Fun of mountainous proportions

Sundance got a double dose of Sara recently. My good buds Will and Dan wanted to get together and take dates up to Sundance's outdoor movie nights. Without too much discretion or thought, I said yes. I took Carruth.




Will took Steph.



Dan? Well...


He took some chick that I had never met, and whom I will probably never meet again, knowing him. I don't remember her name. Soak up her image, folks. This will probably be her one and only cameo on my blog.



Well, it ended up being the wrong night. There was no movie. no people. no lights. nothing. So we just laid on blankets, freezing, talking about conspiracies and the inhabitants on other planets. Carruth and I left early because we only took three blankets and apparently up in the mountains you have to have an entire Bed Bath and Beyond store in order to stay warm.



[REDACTED]

Girl's Night

I am so blessed with spectacular girl friends. Most of them in Provo are old roommates or wardies. I'm so glad I got to reconnect with Katie after the mission and be her roommate. I look forward to another great semester as little Kate Spade's roommate.



Katie and I had a girl's night last week complete with soothing pedicures, a brief shopping trip, chocolate, and an all-out splurge at Carrabba's. YUM!!!



I hope to spend more time soon with my wonderful girls. I am so glad my best friend Meg and I have still been able to stay friends all these years even though we are so different in so many ways. She is so amazing and helps me through all the problems in my life. The Lord uses her to talk to me, for sure. I'm glad she came to my mission farewell. I am so blessed that we got to be in the MTC at the same time. I'm glad we wrote our entire missions, and I'm glad to live just two blocks away and that she doesn't totally hate me for not spending as much time with her as she deserves. She truly is a wonderful influence in my life.


I thought of Meg this week when we ran into this car...figuratively speaking:



Women talk women. tuesday nights at the flower basket. love it.

Fond Fond Memories

I was driving down 9th East, and I had to stop at the light just south of the temple. The temple was on my left, the MTC was on my right. I watched as a group of young-looking boys walked in front of my car. My eyes started to well up as I thought about how I felt some three years ago when I was in their shoes. These boys have no idea what is about to happen to them, I thought. No matter how prepared a person is, the mission will totally rock that person's world and change his/her life forever.



It changed mine. I prepared as much as humanly possible. I wanted to give back in service to the Lord for all he had blessed me with. Then the mission happened and I realized that the opportunity to serve a mission was the most wonderful blessing the Lord could ever bestow on me. It changed my life. These boys are going out into the world full of hope, knowledge, plans, and a testimony. They will come back men and will forever be changed. I hope I can do my mission justice by still claiming to be a representative of Christ in my words and actions even though my mission is done.

Brie and Peanut Butter

So...I have a confession to make. A week or two ago, I was eating one of my favorite foods--peanut butter--and we pulled out some Brie cheese (one of my favorite cheese) from the fridge. One thing led to another, and Bryce and I were sitting on the couch dipping the cheese into the peanut butter and eating it like that. Gross, I know. Bryce thought it was totally appropriate to tell that story about two minutes after I met the family. Really great. Anyway, now that they think I'm not that strange I decided to let them in on our little world of fun. We had a picnic Friday at Kiwanis Park and we introduced them to the brie and peanut butter phenomenon.



For those of you who are curious as to how one eats this delectable delicacy, I will show you. You first take the wheel of cheese, cut them into small triangles, and then tear a small portion of that triangle off. Then you dip it into peanut butter, and eat away. Sometimes, depending on what you're in to, you can suck off the peanut butter from the cheese and then dip the same piece of cheese back in the peanut butter. That's the method of choice for this boy:



I'm actually not sure if anyone, but Macy, tried our wonderful cuisine. But we definitely finished half the wheel of brie. Don't even worry.



It's cool, though. Marci suggested eating one of her favorite, interesting dishes: peanut butter and pickle sandwiches. I think I can live with eating peanut butter and brie in front of someone who likes the PB and pickle combination.



All in all, the park was fun. We had J-dawgs, chips, and diet DP. We rushed out of there for Bryce's physics class and then I went back to work where I researched more on the USA PATRIOT Act and how BYU must comply with it. Here's an interesting piece of trivia: Did you know that the Patriot Act isn't just a clever name? It's actually just a really long acronym for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act passed only a couple months after Sept. 11. Very controversial, but it has not been overturned or repealed. yet.

This graphic is from The Onion, my preferred news source:



This summer is going great. I am on a pretty tight schedule; I have lots to do, but I also have lots of fun. I have wonderful, good friends to spend time with, and I'm really loving the fact that once I'm done with work, I'm done. I don't need to study or stress about tests, stare decisis, case holdings, or exceptions to rules. Although I love law school and I actually miss my law friends and going to class and learning, I can tell that when I graduate, I won't be too terribly disappointed. I think it will be nice to have a law job and to get on with life.

Keeping up with the Johnsons

Bryce and I went down to Arizona just last week, but if you tell the Johnson family to come visit any time, they really will come! Marci, Reed, Macy, and Brooks graced us with their presence this week. We went to Park City and bummed around: ate lunch, rode the Alpine slide, watched skiiers jump into a pool of water, rode a few times around on the gondola, and got lost several thousand times in the hotel. All in all, I'd say it was a pretty successful trip.



This is our ascent up to the alpine slide- the first time I had ever been on a ski lift and Bryce took advantage of the situation. Luckily I only freaked out when the camera wasn't looking.



haha. nervous laughter while Bryce pretends to push me off the lift.





this is my ridiculous face and this is bryce's "that. was. AWESOME!" face


Then on to the Alpine slide. I felt like the mother up there. When you get Brooks and Bryce together, you need to make sure there are no sharp, fast, or poisonous objects around. Otherwise be prepared for large hospital bills. The boys were disappointed when the ride didn't totally work them over. Luckily, Macy didn't take after her brothers. She sensitive and cool and took the ride at a reasonable pace...screaming the entire way down.


They made me go in the back because they said i would be the slowest. I may be twice their age, but that just means twice the fun, right? : )


We went back to the hotel and rode this thing:



It was so much fun, and it was free. Maybe it was fun BECAUSE it was free. In any case, I'm seriously tempted to just drive up to Park City every week so I can ride this fun little machine. I know I'm a dork.





Oh funny story...so everyone told Bryce's parents how I was flipping out on the ski lift up to the Alpine slide. So the rest of the time, their parents were deeply concerned about me and how I felt when we got up on large ledges or rode ANYTHING. The first thing they'd ask when we got off-each time- was how I felt. It was so funny. Now it's the running joke in the family that I'm scared of heights. SO not true.

I'm only scared of heights when I'm swinging on an unenclosed surface with a man next to me pretending to push me off.

This man:




...with socks and birkenstocks:




Life is good.

Gone Fishin'

So I thought I was an avid fisher woman...until my friend Will invited me to go fishing yesterday morning and I remembered I haven't gone fishing since high school. I used to go all the time at our ranch in Smiley, Texas, but life has a way of catching up with you and stuff. Well, here are pictures of our wonderful/fruitless excursion placing baited poles in Deer Creek Reservoir and leaving with one less hook, four less weights, and $15 less in Will's pocket after I completed two tasks he dared me to do. I won't tell you what, but I will never do them again. Sick!



Trying to look like I'm trying to fish


This is Will rigging his pole so it looks like he's getting a bite. In reality, the only bite he will get all day is the big one he got at Zupa's for lunch (See below.)



Will's a really good actor, acting like he's about to pull a fish out of the water.



I'm not too impressed.




Will and I went to Zupa's afterward and I almost got him (a vegetarian) to order the turkey spinach and avocado panini. He opted for a grilled cheese, but ended up taking a significant bite (the right hand side) out of my turkey sandwich. This is the first bite of meat he's had since going vegetarian in February. I feel so special that I was the one that got him to do it!!!

Oh by the way...the fam came into town on Friday and we picnicked with Bryce. I'll have to put up pictures later because they're all on Sherrie's computer.

Love me Long Time

I have not posted in awhile. Things are changing. I just finished my internship in Texas where I worked for the State Attorney General catching all the bag guys trying to screw Texas consumers. Don't mess with Texas.

Now, I'm working for BYU's office of general counsel making sure that we have all our ducks in order. Lots of fun.



Coolest news by far, however, is this little friend I've picked up on the way. He's not too little. He's 6' 4''. I love the tall ones. We have fun. We laugh a lot. We travel. We stay up late. We wake up early. We stare at each other. We read books and talk for hours about politics. We've known each other a few short months, but I can tell this is the start of a beautiful friendship.



He's my Rule 19 indispensable party.