4th of July Celebration.....

I know the 4th of July was a month ago, but I finally got the pictures I wanted (thanks to Dani for getting them off the camera). The day was spent hanging out at home. Usually we go up to the mountains to go four-wheeling, but this year we decided to stay home since we usually don't have a lot of time to shoot off the little fireworks that we get every year, which are actually my favorites to shoot off!!

Kara and the fam came up to join in the fun. We shot off some smoke bombs, snaps, bottle rockets, and some parachutes. After some firework fun we had an outdoor barbecue since it was so nice outside, and then it was time for the real show to start.

We had Amanda come up and join in the fun with us! There was a firework scare this year when one tipped over and shot in all direction, one shot right where Dallin had been standing just minutes before but had gone inside with Kara. Luckily everything was just fine, but it was super scary, it was definitely the fastest we've all moved in awhile! We got a nice rain shower in the middle of lighting everything off so we had to wait it out. Jacob still isn't a huge fan of how loud the fireworks are (he made it way longer this year and didn't even fall asleep, he just spent some of the time in our Yukon), so part way through the show he wanted to listen to my iPod with some headphones to drown out the noise. He looked so cute, and I'm sad I didn't get a picture of it!

After the grand finale, we lit off some sparklers (which is always one of the best parts). Everyone likes this part, even Jake!!

It was a great 4th this year. It was nice to relax and spend some time with the family!! I love the great country that I'm very blessed to live in.

Catching Up.....

Even though I haven't blogged in awhile, there hasn't been much going (which is why I've been putting this off). The one exciting thing that has happened is that I'm finally done with my rotations for the summer! I'm so glad that they're done and over with, it got really old driving to Worland or Cody five days a week!

Now that it's all done, I've been working at the Drug Store for the past week. It's nice not having to leave for work until there's only about 5 minutes until I need to be there. I haven't had too much going on this summer because of my rotations, but I have had a few things.

Kara & I have started walking in the evenings, when it's not quite so hot! It's been a lot of fun & has been an opportunity for Kara and I to spend some time together, which has been great.

This last weekend, I finished my hospital rotation and headed for Riverton. Emilee had a basketball tournament there and since I don't get the chance to see her play much during the year, I thought it would be a good chance to watch my baby sister in action! She did awesome, but I didn't expect anything less. Friday night Emilee, Erin Robertson, Leanne, Miranda Griffis, Jody Walker, Wendy, TJ Baldwin, and one of Wendy's friends from school went to the Riverton Movie Theatre and watched the new Harry Potter movie. It was super good and I had a lot of fun with all those crazy high school girls in my car :)

Mostly this summer I've been working, hanging out with my family & friends, and doing some reading just because (I don't get the chance to during the year, so I figured I'd better take advantage of this time off while I have it!!). Summer is going by way too quick and before I know it, school will be starting again and it'll be back to Laramie!

Visitors.....

This past week has been a fun filled week, it was Lovell's Day and Melissa, Derek, and Darius have been here to visit. It's been so long since we've seen them, and I can't believe how big Darius has gotten.

They got in last Sunday, the 19th. They flew into the Billings Airport, and nobody could decide who would go get them so we all went. After eating some dinner at the Olive Garden, we headed for Lovell. 

On Monday we bummed around after we all got home from work (it was the first day of my hospital rotation in Worland), played with the niece & nephews, ate dinner, and spent some time together catching up. 

Tuesday I headed off to work, while my mom babysat Darius so Melissa and Derek could go to Billings to see their friends that live up there. Kara's kiddos came up to play with Darius, and they came up later that night again while Kara went to watch Jason in the Follies.

Wednesday, I headed to work again and was there most of the day. When I got home, it was time to watch the Follies. Most people don't understand why it's so fun to watch, like for example Derek, but it's a tradition that I love and look forward to every year. The highlight of the show this year was watching Jason get down with his bad self in the all male bench dancers act. Never in a million years did I think that Jason would be in the Follies, let alone dancing; but I'm glad he did, it was the best and gave us something to look forward to. Good job Jase!! :)

Thursday, we went to the car show and to the follies again (minus Liss and her family), and it was even better the second night. 

On Friday we all had the day off, so I actually got to sleep in. We went to breakfast at Launges' Kitchen, which was excellent (I don't eat breakfast often so it was a nice change). After we got home, everyone headed to the Canyon overlook. It's beautiful out there, the kids had a blast, and we all tried unsuccessfully to throw rocks into the water. We got rained out at the canyon, so we headed to Horseshoe Bend, where we skipped rocks (or in my case threw rocks), swam, and enjoyed the day out on the lake. By the time we got back into town it was time to get ready to head to the Family Fun Fair. The kids had a lot of fun and got some pretty sweet face painting. Then it was finally time for one of my favorite Lovell's Day events, the Cowley Boys, and it definitely lived up to my expectations.

Saturday was the day of the big parade, filled with candy, screaming kids, sunburns, pictures, and of course BBQ Beef Sandwiches. Then we headed for the park, where we watched the volleyball tournament. After about 3 hours, we decided it was time to head out to the rodeo for a bit, which Darius absolutely loved (he loves horses and got really excited that he saw so many). To finish of the night we watched the fireworks, which were about the best I've ever seen Lovell have.

It was a great Lovell's Day, and I loved having the entire family here. Thank goodness we get to keep Liss and everyone here for a few more days, I'm not ready for our visitors to leave yet, Arizona is just too far away!!

Sweet Success.....

Well, it's been a long, hard, stressful, drama-filled, fun, time, but I've finally made it to the end of the school year! I'm officially done with everything, and I've passed all my classes. One year of school down, only three more to go until I'm done with school forever, I can't wait!!

I finished my finals yesterday morning at 9:00 and I'd say it's a total understatement to say that I was ecstatic. After picking up some things I left at the pharmacy building, I headed home, packed all my stuff up, and loaded my car to get ready to head to Lovell for the summer. I had to take Dani to her final and then pick her up so she wouldn't have to find somewhere to park in the middle of the madness.

Since Dani & I were taking separate cars, I went to lunch at Lovejoys with my pharmacy friends before heading home. It was nice to hang out with everyone when nobody was stressed about school or feeling like we should be studying or anything else.

I love my class, and I've got some great friends! I don't know how I'd make it through all my classes without all these guys. It makes everything worth it and so much easier. Leaving Laramie was bittersweet because I was so happy to come home and see my family, but I already miss all my friends & it's going to be weird being away from all of them for 3 months when the most time I've spent away from everyone in the past year is a couple of weeks! If only Lovell and Laramie were closer together, I'd have the best of both worlds.

Now I get to relax for a few weeks until rotations start on the 23rd and go until the middle of July. It'll be nice to get to work again, I've actually missed working. Even though I have rotations, at least I dont' have anything I need to study for. Summer vacation, I'm glad it's finally here!!

Light at the End of the Tunnel.....

It's finally the end of the semester. All I have left now is finals week. I've got four finals and one presentation this week, and I'm actually done with my first final in Med Chem. Now I'm completely done with three of my classes. Three down, four to go!! I'm doing better in my classes this semester so finals aren't as stressful, but I still want to do really well to hopefully keep my grades where they are.

On Wednesday I have my final in Kinetics and my presentation in Drug-Use, Thursday I have my Self-Care final, and on Friday I have my Patho final. Luckily it's in the morning, so I get to head back to Lovell Friday afternoon.

This has been an intense, stressful school year with everything that I've had going on, and I'm excited to have summer vacation just around the corner. It's time for this week to be over so I can get back home and have a real break for a few weeks before rotations start... summer vacation, here I come!!

Dinnertime.....

To celebrate the last day of classes, Dani & I went with some of my friends from my pharmacy class to eat dinner last night. A few of them went to dinner during Easter weekend, but since there were some of us who went home for Easter we wanted to do it once more before we left for the summer. We went to an Italian restaurant called Luciano's. I wasn't all that impressed with the food. I know that I'm picky, but it wasn't just me who felt that way so it wasn't just me and that made me feel better.

It was really fun to hang out with my friends some more outside of class. It was a little awkward to talk to everybody because they had to sit us at two separate tables because of the size of our group. We had a great time even being less than impressed with the actual food.

The Laramie weather wasn't very nice to us. It started snowing when we first got there to eat and we had to run back to our cars since the wind was blowing hard (That's why some of my pictures look the way they do!!). It was a great time and I loved hanging out with everyone when we weren't stressed out about studying for probably the last time this semester.

The semester is coming to an end fast. It's going to be stressful and super busy this next week, so I'm enjoying my free time while I still can!!

P-Wonders.....

Throughout the school year, our pharmacy class has gotten some teams together for intramural sports. I haven't done any of them, until these last few weeks. I was on our P-Wonders volleyball team. It was a lot of fun. I have some great friends in my pharmacy class, and we have a blast. We needed another girl on the team, so Dani played with us too! We had 4 guys & 4 girls on our team: Ben, Devan, Miles (a.k.a Papa Rooney), Landon, Stephanie, Megan, Dani, & me.

We did pretty good, considering that some of those people who signed up to play haven't ever played before. It was in means a pretty game ever, we were pretty sloppy but somehow still got it done.

We went into tournament play and made it to the semi-finals. We had an off game and lost, but we shouldn't have. It was a hard loss so we are no longer playing because it's a single-elimination tournament. I'm actually really sad that it's over, it was so much fun to play with our team. We plan to come back next year as the P2-Hot-to-Handles, we'll come back with a vengeance, and we'll dominate!!

*Side Note: I had nothing to do with our team names, all the credit goes to Papa Rooney!