Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts

8.10.2014

Adventure is out there!


Uncle Danny with his crazy mustache
We love our Provo Rocks T-shirts!
 Since before my birth my family has been going to Lava Hot Springs every year. I haven't been able to go for the last five years (Thanks to DC, school, work, accounting, and soccer--yikes), I was thrilled when I found out I would finally be able to make the trip this year.

Lava is a little town in Idaho with natural hot springs! When we run the river we find hot springs that are so hot we can't go near them within the cold river. It is pretty neat stuff. Every year I get a kick out of the "COLOR TV" sign. I hope they never take it down. Also, they have the coolest pool I've ever been to. Have you seen this hilarious video? Its the same one.
                              



After spending a night in Lava we drove up to Snake river to raft down the rapids. SO FUN! It poured on us the first day I actually enjoyed it. I was able to get my "summer camping" in because we spent the night in tents next to the river. ALSO I GOT MY SMORE---I have been wanting that smore all summer long.

On our last day in Wyoming we went down snake river again and had a blast playing in the rapids.

It is safe to say I am really enjoying summer :)

PS: This is a really, fun cheap trip that I recommend. Lava is less than three hours north of Provo. This is our agenda each year--->
-Meet at the pool in lava, have lunch and play around
-Play volleyball
-eat dinner
-go to the hot pots
-play games and sleep
-run the Lava river in the morning
TRAVEL to Wyoming (about an hour and a half north)
-Run the snake river
-set up camp, sit around fire and eat dinner
-sleep
-run the snake river and spend time playing in the rapids.

7.29.2014

Harvey

Has anyone ever heard of Puppies For Rent?
They let you rent adorable puppies so you can go from sad to happy in just a few minutes
I rented Harvey because I babysat my nieces and nephews on Monday & I wanted to be that cool aunt that does fun stuff with them
I was super afraid the dog would be mean and grumpy, but he was SO friendly
I felt like we had been best friends for years
I highly recommend renting from them
Also, my little sister apparently has rad editing skills. She whipped this video up in like 30 minutes
I wish I would have known about this skill of hers when I searched the entire internet for a wedding videographer last year

7.09.2014

4th of July Weekend

 Both Gil and I have spent a significant amount of time outside of the United States {Him-mission in Sweden. Me-Study abroad in Jerusalem}. And Both of us agree that there is a feeling (emotion, energy? We don't know how to describe it) in America that can't be found anywhere else. I love this country lots and lots.

6.22.2014

Utah Lake

I don't know if I would say Utah Lake is a secret, but I would say there are a lot of people in Utah Valley that don't take advantage of this beautiful lake like they should. Even if you don't have a boat you can still swim in it or rent a canoe and have a picnic with your lover. Some people have this idea in their heads that Utah Lake is dirty and has sewage in it (okay I admit...I thought that as a child too).  I am here to tell you that is false!! The reason it looks a little bit muddy is because the lake is so shallow and the fish eat off the floor which makes the ground a little gushy...nothing to be afraid of. To all of my Utah friends, I recommend you drive down (or bike down!) to Utah Lake this summer and enjoy its beauty.

6.14.2013

Papa

Happy Father's Day weekend to my grandpa, future-father-of-my-children, and Dad

All of these men have been very influential in my life. I am one lucky girl to be loved by them.

2.11.2013

Sister Curtis


6 months ago I never would have thought I would be posting about my little sister serving a misison.
6 months ago she had barely turned 18! She has always told me she had a feeling she would
serve a mission...I just never thought it would be so soon. It's kind of hard to know I will have
to go 18 months without seeing my best friend. The one I do everything with. But hey, at least
now I have an excuse to pull out those stamps and envelopes again, right?

Emily, I am so proud of your decision to serve a mission. Not one day will go by that I 
won't think about you and pray for you while you are gone. I love you so much!

7.05.2012

The Fourth


My parents had to go to the Stadium of Fire so that my dad could give away some tickets to a lucky
 crowd member. Meanwhile...the siblings and I threw together a little BBQ. Complete with food,
 games, and fireworks. We ended the evening with some Celine Dion "God Bless America" and 
conversation on how much we love this country.

I had an amazing experience exploring the world last semester. aaaamazing. But there's 
nothing like spending time in other countries that gets you to appreciate your home country. 
We're the land of the free and the home of the brave. We're baseball, BBQs, country music, fully
 stocked grocery stores, freedom, George Washington, red white and blue and much more.

 I love America :)

USA! USA! USA!

6.19.2011

Prancing about

It's 2 AM and I can't fall asleep. I'm super frustrated with my body because I'll be waking up in four hours to make myself go running. I keep saying out loud to myself, "just GO to sleep!". hm....my lack of tiredness may have something to do with the fact that I took a three hour nap today...Anyways, After tossing, reading letters, turning, reading books, and more tossing and turing I finally pulled out the pooter.

This weekend was great because I got to spend it with my parents! After they stocked me up at Costco (I have declared that place the greatest thing that happened to America) we spent the weekend partying.

We toured this:
and this:
Mt. Vernon--home of George Washington

Then we drove down some pretty streets while I enjoyed the feeling of being in a car. It isn't something I get to experience very often so I rolled down the window and soaked up the summer breeze. We drove until we came across a national park. Luckily for us the park was renting out paddle boats so we paddled our way out on to the potomac river!

It was my mom's birthday so we promised her we'd go to a Nats game. Only too bad for us because when we got to the stadium it was empty and we realized we were six hours late. So we went and saw the Jefferson Memorial. I've always seen it from a distance and was dying to tour it--It's especially pretty at night.

Living in DC has given me such an appreciation for the founding fathers. George Washington was a great man and I don't believe there was any other man who could have done what he did for this country. I am proud to be an American!

5.19.2011

come home!

I love my brother Jacob. There is no one in this world quite like him and it is impossible for someone to fully appreciate that until he or she meets him. An example of his awesomeness is the time he decided to be a hobo for three days because he wanted to know what it'd be like.
like.

Today my family left in our RV to pick him up in Des moines, Iowa. My entire family besides me (and my favorite brother in law, Josh) has left to pick him up. Do you know how long it has been since my ENTIRE family has been together???!! A long time.

So naturally I spent the day wishing I could be with my family. A fellow coworker suggested driving/flying out to meet up with them.

impossible.

Soon enough there were about four of my coworkers helping me find a ticket to Iowa. 2 hours later bada-bing bada-boom. SJ's got tickets to fly out and meet up with her family!! I AM THRILLED!!!! I'll end up missing four days of work, but the staff and interns kept urging me not to worry about it and that they'ed cover for me. I love 'em.

Tomorrow I'll be seeing Jacob, one of my best friends. I miss that kid more than the words in my vocabulary can express.





5.14.2011

My contribution to FHE

Every Sunday my family goes around and says something we learned during the week and/or something good that happened to us. I would like all of my family members to know that if I was home tomorrow I would dominate the discussion. I learned a lot this week and I had many good things happen to me.

What I learned:
  • Never buy six bag of groceries including a gallon of milk when you live farther than a half mile away from home. Your circulation in your fingers will cut off on the walk home.
  • A lot of people think they have the answer to everything
  • I was very lucky in Provo when it comes to proximity of things. It takes an hour for me to get to work every day out here.
  • Remember when people said, "Once you get out of high school age doesn't matter"? That does not apply to the east coast. Every one out here thinks Alisha and I are babies, but I think they are getting used to it.
  • Working nine hours a day is exhausting
  • Living costs a lot of money
  • I don't think I gave my friends who left home to go to college or my friends who are on missions enough credit. Being away from home and working all day is mentally draining.
  • You can find a friend in people you wouldn't have expected it from
  • Being optimistic about a negative situation will make the experience twenty times better and sometimes it helps to just laugh about it.
  • Not having a car makes things VERY hard to get places (especially when everything is far away)
  • The amount of energy I put into this experience will either make me love being an intern on the hill or hate it. Let's shoot for "love it".
  • If someone bugs you it isn't 100% their fault. Sometimes it is your fault.
  • I learned A TON OF new facts about the capitol, but if you want to hear it you will have to come out to DC so I can give you a tour of the capitol :)
  • How a Senator of the United State's staff operates.
  • Humidity is a deathly deathly thing. There is no purpose in trying to make my hair look good. However, today I went on a run and between the mix of humidity and rain it felt like I was running through mist. Pretty awesome feeling.
  • How a metro system operates. I dominate the underground.
  • Enya makes the world a better place

Good things that happened to me:

I already wrote about meeting a Supreme Court Justice and the dome tour so here are a few other things

I know for a fact I got the best staff on the senate side of the hill. Every Wednesday we make green jello and allow constituents to come talk to the Senator. It was a hit on the hill and even made front page of the politico!


I had like three of those little jello shots.

On Thursday the staff took three of us interns to get "Seventh Hill". It was authentic italian pizza and in the words of a coworker, "If God were a pizza, he'd be seventh hill pizza".

Every Friday we have cookie Friday where we invite another senator's office to come eat cookies and tour our office. I, being an intern, got the privilege of making the cookies. It was awesome except every time I took a batch out of the oven I had to eat one to make sure they tasted okay. darn.

We also went out as an office and saw a Nats game. My first major league baseball game!!! The field was green, the lights were bright and the hot dogs were tasty. The staff from the office is pretty young, and if they aren't young in age they have the great ability of acting young. The highlight of the night was when we all got on the HUGE jumbo-tron.

Between the interns and the staff we have a bunch of great personalities mixing together. It was a party. After the game we went to china town and treated ourselves to some frozen yogurt. The place we went to was no yogurtland, but it will suffice.

After two weeks of waiting and trying to be patient I got a letter! scratch that. TWO letters came from a boy SJ thinks very highly of :) It made her very happy.

5.08.2011

11.17.2010

I miss you brother

Every Monday we get an email from my brother Jacob who is serving a mission in Des Moines, Iowa. Last Monday it was a particularly funny letter and Jacob's personality was all over the place. It made me realize how much I miss my brother. I haven't let myself miss him up to this point because I know the mission is the perfect thing for him. However, I'm super excited for him to come home this May :) :) :)

10.12.2010

Things I love about Kirsten


She is so pretty
she births the greatest kids
She can design something out of nothing and make it look really really good
she visits us every week
she married a great guy
she has the best sense of humor
she has but up with five younger (sometimes very annoying) younger siblings
she is a great example for all of us
she is so smart
she knows what is going on in the world (educated)
She gives me good advice
she is always fun to talk to
she tells the best stories
she was the guinea pig for the parents
She is very creative
She tells the funniest jokes
She has forgiven me for chopping off her hamster's tail
she has a good laugh
This list could go on forever
I just love her!

8.09.2010

summer nights?



It started out like any sleep over would. Fun, laughter, sleeping bags, etc... But then everything went wrong....everything went terribly wrong.

Yesterday I asked my sisters if they would join me for a sleepover on the trampoline. We went out at eleven and had a great time looking at the stars and talking until midnight. At that time the conversation died down and everyone began to fall asleep. scratch that. Nicole and Emily fell asleep. I was left tossing and turning (aka squished/cold/awkward position as the tramp sucked me towards the center) until 2AM!!! At that point I couldn't take it anymore. I silently bid farewell to the sleepers and walked inside to be welcomed my warm bed.
Then, at 4AM Nicole came in to my room and told me it had begun to rain on her and Emily.

At this point my great idea to sleep the trampoline = MAJOR FAILURE :(

Next time I'm putting up a tent.

p.s. Sorry I keep changing the blog. Once I find something I like it will stop, I promise. Just bare with me until then

7.05.2010

Many Many checks


#28: Be in a parade- Since my dad is now the mayor he gets to ride in the parade. He asked his kids if any of us wanted to be in the parade and I, of course, jumped at the opportunity!

Stadium of Fire
Carrie Underwood is AMAZING
I want to be her when I grow up

the cousins watching the Brighton Parade

#105 go to the grocery store in footsies
The best part was that nobody questioned our motives

# 58 Go to Temple Square

# 12 Go boating with friends...again (hopefully this one happens again and again and again)