Back on the River

Christmas In July

This past week we had Christmas in July for the staff which was a lot of fun. One night we split into eight groups to make gramcracker creations. Every group had to make something at Aspen Grove. My group decided to make Stewart Falls and it turn out really well. We took second place and won free icecream from the store!

July 4th

STADIUM OF FIRE

For the 4th of July I went to Stadium of Fire with Kaela, Sara, and Scott. Kaela lives in Provo so we went to her house and had a bar-b-q and then walked to the stadium. Brooks and Dunn performed and the fireworks were awesome!

Hike to Stewart Falls

This week has been a lot of fun. We started playing wally ball and it is my new favorite thing to do around here. In the afternoon it is fun to get a group of the dining hall staff together to play. This week we played racquetball, wally ball, basketball in the pool, and did the ropes course. This weekend we had a staff party in Provo and went ice blocking and played ultimate frisbee which was very fun. Then on Saturday morning I went with some girls that work up here down to the Provo temple and then came back and went on my first hike since I have been here which I will admit is a little embarrassing. I hiked with Scott to Stewart Falls so here are a few pictures of us together. (sorry it took so long)

Friends get together!

A couple of weeks ago I went down to Provo and spent some time with Amy and Eliza who I will be living with in the Fall. We went to the planetarium and had fun walking around campus and eating watermelon. Then they came up to Aspen Grove last Tuesday and we went to Frontier Night, played mini golf and shuffle board, and got ice cream from the store. It was very fun to spend some time with them and I am very excited to live with them next semester!

Time on the River

It was fun to go home for the weekend and I had a great time being back on the river.

Here are a couple of pictures from Saturday afternoon.

Having fun at ASPEN GROVE

It was so fun to have Mom, Dad, and Joelle come and visit at Aspen Grove. Monday afternoon we played miniature golf and did some of the family activities on the ball field. Dad's favorite was the golf simulator where he was able to practice up for when he goes to play with the boys again. Tuesday afternoon we raced remote control cars and I just happened to win 2 out of the 3 races! That night we went to the Frontier Night that they have every Tuesday. They have a little frontier village where Joelle and I got our faces painted along with activities like archery and ax throwing. Dad was pretty good at getting the axes to stick into the log stumps and Mom was amazing at the archery and hit the bear all three times!

Dad helping me with archery
Scott and I throwing axes

Joelle and I with our faces painted

With my friend Sara

SNOW

Today it has been raining and snowing all day. Things are still going great here at Aspen Grove. I just thought I would update with a few pictures from today.

Our wonderful little cabin.

Me and Kayla (one of my roommates) outside our cabin in the snow.

Pirates of the Caribbean
and my life at ASPEN GROVE

Last Thursday the majority of the staff decided to go to the midnight showing of the third Pirates movie. We all bought our tickets early and then waited in line in the lobby for about an hour and a half. We played UNO and Scum while we waited. I think I had more fun just waiting for the movie.
It was fun to take a little brake and go to Holly's on Sunday. I had a great time playing Catch Phrase with the kids and going for a bike ride through Lewiston with Holly. I was also very glad that I didn't have to miss out on the annual Memorial Day lunch even though I was only there for a few minutes!
Aspen Grove is a lot of fun and I am enjoying my job. We are starting to get into our regular schedule with our first mini camp starting on Wednesday. This week I am working breakfast and dinner so after work this morning I went swimming with the Stompers (3 year olds) because my friend Sara is one of the stomper leaders. After today she wants me to go every time they go swimming. It is quite the job to get 11 three year olds into swimsuits, keep track of them in the pool and then get them dressed again. But the kids are very cute and luckily I don't have to keep track of them everyday. I decided I really like working in the dinning hall!
Tuesday night I went bowling at the WILK with Scott who is in the picture above. I was pretty excited because I bowled a 138 which I think is an all time high for me and because I won by two!
I know I haven't been the greatest blogger but I am going to try to update it more often in all the free time that I have so be sure to check it out!

Three friends back together!

Friday night Rebecca and I went out to Krystal's house. We went motercycling down to a creek by the river and watched the sun set and then we watched The Gaurdian. It was a lot of fun to get together!

Colorado Trip

I know that I have not blogged for a long time so here are some pictures from my Colorado trip. I had a great time experiencing colorado from the mountains to the bike trails to down town Denver!

This is from when we road the light rail down town and walked the length of the 16th street mall.

Garden of the Gods was a place with a bunch of red rock formations that were out in the middle of nowhere. Kristen and I even watched the video in the visiters center with some older couples and realized that we were probably about the only people our age who would go to the video without our parents there to make us. We hiked around the rocks and watched a guy rock climbing. It was pretty neat!

Seven Falls
Kristen and I went to Seven Falls and hiked up the stairs along the falls and then hiked around at the top to a point where you could look out and see the city. It was beautiful!

Easter Egg Hunt
Saturday we dyed Easter eggs and then we hid them for each other. It was pretty exciting but the places to hide them were pretty limited to bushes!

Happy Easter!
Easter is a little more fun at home but it was still nice. I went and had dinner with Brandon and his roommates which believe it or not turned out to be pretty good. They made Chicken Enchiladas and Spanish rice, and I took key lime pie and they had made a banana cream pie.
I didn't want to miss out on an Easter picture so our Relief Society Presidency took a picture in our spring dresses.
The weather is beautiful and school is great. only 2 1/2 weeks left!

General Conference

General Conference was a lot of fun. Brandon and I had the opportunity to go to the Tabernacle Saturday Afternoon and then we met the family on Sunday. We had so much fun! Only 3 weeks until school is out!

Day at the DAIRY

After going to the rodeo we went to tour the dairy. As you can see we had lots of fun. The highlight of their trip was watching a cow calve. Kristen is convinced that she wants to move to Idaho and work on a dairy farm!

HOME FOR THE RODEO

This weekend we went home for the rodeo and had a great time. It was the first rodeo for all of these "city girls" so mom and I had a great time explaining each event to them. Everyone loved it! Their favorite event was the mutton bustin'.

Joelle, Emily, Erin, Heather, Kristen, Eliza

Notice Anything Different?

I don't know if you can tell in this picture but my hair is darker than usual. Saturday I decided to dye my hair. Don't worry it isn't permanent! But it is a fun and everyone seems to like it.

Date night
A couple of weeks ago we went on a group date and the boys made an amazing dinner for us. Dinner took them a little longer than they had planned so we had some fun while we waited.
As for the details...I went with Ryan Williamson (David's roomate) and then the others went with Ben, Spencer, David, Brad, and Jeff. The dinner was at David's grandparent's home in Orem. We had twiced baked potatoes, soup and bread bowls, salad, and a pudding cake. The best thing was that they made it all from scratch (even the crutons) After dinner we all helped wash the dishes dan clean up and then went to the Creamery and bought groceries and delivered them to a family in need. It was a pretty fun night!

Girls Night
Last Friday we had a girls night and Amy, Kristen, and I went and played Racquetball and then we all went to the Creamery for ice cream and watched a movie in my room.

Well with the new semester I have been staying very busy. I am enjoying my classes and learning so much. Just an update on some of the things I have done: The first week back we played games every night thanks to Greg and Gwen. I have gone to basketball and volleyball games and am coaching some boys in the ward in intramural basketball. They had a rough start losing the first game 67-17 but that leaves lots of room for improvement. And I think they had more fans at the game then any other intramural team has. We went apartment searching and have hopefully decided to live in Regency which is just a few blocks from campus (I am living with Emily, Eliza, Kristen, Amy and Amy's sister). On Thursday we went to the musical Okalahoma which was so good! Yesterday I learned how to play raquetball. So it has been a fun month!



Pictures: (Top) Becca, Michelle, Me, and Emily at a women's basketball game where BYU won on a last second half-court shot. VERY EXCITING
(middle) Emily, Emily, Eliza, and Me watching the 2 floors of boys in our ward battle in Ultimate Frizbee in the snow. COLD
(bottom) Melissa, Emily, Becca, Kelsey, Michelle, David, and Me. We made a cake for Kelsey's birthday.

Fun Day on the Ski Hill
Although it was very cold and very windy, we had a great time skiing for my birthday!

*Brandon, Heather, Ben, and Katie

Happy New Year!

After an early celebration at 9 Katie, Eric, and I played games until 12:00 and woke up Brandon and Joelle for a real new year celebration!

Welcome Home Brandon