IPP

IPP stands for Island Park Party - for all those who are wondering. This past weekend a rather large group of friends headed up to Island Park (which is about 20 minutes outside of West Yellowstone) for a fun weekend trip. We crammed about 20 people in a cabin built for 6. Some slept in beds, some of the floor and some outside on the dock reaching out over the Snake River.

The weekend went by way to quickly. But the 5 hour drive both ways was totally worth it! Here are some of my favorite pictures of the trip.

Saturday morning most of us went to Mesa Falls to enjoy the beautiful scenery and of course, take a few fun pictures...

Mesa Falls:

The group:

Me and my friend Brady:

Jill, Rich, Adam and me:

Some of the boys:


We went to a rodeo in W. Yellowstone Saturday night. Not the best rodeo I have been to, but it was definitely worth the $10 we paid to see cowboys in tight Wranglers and smell like manure the rest of the night. We also went into W. Yellowstone and had dinner, did some loitering on the main drag and found some great eclectic things to take pictures of (i.e., painted buffalo's and strange animal hats).





My favorite part was sleeping in the dock. However, I was told the next morning that I pretty much crashed the boys party by setting up my sleeping bag and going to sleep on the dock. I guess I didn't realize there was a "no girls" policy.




We thought that if we went to church on Sunday, it would cancel out our t-shirt making activity and also our adventures in Yellowstone. However, we all slept in and didn't make it. So I feel a little guilty admitting what we did... oh well. On Sunday we made some great T-shirts at the local shirt shop and then headed into Yellowstone for some great site seeing. My friend Shena was obsessed with seeing a bear. So we made these t-shirts in hopes of seeing one. No such luck.



Yet another fabulous weekend trip. I hope summer lasts forever!

Surprise!

My life is a bit hectic at the moment, and I don't really have too much time to blog - but I thought I needed to give a post to my lovely friend Mackenzi.


Mackenzi and I became friends a year ago when she moved in to the house. What I would do without her I just don't know?? She has become my partner in crime, my late night laughing buddy and most importantly, my right arm. We have the same last name. We are known to many as the "Harris sisters". We are not related. However, we tell people we are cousins because we know somewhere down the line we have to be related. It's just easier that way. People get confused that we live in the same house and have the same last name, but aren't sisters. Crazy how that happens!

Mackenzi threw me a surprise party on Wednesday night for my birthday. Boy was I surprised. I had no clue. Thanks Kenz! You are the best! I didn't take that many pictures of the great event, but here are a few!



I asked my friend Sammy if he "wanted a piece" of cake - and of course he turned it dirty. We took a picture.

I'm 25.... And I didn't cry!

This past weekend I celebrated my 25th birthday in Bear Lake with my family. I prepared myself to have either a physical, emotional or mental breakdown - and surprisingly enough, I didn't have any of them. In fact, it was probably one of the best birthdays I ever had. Here are a few pictures of how I spent my day:

Skiing - I took a nasty face plant and lost a contact in the process.



I read:

I played:

But mostly, I slept:


I don't really care for birthday cake, so I had cupcakes for my birthday cake instead. Very good idea if you ask me.




The rest of the weekend was spent boating and relaxing. In the 100 degree heat, it was pretty difficult to keep cool. However, thanks to the cool waters of Bear Lake, a quick jump in the lake did the trick - oh, and a shake at La Beau's.





I have a feeling 25 is going to be a good age for me. I think it suits me well.

My Paycheck Isn't Like a Celebrity...

For all of you that read my blog, I thank you. I appreciate comments and encourage them more than anything. I found this cartoon and I thought it only appropriate to post. For all those that read People, US Weekly, Star, InTouch, OK! or any other celebrity magazine - I highly suggest you start your own blog. That way, you can become one of "those people" that your friends read about doing mundane, dull or otherwise "everyday activities". Your friends will soon tell you you need to blog more often. That one post every few days doesn't give them enough to go on. So, moral of the story: You can be a celebrity too.

If you can't read 5 pt font, click on the picture to enlarge:

Baby and a Ring!

This past weekend was a big weekend for two of my dear dear friends. First, on Saturday Kristine Anderson got herself engaged. Late fall will be the time when my last single friend left (from high school) here in SLC will take the plunge. It has been a few years since any of my high school crew has gotten married - so congrats, Tina (I don't even know if you reads this??).

Her "loaner" ring until the official one is sized:


And then on Sunday, Katie and Spencer welcoming to the world their first child. Lance Tripp Taggart. Yes, I stole this picture from their blog, but I just couldn't resist - SO CUTE!


Congrats to K & K!

Lake Powell

Last week my family took our annual trip to Lake Powell. And in true LP fashion, we had a few boat problems, the heat was almost unbearable and the "poop dock" station was always crowded. What is the "poop dock" or PD station? It is the floating bathrooms that are scattered throughout the lake. This is a relatively new addition to LP, maybe 6 or so years old. But let me tell you, whoever thought of it was freaking genious!


My family does Lake Powell the old fashion way. We camp. No houseboat to keep us cool, no toilet available whenever you need it. Lake Powell is full fledged, tent on the sand, sand in your food experience for my family. And I love it. Ok, I would probably love it more if we had a house boat, but I won't go into that. Anyway, thanks mom and dad for a great trip.

I Call it Old School

I like to claim that I was once ahead of the times when I got my first iPod. The date = July 19, 2004. That's right, I have had an iPod for almost 3 years to the date. I told myself I could have been an Apple saleswomen because I was so in love with my iPod. I got my iPod for my birthday (which is July 21st - few short days away) a few days earlier because I was going out of town and I needed the cool gift for my trip. However, since Apple likes to update their gadgets every 6 months (or so it seems), I was unaware that their new and improved iPod was actually coming out on my birthday. So, needless to say, I was one of the poor saps who gets the old model right before the new one comes out.

An actually image of what my iPod looks like:


Since then, I have yet to buy a new iPod. Therefore, I call myself "Old School". I kind of like having a smaller, black and grey screen that can't hold TV shows, images of CD covers or any other cool features that the iPods of now can do.

For Halloween last year, I dressed up as an iPod shadow with my two friends, Brooke and Kristine. You can totally see the dated iPod that is mine in this picture. You might call it ghetto, but I call it "old school".

Nope, not pregnant..

This is in follow up to my "I think I am still sick" post a week ago. This picture was taken after eating that ginormous pizza in Bear Lake. I win for biggest belly! Kenzi comes in at a close second! Now you all know I was not lying when I said, "I think I am still sick."

When Bees Attack!

Bees scare the living daylight out of me. I have had a fear of them ever since I was born. I had been lucky enough to only recall being stung once in my whole life. That is until this week.

In a matter of 5 days, I happened to be stung by two separate bees. Both equally painful and extremely dramatic. The first happened on Sunday while I sat out on my parents rock wall in front of their house. I was minding my own business, eating a package of cheddar filled crackers when the most excruciating pain shot through my heel. My foot flew in the air, my flip flop went airborne and the package of crackers went flying.

I hobbled inside and put a package of frozen peas on my heel while I lay on my living room floor moaning. I received little sympathy from my family. Given, I might have been a little over dramatic... but hey, drama never killed anyone right?

The second attack happened last night as I was cleaning out my car. I had piled all the stuff from my car on the side of the driveway. I soon noticed that my stuff was attracting a small swarm of bees. WTF? There is no food in the pile, I thought. Since only days before had I had viciously been attacked for no good reason, I thought I better handle this situation with rationale and patience. With that said, I went inside and got a bottle of Windex. Surely this would scare them off enough to grab some of my stuff and make a run for the door.

A few spritzes and the bees scattered. "I am brilliant," I said to myself. However, in my haste to grab my stuff, I had neglected to hold on to the Windex bottle and it was now in the middle of my pile of remaining crap. And the bees were swarming again. I hovered and waited until there were no bees around the bottle, and I grabbed it quickly. This must have pissed off one bee because within 2 seconds one attacked my leg and stung me hard. I scram and ran inside. Since I don't buy frozen vegetables, I took a package of Otter-Pops from the freezer and used that to numb the pain.

Please, please be careful of the bees this summer.

Happy Friggin' Birthday Mackenzi

How daring are you? Well, that very question was posed last friday as a group of us went to Red Rock to celebrate Mackenzi's birthday. Rich and Brandon asked, "who wants to play Credit Card Roulette?" At first, there were no takers. Well wait, all the boys that were there were in. However, none of the girls. That is until I agreed to participate and somehow convinced everyone else to put in. WTF? How rude am I? I pressured everyone in and before I knew what was happening, my credit card, along with 10 others, were placed in a hat.


Dooms day. Seriously, enlarge the picture and look at April and Brandon's faces. I know what that look says, "Oh please don't be mine!". And the lucky winner and the sponsor of Kenzi's birthday = Brooke Mason!



The birthday card that Brooke gave Mackenzi rang very true after footing the $150 bill.

Some Clarifications...

Apparently in my haste to blog, I leave out small details that to me, seem insignificate, but are actually needed in order for my stories to make sense.

Alex = my 18 year old BROTHER (haha, Bekah, not my boyfriend)
Hailey = not married. Chandler is her boyfriend
Austin = my brother who is on a mission

I spent the 3rd of July in Park City with friends. The 4th of July was spent with family. Hence, the reason why all my days were mixed up. The 3rd was spent out in about, just like a normal friday night.

Ok, hope that clarifies some things.

Happy 4th of July

With the 4th falling on a Wednesday this year, I felt sad that I couldn't spend it up in Bear Lake with my family like I normally do. First of all, Tuesday felt like a Friday to me, Wednesday felt like a Saturday and yesterday felt like a Monday. Freak! What day is it? My body is all out of wack.

Instead of our usual Bear Lake activities, my family went up Millcreek to have a little BBQ and enjoy the beautiful summer weather. It was so much fun! Later that night we went down to Stadium of Fire to hear Brooks and Dunn and watch an amazing fireworks show.

Me and Alex:

Hailey and Chandler:

Alex doing his business:


As Brooks and Dunn were performing, I took a trip down memory lane to February 2002. Katelyn and I went to the Brooks and Dunn performance at the Medals Plaza during the Olympics and managed to get our cute selves on the big jumbo-traun about 10 times. Katelyn even made it so far as to flag down Steve Young, the MC for the night, and tell him she was from Boston - just so she could get on the big screen.

Anyway, back fo 2007. As much as I was dreading a trip down to P-town, Stadium of Fire was actually a lot of fun. Of course, we parked like 10 miles away and then practically ran to our car after the show was over. This plan actually worked because we were back in the City of the Salt in 45 minutes.