Okay...But Really...

Okay, but really, my family is THE BEST!!! We took a family trip to St. George this weekend and it was so great. This might be a longer post, but I've gotta get it all down in writing before I forget everything.

Friday afternoon: Ellie (my car) and I left straight from work. The weather was kinda questionable, lots of snow, but nothing that she and I couldn't handle.

Friday Evening: Stopped in Cedar City to see my cousin Madalyn for a little bit, it was so great to see her and where she lives, I've never visited her in Cedar City before so it was a lot of fun.

Friday Night: Arrived in St. George at Vicki's. We just chilled at her place while waiting for everybody else to get there. We talked and caught up and watched the Olympics. Oh my whole family just loves the Olympics, it's a little ridiculous.

Late Friday Night: I met Melanie and Josh at the hotel and chilled with them and Rylee for a bit waiting for Troy's family to get there. It was so much fun to see the kids, especially after they'd been in the car all day, they were all so happy to just run around and goof off.

Later Friday Night: I decided to stop by the temple on my way back to Vicki's, it was really nice. Then Vicki and I spent a little more time having our sister talk and went to bed.

Saturday morning: Met everybody at the hotel for breakfast and then headed up to Red Cliffs, just outside St. George. It is this great little campground that has some fun, easy and pretty hikes. It was lightly raining most of the time but it wasn't too cold so the kids were able to have a good time climbing on the rocks and walking through the stream. They loved all of the little caves carved into the side of the mountain and they were so content just to explore.

Saturday afternoon: Met up with the folks and Kristi and Travis and headed over for glow in the dark mini golf. The younger kids didn't really understand, but they still had fun under the black lights. I pity the people that got stuck behind our huge group.

After that we went up to Dixie Rock to climb around some more, and of course, the kids loved it.

Saturday evening: We got Costco pizzas for dinner and wound up having to use the conference room at the hotel so we could all eat together because we wouldn't all fit into one of the hotel rooms. Hahaha, the hotel people thought it was kinda weird, but it was fun. The rest of the night we just spent time together laughing and telling stories. We joked about all the things we did when we were younger that our parents never knew about and it was funny to watch their reactions, they were shocked by a lot of it, it was great.

Sunday morning: Woke up, got ready, had breakfast, some went to church, some of us headed back up north. We were getting a new bishopric today so I wanted to be there for that. Unfortunately the weather was no good so it took me an extra hour to get home, but that's ok, it was good, quality solo time.

Overall, it was a perfect weekend, just what I needed. I love road trips and as crazy as it sounds, it is nice to take the drive by yourself sometimes. Nobody to rush you or slow you down, you can listen to whatever you want as loud as you want, and you can just think and be happy about life, it was great. It was even better to spend time with my family. I love love love spending time with them, especially when we are ALL together. As we were hiking around yesterday I thought to myself "Eternity is going to be so great with these people, I wouldn't want to spend it with another family in the world." I love them so much and I feel blessed to have them all be such a huge part of my life. :D

Oh, and even though it was drizzling down there most of the time, it was still soooooooo hard to say goodbye to vacation and think about work and school again. Hahaha!!

Now for Pictures: (feel free to check facebook for more, I just picked a few here.)

Ellie had a sheet of solid ice almost an inch thick

covering her front when we got home from

the storm. Ridiculous.

Davy at the Spiderman hole in

black light mini golf.

The whole family after the hike.

(Except me taking the picture.)

Davy and Jami bouldering up this

crevice, they LOVED it.

Tucked into a cave for a picture out of the rain

Rylee running around the hotel when

we got there. It is no longer an elevator,

but a "water-gater". She's a hoot.

Sleep Like A Girl

So I am sitting in the hotel with my brother in-law and niece and I am here to tell you that she is a crack up, I could listen to that girl laugh all day long. She was slightly skeptical about the hotel room at first, but she just curled up in her dads lap and said, "Is this our cute room we are going to sleep in tonight?" He said that it was, and that we were going to sleep here tomorrow night too. She again, looked slightly skeptical and so Josh said, "I'm going to sleep like a rock". Implying that he was going to get a good nights rest. She looked at him and said "Oh, I'm gonna sleep like a girl."

Learn to Live

Confession. I have this crazy insane passion for living life. Who knew? Maybe that's why the title of this blog is "The Lovin' Up Of Life". I was watching snowboard cross the other night and this song came on during the recap and it is my current fave. Please enjoy while reading the rest of this post.

I just want to take a moment to appreciate how great it is to live life to the fullest and to let you all know that life is what you make it. (Thank you Hannah Montana). I love being active and enjoying myself. Laughing = my favorite activity, ever. End of story. I dare you to try to have a 15 minute conversation with me without a single laugh or even a chuckle. It doesn't happen. Happy is my favorite emotion and that is what I strive for. And, to be happy, you've go to live life, you can't sit back and watch it pass you by. This song just says it all so perfectly. Amen Darius, amen.

Now go do something fun, life is so great.

P.S. This my last post before a family weekend in St. George. I can't wait!!!! Don't worry, I will post about it Sunday probably. :D

Soap Box

Two words: Apartment Shopping.

I have lived in the same apartment for almost 3 years and I am seriously considering a change of scenery, but my patience for apartment shopping is running thin. And I've only looked at one place.

I feel like BYU students get completely WORKED OVER when it comes to housing. Most of the single student complexes are at least 40 years old I swear. Luckily, the one I'm living in had been recently re-vamped, but looks can be deceiving, the place is falling apart. When you sit back and do the math, between me and my three roommates, we pay 1000 dollars A MONTH for rent. That is ridiculous for this little 2 bedroom 1 bathroom apartment. RIDICULOUS. That could be an entire monthly house payment for a fairly nice home. And with as old as this place is, there is no way the owners don't have it paid off, they just sit there and rake in over 40 grand a month from all of us poor college students.

I try really hard to be as financially savvy as possible, so I hate paying rent, period, because it is such a complete WASTE of money. I don't get anything back on it, nothing. Not a penny. I have generously given thousands of dollars to this apartment complex over the last few years and what have I received in return? Nothing more than a roof over my head. If I'm forkin' out that much, the place dang straight better have a reliable heater, but alas, it doesn't.

So, said complex is raising rent for next year, I don't know who they think they are to do this, but whatevs. So I began exploring other options. I went and looked at Alpine Village today because there is a fitness center so I could cancel my gym membership, but it was tiny, and not somewhere I want to live. I am also really trying to work out a way to live with Checko next year and we can just meet in the middle. I am pulling for American Fork because it's more central, but she is pretty set on Lehi, so we'll see what we find.

The moral of the story is...I HATE, with a fiery passion, apartment shopping in Provo. It's the pits. There is no win-win situation, just a "we are going to take mass amounts of your money and give you a crappy apartment in return" situation. Lame.

That's all. I'll step off my soap box now. Thank you.

Dance the Night Away

Haha, ok, so this is gonna come as a BIG shock. I can't dance. I am very much a white girl from Utah. When it comes to singing and playing the piano, I've can have crazy good rhythm. And I am a soccer player, so I am shockingly good with my feet. However, the two don't mix in my world. I never had dance as a little girl and have lacked coordination as a result. The worst part about this is that I still love to dance. I look like a freak, but I love to move my body and be a part of the beat.

Tonight there was a fundraiser hip-hop dance that one of the groups in my business class put on. I hooked them up with a fog machine so I was able to get in for free so Ali and I hit up the dance floor. There weren't very many people there but the D.J. was great so we had fun anyways.

Me and Ali

***Sidenote: I am watching the ski jumping qualifying round right now, and I just want everybody to know that I sincerely want to do ski jumping one day. It is one of those bucket list things, if I had a legit bucket list. One day, I will ski jump. Promise.

Guilty as Charged

Freaking out and literally shrieking in my car or in the bathroom (or really anytime I'm by myself) out of sheer joy. Guilty.

Today has been an insanely great day and I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe because last night one of my best friends, Checko, came down and stayed the night and we started making some sweet plans for life. Or maybe because I broke out my flip-flops out recently, best choice ever. Or maybe the kitchen I recently stocked with Costco goods. Or maybe playing with my magic bullet. Or maybe the AWESOME valentines I purchased for our work party. (They are hippie. And they come with tattoos.) Or maybe the fact that one of my classes got cancelled for tomorrow. Or maybe the fact that I helped twenty customers total (optimistically thinking) in my eight hours at work today. Or maybe the fact that I worked with some of my favorite people tonight. Or maybe the fact Hollywood Week has started on American Idol. Or maybe it was just kickin' it with the Ali and Katherine tonight. Who knows.

Alright alright, so it was probably all of these. But it has been one of those days where everything just makes you so happy that you just drive down the road with this big goofy grin on your face singing at the top of your lungs to the "Wicked" soundtrack. Or maybe that's just me.

I love days like today. :D

Futball Reminisce

Futball. AKA: The beautiful game.

This morning I was able to play in my first intramural game for the season. I left my cleats at home on accident so we had to swap around with the other girls when I got there and I wound up playing a sport based on your feet, wearing a size 7 cleat. I am a size 9. Was it worth cramming my poor little toes in there and then pounding them again and again? Most definitely. If any of you have ever talked soccer with me, you know that I love it.

I can't remember an age where I wasn't dribbling a ball at my feet all over the house and then shooting down our long hallway to bang the door open at the end and scream "GOAAAAAAAAAAAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Only to have my mother yell my name at the top of her lungs and tell me to stop kicking the ball in the house. Deep down she loved having so many athletic kids, I just know it. I played on a recreation team every fall and spring til the end of 5th grade and then went out for my first competition team. I didn't make it. However, at the same time, my coach that I'd always had, started putting a team together so I made that one easy. His name was Kelly Moller, just for the record. At this point, soccer became a year round sport. Seasons in spring and fall with tournaments all summer long and indoor in the winter. Ahhhhhhh...it was so great. Then I hit 9th grade and made the high school team and played on that for two great years. However, after my second year, I made a big choice to cut way back on soccer. The girls I was playing with at this point were not great examples for the most part, the high school coach was a monster in my eyes and I had no desire to play for someone like her. And I had so much on my plate with cadets, madrigals, student government, school (high school and associates degree) that spending a minimum of 3 hours a day at soccer just wasn't going to work. However, it was an easier choice than I expected.

At this point that I started coaching, which I loved. It was a new aspect of the game. I was able to help others learn as well as learn a lot myself. Also, not being ON a team made any chance I got to play, so much fun. I could go play barefooted at the park with my friends for hours and hours and be completely content. (And then go home with purple feet. Best part.)

Now that I am at BYU I have the opportunity to be on a team again. It is co-ed so it's a bit of a difference, but it is so great to play again. It's nice to be in a legit game on occasion so that you can play with aggression and knock people on their butts. (Because you don't really play like that when you are just playin' street ball). Anyways, moral of the story, I love soccer. A lot. I can't wait to be a mom one day and coach my little kids on their teams, it will be so great. And let's be honest, I have every intention of being the world's best soccer mom. Really. Minus the mini van. Because the best soccer moms drive SUV's. Just sayin.

Most of my good soccer pics aren't digital because nobody had

digital camera's then. But this is a pic from intramurals last year

Please enlarge it and tell me what's wrong with this picture.

I thought it was funny.