Too much fun!

Well, we have had quite a busy month! Here is just some of the fun we have been having...my cousin Lindsay came to visit from Chicago and was here for about a month, so we spent a lot of nights playing games and just hanging out.

Here we are the first time we saw her, eating at Guadalahara of course. :)


A couple of weeks ago we went to Orem for my cousin Braden's homecoming and my cousin Katie's baby shower. We had lots of fun! We went down Friday afternoon and got together with all my relatives down there...there were LOTS of us! Saturday some of us went to Seven Peaks Water Park which I always enjoy (somehow it seemed cooler when I was little though.) :) That night was Katie's shower with us girls. Katie and I are very close, so I was glad we got to be there. I didn't get a pic with just the two of us though. :(

Here's just a cute pic of my niece Hallie the first night there...I love this girl more and more everytime I see her!

This is all (or most) of the cousins that were there at Braden's homecoming...and just so you know there are a lot more of us!

We had to take a pic of the cousins close to Braden's age...Sam, Shayne, Katie, Braden, Brandon, Me, Zach, and Ben...we're missing a few that should probably be in the picture but oh well. Braden gave a wonderful talk and I know he was a great missionary. It was really good to see him!

Just another one of smiley Halli!

The next week my mom had a reunion at Island Park with just her siblings and their spouses, no kids allowed. :( She was there from Wednesday to Saturday. Friday I went to St. Anthony to visit my brother Kelby and his little family. Friday night we went and swam in some nearby hotsprings. We had a lot of fun and Ian and Taylor were both so cute and fun to swim and play with. Saturday my Aunt Beverly dropped my mom off at Kelby's. Saturday night we made dutch oven in their back yard and played some catch and some ladder ball (or whatever you want to call it.) I beat Kelby. :) Ian was really cute trying to throw the baseball into the air and catch it like me. We went to church with them on Sunday and then went home.

One little bonus is that on Saturday afternoon I went to Wal-Mart in Rexburg with my mom and Kelby and while we were there I heard someone say "Jill Olson!" I turned around and there was my good friend Erin Jensen who I havn't seen in 2 years. We met in Kindergarten waiting for the bus, and we had the same jumper. :) We have been friends ever since. She moved to Sugar City after our junior year and went to college at BYU-I. She transferred to ISU the year I left. Consequently, we don't see each other often. Just that morning I was telling my mom how I wished I had time to call her and have lunch or something. We keep in touch but it was still really good to see her in person, even if it was only for a few minutes. Anyway, sorry I got off on that little tangent...

My Uncle Lester also stopped in St. Anthony and we took his little dune buggy to the Sand Dunes there. Taylor and Ian loved it...until they wrecked. But no worries, everyone was fine.

Over the 4th of July weekend we had a reunion with my mom's cousins. I don't really know any of them, but a lot of my aunts and uncles and cousins came down for it, so we had a good weekend. Friday night we went to my mom's Uncle George's house and roasted hot dogs and such. Then Uncle George (who is the only living sibling in my Grandpa's family and is 92 years old) told some stories. It was kind of fun hearing about some of my family members. I was a little embarrassed when I got a story told on me, though. My Uncle George likes to tell kids that if they learn their ABC's backwards he will give them a dollar. Consequently most us can. Aunt Charlotte loves to tell everyone that up until about a year ago, I was the youngest to learn them (she said I was 3, but I'm pretty sure I was at least 5, because I remember getting our Dr. Seuss's ABC's and learning them backwards.) Last year my cousin Jenny's daughter said them to Uncle George and she was 2!...Anyway, Aunt Charlotte told everyone how when I was 3 we were at a church for some gathering or another and I went up to Uncle George and tugged on his pants (which I remember). I waited patiently for him to acknowledge me and then followed him to the other end of the gym where I told him my ABC's backwards and he gave me a dollar. Afterwards he went to Aunt Charlotte and said, "Who the hell was that one?" Everyone laughed. Another story told was when Uncle George was caught saying "Yeah." You see, Uncle George was an English teacher and when having a conversation with him, if you say "yeah," he says, "What?!" until you say, "Yes." But one time Uncle George and Aunt Charlotte took me, my cousin Danielle, and their grandaughter Britney to the City of Rocks for the day and we were in the car and Uncle George said "yeah," and I was there to witness it. :)

Anyway, sorry for my rambling, but here we are listening to his stories...

Here's Uncle George and Aunt Charlotte.

Saturday we had a picnic at the Heyburn Park, heard more stories (mostly about my mom's cousins and all their wacky times growing up) and played some volleyball. That night just our family (my aunts and uncles and cousins that is) went to my Aunt Lora and Uncle Blaine's for some dutch oven. They flooded their lawn so the kids could play and then later a bunch of people played volleyball in the water. During this time I made everyone write letters to Kyler. I now have about 35 letters to send him. It's kind of a tradition we have, to write the missionaries who are out when we all get together. We just pass around a couple notebooks and people can write a paragraph or a page, it doesn't matter. He'll be excited.

The next day we all had dinner together at my Aunt Bev's, played games, and watched the fireworks at the river. Lindsay left to go back to Chicago and there were a lot of goodbye's. It was fun to have her here. Also while she was here we went to Twin one day when our mom's were at their reunion to my sister's so she could teach Tysi how to make bows and Tysi could teach her how to make bracelets. That night we went to Toy Story 3. It was so cute! I loved it just as much as the others. The only criticism I have is that the 3D effects weren't way cool, but that's ok. Then on Thursday the 1st (the day before the reunion) a bunch of us saw Eclipse!! It was so cool! I loved it! Anyway, the bottom line is I love my family. I am lucky to be so close to my cousins and that we have so much fun together.

Another little tidbit is that I found out that I have (or had) C. diff...sort of. I hadn't been feeling great, and it kept getting worse even though I was taking an antibiotic. I thought it was just my usual pouchitis. But for 2-3 weeks I was waking up every morning with bad stomach aches, and would have a stomach ache for the rest of the day. When we were in Utah my uncle Parley gave me a blessing, which was amazing. I went to my doctor the day after we got back and because my pain was higher (location wise) than usual, he said I could have gotten C. diff from taking antibiotics all the time and killing the good bacteria in my gut. So I got tested for it a couple days later and it came back positive and negative. So I'm not sure if I had it or not, but he gave me a different antibiotic that C. diff. is not resistant to and I feel tons better. It's amazing. :)

During this time I've also been trying to study for my test. I havn't studied as much as I would like, but I hope to take it in 2-3 weeks because I just want it over with! So now it's hard core study time. Wish me luck!

Well, that's what's been going on. Sorry for the long post. Next time I will try to break things up more!