Updating the Blog:)

Kim and I went to Midway for a few days in March

Matt, Me, and J at Brianhead

Me on my first double black diamond

Matt and Stef were able to come to Utah in March!

Kimber and Kelsey's 21st Birthday Party
Ree, Me, Laura, Kim, Kels, and Dev drinkin Pina Coladas:)

Adam and I at Six Flaggs for my first time ever!

I got to go visit Adam, Matt, and Stef in Texas in June. This is on the Riverwalk

Matt took me on a ride on his bullet bike around Texas

Kim, Kels and I were able to spend a few days in Cali Woot!

Kels, Me, and Kim at Seaworld

Well, I'm finally deciding to take the time to update my blog now that finals are almost over. Since my last post about a year ago a lot has happened-I'll just post a little bit from the highlights of the year:) I am currently still going to school working toward my Bachelors of Accountancy at SUU. I finally decided to take a small leap and move to Cedar for a change. I moved here in January of this year and loved it at first! I hung out with my cousin Camille almost every night watching Gilmore Girls, painting our fingernails, and just having a blast! About a month after the move, our schedules got more demanding with work and school and we weren't able to hang out as much. I hadn't met many people here and things just weren't like I thought they were going to be. I was almost wanting school to end so that I could move back home where I was with everyone I knew. Now; however, I'm really sad that the semester is over because I've been having a blast up here lately. Isn't that how it always goes? Oh well, I'll be moving back in the fall:) I still work in St. George and make the commute every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I have discovered my new love in life down in St. George which has been keeping me down there more often. That love is ZUMBA!!! My sister Vanessa got me hooked. It's like a hip hop workout class and it's in a warehouse where there's graffiti all over the walls and we dance with the lights off and a disco ball going. Seriously, I've never loved a workout so much and it's right up my ally. If anyone ever wants to join, please come! You'll love it! I'm moving home this week for the summer which will be nice since the weather has been so horrible in Cedar this winter. I'm excited for the heat and to lose the commute for a while. This past weekend/week has been quite the ordeal trying to study for my finals. I'm happy to say that they've gone pretty good so far and I only have one more to go. Woot! I'm hoping to get a little more involved in school next semester by possibly joining a Sorority called Alpha Phi and I'd really love to join PAC which is an accounting club that helps you do a lot of networking and become more involved in the accounting world. I'm pretty excited about that! SUU is such an awesome campus and the people are super nice here. I love that! The atmosphere is a lot different from Dixie State and I feel like everyone is a lot more involved. My latest excitement in life is coming up this weekend and that's IRONMAN! I'm so excited that it's coming to St. George-what an amazing event for us to host! My sister Vanessa and I are volunteering from 4-11 and we're hoping to get a good shot at the athletes and how an Ironman works. I'm stoked! Everyone should come and check it out, it'll be such a blast!

Lake Powell Baby!

Katie, Me, Ree
Me and Ree

Me and Ree eating our Cheetos...YUM!

Ree, Dad, Me

The fam eatin lunch

Sara, Katie, Me, Ree

BEAUTIFUL!

Aunt Mary, Katie, Ree, Me at Rainbow Bridge

The fam at Rainbow Bridge...way cool!

Oh, heck yes! This was so much fun! This last Saturday, me, ree, my dad, my Aunt Mary's family, and my grandparents went to Powell to go boating and hike Rainbow Bridge. We left St. George at 5:30 am and met G and G in Hurricane so that we could all ride together. We headed up and met Aunt Nin and her family there since they had stayed the night there. When we first got on the lake, the boat was having issues. It wouldn't go into gear, it was viberating like crazy, and the rpm's were running really high. We thought that we were gonna have to just put the boat back on the trailer and head home. Luckily, Aunt Mary decided to call someone to see if it was just a minor problem that could easily be fixed. We ate lunch at the Wahweap Marina and checked out the house boats while we waited for the guy to get there. Flip, there was a piece of plastic covering the air intake that was causing all of the problems. So simple! They had just taken the boat in a few weeks prior to this to have every fluid changed and have everything looked over so we couldn't figure out what they heck would be the problem? Luckily it was just minor and easily fixable! Anyways, we spent the day out on the boat and just had a great time! I got way sunburned but so did everyone else. We didn't get in the water at all because it was way too cold but it was so gorgeous there! We hiked Rainbow Bridge and just spent a day full of boating and family time! It was a blast!

CAVING!!!

Ok, this was the best! My friends and I have recently met some guys that are so fun! Dave, Craig, and Braeden are just a crack up to be around and we've had so much fun with them in the short time we've been friends. We had talked about going caving a few times because all of the boys are from up north and haven't ever been and Kimber hadn't been either. I knew it would never happen if we didn't set a date and time and just go for it so I text everyone and we set a time and went! Caving is such a thrill! If you've ever been, you'll know what I'm talking about. You hike down into caves at night(we went to the Snow Canyon Caves) and you take like 3 glowsticks per person. Once you get into the opening, you break the glowsticks, tie a string through the hole, and swing them around above your head. The glowing specs fly all over the cave walls and floor and all over your body. Everyone is camoed in and you play hide and go seek! Oh, it is a blast! I couldn't get the look of the caves after we had put the glowsticks everywhere with my camera but it's so great! It was me, Kim, Kels, Madi, Dave, and Craig that went and it was fun to see the reactions of the people who hadn't gone before. I'm a flake and couldn't find the caves forever but we lucked out and I finally found them! It was so fun!

New Car!!!

Ok, I haven't updated my blog for a very long time so the next like 3 or 4 posts are all going to be updates. I bought a new car in March and am so excited about it! It's a 2008 Hyundai Elantra and it's just so fun! I decided to get back into debt so that I could have a 4 door vehicle and a more reliable car. I loved my Civic so much but the 2 doors drove me totally crazy and it was starting to get a lot of wear and tear on it and I just didn't want to pay for all of the repairs. I also love having no subs in my trunk! It's SO nice! I enjoy being able to take 5 people in my car now and having tons and tons of trunk space! My car is a manual transmission which was a must for me on any car that I bought. It was just everything I had been looking for in a new car and it was cheaper to get a brand new Hyundai Elantra as it was to have a used Mazda 3 which was my other option. I just love it! It has XM radio, alloy wheels, sunroof, heated seats, audio controls on the steering wheel, tinted windows, 5 year bumper to bumper warranty, and just tons of little perks that I was freakered about when I was shopping for cars. Anyways, that's my latest exciting purchase!

Camping Next Door!

Maddie, Kim, me, Kels

Maddie, Kim, me, Kels, Dev

Kim and me

Yes, it was very cold. Hot chocolate hit the spot!

Ok, so this was way fun! Kimber and Kelsey always do the cutest get-togethers! It was Maddies birthday and I guess that she's been wanting to go camping so Kelsey's parents agreed to let us sleep in their trailer. We were just parked on the side of Kelsey's house, hence the title "Camping next door." Kelsey has a little fire pit in her backyard so we roasted hotdogs around the fire and then went in the trailer. IT WAS FREEZING! We made hot chocolate and ate 25 Main cupcakes(which are on my top 5 most favorite desserts ever) and sang Happy Birthday! Maddie opened her presents and we just had a great time! We were laughin and just enjoying the camping atmosphere! Surprisingly, it felt very much like we were camping when we were actually in the trailer. What a fun thing to do! Kimber and Kels are darling, they always do cute stuff like that for people. Thanks girls!

Snowboarding!

Skylar, Danny, Tyc, and me

me, Mike, Lance

Me and Tyc after she got hurt--we just went and got Pepsi's

Tyce and I

Mike, Tyc, Danny, Lance, Skylar, and me

Happy New Years! On Thursday me, Tyc, Danny, Lance, Mike, and Skylar all went up to Brianhead for a day of snowboarding! This was only my second time ever going and the rest of the group has been many times. I kinda felt bad making Tyc stay behind with me but she was a gem and stuck with me! We left St. George around 8 am and headed up. We got all of our gear ready and got our lift tickets and just got goin. The 4 boys went off and did their own thing because they're way faster than Tyc and I and they go off all the jumps and stuff. Me and Tyc decided on our hill and got in line for the lift. Haha, trying to get on the lift for the first time was a little awkward for me. I couldn't figure out how to move fast enough with my snowboard attached to one of my feet while pushing with the other foot. That was a little chaotic! Haha, I ended up not getting there fast enough and so the lift just swept me up and I wacked Tyc in the leg with my board. After that incident I figured out how to maneauver my board and didn't have any more troubles getting ON the lift. Once we got to the top, I was a little nervous about how to get off the flipping thing. Tyc has never been able to successfully get off the lift without falling and I didn't understand it too well either so once we tried to get off, we crashed! Haha, that happened the first few times. Anyways, I fell and fell every single time I got up. My first two times down the hill were horrible. I was getting so frustrated and tired. Finally, I picked it up on about the 3rd time down and started enjoying myself much more! We ate lunch up there and just had a good time! At about 3 pm, Tyce and I went up the lift again to have another round down the mountain. We got to the top and by this time I could decently get off the lift. Tyc was getting much better but still struggling a little. We got off the lift and I started cruzin down the little hill but felt like I was a little out of control so I just stopped myself and fell gently. Tyc lost her balance and grabbed onto me right when I was going down so her lef and snowboard went one way and her body turned the other way. Her knee popped and she started to cry. She was in pain and she still had to ride all the way down the mountain. I followed behind her and tried to help out a little but I wasn't super good anyways. We got to the bottom, found Danny, and decided that she couldn't board anymore so we just went and chilled inside. We waited about another hour and a half til the lifts closed at 4:30 and then packed up and went home. Once we got home we went to dinner, went hot tubbing, and watched The Office. The day turned out to be very fun! Too bad Tyc got hurt because I was just getting comfortable with boarding and we had to stop. It'll be fun to go again though because now I understand it a little better! Fun day!

Christmas!

Our Christmas tree at 5 in the morning!

Sherisa, Bri, Bo, Bella, and Vanessa-Christmas morning

Cousins Rikki and Steven

Mom, Brenton, me, Sherisa at G & G Bushnell's

Ness, me, Ree, Bri, and Bro

Yes, Christmas morning, 5 am-dead tired!

Bro, me, and mom opening presents

HOORAY! Christmas morning was just a blast! My little brother insists that we wake up at 5 o'clock in the morning still, which is actually really fun for me because if it weren't for him, I would probably sleep in. Christmas eve we spent the evening up in Cedar at my Grandpa and Grandpa Roper's house. We do the same thing every year; big dinner, grandpa reads us the story of the birth of the Savior from the scriptures, Christmas program (all of the grandkids prepare a talent to perform-my bro, sis, and me all play a song on the piano), and we open presents. We always come back home for the sleeping part because we all insist on being in our own home for Christmas. Once we get home, my parents give us all pajamas and we go to bed. That is our Christmas eve every year. On Christmas morning we wake up at 5 am (it used to be 4:30, thank heavens Brenton decided to let us sleep a half an hour longer) and wake up our parents. We ALL have to walk down together and we all go strait to the family room. We walk in with everything dark and my parents flip the light on and we all start opening presents. Around 7:30 we eat a big breakfast and then my sister and bro in-law and their kids come over around 9. After we're done opening the rest of the gifts, we all get ready and head up to Cedar again. We spend the large part of the day with the Bushnell's where we have soup and sandwiches and munchies. On our way out we stop by the Roper's of a couple hours and then head home! Christmas is so fun! I am so grateful for all of the traditions that my parents and grandparents have started for us and have continued to carry out. What a blessing it is to get together and remember the birth of our Savior and to spend some quality time with our families! The memories are just great! I am so thankful for a big family and the fun times that we have!