Tik Tok

So I might really like the song Tik Tok by Keisha. Is it an appropriate song? NOPE! I was first introduced to the song last year by my basketball team. They always listened to it on the bus. I had never heard it and finally I searched it out downloaded the song and listened to the lyrics. YIKES!! These little innocent girls should not be listening to that song. And neither should I but, seriously it has such a good beat. You know


Pedicure on my toes . . toes


I had my first pedicure on Saturday with Emily. It was lots of fun and I kept singing this verse of Tik Tok to the lady, she is so lucky.

I was advised by a sibling, he who will not be named, that boys actually do look at toes when they notice girls. Well ok now my toes are about the cutest thing ever so come on boys:)

(Dan killed my computer so I could not photoshop this picture so you could actually see the cute flowers)

Back to Tik Tok


Trying on all our clothes . . . clothes


I only dress up on the weekends now that I teach but anyone that has ever lived with me knows I always try on lots of different outfits in the morning to decide what to wear. Not so much now that I teach PE. On the weekends I sometimes fall back into this old habit. It usually results in a very messy bedroom.


Boys blowing up our phones . . . phones


Um not really one of my problems. Wish it was more of a problem but it was the last little phrase in the most tame verse of Tik Tok.


See I can really relate to that song now that I got a pedicure.


Today our combined 5th Sunday meeting was so good. It was on the vision of the tree of life and particularly on overcoming our personal mists of darkness. Do you think that I shouldn't listen to that song anymore? Probably not but I just love it.

Life Lesson

Never ever go to the movies without eating dinner first. Enough said.

Preparation

Can you believe I have to go back to work in three days? LAME!! I am so bummed. I always have a mini depression as I watch summer come to a close and school start again. Don't get me wrong I LOVE my job and I LOVE the school I work at but I also LOVE free time.

This week has not been too exciting I have just been doing all the little things to get ready for nine months of no free time. You know, the dentist (no cavities), the doctor (1st physical in 9 years still look healthy), the house cleaning, the house organizing, the lunches with friends, the long bike rides, the hiking, the sleeping in, the nap taking, all good things that will be forgotten in a few days.

Seriously this summer was great and I really do love being on a schedule and so that is the great thing about work. I also spend way less money when I am working, there another perk. I have not taken a nap the last two days, gotta break myself in. Prepare myself mentally for what is to come. So there you have it.

Don't worry my last two days of freedom will be spent biking, swimming with Jana and kids, dinner with the brothers and sister in law, playing basketball, one more doctor visit, a little more cleaning, some more hiking, hopefully some kayaking, and NO MORE MONEY SPENDING!!

Thanks for the picture Angelee!

Recovery Week . . . . Kind Of

I needed some downtime after the past six weeks. I have been on the go all summer and I am ready to sleep, a lot. This week my family was in town. I meant to take more pictures but it didn't happen. They came to celebrate Dan's graduation. Yea Dan! We went to Tucanos for lunch to celebrate. I will say I think I am one of the few people that does not love Tucanos. I just don't love meat and so I never feel like it is worth the money even for lunch. Ok I am a little cheap as well.

We also played games, went shopping in Park City, and hung out. But I have no pictures of all of those things. Ben and Katie also happened to be in town. They stayed at my house. It was fun having them around. They let me watch Olivia one day so of course I have pictures of that.

My cousin Katie and I took our nieces swimming. Olivia loves the water and she loved having so many girls playing with her.

Don't worry I am a terrible aunt. Right after I took the picture Olivia lunged for me and fell right in to the pool. It was a dive. She did so good to hold her breath and she didn't even cry. I was scared though.

Here is proof that she still had fun after the falling in experience.

And seriously if you have kids you need an underwater camera they are so fun.

The baby section was closed off so Olivia had to take a little break on the side because the water was a tad chilly. She did her favorite thing: eat sandals, YUM!

Then she let poop leak out all over the pool deck and I couldn't claim her as my own. Ummm call her parents to come clean it up. SICK. Who poops through the swimmy and the $6 plastic pants? Oh well we had lots of fun. She loves the water so it is so fun to swim with her.

I also decided to ride in the ULCER again this year. This definitely didn't go as planned. I signed up to do 111 miles but like the crazy person I am I played two soccer games last night (I even scored some goals just to prove to my team that they missed me on my 6 week vacation) and so this morning I was exhausted. Not necassarily a bad thing until I got off my bike 27 miles in and could barely walk. We are talking pain everywhere from the hips down. That sealed the deal and I decided 60 miles would have to be enough for today. I rode 60 and came home and slept for two and a half hours. And I am still very very sore. Maybe ready for another nap.

So this next week with all my family gone I plan on resting more and getting my house in order before I go back to work. Oh and I am sure I will bike a little and play basketball and soccer.

498.5

Last week I biked 498.5 miles. I must say that is an all time high for me and it was great fun. I participated in RAGBRAI, the registers annual great bike ride across Iowa. The ride is held every year and every year there is a different route. They accept 10,000 participants. But then there are anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 additional riders that join on each day. The weather cooperated, it only rained one day, and the ride itself was very nice. I have to laugh because I actually was really excited on the days we biked 60 miles. 60 became my new 25 as I biked across Iowa.

The ride started in Sioux City so we went and checked out all the pre-ride events. Let me tell you if you like to eat pork in all of its varieties this is the ride for you.

Each year the bikers bike from the Missouri River to the Mississippi River. So it is tradition to dip your back bike tire in the Missouri and when you finish your front tire in the Mississippi!


The ride itself is like being a part of one huge parade. Each town you ride through throws a huge party for you. The ride is also known as the party on wheels. There is lots of biking and beer to get all the bikers to each town. I would say for me it was the ice cream that got me from town to town. YUM!

There is no picture or words that can be used to describe what camp looked like each night. One policeman told us he had counted over 16,000 riders on a particular day. Well all those riders are sleeping in town at different parks and colleges. This is a picture of our camp on the first night in Sioux City. Never ending tents.

There were so many tents and they were all so close. People started to wake-up between 4:30 and 5 am each morning. You would hear cell phone alarms, tents zippers, and the portable toilet doors shutting. I could not sleep through this and so I decided I would be an early morning biker. The official start time is 6am and I was pretty close to starting at that time every day. The great thing about starting early was that I was done biking before the weather was too hot and I was a little ahead of the main crowd.

I got good at taking self portraits while biking. Not safe but FUN!

There was one day that we had the option to ride a century instead of the 81 mile ride. Amber and I did that and so that helped my mileage get closer to 500. The crazy thing is there were a handful of bikers that rode 100 miles everyday. They would finish the ride and then do it backwards until they would have the mileage. PSYCHO!! However I think that would be a great challenge now that I know my body responds well to biking so many miles.

All the towns had different themes for their parties and they all had unique picture opportunities.

My Uncle Lou and I planned our trip together. It was a lot of fun. And I felt safe knowing I had some protection in case someone got out of hand. We were excited to be done.

Some of my favorite things were:

• The Arkansas crew that pulled me 10 miles one day in a head wind and let me camp with them under the only covered picnic area on the day it rained. So nice. I seriously could have hugged them.
• Reading all the different team names. You can sign-up with a team and some of the names were so creative. My favorites were Team Donner Party "We eat the slow ones." A little inappropriate but hilarious. Team Buffalo, "Blowing wind since 1512." Team Sloughs. Team Too Slow. The list could go on and on but I can't remember them all.
• The beautiful landscape. It is so crazy to have no mountains in sight. So different from Utah but still so beautiful.
• Talking and meeting so many new people. Learning where they were from, what they do, why they love to bike.
• Being humbled. I thought I was doing pretty good to get over 2000 miles a year on my bike. It turns out that I am not at all a serious biker. I met a lady in her sixties that bikes over 30,000 miles a year and has for many many years.

All my gear for the week. It really was a great experience. I would definitely do it again.

It is so great to be home. I have slept in a tent a ton this summer but it has been a great summer.

Trinity Alps

40 miles in 4 days = One stinky girl (and some sore calves)

I have never backpacked in California so I was really excited. My Uncle Lou escorted me on a beautiful hike. We were next to a river the entire way which made it really nice. The temperatures were warm but overall it was a great trip.

My first time using my new tent. And I LOVE it!! I researched a lot before I bought a tent and found the best deal I could and I am not sorry it is so easy to set-up and roomy enough for a backpacking tent.

The second day we came to a cabin built in 1937. The man lived here on and off his entire adult life. It was a really neat cabin with a corral for his animals and a small tool shop that had caved in. The cabin was about 8 miles in. Quite a ways.

We hiked around 14 miles on day two. By 2:00pm I was exhausted. I just layed down and took some pictures from that position. I really enjoyed all the tall tall trees. There are so many variety of trees in Northern California. It really is beautiful.

Our destination Grizzly Meadows. The lake at the top of the waterfall is the water supply for the river we hiked along. The first sight of the falls is three miles away. When I saw it I thought you have got to be kidding me. Knowing deep down I still had a lot of hiking to do.

There were some firsts for me on this trip. First time I brought a book to read which was really nice, first time I saw a rattlesnake on the trail, first time I slipped an fell hard on a trail (big bruises on my shoulder to prove it), first time I crossed rivers (above the knee deep) and most importantly first time I saw a BEAR while backpacking. I saw two!!! Very nerve racking the first time because I was about 20 yards away and it had its back to me but very exciting.

The other crazy thing was that in four days on the trail I saw eight other people. It was really nice.

Super fun trip. Very hot but very fun. I was sure glad to take a shower when I got home. Hair should be washed more than once every four days.

I'm In Love . . . . .

with this little girl.

She is at the perfect age. She giggles and laughs and is so stink'n' cute! It has been so fun to be around her. I just can't get enough of her cute personality. Oh and when she laughs I love it!

I put up a few pictures because it is so much easier than emailing pictures to family. Seriously why can't you email lots of pictures at once.

And if you wonder who she looks like when she laughs wonder no more:)

Honey Run

SO FUN!! Even though there was a little drama. I should have known there was going to be trouble when I slipped and fell into the blackberry bushes before I ever got into the water. But all the scratches were worth it because it was a great day.

Anyone who knows me knows I love my family. I just love hanging out with them. This was one of the best times we have had in a long time. Just floating the river and hanging out. We even talked about how missed our siblings that were not there (Anthony, Sam, Amanda, and Dan).

Aaron using the paddle with your sandals method.

Ben and Katie just chilling.

My self portrait. I had my underwater camera tied to the drawsting of my shorts so yea not so many pictures of me which is fine.

Caleb, after a crash. He crashed in the first two rapids and then figured out how to manage the tube and didn't crash again.

Ben just enjoying the water.

A few miles in I got my tube caught on a metal stake under a bridge. The result was this:

Hard to see but a ginormous hole in my tube it went completely flat in less then a second. And I had to ride through the rapids on my but and I swallowed tons of water because I was laughing so hard.

Aaron and I tried to double up on a tube but after a little while I was decided I would find an outlet and walk. So I did (had to jump a fence and cross someones property illegally) and 3 miles later I was at the cars.

My tube popping didn't even ruin all the fun we had. It was a great day. Caleb's tube popped closer to the end and he floated a ways on his bum but everyone was all smiles when we finished.

We ended the day with some scratches and sunburns but we had so much fun. Let's do it again next summer!

What Summer is All About?

swimming

ice cream

relaxing

oh and did I mention swimming! Also biking but it is sooo hot in Oroville. I have to bike early or I am in trouble. I would also mention visiting friends but I didn't take any pictures last night. LAME!

Interesting Family Vacation

In theory this was going to be a great vacation. And it started out great. All the Browns in town for a family vacation. We all went to Oroville 1st ward for Fathers Day (except Aaron he was home puking) and came home and had a great dinner before we headed to the coast Monday morning.

Camp was set-up in record time. Ben and Katie were in charge of dinner so some of us headed to the beach!

Monday night we hung out at the campfire. We laughed and reminisced and planned for the week. So fun and everyone was in a great mood.

To get the whole story you need to know Ben was sick a few days before, and then Aaron was sick right before. Well Tuesday morning came around and Dan, Nancy, Sam, and Amanda were all very sick. We are talking don't leave the tent unless they are running to the restroom sick.

This is what Dan looked at the entire day and he didn't even tell one joke the whole time.

Wednesday came and some were feeling better but now Caleb was also sick. Those of us feeling better went and played. My uncle Lou took me, my Dad, and Aaron fishing on the ocean. Pretty fun but short lived because Aaron and my Dad did not handle the motion too well. (more puking) And here starts my dads problems.

Wednesday night people are feeling much better and camp is much cheerier and a few of us even sneak away for ice cream.

Wednesday night we again had a lively campfire. Here are Katie and I. The two of us along with my Mom never got sick, and Olivia thankfully.

Thursday morning we packed up but my Dad was now quite sick. We jump in the car and head home. About an hour and a half into the ride my Dad tells Aaron to pull over because he needs to stretch. Aaron pulls over and my Dad throws up all blood and passes out. Poor Aaron (as my Mom put it was all alone in the truck with my Dad) acted quick and called 911.

Four day later, an ambulance ride later, a blood transfusion later, 4 units of plasma later, lots of games in the hospital later, lots of biking in willits later, lots of prayers and worry later my Mom, dad, and I made it back to Oroville. We teased my dad that he just wanted more attention but it was another reminder of how fragile his health is. When he gets sick he gets really sick! It was a long week and I am glad it is over.

I must say that the highlight of the entire trip was Olivia. She is just so cute and was the center of attention. Can't get enough of that cute face!

Now I am in Oroville until July 11th. What am I going to do? Call me if you are around that is a long time:)

More South Dakota

South Dakota had all these little towns that were basically just there for tourism. We walked through two of them Hill City and Keystone.

Here is one more short of Harney Peak.

A front view of the Presidents

Independence Rock is also out there in the Wyoming vastness. It is now a rest area. It was nice to stretch the legs and read a little about the pioneers.

And I have never stood next to a covered wagon but this thing is huge. It was easy to see why people were killed if they got caught under the wheel.

And here I am in Wamsutter, Wyoming. My Dad owns some land there. He bought it way back before he was married. It was an investment. The only problem was that the town has not changed since he bought it way back when.

South Dakota was a gold rush state so there were also lots of little ghost towns and really old buildings. Always interesting to check out.