit of shopping. Found some cute t-shirts, my Scottish deck of cards and a few little other tidbits. We ate lunch at another trip advisor place and it was okay I guess, I don’t like fish, so garlic bread and some of Joshies fries is how I rolled. They didn’t even have hot chocolate! We continued on our journey through the windy sometimes one-lane roads. Seriously, one lane, not like one lane each way, one-lane total! They have these little passing places that kind of jet out so one car can move over, but scary thing is you cant always see down the road at all. They are so windy and such a small road for one car let alone two! Again, you know I lived through it, as I am writing this now… We pulled over at a little turn off point with some benches and took some photos. Josh hurt my wrist by trying to get me to sit so close to him when I didn’t want to. He wont take no for and answer, until he met me! We then found shop to get some ice cream in, I got a little cup of raspberry original Orkney ice cream, it was pretty good stuff! Our last stop before our destination tonight was the beach! White sandy beach, with cool water, the wind wasn’t blowing, so I almost thought about getting my feet wet. But that’s all just thought about it. We walked along there for about 20 minuets, Cassidy got his feet wet while Josh and I looked for seashells. On my walk I also found, a crab, I think he was dead, or in the process of dying and a baby crabs shell.. like the skin he outgrew. It was pretty nasty and cool at the same time. Tonight we have reached Mellow Charles. We will spend just one night here at this B&B. We are all in the same room, but all three have different beds. We tried to drive down to the beach but had no such luck. But we did get to watch the amazing sunset over the clam clear ocean. Then off the pub for drinks, well only josh drank and Cassidy had dinner. I just sat and watched all the local people drink and be merry, boy did I grow up in a different world then these people. I believe the Scottish beer is a bit stronger here than at home, because just broke out in song “I am tryin to be like Jesus” I said “seriously Josh in the middle of a bar?! “ Anyways, it brought a good laugh, now off to bed, got a few more full days ahead of us!

ps. sorry they have not been as good as they could be. I am getting lazy and not spending the appropriate amount of time, to be honest I dont even go back and re-read what I wrote (if you couldnt tell) Maybe, one day I will get the ambition to go through and edit the post, possibly even add my pictures, just maybe :)

Wednesday

2010-08-25T10:58:00.000-07:00

Wednesday:

We stayed at a cute B&B called Valley View last night. We woke up early to make sure we would make our ferry over to the Orkney Island. We had a tradition Scottish breakfast, which includes: bacon (ham), sausage, fried egg, cooked tomato, black pudding, mushrooms, and scone bread. Yes, really of that! Josh thinks I offended her by not eating it all. One, it was not really that good, and two, it was A LOT of food! We then drove to our ferry; we had to be there 30 minuets early for line up. It was just perfect time for a nap. We drove our car onto the ferry then walked up on upper deck. It was like a minny cruise ship! Nice bathrooms, a little room of gambling stations, a nice jewelry shop, a café and really nice seats that even reclined into a comfortable position! We stepped out side for like two bits, just long enough to take a photograph. Don’t forget its freezing cold here. The ride was another good opportunity for a nap. We made it to the Orkney Island and began our tour. We made many stops during the day first on the list was Maes howe. It its this tomb above ground. From the outside looking in, it just looks like a big mound of dirt, They call it a burial mound, and there are lots around just not many you can go inside and have a look. We got to go inside and see all the architecture of this 5,000-year-old structure. It was really cool to waddle down this little corridor before it opened up where you could stand up in. There was like four tombs on each wall of the building. Our little guide was so passionate about the heritage they had here. We then traveled over to a smaller older version of stone hedge. Same concept rocks standing straight up for century’s, no one really knowing why they were placed there. Still pretty cool to see, nonetheless. We also went up to a area, I forget what it is called, but there are housed in the ground. We get to walk around and look down into these houses. There was like eight of them, still with their stone box beds, stone shelves and cut outs in the wall for more storage places. Always in all the rooms the fire pit was in the middle of the rooms. We ate lunch at the little café at this same place. Well I just got my traditional cup of hot chocolate. We continued on to another place that was very similar but you could only go during certain hours of the day. When the tide comes in at night, the walkway to the ruins is covered up. It was quite the walk over there, over rocks and wet sand. I made Josh walk out over all the rocks and seaweed with me to touch the Atlantic ocean! We then raced back to the town (wherever that was called) to catch the ferry back over to the main land. We had dinner reservations at a place called the School House. Cassidy read a review on trip advisor that recommended it highly. (Should have known better!) Anyways we made it there and there was only one other couple they’re eating. That’s all that showed up in the 1.5 hours we were there. We walked in and were seated right next to the fire (thankfully). It was expensive three-course meal 27 pounds I believe. (I know I cannot eat that much or like three things on their terribly small menu) I ordered there leek/potato soup which was quite good actually. We ate our meal and waited and waited for our check. The lady of the house came out and chatted with us for a bit then the other couple a LONG time. She was super cute and nice but I mean, I guess we learned our lesson in this country. They do not bring your check until you ask for it. Even when they do not leave and opportunity for you to ask for it. I finally put on my jacket and she noticed and said you must be ready to leave, I notice you put on your jacket… yes! Yippy! It ended up bing like 60 pounds for our three meals. Cassidy decides that a 5 pound tip is good. We asked when we were ing the car how much he left and josh was APPALLED. Cassidy is all what, that’s 10%... I said no, 6 pounds on 60 is ten percent, so we turned around so we could leave an adequate tip. (adequate tip in Europe is 15% when eating food, when just getting drinks at the bar no tip necessary, Josh looked it up when we got back so we would now know for future references) Other then that we just headed back to our B&B for the night. We are siblings for cryin out loud, we had enough time in the car together for the day. I now know why you get along better when your older, its because you are never with them anymore, everyone either had moved out or you have your own busy schedule. Put them in the same car/room for seven days, they will bicker again, we are proof. :)

TUESDAY

2010-08-24T13:55:00.000-07:00

Tuesday 24^th:

Early morning is right; I vetoed a shower so that I could sleep in, in which I had no such luck. Josh woke up at seven to shower, and then Cassidy proceeded to turn on all the lights and pack his bag up. Which includes airtight plastic bags you have to crinkle and roll all the air out. So I was up it rather I liked it or not. We were ready in great time and again, very conveniently located to the train station. Which is great because if you have seen the size of my two backpacks you wouldn’t wanna tote them all around Scotland either. Talk about getting into good shape whether you like it not, and fast! Just with the few things I have purchased so far, I am ready for a new bag already, it was hard zipping up my bags in America now add four other things, it’s a handful. New goal for today: find a tote bag to carry gifts in. We caught out 8:30 train from Edinburg to Inverness. It is about a four-hour train ride where at that station our rental car picks us up. The train ride was beautiful, I am glad its during sunlight we take this trip. All the country and cute houses we get to see. Makes you not really miss the desert landscape we have back home. I was chatting with my friend I met while skydiving in Las Vegas the other night. He lives in Manchester England and he says “hope you brought your rain coat with you for Scotland’s weather, do you even have a rain coat being from the desert?” We then chatted about the beauty and culture of England and he proceeded to tell me, Nevada/Utah is pretty in their own ways. The mountains and desert landscape is pretty all the same, just in their own way. I agreed with him about all in their own they are wonderful, I guess. We ended up getting to the train station an hour before the car rental place were ready to pick us up. So we enjoyed a cup of coco at the café and just sat and rested to pass the time. After finding the car after walking circles (we are really good at that) signed papers and off we go! I was all tense and I was in the back seat with Cassidy driving. I felt like a mother of a teenage child, wishing I had my own emergency break to step on! I don’t think I have been that nervous in a long time! Anyways, so you know I lived because I am telling the tale. I got car sick immediately with a combo of cassidys driving, windy roads, and speeding up and slowing down very quickly. I proceeded to try to take a nap to try to feel better. We made a few stops on our way to the B&B (bed and breakfast). One of the stops were “the steps”. There was 365 steps down to the ocean (I think there were a few more than that.. but who is counting) it was really an amazing view! Couldn’t get enough of it! Have I mentioned its been like 45ish degrees with winds of 25 miles per hour close to the ocean! I cannot believe I am craving hot chocolate in AUGUST! I am wearing long pants and the two jackets I brought and am still freezing all the time! Talk about different then at home you cant cool off at all in August. Anyways, I am really tired and day behind this one gets cut short. We found a cute resturant to eat dinner in called Y-Not. It was really good the Meatball sandwich I had anyways. We were close to our B&B so there was nothing else in this small town going on, so we called it a night. Josh and I get our own room tonight, a cute blue room with two little twin beds AND a blow dryer! Amazing isn’t it! The things you’re thankful for in a foreign country! OH and I cannot forget to mention my big brother Cassidy's super embarrassing moment. While we were driving along the country side there is lots of fields of sheep and cows about, we pass a pasture of cows all having horns and Cassidy says is all seriousness "Oh look, they all have horns, they must be bulls." I at first thought he was joking, because as most of you know we grew up on a cattle ranch, even with out that fact, he is a college graduate and 31 years old, I would think somewhere along he would have learned that just because cows have horns does not make them bulls. And you all wonder why I think its ridiculous for our parents to leave the ranch to all of us five kids, obviously some of us have to do a bit more research on the family business. Anyways, hopefully I can get all caught up and not miss any more good stories to tell!

Monday!

2010-08-23T13:09:00.000-07:00

We had no set schedule this morning so we decided to sleep in. Yes, we sleep as long as we wanted, well as long as Cassidy wanted, which turned out to be nine thirty. We got ready and dressed for the cloudy misty rainy day. First stop tourist information center. Cassidy stood in line to pick up the tickets for a few things while Josh and I waited out side. We were taking some photos of all the old buildings around when I got a fat lip. I know, I know, accident-prone I am. I was stepping onto a bench that happened to have a little shelter/roof thing that when I looked up it got me right on my upper lip! Man did it hurt, I thought I knocked out a front tooth, luckily not, just had a nice fat lip the rest of the day. (Hopefully it is not noticeable in the photographs!) Then off to the train station to pick up our tickets for our early morning train tomorrow for Inverness. Then like all tourist we stood in the middle of the sidewalk to determine where we were going to head. Off to the Edinburg Castle it was. We walked down the “main” tourist drag with lots of cute shops and bars. We found two cute little Christmas shops, I mean little like hardly enough room for the three of us to even been in there. This is when I decided that I could work at a Christmas shop all year long! I would be the happiest person on earth, looking at cute decorations, and listening to Christmas music constantly! New goal: find a Christmas shop in St George. Edinburg Castle was pretty cool other then the rain and I was freezing all day. We skipped out on paying like 4 pounds for an audio guide, which turned out to be okay because we found a guided tour that we hooked up with. I swear that there is like 5 different museums in that one castle. We even got to see the crown jewels of Scotland, which are the 2^nd oldest jewels in Europe. Also there was the stone of destiny, wasn’t as big as I thought it was from the movies I have seen with it in. I also gained a friend at the castle. I was posing for my picture by a wall with cannons by it and a bird flew right over my head and landed like 1 foot away. Freaked me out, all the other tourist started laughing at me and said, looks like you got an admirer. All the oriental people were taking photos. After I got over the shock of a bird almost landing on my head I tried to pet him but he wouldn’t allow it. Just starred at me all creepy stalkeryish. Now, whenever we hear a seagull they say he found you Sam, your friend he is there! (Not so funny but what do you do) After that we took the road back down and walked into a few shops. We (my brothers and I) decided it would be a good idea to have our family pictures this fall with scarfs from Scotland! So hate to ruin the surprise but we got Scottish plaid scarfs for everyone!!! We bought them at this cute little family owned/worked shop. They were the nicest people and we bought a lot from them to support them! One of the daughters said Scots are the nosiest people, we want to know everything about you, and will tell you everything about us. Well in this instant it was true, we visited with them for a long while. Very nice family for sure! Best part is everything we bought was made in Scotland and can be washed in the washing machine! We dinned for lunch at a place called Whisky. It was on this main road a little ways down, not to crowded and our little waitress girl was so nice and friendly. Again, no real food for me, just a little bit of everyone else and of course some hot chocolate to warm me up! We headed back to our hotel in order to change and rest a bit before the big event of the day. TATOO! Tatoo, is a military band performance which was wonderful. We walked with the swarms of people to find our seats. We were up high enough it was great, until we tried to sit down. There was not enough room for me in the seats my knees hit the sit back in front of me and my brothers arms came over the armrest. The couple we sat by said, “not chance of getting cold tonight!” How true, we were crammed in there like sardines, but still nonetheless a wonderful performance. I got the video camera out and was just going to video the parts that were cool, well turns out the WHOLE show was cool, even when there was a black out and the announcer was telling more about the bands or acts. There were military bands from all over the world, even one from North Carolina in the United States! Well then when it was over, out like cattle we were escorted. We found our way back to our hotel, which was very conveniently located, when we went by Joshes directions, not Cassidys. Then off to sleep have an early morning train to catch!

Sunday.

2010-08-22T13:08:00.000-07:00

Sunday:

We had to wake up early this morning to catch all our tours, trains, busses that we needed to. I woke up at six-thirty to shower before the boys (did I mention we went to be like mind-night). We are leaving London tonight so we had to check out of our hotel, which meant trying to get all my belongings back into that backpack of mine. (its just as hard every time I do it) We left at seven thirty to catch our train taking us to the Heathrow airport to drop off our bags. We possibly walked the length of terminal four times (not exaggerating) … so if you are ever there; I now know it pretty good. We missed breakfast this morning because we checked out early, so luckily for me there was a KRISPY KREAM at the airport! I think I am doing pretty good about trying the culture food, but I am doing even better about filling up on American Food. Maybe I wont loose any weight on this trip after all. We then took a bus out to a train station that took us to a town called Salisbury. This is where we had a double decker tour bus that took us to all the cool sights in the area. The first on the list was Old Sarum. It was out in the wonderful green country, we had to walk up a dirt path through a sheep-grazing field to the top of the hill where the ruins of the castle laid. They had about 20 people there playing different parts of the olden age. There were army men hiding in the trench of sandbags with guns firing off. There was a hospital tent with a nurse and a shop where you could by bread and food. We had amazing views of all the beautiful country. We jumped back on the bus and headed up to Stone Hedge. While waiting for the bus Cassidy made friends with a cute little Spanish family from Spain, the same area as his mission. Also, I will tell you before Josh gets the chance. I feel asleep on the bus and I snored once. I was like waking up not knowing I was sleeping and with my mouth open nonetheless and I snored. They both will not let me live it down. Oh, and I also got a little admirer. He was staring at me the whole train ride. So Josh thinking he was funny (which he wasn’t) kept telling me ooo theres your boyfriend! He even went as far as to almost push me into him. Really, I know, lets act our age’s right (brothers). ANYWAYS. We made it to Stone Hedge and made it around with our audio guide. I really do enjoy the audio guides not only because they are usually free, but also because you find out so many cool fact, myths, and information about the place your touring. I feel I get so much more out of the trip then just pulling up, taking my picture and being done. We then walked up to the Salisbury Cathedral. It is the tallest Cathedral in England, and the fourth tallest in Europe. It is a gorgeous Cathedral and super peaceful with a huge green lawn on each side of it for picnicking and lounging. On our way back to the station, we stopped and at lunch at a place that was very trendy and cute. Looks like it could be the hot spot for Thursday karaoke nights; well any nights really because it was pretty vacant during the lunchtime and its England, nightlife central. Made it back to the train station for our ride back into the airport a lot of coming and going right…. Right, but it was worth it?) We checked in and went through security where they take a photograph of you so you’re “in their system.” Kind of creepy but all right. We had a 45-minuet plane ride up to Edinburgh, Scotland. It was a fast easy ride in which there was NO sleeping. You think I would have learned by now, but I haven’t. I tried to fall asleep on the tray table and of course the seat in front of me came back, and back and back! FOR REALS they come back like two feet! So, once again I get squashed between the table and the chair coming to me. While loosing my comfortable spot it is helpless to try to sleep again. I feel that I am so irritable I need some sleep with these long days of walking and touring and smiling J We got on a bus that took us about four blocks from our hotel, there is SO many pretty buildings I tried taking photos of them but unfortunately its dark and my flash does not reach that far. Anyways excited to be in Scotland and excited to get some cool photos and souvenirs!

Saturday 21st!

2010-08-21T15:17:00.000-07:00

Okay, where to begin, we are sitting in our hotel room trying to remember what all we did today. Thankfully we figured it out it was a harder task then you would think! (Its been a long long day!) I was awake way before the alarm (remember snoring brothers) I was dressed and ready to go by seven, we didnt leave the hotel till about nine... We went down for our complimentary full english breakfast. A full English breakfast I learned today was 1/3 of tomato, toast, sausage, ham(bacon), and baked beans! Needless to say I had fruit and some baked beans this morning :) We headed out and had some time to kill before the changing of the guards, we tried to catch the metro but they are doing LOTS of construction so many lines were closed down, we were a little annoyed so we found something close. The War Rooms: They are kind of hidden away and I had no idea it was going to be so cool. It was the underground bomb shelters during the wars. They had a free audio guide and a whole museum on Winston Churchill! I think he had some of the funniest quotes like: "If you are going through hell, keep going" "I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter" We then walked through the royal parks towards the Buckingham Palace to find a place for the changing of the guards. We eased our way into a spot on the railing where we waited, and waited and watched another million people try to squeeze in. I was pretty excited because it got canceled due to weather in 2008 when we were here. It took about 40 minutes to complete the whole thing, pretty impressive all the matching uniforms and small band and even guards on horseback. While in between advents I turn around to see a little boy pulling up his under ware and pants. His Dad the proceeded to pat him on the back and give him a kiss of accomplishment! The little boy peed on the Queens flowers! I mean I understand when you gotta go you got to go, but they could have found a more discrete place then in the middle of thousands of people during the changing of the guards lol. Next on the schedule was the tour of the Palace, it was impressively hard to walk to the entrance which happened to be around the corner. With thousands of people trying to leave the changing of the guard it was a tourist nightmare for about 15 minutes. We made it inside and toured the state rooms at the palace and even part of the royal gardens. Although I did it before, it was just as impressive or more this time. We then thought it to be a good idea to pick up our tickets for the show tonight, Cassidy and I were going to Wicked and Josh, some show I dont even know. We found a cute little reserved restaurant for lunch, I indeed had french fries :) I couldnt bring my self to by 10+ dollars for something I knew I wouldn't like or finish.... We then flagged a taxi to get up to tower of London. We had a little tour and learned all the history there. There was a group of employees acting out a little skit we watched for a second. One of those they try to get the crowd cheering and chanting. We saw the tower of London bridge and it is more impressive then London Bridge. We walked to find the bathrooms and I walked in and turns out it cost 50 pence! Are you kidding me! I surly did not have to go THAT bad to pay to use a public restroom. So I held it while we hailed our second cab to get to Trafalgar Square. This is where they have the four lion statues that are the most photographed statues in the world! We waited our turn then climbed/crawled up to get our pictures on/by the lions. It was a little harder then it looks to jump up that high on slick rock. We then walked the few minutes to Piccadilly Street that has loads of shopping, Regilys believe it or not museum, cinemas, tourist shops, lots of people and the one and only candy shop! Cassidy and I found this store a few years ago when we were here, and bought pounds and pounds of candy. So as tradition holds, we did it again…. The clerk rang me up and gave me my total of like forty dollars and she is like “um… is that okay?” I said yes its not all for me, and we are from out of town. Haha, anyways we had just enough time to catch the tube home to change our clothes and get to our shows. Cassidy and I went to Wicked, which is always amazing no matter the venue. But, (of course there is a but) they had a new Galinda and Elphaba casted. I hate to admit that they were not as good as the last, great singers just not as great. I didn’t get the goose bumps on defying gravity like I usually do but did on the song no good deed goes unpunished. We then tried to beat Josh back to the hotel (which we didn’t) then walked to the corner burger king and got food and ice cream. Josh was appalled that we ate American food, but we did walk into like two pubs that were closing, so we did try. J I couldn’t believe how fast I feel asleep and didn’t even wake up to snoring once; it was a busy, busy day that wore me out for sure!

First Days...

2010-08-20T14:59:00.000-07:00

Hello blogger world/family/friends/strangers, I have a goal to keep a better detailed report about my travels. I have tried to recall my past trips to Europe, Spain, Bermuda ect, but cant seem to remember much besides it was sooo cool and I have TONS of pictures. So, here is my first attempt for this London/Scotland trip of August 19-29. Two of my big brothers Cassidy, Joshua and myself (oldest, middle, youngest children of the Larson clan) decided to venture out for ten days and explore the wonderful sights of London and Scotland. Cassidy and myself headed to Las Vegas Thursday morning about ten-thirty Cassidy's good friend Melanie was kind enough to take us to the airport. Unfortunately for me I woke up with a headache and was doing all I could to make sure it didn't turn into a migraine, I took many many pills and sleep the whole drive down to LV. We walked into the airport to find the longest line I have ever seen. Delta passengers were taking up not only all their allotted space but the next four lines next to theirs! ( good thing we planned two hours before our flight) We finally made it through lines after lines after lines and boarded our plane to Atlanta, Georgia where we were to meet up with Josh. The four hour flight from LV to Atlanta was not my finest hours, being sick caused me to feel like I was going to barf every other time the plane made a jolt. I sat in the middle next to Cassidy and some fine Brazilian young man :) We met up with Josh and ate our "last" American meal before we boarded yet, another plane, this time 8 hour flight to London. I indeed got stuck in the middle again, and thought my life was being taken from me when I fell asleep on the tray table the the chair in front of me started coming back, crunching me into what I thought was death. Needless to say, I did not die, just couldnt get comfortable enough to fall asleep after that. The plane had little screens in front of each chair that could either watch movies/tv, play games, watch your travel, or even listen to music. Thankfully I watched some good shows to make it through the flight. (It was a lot harder to fly coach, when you have flown first class before, I know, poor me right, I am just the one in London right now:) ) Anywho, we made it! Made it to London, and that means going through customs.... blah, my least favorite part of the trips, I always feel like I am being interrogated, which I guess in a way I am. Josh and I went in one line and Cassidy in the other, Cassidy went left Josh and I went right.... all I am going to say, is that will teach me to "choose the right" again. haha. We made it to our hotel just long enough to change into our "show" clothes, and be on time for our tour at the House of Parliament. We had a great tour guide that was so animated and loved her job. I think I now know more how their government works then my own... We then found a close by pub for dinner, we are hungry, tired and hot, the weather today is warm and muggy! We had some time to kill before our show Love Never Dies, the second Phantom of the Opera started so we went to where we "thought" the candy stores were, little did we know that was wrong, and then subway lines went down and there were a million people and did I mention we were hot and tired and siblings... I think we were all pretty irritated really fast. But we made it to our show and I believed we all loved it. I loved the Phantom he was absolutely amazing, I liked the show, a tear jerker for sure, but man were they proud of it too. I think the bows at the end went on for 8 minuets. No joke, they just kept on coming back then the curtains would start to close the clapping would start to die off and then they would open them again so the clapping resumed. haha of course it was a great show its LONDON!!! Well my brothers are now passed out, both snoring I would add, and we have a full day ahead of us tomorrow with Buckingham Palace and Wicked and of course gotta find that sweet yummy candy everyone wants brought home! Good night and I will add photos later, hopefully I stay up with this trip, hopefully you get a laugh or two out of our crazy adventures!

4th & 24th

2010-07-29T16:58:00.001-07:00

There has just been so much going on during the month of July to even notice that its gone! We have birthays ( Cassidy, Dad, and Treyden) Anniversary (Ma & Pa) Celebrations 4th and 24th .... with all that is also brings cakes, family, treats, parades, races, mtn trips, and games! It always feels like the month is here and next blink its gone. I made a collage of our 4th and 24th day celebrations. Even though there was so much more, kids running through sprinklers, fireworks, BBQ's!

We had so much fun at Gunlock and Enterprise and even a mountain trip for me! I have only been up once all season, I feel SO left out. I even missed out on our cattle drive this year because of work meetings in SLC. Even with my cool free new clothes I would have to say I would have rather been on the back of my horse doing what I do. Turns out it was just as eventful without one of my mishaps this year. Well other than that, July was here and now its gone. Lets get rollin with August, Scottland here I come! and joshie and cassidy!

The Latest

2010-07-08T18:27:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago Jan had emergency surgery on her colon. It was a scary deal that brought us together as a family. We even got Josh to fly in for about a week to spend some time with us and sit with Jan so she wasnt alone. In simple, her colon ruptured so they took 10 inches and reattached and everything as far as surgrey went well. After seven days in the hospital and a week of resting at home, we are starting to get back to normal. Jan is doing better and getting more strength each and every day. This is a picture of the boys visiting grandma before they headed off to the movie Toy Story 3. Their shirts even glow in the dark!

Jer, Jan, Josh and Les- Getting Jan out of her room and walking was a task for the first few days, then it got to two helpers to one helper. We started with to the desk and back, then all the way down the hall to making the loop two or three times! Everyone on the first floor would always laugh when they "heard" us coming, yes heard. We learned a song "every little cell in my body is happy and well" It was a healing song, not only put smiles on ours and everyones face, but it actually helped, mom felt more motivated to get up and do the rounds when we were all singing the song. Whatever works right?

A week or so before the surgery we went up to SLC for our cousins Briannas wedding. It was the most elegant wedding I have ever been too, but who expected less then that from the Esplins! This is the only photo I have of the wedding, my cousin Sharla me and my sissy KJ.

Monday after the wedding we made a family trip to lagoon. My first time sense I was like 12. We had lots of fun, but I will admit I am not as fun as I used to be either. I get all motion sickness now and feel gross but it was still a good time nonetheless.

Notice Orrins sly grin, this is when we were in charge of the boys for like 15 minutes while Jer and Les went on an "adult" ride. We got this bright idea to take the boys on the hunted house. We were convincing them the whole time in line that it was a FUN ride! They did much better then we thought that they would. And even later that day Trey was sayin he wanted to do it again!

SkyDiveLasVegas

2010-06-16T20:56:00.000-07:00

June 6, 2010

Dear Blogger World-

I went skydiving in Boulder NV. Yes, it was the craziest thing I have ever done. I would say its more crazy than even my tattoo! It was a fun full weekend. Saturday morning Shae and Nate got down here early enough to do lunch, shopping, movie, dinner and wal-mart! I was constantly telling them not to talk about our sky dive adventure we were to have in the morning because I didnt want to freak myself out. I admit I kept my cool pretty well. Even when I was sitting in the smallest plane I have ever seen thinking we wouldnt even be able to get off the ground with it packed full like sardines in a can. I for some reason was the smallest one in our group, which automatically nominated me to be the first to "jump". I say, "jump" because I did not stand at the open door and jump to possibly my death. I was kneeling at this open door strapped extremely close and personal to man which I didnt even know his name. Then, without so much as a warning or even a nod he leaned out of the door which despite my efforts to lean back into the plane we were free falling at 15,000 feet! Then my nerves left and went where ever my stomach went and we fell for roughly 60 seconds. Can I just add that those 60 well, 58 seconds that I realized what it was I was doing, were the BEST 58 seconds of my life thus far. Its going to take a big advent to top this one thats for sure! He (the nameless) pulled the rip cord and out came our parachute successfully. I got to put my hands up and "steer" the chute. This is when the motion sickness kicked in and I felt hot and dizzy. I had a graceful ride down with a beautiful view of Nevada and Lake Meed but as soon as we hit the hot desert I hate to admit I through up a little. Gross I know. Who would have thought you would get motion sickness sky diving.. not me thats for sure. Anyways, bloggers of the world, despite my greatest efforts to make everyone jealous the ending sure ruins it for everyone but me! I had the time of my life with my friends. I will probably never forget this in all my years, until I get develop Alzheimer's. But, until then be jealous be very jealous.

Shae, Nate, Sam- Before we jumped. Thought it could be our last photo.

Our super cool group. Louisiana and Nottingham were represented as well!

Sam, Shae- Our possible last trip to wally and last chance to have zookies!

PRK/Eye surgery

2010-05-30T11:50:00.000-07:00

I could not have said it any better myself, so I copied this from West Texas Eye's website. I had eye surgery called PRK last monday May 24. It was indeed very intense and am glad I am on the other side already. I feel great now, although the first few days I could not even keep my eyes open, little pain for me thankfully. Just got a tad stir crazy, cabin fever, sick of home, sick of layin around! My last appointment on Friday they cleared me to drive, that scares me because I dont feel ready to drive, but that means there are people out there driving that cant see real good. They improve move every day. Thanks for the love and support while I was virtually helpless for the last week!

The Procedure:

PRK is performed using topical anesthetic (eye drops that eliminate pain). Next, a small spring-like device is inserted to help keep the eye open. Using a small hand instrument, the front surface cells of the cornea are gently removed. This allows access to the layers of the cornea that need to be treated by the laser.

The laser procedure is then performed on the cornea. It is this "lasering" that shapes the cornea for improved vision. The laser treatment lasts 30 to 90 seconds. Afterwards, a contact lens is placed over the front surface of the cornea. This contact lens acts as a bandage to help the cornea heal its front surface.

The entire procedure takes about 5 minutes to complete. Patients are typically amazed at the comfort and speed of the procedure. Since the eye is completely anesthetized, patients do not feel the instruments or the laser. However, some pressure may be felt by a small spring device, which is used to help keep the eyelids open.

Postoperative Treatment:

Patients are placed on antibiotic and anti-inflammatory eye drops to promote comfort, prevent infection, and reduce inflammation. These drops are used four times a day initially and tapered over a few days to a week. Follow-up examinations are scheduled daily until the front surface of the eye heals (usually two to four days), then at one week, one month, and three months postoperatively.

Friendless :(

2010-05-15T21:40:00.001-07:00

Today could possibly be just about the saddest day of the year so far. My best friend and best co-worker moved back home today! We had a big party at work with pizza and treats and LOTS of pictures to send her out with a bang. It was really sad to know I would not be working with her anymore. We made the most of her last week here and we reminisced on all the good times we have had over the last year and a half. I put together a little scrapbook of our memories for her take home with her sot that there is no way she can forget me! We have already made many plans for the summer, and I am heading up to SLC next weekend!! But, I still cant seam to feel that its going to be very different at work and on weekends. No more random trips to wally or going dinner to get good spinach dip, no more random car drives to no one knows where, no more awesome parties to crash, and no more hiding out to try to scare each other at work. ( I will still get spooked by my other fellow employees but it wont be the same) We did everything we could do with the time we had, partied ate good food, woke up at the butt crack of dawn to eat breakfast, good concerts, good late night chats, good friends.

These are just some of the things we have taken pictures of, wally and shae's vest... random.

driving around.. ended up sight seeing Middleton :)

I will miss my good friend Shae, I will miss her smart ass comments, her straight forwardness, her giggles when she drinks energy drinks, her crazy flirting skills, her great work ethic, her kindness, her willingness to succeed, her no bull attitude, her strength, her ability to put you in your place, her loyalty to her friends, her knowledge, her determinedness, her gullible-ness, her confidence and most of all her blonde moments!

Although we are only 5 hours away and she just left today, I have lost my friend but hope we continue to make the effort to have plans together! I have learned lots from her and cant wait to make more memories! Love you SHAE LEA!!!

Concert Junkie

2010-05-04T20:18:00.000-07:00

Gray Allen was the latest and GREATEST! Shae and I went down to mandolin bay for the Gary Allen concert middle of april. It was the best thing we could have done. We struggled at finding the parking at Caesars Palace so that we could eat at the cheese cake factory (which was delicious and my first time). Then we found our way down the strip hitting every red light which turned out to be a blessing, we talked to some of the hottest men I have ever seen in my life in the taxi next to us. We are a little late so we proceed to RUN through mandolin bay casino to the beach where the concert is held. We make it just as the pre-show band is ending then have a ten minuet change before Gary Allen comes on. It was so neat, you could walk up in the calf deep water up closer to the raised stage. We found some neat friends that are going to college in Cedar. We had a blast dancing and singing with this fun group!

These are my new friends Brady and Jesse, this is the shore of the water with the raised stage behind us!

This is part of our new group of friends, to bad its the end of semester and they all went home :(

We had so much fun at this concert and walking down the strip and just letting loose! It was my first "real" vegas experience and I LOVED it. I might go broke from becoming a concert junkie!

Kelly Pickler

2010-04-11T20:48:00.000-07:00

This has to be the best concert I have been to ever! ( I haven't been to lots but this was WAY good) Leslie was getting tickets for Jeremy for christmas and asked me if I wanted to go with them, of course I did! So we bought tickets way back in December and had awesome seats right smack dab in the middle row E, even with 4 months notice I still couldn't find myself a male date, thankfully I have Shae the best date/friend ever! We had so much fun singing along with her song and just listening to her jab for like 15 mins during the show. Kelly is just classic and love her southern bell accent! I even got her to wave at me! lol.

(Myself and Shae after the show)

(Kelly with her sparkly Microphone and Shoes)

( Me and Shae excited for the show to start!)

We all had a super good time, and it was just what we needed a fun get-a-way as we are headed to the end of the semester busy with work and school and horses! Makes us even more excited for our next concert in vegas Gary Allen this saturday!!!

DUE WEST

2010-04-11T20:33:00.000-07:00

Due West came to Tuachan like last weekend in March. Laura and I loved them when we first were introduced like two years ago at a Craig Morgan concert in Cedar City. We saw them again the next year they came to town and opened for Lady Antebellum. So, when I heard they were coming and doing their own show this year I knew Laura and I would be there no matter the price. Turns out we go my two co-workers Shae and Kara to come with us also! We had a fun girls night attending Lauras and I favorite band! We totally danced the whole time like fools and ran to the front for their last songs like total groupies! It was a good concert and we love our traditon, hope they come back next year so we can continue attending!

(Us with the poster of the band, the line was too long to see them)

(Thanks to the nice people behind us that took our picture before the show started)

(The Tuachan train makes a cute photo opportunity)

Happy Post?

2010-03-25T17:41:00.001-07:00

Well I was going to blog about some of the fun nights we have had lately, but then realized I dont have the photos yet. So these are the fun one I have off my phone.

(Caught Duke sleeping on his back.. his bad leg sticks up there all awkward and such.{he is so my dog})

(Duke at the farm. A few of the cows LOVE him, he will just sit there and lick their noses while they sniff him...)

( Shae and I made it to Players for there YUMMY spinach dip!)

See ya'll, I do stuff every now and then, although playin with Duke does not really classify as "socializing" its still one of my favorite pass times! Love my pup and Love my Shae-bae!

Four letter words

2010-03-23T19:10:00.000-07:00

Well, I am so good at venting to blogger I thought I would take another shot at it today. Today, had been a great day at school. All my professors showed up (its starting to become more of a trend that they dont) I talked my geology teacher to move back an assignment till thursday and I was wearing shorts! Its spring time in st george! I got my homework done during my break between classes and went and rented my movie for nutrition and went tanning before I had an appointment with a DSC counselor. I needed to sign up for a summer 2010 english class so that I could FINALLY get my associates of arts. (this is where it gets good) I sat down with the counselor and he pulls out my check list sheet and pulls up my classes. I tell him what my goal is and what I wanted to do, he looks at me hesitant to say anything. We start checking off all the classes I have taken and we get to my sewing credits, he says that those wont count, EXCUSE ME? They are the "same" class so those credits dont count towards your graduation, but lets see where you are before you get all upset. Um, okay already upset! All I need is a 2010 english class so I thought, I am short like 2 or 3 credits from the 60 you need for and associates. so that puts me at another blah class to get those dumb credits, but wait, he just minused another 6 credits because my sewing classes dont count. WHAT THE HELL?! ( my exact words to the poor man who is trying to help me) "why would you let me pay for and waist my time on 6 credits that you dont even count!? How can that be, they are credits, you dont care if I take bowling for hell's sake but your telling me my sewing credits dont count?" He explained that they are the same class and blah blah blah bull shit. Then I say well put me in the online english class I need because they fill up fast, he looks at me again and says you sure do have bad luck, you are still at sophomore credits you cant sign up till tomorrow. goodness, I was livid, I was in tears, I was absolutely furious and I think I said every four letter word I knew walking out of that office! I have had loads of lame experiences here at DSC, my opinion has always been stationary, DSC is RIDICULOUS. Today, more then ever my point was proven, they let me take a class that they offer, pay them 1200 dollars for those 6 credits then just like that they have the nerve to tell me they dont even count towards graduation, if they dont count towards graduation what the hell do they count for?! If they count for nothing then why is it a class, why do they offer a nothing class?? More the reason they are a JOKE. Oh, and the admin. building is condemned also. It didnt pass inspection, you would think a college, working to be a university would do proper updates on their campus. I will tell you one thing, I am transferring to another school, I dont care what the tuition differences is or if I loose credits. It will be better then all the shit dixie tries to pull. I am sick of proffesorrs giving me bad grades they cant back up, teachers not coming to class more then holding class, forcing us to attend school lectures as part of our grade, forcing us to attend the drama departments show (I have no MT classes) Sick of the small testing center that takes forever and day to get into, sick of the lame classes they require that no other school does (ie LIB 1010) ..... I am going to spend my tuition money else where. All in all, Dixies RED STORM (should have kept the rebels) can kiss my bottom.

Retail Rage

2010-02-27T18:56:00.000-08:00

Its just the beginning. Words have never brought such disappointment. It is the start of spring which to most people means happiness, picnics, watermelon, and great weather. But, if your an employee at IFA Country Stores, spring time means, hell. Sure, I know, when I have kids I will probably bring them into the store to see the cute little baby chicks and rabbits BUT I will not leave them unattended to strangle to poor little things. I will not look into the tank with 600 chickens running around and say, "I want that one rightttt there!" Because I know the instant you reach down into the tank to grab it, it will be lost among the other 600 birds. I will not insist that I hold fifty different chickens to feel their aura. I will not make the employee gather up 15 chickens then decide I dont have the money for them. I will not let my children scream and scream and scream about wanting a chicken and give in, to only have it die on the drive home because my two year old squashed it. I will not buy chickens and call the next day telling them I would like to return them because they walk funny, there is NO RETURN on animals!! ohh and this is just the beginning of spring. This is our first batch of chickens and we will receive new batches every other wednesday till easter. OMG. This rage is just beginning people. Dont forget the million +1 phone calls we get daily asking "When do you get chickens, what are all the dates you get them, What breeds are you getting, How do you raise chickens exactly, Can you hold chickens for me?(my favorite answer, nope they will poop on me but thanks.)" But little do you all know that chickens are the least of the worry here at IFA, its the plethora of RUDE CUSTOMERS. Yes, deliberately rude just because they think they can. This is when I wish I was more like my co-worker and friend Shae. She is great at putting people in their place! :) In one day I had one lady from SLC that asked what was wrong with me? She wanted a list of when to put down her fertilizer, when I proceeded to tell her that it says it on the bag Spring Fertilizer or Fall Fertilizer she cut me off saying how SLC is soo much better and they have list and why do they have a list and I dont have a list, when I tried to tell her that I am to busy with Rude customers to make a list, and I personally find it dumb when it says it on the bag she cut me off again needing a list of what kind I had and their prices, FINALLY I got to say something, I got to say that prices change and what we have available and on hand changes to rapidly we cant keep up with list, the WHOLE time shaking her head in disappointment in me. Needless to say " We didnt make friends" that day with her, in her own words. OMG really?! Then like two hours later this little old short man came in asking what fertilizers we had, when I tried to ask if he wanted lawn or garden he cut me off saying dont you know what you have, "yes, but is it for lawn or garden" "I need to know what the numbers are on the bags" 'OKAY SIR, but do you want lawn or..."(boss walks up and customer instantly cuts me off to ask him " I need fertilizer" Boss man repeats me and asks lawn or garden, not listening to any of us he is SO annoyed that we are not helping him, and yells at us for our poor customer service and if no one is going to tell him what fertilizer he needs he will never be back here to shop. needless to say we let him walk out, we dont NEED customers like that. Okay, moral of the story I dont like baby chicks in my store or the people or phone calls they bring with them. I dont like rabbits because they make the store smell and for some odd reason, I am the only one who ever feeds or waters any of the animals. I hate all the dumb questions about lawn/garden care, I hate when people ask questions but wont let me answer them. I really hate when people dont think I can help them because I am a girl, what do they really think my boss pays me for? I HATE spring time at IFA. The end.

Working in the Office

2010-02-07T16:14:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, we got new carpet in our office area. (its about darn time!) Shae and I thought while everything was already packed outta the offices we should paint them! (great plan...) So we take it upon ourselves to find the right color of paint, get supplies and off we go. We had to first wipe down all the walls because its been 10 + years sense they have been cleaned or painted. (Farm store here, we arent the cleanest of the bunch) There was some border wall paper that came down no problem got all the tape up and laid down all the plastic. This "project" of ours with our two different schedules took us a week. Bryce (our boss) was just about ready to string us up by our toes for kicking him out of his office that long! ha Well we got the job done after alot of hard work and put the office back together so everyone was happy. It looks pretty good too I must say!

It is pretty sad when all I have to post about is work....

Lords Team

2010-01-03T17:20:00.001-08:00

While writing some of my missionary friends I know that one in particular is having a hard time with the whole "no one is listening so why try...." so, while writing him back I asked him how it is being called of God to serve those people? I answered it for him saying " Amazing I would imagine also wonderful, tiresome, exhausting, challenging but yet rewarding yes? As I kept on writing not knowing really what I was writing I also said " Anything is possible with the Lord on your side, and thats why you and I chose the team we are on, the Lords team, because we know it will be the winning team in the end. why would you choose to be on the team that is going to loose? Thats why he and the other million of missionaries are out there, knocking on door after door, getting ridiculed and teated badly so that they can show the world what team they need to be on. We all need to be on the Lords side, and when we are on that team, you cant help but know that ANYTHING is possible. I think this letter that I wrote to my friend was to help me more than it might help him. I asked Mom if writing letters to missionaries would give me heaven points, but looking at all the letters I have received back, all the testimonies that have been written for me all their promises that this is the true church is good enough for me. Those letters have helped me even if the missionary didn't even know it. Even if I didn't know it. Thats what keeps me on track to get to heaven. So indeed they are all heaven points.

Christmas Moments

2009-12-31T18:25:00.001-08:00

These moments of Christmas are not in order but nonetheless fun. First we have shooting christmas day. Jeremy KJ Orrin and I went out and tested Orrins new gun and had fun shooting Jeremy's shot gun. I need the most practice with the shot gun, I only hit one of like 12 clay pigeons. ( how embarrassing) Anyways it was soo much fun and duke even got to come along. At first he was scared and jumped right back into the jeep and watched, but after a while he got the courage to come out but stayed right by my side. Silly puppy.

This is Christmas day Papa had to work so we took it upon ourselves to take our games to the fire station. wether he wanted us there or not, he jumped in and played a game or two with us. We got some of the other firemen there to play too. We love our nertz and all our mormon games!

Christmas Eve: we as tradition never fails got pajamas. Everyone was home this year for christmas so we got all matching pj's. And the once a year (if lucky) we are all together we have to take family photos. So what better place then moms new fire place. Getting all of us to sit where told with all our wiggles was a challenge but we managed to get a few fun ones. Duke even made it into a few at the bottom!

Christmas Morning: Here is a few snap shots of some of us with our favorite gifts. We had a great spiritual and handmade christmas. I woke up at about 7:30 to a silent house. I cleaned up the kitchen and started breakfast, Mom came out and said Dad would be home for an hour at nine, Joshed appeared just before nine and KJ at nine. We headed downstairs to unpack the stockings while we waited for pa to show up. Everyone was awake just after nine and we had dad do his christmas while he was here. Jer and Les showed up shortly after 10:00 and we just had fun playin with our new toys we didnt unwrap the last present until noon. I think everyone got more then they asked for it was a great christmas with the whole family home!

I love the holiday season and I love all my family being home. I am thankful for this reminder of what is really important to us all. I am grateful for all our blessings that my family and I have witnessed this year. Thankful that we have another year to look forward to and hopefully learn and grow some more. Thanks 2009 for the laughs the cheers the tears, heres to 2010 for all the possibilities it hold!!!!!

Flames..

2009-12-21T21:01:00.000-08:00

Well tonight as I was being on top of things was making the holiday mix to give to my co-workers for christmas gifts… and as the syrup came to a boil it boiled right outta the pan… I quickly moved it off the heat but it boiled over causing the sugar and karo mix to catch flame on the stove top! Me screaming and jumping around... “I dont know what to do.. I dont know what to do” Mom and Dad came running propbably because they smelt the smoke and mom told me to smother it.. so I grab a lid, and mom said get a bigger one so while I am digging for a bigger lid … the stove top is in flames mind you… finally we get it out open all the doors to let smoke out, but no worries the syrup is still good, I put it back on the other burner and boiled three minutes and poured it on the mix and was good to go. Stove is a little not new anymore.. but merry christmas.

MORE NFR

2009-12-20T15:53:00.000-08:00

I just got some photos that my new friends took. We went dancing at Sams Town in Las Vegas after the rodeo. Here are a couple photos she took of us. It was soo much fun even if my face tells a different story sometimes... haha

( Sam, Jeff, Shae)

( I really didnt think I was going to die...)

(Pretty sure I just closed my eyes the moment he said "Trust me!")

We had so much fun dancing and getting to know the Wadman family. Thanks Randi for all the photos you took, they are great memories!

National Finals Rodeo

2009-12-13T14:35:00.000-08:00

I had the opportunity to go down to Las Vegas with Shae, she came into some tickets for the final round of the finals. I was soo excited to go with her I just knew it was going to be a blast. It was more fun then I even imagined it would be. We both had to work saturday so we didn't make it to cowboy christmas which was probably for the better because we would have spent all our tuition money there. We got there a little early and decided to try to find free parking..which we were successful thanks to UNLV Institute parking lot. I couldn't help but have a smile on my face the whole time. Everywhere you looked there was a sea of cowboy hats. We bought some kettle corn and found out seats. We had great seats and sat by the nicest guy that offered to take our picture for us and let us borrow his program. After the intense and final round of the NFR we headed to Sam's Town for dinner at TGI Fridays (great spinach dip!) and do a little country dancing with the live band. We had a friend Jeff and his family that was staying there. We all had a great time dancing the night away! we pulled are selfs away to make it home around three AM! It was so much fun just to get away and what a better place then the NFR!!

Vanna White

2009-11-21T14:37:00.001-08:00

We (the royalty) got asked to come help at the Gayla dinner at the Jubilee of Trees. Our assignment was to be "Vanna Whites." They were having a live auction to auction off most of the trees. So thats what we (Ginger and I, no 1st attendant) did, we stood by all the trees being auctioned off for three hours, not to mention the two hours we walked around during the silent auction and tried to mingle with the people. Lets just say our feet hurt by the end! It was fun to be there and see how charitable those people are for the Life Flight Program. Even better I got to walk around and see all the pretty trees without paying to get into the Jubilee and with out it being packed full of people. Ginger and I had lots of fun as always, we took a couple snap shots when we had a second before all the people showed up. I love the holiday time and what a better way to kick it off for reals then with the Jubilee of trees!

Loves. Hates.

2009-11-08T20:49:00.000-08:00

I just felt like I had a lot of things to list that I loved, but then as I was listing them it also brought up things that I didnt like so much. I know, but somethings do fall under that category. * Please note things are in no particular order.

Loves:
Family
Fashion Boots
Slippers
Onesies Pajamas
Popcorn and M&M's
Rainy Afternoons
Cuddling
Anticipation
Wranglers
Cowboys
Decorating
Christmas Music
Smiles
Duke
Kansas
Lifetime Movie Network
Chocolate Milk
Toe Rings
Rings
Wedding Planning
Gift Giving/Receiving
Stars
Body Pillows
Cookies
Italian Food
Being Nice
Spandex
Being Organized
Country Line Dancing
The Ranch
Feeling Accomplished
Checking of the "to do" list
Game nights
New things
Rocking chairs
Cooking Utensils
Being Understanding
Giggling
Attention
Making people happy
Photos
Socializing

Dislikes:
Answering the Phone
Chocolate Chips
Unnecessary Texting
People who are loud at movie theaters
Fish, smell or taste
Sleeping alone
Being home alone
Being Yelled at
Rude/Pushy People
Sleeping in till your ornery
Picky people
People who think I should speak Spanish
The Beeping of the answering Machine
Nosy People
Being Pressured
Bad Hair Days
Shopping All Day
Testing

Wicked

2009-10-27T20:04:00.000-07:00

I went to Kansas the last few days, to watch the Wicked Broadway Tour.... Even better than that... I won the Wicked Lottery, even better? I met Galinda, she loved my boots (who doesnt?) and Flint, the Keyboard 1 / Conductor of the Wicked broadway tour gave us a personal tour backstage... and OH MY GOODNESS do they put lots and lots of effort into practically rebuilding the stage. They literally, had the sets and props hanging from the celling. I learned a lot about musical theater I didnt know, and now know I dont wanna be on the stage hand crew of a traveling show! The show was spectacular of course and even better only paying $25 dollars for $150 dollar tickets! yahoo! Anwyays, love kansas, love my friends, love meeting new friends!

New Friend

2009-10-15T20:33:00.001-07:00

Well technically Shae is not a NEW friend, just now a GREAT friend. We have worked together for just over a year. She has had a serious boyfriend until a few months ago, which opened the door for us hanging out. We have had lots and lots of fun from late night talks, to ropins, to driving to orem for the weekend for a hoedown. We have the same interest obviously we both work at IFA... but we pretty much have the same mind set, we are soo in the same single boat its great. We have lots of people to meet and parties to crash! I just cant say how nice it is to have a good girl friend again. They are rare and hard to find. JUst so glad that she is here and we can have as much fun as we are having!

The Accident

2009-09-28T20:26:00.000-07:00

Okay, first I am super excited I got the whole collage thing to work. Second of all, this is my 2009 Cattle Drive story.
Thursday morning around 7 am, we were catching horses to saddle up to move cows on down the mountain. I caught my horse and led her to the fence where the others were saddling theirs. I tied summer up to the middle of the log fence. I set down her boots and next thing I know she is freaking out, leaning, pulling back with all her force. Then the next thing I know I am on my bottom in the dirt, I jumped up pretty quick to find her running away with the log still tied to her lead. I instantly put my hand to my eye to find it bleeding, Mom was there to freak out so I didnt have too. Nothing a little neosporen and band-aid cant fix!

After a little medical care I was saddling my horse and off we went down the mountain. I rode for about 6 or 7 hours. I had a major headache and just felt off. Lunch time I loaded up my horse and jumped in with Leslie, she took me down to Cedar to Insta-care where the first question they asked was "tell me EXACTLY what happened." I got hit in the face with a log. How much more exact can I get. Then she asked if it happened at home, I said no at the ranch. She (receptionist) said : Well that is considered home. Well, okay, if you say so. Then we had the most crazy princess voiced lady doctor. It just added to the whole experience. She (doctor) wanted to give me stitches, which I opposed and suggested GLUE! She agreed it was a wonderful Idea. But down side of crazy lady doctor was she made me get a tetanus (sp?) shot! Bummer, I was more scared for the shot then I should have been, being the tough cookie I am! AND..Whats a doctor visit without ice cream. Leslie treated me to DQ before we headed back up the mountain to meet the cows and cowboys at the poll corral. Lets just say I woke up very sore the next day.

hOEdowN thROWdoWN

2009-09-23T00:08:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I will be the first to admit that the last few days I have had somewhat of an obsession with Miley Syrus's Hoedown Throwdown. I have down loaded the song, and hit replay on the video on You Tube numerous times. So, I got it down pretty well, I still have some improving to do, but I got to practice and teach it at dancing. I requested it and there were like only 2 of us who knew it. Not to toot my own horn or anything but I was the best one. I was very proud to know the hoedown. Now, everyone wants to learn it! Its super fabulous and I cant wait to perfect it more!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlnbmZK7GxU

( thats the link to her music video of the song)

DavidALLaNCoE

2009-09-14T18:45:00.001-07:00

Here are my thoughts on the David Allan Coe concert......

#1- he was totally stoned

#2-who starts their concert 10 minuets early.... really..?

#3- who sits on a chair towards the back of the stage the entire time not moving more than strumming his guitar....

#4- He was totally pissed that it had to be a "family" show.

#5- He didn't even last maybe 45 minutes...

#6- I would be TICKED if I had paid money for those tickets, even 5 dollars would have been too much.

BUT all in all I had a great time! I am a social butterfly that wishes she were 17 again! I didnt listen to the music much I sat on my blanket I took a total of 5 minutes, long enough to scope out who was there. It was a great excuse to get all of us friends in the same place, to bad it had to be such a disappointing concert.

Me and Bundy during the first 5 minuets I was sittin there

( I was unaware of my shirt being see though...)

Me and Shae we are great concert buddies!

We decided because it was so early after it ended to have a game night at my house. Its always a good time when we decide to get games out. Like usual we only ever get out catch phrase, and like usual I always end up ruining it because I guess for both teams on accident. We always have a great time together no matter what the activities!

Bad Blogger

2009-09-02T22:26:00.000-07:00

I feel as though I am always busy, always heading one place or another, but yet, I never seem to have anything to say to people when they ask. "Whats new with you?", or "What have you been doing lately?". I feel as though I never have anything to blog about. Then I got to thinkin, I guess I have been doing something, I had to have been. So after a moment or so in the thinking cap, I came up with these:

#1- My 21st birthday, legal!!

#2- Kansas trip, great to go visit old friends and my teens!

#3- Corn Fest- great way to get outta working on a saturday at IFA :)

#4- Not working a single saturday in the month of AUGUST!

#5- Finally getting my car back after two weeks of being in the shop!

#6- College starting, only taking 7 credits but that and working full time is enough for me.

I suppose these aren't the most exciting of events happing in someones life, but thats what has been keeping me occupied the last month. I have been a total slacker in the photo documentary part of my life the past month, I think I have forgotten I even have one, or too lazy to pull it out when a kodak moment arrises.

Goals for September: Take more Pictures, Meet new people, Be Social, Be Optimistic, and really clean out my closet!

Fair

2009-08-20T21:35:00.001-07:00

Oh the Washington County Fair. Where to begin.... We had lots of fun at the fair, lots of photos with little girls, lots of awards handed out, and lots of 14 year old boys.... ha. We had a cute little golf cart we decorated all queen like that we got to drive around for the weekend. We spend a lot of time working on our float for the parade which we took 1st place! Hard work really does pay off :)

Here is a picture of my queen Ginger Jensen, she is my favorite, we have become the best of friends!

Here is a picture of us royalty on our sweet float. Yes, the dinosaur is wearing a crown! If you missed the fair parade, we shall be doing peach days and the round up parade as well!

I entered my dress in the fair and ended up getting sweepstakes! Takin it to state fair.

This is us royalty judging the baby contest. This was my favorite part of the fair I think. All those cute little kids, sorta makes you wanna have one, until they have a poopy diaper then your glad you dont!

Yellowstone

2009-08-20T21:22:00.000-07:00

August has been a very busy month for me. First I left for SLC the 3rd for clothing meetings for IFA. On route, about beaver my new car of two weeks air conditioning went out. GREAT. I had a good attitude about it because I could still drive it just have no air. Good thing it gets cooler the more you travel north, bad thing it was still 105 in SLC when I got there. Had a great time at my meetings and got lots of cool free stuff. I stayed with KJ and got my new hair cut. Friday we headed up to Island park for the 5 day long family vacation. It was a little crowded in dads pick-up with duke layin at our feet. He was a good boy the whole trip though. We had lots of fun going to the playmill, the little tourist rodeo in montana, old faithful, and the day long drives through the park. Favorite part was the drive home, we went the scenic route, even though I didn't feel good, the places we saw were beautiful and I wouldn't mind living any one of those little towns!

Hair Cut

2009-08-05T18:32:00.000-07:00

I came to SLC for clothing meetings for IFA and am stayin with my sister and went and visited my sister at hair school. I thought it would be fun to donate my hair, so I did. I have a 10 inch braid I donated to Locks of Love. This is my new trendy haircut my sister did a fabulous job on. As of today day 2 I like it. I still have to look double in the mirror to make sure that its me.. but I think I like it. Ask me again in a couple of weeks...

24th of July

2009-07-26T10:47:00.001-07:00

The 24th we had a parade in Washington City, it was another early morning for me again after a rodeo night. We meet there and the boys had this hummer for us to ride in. Talk about hook ups. There was one tiny little problem, our 1st attendant had car mishaps out of town and missed it. So we were just the lonely two. Loved the hummer, and it was a great parade a great turn out. We then went and changed and walked around the park a little bit, ended up doing a race to see who would be getting dunked in the dunking booth. We tied the race and ginger wanted to be dunked so I dunked her! It was a great morning full of fun.

One of the great guys that drove us around and got us the hummer for this parade.

The rest of the day consisted of marv's and races in enterprise. My cousins are always the fastest, most of them were in the winners circle. We had fun with the water at Aunt Kayes house a big slide and pool, then a nice BBQ then off to the rodeo. A couple late nights for me getting home, but believe me I made it up sunday morning sleeping in until lunch time :)

Due West/Lady Antebellum

2009-07-26T10:42:00.000-07:00

The 23rd was the concert, working at IFA I got a a couple free tickets so we got a group of us together and went. Me and Laura love DUE WEST, we saw them in concert in cedar over a year ago. We went just to see them practically, along with tons of other people. It was a good concert and lots of people were there.

Pardon the finger, the boys had to ruin everyone of my photos taken at the concert, then they wouldnt even be in any of them.

This is due west, we werent close at all but still nonetheless a good photo and great concert!

NEw Car

2009-07-22T15:33:00.001-07:00

I did it. It was a little fast, like with-in the week I decided to get a car, but here we are. Its a Mazda3 2005, with 41,000 miles. 5 speed, sun roof, tinted windows, multi-compact disc, power locks, power windows, GREAT AIR CONDITIONING, and a free tank of gas :). Its just great, just what I wanted and for a price I couldn't really debate on.

Isnt she just cute, I need to come up with a name, so if you have any ideas, feel free to let me know.

Hair Cut

2009-07-18T17:14:00.001-07:00

Duke got a haircut! It is just wonderful, and it only cost me 5 dollars to get the blades sharpened. Believe it or not he was such a good boy. He was not real wiggly or anything, a little towards the end the blades got a little warm that bothered him but still was a good boy for his first home haircut. I might touch him up a bit later but it sure is warm out there today. I think he looks pretty good. Better than I thought it would turn out.

Slight Disappointment

2009-07-13T19:20:00.000-07:00

So just my random thoughts of the day. At work we got in the Demolition Derby Tickets we will be selling for the fair. We are looking at the cool gold wrist bands that are the "ticket" for the derby and we notice that its held the last night of the fair. Which happens to be August 15, which also happens to be my birthday, which also happens to be my BIG 21st!!!! The disappointment is that I have to be at the fair and derby as royalty, working, smiling, being just glamorous and not out parting, not out buying my first beer because I can, and not dancing in vegas, not even a romantic dinner date with my boyfriend. Guess I will have to choose another day to celebrate the big 21. Guess its not as exciting as it seems anyways...

Update

2009-07-06T17:46:00.001-07:00

So a couple of weeks ago we went moving cows, it was a two day event with friday gathering separating and hauling then saturday before the sun was up driving them up the mountain side. Friday we started around 10:00 Brayden, Ty, Me and Dad went one way while Jeremy Julie and her son went the other. We rode for a few hours before the storm hit. We were getting drenched and hit hard. Luckily the sun came out and dried us all up. We started separating and loaded up the trailers and made a trip up to the mountain. We got back to Jan's cabin that we were stayin at to a hot meal and cool drinks. It was nice to relax and were ready for bed by 9:00. We got up at Five to go get horses and start the next long day. It was a pretty cool day and with all the help that we had went by faster then ever. It was sooo nice to have help, that helps. Gotta love Brayden and his family for how much they love being cowboys. Not to mention how much help they are! Hope they wanna stick around because there are more cow drives in the future :)

( thats brayden on his paint horse, the feed looks so good up there as does he)

(Jeremy, me and his two boys, Colten and Treyden)

Next we have July 4th. The best thing about the 4th weekend is the gunlock rodeo! Bad thing this year was early morning 4th parades in Laverikin and Springdale after a late night at the gunlock rodeo..... We washington county royalty made it to two parades. Being the first car in one parade and a speedy driver to the next was the only way to pull it off and we did. It was fun Laverikin had a funny kid that said "ahh its so bright I cant even look at it" with all the dramatics you can imagine that made us all chuckle, then springdale had a creeper that wouldnt stop taking pictures of us. He was from outta town and needed proof he said that he was in washington county. Okay, come up with a better one than that sir. Anyways it was fun to throw out candy and try not to hit the little kids on purpose...... But here are the photos of us three, I have a feeling there will be more like this to come. :)

Jeans

2009-06-22T17:42:00.000-07:00

So, the past few months I have been admiring these jeans at my work. They look good on comfortable and practical. Then today I walked into work and my pants were too big. I have known they were big the last little while, but thats how all my jeans were fitting. So I went to try some of those wrangler Cash jeans I have been looking at and I went down two sizes in those jeans! Two whole sizes, that means I went from my seven in cruel girls to my 3/4 in my wranglers! The best part of the whole story is I got new jeans, a good reward for my ten pounds lost!

Poor Duke

2009-06-19T20:37:00.001-07:00

This is my puppy Duke... two days home from his broken leg surgery. He is being such a good boy! He last weekend jumped out of the back of the truck. After many tears and many phone calls we decided that we would do surgery. This $500 dog just turned into a $1500 dog in like three days. He is to be confined 4-6 weeks, no jumping running swimming or stairs. He hates his kennel. He doesnt really wanna go anywhere he just wants to be outside in his cool dirt hole. We thought it would be bad with the dirt so we put a carpet piece down in his normal spot and he has been just as happy.

This is a close up of his main insigne, he has two pins in his leg, one big rod that goes his whole leg then a little cross pin to help hold it all in place. He broke it right on the growth plate. He has been really quite and been really such a good boy, its just sad to keep him all cooped up when he is a puppy and wants to play. Cross your fingers that the healing process goes as good as it can!

Royalty

2009-05-31T22:34:00.000-07:00

So I guess you could say I did it. I am 2nd runner up for Miss Washington County. Now can you imagine if I would have made my routine up before the NIGHT BEFORE, or had someone help me with questioning, or even started losing weight before 3 weeks before, I could have possibly done better. I am pretty happy, totally shocked I wont lie, but I get a crown! I even had like three little girls come up to me and want me to sign their programs! How fun! Who would have ever thought I would have entered a pageant, let alone place, and sorta like it! Total shocker to everyone including my self! I couldnt have done it though with out KJ Leslie and Mom. They were a big help and support through the whole thing. Just so ya know girls, it not over, I still need help for all the parades and places I have to be now!

Pageant

2009-05-28T19:02:00.001-07:00

Okay, so this is sorta a crapy photo..... I dont wanna take the time to scan it into moms and send it to me and blah blah. These are all of us. Our Rock band shoot. Its been super fun until this week when I am super stressed because I just like 20 minutes ago made up my talent routine, talk about procrastination- ha.

This is a photo of the hair spray I bought today at wal-mart to not hold my hair in place, but my swimmer. talk about AWKWARD. If not me, then someone else will be spraying this hairspray onto my REAR, then placing my swim suit in its place.

Well tomorrow is Dress Rehearsal then saturday is the big day! I am excited and a little nervous all at the same time. Wish me Luck!

Pretty Perfect

2009-05-20T06:30:00.001-07:00

So with in the last week of my life really like the last 5 days, I feel like life is going in the right direction. I feel there is a purpose for things and I am just overall happier. I like to wake up in the morning and get my day going, I feel like I am more patient with my nephews and just have a better outlook on things. Sorta like a weight has lifted from my chest and I can finally now breath. I am perfectly content leaving it all right where it all is right now.

First Day

2009-05-13T19:29:00.000-07:00

So, I have completed all my paper work, gone to the first meeting, and now, just finished a rock shoot for the pageant. I did what I was told and was "over the top." It was fun, rockin out on my backyardigans guitar. We did a photo shoot and shot a rock video and a surprise interview that I was not ready for at all! eekkk good thing they were very nice and worked with me a little bit, hope its not too embarrassing. but anyways here is a picture of the "over the top" look made possible by Leslie and Jan. Thanks to them I would have never pulled it off my self! :)

So, Gross

2009-05-07T20:10:00.000-07:00

I was just informed that on average the human inhales 6 spiders a year while sleeping. EW I think I just might have night mares of spiders climbing down my mouth. I said GREAT now I wont be able to get a good nights sleep for the next 2 weeks, he said dont worry they are just baby spiders, ya that makes it SO much better. This is what I imagined when he said we eat spiders,

SICK. it makes me cringe every time I look at it! Just thought you should all know why I will have bags under my eyes for the next 10 years of my life, for the lack of sleep while I try to get over this nightmare someone instilled in me telling me I eat 6 spiders a year...........

he is here! Finally!

2009-05-03T12:46:00.000-07:00

After many nights of "tonight is the night". After many, midnight checks, 6 am checks and lunch time checks. Pepper finally had her colt. Last night the night dad said "she will have it when no one checks on her." We are all pretty excited and he is the cutest one by far! Lucky Jeremy. Healthy little boy, with no name yet. We wanted to keep it in the 'spices' with momma pepper. Here is some I came up with we will see what jeremy decides : Clove, Coriander (cory), Juniper, Mace, Poppy Seed, Ramsons, Sassafras, Sesame, Tarragon, Tasmanian Pepper, Vanilla.

Tas and Cory are my favorite. Mom likes Tasmanian also, because his mom is pepper so passing the name along.... all are good, just wish someone would decide already!

The Dress.

2009-04-23T18:49:00.000-07:00

So here it is. My crazy creation. With a lot of work we finished it in time for the Sew Show. It was a lot harder then expected because we didnt have a pattern for any of it! I couldnt have done it with out Tammy ( my sewing teacher) and my Mom. They helped me step by step. But this is it. I am glad its finished and glad I did it.

Duke

2009-04-13T17:35:00.000-07:00

(Colten holding Duke. They love Duke)

(playin at the park)

(car ride home, he climbed up there on his own and thats where he stayed the hour ride home)

I picked up a puppy today. I had a sad easter when I received a phone call informing me that my puppy Dixie that I was going to pick up monday had died. :( sad day. So she informed me that there were others I could choose from but still nonetheless I was sad. So on our way home from SLC this weekend we stopped by and looked at the puppies. There were many cute ones some newborns and some older ones ready to go. I wanted to take one home now, I didnt want to have to wait any more weeks! there were no girls ready to go today but there was this ADORABLE male. He was the biggest of his litter, and the smartest ( she says..) he also is a big drooler.... what a male. haha We have had our fist car sickness, and first nap and first walk. It has been soo fun! He is so calm, and good with the little boys! No accidents in the house yet! Keep your fingers crossed! That is all for now...

Joys of Ranching

2009-04-05T16:39:00.000-07:00

I was just going through photos on my computer and I ran across these two that I have. In the last few years I have had a couple incidences..... photo #1

Dad, Jeremy and I went to get some horses out of Lynns pasture. We had about 6 horses and we only needed three of them. I was standing there haltering Zeek up when one of the free ones decided they wanted to play. She turned her butt and kicked at the shoulder of the horse I was haltering..... she has horrible aim. She got me. It dropped me, I was to the ground before I knew what happened. Dad and Jeremy didnt know what happened and told me to get up. I said " I just got kicked by the horse!" ha anyways so we walked the mile back to the trailer to load them up and I dropped my pants as soon as we got there to show them I did get kicked. There was nothing.... no red mark no bump nothing! While on the drive down the mountain my leg started to get hot, it started to swell up under my jeans I could feel it now. I got home and you could tell that something happened. No hoof print or anything but still. This photo was taken like within the next 2 days after it happened. It did have its yellow purple stage and it was gross. I tried to wear longer shorts to work because this was during the summer. But unfortunately for me this is not the end of gross bruises....

Photo #2

This one was last october. We were at the black ridge taggin calves. My job was to get the little ones into the chute and push them up through. Anyways so we had done about 40 head and I was pushing the last little group up into the bucket, and the biggest one I swear kicked back and got me right in the shin! My Mom was right there on the other side of the fence and saw it. I yelled my profanities and pushed them up. After we got through I was feeling it bad, I go and sit in the explorer and tried to lift up my pant leg to see what happened and low and be hold there was nothing. Flip! Dad is yelling at me to go help him and I am limping and gritting my teeth. It wasnt untill the next few days the bruise emerged. It was painful for the longest time. I couldnt kneel, cross my legs, sit indian style, nothing. ha This photo was taken probably 3 or 4 weeks after it happened. I went to Indiana around this time and I had to do ALOT of walkin there by the end of that week it had drained into my ankle. Now my ankle was bruised too! It was bad news. I still to this day 6 months later I have a little bruise on my shin. I have a lump on my leg that probably will never go away or so I am told.

The best thing about both of these incidents is that I didnt cry! haha And that I was doing something that I enjoy to do. I love days out at the farm with my Pa. We have lots of fun stories that many people just read in story books.

Ms. Dixie

2009-03-18T20:06:00.001-07:00

This is her, Dixie, my miniature Australian Puppy!!! She is only two weeks old in this photo. I get to go pick her up in 3-5 weeks! We cant wait to go get her, we love her already! I have my books I am reading up on how to train her, and planning all the last details . Yay, for our cute little puppy!

New Computer!

2009-03-13T18:40:00.000-07:00

I have been wanting my own laptop, for the LONGEST time. I havnt ever really saved enough money to get one, its hard when its something not right in front of my face, and plus something always comes up with more importance and the money gets spent. SO, I got a bunch of money back from taxes and poof the idea came to me just like that. Then poof the money was in my account and poof it was gone again. It came this past wednesday but I had them deliver it to my big brother Cassidy and he got it all set up for me!

I am so excited to transfer all my photos and things over to my new computer, I can get everything done I want too! yay! But now I am broke once again :)

Sewing Projects

2009-03-03T09:14:00.000-08:00

I have been working on a few things this semester for Sewing Class. These are some of my accomplishments :) I had to throw in the one of me and trey with his point. He just loved my outfits and said I looked just perfect. Gotta love those little ones!

Started Off Right

2009-02-19T19:42:00.000-08:00

So I started off my Kevin Costner week ( or weeks ) with For the Love of the Game. Lets just say it was the best one to start off the week right. But I truly believe that no matter which one whether it be Robin Hood, Dances with Wolves, or Message in a Bottle, that I watch it will be fulfilling. I cannot wait to watch the rest of these movies! It think he pulls on my heart strings a little :).

If those of you who have not seen this movie, or any of the others mentioned above, I seriously challenge you all to watch at least one. Just so that you will share the same Kevin Costner Love that the rest of us have!

Movie Week Dedication

2009-02-12T18:03:00.000-08:00

This week I have been sick. Yes, I know, terrible things do happen to good people I am proof. It has given me a lot of time on my hands this week to sit and watch a few movies. I watched three, Sommersby, First Knight and Nights in Rodanthe.

They just so happen they all star Richard Gere, so I decided to dedicate this week of movies to him. I had to find another movie with him in it complete my week. So I went and rented Bee Season. I will watch it tonight but I know already it will be fulfilling.

I think next time I am going to dedicate my movie week to my other favorite actor Kevin Costner :)

Curly Hair

2009-01-29T17:31:00.000-08:00

I now have curly hair. Its a great new change for me. I haven't had a perm sense like 6th grade. (9 years ago) Holly did it this morning, it was a long process with my long hair. It took 4 hours. I quite like it and it makes it easy to do an go fast. I had to purchase a defuser for my blow dryer, but I guess its about time I invested in one anyways. :) Thanks Holly I am so excited to play with it over the next few weeks!

The New Thing...???

2009-01-28T18:29:00.001-08:00

I was googling some craft ideas I could maybe do as some gifts, I came across this website craftbits.com and this just seams odd to me, but I guess recycling EVERYTHING is a really big thing... This purse is made out of a BRA! that is something I would never of thought to do thats for sure......

IFA Latest

2009-01-28T07:59:00.000-08:00

At IFA we have these neat little milk house candles which I believe are very over priced. I suppose lots of other people do too because we have sold a total of like 5 in the past 4 months. We have these ones in little shot glass size that we sorta a free-bee, so we have started burning those to start to get rid of some. We place them on a little edge that happens to be by the paper towels. ( you can see where this is going...) we have joked for the past 2 months that one day when we pull those paper towels off the rack they will catch fire. Well, that just happened on monday. The thing is no one touched the paper towels and me and my boss had a line of customers and I look up and WHAM there is this huge flame. It took me all about 3 seconds to realize that it was the paper towels on FIRE!!! The whole roll in flames. I said a little panicky with my arms out like I was protecting someone from behind me " oh my goodness! The paper towels are on fire!!" That instant my boss bryce who was closer then me said "OH" and rushed to put them out. Once they were out and our store smelled burned I started laughing! I was giggling all day long every time I would see a paper towel or candle I would just start up again. OH and of course I took the opportunity to tell everyone at work what happened. I just couldnt get over our little expressions, the way we acted when we saw the flames. Thankfully, no one was hurt and out store didnt burn down. But you can be certain that we have moved the candles into a better burning spot! :)

Piercing Time

2009-01-15T13:24:00.000-08:00

So for Moms birthday I told her I would take her to get her ears pierced. She was hesitant but said she has been thinking about it. So thats all I needed to hear, I took her the day after her birthday to the mall and next thing she knew she had pierced ears!

( all finished, she got to hold the teddy bear, surprised they didn't offer her a sucker for being so good!)

Then the next day, I wanted to get my tragus pierced ( the little do-dad that sticks out above your ear lob). So a girl and I went from work. I have to admit it hurt a little, but nothing I couldn't handle :) No tears were shed, at least not this time. ha

Thats my ear. A little bloody, apparently I am a bleeder.

All done, we are all happy with the out comes! ha

The New YEar

2009-01-07T19:57:00.001-08:00

New years eve in STG is overrated. Indeed I had a good time with what I had to work with (lame 1st night, h.s. weed parties). I met up with some friends at 1st night on main street. Not only was there not a main stage, there was no countdown clock. There wernt many booths or many things to participate in besides DDR but only two can play and there were hundreds in line. We made the rounds up and down from Tabernacle to 100 South. Then ended up residing at a barrel fire. Then after the three or four countdowns to new years we headed out. Went to a friends house and there wasnt much to do, so I was home and in bed by 1:00 am. Next year I am so in Vegas or ever SLC. I sure had fun playing games with family before I left to go into town. Even if it ended up in disagreement! I need to go and buy the new Phase 10 Twist! So far the new year has been a good one. No complaints yet from this girl. Still trying to think of any new years resolutions that I could keep, and should be keeping!

( Group of friends with Liberty Tax)

( Bundy and I just hanging by the fire)

Snow day #3

2008-12-21T14:12:00.000-08:00

I just cant believe the storm that we had! It was so much fun, even working everyday that there was snow on the ground. I bundled up to do chores in the morning and had fun taking photos of the farm with snow! I think its just pretty the way things look undisturbed and peaceful. I never really got to go out and build a real snow man or have a real snowball fight but we made up for it with the snow in the backs of peoples trucks.

( Kara, me, Jill, throwing snowballs at whoever come into range!)

( Me at the loading chute at the farm)

( Dad's Tractor, this shot could be in a calendar or something!)

( Me at the farm early just tromping through the snow!)

*samantha dawn*

Old 2011 to the New 2012

Oh its Christmas time, Christmas time....

Here we GO!!!!

Snow can only mean one thing:

Life story:

My 1st and Last......

Redneck has New Meaning...

Goodbye October

October in Cedar City

Kansas Comes to Utah!!!

Kats Mission Call!!!!

ELDER JOHN K. CARMACK

College Rodeo!!

Kitty Kats Birthday!!!!

-Little Mermaid-

ROdEos!!

Latest Happenings

Gum Grafting

Mountain Times

- 4th of JULY weekend-

The *JUNE* bug

May Happenings :)

Lots of Firsts:

Because of my Roommate

1st Week Complete

New Chapter

Christmas Peace

National Finals Rodeo

Thanks and Giving

Cattle Drive

Captain Sir!

Shingles!!!

Two Post in one day?!?

wishin..and hopin..and thinking..and prayin

Photos of Scotland

Saturday

Friday

Thursday*

Wednesday

*TUESDAY*

Monday!

Sunday.

Saturday 21st!

First Days...

4th & 24th

The Latest

SkyDiveLasVegas

PRK/Eye surgery

The Procedure:

Postoperative Treatment:

Friendless :(

Concert Junkie

Kelly Pickler

DUE WEST

Happy Post?

Four letter words

Retail Rage

Working in the Office

Lords Team

Christmas Moments

Flames..

MORE NFR

National Finals Rodeo

Vanna White

Loves. Hates.

Wicked

New Friend

The Accident

hOEdowN thROWdoWN

DavidALLaNCoE

Bad Blogger

Fair

Yellowstone

Hair Cut

24th of July

Due West/Lady Antebellum

NEw Car

Hair Cut

Slight Disappointment

samantha dawn

The JUNE bug

TUESDAY