4th of July 2012

I again joined Adrienne and Alan's families for the 4th of July at home this year. We had a lot of fun traveling to the Beach, Tillamook, OMSI, and just playing together.

 I had a fun time setting up and lighting the fireworks this year. Not as many people choose to light with us, but I was still in charge of the boxes, as normal :)

 I actually had a box blow up into me this year, which is a first. I was patting out sparks that had flown onto my pants :)

 And some pictures of some of the amazing fireworks we all enjoyed setting off. My phone actually took some amazing pictures!!

It's sad to see another year come and go, but I am so glad I was able to spend time with my family and set off yet another fireworks show !! And as usual, thanks to Mom and Dad for putting up with all of us together for so long!

Summer Travels Take 1

Theresa (My roommate) and I have been on a Temple craze and have been planning our summer trips around it :) We decided right after school got out to head to southern California to visit her sister and a few Temples down that way. The first Temple we went to was the San Diego Temple. Can I just say AMAZING!!! It is my second favorite Temple next to the Portland Temple. So gorgeous, inside and out.

After a trip to the San Diego Temple, we got a hotel to stay down in San Diego so we could go to the San Diego Fair! I was excited to join the fun of the fair and it was perfect weather.

 

They had a variety of foods that I had never heard of before. This in particular was the fried food stand. Let's just say that some of the fried food scared me....

Theresa and I decided to share a fried Klondike Bar. As strange as it sounds, it was so amazing! It was cold on the inside and hot fried on the outside :)

We went in to see the animals, Theresa's neice loved this part :)

We went on the Ferris Wheel as well and got some amazing views of the fair and beach.

They had a log ride that looked like so much fun, and Theresa convinced me to go and get soaked with her. It was like a miniature splash mountain! Although we ended up not getting very wet...

After our day at the San Diego Fair, we headed over to the Los Angeles Temple. That Temple was a lot bigger than I expected it to be. It was also the first Temple I had been to that was a progression Temple. It is such a pretty Temple, and the paintings are amazing inside. The grounds, like all Temples, were amazing.

After the LA Temple, we went to check out the Hollywood walk of fame. I will spare you pictures of all the stars we took pictures of, but it was so much fun! Living in Vegas made us pretty immune to the strange people on the street. We walked up and down, found ourselves a nice Itallian Restaurant to eat at, and walked the street some more. I would love to go back some day and really explore the area some more. There were some cool museums on the street that looked like a trek inside would be a lot of fun.

We also drove up to the Hollywood Sign....Well, mostly up. We wound around on tiny streets for a half hour and finally decided that we were close enough to the Hollywood sign. A future trip would definitely include the full drive and hike up to the sign.

After our trip to California, we drove up to Utah to spend some time with our families. We first stopped by the Mt. Timpanogos temple for a session.

After dropping off Theresa to visit her family, I headed over to spend some time with my family. Haydee and Amber took me to the Salt Lake Temple. After seeing the inside, it is no wonder it took the saints so long to build it :) There is so much detail that is put into every room in that Temple and the spirit is so strong. You can almost feel the strength of the early saints emanating from the walls of that Temple.

To end my trip to Utah, I asked Grandma Graff to go to the Provo Temple with me. It was so nice being able to go with her to the Temple and spend some quality time talking together. I really liked the Provo Temple and the look and layout inside.

Overall, a great start to our summertime adventures. I loved spending time with Theresa and I really loved spending time with Scott, Haydee, Amber, Mike and their families. I can't believe how quickly my nieces and nephews are growing!!

Temple

 I went back to Oregon over my spring break in April and went through the Temple with Mom, Dad, and Paula. What an amazing experience!! I was so excited to go through and I have not regretted the decision since. I love the Portland Temple, it is still my favorite Temple that I have been to so far. I love the spirit of the Temple and the wonderful things I am able to learn there. I am blessed to be able to go to the Las Vegas Temple almost every week since going through in April and it has definitely made my life so much better. I love everything about the Temple and the spirit that is felt there. I plan on always striving to get to the Temple as often as possible!

Catching Up

It's been a long while since I have posted and decided since it is my vacation time, it was time to get going on the updating!! It has been a fairly eventful year, and I am looking forward to it becoming even more eventful as my travels continue. On the plus side, I managed to get through my second year of teaching 4th grade and I will be teaching 4th grade again next year at the same school. Very excited about this :) So, here is a short summary of how my year went!

 I have been into getting pedicures lately, and I have discovered the nail art. These were my Halloween nails. They do an amazing job decorating for any occasion :)

 I spend Thanksgiving in Utah with Amber and Angela. We went to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights. Here is Amber and Logan all bundled.

 I can't remember who took this picture of us. I seem to think it was the handiwork of Travis...

 For Christmas, I went to Oregon and mom and I decided to check out the display inside Macy's downtown. They had all of the reindeer in their stalls and Christmas trees. Mom got a little obsessive about pictures, as usual !!

 I was back in Vegas for New Years and Theresa, Andrea, and I decided to try out a black light party that was being held for the YSA in the valley. We had fun getting dressed up and decorating our shirts with glo sticks. The dance was pretty fun as well :)

 This picture is from our fourth grade field trip. We went to see the Las Vegas Philharmonic. I am with one of my favorite students on the bus :)

 I little trip the M&M Factory!

 This is from our Valentines party at school.

 For our testing this year, our theme was "Rock the test" so a few teachers dressed as rockers to join the rock band and sing a song about rocking our state tests. I think my outfit was pretty amazing!!

And a final picture of my 4th grade class this year. It was a difficult year. I had students that I absolutely loved and students who drove me absolutely crazy. It was definitely easier than my first year, but still quite a challenge. I am hoping next year will be a bit better, but who knows what the future will bring??