Rice Krispies Sculptures

Tonight for FHE we made Rice Krispies sculptures. Messy... but fun. Here is what our group came up with....Brent and I made a turtle, a beaver and a heart.... don't know why... just what we did.

Fake Smile

Sometimes.... Brent and I look at each other like this. Why? Because we think it is funny.

Floral Design 6

Tonight we had our Enrichment Floral Design class. As you know... I am a regular. Love this class. In fact, I am really going to miss it. Pretty sure this was my last one. So thank you Melissa for bringing happiness and craftiness into my life this year. :o) You are awesome and talented.
Tonight we used fun summer flowers for our arrangement. I loved the colors. Then we chose a piece of scrapbook paper and rolled it up, stapled it, tied some ribbon on it and wala! You can hang it on the door. Super cute. I would never think of all these ideas on my own. I love learning new and creative things.

Stewart Falls

This summer our family home evening activities have actually been pretty fun, which is a nice change from what it was over the year. This last Monday we hiked to Stewart Falls, which is by Aspen Grove for those who don't know where it is (and know where Aspen Grove is). It was a great idea to hike for FHE. The planning of the hike on the other hand was pretty poor. Hiking in was fine, but we didn't leave early enough... so by the time we were hiking our two miles back, we could hardly see a thing. The moon was even bright out. It made the hike back not so enjoyable. Once we got there we took a couple pictures and turned right back because we knew i was going to be dark. You can't even see the waterfall in our pictures because it was too dark. Sad. I brightened up the picture of me and my roommate Ashlee so you could kind of see the water. The picture with Brent... there was no chance, so I just cropped it. Overall it was still a good idea and we all had fun.

People gave me a hard time because I hiked in flip flops. I was fine... just got a little dirty is all.



Here is what the falls look like during the day.

Camping with the Symes

My friend Desiree (which if you read my blog should know who she is from all the times I have blogged about our double dates) reads my blog, and we write back and forth everyday while at work, so we always know what is going on with each other. Last time Brent and I went camping Desiree decided she wanted to come with us next time because she and Chuck had never really been camping together. So we planned it and did just that. This weekend we went up American Fork Canyon and camped at the same spot that Brent and I did last fall. We had a little bit of a late start, but once we set up camp, it was a lot of fun. We brought up two dutch ovens. In one, we made pizza... it turned out ok. In the other one we made peach cobbler... it turned out awesome. We even brought up some vanilla ice cream in the cooler to eat with the warm cobbler. It really hit the spot. Next morning we packed up camp and found a picnic area down the canyon a bit and Chuck and Desiree made blueberry pancakes, eggs and bacon. So yummy and then we played Phase 10 and then headed home. It was very simple, but it was so nice to be out in nature and enjoying each others company. It was so beautiful up the canyon. We fell asleep to the sound of the river near by and the bright stars above. It was a great time and we always enjoy hanging out with Chuck and Desiree. They have become very good friends. Thanks for a good time!

Dinkey Creek

Any of my friends that have known me for a long time know that Dinkey Creek is near and dear to my heart. I decided to do a memory post of Dinkey Creek because not only did I run into some old friends that I know from there, but this is also the month that we would go every summer.
Dinkey Creek has an interesting history with our family. It started with my grandparents when they were in the Compton California ward. My mom will probably need to correct me, or add more to what I know, but they had some sort of club and the club from the ward decided to vacation together up in the Sierra mountains in a City called Dinkey Creek at a camp called Camp Fresno Jr. I guess it was so much fun they decided to go every year after that. So my mom grew up going to Dinkey Creek every year with her family and the same groups of people went every year. No matter where people ended up living years down the road they would all meet up during the summer for a week at Dinkey Creek. My grandparents passed many years ago, but my mom continued to go and take our family. So I grew up going to Dinkey Creek every year since I was a baby. The love of Dinkey Creek was passed through the generations. The people at camp became like family that you see once a year.
The camp is a blast! Everyone stays in the same two cabins, separated by little room dividers. The teenage girls get their own cabin and the teenage boys get their own cabin. So you can only imagine how fun it is for the teenagers. There was always some romance with the teenagers. The hire a cook for the week, we are served breakfast, pack lunches and then a big dinner. They have craft time for the kids, everyone goes out and swims all day at different parts of the creek or goes down to Shaver Lake. Then at night after dinner they have game nights (everyone gets really into horse shoes and ping pong) and they have skit night and there is always a camp fire where many gather around to chat a relax before they go to bed.
I have so many great memories there. Sadly they can't get enough people to go anymore. So in the past few years it has been cancelled. In fact I don't know if anyone will try and make it happen anymore, which breaks my heart. But I really hope Dinkey Creek lives on through my family. Hopefully we can at least get our family up there a couple times. I truly love it there. The smell of pine, the beautiful Forrest, the candy store up the road, the historical bridge, all the fun places we would swim and hike to and of course all the great people that I know from there. Dinkey Creek, I love you!


Everyone at the camp
Lolly came up to see me from when she was home in Fresno! We had some fun at Shaver Lake


Skit Night! We were singing Man of Constant Sorrow from "Oh Brother Where Art Thou?"

Weekend in Vegas

This last weekend Brent and I went to Vegas. #1- because Brent had never been before #2- to visit my friend Lolly and her cute family. She has been such a great friend of mine for several years, I like to go visit her at least once a year #3- to visit Brent's brother Brian, which is how we spent most of the trip. It was a lot of fun. Brent and I had a great drive there and back. Then we went straight to Lolly's house that Friday afternoon and Brent and Lolly finally got to meet each other. I talk about them to each other a lot. We hung out then went out to dinner.


Then we headed over to Brian's house on the other side of town and met some of his Vegas friends and went to sing at this Karaoke place at some casino. I thought it was pretty awesome. Super low key, everyone got to sing at least once, and there are some regulars at this karaoke place. Ernesto, an older gentleman who sings purely Frank Sinatra. It was great, it reminded me of an older guy on the cruise that I went on. Then there was an Asian lady who was also a regular who was pretty good. She told me that I did a great job singing "Natural Woman" and said that we should come back more often. If only I was not five hours away... I probably would take her up on it. After I was done singing "Natural Woman" by Aretha Franklin (Queen of Soul) a man in the audience (one of the few people there) told me I was a natural woman while he traced my curves in the air. Besides that, it was tons a fun. And the fact that half the people are drunk and are tone deaf makes it that much more entertaining!


The next morning we got up early and drove about an hour and a half crossing over into AZ and rented kayaks at this lake. The water was really cold, but it was an amazingly hot day. I mean... I thought it was getting hot in Utah when it started to hit 100 degrees, but this made Utah seem like nothing. So the water was refreshing, swimming and kayaking was fun/tiring, and I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't get burnt to a crisp.


On our way back we stopped and took some pictures at the Hoover Dam. It is a huge tourist attraction after all. I believe it is #5 on the top 10 Architectural Wonders of the World.

5. Hoover Dam, Border of Arizona and Nevada

Hoover Dam, originally known as Boulder Dam, is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the U.S. states of Arizona and Nevada. Hoover Dam is one of the world's largest hydro-electric generating stations. Hoover Dam is one of the most jaw-dropping sites in the US. The dam is named after America's 31st president, Herbert Hoover, who played a large role in bringing the nearby states into agreement about water allocations, settling a 25-year controversy. One more great thing about this dam is it was completed ahead of schedule. Construction began in 1931 and finished in 1936. Two years ahead of schedule and well under budget.

After a long day, there was still more. I have always wanted to see the Broadway musical production of The Lion King, so when Lolly told me it was playing in Vegas, I had to get tickets. So when we got home from the lake, everyone else went to see a community production of West Side Story and Brent and I got ready and headed over to the Mandalay Bay, where Lion King was being performed. Brent had never seen a Broadway musical production, so I was excited for the both of us. It did not disappoint! The costumes were amazing. They do an amazing job of playing animals. I think my favorite costumes were the giraffes and the leopards. But it is hard to say, I loved too many of them. My favorite song was either "Shadow lands" or "He lives in you". Such a great show. I recommend it. Brent loved it too. So that was a highlight of my trip. We didn't get home until 11:30 that night and I crashed on the couch, I was so tired. Sunday we slept in, had a big waffle brunch, went to Brian's ward... where I ran into The Davis's which are some Dinkey Creek friends for those of you who even know what that is. If not... I will be blogging about it soon. Then we went to see Lolly one last time and then drove home. It was a quick trip, but we got a lot in and had a really great time. Now it is back to work. Thanks to everyone who made it a great trip!