July...

So here it is... the last day of the month. It seems it's a new trend for me to post something the last minute. Like it's visiting teaching or something and I've procrastinated it until the end. It's really not that I'm too busy to put anything up - more like there is nothing TO put up. We have been working on our house but haven't finished anything that is picture worthy. The Holidays were fun but not too exciting. But can I just say that the Leeds Pioneer Parade has really gone downhill. There were plenty of kids but there were maybe 10-15 spectators. No candy. No animals. The fire truck didn't even make a sound.

Here's to August being more intriguing.

Adversity...

I do not believe that sheer suffering teaches. If suffering alone taught, all the world would be wise, since everyone suffers. To suffering must be added mourning, understanding, patience, love, openness and the willingness to remain vulnerable.

-Anne Morrow Lindbergh

A quote I used in my talk yesterday.

Everything To Me...

This is Whitney (from "The City" and "The Hills") ex-boyfriends band. Not that I would know that. I just like the song K.

Tamarama - New Music - More Music Videos

Sorry about the commercials. Youtube wouldn't let me embed. lame.

Star Trek...

So on Friday night we wanted to have a movie night with our friends the Bills, so I suggested we go see Star Trek up at the IMAX theater in Zions.

Now I've never EVER been a Star Trek fan (quite the opposite) but the new one looked good.

Hello Captain Kirk.

We took my friends new(to her) car and took off on the hourish drive up to Zions. We got about 10 minutes away from the theater and all the sudden all her dash warning lights go crazy and then nothing. It died. We waited for this crazy drunk prius driving hippie to come help us with the battery but that wasn't the problem. So Crystal and I took a nature hike while we waited an hour for her dad to come tow us. Turns out it was some fairly easily solved electrical problem.
And can you believe we tried it again the next night. Only this time with success. It's a good movie.

Zumba...

Last night me and my sis in law Jen went to the Washington Rec Center for a Zumba class. We aren't that talented in the rhythm department but it was much fun. The class was about an hour and it didn't even seem like it. When I was younger I was in a Dance group and I was in such great shape! I miss it! It's a great work out and we'll prob go back next week.

Our 1 Year Anniversary Trip...

We have been married for 1 year and we are both still alive! Yay! So it was a pretty tough year I'm not gonna lie. Marriage is definitely something you work at. Well for most people.

So to celebrate this momentous occasion we decided to head down to southern California. My Uncle and Aunt live there and they were nice enough to let us stay at their house. It's only about a 5 hour drive - just a little bit longer than going to Salt Lake and it is soooo much fun. Not that Salt Lake Isn't - It's just I would like to go to California more.

On Friday my Uncle called his neighbor who works at Disneyland and he got us free 1 Day Park Hopper tickets with Fast Passes! SCORE! His name is Joe and he has one of the best jobs there! He is in a little band and they perform about every hour for 30 min. They go all over the park and dress up as different things. But he doesn't have to take pictures with a bunch of kids or clean up or stand there running the rides. He's worked there for over 30 years!

Friday

Joe in his Fireman Outfit

They had a lot of celebration things going on. I think it's their theme this year or something. You can get in for free on your birthday!

A newish ride. Yeah it was that exciting.

Tower of Terror. Yeah it was that exciting!

This was on Tom Sawyers Island. It reminds me of Pirates 2. I have never been on this Island before and it was one of my favorite places!

Again on the Island. They have all these cool caves - there are a ton of them!

Awe

We were waiting for our fast pass time for Indiana Jones so we decided to kill some time with this awesome ride! But it turned out that they were having technical difficulty with the ride so we never went on it. It's my favorite one too. Bummer. We also tried to get into the Blue Bayou restaurant (the one on the Pirates ride) but they were full. :(

Saturday

Uncle Judd, Aunt Cindy, Me and Dallin on the ferry at Balboa Island. Those Balboa Bars are delicious!

On a pier at Newport. We ate at the end of it on the top of the restaurant. It was so much fun!

Sunday

This is a really old Stake Center - it was built in the 20's or something but my cousin Christina goes to church there so we went with her. It is so beautiful inside. It has stained glass windows and huge vaulted ceilings and it's 2 stories with a basement.

The Greystone Mansion
This place was absolutely amazing! It's in Beverly hills and my cousin Christina found it one day by typing "park" into her GPS. Haha. There was a wedding being set up so we didn't get to go everywhere. But the grounds are just beautiful. Supposedly there was a Murder Mystery there.

There are a ton of movies filmed there including X-Men, The Holiday, Spiderman, Air force One, The Prestige and National Treasure just to name a few.

This fish needs a chiropractor.

This is at the J Paul Getty Museum
He was some billionaire (from oil) that collected a bunch of stuff and he wanted people to be able to see it for free so he made some museums that run themselves somehow. But everything was just gorgeous. The architecture, the gardens, the stone on the side of the buildings, the sculptures, the paintings and they had some cool photography.

Jo Ann Callis

The Garden

Monday
My Uncle has a horse that he keeps about 5 miles away from his house. I'm just used to growing up in the country with horses so it's weird to see them in cities. But I guess his community is an old horse town and there are over 100 miles of trails so there yah go.

Uncle Judd - The Citified Cowboy

This beautiful Lab is in "School" and for her "homework" she had to get used to being around other animals. They did pretty well. Buena was busy eating so she really couldn't care less about the dog but it was cute.

Buena meet Ellie, Ellie meet Buena

Then it was back to reality. So sad. I love vacations!

Grand Canyon Trip...

So I'm really slow at putting pictures up. I know people who have their pics up on facebook that same day. Haha I'm sorry but that's just not me. We went camping last weekend over by the Grand Canyon taking the Arizona Strip route. We also went over to the Grand Gulch Mine. We all had soooo much fun and had a lot of good food.

The Crew: Sean, Robbie, Shanna, Ashlye, Quinn, Kelli, Taylor, Me, Dallin, Jenny & Mike

Grand Gulch Mine was an old mining town abandoned due to the Hantavirus. Pretty scary stuff but we were careful not to stir up any poop.

The "GRAND" Mine - at one time it was about 1,300 feet

The baby mine - I think it was like 50 ft or something. Mike pretty much climbed in & out with sheer arm muscle because that ladder was worthless.

More shafts at the bottom of the baby mine

Wildlife

The first night, those of us who did not sleep heard some coyotes kill a rabbit. It was disturbing.

OK so the horses weren't really "wild". They wanted to eat Quinns Truck

The Cows weren't really wild either. We had to chase them away.

Last Stop - The Grand Canyon

Simply Beautiful! (the scenery too)