20 Years Young

Celebrating my birthday has never been a huge extravagant thing for me. It's been more or less a day to be grateful for everything I've experienced in life. My past is an ugly one. I like to pretend I've lived with my adopted parents for 20 years, but we've only been a family for 5 years now. The 15 years before that were nothing but hell. So every year when my birthday rolls around I thank the heavens for the family I was blessed with and the wonderful years I have had with them. I never thought i'd make it to twenty. It was a relaxing day spent with my family doing absolutely nothing. Brielle woke me up with a picture frame she picked out and her favorite picture of us at her birthday, my mom got me a beautiful Peridot ring, my dad got me a brand new Fuji 4800 Camera, and my honey bought me my seventh tattoo. The three best gifts I could have ever asked for. 

 Oh and Ethan made me delicious dinner! :D 

( Phone picture ) 

Memorial Day

Happy Memorial day everyone! Memorial day every year is a tough one for me. The whole reason I moved to Utah is because my blood mother married someone in the air force and we got stationed out here. He was the most amazing step dad I had ever had. Before he left my blood mom he swore to me that he would come back for me when he was done serving our country. Sadly a few months later we got the call that he had died fighting for our country. Things turned out in the end of course because I got adopted by the most incredible family, but for so many years before I met my adopted family I wondered how much better things would have been. I miss him like crazy to this day. He's forever in my heart. 

Ethan's brother served our country as well. He died six years ago in a fatal motorcycle accident. When Ethan and I first met in high school it hadn't even been a year since his brother passed away. Ethan has come such a long ways and I'm so proud of him for working through everything instead of just acting like it didn't happen. 

R.I.P Kasey Hunt and Gary Holley. Thank you for all that you did for us. 

To celebrate Kasey's life we went to Fort Douglas to put some flowers on his grave and pay him a visit. Sadly Gary wasn't buried in Utah so I just had to keep him  in my thoughts. It was a very calm and relaxing day. We spent it with Ethans parents. 

 After visiting Kasey we went to Ethan's and had a nice BBQ with his family and played in the pool.

 

Waterfall Canyon

First hike up Waterfall Canyon this summer was an absolute fail. After we pack all my stuff up and get it out of Derrick's place and over to Freddie's storage unit we decided lets go watch the sunset. We take Zorro and Freddie's dog, Luna. We get half way up and decided we should head back because I was starving. I wanted to take a different path than where we came and come to find out it goes four or five miles away from where we need to go, we decide to go down this huge rock face instead of going back. Don't ask me what I was thinking because I'm not really sure. We get down a couple yards and I roll my ankle. Okay, a little painful but I'm fine. Then out of no where this beetle the size of my dog lands right in front of me. I jump back and fracture my ankle. I'm one of those really graceful people.. not. I thought it was just spranged. Freddie is in the Army Reserves and I didn't want him thinking I was a panzi or anything so I manage to take a couple steps and rest for ten minutes. Then we lose the rocks and go into trees and bushes. I couldn't help but to sit down while Freddie went ahead to figure out where the hell we were going. When he got back he picked me up and carried me for a good mile and a half. You might think awe, how cute. No. I felt beyond retarded. We FINALLY get to the bottom and to the regular path. We make it to the car in one piece and I lit up a cigarette so damn fast it'd make your head spin. Freddie took me back to his place, wrapped my ankle, carried me to the truck, bought me Beto's and took me home. It was a ridiculous day but one I will not forget. The next day I went to the doctor and come to find out I fractured something. Wasn't supposed to walk on it for four weeks. That lasted maybe a week. It was an amazing day all and all though. I had someone who cared enough to push through my stubborn-headed-ness and actually help when I clearly needed it. 

 My dog is pathetic..

And leave it to Freddie to spoil my kids :p

Girl's weekend!

This weekend was Derrick's Vegas Pro-Am Round 2 and sadly I had to miss it this time because of work on Friday, sad weekend. Luckily my friend Lindsay stayed with me all weekend. We went to my moms Friday night and got facials.  Saturday we ended up making breakfast, watching too many scary movies, getting my tattoo fixed, and playing Xbox since I didn't have Brielle. Sunday the weather warmed up (finally) and we went for an awesome hike up Adam's Canyon. Linny has bad asthma and didn't have her inhaler, so we didn't even make it half way up before we turned around and went back down. Even though I couldn't be there for Derrick it was a great weekend with the only true friend I have left. (: 

 A little dry in this picture but looks SOOOO much better.

Good tattoos aren't cheap, cheap tattoo's aren't good. 

I've learned my lesson. If it's not a legit tattoo parlor. Don't go! 

 Rockin' the boyfriends hoodie! 

 On our way up

 The view

 The nature <3

On the way down.

All and all it was a decent weekend. I was so happy to have Derrick come home. Even though we video chatted everyday it just wasn't the same without him. Hope everyone had an awesome weekend and congrats to my babe for doing a good job at Vegas (: 

Goodbye summer!

I really wanted to make this post before winter hit, but it came out of no where so here it is!

Summer is officially over. No more late night trips to the rope swing with my friends and hubby, no more late night walks, no more crazy parties across the street, no more bikinis, no more zoo's, no more hiking to the waterfalls around, and no more natural tans.

Truth be told when summer time first hit I was partying pretty hard. Having a blast and drinking until 4 or 5 in the morning on the nights I didn't have Brielle. I've met lots of great people ( some not so great ) I've had plenty of hangovers. I made a lot of memories this past summer. I want to share them with you (:

I'll never forget...

Hiking up Adam's Canyon

Shots! No make-up :p

Still having my best friend to this day <3

Loving him forever (: Thanks to Derrick I can check one thing off my bucket list. Kiss under a waterfall <3

Never ending Beer Pong games (:

Hanging out around the campfire in our backyard. <3

Meeting this crazy kid! and  being so drunk I don't remember my black eye :p

Bikini's and pigtails.

Random trips to the zoo.

Meeting scandalous bitches :p

The wonderful trips we went on together.

Awesome adventures with the kids next door.

My best friend throwing parties for me all the time (: moving in, birthday, going away, etc.

And just the plain old crazy nights out :p

But! A lot has changed since the beginning of Summer. Got a job, starting school, and settling down with the man I love. I'm excited for winter to come and spend the holidays with our family's. Nothing makes me happier than Derrick, Brielle and I all snuggled under the covers with our dogs watching t.v. and drinking hot chocolate. If your where the weather is warm enjoy it. And for those of my friends don't hate on the snow. Christmas is right around the corner and the new year is too. (: Have a wonderful Saturday night you guys! Love you all, and never forget who matters most in life. (:



Brielle's First Farr's Experience

In Utah there is this amazing ice cream place called Farr Better Ice Cream. It is beyond amazing

I actually went with Brielles' dad and grandparents on his side. We were actually birthday cake shopping for her birthday that's this week! :D

She apparently loves ice cream almost as much as I do. Jon (her dad) and I shared our ice cream with her. He got Cake Batter and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. I got Cake Batter and Peppermint Stick. Brielle ate most of mine.

  But I didn't mind sharing with her (: She means everything to me. She loved the Peppermint Stick which was much better than the Cake Batter. Nathalie is behind us in the middle. That's Brielles' beautiful grandma, she's french so we call her Méme. She's an amazing woman  (:

She apparently got sick of sharing so I just gave her the rest of mine. She's kind of a pig. She ate the whole thing pretty much by herself. Learning to share has been difficult part of being a mom. But I don't mind ((:

My little girl is beyond cute and amazing. (:

 

This was at the cupcake store for her birthday cupcake(: Yes, her shoes are adorable!! She really wanted her some cupcakes

All this for a spicy McChicken?

No bueno :/

Today I woke up and Brielles' dad came and got her. I didn't really feel like sitting at the house alone. So I went to Ben's house while he was at work and played call of duty all day. ( Yes, I ignored my duties as a house wife )

 Ben gets home and says he needs to get a part for his car and I haven't eaten all day. So I decide to go with him and get some Spicy McChickens from Mcdonalds.

First stop: McDonalds, we get two spicy's. We head across the street and I sit in the car waiting for Ben. As I'm sitting there the car started to idle really rough. So I shut it off. Ben comes out, I tell him what happened, we pull out of the parking lot and start to leave. The car starts freakin' out! We get on the main street, turn into a neigboorhood. The car dies. We aren't that far so we walk back to Checker Auto Parts.

We were reduced to drinking Pepsi. Bleh

No power steering and I haave to steer??

 But I guess me having to steer isn't as bad as Ben having to push his car

 

                I gave Derrick a call and luckily he was off work like ten minutes early, Which meant he could come help us. So Ben pushes and a guy ends up stopping and helping us, he was nice to look at (; and we got to checker which was only a block and a half, but i was pretty sure my arms were going to fall off. Ben went inside to make sure he could leave his car there. I swear two minutes later I heard that straight piped Subaru and I was beyon ecstatic. Ben was still inside and Derrick, being the master tech he is, tried to figure out what happened. Ben thought it was ignition module, but Derrick said it was the distributor. Either way it wasn't going anywhere.

My knight in shining armor who apparently doesn't know how to take pictures. (:

Later when we got home Derrick did some research and come to find out Ben's ignition module is built in the distributor, so he gets to spend a pretty penny to fix it (: During this whole escapade I decided I should just walk to the McDonalds up the street when I want Hot and Spicy sandwhiches, instead of running errands with Ben. Sorry Ben (:

McDonalds will be the death of us all.