What's Left of the Nest: 2009

Okay, this is quite embarrassing, but inevitable. It happens every year, as soon as school starts I get super behind on my blog and then I have to play the catch up game and go back almost two months to relay all the cool things that are going on in my life.

As you all know, I am in an organization called UPC and as part of being a student leader, we were sent to Boulder, Colorado to a leadership institution called I-LEAD. There we met kids just like us from all over the country. It was a great bonding and learning experience for the seven of us who work at the U.

Please let me introduce you to my UPC family. On the top left is Alison (the oldest sister), then there's the pre-teen who thinks she is a lot older than she is: Michelle (aka Meesh), then Papi Rob, next is the twins: Jeremy and Erin (Jer-Bear and Er-Bear). On the bottom row is Me who is the youngest (decided age:5) and last but not least, Ashley- the second oldest sister. We have become very close since our mother's death. It really is a great story- our house caught on fire and Mom was downstairs and all the kids were up and Papi had to choose and he chose to save us. Pretty sad, but we get by.

Jumping Photo. We've become quite good at these.

My sisters are SO beautiful.

The twins: together for the first time since the womb.

We look like a hair commercial.

Like I said- Pros.

The BUSTED CHIAS: Michelle, Brian, Joe, Katie, Carlos, Anna, Shaun, Nate, Katy Jo, Kelly, Heather, Me and Jackie.

It's genetics.

Meesh and I ready for the 80's Dance Party.

Yet another picture of the three of us. But this one is my favorite :)

Right before we were leaving to come back to UTAH.
Note: the reason I am wet is because Ash and I had just ran through sprinklers but then remembered we were taking pics so we hurried and blow-dried out hair.

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My good friend, Curtis got married on August 7th.

Curtis and his Bride, Ashley.

We get along. Sometimes. I love you, Dirty.

Seester, Brandon and Me at the reception.

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My friend Kellie was married on the 21st of August.

At the Bridal Shower: Nichole, Kellie, Teneil, Elysha, Me and Lacey.

Archibald's Crew=Colby, Jeff, Krissy, Nichole, Teneil, Elysha, Me, Johnathan and Lacey.

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Being in charge of Crimson Nights this year has proven to be very stressful, yet very rewarding. The first CN this year was themed a Beach Boardwalk and it was a HUGE success. We had tons of cool things for students to do free of charge: Firework show, dance party, henna tattoos, face painting, trampoline with harness and more!!

There were so many people!! This picture doesn't do it justice.

So-funny story. We had a firetruck (see pic above) as a marketing tool. After each Crimson Nights we take all the volunteers to breakfast at Village Inn and we thought, "We should take the firetruck!- Yeah GREAT idea!"...until we got pulled over. Ashley, Alison and Me trying to hide=FAIL!

At Breakfast. Because of the event, getting pulled over and breakfast, I didn't get home until 6am!!

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As another right of passage of college, this year I have joined the MUSS (Mighty Utah Student Section) for the football games. I went to my first college game last week and it was so much FUN!

Yep, Hardcore.

This picture is to show how many students are in the muss
(and this is only one of three sections!!)

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My school has an annual competition with Utah State to see which school can collect the most blood. Me, Ashley and Rob all decided to go and donate. Well, Kind of. We got there and Rob couldn't donate because he just got back from Africa (if you visit any country who has problems with Malaria-you cannot donate for a year) and I couldn't donate because after testing my blood, there wasn't enough Iron in my blood and my temperature was .2 degrees too high. :(

Rob and I so sad that we cannot donate.

Ashley, just saving lives-no big deal.

Me, holding a pound of Ashley's blood. Everyone thinks this is so gross? I don't know why?!

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We went down to St. George to see my cousin, Olivia get baptized over Labor Day weekend.

Playing Scrabble. This was a nightly occurance. It can also get pretty competitive. Brent won one time and after Grandma quit because she was mad she wasn't winning and Brent says, "Grandma, aren't you going to congratulate me on my first win?" Her response? "Congratulations you rat fink...Bastard." lol.

MAYBE this is why Grandma kept losing, by picking hands like this. Just a thought.

Let me introduce...Shaky Face.

I love hammoks!

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For UPC, we had a social and for it we decided to play dodgeball. It ended up being so much fun!!