Brycen's Birthday

HAPPY ONE YEAR BRYCEN! Brycen is my brother Brian's baby - for those of you who didn't know
This is his really cute Sesame Street 'Grow With Me Sprinkler'


This adorable gift is his "cow bowling". He was loving that the ball made noises when you move it!








First time in the swing!

First time falling out of the swing! (Don't worry, Grandma LuAnn was behind him the whole time) He held on for dear life, it was so cute! He's a tough little guy!

Kilee's Birthday

ONE YEAR OLD! Kilee and Cooper are getting SO big! Ben (Nate's brother) and his wife Cori had a little birthday party for Kilee. Cooper was helping her open her presents, and when he found something he wanted he would say "that's for me!" It was cute.






This is one of those presents that Cooper said "thats for me!" It's the Pick Me Up Elmo that Uncle Nate and I gave Kilee. It sings and dances. It's actually really cute!










Kilee thoroughly enjoying her birthday cake!

Cooper decided to help himself to Kilee's cake!

Uncle Nate was helping Cooper to "jump" the four wheeler! WEEEE!

Memories

I saw this on Natty's blog and I agree with her and think it's really fun so;

Here are the rules

1. As a comment on my blog, leave a memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you know me a little or a lot, anything you remember! If we're only blogging friends or if you're a blog hopper who happens upon my blog regularly...leave me a comment. There must be reason you keep stopping by! Say something! If you don't have a blog or don't know how to sign in, sign up for an account! You won't regret it!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog (if you have one) and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty fun to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll be sure to write one about you... either on your blog, in my comment box, or I will email you back!

3. If the memory happens to involve my husband, please include him!This is your chance to let meknow you're checking my blog!Give me a shout out!

Going Away Party

My good friend Chelsea Nelson quit working for USU and moved to Washington! I miss her so much! She was freaking awesome! It seems like you just start to get to know someone really well, and then they leave. It's cool, you've gotta live your life - but it's sad to see people move on. Chels - if you read this - I LOVE YOU AND I HOPE THAT SEATTLE ROCKS!!!!!











Cami and Chels
Chelsea and Walker










Chelsea, Brittney and Brandon









After dinner at Cafe Sabor we went to the Celebration Centre. I had only been there before for work so I hadn't ever been on the rides - they are AWESOME! Stan Checketts (who invented Bungee Jumping) owns this place in Logan and he has just a few rides there. It has the tallest free fall drop ride in the world! (I DID NOT go on that one though! I just watched.)
This is the swing that we all went on. Because there were five of us we broke it up into groups. I was SO surprised with how fast this thing gets you going - i mean, how quickly you're clear up in the air! It's INSANE! lets just say that Walker was freaking out like a little girl and when we got off the ride, the guy running it asked him to "watch his language" or we would have to leave. I couldn't hear it from the other side so I'm not even sure what he was saying.


Chelsea and Erica getting ready to ride the swing :)

St. Augustine, FL

St. Augustine is the oldest city in the United States. It was established in the 1500's. This lighthouse was absolutely beautiful. We hiked to the top and I've never been so out of breath but the view from the top was AWESOME!

These are the stairs we had to climb. Can you imagine being the light keeper at this light house and having to haul buckets of lantern oil to the top? They let you lift one at the bottom so you could feel how heavy and then half way up they have another one so we could lift it and feel how much heavier it felt because we had been climbing. OUCH!

We went to this old fort and was used to hold prisoners during wars. It was almost like a castle

because you could see where the mote went. It's dried up now, but it was cool to see. And they reinacted what it was like to shoot a cannon at the enemy coming. My ears were ringing for about an hour after that. My favorite part of the fort though was this lady. Her fingernails were FREAKING GROSS!

Florida!

When we went to Florida after NY we had SO much fun! We started in Jacksonville (our friends live there), then we went down to Ft. Lauderdale where we stayed in a hotel for two nights and then left on our CRUISE to the BAHAMAS! It was a short cruise, but it was really fun. I think it's smart to start off with a short cruise just so you can see if you get sick or not. I was sick the morning we came back into port and it was NOT pretty!



This picture is the firs tnight on the cruise. I love the sun and the water in the background!







This picture was taken at the Atlantis Resort in Nassau, Bahamas. There is a huge indoor/outdoor aquarium. There are only certain areas of the resort we could go into because we weren't guests there, but it was still amazing. The cheapest room is about $700 a night and the most expensive room is $25,000 a night (did I mention that one has a FOUR night MINIMUM!!!) That's INSANE!

New York

New York was definitely amazing. We had a blast seeing all the very large buildings - and getting lost on the Subway. I tell you, it really does take a genius to be able to decipher those stupid maps. Luckily for us, Sheena was just a phone call away and she is very familiar with the subway system. Our first hotel was very scary. I just have a word of advice for anyone wanting to visit New York City - DO NOT GO CHEAP ON HOTELS! No matter how expensive you think $200+ a night is, it's totally worth it. I booked us a hotel for $130 a night and when we got there - we were in the middle of the FREAKING ghetto in QUEENS of all places! We stayed one night and then booked a better hotel right in Manhatten. We were on 49th and 10th. Five blocks away from 5th avenue (where everything is). It definitely got better once we got to a better hotel.

We met up with Sheena one of the nights and walked across the

Brooklyn Bridge and had real Brooklyn Style Pizza. It was kind of

getting dark when we walked there, and it was dark when we came back. You definitely get a different perspective on the city when you see it all lit up and from a distance. It really is beautiful.

See... I told you the city was beautiful!

I hadn't seen Sheena since they moved to New York like 2 years ago. It was so nice to be able to spend the evening with her and catch up. Thank you and Love ya!

We went on "Top of the Rock" (Top of Rockefeller Center) and got a GREAT view of the city. We walked passed Tiffany and Co. and I had to keep myself from going inside - that could have spelled disaster for my checking account. The building behind Nate in this picture is the Empire State Building. And, a little bit of New York Trivia (thanks Sheena) - did you know that the top of the Chrysler building is made of old car parts?

Central Park was beautiful and SO peaceful. When you're relaxing in the sunshine, it's almost like you can't hear the city anymore - everything just fades out. I see why people like to hang out there a lot and have picnics. I would if I lived there.

We got tickets to David Letterman. The only guest I knew was Ashton Kutcher. (He's always a pleasure to look at). The show was really funny and it was interesting to see what goes on behind the scenes. To get tickets to Letterman you enter online, they call you with a trivia question, and if you answer correctly - you get the tickets. We never watch Letterman, so I was completely amazed that I got the answer right. The answer was "Where does Rufus work?" (I think the name was Rufus) anyway - if you don't know it, he works at the Deli down the street. I was STOKED when I got that answer right, and for never watching the show I was pretty pleased with myself. I really wanted tickets to Conan O'Brien but he wasn't currently giving out tickets because they are booked for like 2 months.

We took a helicopter ride over the city. It was only about 12 minutes long, but it was amazing. Yet another way to get a different perspective of the city. Here is a shot of the Statue of Liberty from the chopper. It's beautiful, but it's not as big as I had imagined it would be.

Anyway - this part of the trip was amazing. I definitely think that if I ever go back to New York it will probably be with my sisters and will more than likely be a pure Broadway trip. I think we would go for 4 days and see a different show every night. That would be awesome! I wanted to get tickets to Wicked but Nate isn't into that stuff, and the price of $140 per person choked me a little. But they currently had Wicked, Mary Poppins, The Little Mermaid and The Lion King playing (among others).