It's about time!

Ok, first things first:

I want to congratulate Mark and Ellie on their new addition, Sylvie! I am so happy for you, and wish I was there to give big hugs and smiles. I also want to say "YAY!" for Nancy and Will on their up and coming new addition. Personally, I think it's going to be a boy, but I think that whatever you have is going to be great!

Ok- next... I'm sorry it has taken me FOREVER to repost, but I will do it through pictures again, which I think is more fun anyway. (The captions are BELOW the photos they are for. I think it gets confusing when it is all squished together. :) )

Mom and Dad and I went on their ward campout and this was right next to our tent. I took these in the morning when I was the only one up and it was very beautiful!

Here's another view of that river. PS- it was glacially cold.

This was one of the boys that slept under the stars near our tent. I thought it'd be great to snap a photo of him in his morning glory! Pretty silly, but fun.

Mom and dad and I waiting for breakfast the next morning.This is the view from my apartment that I was sadly moving out of. :( But a pretty light this day. :)
I wanted to take a picture of my great shoes that I loved so much. I've long since replaced them since I'd worn the heel down to the nail (literally). I'd begun to use this pair as hammers for nailing nails into the wall. But I was still sad to see them go!!! Dad and I went shooting and I had a blast! It was my first time and this first target was us using the hand gun he has. We labeled our hits.

This was dad's target using the .22 rifle. He's pretty good!This is mine using the same gun. I am less good. It was more fun to shoot the handgun- easier, too.

This was my hometeacher, Josh, when he came over to help me move stuff out of my apartment. He found a parakeet on the stairs outside his apartment on the way over.

Ahh- my faithful reaching stick! It was the handle of a telescoping duster that broke.
Here is where it lived. Right next to my bed behind the trash can- the perfect place to reach down and grab it to push the door closed. Getting it open with the stick was more challenging. It took rubber bands, sticky tack, and more skill in balancing and patience than I had. My roommate and I had a good chuckle over it though. The goal was to do it without touching the floor.
Here is my sad little corner after I took my desk down. I had to try and fit all my stuff (alarm clock, etc.) onto the folding chair without it sliding off. My roommates thought it was more depressing than I did.
We were SUPER!
AAHHH- my room is so empty! Kari is displaying the benefits of having the bed against the wall, but it meant that I was actually moving out! You can see my roommie from the other side of the room had already abandoned me.

(there is supposed to be a video here.)

If this video ever loads you can see the tour I took in my apartment manager/boss's house while they weren't home. I was staying here between check-outs and check-ins at the apartments so I could keep helping her out.

Ok- clearly I couldn't load the video. But needless to say their house is huge. 7,000 sq. feet or something with a half basketball court, and spa and exercise room. And that's just part of the bottom floor. It's a beautiful home!
Kari came and stayed one night and this is me messing around on one of the exercise machines. I'm pretty sure we were using it wrong. Plus there was a disclaimer on it that said "Do not play on. Do not use until you have read and understand the DVD and instruction manual." You can see a strap dangling down. I think that was supposed to be attached to the bottom half of the swiveling part so it doesn't go too far. I never actually let go of the handles, because I would have been completely inverted. It was really fun, but probably a little stupid to play on. Oh well!
Here is the panoramic view from the downstairs deck.


....and the other half. It was breathtaking at day and at night.

Mom and Becky when we went to Camp Nauvoo. Very fun! It was hot, so we cooled our feet in the icey water. :)

Dad was teaching Hannah how to blow bubbles with her gum during Conference. She finally got it! Also- General Conference and the RS Broadcast were ALL amazing! I hope everyone got the chance to see them. :)

I will finally tell you guys: this was when my camera was sitting on my sweater. That old BYU one that we've handed down forever. I love that sweater!

So it has been a pretty fun end-of-the-summer. I sure miss my roommates and friends in Provo, but I'm having a pretty good time at home, too. I am going to the YSA ward and making friends-yay! Also, I've started work as a substitute teacher. Surprisingly, I'm finding that I enjoy the junior high kids better than the high schoolers. They are not mature enough to know how to talk back to me yet, but they are smart enough that I can talk to them easily. Plus they are smaller than me and are not too embarassed to show a liking to me (well, some of them anyway). I've having a good time and enjoying the experience. Hope everyone is doing well!