Life lately...according to my iPhone pictures!

So I follow this blog...Love Taza about this cute little LDS family living in New York City and she does this post every month called, Life Lately According to my IPhone pictures. I thought hey since I have been off the face of the blogging world for the last few weeks why not! So here ya have it the last two weeks!

The little girls I babysit love to go feed the ducks at Emerald Lake...we take my neighbor Kyson who is a year younger than Lux and it is so fun to watch them play house! Lux is almost a foot taller than him and its so funny to watch them play mommy and daddy while Sayde and I play with the ducks! I am sure going to miss these girls when I have to go back to school!

I got to go boating with some good friends! It was so fun, and a perfect way to send off the Summer! I have been really good friends with these girls for a REALLY long time! I love them both!

Holli started high school and my mom is signing her up for drivers Ed...I don't think anything is more shocking to me right now! She is growing up and I feel like its all been this summer! She isn't just my way younger sister anymore she is really growing up and getting really fun to do stuff with. I woke up with her on her first day of school just to annoy her and take pictures of every little thing she did...I guess maybe I haven't grown up...or I am just really good at playing the older sister!

Sunday was an eventful day...our kitchen sink got clogged and so my mom and I attempted to unclog it before church...more like my mom...but it didn't so we went to church and came home to fix it.  My dad was still in meetings so my mom Holli and I Attempted and succeeded at fixing it. We brought in a hose and put water pressure in the pipe...my mom and I say right in front of it and as we said oh this must be working no water is coming back out the hose flipped out and squirted us good! We haven't laughed so hard in a long time! After the mess was cleaned up my mom didn't feel like making another mess so we hopped in the car and took Sunday drive to sun valley to see where all the fires were...everyone napped I drafted this post and dad drove!

Life is good...I move to school September 13th and I am slowly getting ready to go as I watch everyone else leave! But I know the minute I get there I will be ready to come home! Ah well life goes on!

Pondering!

Here I am sitting in my rocking chair at 10:30 at night with my bath robe over my shoulder, sticky and sweaty from working out, tired as heck, and pondering! Pondering is an interesting word...it's something I've been doing a lot of lately! Life throws a lot of curve balls our way! It's our choice to make the best of it! This is not a new and exciting shed of light on life to all I'm sure...but it's a phrase passed around a lot and put to the test a lot! Sometimes...just sometimes I wish I had complete control of what happens, when it happens, how it happens, and so on. But 99.9% of the time I am glad I am not in complete control. I just know I would not be nearly as happy if I was. I see others happiness and often say...oh I want that, why can't I be that happy, lucky, fortunate, blessed. It's something I really struggle with. I will fully admit! But on nights like this where I am pondering in my rocking chair that I realize how happy, lucky, fortunate, and blessed I really am. It's hard to see in the busy day to day life...but at the end of the day I know I am. I tend to over-analyze EVERYTHING...what girl doesn't...but I swear I have a disorder of over-thinking, over-worrying, over-stressing...I blame my Grandma Stocking...she's the same way, but it's OK I still love her! I get myself so worked up into situations, and I just bottle it up inside until I just can't take it...and it takes a night of pondering to really put everything back into perspective. I am happy, and I am thankful for such a wonderful life...it's hard to realize how wonderful YOUR life really is until you ponder. I don't know if this made any sense at all...I'm sure it didn't to you but I feel better now and that is all! And now I'm going to go take a shower now! Good night! 

Island Park Day 5 & 6

The last two days of the trip were pretty relaxing! We rode 4-wheelers went swimming and just had fun messing around Island Park. We attempted to go float the river but apparently you have to be one of the first to get a raft anywhere because they go fast! We decided to go swimming but didn't stay long because poor Holli couldn't do anything but get into the hot tub so we decided to head out and just watch movies at the cabin! We went to the Playmill friday night but I forgot my camera so no pictures! But it was so fun! We saw Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and it was pretty good! 

Saturday we decided to ride the 4-wheelers again and we rode them up to Sawtell...I've driven that a hundred times or more but never on a 4-wheeler and it was so fun! The view was beautiful and it was just a blast! I rode with Brooke and Holli, Kyle, and Heidi switched on and off...seeing as Holli really wasn't supposed to be riding anyways but we were more than careful with her! One thing I did overlook is how dusty and dirty it would get on the roads...we were nothing short of being clean but that's ok because that's what showers are for! We also went on another moose hunt/bear hunt through Island Park and had not luck to find bears but we did find another mama moose and baby! We caught them right as they were running into the trees and I barely got one decent picture but just know that we did see them! 

Cabin trips are always the highlight of the summer! I love just getting away with no worry! Until next year cabin! 

Island Park Day 3 & 4

The painting was finally finished and it was time to have fun! Wednesday morning Holli and I woke up and wanted to go find bears! So Dad agreed and said we would leave later in the day for Yellowstone! So after getting ready we went for a four-wheeler ride! It was so fun to find trails and see where they take us...I got lost quite a bit but that's what made it fun and adventurous! 

We ventured into the park with high hopes! We started to get disappointed after seeing nothing except a few elk and lots of trees! But our luck quickly changed when we saw plenty of brake lights! A grizzly we were so excited and satisfied to see what we were hoping to see! 

Please excuse my misspelling...you'd think as an English major I'd know how to spell something as simple as grizzly!

Thursday the entire family went into the park! It was our traditional picnic in the park day! Kyle's sister Brooke from Alaska also came on Wednesday night so it was fun to show her around! We saw plenty of elk, lots of buffalo and two bears a black bear and a grizzly! It was definitely a successful trip! We went around to all of the different hot pots to show Brooke, it was actually pretty cool. We never really stop to look at that stuff because we go every year and never think to look but it was pretty interesting! 

Island Park days 1 & 2

The day finally came and we were off to the wonderful cabin in Island Park! What a relief it was to get in the car and go after the week we had with Holli's arm!  We were more than ready to go! The first two days of the trip we painted...and painted....and painted the entire cabin! It's times like that when you're grateful the cabin is not a mansion! My dad had a spray gun which made it go by a lot faster! The hardest part was definitely the trim because the gun couldn't angle that way and we didn't want to spray the eve's which were metal. But we had plenty of helping hands and once we were done it looked great! 

Holli wasn't much help! But that's ok she had a good excuse! 

Tuesday night we went on a moose hunt around Island Park and got pretty lucky and saw a mama and her baby they were adorable! We knew that we were in for a good trip after having good luck the 2nd day! 

Poor Holli!

Well if you haven't heard yet, Holli broke her arm! Poor girl! She has been working so hard on getting her back-handspring and the one day she finally got it, she snaps her right arm in two! It was disgusting! She said she didn't hear it or really understand what happened, but plenty of people told us they heard the echo of the snap and her face just went white! She didn't even cry; what a stud! Once they did the x-rays she said is when it really started to hurt but even then she was tougher than nails! Man she must be a Browning! :] She was at tumbling when it happened and her good friend Tiffany and her mom were there and were able to take her to the hospital where my parents met them! This poor girl is practically done with everything for 6 months! But she luckily doesn't have to have a cast, but unluckily they had to do surgery and put 12 screws and 2 plates in! 

She just got her stitches out the other day and it is starting to look more like a normal arm! She is doing good but really bummed she is out for 6 months!