Trouble in the Tetons.

On Friday August 2nd, I gave my last tour as a BYU tour guide :( and then Stephen and I hit the road for Wyoming! It was really fun being able to spend time in the car together and drive through exciting cities like Kemmerer, WY (home of JC Penny) as well as Daniel Wyoming, population 100. :) Stephen's Uncle Randy and Aunt Ruth invited us to come with some of their family (kids and grandkids) on a little camping trip in the Tetons, and we were excited! We'd been looking forward to this trip for months :)

Here's how the trip went in a nutshell:

Saturday-
Wake up 6:30 am.
Drive to Jackson lake (two hours).
Load boat with all the "hud." (Code for camping junk)
Boat doesn't start.
Wait on dock for 4 hours trying to get boat to start.
Get really really really sunburned.
Get really jealous of all the other boats on the dock.
Wait another couple hours for people to try to figure out how to make the boat start.
Give up and drive back to cabin.
 
Sunday-
Raspberry pick around cabin.
Drive to String Lake (two hours).
Kayak on beautiful String Lake.
Drive back to cabin.
Eat delicious raspberries with ice cream and angel food cake.

Monday-
Wake up at 6:00 am.
Drive to Jackson Lake.
Rent motor boats.
Ride motor boats to campsite.
Set up camp (while others went back to pick up the rest of the crew and return motor boats, then kayak to campsite).
Play in the water.
See Grizzly bear.
Call Park Rangers.
Watch Grizzly bear come closer and closer to campsite.
Call Park Rangers.
Pack up camp.
See a second grizzly bear.
Call Park Rangers.
Wait for Park Rangers.
Park Rangers arrive.
Listen to Park Rangers tell us we were supposed to yell and throw rocks at the Grizzly Bears.
Be confused.
Ride with Park Rangers back to Dock. (While others kayaked back, and others waited on the campsite for the Rangers to come back to pick them up.)
Drive back to cabin.

Although the four days didn't go exactly as planned...and in the end there actually wasn't any camping involved, we had A TON of fun! It was the perfect little escape before we came back to the craziness of wedding planning and preparation.  :)

I haven't spent much time in Wyoming, other than driving through it on various family road trips, but I must admit that the Tetons and the Wind Rivers are BEAUTIFUL! I can't say that I'm a crazy-intense-outdoorsy type of person...but I can definitely appreciate this incredible world in which we live.

The view from the deck of Randy and Ruth's cabin.

The view with the sunset was INCREDIBLE.

The raspberries iiiiiii picked! (above) 

Oh what a life I'm living! 

Stripes, Grilled Chicken and Fireworks.

This year's fourth of July was spent the American way - niiiice and relaxing.

Stephen and I worked on some wedding stuff (getting addresses, shopping, etc) and then went to our friend Melissa's parents' house for a BBQ! It was really fun!

Melissa's mom asked Stephen and me to help with making the potato salad. I was worried it wasn't going to turn out since neither of us had ever made potato salad before, but luckily for us, Melissa's mom took care of the hard parts and it turned out deelicious! (Which is really saying something because I'm not usually a huge fan of potato salad.) 

The BBQ not only included food, but also some fun games like an electric-wheelchair obstacle course consisting of: maneuvering around plants and cups of water, lining up and knocking over dominos, filling up a small container of water using water squirted out of a water gun, and concluding in popping a balloon with a BB gun (which I was successfully able to do on my first try ;)). [I suppose also mentioning that it was my first time ever holding/shooting a BB Gun would be considered bragging, right?...] Of course the evening ended with some fireworks, and I - for the first time in my life - lit a couple myself :) I didn't even scream or get burned - all in all I would say it was a success!

Thanks to the Littlefield's for inviting us over! 

OH what a life I live! 

By the numbers.

TEN weeks (or more) since I realized that the air conditioner in my car was broken and needed to be fixed, but I have yet to do anything about it. Which was fine 10 weeks ago when it was still winter-time in Provo, but now that it's pushing 100 degrees...action must be taken. asap.

NINE weeks have passed since Stephen asked me to marry him. It has been a crazy busy nine weeks! And although it still seems like our wedding is still foreverrrrrr away...looking back the last nine weeks have gone crazy fast!

EIGHT times a day I think about Hokulia shave ice and how much I want it. But then I also remember that due to the summer camps going on at the present...the line takes about eight hours*. (Which actually might still be worth it. I mean, that stuff is GOOD.)

SEVEN days until the 4th of July. I really hope this years' measures up to last years. I have full confidence that it will.

SIX homemade lemon chicken tacos have been devoured by yours truly during the last couple of days. (I don't think I could ever get sick of them. They're just too good. Homemade guac and pico on top are a given.)

FIVE (times ten plus one) days until I marry the love of my life. [ya.I'll be the first to admit that one's a bit of a stretch haha but just go with it.]

FOUR weeks since my last blog post. WOOPS. I'll do better this month ;)

THREE marvelous days were spent in Grace, Idaho this past weekend. (Well, technically two and a half, but I need something for three.) It is always nice to have a little weekend getaway, especially to Grace because it is BEAUTIFUL up there right now.

TWO hours drive to Manti, UT which is where Stephen and I will be going as soon as I'm off work tomorrow for the Manti pageant which I've never been to before. It should be good!

ONE day until my wedding ring is supposed to be here! Sadly, I don't think it will actually be here tomorrow, but there is still a small glimmer of hope deep down in my heart that it will arrive soon (as in within the next 24 hours soon, but with each passing hour that glimmer of hope is dimming.)

ZERO is the amount of times my PASS OF ALL PASSES has been used so far this summer. Unacceptable. I'm definitely hoping to bust that thing out within the next couple weeks.

*extreme exaggeration

Oh what a life I'm living! 

Weekenders.

The last few weekends have been a lot of fun! Sadly, I don't always remember to take pictures like I should but hopefully I'll do better in the future!

Weekend activities included things like:
BYU Baseball
Hokulia Shave Ice (x2) (My Hokulia addiction is back in full swing this summer)
Thai Food (which of course included Massaman Curry - our favorite!!!!)
Attending baptisms
Shopping
Watching movies (I forced Stephen into watching Mes Miserables with me. He said he thinks he would prefer the stage version better, but he still watched the whole thing without complaining :) I was grateful!) [Other movies included The Village, and Bernie.]
Hot tubbing
Wedding Planning
and more!


(photos not in order of when they were taken)

Even though I'm only working 20 hours and week and taking one class....my weeks fill up SO quickly! I always feel like I'm barely keeping my head above the water, and then Friday comes and I can breathe  freely again! Of course we have to take advantage of the time off and we fill our friday/saturday/sundays with LOTS of fun things - so many that there never seems to be enough time to do homework...so by the time monday comes around I'm already back to barely keeping my head above the water. Hmmm.. I refuse to see any correlation between those two problems. haha.

Oh what a life I'm living! 

Rain and Shine.

I'm currently living with my aunt and uncle. Last week my uncle's sister Jodee got married in the back yard. Jodee and Ken asked for me to take some pictures for them. I am by no means a professional quality photographer, but it was fun taking pictures for them and I definitely learned a lot! Here are a couple of my favorites.

Wedding photography is hard! After this experience I have so much more respect for people who are good at it. I'm definitely still learning the way around my camera, and trying to figure out the tricks behind capturing natural light. One of the things that made it especially hard was the weather! It was really the strangest thing because it was both sunny and raining - sometimes at the same time. How's that for a conundrum?!

Thanks Jodee and Ken for this opportunity!
Congratulations!

Oh what a life I'm living!

California Dreamin.

Last Wednesday Stephen and I road-tripped to CA for a "Mission: Possible" themed family reunion. [My mom chose this theme since my brother Daniel will leaving on his mission to Cleveland, Ohio a week from today!] As cheesy as it may sound, Stephen and I were both really excited to be able to spend 10 hours in the car together [each way], and in the end it was JUST as much fun as we thought! :)

We had so much fun spending time with my family in CA! My nieces and nephews are just as chatty and adorable as ever and even though it was a little stressful when Stephen and I were left in charge of all seven of them while everyone else went to the temple for a couple hours...we survived!

It was a wonderful couple days filled with:
Early-Bird Nephews and Nieces,
Minute To Win it Games,
WARM 80-90 degree days, (definitely been dreaming about those since we got back to Provo and it's basically rained every day...)
Cleveland Trivia,
Water Games,
Family Pictures,
Mini Golf,
Olympic Events [such as wheelbarrow racing and marble toes],
Miriam's first date (which was SENIOR BALL - she went as a sophomore!)
and of course rounded off With a Flinders Family Original Music Video!

Sadly, I didn't take a ton of pictures because we were so busy, but here are a couple of my favs.

(Stephen took the one above, and I was REALLY impressed with how well he did, especially considering he had to focus it manually. We have a photographer in our midst, ladies and gentlemen!)

We really are a happy couple, can't you tell? ;)

(Photo Cred: Sarah! (She's the real photo expert in the family.) [Thanks for all the photography tips, Sarah!])

Oh what a life I'm living! 

PS Check back soon for more details on our ENGAGEMENT that took place the weekend before :) 

Wedding-ding-ding.

Since I am now a SENIOR year at BYU, I've had more than a few friends get married over the past couple years ;) 

However, it wasn't until just recently that I had one of my BEST FRIENDS get married. 

On Thursday August 23, my best friend/cousin/ex-roommate, Madi, became a MRS.

I thought that this would be a weird experience for me, since we've been so close over the years, but surprisingly it wasn't. It was just a fantastic, wonderful day and I was so happy be able to share this day with her.

Madi has always been such a great example to me. I have always looked up to her (figuratively..obviously ;)) and she is someone who I know will always instantly brighten my day. We plan to be BFFL (best friends for life) and already dream about the vacations that our future families will take together someday :) (...Mckay, I hope that doesn't come as a shock...)

The past few months have been especially challenging for her and I have just been amazed watching her make important decisions with prayer and fasting and pondering AND FAITH. 

I am so happy that she and Mckay were able to be sealed for time and all eternity in the Draper LDS Temple. 

                                  (then &&& now)

I LOVE YOU MAD, and I am very excited to be able to get to know you better, Mckay! :)

Oh what a life I live! 

GSBL.

Time is flying and school is already back in full swing. 

Buuut I have blog posts to catch up on....so here I go!

BEAR LAKE. 

While IN Jerusalem, plans and preparation for a "JERU RENUNION" were already in the works.

Luckily I was able to get my work hours covered so I was able to join in on this splendid-fun couple days at the lake with my jeru friends. 

I had the pleasure of traveling to Bear Lake with my wonderful Jerusalem roommates :)

T-Bone volunteered to drive and even though her car's air conditioning was broken we had a blast chatting (well..yelling so we could hear each other over the open windows/sunroof) and singing along at the top of our lungs to T-Swift's new song :)
(If you don't know what song i'm talking about click here.)

Bonnie wanted to stop in Brigham City at a ice cream shop that is one of her dad's favs called "Peach City." In order to get to said ice cream shop we drove right next to the Brigham City Temple which is  currently giving tours since it has not yet been dedicated. 

On a spur of the moment decision we ended up in the temple parking lot, digging through our bags, and pulling out clothes that were appropriate for the temple. Next thing we knew we were waiting in line to go inside!!

It was so fun being able to walk through this beautiful building with some of my favorite people in the whole world.

(These photos were not taken by me, the one on the right is from a FOX article about the temple so I'm assuming it's okay to use..to see more pictures go here.) 

After a few hours there and then some milkshakes from Peach City we were again on our way!

Bear Lake was SO MUCH FUN. 

It was great to see so many familiar JC faces again. It's amazing how much we feel like a family. 

And nothing says 'family' like a little friendly competition ;) 

During the few days we participated in some OLYMPIC GAMES including: 

Volleyball

Badminton

Jerusalem Trivia

(questions ranged from Name all the faculty children at the JC to What was the Mesha Stele and why was it significant?)

and my personal favorite:

Synchronized Swimming 

The 2 hours of preparation before the competition (and horrible red lipstick) paid off when, "Room 408" (Danielle, Alyssa, Bonnie, and I) received the GOLD medal!!!

I left the reunion early to get to a certain special person's wedding reception (see post to follow shortly), but I was SO happy that it worked out for me to go and spend some time with these wonderful people: 

Oh what a life I live!

Greek Tacos

On Friday I really wanted to make Greek food. 

I had seen some recipes that looked delicious on a food blog I follow 

(Two Kitchen Promenade)

so when I went shopping this week i actually planned ahead 

and bought the ingredients that would be needed.

Andrea came over to help me in the endeavor, and though we ended up changing things a little bit (we didn't want to have to wait two hours for the chicken to marinate), it actually turned out GREAT! 

We decided to call them "Greek Tacos" because we didn't have pita and decided to make some simple homemade tortillas instead...deeeelicious! 

I don't consider myself much of a cook, but with Andrea by my side, we were both very pleased with the end product :) 

(Sadly my camera died right before this endeavor so 'photo booth' pictures from my computer are the best i can do.) 

Oh what a life I live!