My hair..

For those of you who haven't already heard. I got my haircut and had some highlights put in before I left for school. Here I am sporting the collegiate look. My hair is more red because of the highlights, and as you can see I have bangs now! haha. It's a fun change. I love it.

The Lewiston Rodeo

A couple weekends ago I went home and was able to go to the Rodeo with my good friend Kayla Dye. It was a lot of fun to see her and dress up in the country style with my boots and plaid shirt. =) Half of my heart is in love with the country. I have a lot of respect for people who can ride a bull for 8 seconds or 10 seconds or whatever it is. I wouldn't even get close to riding one I'd just run! lol. It's fun to see people doing what they love most. It gets me excited even if it's not something I live for.

College life so far....

It's funny that's it's only been a month since I have lived here in Moscow. It seems like much longer than that. I've adjusted well to school and I've met a lot of new people. It's such a good feeling to just be able to be yourself and not have people expect you to be a certain way. For example, in high school people wouldn't consider me to be outgoing. When I got my new calling as FHE Mom they told me they were looking for outgoing people to do the job. People you went to highschool with don't know you. lol. I've introduced myself to more people in a month than I have in my whole life. It's refreshing.
Ya, so this picture is of my room mate and I. We get along really well! She likes to say it's because I'm a Libra and she's Aquarius, who are supposed to get along really well. It's kind of a joke between us. We are really different, but seem to compliment each other pretty well! Living with her is fun because we're both goofy. :)

The Beginning and the End

So I guess this would be the place to tell you both about my thoughts, feelings and experiences I had going to Oregon and then flying back home. Going to Oregon, or trying to, was an adventure. My flight was supposed to leave July 20th at 6:30PM. Were we boarded on time? No. Did we get to Oregon at all that night? No. My flight ended up being canceled. I had to be bussed to a hotel nearby, stay the night and then wake up around 6AM to be boarded on the plane at 7:15. Did we board on time? Yes! Did I get to Oregon that day? Yes! I finally got to Salem, OR an hour after my plane landed. Brittany's mom was nice enough to come get me from the Portland airport! :) yay for moms.
Going home wasn't a problem. Well, I take that back. Both Brittany and her mother thought I was going back July 30th, instead of the 29th. Brittany had to scramble to find a ride for me to get to the airport on Sunday the 29th. We went from Brittany's mom (she was camping that weekend), Brittany's dad (he had to work), Brittany's step-mom (she had to work, too), Brittany's grandpa (he never returned her call) and then FINALLY we found a ride to the airport with Zak and his mother. yay for moms again! Going home wasn't as much as an adventure as getting to Salem. Did I board my plane on time that Sunday? No. Did I get to Spokane that day? Yes, but a half hour later than expected. I got home to good old Lewiston around 9PM.
Life is an adventure huh? haha.
I definitely enjoyed Oregon. The weather there is perfect and I did NOT miss the 100+ degree weather. Their water is really good too, you don't need a Brita filter to drink water, haha. Another good thing about Oregon, you don't have to pay sales tax...great for shopping! Oh ya and Salem was only a hour away from the coast! How much more perfect can you get? Luckily, I'll be going back October 5th! yay!

It's nice to feel like a kid again....

I think it was the first day in Salem that we went to the Carousel. There were hand carved and hand painted horses in actual size. They were beautiful. Brittany and I paid money, that's right, money to ride on the Carousel with a bunch of little kids. We were the only ones our age. Imagine that! We made Zak (Brittany's boyfriend) take pictures of us as we went around and around. :) Sometimes you just have to do stuff you used to when you were a kid.
Of course while I was there I had to do some shopping. Lewiston is DEFINITELY not known for it's shopping..haha. There were so many places to look. One of the stores Brittany and I stayed in the longest was Victoria's Secret. I ended up spending $40 for underwear...haha. I know right? It got me a stuffed pink dog...with a green backpack and yellow scarf. So cute..now what am I going to do with it? That is the question.

Bowling, Carousel, Shopping

Bowling, Red Robin and Karaoke

Another night we went bowling. It was boys against girls, of course. The guys always have to find a way to show up the girls. I don't even know who ended up winning...haha. I don't think anyone payed attention to that. Matt felt it was fun to randomly throw gutter balls for people when they weren't looking. Nice, huh? One of Brittany's friends used her crutch to bowl because she sprained her ankle in gymnastics. It was quite the night. All that exercise made us hungry, so we headed over to Red Robin. As you can see in the slide show...everyone wanted a picture with Red Robin. I got some soup! I absolutely LOVE soup! It's my favorite thing to eat, so that made me happy. However, I forgot the salad I ordered at the restaurant....so basically I spent $8 for a bowl of soup...haha..oops. Oh, and that wasn't the last activity of the night. We all ventured over to Matt's house for some karaoke! It was really fun and silly. The boys even sang. Matt said I had to sing, so I decided to sing Colors of the Wind from Pocahontas...lol. What a night! It was so nice to have so many people to hang out with!

Mo's and Red Robin

Wow...the ocean!

It had been such a long time since I'd seen the ocean! Isn't it just beautiful? Well the day in Lincoln City was a blast. The first thing we did was go on the bumper boats near the lake. I got soaked because I was defenseless. My arms weren't long enough to reach out of the boat and splash anyone! =( unfair. From there we went to Mo's. While we were waiting in line Kyle (red shirt), Matt (white shirt) and I wanted a picture in the cool little boat outside that said "Mo's Lincoln City, OR." We ate soup in a sourdough bread bowl. It was really yummy and we played some games while we were waiting. Finally, after we'd already been wet and then were fed, we did a little shopping around and then left for the beach! Brittany and I weren't in the mood to change into wet swimming suits again, so we played on the beach while the boys (Zak, Matt and Kyle) went skim boarding. The water was really cold, so after a while we all decided to head to the Lake and swim around. Matt threw me in twice! The first time I got water up my nose...haha. He did pull me out of the lake when I asked him though, so that was nice of him. After a long day we retired to the hot tub and then finally a movie. It was a fun day!

Lincoln City, OR

A day at the beach with the family!

So today was a lot of fun with the family! Most of my time was spent running through the water with a niece, nephew, Salina (their cousin) or Hopey in tow. Dragging around 6-8 year olds while running through water is quite the work out. Along with that, I spent a lot of time "riding" the big waves with the kids as the big boats went by. Oh ya and Salina and Maddy really liked it when I would count to three and throw them up in the air so they'd fall and splash into the water. Who knew you could get a cardio work out and some weight lifting done just by going to the beach?! :)Oh ya! We made a sand castle, too! Enjoy the slide shows. I know they are a bit much, just take it one at a time. :) There aren't any repeat pictures! Night everyone.

Our sand castle!

My very own Bamboo tree!!!

So today in the mail I got a Lucky Bamboo tree from my friend Mike! =) Isn't it soo cool?! I named it Sogioka, after him. haha. I can't wait until the leaves fall of so I can plant more! =) It's for my room up at U of I. I'll have to put on my T'ai Chi music and do yoga in there. I'm so excited! Hopefully it won't die. They say it's really easy to take care of. Since I can't have a baby, it'll have to do. =)

The Beginning

So basically I am following in my sister Coleen's footsteps. She had this great idea to have a blog and just keep little updates so the family can see/know what is going on in her life. I figured since college is a month away and my trip to Salem, Oregon is two weeks away...why not! It's a great time to start and it'll be a fun way to keep in touch. Let's see how good I am about it. haha.