Pioneer Day, OBSESSION, and Adventure, a catch up post :)

So, Pioneer day was awesome, I love this part of living in Utah, people get the day off of work, there are parades, fireworks, B-B-Q's and everything! I remember when I was little having a ward potluck at a park I don't remember the name to, but I know that I dressed up like a pioneer and also dressed up my baby doll like a pioneer, and we walked around a tennis court cement slab singing "Pioneer children sand as they walked and walked and walked and walked etc..." Those were the days! Well this year Kristen and Amy and I took the Kids to Salem Pond, a small pondish-lake place where theres a small sandy beach. We decided we didn't care as much about the parade, and thought we could be the crowds to the pond. It was beautiful, and we had the first hour or so to ourselves. Plus I think that when I try to look on the bright side of being without John for a year, I am reminded that I get to spend time with family, becoming so close to all the kids, I am by far the FAVORITE aunt...y9ou can even ask them. I think Steph might come close if she were here but she's not so...I win! Anyway, the kids are THE BEST! Plus, Amy and Kristen are totally my best friends, I really lucked out with the sisters in law! And it's also really heart warming to be so close to my big brothers, they take really good care of me, and it's so fun to watch them be dads!

Ruthie and Kaci making a "cake" :)

Everybody loves a pb&j!

Me and Tootle Bug

Enjoying the fireworks show in the street:)

Also, I been on a scrapbooking frenzie! I even dream about scrapbooking! Kristen and I spread out all of our stuff all over the kitchen and get to work. Sometimes we watch shows or movies while we scrapbook, and sometimes we sing...yeah it's kind of hilarious, we just try to make eachother laugh really hard. Anyway, I have easily multiplied my supply by 2 in the last week...the good news is, I'm not just wasting money, because I'm using everything and making beautiful memories! So in Spanish Fork I discovered my favorite scrappin store, and they had a sidewalk sale this week...AWESOME right? Well yeah awesome yes but not so awesome that I found myself there spending too much money 3 times this week! Yowza...

All of our beautiful findings!
Don't tell...we sorta have a lot of stuff...SO much stuff, so many pictures, sooo much fun, so little time...where do we start???

So yesterday (saturday) I went with Ben and Kristen to Salt lake to look at a car they wanted to purchase...while we were in Salt Lake, their Dodge Intrepid broke down, so we pulled into a mcDonalds parking lot and when we lifted the hood, there was tons of smoke and green liquid (anti-freeze) all over the engine and everything. Meanwhile we are supposed to be meeting a guy who happens to be foreigner about 10 minutes away from where we had broken down. So the guy comes to pick up Ben to go look at the car, and Kristen and I are left with the kids at McDonalds. SO we eat some lunch and start talking about the car problem, a guy inside McDonalds hears us and offers to help....turns out he didn't know much. But soon after he left a guy in a swanky black Limousine pulls over and offers to help, and he was a big help and had some suggestions. He was very friendly, and as he was leaving I asked if we could look around in his limo...oh man Dylan and Kaci loved it! The guy even gave them a soda...can you imagin being a 5 or 7 year old and getting to be inside a limo? Well they loved it! So then we knew what we had to do, get to an auto parts store...but we had no mode of transportation, it was 105 degrees outside and the closest place that had the stuff we needed was a few miles away, not an option to walk, especially not with Dylan and Kaci...so we convinced a guy who worked at the McDonalds to give us a ride. When we said we were going with him and to get in the car, Dylan said WHAT? WE"RE RIDING WITH A STRANGER??? NO WAY!
Anyway, we got there and back with the tools and stuff we needed, we fixed the problem, yes that's right, I cleaned out a car part, and quick-steeled it back together...so tough! So then the car was fixed-ish and we just had to wait for Ben...by now it had been 2 1/2 hours waiting. so we went inside the McDonalds to wait. BORING! Luckily I always keep a deck of cards in my purse and we played go fish for like an hour, and then I fell asleep on the table, and then we went outside to find a nice shade tree to wait...and wait...and wait some more for a total of 51/2 hours at the McDonalds....that's a LOOOOONG time folks! I would not recommend it. On the bright side though Ben did get the car, it;s a '99 honda civic, green with a totally insane ghetto spoiler on the back! Also, it was really cool to see how many people come out of the woodwork in a situation like this to help you out. It's a comforting feeling to know that people are good. People are amazing, and we were blessed with some awesome new friends:)

This is the part that BUSTED...it exploded antifreeze all over the place!

This is yours truly FIXING the busted part with quick steel....I am so tough!
Playing Go fish at McDonald's

Drinking my THIRD Extra Large Light Lemonade of the day...my favorite summertime refresher!
Underneath our shade tree...we were so bored going on hour 4, we took some GLAMOR shots...yeah we were REALLY bored!

And finally, this sweet little coupe...Ben named it Arturo, after the Mexican guy who sold it to him, they became pretty good friends despite the language barrier , but who could blame them, I mean they did spend all day together! **Notice the wicked sweet spoiler and tail lights, also the lettering on the back reads: "Insane Clown Posse"...that kinds of says it all!

What does it mean to be an American?

Task 507.2.3-04-06, 13-15 Courtenay Lance

Multimedia link for TDT1

Friends and family, ignore this post it is for my Masters Class :)