BRAD PAISLEY

Question: What could be more fun that a night at Usana with good friends and live music... Especially when the live music is Brad Paisley who is basically my favorite performer of all time.

Answer: Nothing, nothing could be more fun...

The Brad Paisley concert was a blast! It wasn't his best ever concert that I've been to, but it was possibly one of the most fun. Why you ask?? I'll tell you why: 1. Watching Kelley go crazy wild with her dancing skills- showing up the rest of us. 2. The fact that I got to not only watch the show that Brad put on but also the lightening storm right behind his stage 3. Rain+Good Music= Best thing ever! And it totally rained on us for a few minutes, making the concert that much greater....

Now for some awesome pic's from the night:

Mom and Dad at the concert... It was basically pulling teeth trying to get them to come... Dad is the one who really wanted to, which you'd never guess while looking at these pictures.....

Look how cheesy happy she is!

Me and Brendon... Notice that the cheesy smile... it must run in the family.

Me Jenn Kell Carol and Jess... all having a blast I might add

We had so much fun!

Pretty Scenery

Ok... I'm very sad that summer is ending and fall is bringing cold weather which leads to snow, but I can't deny the fact that I'm loving how beautiful the earth is as it starts to change from Summer to fall. It's incredible to me how the Lord works. How it is possible that as everything is dying it can possibly be one of the most beautiful times of the year??

Anyways... here's a few pic's I took... WARNING I AM NOT A PHOTOGRAPHER so these pictures are not as amazing as the could be- but they are still very pretty...

This is from a drive that I went on up towards the Alpine Loop (but from the Provo Side) I love right now when the leaves are just starting to change and so there is still a lot of green mixed in with the bright fall colors.

This is the sunset out my window at work a few nights ago! How beautiful right?!?!?! I almost died when I saw it, and had to get a picture. It looked way more gorgeous as a regular sunset, not a picture, but you can kind of see how breath taking it was.

Summer Sno

One of the best jobs I have ever had was definitely working at Summer Sno. I have so many great memories of that shack and had so much fun spending my summers there. Today I had my last snow cone of the year because they are closing for the season. The best flavor: A blue Hawaiian creamie. So delicious!! You should definitely try it next year... then you can sport a blue tongue like me. :)

Y

Do you ever get these great ideas in your head and then follow through with them only to think, WHY did I do this while you are doing it?? Or how about get these ideas in your head that you think, ya I can do that because I'm tough and "sporty spice", but then realize that you are not in as great of shape as you though you were in and haven't been "sporty spice" for years. Well both of these things happened to me last week when I decided that i wanted to spend my day off work hiking. Which was great, but for someone who doesn't hike it was a big step. I did do two hikes though. I hiked the "Y" at like 11 in the morning, which I have to be honest was one of the worst ideas I've ever had... I'm such a baby and I hate walking up hill (yes I know i say that but then still went hiking... am I crazy? I may be...) no matter where I am, but on a hot morning, doing the "Y"... I was miserable and almost turned around like 10 times on the 2 mile hike, but continually talked myself out of it because lets be honest, it is a mile uphill. That is basically nothing and I couldn't let myself be that big of a baby. I did make it, and it was great once I was up there. I then went up to the Timp Trail head and hiked up to Stewart Falls, which was a much more enjoyable hike than the "Y" was so I'm very glad I powered through and just did it. Here are some pics:

The "Y"

Me sitting on the "Y" there were some other people up there w/ me who were nice enough to take this very flattering picture of me. So I thought I should at least put it up on the blog. :)
My self portrait on top of the "Y" doesn't the city look awesome in the background?? I think it totally does.
Here's a better. Provo without my head blocking the view.

Stewart falls hike:

The hike into the falls was so beautiful these are just some of the pretty views I got to see! I love the mountains. Hate the bugs, but love the mountains.

Me at the falls, I was trying to get them in the back ground, but try as I might I couldn't get one... And there wasn't a single other person there to take a pic for me, which I have to be honest, made being there that much cooler!
And this is the fall itself. How beautiful right?? I'm so glad that I went on this hike out of all of the hikes I could have gone on.

Zoo Animals

I have been wanting to go to the Zoo for forever!! I haven't been there for who knows how long and seriously... who doesn't love the Zoo.... So on Friday me and most of the family went up there. Carol and Phil came, Steve, Kell, Sarah, and Brecken, and Me, Mom and Dad took Kyle and Joey.

We had a blast seeing all of the animals. They have made a lot of changes since I was there last so it was very fun to see. The elephant house has changed, and so has the cat house. I kinda like the old elephant area better, but then new cat place is way cooler than the old one.

Here's the kids sticking out their little trunks for me while sitting on the Elephants big trunk.

Sarah seems much happier than I would be to be in such close proximity to that elephants bottom...

You can't really tell but there is a Zebra in the background of these pictures... So I technically did get some pictures of the animals, not just of people, while at the zoo. These boys are having fun and are excited to be here...

This one on the other hand I'm not so sure about... but at least I'm happy too right??

We rode the Carousel.. Well Me Carol and the kids rode the carousel... Mom held onto Brecken so he didn't fall off. Everyone else was too lame and sat off on the sidelines and watched. They have no idea what they missed out on. It was a blast.. not very long, but worth it all the same!

These two silly kids almost look related. Dad is in heaven after having a Lemon-lime snow cone, and you can tell that Brecken totally dug his Vanilla Orange ice cream.. Or maybe he hated it and that's why he smeared it all over his face instead of into his mouth.

My Grandpa used to always tell us this story about the kids in Salt Like who put their money together and adopted an elephant from a traveling circus. The plaque that mom and Carol are standing by is a picture of that elephant Princess Alice, and her baby, when they were still living in Liberty Park before the Zoo was built. SO AWESOME!

We got to see all of the monkeys which is my second favorite animals to see, but I have to be honest the ones that I took with me were still way cuter, I'd rather see any one of them than the ones that they keep at the Zoo. Seriously, Check out these little monkeys in Action...

The Kids had a blast playing in the play area... I think it was the funnest part for Kyle who when I asked him if he was having fun at the zoo replied, "All you do is walk around and look at the animals." I then asked him what I could do to make it so he was able to have fun at the zoo and he responded, "It would be fun if we could find a machine to make wax animals, or go to the playground or something." All of the Wax Animal machines have been permanently retired which makes me very sad, Kyle was also sad, but we were able to make it to the play area.

Check out this "Just Hatched" face!

I would not want these scary spiders to bite me

Don't worry, the teeth weren't really even that sharp, his head is fine.

This turtle was swimming through the wood chips in the rain

And this little turtle somehow climbed into the shell sideways... can not be a comfortable life

All in all our day at the zoo was a total blast!

FuN iN tHe SuN

I am very blessed to have some great friends, who just happened to invited me to tag along on their family vacation this year. Of course I said yes, who says no to a ten day vacation no matter where it is, but especially when it is to go to Disneyland, Sea World, and the Beach... We had a great time! The kids loved Disneyland, but probably not as much as I did, and we all had fun at Sea World. My favorite part of the trip was all of the time that we spent at the beach. The ocean is so beautiful and overpowering. It, along with all of the other beautiful things in the world, is one of the things that proves to me that God is real and does love us. He wouldn't have taken the time to create the beautiful scenery that surrounds us if he didn't love us.

I know I'm a little kid, but I love seeing the characters. Disneyland is so fun because it's the place where all of your childhood wishes and dreams come to life. Meeting the characters is totally one of those for me. I always knew that my cartoon hero's were real and that they just didn't look like us. Here are a few that I got to meet.

I know that Lexi looks really unhappy and scared, but I swear she really did want her pic taken with snow white, that is until we got up to her and she decided she didn't want her picture... Snow White called her bashful, and promised that she only had to stand by her for her pic.

Here is Megan, Jeremy, and Brecken all chilling at Disneyland. Look at those smiles, it must be the happiest place on earth!

This last one is of all of us waiting to start the Jungle ride, which just just happens to be one of the greatest rides at Disneyland. I love how your "tour guides" always make such dumb jokes that you can't help but laugh at. haha! So much fun, can't even wait until I get to go back. (Also notice how awesome it is that they guy behind Jeremy looks like he's very concerned about us taking a pic of ourselves... and looking directly at the camera. AWESOME)

Thanks Hall family for the awesome vacation!! Your the best friends a girl could ask for!!!

St. George Trip

Jenn and I went w/ our cousin Cynthia and her friends Dave and Ally (not that they can't be my friend too....) down to Southern Utah that the beginning of the month. It was pretty fun. We Played in Zions one day and then the next day we went into St. George and played in snow canyon for a while. We then walked around the St. George Temple for a bit and headed back home. It was a nice little get away, I'm now officially ready for another one (but I guess I can wait two more weeks for Eslcante) Here are a few of our fun pics!!! ( I can't take credit for most of them, I wish I could, but I didn't have my camera like the whole time pretty much so these are courtesy of everyone else on the trip. Thanks guys!) 

Zion's somewhere along the Emerald Pool's trail I believe.... 
Snow canyon... this is the "hike" to the place where the pioneers wrote their names on the wall of the canyon... I used the word "Hike" very liberally here... it was more like you got out of your car, stepped onto the trail and then the hike ended... haha great hike for the day after Zions fun in the sun when you are SUPER tired. haha!! 
This is us at the Temple... Yes, I do realize that the Temple is no where to be seen, but if you look under us you can see how pretty the grass was... 
This is somewhere else in Zion... I'm honestly not 100% sure where we were at this point... but I think we were on the Emerald Pools hike still...