Home Girlz

Yes we are all home, or what we have to call home for 1 more school year! We had our back to school party the first night of school. Mags with the help of Marie got us T-shirts for our flag football team. They say Blackacre Blitz, on the back "we own you in fee simple". For those that haven't taken Property Law, Blackacre is the land that is always used in examples and fee simple means to straight out own the property without any hang ups.

Portland to Coast

My Families house in Oregon has the prettiest view in the world. This is at 6am overlooking our fields onto Mt. Hood.
Nic and Hailey. We were all proud of Nic's kick butt walk!

Part of the team we walked with. Me, Tucker, Hailey, Nic, Nathan and Kaitlyn were all in one car. We had the party of our lives! It was such a blast!
Tucker right after coming in from him 7, 13 minute miles.
Tucker at the Finish line, yes he is walking, running was not allowed.
Some of the great decorations on other cars
One of my favorites

They didn't know Tucker's last name when they signed him in, so they called him Tucker Jon. It stuck the rest of the trip.

We walked a combined 127 miles in 30 hours. We all did about a 15 minute mile or less. One of the funnest times of my summer! Thanks Hailey for organizing it!

New Baby Edmond!!!!!!!

Yes, my newest nephew is here!!!!!!!!! I am sooo excited. Chelle had Edmond at 7:30 this morning. I was on a flight back from DR Congo but called as soon as I got off the plan and heard the good news. Chelle was a rock star as usual. She really held it together well as Edmond took his time to decide when to come out.
Man I am so proud of my sister and her whole little family!

Tagging

So I got Tagged about a month ago for this one. Here it is.

20 years ago I . . .
Had convinced my mom to let me cut my hair to look like a boy, cause I wanted to get to have as much fun as the boys. I was loving the lime light of scoring points for my soccer team and sticking up to the bullies on the play ground.
I was wrestling calves to the ground and helping Dad and Nic give them their vaccinations and ear tags. I loved being dirty. I wore the same pair of paints to school everyday. Their were pink sweet pants with huge holes in both knees. Wow, my parents were pretty cool to let me get away with all that!

10 years ago I . . .
Fell in love with Hawaii and the people at BYU Hawaii. Was so ready to get out of high school that I went just enough to get into BYU hawaii the next year and then took the rest of the year off enjoying a trip to Slovakia, Austria and Italy.

5 years ago I . . .
Came back from serving a mission in La Reunion, and Mauritius to BYU hawaii where it took me 6 months to turn back into a semi normal person. I fell more deeply in love with Anthropology and learned enough Spanish to do an ethnography in the highlands of Guatemala.

3 years ago I . . .
Graduated from BYU Hawaii studied for and took the LSAT in three weeks. Moved back home, worked for my Dad's law firm as his marketing person and got so stir crazy I took a second job in the woods hanging out with troubled teens. I worked one week in an office all dressed up and another in the woods in the stinkiest clothes I could find, so I could be more like the kids. I got a good enough score on the LSAT to be accepted with scholarships at some good schools, but was blown away that BYU accepted me. After surprisingly feeling really good about going, I decided to go to BYU, and I haven't regretted it ever since.

So far this year I . . .
Started a legal NGO (Sowers of Hope) for an Non profit school for Orpans I helped to start in the DR Congo. Fell in what I thought was love, got pretty good at snowboarding, and then became very confused on the whole idea of love. Shaved my head, and it felt damn good! Went on some of the best hikes of my life. Visited VT 3 times, and Oregon 3 times. Got to go to my brothers wedding in Oregon. Got a job with an NGO (Tifie) which works in DR Congo.

Today I . . .
Went and visited a catholic Orphanage in Kinshasa DRC to see how we can help the Orphanage sponsored by Tifie run better for the children. Talk with my boss, my good friend Bernard and a new friend counselor to the minister of transportation about investing in Barges to bring food to Kinshasa. Watched my Jamaican friend win the 100 meter dash in the Olympics! (don't worry, I don't really know him, but I was super excited for him). Went to dinner at the Livington's the mission presidents here in the DRC. Got to talk with the Humanitarian missionary couple about the natal care and the cataract removal projects they have been doing here. Worked on the business plan for the Trucking company sponsored by Tifie and talked with my friend Emmanuel the director of Sowers of Hope. Drank sooo much water!!!!!!

Tifie Orphanage

Here is a picture of one of the girls I visited at the Orphanage here. It is one of many, but I am not going to push my luck on getting more on here right now. This one has taken me three days. The connection here is really slow.

This girl was really excited to show me their lamp. They didn't have any electricity when we visited, so we bought them a little gas to light their lamp with.

Fair Time with Tutu's Hawaiian Shave Ice

Hailey and I having a heart to heart in the booth. That red top canopy really cast a deep shadow on us!
Mom, Nathan, Caitlyn and Tucker working hard at the booth. We had some pretty slow moments, but over all it wasn't a bad year.
Thuey and Hoa helped out on Sunday. Thuey was a super fast learner on the cash register, which was great for me cause I was done with it at that point.
We had about 12 different flavors to choose from. I think Tigers Blood was one of the most popular. What is Tigers Blood, you ask? Funny you should ask, cause so did everyone else who ordered from us who hadn't before. Tiger's blood is cherry and coconut mix, one of my favorites, though I think my all time favorite this year was the root beer flavor with the ice cream in the bottom, tasted like a root beer float.

Every year my family has a booth selling shave ice at the county fair. I missed it last year as I was traveling and so made a special trip out this year not to miss it. I ended up being there everyday for about a week. We had a really good time. We didn't even get in any arguments. I love it when the family can have fun without drama!

Grama's Sunday Dinner

Whose got the coolest Grama in the world? I do!!!!!!!
She looks better in these shades than me.

Every Sunday Grama organizes a dinner for what ever family is in town. The Stewarts are almost always around and I make it once in a while. We also have some other cousins in the area who are doing school here off and on. This is a shot of Grama, Aunt Heather and I at the Stewarts house. We have been having the dinner there cause they have a BBQ grill and Grama is dedicated to having BBQ every Sunday. mmmm, yum, I don't mind it at all.

Oh ya, and Whitney my Cousin always makes an amazingly delicious desert.

All the way Up Timp!

I was walking to the "Toilet" when I snapped this one. The flowers up there were georgeous. This doesn't even do it justice.

We ran into some Mountain Goat near the top. They were super patient with us, probably cause there wasn't really anywhere for them to go, there was too many people on the hike and they couldn't get around everyone. I wonder how long they had to hang out at this spot.

Me at the top, over looking emerald lake.

The marker for the summit! We made it!

There were some really steep spots at the top. I was wishing I had eaten a banana or two as my calves kept cramping up. Happily I am not sore a bit today.

Joshua and Macrun

Tyre, Joshua's puppy. So cute. He might have a little Dingo in him.

Yesterday morning I got up at 4:45 to be at the opening of American Fork Canyon at 5:30. I met up with 6 friends (some new and some not so new) there, to hike Timp. I have never seen so many people on a hike before. It was packed but for good reason. It was actually bearable weather there. It has been so hot in Utah! I am ready to move away from the cold winters and insane hot summers of this desert. One more year!

Eardly Canyon, San Rafael Swells

New Hair Cut

Last weekend I went up to Ogden to join in on a Volleyball tournament with Tucker's family. I filled in for his sister who broke her ankle a couple weeks ago. We didn't do great, but we had the most fun out of everyone. That was Saturday, Sunday we went to Church then drove down to Pleasant Grove to have dinner with one of his friends and his family. We ended up playing wee till 11pm. Then we were up Monday morning at 5:45 to take Tucker's brother to the airport. We took a nap in the Liberty Park in SLC with all the rest of the bums, then drove down to Drapper where we met with my soon to be new boss who took us out for lunch. We were done with that around 2pm then raced down to Provo to get ready for our next adventure.

We were ready and on the trail head of Mt. Nebo down by Nephi by 5:45. We climbed 8,000 feet in 3 and a half hours. I got a bit of altitude sickness and we had left our map down in the car so we were winging it. It was around 9:30 when we realized were were only 2 miles away from our goal and had reached the ridge line. We shoved as many rocks out of the way as possible and jumped in our sleeping bags totally beat.

Our goal was to wake up the next morning at 4am to get to the top and back down in time for my . . . . . hair appointment. I had set an anointment with a good friend Julie who is at the Paul Mitchell hair school and 10:30 am on Tuesday was the only time I could get an appointment this week and next week I am in Oregon, so I was not about to let my qewtip of a hair dew grow into a cotton ball! Tucker was pretty amused that I would move so fast to get a hair cut, but I showed him. We turned a 12 hour hike into an 8 hour hike and ran the whole way down to the car.

I forgot to take my camera along on Mt. Nebo, but my proof for this one is in the hair cut. So there you go.

Mt. Timp

Tucker was supposed to fly in around midnight a couple of Fridays ago. His flight was late, so he didn't get in till around 2:30. I picked him up, we drove to Provo, got some food at walmart, picked up Lucy dog and drove to the trail head. Neither of us were able to get any sleep, but we were bond and determined to hike Timp like we had planned. We weren't able to get on the trail until 6am. We ended up getting to right below the peak of Timp and we took a nap. Then we stomped up some snow, till we couldn't get up any higher. Lucy as usual was a great hiker. All three of us were dead tired afterwards.

A Tribute to Jenn and Dann

Here are my friends Jenn and Dann. Jenn who I have known for 2 years, and Dann for a month. They are getting married on the 13th of September!!!! They met, dated after a couple of days and then were engaged after a couple of days. Kinda crazy, but they sure do look good together.

Chocolate Cake Taste Testing Party

Leilani, Maria and I had a conversation one night about who had the best chocolate cake in Provo. We have had some really good chocolate cake over our time here and although we were all pretty sure which we liked best we decided to put them to a true test. Leilani and Maria bought all the cakes the night before. Magglebies, Art City Trolly Cafe, PF Changs, and . . . . Rob's chocolate cake from his own recipe. We invited a lot of friends over and blindfolded them. We cut up apples so that between every bite they could all cleans their pallets.

Then we took a vote. And whose cake won??? Rob's, the best cake in Utah! It is amazing, melts in your mouth, dense chocolaty goodness made without wheat. Amazing!