What we've been up to...

As you can see we've been up to lots!! These are the most recent pictures from my phone. I really hope I can put all (or most) of this stuff into separate posts because we've had some huge milestones, good times, and great stories that I'd love to keep forever! Here are the pictures though. That's a huge start!

Trav, Kass, and I went to Viva Salt Lake this year with our friends Devan, Kelli, Laci, and Chris to begin our summer concert fun!! There were quite a few bands performing this year.  We were only interested in the later bands so we showed up around 6 pm to see Royal Bliss, Ed Kowalczyk (of Live!), and Fuel.  I was mainly excited about Royal Bliss (we've seen them before, and they are great!) and of course Live!! We grew up listening to their stuff, so it was such a build up knowing that we were going to see him performing live! Neither band let down, either! It was such a great way to officialy welcome summer!!

After Royal Bliss played, Kass, Laci, and I went on a mission to meet Neal, and we were totally successfull! He's a badass, and I'm so glad we got to hang out with him for a little bit!

Waiting for Live to set up!

Chillin with Neal!

Kass came out with heels and we all asked her "You're wearing heels to the show?!" Her response was "Uh..yeah..I always wear heels." --This is the result :)

Lots of graduations!! We went to 3 Graduations this year, and unfortunately missed one :(.  We're so proud of everyone who graduated!! (Auntie Tammy with her Masters in Special Education, Katie--High School, Laci--High School, and Daniel--High School).  The Graduations were...well...as fun as Graduations can be I suppose! I will say that no matter how boring it is to sit and listen to talks and a million names...I still get chills every single time I hear a friend or family member Graduate! Such a wonderful feeling!

Auntie Kristine was a really great sister and planned an awesome, awesome surprise for Auntie Tammy's Graduation!  *Uncle Mike, Uncle Tom, Auntie Boop, Auntie Pam, and Bubba all came down from California to be there when Auntie Tammy walked up to get her diploma!* We had such a wonderful time, I wish we all lived closer together so we could see each other on a weekly basis!! (Love and miss you all!!)

Idaho trip to see the bestie!!

My favorite little girl turned 2!! She's getting so big!

Birthday festivities were at the park this year with a RockStar Diva theme! (So fitting!) We hung out, ate some good BBQ, and played Catch Phrase by the fire with the fam! Presley was so adorable opening her presents--Every single present brought a HUGE smile to her face!

Baby birdies!!!

Despite the poop all over the place, these little guys were adorable!! PS..don't ask me how I got the second picture so close up without zooming.  It would be embarrasing if I had to tell you that I tried to balance on the tire of my car, and in the middle of the snap fell down to the ground.  Man..our neighbors should pay for the shows that I put on almost on a daily basis!

Lovin me some nephew!

He is perfect, and beautiful, and I love this little guy!! Even when he throws up on Auntie Jess.  We're in the process of working on that one!

Photoshoots for mom!

I made my mom a block letter set that said "Mom" for Mother's Day!  The O was a heart, and I put a picture of us on it.  It turned out adorable, and our mom loved it!  We had lots of fun taking pictures, too as you can see.

The hardest part is having two sisters pick a picture to give to mom to display.  I don't suggest doing that anytime in the near future.  Word of advice and future note to self..don't give your sister an option :)

Crafts!!

I've been steadily busy with craft projects!! I started selling on Etsy as well as a craft store near my house, and I've shipped orders out each week for the past few months!  I love it, and I started a US map where I color in each state that I've shipped to! So far I'm at 13 states!!

Fishing Trip with Grandpa!

I absolutely adore fishing, and so does my Grandpa.  He actually professionally fished for quite some time when he was younger!  We're in the process of making a video of our fishing trip.  Hopefully I'll have it ready soon to post on here! It was one of the best days I've had in a really long time, plus we caught some nice fish!! Since then, Trav have gone back to that spot, and caught some even bigger fish!! In fact, I caught my biggest trout at that (secret) spot!  (4 lbs 22 in)

Gardening!

It was a LOT of work this year, but we pulled through, and planted our garden! We waited way longer than last year to plant because of all of the rain we've had lately.  But Trav and I manual labored it up all day!  Our plants are much smaller this year, and we tried that black weed stopper stuff! I can't wait to not have any weeds to pull!!!

Vegas!!

K, Vegas totally needs it's own post because I have a ton of pictures, and lots of stories!! We had a blast though!

Watching flowers bloom!

This is my first little bloomer for this year!! Yay for perennials!

New toy!

I bought the May 2011 Macbook Pro.  She is my baby, and I totally daydream about her!

Happy Birthday to Me!

This is just a quick pop in to tell everyone thank you so much for the birthday wishes!!

I worked during the day, and then Trav took me out to Friday's and then bowling (my favorite)! We hit up the arcade again and Trav's high score on the basketball hoop was still there from the last time we were there. After a couple of tries I *finally* beat it!! Only to have him try some more and beat *my* new high score!! Ugh..maybe next time! :)

I want to give a shout out to my cousin Amy Loo...I loved your "Happy Birthday" Grandma used to sing to me every morning, so it was so great to open up your text and hear you singing to me!

I loved it so much..I even made Trav sing Happy Birthday to me last night just before bed. It was absolutely adorable.

Thanks again everyone, for making my day so great!!

Trip to Alabama--Part 2--Section C

When I found out I was going to Alabama, one of my very first thoughts (besides palm trees) was fishing. I absolutely love to fish, so you can imagine how excited I was knowing I was going to be next to water with all different kinds of fish. Fish that I've never even seen before. I was so anxious.

So, to start out day 2...we went fishing!!

At first we fished off of the pier in Fairhope. (About a mile away from my Aunt's house.) The weather was not really the greatest. It was super windy, and sort of later in the morning, so the fish weren't biting.

Determined to show me an *Alabama* fish, we picked up and went to another spot. We were on a mission!

At the second spot (a few docks down), the luck wasn't any better. We did however see a friendly little man on a motorized wheelchair cart. He'd come and talked to us while we were at the first spot, and then he'd made his way down to spot number 2 in the meantime. So, we got out and asked if the fishing was any better at this spot, and found out that it wasn't. He did tell us a pretty cool story though. He said that on this dock, there is usually a Pellican. One that was hurt when hurricane Katrina came through. He said that lots of the locals know about him. They've named him Henry, and they bring him food because he's not able to fly very well anymore.

At the time he was telling us, it was just a story. I'd tried to picture what Henry looked like, but I really wanted to see him!

Lucky for us, a few minutes later...in flew Henry!!

He stayed for a little bit, let me grab some pictures of him, and then was on his merry little way.

As were we.

We got in the car, and tried one last place. "Fish River" at Weeks Bay. I mean if there were fish anywhere..it would have to be fish river, right?!

*Right!!!* It was at this place that AK pulled this beauty out of the water!!! They weren't super excited about it because it's "just a flounder" but I couldn't really contain my excitement...I mean, this "flounder" is totally the fish on Finding Nemo with 2 eyes on one side and *none* on the other side (See exhibit B). It's completely flat, and if I wasn't obsessed with Finding Nemo, I could honestly say that I've never seen anything like it in my life!! It was awesome!

They said it was pretty rare to catch a flounder out of this river because they generally sit at the bottom and you have to use a jig to tap them on the side because it's not like the swim through the water, and can actually see the food. It was sort of a hit and miss type thing. It was fate. I had to see an Alabama fish!! Plus, if you look at exhibit a, you'll see that apparently this little guy was starving. He tried to put his teeny tiny mouth on a not so teeny tiny piece of shrimp. Way to take it like a champ Mr. Flounder. It was worth the sight of you.

After fishing, the plan was to go back home and shower/get ready for the day. That soon changed when I realized we were only about 30-45 minutes away from Gulf Shores. (The beach town that we'd stopped at on the first day) I begged and begged to just keep on heading that way, and make our way back to Gulf Shores to see the beach just one more time. (Just kidding...I didn't really have to beg. AK was pretty much like hey..this is your time, we'll do whatever you want. It was so great. Thank you AK :))

Soooo...back at Lulu's we were. For some crazy reason...I put my butt in the butt bucket. For picture purposes I guess. I did put a fresh layer of sand in there though, before my bum came anywhere near the bucket!

Lulu's has the most amazing, neverending sandpit behind the restaurant. I so love this place!!

I played with the sand as long as I possibly could. It was so fun to just relax, and play in the sand. No worries. No stress. ...Well...it was kinda stressfull when my sand castle collapsed. Turns out you have to mix a little bit of water with the sand in order to build. So technical.

We took a few pictures on some ginormous chairs.

Played a little ring game.

Played in the sand a little more...

And then we left. We were all starving, so we went down the road (still in Gulf Shores) to get some grub at a place called *The Hangout*

And oh man!! I thought I loved Lulu's!!!!
The Hangout was just as wonderful!! Instead of a neverending sand pit, they had a *beach* behind their restaurant.

Actually...the beach was more to the side of the restaurant. So, as we were eating, we were watching the parasailers. It was crazy windy that day, and this one dude was catching some mad air!!

After we ate, we of course couldnt leave until we went to the beach. I wanted to bring some sand and seashells home.

So, we seashell hunted. Which for me only lasted about 2 minutes. I was so distracted by drawing in the sand...

And feeling the sand between my toes (my favorite!!!)

And learning about how the oil spill is still in full effect...and actually seeing that on the shells...

And taking pictures...

And chasing waves. (Yes, the water was freezing. No, I didn't care.)

I couldn't get enough of the whole feet in the sand/water thing. And I sooo miss that.

It's unfortunate that it was so cold and windy. I could have stayed at the beach allll day!!

I was happy to see that rollerblading on the beach is prohibited, though. I was super worried about someone trying to perfect that sport. Thanks beach rules. You probably save lots of lives.

At first I started with just my feet in the water. Then I wanted to walk in a little more, so I rolled up my pant legs. Then AK wanted to take my picture...I turned around (back against the waves) and a huge wave washed up against me. The result was an "Oh, well...already wet...might as well keep playing" attitude, and some very wet pants, necessary of changing.

The hangout had the raddest decorations! They had a wall full of old school lunch boxes, and this wall with pez dispensers!!! So great!

Then it was time to beat the storm, and head home. Thank *you* Gulf Shores. You were beautifully wonderful!!

To end the perfect second day of my vacation, we got ready (finally around 8ish), and went to a local bar to play some poker. I do have to say that Alabama "poker" is like nothing I've ever played before...but it was fun, and friendly (for the most part. ;))

We couldn't call it a night without pictures (basically a photoshoot) by the famous fairhope clock, so that's what we did.

It was another very, very busy, packed tight day but every single bit of it was worth it!! It was packed full of good times, and great memories!!

Tomorrow we'd wake up bright and early, and head to "Nawlins".

Christmas 2010

We started Christmas a little early this year. Trav, Trey, and I did our Christmas on Christmas Eve (Mainly because the suspense was killing me..) Also, because it was hard to keep Trey's treats from him any longer! He enjoyed his new toys, and still has his bones. I don't know what it is with him. One bone lasts a few months, lol...

Christmas Morning Kass and I woke up early and started at Mom's house. Levi got a bike, and a 360!! Lucky duck! Next, we went to Dad's, and finally to Grandpa Wootens.

It's still a very hard adjustment (and still hard to believe) to not have Grandma there. She would have been proud of us though, we did it. Everything was great. The food, the family time, giving presents, the games. Everything. We love and miss her sooo much, and wish she was still with us. We are however, extremely thankful that we did have the time we had with her. The memories are something that each one of us have. She was a special lady, and has a special place in the heart of every person she ever met.

Catch Phrase was one of the games we played this year. It's a must each time we sit down to play games!! Some of the others this year were Scattegories, Pit, WhoWhatWhy, and Last Word. We love our fair share of games!!

There was plenty of help needed this year. Christmas came sooo quickly, and I was about 7 states away from Utah (with my Aunt--Pictures coming very soon!) just a couple short weeks before Christmas!! That meant when we got back, there was lots of shopping, and wrapping to do!!
Kassi even did her part, wrapping until she was blue (red) in the face!!

We managed to get everything all done, and as always everything turned out wonderfully!

I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas this year!!