lovin the olympics!

I was talking to a resident of mine the other day at work and we started discussing the olympics and she said to me "isn't it neat how every 4 years we have the opportunity to show the world that we can all at least come together and unite in competition". Her comment got me thinking a little bit as I went on with my day and I realized just how right she was. With all this turmoil and fighting going on in the world the olympics brings a sense of hope that we can support each other and cheer each other on while we watch our country and others succeed.

Summer olypmics are my favorite and I have once again discovered why....

Need i say more??

Haha Summer olympics is when the male atheletes show it all as oppossed to covering up in the winter : ) The clothes come off for events such as swimming, diving, sand volleyball, and even gymnastics. okay yes there are more to the olympics then the extremely attractive men and their muscles, I love watching the events and seeing athletes win medals and get rewards for all their hard work. I'm always amazed to think about how much practice and hard work they have gone through to get to where they are today (however thinking about that also makes me realize just how lazy I am). So yay for the olympics and go team U.S.A!!

Vegas Bachelorette weekend

My best friend Jessie is getting married on August 23rd, Jess and I realized a couple months ago that we have never really traveled anywhere together, except salt lake of course. So we decided we were going to take a trip somewhere before she ties the knot. Both being poor students we chose Vegas so that we wouldn't have to spend too much money but still have a good time. As August got closer I wasn't quite sure the trip was really going to happen, however, the trip had evolved into our best friend Jenny coming with as well. Long story short we finally decided on a date that would be close to Jessie's bridal shower so that our friend Lindsey, that we met up at school in Idaho, could also come with us. After our date had been decided on I ended up getting a pretty big promotion at work and wasn't sure I would still be able to get the dates off that I had requested for the trip, lucky for us everything still worked out. Well except of course that I ended up working 11 1/2 hours on the day of the shower and wasn't able to make the trip up to Provo, which was a real disapointment but I still had the hope of the amazing weekend.

On August 7th after the bridal shower they all drove down to Cedar and stayed the night with me in my apartment. Needless to say the 4 of us cramming in my room and all of us having not seen each other in a long time, we didn't get much sleep that night. So the morning came early but we all anxiously loaded our stuff and hit the road. Our first stop of the trip was st. george. Jenny randomly enough needed to buy contact soulution and I some new sunglasses. I was unsuccesful but after spending an hour at target we were back on the road to vegas.

Jess got a cosmopolitan magazine for her shower and with the theme of our weekend being focused on what is about to happen in a little over a week, we read all about sex tips and tricks on the way down to help teach and educate our little jessie : ) By the time we reached Vegas we were all starving so we made a pit stop at In & Out Burger before checking into our hotel.

We got really lucky that Jenny just happens to know a guy from work that owns/helps manage the Marriot hotels and he was able to get us an amazing deal for two nights. As soon as we checked in we all stripped down to our suits and hit the pool. It felt sooooo good to relax and enjoy the incredibly hot weather. Also I realized that you never know when your going to use random things that you store in your trunk. For example: I bought two pool noodles months ago for a trip to Sand Hollow with a friend and they ended up coming in handy for this trip as well.

After swimming we were anxious to get ready and start shopping!! We went to the Las Vegas Outlets and ended up spending about 4 hours there before we once again realized we were starving and made an immediate trip down to the strip where we enjoyed an amazing dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Granted those around us probably didn't enjoy their dinner as much as we did because we were laughing, goofing off, and as Jenny made a point of it to constantly say " act like we were twelve". After stuffing ourselves clear full of delicious food, and cheesecake we continued to shop around the shops in Ceasers before heading over to the Bellagio(my absolute favorite casino/hotel in Vegas) where we browsed around the gardens and watched the water show, which I describe as the show that makes you want to grab the closest guy to you and make out with him. It's that amazing! We were all exhausted by the end of the night that we drove back to our hotel and soaked our feet in the hot tub before heading to bed.

Another good thing about staying in a hotel not on the strip was complimental breakfast! It was so nice to be able to stay in our PJ's to eat and not have to drive around to go find food. And we took it to our full advantage by stocking up on some fruit and dry cereal to store in our room for snacks. After breakfast we were back at the pool soaking up more sunshine and causing more entertainment(or annoyment for those around us). Jenny and I re-inacted some musicals by singing at the top of our lungs, dancing and splashing around the pool.

Hunger eventually stirred us to get ready and head to find some food, but before eating we ended up getting distracted by the fashion show mall. For those of you who haven't been in this mall it is amazing! it is soooo huge and full of awesome stores, and a great food court that we eventually ended up finding. We ate at a place called Great Wraps and it's times like these where I wish we had restaurants like that in Utah because it was really yummy. Shopping got the best of us and we stayed in the mall for 5 hours before heading down the strip to show Jess the M&M and Coke factory. The M&M factory was great but unfortunately the Coke factory was not so good seeing as how it's under construction for remodeling and they seem to have crammed the whole 3 stories of stuff onto one floor. But the coke was still great, and we all enjoyed it by going around the table making funny toasts to each other and our friendship.

The rest of the entailed more browsing on the strip and goofing off enjoying each others company and taking full advantage of the fact that anyone can act like an idiot in Vegas and no one cares. We got all dressed up by the vendors trying to sell us stuff, and make what they thought were good deals. We all got henna tattoos as well before making our way over to where a man was performing any song on the keyboard that people requested. Of course we made our requests and found ourselves out dancing on the dance floor with strangers. After dancing and more walking on the strip we once again realized how tired we were and so we made our walkback to my car and drove back to our hotel for our last night in Vegas. I must say I was getting depressed that our little vacation was ending and that it was going to be time to return to the real world and life. Also depressed because it had started to hit me that we are indeed loosing Jess to the married crowd and that things will never be the same, no matter how hard we still try to keep in touch and hang out. Jessie and I weren't ready to go home without taking one more trip to the pool and hot tub, which ended up turning into a photo shoot by the pool side.

We were being pretty crazy and I'm sure anybody who would have happened to look out of their hotel room at any point during that time would have got a laugh out of us, or have turned us in seeing as how we were down there after the pool was technically supposed to be closed. Luckily we didn't get caught and we were able to enjoy our craziness before heading up to go to bed.

The next morning we woke up early so we could grab some breakfast and pack up our stuff so that we could be on the road at a decent time, so we wouldn't make Jessie late for her bishops interview(she took her endowments out on tuesday yay!). I was super tired after the weekend and so I really had to make myself stay awake on the drive back to cedar, I blasted the music and sand along to help me stay awake : )

It was an amazing trip and I had a blast! I'm grateful to have such amazing friends and that we were able to have the opportunity to have one last fling all together before the wedding. I'm also grateful that we and my car survived the trip because taxi drivers down there are absolutely crazy! probably some of the most impatient people I have ever seen. Thanks for the great trip girls! I love you all!

here are even more pictures from our amazing trip:

Quoted...

I absolutely love quotes! I don't know what it is about them but I love to read them and I also collect and save those that really impress me. Whether it's about life, love, happiness, or the gospel I find them amazing. Here are two quotes I found the other day.

"When one door of happiness closes, another opens: but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.”
- Helen Keller

"I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything goes wrong. I believe that tomorrow is another day & I believe in miracles."
-Audrey Hepborn

My ABC's

A- Attached or Single? Single
B- Best Friend? Jessie George, Jenny Pate, Jeni Sorenson, Candice Woods, Julia Smith, My sisters
C- Cake or Pie? Rainbow chip cake w/rainbow chip frosting is amazing!
D- Day of choice? I love Sundays! and also wednesday hump days
E- Essential item? definately my camera. take it everywhere with me. also my phone rarely leaves my side.
F- Favorite color? red(on purses and shoes), also brown and pink
G- Gummy bears or worms? worms as long as their the sour kind
H- Hometown? Helper and Provo Utah
I- Favorite Indulgence? sweets! any form of chocolate,ice cream, candy, dessert. I just love them all!
J- January or July? July! it's warm, no school, and full of celebrations, including my birthday : )
K- Kids? love them but for me far in the future
L- Life isn't complete without? laughter, friends and family
M- Marriage date? non-existant
N- Number of brothers and sisters? 2 brothers, 2 sisters+1 bro-in-law
O- Oranges or Apples? hmm...now this is a hard one but I think I'll have to go with oranges since their easier and more convient to eat with my fake tooth.
P- Phobia and fears? phobias: so many! I'm terrified of snakes. but also have common fears found in little kids: robbers, rapists, pitch dark etc.. also leaving this life before i'm ready
Q- Quote? see the top and side of my blog
R- Reasons to smile? sunshine, favorite song on the radio, flowers, family, inside jokes, rockband, dance parties, receiving letters, taking pictures, little kids, funny old people, mastering the hula hoop, feel good movies, bonfires, so many more,the list goes on and on.
S- Season of choice? summer.
T- Tag someone else: ash
U- Unknown fact about me: I have a fake tooth and without it I would have a gaping hole right at the front of my mouth.
V- Vegetable? broccoli, carrots, and most recently cucumbers in salads. YUMMY!
W- Worst Habit? procrastinating, and assuming the worst in guys (workin on it)
X - Ray or Ultrasound? been there done both. neither are fun.
Y- Your favorite food? I love it all! I can never get enough of it all.
Z- Zodiac sign? Leo

Mama Mia!

It seems that the summer is well known for a time when really amazing movies come out and this summer has been no exception. I of course went and saw batman at the midnight showing and loved it, but I must say that the next day when my sister Ashlee and I saw Mama Mia I found my favorite movie so far this summer. It was soooo good!! I wanted to get up and dance, and was laughing throughout the whole movie. It really is such a happy "feel good" movie. All these broadway muscials keep being made into movies, like hairspray for example and I am definately in favor of it continuing : )