Oops.

So, just as a catch up....


I did forget, again, to keep this updated once a month.


I did graduate.

I did not get another job once I lost my job at Sullivan's.
I know, it stinks, but I have to be 18 for any other job, unfortunately.
So the job search continues!!


I did get called as a ward missionary.
And I love every second helping the Sisters and Elders.

I did get accepted into Utah State University.
So far, the major is music-due to change.
GO AGGIES!

I did have a phenomenal prom experience.
Here, look at all these pictures!!

        Me and my awesome prom date. Such a gentleman, he was so complimentary and polite.

                                                   All the fabulous-o girls in the prom group.

                                      This is everyone. I love this group with all of my heart.

                            Hunter and I again. He's awesome. Can't say it enough.

                         I mean, look! He even wore matching socks, HOW LEGIT IS THAT??

                                 
                            Janelle and I had a little time to snap a picture before our dates arrive.

I did get glasses.
Waay pumped for that.

I did conduct my orchestra on the last concert.
I did earn my spot as CONCERTMASTER!
I did get to play a side-by-side concert with the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra.

                                           Shaking hands with the conductor of the KSO!!

                                        One of my best orchestra friends after a concert!

                                 Me conducting Artemis Rising. I even got to keep the baton.

                  First violinist Gabe and I, James, Katherine, Emma, and the conductor.

                           
                                          Me cleaning my instrument before the concert.

You KNOW You Have a Big Family When....

I have decided that we need to distinguish what makes a big family.

So here it goes.

You have a big family when.......

1. You REALIZE when someone is gone. Its almost like deathly quiet without that one person.

2. You labor for two hours on making your room spotless. You leave for 10 minutes, return, and it looks like Big Bird tried to make his nest from your stuff.


3. Before you even consider getting married, you call names that no one else can use to name your children.


4. You have to take a number at the table to speak.


5. The bathroom never stays clean. Ever.


6. When you go camping, you have to cram three teenage girls into a two man tent.


7. McDonald's, Wendy's, and Jason's Deli are your version of fancy dinner out.


8. When going to a familt reunion, you can't remember all of your cousins names (or just plain old think they're just some kid who showed up, not recognizing them because they were born after you left last reunion, yeah that's my favorite) or which aunt is expecting.

9. You run out of breath before you introduce who each of your siblings are.

10. When going out to eat at Gatti's, and you completely forget how old they are so you tell the cashier, "Two, two, and five." when they're really four, four, and seven.

Top ten!! I'll list additional ones when I experience more!

Forgetting Blog's Existence

Sooo I'm really sorry but I kinda forgot that I even had one of these, until I saw that one of my friends who just graduated has created a blog and thought to myself, "Hey, that seems like a really good idea- I shou-" Oh yeah, I already have one! So I have re-dedicated myself to the art of blogging!
(Yeah, right....let's see how long this lasts)
I love being able to post my funny experiences here.
Ok, here's some of my goals for this blog:
1) Post at least once a month.
     -Now, I do have an AP class, but it's only one so this goal seems very realistic.
2) Tell at least one funny story.
     -It may not be funny in your opinion, but hey, I'll try ;)
3) Relate a lesson that I have learned from an experience I share.
    -Also, seems reasonable, right?

Any thing else you would like to see on here, just go ahead and leave a comment, I am open to suggestions!

RAchel

Girls' Camp- 4th Years!!!

I went to Girls' Camp this summer also!

It was so great to see old friends, and meet new ones!

Next year I will be a YCL (hopefully over the 1st years)

But I'm going to miss being a "year".

So here's my tribute to my last year-with the BEST group of girls EVER!

VICKI! BIANCA! (Haha I called her Bonka)

This is on our lovely 5 mile hike.

note my sarcastic tone.

Why the sarcasm? haha the elements of nature were against us.

It was the hottest day we were there the whole week.

We almost ran out of water...

Vegetation, thorns, and trees blocked our way the whole way up.

Haha on the way down?

It poured as soon as we got camp set up.

(hey, at least we got it set up)

On our arrival home, I almost burst into tears.

It was rough. It was tough.

I was able to understand how much I really depend on and need my Savior.

This really was simple but pretty.

The view from on our way down to cool ourselves off.

In what? you may ask.
You're in the middle of a forest, not a water park.

Oh, just a...GORGEOUS waterfall!
(the water felt soo good on my head)

I have determined that I had cut my hair at the wrong time.

I couldn't put it in a ponytail whatsoever.
So naturally, my hair was drenched from perspiration.

Allison, Lisa, Bonka, and Vicki all coolin' off.

Oh Sister Kah.

What a fantastic fairy godmother you are!!

Bippedy-boppidity-boo!

Each year of YCL's put together their own song.

It Incorporated with their princess.

*applause*
1st years were Mulan.

Look at the Grandmother Willow in the picture with Sister Kah.

AMAZING!

"I'm heading off to visit the 2nd years!"

2nd years were Belle.

Song was beautifully written-tune from "Be Our Guest"

3rd years were Rapunzel.
Cute cute song!

I loved their little dancing show too :D

Last but NOT LEAST!

4TH YEARS!! (*WILD APPLAUSE*)

They used brooms as "weapons"

They kinda forgot the song....

huh.

That's alright.

We all know how AWESOME Mulan is anyways :)

Side note: for each year we had to have a roll call response.

(when the camp leaders shouted 4th years! we had to say something)

We had made this up when we were 2nd years.

In a Mulan song, it goes, "Let's get down to business to defeat the Huns."

Well, naturally ours was, "Let's get down to business to defeat [who ha!] Satan!"

(yeah, ours was the best, in my humble opinion)

Then all of the YCL's got together and linked arms and sang Kumbya.

Hahaha just kidding.

They sang another song from "Tangled" and it was amazing.
How do they come up with all of this??

HUGE group of YCL's this year!

And what would girls' camp be without...SKITS!!

This year, we were required to say

"Once Upon a Time"

"Happily Ever After"

"If the shoe fits!"

"That's legit!"

"Your momma said what??"

"Well, Sandra Vaughn does love Little Sally Walker."

The Stake YW Leaders.

Hahahaha look at all of their faces.

Sister Farmer sniffling.

Sister Orme messin' with her shoe.
Sister Vaughn rockin' out to fake tunes.

And Sister Stoner...pulling a fish face? haha

Sister Farmer totally reminded me of that typical "teen gal".

Sister Orme's probably thinking, "Can this umbrella make my fly like Mary Poppins?"

Sister Vaughn, "Is it tiimme YET?"

2nd years went first after leaders.

They acted out a bedtime story.

We actually did the biography of Sister Vaughn and Little Sally Walker.

With old Sister Stoner and old Sister Orme.
Sister Vaughn's bully-Keith (he's real, don't you worry)

Aaand we incorporated her implied dream of always wanting to be on Broadway.
Since everyone loved me as an old lady last year, I returned.

And sang "Broadway" then turned into my granny self and came back out.

Then did what all grannies do.

Included myself at the end of the kickline.

Some may be wondering, "What's Sally Walker?"

It's a game. You get in a huge circle.

One person's in the middle.

They dance around the circle as you sing this catchy tune.

"Little Sally Walker walkin' down the street. She didn't know what to do,

so she stopped in front of me and said,"

(and at this time the person in the middle stops at someone and dances.

The opposite person has to copy exactly what they're doing.)

"Hey girl, do your thing, do your thing now switch. [switch]

Hey girl, do your thing, do your thing, now switch."

And the flour war.

4th years were required to put their knowledge of first aid to the test.

How do you test it better than a flour war and fake injury necklaces?

Then the 4th years got to get involved.

Our only rule this year was, "DON'T GET THE LEADERS."

So what do the leaders do?

Break out WATER BALLOONS when we're all out of ammo!

And the Sister Farmer started singing "we are the champions!"

Yeah, yeah.

We'll get you next year.

The flour war was fun.

Even if it did take an hour to get the paste out of our hair in the shower.
Haha I'm not exactly sure why I got in the middle of the group in the first picture.

I just look funny.

This picture, we all look ready to be baked into cookies then put into an oven.

Visiting Family

So my first reason for not blogging for so long-UTAH!

I got to visit both sides of my family and go to both reunions!!

Yay!!

So the first day of our arrival we went to the Graves reunion.

I got to see my second cousins!! (and I think they're once removed)

Celeste is my age, and she has a brother who just got married.

Aaawwww!

So after we greeted, we got to coloring!

Here's us together. Isn't she beautiful?
Oh, and the thing on my head?
That means I won something, and you had to challenge me to take it.
I ended up winning the jump rope contest. Russell beat my pogo stick.

This is Maximillion. Seriously, that's his name.
And he is soooooo cute!
Jake wasn't too thrilled that Carly (they were just married) put his little brother on a girl bike.


Next, we went to my Grandma Bingham's house.
We went to the Aggie campus and had a blast!

This is Cameron.

He was always running from me.

But he is the cutest little boy!!

(no matter that he is mischeivious)

Take #2

Take #3

This is my Aunt Adrienne.

She just graduated high school.

She's going to major in RM's. ;)
(take #4)

Take #5

He came up to me one night.

He climbed up on me so he was a head taller than me.

He slurped up his slobber.

He bopped my nose and asked,

"Why do you have so many dots on your face?"
I guess my freckles are foreign to an Alaska boy.

Believe it or not, that's Spencer.

He was climbing a tree and somehow ripped a branch off!

He proudly marched it over to Dad.

Will.

The Alaskan.
He HAD to climb this tree.
And he only got up there once my dad lifted him.

Yep, he was satisfied.

This is Reagan.

We were supposed to have buddies when we waked around the campus.

I was the last one, and she did NOT want to be my partner.

She looks quite theatric, doesn't she?

Grayson!

He charmed everyone with

"Mum"

"HHii"

and "Dat"

Gray!! He is so so cute!!
(and this is his "Mum" Emily)

I was surrounded by cuteness everywhere I turned.

This is Kennedy and her mom, Erin.

Hahaha I think Erin was trying to match Kenny.

So you're happy to see me!

;) she sure knows how to charm the photographer!

Allie! Short for Allison.

We called her that cause we also have an aunt named Allison.

She's adorable too!

Haha Luke was waiting for his turn in the tree.

It was really crowded...

Oh! Hello Logan!

Haha he loved the camera :)

And he was my shadow whenever it was out!

And this is why Luke had to wait.

Why Dylan, what's wrong?

Dylan: "I don't wanna fall off!"

Dylan and Russell: "AAHHH!!"

Then we went to my Grandma Graves's house.

But then we relocated to my Aunt Teniel's!

This is Super Cooper!

And this is Mason! :)

And Quincy!

I call her cici.

This is Addison!

She is absolutely beautiful, and she is one of our family miracles.
She had a cleft palate when she was born.

And now you can't tell!

Doctors predicted she wouldn't hear.

But she can :)

Smiley Skylar :)

he had a camera just like me!

Waiting for the parade...

Janelle, Berkely, and Madeline!

I love Utah.

I love family reunions!!