Amusing story #2

I reserved a hotel for last night because my flight left 80 miles from where i was staying at 7 am pm we'd have to leave at 3 or 4 am to make the flight. But then the parents decided that none of us kids could drive me to san fran because we didn't get back from ATV-ing until midnight. So the dad decided to take me. But it took 30 min for him to be ready (?). But then he wanted to give one of us a ride on his motorcycle. So they went for a ride at 12 40ish. They didn't get back until 1 30. And we finally left the sacramento area around 1 40 am. And then the street we were supposed to turn on for the hotel didn't exist. But i texted google for directions from an intersection we passed and we found the hotel at 4 am. By the time i had showered and got ready for the day, it was 4 30. A taxi was coming at 5 30, so i slept for an hour. Blah. I got up 2 min before the taxi called me, got to
the airport, and am now tiredly waiting for my flight. :)

(sent via text to blogger)

Jet skiing and ATV-ing

Day 2 of our grand adventure in California held the fun of Jet Skiing!

This is me in my suit all ready to jump in the lake. (I'm wearing a life vest; safety girl!)

These two fellas (Curtis and Ryan) are potentially too good of friends. They have broken jet skis before, and to my utter astonishment, I saw them roll a very large jet ski upside down. I think, when they were riding together, that they spent more time IN the water than on top of the jet ski.

This is an awesome picture on our way up to the lake. I just want you to notice the uber-excitement that I feel. You can see it on my face. And contrast my excitement to the calm sleeping of Curtis.

Day 3 of our California adventure consisted of white water rafting. It was awesome, and only Ryan got washed overboard. (It's okay though, we got him back.) I don't have any pictures for that yet, but when I get them, I'll be sure to post!

Day 4 (our last day) was four-wheeling day! I was so excited for this because I've never been quadding before.

I'm the person on the far right with her arms in the air. That shows you how excited I was.

I was expecting a dirt track or maybe a large gravel pit, but this path was incredible! The path just went on and on! There was a dirt road leading to a large gravel pit. And then there was another road leading to another gravel pit. And another road leading to a trail of sorts up, across, and through a creek bed. I was following Curtis until he got popped into the air and his bike kept going while he went up. He landed (luckily) on his feet, but in the creek and got completely soaked. On our way back, he gunned his quad up a steep hill, and ended up popping a wheeling and throwing himself off the bike again, this time into a pile of dirt. He was okay, but had a VERY sore tail bone.

After we all got back from our adventure, we felt very tough. And very dirty. :) Tons of fun, though.

San Francisco and Wicked

As a "last hurrah" of summer, my friends and I planned a trip to San Francisco. Our first stop: the Jelly Belly factory.

(Yes, that is a toothbrush I'm holding. Remember that I'm a nerd ;)

After the factory, we went to the Oakland temple. It was very beautiful. A lot of the grounds are on the roof! Because we enjoyed it so much, we took a picture.

Our group
Top row, L to R: Curtis, Sydnee, Alexis, Jesse
Front row, L to R: Me (Michelle), Kiera, and Ryan

And here we are at THE Golden Gate Bridge. It's one of those things on my bucket list to cross the bridge. And we did. And because we were a carpool, we didn't have to pay the $6 toll!

On our way back from the bridge, we went down the famous windy street (Lombardo?). This was also on my bucket list. It was fun (slow, but fun). I can't believe that people actually LIVE on this street. They really do.

And that is Alcatraz Island. I want to go there. We just didn't have the time on this trip.

Right after visiting the warf, we had to book it to get to Wicked on time. We girls all changed in the car while we were driving there (the boys just looked out the window). I made a mad dive out of the car at a stop light (across a person) so that I could try to get the will-call tickets. I needed the billing address of the girl who bought our tickets, and luckily she showed up right as I needed it. We walked into the theater about 7 minutes before it started. It was cutting it close, but we made it!

And in case you can't tell, I was so excited to see the show. It was my second time seeing Wicked, and I LOVED IT! I highly recommend it.

Amusing story #1

So I purchased my plane tickets a few weeks ago for this San Francisco trip. It was cheaper to fly into Oakland instead of San Francisco, so after checking the distance, I booked a flight to Oakland. I thought I let the trip organizers know where I was planning on flying into, but somewhere something got lost in the translation. On the day of my flight, after flying from Wenatchee to Seattle, I call my ride to confirm the pickup location and time. Turns out that they aren't staying in San Francisco or the Bay Area at all. We are staying in SACRAMENTO.

Sacramento, California is about 87 miles from Oakland, or a 3 hour round trip (with good traffic).

I was frustrated and tired, and I got to stew about the confusion for the entire flight from Seattle to Oakland. I only had to wait for about 90 minutes for someone to get me. The family we were staying with drove down to pick me up. I was VERY appreciative.

Life-sized Jenga!

Today at work my dad had Heather and I sort through the model boxes. We dumped out the models (teeth models), but saved the boxes. Heather stacked them like Jenga, so I played three rounds with myself. It was kind of fun; I want to play with a group of friends someday.

All the looking at models made me wish that i could see my teeth before treatment. So heather helped me find my chart and then my models. :)

My teeth (L to R): age 7, age 12, and age 13-present.

Working for Dad

I told my dad I needed a job. So he hired me to sort files - X-ray
film in one box, patient info in another. Luckily my sister is
helping me and we have a story to listen to.

Broken Glasses

Last December, my glasses fell off my head and landed on a backpack
2.5 feet away... and snapped in half. I was shocked and extremely
sad. Those glasses had lasted me 3.5 years and had been through a lot
with me... and then they died.

I was sad.

Summer in Provo

This post is a bit late, but it has some good pictures from the end of Summer.

My sister has taken pictures with every set of roommates she's ever had. So at her insistence, we took roommate pictures.

Charlene (bottom center) was our adopted roommate. She didn't have any roommates, really, and our fourth roommate was living at home and was really busy. So Charlene adopted us. Or we adopted her. Basically, she lived in our apt. We even had sleepovers!

L to R: Charlene, Heather, Michelle, Eve

Heather and I in our nice new shirts that we bought from a story called Cozy in Provo. We love the shirts! This picture is from our cousin Trina's wedding.

On our way back to Provo from Trina's reception, our cousin JD flew in from basic training. His parents had just picked him up from the airport, so we met them just off a freeway exit. I was so happy to be able to see JD! Heather and I left for Washington the next morning, and I'm staying up here, and JD is going to be going to Missouri for more military training, so it might be a while before I get to see him again.

Real Band

I joined a band this summer! Surprise! I never thought I'd join a rock band of any sort at any point in my life, but then my friends decided that it would be fun, and I realized that it would be. We were very informal, just playing asking to play "real band" whenever we wanted to. We called it real band to distinguish it from another favorite game, Rock Band. Scott owned most of the instruments, and he bought a really nice PA system, and so we had all we needed to give a rocking performance!

The band decided to go early 90's with their styling, but decided that I, the token girl, should go 80's. So I did. And I looked awesome! Side ponytail, bright colored makeup and clothes, and of course, the off-the-shoulder look :)

L to R: PJ (bass), Jeff (guitar), Nick (vocals), Scott (guitar), Michelle (keyboard), Jon (drums)

My sister recorded a video of our performance. However, the only copy is on facebook, so you have to have an account (and maybe be my friend) to see it. But most of you reading this have both, so it doesn't matter much. But when I get around to it, I'll post the video here. We sound pretty good! ;)

And it should be noted that during our performance, the cops got called. Apparently somebody didn't appreciate our music, and so they called the police instead of asking us to turn down. Turns out it's illegal to have an amp outside without a concert permit. We were just having an open mic night for our ward FHE activity (a monday-night activity we have with our church). It was kind of funny, but it was okay because we were done playing before the police got there. Everyone else just had to be ridiculously quiet.

My chemistry study buddies

These is a self-portrait that Jordan and Curtis took of themselves
when I left my phone unattended for just a tiny bit of time. We were
in the computer lab where we did a lot of our studying. These two
boys were my best friends, but the one on the left (Jordan) had to go
and get married (see post: "My best friend's wedding").

Baby Orden again

This picture was just too adorable. I couldn't resist posting it. :)