it would appear that levi is in pretty much every picture these days.

So good news, Levi likes to build things. One night after FHE he wanted to go to Home Depot which is pretty much his favorite store in the world. It's like if I went to Daylight Donuts or Target or something. I mean, seriously. He loves it. He could go there every day.

Levi is also super into fixing our cars on his own. Which is actually pretty amazing. Saved us a tonnnn (and I mean a TON of money) fixing one of our cars a couple months ago. Had a super sore back after being bent over the car for 9 hours, but still. A TON of money. And we drove the car to Utah and back the week after he fixed it. Oh yeah!

Also, Levi likes to build things and so does Mitchell. Somehow Levi convinced Mitchell to buy a table saw (Mitchell says he wanted it, but I'm still a little worried that Levi may have pulled out some of his bullying tactics from his playground days to get Mitchell to buy it...) Anyway, Levi designed a guitar pedal board and that was their first project on the new table saw. It turned out pretty awesome. Since then they have also built these really cool shelves for me and Heather. They hung ours in our living room recently and I'm so obsessed with it (I'll have to post a picture of it soon!). Seriously, in just the past couple weeks, we've moved our bookshelf out to the living room, someone gave us a couch for free and we hung that shelf. It's really starting to feel like a living room now that we have more than just the 1 1/2-man couch (though we are so grateful for that little couch as well--we've been very cozy in it for the past year!). But now that we have two free couches we can actually have friends over! It's the best.

So now that the worst of the heat is upon us here in Oklahoma, the daily grilling has begun. Also, fun fact: we didn't turn on our A/C until June 4th this year. And if you live in Oklahoma, you know that is a big deal. So, our apartment would be pretty dang hot until like 10 pm, but usually in the evenings we have mutual or we go to the gym or we go to our friends' house. I will admit, I didn't love sweating like crazy in our apartment when it got up to 85 or 86 degrees, but it was probably worth it. We still set it at 78 degrees (#pennypinchers) but hey! I don't want to pay that much money for cold air! Anyway, thank you to Levi who lived without complaining as I slowly melted away without A/C. But even still, we had to buy a little grill so we wouldn't have to heat up the oven or stove or anything. It's the best.

In other news, Levi and Mitchell found a turtle (this was the day Levi was fixing the car--hence the nasty hands and old work clothes).

Also, apparently there is a chair at OU where Levi works that the queen sat in once. So apparently now Levi sits in the queen's chair. ID even K, people. It's Levi. Also, yes he wears shorts and workout socks to his professional job. #summersatuniversities

Utah-apalooza!

To go whitewater rafting on some rivers, you have to apply for a permit. Sometimes you have to enter a lottery and then only some people get a permit. Soooo, my family wanted to go rafting. So we all entered the lottery and guess who won?! This girl!! Oh yeah! The chances were crazy slim, but I worked my magic and luck was mine! So captain Stacy was in charge of the trip! Actually, what really happened was that my dad and mom and uncle and aunt basically got everything ready and I just showed up with the permit. I texted my family a picture of the permit to confirm that we really did have it in the car as we headed out on our long, long drive.

We had such a magical time on the trip except for a little hiccup at the beginning. So, the one thing that I was required to do was talk with the ranger for every little thing. He had to go over all the rules and requirements with me to ensure that we were doing everything right. So I'm going over this stuff with him and I'm like, umm, I have no idea if we have a z-line kit or 50 billion life jackets or where the first aid kit is? I was like, um, can we just wait until we have the boats all set up and then my dad can tell you if we have everything? He was like, yeah that's fine, just come and get me. Fortunately, before I convinced him to stop going over the list, I had heard a couple things. One of the things he said was that we had to have 5 extra life jackets (one for each boat). So later while they were still setting up, I casually asked my uncle how many extra life jackets we had and he said we had two. I told him what the ranger had said (not expecting it to be a big deal) and then people started to get concerned. Five extra life jackets?! We've never had to do that before! Anyway, we go talk to the ranger and he confirmed that yes, you have to have 5 extra ones and there are no exceptions and the closest place to buy new life jackets was THREE HOURS AWAY, six hours round trip. It was so sad and it was set to ruin the day and potentially the trip.

So we go back to where everyone is setting up and we explain the situation and RANDOMLY the other group that was also setting up just so happened to have tons of extra life jackets and offered to let us use them. Talk about a huge blessing! As it turns out, they had actually forgotten something that they had to have and so they had to drive the six hour round trip to get the stuff. If that hadn't happened, they would have been long gone by the time we realized our huge problem. So it was a bummer for them, but a huuuuuuuge supersized blessing for us.

We were then able to start our trip on time and had just the best time. It was so fun to spend a week with my family out on the river. And even though it was still super hot at night, it was still such a blast and so beautiful! Plus, it was Levi's first trip and homeboy looks good on the river. Please note his mega short shorts in the picture above (they're somewhat hidden by the backpack he's carrying, but they're there). Plus, he got way mega tan.

Oh, and I forgot to mention; we were able to stay with Levi's family the weekend before the trip and as luck would have it we got to Utah the day before good ol' Rachy face and her family left Utah (back to South Carolina). It was so awesome to get to hang out with her and Kenneth and her two adorrrrrrable little boys. It was awesome because little Kenny loved Levi and convinced him to play with him the whole time. Although things got slightly out of hand when Levi convinced Kenny to crawl through the cat door. Haha, but seriously I was so stoked to see Rach. You should seriously consider going through the "Rachel" tag on my blog because there are some quality gems in there...one of my favorites being this one when she thought she was doing a "polishing" service project. Literally, I die.

And then finally, the picture of breakfast. Free continental breakfasts at hotels are what I live for. Truly the best. Bagels, donuts, ham, golden. Best start to the last leg of our trip home.

And last but not least, 4th of July shenanigans. Basically we spent the whole weekend with the Walsers because that's what we do. The 3rd of July included an awesome trip to Lowe's to buy wood (this was the day they built the shelves!) and then to the Walser's house to build the shelves...or if you're me and Heather it was the time to make homemade oreos because duh. Later we grilled and then we did fireworks! Mitchell and Levi looooooove fireworks, but were so kind as to buy some sparklers and "tro-its" (I think most people call them pop-its?) for Heather and me.

Then the next day we went to a friend's house to have another BBQ and more fireworks and of course, for Levi to sit on the children's toy horse. Obvi. We ended the night by watching the town firework show from the roof!

I love America.

And that's a wrap.

no but really. what is even happening right now?

Soooo...I wrote this post two months ago but then never posted it. Why? I have no idea. But I went to blog today and I found this in my drafts. My apologies. So basically this only catches you up to about the middle of May. Also, for once in my life there might be more pictures that words. So basically you won't drown in the paragraphs on nonsense as you look for the next picture. Celebrate the little things, I guess. Pffffft.

Things that have happened during my long absence:

 

+ went home to CA for the long weekend to celebrate my sister's bridal shower and so everyone could meet her fiance and to celebrate Valentine's day and mostly to eat chocolate covered strawberries.

+ chaperoned a youth dance. Levi said if one of the kids thought I was a teenager and asked me to dance, he would take me out to ice cream. Turns out Levi is the youngster because some girl asked him to dance! What the heck? Also, we didn't get any ice cream.

+ spent fifty billion years trying to find a dress for my sister's wedding. Finally found one! 

+ went to the medieval fair here in town. Medieval-ness is wild, for sure. But I did get to eat a turkey leg and part of levi's navajo taco and we also go to launch marshmallows off of mini catapults and saw a lot of interesting outfits and also I got a sunburn.

+ had our huge work event and didn't die from it.

+ made banana bread, but I think I want to try a different recipe for it now...one that is a little more moist.

+ had Levi's little brother in town! went to some of our favorite places: KD's restaurant, a Thunder game, guitar store, raising cane's, dick's sporting goods, etc. It was super fun!

+ levi got a new guitar! many thanks to his mom and grandma for it. he seriously loves it and plays it evvvvvery day (and sometimes tries to get out of doing the dishes by sneaking off to play...)

+ storm season started and we had a couple small tornadoes and a lot of thunderstorms. we've even had to get in the storm shelter once (and we took a #shelterselfie!). also, I really hate flash flooding. maybe you've been reading about the flooding in houston right now? (...oops. like I said, I wrote this two months ago haha) stuff like that is the worst to me. levi's car got flooded one night and it was the worst. and it's really scary. turn around, don't drown!

+ went out to provo for BYU graduation! we're so proud of lauren for graduating and we're excited to see where life takes her next! also, it's always good to go to our favorite food places in provo!

+ we went straight from provo to california for my sister's wedding! It was super fun and I just love love love being with my family. It always goes by too quickly, but I'll admit: I'm glad to be done with weddings for a while haha.

+ came back to oklahoma and we've had even more storms. it's been a really wet may! I don't mind the storms just as long as I'm in the safety of my own home. but you guys, driving in it is the pits, yo. also, the sky gets such weird color during the tornado-y storms. the pic above was taken at like 10 pm and it was way more yellow-y and weird than you can see here...

+ celebrated our anniversary!! I can't believe how quickly a year has flown by! the day started with me having to go clean the church (ha!) but then I came home to find flowers and donuts and my favorite juice waiting for me in bed with my favorite guy in the world! please note levi hiding under the covers (for modesty!).  it was such a fun day of hanging out together, reminiscing on all the incredible (and some less incredible) events that have transpired over the last year. we ended the evening with dinner on the 49th floor of the tallest building in town. It was amazing! It was almost cancelled due to--surprise!--a thunderstorm, but fortunately it wasn't. In fact, we ended up having an awesome "light show" (i.e. tons of lighting) while we ate our dinner. It was awesome. (Suuuuper crappy anniversary pic...really not sure what the guy was doing but it was so blurry and dark that I had to like edit it all weird (and I have no idea how to edit btdubs) but it's the best we have haha)

+ and then just this last weekend (lies. two months ago) was really fun. We had the long weekend and on Saturday we went up to Penn Square mall to redeem my reward for winning my family's March Madness bracket (1 pound of See's Candy!). Of course, as we were ready to leave, the flash floods were starting. Because of where we were parked, the water was deeper (probs 4 or 5 inches) so we wanted to get out of there before the water got to the engine! It continued to pour rain, but we made it home safely and spent the evening in our sweats and eating the chocolate!

+ and there you have it. The last three months in a nutshell. Out.

hey good news I'm alive.

I'm sorry, but are these not the world's most adorable pictures of Levi? Like I'm seriously obsessed.

Hey guys hey. Things that have happened since I last blogged:

1. We discovered Buffalo Wild Wings. Well, I suppose "discovered" is the wrong word. Levi always knew it existed. I did not. I refuse to comment on the number of times we have had Buffalo Wild Wings in the last two months, although the answer might be 5 (but that includes two times over the holidays with Levi's family and one time that was my birthday!) But I know. Still too much.

2. Speaking of my birthday, thank you all for celebrating that with me because yes. My birthday was on Thanksgiving. I actually really loved my birthday because Levi was there and my brother was there as well! Also, I made the most ridiculous amount of food for just a few people. Like, Levi was eating leftovers for a week. I was majorly stressed that I would epic-ly (which apparently isn't a word) fail at the entire thing but turns out the turkey isn't that hard and also there were only three people to let down if I did fail so I don't know why I was so worried. Also, I successfully made some seriously delicious pies. Just for the record.

3. Does anyone remember back in like June when I bought toilet paper for our lame temporary apartment that we had to live in for the summer? You may recall that I accidentally bought one-ply toilet paper that was so terrible and reminded me of being at a rest stop in Nevada. Well, friends, I am happy to report that as of just before Christmas, we have officially finished off that massive package of toilet paper and have upgraded to quality Costco toilet paper. I'm so proud of us.

4. We went to Utah for Christmas and it was really fun! We got to hang out with family and friends and mostly just chill and sleep in and eat a ton of food. Like a ton of food. And I kept telling myself that it was okay because I was on vacation, but holy cow I should not have eaten that much food. Actually who are we kidding? It was a great decision. I love food.

5. Also, when we went to Utah we took a short trip to Arizona for the weekend because Levi's mom found a deal at some resort there (facials and pedicures and fancy rooms and more food!). Anyway, there's this whole long story about the ordeal of trying to fly back to Provo from Arizona. Long story short, we eventually got the plane flying to Provo and when we were getting very close to our destination the pilot made an announcement about how it was too snowy and foggy and stuff and he couldn't land because the Provo airport was closed I guess? so then we had to fly all the way BACK to Arizona! Sounds like a sick joke, right? Well it totally wasn't. We really did fly all the way back to Arizona and couldn't fly to Provo until the next day. But it was okay. When we stayed in Arizona that extra night, we went to Buffalo Wild Wings. So it was worth it.

6. I would also like to tell you that among all my wonderful gifts from family and friends, Levi got me the Anne of Green Gables movies. He said it was a true sacrifice on his part because he knows that eventually he'll have to watch those with me. True love. (Also: "Twenty pounds of browwwwn sugar."-Marilla). But I would also like to point out that in the past two months I have watched all six Rocky movies (Yo Adrian!), so just know that I make sacrifices too.

7. And finally, I don't feel like a terrible wife anymore. Levi has basically been begging for Beats headphones for months. I had worked up a plan with his mom and his brother and we would all chip in to buy them for him. But obvi they had to be a surprise. You should know that my track record with Levi and gifts is no bueno. I have never actually made it to the birthday/holiday without giving away the surprise slash just straight giving him his gift. I just get so excited! But I reeeeeally wanted this one to be a surprise. So every time we would go to Target or Best Buy or wherever else they sell those dang headphones Levi would so sweetly ask if he could go try them on. He would also tell me about how maybe we could afford them or maybe he could get the cheap ones or maybe he would save his money so he could get them. And every time I had to be the evil wife and say "Are you sure you really want those?" "Are they seriously worth all that money?" "Gee, I don't know, Levi. Let's just think about it for a while." And every time I did that I swear his shoulders slumped a little more. Of course, each time he would ask would be a time when I would be buying myself a new pair of pants or something. Seriously, it was like, I get everything I want and you must get nothing! It was awful for me. I wanted to avoid Target like the plague and no one ever wants to avoid Target, so you know this was serious. There were not a joke SO many times that I almost gave in and told him. Well folks, I'm happy to say that I made it all the way to Christmas without giving away the surprise and for that I would like to be awarded wife of the year! I would also like a public notice to go out informing that masses that contrary to popular belief, I am NOT the most evil wife in the world.

Phew.

the pre-Christmas part of Christmas Break and also I don't know which words to capitalize in a blog post title.

Christmas break.  The time of the year that basically everyone looks forward to, but I would say especially students. You know how it is. You've been going crazy with approximately one MILLION projects and tests and presentations and then finals and too little sleep and too much time at the library and too many times that you forget to eat dinner. Actually, scratch that last one because I never forget to eat food.

I suppose now is the part where I mention that I'm not actually a student anymore. I graduated but I still live near the school because now I work at the school and so basically since I'm surrounded by students I feel that gives me the right to still feel like a student. Except I guess all those things I mentioned in the previous paragraph don't actually apply to me. But they did! And sometimes it still comes back to haunt me which is why I will continue this post pretending like I'm still a student. It's totally unfair, but I'm doing it.

Anyway.

Yes, the life of college student definitely makes you look forward to the time when all you are required to do is sleep and eat and occasionally help around the house. Your mom makes you dinner and you can eat food out of any cupboard instead of just the one shelf that is yours in your apartment. It is glorious. It's Christmastime and the counters are essentially covered in candy and all you can think about is how you don't want to go back to school because when you go back that means you have to go back to work and studying and you have to do your own laundry and it's the pits, yo.

But let's not focus on the fact that I'm already back and have already gone back to work and also I might even be getting sick so that's really cool. No, let's go back to the very beginning of break. The before Christmas part of the break.

Yes, before Christmas was a glorious time.  When I first got home, it was just me and my parents and my two younger brothers so baaaaasically it was a party. I convinced my parents that we absolutely NEEDED to go see the new movie Frozen (seriously, I'm obsessed. I don't know if I've ever seen a movie twice in theaters, but this one was worth it).  And I mean, since we were going all the way over to the movies, we might as well go to In-N-Out, am I right?  So that was awesome, and yes, the movie was also awesome. But for real.

The next day was church so we got all dressed up and off to church where e'erybody was so friendly and was happy to see me but let's be honest, they were mostly all wondering where Levi was. Oy. But it was cool.  Then Tom drove me home and was apparently a little ashamed to be driving a minivan home with his crazy older sister because wasn't too stoked about having his face in the picture. Hmm.

The next day was Christmas Eve Eve, which apparently we're calling Christmas Adam now because Adam came before Eve? I don't know if I can get on board with that, but whatever. Anyway, as we always do, we headed to my Aunt Stella's house and she made probably the biggest piece of meat I've seen in my entire life. But for reals. Also, it was at my aunt's house that we met up with my older siblings and their wives and the family was almost complete (Jalyn is still on a mission in the Dominican Republic).

Then Jake got a new watch from Aunt Stella for Christmas and it was a little bit too big so instead of going to the watch store or something, Danny decided to fix it himself using various items throughout the house that were small enough. I thought it was funny, but also very smart. But then again, funny and smart are the first two words I would use to describe Danny (not a joke), so I guess it makes sense.

And finally, the next day we headed to my Grandma's house for Christmas Stacy! (Adam also came before me, so I've decided we should change Christmas Eve to Christmas Stacy. Who's with me?!) Anyway, it was glorious and we had a marvelous turkey dinner and my Uncle Brian and Aunt Julie were there and we read the Christmas story out of the Bible and sangs some Christmas songs and read The Living Christ, which I highly recommend you all do. It was great to be with the fam and to think about the real reason for the season.

Afterword, we headed home and I still had to wrap a million presents because I guess I like to leave things to the last minute?  Well that, and also some packages didn't arrive until we were gone, so give me a break, please!  Also, it should be noted that I had to wrap the gifts my dad was giving, too (as I always do). Apparently wrapping gifts isn't his forte. But they were very good gifts, so I'll let it slide.

And that my friends, is how not to write a brief blog post of the days leading up to Christmas. But who's surprised?

graduation trip, part dos

 The day after the Yankees game, Dad and I woke up totes supes early (like 8 am! ha), packed up, and headed off to the car rental place to pick up a car that would be our friend and companion for the next five days.  Dad even went a little cray cray and got the GPS, which he later named Nicole.  Nicole was really good to us the whole trip, even though sometimes we didn't trust her and we wouldn't listen to her. (And then most of the time it turned out she was actually right in the first place and we should have listened to her and if you can hear us, Nicole, we're very sorry we ever doubted you!).

Anyway, after we figured out how to get out of the city, we headed off to Philadelphia.  It wasn't that long of a drive, but I bet I still took a nap (typical).  When we got to the hotel, dad had to hurry off to do some work and so I...took a nap.  When he got back, we went and ate, took another nap, and then headed to our next game!  The Philadelphia Phillies!  I have to say, for some reason I think this was my favorite stadium (besides the Red Sox stadium, obbbbvi).  I don't know, it was just very nice and clean and the fans were, for the most part, respectful.

Actually, I kind of have to take that back.  Toward the end of the game (maybe the 8th inning?) the score was tied at 2.  The Phillies were up and there was a man on first.  The batter hit a ball that looked like it could end up leading to a double play.  The guy running to second did his best to slide into the second baseman so he wouldn't be able to make the play at first.  He appeared to be successful, but then the ump said that he had obstructed the play, which meant that both he and the batter running to first were out. And HOOOOOLY COW, the fans did not appreciate that.  Every single call after that for the rest of the game was booed by the fans.  Every strike, every ball, every hit by the other team, every out made by the other team, everything.  It was a little cray.  They were also booing the ump.  It was a little ridiculous if you ask me.  But I guess fans will be fans and you gotta stick by your team, you know?

The game ended up going into extra innings, but in the bottom of the 11th, the Phillies blasted a grand slam into the stands and the crowds went WILD.  It was my second grand slam in two nights, so obviously I figured I would see one every single night from there on out, but it turns out that didn't really happen. Weird, right?

The next day we headed off to our next game in Washington, D.C.  Dad got us some pretty wonderful marvelous seats right by right field because our main man Bryce Harper plays in right field for the Nationals.  Bryce Harper is LDS (Mormon) and who doesn't love a Mormon celebrity, am I right?  So we we're kind of excited for that except then Bryce had to go and get injured recently and then wasn't able to play. Bummerrrrrr, because I really wanted to give him my number or something.  Oh well.  It was still pretty awesome because we had seats down low close to the field.  Also, here's something: the Nationals were playing the Mets and the Mets were hitting balls all over the place.  Unstoppable, really.  They destroyed the Nationals 10-1.  I was very impressed with them because well, they're the Mets.  But then I just need to give you a sneak peek because a few days later at a Mets game the Mets literally had NOTHING. They couldn't get a hit to save their lives, not a joke.  But that night at the Nationals stadium they had skillz, let me tell you what.  So I was glad I got to see them then or else I would have had very little faith in them in the future.

Also, at the Nationals game both dad and I knew we couldn't eat a whole hot dog, so we shared.  Can you guess which half is his and which is mine?  Let me just give you a hint that might not actually be a hint: I wish they would have fry sauce for hot dogs because then the intensity of ketchup would be decreased.  Okay, which one do you think is mine?  The correct answer is the ketchup one.  I still like ketchup, it's just that sometimes I wish it was a little less intense, ya dig?

Oh, and one more thing!  At this game we were wearing our Red Sox hats and ended up sitting right next to a man and his son who were also wearing Red Sox hats.  We ended up talking to them and they were doing a baseball tour, too!  Crazy, right?!  Actually, when we would talk to people at any of these games, they always thought it was so cool that we were on a baseball tour (which, duh. It totes WAS the coolest).  I just thought it was pretty neat that these guys were, too!

So that's game 2 and 3.  Join us next time for game FOUR (which was a dream come true) and game five with those silly Mets again.  Also, another sneak peek: I did embarrassing things at the Mets game.  Hope that teaser keeps you intriiiiiiiiigued.

graduation trip, part 1

I just got back from THE most glorious college graduation trip with my dad.  And what did we do, you ask?  Well, let me tell you.  We went on a most grand and glorious baseball trip!  That's right, ladies and gentlemen.  Baseball.  Because here's the thing: I love baseball.  I love it, I love it, I supes one million love it.

I'm not exactly sure how long ago it was, but once I was talking to my dad about how it would be fun to go to all the different baseball stadiums to see a game.  We both thought it was a pretty awesome idea and he suggested that we do it as a graduation trip once I graduated from college.  I thought that was a maaaaaah-velous plan, but graduation was still a ways off, so the idea was put on the back burner for a while.  Then, a few months before graduation, my dad brought it up again, and some real planning started to commence.  It was tricky because I didn't exactly know what my post-graduation life would look like, but as it got closer, we just decided to go with it.  Also, my dad is kiiiiind of amazing, because he really did all the planning and made it happen.

We decided to go to a lot of the stadiums on the east coast because they are all reasonably close to each other (a few hours apart at most).  We ended up going to SEVEN games in NINE days.  The plan was to go to eight, but one of them got rained out, which was a BUMMMMER.  Regardless, the trip was still glorious. And will need to be broken up into multiple posts because we all know me and we all know I write too much, e'ery dang time. Anyway, let me tell you more:

So, to start, both my dad and I were to fly out to New Jersey and then stay with my brother who lives in Manhattan.  Originally, I was supposed to take a red-eye flight out of Salt Lake and my dad would take a daytime flight out of San Francisco, but fortunately, my dad worked it out so I ended up flying to San Francisco and was then on the same flight with him to New Jersey.  It's a dang good thing we ended up flying together because I will tell you what: if I had flown a red eye and then had to figure out my way from New Jersey to Manhattan, I probably would have ended up in Rhode Island.  Seriously, it would have been terrible.  But like I said, we were together, so I mostly just followed my dad around and we magically ended up at my brother's apartment.

Sidenote: humidity is a jerk.  There was too much of it on this trip and my hurr totes did not appreciate it.

The next day, my dad had business, so he went and did that (he was able to do a lot of business stuff while on the trip, so it worked out really well). I woke up at 11 am (girl has got to get her beauty sleep, you know?) and then headed to where my brother works because OH YEAH, they have a catered lunch every single day.  I mean, seriously?  What the heck?!  After spending time there with him and his wife Lena (because OH YEAH she works there, too--talk about a sweet deal!), I managed to master the subway system and arrive back at their apartment where I took another nap.  I'm worth it, dang it!

Then all the people who had jobs (Dad, Danny, and Lena) came back from work and then we all headed to the first game!!  It was a Yankees game and on principle I cannot like anything about the Yankees, but it's baseball so obvi it was still amazing.  Plus, I could root for the other team and spend like three hours booing the Yankees and I ask you, what could be better than that?

UNNNfortunately, my booing was not enough to make the Yankees lose to the Indians, but I promise I did my best!  But, I did get to see a grand slam and that's always cool.  It's just a lot less cool when it's the Yankees. Plus also, Mariano River blah blah blah he's good at what he does, whatever

Also, hot dogs.  Ballpark hot dogs.  I don't ever have a need to eat hot dogs outside of ballparks, but let me tell you.  I NEED to eat a hot dog when I'm at a ballpark.  Seriously, there is something magical about ballparks that make the hot dogs approximately one MILLION times more delicious than anywhere else. HOLY COW.  Oh yeah!  It was magnificent.

It was a way good game and it was fun to have Danny and Lena with us, even though they had just flown in on a red eye the night before from California and were dead tired, but they were still good sports and I loved it.  We all came home super tired and ready to crash but it was a super duper start to an amaaaazing trip. Plus, the guys that rake the dirt in the middle of the game did dance moves when they were playing "YMCA".  That was definitely a highlight.

Join us next time where I will talk about the Phillies game!

thanksgiving like a boss.

you guys.  I just got back from my most fabulous surprise trip home.  That's right, a surprise.  You see, I don't just normal style go home for thanksgiving every year because my home home is many much miles away from my current residence, but you see the thing is, my sister is leaving on her mission to the Dominican Republic in just over two weeks and I wouldn't even get to see her over Christmas break and it came to my attention that this was a very appropro reason for my dad to fly me home (okay, but I just want to say that I offered to pay.  It's just that the guy is such a jolly man and offered to pay for it all himself!  And then my mom let me eat all of the food out of her pantry! (And let's be real, girl knows how to eat.)  I mean, really!  Those guys are neat!)  Aaaaaaaanyway, what I'm saying is that I surprised them!  Dad said he had to pick some global pass blah blah blah up at the airport and they believed him!  And I surprised them!  And so many sentences are ending with exclamation points!

We ended up having a most glorious first thanksgiving on Wednesday with my grandma and uncle and some of their friends (who I'm sure at this point think my entire family belongs in an insane asylum).  It was glorious.

And then we headed down to LA where my brother lives to have another(!) thanksgiving with them and and do a mini celbration of my birth and also to ride bicycles on the beach (or in my case, a tandem bike with Jake---whhhhhich, btdubs, cost my dad one whole dollar less than if we had each had our own bike...I'm still not sure why he didn't make my other siblings do the same thing...).

And here's something--I don't know if it was just this tandem bike, but it turns out if you're the one riding in the back, your pedals are connected to the other guy's and you have to pedal exactly when they are and as hard as they are and when they all of a sudden brake, you suddenly can't pedal anymore and you're left wondering whether or not your pedaling actually has any value.  And so you end up looking like this:

...for the entire ride.  Not actually a joke, guys.  So anyway, we rode bikes and ate one million different food items for thanksgiving (did you guys notice that I just used "one million" in an almost appropriate way?  take that, english language!).  I had a most glorious time just hanging out with the faaaaam.  Also, my siblings played hot cross buns on the water glasses.  It was actually quite impressive.

The next day we headed back to northern California (the land of milk and honey or maybe it's actually just wine) and on our way we we able to stop and visit Danny and Lena who were having thanksgiving with her family and how neat is that?!  They were at this ranch and it turns out ranches sometimes have one BILLION peacocks and a herd of llamas. Also, llamas are weird.  I mean, look at this guy.  Is he really a llama?  Or is he actually a demon?  Or maybe one of those creepy creatures from lord of the rings? Honestly.  Poor guy really got the short end of the stick because he is just unfortunate-looking.

Then we finally made it home and I watched The Avengers for the first time (all of it!  No sleeping for me! Mostly because Jake sat on one side of me and Jalyn on the other so I couldn’t even lie down which may or may not be a major factor in whether or not I stay awake for an entire movie).  Then on my last day in town I went to church and a lady in the ward told me that she could “see my future husband just on the horizon.  Trust me, you will find him soon!” so that was encouraging.  I also found a baby that is whiter than me and that also provided a good amount of comfort for my albino soul.  Then my mom made me favorite dinner as a little bit of an early birthday celebration. And then I was off to the airport to catch my flight (which, turns out it was actually a ward flight because there were two guys from my ward on the flight).  The flight was fairly uneventful other than the fact that the 18-year-old girl in the seat next to me was on her first flight and the fact that the guy in the row behind me collapsed in the middle of the flight….soooooo, nbd whatever.

And now here I am, back at school and suddenly realizing that blogging is not what I should be doing because I have an insane amount of stuff to do in the next two weeks and blogging doesn’t actually get any of it done.  Weird.

But, important comment!  Christmas season is just about to commence!  (I say, "just about to" because we all know Christmas season doesn't start until after Thanksgiving or after my birthday, whichever comes second.  And for the first time in the history of ever, my birthday is super one million after thanksgiving and has not yet occurred and so the Christmas season must hold on for just one more little minute).

But that doesn't mean we can't have a Christmas tree!  It's so beautiful!

Also, p.s.  The guy that collapsed on the plane was fine.  Just a little light headed, I guess.

things are always hip in santa rosa.

I do this every time I go on vacation. I go and then I come back, and then a few weeks later (sometimes over a month) I decide to blog about it.  And so, in true Stacy style, I am here to blog about the second half of my vacation to visit my family.

After we spent the week in LA with the whole family, the younger kids and the parents headed up to Northern California for a jolly good time.

1. On the way home, my dad got a little cray cray and decided to treat us to a classy dinner at Del Taco. Our friend Thomas over here ended up downing six tacos like it was nothin'.  He's a growing young boy, I guess.

2. The morning after we got back to our house, I opened the freezer to find this.  Seriously, my mom knows what's up.  Def snacked on those the whole rest of the weekend.

3.  While I was home, I got to hang out with one of my bff's Annie.  Since we spent all of our middle school and high school days together, we had pretty much done anything and everything that Santa Rosa had to offer.  So we decided to venture to Cotati, a small town just to the south of Rosa.  We went there in search of a bakery because I mean, that sounds so cute, right?  Go to a little town and eat a croissant or something at a little bakery.  There would be flowers blooming off to the side and the owner of the little cafe would greet you like you were old friends.  The only problem was that there are ZERO bakeries in Cotati.  I mean, seriously.  None.  What the heck?  I think that in order for a town to be established, you need to first figure out where you are going to build a bakery.  Srsly.

Anyway, we ended up going to this strange establishment that said they were a cafe, but if that was true, it was the strangest cafe ever and by the way, they probably should have considered updating the decor that I think they've had for forty years.  Idk, just a suggestion...those dusty fake flowers had seen better days, that's all I'm sayin'. Also, if I ever try to order something that has a lot of peppers in it, please don't let me do it.  Never good.

After that little dealio and after finding a pretty neat thrift store, we headed back to Rosa to see if my bakery needs could be fulfilled there instead.  And they were.  So that was good.

4. Imagine opening the door of your bedroom and Shel Silverstein is the first thing you see.  So frightening.  Thank you, little brothers.

5 and 6.  Shopping with this kid is never dull.  First, he decided to help the customers (and employees) out a little bit by putting the less desirable clothing on a higher rack.  Second, he did some artwork at Old Navy and then put it on display.  And by put it on display, I mean he stuck it in the hand of one of the mannequins.  Stay classy.

7 and 8.  Hangin' out with the birthday girl who I am happy to say OWNED when we played Racko.  (Also, let it be written and let it be said that it took way too many rounds for mom to ever win. Homegirl needs to work on her Racko skills, just sayin'.

9.  When hanging out at my other grandma's house, Jake attempted to pick me up from the couch.
Jalyn: Jake, be sure to lift from your knees.  You don't want to hurt your back.
Jake: Ooh, I hope this works my gluteus maximus!
That kid.  Kills me.

10.  Oh you know, just getting owned by my other grandma at Yahtzee.  That girl is GOOD.

11 and 12.  I was unaware of how many delinquents there were in my family.  Everyone was sharing about the times they went to the principal's office. Jacob won with like 5 times before he was even in second grade.  I lost with zero trips to the principal's office.  I clearly haven't lived.

13. Mom said I couldn't go into the restaurant wearing socks with my sandals.  That girl, I swear.  She just doesn't understand fashion.

14. Delicious mango chicken salad at the new Mexican restaurant in town.  So good!

15.  While at the Mexican restaurant, we were lucky enough to to sit next to these fine ladies who were out for lunch.
Thomas: Did you ladies see the knitting competition on T.V. last night?  It kept me up until 8:30!

16. I volunteered to take Jakey to the orthodontist at the unfortunate hour of 8 in the morning so that Mom and Jalyn could go walking with some of their lady friends.  It turns out that Mom and Jalyn didn't go walking; instead, they slept in while I rolled out of bed and drove Jake to his appointment. Girl can't catch a break.

All in all, it was a fun little trip home and it was way fun to hang out with my family and to see friends and to enjoy California and home cooked meals and also those girl scout cookies.

Can't wait to go back (at which point, I'm sure my youngest brother will be about a foot taller than me.  What the heck?)