Rodeo Weekend

Yep it's that time again. The time when my little town of Preston comes to life. Rodeo Weekend! All growing up it was seriously my favorite time of the summer...and I have to admit, it still is. It's 3 days of That Famous Preston Night Rodeo, carnival, parades, sidewalk sales, and rodeo burgers. Preston about triples in size because everyone comes home that weekend.

I went home right after work on Thursday, picked up my neice Rachel and headed north. Four hours of rush hour traffic and construction later we made it just in time for the start of the rodeo. Rachel helped out in the Lions Club stand with my Dad and they hooked me up with a couple the of the best burgers ever. (I think the rodeo burgers are my favorite part of the whole thing!) I watched the rodeo that night with Lance, Brad, Nick, and Kassidee (friends from high school) and then me and Nick got Rachel and went to the carnival afterward. It was so fun to see Nick again. He just got home from his mission and his family moved to Texas while he was gone so I didn't think I would see him until after I got back in January. But like I said, EVERYONE comes to Preston for rodeo.

Friday I went out on the resevoir on Lance's boat with his parents and Brad, Nathaniel, and Rachel (lucky Rachel got to hang out with a bunch of college guys all weekend). It was so nice. I am for sure getting a boat sometime. We went waterskiing and it was so much fun. I was actually able to stand up this time. My first time ever! I had tried a 4 or 5 times when I'd gone before with friends, and although I can get up just fine wakeboarding I have never been able to do it skiing...until now! Yay! Thanks so much Lance!!

That night after getting decked out in my cowgirl shirt I went to the parade and then me and Lance went to the rodeo again. This time over the shoots! I've decided that's really the only way to watch the rodeo, when you're close enough to hear the cowboys swearing. :) Thanks so much again Lance!!

I Love to See The Temple!

I was looking through a bunch of the picutures on my camera and computer the other day and I realized that I have a lot of pictures of the temple. I love to see the temple and I can't wait to go through someday! One of my favorite places to go in Provo during school and stressful times is on the hill overlooking the temple. It's so pretty and peaceful there. It's so amazing that even simply seeing the temple and walking around the grounds can give me so much peace and comfort.

Here are a few of my favorite pics that I've taken.


SLC Temple at Christmas time.


Manti Temple


Mt. Timp Temple - It looks like the temple is glowing. I LOVE these pictures!


LA Temple

Road Trip

Last weekend me and Amy took a spur of the moment road trip and traveled across the country. Well, with three kids in the car we made it as far as Denver. Pretty good if you ask me. Steven just moved there a few weeks ago and we wanted to go visit him. They were here during the 4th of July and wanted to take Blake back with them to play with Miles. This worked out great because it gave us an excuse to go out and see them. We made the decision to go on Tuesday and on Friday we loaded up the car with snacks, goodies, pop, movies for the kids and a tabloid magazine (so we could read all about Jennifer Aniston when we got bored) for us and we were off!



It was such a fun trip! We took I-80 to get out there and drove through the mountains. It was so pretty. We had to take a few more rest stops along the way then I thought we would which made the car time longer but even that wasn't too bad. The kids were pretty good about being in the car that long. (I just won't mention the fact that on the way home Ali decided to get sick and threw up and Blake had diarrhea and had to stop every 20 minutes.)
Me & Alli at one of the rest stops.

We got there on Friday night, went into the city and toured around on Saturday and drove home Sunday. On our down time we rocked out to Guitar Hero. Steven is SO good at it and he totally got me hooked. I was pretty proud of myself that by the time we left I ended up getting 5 stars on a medium song!



Denver is such a fun place. Me, Amy, and Katie left the two girls with Steven and went into the city with the three boys to do some shopping. We went and saw the Denver Temple, ate lunch at a cute little sandwich shop, and then hit the stores. My big purchase....New flip flops! (I'm such a big spender) I put them on right then and walked over to the nearest garbage can and threw away the old ones I was wearing. That felt so good!

Aren't they cute?


I had such a fun trip! Thanks so much Steven and Katie for letting us come and thanks so much Amy for taking me with you!