Long Lost Cousins!!!

A couple weeks ago, I had the RARE, but very special experience of having my cousins Matt and Adam come to St. George and visit! This is the first time in almost 9 years that I have been together with both of them, in St. George at the same time. Wonderful blessing! Adam was able to come for just over a week and Matt and his wife Steph and their son were here for about 4 days. We were able to go on a 3.5 mile hike with a lot of the family and it was absolutely beautiful! After the hiking adventure, we went back to my grandpa and grandma Bushnell's house and had a BBQ. Then, the next day (this is my favorite part!) we went up to the mountain house. This was some experience for me! In our childhood years, we spent weekend after weekend up at the good ol ranch! However, it has been many many years since we were all up there together. Matt and Adam probably have no idea what a blessing that was for me. It was just like old times! Laughter, family time, and adventure! I thank Heavenly Father continually for the family I have been blessed with! They mean more than anything in the world to me. I am very grateful for the opportunity that I had to be united with them once again. What a blessing! Love you Matt and Adam!

Tycee's Wedding!

Mom, Me, and Ree

Kolby, Me, Tycee, Danny

Some of the Bridesmaids
Haylee, Me, and Jessica!

Deke, Me, Lance, and Brett

Lance and I

Tycee! She looks BEAUTIFUL!

Tyce and I

Tycee and Danny

Ok, so Tycee got married about a month ago, but hey...better late than never huh? So my best friend Tycee got married on August 9th to Danny Radford. They were married here in the St. George temple and had their reception at the Marriott. The day was a wonderful success! Tyce looked SO beautiful and her husband Danny is such a gem! I was a bridesmaid along with Jessica, Haylee(Tycee's sister), Elisha, and Casey. The day started off at the temple for pictures! It was incredibly hot, however, we all looked darling and our outfits were great! Props to Tyce on the dresses and tuxes! Once we were done there, we went over to the wedding luncheon at the Ames residence and the food was DELICIOUS! Much thanks to Lance's aunt and uncle for that! The luncheon was fun because it was a lot less formal and everyone was able to just sit and chat! Lance was able to come down from Arizona which is always a treat! Also, I was able to meet Lance and Danny's life-long friend Deke (I hope that's how you spell it). Deke was hilarious! Good times! We had a break for about an hour and then we went over to the Marriott for pictures and for the ring ceremony. After that, the reception began! It was BEAUTIFUL! The Marriott did a fantastic job with the food and decorations! The wedding got over at about 9:30 and then we all went home. It was an awesome day! It was so fun to see Tyce get married! She's been my best friend for about 13 years now. Congrats Tyce and Danny! I sure love ya!

Kolob and Kolby

Last Saturday Kolby and I took a drive to Kolob. Since I had never been there, he thought that it was an important item on the list of "things to do." We had a great time! Kolby's family used to own a cabin up there so he knows his way around well! It was beautiful! The day turned out to be overcast and a little rainy, but it was green and lucious and a very peaceful place to be! The Travellers sold their cabin and soon after that, it was struck by lightening and burned to the ground...everything except the chimney. Hopefully I'm not telling the story wrong, if so...sorry Kolbs! We drove all around for most of the time and just looked at the scenary! We went to the Kolob Reservor and ate lunch there! That night we had planned to cook a meal that Kolby ate on his mission. I don't even know how to spell it but it's called chipotti. Haha, that was probably totally wrong! We cooked for all of my fam and it turned out to be really fun! We made the BIGGEST mess! Haha, well, Kolby did! Just kiddin! It's not an easy thing to make without making a mess. At first I thought Kolby was full of crap. It didn't look very good while we were making it, but looks were deceiving! It was REALLY yummy! We had such a good time! Thanks Kolbs!

A day at the lake!

Last Saturday my mom, dad, and brother went up to the Christensen family reunion. Me and Sherisa had to stay home because we both had to work Friday evening. My aunt Mary and Uncle Al invited us to come to the lake (Sand Hollow) and go boating with them! They are always so sweet to invite us! We LOVE going with the Moo-Al's! So we got to the lake around 9:30 in the morning to beat all of the traffic and started our day at the lake! We went tubing and ate lunch on the beach part of the lake. We weren't getting thrown around quite as much as usual but once we got me, Sherisa, and Christopher Lloyd on the tube together we had a BLAST! Uncle Al would get us goin so fast around the corners that we would be parallel with the boat. It was hilarious! David and Sarah were so cute too. They kept puttin their thumbs up to go faster and we were gettin a kick out of them! I enjoyed going to the lake so much! I appreciate Aunt Mary and Uncle Al for always inviting us to go with them...we sure love them and we have such a ball!

24th of July!

JB and I

Mountain House

The 24th of July was such a blast for us Bushnells! My family, my Aunt Nin and her family, my cousin Jason and his family, and my grandparents and Uncle Tom all went up to our family cabin on Cedar Mountain! We all (except for grandpa, grandma, and Tom who came in the truck) started at Swain's Creek and fourwheeled down to the mountain house! We couldn't have picked a more beautiful day to go! We met G and G and Tom there and had lunch! We went on a little hike up the mountain and went to the swing and then ate dinner. By this time, the sun was starting to set so we decided we better get movin since we were on wheelers. We headed back up the mountain and me and my cousin Christopher were in the lead riding one wheeler together. We kinda left everyone in the dust. Once we got back to our vehicles, Christopher and I waited for about 10 minutes and finally we saw my Aunt Mary flying down the road toward us. She was FREAKING out! She was yelling, "Is Katie here? Where's Katie? Have you guys seen Katie?" Me and Christopher were totally confused. Long story short...Katie got lost in the mountains all by herself. She had ridden one of their baby fourwheelers by herself and taken the wrong fork in the road. We had everyone on wheelers searching for her. All of us were so uptight and SO worried about her. She had to be scared out of her mind, especially since there wasn't hardly any sunlight left at all. We said a family prayer and I prayed alone more than I think I ever have. I was so scared. Finally, about 2 hours later we had everyone back at the cars...including Katie. Her poor little face was tear stained and all of her make up was smeared down her face. She said that she was shaking so hard out there that she couldn't even push the gas. While she was in her frenzy to find her way, she also ran off the road a little and got a little banged up. I tried so hard to have faith that we would find her. We were in such a panick and it was getting dark. We almost called the search and rescue services. The Lord answered our prayers! I gained a much stronger testimony of the power of prayer in my life that day! We're so glad our little Katie bug is alright!

Family Vacation!

This past week was super fun! My family and I went on a little family vacation up to the Salt Lake area. When I say a "little" family vacation, I mean little. We left Sunday afternoon around 3:30 pm and arrived at our hotel around 8:00 pm. We just went and ate and then spent the rest of the evening in our hotel room. Monday we went to Lagoon which was a blast! I haven't been there since I was in fifth grade so everything was fairly new to me. There are so many new rides! My parents wouldn't ride like ANY of the rides...their a bunch of pansies! Me, Ree, and Bro rode almost all of the rides without our parents. There was however, a couple rides that they went on and both my mom and dad got SOAKED! It was HILARIOUS! If you know my parents, then you'll think it's funny too! They were just the photo takers! Monday evening we went to visit my Aunt Mar and her family. She took us to the BEST Mongolian restaurant! It was to die for! It was a little hole in the wall like the one Lance and I went to in Arizona. I was nervous but, there again, it was delicious! It was great to visit Mar and the fam! We get up there oh...probably every 5 years or so haha. Tuesday I was DYING to go river rafting! My dad had mentioned it, but then he didn't really want to go. I finally convinced everyone that it would be a blast and we went! It really was a blast! SOOO funny though! We went under this bridge that was so close to the water that everyone had to get all the way inside the boat. My mom and dad's reaction was classic! They were freaking out! They thought their heads were gonna get scraped off. You had to be there to completely enjoy that experience! That was my first time river rafting and holy cow...I want to go again! The water was pretty dang cold but it was so worth it! That afternoon we went and ate a late lunch at one of our favorite restaurants...Bucca di Beppo! SO yummy! We also went up to "This is the Place" and learned about where Brigham Young came into the Salt Lake Valley and told the saints that this would be the place they were to settle. It was a very spiritual experience. Wednesday we took a ride on the Heber Creeper which ended up being quite fun! The mountains were BEAUTIFUL! After that my dad made us go to Cabela's. Haha, then our day was shot. We were there for such a long time! He loves that store and seriously...it's cool, but not 3 hours cool! Once we were done there, my parents took us around to check out the BYU campus where they went to school. That was fun! The trip turned out to be just a blast!

Road Runners

Me, Linds, and Brock
The fireworks!
Road Runner Mascott
Road Runners playing ball!
Me and Linds
So we have this baseball team here in St. George called the Road Runners. They took the place of the Zion Pioneers that used to be here a while back. One our friends, Brock, is the team manager. He puts free tickets up at the stand so that we can come pick them up and get in for the games! Tonight was my first game! It was so fun! My friend Linds called me and asked if I wanted to come with her so we went together! The atmosphere was fun and it was nice to be out and about! I had no clue that they would be doing fireworks after the game. I have never been that close to fireworks in my life! It was awesome! They were like right above our heads and they were BEAUTIFUL! They did a TON too! The Road Runners lost but not by too much. It sure was fun though! I'd like to go to them more often and since Brock is such a gem and gets us free tickets...it's hard to say no! It's hard to find a time to go though. They play like Monday through Saturday most of the time I think? Saturday is about the only day that I can go to them. Oh well...it was a blast!