Panama, Here We Come!

Completely unplanned but couldn't have come at a more perfect time.....Mike and I are headed to Panama on August 6th! They are dedicating the Panama City, Panama temple on August 10th and so Mike and I are going to go down there for that and to do a little vacationing! (For all who don't know, that is where Mike went on his mission!) I am so excited for it! Amazingly enough, we were both able to fit it right into our schedules, plus its right after Summer semester ends and before Fall semester starts! We are hoping to spend a couple of days on the amazing islands just North of Panama and then head to Panama City and do some touring! I will for sure be posting some pictures when we get back though! I plan on taking somewhere close to a million of them!

Birthday Fun and Fourth of July!

So my birthday was last week, and I decided that on my birthday I wanted to go to Lagoon. I don't know why I wanted to go, because I always get motion sickness, but it just sounded like fun. So Mike and I, and my sister and her husband, grabbed the Dramamine and went up to Lagoon. We spent the first few hours swimming at Lagoon-A-Beach, which was really pretty fun. It was nice and hot outside so the water felt great. Then we changed clothes and hit the park. I was very aware of the fact that I might get sick, so I tried to only go on the rides that I thought my stomach could handle. I knew that the water rides would be easy for me, but of course, Rattlesnake Rapids was closed for an hour or so, so we had to go on the Log Flume. Which is all fine and great except for everyone else that was going to go on Rattlesnake Rapids, decided to kill time by going on the Log Flume. We waited in line for ever. A little kid that was standing on the railing thing slipped and kicked me in the back while we were waiting in line. That was pretty funny. Any way, we did end up going on Rattlesnake Rapids, which soaked us! And it felt good. We went on a couple more rides, watched the always amazing Broadway Show, and then went on the White Rollercoaster. And that is the ride that did me in. I was pretty sick after that ride I didn't even want to walk. Stupid Dramamine. FYI: It doesn't work. So then we just sorta walked, and sat, and walked, and then we played some games. Luckily when I got sick it was already like 9:00 at night, so me getting sick didn't ruin the whole day which was lucky. The games were fun though. Mike won me a great big, white stuffed dog! So fun. But I was happy to leave when we did. In the end, it just didn't feel like a birthday. Because I can go to Lagoon any day. We had fun though.

Then on the Fourth of July, we woke up early and my other sister and brother in law came and picked us up to go boating. Mike and I were exhausted but we were excited to go. We went down to Utah Lake. Everyone says they hate it because its dirty but I like it because its warm. And the water really was very warm when we got there. Mike was the first in the water, doing some wakeboarding. Its the first time he had done it in years but he really did great. After some wakeboarding fun, which of course, I don't know how and will never know how to do, we pulled out the tube. The tube they have is great because its just got nice little seats with back rests so it was more relaxing than challenging to be on. Plus, all you have to do is go with one of their daughters and they make the ride really smooth. So Mike and I got on the tube with my niece and just had a nice little ride. She is probably better at holding herself on that tube than I am, of course, she was in the middle so that makes it easier. We were on the lake until about noon and then we went home. By this time I was exhausted. I didn't even want to shower I was so tired. Mike went and got us lunch and I showered and then we ate and I took a nice long nap. We really had no plans for that night, but not for long because Mike's parents called us and asked if we wanted to do something that night. So Mike and I, and his parents and his brother and his girlfriend, went over to Sandy to watch the parade. That was pretty entertaining. Sandy's parade usually is. But you can tell in the picture to the left that we were absolutely exhaused. Afterwards, they took us to dinner at Johnny Carino's, where I ate way too much, and then I got free cake because they told the waitress it was my birthday, even though it wasn't. The cake was great though. Then Mike and I went home, dropped off some leftovers and went and watched some fireworks. I was so tired I fell asleep during them and Mike had to wake me up for the finale. Which was great, but I just was excited to go home and go to bed. We had a busy couple of days but they completely wore me out!

Update!

It took me a long time to update but I said I would so here it is. At the beginning of June, my Grandparents celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. So my family threw them a big party. We had a lot of fun. We took family pictures, ate tons of yummy food, played a couple games and ended the night watching my Grandma and Grandpa cut a two tier cake that we ordered for them and watching them feed it to each other, just like you would when you get married. It was cute!

The second week of June, Mike being a Priest leader, and me being a Miamaid leader, had the opportunity to go up to Youth Conference for a day. We weren't able to go for the entire time because of our crazy schedules so of course we picked the day that they were going boating. We drove up to Deer Creek early that morning so that we could spend as much time up there as possible. It was pretty windy until about 2:00 in the afternoon, not too mention the water was absolutely freezing so the youth had a hard time even wanting to ride on the boats. I didn't really want to either. I was so cold and very content on the beach but I felt bad that no one wanted to get on the boats so Mike and I got on one of the boats. We just did a little tubing but total, I only spent just a few minutes in the water because of how cold it was. The rest of the trip I spent on the beach getting sunburned. We did try to do a little fishing but we didn't have much success. We had a good time though and love having callings with the youth in our ward!

The weekend after Youth Conference, Mike started his LSAT prep class. He is gone all the time now! Even when he is home he is so busy catching up on homework. I get kinda lonely at home so I have been trying to keep myself occupied with my own homework, or running, or going over to my parents house and hanging out there. At least there are people there. Mike is really enjoying the class though and seems to be learning a lot. The test isn't until October but we're going for the top!


Country Fest was last weekend. Mike has his LSAT class that Saturday morning so I went to the parade with some of my family. It was pretty hot outside but we had a good time. Any reason to be outside is a good reason.

Also, that night, they of course had their free concert and Mike and I never miss out on an opportunity to do something free, so we called up some friends and met them to see Darryl Worley in concert. It was good concert. Mike and I enjoyed ourselves. Plus whats better than hanging out with friends, laying on the grass, listening to some good country music?

This weekend, Mike and I went to Murray Park and had a picnic and did one of my favorite things....feed the ducks. I really don't know why I love it so much but I get a kick out of watching ducks fight for bread. The stupid seagulls wouldn't leave us alone though. We made a point of only letting the ducks eat the bread and not giving any to the seagulls. They were mean.

This weekend we also did another one of my favorite things...went to a Demolition Derby! I don't know what it is but watching cars crash into each other is so exhilarating. Mike's brother and his girlfriend went with us. I don't know how much they enjoyed it but Mike and I had a good time. There weren't any good fires or anything but we saw quite a few good hits and some cement barriers tips, so it was all worth it.

Behind!

I promise I am going to update this week!!!

Take me out to the ball game...

Over the weekend, Mike and I went to a Bees game with some friends of ours and it was so fun! We sat out on the grass because it was really nice weather. And they actually won! I was impressed. It was a pretty good game. There were a couple of homeruns that the bees should be proud of. Plus every time there was a homerun the crowd got something. Like the first homerun we got Sconecutter. All we had to do was take our ticket to Sconecutter and we could get a free scone. The second homerun we got Del Taco. So all we had to do was take our ticket to Del Taco and we could get a free burrito. So after the game we all went to Sconecutter and got ourselves some scones. And then on Saturday night Mike and I went to Del Taco and got ourselves some free burritos. That $7 ticket to get into the game was a good investment considering all the free food we ended up getting! We had a good time though. Its good to have good friends!

Happy Anniversary!

Mike and I celebrated our one year anniversary this weekend by taking off to Las Vegas! We needed a break between semesters anyway and I wanted some warm weather. We drove down on Saturday morning and couldn't check into our hotel until 4:00 so we just walked around the strip and went and picked up our tickets for Phantom at The Venetian. We ate at The Cheesecake Factory, which in my opinion, wasn't good, but we didn't get cheesecake so that could have changed my opinion. We did some more walking, because that is what you do in Vegas, and then we went and rested our feet in our hotel room and then got ready for the show. Phantom was absolutely amazing. The theatre was absolutely beautiful and exactly how you would imagine it should be. All of the actors were awesome and had great voices. The next day started out at a Brunch buffet. Can't go to Vegas without hitting at least one buffet. It was pretty good. Then we layed out at the pool for a few hours. It was so hot. I need to learn to put on sunscreen. I got pretty burned. Then we did some more walking, took some pictures and went and rested our feet again. I took a pretty nice long nap, while Mike watched some TV. Then we went and got milk shakes and watched the Bellagio water show. We were both pretty wiped out, even me with my two and a half hour nap, so we went back to the hotel and went to bed. The next morning just the normal pack up, check out, drive home routine. We did stop at Jack in the Box in St George and had lunch. Its tradition. Whenever its available on a road trip, we eat there. We like it.

BamBam

Last night Mike and I were on our way out to dinner to celebrate my new job. We were innocently stopped at a light for about 30 seconds and then, bam, we were rear ended. She had to have been going 30 mph because she hit us pretty hard. It was pretty painful. Apparently she was distracted with the two cars and cop parked on the side of the road, so she turned to look at them and then she ran into the back of us. It kind of ruined our night because we both had pretty bad headaches afterwards but we try to look on the positive side. We already kind of had a scuff on our bumper from a hit and run in the Smiths parking lot. Ironically enough, while we were on our way to dinner, I had said to Mike, "I would just like to get rear ended because then we could get that scuff repaired and somebody elses insurance can pay for it." Well I guess my wish came true because about 15 minutes later, we were rear ended. The hard part about it is now putting it in the shop. It will take probably a week to fix which means we are going to be out a car. Plus we have to get it fixed quick so that we can drive it to Vegas in two weeks. It probably wasn't the best timing, but I guess it'll be nice to have the bumper completely repaired.

Time for a Change...

So today I got a new job. I am going to be doing Accounts Payable.....which is good since my major is Accounting. Plus the pay is more and I will be getting benefits. So I guess this is a good change. No, I know that this is a good change. But its just so hard. I really REALLY love my job right now. I have been at SLCC for 3 years and nothing beats it. It is so laid back and I LOVE the people that I work with and its been really good with school and my busy schedule. But I guess its just time for a change. Time to move on. I have to give my two weeks notice today and I am just nervous. Not that its a scary situation necessarily, I have an awesome supervisor but just because I am sad to leave and that will make it all real. But this is a good opportunity and I really shouldn't pass it up so I guess two more weeks and then I have to move on.

Sleepover!

Last Friday, Mike and I had his niece and nephew sleepover at our apartment. What adventure that was! They are some wild kids, but I blame Mike for getting them all hyper. They came over and we went and got some pizza and had a picnic on our family room floor. Then the kids spent about an hour running from room to room to see who could do it faster. Wow, so easily entertained. Then we played hide and seek.....for about another hour. Once again easily entertained. But I did find some fun nooks in my apartment that I would have never thought to hide before...beware Mike! Mike's niece and I decided to make some chocolate chip cookies, which I have to say were probably some of my best, and then we took some over to Mike's parents. When we got home, the kids still were pretty hyper so Mike became a human swing and spinned them around for a good while. Poor guy. We did end up finally getting them to wind down and watch Peter Pan. The two kids slept on our couches and Mike took the floor and I went into the bedroom, closed the door and got the bed all to myself! Oh so nice. The next morning it was cereal and baths and then out to the park to fly a kite because it was so windy! Then we went and met Mike's family at Wendy's for lunch and handed over the kids. Love them to death but wow, they just wiped me out. I realized how much I take my freedom for granted. We had a ton of fun though!

Run Mike Run

So over this past weekend, Mike met another goal and ran a half-marathon! We went down to Provo early on Saturday morning with what seemed like a million other people so Mike could run. Mike had been training for it for a couple of months and he did great! I started out training with him but once we hit our 7 mile run, I was out. Too early in the morning, too cold outside and too much of a wimp to actually do it. I am way proud of Mike though for saying he was gonna do it and then actually getting up the courage to do it! Running is hard. Anyway, he finished the race in 1 hour and 58 minutes and he said he won't be doing it again any time soon! Gotta try everything once!