4 months until...

So my life has been pretty boring recently. This summer was pretty much a let down compared to last summer. Maybe last summer I just did everything that was so incredibly fun and with the right people and nothing could compare or this summer really was just lame. We tried playing volleyball weekly and that flopped most of the time, we did however start back up our game nights which have been fun. My family didn't get to get together this year and do a family vacation which sucks because now we all currently live in 4 different states, but I did get to go down to visit for a few days to visit the ones in Utah. But it makes me miss my little brother a lot! Cant wait for him to be home next year...anyways haha I did have some fun times this summer but I guess last summer was just one for the books.

Well because this summer was lame-o, I told my friend Ivy that we needed to do something fun like a cruise or just a fun vacation somewhere we hadn't been before! Well, we decided to do just that!! We're going on a cruise with two of our other friends. So the four of us will be headed off in January and cruisin' to.... Catalina Island, California and then to Ensenada, Mexico. It's a 5 day cruise and we are already getting so stoked about it! We are all so looking forward to hopefully the nice weather and having a break from school and work! Ivy and I have already been shopping for the big trip and right now i'm working on getting my passport. Ah! It's going to be so much fun!

Here is our ship...

The first stop will be to Catalina Island

Then the last stop will be Ensenada, Mexico

I am so excited to go. All of us have been trying to work out more often and eat healthier so we can look good in that swim suit in the middle of hibernation season. We love looking at pictures and talking to our siblings and friends that have been on the same cruise before to see what things we need to do. AHH! So exciting!

Pick your standards

Alright I'm not the type of person who likes to tell the whole world when I get really frustrated and why, nor do I really like reading peoples blogs when they're really negative all the time. But I have to get this out there!

I think I have the best job in the world and I am really lucky to have started working there when I was a teenager. For those who don't know what I do...Remember when your a little girl and playing dress up, and you played "bride" or "getting married" or something along those lines. You put on a white skirt and white shirt, with your mom or older sisters prettiest high heels, grab their sparkliest necklace and ring and attach a pillow case to your hair for the final touch. TA-DAH! That is my job...I get to play dress up and make every girl extremely happy, many of which cry because they know they look beautiful, by helping them find their dream wedding dress. Something they will look back at YEARS from the day they get married and still say...I LOVE MY WEDDING DRESS! Sounds like so much fun right?

I have been doing this for the past 6 years. I've come to love it and know exactly what I'm doing. But there is only ONE thing I can NOT stand or really put up with. Girls who can't decide what their standards are and it's usually the Mormon girls for both prom and weddings. I had a bride come in today and she is LDS and getting married in the temple. She comes in and says she's found a dress some where else but it didn't have sleeves on it and that she needed a dress with sleeves, but was very picky about what kind of sleeves they are because she doesn't want it to look like a Mormon dress. Well I'm sorry you are a Mormon girl so deal with it! Then we spend an hour and a half trying on every different kind of wedding dress. The whole time she is complaining about the sleeves and them being to long and digging into her arm and they aren't pretty enough, etc. etc. So i ask her if she wants to try on a strapless dress and she says yes. We put one on and she said yep it's just the sleeves that i hate so I don't want a sleeved dress.

Ok there are so many things wrong with this. I wanted to just sit there and yell at her, do you realize what your saying? You are going to have to wear sleeves for the rest of your life so why are you choosing to not be completely modest on your wedding day when your getting married IN THE TEMPLE! You will always look like a Mormon girl to people who wear strapless dresses because you are SUPPOSE to have high standards. So DO NOT sit the fence and tell me you believe in being modest but you won't act upon it. I love what my friend said about it today "It's like what Elder Maxwell talked about-those who are wanting to live in Zion but are keeping a summer home in Babylon."

Moral to the story...Pick your standards and don't sit the fence. The fence is not a comfortable place to be. You can't pick what parts of the gospel you believe in and which you want to ignore. It doesn't work like that, they all go hand in hand. You can't say I believe in the Book of Mormon but I don't believe in Joseph Smith. You can't say I believe in being modest but not when i go to the lake or to prom or on my wedding day. I can say that experiences like this make me realize where I stand and what my standards are and I'm not ashamed of it.

SUMMER

I love being outside and specially in the summer time bcause there are so many things to do! The only down side is it didn't get warm until about mid summer so everything had to be pushed back, but we've finally be able to do lots of stuff!
This summer is the first time I've hiked up to table rock, most of the time we usually just drive up there. This was the next day after I hiked and unfortunately when we hiked we forgot the camera and it was an amazing sunset, but these and pretty too.

One of my very best friends from my childhood got married at the end of June. She and her identical twin are from eastern idaho and their grandmother lived next door to me at my old house and when they would come to visit, we would spend the whole time playing together. Well her sister got married a few years ago and i didn't get to go but I was very excited that this sister married a boy from Meridian so i got to see her and her parents at the reception. She looked so pretty! Love her and was excited to catch up with her.

The weekend of the 4th of July my friend and I went to Ann Morrison park to play frisbee golf but it was so hot we only played about 10 holes and then decided to go run underneith the fountain.

On July 4th my parents and I went back to Ann Morrison to look at the sidewalk chalk drawings they had. It was really cool! It made me think of Marry Poppins!
This is the one I liked the best

This is the one that won the compitition

My parents

On July 7th we took a trip up to Twin Falls to check out the shoshone falls. I hadnt been there since I was a little kid and the only thing I remember about it was me and my brothers and sister rolling down the hills there. So I wanted to go back to get the experience again.

Aislyn's birthday

So one thing you need to know about me but is I love my family. I guess it's true when they say absence makes the heart grow fonder. My 3 older/married siblings currently live in Utah and my younger brother is still on his mission. SO...that leaves me and my parents at home. Needless to say I get to take lots of trips to go visit them when I need some brother/sister time. The weekend of June 4th I went down to visit because I had the weekend off and it was my neices birthday party with my brothers and sister and the in-laws. I just love my neice to pieces!

She loves Micky and Minnie Mouse!

My brother in law made her a baby rocker. Pretty impressive right?

So she got some dolls to put in the rocker and she had to go around our circle and show each of us what she got. It was pretty cute!

I think it took all of us to get those dolls out of the box. Ya, try stealing one of those in the store...not gonna happen!

My favorite neice! Can't believe she's already 3 years old.

Alright siblings...lets start popping out some more babies so I can be entertained!

Another wedding

I had the opportunity to be in my friend from elementary school's wedding a few weeks ago. The wedding was on Saturday afternoon on May 21st in the brides back yard with the reception in a church. The weather turned out to be perfect and the day was so much fun to be apart of! Much time and preperation went into it over the year long engagement and yet it seemed to fly by when the big day actually came around.
Chelsea, the bride, and I met in elementary school where we had the same teacher for a few years and played together lots at each others house and with our other friends. Then we split our ways when she moved, then i moved a few years later, but both only to other sides of the valley. We then got reacquainted a year ago through her fience and the boy that I was dating at the time who were best friends. That boy and I are NOT together any more and I firmly beleive the only reason we were suppose to date at that time (or ever) was so Chelsea and I could see each other again! Anyways, Chelsea and Casey are now married and I am so happy for them!

The preperation...

Step #1 The Bachelorette Party!

Dinner at Red Robin with the ladies.

The manager asked us what we were celebrating and we told him. Next thing we knew he brought us this slice of cake...for FREE! It was delicious!

Step #2 The Dress Rehearsal...

We had a BBQ before hand

The Bridesmaids

Standing around chatting

Step #3 The Hard work (Decorating)...

Before we went to the church to decorate a few of us girls went out to lunch, then after we went and got our nails done. I have never had mine done before so I went all out and got a manicure and a pedicure. LOVED the pedicure!

This is Kristina and her daughter Ella. I just love how she's watching so closely like "what are you doing?"

Then we got to the hard stuff that took us over 7 hours to do. We were all ready to be done by the end of that night!

So the boy that I dated who is best friends with the fience was a groomsmen in the wedding. It wasn't really awkward until we were decorating and he kept asking me really stupid questions! So...this is the look that he got several times! It's my "really??" look. And funny thing is every time I did it, everyone else laughed and he was the only that didn't get it.

Step #4 Get married...(Not me duh!)

This is my favorite picture of them I took

Love her!

The best picture of the whole day...I think at least

Step #5 Party...

The reception was the funnest I have ever been too! Chelsea's dad made the food that was SOO good! I didn't get any pictures of this but we had a blast dancing to the music her DJ played for us!

We had bubbles on all the tables. We used ours up before the little kids could take them.

Like I said it was a really fun day and Chelsea and Casey are now happily married.