September Happenings

I can't believe how the month of September flew by! We have had an interesting month.
We have been taking care of a cat which officially became ours. Or so we think. I have fallen in love with her. I swear she thinks she's a dog. She loves to fetch. No joke! We bought her a couple of toys and her favorite is a stick with a feather (which has been torn off) and a ball that rattles. She carries it up to us when she wants to play. When i'm done with it I usually throw it she'll go get it. I threw it down the hall a few times and she keeps bringing it back. Its pretty fun.
I also want to officially say that Paul found a new job! I'm so excited for him. We didn't really say much, so nobody really knows that he quit his job back in August. He took a phlebotomy class and has been looking for work in that. He has been applying for other jobs too even if not phlebotomy, since we both have to work, but I can finally say he found one. He is going to work as a phlebotomist at the Huntsman Cancer Institute. Its a good job and I'm very proud of him. What impressed me the most was that during his time off, he found a few temp jobs that weren't the best, but helped bring in an income. I was very proud that he would do things like that to take care of us. There are some people I know who don't really care and won't do anything until they have a real job, so that really impressed me. Not too much going on. I am now back in Iowa visiting my family and am glad to have made it safe. It's my first day here so I havn't done much but I'm glad to be able to see my family. I'll keep you updated. Happy end of September!

Happy 18th CJ

Happy 18th CJ!

For my baby brother's 18th party my mom decided to throw a surprise circus themed birthday party for him. It was so much fun. She rented a cotton candy machine, had an old fashioned popcorn maker, and grilled hot dogs and put them in old fashioned wrappers. The best surprise for him was his Glamour Kills cake. My mom had it specially made for him. It was awesome. The garage was decorated as a circus tent. It was fun to be able to celebrate with him. These were just some quick snapshots of his party. We love you CJ. Thanks for being a great brother!

Summer Recap

All good things must come to an end. I'm kind of bummed that summer is ending, because it was such an awesome summer. I'm ready for fall though. I don't want it to get super cold but I have to say I do love fall. I just wanted to share some of the highlights of my summer. I think it kind of started out slow though, with Paul deciding to do a summer semester of school. It did pick up in the end, but I also found things to do to keep me busy with Paul in school.

This summer was my summer of concerts! In June we went and saw Eddie Money with my family. Eddie Money was way fun, especially since my dad was here and we actually went as a family. I don't think i've ever been to a concert with both my parents AND all my siblings. Paul gave me the BEST birthday gift. I also got to go to see BACKSTREET BOYS! I have to say that was probably the most fun for me. I got to re-live my past. I was obsessed with them in my teens! And Boy they can dance! Just love them. In July my mom and I went to Draper Days and saw Colin Raye. He is one of my favorites. He did a lot of his hits that included a lot of my faves like LITTLE ROCK; ONE BOY, ONE GIRL; THE GIFT; and several others. I grew up with a lot of different kinds of music, and love them all. You can probably tell by my concert choice this year. But oh so fun!

June Higlights:
~No more school!
~My dad came to visit us for Fathers Day! First one with him since my parents divorced. We were also able to take pictures with him and just enjoy a long visit.
~ My Birthday!
~ BackStreet Boys!

July:
~ 4th of July
~ Colin Raye
~ Got to visit with a cousin who I havn't seen in years and met his new wife and my new cousin. So much fun. Great visit, too bad it was short!
~ Family stuff
~ Stadium of Fire with Carrie Underwood! Totally forgot to mention her in concerts! It was way fun. They have the BEST fireworks there too!
~ This Century came and did an acoustic set at my mom's house! It was amazing! I found a new group that I love!
~ May not be so exciting, but Paul started his summer semester.

August:
~ Paul graduated SLCC with two Associates
~ He also completed a Phlebotomy class and is trying to find work in that
~ CALIFORNIA!Much needed vacation and had a blast with the family.

I'm sad its coming to an end, but it was so much fun. We ended on good times and made awesome memories. We celebrated C.J.'s birthday last week and my mom threw him a surprise party. See next post for pics. We also enjoyed a fun Labor day weekend with friends and family. Hope everyone had an awesome summer and will have a great end of the year!

Farrells and Wahoos

I forgot to add this to my last post and wanted to let everyone know that when you go to Cali you have to go to WAHOOS. They have the best fish tacos ever! We also went to celebrate the August birthdays at FARRELLS. That place is awesome! Noisy too! If you order the Zoo they carry it out on a stretcher and run around the shop and deliver it to you making a huge deal out of it. It was fun! For those who don't know what the zoo is, which may be many of you since I didn't know before, its a huge thing of ice cream with 7 different flavors. They have 4 ice cream and 3 fruit flavors. They also serve 4 different toppings with it. It serves 15-20 people. It was fun to have it. I love that they do fun things at that place. It is one fun ice cream place!

California Part 2: PICTURES

I guess these are better late than never. I just wanted to add some fun pictures of our family vacation. This was the first time my entire family has been on vacation together in 5 years. We had a great time and made plenty of new memories. This is also the first time in years that my grandma had all her kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids together. We took advantage of this and did a random family pic. The pic. above is of all of us cousin and great grandkids, I will have to post the actual family picture when my uncle gets them to us.

We spent 2 days at DisneyLand. The above collage is Day 2 when it was just Paul and I. Below is day one with the family. It was Halle's first time and so much fun.

While we were in Cali we also celebrated my cousin's 4th birthday. We went all the way to Cali to just go to Chuck E Cheese. It was actually pretty fun. They do huge parties for the kids. They had a ticket tank where you go in and try to catch the tickets (for b day kids only). Porter was first and had no idea what he was doing so he just stood there as tickets were flying everywhere! It was too cute though.

You can't really go to California and not go to the beach!

Paul and I had another opportunity to go to San Juan Capistrano Mission. If you read my post from last years trip you will know a little more about it. They had a Zorro exhibit this year. It was way fun. Plus its always fun to get to spend extra time with Grandma. We invited Garrett to come with us then after that we went to Ruby's Diner for lunch. Yummy! They had a kids game area and some other things going on. Garrett got to play on the stilts and learn to use a weaving loom or machine. Whatever they are called.