Summer Break 2020

There are a lot of great things about my job. One of them is our frequent breaks. Every year we get a week off around the 4th of July. I often like to go on vacation, but with COVID this year was a little different. I really wanted to go somewhere but couldn’t decide if it was a good idea. I went back and forth a few times and ultimately decided it was best to stay home. I took advantage of the time to relax and also get some things done. Chelsea suggested a goal to get one productive things accomplished each day. That really helped me to not waste the whole week. I also made some time to do a few fun things too. 

Ale and I hiked around silver lake in Big Cottonwood Canyon. It was nice and cool and so beautiful up there. It was nice to get outside and enjoy nature. 

July is wildflower season and I tried to take full advantage of flowers I saw

Lisa was in town so we met for an outside lunch with Jackie. 

I am hiking more this summer than over before and it has been so fun. Brooke, Ale, Stacha, and I hiked in Suncrest on a Friday evening. The weather was perfect and the sunset was beautiful. 

This summer and summer break like most of the rest of 2020 are different than the norm, but I am trying to make the best of it. It is much slower paced and home based which is kind of nice at times. 

Thanksgiving 2018

Since I haven't gone to St. George for Thanksgiving the past several years, I always find other things to do to celebrate the holiday week/weekend.

Wednesday was a pretty low key day. I went down to Lehi to pick up my packet for the Thankful 13 race the next day.

Celsey invited family over to celebrate Rem's birthday. 

I ran the Thankful 13 half marathon on Thanksgiving morning.

I hurried home to get ready to go to the Anderson's for Thanksgiving dinner. They are always so kind to include me with their family. After the running joke 2 years earlier about barely eating (since that was meal #1 out of 3), I made sure to fill my plate this time. 

We enjoyed a nice meal, relaxed in the hot tub and pool, and had a great day.

The rest of the weekend was also pretty relaxed. It was perfect.

unblogged bloggable-#bearlakedladies

I don't know how it happened, but somehow this post never got published. In fact, I have quite a few posts from last year I will be catching up on over the next few weeks. One of my goals for 2019 (more on those in another post) is to get and stay caught up on this blog.

Back in August I went to Bear Lake with girls from book club. We have the best time together, but we hadn't spent a lot of time outside of book club together. Some of the girls live in the same neighborhood so they spend a lot of time together. Some of us know each other from other things, and some of us only know each other through book club. This weekend was so much fun and made us wish we could spend lots and lots of time together always.

We left after work on Thursday to drive up. Utah was basically all on fire this summer, and Bear Lake was no exception. This fire seemed so close and big (probably because it was so close), but luckily it was quickly contained. We spent the first night watching the fire and chatting about the weekend.

Some of us (me) like a lot of makeup. Some of us like a little makeup, and some of us don't care so much about makeup. I like to wear makeup especially when I know there will be a lot of pictures. Pretty soon we were all in the bathroom doing our makeup and trying to convince everyone to put on lipsense.

Bonnie made our lunches every day to take to the beach.

The air pump didn't work very well so we ended up blowing up several rafts and floats. It was worth it when we were out on the lake for a few hours floating around.

We rented a water trampoline and found out it is pretty hard for several adults to stand up at the same time. It was ridiculously fun, and we laughed a lot.

Playing crack the egg and other funny games

I'm not exactly sure what happened here except I know we convinced a kid to get on our tramp and take some pictures for us. Somehow the phone survived.

Even at 7 months pregnant, Dylan was not about to miss out on the fun.

Kendra left and Aubrey came (with baby Rosie)

We tried really hard to get the perfect jumping picture.

But we just couldn't quite all get it together.

Aubrey and Aubrey (and baby Rosie)

Bear Lake is beautiful! We had so much fun and can't wait to go back again.

Unblogged Bloggable-KMB Lakehouse Weekend Part 3

A trip this epic takes several posts to get through. See part 1 and part 2

Kate had to leave early Saturday morning to be with her family. We were sad she had to leave but happy she got to come for part of the trip.

We had a lazy morning. We had breakfast with mimosas. Mela still wasn't feeling well. Darcy took care of her and gave her bananas to eat. Danielle A and P and I did a circuit workout in the driveway. Ana and Mandi came out for moral support. 

We went to MaBank for a little shopping. They had a great wall for photos. We looked around the shops, had cupcakes, and made the facebook page of a little boutique. On the way back we stopped at Sonic for Danielle A's favorite drink.

Some of wanted to get in the lake. The house had several rafts and other things for the lake. We blew up a giant raft and hauled it down to the lake. We got on the raft, and Mela and I kept sinking in the middle. We sang some songs. Ashley swam up to scare us. Ana did some pole dancing. I almost killed myself trying to get off the raft.

 

Mandi insisted on a group sunset photo. There was a little complaining about it, but it turned out so amazing. It's one of our favorite photos. We spent the rest of the night hanging out, playing makeup and brows, learning the curling wand. 

We went to Whattaburger a little later. Ana's order number was 22-the date of her birthday. The guy thought she said it was her birthday that day and gave her extra desserts. He said Happy Birthday as he gave her food to her, and Mandi responded with Merry Christmas. Some girls danced around the fire (the proposal style) and played cards again. Danielle wasn't very good:) and Mela acted out a few.

We made our own Harlem Shake video. Hibiscus' hair flew everywhere. Mandi called her Habascus accidentally and it stuck. We "called" on the banana phone and snapped Cody. He wanted to be on the trip with us, but we told him no boys allowed.

We had a big breakfast Sunday morning complete with tons of bacon. Ana wanted hard bacon and not turkey bacon. Some people did impersonations of people, and Ana did the perfect one of Mandi putting on her lipstick. 

We got all cleaned and packed up. Mela couldn't believe I left my running shoes (something I often do on trips). We signed the oar and took more pictures.

We sang O Town I want it All over and over. Ana insisted on taking a booty pic of all of us looking out towards the lake. We all wanted to get out of the house and protested. She insisted and we are so glad she did. It is another one of our favorites. As we were leaving Danielle made plans to meet Ana at chemo that week and do a dance to juju on that beat. They joked about making it viral and had no idea that would actually happen.

We said tearful goodbyes and went our separate ways. Our car (Ana, Danielle P, Mel, Mandi, myself) met Frank and Sharon at the Texas State Fair. It was a quick meeting, but it was so great to meet them and see the fair. It was beastly hot but still a great time.

Ana dropped us off at the airport and snapped and then there was one... We ate whattaburger again and waited for our flight. Mandi and I flew back to Vegas. We tried to sleep on the plane and traded off trying to sleep in the car. It was a long drive back. We talked about highs of the trip. 

a few things that didn't make it anywhere else

-Ana and her snaps from the toilet

-Ana "why do you talk like that?" making fun of Danielle's nodes. Mandi "you can make fun of her cancer"-Ana laughed so hard

-Ana sitting on Mandi's foot multiple times

-snapping BTK sr

-facebook live-everyone wants to be KMB

This trip was incredible. We had the best time together. These girls truly are my sisters. Ana was doing so well with her treatments and was able to fully enjoy the trip. We had no idea a few shorts months later she would be gone. I will be forever grateful for this time we had together.