Arizona Here I Come!

Well it's official I've finally made a decision with my life (well for now). I just got the call this week and am moving to Arizona to work with Anasazi, a program that hikes throught the hills of Arizona with youth that need to head toward a new direction with their lives. I'll be working as a trailwalker so hiking with them and helping to guide them around 12-35 miles a week. I work 8 days on 6 days off and I've very excited to work with this program and spend some time outdoors (maybe a little regrouping for myself too!). So if you ever come by Mesa in the next 8 months give me a call and I'll keep you updated on my experiences. Thanks for all the love and support over the past month while I've been figuring things out. Love you all!

Oh for more information on the program visit www. anasazi.org!

Viva la Mexico

Well it was that time again to head down with Kaiizen to Mexico. This trip was great - we celebrated the Chinese New Year with activities, fortune cookies, and fireworks. We played with all the kids at the elementary school - jump rope, bounce houses, and tug-o-war!

Then at the orphanage we had all the boys go through this Ninja course and emerge with their own sword and bandanas, and we had activites to turn the girls into Asian princesses. Then of course we moved right into a marshmellow gun war which all of our shirts had these little residue circles and I'm sure I got so much spit on me - but it was way fun. After pizza dinner we headed out to the soccer court and lite off some fireworks we picked up in Nevada the kids loved it. Saturday we took the kids to see Beverly Hills Chiuchacha (spelling?) but so fun to listen to their little laughs throughout the movie. All in all it was a great trip and here are some pictures too - enjoy!

Damon and Nathan as they go through their Ninja training!

The battle lines are drawn for the Marshmellow war!

And the girls (with the help of Morgan) are ready to go - check out their costumes!

Me, Miriam, and Rachel walking around Ensenada after the movie!

Missionaries

Today was bitter sweet, I got to go to the Missionary Training Center here in Provo and drop off my cousin (& best friend) Amy who is headed to the Texas McAllen Mission. She is going to be an amazing missionary but I'm not going to lie often times when I need to talk to someone or vent or tell someone how funny I was I call Amy. That's going to be the hardest part of these next 18 months is just not seeing her or being able to visit with her. Although I know the time will fly by and I'm so excited for her to embark on this experience - she'll help a lot of people.Hey it's me Amy I'm now officially at the MTC and leaving on my Mission!

Callie, Amy, & I - and yes we have plans to skydive summer 2010 when she's back!

Also since I was traveling when Ryan went into the MTC and since Wednesday is his Preparation Day where they get to do Laundry and write letters and what not I may have told him to look for us around a certain time so that I could see him one last time before he left for Mexico. And since his birthday was on Monday I may have brought him and his companion Cafe Rio and Mt. Dew. Happy Birthday Ry!

So good to see Ryan - he's just so grown up and really coming into his own - LOVE HIM!

Hermano Grimmett and Hermana Kolb I'm so proud of the both of you and I wish you the very best in your travels and experiences. I know Heavenly Father will bless you both greatly and I can't wait until we're all together again. Love ya!

The whole group at the MTC today Ryan, Me, Pam Holmes, Kaleb, Amy, Callie, Audrey, & Don

Girl's Weekend

Well after coming home from all my travels I decided to drive home for the weekend to spend some time with my family (especially before Amy left on her mission) and the first weekend in October my mom's side of the family was having a girl's weekend so I drove on home.

I left Thursday afternoon and stayed up in Rexburg with Natalie & Keith and was also able to see Rachel & Heath who had just moved back and all of us girls met Stephanie J for ice cream that night. It was so good to visit with them but I was having such a good time and totally forgot to even snap a picture - but thanks girls for spending time with me that night.

Then I drove home on Friday headed to a hockey game with the fam and talked about what I want to do with my life (I constantly have about 3,000 thoughts racing through my head about this). Saturday we headed up near Priest River, ID to my cousins house for our girl's weekend. By 6pm everyone was there my mom and all of her 5 sisters, 9 of us cousins, and a few of the kids. It was so much fun we made dinner and just visited - looked at pictures and told stories, laughed at jokes and Amy and I got them all to watch Baby Mama at 1am. The next morning we made breakfast and visited some more and let me tell you my family has some great stories. It was actually so great and I realized this weekend that although every family is different, we are actually a pretty good time. So thanks Charity for sharing your lovely home and thanks to every one who made it a priority to come - this could be a great tradition!

Sunday after we headed home Amy and I hung out for a while until our lack of sleep caught up to us and Monday after she left I went over to visit my friends and their kids. First to see Celeste and her kids, they are getting so big. We watched a couple SNL skits laughed just like old times and had some lunch, by the way I LOVE the dresser that you stained. You are just amazing! Then Katelyn was in town visiting her mom with the girls so I got to go over and see them before they left - thanks for waiting. Lauren is so big now (3 yrs.) and just has so much energy and Brooklyn has this amazing red hair and was a bit shy but it was still so good to see them.

Celeste, Ben, & Me - Below is a picture of Lucy!


Katelyn, Brooklyn, Lauryn, and Me

I ended up driving back down to Utah through Boise and stopped for the night to see my Grandparents and some family. Then made it back in Utah just in time for Sarah's wedding reception and got a chance to see a bunch of the girls I went to New Zealand with. All in all it was a great trip and just helped me to kind of collect myself as I prepare to make some life decisions. Thanks to everyone for taking the time to visit!

London, England

Our layover on the way home was in London, England. Chris's aunt and cousin met us at the airport and we all took "the tube" into the city. We walked around for about 5 hours saw Buckingham Palace, took a pic with a royal guard member, saw Big Ben, Parliament House, and just a bunch of stuff. We even went on a little boat tour which was very fun, the tour guide had a good sense-of-humor. I made sure to grab some fish & chips while I was there - so good!

Sorry my camera died so Chris took most the pictures that day!

Krugger Park, South Africa

So after Swaziland we drove north back into South Africa and headed to Krugger Park. We stayed at a backpackers near the Crocodile River. Friday we went on a guided tour through the part - it has been experiencing a bit of a drought the past two years and they're heading out of winter down there so we stayed near the rivers and water features to see the most animals as possible.

We were mostly looking to see the Big 5 - these are the five most dangerous animals to hunt, which is how they got their title. They are the Elephant, Rhino, Buffalo (cape usually), Lion, & Leopard/Cheetah - these last ones are similar and usually are by themselves so pretty difficult to see but we were hopeful.

First thing we saw these Rhinos - right off the road it was awesome, then after about two minutes the one facing us stood up, turned around, and laid back down so both of their butts were toward us - it was pretty funny! And 1/5 on the Big Five!

Then we headed down to the hippo pool where we were actually allowed to get out of the car - THE #1 rule that we had to promise not to do, but we were accompanied by an armed guard. I guess hippos are actually the number 1 killer of people (apparently they are a lot faster than they look and also very protective).

Throughout the day we saw lots of animals here are some of my favorites.

The next day we drove our own car into the park and drove near a different river for half of the day - we saw more animals and even some Hyenas, this little guy actually came out to the road and was running around everywhere - they are pretty sick looking animals but I liked this one.

So we saw the Elephant, Rhino, Cape Buffalo, and Lion - the cheetah/leopard we could never find but since we saw this hyena I'm going to say we saw 4.5 out of the Big Five!