Utah- Last Time this Summer

The past weekend we traveled up to Southern Utah once more for the summer because my grandpa, or "Pa-Ta" passed away from cancer. The funeral was on Thursday, and everything went smoothly. He is buried in a private cemetery hidden in Springdale, Utah, which is near Zion National Park. We were all just relieved to have him free from suffering. Thank goodness for the Plan of Salvation. Love you Pa-Ta!

Pa-Ta and I in Boston

My cousins carrying the casket

The rest of the weekend was spent with family. My family and the Waldens (2 sons are our cousins) went to the local community center to play volleyball, and afterwards some of us went on the rockclimbing wall (I am in the neon yellow shirt: and I made it to the top!).

On Saturday me, my dad, Taylor, Uncle Adam and cousins Matthew and Zack went hiking to the top of Angel's Landing in Zion. I was worried about the whole heights thing, as there is this part to the top that is this spine you climb up holding on to a chain. We saw signs saying, "WARNING! People have died on this trail" (Seriously though, people fall off the cliff on this hike) and we were like, wow... that made me feel a LOT better.
But I am SO proud of myself because I made it to the top and kind of conquered my fear of heights! It was a lot of fun!

Girl's Camp

The third week in July was our Stake Girl's Camp. For the 4th years (which included me), we had to go on an overnight backpacking trip in the mountains above Palm Springs and hike to the top of San Jacinto Peak. Hiking to camp was the hardest part probably because we had our huge backpacks with all our stuff on. However, the hike to the peak the next day and everything else was pretty easy. It was a lot of fun but I got like 3 hours of sleep the night we slept out under the stars. All I had was a thin sleeping bag (no pad or bedroll) and I kept rolling over into a pile of rocks. Plus Bro. Leavitt was snoring not too far away haha. But on the bright side I saw 2 shooting stars around 3 in the morning!
On Tuesday evening that week the 4th years arrived at Camp Buckhorn where we have our Stake Girl's Camp. Boy oh boy did a shower feel great or what! That night we had the ward skits and ours was "A Bug's Light". Yep, that's me and Sarah in the picture below decked out as ObediANT (me), Grub Worm and Doodle Bug (Sarah).
Rest of the week consisted of crafts, humanitarian aid, finding humungo bugs, battling it out with Sister Stapley in human foosball and Sarah in noodle hockey, swimming, and playing other games with our YCL (youth camp leader) group. The other two pictures are of Chloe, me, and Sarah at breakfast, and my YCL group Delta in the camp's gym.

EFY 2009

Yaaaayyyyyy EFY!!!!! Natasha and I went up to BYU Provo for possibly just the best week of our lives! We we stayed in Heritage Halls, went to the BYU Creamery, listened to great speakers, stayed up late and woke up early, got blisters from walking a ton in church shoes (I was wearing my supposed comfortable flat church shoes and I still needed a band-aid or two!), ate a ton of pizza, and that's just a few pieces of it all. Our company (consisting of 3 groups of 10 people- 2 girl groups and 1 guy group) had the name "Dig a Pit" which was pretty hilarious from the Book of Second Nephi. It was sad how we scrambled pathetically to come up with a cheer Wednesday for Games Night. :D Anyway I'm not going to get into details because there is a lot I could type up, but I'm just going to explain a few of the pictures I took.

The Girls of Dig a Pit

The Guys of Dig a Pit (Max is missing here though) (oh, and the reason some of the guys are staring up into space is because we had to get them to look at a lightpole for them to stand still and stay focused for a minute... it didn't last long haha)

Dig a Pit.... too bad a couple heads are blocked and you have no idea how difficult it was to get pictures of everyone

Me and 8 of the 10 guys of Dig a Pit (Like I said before, impossible for them to focus :D)(Max got sick somehow... but I have no idea where Taylor is... think he's too far left next to Colton)

Me with our AMAZING session director Brother McLay

Dig a Pit's counselors: Aubrey, Jimmy, and Mary Beth (aargh the picture's sideways!)

The 6 girls in apartment 189 of Fugal Hall of Heritage Hall dorms (don't know what I was looking at.....)

At the airport before departing home in front of sign saying "Waiting for a flight? See the sights" that has a picture of the Salt Lake Temple

Doing the service project of coloring road maps for preschool kids to play on

Me and my AWESOME counselor Aubrey who was basically the most hyper person I have ever met (ex: My feet hurt but I LOVE IT B/C I LOVE EFY!!!!!!!!!!!)

Natasha, Gena (who btw is in our stake, in Scripps Ranch!), and Gina before Games Night

Natasha and I on the lawn next to the Wilkinson Center at lunch- it is SO BEAUTIFUL THERE IN UTAH!

Del Mar Fair

I went to the Del Mar/San Diego County Fair on Friday with Mom, Taylor, and Hayley, but broke off and hung out with Natasha and Harrison during the day. We saw pig races, livestock (including tons of adorable bunnies and ALPACAS.... Natasha.... :D), ate fair food, and went on some REALLY insane spinning rides... after doing one called Techno Power twice, I didn't feel so great haha.
I entered 2 of my ceramics projects to the fair from school, a teapot and coil-pot vase. The teapot pictures didn't turn out so well, so I just posted the vase pictures. I was really thrilled to find that both of my projects had won 1st place ribbons!

I went to another Stake Dance last night which this time was at my Stake Center. It was also a parking lot dance outside, which made things a lot of fun. The DJ was also really good and actually played requests. I'm really REALLY excited now for the EFY dances, especially because I'm going TOMORROW to fly up there with Natasha! After going last year, I am in love with EFY and BYU!!!!!!

YW Recognition Night Among Other Things

Last Friday was my Young Woman Recognition Night for completing Personal Progress. We had a VERY good dinner (baked zitti, that and the gelato was provided by Grandmother Branche and Aunt Lela in Fallbrook from the Sweet Sicilian Bakery- THANK YOU!!!). Me and the 3 other girls who received their award was Katrina, Karin, and Kelsey. We all had a slideshow set to music with pictures from our lives which was my favorite part. Maybe I will put in a slideshow on this blog with some of the best pictures from it...
Summer has been great so far and I have been doing something every day. On Tuesday, me and some of the other Young Women in our ward went to St. Vincent De Paul's (which is part of Father Joe's) in downtown to serve lunch to the homeless. It was a very good experience and though we were tired by the end (let me tell you, scooping rice and vegetables can really work your right arm!), we had a lot of fun at the same time.
And...... WE GOT MR. JINX ON A LEASH!!!!!! I know, it's hard to believe, so I have posted some pictures for proof. We were at Target and found a cat harness, so we were like, why not let's give it a try! Especially because it seems that Mr. Jinx always wants to go outside, since he escapes out of the house a lot. The first couple of times Mom and I had to use a little force to get the thing on him, but today he let me put it on him without too much hassle. He likes walking around in the backyard and stuff, and ends up not wanting to come back inside!

End of the School Year!!!

It is the second-to-last day of my sophomore year! So sad! But I am REALLY happy too because then it is going to be summer! And I am done with Chemistry! And Business! And AP European History! Yaaaaaayyyyyyy!!!
Also, on Friday night, I am having my Young Women Recognition night because I finished Personal Progress! So excited!!!
And EFY is going to be at the end of this month! Yaaaaayyyy!!!

Driving

Driving so far with my permit is kind of cool, kind of fun... but driving for 2 hours for the behind-the-wheel training... kind of tiring!I'm not that bad of a driver, I'm really not. I drove to work yesterday, and drove to seminary this morning, and this morning I drove pretty smoothly. No sudden stops or starts, and my turns were good. I was even able to drive into the church parking having to make a sharp turn and go through a dip well. The only problem was that Mom wanted me to try getting into a parking space, and I went in totally crooked, in at least 3 or 4 parking spaces! Taylor W. and Brett just showed up and were like, "Wow... nice parking job!" I'll have to practice that a lot. :)