Two weddings and a trip to the ER!

I think it's been established that I am the worst blogger of the family, but I think I just like waiting until a lot of exciting things have happened and then I can unload them all at once like a tsunami of events to make my life seem more thrilling. Otherwise every other blog post would be like, "Today I worked at Deseret Book. We closed two minutes early" or, "Today I worked at Deseret Book AND Guthrie. The kid I worked with got mad at me when I refused to sing the same song eight times in a row". Not very interesting stuff.

BUT this summer has been full of exciting family things, as you guys already know. People got married! I think I've attended five wedding receptions in the past two months alone. Obviously, the only ones I really cared about were Ashley's and Jared's!

I don't think I took any pictures at either of them, unfortunately. I'm sure they're devastated :P

Anyway, the day before Ashley's wedding Bryce had an interview for an engineering internship the hour before we were supposed to go, so I drove him out there so Dad could just pick both of us up when he was finished and we could drive up to Prescott. What was expected to be just an hour-long interview at most turned into an hour and a half, but we got out of there fine and made the journey up ok. Prescott had some beautiful weather, and the club where the ceremony took place was beautiful!

It was a beautiful ceremony and I think I ate my weight in cream puffs, which is always a plus. Congratulations again Ashley! :)
The night we drove back Bryce and I attended the reception of a couple in our ward, and I WISH I had gotten pictures, because it was the most absurdly fancy wedding reception I have been to yet. It was held at the groom's dad's house, (which Bryce and I have both been to once before for a party, during which the entire time I kept thinking, "It's like we're partying at Gatsby's."), on their front lawn/circular driveway thing. We arrived a little late, where we were greeted by a valet service, and I was handed a paper fan and parasol as the catering people directed us to where they were just finishing the ring ceremony. There were assigned seats, and a three-course meal, and we left before they even cut the cake because they played like four wedding games and I was exhausted. It was kind of a weird experience.

But we managed to get a nice picture out of it so there's that.

And of course, a month or so later, Jared and Cate got married! I did take a lot more pictures here, as we walked around the Bellagio/ Caesar's Palace for a while before we went to eat pizza. 

The garden inside the Bellagio changes for the seasons and this time they had a glass greenhouse with a bunch of birds inside! Look at this guy's tail!

And the world's tallest (also largest? I don't know.) chocolate fountain

This is the spiral escalator inside Caesar's right outside of the makeup store I had to hunt down.

Fancy Chihuly glass ceiling in the Bellagio lobby

I just really like flowers, I guess.

The reception was also super cool, and the arboreum (natural history museum? Park?) where it was held was awesome! I've never seen so many donuts in one place in my life.

Other than multiple wedding receptions, I haven't been doing much; working, deciding what classes I'll need for ASU, working, etc. However, I did have a very interesting Monday night earlier this week. For FHE our ward was having a pool party at one of the member's parents house, where they had a trampoline and a DJ, and we played watermelon football. This house also had a two-story zip line. I had been to that house once before, right after our ward boundaries got rearranged and about two weeks before I left for Florida, and I remember the zip line had a harness that held your legs and then metal handles overhead to hold on, with a rope dangling beneath so you could run the zip line back to the next person in line. This time, there wasn't a harness, just the handles, but everyone was going down the zip line fine; my bishop's wife, my RS president, several girls and most of the boys. I figured I would be fine, despite my nerves. I'm not very good with heights, but my RS president was shouting encouraging things to me and she had done fine, and I didn't want to make the people behind me impatient. My hands were a little sweaty but the metal handles were textured for better grip and some of the other girls were saying that there was just a little dip at the beginning when the line took your weight, then it was easy the rest of the way. 

A few people have suggested that my hands were probably slick from the Vaseline that they coated the watermelon with, but plenty of other people who had played had gone on the zip line before me. Whatever it was, the moment I slid off the edge of the platform, I lost my grip and fell about 20 feet to the ground. 

Afterwards, a lot of people asked whether it felt like time slowed down as I fell, but I remember feeling like everything happened very quickly. It felt like I hadn't even been holding on, despite the cuts on my hands from the textured metal that prove otherwise. I remember trying to grab for the rope, but then quickly closing my eyes, and then landing on my back very hard and immediately feeling like my ribs had been compressed by a giant vise. Then I felt like I couldn't breathe and I started gasping like a fish and I heard someone say, "She's going into shock" and another girl in my ward (Kariann, who I later found out works in physical therapy) saying I needed to try for deep breaths and that two of the men were going to give me a blessing. During the blessing, I could still move my fingers and toes, and the most of the overall pain had started to fade into specific pains on my pelvis and my neck. I think that blessing helped a lot; I found out later there was less than a foot between where my head landed and the concrete porch. Someone called the paramedics, and while I was lying there Kariann made sure I could move my feet and checked my pupils before the paramedics even arrived. Anyway, the paramedics arrived, put me in a neck brace and a stretcher, and I had my first ever ride in an ambulance! Not super fun, especially since the lights in there are very bright and they never turned them off. They tried to put a plastic thing (a catheter?) in my arm so the people at the hospital could give me an IV if they needed to, but I said I'd really rather wait until we got to the hospital.

We got in the hospital, where they covered me with some blankets before destroying my swimsuit so a doctor could push on my spine so they could make sure nothing was wrong,  and then I had some x-rays and a CAT scan. So exciting! Except hospitals are very cold when you're just wearing a swimsuit and especially when you're not. Anyway, the results came back, and there was absolutely nothing wrong; no bleeding or fractures or anything. They didn't even give me an IV, so I have a lovely blue/purple bruise where the catheter was for no reason.  Ah well. I definitely have more to be thankful for than to complain about.

Also don't have any pictures from the ordeal, but I did take a picture of the sunset right before going to the party 

WORTH IT
(I'm kidding. Mostly.)

Catch-Up

Since my sisters have been so diligent the past month or so of keeping updated on their blogs, I figured I should join the party! Let's see...I guess I should start from my birthday, which was very fun. If you read Ashley's blog, you know she was able to join us for a birthday dinner at Benihana (and a California trip the next day), but earlier in the day we went to the Gilbert Temple open house, which was beautiful!

Not my picture, but a far better one than I would have been able to capture.

It's always nice to be able to walk through the temples before they're dedicated, and this is only the third one I've ever toured, which is pretty cool.

The only picture I have; squinty eyes and a terrible mustache ;)

Anyway, later we went to Benihana, which was delicious and surprisingly fun. It may have to be a birthday staple in the future!

The next morning, Ashley, Mom, and I flew out absurdly early to California! The weather was beautiful (although a little windy), and we ate breakfast at this really pretty restaurant right next to the beach!

We went shopping at a huge outdoor mall, as well as inside our cousin Jason's boutique, which was a lot of fun! 

Related? Naahhh....

Later in February, I found out that if you bring a birthday card to the King at the Renaissance Festival during President's Day, you can get two people in for the price of one! So, since Bryce was busy that day, I took his little sister Brielle, since she had never been.

I took like 800 pictures of the elephants but I'll spare you guys

later I realized the only thing I took pictures of was the animals. Sorry guys.

I hadn't been to the Ren Faire in years, so that was pretty fun! And very hot for a February, but still good.

(Man, I definitely need to try and update more often; I'm trying to go through my pictures and figure out what I've been doing for the last few months!) 

Near the end of February my friend Becca hosted a Greek-themed murder mystery dinner party, which was tons of fun! She had this whole Greek feast spread out, and the story we did was hilarious. 

I don't know what's happening with our faces here I'm sorry.

Anyway, I know Jared used to have dinner party kits like that...and last I heard, Nicole was the one who had them (??). Either way, if either of you (Nicole or Jared) know what happened to them, I'd be interested!

Life Updates

Ok, nothing too terribly exciting has happened lately, but I figured I'd give a little life update (sans pictures, sorry sisters).

I had a super fun time at Christmas with everyone, and afterwards I was lucky enough to go visit Dan and Nicole and Camden up in Utah for a few days. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures (that's Nicole's job, right? ;)), but I'm sure you can read all about it at Nicole's blog.

I'm still working (and enjoying work) at Deseret Book, but with the end of the holidays and the temple being closed for refurbishment for this and next week, business has slowed to a crawl and it can get pretty tedious (especially during the evenings, when I usually work). On the upside, I think I've memorized both Ephraim's  Rescue and 17 Miracles, despite having never sat down to watch either of them.

I've also started back up at Guthrie, but just at one day a week (during the school year there are a lot less kids, and a lot less time that they are available), and just for four/five hours, so it hasn't been too difficult to get back into the swing of things. Unfortunately, even just four hours there can sometimes stretch my patience to the limit; twice now I've had to work with a kid who has the biggest attitude for an 11-year-old I've ever met. Yesterday, the last hour and a half I had with him was particularly rough; he started being incredibly rude during group time and the director of the center where I work had to intervene several times, and he even resorted to spitting and attempting to scratch her. Not the most pleasant experience. Other providers have told me he has quite the reputation for talking back and eye-rolling....I thought that type of behavior didn't come until the teen years! Kids these days...:P

Anyway, I've probably mentioned this before, but this semester I'm not taking classes; just working up to save money to start going to Grand Canyon University for ASL interpreting. Exciting! I've also, on a sort of whim, decided to start learning Spanish, mostly due to this app/website called Duolingo (maybe you guys have heard of it?). It's pretty fun, and since Bryce served a Spanish-speaking mission, he's still fluent and can help me.The app is kind of cool; it has little lessons assigned by your level of fluency, and then you can build up points and compete against friends. It has you practice translating short phrases from English to Spanish (and vice versa) and will even have you repeat Spanish phrases. I'm only on the second level so far, and I would definitely say it's helpful to know at least a little of the language you want to learn, as it kind of just jumps straight into conjugating, without any real explanations of how to conjugate. I think I only took Spanish for a year and a half in junior high, but I do remember certain phrases, and (more importantly) I sort of remember how to conjugate. They only offer a few languages so far (I think just Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, and German), but I've read they're planning on updating it soon with Japanese, Russian, and Korean, I think.

I'm liking it a lot; it's nice to keep learning things when I'm not taking classes. I'll make sure to keep you all updated with the progress I make :)

Down the Rabbit Hole!

Yesterday Benworth and my friends Becca, Clint, Derek, and I went to Peppersauce Cave in Oracle, AZ. Before embarking on this trip, I had never even heard of Oracle, (let alone Peppersauce Cave), but both Benworth and Clint said they had been there multiple times, so we camped out near the cave Friday night, and headed in at about 9:30 Saturday morning.

I had never been in a cave before, so I was pretty excited! There's about a mile of passages you can go through, but only half is shown on the official map outside the entrance. There's one big room that has a few passages leading off it (including one that leads to a lake), but the one we followed (after taking a slippery, muddy ladder down) was called the Rabbit Hole, named because of the size and the necessity to go through head first. It was pretty dusty for the most part, which was nicer than a ton of mud, which Clint said is how the cave usually is. About two-thirds of the way through, I started feeling a little dizzy and kind of shaky, and I sat down for a little bit while the rest went through a particularly tight tunnel to explore a little more. The passage eventually looped back to where I was, so we continued down another path until I started having trouble breathing (I'm guessing a combination of heat + dust), and I had to pause again.

We eventually made it to the Signing Room, which is pretty much the endpoint of the passage, and signed one of the many little notebooks in the room. We took a longer break here to eat some snacks and talk, including to turn off all our lights to try and scare each other with stories.

What was weirdest about being inside the caves was when we turned off all the lights and let it just be pitch-black...even with absolutely no light source, my eyes still had these kind of gray images of where I thought the walls had been, and where different rocks were, but the shapes were only there when I had my eyes open. I think my brain was just completely weirded out by the fact that I couldn't see anything...usually in the dark your eyes adjust and you can see some things, right, but in this instance it was just so completely dark my brain was trying to create images anyway. Or maybe that was just the heat exhaustion talking.

Anyway, we made it back out (roughly five hours later), had a quick lunch, and headed home.

I'm super sore today, and despite getting a little sick in the middle of it, I had an awesome time!

Water You Doing?!

  For some reason, I've been doing more outdoors-y stuff in the last two months than I've probably ever done in my life. It started when our ward had a weekend campout near Payson, and Saturday morning a few of us decided to drive out to a place called Water Wheel (Waterwheel? I don't even know) for some hiking and...cliff jumping. I am a little bit terrified of heights, but I was game to try jumping anyway....that is, until we actually got in the water and it was freezing. Like,  'it's hard to breathe and everything gets numb and you struggle to swim just five feet' cold.  I have never felt so cold in my life. I quickly decided against cliff jumping and just sat with my friend Michelle on the sidelines to cheer on those brave/dumb enough to jump in and climb back out repeatedly.

Becca, Clint, and Michelle (They'll probably be featured on my blog a lot. Clint hadn't slept well in his tent so I offered to let him nap in the truck while we had breakfast, but then we stayed to bug him anyway)

Later, we hiked a little farther to a shallower pool with a mini waterfall that wasn't quite so cold, and hung around there for a while before a storm started moving in and we all drove back home.

That next week for Labor Day weekend, Becca, Clint, Benworth and I went to Canyon Lake to cliff jump again, and this time the water was far less cold and I actually cliff jumped this time! Unfortunately, no pictures, as the cliff we jumped from was really just a tall rock in the middle of the lake, and we had to swim out there to reach it. Not really ideal for bringing a camera....

Anyway, the 'cliff' was just about twenty feet tall, and it was pretty fun to jump off of, except for when I unexpectedly touched the bottom with my feet and it was incredibly squishy. We went again on Monday, this time with Benworth's younger brother Brandon and their sailboat!

Clint, Brandon, my disembodied legs, Benworth

Benworth and Becca! Everybody was stylin' bandannas that day

We did a little cliff jumping again, but, more importantly, I learned how to sail! It was kind of intimidating and difficult to do with very little wind (and I accidentally tipped the boat over at one point) but it was fun! Jury's still out on whether I'll ever do it again, though. After thoroughly exhausting ourselves, we decided it would be a great idea to go tubing on the Salt River. Becca had borrowed a huge raft for us all, since we had been debating about going, but by the time we got going it was nearly six and we quickly decided we had better get out before it got too dark. So Benworth and Brandon hitched a ride back to the parking lot, while Becca, Clint, and I waited by the side of the road, trying to deflate the raft. Luckily, we didn't run into any trouble, and we got back into our car just as it was getting too dark.

The four of us (plus Michelle and our other friend Bryce) are planning to go camping at some property Becca's family has near the White Mountains next weekend, so I'm pretty excited for that! :)

New York Minute

Last month, during the first week of August, I traveled again to Ohio to meet up with Jordan Myszka, and from there, the two of us drove to my other roommate Jorden's dad's wedding in new York. I flew up on the first, and stayed in the house Jordan was babysitting a dog at that night.

Lily, the dog being babysat. Couldn't close her mouth all the way and snored worse than anyone I've ever met!

The next day we started our nine hour drive to Watertown, New York, early in the morning. Our trip was fairly uneventful; we made good time, at least until about two in the afternoon, when there was a steady, seemingly unending downpour of rain for the next two hours and traffic slowed to about forty miles an hour (if we were lucky). About forty minutes from the campsite where the wedding and reception were being held (right next to Lake Ontario!), the sky suddenly cleared and Jordan and I were treated to some lovely views of the countryside of upstate New York

Anyway, once we got there we went to the rehearsal dinner and enjoyed hanging out with Jorden and her boyfriend playing games.The next day was the wedding, which was held outdoors, and then of course, the reception! It was pretty nice.

Jordan told me to make a "dramatic" pose...I am a little ashamed that this is all I came up with.

The next day, we drove to Jorden and her boyfriend's apartment, and mostly did a lot of hanging out and watching movies, with Jorden promising that the next day would be way more exciting.

On the fifth of August, we drove to Alexandria Bay and the 1000 Islands. There we did a little window shopping, but the main attraction was the 'Two Nations Boat Tour' that took us around the 1000 Islands and talked about the mansions there. 

As the name suggested, this boat tour did take us to another nation...Canada!

Looks a lot like America.

After briefly boating through Canadian waters, we returned to one of the larger islands. Heart Island is home to Boldt Castle, and the three of us disembarked there to tour the rooms. 

According to our tour guide, Boldt was a wealthy hotel entrepreneur who bought this island and began building this mansion for his beloved wife. She died unexpectedly, a few weeks before he was to give her the castle, and Boldt immediately ordered all production efforts to be stopped immediately. To this day, the castle remains unfinished in tribute to Boldt's wife.

When we heard that story, I imagined that maybe just a couple of the rooms would be unfinished, but it most of the rooms were not even close to being completed. I think maybe a total of 5 of the 120 rooms were furnished/finished. There was even a half-filled pool in the basement, surrounded by bare brick columns and half-plastered walls. It was pretty cool to see, but kind of depressing as well, as every single one of the unfinished rooms were covered in graffiti. There were many signs throughout the castle prohibiting graffiti, but years of tourists had clearly ignored the warning. A few of the writings were spray-painted, but mostly the walls (and even ceiling in some places) were clumsily scribbled on with any writing tool tourists happened to have; some had even painstakingly carved pairs of initials with a heart between them in the concrete. Jorden expressed that she thought those who wrote romantic things or expressions of love to their significant other were cute, considering the story of the castle. I sort of agree, but I have to wonder what the person who scrawled 'Lady Gaga' repeatedly on one wall was thinking.  What was the point?

Afterwards, we headed back to Jorden's apartment and had dinner with her mom. On our last day in New York, the three of us (plus Jorden's mom) decided to hike Salmon River Falls.

Don't worry...I was definitely sitting down when I took this picture. I'm not THAT brave.

Pretty cool! I had never been to the top of a waterfall like that...there wasn't a lot of water, but it was still awesome to see. A little scary as well, as the bottom was so shallow we could see the rocks underneath the water. After that, Jordan and I parted ways from Jorden and her mom, and started to drive back to Buffalo (where we would be staying for the night with Jordan's grandmother).

The weather was beautiful up there, and although I didn't get to visit Palmyra (though we passed signs on the way up) like Dad kept bugging me to (;P), I had an awesome time! I'm definitely blessed to fly free so I can see my roommates so often!