Washington with the Thomas Family

A few weeks a go I got to visit my sister Chrissy and her family. It was my first time to Washington and it was so beautiful. Unfortunately the whole drive, when I wasn't reading, I kept picturing Twilight. Ugh.

The day I got there was actually my birthday and they were so sweet to go all out celebrating it. My room had balloons all over it and it was just fun to have little people following me around saying, "Happy Birthday Aunt Becky." Chrissy was so sweet to make me a big birthday dinner and have all these fun presents for me.

It was my first time to their new house (which is so cute) and most importantly, it was my first time meeting my new nephew, Brigham. He was such a calm, sweet baby. I loved holding him. During church I couldn't let him just sit in his car seat, so I held him while I listened to Chrissy teach sharing time. (She was awesome.) I even took a few naps with him, but those pictures will not be displayed. Good news is now my mouth is closed in sleeping pictures (yay nose surgery). Unfortunately I have yet to master sleeping with only one chin. Huh... Back to Brigham though, I think he really likes me.

I hit a lot of progress with these kids on my trip. Now they listen to me read stories. (I loved reading to them.) Now Landon likes me. :) Now Brigham knows who I am. (I think I'm favorite aunt so far. Maybe he hasn't met the others, but hey I'm favorite for now.) Now April will even cuddle with me. At least she did once. After a nap. Look, here's proof:

It was fun just being with this awesome family and spending time with them.

We went to a fun museum, walked around the neighborhood, ate delicious food, and just relaxed at the house. After the kids went to bed we looked through old scrapbooks, played games, and watched movies. Maybe Chrissy and I had to get our Jane Austen fix and watch the long BBC Emma. Don't worry - we waited until after Kevin was gone to do this one. :)

Here's a picture from when I visited them in North Dakota:

Look at how much their family has grown:

I'm lucky - I've been able to visit the Thomas Family twice. As hard as it is when my siblings move away it definitely makes me excited to go and visit them.

Thanks Thomas Family for making my trip awesome!

I like my birthdays every one, each brings a greater joy to me...

I've often heard people say that the older you get the less exciting and fun birthdays are. Well I beg to differ. My last birthday was just as exciting as last year's which says a lot considering last year I had an Arab dance party in Jerusalem on my birthday. Why are my birthdays awesome? Two words: Family. Friends.

Every year I am reminded how lucky and blessed I am to be surrounded by so many awesome people. Well this year was no different. I was so touched by everyone's kindness. The packages, phone calls, facebook messages from strangers, letters, all made me feel very loved. I'm pretty sure I have the best family and friends ever. I wish I could elaborate and tell about every single person who made my birthday special, but I don't have time. I do want to tell you how awesome my roommates are though:

I love my roommates. They are so thoughtful and generous. On my birthday I had 7:45 class and right afterwards I headed to visit my sister in Washington. Well my roommates got up at 6 AM (which means a lot coming from them) and made me a delicious breakfast of German pancakes. I told them a while a go that my family used to have a tradition of waking up the birthday girl/boy with singing "Happy Birthday" and presents. This was their plan. They were going to wake me up with German Pancakes, singing, and presents. I feel badly because I ruined it by waking up earlier than I had said I was going to.

Still it was such a fun way to start the day eating a delicious, gourmet breakfast with them. After breakfast they brought out all these presents. Do I have the best roommates ever? Yes. After my class I headed to Washington where I got to see my sister and her family. They also made my birthday so special. However, my next blog post is going to be about my visit to see her so I'll talk about that later.

Even though I was gone on my birthday my roommates threw a party for me when I got back. The party was at my apartment's lounge and it was a lot of fun. We played around the world ping pong, Scrud, DDR, and just talked and ate. The night before my roommates said I couldn't come in the desk room because they were working on a 'secret project.' They spent hours in there and I started feeling guilty knowing they were doing whatever they were doing for me. Well at my birthday party I found out what they were doing. This is my birthday cake:

You see those little people? Tia and Danielle made them. Out of clay! If you don't know what those creatures are click here. Part of my really immature sense of humor is thinking Potter Puppet Pals is hilarious. Can you believe they made all of those? For lil' ol' me? They're so artistic and clever. They are also so thoughtful and I'm so grateful for them!

I'm sad I didn't get a picture of all my awesome friends at the party, but here are some pictures:

Me trying to peek at my cake.

This is Danielle playing pool with our FHE brothers. She won us dinner!

Me with my awesome cake. (There were more than two people there, you can only see two though from this angle.)

Chatting it up while eating chips and salsa people brought.

Tia vs Thom. Look at that concentration!

Awkward posing from Will and Cam.

Me with Sarah, Tia, and a creeper. (Danielle)

Thanks Tia and Danielle!!

Best Hike Ever.

A few weekends ago my roommates and I decided we wanted to go on a hike. I made sure I got all my homework done earlier that week so I could afford to not spend Saturday at the library (a new past time of mine.)

We left for the hike about one in the afternoon. It was a beautiful, sunny day so I put on my shorts and Chacos. (Ever since Jerusalem I use any excuse I can find to wear these.) I had my frozen watter bottle and snacks all ready. We started the drive to the mountains and about half way there I realized, "Hey there's white stuff on the mountains." I started doubting my Chacos decision. A little later it started raining. That's when I doubted my shorts decision. Then we were next to the mountains and they were under a white blanket. That's when I started wondering what on earth I had been thinking that morning. My conclusion? I wasn't.

Well we got a little lost trying to find the hiking trail, but we passed beautiful scenery and ended up in Wyoming. These are my awesome roommates Danielle (on the left) and Tia (in the middle.) Not pictured is Dan the lucky boy who got to join us on our excursion.

After a nice drive by the mountains and through some pretty humorous towns we finally found the trail and this is what it looked like. I think it was closed for the season. Weird. My outfit is pretty great, huh? I am so smart.

So that was our hike. Some might call it a failure. Well it wasn't. It was an adventure complete with a Michael Buble CD that was played probably 4 times in a row. (Poor Dan) Getting lost. Stopping for pizza in a little town. Watching Dan spend 3 minutes ordering his chocolate milk to perfection. Looking at the beautiful scenery. Freezing when we got out for pictures. Laughing at my roommates making slush angels. Laughing at my ridiculous outfit.

The problem is I still want to go hiking. Maybe I'll try again in 4 months...

What is the deal?

I have a problem. A big problem. I've had it for as long as I can remember and there is no end in sight. I'm afraid it's just getting worse. I'm not referring to my embarrassing sports skills, my obsession with Tootsie Rolls, my bad blogging habits lately, or my distaste for showering (don't worry I still do it daily.) No it's even worse than that.

Quoting.

I have a few theories. Maybe I have this problem because I watch too many movies? Maybe because I watch the same movies over and over again? Or maybe sometimes I don't know what to say so I'll steal what someone else said. (Usually it's the Grinch. You see what I'm saying?)

There have been a few times my quoting has been really embarrassing. For example:

-A few days a go my friend was asking me what I was doing for the weekend. Well it was Friday so I said I was going to kick it in the front seat and then kick it in the back seat. He had no idea what I was talking about. Awkward. (In case you don't, do yourself a favor and watch this: Friday)

-I quoted 101 Dalmatians (animated version) on a date a few weeks a go. The worst part is I was quoting one of the dogs. That's way bad!

- When our teacher asked us what the first thing is that we think of when we hear the word Disneyland I yelled out "That Thing You Do!" Probably not a normal thing to think of. But don't you think it's so funny how the bass player says, "Disneyland!?"

- There are so many other examples but I'm getting embarrassed thinking about it. So that's the end of examples.

Well one day when work was slow and I was updating files for different clients I decided to write down what came to my head when I read different names. Here are all the quotes that popped into my head from seeing names in 45 minutes:

Billy -> Did you say, "Billy I love you"?

Joseph -> And Ralph over there, he'll be the Joseph

Conrad -> Who cares about your speech? We wanna hear Conrad.

Blood -> Nut. Date Nut. Choco Choco Chip.

Harry -> I'm Harry Potter, Harry, Harry Potter.

Tulusa -> Talula? Where'd you come up with a name like that?

Cohen -> I got you a job with Webster, Webster, and Cohen.

Francesca -> That's fun to say.

Burns -> I am not a Unice Burns, I am the Unice Burns.

Rudolph -> Rudolph! She's here.

Howard -> Hello Mr Privilege it's a Larabee to meet you. No that's not it.

Barrow -> Ms Marrow? Brad Allen.

Rita -> Jack? It's RITA!

Dorinda -> If he can't respect my art, he can't have my heart.

Dorothy -> And she said, "My boy, you have got it. And AHHH." Dorothy Gish. True story.

Keith -> Come away with me to mem'ry island.

Steve -> He's Steve, he's the one.

Elaine -> That's E-L-A-I-N-E

Vicky -> You can call me Aunt Vicky.

Troy -> Troy's back! Troy's back. East High is suffering from a Troy-attack.

Charles -> I've got Wagner for the vicious. It's for dogs.

Diane -> Diane Dane! That's a, that's a gold dress.

I'm sorry. I know my quoting is annoying, but believe me when I say I really do try to hold most of them back. The best is when I try and explain the quote. It usually takes a few minutes to give the background, then the context, then the quote comes out and I usually end up saying, "I guess you have to see it."

My roommates are super nice and have turned my quoting into a game. After I say something they'll quickly yell out what movie it's from. The best is when I say something weird and they ask what movie it's from. Then I get to tell them, "uh that was just me being weird."

If you've ever been confused by something I said, lets assume it's because I was quoting. So how about if from here on out whenever I say something weird or strange you just assume it's a quote. Likelihood is it probably is.

Thanks for the memories.

Is it really over? No way is it done.

I can't leave Cali yet, I've had too much fun.

The bags are packed, the ticket is set

I am leaving, but this journey I won't forget.

My first day of work I went in so scared,

but they were all welcoming, they really cared.

I learned the art of taxes, found a work family,

I loved what I did and they kept me busy

I looked forward to work, I was lucky I know,

People were constantly helping me grow.

I thought I was fine today saying goodbye,

Wishes, flowers, hugs - those made me cry.

It's nice to know whatever path I ride

I'll have family in Burbank on my side.

But there's another family that's blessed me this time,

I've lived with the Kings, and it's been just sublime!

All growing up I've always loved the Kings,

Now from them I've learned so many things.

Uncle Dennis has shown me how to reason,

We've had great talks amidst this crazy tax season.

From Aunt Patti I've learned just how to host

Serving others - that's what she does most

Alison taught me at least once a week

But I saw from her example how to be sweet, kind, and meek

The Goeckeri family showed how to be friendly,

They welcomed me in, I was soon their Aunt Becky

The Halls were always so loving and nice,

They would invite me over and give great love advice. :)

Nate taught me bowling, guitar, and cooking,

He could probably make me an omelette eyes closed, no looking!

Misty and Joanne I was blessed with along the way,

They were so kind and also make me want to stay

Newport Beach, family dinners, movie nights,

Psych, bowling, seeing the sights.

Talking with family for so many hours,

Enjoying the weather, seeing a winter with flowers?

Creating memories and relationships that will last,

Those will linger even after this is past.

That's what I leave with, and it's just the start.

We'll keep getting closer even when we're apart.

The list goes on, there's much more to say

There are so many people I can never repay.

I'm thankful I had this opportunity,

It's helped me get closer to being the best I can be.

The Perils of Tax Season

I just got back from work and on the drive home I kept looking at my hands in disgust. I've never been a huge fan of my hands. They are the exact same as my brother David's. He has nice hands. For a boy. I also have nice hands. For a boy. Oh well.

Today they were looking particularly bad because I keep giving my self paper cuts. Brilliant I know. I realized I had 4 band-aids on my hands which is pretty ridiculous. I haven't even noticed how clumsy I am until I added it up today. So I'm clumsy and smart. Nice.

My hands also look nice because I've been fighting with the "SCANNED" stamp lately. First it took me forever to take it apart to fill up the ink. Well now the ink is full. Too full. So I had to tear it apart and now I'm waiting for it to dry. Well my cuticles look like they're bleeding. So far the stamp is winning.

So now you're wondering how bad my sausages are. I'll show you....

See my bloody cuticles on my thumbs? Stupid stamp. At least I took off the two old band-aids, and washed off most of the ink so you didn't throw up. Additional perils of tax season include but are not limited to; bad hair (I have no desire to wake up early to make it look decent), double chin, talking to myself, and bad communication skills. I've failed at blogging, calling, texting, etc. Sorry!

Mmmm...California

(Picture Faye from That Thing You Do saying that.)

Life is great right now. For those of you who don't know, I'm living in California with my aunt and uncle. I'm doing an internship at KKAJ, an accounting firm. For those of you who do know, same thing. Here are just a few of my favorite parts:

• I've loved living with my Aunt Patti, Uncle Dennis, and Cousin Nathan. It has been awesome getting to know them better!
• One weekend I went to Irvine to watch Jessie in a dance competition. It was fun to meet up with her and see how much she's improved!
• Nate (my cousin) is really good at everything I'm bad at. DDR, guitar, bowling, cooking, etc. But he's a really great teacher. He helped me figure out a song on guitar, pass a really hard song on DDR, and get a 132 in bowling (that's good for me.) Now I just need to learn how to make his scrumptious omelets...
• Movie Nights. I love having my aunt, uncle, and cousins show me movies that they love. They have great taste and I love watching movies so it's been great! I finally watched the Bourne series, The Happiest Millionaire, Somewhere in Time, The Importance of Being Earnest, and many more.
• My cousin Alison works at Universal Studios so I went to a pre-screening of The Adjustment Bureau with her. It was fun to be on the lot with her and the movie was pretty interesting.
• U Dennis, A Patti, Alison and I went to a really awesome show in Los Angeles called Traces. It was SO AMAZING! I wish everyone had the chance to see it.
• I've gone to the single's ward a few times with my friend Joanne and it's fun to be with her and get to know new people.
• I went to the Los Angeles Temple for single adult night with Joanne. It was amazing to be in an overflowing baptistery (especially in LA.) Afterwards we walked around the grounds and Joanne told me her conversion story. She was baptized less than a year a go and is such an example to me!
• Work is great and I love it, but I always look forward to my lunch breaks. Why? Everyday I take my lunch breaks outside in the beautiful sun. I've never been warm in February or March and I'm loving it. I may even come back a little tan!
• This last weekend I drove to Las Vegas with Cheralyn (my cousin) and her family, met up with Jessie, David, and Heather there, then went to St George to spend time with the rest of my family that weekend. It was so good to be together! The ride back in our 'girls car' was a blast!
• I really like my job. The people are so great, and I like what I do. I really do look forward to going to work and not many people can say that. Here's my desk. See the two monitors? I'm spoiled.
• My favorite part of my desk are my Valentines from all my nieces and nephews. I know February is over, but they're staying there for a while. They make me feel right at home and they just light up my little workspace.
• There is a bit of a commute to work (30-45 min) but I love it. My uncle and I will talk about life or if we're really tired we'll listen to the news and grunt in disgust at some of the things going on.
• I've driven to Malibu, Santa Barbara, and Irvine. These drives have shown me how beautiful California is! I'm definitely falling in love with it.
• I have loved being part of the King's get-togethers. They have welcomed me into their family and I'm just loving it. I even get to go to part of their reunion starting tomorrow at Newport Beach.

How lucky am I? Am I living the life or what?

I Love Magic

This one's for all those Harry Potter fans!

In the 4th Harry Potter movie Harry walks into what he thinks is an ordinary tent to see this magnificent tent on the inside. Then he says (in a really weird tone I might add), "I love magic." I have to tell you the whole time I was at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter I had that quote in my head.

The Hogwart's Express is the first thing you see when you walk in.

If you're lucky you get to meet the conductor!

Hogsmeade Village.

We went on a Tuesday and there was still a huge crowd so we didn't go into most of the stores.

Isn't it beautiful? Love it.

Hogwarts!!! Also, check out the crowds.

Amazing Castle. You could see it from the freeway and Emma and I were freaking it. It's huge and it looked so cool at night. Unfortunately, none of those pictures turned out well.

This is Kate and me when we were waiting in line for over two hours to get in the castle and on the awesome simulator ride.

More waiting in line.

They didn't have the main characters walking around which I thought was fair, otherwise I would've criticized how little they looked like the actual character. However, they had the conductor by the train and then these characters from the 4th book in front of the dragon challenge roller coaster.

Lunch at the Three Broomsticks. Delicious.

Inside the Three Broomsticks.

Hagrid's hut was next to the ride that was "on" Buckbeak. (The hippogriff)

Castle. So COOL!

Butterbeer = Delicious. Pumpking Juice = Nasty.

The best part of the whole park is the ride inside the castle. It is the most amazing similuation ride I have ever been in. I won't spoil it for everyone and say what's on the inside, but I will say they did such a great job fitting 7 books into 1 ride. If the wait wasn't over 2 hours I would've gone on that ride all day long! Seriously Harry Potter Land was awesome. (A huge thanks to Nelsons who took me!) I highly recommend it to ALL fans!

Meet My Second Family

When I was 13 I started babysitting the Nelson family. At the time it was just little Emma. I quickly came to love her and she was my favorite to babysit. We'd walk to the very little park and swing forever, or we'd play golf with this little set. One time when I was at their house I saw a lot of papers for new houses. I realized that Nelsons were moving and I wouldn't be able to babysit Emma anymore. I was heartbroken. Eventually they moved, but we didn't lose contact like I thought we would. One of the first times I went to their new house it was to meet their second child, Kate. She was a gorgeous little redhead and Emma was such a sweet big sister. Nelsons were so patient and sweet to drive 1/2 an hour one way to come pick me up so I could babysit their kids.

They went on to do this until I got my license and could make the drive. Every once in a while I'd get lucky and I got to babysit the kids overnight and basically play mom for a few days. My favorite part of this was waking up to them crawling into bed with me. Now they have Noah and he is just so much fun and the perfect addition to their family.

Ever since I started babysitting 7-8 years a go, I have been blessed by their friendship. They've taken me on trips to Park City, Mexico, and Florida. They always give such sweet, generous gifts. (Tiffany's necklace, iPod, camera, Coach purse, Kindle, etc.) Most importantly they trust me with their kids and those kids have played a large part in my life. I have loved that and I miss it when I leave.

A few months a go they invited me to go to Florida with them this January. Am I the luckiest girl ever? Yes. So January 8 - 16 I went on the perfect vacation with my second family to Florida and it was amazing! We went to all of the theme parks out there and it was just a ton of fun. I have no idea how to sum it up in one blog post, so I'm going to talk about my favorite memories with each of them.

One day when we were walking along the pier we were talking about funnel cakes and I mentioned I had never had one. The last night we were there Brother Nelson left for a while and came back with a funnel cake because '[I] had to try one before we left.' Also one time while we were waiting in line he jumped out to scare Emma and scared me instead. That was great.

One night we came back exhausted. Okay that was all nights. However, on this night Sister Nelson and I were just wanting to relax and watch TV. Well there was nothing on so we watched Minute to Win it, possibly the worst reality show ever. Also when we were at Harry Potter World we went on this scary roller coaster and it was night so it was like Space Mountain. We were freaking out in line and the little boy behind us was laughing at us. Also we'd always get lost when Brother Nelson wasn't there. (Even in the hotel!)

Emma is a crazy Harry Potter fan like me so we were in Paradise there! We kept talking about the movies saying, "Remember when...." or "This is just like...." Also one morning Emma, Kate, and I read Tangled on Kate's leapfrog thing and it was so much fun. Also at the end of the day we'd pretend like we weren't exhausted and skip and hop over the lines on the sidewalk the whole way home.

Kate always woke up wanting to play games so to start off our perfect days we'd play Princess Go Fish, Phase 10, or do a puzzle. Also, on the flight over once Kate discovered I hadn't seen Toy Story she pulled it up and we watched it on her ipod. Don't worry though I didn't see the sweet ending then. I didn't start crying on the airplane. Nope that would be in the hotel.

Noah kind of loves me you could say. He especially likes me because I took him on the Nemo ride. A lot. So much that I could sing you the song that's on the ride. (In the big, blue world...) So much that I'd sing it in the morning and get in everyone's head. Sorry. Also we'd sometimes hang out while everyone else went on rides. He'd get out of his stroller and we'd just wander around aimlessly.

Are you jealous yet? Because you should be. :) The Nelsons are awesome and I've been so lucky to know them. Thanks Nelsons for taking me to Florida and for being my second family!