Happy New Thanksmas, Martin Jr.

Tiffany was complaining that I did not update my blog enough. I mean, come on, isn't every six months enough? Really. Anyway, here's a real quick update with a few scattered pictures.

September: That's too far back. I don't remember.

Oh yeah, Brooke and I went to The Danger Zone. Picture 1.

October: Halloween? That's all I could think of. That means Haunted Forest. Picture 2. And General Conference, and Kaitlin's wedding. Picture 3.

November: BYU v. U of U game. We won. Free Jazz game. 7th row. Picture 4. Meteor shower. Picture 5. Thanksgiving. Picture 6.

December: Christmas. Finals. Tiff's surgery. Jazz game against Lakers. Picture 7.

January: My 22nd birthday. Birthday dinner. Bumblebee. Picture 8. Re-enacted picture 9. Smart Cookie and Sexy Modest. Picture 10.

For all other events and/or pictoral stories, visit my Facebook page.

Out of Touch

I guess it's time to get back to the real world since summer is over and all...and by "the real world" of course I mean the real world of blogging! I have a lot to catch up on so hold tight and buckle up keeping your hands, arms, heads, and whatever other appendage you can think of inside the ride at all times.

After my H1N1 stint in June at EFY, I went to the TRANSFORMERS 2 midnight premier with Brooke and Mychal!!! So so so great! Not a whole lot of plot, some crude things that definitely didn't need to be in there, but it's Transformers so of course I loved it! Here we are decked out in our T2 attire...don't we look fabulous?

After the Transformers adventure, my friends from high school and I decided to have a camping reunion. We went to some random place in the middle of Lehi, but it sure was spectacular! Sorry...no pictures for that venture. Will post soon.

More weeks of EFY came and went: Ephraim 2 kicked my trash, but Ephraim 3 and Salt Lake 4 were soooooooo great! I couldn't have asked for better groups of kids (they even rival Salt Lake 1). I'll do individual posts on those later, but still enjoy this sneak peak of pictures.
Yellowstone was next on my to-do list and so it was done. Brooke and I were only able to spend a whopping two days there, but we actually saw a lot more than I expected. Enjoy all of these pictures. We took almost 200 pictures on this trip, so be forewarned.

That concludes my summer. Be looking for more in-depth posts on Yellowstone and EFY...they deserve it.

H1N1! Swine! Flu!

Feast upon EFY? Why, yes I did!

This past week was my first week of EFY this summer at the U of U and it sure was a blast! My kids were SO fun and SO insightful with the gospel...it was mind-boggling! The first day of meeting all of them I knew the week was going to be incredible!

By the time Wednesday rolled around, I already felt as if I had 33 younger siblings, which was great. I've missed having youngins around, especially boys (since I don't have a younger brother). Games and pizza night were fabulous. The huge pizza we got from The Pie was so tasty! And to my surprise, I found out that Spencer was Jon Schmidt's son! Wahoo for talented kids! He and Chantel were asked to sing in the Friday night fireside, and they did one heck of a job!

On Thursday afternoon, Emily was able to perfrom in the variety show. Who knew she had so much talent?! Thursday night was testimony meeting, which meant many tears passed. The Spirit was incredibly strong and it was great to see and hear how much the youth had learned and grown over the week. I love seeing the effort I've put forth (which MUCH of the Lord's help) was worth it.

When Friday came and I realized it was my last day with my new friends I did everything I could to make it the best day yet (which wasn't hard with such great kids!). Dinner and the dance were hilarious, and I became engaged to my co-counselor, Sam. I didn't expect to find a husband at efy!!!

Needless to say, this past week was one full of fun, new friendships, and the Spirit. I hope I can make it through the rest of my summer not being too disappointed if I don't get the same caliber of kids...which might be hard to do!!! They rocked it and I cannot wait until I get to see them again!

I Had a Dream

So...

I have a dream that one day my children will be able to relish in the music of Peter Breinholt...LIVE!!! I have been so blessed to attend many a concert over the past couple of years, and I don't want to deprive my children of that same happiness.

In fact, just last night I was able to sway along to the soothing sounds of the summer with Peter B. Thanks to David Tolk's facebook status (another great local artist), Brooke and I were able to discover a free concert in Draper featuring Peter B., David Tolk, and Craig Miner (aka Banjo Boy of the Ryan Shupe band). Despite Peter's huge local fan base, there were only families with small children and your occasional token grandparent. Pretty sure Brooke and I were the only two representing the college scene, but we liked it that way.

We even got to see a fly-by of some sort of military plane and its teeny weeny escorts!

Soon after Peter started playing, it started to drizzle. This was mine and Brooke's solution.
After about an hour, Draper City decided to end the concert because of lightning. Pretty sure there was no lightning, just flash photography from the fans and paparazzi. And soon after we got back to the car, the rain created rivers from the sidestreets! There should have been a flashflood warning. Anyway, because the concert ended early, Peter and his band decided to talk with the fans. Of course Brooke and I were the first in line to chat and get a picture with him...it was fabulous! (Now he even knows my camp name from Oakcrest. We are going to be best friends before you know it.)So I had a dream to meet Peter B (again), and it came true! Between the semi-spontaneous nature of the event, the rainstorm, and the picture which started a great friend ship, last night definitely had to be the BEST NIGHT EVER!

Give Me a Piece of that KitKat Bar!

So I'm way behind on blogging, so this post will be solely dedicated to catching all of my fans up on my life (besides my NY adventure) the past month or so. Be prepared for a mouthful.

First, school ended! Yay! Wahoo! And Yum! It's tradition every year to hike the Y during this time, so we did just that. It was a lot harder than I remember it being last year, but it was still great! Here's a picture of us hiking the Y. Or maybe two pictures.

Second, Tiff, Audge, Darin, Josh, and I surprised Ben for his birthday. Here's the car ride before we got stuck on I-15 for an hour.

Next, Siri's wedding. She married Michael Alemany. That's all you really need to know. I believe she has her own blog anyway.Then was NY.

After NY I started working full-time at my job: Budget Assistant at the BYU Physics Department. What my job sounds like is a boring desk job full of paper work and money transactions, right? Well, my job really consists of baking, scrapbooking, making cards, cleaning, running errands, more baking, etc. It rocks.

Just this past weekend Tiff put together a bonfire up Provo Canyon. It was fab. S'mores, (root) beer, and Starbursts. Need I say more? Plus cuddling because it was cold. Talk about a perfect night.So that's the latest. Soon I start EFY which means plenty of blogs will be coming from there. Then Moab, more EFY, mission homecomings!, etc. Be prepared for a crazy summer of blogging!

KOWABUNGA!!!

The past month was INCREDIBLE!!! First, it started out with Siri's wedding! Oh how I love that girl! She looked beautiful and she and Michael sure looked happy. They're in New York City for the summer while he completes an internship, then they'll be back in Provo. How I miss her!

The night after Siri's wedding I flew out to New York to meet up with my parents for a few days. Even though I didn't get much sleep on the red-eye, as soon as I hit the ground I was runnin'! I ate lunch at my dad's office in Tribeca, met his "people", took a few "tourist" pictures with the Statue of Liberty and World Trade Center, saw West Side Story, and ate at the most incredible restaurant: Duane Park! We even got free desserts out of it because the waiter loved us. Delish!

The next couple of days were full of more fabulous food and tourist pictures. Breakfast at Norma's was FABULOUS as always and dinner at Broadway Joe's was yummy. I even got a picture with my favorite commandante waiter. We were also able to go to the temple and do baptisms, take pictures in Central Park, get a picture by the big "LOVE" thing, and go to Top of the Rock. Oh man, was I worn out!

Friday was a bit more relaxed, which is exactly what I needed. We moved to the Theater District in Midtown to a hotel with our favorite bellhops (they're very good...looking!). We took a stroll past the New York Public Library, St. Patrick's Cathedral, and I bought my first real Starbucks (Tall Double Chocolately Chip Frappuccino)! Delish! As we were debating whether or not to wait in line for hours at the Museum of Modern Art, it started POURING so we quickly grabbed a cab and headed back to our hotel until dinner at Hard Rock Cafe (where I was able to get my favorite drink...Crushed Velvet Martini!)

Saturday was a long day! We walked to the Museum of Modern Art (in beautiful weather), back to our hotel (where we bought roasted almonds...yum!), packed, and met my friend Allie for lunch. (Allie and I thought it was pretty funny that we met up for lunch in Manhattan when we're both from So Jo.) I then bought another Starbucks (my fourth of the trip), some cupcakes from Crumbs, and Cosi for the plane ride home. A few hours later we boarded the plane in JFK and to my surprise I flew first-class!!! Free movies, free dinner, free candybars, free whatever I wanted! It was fabulous!

I've been secretly planning another trip back east to visit some friends, but it looks like the funds aren't gonna stretch that far. There's too much adventure for one summer!

May I put you on hold?

Whelp, it's officially been over a month since my last blog entry. I actually have a draft waiting to be published, but I haven't uploaded my pictures from my latest adventures and everyone knows that a truly great blog is incomplete without any photos. So you'll just have to wait until I can find the time in my crazy life to upload my pictures and add them to my blog. Remember, patience is a virtue.

Besides, it's not like any of you actually comment on my blog anyway, so what are you really missing out on?