Well I finally have something to blog about. This past weekend I had the awesome opportunity to go to Lake Tahoe with the greatest friends in the world. I had never been there before and I can now honestly say it is one of my favorite places in the world. It's just like the beach only ten times better because it is surrounded by beautiful mountains. It's gorgeous! We got there on Thursday and we were all pretty exhausted from the long(extremely boring) drive so we just took it easy. On Friday we headed down to the lake for the day. It was perfect! The weather was beautiful and the water was nice and warm. We just played and relaxed. Saturday was more of the same. Pretty much your ideal vacation.
I decided I wanted to do something I had never done before. Water has always been one of my greatest fears and I was determined to conquer a fear. We planned on renting a jet ski(for some reason they terrify me), but after seeing my options I decided on para sailing. I figure I would have more opportunities to jet ski in the future. I decided pretty late in the day and there was only one spot left so I had to go by myself. Actually, I was in a boat with a group from India who didn't speak English. Luckily the guy on the boat deck said he would take pictures. This needed to be documented. Surprisingly, it really wasn't scary at all. It was really peaceful and tranquil floating 600 feet above such a beautiful blue lake surrounded by snow peaked mountains. If I ever get the chance to do it again I think I might splurge and pay the extra $30 to go up to 1200 feet.
One of my favorite parts of this vacation was just spending time with my friends. We stayed up late playing games and just laughing at each other and ourselves. Things always get a little out of hand when we all get together. One night Ben ended up in the backyard behind the shed wearing nothing but a bath towel. Don't ask. :) All in all, I can say that this was one of the greatest vacations I've ever had. Thanks to my best friends Tiff, Katie, Al and their families for letting me tag along. I love you guys!
I am officially a college graduate! I can't believe I actually made it through all four years. It has been a crazy few years but I feel like I have learned and grown up so much. My first 2 years of school I lived the college life up in Logan. I have a few good memories from that experience but overall I wasn't a big fan of Logan so I finished my last 2 years at the USU Extension Center in Salt Lake. I really enjoyed my experiences there! It definitely isn't as social as Logan and the majority of the kids that were in my classes were married but we all became good friends. There were only a handful of us in my major that went to the extension center so it was fun to have all of our classes together. Now that I am graduated I guess I am supposed to be all knowing about families and how they develop, that is kind of a scary thought because I don't feel at all prepared to go out into the real world. I guess I will learn a lot more once I jump in with both feet and get some hands on experience! It has been a great past four years and I look forward to the future and what awaits me! I just hope I can find a job soon with this crappy economy. So if any of you reading this hear of any job openings, let me know! It would be very much appreciated.
Well by now the move to the new Church History Library is well underway. Two weeks ago we started loading everything into boxes and on carts. It is quite the project and it's not your typical move. There are a few more steps in the whole moving process. It all started last year when we barcoded every item in the collection so we would have a way to account for everything. The whole Church History Department staff took their turn coming to the stacks to "tag". The perk was you got to wear jeans so you would be able to squat down to the bottom shelf to scan without flashing everyone. Even though we, as the circulation staff, have to do that kind of stuff everyday to pull things and we do it all in a dress (well, Alison and I do). We just have to make sure no one is around. :) Here's a picture of us (Gaylen and all). Anyway, barcoding was a huge project and I still have carpal tunnel from using a scanner so much. During the move, when we take an item off the shelf we have to scan it to the box or cart we put it on and then when it gets to the new building we have to scan it again to the new shelf. It's a bit tedious, but we obviously want to make sure we don't lose anything. Kinda important stuff. Since I work in circulation and I know the collection and the computer program better than some I was made a room lead, which gives me a lot more responibiliy and pressure to make sure everything is done right and we don't lose anything. The whole trek getting it over to the new building is pretty crazy too. Bailey's moving company is helping us. They are basically a bunch of huge guys and they're great! Definitely come in handy with the heavy stuff. They take all the boxes and carts and shrink wrap them and then they have to haul them down the elevator and through the parking lot. The missionaries (we call them sentinals) sit all along the move route to the new building just supervising. The route is through a tunnel underneath North Temple and City Creek. There is even a missionary who sits in the elevator just going up and down all day picking people up. The other day one of them got a little car sick. It wasn't pretty. But so far things are going pretty well. We haven't lost anything or had any huge catastrophes. It's crazy to see the archives empty out. You realize just how much stuff we really have. Here's a couple pictures where you can kind of see what it looked like before and after.
Hopefully the whole moving part will be done within the next couple weeks and then the hard part starts of cleaning it up and making sure everything is organized and where it needs to be. I have to be honest, it's going to be really rough getting used to the cold inside the new stacks. Even though it's a lot better for the collection, it stinks for those of us who have to go in there everyday to pull stuff. The shelves are a lot higher also so we all had to be certified to drive a "Wave". It's this machine that we can drive around the stacks and it lifts of up to the top shelf. It's a pretty heavy duty piece of machinery and frankly, it kind of scares me. I'm just hoping I don't crash into a shelf and knock over something important. I'm sure it will take some getting used to, but I am so thankful to be working for the Church during such a historic event and I really am looking forward to working in such a beautiful building. Everyone be sure to come to the open house in June! (I have to say this because I work for the Church) The views expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect the views of the LDS Church.
Just when you think life can't get any better...it does! I know I just posted a blog but I am too excited to sleep right now and I just couldn't wait to share the good news with you all! I JUST OFFICIALLY MET DAVID ARCHULETA!!! Not that any of you really care but it is huge for me and I hope that you will at least be excited for me :) So here is the story if you care to know. I just get home from class when my friend Heather text me and says, "I'm sitting by david at chilis it's awesome lol" I didn't know if she pulling a late april fools joke on me or something because it just seemed too good to be true. I told her I was way jealous and to go talk to him. Deep down I really wanted to run over to Chili's and see him too but I was hesitant cause that is totally stalkerish. But after talking to Audrey and Heather they both convinced me to go. I was soooo nervous I was shaking like crazy! When I got to Chili's I called Heather and she told me that they were talking to David and that I should just walk in. So I did....feeling so extremely stupid! At this point they weren't talking to David anymore so I just went in and sat down at Heather and her fiance Jeremy's table and started talking to them. David was just right there next to them! It was super crazy! Since Heather and Jeremy just got engaged this week and I hadn't heard the story yet they told me all about that. But then Jeremy just starts talking to David. It was seriously so awkward! I couldn't even look at David I was so embarrassed. Jeremy was talking to David about Jeremy's little sister Jenny. Apparently David is friends with her from Murray High. David said he still had Jenny's number in his phone so Jeremy said that David should call her some time haha. Then as we all were leaving we asked David if we could get our picture taken with him and he was totally cool with it! There was another lady that asked to get her picture taken with him too that was like twice my age so I didn't feel quite so stupid. I said a bunch of things that I cannot even remember. I was a mess so I hope I didn't say anything too stupid haha. David was there with a bunch of little jr. high boys which I thought was very cute :) As David was walking out the door Jeremy yelled, "Hey David I was totally bummed when I found out you lost American Idol." And David was like, "Oh no don't worry about it. I love David Cook. He is awesome!" I thought it was funny...and oh yeah as David was leaving he put his arm around Heather and told her congrats on her engagement! He was so sweet! Ahh...my dream finally came true :)
Most people celebrate March Madness but in my house, this March, ARCH Madness was celebrated. Okay...we are celebrating both I guess. On Friday, March 20th we (my parents, Emily, Audrey and I) made a trip to Idaho Falls to see the one and only David Archuleta! When we arrived in I.F. there was already a huge crowd lined up to get in. Apparently the ladies at the front of the line had been there since before 7 am. That is dedication! We got there around 4pm so we only had to wait 3 hours to get in. While we were waiting in line the band came out and took pictures with the crowd. This is Mike the guitarist on the left and Eli the drummer on the right. They were all way cool! My friend Dave is friends with Alex, who is Archie's bass player. Dave text Alex and told him to come say hi to me in the line. Alex totally did! He was way nice and said he would try and hook me up after the concert so I could meet David! This made me kiddy! The concert was general admission so we didn't get great seats but that is alright with me. The concert was still AMAZING!! I don't know what more can be said. Archie is the real deal! He can sing anything and make my heart melt :) He has also gotten so much better at performing. He was dancing all over the stage. There was so much energy in that Civic Auditorium! After the concert we waited around to try and find Alex so he could make my dreams come true. Alex was no where to be found though...sad story. But we did wait outside the tour bus to see if David would come out cause he always seems to do that. Everyone kept telling us David wasn't going to come out cause they didn't want him to catch a cold. They told us that we should all just go home. Many people did leave but I just told Audrey and Emily that we had to wait a few more minutes cause I just had a feeling that he would come out. I was right! Next thing we know his manager comes out and said that David was going to come out but that we shouldn't expect him to speak cause he needed to save his voice. They had us all stand in a single file line and David came down the line and signed one autograph for everyone. It made me laugh because since David was whispering I guess everyone else thought they had to whisper too. It was so reverent I almost felt like I was at church haha. He was super sweet! I told him he was amazing and that I loved him and David whispered, "Aww thanks.." Yep I am pretty sure he loved me ;) Successful trip/concert! Best day of my life! But the Arch Madness doesn't stop there. This past Friday, March 27th, was another day full of Archie goodness! My mom and I started the day off at the Fans of David luncheon. Okay don't think I am crazy...I just wanted to go in case David showed up. He didn't show up and the whole thing was very lame. The food was delicious but I felt so out of place! Everyone there was like online chat buddies and it was like a big reunion of people that have never actually met each other in person. They made us put on name tags with our name and our screen name. I don't have a screen name so I felt even more left out...ok no I didn't. I was getting a little freaked out. My mom and I decided to sneak out early cause it was lame and it was like -30 degrees in there cause the heat wasn't on. Anyway...then that night the Archie crew went to the sold out concert at the E-Center. There were girls from the age of 4 years old to 70 years old at this concert. And even a few guys here and there, my dad being one of them! Go Dad! This concert was PHENOMENAL!! I honestly have not been to a concert that blew me away as much as this one did! David has the perfect voice, personality, looks....I could keep going and going! I really believe he saved his voice and energy for this home town concert. He totally let loose and belted out every single song! I am so glad that I was able to take part in his first home town concert of his first solo tour. I will remember this night for the rest of my life! After the concert Audrey and I went to the after party at Wise Guys comedy club. It was fun to get out groove on with David Osmond and the Archuleta siblings. Daniel Archuleta has some great dance moves! It was a fantastic night and I am still on an Archie high and will probably be...hmm....forever! haha Here are some of my favorite performances from the Home Town concert
I didn't win the front row tickets but it was still and amazing show and I loved just being there taking it all in! Thank you to everyone who did vote for me! I really appreciate it!! My luck will come around one day and I will be front row center at a David Archuleta concert :)
Mal and I took a much needed vacation last week. We went to California to visit one of my bestest friends Katie. I've missed her like crazy since she moved out there with her husband Ben and their little girl Kiara so I was so excited to just hang out and have some fun. They live in Stockton so after Katie picked us up from the airport we headed to San Francisco to do some sightseeing. We walked around Fisherman's Warf, got our free sample at Ghirardelli Square, and we were even able to ride a trolley and a cable car. We had a great San Fransisco tourist day (no thanks to the not-so-nice concierge). I was so excited to see Kiara. She doesn't know us very well because she was too little when they moved, but I instantly fell in love with her. She is so freakin cute and I think she took quite a liking to Mal or, as she likes to call her, Mowrie. She is so much fun and she has the cutest little personality. We went to Six Flags Marine World on Saturday. It's been a while since I've gone to an amusement park with a kid so it was a completely new experience. Going on the kiddy rides with Kiara was a blast and it was so much fun to see how excited she got. And, as you can see, Mal was a little excited to ride the merry-go-round. There really is nothing like hanging out with your best friends. We stayed up just laughing and reminiscing about old times...and about new times. :) I am so thankful for all of my amazing friends and I'm thankful for Katie for letting me invite myself to her house for my vacation. Thanks Katie! You're pretty!
We got there on Thursday and we were all pretty exhausted from the long(extremely boring) drive so we just took it easy. On Friday we headed down to the lake for the day. It was perfect! The weather was beautiful and the water was nice and warm. We just played and relaxed. Saturday was more of the same. Pretty much your ideal vacation.
One of my favorite parts of this vacation was just spending time with my friends. We stayed up late playing games and just laughing at each other and ourselves. Things always get a little out of hand when we all get together. One night Ben ended up in the backyard behind the shed wearing nothing but a bath towel. Don't ask. :)
All in all, I can say that this was one of the greatest vacations I've ever had. Thanks to my best friends Tiff, Katie, Al and their families for letting me tag along. I love you guys!
