Ty's 1st time at Girl's Camp

This year's girls camp was just peachy! It was so nice to get away from it all and enjoy nature and spend some time with the YW, who I so dearly love. We went to Moon Lake in the Uintah's. I was so looking forward to staying in cabins this year, but at the last minute we did some shuffling and it ended up being Ty and I and the YW pres and her husband staying in tents. It was probably for the best though so that I could protect Ty from the bears and the rabid chipmunks.

Anyways our cabins/campsites were right up off of the shore of Moon lake and we had such a great view. The weather was perfect, the girl's and leaders were awesome, and it turned out being overall a great girls camp. Another reason why it was so great was because it was only 2 nights. Don't get me wrong...I love camping, but anymore then 2 nights you start to get very gnarly...as in smelly and sweaty.

All Clean

Compliments to the Chef

We Rock!

One of the Beehives and Me

Tyler saved the day!

"gone fishin"

Yeah!...a fish

Wilderness Pageant

Wilderness Queen

Moon Lake 2008

Ty had some fun of his own in scaring the beehives by scratching on their cabin door like a giant bear. Little did we know it really did scare them more then we thought. Someone even suggested that it was Tyler and they all insisted that Tyler would never do such a thing...apparently Tyler has a very innocent demeanor. This year at camp we also enjoyed fishing, hiking, unga bunga, paddle boating, eating, and our theme focused on building our testimonies.

I have always enjoyed girls camp and hope that opportunities will always arise for me to join the YW of the ward for some camping. I absolutley love my calling and am thankful for it. The young women of this ward have definitley strengthened my testimony and I hope I have in some way strengthened their's. As I have blogged about before I LOVE serving in the YW's!

Here's a little something from memory lane...a picture of my last year as a Laurel at girl's camp:

Scotty Reunion

We have a tradition started in my family that started 2 summers ago and hopefully it will be a tradition that goes on and on and gets bigger and bigger. So, my parents have a condo in SL...yes, I know SL is just a 1/2 hour away, but to make a long story short it was purchased when my Mom was way into genealogy and this particular condo is pretty much right across the street from Temple Square.

Well, we always go down for at least 3 days or so and hang out together. We will usually play games (this year Boggle and Guitar Hero were the focus), watch movies, eat & eat, go shopping, & our favorite is Raging Waters. Next year a suggestion made by Rob was to start making a temple session or something of that sort part of the festivities as well. This year was great because we made it to IKEA too...Finally :) The pic is one of my MANY finds. It's a heart shaped ice cube maker. Soooo cute and only $1

I LOVE my family and am so glad that we have this weekend just focused on relaxing and hanging out with one another. Thanks Mom and Dad for putting up with us. WE LOVE YOU!

Below is a short clip of Ty and Rob going on the best slides in the park. The first slide I will not even attempt anymore because apparently I don't have enough weight behind me to make it back up the second hill. But the boys are great at it and have been "lectured" several times on not catching air...if you have been to Raging Waters then you know the whole point is to try and catch air!!

Remember??

This was on Ashley's blog and I thought it would be fun:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I (or you and Tyler) had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

Fourth of July Weekend...One Week Later

So I was going to post this a week ago, but didn't have my camera and then I forgot about it, so this might seem a little lame.

-----------------------

Our Holiday weekend was fantastic. It was so fun and relaxing hanging out with Tyler. I live to be able to have fun in July...oh, and Christmas time is something else I live for. I'm also VERY grateful that I am not at GWCU like I was last summer. Last summer was H-E-Double Hockey Sticks trying to get time off to have a little fun and go on some trips. Basically last summer was one of the worst summers for that reason, because in their heads it was basically a too bad kind of deal. But, I'm so grateful now to have the jobs I do so I can enjoy life before it passes me by....("Life comes at you fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it! -Ferris Bueller). Anyways here's some pictures from our Fourth of July:

First we saved this dog:

We almost hit her on the way to see "Hancock" and so we picked her up, knocked on a few doors, took her home and cleaned her up, thought about keeping her if the owner didn't claim her, fortunately for Rusty-Roo, the owner called us, and so we gave her to her rightful owner...I hear "Hancock" was dumb anyways. It was good to see how soft of a heart Tyler has when it comes to our little fury friends.

We almost died from these "illegal" fireworks:

I have never seen my life flash before my eyes until this weekend. One malfunctioned and came shooting straight at the bystanders...us. Lesson learned? Not so much, we kept going.

Rusty was terrified from the noise of the fireworks. Here he is in good company watching Nemo.

Then we baked in the sun at the cruise-in. Ty was in hog heaven. We saw this $1.2 Million dollar vehicle, aka a Duesenberg:

I especially liked the one seater in the back and the color!

and we saw this Beverly Hillbilies replica of a car, aka a Nash:

and Tyler admired this lovely little thing, aka his next project after his 49 GMC is finished in 50 or so years :) :

I am learning more and more about cars and trucks everyday that I spend with Tyler...whether I like it or not. I must admit it is fun to learn about something that Tyler finds so much enjoyment out of and gets so excited about. Maybe one of these days you'll find both of us all greased up and working on an engine...just not anytime in the near future.

Then we hung out with my old roomie Polly:

(sorry no pics)

I now know what she does all day...chases an adorable 2 year old and cares for a newborn sweetheart.

Tyler recieved this lovely little card from a kid in our ward:

And that's our weekend in a nutshell.

---------------------

I am now off to girl's camp for a couple of days (It will be Tyler's first girl's camp) and then hanging out with my fam at the condo after that, so adios for a week or so. Luv, the Hodsons.

If you mess with us: Roundhouse kick...POW!

So, I just got back from the most amazing Turbo-Kick class at Lady Fitness...Anyone care to join me? Today is great because I have had a finance class for the last couple of months from 9:30 to 12 and then work, but class ended last week, so now I have a month or so of nothing in that time slot. I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!! I am getting to know my new scrapbooking program. Did you see the new banner above? I also figured out you can do this with your pictures:WOH! I think I need to take a class or something to learn all about it because it's kinda overwhelming me. Ok, one more thing. I found this picture on MSN's week in pictures. This is a traffic jam in China:

Crazy huh? Yah, pretty much I need to stop complaining about Utah's construction zones, because it could be much worse.

Woh!...Fanny!!

So, I was going to post pictures of what we've been up to for the last week or so, but Tyler accidentally left the camera at work. Weird huh,...heavens knows what he needs a camera at work for? Just in case I guess.

So, I will post those later, but for now I thought it would be fun to talk about my puppy's bum. "Roo has a big but and he can not lie...all you other doggies can not deny".

K I'm kinda a dork, but my dog really can BACK IT UP! This has happened numerous times, but most recently on the way to Target.

If you don't already know, Riverdale has crazy construction going on this summer. So, we were on our way to Target and waiting to turn left when I hear "bbbbeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!!!!!" I looked to my right and see a minivan very close to our car, because the lanes are so close together, and so I assumed they were honking at us. I thought to myself.."How Rude"...then I looked to my left and Tyler was laughing and pushing Roo's BIG buns out of the way. IT WAS ROO!

When Roo turns around, quickly and awkwardly, while sitting on the driver's lap in the car, he usually inadvertently honks the horn with his big bum making a loud BBBEEEEEEEEEEEEEP and making us look like big fat impatient jerks for randomly honking at the people in front of us at the Stop light. Roo really does know how to "shake what his mama gave him", but sometimes just at the wrong time.

This picture was when he was only about a year old and so therefore imagine his bum much more massive now.

Our Extended Weekend...

As I have blogged about before...I absolutely LOVE summer, especially JULY!!!!!! Saturday night fufilled 4 out of 5 of my top reasons to love summer (Fireworks, swimming, Free Time, and BBQ's). We had some friends over to Ty's Mom's for a swim and bbq, and then enjoyed the West Haven fireworks. I must say for West Haven, and for only being like the 2nd or 3rd time to have a show they were awesome. You know it's a good show when you keep asking yourself and the person next to you if that was the finale or not. And this week is Old Glory Days in Riverdale. I am luvin' everything about this July month and it hasn't even started yet. Thanks to Ty's Mom for always being so willing to let us play at her house.

So, Ty and I have been planning our date day for the last couple of weeks to be today. He was so sweet to take the day off work to come and hang out with his most favorite person...me of course. We had it all planned to go to IKEA first because I've been dying to go for the last year since they moved in to "this is the place" Utah, but we've never seemed to make it down there or when we are down there we haven't had the time to stop. We were also planning to go to Lunch, and then the Zoo, and then to Eaglewood Golf Course. We had a full day planned for us.....WELP, it didn't so much turn out the way we had planned. First of all, it just so happens that I had a test that was due today that I had to study for and take before we could head out. So that set us a few hours back...IKEA was the first to be crossed off the list =( much to my displeasment............ So, okay now we were off...we first went to one of our favorite restraunts in SL, the Macaroni Grill, and then to the Zoo. Well that ended up being the last stop because I got horibly sick, which never happens. I am usually the one with the most energy. I think that the heat must've gotten the best of me because I had that feeling where your stomach feels all bloated and then continues and feels like it is about to come up your throat...yah, that's the way I felt. So, we ended up staying for just a little bit at the Zoo, and much to Ty's displeasment ended up crossing Eaglewood off the list=( Let's just say that the day didn't exactly turn out the way we had planned, but there isn't another person I would have rather spent it with.

A rare White Alligator...Oooh...Aaah!

Tyler's not mad, he just scrunches his forehead in the sun.

Fake smile...I felt like poo.

Happy Feet!

REEEAAACHH!!

Live Like You Were Dying!

So at the last minute (meaning the day before the concert) a few of my coworkers from LDS Family Services and I decided to go to the Tim Mcgraw concert on Friday night! I have never really been to a "good" country concert so I was really excited. We ended up paying a little more for our tickets then I had planned, but as you will see from my pictures it was WELL worth the moolah. He seriously sang all of my favorite songs, well come to think of it, there isn't too much of Tim Mcgraw that I don't enjoy especially where there are so many that he could sing. A few of the selections were: Where the Green Grass Grows, I Like it I Love it, Indian Outlaw, Live Like You Were Dying, Back When...etc etc. I really had a good time with my friends from work and considering how many people were drinking, we were lucky enough to not have any of those crazy annoying drunk people around us...oh, but there was this one buggin' couple who would not stop touching each other, but such is life. The only down fall is that Ty was not there to enjoy the music...and here's a few pictures:

Jason Aldeen Opened..Rockin'

The concert fanatics: Steph, Me, Kelly, Marie
(So sorry my smile is so cheezy)

Yup...That's Tim

Backside... Frontside...

And again... Are these pictures monotonous?...

Signing Autographs...

Kung Fu Meets Marley the Dog

So, this is my unofficial book and movie review for "Kung Fu Panda" and "Marley and Me".

There are not many books that I read that I thoroughly enjoy from start to finish. (Actually I have never been much of a novel reader) Well, Marley and Me was one of these books that I loved. It could be that I am a dog lover and owner and so can relate to a lot of the situations in the book. Or it could be the genius of the author in being able to write in a way that you completley see the whole scenario clearly in your head from the way he writes. Either way I am not alone in my thinking. This book, a true story, is a #1 New York Times Bestseller and they are currently making a movie starring Jen Aniston and Owen Wilson because of the love for this book. Marley is a rambunctious and free-spirited dog that the Author and his wife buy as newlyweds. This dog goes through all of life's ventures with this couple from happy times to sad times from new children to new jobs and creates a lot of adventures of his own for the Grogan's. I literally laughed out loud for 3/4 of the book and had to share some parts out loud to Tyler. I loved this book....so read it. It took me only a few hours over the course of a few days and was very fast and light reading.

Last Friday we went with Tyler's newest engaged friend Aaron and his fiance to one of the cutest movies I've seen lately. Kung Fu Panda was not like some children movies where your attention wanders and you start looking at your watch. This movie was awesome! I loved it and the guys loved it as well. Tyler and I were giggling our little heads off through the whole movie. Another thing that I liked about this movie is the fact that they used "big names" to do the voices of the characters. You could totally see the character of the actor being portrayed through the animated character. This one was definitley a thumbs up in my book and I'd recommend it to anyone with or without children who just wants an entertaining/funny/and lighthearted film.

Why are you swimming awaaaaay???

Don't you think Rusty looks like a long torpedo?

I love fashion, but don't consider myself fashionable...

I 'heart' purses!

A new one might soothe my jittery craving...but not according to Ty. Lucky for him I go for the bargain (yet still stylish and cute) purse. These are a few that fancy my liking:

All from Target or Aero and CHEAP!