Happy Birthday to Me

Last wednesday I turned the big 24. After work Josh let me pick any restaurant and I have been craving the breadsticks and salad from Olive Garden so we went there for dinner.

Afterwards he needed to "pick up a book from the Harris" and it just so happened to also be a little party there. We talked, ate cake, and played Rock Band, which was tons of fun, I had never played before.

Daren and Heather even made me a "ball" cake, my favorite kind since I was little.

Here is the group with a few of the decos that Heather put together. Thanks guys for a great birthday!

Colorado for the 4th

Our third year in a row Josh and I went to CO for the 4th of July. We had a blast as usual. And Derek got to visit this time too since he was in UT and decided to drive down to see Josh and his amazing sister in law.

Here we are waiting for the Highlands Ranch fireworks show to start. About 5 minutes later the sprinklers came on and we quickly moved to a new spot across the street.

Since my birthday is the next week my mom always makes a cake for me. She made me put the confetti on my head from the firework poppers she gave me.

We also went golfing at Evergreen golf course. I was the official cart driver, and had lots of fun making mom bounce all over as we went on every bump possible.

The golfers. It is a beautiful mountain course

Dad giving Josh his golfing advice. He was loved teaching Josh how to be a better golfer.

Josh and Derek waiting to tee off

Hoopfest and Strawberries

So I have been slow to update, but two weekends ago we went to pick strawberries at Green Bluff, which is a place that has several u-pick farms about 15 minutes away. I had never picked them before, so it was fun, but also delicious. They are very sweet and way better than store bought ones, of course.

Here we are picking them, we picked way too many, but it was fun

The group, except Josh

Afterwards we made strawberry crepes at the Harris' and caught up on life since the Barneys just got back from their month visit to Brazil.

On Saturday we went to Hoopfest in downtown Spokane. I guess its the biggest 3 on 3 tournament in the country. They block off all the roads downtown for blocks and just have back to back basketball hoops lining the streets. We mostly stayed on the street with the elite teams to see some good games.

This was by far the most entertaining game. These guys were hilarious and would do crazy dances and flips after a basket. They also would do the "soccer-tunnel" and have the guy run under who made the basket. My favorite part is that they all had fake mustaches and what looked like Keds tennis shoes. Ha.

Tired of Being Sick!

An IV, two bags of fluid, 3 hour doctors visit, and barfing out of control and complete dehydration later, my weekend has come to a close. Of course it had to be a three day weekend that was filled with projects and things to do, but not one of them got done.

I was just celebrating not having a migraine for almost two whole weeks when at the end of the second week, no, i didn't get a migraine but only some weird sickness that made me miserable for 3.5 days. The only thing that ticks me off is that I used to NEVER get sick and was super healthy and in the last couple of years I have been the sickest person I know, lame. I'm getting really tired of being sick about once a week. Anyone want to take me to Hawaii? I'm in serious need of a vacation.

Camping at Priest Lake

I have been slow on the blogging because I have tried to start walking for an hour every night instead of sitting on the computer for an hour. Not that I don't check other people's, but it seems to take forever to update.

Went to Priest Lake in ID to camp last weekend. We went with Daren and Heather and Kameron and Emily. It was a little chilly at times with scattered rain showers, but was still lots of fun and we are excited for future trips to the same lake.

Cool Lake. Heather using her amazing photo skills from the relief society photo class.

We took a hike. It was ranked moderate, but only half a mile, just perfect for me.

The lake is known to be very clear and clean. It was, but also very cold.

We tried to drive to a different hike, after turning Big Red into a performance off-road vehicle for several miles at 5 mph over huge rocks we came to this and decided to give up. Especially since everyone else was in the truck bed.

Tin foil dinners, yum.

The Harris' and Josh chillin waiting for dinner to finish

Elkfest/Artfest

I've heard both names for the festival, but anyway we went to it yesterday near downtown Spokane. They had the normal booths, food and music. It was fun just to enjoy the summer night after a hot day.

The best part of it though was watching the crazy drunk/old people dancing in front of the stage. Check out the guy just to the right of the tree with the hawaiian shirt on. He was hilarious.

Recession?

Wednesday at 6pm, 1 hour and 10 minute wait. We were celebrating getting our tax refund and didn't realize we would have to wait an hour for dinner.

Homecoming

So I got too excited to post about the quilt that I forgot to post the CA trip first, which happened a week before the UT trip. We went for a quick Fri-Sun trip to see Derek who just returned from his mission in Nebraska and for the court of honor for Ty's eagle.

We flew on a propeller plane. It was so small that I hit my head while going through the door. I am 5'7" and hit my head! There were only two seats on each side and it felt like a foot wide aisle. I won't even go into the size of the bathroom, as if you can get smaller than the normal sized ones! But we did make it safe and the plane just made it more of an adventure.

Arrived at 11pm, in bed at midnight on Friday, up at 5am Sat to drive 3 hours to Laguna Seca for the races. It was fun, but also about 100 degrees so we only stayed for a few hours.

Here I am in front of Josh's dream car, the camaro,
similar to the one my mom owned back in the day.

The two reasons we went to CA, to see Derek and the Court of Honor I have no pictures of. Not sure why, I guess because it was a quick trip and very busy.

Wedding/Quiltathon

This weekend I went to Utah for Alyse Hales-Barber's wedding and for a quiltathon with Cindy. (and my mom, but she refused to even touch the sewing machine)

Since I was very sick the night before, I was out of sorts and didn't take pics, but here is Alyse and her new husband Bob. They are very cute together and looked great!

Cindy offered to let me stay at her house and teach me how to quilt. She was an amazing teacher and very patient with my beginner mistakes! We quilted a LOT but also got a lot done and I can't wait to finish it up.

Cutting my quilt squares

Cindy trying to fix the machine that I seemed to always screw up for some reason, ha. Its kind of like a car, when its not yours it takes a little while to get used to.

My semi-finished quilt. I have everything sewn together, but have to finish the actual quilting part of it. Its a baby blanket so its small and simple, but I was very excited about my first quilt.

We also got a little bit of relaxation time in between. She has an amazing house and it is so adorable. I just love everything about it. She also taught me how to make a one-hour baby quilt, no pics, but its so cute and pretty easy to make. Thank you Cindy for being such an awesome aunt and teaching me your ridiculously amazing quilting skills! And thank you mom for taking the pics, even though she's not in them, my mother was there also for social and relaxation time away from work!