Cabin and Crazies

July 1st - 6th

IT'S ALREADY JULYYYYYY. I know I say this about every single month that rolls along, but July is an important month, with tons of things happening all the time.

This morning I woke up really early! I was able to go and drop Maizey off at the stake center for Girls Camp! It was a bit bittersweet because I COULDN'T GO THIS YEAR. I was kinda upset still! I had my heart set on going ever since I found out when it was.. But, I guess it's time to grow up.. I dropped her off, and said bye to all of my leaders, they all thought I was going!! Like I was on their lists, they had things for me.. but alas, my bags were unpacked. Even Chea was going as the photographer and she said if she would have known I wasn't going she would have had me go as her assistant, AND she could have been teaching me the whole time! But I guess there are reasons that I don't know/understand of why I wasn't meant to go, and that's alright. :) not exactly what I was hoping for, but it'll turn out alright. I've had my fun at 5 years of camp... I sure wish I would have enjoyed my time more and taken in everything a bit more. But maybe in the future I'll get to go as a leader or on the staff. I don't think my days in YW are completely over.. ;)

We went to the grandparent's cabin on Monday.. and I was a bit hesitant but the only reason that got me out of the door was the fact that it's cold up there and our house is HOT. So we took the 2.5 hour ride up north! And since Maizey was at Girls Camp, we all got our own seats! ;) Haha but I wish she was there! I started the second Work and the Glory book on the way up to the cabin. I think I'll finish it  by the time I leave, but I need to spread my reading out so I'll have something to do up here! I'm a fast reader, and I just want to finish it so it takes a little bit of discipline to put it down.. haha I'm so glad I've started to read more! I missed it a lot! In school it's dumb because you're forced to read books you may not be interested in, and you can't go at your own pace, and there is ALWAYS busy work to go along with each chapter, and people interpret the novel differently than you do, so even for tests it's not always what you think it may be... but now I'll never have to do book reports ever again, I'm pretty sure! I'm pretty excited to start college. It'll be good for me to stay at home, for a while I was considering going up to NAU, but I couldn't afford it and I couldn't leave my family for that long! Yet I am planning on going on a mission, but I don't think that leaving my family would break my heart as much then as it would if I went away to college, somehow?! But I understand that, and that's all that matters. ;)
So I sat on the front porch outside in the dark while it was sprinkling, and it was wonderful. :)

Tuesday I woke up early and had to walk around the cabin because the door was locked and I couldn't get outside to read like I wanted. Eventually after a few hours, everyone else woke up and I was able to eat and get along with the rest of my lazy day. So I took a nap in the hammock, swung on the porch swing.
Don't get me wrong, I like relaxation, but when it's ALL I have to do... it drives me insane! Haha I would just really like to go and run around and do things, but I just didn't for some reason. :P

Wednesday was VERY similar... except I slept in later than usual. And Keta and Kirk came up that afternoon. Plus it rained a lot more. I watched some movies with my brothers. And I read some more.. talked to some friends. :) It was nice, still wish I would have done more active activities. :P But tomorrow is the Fourth of July!

Can't believe it's already the 4th... definitely a bittersweet day.. it's been six years since my dad died... and it has gotten a lot easier, but it's still not a "happy" day for me. I know that I'll see him again, and I am always comforted by family and friends.... like I said, it's gotten easier, but sometimes I just wish that I he were here with me to just be here! Haha I'm about to walk into the unknown here soon, and I wish that I could just talk with him! Know if he thinks I'm doing the right thing, because I'm not sure that I am! :/ anyways, it's just a bit of a rough day... however, things are looking up because I was talking to Cal last night and he invited me and my family to his birthday dinner and "partyness"... but I first had to talk my family into leaving the cabin a few hours early.. haha I was begging and constantly asking, and they threatened to stay an extra day! Haha needless to say, I knocked it off... and then at three we headed out! I was so happy to get back and celebrate with him! I was worried we wouldn't make it on time, he said to get there around five and that it would start when we got there... so I was pushing for earlier but my family took their sweet time getting out of the cabin.. I told them that we needed to be there by six since they were already waiting for US, and that's when they started hurrying on the drive because they thought that just I was invited.... glad to know that I'm a priority around here! ;) But I'm glad they put up with me.. haha because that was all I wanted to do today!
So we got to his house at 6, ate some yummy dinner with his family, and then... we went outside... and walked around in their irrigation... I knew this would end with me soaking wet... haha but we went right along lightly splashing everyone, having a good time.... until.... Kayla got an idea... and Richard helped...
We went around the side of the house while the boys were all distracted and got some big bowls and moved the hose to the side of the house and set up for attack!! Unfortunately, Colton was watching and he let everyone know that something was up, so all the kids were on edge waiting for the big surprise. We had to attack, and quick! Kayla took the first shot to Cal and dumped a whole bowl of water on him, he was soaked! He retaliated and got her with the hose... so I ran away because I knew I was next... I hid on the side of their house with my bowl of water, hopefully waiting for someone to walk by and I could get them.. but no one did, so I went back to the other end of the house, and got Cal with my bowl of water... but it wasn't a surprise! Haha he saw me trying to sneak around and so he stood there, and then he repaid the favor by doing the same exact thing to me! Haha it was so great! And then whenever he saw that I was getting dry, he took the bowl and dumped it right on me! So much for looking cute for his birthday.. I straightened my hair, and wore my favorite shirt and new jeans and actually did my makeup pretty nice... only to be dumped on by a whole bunch of water... haha I hope he liked what he did! ;) But I really didn't mind, in fact I loved it all! We ran around and they got body board out and pulled little kids on it. And then we had to dry off, Cal opened his presents, and then we went to the Johnson's house to watch the fireworks from his balcony, and you could see all the way out to Mesa and Chandler firework shows! It was awesome. Perfect day even though I'm soaking wet. :) :) :) Happy 18, Cal!

Friday was a big day! I was invited to go to the Temple to be there to take pictures and to do baptisms while Cal was going through. Me and Kayla watched Kimi until her brothers came out, and we did some of their family names. Actually, last night we found out that we are 6th cousins! Haha I thought we were 5th, but it puts it back another step. Kimi was SO happy when she found that out, all day she kept talking about it. So in a sense, these were my family names, too somewhere down the line. And it's like that with every name you do, but this time I felt a little bit of a connection to these names which made it a little more personal. Me and Kayla were the only kids in there doing baptisms and one of the older workers had to get in the water... we felt bad! But it needed to be done.. :) they were good about it, thank goodness. After getting done we went back to the visitors center for another hour. We were looking at the Book of Mormons in different languages, and I picked up a French copy, and I did a little bit of translating it to English! I was surprised because I actually understood it a little bit!! It was SO cool!! :) I haven't really done any speaking French in the past year or two, so I was really impressed that I was able to pick out what some of the verses were saying, I mean it was still a bit choppy and I didn't know all of the words of course, but it was awesome, I'd LOVE to go on a mission to a French speaking country. We shall see in about a year!! I just get so excited when I think about serving. :)
I actually went inside the Temple for the first time today! Not like IN the Temple, but in the waiting room.. it was so beautiful even just in the first twenty feet. I wanted to go in the rest of it, but I couldn't.... but in another year... I'll be there! :) :) We were waiting in the waiting room, and I talked to my friend Travis from school, it was nice talking to him again! I actually kind of miss him, he's leaving on the same day Cal is for Australia. Pretty cool. :) So slowly, one by one, family and friends walked out and gathered in the waiting room and then finally he came out and I took pictures out in front, and then we all went to Nielsen's for lunch and ice cream! It was a really great day! :)
Afterwards, I went to Lauren's house for some much-needed girl time!! She's off to Canada on Sunday and so we got froyo, Chinese, and watched a whole bunch of wedding shows! Typical... ;) I really needed to hang out with her again! It had been about three weeks!
And I'm babysitting this afternoon and hopefully going to keep myself occupied and get lots of stuff done today! :)