Erb Week of Adventures

Last week my Uncle Steve, Aunt Arlene, and cousins Kendell and Brooke made the 13 hour trek from Medford, Oregon to visit us in Draper...and we played hard the whole week! The majority of our time was spent in the pool trying to decide who could dive, stand on the floaties and do the most impressive tricks (which in Meechys case resulted in funny falling incidents) the best (yep, we're just a LITTLE competitive...it must run in our genes) but we also sat around the fire telling stories and jokes with funny boys in pink cowgirl hats, went on a hiking trip at Snowbird that was responsible for our inability to walk for 3 days, watched Brian Reagan (need we say more?), went to Moab for some Southern Utah fun, and of course put in some time shopping in Salt Lake City at the Gateway. We laughed pretty much the entire week and just wore each other out with the late nights, fun-packed days and road trips.

Moab Hummer Trip: One of the most fun things we've ever done in Utah!

Hiking around Arches and to the Delicate Arch: (which by the way is one intense hike when done in 97 degree weather!)

And some much needed rest:

Snowbird

For Meechy's 22nd birthday we went to Snowbird Ski Resort to ride the tram. SO fun!

22 Things I love about Meech:

1-Her sense of humor...she's absolutely one of the funniest people I know-- Quite possibly the funniest

2-Simpleness of life with her

3-Our friendship. We fight but always make up instantly because we can't stand to not talk to each other

4-Her love for life. She's so passionate!

5-Getting ready in the bathroom with her

6-Her honesty about the important things in life: "Karin, you've really let yourself go!"

7-That she pronounces my name "Kirin"

8-Her smile that inevitably makes everyone around her happy

9-She's so thoughtful

10-She lets me tease her...for the price of only a little physical abuse

11-That she uses her huge muscles to get what she wants

12-She's the fastest texter I've ever seen

13-Her love for her car "onda" (The H got stolen)

14-Her desire to be independent and different

15-She's beautiful and she knows it

16-Her bang comb :)

17-She'll stay up late with me to watch Nick at Nite when I can't sleep...even if she's exhausted

18-Our hot tub chats-with the mice

19-She's always up for anything adventurous

20-Meech is SO motivated to achieve her goals

21-That she refuses to read my blog haha

22-She's One of the TWO best sisters I've ever known

Cara & Clarence Tied the Knot

Our good friend Cara Spohn asked us (Em, Meech, and I) to be bridesmaids in her wedding on July 17th. We've grown up together with her and her brother Derek and sister Rachel so it was neat to be a part of the whole shindig. Cara looked just gorgeous in her white dress and perma-smile that day. It was HOOTTT that day so we all look a little destroyed in the pictures but, as always, we did what we could.

Congrats Cara and Clarence!

Maui

I just wanted to share a few of the highlights from our trip to Maui back in June. My Mom, Dad, Sisters, Aunt Sue and Uncle Steve all shared a week long vacation at our timeshare in Maui. Don't let the following picture deceive you into believing we ran around participating in lots of activities because about 90% of our time was spent with our feet in the sand or laying out reading, listening to some good tunes with our stunna shades. (Meechy!) Too many pictures to choose from but here are a few:

Laying by the pool AND the beach...

SURFING!!!...

BEAUTIFUL Sunsets...

Family Time...

Independent Study Class...

The doom of my summer has been the Independent Study Class (Motivational Psychology 365) I signed up for last January. Yep, call me a procrastinator or whatever you want but I put it off until 2 days before the August graduation deadline. (I kind of tricked everyone into believing I had finished school when I walked in the graduation ceremonies in April...but in reality I still had to finish this one last online class). And it has turned out to be one of my most terrible ideas. I should've known that I wouldn't want to be inside with my nose in a textbook during the summer months AFTER I had supposedly finished school! What in the world was I thinking?!?

So...that's it! I'm officially finished and graduated and should be receiving my diploma in the mail before too long. Whoo Hoo!!! I feel so---free! Now if only I could figure out what it is I would like to do with the rest of my life I would be on the road to success.

If you had a degree in Psychology, what would you do with it?

Oquirrh Mountain Temple

July 14th, 2010 was a really special temple trip. We went to the Oquirrh Mountain Utah temple to participate in a session while Cara Spohn and Clarence Jessop took out their endowments. We didn't have many opportunities to take pictures because we were totally late when we arrived but what we have will just have to do.

Way neat thing: The person I went through the temple for was from Linares, Chile (where my last mission companion was from--Ana Maria Bustamante) and her last name was Quezada which is the married last name of my friend Lauren, whose husband is from Chile.

After the temple we went to Olive Garden with the Spohns in celebration of the upcoming marriage of Cara and Clarence! (A post on this to come...)

Vernal Temple

July 6, 2010...Bella's first road trip! (My car) We drove her the 3 1/2 hours to Vernal, Utah to do a session at the temple. It was dry and hot and there's not much out in that region of the world but some parts of the drive are really beautiful areas. Especially this year since the mountains and everything are so green on account of all the snow we received. (And YES we're still bitter that we had snow until June...even if good things have come from it!!!)

While in the temple we sat down in the chapel and I looked around and realized that not only was I the youngest person by 50 years (minus my Mom of course) in the room...but my Mom was extremely young in this crowd too! Really young! I would be willing to venture out and say we were definitely outsiders in this room full of elderly farmers but nonetheless the people were so kind to us and we enjoyed the opportunity to experience one of the Lord's houses that neither of us had attended before.

A neat fact about the Vernal temple: It was built in 1907 and then remodeled in 1997.