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.

Babysitting Baby Orden

There's this cute little guy that I watch and play with all the time.
His name is Orden and he is ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE. I thought I'd put up
some of the pictures from my cell phone that I've taken of him. They
are in order from youngest Orden to oldest Orden (today).

This is Orden when he was just a month old. He's sleeping/drooling on me.

This was sometime during the winter. After Orden went to Brazil to visit his grandparents. When he got back, he didn't remember me and was old enough to cry about it. He got over it quickly (I gave him food :)

Sometime this spring. I think when we went to St. George for Keith and Sara's wedding. Orden is so big! He can drink out of a big people cup!

And Orden, sleeping on my shoulder again. I love this kid.

Orden decided to try his luck at my single's ward BBQ. He was easily the most popular fellow there. And he had a blast! He laughed so hard and giggled so much that I knew he'd crash hard when we got home (he did).

Yum! Michelle's Phone! (That's what he's thinking in this picture.)

This is how I check to see if he's asleep when I'm holding him. I don't want to move him until he's solidly asleep, so I take pictures of him with my phone to see if he's just sitting and staring or if he's sleeping.

Bath time! He thought the running water was so cool.

And today, on the swing. Look at that adorable smile! And his happy giggle. (You can't hear it here, but you can see the giggle on his face. Trust me, it's a happy one.)

The Merrills and their surprises

So today we Merrills showed our true colors and our love of surprising each other. I bought plane tickets home about two months ago to surprise my entire family by showing up when they "knew" I couldn't be home. I asked my friend Kari's parents to drive me to my house.

Three hours later, my mom and sister caught an earlier flight to Wenatchee than the flight they were scheduled to be on. Ironically, they ran into Kari, and hitched a ride home with her parents too. The funniest reunion of them all was my mom and sister and I all looking at each other and asking, "What are you doing here?"

Skiing with dad and Brian

A bit ago, my dad and brother became concerned with my welfare at college. So they decided to make a sacrifice and drive down to see me. But they also just happened to bring down some ski gear, and so they just couldn't pass up the opportunity to ski while they were down here.

That's their story anyway. I think they came down to ski; the fact they got to see me was an added bonus :)

Here we are, at the top of a lift somewhere at Alta ski resort. It was really cold to have my face out, but other than that I was warm.

Here am I, awesome me, showing how excited I am to be skiing with my even more amazing little brother, Brian.
And this movie just goes to show you how awesome of a skiier I am. If you look very carefully, you can see that I get a bit of air! I went off a jump! I'm pretty much amazing.

This movie is of my stud of a brother going off a jump. He shows me how you really do it. (Though according to him, that was a wimpy jump, but I call it amazing. Especially when you realize that the first part of the jump he is trying to keep his balance, and somehow manages to do it! I don't know how he landed that, but he did because he is amazing!)

Family Time!

I went home for the month of July--"home" meaning I spent a month with my family. Soon after I got home, Natalie, Brian, my dad, and I (and a couple of brian's friends) went to the demolition derby in Waterville.

This is Natalie's face :)


Natalie's other face.
My face :o)

After we amused ourselves by taking pictures of ourselves, the actual derby started. It was great fun, and there were fireworks afterword.