When I went down to SLC for Benn's farewell dinner, the Travellers came to see him off. My "Uncle" was adamant about joining them for Thanksgiving, so I went to their house to spend the holiday with them.
I say "Uncle" because these people are not related to me at all. But, I have known them my entire life - literally - and I think of their kids as my cousins. I see them more often than I see my real cousins, and I am really close with them.

It was a wonderful, yet casual week; we all worked on that crazy puzzle pictured above, we went on some walks, went to the movies, and talked.
I was really grateful to be at home with a family during Thanksgiving, even though it wasn't my own. I guess sometimes it could be strange to think about that, because siblings fight, and people get cranky with each other - It's just how families are. 

But still, there is just something about a group of people who know and love you.

I hope you had a great 4th of July. I did, and I'm really happy about it because I've had some rather crappy 4th of Julys since I've started going to school.

(Last year, I went with Kelsi to Chad's sister's house. We ate but then felt like we couldn't leave because we had to watch 8 hours of the Jane Eyre BBC series. It was a good series, but not exactly how we wanted to spend the day.)

This year we started off with Jamba Juice while we watched the parade. We met up with our good friend Rachel, and her roommate. Some others joined us. We found a really great/shady spot in front of a mattress store, and we watched our friend Ryan in the drumline.

My favorites were the drumline, the car wash guys, and some people dressed up as zombies dancing to "Thriller".

Then we went to the store to grab some food to BBQ. Ammon's friend, Christian, ate with us. Even Chris got to stop by for a little while, even though he had homework and work later on.

We were going to go swimming in...some body of water (we hadn't really decided where) but Christian suggested that we go to this water slide. Someone had set up a large tarp with a big hose at the top of a hill, and filled up a pit at the bottom of the slide with water. People were going down with inner tubes. 

Some groups would try to pile 7 people on one tube, and it was hilarious to watch them make it down the hill. It was really fun.

This slide was in Sugar City, and I had never been there before. It's small, but it was so beautiful to see the green fields and the clouds hanging over them. 

We stopped to get some shaved ice before going home to rinse off and head out to Idaho Falls to watch the fireworks.

We met up with Natalie and her friends there, and had to wait a long time. Apparently, (I didn't find this out until this morning) a man had gone swimming and they couldn't find him. The fireworks were delayed because they were searching, and they found his body at about 1 AM.

That was really sad to hear. My heart is with his family and friends.

Sorry to end that on a sad note, but I had a good day.

I'm grateful for all of the people who serve our country, and grateful for our forefathers for providing a framework for us to establish our rights.

My body finally succumbed to the cold it had been fighting off for the past week, though I feel like it chose a poor time to do so. Too many Easter day festivities to prepare and execute, including; ward choir performance, ysa pianist duties, and the setting up and decor for dinner. And find some moments here and there to remember the Savior's marvelous gift for us and cry over Consider the Lilies. What a day.

I had a nice day though, despite illness. My mom is still kicking herself for forgetting the ham in the oven at home. It was great. I'm proud of her for not getting too upset about it.

After surveying the avacado grove, Papa had a thought. 

"I forgot that vampires live here."

Good night, everyone.