Weekend Fun.....

Danielle headed to Lovell last Thursday (the 15th). I had the busiest week of my school career this past week, which is why I didn't go home. Even with everything I had to do, I did get to have some fun with my friends. Thursday night I played volleyball at the Stake Center with some of my friends from the Institute.

Friday after school, I was going to watch Emilee play volleyball on the Internet. Unfortunately, the TCT West broadcasting wasn't working. Kristen came over and we watched "Jumping the Broom" instead. After the movie was over, we wanted to get something to eat. We headed to Lovejoys, but it was way too busy and we didn't want to wait. Last second, we decided to head to Cheyenne instead to eat at the Olive Garden. It was delicious and was totally worth the hour drive and the half hour wait.

I started the day early with Kristen; we woke up and went to breakfast with Josh. After we were done eating, I came home, cleaned the house, did some laundry, made some cookies, and got ready for the day. At about 3:30, I headed back to Kristen's house, where I helped her get ready for our Christmas party that we were going to have at 6:00. Yes, that's right a Christmas party in September. It wasn't my idea and I'm not wishing the cold weather here, but it was a lot of fun! We went all out with the decorations. There were lights and snowflakes hanging down from the ceiling. Of course there was a Christmas tree, ornaments, and wrapped Christmas presents.

We had our friends from high school come over. Emily, Wendy, Ashley, Kristen, and I were all in attendance. It was a lot of fun. We ate food, listened to Christmas music, made Christmas sugar cookies, and then watched two Christmas movies ("The Santa Clause" & "Elf").

It was a good night and nice to hang out with my friends for the weekend before I had the worst week of my life!

Volleyball Treats.....

Last week was Homecoming in Lovell. I didn't get to go home for the games over the weekend because I had to study, but Danielle did. Needless to say I was a little sad that I had to miss out on the fun! Since it was Homecoming, we wanted to do something special and fun for Emilee wishing her luck, especially since I wasn't going to be able to be there. I wanted her to know I was thinking about her. We wanted to include Leanne too and a few of the other girls, and since we didn't want to leave anyone out (and because we love all of Emi's teammates) we decided to make treat bags for the entire varsity team.

We were originally going to make a candy bar letter for Emi, so we decided to take the saying we were going to use and get small size candies and put the saying on the back of each candy bar. Some of the candy we had to tape together because the saying included to two different types. These are the sayings we used:

“Shock” your opponents and play “Extra” hard.

Don’t be a “Dum-Dum,” play “Smart!”

You & your “Musketeers” play with mad “Skittles”

Keep the “Snickers” to a minimum & pound it to the ground!

Your teammates are your “Lifesavers,” play together!

Do it the “Bulldog Way” (For this one, we got Milky Way candy bars and covered up the 'Milky' on the front and put the word 'Bulldog' in its place)

Don’t have “Butterfingers,” “Crunch” your competition!

Play like you’re playing for “100 Grand”

Take big “Strides” toward the net

Keep the winning “Spree” alive!

What started out as a little thing we were going to put together for Emi really quick, turned into an 8 hour project. From coming up with the sayings, to designing/printing/cutting everything out, to going to the store and buying all the supplies, and finally putting them all together to get the finished project, it all took a lot more time then we thought it would. It was a lot of fun, and they turned out awesome! It wasn't possible to make these for all three teams since that would take forever, so we took the big bag of leftover candy to the locker room for all the girls to enjoy!

From what Dani told me, they were a hit! I'm glad they like them. It's always fun to get a little treat to know that people are thinking about you. I'm sure proud of my baby sister and her team, they're doing great this year! These girls are awesome and I'm so happy Emi has the team she does. They all make her feel part of the team and are all friends. It's the best to grow up in small towns, where we get to do fun things likes this to show our support!

Well Worth It.....

On Labor Day weekend, Dani & I headed to Worland to watch Emi play volleyball. It was Border Wars, with Montana and Wyoming teams. The Wyoming teams did great, most of the Montana teams that were there couldn't even compete!
    
I haven't gotten to see Emilee play much, only one time when she was in 7th grade, and never when she was an 8th grader. I'm not going to get to see her much this year either, except State and maybe Regionals, so I jumped at the chance to watch her (even though I just made the 6 hour drive only a couple weeks before).
    
I had to go to class on Friday and didn't get done until 2:00. We got into Worland around 7:00 and only made part of Emilee's last game for the day. In the little bit of time that I was there, she played so good! They won every match on Friday in 2 games, except the last one. The next day was going to be pool play, and because they went to 3 games in the last match, they took 2nd place instead of 1st.
    
Saturday the first game was bright and early at 8:00. It was a close game, going to 3 games, and in the 3rd match they were down by quite a few points but came back to win by a couple points! The next game was at 10:30, and they lost by a few points. Emilee played an amazing game, she got some great hits, blocks, and saves!! Everyone was on fire during that game, it was very exciting to watch. They shouldn't have lost but the refs made some bad calls at critical times, which totally changed the momentum of the game. It was difficult to watch and deal with that loss when you know they shouldn't have. Their next match was a pretty easy win, dominating in 2 games. The first three games were all against Montana teams. The last game of the day was against Powell, and the girls played with fire! They were unstoppable, and all played well. It was great to watch them play together.
    
I absolutely love the girls that Emilee gets to play with. The girls are all so sweet to her and make her feel so comfortable and loved. A bonus of getting to watch Emilee play on varsity is that I also get to watch Erin and Leanne during their senior year!! All of them did amazing this weekend, and from the sounds of it on all of their other games so far too! I'm so glad I got to watch them play and wish I could see them all.

Good Job Ladies, I'm so proud of you, especially you Emi-Chelle and Annie-BaNannie!! Good Luck with the Rest of Your Season, Let's Go Dogs!!

One Down.....

Way too many to go! I finished my first week of school and survived. It's going to be a very busy, difficult, and long semester to say the least. My professors have successfully terrified my entire class about this semester and how much work we have to do on top of all the studying that has already been required.

It's been fun though so far. Monday Dani and I went to FHE after class and then played some volleyball. Tuesday and Wednesday Stephanie came over to the house and hung out with us. Thursday Tyler and Zaco came down to Laramie for Ben Long's birthday and because Tyler is leaving on his mission next Wednesday. We had a surprise party for Ben, played Disney Scene It, and then I went to dinner with Kristen while they went out to dinner. To finish off the night, we watched Hercules. This morning after class we went and ate breakfast before Zaco and Tyler left. We went to watch the Cowgirls play volleyball tonight. They played Gonzaga and beat them in 3 games. It was so much fun to watch, I'm so excited the volleyball and football seasons have started.

Speaking of volleyball, Emi started her volleyball season today. I talked to my mom and she said that Emi "unleashed the beast." I'm so proud of my baby sister, she made varsity this year as a Freshman! She's amazing, has been working to hard to make the team, and she did it! I wish we were there to watch her play this weekend. It's so hard to be sitting at home knowing that I'm missing her first high school games. Luckily I get to watch her play next weekend! Congratulations Emi-Chelle, I'm so excited for you and proud of you baby sister!!

This year is off to a crazy start. Hopefully I don't get too overwhelmed and get a chance to enjoy being down here in Laramie with all my friends! Keep your fingers crossed.

Back To The Grindstone.....

Well today is officially the last day of summer vacation for us UW college kids. I'm back in Laramie just in time for school to start again tomorrow. It's going to be a intense semester, and I don't know if I'm ready for it. I am excited to see all my friends again, it's been so long!

We got into Laramie around 7:00 tonight, and Dani & I already have all our stuff put away and the house cleaned up. It felt great to get back to my house and have it already clean to start the school year off in!

It was hard to leave my family and Lovell, but I'll be back in a couple weeks for Labor Day so that makes everything easier! I can't wait to see my family again and I miss them already, but I'm so happy to get back into my routine of school, church, and seeing my friends. As nice as it is to go home, it's always nice to come back to my other home too.

Family Vacation 2011.....

This past week was our family vacation. We spent the week in Idaho Falls, Ogden, and Salt Lake City. There was something going on in Salt Lake that made it almost impossible to find a place to stay, so we were everywhere, but it was great and made the trip better and we got to see and stay in new places. It was fun-filled with lots of great memories! It's a good thing that Dani and Emi like to take pictures because if it was up to me, I would have only had a couple pictures of the temples that we visited. Thanks guys, every picture on here is theirs and I stole almost every one that they took!

Monday we took off and headed for Idaho Falls. We were planning to get away at 10:00, but didn't end up leaving until around 11:00. We headed into the park and of course had to play the license plate game! We came up with a lot of them, and even found Hawaii & Alaska!! We stopped at Fishing Bridge to get out, stretch, and look around.

We got into Idaho around 6:00, so we checked into the AmeriTel Hotel, relaxed for a little bit, got ready, and  went to eat dinner at the Sizzler. It was delicious, and the service was smokin' (right Dani & Emi!!). After dinner we did some shopping really quick for swimming suits and then went for a drive around town. The Idaho Falls Temple was the main reason for the drive. It is absolutely beautiful, I'm a little jealous that I wasn't old enough to ever go on the temple excursions when the youth had to come to this temple because I've never had the chance to see the inside of it! They're doing construction on the grounds around the temple, so we didn't get the chance to walk around. After looking at the temple, we headed back to the hotel, went swimming/hot tubbing, and got some rest to gear up for the next day.

Tuesday we woke up, loaded the car down, and headed for Ogden, Utah. We hung out at the hotel for awhile again, relaxing from the drive, and then we went to eat at Texas Roadhouse. After dinner we went to the mall for to look around, driving around and looking at all the huge houses in the city, and ended the night by swimming at the pool.

Wednesday was "the best day of vacation" according to Emilee because we went to Lagoon for the day. Now I'm not a huge fan of rides, so I wasn't quite sure of Emi's assessment, but I had a lot of fun and actually went on some rides!! We rode roller coasters, Go-Karts, lots of rides, played games, ate Dippin' Dots, and watched a couple of music shows. I even went on a ride that went 200 feet into the air and then dropped you. For those of you who know me, this is a very big deal because I'm probably the biggest chicken there is with one of the weakest stomachs. It was a great time and I realized that I can handle things better then I thought, it was definitely a learning experience :) .

After Lagoon, we headed into Layton to eat at the Brick Oven. It was the first time Dani, Emi, or I have eaten there, and we weren't disappointed! To end the night, Dani, Emi, and I went to the hot tub (there's something new!).

Thursday we packed everything up and headed into Salt Lake. We actually woke up early and when we got into town, it was too early to check-in at the hotel, so we headed to the Hogle Zoo. It was fun to see all the different animals and see how much work they've done to the facility, they're putting in some new exhibits that is going to add a lot more animals to look at then is already there.

Emi took some pictures of the animals, but I figured there are enough on here as it is so I didn't include them.

After we got finished at the Zoo, we headed to the hotel to get checked-in and everything out of the car. We had some time, so we went to check out the Gateway Mall, which is outdoors and takes up about 3-4 city blocks. It's built where the old train station could be found. It was neat, but not very fun to walk around in the pouring rain in.

Going to the mall was just to pass the time until it was time to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir practice. They are amazing, I could listen to them for hours. I had a video I recorded with my phone, but it's too large for it to send so I can't get it off of my phone. There are people from all over the country at this practice and many from other countries who were there listening for the first time. We're lucky that we live close enough that we can see them frequently!

After leaving the practice, we walked around Temple Square for awhile. We couldn't do much because it was late, so we snapped some pictures and then headed back to the hotel for the night and watched Something Borrowed (it was so good!).

Friday we went shopping at one of the many malls, relaxed at the hotel, went to Deseret Book, ate dinner at the Olive Garden, walked around Temple Square, and went on a carriage ride around the temple.

After we got back to the hotel for the night, we watched Prom, and then went to sleep so we could be up and get everything packed to head home.

Saturday we headed back to Lovell and got into town around 6:00 to be welcomed home by Kara and her family. It seemed like forever since we've seen them and it was great to have them there waiting! Now it's back to work and coming to the end of summer vacation. Thank you so much Mom and Dad for everything. It was a great trip and I had such a great time, you're the best!! :)