Bridal Shower (Not Mine)

The case of the missing camera has been solved, and none to soon. I will be needing it this weekend. For now, I will re-trace the event I missed. From earlier posts you can tell that July has been a crazy-busy month. By the end of the month, I will have been in Pocatello every weekend but one. (For those keeping track, the one weekend that I have not blogged about is the 16-18th.) With that being said, here is the reason why I was in town that weekend.
My dear friend Amie is getting married and on the 17th we had a Bridal Shower for her. I am not a huge fan of bridal showers, but I still go to support my friends. I actually helped plan this one, which was nice. That meant there was no games of dressing people up in toilet paper and making words out of the happy couples' names. Another disclaimer, I did not take many pictures because another friend was taking care of that. The pictures I did get were not all that fabulous, but we had fun.

"The bride with her niece"
There were two games. For the first game consisted of 14 pictures of her at different ages and we had to figure out how old she was in each picture. It was a lot harder than it sounds.


The second one came from the game Imaginiff. We had to match our answers with her's. It was really fun and something that I had not done at a shower before.


After the games, we had treats! We had "personal pan" fruit pizzas. That is right, we made sugar cookies and then people could top them how they wanted. It was pretty fabulous!!!

My Mini-Vacation

This is going to be a little out of order, because my camera is MIA right now, and it has some pictures that I want to post with the blog post that would have come next. However, once I get the camera, I will post about the pictures and fun!!!
This past weekend, I was able to take two days off work so I could enjoy a mini-vacation. This month has been full of trips to Pocatello for one reason or another. For this reason, I called this past weekend my mini-vacation because it will probably be the most of a vacation I will take this year.
I arrived in Pocatello on Thursday night and got there at the same time as my Aunt and Uncle from Tennessee. It was good to spend some time with them this weekend and get caught up on their lives. We went to dinner that night at Buddy's (which is somewhat of a tradition when they are in town). I was also able to get together with a former roommate that night. It was so much fun.
This weekend was the Pioneer Day Celebration. We were able to watch the parade. Later on that day, we went up to the fairgrounds for the festivities up there. There was tons of food, games for the kids, events in the grandstands, entertainment and more. We spent a couple of hours there talking with people we had not seen in a while and also enjoying some amazingly talented performance. My sister and her family arrived that night and we spent some time with them.
The main reason for this trip was to hear Brady speak in church. I love hearing some of the experiences he had on the mission. His talk showed me how amazing he truly is. His testimony is so strong and is such a great guy! I am so blessed to have him as a brother. After his talk, we had a bunch of family over for dinner. As is normal, there was tons of good food, which made for lots of leftovers!!!
On Monday, I was able to spend some time with a friend who was visiting from Arizona and visited my old job at the day care. It is always fun to spend a little time with the kids. When I got home, there was a Wii Fit marathon going on. All who were home were playing the Wii. This ended taking most of the afternoon and we had tons of fun! Also that night, we had family pictures. I rediscovered that I am a blinker. Oh well, I think she took enough pictures that my eyes had to have been opened in one of them. This is the first time we have had family pictures taken when all of us were there since before the mission for me. We have all grown up and there have been three additions.
I drove back home that night. It was a nice trip and it was wonderful to spend so much time with family and friends. Thanks to everyone who made this trip so much fun!!!

He's Back!!!!

On Tuesday, I worked a half day and headed up to Pocatello. I arrived to Pocatello and there was already a house full. My sister, her husband and three kids were there. I had not seen them in a while and it was so good to see them. Later that afternoon, we all loaded up, in two different cars, and headed out to the airport. We were all anxiously awaiting the return of Elder Parkin.



While waiting for the plane to come in, the nephews kept seeing planes coming and going and asking if every plane was Bubba's. We had to explain that most of the planes were fire planes to go help with a fire. His plane arrived shortly after the 5:51 (which was the scheduled time).



I am not sure why, but my pictures from the airport did not turn out that great. It could have been the excitement, or the case that the nephews were playing with my camera, or that the lighting in the airport was not the greatest. Anyway, this picture was taken at home, later that evening, after he had been released.



It is so nice to have him home. It had brought back memories for me of coming home from the mission. WELCOME HOME BRADY!!!!!

Fourth Fun!!!

First of all, I did bring my camera on some of these adventures. However, I forgot I had it so I did not take any pictures at all.

The Fourth of July is probably one of my favorite holidays ever. There is just something about it that makes me happy. Fireworks make me happy. :D This weekend was fabulous!!! Here is the breakdown.

FRIDAY: Where the 4th was on a Sunday, some cities decided to celebrate on different days. That was great with me! Friday night was the local celebration here. I met up with some friends and walked to the church parking lot to watch the fireworks. They were fabulous and the finale made me smile. It was so much fun and I learned that in China they have names for the different types of fireworks.

SATURDAY: I woke up early and was packed, had my room clean and on the road to Pocatello by 9:00. There was hardly anyone on the road, which was a little unusual where it was a holiday weekend, but it made my drive nice. That afternoon we had a family reunion for my dad's family. There was a lot of food and family there. I made root beer cookie that were a hit. It was nice to see some cousins that I had not seen in a while. That night, I got together with some friends and had a campfire with smores and fireworks (of course)!!! It was so relaxing and fun!!!

SUNDAY: Church was great and after that, I had some time to relax while my parents were in their ward. That afternoon(ish) we went on a picnic with my mom's aunt and cousin that I had never met before. It was good to get to know them and talk about life and hear more about my grandpa's family and the traditional band concert in the park. That evening, Pocatello had its firework display. They were pretty amazing as well. I loved watching them. More importantly though, I gained a stronger testimony that this is a chosen land and how blessed we are to live in America. I just happened to be reading about the Title of Liberty that day and spent the weekend reflecting on that.

MONDAY: The day started with breakfast with my mom's aunt and cousin before the had to catch their plane to leave. The rest of the day was spent relaxing until it was time to come back. I got back in time to go to a dutch oven dinner that some friends were having. After dinner, we figured out that there was going to be a firework display in a neighboring town, so my friend and I decided to go to that. I Love Fireworks!!! This display was smaller and they played the same song the whole time, in different variations. It was still good though.

On a side note, I met my June goal (on July 5th) for running. Now I am working up to July's goal!

Where Did June Go????

CRAZINESS!!!!!
I cannot believe that June is almost over. This month has gone by pretty quick and I thought that I would write about this before July comes, because July is going to be the craziest month of the year! It makes me tired just thinking of the July schedule. So here is the June update.
- I am all moved in, organized, and settled in the new place. I love my roommates! They are a huge blessing in my life.
-The second weekend of June, two of my roommates participated in a triathlon. It was so much fun to see them swimming, biking and riding. We even followed them for a while during the biking portion.
-We had a pretty neat Relief Society activity that was called "The Great Campfire Competition". The weather was not that great this month, so we did not go with the original plan, but it worked out. The girls were divided into teams and had to pitch a tent, build a fire (though they did not have to start it because we were on the church lawn), and cook some food. There was cobbler at the end. We all had fun!
-Last weekend, I went to a campfire. It was awesome because some of the people there are amazingly talented. At one point, a girl had her guitar out and she was playing her personal songs (which are so good) and then her and one of the guys there started singing together. I enjoyed it a lot!
-One week, for home evening, we had a hoedown. It was fun to learn how to square dance. My partner was an 11-year-old girl and I was in the position of the male. It was a lot of fun. I forgot how much energy girls that age have.
Other than these, there have been little things here and there, like work, exercise, keeping up with the World Cup (GO U.S.A!!!!), and more. It has been a great month. We'll see what adventures July brings. (It should bring a lot:)

The Crib

At the request of my sister, and thanks to a visit from my padres, here is a picture of me at my new place. Woo Hoo!!!

Moving Right Along

Last week proved to be an interesting week. It seems that I tend to post when I have crazy weeks, but there is a purpose to this one. On Monday there was the usual home evening activity and then I helped my roommate move her stuff to a new room in the house. Tuesday, I did not get home until 11:00 due to social engagements and also Relief Society visits. Wednesday there was a class that I am taking and trying to get a meeting setup for sometime in the next couple of days. That was successful, and we ended up having that meeting on Thursday. Friday was a night of "pan dulce" from a local "Panderia" (Mexican Pastry Shop) and watching Mulan in Spanish! (That was fabulous, might I add).
In between all of this, I had to find time to pack and move. Luckily the place I moved to was not too far away and I was able to bring stuff over throughout the week, as I got it packed up. I was blessed with good friends who came and helped me pack through motivating and packing with me. Friday night allowed me to rest up for the next day. Saturday was the day when all the big stuff and everything else got moved over. I was also faced with the daunting task of unpacking and finding places for everything. Guess what???
I DID IT!!!
I unpacked as much as I could that day. It felt good! To celebrate I went to a campfire/dutch oven night with some friends. That night, I was able to get a good night's sleep for the first time all week and relax the next day! I am going to miss my old place and my roommates, but I am super-excited for new adventures, learning experiences, and tons of fun!