Day One: Birthday Vacation

day one of birthday vacation was spent just like a summer day should be.

pool partying at the best pool in town, the Whipple's!

the only downside is i get sunburned whether i'm out in the sun for five minutes or two hours.

like that one time we went to San Clemente with Matt's family and i looked like this.

and then spent the whole next week while we were walking around Portland feeling like C-R-A-P!

today isn't as bad.

when we first got home i thought to myself "wow self, you're only a teeny tiny pink so maybe this one time it'll actually turn into a tan rather than a burn"

i was wrong.

a couple hours later i now look like this.

which doesn't look that bad but my back is probably at least two shades redder than that so you can imagine i'm not a very happy camper.

i'm more like the camper who had bears break into her truck and eat all her food.

and i also learned something today.

FUN FACT: when you have a really bad sunburn and you take a shower on the coldest setting to try to feel better the water still feels hot because your body is actually radiating enough heat to change the temperature of the water.

who knew?

we'll for sure be making a stop at Walmart tonight for some extra aloe vera so we can try to save my back and our weekend from all the pain.

wedding

big huge gigantic monstrous congrats to Josue and Elba who were wed for time and all eternity this morning!

the wedding was unbelievably sweet and beautiful and made everyone cry

(except for me because i'm a robot, or so Matt says)

i just love watching couples come out of the temple with their happy smiling faces.

and then proceed to make out in front of all their family and friends which then makes me say "get a room!"

jk they deserve to do some smooching.

we're so happy for these guys!

drastic change

i'm the kind of person that likes to make drastic spur of the moment changes in my life.

that's probably not always a good thing but i never like to be bored so when i feel like things are starting to take a turn for the boring i need to make one of those drastic changes to spice things up.

this can be something as small as being totally sick of my hair one day so i decide to chop some bangs for myself.

or it can be something big like deciding to go back to school.

both of which i did this past week.

i've sort of put my school life on hold since we had our pottery store and got rid of our pottery store and because Matt's been going to school and trying to get his career life figured out and also because i wasn't really sure what i wanted to go to school for anymore.

then a few weeks ago Matt asked me what my dream job would be and we talked about how in our household we want dreams to be something you can go for not just great big what ifs.

especially when we have kids someday i want my kid to tell me what their dream job would be and help them to go out and get it.

now how can i say that i want to do that with my future offspring if i'm not even trying to do it for myself?

so i made a plan and started looking into how to make my dream come about and then i dropped the big drastic change bomb on Matt.

i told him i found out i only needed a couple more classes to finish my associate's and i could transfer to a university and oh by the way we need to move to go to that university.

poor little Matt didn't know what to think.

apparently he's not as into my drastic change habit as i am.

obviously i would love to move immediately right now this instant but i realize that part of my plan won't be happening for a while.

i'm still so psyched to start taking those last classes i need and taking all the necessary steps so when we do get to the moving point i'll be ready.

this may not be the drastic spur of the moment change i was hoping it would be but it's still pretty life changing and awesome!

i heart remi

Matt sent me this video today and told me to "watch this video and laugh a little"

thank you Matt.

i did just that!

graduation

my little sister graduated last night.

i can hardly believe it.

she's all grown up and 18 and graduating and going to NAU and becoming an adult.

when the heck did that happen?

and because we all love her soooo much we sat for the extra long graduation ceremonies to shout and scream when her name was called.

and the boys even cut their hair into mohawks just for Sari!

i spy a Sari walking in!

then we got to sit for an hour during boring graduation speeches.

so glad when i was graduating i was sitting next to friends and we talked and laughed the whole time so i didn't have to listen to speeches.

then we got to sit through another 45 minutes of name reading for all these kids.

i spy a Sari again!

until finally Sari got to stand and wait.

and then GRADUATE! (that rhymed)

and we cheered like crazy people and she heard us and waved!

oh happy day!!

and we all had to take a picture with our new little adult Sari.

nose picking pictures are the best!

steven's faces are my favorite.

crazy faces!

proud parents.

Sari was so cute and excited and i can't wait for her to go off to NAU and have an amazing time!

CONGRATS SARI!

Attack the Block

last week Matt read on some nerdy blog he follows that they were giving away pre-screening tickets for the movie Attack the Block.

i had never even heard of this movie but he got 2 tickets for us so we went.

we got there around 6:30 and the theater was already almost full so we had to stand in the "just in case there's seats left" line.

we were like the 7th and 8th person in this line so we thought for sure we wouldn't be able to get a seat or at least not be able to get two seats together and were actually talking about just going home.

two guys standing in line in front of us actually ended up doing that but we thought we'd just stick it out for a little while longer and see what happened.

turns out we got in and actually got some amazing seats!

two seats together right smack dab in the middle of the theater.

i mean, we would've picked those seats if we had been the first people in there so it was just crazy good luck that we walked in 15 minutes before the movie started and got those seats.

i wasn't that excited about seeing this movie after Matt showed me the trailer but now i can say, the trailer does not do this movie justice.

i'm actually once of those girls that really likes alien sci fi movies (nerd alert!) and when you add in some comedy and fireworks i just love them that much more.

i was a little afraid i wouldn't be able to understand the accents but that was not a problem at all and actually made things better in my opinion.

my favorite character was Pest.

he was super funny and of course i love him because i love hats with tassels.

but almost all the lines Matt and i quoted after the movie were from him.

i actually wouldn't mind seeing this movie in theaters again when it's finally released for reals in the U.S.

teen gang, alien invasion, fireworks, accents, weed, tassle hat, super soakers, ninja moves.

what's not to like?

Matt wrote a review on his blog here if you want to check it out.

dragons and unicorns

last week i worked my little bum off to make cute gifts for the kids in our sunbeam class because all of their birthdays were last week.

since the beginning of the year these kids have talked a lot about dragons and unicorns.

for every question it seems like the little boy will answer dragons and the twin girlies will answer unicorns.

what's your favorite animal?

what do you want to draw?

what kind of pet do you wish you had?

what kind of animals were put on earth?

what do you want to make with your playdough?

what animal do you want to pretend to be?

the answer is always the same: dragons and unicorns.

i thought i'd use that for their gifts since it's obviously very important to them.

i used this donkey tutorial as a starting point when i made the unicorns and then adjusted things from there.

aside from that tutorial being a little frustrating and confusing i think it got me on the right track to making these cute unicorns.

i didn't put the ears on my unicorns and obviously added the horn but everything else is basically from the donkey tutorial.

the eyes, the mane and the tail were the parts i had the most trouble with.

i'm not very experienced when it comes to working with embroidery floss.

we gave the girls their presents during church since they were the only kids we had in class that day and i was so happy because they LOVED the unicorns!

they got them out and immediately started running around the room making them eat things and run on the chairs and make funny noises.

it was so cute!

the dragon themed gift i went with was the dragon slippers i learned to make a few months ago.

when i made them before i modified them to be dino slippers though.

remember?

but this time i did full on dragon slippers.

we had traced the kids' feet a couple weeks before as part of our lesson so i kept the little boy's tracing and used it when i made the slippers for him.

i'm so tricky!

we took his present to his house and i think it's safe to say he liked them because he put them on almost immediately after opening them.

i made them a little big, like the tutorial suggests, so he can keep wearing them for a while.

we recently found out he's moving away to a place that stays cold longer than one month out of the year so hopefully those little dragons will keep his feet warm.

we're really gonna miss that little guy.

and now after all the sewing and present making i'm in the crafting mood.

what should i make next?

a lovely game of quidditch

while we were camping Matt and i got to show everyone our Quidditch skills.

we zoomed...

and lazily flew around the whole field by our campsite.

it was perfect flying weather.

but then disaster struck when Matt slipped off and was dangling off his bat.

he just couldn't hold on any longer and fell to the ground.

luckily he didn't get hurt and the Quidditch game went on and ended in total victory!

Larsen/Mason Campout

Camping this weekend was so great!

after driving up and not being able to find my sis and her family for a while they finally found us and we made it to the campsite which was across from Woods Canyon.

(sorry for this picture overload but sometimes i get a little camera happy.)

Matt set up our tent by himself because he said i would just get in the way.

before we went camping this time we bought a little something special.

a camping toilet!

Matt said we're going to go camping all the time now because we won't have any excuses like no bathrooms being nearby and how horribly awkward it is for girls to go potty outdoors.

it was the hit of the campout.

i knew my sister would love it as much as i did but even the kids thought it was amazing.

these Larsens love their chips

for some strange reason there was a big tire in our campsite and Matt decided it was fun to jump on it.

too bad i didn't get the time he almost face planted when jumping off on video.

then J.J. had to try.

Matt is such a bad example.

the campsite we found was so awesome!

it was super wide with no other campers too close and it had this huge field right next to it that was perfect for playing games!

ps. i really suck at baseball

it was really windy while we were there and it got cold enough to wear sweatshirts by dinner time.

Sammy was so cold he had to sit in his mommy's sweatshirt to stay warm.

and Josh had to hide in his hood.

that picture of Sammy and his mommy is just too cute!

we kept asking Sammy what sound a horse makes because it was so funny.

i love it!

basically it got so cold that not even the fire was helping to keep us warm so we called it an early night.

Matt and i played Phase 10 for a while which turns out to be a really short game when it's just with two people.

Then we went to bed. Matt was too lazy to put our sleeping bags together so i shivered through the night and got zero sleep.

and when i say zero sleep i'm being dead serious.

no sleep was had by Nikki.

in the morning, we ate breakfast and played around the fire.

Matt snuck in a quick game of ghosting while we started packing things up to head home.

don't know what ghosting is?

well first of all, you should.

and second of all, watch this video starting at 2:15.

then Josh got the great idea to try to make a parachute with the top of their tent and Matt was all for it.

they tried to get lift off but when that didn't work they decided to attack me instead.

then it was time to put out the fire and leave so Matt demonstrated his eagle scout skills of making sure the fire is out.

only Matt can prevent forest fires.

smokey the bear would be so proud.

we got home in time to take a quick shower and head to church and then when we got home i ate dinner and fell asleep at 8:00 PM and didn't wake up until 8:00 AM this morning.

i'm awesome like that.

can't wait to go camping a million times this summer!