quick update on break...

still got some catching up to do...
thursday evening (of last week, not yesterday) amy and i got to spend some time together and actually ended up going over to mrs. cortes's house and hanging out with her and leah, which was great!
my Christmas was mostly non-eventful, but lovely. we got some nice family time in and it was fun to see katie opening up all her gifts...she was quite excited. in the evening we went over to my aunts house for dinner. it was just nice to spend some time with the family.
most popular gift: new game for the wii. we (mostly gary) are all obsessed with beating each other's high scores...it's pretty hilarious how into it we all get.

other than that, my break has been relaxing, although tueday through thursday i was watching katie while my parents took a short trip down to Cabo for some good ol' R and R. although it was fun to get to spend some time with my sister, i was exhausted by the end of it! we managed to keep busy though by going to my aunts house for a while one afternoon, so she could play with my cousin's son, aiden, who is just a few months younger than katie. we also visited my grandma for dinner one night; that was quite nice. august came over wednesday afternoon and kept us some company as well as went to yougurt land with us and then on a drive around some neighborhood, because it was raining and it was just so pleasant to listen to the rain on the car and look at some houses just for fun. today betsy and i took katie to see the princess and the frog movie and it was a very cute movie. katie loved being out with her big sisters and getting some jamba juice.
even though i love my sister and i love spending time with her, she is a lot of work and needless to say, i was very glad to see my parents come home :)

night time beach adventures!

last week, august had another one of our adventures. we started by making a second attempt at going to the beach at night (since the first one last year, didn't work out too well) while we were walking along, we came to the other side of the pier and found a huge mound of sand piled high along the shore. what immediately came to mind? sledding on the sand! we went to find cardboard box and then proceeded to attempt some of what you might call southern California sledding

it didn't work out as we had planned...although it looks like i'm flying down, looks can be deceiving; i was at a complete stop. although the wind does add to the effect, don't you think?next we tried getting a running start to get going, but as you can see, august stumbled off her sled, leaving it buried in the sand behind her. then i discovered that trying to go on one's stomach is just altogether a bad idea...i definitely left the sled behind me, but continued to slide

in the end, we wound up rolling down the hill...much easier, although there were those minor problems of getting sand all down your shirt and every where else as well as the dizziness factor.

all in all it was a successful night. :)

home again, home again

i am very glad to be home. i got home last thursday and it's been nothing but go go go from then.

the train ride was enjoyable since i didn't have to travel alone (barrett was on the same train). when i arrived at union station, i had to wait a bit for my family to get me. somehow they were 55 minutes late picking up justin, 30 minutes late picking up me, yet we were only 5 minutes late for our dinner reservation at a place called the Pacific dining car. it was a very nice restaurant and the food was delicious. i actually ordered a steak, which is quite unusual for me, but it was one of the best filet's i've ever had. after this quite enjoyable dinner, we went back to the house and just hung out for a while, talking until gary and justin wanted to watch a movie, which didn't turn out to be any good and put my mom and i to sleep. since the movie failed, gary went to bed and my mom, justin and i ended up talking for an hour and a half about everything from names we liked and didn't like to different world perspectives on death; quite a broad conversation.
we went to bed late and were up early so i could take justin to the airport for his flight back home to utah. friday i was able to simply relax and saturday was another relaxing day, spent by playing a much needed four hours of tennis. i haven't played in 2 months! and now that i've played again, i don't know how i went 2 months without it! first i hit for a while with scott and then gary wanted to play, so i went straight from one tennis court to another. gary and i played a couple sets and just as i was winning, my strings on my second racket decided they and had enough and snapped (i'd broken my first racket strings a while back and just hadn't gotten it re-strung).
sunday was another relaxing day and then monday i was able to see julie for a while. i haven't seen her since august! we enjoyed time to catch up and hang out.
anyway, i've got to be going, but in addition to having fun, i've also been able to spend lots of time with my little sister. my parents are taking advantage of again having a built in babysitter :) but, i don't mind; she is fun for the most part ;)
hope all is going well in your lives!

dancing in the rain

friday night was winter formal, so many of us got all dressed up and ready for a night of fun. unfortunately we had to wait an hour in the rain for the shuttle to come pick us up after we went our for dinner. sorry the pics are a little out of order here we are waiting patiently haha

meet amy! (date #1) me, barrett and amy all went in a trio :)

me and barrett (date #2 haha), quite thrilled to finally be on our way

apparently something funny happened. but, this is barrett, leif and clara

at dinner-Amy, Kathryn, me and Candace
the dance was fun...minus all the people dancing inappropriately, but we tried not to notice too much and formed our own group in the corner of Barrett, Amy, me, Clara, Kathryn and Leif. it was great! and Blaine tried to teach me how to salsa dance...i was horrible, but good thing he was good at leading, so i didn't really have to do anything. also, since it was so hot in the room, our group found it a good idea to go outside and dance in the rain for a while. :) my favorite!

but, as you can tell the rain was not so good for our hair...but who cares

twas a great night! :)

when we returned a group of us all piled on the couches in the lounge and watched a movie, which was a perfect ending to a good time.

so much to say, so little time

where has the time gone? i cannot belive it has been over two weeks since i last posted! so much has happened since then and i think i've been more busy than i've ever been in my life.
my week at home was fantastic. i got to be there for katie's 4th birthday, which was a blast. i took her to pick up her cake. i think that was the first time i'd ever driven her and taken her somewhere alone before, which was cool. gary is quite protective of who she rides in the car with haha. so, just to give you a heads up on what is new with her, she is very into people now playing with her. you know like giving the toys names and playing out a story, which is cute, but tiring. her speech as also improved so much even in the last few months. you can actually have conversations with her now. other than that, she is simply always a blessing in my life, although frustrating at times. :) i love her
i also hung out with justin over my break. we started the evening by going out to a family dinner at a sushi restaurant, then we began designing t-shirts and wen to get materials...that turned out to be an adventure from Michale's to old navy to walmart and back to Michale's. we eventually gave up working on them for the evening and opted to go see a movie (2012). in the morning i took justin back to whittier, made yet another trip to Michale's and then hung out at his house for a while cutting out stencils of letters for our shirts. i had to leave to go babysit katie, so justin ended up finishing the shirts...they actually look pretty cool (i'll have to post a picture). it was originally for jenna's birthday present, but now we all have matching ones....great haha.
another highlinght was getting to see my friends-august, amy and grace. august came over wednesday night and we finally finished out painting (another picture is in order) that we started back in july or something. then friday we all got together and hung out for a bit by going to yogurt land and the park. august then had to leave and grace, amy and i went out and got some chipotle for dinner. then grace had to also depart, so amy and i decided to go see New Moon. ridiculous, i know. i still had a blast though...it was so good to see them!
other than that, the rest of my break was pretty relaxing. i got a lot of good family time in. unfortunately i got sick on Thanksgiving and basically woke up, helped my mom make some food, made pies, went back to sleep, socialized, ate dinner and then went to bed. it was still good though.
i headed back up to Westmont on the train on sunday and this week went pretty well. thought there were many good things happening this week, some bad and some tedious, that has left me no time to post. tuesday and wednesday night i had 4 hour rehersals for our Christmas concert that is on friday, saturday and sunday. in addition to that, i've had two exams, a major drawing project due, two eight page papers due within a day of each other, a speech and a social life. it's been crazy.
on wednesay we did get to play in the snow though. a snow machine came and dumped 20 tons of snow on our campus so that we could all play in it. we had a massive snowball fight and lots of attempted sledding. it was a blast! also wednesday night was a quite fancy dinner in the d.c (dining commons). thursday past in a blur and friday night was the opening night of the concert. the church was packed, but luckily everything ran smoothly, as did the second showing that occurred tonight. the music is quite beautiful that everyone preforms.
today also was the day our our section NCTO, which stand for non-committal take out and your roommate has to ask a date for you. i think a good time was had by all, but i'll comment more on that at a later date and hopefully i can get some pictures up then as well.
have a wonderful night/day, everyone. and enjoy this Christmas season. :)

spoon fights, meteor showers and more!

well, here we are in mid November already! i can't believe how quickly time has flown. i'm already registering for my next semester classes and i'm still trying to process first semester.
anyway, i was able to take a quick trip home last weekend so i could get a quick visit with my family.
the adventure started here in good ol' Santa Barbara, as i waited for the train. let me tell you, you see some pretty interesting people riding the train. every time i'm at the train station i think how cool it would be to make a photography project out of it, but i don't want to offend anyone by taking pictures of them. hmmm...we'll see.
when i arrived at Union Station, my entire family was there to pick me up; Gary, my mom, Betsy, Katie and Justin. it was great. that was the first time i've seen Betsy since August. we all went out to dinner in L.A. at a pretty nice seafood restaurant. though the food was good, the desert had to be my favorite part. we accidentally ended up ordering five deserts (yes there were five of us eating them, but we were just going to get three and share them, since they were pretty large). we initially ordered a chocolate multan cake, peach cobbler and a slice of cheesecake. Katie then kept telling the waitress she wanted a cup-cake and the waitress felt bad and brought Katie the largest cup-cake i've ever seen. so, naturally, we all had to help her on that. then, none of us realized that a crem brule came with Betsy's meal and so that was added to the plethora of sugar piling up on our table. the mass quantity didn't stop my family from finishing them all though and we actually all got into a spoon fight over who would get the multan part of the chocolate cake. it got pretty messy with all of us knocking pieces of cake off each other's spoons. man, i love my family...only we would do that in an upscale LA restaurant.
after dinner we took Betsy back to USC and then went on home, where we had to set up more Christmas decorations. our addition this year? a giant 5ft nutcracker that lights up and plays music from an ipod. Gary want to have it play rap...
the rest of my weekend with the family was good. i got to spend some time with katie and with my grandma, who i had dinner with on saturday night. i went back to Westmont sunday afternoon and spent the rest of the evening doing homework.
monday night, as some of you may know, there was a meteor shower. a few friends and myself went down to the field, laid out some blankets and watched it. it was a blast! and apparently we were really loud. haha
this week has been lots of homework, but still lots of fun and i get to go home again tomorrow. since some of my classes were canceled for the monday and tuesday of next week, i decided to simply skip the others so that i could be home for Katie's family birthday get together on sunday and get an entire week off for Thanksgiving. i'm looking forward to being home for a long period of time.
anyway, gotta get to class.
hope you all have a fantastic day!

Drawing Projects

these are some actual projects i've completed in my class. i really have gained a whole new appreciation for drawing. bottle done in charcoal...i'm not really sure i like this one, but hey.pumpkin also done in charcoal and conte (a bit more dense than charcoal).


this project had to incorporate organic materials and man made objects, so i used a necklace my cousin, jamie, made for me and some cloths pins. our only restriction on this was to use spoons somewhere in the drawing. i just added a bunch of everyday objects and even included two pictures i've taken (the leaf and eye) and a picture of me and august with an umbrella in Washington D.C. and also a picture of my little sister washing her toy car. it was a really fun project to work on, but very time-consuming.

this one is done on an old page of a Spanish dictionary and I was experimenting with negative space. i then filled in the branches and such though. i think i'm going to frame this one.

:)

Just a Few Sketches

here are just some sketches that i've done for my drawing class in my sketch book.

this had to be an emphatic line (basically using line only) drawn upside down in order to get the right brain engaged, so we could depict what we actually see, not what we think the object should look like.
there was a Rembrandt exibit in our art gallery of his etchings, so i went to sketch some of them.

these were my two favorites.

parents weekend

i believe i forgot to mention that last weekend me and some friends attended an Anglican church just to see what it was like. i don't think many people know this about me, but when my mom and i used to live in San Clemente, i went to an Episcopalian school. the Anglican church service was much like the services i had attended every morning at St. Michael's, which was the name of the school. if you have never been to a service like the this, the best way i can describe it is ritualistic. it's a bit of a step down from the Catholic church in the sense that they don't pray to the saints and the virgin Mary and all, but they still rely much on the traditional practices and hymns. in a way i find it fascinating and refreshing. instead of the preacher telling you what you need to do to become a better follower of Christ, they pull from traditional books and show you. I'm not saying I'd want to attend every week and make it my main church, but it was different and a nice break in a way.
this weekend was parents weekend, so my Mom, Gary and Katie came up to visit. Katie was very excited to see me and give me a small lotion she had picked out at target for me. it was really cute. my mom attended my communications class with me and then both my parents went to chapel, where my women's choral sang. after chapel, i showed them my dorm room; Katie loved my bed, especially since it is the top bunk. we then went out to lunch and just hung out the rest of the day. went on a short hike and i ended up staying at their hotel that night. i slept on the couch in the sitting room. yesterday i had them take me to the grocery store and then we went out for a nice lunch at this Cajun place, which was good. they left around 2:00 and i relaxed the rest of the day, watching the office reruns and working on some drawing home work.
oh, and i finally have my camera, so I'll be posting some pictures of my drawings up soon:)
stay tuned for some more posts to come in the next few days.

Halloween Hike to Tangerine Falls

what is more perfect than a hike on a beautiful halloween morning? not much. after the choir festival on friday night (which went very well and was quite fun, minus the fact that i had the worst headache of my life) my section (clark K) decided to get up and go for a hike up to Tangerine Falls. it was an absolute blast! and look i even have some pictures to go with it...you can all finally see the people i've been talking about :)

this is barrett, me and allison (barrett's roommate) looking very forlorn about taking the wrong trail.just kidding we are still happy to be there...well i am at least. barrett looks confused and allison, angry
one of the highlights of the hike was barrett falling off a bolder. below, i think i am telling the tale of it, as she made her way up the safer route. she was trying to climb the bolder instead of going around it like the rest of us. shea was behind her and wanted to spot her, saying, "even though i probably won't help much, it still makes me feel better to try and break your fall, if you do fall." barrett is hanging onto a branch at the top and as i extend an arm to help her up the rest of the way, she lunges for it, misses and slides a few feet. shea and i both think she is going to catch herself, but she doesn't and continues to slide off the rock face towards shea's open arms. instead of catching her, shea ends up punching her in the face on the way down and barrett ends up crumpled in a pile of leaves. at first i didn't know whether to laugh or not, but then saw she was okay and completely exploded with laughter. the only thing that was hurt and bleeding was her lip, where shea punched her. oh, man! the rest of the hike we didn't let shea live that down, saying "please do not try and catch me, shea" aw, poor her. but so hilarious!
reggie, me, barrett and shea after the fateful event :)we eventually made it up to tangerine falls all of the group in one piece and this was the beautiful view. the picture doesn't do it justice. barrett, reggie and i weren't satisfied and decided to climb up to the peak, where the waterfall starts. let me tell you, it was a pretty intense climb. i wouldn't even consider it a hike, since it is pretty much all vertical rock the whole way up, with a pretty nasty drop, if you slip. we did make it and got to sign a paper that is up at the top. this picture is from the bottom, looking up. it doesn't look super high, but it's definitely a ways up there. our group members looked like little dots of color from up there. so amazing! i should have some more pictures to come at some point, but that is all for now. gotta start a communications paper.

lots of eating...food and the ground

i feel as if i am becoming busier with each passing week. lots of test and papers seem to keep arising at inopertune times.

despite all the necessities of college curriculum, i have managed to have some fun throughout these past few days. friday started with another one of our great starbucks study sessions, which i know, sounds really dull, but somehow we manage to make it exciting :) that usually results in not a whole lot of work getting done, but hey, it is our friday night.

saturday i was able to go out to lunch with some girls and hang out for a bit, which was fun. saturday night was another epic adventure with Barrett, Clara and Amy, which started with some of us heading down to the field to look at the stars (i saw a shooting star...it was amazing!). on our way back up the hill, we saw this girl totally eat it into the fence and slide a few feet down the hill, legs in the air. i'm sorry, but it was one of the funniest things i've ever seen. she was with her parents and must have been about 10 or 11. when we got back up to clark, we were standing outside and Leif walks by, but then totally trips over a bike. since we had just seen the girl fall, we couldn't contain our fits of laughter. poor Leif; we did apologized later, and explain why it was so funny.
sunday was also a good day in the fact that i went to lunch at the Habit (a really good burger place) on State St. later, Kathyrn was able to obtain the church car, so that was an adventure. Tamara missed the shuttle back up to campus from State St. so we went by and picked her and Clara up before church. needless to say the backseat meant for 3 was a bit cramped with the four of us...good thing we are small.
well, that is pretty much the extent of my weekend.
i'm sick, so that is a bummer. oh, and my suitmate, Leah, has been quarantined because she has the flu (perhaps swine). too bad i only have a cold...i wanted to be quarantined so bad! i told her to come breath on me :)
oh, well life goes on.
i'm trying to post some pics of my drawings up at some point, but i left my camera (with the pics on it) at home last time i was there. so, you'll all have to wait :)
hope your weeks are going well thus far

quick catch up

man i have some catching up to do. the rest of my weekend home last week was fantastic! like i said, sunday morning i went to breakfast with august, grace and amy. it was so good to see them!!! when i returned home from breakfast, justin still wasn't up, so i got katie to run in his room and jump on him. he then requested i make him breakfast, so my mom and i made some french toast. later that afternoon justin and i decided to go to the beach. it was definitely super relaxing. it did get a bit chilly, especially when jus tried to make me go in the water. it was freezing! i did get in a good nap on the beach though. we then met my parents and katie at Ruby's for lunch. man, my family and ordering...they just cant seem to decide. after asking the waiter a million questions about the best shakes of the season, we decided on three and devoured them amongst the five of us. great times :)
after lunch, my mom and gary were going to take katie to the pumpkin patch and gary convinced justin and i to go along for a while. we watched katie go down the slide a couple of times and then headed back to the house to go in the hot tub, which turned into a process, as i accidentally began heating the pool for 45 mins before i realized i didn't turn the spa heater on. oops. needless to say, i was punished by being thrown into the freezing pool. love my family haha.
that evening we decided we wanted to rent a movie and after two hours, i'm not kidding, it was two hours in blockbuster, justin and i had three options that we called gary with. he didn't want to watch any of them and ended up requesting the Godfather, since neither justin, nor i had ever seen it. i'd just like to say that i still haven't seen it. i fell asleep like 15 mins in and only woke up when justin hit me, or for a nice gory part like the horse's head (which is gary's favorite part) or someone getting shot. what can i say, i was tired :)
anyway, here is a pic from that party at my house, taken by the creepy photo guy. look how ridiculously long justin's hair is! i (and everyone else) keep suggesting he cut it. he actually asked me to straighten it for him...sometimes he worries me. haha just kidding. monday was pretty relaxing, as i woke up around 9:30 from justin banging on my door, telling me i had to get up and take him back to school. i dropped him off at whittier and then picked up coffee/tea for my mom and i. i hung out with my family the rest of the weekend and then met up with grace at Union station on tuesday to head back to Santa Barbara. okay, funniest train ride of my life! there were these two girls (like your typical southern california rich ditzy girls) who were talking in naseley voices the whole time about how one of them worked in a massage place, where she learned that if you have a sore leg, you can like massage some one's back and like their pain will like totally be gone from like their leg. and there is an oh so special treatment for when your like what are they called again, oh your "pectorials". did you mean pectorals maybe? it was hilarious! i won't even tell you on here about what happened next, but basically it involved beer, two guys and me and grace thinking we were in an episode of the OC or something. haha so entertaining!
this last week was pretty relaxed, with only three days of classes, but somehow i seemed to be dead tired. i got enough sleep, but i was just tired from the weekend i think and needed to catch up.
wednesday night i had another adventure with barrett, clara, amy and kathryn. we were going to climb the giant bolder near the library, but since it was dark we didn't realize there was some guy sitting in the shadows until we got close enough to touch him. he never said anything and we ran the other direction, hiding our faces. it was great. haha
we ended up taking a trail that runs under the bridge down by Van Kampen hall. we somehow lost the trail and ended up at the bottom of this giant embankment, that we decided to climb up. after making our way up this massively steep incline through the mud (since it had been raining the day before) we somehow wound up in some one's backyard. it was awful! we felt really bad and afraid they were going to set a dog on us or something. eventually we made it back to campus, only to take another dark trail back up to our dorm, during which i achieved a battle scar by slipping down a hill and cutting my leg on a stick. yes! haha great adventures.
well, i'm off to do homework :)

my wild weekend of fundraisers

what a weekend! i got practically no sleep. ironic huh? i don't get sleep when i'm at home, but here at school i sleep all the time. i mean, i took a two hour nap yesterday and ended up missing my fit for life class (bad danielle!), but i did have a headache, so it was justified :)
i made my way home on the train on friday afternoon with a couple of other girls from my section. when i arrived, union station was a mess! i had no idea where i was supposed to go. i finally figured it out and my parents picked me up with katie and the four of us went out to dinner in china town. since betsy didn't join us (and usc is only a couple miles away) we were nice enough to pick up a postcard for her, all signed it and sent it to her. i just spent friday night hanging out with my parents and katie, which was nice.
saturday i was given the pleasure of decorating our house for halloween and cleaning for the "Pathways Event" that evening. Pathways is basically an organization in Long Beach that helps women get thier lives back on track after coming from backgrounds of neglect, abuse, substance abuse. anyway, they have a fundraiser on my block every year and this year our house was where the appetizers were, then they move to another house for dinner and the last is dessert and a wild dance party. but, i'll get to that later.
justin came and spent most of the weekend with us and went to the party with my mom and i, since gary doesn't like dancing. justin and i didn't know anyone so, we just awkwardly stood at various spots around my house while the party was there. the event had a photographer there, who was quite an odd soul. at first he comes up to us and goes "lets get a picture of this couple." since, we get this a lot, we just kinda let it go until later when the same guy asks me "if this is my guy." (awkward) i explained that we were cousins, but after that he came back to chat with us again , taking another picture and saying, "i know you two are cousin's, but you look good together." you think this was an odd statement? it gets worse.
photographer man was talking to me and jus about gary's campaign and how there is some literature bashing him (expected in politics). justin walked away to go help someone clear off a table and a woman passes by and thanks photo man. when she is out of ear shot, he turns back to me and says "man, so many chicks just want to hook up with me here, i don't know who to choose." this guy is like 50! what the heck? i was pretty much in shock and immediately detached myself from the convo to go help someone carry something out to their car, which was all i could do to not laugh at him to his face. talk about awkward! haha
as soon as the party left our house, justin and i got katie duty, while gary went to the dinner portion with my mom. after, gary came back and sent justin and i down the street to the dance party, which was at the house of a 90 year old woman. last year the cops actually came and shut it down because it was too loud. how great is that? she is 90! :)
the people at this party were all my parents age and older, so justin and i were the youngest people there. we also got the most attention, being thrown in the middle of the dancing circle people formed around us several times. one woman came up to at least 3 times, introducing herself every time and saying what a wonderful dancer i was. if you have seen me dance, you'll know it is anything but wonderful, but i do like to have a good time and get into it. she was so toasted...
but, a good time was had. my mom, justin and i had a fun time. when were leaving we saw introducing woman again and again she commented on how my mom and i were such wonderful dancers. justin goes "wait, aren't i a great dancer?" and she replies "no, you suck." i was dying! so funny!
when we got home, justin and i ended up going in the jacuzzi for a bit and then watched indiana jones, causing me to get to bed around 4:00, which was great because i got to get up at 7:00 for breakfast with amy, august and grace.
it was so great to see them and somehow i managed to be functionally awake.
anyway, i'll tell more about my weekend later, since i have choir here in about 15 mins.
check back and thanks for reading! :)

and so October begins

though a communications paper, was the primary event of my weekend, i still did manage to have some fun.
i'll start with thursday afternoon, when me and three other girls from my section (clara, candace and barret) decided to wander around campus. back behind the dorms of clark we discovered a gigantic bolder. this thing has to be like 50 feet high at least. we decided it would be a good idea to climb it and the best route up? up a tree, followed by a leap onto the rock face. it was especially great because me and clara didn't have shoes on. it was great; like i was one with nature or something haha. when we finally had managed to scramble down the face of the rock, back into the plantar of trees (it borders a parking lot, so i don't know what else to call it) a group of preview students was being led by. did i mention it was "previews weekend? it was a previews weekend. the fact that we were standing behind some trees in a gigantic planter definitely earned us some questioning looks as the possible students walked by. then to just top off the queerness of the moment, barret goes "great, they must think we are smoking something up here." oh my goodness she is a crackup!
after we meandered our way out of the "wilderness" we went out on the lawn and started up a game of frisbee, which tamara, who was walking by, joined. it was a blast!
thursday night, allison and i were hosting a preview student in our room. her name was katie and she was from Thousand Oaks. to be honest, i think allison and i frightened her...she didn't talk much.
anyway, she had a class to sit in on friday morning at 8:00, so i offered to go to breakfast with her at the D.C. i couldn't sleep that night and finally ended up falling asleep around 2am, which is super late for me (yes, even though i'm supposed to be a college student haha). i got up around 6:45, went to breakfast and arrived back at my room around 7:30. i didn't have class until 9:15, so i decided to go back to bed for about an hour ans set my alarm for 8:45. well, my alarm went off and i rolled over to shut it off, then immediately was out again. i woke up at 9:10, basically jumped off of my bed, grabbed by backpack and arrived to class on time, but half asleep. there were some preview students sitting in on our class and my professor asks who wants to explain to them what we do in this class. the girl sitting to my right speaks up, saying "we talk about communication and how to better understand society." then, unaware i'm speaking out loud, say "yep, pretty much." my prof. looks at me and asks "pretty much?" my response? "i just woke up...sorry." he and the rest of the class just laughed at me.
friday night was also a blast, since we totally did what all the cool kids do. tamara, clara, grace and i went to starbucks to study and do homework. and actually it was really fun. i got some stuff done, but mostly tamara and i just kept bursting into random fits of laughter. we came back and ended up talking and singing in tamara and clara's room for a couple hours. it was great!
saturday some of us went to this little sandwich shop for lunch called Panino. it has the most amazing sandwich's i have ever had! if anyone comes up here to visit me, i will definitely take you there.
last night a few of us went out for sushi (i had avocado rolls, since i'm not a fan of sushi) since it was half-priced on sunday nights.
so, even though i had massive loads of homework, my weekend still turned out to be a good one.

ciao for now.

oh the sweet scents of fall

Wow! can you believe that is October already?!? that is crazy!
anyway, i have a funny story that might brighten your morning...or not, either way, i'm telling it.

so, i was in the grocery store with grace the other day and as i walked over to the yogurt section, i smelled brownies baking. i began jumping up and down and telling grace to come smell. i'm standing there tilting my head back and forth, sniffing the air when all of the sudden a man that worked there walks out of the back, looks at me and goes "are you lost little girl? or is that just the way you always look?"
surprised, i reply back that "no i was just smelling brownies baking"
grace of course had a field day with this and is still making fun of me for this, saying that "see even people that don't know you think you are confused about life."
haha great.

so, word to the wise, as fall becomes more prevalent and the sweet scents of baking goods waft by your un-expecting nose, don't stand there looking around at the ceiling. unless you'd like to be taken as confused, then by all means, go for it.

ps. i finally have obtained season five of house and have started it so that i can move onto season six in the near future!

pss. i'm currently listening to "if you like pina coladas" by jimmy buffet and i must say that it's becoming one of my favorite songs. go oldies!

hope you all have a lovely first of October.
i get to host a previews student (someone touring the college) in my room tonight. fun fun.

days like yesterday are what make life worth living

no, nothing spectacularly cool happened to my yesterday or anything. i just enjoy the simple things, but since i enjoy them so much, they really aren't simple at all to me. does that make sense? i guess what i'm trying to say is without all those simple things, my life would be pretty darn empty.
i was again woken up by katie being her cute self and practically busting an organ as she body slams me. after recovering i accompanied my mom to drop katie off at preschool. from there my day just kept getting better and better, as i hopped in the car and made my way out to Ontario to see august! and let me tell you, it was SO GOOD to see her. i was so glad to meet all her new friends and roommates and see where she is going to school. i got to see the yearbook finally and we enjoyed just being able to talk and hang out for a while. we have decided that as our graduation present from college in four years we want to take a road trip across country to the south, making fun stops along the way and just diving into experience. we better start saving up :)
august was going on a retreat with Providence up to the mountains, so we said our goodbyes and i got back in the car to make my drive home. but, on my way home i knew i was going to pass Whittier and so earlier i had talked to justin about hanging out. he gave me a call before his soccer practice started and told me to come pick him up but that he wouldn't be done until 6:00. so, i had about an hour and a half to kill. as i was driving up the little residential street behind the Whittier college campus, i came across this little park. so, i decided to get out and sit there for a while, just to relax, have some alone time and people watch. it was quite lovely. around 5:30 i got back in the car and drove the rest of the way up the hill to the soccer field and watched his practice for a bit.
when he was done, he had ridden his bike there because he is now living in a house with some people off campus. so, i had to follow him in my car on his bike back to his house. it was interesting...
the rest of the evening was spent by just hanging out at my house. we went in the jacuzzi, where we had a deep conversation that started with looking at the stars and then somehow got into philosophy and then issues that i won't even begin to talk about while typing.
since i have been getting mass amounts of sleep in college (and no i'm not being sarcastic) i fell into bed, exhausted, at around 1:30, only to be woken up at 6:15 by justin who needed help making eggs (he couldn't turn on the stove). why was he up at 6:15, you ask. he had a friend coming to pick him up so they could drive back to Whittier for their 7:30 soccer game.
then i got to have lunch with my grandma today, so it was good to see her.
well, i head back up to Westmont tomorrow, but it's been a great weekend at home. :)

catching up

so, i think i have finally decided on a layout...after i finally got the pictures to upload. what do you all think?
moving on to more pressing matters, I AM HOME!!! and boy is it good. i mean i haven't been gone that long, but it feels like forever. i rode the train down last night and got into the Fullerton station around 10:40pm. the ride was nice; uneventful, but relaxing. it was so good to see my mom and talk to her. not that i don't' talk to her everyday on the phone, but i'm just not really a big fan of the phone and would much rather talk face to face. this morning i was awakened by my delightful little sister jumping on top of me. it was the cutest thing! you could tell she was excited to see me, as i was her.
this afternoon, i was able to go out to Valley and watch one of the girls' tennis matches. it was really an odd feeling being back there. i didn't think it would be, but walking around completely made me feel like i have successfully moved on. but at the same time i don't want to let some of the relationships i have formed there go and i hope and pray that i don't. there is really no way to describe it.
anyway, it was awesome to see the team, especially ms. admiraal. i really enjoyed briefly catching up with her. i also was able to see mr. bras and talk to him for a while.
after, i took alicia home and we enjoyed some reminiscing about the good ol' days and some convos about other topics as well.
when i arrived home, my parents had gone out for the evening and one of my friends that i've known since 1st grade had been babysitting kaite, since betsy and i have been at college. we also were able to catch up and share a few laughs as we played with katie and then went out to grab some golden spoon when my parents got back.
now, i won't say that i don't like Westmont and i'm not beside myself with homesickness or anything, but when i am home, i just feel so tied to this place. like this is so right and where i really fit in, where at school, i just don't have that sense yet. maybe i'm just too impatient or maybe i just don't like the fact that time doesn't stand still in my home and in people's lives, just because i'm not there living that time in that place or with them, but coming back almost makes it harder all over again. oh well, maybe i'm just too much of a homebody...guess i'll never make it out of So Cal haha. but for now, i'm definitely okay with that.
if you happen to think of it, keep me in your prayers, as this transition has been proving to be a lot harder for me than i imagined it would.
wow in a way i feel relieved and tense about admitting that on here, but i'll just go with it. life is a journey after all.

just to tide ya over...

i was trying to update my blog look, but it is currently under construction...it won't upload what i want it to, so you'll have to deal with it being plain for now.
brief bullet points of my life:
-grace and i have been having amazing coloring parties, which are quite therapeutic.

-i got to talk to august the other day! so glad!!!

-i'm going home this week! YAY!!! can't wait

-and i'm quite dismayed that i missed the 2hr. premier of HOUSE season 6, but i still have to watch season 5. oh, well it will wait for me.

i'll give you a better update later...i just didn't want to neglect my blog.

drawing, snakes and tennis

let me just start by saying that i absolutely LOVE my drawing class. i was worried that i would like it, but not really like being forced to drawn right there on the spot, in a class setting. but, luckily i am able to regard it as more of a time to relax and reflect than a typical class. every time i am in that zone, it's like everything else that is worrying me or stressing me out just disappears. i also love the feeling of creating something out of nothing. a bunch of simple disconnected lines, mean nothing, but placed correctly, they make up an entire expression that is entirely unique and your own.
anyway, other than loving my art class, what have i been up to, you ask? well, saturday we had our "clarktoon cruise". it was a dance on a boat for the clark dorms and the theme was to dress up as a cartoon character; it was pretty great. so, saturday i went down to state street to find the goodwill and look for some costume accessories, which i didn't have any luck with, but that was fine, since i didn't really need anything else to be little red riding hood...yeah don't ask why i happen to have a red cape, but it's pretty awesome if you ask me.
the cruise was a blast! one thing i'm really liking about college dances is the fact that you don't get all the naughty, dirty types of dancing like you did in high school. it's nice to not have to deal with all that stuff.
my saturday was spent by sleeping, then going for a run on some trails, during which i fell on a rock and scraped my knee. i was just glad no one was around to see me totally eat it...i fell hard haha.
on sunday, a group of us tried Calvary church. we have all been trying out different churches in the area to see which is a good fit. still looking, but so far i like Montecito Covenant the best. a lot of people from Westmont seem to really like a church called Reality, which attracts mostly college students. it seems really cool and all, but i'm really looking for a church body that has more of a variety in age. we shall see where i end up.
sunday afternoon leah, grace and i had an adventure on state street, while looking for a blockbuster so that i can satisfy my obsession for House M.D (and no that is not a show about a house in maryland, as grace so thought). the 6th season starts in 2 weeks and i haven't even seen the 5th yet! haha. so, i looked it up online and found that there was one on state street. we walked for about a mile and then i decided that maybe i should call and find out it's cross streets, so i called information and once we had the cross streets we asked a trolley driver how far down it was and i was quite dismayed when he replied "about another 2-3 miles". so, my seach continues for a method to obtain the fith season of House without paying $60 at target for the dvd collection.
on our walk back to the shuttle stop, we see an audience gathered around a guy with a bunch of snakes. he was letting people hold them and was telling them all about his mission to save all the oppressed snakes of the earth. leah wanted to hold one, so we walked over and then she decides that they are a bit too adventurous for he liking, as she screamed and backed away as the snake man tried to hand her one. so, i put out my hands and took the snake. i must say, i was quite proud because i've never held a snake before in my life and this was no small snake. quite the exciting day.
today i went out and hit with the girls tennis team for a bit. i am definitely going to be trying out, but i'm not sure how good my odds are, since there are about 4 other freshmen girls trying as well. but, we'll see how it goes and if it doesn't work out, i'm sure it was for a reason and i can always try again next year.
well, tis all for now. i am happy to say that it is finally cooling off her and is starting to actually feel like fall.
hope this post is finding you all well!

what a weekend

so, i guess i'll never know what the first weekend of college feels like, since i went home. yep, saturday morning i got up early and caught the train to go home for a quick visit. jamie was in town and i wanted to get the chance to see and spend some time with her before she headed back to utah. i'm really glad i did go home too; i don't regret not staying for the beach day and all, although i'm sure that would have been fun too.

so, saturday morning. i made my way down to the train station (makes me think of that song when i was little "down by the station, early in the morning...") and got on a train to go home. i must admit, it was a pretty neat experience. it travels right on the coast and through the hills, so it's some pretty good scenery. when i was one stop away from my destination, a lady got on and asked if the seat next to me was taken. i told her it wasn't and so she sat down. in those 20 mins, i not only learned where she was from and where she was going, i found out why she was going there, how many kids she has with names and ages, her and her husband's professions, her religion and the techniques she uses to home school her. not that it was a bad thing, just surprising.
when i arrived at the train station, katie and my mom were waiting for me to take me back to the house, where, justin, jamie, my mom and i began cooking and getting ready for the rest of the family to come over for a nice dinner and swim.
later that night, we spent our time playing Loaded Questions (awesome board game. if you have never played it, you must!) and then looking for a movie to go to. we were sitting on the couch searching movies that are out and jamie suggests we go see "All about Steve". justin gasps and in a totally non-joking way goes "oh is that the one with sandra bullock and bradley cooper...he is such a hottie! or at least some girls think he is." jamie and i just stopped and stared, not really knowing what to say. funny, funny.
jamie, justin, my mom and i did end up seeing that movie, which was enjoyable. sandra bullock is always funny, however, it wasn't her best. i do think the three of us enjoyed it more than justin though...not enough blood and guts for him, but there was bradley cooper (haha never gonna let him live that down).
when we returned, my cousin's and i ended up searching serial killers online until all hours of the morning. or at least jamie was, justin and i passed out on my bed around 1am, while jamie was sitting creepily in the corner with the computer.
in the morning, we three made our way to huntington beach and you have to know that half the fun is getting there. we were driving next to a car with it's windows down (as were ours) and the car happened to look rather dull. no one was talking or singing. just a guy and girl in the front seats staring blankly. so, justin goes "hey, lets all pretend to be fighting when we get up to this next stoplight."
we roll on up to the light and immediately jamie yells "how could you, justin? she was my best friend!". justin starts yelling back at her and then i scream "guys not while we are driving! we are going to crash! can't we all just get along!" then justin turns to me and goes "you shut up, woman!" and we started hitting each other. the car next to us was dumbfounded, as they watched with utter looks of horror on their faces. oh, it was hysterical!
after that we continued to enjoy being our crazy self's and enjoyed the beach thoroughly.
well, i'm defiantly glad i got to spend some quality time with the family and now i'm back at westmont trying to get through to the weekend once again.
stay tuned for more updates in the near future.

one week down. about another million to go

so, i know you are all anxious to hear about my new life as college student! seriously, the most exciting thing took place yesterday. anyone know what? guesses? okay, i'll tell. i finished House Season 4! woohoo. what? not exciting news?
haha i'm completely joking. well, i did finish season four of House (and it was amazing), but that isn't the most interesting thing that has happened. monday i started classes! i'm taking communications, drawing, fitness for life, english composition and, as of today, choir! i know. me choir? one of my suit mates talked me into going to the class with her today because the professor told everyone to invite anyone they wanted. so, i went and ended up liking it. always good to try something different. i haven't done choir since middle school, but it could end up being really fun. the professor seems really nice and the girls in the class seem really great as well. the professor also has a 7 week old puppy that she brought to class today and it was the cutest thing ever! you don't understand how badly i wanted it. an Australian Shepard is like my dream dog. well, gotta keep workin' on my parents, i suppose. you know, it's for katie ;)
other than classes, which i'm really enjoying (and no, that is not sarcasm...i really am finding them interesting for the most part) we have a sunglasses dance tomorrow night in the D.C. (dinning commons). that should be a blast. and if that isn't enough to look forward to, i get to go see my family for a quick visit. jamie is coming into town and after much thought and prayer, i've decided that it would be better to go down for a day or two and see her even though it is my first official weekend at college. but, there will be many more weekends and not so frequent visits from family that doesn't live particularly close.
thus far college life has been great. the people are really fantastic, but it's still hard and slightly in the awkward stages...geting better though. the classes have been interesting and really inspiring.
oh, and grace, allison and i checked out the shuttle the other day and made our way down to rite aid and trader joes. quite more of an adventure than we had anticipated. we took the ocean view shuttle, which is the smaller one that goes less places (only three stops) and is a van driven by upperclassmen as a job. so, the girl picks us up from trader joes at the shuttle stop and then goes by the beach to pick up some other people, who happened to be on the wrong side of the street and all ran across to pile like 10 people in an 8 seater van. oh, and did i mention that up on the road into Westmont a water line broke, causing us to take a back mountain road? great stuff. when our driver told us a water line had broken one of the guys we had picked up from the beach mistook her to say that some one's water had broken. i, being the wonderful friend i am, pointed to allison. good times. and we only almost got hit by other cars on this very narrow back road four or five times. twas fun.
well, i'm going to go try and finish up some of my drawing homework so i won't have anything to worry about over the weekend and can enjoy the time with my family.
and in case you were wondering what the people i'm living with look like, wonder no longer. for i shall give you a photo. this was right before we went up the the presidents house for desert.
from left to right: danica, leah, kathryn, me, allison (wearing my cloths yet again haha), and shea.
we are signing "K" in sign language (we live in Clark Halls Building K ...don't worry, no gang signs.) haha

thursday was the big day

yes, i am now up at westmont, as of thursday. below are a few shots of my and allison's dorm room...it's awesome (i have the top bunk by the way).

everyone is really nice and my suit mates seem awesome. their names are leah, kathryn, danica and shea. and my whole building is really nice too. i also have been able to meet some great girls in grace's dorm. on friday night, me, grace and her roommate, kelly, lofted my bed and reorganized our room. it was actually a lot of fun.

other things have been happening too. like there was line dancing in the gym on friday night, which was fun and on thursday night (the first night we were here) the fire alarm went off in clark at 1am. everyone had to run outside in their pjs and wait on the lawn until the fire department came and shut it off. it was the loudest, most obnoxious noise i think i have ever heard. funny story though.
as fun as it is, i'm not having the time of my life yet. i understand that it will take time to really feel right and to really get to know people. it's just a lot at once and it's kind of hard. note: almost all the things on the walls belong to me haha...i made it homey :)

closet...the right side is mine

view from when you first walk in the door

well, i did have video of the room too, but it's having uploading issues...i'll have to ask grace about that (she is my go-to-girl for all my technological needs haha)

hope this update is finding you well :)

eye to eye and laugh or cry?

trees. how can trees be described? by there appearance? sure. they are tall, beautiful, colorful. or, should they be described by their purpose? a tree can provide shelter and food for living things, can support the ecosystem, can be crafted into wood. how about if we describe them by their character? steadfast, sturdy, reliable. by their stereotype? by their position? by their type?
i could continue, but i think you may understand my point (or perhaps not). my point is there are many ways of describing and characterizing things. which one is the right way? is there a right way? or does is simply depend on what aspect one is trying to describe? is there a wrong way? a right way? an only way?
if i want to describe a tree by its character or appearance, but all others wish to do is look at what it contributes and why it is there, is either opinion correct or incorrect? ultimately, it is one's choice how one would like to view something. no one else can tell another they are wrong in what they are observing, if they have in fact taken the time to observe. simply because i want to say a tree is unique and beautiful, doesn't make it false, but, another may still wish to say the tree can be made into wood and that is all it's good for. just as i wouldn't be wrong, neither is the other observation. even if i know that is not all a tree is good for, even if i tell them that trees are steadfast and beautiful, that doesn't mean they have to accept that fact. i could even bring them into the middle of a forest to show them the grandest of trees and they still might not change their view. like it or not, everyone has a position of their own.
i guess that is the beauty and regret of variety.

cheese, peas and chocolate pudding...

am i the only one who had that book (perhaps it was simply a short story) when i was little? it was about a little boy who would only eat cheese, peas and chocolate pudding, until one day when his sister put some hamburger into his mouth and he discovered he actually liked something other than the three things he was only willing to try. it was supposed to be metaphorical, but anyways...i only bring this up because that is what i feel like i have been eating for the last four days. except the cheese and the peas part. so really that story didn't go with this post at all...or perhaps it does and i just haven't gotten there yet...we shall see.

why have i been only eating chocolate pudding, you ask? well, i haven't. i've been consuming mass amounts of mashed potatoes, ice cream, jello...all because of two words: wisdom teeth. last friday marks the first time i have ever had surgery, no matter how common that surgery is, i still have now had surgery. and even thought it is a common one, i was not feeling too great about walking into that office friday morning. i still was not feeling good when i sat down in the chair and while i was hooked up to the heart rate thingy. the nurse tried to make me more comfortable and started up a conversation with "are you a runner?" "well, i do run for exercise, but i wouldn't count myself as a runner." i replied. "oh" he said "because you have pretty low heart rate". what a wonderful thing to say before i go under anesthesia. now i'm freaking out that my heart is going to go to slow and then proceed to cardiac arrest with the drugs working through my system. finally the doctor arrived and goes "are you nervous?" as he is putting the IV in my arm. i gave a nervous laugh and a yes and the last thing i can remember was my breathing getting really slow and someone saying "imagine you are back on a beach in mexico" (another thing the nurse had learned about me while we waited for the doctor). the next thing i know someone is telling me "good job. you're all done" and somehow with the nurse's help i must have walked from the OR to the recovery room. i have no recollection of the event whatsoever. i just sat in the chair and waited for my mom to come back. while i was sitting there, i'm not sure if 1 min passed or 10. all i know is that the mom of the girl next to me got up and put a blanket on me and i looked at her, trying to remember how to respond. or at least that's what i think i was doing. perhaps i was just processing what she was doing. weird thing anesthesia is. my mom showed up and i remember the nurse telling her to keep me awake. my mom kept talking to me although i have no memory of what she said. i do know that she told me to put the ice pack on one side of my face and not on my chin, which is where i had been holding it. to be honest, i didn't even know i was holding anything until she pointed this out. later she also told me that i kept looking out of one eye and squinting telling her that there was two of her. i also vaguely recall another girl being sat down in the chair next to me with the nurse helping her and then the girl started crying. i think i was too out of it to even express any emotion. i just wanted to go back to sleep...typical. haha.
it was quite the experience. my mouth is feeling better now...just still waiting to get back on solid foods. oh, how i long for them. :)

in other happenings, i restarted for classes today and am taking New Testament, Fitness for Life, English, Communications and Drawing. should be exciting. this gives me 17 units total, which i realize is a lot for my first semester, but i talked to an academic advisor about adding the drawing class and he said to go ahead and do it. later, if i don't feel like i can handle all of them i can just drop one. but, if i do get all these classes and the times i signed up for, i will have one class on fridays and be done after 10:20. crazy good! other good news is that i found out my housing info and it looks like allison and i will be living in Clark K. perfect!
it's insane that this is all happening so fast, but exciting at the same time. it's just a mixture of emotions right now. fear, excitement, anxiety...but, you won't know if you like something if you never try it. just like the little boy from the story i mentioned previously. (see i told you i'd work it in somehow :) i might be feeling a little apprehensive about college life right now, but if i never dive in and try it, i won't know how amazingly great it is (or so everyone tells me).

well, that is all i have to say for now...i'm going to watch some House.
live well, my friends and enjoy all the luxuries of solid foods and think of me.

na na na na na...bananana na na na na!

last post about Puerto Valllarta, i promise. on friday night, we enjoyed a nice dinner out and got some pretty hilarious pictures out of the night. before dinner though, gary, justin, aunt julie and i got to do one of the most amazing things ever (according to me at least)! we all know how much i love tennis and that i love the rain as well. well, i got to play tennis in a full out thunder storm! seriously. rain pouring, lightning flashing, thunder pounding. honestly, it was so much nicer than the other times we played there, since the rain kept you cool. me and justin vs. aunt julie and gary. justin and i dominated every time :) by the end of the set, the clay of the court wouldn't soak up any more water and the court was like one big puddle. playing began to get ridiculous because you would serve the ball and it would just die. it was so much fun though! we were soaked!

we took a nice family picture and then me, jenna, betsy, jamie and justin planned to ask to take another one so we could add our own twist :)so, after the above picture was taken, betsy goes "oh, i think i blinked, so can we take another one?" and we got this...
...the most amazing family photo ever! somehow justin missed the memo and simply smiled. what a loser :)

as betsy and justin look as if they are going to kill each other, i look confused haha

all the cousins . again, justin somehow missed the memo of whether the picture was crazy or normal.

we all tried to get the brothers to take a nice photo together. jenna and i were trying to put their arms around one another.

aww...how sweet
after dinner that night, we all were a little crazy and were looking for a game to play. justin, jamie, aunt julie and i were sitting at the counter talking, when jamie goes "this would be a great house to play hide and seek in". then i suggest we play sardines. if you don't know what sardines is or have never played it, you are missing out. it's like hide and seek, but reversed. one person hides and then everyone else goes looking for them. then if you find the person hiding, you must hide with them. people just start disappearing and the last person to find everyone is it. we got everyone to play except katie (she was asleep...it was really late) uncle jeff and gary (well, gary did try one round). but, it is hilarious! you end up having six people stuffed in a closet somewhere or under a table, hence the name sardines. one round jamie hid up on a shelf behind a giant jar. i walked into the room and could hear people, so i go for the closet. then i look up above me and i see six shapes (did i mention we weren't allowed to turn on lights in the rooms we went into? made it more fun) all around the shelves above me. another round, we all ended up hiding and not even realizing it. when someone asked who was left looking, we all realized that we were all in the cupboard together. but, like with any game in my family, rules must be established. for example, no changing clothes during a round. my aunt julie hid outside behind the car and betsy and justin were the two left looking. we see a light go on in justin's room above and jamie and i creep out to see who was searching in justin's room. well, we found out who was in justin's room alright. justin had decided to change his shorts and all i can say is thank goodness he had his backside turned towards the window and all i had to see was his butt. needless to say, jamie and i were not pleased haha come on who changes during a game and in front of an open window? funny though. never gonna let him live that down.

the next day, we went jet skiing, which was fun. jenna and betsy were on one and justin and i were on the other. no one else wanted to go. we also all got to try banana boating. if you have never been banana boating, this is another thing you must try. it's an inflatable boat, shaped like a banana that you sit on in a line while a speed boat tows you. it was hysterical! when we first started, the order we were sitting was uncle jeff, me, justin, betsy, gary and then jenna in the back. justin and i decided it wasn't high adventure enough for us because we weren't hitting any wake. we decicded to try it hands free and let go of the handles. just then we hit a bump, i fly back onto justin, who flies back onto betsy, who smacks gary, causing him to fall off and then a few hundred feet later all us three topple off, leaving only uncle jeff and jenna still on the boat and everyone in the middle missing. after that, it turned into a battle of who could throw the most people off. at least when justin went for me, i took him off with me every time :)

good times on the banana boat

after jet skiing and banana boating, we played some volleyball on the beach against another house in the resort. it was a group of ladies vacationing. they were hilarious! the second game, we gave them betsy and justin (our two best players, because they had never played volleyball). one of the ladies went to serve the ball and justin was at net across from me. he's mouthing to me "you're going down" and "i'm gonna hit it right at your face", when the serve comes and slams him in the back of the head. so great! i ran over and high fived the lady, who felt so bad. it was so funny though! poor justy. well, thats what he gets :)

katie had some good times in the pool

and trying on my shades

that evening (our last night there), while everyone was packing, sleeping or watching House, justin and i were sitting on the couch, contemplating what to do.

family photo time! :)

lunch on our way to the airport. jamie and aunt julie caught an earlier flight, so they were already gone.

the trip was a blast! i loved hanging out with the whole family. never a dull moment. that should be our motto or something. :)