What Happens in the Summer

WARNING: This is an epically long post to make up for lost months! The only promise is that there are lots and lots of pictures! :)

KELLI'S DAY!!

As always.. Kelli's Day was celebrated in style with spaghetti and meatballs, a ladybug cake, confetti, and a movie to watch.  We chose "We Bought Zoo" for this year's movie. So inspiring.. Chelsea left ready for her 20 seconds of courage! I ended up falling asleep for the middle of the movie, but the beginnings and end were fantastic!! 

Ready to get our party on!

 

Sweet Alexa and her mother sweet Holly sent me a package for Kelli's Day which included some sweet tatoos. So the Kienlen's were definitely there in spirit! 

In the end, it was a fantastic holiday, and I'm glad I have so many friends that remember my day to make it special! Hopefully the tradition will continue! :)

A CARE PACKAGE!

New wards are always a challenge for me. My social nature fights with my natural inhibitions,

 and so I hate it.  So my mother aware that I was having a rough month sent me a mixer! I now have two kitchen appliances to my name! Woohooo!! What a sweet mother I have!

ROOMMATE LOVE!!

Stacey and I did some twinner hair one Sunday.

And we thought we looked fantastic so we took pictures!

The month of June was Carl's Jr. month, because we had so many coupons.

This meant a lot of roommate dates, which were super fun!!

 THE 4th of JULY!!

Ty was sweet enough to come down to Provo to hang out with his lowly, pathetic sister! I was so grateful to have some family to hang out with.  We started the day off at the parade!

We sat with a rowdy bunch of people who were heckling all the parade people.  It was all in good fun which made it all the better.  Ty and I were right behind them and we thought the whole thing was hilarious. They often shout things like "turn the banner" at the people and most people were willing to comply.  One time a banner or something was coming up and one in the heckler group said to his family: "You know what to do!" And the whole group started up. 

Here's an example:

We were supposed to go to my Uncle's house for dinner, but since he had just moved we got very lost. So there was no All-American picnic for us chumps.  So instead, Ty and I really got in touch with the melting pot idea and had some Cafe Rio.  

We then headed up to the temple for some fireworks.  We moved a billion times. People in Provo are intense about their 4th of July rituals and they had already been camped out for hours by the time we go there.  Ty and I are pretty unassuming people so we didn't know where to go -- so we ended up in some pretty random places, trying not to infringe on anybody.

At the temple area...

 Ty and I then thought the Stadium of Fire was lamer than ever and it was getting late so Ty dropped me off and headed back up to Salt Lake.  20 minutes later the show started. 

So I booked it up to campus by myself and watched the show.  Stacey joined me for the last little bit of the show.

Blurry picture, but that's all the smoke from the fireworks!

 A ROOFTOP CONCERT!!

Provo does some pretty cool things, and one of those things is the Rooftop Concert Series. They usually have local artists put on a show for everyone, and it's super fun! This time they did a Tom Petty song night and had a bunch of different local artists do some songs.  

Me, Stacey and Christy!!

One of the local artists they had come to the show was the Neon Trees band. They are not so local anymore, but they remembered the little town they got their start in! It was just the drummer (who is pregnant and an amazing singer as well!), the bassist, and the lead singer.

The Neon Trees guy is crazy intense! Way fun to watch! I'd love to go to a concert! 

A BRIDAL SHOWER!!

Sweet Darcee is getting married in 19 days!! So we threw her a bridal shower. She requested no games, which I'm fine with because.. really bridal shower games can be pretty lame. So instead Chelsea and I threw together a fantastic fiesta! Just a bunch of taco stuff, but it was delicious! I would call the evening a success! 

The spread -- minus the chips, tortillas, and meat, which were still heating up.

These were a Pinterest find but I thought they turned out really well,
and they taste super good!! 

Cake Pop Favors! 

We only played the "How well does Darcee know Stephen" game.  Turns out she knows him pretty darn well! :)

Darcee in her natural state!

The LAST HOORAH/weekend get away!

With Darcee getting married so soon we decided we needed one more time just the three of us! 

So last Friday, we headed up to Salt Lake for a vacation!

Trax ride!

Darcee got her dress fitted, and then we did some shopping for friend of the bride clothes, 

because of course we need to look great for her wedding too! :) After finding nothing worth buying, we camped out at the KOA in SLC, which felt really more exotic than it was. So it was worth it!

Home Sweet Home

 After a quick swim that morning, we were on our way to a great hike!

Before we started for reals...

In true Wyoming fashion, we headed up the mountain without much information. We just trusted that we were fit enough, and awesome enough to finish it all.  We got to the top of the mountain, only to realize that we were really low on water.  We weren't aware of the time since we left our cell-phones behind.  So even though the trail continued up to the next peak we decided to feel really good about what we had already accomplished, and go back down.

The view!

Playing in the stream!

We finished!!!

Chelsea looked up the trail after we got back and found out that rattlesnakes are supposedly very common on that trail, and we thought the lizards were bad!

Last night, after we got back, Chelsea came with Darcee and I to our ward activity and it was just like old times in the Powell 2nd Ward, except more fun (no offense P2 people, it's just different when your Bishop has a giant pool and a basketball court in his backyard. And when there are so many new people to get to know and enjoy.)  It's been a great summer so far, and hopefully I'll post again before the end! :)

ALSO... This is my
100th
Post!
so thanks for staying interested, reading, and commenting all the way up to this huge milestone!!