on the road again...

alright...i figured that i better take a few minutes to update everyone on the vacations so far. if any of you don't happen to know, i've been on two vacations, I'm in the middle of a third, and i will be going on a fourth the day after i return from this one. i guess i thought that i better live it up, because once school starts, i wont have much time for anything else. anyway, i thought i would give some brief summaries of some of the exciting things i've been able to do.

Vacation #1: Alabama/Georgia (July 2-9)
this vacation consisted mostly of cleaning out my grandfather's house. he lived with my parents for four years before he passed away in march, but he still had his house and a great deal of things in alabama, so i flew down and met my parents in huntsville to help clean. we ate some really yummy food and found some very cool stuff, but it was a very tiring job. the day before we left for utah, we drove the stuff mom and dad are keeping back to georgia and packed for vacation number two.

Vacation #2: Utah/Idaho/Wyoming/Montana (July 13-21)
we did TONS of stuff on this vacation. mom, dad, me, adam and his family and belinda's sister and her family all left sunday morning for Bear Lake just at the border of Utah and Idaho. We stayed in an amazing cabin and ate reeeeeally good food (tiffany owns a catering business and for good reason!) and soaked in the wonderful sunshine. here's a rundown of what we did this week:
-monday: We went to the Minnetonka Caves. At the very end of the tunnel (where we had to turn around), they let some of us walk back with the lights off. you couldnt see your hand in front of your face...and adam and belinda kept freaking us out by making references to scary movies. brad also got to bear lake in the evening.
-tuesday: This was the beach day. we rented a wave runner and spent the day out on the lake, and it was literally the entire day. apparently the water main in the town broke the night before and no one told us, so we scrambled to the nearest convenience store and bought 37 jugs of water. luckily, we weren't going to need to be at the cabin much anyway. the water was beautiful and the temperature was perfect. consequently, brad and i got REALLY bad burns. thank goodness for advil and aloe vera! that evening, they fixed the water main. we suddenly had a LOT of drinking water.
-wednesday: We packed up our stuff and said goodbye to the Jones' family on this day. we left the wonderful cabin we were in and drove through idaho, ate in jackson hole, took pictures in front of the Tetons, drove through Yellowstone, made a quick pitstop to old faithful, and finally got to Big Sky, Montana where we checked in to our posh condo for the rest of the week. Sadly, we didn't see much wildlife in Yellowstone except for a buffalo wandering on the street. still, i had my eyes peeled for a moose, and brad really wanted to see a bear.
-thursday: We drove out to west yellowstone and saw 2 imax movies, as well as ate at the restaurant where adam worked a few years ago. we also went to a bear and wolf discovery center. we finished the day by walking through the endless shops and i bought hacky sacks for my classroom. you know youve become a teacher when your only souvenir on vacation can be used in the classroom somehow.
-friday: This was the day we wanted to go to Boseman, Montana. we got up early and got there just in time to see the dark knight (which was AMAZING), and then we walked around Boseman. everything was wonderful until the torrential downpour. literally...it was hailing and the streets started flooding. the best part was that i found a snowboarding jacket and gloves for awesome prices!
-saturday: This was our final day and really the freebie for everyone. we ended up driving to a resort further up in the mountains looking for a gondola ride up the mountain. luckily for mom, it cost way too much and so we just walked around instead. we also stopped at another resort and found even more amazing deals on snow clothes, so i got some cool rossignol pants (apparently that's a good brand). we also saw a bear on the side of the mountain as we were driving! it was little, but brad finally got to see one. no moose, unfortunately.
-sunday: we packed up and drove back to adam and belinda's house. when brad left, noah hugged him and said "we REALLY love you, brad!" (say it to yourself by replacing all r's with w's. so cute!). they love him a lot. i stayed and we played that night.
-monday: when it was time for me to leave, i hugged noah and kennedy. thinking i would get a similar comment to what noah told brad the previous day, i said that i love them. noah's immediate response was, "where's brad?" one day they'll love me that much.....mom, dad and i then drove down to provo and moved some things into my classroom. we also ran some errands and got more school supplies and ate at my favorite sandwich place, gandolfo's. they then left with me fighting back tears. im such a sap, but i love my family!! i hate seeing them go.

okay, for your sake, i'm going to stop there. i'll write about the last two vacations as soon as i can. and i promise to add pictures as soon as possible. yay for vacations!

birthdays, lazy days, and vacation days...

so ive been meaning to write for a few weeks now, but with public school being out for the summer and brad without any classes, im constantly tempted to be away from the computer. however, i thought it would be good to do a quick catch up on the happenings of this past month. happy july second, by the way! the time sure flies...

well, it's official. im old. well, if 22 is old, anyway. my students seemed to think so. i had a great birthday that began with brad waking me up with some beautiful flowers. i then proceeded to pamper myself by getting a mani/pedi, trim my hair, and even color it just for fun. you could barely tell a difference by the end of the day, but i felt pretty dang good. i then got dressed in my new really nice shirt brad bought me and we went out to red lobster. brad...what a great boyfriend! you may not know this, but brad really doesnt like seafood. of course, i didnt know this until i had fed him shrimp about 10 times. but still being a trooper (and knowing red lobster is a favorite of mine), he took me there and made me promise to eat not only an appetizer but whatever i wanted...i wasnt allowed to look at prices. i was SO full that i was about to burst when we left that place! but boy, it was worth it :). we finished up the evening by renting lars and the real girl (recommended to us by scott, one of our very close friends). it was definitely an interesting movie. not a kids comedy by any means, but there is certainly a mix of emotions that you cant help but feel for lars (who falls in love with an inflatable doll)...yeah. if you havent seen it and you like deeper meaning movies, you might want to check it out.

besides that, i just finished up subbing for some different classes (as well as the third grade class in which i student taught that i love so much). i "subbed" for peggy for a few days while she got all of their end of the year presentation night stuff ready, and i actually got to go to the show (it was a mock trial, an adaptation of the true story of the three little pigs). it was so cute. the best part though (besides the girls shamelessly asking if brad was my boyfriend in the middle of the play--we stood off to the side) was when i walked in. we were 5 minutes late and the entire class started smiling, pointing, and waving at me. needless to say peggy almost had a coronary because the kids lost focus for a second. it was a proud moment for me.

we've tried to do lots of fun things lately, but we are so poor it is pathetic. any ideas? here we are up at the Mayan in Sandy (we had prime seating for the diving show, which is behind us):


ive also spent a disgusting amount of time playing the Wii at brad's apartment. his roommate owns one, and while i really wasnt good at first, im starting to give brad some competition (either that, or he fakes it well. what a good boyfriend!). we REALLY love mariokart, and if any of you have not had the chance to play it before, then get your hands on this game as soon as possible. if you played the N64 version....it's 100x better. SO FUN. my new obsession (as of tonight, actually) with the wii is the Wii Fit. holy moly....it is so addicting. and yes, some of you may be anti-Wii, arguing that you can cheat and just flick your wrist through the games, but let me tell you...this one is intense. it comes with a balance board that tests your weight, BMI, and your level of balance, and you set goals and do different activities to achieve those goals. for instance, i made a goal of losing 5 lbs in the next month. you personalize your profile, so they literally have a 'trainer' for you. and it has EVERYTHING. you can do strength exercises, yoga, and even running. there are also tons of games that are geared towards aerobic activities (like hulahooping as fast as possible for three minutes) or balance strengthening games (like snowboarding, tightrope walking, and heading a soccer ball). it's EXTREMELY addicting for me since im so competitive, and im proud to say that after logging 20 minutes of work out time, i was all sweaty and i had lost half a pound! not a lot, i know, but i was pretty impressed, since it's a "video game" and all. maybe i should be embarrassed that i was so gross after this, but i still loved it. once i get my first paycheck, there is a good chance i'll be buying the Wii just for this game. no way will i ever consider running in the snow again. and when i have children, this will be a requirement before they can play other games. i guarantee it.


okay okay, this is getting really long. but here is an overview of what i will be doing for the rest of the summer:
-July 2-9: trip to GA/AL to help the rents clean out Pappy's house
-July 11: attend new teacher training and receive my classroom key!!
-July 13-21ish: family vacation (sort of) to Idaho/Wyoming
-July 26-Aug 3: Ivey family vacation to Lake Tahoe (this is still not set in stone though)
-Aug 4-10: trip to TX to see sisters and their respective families! (also not in stone...)
-Aug 11: report to CSLA for the first teacher prep day
-Aug 20: first day teaching my own class!
-Aug 26: move into my ginormous new apartment!

so yeah....i'll update again as soon as possible!

wait, one more thing. just FYI, i finished the city of ember last night (on my shelfari, if youre wondering) and it was SO GOOD. it's a fifth grade reading level, so if you would like an easy but surprisingly captivating book with adventure and suspense, i recommend checking it out. it is very clean, and very easy to get into. i literally had to force myself to go to bed every night because i wanted to keep reading, and that hasnt happened since harry potter. and i've read a LOT of books since then. im excited to go read the sequel to it right now!