I love Lake Powell. After sleeping about 4 hours in 2 days in preparation for our last final, we finished up summer term, packed our bags and drove down to the beautiful red rocks of Lake Powell. With not a care in the world, we let ourselves have as much fun as we could squeeze into the day. We made tie-dye shirts the day before we left, but one of the only pictures I got, was of Ry, they were sweet.

We did some wakeboarding...

Ry did some skiing, the rest of us tried...

We made an awesome slide in some soft sand...

We also did a bit of wake-surfing, and we all loved it...

We did some tubing, and yes we are kissing...

I love my honey, even when he grows out his beard...

Jane Anne and I had sweet matching outfits.

Like every year, there has to be a problem with one of the boats, here's the guys huddled over the engine, looking manly in their tie-dye...

We had a fabulous time with Melissa and Ryan, we love them so much, I'm so glad they were able to make it.

I'm so glad that Tristan and Brittany came as well: Tristan was used to test the waters and also a human flag. Even though I got Brittany off of the sea-doo, she never got her chance to get "thrown" off the tube, maybe next year Britt.

Thank you for everything Bob and Sue, we had so much fun!

Our Great Reward

We are almost there. After 8 weeks of constant studying we are each only one more test away from the chains that have tied us down to our books these beautiful summer months. Monday morning, in less than 36 hours, we will take our last final, pack our bags, and head off to Lake Powell. Boo ya! I'm so excited, i thought this day was never ever going to come.

But we have deserved it and I am so going to enjoy every single second we are soaking up some rays, sleeping under the stars, enduring the face plants and hard falls wakeboarding and skiing, and exploring in the sea-doos. Yep, that's the closest you can get to heaven. I'm so excited because my sister Melissa and her hubby Ryan are meeting us there from Phoenix, and our friends Brittany and Tristan are coming as well. We always look forward to spending good quality time with the Jackson fam too, it's going to be a party! So, stay tuned, because there are going to be some pretty rockin' pics in a week, but until then...Lake Powell or bust!

Venting Session

As of last Friday I had 4 tests to take in the next 10 days. Stress had definitely taken it's toll. I was doing everything I could to not take that stress out on others, untill... 1. on Saturday the day that Breaking Dawn came out, the Bookstore (where I work) was a mad house, and I was the lucky one who had to work that day. And then to find out that we had been selling the book for a dollar more than we were advertising...let's just say I had lost all patience with society.

Sunday wasn't half bad, until 2. I made yummy pudding rolls and invited the Perdues over to help eat, and they burned, well only the bottoms, but still, who likes burned bottoms! Ok, so that wasn't a huge deal, but it was just adding onto the fire.

Monday, of course I sleep through my alarm. My alarm usually becomes part of my dream and I just tune it out and I just don't wake up, so I was off to 8:00 class, and I stayed on campus until 6:00 that night. Came home and decided I needed to go for a run. 8 miles later, I was tuckered out. (8 might seem like a lot, but when I'm planning on running 13 in 3 weeks it doesn't seem like that many). Ry got in a late night 8 miler that night too, ya honey!

So I come home from the gym, and 3. our cute little furry friend decided he wanted to chew up my laptop charger. Hm...ya, I was not too happy. With only 15 hours until I had to take my next test, I was running out of valuable study cramming time and had to hurry off to Best Buy 3 minutes before they closed. And 4. to my pleasant surprise (that was sarcastic) the "universal" charger they had, since they didn't have what I needed, I got to spend $111.48 to keep my laptop and sanity alive.

With all of that said and done, I have a wonderful husband who listens to my cry, whine, complain and sigh all day long. He ordered a new charger for me last night so we can just take advantage of Best Buy's 30-day return policy. Then he offered to give me a blessing. I am so blessed to have a worthy husband who can administer those calming and comforting blessings in a time of such chaos. I love my honey so so much and I'm so excited to spend the rest of my life with him. He is always so thoughtful and caring. Only 5 1/2 more days of this stress until Summer term is over and I can return to my sane self. So there you have it, that's my little venting session for now.

1 day Reunion in Michigan

After testing ALL day Wednesday, seriously, I was on campus for over 12 hours...6 of which were in the testing center, gross huh? We did absolutely NOTHING on Pioneer Day, then we flew out to Michigan on Thursday morning. We got there in the afternoon and went to Ry's brother Rob's house and played with our cute little nieces Grace and Vivian (more commonly known as Gracie and Viv).

Vivian

Grace

Julie made us yummy pulled-pork sandwiches and then we played with chalk, made chocolate chip pancakes, glitter soup, and humus pizza's (we really didn't make these things, but Grace has an amazing imagination!). That night between the hours of 1 AM and 3 AM the rest of the Jackson family either flew in or drove in.

Saturday we had lunch at Zingerman's, a little hole in the wall with some of the best sandwiches I have ever ever had. We found a shady spot, no one wanted to sit in the sun...

Then we drove out to the Detroit Temple where Vivan Celeste was sealed to Rob, Julie and Grace for eternity. It was such a beautiful ceremony and we were so lucky and so blessed to be there to witness it. I am so glad that we can be together as families forever, it's such an amazing blessing.

Rob, Julie, Viv and Grace...

The whole Jackson Family (excluding Angela, Julianna and baby girl due in a week!, plus Julie's mom and sister)

The Jackson boys and Jane Anne

What would we do next besides eating? Of course, our days seem to be planned around meals and everything else just falls into place. We ate Carson's American Bistro, the name alone sounds fabulous right? Well the food wasn't half bad either! 3 hours later we ran our little behinds off to get to the mall before it closed at 9. Honestly, we ran, and with 10 minutes until closing H&M was the only store even worth our time. And within those 10 precious minutes Jane Anne, Jennifer and I all managed to come out with a few purchases in hand, all the men were very impressed.

On Sunday we went to Rob and Julie's ward where Tanner (Jared and Jennifer's little boy) and Vivian were blessed in Sacrament meeting.

Precious little Tanner with Uncle Ry...

Uncle Ry and the girls

Me with little Viv

We had so much fun! The trip was short and sweet, but we already can't wait to see everyone again.

Tubing the Rapid Provo River...

Ry and I started out our weekend by renewing our Costco memberships, Hurray! We love Costco. We got a cart full of necessities and we are loving our giant strawberries and dried mangos.


Saturday was an adverturous day with the Perdues. We sacraficed our lives just driving down Provo Canyon...Tristan was driving...and we rented some tubes, sat in a stinky old bus forever, and then we were finally on our way. We had so much fun, it was definitley worth it even though...
1. the water was melted snow and freezing (it really wasn't that bad),
2. we ran into a few trees and bushes on our way,
3. Tristan lost his tube and floated down on the rocks,
4. we all had rashes on our arms from laying on our stomaches and trying to paddle furiously, and
5. we were tuckered out after almost 2 hours of floating.

We then went swimming at Ry's house to relax a little bit and had some yummy Brick Oven pizza. After a little nap we went to see BATMAN. We didn't get home until after 1:00, but once again, it was worth it. We really really liked it, of course it was called "The Dark Knight", so there wasn't much happiness with puppies and rainbows, but it was very well done.

This was the line to get into the theater...yep down the hall, around the corner...we thought being an hour early was going to be good enough...

We love sitting in line...

Cute Brittany and Tristan...

Sarge's Summer

So the other night, as we were winding down, Ry went to ESPN (usually the only channel besides HGTV and the Food Network) and it was a dog show. As soon as Sargie realized what we were watching, he was very interested. He was barking and whining and just wanted to play with all of the dogs in the show.




The next day, Sargie went to the groomer. He got pampered: his teeth cleaned, nails trimmed and a nice conditioner put on his coat. He was excited to have his summer haircut.

Before...

After...

He's a completely new dog after he gets his haircut. He's such a funny doggy. So, that's my little two-bits on Sargie. Everyone has cute kids they can show-off, but I have a cute husband and a cute puppy.

Happy 4th of July!

I am so proud to be an American! To help celebrate our freedom we participated in the Freedom Run 10k! Whoever designed the route is cruel, the last mile was uphill, but that's ok, it was fun and it was worth it. We decided that "familes that run together, stay together".

We got sweet medals, a nice dri-fit T-shirt, a powerbar, Freedom wristbands, and coupons, it was great.

I love my sisters, sometimes I think we have too much fun when we're together. I asked Ryan if he gets embarrassed of me when I'm with my family, and he said no, but I think he thinks differently. We just love having fun.

There are few times that we can be serious for an extended period of time...

After all was said and done, we went to a Farnsworth Family Reunion out at my Aunt Yvonne's house, we ate, played, and talked. But then we had to leave a little early so we could go to the Stadium of Fire!

It was one of the best I have actually ever been to. They had 1300 little girls do a dance to all of the summer olympic sports in 7 minutes.

They were pretty good and it was very entertaining. And of course there were some very wonderful speeches given by our very favorite Glen Beck, we love his show. We are so proud of all of our troops who are out there fighting for our country.

Then we got to watch the Blue Man Group in action. They were pretty funny and entertaining. Then of course, what even young girl in the stadium was waiting for... the one and only... Miley Cyrus (aka Hannah Montana). My favorite part of the night is when they announced her name and she didn't come out...so then in a very high pitched tone we hear "Miley, Miley, Miley...", it was so funny. I love it.

This is us rocking out to Miley. She doesn't have a very good voice, at all, but she's a great entertainer. She just rocks out and haves fun.

We had a fabulous day, and we love spending time with family and watching fireworks!