Family Reunion

Summer seems to be the time for family reunions. I hear about friends going up to the mountains or traveling across the country for the annual reunion, and I always think it sounds like fun. My family, on the other hand, rarely gets everyone together (either side)! I think the last time my dad's side of the family was all together was the early 90's. I am pretty sure it was to celebrate my Grandma and Grandpa Rich's anniversary, and my Grandpa Rich died in 1994, so it was sometime before then.

Anyway, last summer, my cousin Dani and I decided we should get everyone together. Most of us live here in the Boise area, so it shouldn't be too hard, right? We started by emailing everyone a couple of dates to see what would work, and June 20th seemed to work for everyone. Perfect! The most stressful part was actually finding a shelter. I thought three months in advance would be plenty of time, but the first half dozen parks I checked already had their shelters reserved. I finally found Guerber Park - it is a new park in Eagle, and it worked out perfectly! Guerber Park has a big beautiful shelter, a nice play place, and a small water park area for the kids. They also let us set up a bounce house (we rented an Incredibles bounce house that was a real hit with the kids!)

Dani and I decided we should have the main dish catered - we had both Blimpie sandwiches and pulled pork sandwiches (the pork was catered by East Meets West Catering and was absolutely delish!) and then everyone brought sides. It was pretty casual, the only organized activity was a trivia game, but it was perfect. We couldn't have asked for better weather. It was supposed to thunderstorm (60% chance!) but we ended up with blue skies, sunshine, 75 degrees, and a slight breeze.

The best part about the day was the turnout! We had almost all the family there - my grandma and two of her three siblings were there, along with almost all of the children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. All in all, there were 60 of us! Thanks everyone for coming and making this a successful event. We'll definitely have to do it again - and this time, let's not wait 15 years! So, who wants to organize it next time? :-)

Beautiful

When I came home from work on Monday, this is what I saw. It made my day.

Walking Rally

I saw an advertisement a couple weeks ago in a faculty/staff communication that the Health Center was hosting a "Walking Rally". The Walking Rally was basically a campus scavenger hunt - you are given clues to different buildings or other locations on campus, and you have to take pictures of your team in front of each location... Diana, Jami, Ross, Terri, and I formed a team and we did awesome! We actually came in first place, so we each won these cool pedometers.

Now It's Raining, Now It's Not!

I'm missing the sun! We have had tons of rain this June, and I'm ready for our typical summer weather! By Sunday, we had received almost an inch of rain since the beginning of the month, and we received another .43 inches this morning. Normal for the entire month of June is .74 inches. The only good part about all the rain (in my opinion) is that my water bill will be lower than normal since I haven't had to water my lawn in a couple weeks.

The weirdest part about all our rain is that it doesn't necessarily rain in all of Boise. A couple weeks ago, I was running errands just two miles from my house, and the weather was fine. When I got home, I could tell it had rained there because everything was wet. Same with driving home from work last week... it DUMPED rain as I was getting off the connector, but a couple miles later, it wasn't raining at all, and you could tell it hadn't rained because the roads were dry. I just looked at the 10-day forecast, and it's looking promising (with only a day or two of thunderstorms), so I'll keep my fingers crossed!

Baby Shower

Yesterday, Beki and I put on a baby shower for our sister Mandi. We are excited to have a new little nephew next month! We decided to provide lunch for everyone - sweet pork salads and fresh fruit. Mmmmm.... that may have been a slightly selfish food choice (you know how much I love Costa Vida sweet pork salads!), but everyone seemed to love it!After we ate, we played a really cute memory game. Jami gave us the idea from a shower she had attended. The point was to match words or phrases, and whoever made the match got a candy bar associated with that word or phrase. For example, if you matched the word "epidural" you got lifesavers, or if you matched "hospital bill" you got a 100 grand candy bar. It was a lot of fun!We did one other little activity and opened presents, and then we had dessert! Beki and I made these really cute cupcakes that looked like rattles. Thanks to our Aunt Kathy for helping us decorate them!

Ironman 70.3

What an incredible event... a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile run. Today was the Boise Iron Man race, and I had the privilege of volunteering at one of the aid stations along the run with the Boise Young Professionals. I passed out coke and goo. I think the coke table was the most popular - I had no idea so many people liked to drink coke when they were running! Anyway, I was amazed by the 1700 athletes that competed in the race... and was even more excited to cheer on three of my co-workers! Great job ladies! I don't think I would have been able to make it past the swim! What an accomplishment and an inspiration.

I forgot to mention an added element to the event - the rain! We have had a really rainy June, and today was no exception. It rained the entire 5 hours I was volunteering, and I was SOAKED! I was glad I had a rain jacket to keep at least part of me dry...

Library! Ramblings

Last week Robin blogged about the Library! She talked about how great it is that the Boise Library! has an "!" as part of it's name (you should definitely check out her post!!) Anyway, I am excited for the new branch Library! in Boise to open (this isn't the best picture - I took it with my cell phone while I was waiting at a red light on my way to work this morning). Yes, it's small, but it's close to my house, and if I ever wanted a book that was at another Library!, they do inter-Library! exchange, so I could have it delivered to this branch (not like I don't work like 2 minites from our main Library!... or like there's a library (no "!") on campus about a 45 second walk from my office).

Anyway, I really enjoy reading. I remember as a kid that I would read late into the night. I had one of those little clock-radios with a lamp attached. When I would hear my mom coming, I would pull the lamp down almost right on top of the clock so that my mom wouldn't see any light on in my room. I think that's how I learned to read in such dim light - I would continue to read with the lamp on top of the clock so that I wouldn't get "caught" reading when I should have been sleeping. The funny part about all that is that the plastic part of my clock became warped from the heat of the light bulb!

I don't have to hide my reading from anyone any more... I kind of go in spurts of reading a lot or reading a little - I think it really depends on how much I am enjoying my current book. I have gotten into kind of a bad? habit lately of buying books from the store instead of borrowing them from the Library! I joined Borders Rewards program a couple years ago and I receive emails at least 2-3 times a month with coupons for anywhere from 20%-40% off a book. I can't pass them up! I also won't pay full price for books anymore. My bookshelves are completely filled, so I guess that means I need to buy more shelves! I have always thought it would be cool to have a big house with a beautiful library, complete with built in bookcases and one of those cool sliding ladders... maybe one day...

Contract

I got my contract today. Because of late budget decisions, our contracts came over two months later than normal... but better late than never! I now officially have a job for the next year. Hooray!

Like it was yesterday...

I loved college. Like many, I definitely had my ups and downs, but overall I had a great experience. My favorite college memories mostly surround a group of really excellent roommates... None of us are the best at staying in touch (unless blogs count!), but when we get together, we just pick right back up where we left off. It's hard to explain the friendships we have, but I feel like we all need each other. We reminisce about fun memories, we laugh together about things everyone's kids have done, we cry with each other through struggles and trials, we confide in each other, and we lift each other up with our love for one another.

This weekend, we converged in Salt Lake... coming from all across the nation. Lisa just moved to Salt Lake from Rochester, New York, Corinne drove from northern Virginia, Jessica flew up from Texas, Sunny drove down from Rexburg, Emily came up from Provo, and I drove down from Boise. It was so nice to all be together again. It was a quick trip - we really only had one full day together. We did a little shopping, but spent most of our time in the hotel rooms just talking and catching up. I am excited Lisa lives closer now and that Corinne will be in Boise for a couple months, and I'm looking forward to our next roommate reunion.

Here's all 6 of us in December 2001:
And here we are now!
We also had a fun treat - thanks to Facebook! I was stoked that our hotel had free wi-fi (along with a a free hot breakfast and free parking!), so of course I brought my laptop along. When I arrived on Sunday, I checked to see what was going on in the world of Facebook. I was excited to see that one of my college roommates Cambrea was in Utah for a few days because her brother was getting ready to leave on a mission. Cambrea lived with me, Lisa, and Corinne my junior year of college (which also happened to be my favorite year of college!), so I sent Cambrea a message letting her know we were all in SLC. I was so happy when she joined us Monday evening at the hotel. It was great to catch up with her. Oh, the good ol' days at Casa Dea 17... we sure knew how to have fun!

This was Fall 2000 - cheering on the BYU Cougars at a football game:

And here we are... back together again:
Thanks for a great trip ladies - I love you all!