1 Down . . . 179 to Go

It's official. Summer is over. I took a final bite of a delicious oreo cheesecake last night, declared it the last bite of summer, and then went to bed so I could have energy for the FDOS (First Day Of School). Not that any of you want to know what the first day of high school is like these days, but let's just say that the sign on my classroom read, "Welcome to Awkwardness," the game I played involved students moving a cookie from their forehead to their mouth - sans hands (oh, SOOOO funny), and I danced in front of the entire school with orange claw marks taped across my shirt. Pretty sure I don't remember any of my high school teachers doing anything of the sort on the first day. I must be the epitome of awkward.

Since you're all dying to know, here's a bit of an update of my life since . . . April (I've never posted about my trip to New York City. Back when Elisabeth was pregnant. Remember how Luke is 3 months old now? I'm so lame.)

New York

Probably no one reading this post could say they've had a relaxing trip to New York City, but I successfully managed to spend 4ish days in the Big Apple and returned feeling refreshed and ready for life. Tiff and I overlapped our stay by one night (we live one state apart but have to travel to NY to see each other, go figure). Shopping, eating, reading (hooray for Fablehaven 5 and the Guernsey Literary Potato book (or whatever it's called)), eating and as pictured above, we may have accidentally watched something around 9ish episodes of Pushing Daisies (while eating, of course, no, I'm not the pregnant one in the picture - Elisabeth looked adorable!). Tyler really liked watching it with us. A lot.

Jaime's Wedding

This is Jaime. And Kevin. And Mama Mabray. Moments before this picture was snapped I said, "Smile big, this one's for the blog!" Little did we know it would take so long to get up here. Such a fun wedding! I loved it ALL . . . especially the awkward Asian security guard who was worried about the possible alcohol consumption. Good times. Oh, and the ice cream bar with Blue Bell ice cream was amazing. As was the day spent by the pool. Thanks for getting married and giving me a reason to leave school a day early!

San Francisco

This is me. And Jenn. And friend Jill, in Turlock, awaiting our authentic burritos from the guy in the RV on the side of the road. Turlock=best.fruit.ever. San Francisco=lots of creepy homeless people. But I did fall in love with the cable cars (SO fun) and if any of you find yourselves in downtown San Francisco may I HIGHLY recommend taking a tour of Alcatraz. Super cool. Oh, and make sure you say hello to Jenn and Jon while you're there - they are the best hosts ever!

Palmyra & Vermont

Bet you didn't know Nephites have mullets! Here's living proof. So classic. Spent 5ish days in Palmyra/Vermont visiting church history sites and performing firesides with the Jenny Phillips choir I'm in. Seriously amazing trip - we even got to see the Hill Cumorah Pageant (puts the Manti pageant to an awkward and embarrassing shame).

Seattle

Took a last-minute, week-long trip to visit my sister and her fam in Seattle. Ever been there? I HIGHLY recommend this super-cool fountain thing. It even blows out fog. The cutest nephews in the world loved it almost as much as I did.

Franklin, Idaho

My neighbor was nice enough to let the fam take a badly needed vaca to his cabin in Idaho. It was just what I needed, and I even had the chance to play around with the camera to get some cool shots of the kids slip-n-sliding down the coolest hill ever. What are men compared to rocks and mountains?

Colons

My sister had her colon removed a couple of weeks ago, which means I became the insta-mom of 3 boys/the best hospital buddy ever. (Those of you raising boys, bless you. Boys are gross.) Fuss Pot, pictured above, is a Mama's boy, which means he likes to whine when his mom isn't around. Pretty sure I earned my ticket to the Celestial Kingdom when I took care of him while he had the stomach flu. No one should have to clean up someone else's kids diarrhea or vomit. I did both. Fuss Pot was nice enough to give me his disease. One week before school started. Let's just say getting the stomach flu is a quick-fix way to lose a few pounds. Remind me of that during the Holidays please.

So, as you can see it's been quite the eventful summer. Upcoming: Tiff's wedding in Boise on Friday, and my 10-10-10 cruise in October - you're all invited!

OH - here's an update for those of you who made it to the end of this post. I had my date with Queer Clear/Purple People Eater. Oh.my.goodness. Remember how he was wearing a dark purple shirt? Pretty sure I wouldn't have noticed except that the first thing he said when we met was, "Hope the purple shirt doesn't make too much of a statement for a first date!" I think he was being sarcastic, but it definitely left me speechless for a couple seconds. Good times!