Stay Tuned...

I know it's been forever since I've updated my blog. Several people who actually read my blog have been giving me a hard time. What can I say, life gets busy as you all understand. I definitely stay up to date on reading everyone else's blogs but I tend to neglect my own. Besides I have so much that I would like to blog about that it becomes overwhelming. Hopefully I will have some time over the winter break to catch up. School is out for two weeks and I am so thrilled. I love the Holidays and what makes them even better is not having to work during them. I also have wrapped up my two psychology classes and I did very well. They were both so fascinating. Next step is to take the GRE or MAT and then apply for the masters program to start next fall. It will be nice not to be a student for a little bit. So stay tuned, I'll be updating very soon. Don't be alarmed when you are reading stuff that happened clear back in August, it's all for my own record keeping sake.

On Top of the World

My Mom, Mike B., Kara, and I had been talking about hiking the Wellsville's for several years. I have hiked the Wellsville Mountains once before but I was in high school. We decided to make it happen this last summer but kept putting it off and rescheduling, partly because of my surgery. We finally did it on Saturday August 29th.

We left my mom's at 5:00 am so we could do most of our hiking in the morning when it would be cooler. When we got to the base of the Wellsville's the sun was just starting to rise and it was beautiful.

We did a little stretching before starting our journey.

Here's the gang minus Kara before we started our ascent. Ramsey, Me, Mom, Mike B., and Mary.

The trail was so pretty.

The first few of the valley about a 1/4 of the way up.

Getting closer to the top.

Here we are at the first ridge at the top. The last time I hiked the Wellsville's this was as far as we went. The view was incredible from this point but I'm glad we kept going. We had to stop and take several pictures by this cool rock.

My Mom and a good family friend Mary.

A look over Cache Valley from the very top. It was fun to find our house and pick out other landmarks.

The view into Box Elder County

Ramsey and Mike carried this log for quite a distance so that we would have a place to sit at the top. Ramsey looks real tough:)

We enjoyed a light lunch at the top and sat around for awhile enjoying the view. It was tough to leave.

Kara and I kept singing the famous Carpenters song: "We're on top of the world looking down on creation..." It was so breathtaking up there and completely worth the tough hike.

Luckily the sky was fairly overcast so it wasn't too hot. The hike down was the worst part! The clouds broke by that point so it was really hot. I always hate going down! It definitely is the hardest part for me. My big toe was bruised for several months and my toe nail fell off a couple weeks ago because of it, disgusting I know, but it was worth it. This hike definitely is not for the faint in heart but if I can do it just about anyone can. I highly recommend doing it at least once in your lifetime. I look forward to hiking the Wellsville's again in another 5-10 years or so. Any takers?

Tinfoil Dinners

One of my favorite things about summer is having bonfires. On August 19th I invited some friends over to make tinfoil dinners. At my condo there is a sweet fire pit and picnic tables that hardly ever get used. It has been fun to invite friends and family over during the summers to have tinfoil dinners. I definitely don't take advantage of it enough, especially because it is practically out my front door. That is one thing I will miss if I ever move.

Haylie, Chris, and Missy

Elissa and I showing off our dinner.

This was Heather's first time having a tin-foil dinner, apparently they do things differently at girls camp in California.

Kimi and Heather around the fire

Kimi, Heather, Betsy, and I

Heather, Betsy, and Kelli

Haylie, Nancy, and Kimi

I had to show off my banana boat, a new trick I learned this year and they are tasty!

As always we had a great time and great conversation around the fire.

A visit to Minersville, UT

From August 13-15th I went with Shawna, one of my best friends from High School, down to Minersville, Utah to visit Cherstie and Jared Woolf's family. Jared is also a friend from high school and Cherstie is a close friend from College. Shawna and I are proud to say that we introduced these two. I hadn't seen the Woolf family in probably 2 years and I never get to spend enough time with Shawna so this trip was great. I was nervous about going just 3 days after my surgery but luckily the recovery was going so well I decided to go anyway. I knew Shawna and Cherstie would take good care of me if I needed anything.

Jared and Cherstie were great hosts. They moved into a new house in May so it was fun to see what they had worked so hard on. It is a beautiful home. I have never been to Minersville but have heard so much about it from Cherstie, it was fun to see the place. It definitely is a small town and has all of the great things you can imagine about a small town. It just so happened to be the Beaver County fair in Minersville while we were there so we were entertained every night at the fair. The fair was about 5 times smaller than the Cache County Fair and it was definitely an experience. It was also fun to meet all of Cherstie's family.

Here is Tommy and Henry (2 of Cherstie's 3 boys) and DeNaer (Shawna's little boy). They had a lot of fun playing together.

Thanks Shawna for inviting me along and Cherstie and Jared for being so welcoming!

Andersons move to Colorado Springs

My oldest sister Jessica and her family moved to Colorado Springs the 1st of August. I watched her kids for several days while they moved out there to give them some time to get settled in without the kids. On August 6th I drove her kids to Colorado Springs along with my Mom, Dad, sister Mandy and her kids. It was a REALLY long drive. I knew it would take about 12 hours but it ended up taking us the whole day, thank goodness for DVD players, Nintendo DS and Ipods to keep the kids entertained during the long drive.

We spent most of our time there assembling stuff Jess had bought from Ikea and helping to finish the unpacking. When we left she was pretty well settled in. We did get to visit the Garden of the Gods while we were there. It was really beautiful.

I spent most of my time helping assemble Jessica's home office since everything came from Ikea. It looked great in the end.

Ella on the stairs in the entryway in her new home, she was excited about the new place.

They bought a beautiful home in a nice neighborhood.

It was very hard to say goodbye! Pretty sure we cried for a good 10 minutes in the car. I sure do miss them and look forward to going back for a visit so I can see more of Colorado Springs.