A Slow Fall

What better way to put off homework than writing a blog, right!? Especially since I haven't written one for such a long time.
We were at Arapahoe High School yesterday, for Mitt Romney's rally :~), ( which was very awesome I might add).

About twenty minutes before it was about to start, I had to stand up for some people. This is where it all went wrong. My camera slipped out of my lap as I helplessly watched it fall down beneath the bleachers. You know how in movies they have slow motion during dramatic parts? Well that's exactly how I saw it. Slow and dramatic, with a loud clunk at the end. I would like to say that I took it in stride and didn't get angry and stressed out, but that would be a lie. I was sure that it was broken and we wouldn't be able to retrieve it, and some kid from Arapahoe would find and steal it. Add to that the fact that it was hot and crowded, I was hungry, and it was loud, I was not in a good mood. So my dad and I went down and told one of the people, who directed us to another person, who steered us to the janitor.

Apparently, there is a small trap door in the bleachers for situations like this, he opened it up and I dropped in. It was scary but also exciting to be walking under hundreds of people. When I got to the camera, I found that the screen was still intact and it was able to turn on. I was so happy, it really was a tender mercy, and I'm thankful that I get those. Especially since we were ten rows up.

You didn't think I would leave the bleachers without a  picture!

The rest of the night was uneventful, except, of course, that we were at Mitt Romney's rally. Haha. I was like two feet away from shaking Romney's hand, just like four years ago, oh well.

efy

Well since I've had a long vacation, I'll be blogging about it in parts.

efy! So basically, I wasn't in a picture taking mood that week so I only took two pictures, my bed as we were getting ready to leave efy, and my bracelet.

It was such a fun and spiritual week. I left on the Sunday before efy started. There was a lot of traffic on the way there,but we wont go into much detail on that. ( hour and half to go eight miles, it was crazy!) I spent the night with my sister and brother-in-law and their kids. Thank you so much by the way! :) They had planned on inviting some of our siblings over for dessert, but of course I was late by an hour. So no brownies for me. But that's fine because I still got to see Daniel, Katie, and Forrest. And everyone was up except for Kacianna in the Ford home.

                                                

The next day Daniel picked me up and brought me over to his house to see Charbel and Benji. I was over there  for about an hour before we went over to In-n-Out burger ( I still like "5 Guys" better though) to have lunch and get Mark. We stayed in Stover Hall at Helaman Halls.  The first day we just met our company and played getting to know you games. Our company name was "The Sticks". Tuesday and Wednesday we had our classes. During the morningside, they passed out what the classes were about and when they were. We got to choose which ones we wanted. The teachers who taught mine were, Van Dunham, Phillip Rossell, Danwnese Openshaw, David Butler, and Randy Clegg. They were all  very excellent speakers. I took a lot of notes. During lunch and free time on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday me and a few friends chose to be in the musical program. It was really fun and I'm glad we chose to do it.  The rest of the week was a great experience and I hope to be able to go again next year. We spent a few days in Provo with our family, but that deserves a post of its own.

10 Names

This summer I have the privilege of going to Nauvoo for a youth conference. During this trip, we will visit the Nauvoo temple and be able to do baptisms for the dead. We are encouraged to bring ten names, and I am very happy because I just found the 10th one today.
In case any of you care, these are the names:

~John T. Hubbard~

~Richard Newton~

~Alexander Betterton~

~William Sutcliff Minard~ ( one of the harder ones, but I found him on a cemetery record)

~Robert Burnaby~

~Levi Minard~ ( inventor of Minard's Liniment)

~Joseph H. Minard~

~John Minard Sr.~

~Edward F. Burnaby~

~Nathaniel Minard~ ( the hardest one I had to find, he died of an illness in the west indies, so he wasn't buried in the same cemetery as his family, we think he was thrown overboard when he died)

Even though I didn't comment on all the names, I felt very blessed every time I found one of them, and I know that they are all happy that I found them. Family history is a fun past time and I hope to find even more in the future.

A Tribute

Exactly one week ago, my cuddly,energetic,year-old dog, cooper passed away. On the day of my dad's birthday, Cooper and my sister's dog,Jasper, got into some poisoning for voles. We havn't used this for 8 years. Around 9 pm Jasper and Cooper started throwing up what looked like birdseed. We thought nothing of it. But when I put Cooper in his kennal that night, I noticed that he seemed sad and not himself. At about 4 in the morning, my mom came into my room and said something about Cooper not doing well. Half asleep and thinking we were on some gameshow( remember, it was 4 in the morning)I walked into my parent's room to find him lying on the bed very limp. When I rubbed his belly, I remember seeing a little smile appear on his face like he knew I was there. I carried Cooper out to the car, but I just couldn't handle holding him ( he was now having convulsions) so I gave him to my mom. When we got to the Animal ER, the nurse came running out and took him inside. They tried the best they could, even doing CPR on him, but we were too late. He passed away. The rest of that day consisted of my family and me just crying. We have recieved many sympathy cards, and I have had lots of people posting on my wall on Facebook saying how sorry they were. These have helped immensely. I like to think that Cooper sacrificed his life for one of my many neices or nephews because it could have easily been one of them that got into the poison and died. I am also so grateful that Jasper was able to survive the poison.I know that I will be able to see Cooper again in heaven someday.

Dad's Birthday Party

Last Thursday we celebrated my dad's birthday.
He opened a lot of presents from us, and he loved them all.
A shirt,
A case for his GPS,

A 0 degree sleeping bag,

And an "end of tax season survival kit".


We also had a yummy cake
I am thankful that he is in my life and hopes he had a good birthday. I love you dad!

The First Day of Spring?

Something doesn't seem right.