Man of La Mancha

So last night my friends Jackie, Claire, Ashley, Kendra and I headed out to the Old Barn Theater to see Man of La Mancha which I have got to tell you was pretty darn good. I loved tons of the lines and wish I had taken a pen and paper to have written them all down. It was both funny and toyed with your emotions. Such a good performance too! Mike and Jordon and I think we saw Jordanne  were AMAZING! Here is a picture of them (I wish I had one of the whole cast or something - and OH I took this photo from Mike's photo almbum on facebook)Also funny story about the blond guy on the very right below:

My roommate Ashley swore he was Joseph Smith from the Joseph Smith movie and Jackie and I BOTH informed her it was not. Well after he was taken to be burned by the Spanish Inquisition (our row was laughing SUPER hard even though most of the audience was quite solemn- I mean come on one of us believed the kid had been Joseph Smith before) and the play was over Ashley was convinced to get to the bottom of it all. So she asked him if he had ever seen the Joseph Smith movie and he said yes and then she said, "Were you in the Joseph Smith movie? I mean were you Joseph Smith in the Joseph Smith movie?" He replied no and kind of laugh and also that some of his friends were in the Joseph Smith movie. :) Just a great ending to a fantastic night.

The Ultimate Gift

So this last Sunday I decided that I wanted to read The Ultimate Gift again. I love this book and haven’t read it since I watched the movie. In fact I remember the movie being more accurate than it was – it’s REALLY not the same and I still stand by my opinion that everyone should read the book because it is small and very good. It’s also better than the movie and goes more into each of the gifts. I kind of wanted to share the gifts and how they affect my life but that would be a HUGE post so I think I will share some of the things that really jumped out at me (Each of the gifts had stuff pop out and I cried a few times but I am really just going to share a few right now).

The Gift of Problems:

We are like a baby bird and must go through the difficult process of hatching in order to be strong. Problems make us great. "If we are not allowed to deal with small problems we will be destroyed by the slightly larger ones . . .When we can learn from out own problems, we begin to deal with life. When we can learn from other people's problems, we being to master life."

The Gift of Family

I was blessed with a great one. I am thankful everyday for my parents and siblings and the things they teach me and the love they give me. I am grateful for my aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and friends who have become like family. Families are built on love and I am so thankful for all that I get to feel around these wonderful people. Thanks! I also want to throw in the Gift of Laughter here because with my family I laugh A LOT and I love it. When we learn to laugh at ourselves and our problems and the funny things in life we are healthier and happier.

The Gift of Dreams

Your dreams need to belong to YOU! It needs to be a custom-fit thing that grows and develops with you. The book discusses two people one person had a passion for his dreams and loved to share them. Although he had his own share of setbacks and failures he kept going and even on his deathbed he still had a dream (in fact he had a poster of it hung above the bed) - his name was Walt Disney. While Walt died with passion and excitement for his dream another man's dream was to be successful and retire by age 50 and he did so. However he had enjoyed work and his life felt absent without it and the passion he had once had. A month after accomplishing his dream this man committed suicide. Make the dream yours so fulfilling it only makes you better and you are left busting with joy and not empty.

The Gift of A Day

"If we are living our lives the way we should, everything should be in such an order that we wouldn't change the last day of our life from any other day. . . We're not guaranteed anything but today." Also remember that "Life's tragedies are often made up of the simple pleasures and kind gestures missed" - so look for those always.

So cute!

I found a post-it commercial on another blog and thought it was really cute and then I remembered that post-its had a contest for the places you use post-its and found an even cuter one! Here they are together in one place! Enjoy!

THIS IS MY FAVORITE!

Reservoir Lake 2009

HOORAY! I went on vacation AND got to see my family. It was so good to get to go to Reservoir Lake - out annual camping spot - once again! I haven't gone the last few years and missed it. Here are some pictures from the adventure.

Here is the group on the cattleguard.

I love swimming in lakes SO much - so this is FANTASTIC.

Mmmm s'mores!
One night Dillon was in Jessika's chair. She sat on him and then somehow a struggle ensued and the chair tipped and Jessika went right over Dillon. Ouch!

Hooray for Elizabeth and Shayna who are high school seniors this year!

My dear mom and dad! :)

This is my cousin's little girl Kayla talking to my dad and I love it!
We took jumping pictures. Sorry about the spot of epidermis you can see.

Then Shayna and Kristy took some jumping pictures. It took them quite a few to get in sync and then after one that was pretty good and where Kristy liked her pose they did that pose together.

Here is the group of younger girls just chilling at the sign - Gabriella, Alyssa, and Amberly! Beautiful!
And the boys needed their tough looking picture.

Kelly and Elizabeth showing off their fashion. The other fashionable thing of the week was squished mosquitoes on your clothes.

Speaking of mosquitoes I captured one in a picture! Right there by Stephanie's nose. I also got Adam looking REALLY excited . . . probably because one of those bugs was eating him. In return for them eating us. We ate a bunch of gnats (ok this wasn't on purpose but it felt better thinking it was some sort of revenge).
Ok so this picture is not a very good one but the story is. My camera was having issues with picture taking at that time of day (dusk). But the story behind this is we were in my aunt Linda's camp when Gabriella freaked out as she saw a bear. She ran to the van along with her sister and my cousins Jessika. We said go tell everyone else so Jessika took off through the campgroud YELLING - "It's a bear, there's a bear." Then my uncle Glenn came and informed us that from outside the tent you could see that it looked like a bush. Due to our discussion after Jessika took off about how it hadn't moved and the dog in the campground next to us wasn't barking we accepted this pretty good. Then up the road comes my whole family - yup someone yells bear and we head TOWARD it - that's us. It was just great and Jessika was not impressed that we sent her to tell everyone about a bush - even if we thought it was a bear when she took off. OH! Also there were deer down there when we went to take pictures and we think that Gabriella saw them moving and then the bush and imaginations can just go wild.

HP6

This is AMAZING.

It's filled with humor, action, love, friendship, and heartbreaking moments.
I love it.

Do the chickens have large talons? . . . . one more for the day

Before I headed home on Sunday with my friend Erika who I love lots! I went out and played with the newest addition to our home - the chicks!

Personally I think all four chicks in this photo are pretty cute. ;)
As well as the two featured in the photo below and not included in the above one.

Adam rounded up the ducks and he eventually caught Uncle Waldo (the white one) and the other is Mallory. I pretty much just love that one of our ducks names is Uncle Waldo.

Update!

Actually I found my sisters blog and pictures are abundant there so I can share more of life! I got to go home for the 4th of July and I got to go home on the 2nd due to the 3rd being celebrated in Logan. On the third this was the weather smack in the middle of the afternoon (all day had been sunny) . . .

That's right - HAIL! It left TONS of water! The streets of Arco had large puddles filling them!

And then after this we went and worked on the parade float for Mountain View RV Park and Cafe - I used to work here and now my brother Cody and sister Shayna do.

This is me, Mom, and Dad enjoying the parade! Not only was it 4th of July but Arco has been around 100 years too! We went to the fireworks later that night and forgot the camera but as usual they were great and the rumble off the mountains was amazing! I hope you all had a great Independence Day! It's truly wonderful to live in a place like America!
This is a part of the float. Adam is in red and like last year these guys threw all their candy at the beginning of the parade - we were offered bark.