Happy Mother's Day!

Wow... what an eventful day we had. First of all, happy Mothers Day to all those mothers out there (sorry I'm a little late). My Mom is just wonderful and I love her lots! She is an amazing example to me and has me taught me so many things. So in celebration of this day my brother and sister and their families came up. My grandparents were also able to join us, which was a lot of fun! Grandpa is getting old but he's still got his sense of humor. He's always entertaining us with the hilarious things he says. My niece Lexie is our other source of entertainment. She does/says the funniest things! She had a one track mind the entire day, and that was, "Baby?" She was so concerned about her little, almost three month old cousin Taya. She always had to see where the baby was at. However due to an unhappy, possibly sick infant Mike and Maridee left half way through the night.

Grandma and Grandpa Redd, and Dad

My sister has a few Baby Signing Time videos that Lexie loves to watch, so she has been learning all these little signs and it's so cute to watch her do them. One of which is "Bubbles." For an hour or so we all sat outside blowing bubbles, which created quite the mess, but it was fun to watch Lexie.

It started out as me blowing bubbles for her, but somehow turned into her doing it herself. Notice in the picture above how clean her dress is :)

The big boys were blowing BIG bubbles

She had a little bit of a hard time blowing the bubbles at first but she eventually got the hang of it. I wonder if bubbles taste good... Lex sure didn't mind eating a few ha ha.

This was just after she plopped herself down into a puddle of bubbles that had spilled. She officially had bubbles all over her bum, the front of her dress, her hands and arms, and shoes. Man I'm going to have to learn a lot of patience before I become a mom! Every time she dripped bubbles down her dress I would cringe at the sticky mess... My sister just said that eventually you get used to it.

The bubble crew. As you can see the dress finally just came off ha ha

For dessert we had chocolate fondue! Mm mm yum! It was delicious! Then after my mom left to take my grandparents home, those of us that were left played games for a couple hours. We love to play games and it was a ton of fun! Ha ha so we were all just sitting in the kitchen and my brother-in-law was getting Lexie ready to change her diaper... then randomly at the exact same time me and my sister both starting singing "Change a bum, Change a bum..." we stopped and just stared at each other freaked out! The weird thing was, was that it wasn't like it was an actual song we changed the lyrics too... it was just a made up tune that we sang exactly the same!! Ha ha wow it was so freaky! Then about an hour later, my brother was reaching behind him to grab a cinnamon bear. He spun back around and chucked it pretty hard at my face. I saw it coming and quickly opened my mouth not expecting it to go in at all, but then next thing I know it, there's a cinnamon bear in between my teeth. It's hard to explain but it was so weird! It had bounced around inside my mouth then came half way back out. It was funny because everyone else heard this sound, looked up and out of nowhere there is a bear caught in my teeth. Ha ha I caught a speeding cinnamon bear in my teeth! Ha ha well what a fun and exciting day!

Goodbye Logan

Well... my Freshman year is officially over :(. I am all moved home (not completely unpacked yet), and already extremely missing my roommates, friends, and Logan. Last Saturday morning we all woke up early and spent hours cleaning our apartment. It took forever because we had to pull out our fridge and oven and clean underneath... oh it was gross. My parents came up to take home some of my stuff and stayed for a little bit to help clean. My Mom's cleaning tips were quite helpful to all of us young inexperienced cleaners. Once all the dirty work was done it was time to say Goodbye... This was a lot harder than I was expecting. After many long hugs, promises to call often, and prolonged goodbyes, I finally got in my car and drove away. As I was driving home I couldn't help but feel overwhelmingly sad. I am really going to miss seeing my roommates everyday, staying up late talking, and doing crazy spontaneous things... but then I began to reflect upon all the fun adventures we had this last year. I realized that I had an amazing year filled with many new friendships and experiences, spiritual and emotional growth, new perspectives on life, and hours upon hours of laughter. I wouldn't trade this last year for anything and I am so grateful for the experiences I've had and the friendships I've developed.

Although I have been mostly sad to leave Logan, it will be a nice change to be at home closer to my family and old friends, and eat real food once again :). I have lots of fun things planned for this summer and I'm even a little bit excited to go back to work and earn some money. However despite all of those things, I'm glad that the summer lasts only a few months. I'm so excited to move back to Logan in the Fall, and find out what new memories and adventures lie waiting for me next year!!

Goodbye Logan...

Barbasol Beard Buster...

Friday was not only the last day of finals... It was also my roommate Jenni's day of birth! Big 19 Wahoo! We started out the day with various shaped blueberry pancakes, which was later followed by a Smith's Deli food picnic at Willow Park in Logan. We also made a little trip to Willow Park Zoo, which is basically half ducks and birds... but it was still fun! And it only costs a dollar so it was just perfect.

We surprised Jenni with a Little Mermaid cake which she LOVED! If you were to walk into her room you would be able to tell right away that she's obsessed with the little mermaid ha ha.

We went to another park later that day to test out the 3D chalk that we gave her for her birthday. It's not illegal to draw on public sidewalks with chalk is it?? Well I sure hope not. Anyway it really works, it's pretty cool!

And then somehow.... We ended up in a shaving cream fight... :) Barbasol Beard Buster is some great stuff let me tell ya! I smelled like a man the rest of the night, even after I showered ha ha!

It was messy but tons of fun!! Everyone at the park was staring at us... I'm sure they thought we were kinda crazy, but oh well.

New Found Love

Jeeping. Yes that is my new found love. I feel like I've been so deprived all my life... never having gone Jeeping until now. My roommate Jenni owns a Jeep and has always talked about how much fun it is to go out and drive around in the mud. In honor of the warm weather and school being pretty much over last night we took it out for a spin. In the mud :). We went late last night and it was extremely muddy and slick but it was so much fun! Up more North there are a ton of trails in Hyde Park Canyon which is where we went last night. Then today we went back in the afternoon for a longer excursion. It was SO. MUCH. FUN!! Like seriously! Better than any roller coaster I've ever been on ha ha.

I really like this picture! It looks like some car advertisement ha ha.

We drove up to the top of this hill and looked out over the valley. It was such a Gorgeous view! And what a beautiful day it was today! I'm really loving this weather!

Jessica in deep thought as she gazes out across the world below :)

Jenni, a proud Jeep owner

And here's the Jeepin' Crew. Todd, Jessica, Jenni, Darrell... and then me of course. Someone had to take the picture. You may be thinking, "Wait a minute... Jeeps only have four seats and there are five people..." well don't be concerned. Us three girls were in the backseat together, but we were all quite safely strapped in.

This is what we have to show for our fun! Thanks to many glorious mud puddles you can no longer tell that this Jeep is supposed to be blue :)

Man what fun we had! I can't wait to go again... oh wait we're going on another trip tommorrow!! Ha ha :)

"Wanna See My Lump?!"

Man these past couple days have been quite eventful! Who would've thought that birthday cake, rubber bands, towels, a concert in Provo, and the Beatles could provide for such great times!!

Sometime last semester I think, my roommate Jessica was doing something that somehow resulted with her having a large disgusting bruise on her thigh (I think she might've fallen off of something). It was so huge, and she would go around asking people "Wanna see my lump?!" We always joke about us being basically the same person because we are very similar in many ways, have the same name, and quite often get asked out on dates together ha ha. We pretty much come as a package, but I never would've imagined us also having similar wounds too!

Well, it was one of my other roommates' birthday on Tuesday so her family came up and brought a huge costco cake. It was so yummy but between her family and all of us girls we barely dented the thing, so we invited many people over throughout the night to eat it for us. My friend David came over, as well as a few other guys from the complex. Somehow we got into a huge rubber band fight, which eventually transitioned into a towel whipping battle between me and David. Ha ha... Bad idea! I got trapped in a corner, and David, who soaked the corner of his towel, got me real good right on the thigh! It is quite the battle wound!

It wasn't letting me upload pictures before but now i got it to work!! So here's the Battle Wound:

This was the day after...

NOW... this is a week later!! HA HA!! I think it's so hilarious!! I love to show everyone my wound! I'm so proud of it ha ha! The pictures really don't do it justice though... however, you get the idea :)

Wednesday me, Jessica, and our friend Todd drove down to Provo to go to a concert. It was a long drive and we stopped at my house where my mom (who is so nice) had made dinner for us. Todd's friend's band was playing so we went to go see him and a few other bands that were pretty good. It was a lot of fun, but I was way tired. We didn't leave provo until 12:15. The last time we went with Todd down to Provo for a concert we just slept the whole way home and left poor Todd to try and stay awake. This time we sang along to Beatles songs the whole drive home! Ha ha it was so fun and made the drive go by much faster. The Beatles proved to be quite therapeutic and Todd was just high on life Ha ha! We got home at 2:30 then I just crashed into bed. We really had a great time!

It's A Great Day To Be Alive

Man this has been a great week!! Wednesday was a particularly good day. I went to almost all of my classes :), took a trip to the gym, got one step closer to figuring out my life, went to the temple, registered for next semester, and well, I was just in the best mood! I was so happy that not even the SNOW bothered me... which is quite surprising. I made some comment about the snow being pretty and my roommate just stared at me dumbfounded... ha ha yeah it was that Great of a day!

I was a little stressed out when I heard that registration was this week. I do not want to have to think about next semester yet! I only want to think about this one ending! It is especially frustrating for me because I can not figure what I want to major in. I'm pretty close to having all my generals done already and I just really have no clue about what classes I should take. I went and talked to an advisor who was SO extremely helpful! I feel much much better now and she suggested some classes for me to take next semester. I registered that night and now feel slightly excited/slightly unsure for next semester. It will definitely be a lot more difficult than this semester has been. I'm taking a photography class which I'm excited for, but it's twice a week from 4-7... which sounds pretty awful to me... but oh well it will be worth it, hopefully.

The temple was really good too. Going to the temple more often is one thing mentioned a lot in Conference that I felt guilty about and decided I need to do better on. Ha and the old people there are so cute! I was sitting there with my roommate waiting to go into the confirmation room and this old man walked up behind me and said "It looks like you have diamonds in your hair!" because my hair was wet from the snow outside. Ha ha they are so cute and friendly!

I also was looking at the calendar this week and was in shock to realize that next week is the last week of school!! And then one week of finals, then my Freshman year is OVER! WOW! I couldn't believe how fast this year has come and gone! I have been getting really excited for summer to come because I will be done with school, working, going on fun vacations and eating my mom's REAL food, but now that it's basically here I'm feeling a little sad. I'm going to miss seeing my roommates everyday and laughing with them. The summer will be fun however. I'm excited to go back to work and actually have an income again, and I have many fun adventures planned that I'm quite excited about! And before I know it... I will be back in Logan starting my sophomore year. Can't Wait!!

Jewelry Date

Wow, what a night! Back in November our ward had an activity called a "tie date" where we randomly chose a guy's tie and did three secret things for them that week. Then we showed up at their door with the tie for a date that they had planned. This week, they switched it up and did a "jewelry date" where we put in a piece of jewelry and the guys picked it. My mystery date gave me some candy, an easter basket with a decorated egg inside, and my favorite... breakfast in bed!!! I was pretty much way excited! It was yummy yummy. So anyway, tonight was our date and I feel like it was pretty successful. I had a ton of fun and it seemed like everyone else did too!

This is my date... Steve-o! Note: Persons (or person) in picture may appear taller than actual size... p.s. I'm standing on a chair :)

We started the night out by feeding them dinner. Spaghetti, salad, and garlic bread. Nothing too extreme, but still yummy. Then we had dessert... football ice cream to be exact. You mix everything up in a bag, then put that inside a larger bag with ice and salt. You then wrap it up in tons of newspaper (which we are quite abundant in) and throw it around to shake it up! It was a ton of fun, but during this activity we did encounter a few problems... first of all, we (as in me and jenni) forgot to put the sugar in the ice cream... ha ha it's not that important right?! Problem #2... We had a blast throwing them around the apartment but it got quite wild. There were newspaper balls flying everywhere and we had a close call with one of the light fixtures, which almost came crashing down ha ha! I recall multiple times when i was hit in the face by two newspaper balls being viciously thrown at me simultaneously! And everyone noticed the black newspaper remnants smeared on my face... but they failed to mention that to me. I didn't notice until much later ha ha. The final problem we had was... well it just didn't work out the way I had imagined. We basically ended up drinking a mixture of cream, milk and sugar, with the exception of Marral and her date who were actually drinking cream, milk, sugar, and salt. But other than all that I'd say it turned out quite well! Ha ha.

Melanie and Steve-0 throwing our "footballs"

Finally, to finish out the night we painted pictures with our feet! Yes, with our feet. It was great fun! Ha ha when we first told the guys to take off their shoes and socks the looks of confusion on their faces were priceless... you can only imagine what their expressions were once we told them that we were painting with our feet! We were a little worried at first for their reaction, but they were all really good sports about it and I think they had fun.

Steve-o and Omar in the tub washing off their feet. Look at how nasty that water looks... yuck!

NOW look at how nasty the tub was once we were all done.....

Sick huh?! It was SO gross, but Jenni is so wonderful and scrubbed it clean. So don't worry, it's nice and spotless now.

The final Masterpieces:

Jess and Richard

Marral and Omar

Jenni and Treygen

James and Melanie

And finally, me and Steve-o!

Well what a fun date! It was so much better than sitting and watching a movie or something... well at least I thought so! I love dates that are active, cheap, and creative. There's no need to spend a lot of money and there are so many fun things you can do without spending a whole lot. It was a blast!