Summer is Almost over. . .

Brace yourselves. . . this is a long one . . .

I cannot believe school is about to begin. Don't get me wrong I am actually excited about going back since I had to take Spring semester off and bc I am only 18 credits away from my Associates in Art and Visual Communications - Emphasis on Photography! But where did summer really go? I feel like there was so much I wanted to do and didn't quite get to do it all.
At the start of summer my family hikes up to the PG waterfall. Strange, I never kne aoubt it until the day we decided to hike it, It was a really easy hike and was beautiful once we got to the top. Tyler is big into rock climbing and as soon as we got up there, he begin climbing alongside the waterfall. Tiff and my mom were yelling, "Ok, that is high enough, get down Tyler." Then little aspen, our parrot, yells out to him, "Get down Tyler!" it was pretty cute. The scenery at the bottom of the trail looks out over Utah Valley and it was a gorgeous view. I love hiking and I am so glad I now know of a new trail . . .

Sweet Little Danny was blessed by his Daddy on June 6. He was given a beautiful blessing and he looked so handsome in his little outfit.

We celebrated our Close to My Heart Summer party at Boondocks again. I was so excited to do it here for the second year in a row bc it is so much fun and there is so much to do. Miniature golfing, Go-carts, Water bumper boats, laser tag, arcades, and all can drink soda. I invited a friend of mine, Reed, and we had a great time. This was after the bumper boats; I was soaked!

Katie and I . . . so goofy!

I made my visit to Texas which was fantastic. I miss so much about Texas and believe it or not, it felt great to step out of the airport into the hot, humid air. I hate the dry air here in Utah, I feel like an alligator with my poor skin. But, anywho, I first stayed with one of my Young Women leaders I had in Pflugerville, Amie Taylor. Her family has grown since I last saw her and her family, now they have 2 beautiful daughters. We spent our time watching the kids and their huge amounts of energy, going to HEB - the Best grocery store ever, eating at Chuy's my all time favorite Tex-Mex Resturaunt anywhere, and spent the 4th in San Antonio with her family. I had a really great time with them and was sad it went by do quickly. Before we left her sisters house in San Antonio, we spotted a scorpion, a toad, and a very large June bug all within a 10 minute span. You gotta love those Texas bugs! And I can't forget to mention the Cicada Bugs and their very loud mating songs. I absolutly love the sound, it reminds me of summer time in Texas. I was happy to hear them again (look up Texas Cicada Chorus on YouTube to here them). Her sister, Heidi, had a great Dane, Sadie and I sorta fell in love with her. I was snoozed out on the couch, my head on the arm of the couch, and I felt something nudge my head. I thought maybe it was one of the many kids running around, but when I lifted my head to look behind me, it was Sadie. We were eye to eye and she just looked at me as if she wanted a good scratch behind the ears. So, of course I did and she didn't want me to stop. But she was adorable.

After Amie's house I went to Sarah2;"Sarah Squared" is a nickname given by Tyler that has just stuck. We were friends in gymnastics and have since stayed very close. I was so excited to see her. But when I saw her, I felt like a giant bc she is so tiny and I have grown 2 inches since I saw her last. We also had a great time. We went out and took pictures by a waterfall close to her house. It was surrounded by huge oak trees, one of my favorite trees. It was quite a task trying to set my camera on a rock to get pictures of both of us, bc I could only walk so quickly on the waterfall without tripping and ending in disaster. But we got some cute ones I think. We mad it to SeaWorld which was a walk down memory lane. We used to always go there together, the only difference was, we noramally had our mom's with us too. But we had a wonderful time hitting all the shows, sitting in the splash zone and getting wet, and slurping the amazing frozen lemonade. When it is 100+ degrees outside, with the humidity, nothing tastes better! I was a little sad we missed the dolphin feeding, we were too late by the time we arrived. But it was fun and our trip home was quite adventurous. We sorta got lost bc we took the toll road, went too far and ended up almost into Austin (she lives in Round Rock). We also hit construction traffic and got up there only to see all the workers sitting on their butts. But we kept good conversation and had lots of good laughs. We also watched Avatar (my first time and I loved it so much I bought it when I got home), while eating Sarah's homemade french fries, played in the rain (though I was hoping for a good thunder storm), shopped the new outlet mall in Round Rock, and went swimming in her neighborhood pool. We also hit Taco Cabana (they have the best breakfast burritos of anybody) and Thundercloud Subs. It was definetly and great week with friends and I wish it didn't have to go by as quickly as it did.

I {heart} TeXas!!!
I had a wonderful Birthday as did Aspen, our birthdays are back to back - Mine the 12th of July and Aspens is 7-11. I think it is really fun to share such a wonderful celebration with my adorable niece who is now 2! I can hardly believe it! I am almost exactly 2 years older than she. Wow...I am old. Anyways, we celebrated up in the canyon that Sunday and had a delicious dinner. We enjoyed the cool fresh air in the mountains, talked, and watched Aspens full load of energy. I brought both her and Danny back a Texas Longhorn Outfit and so we couldn't resist but to change them into the rockin' team right away! Go Longhorns! They threw a celebration for Aspen later that week at Discovery park and she loved all of her exciting toys. (that is after she got knocked around a bit by her older cousins on the Sperry side.) It was a great week and I am so happy I have another 365 days to look forward to. I am going to make them count!

The Art Studio went to Pizza Factory as a farewell to Kalyn

(we really miss you already * Tear)

And to celebrate my birthday! It was delicious; Thank you my friends!
I am still recovering from knee surgery that I had 3 weeks ago. The results were more complicated then planned. . .

Dr. West (I have really liked him with all 3 of my knee surgerys) got in there and discovered much more then just scar tissue. There were multiple spots where the cartilage was frayed and worn. So they had to shave that down. One particular spot underneath my knee cap, where lays the articular cartilage between your Femur and Tibia, was a lesion so deep he could see the bone beneath. So they had to do what is called a Microfracture by poking 7 small holes into the bone. This causes it to bleed and create new blood flow, which will allow new cartilage to grow. The only downside is, the new cartilage is a different type and won't be as strong as my original cartilage. Then, ,my medial Meniscus was even more torn since my second surgery and they had to remove even more of that. So there was more damage then planned, meaning longer recovery time; but he is a great doctor and fixed it up so I am on the road to recovery. Whoo hoo. I am down to one crutch for the most part, as long as I am not walking long distances. The swelling is finally decreasing and I am keeping up with my home therapy exercises every day. I am so excited to be working with the best therapist at TOSH - Jenny as well as a really good friend of mine whom I used to train with and then she coached me privately, Brandy. I believe I am improving well and things are moving along.

The 24th of July was quite eventfull. It was full of shopping as well as time with my wonderful family! We had delicious food, including fresh fruit and delicious corn on the cob! Along with that we had yummy chicken legs and TriTip. We played Bochi Ball...Yes I attempted even with crutches. It was sorta bad...I made a shot into a ditch where they are reparing sprinklers, it returned to me at one point back down the rain gutter, and I believe I almost hit our nieghbors back porch steps. But I also had a few really good ones! The firewoarks were small but entertaining. They were performed by Tyler and Nick's Friend Matt. We had some neighbors setting off some illegal ones too, so that was cool to watch those.

I have missed out on a lot of trips my family has made such as the Hogel Zoo, Lake Powell, Lagoon, and they just got back from Bear Lake. But I have used all my vacation hours for sick time, my grandpa's funeral, and Texas. In fact, the 4 days I missed for my knee surgery were unpayed. Ouch. That was huge dent in my check. But I am happy I got to go to Texas, so things are A-Ok!
Well, that was basically my summer. Now. . . I prepare myself for life back on the UVU campus with long hours of studying to go with it.