Goats and Zombies

In honor of Halloween:

1) One of my favorite videos that I know I have posted at least once before. Please enjoy it as much as I do: http://www.hulu.com/watch/189400

2) Family trip to the pumpkin patch!

3) Zombie chase. We were volunteers. Got zombified, and then proceeded to attempt to scare the racers in bright morning sunrise. Let me tell ya, not such an easy task. And then before long it was time for the paintball section. AKA stand there and let race participants shoot paintballs at you. Before this weekend I had never been hit with a paintball before. I thought hey whats the big deal, we'll just be good sports and have fun with it. When I asked Rachel how bad it hurt she told me to imagine a little tiny fist punching me really hard. After experiencing it, i'd say thats pretty accurate, as long as you factor in the nice painful sting that goes along with it. Oh, and the welts and bruises. Yep, legs are covered in them. Awesome. But really, it was pretty fun and a good use of a saturday morning. Now, i'm not sure I can say the same thing about the rest of the day... since we all slept... for a long time... like pretty much all day. Lazy bums, I know.

Happy Halloween friends! Eat a lot of candy and be happy.

The Disneyland Report

At this time 9 days ago I felt like a little kid on Christmas Eve. Excited. Anxious. Energized. Restless. Why? Because I was in a car on the way to "the happiest place on earth." Thats right friends, we went tooooooo... DISNEYLAND!!!!

It all started a few weeks back when Rachel decided was just itching to make the trip. Back in April the Thompson's did what they do best and made their trip to Disneyland... sans Rachel. She just couldn't take it anymore. So she called up her uncle who works for Disney and just like that, we suddenly miraculously had four free tickets and a plan. Less than 2 weeks of school flew by and before we knew it we were sprinting from ride to ride wondering, how did we even get here?! 

It was the BEST. 18 hours of straight fun. No naps. No breaks (unless you count riding the train while we ate our lunch). Tower of Terror. California Screamin'. Thunder Mountain. Splash Mountain. Matterhorn. Big freaky swingy ferris wheel. Cars Land - which by the way is new and SO sweet. Swings. The Tiki Room. The river ride. Pirates of the Caribbean. The Haunted Mansion. Soarin' Over California. World of Color. Firework show. And so much more. We did everything we wanted to do. And guess what... we did it almost without waiting in any lines. No, we did not have VIP passes. No, it was not an empty day at the parks (quite the contrary, actually). But we did have a secret magical power that told us exactly where to be and when to be there so that we could avoid lines and get to everything that we wanted to. The average line wait time for us was probably 10-15 minutes, even for the most popular and crowded attractions. We rode California Screamin' twice in a row and walked right on both times. I tell you, it was amazing. And we got the best little system down for going from ride to ride. We had our matchy matchy shirts on and we each had a backpack on and between each ride, one of us would take the lead and start running and weaving through the crowd. We each latched on to the backpack in front of us and away we went! It took some skill to stay on balance and in line, but we mastered the technique before long.

At the end of the day, our feet were tired and our bodies were dead, but our spirits were renewed. For an entire day we immersed ourselves in the joy of disney. For an entire weekend we ditched school and our Provo/Rexburg lives and soaked up the fun of a road trip. Friendships were strengthened. Memories were made. Its a weekend we'll never forget!

Load up the car, and here we goooo!!!!

 Prius = amazing gas milage. I spent less than $100 for the weekend - including gas, food, motel, AND GOING TO DISNEYLAND/CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE.

We made it!!

Disneyland was all decorated for Halloween which was super cool.

Yeah baby. First ride. Toy Story. We are really here. Lets do it.

 California Screamin' take one.

 California Screamin' take two.

California Screamin' take THREE.

 Tower of Terror.

{Jealous yet? ;-)}

Splash Mountain.

Swings!! Unfortunately we did this following two times on California Screamin' and the swingy ferris wheel... my tummy needed a little break for a while so I could feel 100% again. Weak sauce, I know.

The very center of Disneyland.

 The rain and clouds dampened our clothes and hair, but not our spirits! SO happy to be there!

World of Color was without a doubt one of the coolest things I have ever seen. I was blown away. It gave me happy goose bumps so many times as I was reminded of some of my childhood favorites from Disney. Awesome awesome awesome. I would totally youtube it so you can see more of what it is all about if you've never seen it.

Monday morning dawned and we were back to reality. Its not surprising however that some of us slept in and skipped a few classes throughout the day. Disneyland (and Rachel's awesome uncle) gave us an incredible and once in a lifetime gift last weekend, and we will forever be grateful :)

They Always Make Me Smile

Tales from my weekend excursion to Disneyland coming soon, I promise.

Until then, check out the loves of my life. I'm telling you, they don't come any more beautiful than this.

24 days.

53 days.

 ... AND COUNTING!

DISNEYLAND

Sooo I was thinking I'd just go ahead and pop over to Disneyland for the weekend.

Tough Mudder Brother

So, I have a big brother. Well actually I have two of them. But today's post is just focused on one of them. 

It's Robby.

I feel sad for all those people out there who don't have a big brother. A big brother is just special. Yeah sure, he might torment and tease you when you're little, but at least he had cute high school friends :) Then you grow up and he becomes your friend. The five years between you don't matter as much anymore. He lets you join his college soccer team with all his buddies. He picks you up from school so that you don't have to walk home alone in the dark. He takes a class with you. He marries an awesome girl who makes you a bridesmaid. He feeds you sunday dinner. He runs half marathons with you. He lives right upstairs from you, and he lets you borrow chocolate chips, as long as he can borrow butter. You just know that no matter what, your brother is there for you. Its good stuff.

Early this year, Rob set a goal to compete in Utah's Tough Mudder. If you don't know what it is, click here and prepare to be amazed. Last weekend was the big weekend. Diane, Christie, their mom Jackie and I all went to Tooele to watch and cheer him on. It was a blast. Rob powered through this 11ish mile course and finished 5th in his heat out of a LOT of people. It was amazing. Inspiring. Incredible. Awesome. And i'm glad I was there to witness it.

The morning dawned bright, clear, windy, and cold. Its time for some Tough Mudder y'all.

See him there right at the front? Yeah he held that position through the whole thing.

Time to get pumped up.

Off he went. And then the four of us were faced with a challenge of our own: looking at the stupid little map and figuring out where to be and when so that we could see him dominate the obstacles. I learned that I would not be good at The Amazing Race. Thankfully, Christie was a pro and before long we figured out a system.

Emerging from the underground army crawl. My favorite picture from the day.

An easy climbing wall for a practiced climber.

Had to do a bunch of these in a row.

TOO STRONG.

The little sisters :)

Wish I had been able to see this one in person.

While he worked his butt off, we got to enjoy the gorgeous (but seriously, really cold) morning out in the country. Its sights like these and the feelings that I get there that make me feel like I could totally be a country girl.

Right before he got to this obstacle they pulled a dead frozen groundhog from the water. 

Yum.

So. This was my personal favorite part of the day, because I actually got to participate! This was the Wounded Warrior carry. The only two other people around went piggy back, and Robby wasn't about to be weak sauce and just skip this one. He was there. I was there. And in a flash he had thrown me over his shoulders and was carrying me through the obstacle.

So, time out for a minute while I get cheesy. This is what big brothers are all about. They carry you through when you need help. Without any hesitation they use all their big brother brute strength to carry you mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and yeah, sometimes even physically. What better way could my earthly brother have exemplified my heavenly brother, my Savior Jesus Christ, as he lifted me and carried me through this obstacle? At the time I laughed and screamed and worried about getting all wet, but looking back I hope it is a moment that I never forget. Now if only there had been someone else there to take pictures. But that was my job at this station, and I was a little busy trying to think "light thoughts" so that maybe i'd feel like a feather instead of an elephant on his shoulders.

Jump!

Welcome to Tooele. I guarantee that unless you're from Utah or you look it up, you won't say that city name correctly.

One of the hardest obstacles, and he did it like it was child's play. Everyone else we watched really struggled with it and took several tries. First try, he flew up it. And then proceeded to help two more people who never would have made it without him.

At the very end, they ran through these wires that all had voltage running through them. Definitely a highly entertaining thing to watch.  

#5!

Good job Robby, so proud of you!

Dude. Internet has been down since Thursday. It's back. This is exciting. Here's to hoping it lasts.

Parker's Eagle

A couple weekends ago my awesome little cousin Parker did his Eagle Scout Project. My roommates and I were lucky enough to be able to go and help out. It was great fun to dig in the mud, haul rocks, and stamp down lots of dirt as we made bridges over streams on a bike trail. I mean come on, who doesn't like to get nice and filthy on an incredibly beautiful and sunny fall saturday morning? The autumn colors were in full bloom and we were surrounded by all sorts of bright colors as we drove through Payson canyon. I am super proud of Parker and we all felt lucky to be able to him help out and enjoy a wonderful day with good people and good weather.

It was a shivery cold morning that we weren't quite prepared for. Fall is here!!! :)

 Too early for us...

 

 

 Seriously. Check out those trees.

 All done and ready for naps.

 

 Had to get a ride in the Jeep before heading home.

 CHRIIIISTIE! BUCKLE UP!