Hennas, Fried Food, Cows...State Fair- Best time of the Year!

Every year when the State Fair comes around, it's a girls night out!! A couple years ago we started a fun tradition of going to the state fairs and we do the same thing every time! :)
We started off by shoving our mouths with awful, greasy, wonderful, deep fried, delicious food!! This year we tried some new things, we got deep fried bacon, snickers and oreos! All were delicious... bacon was a little interesting!


I'm not sure why we ate all that food first but afterwards we headed to our favorite ride, the best ride at the fair in our opinions! :) The Moby Dick- you just go around and around in circles. We all laugh our heads off and scream the entire time!!
The best part is that we are screaming louder than all the six year olds on the ride with us!

Afterwards we got our Henna Tatoos! I am not exactly sure why we always get them... since about 3 days later we are sick of them and scrubbing them off- but it's just fun to get them together! :)


Then of course we have to go check out all the animals :) I think the cows were our favorite this year!




Every other year we have gone to the fair, Kristal has come with us! However this year she was off enjoying the sun on the beach of Hawaii! So in honor of her we got her favorite treat at the fair- a Caramel Apple, we we thought about her the entire time it was eaten!! :) I love my friends and am so glad they are in my life!!
P.S. My camera is slowly dying on me... hence the reason for the bad quality pictures :(

My Family! :)

A few months ago, one of my favorite people came to Utah and I got to spend some time with him!! My Cousin Kelly and his family!We went out to his Grandma Kartchner's house and had fun out on the farm! I love his children and always have fun taking pictures with them, especially Ryan- She loves to take pictures as much as me!


Grandpa Kartchner was having fun with his tractor and the kids... it was actually scary for all of us to watch!

It was fun to see them since they live in Georgia! I had to sneak away from Camp to do it... totally worth it :) :)

Wilderness Campout!

As a staff member at Camp Bartlett I am a venture scout and have the opportunity to work on different awards, I am currently working on my Ranger! One thing that was on the list was to go on a wilderness campout!! So I took my Best friend her dad and mine and we went Camping!!!
I couldn't bring a tent, but had to build my own shelter, so using the knots I learned we set up a nice tarp that kept us very warm and dry! :)

Unfortunately we chose a nice rainy weekend to go so by the time we got our tarp up we were soaked! so we built us a nice little fire, found sticks and roasted our dinner!

And of course after every dinner you must have a desert! We roasted the biggest marshmallows I have ever seen! :) They didn't even fit on our cookies which created quite the mess!!

In the morning we set out on an adventure to catch a fish... another requirement is to catch something from the wild and cook it, so we were getting ourselves lunch!!


Well sadly the fish were not out to play that morning so all we caught were crawfish!



Luckily we brought food with us to cook! Here is our lovely breakfast... some happy, some sad! :) And yes we did cook it on rocks! :) So much fun!


It was so much fun, I loved spending the weekend with my Best friend as we learned to be wilderness girls!!
Because I never caught a fish my family took me fishing again in the Uintas!


And WOO-HOO I caught a fish!! Even if it was a baby one! :D It was the first time I didn't wear my fishing hat... and it was the first time I have ever caught a fish... maybe it wasn't so lucky after all!


I Love the Outdoors!! ;)

Playing Tag

My friend Candace tagged me in her blog, I got to read fun questions she answered and now I get to answer some questions as well!!
Questions:
1~What would your perfect day be like?
My perfect day would be in the outdoors, I love so many things so my perfect day could be filled with all sorts of different adventures. As long as I am doing something in the outdoors- hiking, biking, swimming ect and with people I love I will be Very happy!
2~What is your favorite reality tv show?
I Love The Biggest Loser, I have not been able to watch it this season, but I used to faithfully! It was so exciting to see them progress and feel good about themselves. I love to exercise myself so it's fun to watch and get good ideas- it keeps me motivated.
3~If you could go back and give advice to your 16 year old self what would it be?
I think I would tell myself to relax and take life as it comes and that everything will all work out in the end. I have the problem of worrying about EVERYTHING I can stress myself out pretty bad and sometimes over the simplest things. Sometimes I forget to just breathe and enjoy the moment. I think life could have been easier if I would have just gone with the flow a little more and not felt like everything had to be perfect.
4~Post one of your favorite pictures and WHY is it your favorite?
If you know me at all you know I LOVE pictures!! I love taking pictures and I love being in pictures- so I have many favorites. However right now this is my absolute favorite picture!

This is James and he was my favorite student I taught in China! From the very beginning we bonded and I loved teaching him everyday. He would always sit right next to me in class and he would play with my hair, try to sit on my lap and always wanted my attention! I bawled my eyes out the day I had to say goodbye to him
5~What is one thing that always makes you smile?
I have many things, Dolphins, my family friends- but everytime I come over the bridge by my house in the evening and see the sunset I can not help but smile! I LOVE sunsets, all the beautiful colors and how it reflects off the lake- they are always amazing.
6~What has been the happiest moment of your life so far?
To pick out one would be very diffcult so my most recent Happy Moment was being in China! I LOVED it so much, the culture, the people, the history and all the scenery. Standing on the Great Wall was like a dream come true, spending every day with my children always made me happy and being able to meet new people and make new friends. It is amazing how much I learned in those short 4 months, but it really changed me forever and I am thankful everyday for that experience!
7~What is one of the saddest or most heartbreaking moment of your life so far?
I think the day my Grandma past away, I love my family so it was difficult to lose someone I was close with. She passed away peacefully in her sleep which was the best I could ask for her, however it was so sudden and unexpected and was very sad for everyone.
8~Whats your wish list for Santa this year?
Now don't laugh... something I would love for Christmas is Camp Rock 2 haha I know I am still a little girl and I am proud of it! :) I also would like a camera my need for one is way overdue!

Another Year at Bartlett :)

Yes, like every year I managed to go spend part of my summer at Bartlett. Life was a little crazy for awhile 3 days after coming home from China I left to Philmont and then only a week after returning home it was off again and this time to a familiar home! :) I only spent 4 weeks at Bartlett this summer, however I learned so many new skills! I was lucky enough to be Mikes(our maintenance/ranger man)assistant!
Jeremy was able to get lots of money donated so that we could get a new shooting range and I got to help build it!

I learned to use a handsaw and a nail gun- I decided I really like power tools!!
My favorite part of the summer was learning to use a very intense power tool- A Chainsaw!! :) For a few summers now I have wanted to become chainsaw certified, so my dream finally came true! I didn't cut down any tree down, it was a 150 foot tree!! :)




Another goal I had over the 6 summers of working at Bartlett was to swim the mile in lake Fife! I think I pushed this goal till the very last second possible, my last summer at camp the last mile of the summer I swam the mile and finished in 56 minutes! Amanda, Rachel and Emily all swam it as well. It was pretty exhausting but fun- this is Amanda and I looking lovely and exhausted!

While at camp I had to keep some of my favorite traditions going :) One of which is hiking the 7 mile hike up to huckleberry! It is really fun to sit for hours picking those little berries and eating as many as you can! The best part of all is smearing huckleberry juice all over everyones faces, it makes me happy every time!! :D





Every year I get a beautiful picture of all of us Huckleberry monsters!

Another fun tradition is mine and Bethany's sleepover on the deck. I don't know how this tradition started, but I love it- we take silly pictures on milk crates and then eat oreos in peanut butter!



During girls week Bethany, Rachel and I were supposed to take the girls on an overnight hike... however, sadly nobody showed up to go with us :(

But we still wanted some adventure, so we went on our own overnighter- just the three of us! And we had a wonderful time being wilderness survival girls!!

I love Bartlett, it is my home away from home! I have had some very fun adventures there!!! Thanks for all the memories!