Ohhhh What do you do in the Summertime?

Hello Hello,

Since I'm a slacker and haven't blogged in FOREVER I decided to catch you up on this summer.  Be prepared for something real CRAZY haha jk that's totally not true :)

This summer has actually been pretty low key.  I was in a summer school class and at work we were really short staffed so time off was not really an option so there weren't too many trips unfortunately.  But...  It ended up being a pretty relaxing summer :)

The summer really started when this boy left :(

Ohhhh man I've never missed someone sooo much but He's doing awesome and this week marks his 3rd month out... Crazy right?

Next, Afton and I have been talking about going to Cirque Du Soleil Beatle's LOVE for quite a while and after mentioning to others and not getting much commitment we decided to plan the trip just ourselves before summer school started and life got hectic. So we planned it!  We left Memorial Day in the morning and passed through the Dam, look at the bridge it's almost done!!!!

We made pretty awesome time and got checked in to our Hotel, Afton is real good at booking deals through Priceline so we stayed here...

It was right off The Strip, but right where we could see alot of it from our room.  It was pretty nice and perfect for what we needed :)

We of course had to take some pictures here

We waited in this dumb line for this picture, but hey I've never stopped and gotten a picture before so it was worth it.  Afton got this awesome picture for me haha

So we played around in the shops on the Strip, hung out by the pool of our Hotel and then got ready for the real reason we had gone there for THIS!!!!!

 We ate here and it was pretty delicious!!!!

Then we headed down to the show.  It was at the Mirage and a pretty fancy I mean look at this bathroom!!!

Anyways that's beside the point.  We got to see BEATLE'S LOVE!!!!!!  It was AMAZING!!!!!  When it started I was kind of hesitant on if I was going to like it, they had this curtains up so you could see only parts of the stage and I was getting real mad, I mean not as mad as the guy next to me, I'm pretty sure he was swearing about not being able to see AND THEN, the curtains fell down and IT WAS SO AWESOME!!!!!  We weren't allowed to take any pictures inside the auditorium so we took some outside :)

So needless to say it was a short trip, but full of AMAZINGNESS and sooo much fun. Me and Afton even splurged and bought matching shirts... and I got playing cards :)

Afton started summer school on Tuesday so we were in a semi-hurry to get back for her class.... and we hit the Dam traffic... nooooo funn!!!!  This was after waiting an hour

Soooo much fun right?  After waiting 2 1/2 hours on the Dam, we were off to try and get back in time.  I dropped Afton off at school and we BARELY made it!!!!

So this next picture really isn't vacation at all, but funny anyways :) For the last couple of years my dad has had this fatty tumor on his shoulder.  It was this huge hump and it didn't hurt him just was quite annoying, but year after year it's been growing alot.  So this summer my Aunt Sal contacted him from Tucson about this lady in her ward that could perform the surgery FOR FREE!!!  Pretty awesome right?  YES!!  So he went and had the surgery, he was awake the whole time, and 50 disolvable stitches and 20 staples later he was fatty tumor free.  After two weeks of keeping the staples in it was time for them to come out, instead of paying for an office visit, I volunteered my services to take out the staples.  It was mostly a joke but my dad was like why not!!!  So.... I did

I cut off the bottom of the picture to cover my dad's immodesty :)

Guess what else happened in June?????

YOU GUESSED IT!!!!  ECLIPSE!!!  Of course me and Afton put together another large group for a midnight showing!!!  Waiting in line was horrible and it was sooo hottttttt but I really enjoyed the movie!!!  For some reason I didn't get any pictures :( until this one

Alright so I got one week off work for the whole summer from work because we were short at work and so I was looking soooo forward for this week.  Matt, Nate and I had been planning on going to Mexico during that weekend and the last time we went was pretty awesome so I was super excited.  Well, if you watch even the littlest of news you may know that heading over the border is NOT a good idea right now.  So if we couldn't do Mexico where's the next best place?  You got it CALIFORNIA!!!!  We decided that we'd hit up Six Flags and then spend a day at the beach.  So we planned a little bit and I couldn't wait.  That week was sooo fun, with doing nothing but swimming and then the party weekend came :)

The plan was to drive up Thursday after work, go to Six Flags on Friday, spend the whole day at the beach Saturday, go to church Sunday and then drive home.

The drive up was surprisingly splendid.  Thomas Olsen drove and then it was Marianne, Nate and I in our car up.  We went earlier than the other car and they met up with us later.  We had good conversation and even got to see the Rose Bowl (I thought it was cool) when we dropped Nate off at his friend's house.  The other car had Ben Whipple, Laura Durette, Steven Packer, Matt Olsen and Sarah Benton.  The whole group was pretty awesome and we all got along pretty well.  So we got in pretty late and then got up and ate breakfast and headed on down to Six Flags.  It was a BLAST!!!  When we got in we went straight to X-2 and got in the LONGEST LINE EVER!!!!  But... While we were waiting in line we met this AWESOME dude from Austria.  His name was Bernhard and we started chatting with him.  He didn't take to the heat very well and almost passed out!!!  We told him he needed to get some water in him so we told him we would save his place in line if he went and got some water.  After he got back he looked a 100 times better and the rest of the day he was our BUDDY BUDDY!!! This is all of us after X-2

I blew it up so you could see all the clan.  We have Thomas, Steve, Sarah, Matt, Laura, Marianne, Ben, Me and Bernhard.  Isn't he the cutest :)

We rode all the rides together until 7:30 when he had to go because his flight back home and let me tell you it was not the same without him!!!!  We talked about him after he left all the time because we missed him.  Don't worry, all of us are now friends on facebook and via his facebook he says he's coming back next here and we hope Mesa will be one of his stops :)

One of our favorite rides was the LOG JAMMERS!!!!  We rode it pretty late in the day and we got soaked and it was soooo fun!!!  It became our theme for the rest of the trip :)

We stayed at Six Flags till the park closed and we were DEAD.  We then drove to our Hotel in Costa Mesa and we were all excited to get to bed :)

The next morning Matt, Nate, Marianne, Sarah and I went to Newport and met up with my friends from work Christina and Michael.  We ate at Charlie's Chili and it was delicious as always!!  It was so fun to catch up with them and eat Breakfast.

We got to the hotel and got ready for the beach.  I wasn't feeling very well and wasn't too thrilled to spend the day at the beach sick but it turned out to be pretty awesome.  We found a good place on the beach and got settled.  Sarah had forgotten a towel and so her, Marianne and I walked back to the CVS to get her a towel.  I had realized when I got all my stuff out that I had forgotten my book at the hotel and so I got me a word search at CVS and it was best decision I ever made.  I laid on the beach and just word searched away :)  

The boys were too funny at times here are some highlights at the beach.

They started to bury Matt and Thomas

Look how happy they are :)

We then added Marianne for the Olsen pyramid.

Our Theme of course :)

Look oh cute the Olsen love is :)

So the little boy on the right was next to us on the Beach and we let him help bury the Olsen's.  He loved it and we kind of felt like he was our Bernhard Sub :)

This picture cracks me up every time.  The boys LOVED playing steamrollers down the beach.  It looked like it hurt real bad but they seemed to keep doing it.

So the beach was amazing and afterwards we put our stuff in the car and walked around the shops in Huntington.  I LOVE THAT PLACE!!!!  We went to dinner at Ruby's at the end of the pier and enjoyed Huntington Beach.

The next day we got up, packed our things up and got ready for church.  The boys had found a single's ward for us to go to for Sacrament meeting.  So we checked out of our hotel and were off to Church.  We got there super early and all the Bishopric's Wives were soooo happy to see us.  So we were sitting there and I look over and I see Spencer Large.  Jamie had met him at EFY YEARS ago and had stayed in pretty good contact with him and 2 years ago me and Jamie came to Huntington for his mission farewell.  It was crazy he was there and we chatted and it was so fun catching up with him.  After Sacrament meeting we were pretty hungry and we couldn't really agree on anything to eat.  The boys wanted Carl's Jr the whole trip and the girls were kind of sick of it....  So after driving around we passed at Little Ceaser's and it sounded soooo good and we all agreed.  We got two Hot and Ready's and some breadsticks, we then found a nice school yard and had a cute little picnic.  I had brought a little cooler and had put some water bottles and Diet DP in it before we left for church and they went perfect with our picnic.  Look how cute it was :)

We're all so happy after we ate.  Afterwards we drove all the home.  It was a short but fun trip and turned out sooo much better than I anticipated :)

Next.....

Do you know what July 31st was????

If you said NATIONAL DANCE DAY you'd be right!!!!  Of course we kind of celebrated :)  Marianne, Afton and I went to dinner at BJ's and it was delicious!!!!!  Afterwards we had a small dance party in the PJH parking lot.  Pretty much the silliest thing I've ever done but pretty fun too!!!!!!!  There are pictures but I'm pretty sure They would kill me if I posted them :)

So my mom and I were at the fabric store back in June getting material for aprons that my mom makes for Bridal Shower gifts.  While there I found this bag pattern that was soooo cute!!!!!  So I got cute material and the pattern but then the busyness of summer took over and I kind of forgot that I had that stuff.  Well my mom told Candice about this cute pattern and so her and her sister Kalee went a found a very cute bag pattern and REALLY cute material.  They came over and my mom helped them start their bags.  Their bags were pretty tough and they had to stop of a little bit.  Well I had some time off and I was like mom we need to finish these bags.  So I got my sewing machine out that I got for Christmas and learned how to use it AND got a really cute school bag out of it too :)  I didn't think to take before and after pictures until after I had finished so you get just a finished project.

Ohhhh and check out how awesome my new machine is... it sews in words!!!!!!

This is my bag, and the one below is Ellie's :)

After I had finished this bag I was thinking that I love this pattern but I kind of want a smaller bag to use as a purse.  So being the Mathematician that I am, I put the figures together and made another smaller pattern.  So I went and got more material at the best store on earth HOBBY LOBBY and started on my next bag.  Ellie was loving my new bag so my mom thought she'd get some material and made a smaller school bag for Ellie it turned out soooooooo cute!!!  Well after we had made these 2 cute bags, Jamie of course wanted to join in on the fun.  She also got a sewing machine for Christmas and hadn't used it either.  So.... I made my second bag with her.  This is our our material started out.  The top one is mine, the dark red, black and white is Jamie's

Isn't our material sooo cute!!!  Our bags turned out just as cute :)

Mine

Jamie's

Ellie's

And look how cute we look with our new bags :)  Hayley's isn't quite finished so she got to use mine

This is us using our new machine's :)

Next question for you is.... What is your favorite Summer TV Show????  Ok I have quite a few, and this summer has had some awesome summer shows.  Yes I know I watch WAY too much tv... but until I find a better hobbie that I can do right before I go to bed, I'll continue to watch my shows.  Wow I went WAY off subject!!!  Ok.... so the one show I CAN'T WAIT for each summer is SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE and this summer was AMAZING!!!!!  They brought back some All-Stars from previous seasons and I was soooo happy to find out this kid was back

Neil Haskell, ohhh I love him

Isn't he just the cutest?   Well he dances EVEN BETTER!!!  This is my all time favorite dance of his!!!!!!  I LOVE HIM!!!!!

But check out this new dance this season....

Needless to say, Afton and I were REALLY wanting to go to the tour.  Sadly Neil won't be going but maybe he'll make a surprise visit on the last leg of the tour... hey a girl can wish :) After looking online at ticketmaster, we thought we were going to get the crappiest seats EVER... so we decided to give the ole' jobing.com arena a visit and see what we could do in person.....

I think our smiles prove just how excited we are for the tickets we got.  Spliting up seemed like not a good idea until the lady said... well we have a seat in section 114 row c seat 1 and another seat in section 114 row d seat 1.  We decided SPLIT but still be soooo close!!!!  We even managed to snag Hayley a ticket right by us too!!!!  We are sooooo excited!!!!  And what better way to celebrate this than seeing this movie!!!!!

Story line was sketchy, but put that aside and watch the dancing... it was straight up AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!  Ohhhh man I want to see it again... we were thoroughly satisfied :)

Well... you've been caught up.... hope you had an awesome summer too!!!!

I can't believe school starts next week!!!!  I'm at my last semester at MCC and I can't wait to start at ASU in the spring :)

Until next time :)