My mother is the librarian at the elementary school I used to attend. She does a few book fairs each year, and just LOVES to get dirty, grimy, sweaty dollars from these kids. She kept 2 of the bills she got because they were defiled, and entertaining!
The top one is George Washington with some googly eyes. The bottom one is a sticker of Santa Clause put over where Washington should be.
Last year for my birthday Melissa, Jake and Cecilie gave me gift certificates to buy a longboard. It took me until a month ago to put them to use! Don’t worry, I’m too beginner and scared to break anything.
The weekend after the 4th, my friend Chris took me and my roommate Jana camping to play on his 4 wheelers. It was soooooo fun! All Jana and I had to plan was the food, which was only dinner and breakfast. Chris treats us so well, and it was fun to be around them. He had 2 4 wheelers, so we got in some good riding time.
We needed a fire to cook the food and to keep us warm, and we still aren’t sure whose job it was to bring the matches. BUT! We DO bring gas to keep the 4 wheelers going, so why not start a fire with gas and a lighter, which is precisely what Chris did!
He also likes to spin donuts in the dirt, which makes a huge dust cloud.
So suave
Jana and I got bored and decided to take pictures. Thank you timer ability on my camera!
She drove a lot of the time, so I got a lot of dust in my face. It was still sooo fun!
I tried to get a good one of Jana catching some air, this is the best I got
We were so glad to finally shower and be clean!
I always have good intentions to write what I’ve been up to, but every time I think about it I am by a computer that doesn’t have a single picture! Let’s be honest, posts with pictures are always better 
So I guess the 4th of July is where I should start.
I started off the 4th weekend with a little celebration in Provo. They go ALLLLLL out! My old roommate asked me if I wanted to go with her to the hot air balloon show, which surpassed all my expectations! I guess they have a whole bunch of hot air balloons that we can watch launch. Once they have launched, they have a little contest to see which one can drop a bean bag closest to the field we were in. I didn’t realize that they (obviously) don’t have steering wheels, and can therefore only control whether they go up and down. They are dependent on the wind currents to get them going in the right direction. Here are some amazing pictures
I was sooo excited to go home for the first time since Christmas! Unfortunately our whole family wasn’t together, we missed Cecilie dearly. But, she was having her own adventures at EFY (not attending as you might think, but being a health counselor). Eric and Jen and their family made it out to CA as well as Melissa and Jake. It was so wonderful to remember how wonderful family is!!
The fun started on Friday with the Fremont 4th of July parade. I don’t remember ever having gone to one of these, but I think I’ll go again! I think that between the whole family we got some 20 bottles of water from the local Sikh community! Here are some of my favorites from the parade
Fireworks Dale Hardware style
who knows what they’re really doing? guys driving around in tubs…
my Scottish roots
The high school band that would never play for us, even at football games. Guess you have to go to parades to see them!
The wonderful people who gave us water
The Raiderettes?
And, my cute family!
So the fun didn’t end there! Next we went to the Alameda County Fair! We saw a pig race, cows, pigs that got lose, cows, fire trucks, good food, and a merry-go-round. Parker and Caleb may have been most excited about seeing the fire truck, but they were literally speechless when the fire man gave them the royal tour of the truck. Sounds like they have had this tour many times! Melissa and Jake have this amazing camera and took so many good pictures, so I’ll try to just get some favorites…
Eric and Jen’s youngest, Maren. Such blue eyes!
Caleb the fireman
Melissa and Maren, she is such a cute content baby!
The boys wanted to ride some of the million rides, but the merry-go-round was the only one they were “big enough” to ride! They technically weren’t even big enough for that one, but they guy was nice! After the fair we went to a fireworks show in San Ramon, which was soooooo crowded! The closest parking was 2 miles away so we double parked and watched the quick show. It’s amazing how few shows there are in the Bay Area and how crowded they are!
Then we had a little bonfire in our back yard to have s’mores. Parker and Caleb liked to put their marshmallows on a stick, wave it over the fire and eat them (they pretty much just wanted the marshmallows). When I tried to give them some chocolate they declined, I’m not sure we’re in the same family 
For Christmas Eric gave me a creme brulee set, and this was the first time I had the chance to make some for them. It took 2 days to make, but it definitely paid off! I made 2 kinds, lemon vanilla creme and dark chocolate. It was soooo good! The pictures don’t quite do the flavor justice.
So, that was a long post, but it was a great weekend!
I don’t claim to be a motivational speaker, but a co-worker gave me this quote the other day, and then the same day a girl shared this for a though at FHE! I was really impressed, so here it is:
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated form our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
-Marianne Williamson
Alyssa is my roommate whose parents have this huge amazing house in Alpine with a view! She has had parties there before, and she recently turned 21 and had a bash to remember! First we ate a ton of pizza and then hopped into the heated pool conveniently equipped with a volleball net. Of course we played volleyball on a full stomach! Then some people played tennis in their tennis court while others played Elimination on the basketball court. Then we jumped on their huge tramploine and the sprinklers turned on… time to go inside to play the Wii! But since the Wii only lets a few people play, it was suggested that we play murder in the dark dress up style.
Let me first fill you in about the last time we played murder in the dark at Alyssa’s house. I am deathly scared of the dark, and so is Lynzy. Lynzy and I were glued to each other’s sides SCREAMING at every person that walked by, even if they weren’t the murderer. The rest of the group thought it was the funniest thing. No wonder they were so anxious to play this game again…
Continuing the story, we all dressed up to get ready to play this ridiculous game! And, it’s impossible to start putting on silly clothes without wanting to dance! Naturally, we had a dance party!! Here’s some of the craziness that went on in the dance party:
I’ve hiked Stuart Falls 2 times so far this summer! It is a beautiful hike on the back side of Mt. Timponogous. The girl with the longest legs always leads our group and sets quite the grueling pace! It’s kinda fun to get there that fast, but it sure makes singing ridiculous songs while you hike much harder. Nonetheless, I sing my way all the way to the falls! So far their favorite song comes from camp and is a little number that goes like this (please sing along as you read because you KNOW this song):
Oh I wish I were a little bar of soap (bar of soap)
Oh I wish I were a little bar of soap (bar of soap)
I’d go slippery and a slidey over everybody’s hiney
Oh I wish I were a little bar of soap (bar of soap)!
Maybe all the pictures are overwhelming, but it’s my blog so I’ll document how I like
The first is a picture of the girls that went under the fall and got absolutely soaked! It was pretty cold on the shady side of the mountain but it was so nice! If pictures could hear, then you would hear a lot of squealing from the girls!
The next is the group of us following the leader with the longest legs!
Then Christina went into the pretty field of blue flowers only to find out that they have the same effect as poison ivy…
Then Mark and Joseph posed for us close to the falls.
Then a picture of Christina
Then a picture of ME!
Then me and Christina. xoxo
And last is the proof that we actually went in the fall, how better to experience the fall?!
Jana is my roommate and we share a laundry card. One night we decided to do laundry together, what a fun night! I did not bother to notice how much she really did need to do laundry until I noticed she was struggling to get it out the door! This merited a picture for sure! I’m pleased to let you meet her little laundry load that we named Molly the Monster:
I’m serious that she had THIS much laundry! I had no idea she wore so many clothes, or that she OWNED so many clothes!
This is just for comparison, my load is a little smaller (I know, it’s just a LITTLE smaller)
And here’s the monster of a load finally finished! WOW Jana! What a feat!
This post is written with a lot of love for Jana. Had she not loved the teasing she would not have let me take pictures!
So I finally had Jake help me figure out how to upload picutres to this blog… again!!! Genius! Now that I’ve got that part figured out I have a lot to catch up on, so just don’t you lose interest yet!
Let’s start at the very beginning… or at least where I can remember that I left off! My friend Emiline (I think her given name is Emily though…) and I hiked up to the Timponogous Cave a few weeks ago and it was really fun! The hail and rain didn’t stop us from getting to the top (without a ticked to walk THROUGH the cave)!
I convinced her to take a touristy picture, everyone needs a few of those! I also took a picture of this NASTY outhouse that looked like it might fall off the cliff at any time. Emiline said she wanted to move in, but I just couldn’t let her because I’m SUCH a good friend
