Summertime!

Sorry I've been a blogging slacker. I really have no excuse since I have plenty of time, and plenty of adventures. I'll try to do better in the future.

This has been an incredible summer. If I could imagine a perfect summer, it would include: being busy most of the time (aka, work), hang out time, friends, family, road trip, swimming, reading, dancing, making new friends, and tan lines. To let ya'll imagine how awesome my life is, I'll give an example of a typical summer day.

5:15 am- wake up and get ready for work

6:00 am-2:30 pm - work: climb trees, learn how to use the chain saw, go on donut runs to the Provo Bakery (occasionally: toasted coconut donuts are amazing!), talk with my co-workers, get tan and dirty, etc.

3:00 pm - go swimming/sun bathe.

4:00 pm - take a shower

4:30 pm - read a book, talk with Melinda and Jerin, or facebook.

6:00 pm - run errands like grocery store or Provo City Library

Evening - FHE on Monday, Dessert Night or Social Dance Club on Tuesday, relax on Wednesday, Blues dance on Thursday, Salt Lake swing dance on Friday, and Swing dance @ BYU on Saturday.

Go to bed early if possible.

Yeah, it's wonderful, especially once you add things like hanging out with Lisa and Cameron or Mailee, ward activities, vacations to Europe or Seattle, and random other activities.

Things I wish I could change about the summer: more variation/better food (mine tends to be the same or non-existant), family nearby for 4th of July, more hiking, camping, etc. That's about all. It's great. Oh, and air conditioning might be nice, too. :)

Ballet?

This morning was an interesting experience.  I decided to go to Ballet Club with Melinda.  I was kind of apprehensive about this, since the dancing I'm used to - ballroom and swing - uses completely different body and posture forms.  And I haven't done ballet before.  Melinda let me borrow a leotard (which was in itself weird, because ballet leos have no sparkles, no sequins, nothing flashy like the gymnastics leotards I'm used to) and ballet flats.  I figured if I'm going to be doing a gymnastics class this fall, my dance element needs a lot of help first.  It was fun.  In a 'I have no idea what I'm doing and everyone can tell' sort of way.  I actually only did the bar part, not center floor.  I was hopelessly lost during the combinations and some of the skills.  It didn't help that it's the last day of club for the semester, so there were people there preparing for their finals.  Hopefully if I keep going throughout the summer, I'll be a little more capable when it comes time for me to dance on the high beam, or on the floor.  

 (PS - I found out the the BYU gymnastics gym has a power trampoline - yay!!!)

Warmth on a Cold Day

So this week has been cold, wet, and yucky.  Today was particularly strong in all three of the said adjectives.  I was going to just do some training at work (aka, watch arboriculture cds), but they wouldn't play on my laptop.  So I went home about five hours early.  I decided to make myself a cup of hot chocolate.  It ended up being a masterpiece of heavenly flavor!

Hot chocolate (made with milk, not water; Swiss Miss w/marshmallows), whipped cream, and chocolate shavings.  Pretty much perfect.  

Tree Climbing Pictures

The other day I had Michelle (the other girl on the crew) take pictures of me climbing the practice tree.  So now i'll post some. :)

Swing Performance!

This afternoon was my first time performing with our team. We were nice and public, in the main courtyardish area outside the Wilkinson Student Center. It turned out that of the five couple on our team, we only had 2 that could perform - me & Lars, and Adam & Holly (who don't normally dance together). So that turned out kinda crappy, but for a first, it wasn't too bad. Here's the vids:

That's the other team, coached by Scott. I thought they did awesome.

Here's us:

Perfect Day

Since yesterday was wonderfully perfect, I must write about it, and explain why I call it perfect.  

First of all, I got to sleep in.  Until almost 10!  I haven't slept in that late in...a couple of weeks, at least.  Then our ward breakfast was cancelled, so Mindy and I made a big breakfast of hash browns, eggs, sausage, and toast.  It was delicious!  

Jerin came over, and we decided to go on a hike.  (Mindy and Kayla had both left for the weekend, at this point).  We drove up Provo canyon, stopped at Bridal Veil Falls, because I've 

never seen it, and then drove up past Sundance.  There was still too much snow to hike

 anywhere up there, but we had fun driving on the curvy mountain road, and got out and took some fun pictures.  Then we drove back down the canyon and went over to Rock Canyon.  We hiked up the trail a ways, but on our way back, we had a fun adventure hiking on the stream bed.  We did some scree jumping - jumping from boulder to boulder - and climbed over or under big fallen logs, etc.  After that awesome fun adventure, we had a picnic at the fields near Wyview [where we live] and threw a frisbee around.  The weather was so beautifully nice - around 60 degrees, and sunny, hardly any breeze - that we tried to be outside as long as we possibly could.  

 

Then I went to IFA to buy some gloves for tree climbing (success!) and did some homework (not 

as successful!)  Then Jerin came over and we ate some Banana Cream pie to celebrate Pi day!  It was delicious.  

And last, but not least, swing dancing!  I got there around 7, when the lessons start.  They taught us the Shim Sham, which is a sweet line dance created by Frankie Manning (who pretty much originated swing).  We practiced our team routine a bit too, since we'll be performing it on Tuesday (i'll try to get someone to video it).  Fun dancing, plus, Em Hardman showed up!  It was so much fun to hang out with her and Jessame Peterson.  

All in all, it was a wonderful, glorious, perfect day.  Being outside with such great weather, plus swing dancing to finish it off - what more could i ask for?!

Update and Outlook

It's been a while since I've posted anything here.  I figure the most significant thing during the interim was Andrew and Lindsay's wedding, and as a family have posted about 4 albums on Facebook, so I won't go over that now.  Suficeth to say, it was awesome.  I'm so excited to have a new sister!  Although the recepetion was ridiculously crowded, it was much fun to see people I knew but haven't seen in a long time (Aunt Kara, Mary Kirby, Kelsey Hahne, and everyone else).  One of my favorite parts was the awkward family pictures.  

Since then, I've gotten back into school, work, and dance.  Everything seems to be going fine, except the weather.   We had 60 degree weather for a couple of days, but then it snowed an

d pushed us back into the 20s and 30s. Brr.  I really just want it to be warm for good.  There are only about 6 weeks of this semester left.  It's gone by so fast! I'm so excited for this summer!  I've got such plans...

April - Finish with Finals (April 22).  Hike Mt. Timpanogas (probably April 24).  Mindy and I will move to our new apartment April 25.  Visit home for Lisa's wedding and stuff.

May - Finish Lisa's wedding and whatever other family stuff.  Work full time on the tree crew.  Run. Dance. Hike.  Go to a Swing Dance Camp in Seattle (May 28-30). (http://www.campjitterbug.com/)

June - Go to Europe with my Tina Sister and hang out with my family and the Smiths. 

 Work on the tree crew. Run. Dance. Hike. 

July - Work on the tree crew. Run. Dance. Hike.  Celebrate Alyna's homecoming.

July/August - Fly to Tennessee to visit roommate Kayla, and Mindy & Jeran, and Aunt Kara.  I don't know when, yet.

August - Work on the tree crew.  Run. Dance. Hike.

Sounds fun, ya?  I'm really excited for it all... :)