Golden Weekend

Well, Marissa has finally hit 24. We did a lot this weekend to celebrate!

First, dad came down to surprise her. Everyone was so good at keeping the surprise! I almost slipped quite a few times because I was just so excited to see him! He got here around 4ish on Friday, we talked a bit then headed to the football game where dad got to sit with us in our 3rd row 40 yard line seats.  They won, so it was an awesome game.

Nick has the picture of us with dad.

We headed up to Sherry's for the night but didn't get there until like midnight because we got stuck behind the cop doing the slow roller thing on the highway. Thanks again for letting us spend the night Sherry!

Saturday morning Marissa and I headed up to Timpanogos caves to meet up with Chris, Aaron and Stacey.  None of us have been up there before and Aaron wanted to surprise Riss with it.  It was National Lands Day so we got free parking and free admission! Woo! They were super cool and the trip was tons of fun.  We even got to sing to Marissa in the first little cave. Enjoy my awesome singing :)

We then headed back to shower and dad treated us with a trip to good ol' Costco and dinner at Pizza Pie Cafe! We had to get back to our apartment to set up for Marissa's party that night.  We made tons of cupcakes. Here are the kinds we made!  Red velvet, Better Than Sex, Chocolate Coconut and yellow.  All those were made from scratch besides the chocolate part of the BTS ones.  Chris made Banana and Kelly brought over some Strawberry Lemon and Chocolate Mint. They were awesome, so people said.  It was great to catch up and see tons of friends again! I was able to pack on all the candles. :) Guess what, you get to listen to me sing again!

This morning we went to Jason Coleman's farewell talk.  He told the story about how he and Jared were pretty much stuck at the Wenatchee airport and how they had to walk along the street like lost puppies and be taken by a taxi driver to Seattle. He failed to mention how his GIRL cousin had to come back from Entiat to pick them up and wait for them until the driver got there.  He said it was a better story without me in it. Thanks Jason! It was awesome to see family again.  We got sent home with plenty of food :)

Thank you dad for EVERYTHING! It was awesome to spend some time with you this weekend! And Jason, good luck!

The Bride

Can I just say that my sister made an absolute gorgeous bride?

(I tried to get one of just her but the new facebook picture viewer wouldn't let me copy it. So you are stuck with me in it.)  :)


P.S. These are the roses dad got me.

WIN!

First off, I gotta say that I have pretty much the best dad in the world.... Thank you for the roses on Valentine's Day!!!

For those of you who have asked... my lesson for FHE was on gratitude. Nothing special really.  I just shared a quote from President Monson and showed this video.  We had a youtube party with two other groups (3/4 of the ward) and it was pretty much just the single ones who didn't have dates for the night.  Our FHE dad had two of his nephews for the night.  One of them is 2 and the other is like 6 months. SO cute. His 2 year old one was watching Cars with a Cars cup. Remind you of anyone? He had amazing hair, too.

We won our dodgeball game tonight!! It was first round of tournament.  We play the first team we played next.  It is single elimination so I am hoping we can beat them this time around!

I only have two more days of observing!!! As much as I have learned, I am sooo ready to be done.

Oh, one more thing, plan for the weekend..... VEGAS! Can't wait :D

Christmas!

Rather than rambling about how the last two days went I will be lazy and just name off a few highlights:

1. Getting posters of "hunks" (marissa and I asked for posters of hot men for out apartment at school... mom had a different idea of hunks than we did. Check it out here: Mom's blog

2. Listening to a recording of my Grandpa Myron read "The Night Before Christmas"

3. I love how crowded our house gets when tons of family members are in town for Christmas and we try to make room for 60 people for dinner

4. My mom's face when I mentioned I asked for a rice cooker for Christmas and she had no idea what I was talking about. (She read the wrong email or didn't read the email at all... or something like that)

5. ...it's okay though, I still got my NorthFace jacket that I have been wanting

6. Going sledding with some cousins down a sweet hill and watching everyone else flip over or crash. and not having to walk back up because Miguel was nice enough to drive us up after we sledded down.

7. Having my little cousin yell, "Don't hold me! I'm poopy!!" when I tried hurrying him up because his family was trying leave.

8. Watching that same cousin eat dinner, two ice cream bars, an OtterPop, a waffle bowl with ice cream, and still want more. He is a beast.

and...

9. Watching my mom's face when she opened her new ring from my dad.